Stay safe, stay at home, wash your hands, wear a mask, and eat your vegetables. Vampires want you to be safe and healthy. So do the people who love you. And if you have to go out remember to crank up the music in your car and sing at the top of your voice like nobody is watching.
~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman
Juliette aka Vampire Maman
“Why did they keep a vault box of old diseases?”
“For research purposes. It was a point of reference.”
“Then why didn’t they just eradicate them again? They had the knowledge. They had the vaccines.”
“No they’d didn’t have the vaccines. The box had been sealed for over a thousand years. They had no need for vaccines. The contamination and speculation on the outcome was too overwhelming for them. Maybe for them but wewould have survived. We would have beaten it.”
“Wait, Nessie, that can’t be right. You’re saying there were no new germs, bacteria, or virus strains in a thousand years.”
“That is what the records say.”
“That can’t be right.”
“Stop questioning everything.”
“Why? Your ideas are based on something that happened almost 20,000 years ago. We’re here now and we’re happy. We’re safe. You’ve seen what happens to other species when they get sick.”
“Considering suicide is our main cause of death living in the risk of an occasional physical illness doesn’t sound that bad.“
He ran his hand up my thigh and leaned closer. “Suicide isn’t that bad.”
I pushed his hand away. “Bird shit. No other society does that. No other society spends an eternity fleeing Armageddon because they’re too pretty and too delicate to deal with it. Screw that. I’m ready to deal with it. I’m ready to have a real home. I’m ready to fight.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “You’re getting emotional over something that’s never going to happen. Stop acting like a crazy woman.”
I broke up with my green-eyed boyfriend that night and started working on my escape.
I went home and pulled out the charts and old pictures I’d been collecting since I was a teenager.
There was a man. Damn he was handsome with turquoise eyes, white hair pulled back in a long braid. There was a female. I guess I could say a woman of her species. Her head reached his shoulder. She was different without what others call magic.
I thought about that again. Other intelligent species around the universe admit we’re the best at almost any technology but we’re also magic. Seriously I feel sorry for them. They can’t read each other’s thoughts on their own. They have to rely on communication devices for any long distance conversations. When I think of all of the time and energy they waste on construction it boggles my mind. We can move things, and when there are a lot of us we can move extremely heavy objects. Nobody can build a city as fast as we can, no matter what building materials we use. Those are beautiful cities too, not some slapped together ugly abominations.
I looked at the woman with the plain brown eyes, and odd waving brown hair. I couldn’t imagine being so drab, but there she was, radiant despite her coloring. They were all drab, the species we called Talkers. They ranged from the color of a fish belly to solid black with every shade of brown in-between. The hair color was all the color of dirt and rocks; brown, black, gray, yellow, and orange. Some had blue eyes they’d inherited from the Hummers. As far as I know all of the Hummers and Dancers had died off.
“Hello?”
I was so into my thoughts I didn’t hear my friend Arie come through the door.
“What are you doing Nessie?”
I didn’t hide my materials away like I usually do. “I’m looking into the reason why we left our original planet. I’d discovered some old documents. The story wasn’t as simple as some girl spreading diseases and genetic abnormalities across the land.”
Aries looked at the papers. Damn he was cute with his lavender eyes and dimples. “Tell me what you found out.”
First I poured us some wine, and then I told him the real story.
His skin was golden, his hair white with silver streaks, and his eyes lavender with specks of a darker purple. She was pale like a cloud with a blush of pink, her brown hair fell in ripples down her back, and her eyes were brown. Her kind were the colors of the earth in which they toiled.
Arie smiled in an amused curious way. “Toiled? They had agriculture?”
“Of course they did. Just listen to the story will you.”
“I already know the story.”
“Not this version.”
“The Talkers were so primitive. Wouldn’t it be like falling in love with an animal?”
“No. They weren’t animals. We interbred with them all the time. Any children were left with them.”
“That was pretty rare, you know, us doing the deed with them.”
“We did it enough that I’m sure some of our genetic shit is still with them.”
