Chapter 3
The red telephone on the night-table rings.

Roxanne blots upright in bed with a scream. Julia, still on her back, flies straight up and literally hits the ceiling. Then another new instinct takes over, and she lands on her feet on the floor beside the bed.

The phone rings again while they are both staring at it. Roxanne cries, "What do I do? What do I do?"

Speaking more calmly than she actually feels, Julia says, "What you always do, answer it. But if it's for me I'm not here."

"Oh, of course ... how stupid of me."

Roxanne's hand is trembling as it reaches for the phone. She yelps and jerks her hand back when the phone rings a 3rd time. Then she grabs it before it can ring again. "H-Hello?"

"Roxanne, it's Elizabeth."

"Miss Elizabeth!" Roxanne cries. Julia sits on the bed close to Roxanne, where her vampire ears can hear Elizabeth better in the receiver, even when it's pressed to Roxanne's pretty ear. Roxanne tilts the receiver towards Julia, who does not try to tell her that she can hear just fine. "Miss Elizabeth! Are you all right? Is your family all right?"

"Yes, Roxanne, thank you. Angelique set fire to the cannery and tried to frame us all for murder. When that didn't work, she tried to kill us all by setting fire to Collinwood. We got out. She didn't."

"Thank God, Miss Elizabeth, thank God!"

"Roxanne, I'll need your help tomorrow."

"Anything, Miss Elizabeth, just name it."

"Angelique knocked Carolyn and Willie out cold. They're in the hospital for 24 hours of observation. There's a vacant bed in Carolyn's room. I'm sleeping there, or at least trying to. Even with a sleeping pill, I don't think I'll get much sleep. I expect to be groggy tomorrow, and I have a lot to do. Can you drive me?"

"Where and when? Just name it."

"Catherine Harridge opens her insurance office at 8AM. Can you pick me up at the hospital 10 minutes before that?"

"I'll be there, Miss Elizabeth. Thank God you and your family are all right."

"Thank you, Roxanne, and God bless you. Good night."

"Good night, Miss Elizabeth."

Julia and Roxanne hug each, with Roxanne crying, "They're all right! They're all right! Thank God!"

"Yes, thank God. Hey, you better get to bed and go to sleep if you're going to any less groggy than Elizabeth tomorrow."

"I'm so excited, how am I ever going to get to sleep?"

Once again, a new instinct tells Julia what to do. She waves her long fingers in front of Roxanne's eyes and says, "Go to sleep."

Roxanne's eyes shut and she is asleep sitting on the edge of the bed, her breathing slow and regular. Julia eases her down onto the bed and then gently shakes her awake.

Roxanne looks at Julia and says, "What happened?"

"I hypnotized you. I told you to go to sleep and you went to sleep. Now get under the covers and I'll do it again, but this time I won't wake you up."

"Not so fast, Doc! I have to put on my night things, brush my teeth, and say my prayers."

Roxanne's night things turn out to be her panties and an oversized t-shirt. She looks very sexy that way.

She brushes her teeth and then says, "Let me show you your room. I assume you want the room that gets the least sun?"

"Yes. Definitely."

Roxanne opens a door in the kitchen, revealing a flight of steep narrow stairs going down to the cellar. She flips on the light switch at the top of the stairs, then flips it off again and cries, "No! No light. Wait here, I'll be right back." She soon returns with a flashlight. "Follow me, and watch your step."

Julia follows and asks, "Why the flashlight?"

"There are small windows up near the ceiling. If there's a peeping Tom outside, the overhead light would give him quite a show right now. A naked vampire and a scantily dressed me."

When they reach the bottom of the steps, she says, "My mother hated this cellar. I don't remember her ever coming down here. I do remember her thanking God for the laundry room behind the kitchen every time she did the laundry. When she died, I quit my job in New York and moved back here. And unfortunately I cleaned those windows, for the 1st time since the last time my father cleaned them." She points to one wall and says, "That's the south wall, so it gets no direct sunlight, ever."

Roxanne points to the small windows in all 4 walls just below the ceiling.

"Tomorrow I will get some black spray paint and paint over those windows. Then there will be NO sunlight down here, and we can use the overhead light. And I will put a lock on the door. A lock with the knob on this side and the keyhole on the other side."

"Don't get them at Scott's Hardware."

"Why not?"

"There's a thing called guilty knowledge. The more you know about a thing, the harder it is to act like you DON'T know about it. Especially if someone asks you about it or tells you about it. So I am not going to answer that question ... or tell you about the 1st time I drank blood."

