planned a wake before, but I figured there had to be refreshments.
When I pulled into the garage bay, I could see all the regulars there. Rufus, Otis, and Jerry were playing cards, and Rennie was working on a transmission. Rennie, who knew me best, sensed immediately that something was bad wrong.
“What’s up, chief? Did you find Huey?” Rennie asked cautiously. Jerry and Rufus, who I’m convinced are not 100 percent, grade-A human, each put their noses in the air, their nostrils flaring slightly. They obviously could smell fresh kill almost as well as I could. Otis looked back and forth between the two of them as the card game halted.
“Yeah, I found him. Something got him. Something bad. It’s new in town and William and me are going to catch it.”
I paused a moment to let this sink in. Huey, who’d detailed cars, changed oil, and did odd jobs around the shop, had been popular with the regulars. He didn’t have two good brain cells to rub together but had been pleasant company and hadn’t asked questions. In the poker game of life, it wasn’t that he’d been canny enough to bluff about the weirdness of his compadres; it’s just that he hadn’t been blessed with a curious nature. If I’d wanted, I could’ve filleted a drug dealer in here, roasted him on a spit over the oil pit, and Huey would never have made a peep. You had to admire that in a human.
Finally I opened the trunk and the boys shuffled over to see their friend, who looked fairly peaceful now that his eyes were closed.
“Don’t he look natural?” Otis mused.
“Not with a hole in his throat you could drive a Mack truck through, he don’t,” Rufus pointed out.
“It’s just what folks say,” muttered Otis.
After a pause, Jerry spoke up. “Can we help find the guy who did this?” Wiry and strong-looking, Jerry would probably be pretty handy in a fight. Out of respect to Huey, he removed his Braves cap, and once again I noted that his ears were a little too pointy for a regular human. If the going got rough, I figured he might be able to shapeshift into something real useful. But this wasn’t his fight, and when William and I finally did find whoever murdered Huey and Alger, I didn’t know if even the two of us would be powerful enough to stop him.
“Thanks, but me and William have to handle this.”
Rufus bent his two index fingers and brought them to either side of his mouth. This was his way of saying vampire, a word which was never uttered in my presence. Better to waltz around the truth than to know for sure.
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s our kind of business.”
They were silent for another moment, contemplating the seriousness of a new and vicious blood drinker in town. I had more to fill them in on later, but right then, we had to see about Huey. They continued viewing Huey’s body as if gathered around a proper casket in a funeral home, and I put the beer and chips on the card table. They each took a cold one, and I raised my can of Budweiser, the king of beers. “To Huey,” I said.
“To Huey,” the others chimed. We all popped our tops at the same time, sounding like a redneck funeral’s version of a twenty-one-gun salute.
Otis said, “Remember the time before he got cursed when Huey got drunk and fell into the oil pit?”
“Do I ever. I had to pay his hospital bill,” I said. “He ’bout broke every bone in his body. Even had his jaw wired shut.”
“That wasn’t the worst of it,” Rennie said. “He had to sit around for a couple of months in a body cast listening to his old lady bitch at him for being so dumb. And he couldn’t answer her back because his jaw was busted. Couldn’t get up and walk out either. He just had to sit and take it.”
Rufus put in, “Drove him crazier than a shithouse rat.”
We all laughed, and it felt good. A little guilty maybe, but good. It was fitting to share the bad times as well as the good with mortals. Their feelings were so real, so in-your-face. I forgot
When I pulled into the garage bay, I could see all the regulars there. Rufus, Otis, and Jerry were playing cards, and Rennie was working on a transmission. Rennie, who knew me best, sensed immediately that something was bad wrong.
“What’s up, chief? Did you find Huey?” Rennie asked cautiously. Jerry and Rufus, who I’m convinced are not 100 percent, grade-A human, each put their noses in the air, their nostrils flaring slightly. They obviously could smell fresh kill almost as well as I could. Otis looked back and forth between the two of them as the card game halted.
“Yeah, I found him. Something got him. Something bad. It’s new in town and William and me are going to catch it.”
I paused a moment to let this sink in. Huey, who’d detailed cars, changed oil, and did odd jobs around the shop, had been popular with the regulars. He didn’t have two good brain cells to rub together but had been pleasant company and hadn’t asked questions. In the poker game of life, it wasn’t that he’d been canny enough to bluff about the weirdness of his compadres; it’s just that he hadn’t been blessed with a curious nature. If I’d wanted, I could’ve filleted a drug dealer in here, roasted him on a spit over the oil pit, and Huey would never have made a peep. You had to admire that in a human.
Finally I opened the trunk and the boys shuffled over to see their friend, who looked fairly peaceful now that his eyes were closed.
“Don’t he look natural?” Otis mused.
“Not with a hole in his throat you could drive a Mack truck through, he don’t,” Rufus pointed out.
“It’s just what folks say,” muttered Otis.
After a pause, Jerry spoke up. “Can we help find the guy who did this?” Wiry and strong-looking, Jerry would probably be pretty handy in a fight. Out of respect to Huey, he removed his Braves cap, and once again I noted that his ears were a little too pointy for a regular human. If the going got rough, I figured he might be able to shapeshift into something real useful. But this wasn’t his fight, and when William and I finally did find whoever murdered Huey and Alger, I didn’t know if even the two of us would be powerful enough to stop him.
“Thanks, but me and William have to handle this.”
Rufus bent his two index fingers and brought them to either side of his mouth. This was his way of saying vampire, a word which was never uttered in my presence. Better to waltz around the truth than to know for sure.
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s our kind of business.”
They were silent for another moment, contemplating the seriousness of a new and vicious blood drinker in town. I had more to fill them in on later, but right then, we had to see about Huey. They continued viewing Huey’s body as if gathered around a proper casket in a funeral home, and I put the beer and chips on the card table. They each took a cold one, and I raised my can of Budweiser, the king of beers. “To Huey,” I said.
“To Huey,” the others chimed. We all popped our tops at the same time, sounding like a redneck funeral’s version of a twenty-one-gun salute.
Otis said, “Remember the time before he got cursed when Huey got drunk and fell into the oil pit?”
“Do I ever. I had to pay his hospital bill,” I said. “He ’bout broke every bone in his body. Even had his jaw wired shut.”
“That wasn’t the worst of it,” Rennie said. “He had to sit around for a couple of months in a body cast listening to his old lady bitch at him for being so dumb. And he couldn’t answer her back because his jaw was busted. Couldn’t get up and walk out either. He just had to sit and take it.”
Rufus put in, “Drove him crazier than a shithouse rat.”
We all laughed, and it felt good. A little guilty maybe, but good. It was fitting to share the bad times as well as the good with mortals. Their feelings were so real, so in-your-face. I forgot
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