I continued my story.
She kept a wolf as a companion the way we kept birds, as a pet. The animal was going to give birth soon and she promised him one of the pups. That sounds like a bad romance but it’s the truth.
“A wolf? Really? She kept a large carnivorous animal as a companion? It would have eaten her.”
“They were friends. The wolf considered the woman part of her pack.”
“Wolves are too smart and too deadly and too organized to ever be domesticated.”
“The wolf doesn’t matter. Arie let me finish.”
The man’s name was Snow, like my last name. Nobody knew why he wanted to be alone in that research station at first. Snow was popular with everyone. He was never in need of company. He chose to work at a research station outside of the city. It was because of her. It was because of Eleora.
She was one of the Talkers, the only subspecies of people who survived the cut, along with us. Sure we could breed with them but we didn’t. Our DNA isn’t the same, obviously.
At first he thought Eleora came around out of curiosity. Snow thought she was pretty. Sure her eyes were small in comparison to his and her color was drab, but she got his attention. Let’s say she was simple but elegant. Actually she was beautiful. Just look at her picture here.
So he dressed her up, then undressed her. He did a lot of that. She became his little sex toy.
One night while he was asleep she became curious about his work. He didn’t think she would understand what he we doing because of his closed mind towards other peoples.
He’d believe all of the bigots and thought she was stupid. There was nothing stupid about her kind. She figured out the code and opened his research vault. Then she found the inner box containing five thousand years of viruses, bacteria, genetic nightmares, and other diseases. So what did she do? She opened it and let everything out.
“She had no idea what was in the box,” said Arie.
“Obviously not. For some dumb ass reason the box was a thing of beauty, covered in images of flowers. She probably thought it was full of seeds or jewelry.”
Snow’s little love puppet poisoned the planet. Thousands of years full of work gone to waste.
Thousands of our people died in the first three weeks. She vanished back into the woods with her wolf. Snow took the easy way out and killed himself.
We had the technology to leave so we did. Our planet was too poisoned to live on. It beyond repair.
Some said to bring a few of the Talkers with us but we left them all behind to deal with their mess. From all accounts they’re extinct and the planet is a place that all intelligent beings avoid.
I poured another glass of wine and topped off Arie’s glass. “We’ve been wandering around the universe for 20,000 years. It is time to stop.”
“I’ll go wherever you go.”
“What?”
“We’ve been friends forever. I share your dream.”
“You might be exposed to sickness.”
“I might stay and kill myself. Think about it. But seriously I’ve been seriously thinking about the same thing for years. I’m tired of always being the guest. We’ve lived on three different planets since we were kids. I’m done with it. Lets do this. Let’s go home.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. I’ll take my chances with you.”
My ship was in a hanger owned by Mac Devine a long tailed blue skinned guy from a planet with a name I couldn’t even pronounce. The day before we left I talked to my Mac who’d taught me everything I knew about flying and the unsafe universe.
“You know you’ll be close when you start getting the radio signals. Remember, they’ve been isolated. They don’t even know about YOU, much less everyone else out here. They’d have the technology but they’re too busy having wars, jacking with religion, and fighting off pandemics. I didn’t even mention the natural disasters they deal with on a daily basis.”
“They’re still alive?”
“Thriving.”
“Is it safe?”
“Hell no. Nobody goes near that poison planet.”
“Then how do you know they’re thriving?”
“We’re keeping tabs on them. At least we were. Nobody has been in that part of the galaxy for ages. Listen, they get going strong, then something wipes most of them out, and then they just repeat the pattern. They’re not advanced enough to stop it. Add to that the fact they’re incredibly violent. It’s a lost cause. Totally hopeless.”
“My people came from there too. We’re practically genetic twins with them.”
Honey, it ain’t your planet anymore. The folks who are there aren’t your people.”
“I’m tired of not having a home.”
“Your home is where you find love. Hey, sweetie, you have to prepare yourself for the possibility of some nasty and deadly diseases. Listen, I was on Torex-87 a few years back and got a cold. “
“What was it like to be sick?”