Roxanne shivers.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not just what you said. I have never been down here so scantily dressed before, and this is fall in Maine."

"Wait a second. Do those stairs led to the outside?" Julia points to a short flight of stairs set in the east wall.

"Yes, they lead to one of those slanted doors in the foundation. It's right next to the driveway. Dad was always satisfied with a padlock on the outside of it. But after he died, Mom asked me to install another lock on the inside of it. So I did."

"YOU did? And YOU will install the lock on the door at the top of the stairs?"

Roxanne grins. "My father was a Maine Yankee hunter, fisherman, and builder - and his only child was a girl. Mom taught me to cook and sew, but Dad taught me to handle guns and tools and a fishing rod. Hey, do you want me to build you a coffin?"

"Thank you, that's a great idea. But build me a simple box, not something that LOOKS like a coffin. There's $14 on the dryer. I hope that'll cover at least part of all this. But soak the bills in fresh water before you spend them. Right now they are soaked in seawater."

"OK. Can you make do with a blanket over you until then?"

"Sure."

"OK. Come on." Roxanne leads the way to the room her late parents occupied for so many years. She gets a blanket and a pillow from the closet, then she thinks for a moment and hands Julia a 2nd blanket.

"What's the 2nd one for?" Julia asks "The 1st one is thick enough to keep out the sun."

"It's impossible to get a concrete floor completely clean, except maybe with some kind of scrubbing machine, which I don't have. So you'll need a blanket under you to keep your clothes clean. Speaking of clothes, the dryer will buzz when it's done."

They return to Roxanne's bedroom. She sets and winds her alarm clock.

"I'll say my prayers and then you can hypnotize me again."

"May I say one with you? Remember, I'm a Jew."

"Of course." Roxanne kneels next to her bed and Julia kneels beside her. "Dear God, thank you that Miss Elizabeth and her family are all safe. Please help them through the difficult days ahead. Thank you that I was home when Julia called. Please help us to figure out what to do next. In Jesus name we ... I pray. Amen."

Julia says, "Amen." Then she continues, "God, it's been a long time since I prayed, and I don't know if you will even listen to the prayer of a vampire, especially a Jewish vampire who did not keep kosher when she was alive and is even worse now ..."

("For the life of the flesh is in the blood ... Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood ... " Leviticus 17: 11 - 12)

"... but I will pray anyway. Everything Roxanne said goes for me too. And thank you for Roxanne. Thank you for her courage and her kindness. Please keep her safe, and that includes keeping her safe from me. Please strike me down if I ever try to hurt her. Amen."

Roxanne gets into bed and Julia tucks her in. "Good night and thank you and God bless you, Roxanne."

"Good night, Julia."

They kiss, then Julia waves her fingers at Roxanne and says, "Go to sleep." Roxanne's eyes shut and her breathing turns slow and regular.

Julia sings Millicent's Lullaby to the sleeping Roxanne. She feels silly doing it, she is not nearly old enough to be Roxanne's mother, but she can not resist. She could not sing it to her when she was awake, because Roxanne would have asked where Julia learned it. Save that for that tomorrow night, when they have more time.

It is still dark when the alarm goes off and Roxanne wakes up.

"Wow! What a dream," she says to herself.

Dream?

Roxanne leaps out of bed, switches on the light and looks in the mirror above her dresser. The punctures in her neck are clearly visible. She reaches up to touch them, the same as she did in the bathroom last night.

"Holy shit," she whispers.

Trembling from head to toe, she walks slowly to the kitchen and flips on the light. The 1st thing she notices is the door to the cellar. It is open a crack, when it should be shut. Then she notices the cereal bowl on the table. It wasn't there last night. She looks into the bowl and sees water and money. She remembers Julia saying, "There's $14 on the dryer. I hope that'll cover at least part of all this. But soak the bills in fresh water before you spend them. Right now they are soaked in seawater."

"Holy shit."

Roxanne walks slowly toward the cellar door. She is still 3 feet from it when a voice from the cellar says, "Roxanne."

Roxanne jumps back a step.

The voice speaks again. "Roxanne, it occurred to me you might wake up thinking last night was a dream, similar to the one you had about Barbara Shelley after you saw Dracula: Prince of Darkness. It wasn't. Do you want me to go?"

Roxanne steps forward and pushes the door all the way open. She sees Julia standing at the bottom of the stairs, kabuki-skin, raccoon-eyes, long fingers and all. She is barefoot in the black and white dress, with the orange flowers on its white parts, just as she was when she stepped into the luminance of the Ford's headlamps last night.

