Chapter Nine
Edgard's Experance
I awoke at dawn, my wife beside me and my brother asleep on the couch. He was snoring just as loudly as he ever had. I smiled, in the night his blanket had fallen off. I gently wrapped him back in it. I knew that he would most probably did not need the blanket but it was so good to see him again. Alexa was still asleep my angel. She was smiling. I quietly came over and kissed her. Then I left the room.
The banister was perfect for sliding and I could not resist. I slid down it, but there was an unexpected bump that caught me unawares. I fell off the banister cursing. "Long tail yellow bellied lizard guts." I said holding my er area. Rosalie started laughing.
"Like Emmett like Edgard." She said and laughed again I stared angrily at her. "Do you want me to kiss it?" She asked and I turned white as a sheet and stammered in a horrible squeaky voice.
"Nnnnoo don't kiss it." I told her and heard more laughter. Bella and Edward had both heard the conversation and were also most probably reading my thoughts. Lizard guts don't read my mind. I told them and they laughed.
"Lizard guts?" Edward asked mildly.
"Swearing wasn't allowed in the house or out of it. We came up with our own family swear words, you must have heard a few of them from Emmett. He was most partial to dung beetle." I squeaked out which of course made everybody laugh. I realized that there was a certain humor in the moment after swearing all the families cuss words and started to laugh as well. It was just then that Alexa came down.
"What is so funny?" She asked which started them laughing again.
"Oh nothing, your husband just had a little accident involving his dignity." Carlisle said and started laughing again.
"Poor Edgard." She said and kissed me. "Does it still hurt?" I shook my head, no it didn't hurt it throbbed.
"I am fine." I said in my squeaky voice and she looked like she was trying not to break out in laughter she lost the battle and I smiled at her. "Just call me squeaky E." I said and they all continued to laugh so hard that they made the whole house shake. A few minutes later my brother came down took one look at me and started to laugh.
"This will teach us not to slide down banisters." He said sympathetically. "Come, let us go for a ride, I want to do something that I would never have the courage to do alone."
"See our families graves?" I asked and he nodded.
"You won't be going there alone we will come with you." Rosalie said and my Alexa nodded.
"No girls, this is something that I would rather just do with my twin." Emmett said and I nodded. He took me to a car, I hadn't been in one of these since the 1930's joy ride me and my brothers took in our neighbor's truck.
Emmett turned out to be a speed demon and I found myself clutching the arm rests more than once, the centrifugal force making me slam back against the seat. We caught a ferry and did a weeks worth of driving in two days. Emmett got tired and I would take over going only the speed limit as my brother snored in my ears. Two days later we found our little farm, now right in the middle of a town. The archer that we had was untouched which meant that one of our brothers was still alive.
"As long as one of us lives do not sell this farm." My father had said to us time and again.
"Who?" My brother asked and we knocked on the door.
The handle turned and the door flew open inside stood an elderly man. He stared at us in surprise. "Emmett?" He asked and his voice sounded like a young man's not an old ones.
"Hello Bro." Emmett said in a whisper and turned into the house so he could see me as well.
"Edgard?" He asked again I smiled at him.
"I suppose we can't have a dog pile, you have gotten old on us. How very rude of you." I told him and he laughed.
"You haven't grown much since I last saw you come in and have some of grandma's biscuits." He shuffled in the door but as soon as the door closed behind us he pulled off a wig displaying bright blond hair. He also took off this expensive looking second skin. There before us stood our brother Christopher only ten years older than we had seen him last.
"Chris." I said and hugged him, Emmett crashing into me a moment later. None of us could breath but neither did we need to. Then Chris turned and somersaulted over us. He neatly landed on my shoulders and started to give me noogies so hard that flakes of skin were coming off my scalp. Emmett was laughing.
"Ride him cowboy." He said and doubled over in myrrh.
"This is for being gone for eighty years." Chris said. "And for your goodbye." I laughed I had done the same to him when I had left but I had forgotten. "Snakeskinned Groundhogs the lot of you." He said and we gasped in mock horror.
"That was a very rude thing you said to us Chris." Emmett says and lifts our brother off my shoulders. I wince and feel the top of my head, sure enough it is bloody.
"Where did you learn to tumble like that?" I asked.
"Spent a few years with the circus, all of us can. Ma was great on trapeze, so graceful you should have seen her."
"How did you get turned to a vampire?" I asked and he stopped smiling.
"It was do to a fever, it came into town so fast and we were the first to fall sick. I was at a play date with the little girls and Pa called me telling me that I shouldn't come home. Henry had a bad fever and they were starting to get sick as well. A doctor came into town traveling around. He was a vampire and could not heal them they were too far gone so he turned them instead. He told me that they had died but they came back about seven or so years later and turned me. The little girls were by that time young women and wanted to stay with the family forever. They were all changed at eighteen. Our family is the largest coven that we know of in America and certainly the largest coven of related vampires. They are do back here in two days, stay around here until then and then we can have a proper ho down celebrating your return. I have to pretend to be an old man and no one suspects that I am in fact a young one." He laughed.
"It is so good to see you Chris." I told him again and was being squeezed tightly within a moment. "Uh Chris neither of us need to breath but I would like to." I gasped after about four minutes of the constant squeezing. He smiled sheepishly and let go.
"Now its your turn!" He exclaimed. "Tell me where have you been? Were you always together?"