“It was horrible. I couldn’t’ get off my couch for a week. I couldn’t breath. I had a headache that wouldn’t stop. My throat felt like I’d swallowed fire. My wife suddenly turned into a monster and told me to stop being such a baby.”
“You survived.”
“Barely. My wife should be feeling sorry for me but she is still pissed off. She said I had something called a man flu.Can you fucking believe it? Man flu.“
I had to laugh. I’d miss Mac.
I couldn’t’ promise anything because I was going to go. Nothing could stop me.
With my crew of eighty, including fifteen children, we left in secret bound for that blue planet on an outer spiral of the galaxy. It was so isolated but I’d take my chances. The ship was in good working order and ready to go.
Our technology was more advanced than just about any in the entire universe. Yes, we’re that smart. We can jump through space without the usual lifetimes between planets. It is awesome what we can do.
We’d been gone about a week (our time) when the nightmares began.
I had dreams of disease invading my body. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. My toes turned into liquid leaving me with only bones sticking out of my feet. I went blind. Everything in my body hurt. My bowels let loose as I vomited up the entire contents of my stomach for hours on end. My heart started to beat unevenly. Worms crawled into my ears. My lover spread sickness through my body with his touch. Sores covered my body.
I woke up catching my breath and checking my arms for scabs. Nothing. I was fine. Arie was sleeping peacefully next to me no doubt dreaming his usual sweet dreams of better things to come.
We were traveling at a semi leisurely but lightning fast speed for a while, and coming sort of close to our home planet when it happened.
Izzy, my communications lead came running into my office.
“Captain we’ve picked up signals.”
I ran down the hall with him to see and hear the first messages from our home planet.
“Look. 23 73,” said Izzy, hardly able to contain his excitement.
“Blips.” I said. “These aren’t random.”
“Look at the pattern.”
“It looks like a child’s puzzle. “
Izzy squinted. “Some guy named Carl made it.”
“Interesting.”
Then the flood of signals came.
There was sound. Not just blips and pings. It was real sound.
It was music.
We’d never heard anything like it.
Beautiful music.
“But how? How could such beautiful sounds come from such a poisoned planet?” said Arie.
“Magic. I mean, a different kind of magic. They have their own magic,” I said savoring the wonder. “Izzy does it have a name?”
“I think so,” said Izzy. “I don’t know what it means but I made out Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, Number 3, G major.”
“How old are these signals?”
“Maybe a hundred years, but you never know once signals get into space.”
I looked at Izzy and sent him a suggestion. “Turn on the translation. We need to know what they’re saying.”
Izzy smiled and flipped the switch.
We listened to fuzzy sounding music for a few hours then before we knew it clear voices started to come through.
“Those are our people,” I said.
“Sort of our people,” said Arie.
The music came in all varieties. Some was fast and frantic. Others were slow. Voices sang about love, heartbreak, loss, and addiction.
They spoke of airplanes and breaking flight records. Yes, they could fly. Finally they could fly. How many years did it take them? Over twenty thousand. They’d been slow with technology but all of the sudden they were catching up with the rest of the universe.
There was more music. Always more music.
An air machine called a Zeppelin exploded. It was called the Hindenburg. A male voice called out in anguish about the humanity. Humanity. They called themselves humans. Humans. The Talkers had their own name. Humans or Homo sapiens. The Hummers, now extinct, were known as Neanderthals. The Dancers, also now extinct, were known as Denisovans.
A man’s voice screamed about the motherland. Next reports of a horrible and violent war came through the radio waves. Thousands were dead. Then it was over. The music changed again, but they continued to play music by Bach.
The real game changer was for us when the news of a polio vaccine came out. They had vaccines, apparently for quite a while. Polio was a disease that took away the ability to walk or even breath. News of other vaccines came through the radio waves.
“Honestly I thought they’d all be dead by now,” said Izzy. “They’re thriving.”
“They’re incredibly creative,” said Arie.
