==========================================
Full Moon Challenge: An Inauspicious Night
by Nancy Kaminski
(c) Friday, October 13, 2000
==========================================
"So you're not superstitious?" Nick inquired as he made himself more
comfortable on the corner of Natalie's desk. "This being Friday the
thirteenth -- and a full moon to boot -- doesn't bother you? Not even
a little bit?"
"Well, look at it this way. My best friend is an eight hundred-year-
old vampire and I work at night in a morgue cutting up dead bodies.
What use would it be to be superstitious? I already live in a
nightmare." She smiles sweetly at him.
"Huh? You think I'm a nightmare?" Nick sounded hurt, although he had
warned her frequently enough that that was precisely the case.
She patted his leg. "No, I don't think you're a nightmare. Nightmares
don't give people miniature pumpkins for their offices at Halloween."
She balanced the little orange gourd on top of her computer monitor,
smiling at the mental picture of Nick rummaging through a bin at a
store somewhere looking for just the right one. "There. A little
holiday cheer in an otherwise cold and forbidding workplace. Thank you
-- it's beautiful. It even has a perfect stem, just like a big
pumpkin." She pushed a dish towards him. "Want some candy corn?"
Nick shuddered. "No, thank you. I hear that stuff is bad for your
teeth. And they look like psychedelic fangs to me."
Natalie picked up one of the sugary corn kernels and nibbled on it
delicately. "You have to eat it one stripe at a time. It prolongs the
enjoyment," she explained at Nick's puzzled look.
He stood up. "Okay, I'll leave you and your food fetish alone
together," he announced. "Gotta get back to work. We're expecting an
active night. Whether or not you believe it, the full moon seems to
bring out the worst in the less stable members of society. Add in the
thirteenth and, well, I think we're going to have our hands full."
As he reached the door, Nat called, "Wait, Nick -- do *you* believe
in this superstition stuff?"
He paused, one hand on the doorframe, and looked back. "It was a
Friday and a full moon the night I was brought across," he said
quietly. "Lacroix might argue the point, but I think that qualifies as
bad luck, don't you?" And then he was gone.
Natalie sat back in her chair, staring at the empty door and
thoughtfully turned a kernel of candy corn over in her fingers. "Yeah,
I guess you could say that," she whispered to the empty room.
Just then the diener pushed a gurney into the room, and she stood up
with a sigh. Time to get to work, she thought.
But as she watched her assistant unzip the body bag and expertly
transfer the body of an elderly man to her autopsy table, the thought
entered her mind that Nick's unlucky Friday night so long ago was her
own good fortune.
Natalie grieved for Nick's centuries of anguish and unhappiness, but
she also couldn't help thinking, selfishly perhaps, that she was
incredibly fortunate to have met him in the first place. Her world had
expanded immeasurably the night Nick -- the fabulous, mythical
creature, the troubled, unhappy man -- had sat up on this very table.
She wasn't about to send Lacroix a thank-you note -- she smiled
briefly at the thought -- but if he hadn't done what he had done her
life would be so much duller, so very, very ordinary. She glanced at
the miniature pumpkin sitting so cheerily on her computer, and smiled.
Life was never dull when dealing on a regular basis with vampires.
Thanks, Nick, she thought, for being in my life. For bringing me silly
little gifts. For being so special.
She shook off the thoughts that were threatening to become maudlin.
Her business right now was with the dead, not the undead.
"What do we have?" she asked the diener, and immersed herself in the
details of her latest customer's demise. It was time to think on the
ordinary. But one small corner of her mind contemplated the meaning of
Fridays, and full moons, and she smiled.
Finis
Note: A "diener" is what a pathologist's assistant is called. The
diener performs many tasks related to autopsies, and often is
responsible for removing organs for examination and for sewing up the
body afterwards. The term comes from the German word for "servant."
