“I met a Witch today.”
I looked up from where I was planting daffodil bulbs and say Nigel THE GHOST glaring down at me.
“A Witch? Was she a live Witch or a Ghost Witch.”
“Very much alive. Do you know what she told me?”
“No, I do not. I’m a Vampire, not a mind reader, at least not with the minds of Ghosts.”
“She said if I had lived, even if I’d survived the massive head wound that killed me when I was murdered, that I would have won a MacArthur Genius Award. You know, the MacArthur Grant.”
“Oh?” That would have been wonderful, and something I could never imagine, even at my advanced age.
“She told me that I would have received it when I turned 42.
“You were twenty-six or twenty-seven when you died.”
“Twenty six. So, it would have been 2011.”
“What else did she say?”
“She told me that if I brought her the soul of a deceased child that she’d tell me my entire life story up to now, that is if I had not died in 1986.”
“Oh Nigel. That is horrible.”
“Of course, I told her no fucking way in hell would I do that. I told her that even my Vampire friends would not do something so vile.”
I knew Nigel often wondered what his life would have been like had he lived. Right now he would have been looking forward to his 66th birthday, and maybe have a wife and children. His career as an artist would have taken off. There would have been museum exhibitions and so much more. I did not remind him of any of that. He knew that I knew his loss. Being a Ghost is never easy, but he makes the best of it as well as he can.
“What did she say to that?”
“A long string of extremely personal expletives. She got in her canoe and paddled off. I was down by the lake, you know, just watching birds. There are swans down there this year. Will you drive me over to my grave tomorrow?”
“Sure, I told him.” With great effort Nigel could go by himself, but he prefers if someone, meaning me, drives him there.
Yes, it is fall and I am planting bulbs. It is a passion of mine, almost an addiction I suppose.
What, did you think Vampires just sit around sucking necks and wiping blood off of their chins? Please, it isn’t like that. Save the gross behaviors for politicians and religious leaders.
Maybe on the way home we’ll get pumpkins for the front porch too. Halloween will be here soon after all.
~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman
10/8/25
Vampire Maman 
I got to admit, you make me feel sorry for Nigel more and more. He can be annoying as all get out sometimes, but hey… even dead he’s still kind of human.