“Listen to this,” said Izzy. He turned on a song that made us all want to just leap up and dance.
“What is it?” I asked in wonder.
Izzy smiled. “Buddy Holly.”
A few hours later Izzy wasn’t looking so good. “What happened?” I asked.
“Buddy Holly died.”
We didn’t have much time to mourn the death of Buddy Holly. Pictures started coming in.
We watched silly grotesque puppets called Howdy Doodies. There were news programs where people were told of event from all over the world. The variety was astonishing.
Arie squinted his eyes at the images. “Where is the color?” The color would come soon enough.
Some of the most interesting news was about medical advances.
“They have a pill that prevents pregnancy,” I said in astonishment.
“Can’t they control it?” Izzy asked.
“No, that is one of the differences between us and them. It’s the difference between us and most intelligent life forms.”
“They just get pregnant by accident?”
“Apparently, but now they have pills to control their own fertility.”
“Wow. I can’t even imagine.”
Over the days we heard more of medical advancements including a heart transplant.
Arie and I were having a glass of wine and looking out a window to the stars. I expressed some apprehension about our visit. “We will be exposed to every disease on that planet. Sure they have vaccines. Even their animals have vaccines. Will those vaccines work on us?”
“We’re genetically 99.8% the same as them,” Arie said taking my hand.
“Point two zero percent different.”
“This is your dream Nessie.”
“I thought I had it all figured out,” I said.
“What if we expose them to something that we’re carrying?”
“We’re the squeakiest clean beings in the universe.”
“Clean slates ready for every vile thing in the universe to attach to.”
“Now you’re describing my first marriage,” said Arie.
I should have laughed at his joke, even just to be polite.
“Come on love,” I said. “Let’s see what is going on downstairs.”
In the communications room about thirty people were all dancing; even the children were there.
“What is this?” I asked Izzy.
Izzy grinned. “Soul Train.”
About an hour later there were Zeppelins again. This time is wasn’t an explosion. It was Led Zeppelin. That was the name of a group of musicians. The music was called Kashmir. I’d never even in my wildest dreams imagined music could touch me so.
The music continued. Stairway to Heaven. Time Passages. Enter the Sandman. Love Bites. Leaving on a Jet Plane. Fight for Your Right. I Will Survive. Ring of Fire. Beat It. The list of songs went on and on and on. It was insane. It was seriously insane. I had to get some sleep before my head exploded.
The next day after breakfast I couldn’t find anyone.
“Arie, where is my crew?”
“Watching Golden Girls.”
As I watched the images come through, in obviously random order, I wondered at the people called humans we’d left behind.
The images were now color. A woman named Jane spent a lifetime with a primate species called chimpanzees. The chimpanzees were so much like us yet so different. Why didn’t we know about chimpanzees?
The wolves had become dogs. I thought dogs were the most amazing adorable creatures I’d ever seen until I saw the obsession with cats. The humans had domesticated cats. CATS. When we started to get access to what the humans called The Internet fifty percent of it was about cats. Another quarter was pornography. Humans liked sex even more than we did.
One of the most astonishing things was that they knew other intelligent life was out side of their planet even thought they’d never had contact and only gone as far as their own moon. But the most surprising thing is that they remembered us through their myths, legends, and artwork. The girl who opened the vault was known as Pandora. I thought we’d erased all traces of our culture when we left, but there were enough foundations and things we’d helped with that they thought we must have been aliens come from another planet. I have to admit that made Arie and I laugh out loud. Aliens. Our technology was anything but alien. Our power and brainpower was from Earth.
The next message of importance that came through was about a new pandemic called Covid-19. Izzy and I decided to not tell anyone about it until we got closer. We could beat this. We would wash our hands and wear our masks and wait until we got out into the general population.
I thought about it all for a while and continued to steer my ship towards our home planet the humans called Earth.
Finally we saw the beautiful blue ball with the single gray moon. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. None of us could stay away from the windows.
We had our safety gear. We had masks. We had safety suits. We had communication devices.