========================================================
Comments, criticisms, candy corn, and little pumpkins to:
Nancy Kaminski
nancykam@mediaone.net
========================================================
Full Moon Challenge: An Inauspicious Night
by Nancy Kaminski
(c) Friday, October 13, 2000
==========================================
"So you're not superstitious?" Nick inquired as he made himself more
comfortable on the corner of Natalie's desk. "This being Friday the
thirteenth -- and a full moon to boot -- doesn't bother you? Not even
a little bit?"
"Well, look at it this way. My best friend is an eight hundred-year-
old vampire and I work at night in a morgue cutting up dead bodies.
What use would it be to be superstitious? I already live in a
nightmare." She smiles sweetly at him.
"Huh? You think I'm a nightmare?" Nick sounded hurt, although he had
warned her frequently enough that that was precisely the case.
She patted his leg. "No, I don't think you're a nightmare. Nightmares
don't give people miniature pumpkins for their offices at Halloween."
She balanced the little orange gourd on top of her computer monitor,
smiling at the mental picture of Nick rummaging through a bin at a
store somewhere looking for just the right one. "There. A little
holiday cheer in an otherwise cold and forbidding workplace. Thank you
-- it's beautiful. It even has a perfect stem, just like a big
pumpkin." She pushed a dish towards him. "Want some candy corn?"
Nick shuddered. "No, thank you. I hear that stuff is bad for your
teeth. And they look like psychedelic fangs to me."
Natalie picked up one of the sugary corn kernels and nibbled on it
delicately. "You have to eat it one stripe at a time. It prolongs the
enjoyment," she explained at Nick's puzzled look.
He stood up. "Okay, I'll leave you and your food fetish alone
together," he announced. "Gotta get back to work. We're expecting an
active night. Whether or not you believe it, the full moon seems to
bring out the worst in the less stable members of society. Add in the
thirteenth and, well, I think we're going to have our hands full."
As he reached the door, Nat called, "Wait, Nick -- do *you* believe
in this superstition stuff?"
He paused, one hand on the doorframe, and looked back. "It was a
Friday and a full moon the night I was brought across," he said
quietly. "Lacroix might argue the point, but I think that qualifies as
bad luck, don't you?" And then he was gone.
Natalie sat back in her chair, staring at the empty door and
thoughtfully turned a kernel of candy corn over in her fingers. "Yeah,
I guess you could say that," she whispered to the empty room.
Just then the diener pushed a gurney into the room, and she stood up
with a sigh. Time to get to work, she thought.
But as she watched her assistant unzip the body bag and expertly
transfer the body of an elderly man to her autopsy table, the thought
entered her mind that Nick's unlucky Friday night so long ago was her
own good fortune.
Natalie grieved for Nick's centuries of anguish and unhappiness, but
she also couldn't help thinking, selfishly perhaps, that she was
incredibly fortunate to have met him in the first place. Her world had
expanded immeasurably the night Nick -- the fabulous, mythical
creature, the troubled, unhappy man -- had sat up on this very table.
She wasn't about to send Lacroix a thank-you note -- she smiled
briefly at the thought -- but if he hadn't done what he had done her
life would be so much duller, so very, very ordinary. She glanced at
the miniature pumpkin sitting so cheerily on her computer, and smiled.
Life was never dull when dealing on a regular basis with vampires.
Thanks, Nick, she thought, for being in my life. For bringing me silly
little gifts. For being so special.
She shook off the thoughts that were threatening to become maudlin.
Her business right now was with the dead, not the undead.
"What do we have?" she asked the diener, and immersed herself in the
details of her latest customer's demise. It was time to think on the
ordinary. But one small corner of her mind contemplated the meaning of
Fridays, and full moons, and she smiled.
Finis
Note: A "diener" is what a pathologist's assistant is called. The
diener performs many tasks related to autopsies, and often is
responsible for removing organs for examination and for sewing up the
body afterwards. The term comes from the German word for "servant."
========================================================
Comments, criticisms, candy corn, and little pumpkins to:
Nancy Kaminski
nancykam@mediaone.net
========================================================