"Do you want me to go?"

Roxanne descends the steep, narrow stairs as fast as she dares. She throws herself at Julia's body, her arms around Julia's neck and her legs around Julia's waist. She kisses Julia long and hard and deep. Then she whispers in Julia's ear, "Actions speak louder than words, Doctor. I just told you don't go, don't ever leave me, please don't ever leave me."

"Thank you, Roxanne. But I want you to think about it, really think about it, every free moment you have today. Think about what it means, and think about what it could mean. Please promise me you will do that."

"I promise." She kisses Julia again.

"You haven't even been to the bathroom yet this morning. Do that, get dressed, eat breakfast, and then we'll talk some more. I will stay down here where I won't distract you."

"How do you know I haven't been to the bathroom yet?"

Julia points up and says, "Pipes and vampire ears."

Roxanne laughs.

"Do you have something to wear that will cover the wounds on your neck?"

"A red turtleneck sweater."

"That might chafe the wounds. Put Band-Aids on the wounds 1st, see if they help."

"OK." Roxanne kisses Julia again and then goes to do as Julia says.

The Band-Aids work, the sweater does not chafe the wounds. Then Roxanne puts on blue jeans and her black thong sandals.

When she returns to the kitchen, she realizes she is still trembling a little, too much so to make her usual breakfast of bacon and eggs. She has cereal and buttered toast instead. No coffee. "I'm jittery enough already," she tells herself.

After breakfast, Roxanne goes back down cellar and tells Julia, "We'll have to talk tonight. I got up this early because Selby's Hardware and Lumber opens at 7:00 AM. I want to be there when it opens to get that spray paint and lock before I pick up Miss Elizabeth."

"OK, Roxanne. But I will ask one more time before you go, do you want me to go?"

Roxanne kisses Julia again, long and hard and deep again. "I will kiss you as many times as it takes to make you believe me when I say don't go, don't ever leave me, please don't ever leave me."

"OK. We'll talk tonight."

Roxanne smiles and says, "Good day, Julia." Then one last kiss and she leaves for Selby's.

Selby's Hardware and Lumber is on the west side of Collinsport. Roxanne is parked at the front door and waiting when it opens on the morning of the day after the Night of the Collins Fires.

She takes her time picking out what she wants, she needs to kill some time before picking up Miss Elizabeth. But she is also planning to reach the hospital before 7:50. She buys 2 cans of black spray paint and a big vertical deadbolt lock. When she sees they have a double-cylinder vertical deadbolt lock, that's the one she buys.

She opens the left rear door of the '59 Ford and pushes her purchases under the driver's seat. The hardware purchases are for Julia. Lying on the rear seat are some things for Miss Elizabeth. Roxanne smiles at the sight of them, just as she smiled when she was putting them in the car.

Then she drives to Collinsport Memorial Hospital.

Julia goes down cellar, and spreads one of the blankets on the concrete floor in front of the south wall, just as Roxanne told her to do. She puts the pillow, which she is not sure she needs, at one end of the blanket. She holds the 2nd blanket in front of her and prepares to sit down and spread the 2nd blanket over herself from head to toe. Then yet another new instinct takes over, but this one does not work as advertised.

"A vampire has hinges in her heels," Julia tells herself. "I can swing down onto the blanket like a trapdoor closing."

The new instinct does not tell her this maneuver will only work if she is standing on a firm surface. The friction between the blanket and the concrete floor is not enough to make the blanket qualify. It slides out from under her feet and she falls flat on her back, except for the pillow under her butt.

"Shit! So much for keeping my clothes clean."

Julia stands back up, turns around, and lies down the old fashioned way, with her head on the pillow. She spreads the 2nd blanket over herself, covering herself not just from head to toe, but covering the soles of her feet as well. She gets a grip on the far edge of the blanket with her heels, and pulls the near edge over her head.

When the 1st edge of the sun creeps above the horizon, Julia instantly falls into a deep sleep.

NOTES
" ... I don't know if you will even listen to the prayer of a vampire, especially a Jewish vampire who did not keep kosher when she was alive and is even worse now ..."

In 1980, Bailey Smith, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, said publicly that " ... God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew." He said it at a Christian Right political rally. Ronald Reagan was at that rally too, favoring Creationism at a press conference in one hall while Smith was spitting on Jews in another, including the 6 million Jews who prayed for deliverance from the Germans.