As I pulled the ship into the Earth’s orbit I tried not to feel overwhelmed with emotion.
A message came through, as I expected. A voice asked that we identify ourselves.
“This is Captain Nessie Snow of the Starship Endurance. We left Earth, our home planet twenty thousand years ago. We’re coming home. We’re here.”
Suddenly we were flanked by sleek black flying ships. A human man in a helmet looked at me right through the window. I could tell his eyes were blue. He put his thumb up.
I put my thumb up and flashed him a dazzling smile and winked my turquoise eyes at him.
He smiled. “Do you wish to land?” He said that through his radio device.
“Yes. We come in peace,” I said.
“Do you need anything?”
I didn’t expect that. “Sure, dogs, cats, and when the pandemic is over concert tickets to EVERYTHING.”
I heard him laughing and knew it would be all right.
We’ve been hanging out at an Air Force Base in a place called California. The wine is amazing. The people are accepting and interesting. The general public hasn’t been told about us yet. We have dogs and cats. Best of all none of us have become ill. None of us.
I think it’s going to work out here. It’s good to be home.
~ end
~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman
In weird times we all need some music. I’m offering a random selection today to help pass the time in quarantine.
~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman
When our kids were small we decided that part of their education would be teaching them the classics. On road trips Teddy would play music and the kids would identify the classic rock bands. At a young age (by the time they were six or seven) our offspring could identify Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Jimmi Hendrix, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, and a myriad of other bands. This included my husband’s favorite summer road trip band Van Halen.
Just to keep the record straight on this: He prefers Diamond Dave. I prefer Sammy. But hey, it’s all good.
This all is leading us down a path to somewhere, and I’m sure you know where (or maybe not.)
The extremely popular and talented seventeen year old singer Billie Eilish said in an interview that she didn’t know who the band Van Halen was.
Asshats all over the Internet jumped right on it. They criticized her for her musical knowledge. Seriously? Does it matter that she doesn’t know a band that started out in a time that seems like centuries ago to most teens?
In an attempt to educate my children and make them into cultured little Vampires we’d have Saturday Night Opera Bath. I’d plunk the babies into the tub and turn on the radio. Now twenty years later they don’t listen to opera and can only recognize a few songs. Does it matter that their Uncle Andy is a trained opera singer? Not really. He sings to the kids but not opera. That’s ok. Opera isn’t for everyone and neither is Van Halen.
Over the Thanksgiving break my daughter didn’t know who Steely Dan was. Do I care? Not really. I don’t go out of my way to listen to them and neither does her dad. At twenty she knows who Glen Miller was but not Steve Miller. That’s ok.
As a parent you have to make sure your kids don’t grow up in a cultural void, but you can’t teach them everything. They learn things along the way and they won’t know it all by the time they’re seventeen, twenty or even fifty.
For example my kids know art. They can tell you if a work is Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Dada, Pop Art, Medieval (their least favorite and what they consider the weirdest), Baroque, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Surrealism, and many many other movements. Art is important to us, so we passed that love on to our children.
They can’t tell you who any of the presidents between John Quincy Adams and Abe Lincoln were, or anyone right before or right after Teddy Rosevelt. If they really think about it they might be able to come up with some trivial facts, but neither one are American History Majors, or Music History Majors.
We all teach our kids our own culture. In my house it is art and music we like, and how to grow herbs, and bad puns. They’ll catch up on all of the other stuff. Believe me, they can, and will, beyond your wildest expectations.
The fact that Billie Eilish didn’t know who Van Halen is is OK. She is only seventeen. Maybe her parents didn’t like Van Halen. Nobody is going to play music to their children unless they like it. Some people do play music to their kids that they don’t like but they’re just weird and read too many child rearing books.
Ms Eilish obviously had caring parents who shared a wealth of knowledge and encouragement to their child.
One of the things I like best about her is that she is her own young woman and a good role model to other teen girls. She doesn’t rely on dressing like a later day Playboy Bunny to get attention. It is her music not her T&A.
Another thought…
Don’t EVER stop learning about and listening to new music. My kids introduced me to so many new bands. Of course as Vampires we have to keep up with things as a matter of survival, but that’s another blog post. Some of the best concerts I’ve ever been to were with my kids. I even went to Warped Tour with them. Yes, we had more fun than I could have imagined years ago at a Black Veil Brides Concert. Parents and other adults – don’t be old farts. Expand your musical horizons. If you have questions just look it up on my blog. I think I’ve written a dozen posts about going to concerts with and sharing music with my kids.
I’d like to think that most people reading my blog are life long learners.
So keep learning. Keep sharing information. And keep encouraging others not tearing them down (unless they’re assholes, then you can tear them down as much as you want.)
I’ll leave you with some music. I’m off to hang lights on my Christmas tree, and then maybe dance the night away.
~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman
Kissed by a Vampire
Dear Diary,
Once I was King of the Vampires. There were others who ruled Vampires in other places, but I was the only King. I was not just a ruler but a leader.
My birthday will be this week. When I was king there would be great celebrations. Now the celebration will be small.
I thought of music and turned on the radio. What insanity was this coming from the invisible sound waves into the little box on kitchen counter?
My oldest Vampire friend Randolpho and my Vampire lover Gillian were there. We drank red wine and blood cocktails. They both started to laugh and sing along.
What madness is this, I thought to myself at the crazy insane song playing through the the air by invisible musicians.
My, my, my, aye-aye, whoa!
M-m-m-my Sharona
“What is a sharona?” I asked.
“A woman,” said Randolpho. “She is called Sharona.”
“Sharona is her name?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Randolpho.
“Is she fixing or perhaps building his car?”
“No,” said Gillian.
“He sang you make my motor run. Twice,” I said.
“It wasn’t a car,” said Randolpho.
“Then I assume he has a cat,” I said.
They both laughed, together, at the same time. I stood wondering what was so funny.
“Don’t even mention My Own Private Idaho to him,” said Randolpho.
“Oh my god,”said Gillian.
Then they started to laugh again.
I gave them a stern scolding. “Do not treat me as if I am a child or an idiot. I was locked in a crypt for three hundred years. I missed three centuries, including the Twentieth Century.”
“You did miss a lot,” said Gillian, who was still laughing at me.
“It is as if, what is the saying, as if I am living on another star,” I said.
“Planet,” said Gillian.
“Plan what? My birthday? That is what we are trying to do,” I said.
“Living on another planet Vlad. Another planet,” said Randolpho.
Then they started to laugh again.
I watched my friends slide to the floor still laughing and lean on each others as tears came down their cheeks.
Gillian looked up at me and said, “You’re so damn cute.”
I give up.
~ Vlad
Dear Diary,
The World Series of Baseball started tonight.
I was told not to ask why it is called the World Series and just accept it.
Why do they treat me like this?
I have found that baseball is a calming sport without the lunacy of football or other sports in which the players run around like herds of cattle. There is an individual element in baseball which I like. It is like Vampires. We are individual elements who work magic when with an organized group.
After that we watched baseball we watched ice skating from an event called Skate America. Gillian had recorded the men’s short program. She carefully explained to me that the short program is where them ice skaters do a specific number of elements in a short amount of time. I told her that I know what a short program is. I know what ice skating is. I have even learned how to both ice skate and roller skate in the past five years. I am what is called a fan. I can tell you who Nathan Chen and Jason Brown are. They would both make admirable Vampires.
Football would be better if they used the head of an opponent rather than an odd shaped ball.
Later, after those who say they are my friends had other activities to keep them occupied, I went out to find fresh blood and perhaps someone who would not laugh at everything I say.
At my friend Cassie’s pub I sat at the bar and spoke with Cassie when she was not busy. In the background I could hear the women say to each other as they looked my way, “He is so cute. He is gorgeous. I want some of that.”
I was drinking club soda so I do not think that is what they wanted. In fact, I dare say, I know exactly what they wanted. It made me smile, of course without my fangs.
I overheard someone laugh and call her friend a dork. I turned a smiled. The dork was a pretty young woman with short blonde hair and nice neck showing above a shoulderless sweater. The women all smiled at me. The one they called dork winked. I smiled back. Maybe I would have dork for dinner.
I looked up the meaning of the word dork on my iPhone. I find these phones are extremely useful tools.
Dork: a silly, out-of-touch person.
I suddenly realized, in my ignorance, that I did not recognize the fact that the women were making jokes with each other.
I looked at Cassie. “Do you think I am a dork?” I asked.
Cassie leaned on the bar and put her face close to mine, “Maybe, a little bit sometimes, but you’re really just cute. You know you’re really cute Vlad.”
“That is what everyone I meet tells me. Yet, cute is what you call a kitten,” I said.
“Sure, and when I’m around you I get that warm and fuzzy kitten feeling.”
I gave her a weak smile. Warm and fuzzy? I did not even ask.
I was once King of the Vampires, feared by many. It was said by many that even the Devil would not cross my path due to my fearsome and cunning ways. Now I am a warm and fuzzy kitten.
Later in the night I spent more time with the woman who had been called a dork. I found her to be exceptionally smart and witty. She had a laugh that sounded as if she’d been alive for as long as I had. It was full of smoke and gravel. I liked it. I told her about the history of where I came from, which was my history. I did not mention Vampires. She was fascinated, as was I. Then I took enough blood from her beautiful warm neck and left her with sweet dreams. I am a Vampire but I am not a fiend. If one of to be a successful and effective Vampire King one must be fierce but never a fiend.
Her name was Allyson and never did she once call me a dork or laugh at me. With that thought I give a deep sigh.
~ Vlad
Dear Diary,
Today is my birthday. I was born October 23, 1343. I am now six hundred and seventy six years old. I do not look a day over thirty two, maybe thirty four. Six hundred is the new thirty. I shall tell Gillian and Randolpho that I too have the ability to master the art of humor. I am not so sure that will satisfy them.
I over heard Randolpho tell Gillian, “It is also Weird Al’s birthday today too. He’ll turn sixty. Can you believe it?”
“Don’t tell Vlad. Oh my god, he’ll be so confused,” said Gillian. Then they both started to laugh hysterically. I did not ask why or let them know I had heard them make their jokes at my expense.
This Weird Al character is a mere baby. What could he do that would confuse me so? I roll my eyes at their humor at my expense.
Tonight there shall be a party. Gillian and Randolpho told me that all of the plans were in place. They said I should not worry and that it would be fun.
My mind was still on modern music and my attempt to understand the strange words that everyone except me understood. Not only do fashions change over the years but language as well.
Later I asked Gillian, “Why do so many songs speak of women and cars?”
“It is a metaphore Vlad.”
“I see,” I said. I did not see but I did not say anything.
Then she whispered, “You make my motor run. In fact, I’ll show you right now. Happy Birthday Vlad.”
And yes, so far it has been an extremely happy birthday.
~ Vald
This has been the 53rd installment of Vlad’s Vampire Diary. To catch up on all of Vlad’s Vampire Diary entries click here.
Oh, by the way it is also my birthday today!
~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman
Dear Diary,
My my my
Why do people say that? It is as if they think that they rule the world in their smug sense of overly obnoxious self worth.
What is it about that like in the movie about the little lost fish and the birds who all yelled mine mine mine. Those were gulls.
I have had people say that to me only to minutes later have their throats ripped out. That was a long time ago, in another life. Such is the world of a Vampire King. I now try to resist the urge to rip into the flesh of those who annoy me.
Today I found myself in an overly bitter mood. Back when I was the King of Vampires living in my castle on the mountain I would go into the tower and let the wind blow through my hair, and view all that was mine. At other times I would take my horse and ride through the woods until we were both exhausted.
Now I have a more modern approach. I get into my car and drive.
After being locked in a crypt for three hundred years I could not have imagined a world with cars and paved roads. I could not imagine not having a horse. Maybe one day I will get a horse, or two, or three again. Until then I am content with my cats, though they resist riding in cars.
In the past five years I have learned much, including cars. I have two cars. One is electric and quiet. It is also expensive, but that does not matter. My advisories might have taken three hundred years from me but they did not take away my fortune.
My my my.
In my car I open the hole in the top of the roof, then I turn up the sound on the radio. A radio is another thing I could not have imagined having three hundred years ago. I was wearing flip flops and I could not have imagined those either.
The radio is an interesting thing. On it is every kind of music one can imagine. There are also those who talk angrily and excessively. I ignore them. Early in the mornings there are those who speak of farming and fishing. Late at night people speak of alien creatures who live in space and visit people at night, in their beds. I believe they have aliens confused with cats, or maybe even Vampires. It is not worth my time to wonder about it.
While I was imprisoned by my enemies in a crypt and thought to be dead I missed out on so much music. I did not know of Bach or Valvadi. I did not know of Mozart, Handle, Haydn, or Pachelbel. I missed Chopin. I missed the invention of the modern piano, which I now play. I missed Beethoven. I missed Verdi, and Greg, and Lizt. I missed Scott Joplin, Lead Belly, and Janice Joplin. I missed Jimi Hendrix. I missed Ravel, Stravinsky, Debussy, and Strauss. I missed the waltz. I am not sad that I missed Disco or Blue Grass. Those two types of music are not, how do I say it, conducive to the Vampire sense of being. I missed smooth jazz. I missed the starting of Rock and Roll. I missed Toto the first time they sang Africa. I missed so much. I did not exactly miss the polka because the villagers who were not Vampires had loud parties and dances that might have well been polkas. They vomited a lot. Then they slept and the Vampires moved in on them but that is a different story for a different day.
That is the beauty of radio. I can hear all of it now. Except Country Western and Rap Music. I do not listen to those kinds of music. I do not understand them or enjoy the sounds. Yes, for an easy meal, I will pretend to like them, or at least tolerate them for a short time.
Now where was I? I heard a song. It was a song about a Vampire. I do not understand it quite. As I drove my car through the countryside a song came on.
My, my, my.
Once bitten twice shy.
What is this music I thought as I pulled over to the side of the road to hear more closely.
It was a song about a woman who spent a lot of time with men, but the singer was unsure of her. I think she was a Vampire. She bit him. Now he is shy of her. So she sleeps with many many men. He is of an old fashioned view where he finds that unsettling. Then he thinks she is a failure, but she exacts her revenge in a way I have yet to understand, but she comes out better. He is now shy of her because he fears being bitten again.
I looked this up on my Smart Phone, which three hundred years ago would have been considered magic to the point where if you had one you would be burned as a witch. If you were a Vampire it would have been alright, but regular normal warm blooded people are often ignorant fools who embrace that ignorance and the fear of new things. Vampires must always adapt and accept what is new and what is true.
The band that sang my my my was called Great White. Like a shark, not a racist name. I know now about racists. Great White an odd name but I have long since (for about four years) stopped questioning band names because that would be all that I would do all day every single day.
The men had long hair. I used to have long hair as they did. My golden blonde locks at one point came down to the middle of my back. Maybe my hair was a little longer.
That night after I arrived home I could not stop thinking about that song. Once Bitten Twice Shy.
My beautiful Vampire lover Gillian came over to see me. I told her I was thinking of growing my hair long again like the men in Great White.
She told me no.
I told her the band Great White would be playing in Reno next month. “We could drive up there and stay for the weekend. It would be fun,” I told her just like a regular 21st Century man would ask his woman for a good time.
She said, “we’ll see,” just like women of every century since the dawn of time.
I may be a 675 year old Vampire but even after all this time, and so many women, I still will never completely understand them. Calling them them the fair sex is quite the misnomer. Women are never fair.
~ Vald
Kissed by a Vampire