"No we met two days ago for the first time since my accident." Emmett replied. "I was malled by a bear and almost killed but this really great coven saved me. I am married to the woman that found me her name is Rosalie." His eyes sparkled in that way that he had only saved for Ma's biscuits or the prospect of a hunt. "I stayed with them for all this time."
"My story is a little more intense. I went on the trains and got turned on one. Three days of torture and I was a vampire. I didn't know that I could hunt animals and so drank the blood of the human's on the train. After the trains were being used less often I joined in the war effort to be able to suck the blood from the already fatally injured. I then joined the Volturi and met my wife of forty years. Her name is Alexandra and we are happy together. We continued to live like this until Edward came to Volterra I was out doing freelance for the Volturi, Alexa was the one that decided that we needed to go speak with them and so thats how I met up with Emmett." I finished and he looked at me.
"Wow that was a long story you just told in a minute my head still is reeling." He told us. "I think I need blood, want to go hunt something?" We agreed and went off together.
"A hunting we will go a hunting we will go." Christopher started singing
"Hi ho the daryo a hunting we will go." I finished and the three of us laughed heartily. We were in the middle of town and people were staring at us despite all the changes it was still a small town and we only had old guns and knives. I smiled, "We are from the farm." They nodded obviously seeing the family resemblance not knowing how very close we were to the 'old man'. We went into the woods and shot several animals including a bear and several deer, not to mention a mountain cat. We then drank down the hot blood of several more. I wiped my lips with the back of my hand and both my brothers burst out laughing.
"You always did seem to grow a mustache after you drank something." Christopher said laughing so hard that he leaned against a tree. I licked my palm which made them laugh even more.
"Oh I missed you, you bear bait." Christopher said and Emmett paled. I glanced at Emmett and turned my head back to Christopher. "Oh sorry Em." He said, "I forgot you was bear bait." Emmett laughed weakly at that.
"Come now lets head back, we will all take the kills as far as the woods and then for appearance sake carry them into town slowly. Two to the bear and one to a deer. We will come back again once this trip is done." I said and he nodded together we took the bear which might as well have been a kitten and Emmett took two deer,wrapping them in a carry sack and tyeing it around his waist. Together we walked back to the little farm. I then smiled.
"Lets surprise them with a concoction when they come." I said and as I put the bears head over the big pot and cut into the throat. Blood splattered in a fountain of red. Eventually the bleeding slowed and I cut at it again. The blood spurted into the pot once more. I cut at it a third time and there was no more blood left in the head. I then cut off the head and put it on the blanket and did the same with the feet. I also stabbed it in the back the bear resembled a pin cushion by the time I was done with it. I licked the blood off the knife and did the same with both deer. Once that was finished I buried what was left of the animals in the back yard. My hands were red with blood but I had a full pot to show for my labors by the time my brothers showed up with the mountain cat and two more deer. I did the same to them in the next biggest pot and licked my hands clean.
"Would you like some biscuits?" Christopher asked as he took out a tray. "They are a bit stale I am afraid but still good." We stared at the biscuits.
"You eat human food?" I asked a look close to disgust crossing my features, and Emmett showing the same. Christopher laughed at us.
"Well my talent is the ability to eat." He replied and we both burst into laughter.
"Boy you sure could put it away when we were young." Emmett said and I clapped his hand.
"Wing burn." We said and touched fingertips. Christopher held out his hand. "Wing burn is for the burner." I told him laughing. I did however clasp his hand in mine it felt good to be holding his hand again. The strange things that one remembers from childhood.
"Edgard didn't want to give up sleeping." Emmett said and smiled. "Wing burn." He put out his hand and touched fingertips.
"And Emmett had to be the strongest of us as always." I touched fingertips with Christopher and he put his hands together and apart. We all started laughing really hard.
"I missed you guys even the bad jokes." He told us smiling. We grinned back at him.
"What do you say we slosh around the blood some?" I asked and together we mixed into the smaller pan bear blood and did the same for the bigger one. Christopher then got out his biscuits and started munching happily on one. We stared at him and the biscuit and I for the first time realized why I had so many people staring at my face when I awoke. It was incredible that he could eat.
"Would you like me to bite you so you can have some?" He asked and we nodded he bit us both and it stung really stung we both hollered like mad and he laughed giving us a biscuit each. "Good little boys." He said and we glared at him which made him laugh harder. The biscuits however were as good as I remembered and totally worth the momentary pain. I finished off one and licked my fingers, both my brothers laughed.
"You always did like Ma's biscuits." Emmett said.
"So did you, I remember when we were four and we toppled the whole jar eating all of them. We had bad belly aches after that and none of our brothers were sympathetic either." I laughed at the memory. "In fact I think they wrestled for the last one. Christopher you egged them on. 'Ga ga.' Ma and Pa were doubled over laughing." We smiled at each other.
"Your spaces in our room are exactly as you left them." Christopher said. "Ma has a powerful cleaning talent." We both laughed, our room was messy and must have driven our mother mad.
I yawned and stretched. "Well I am for bed." I said and then asked "Coming Emmett? Christopher I will bite you if you like but prefer not to carry you upstairs." I told him.
"Yes I would't mind being able to sleep." Christopher replied and together we trudged up to the room we shared. I had a hammock as did my twin , in the corner was all of the debris. I picked up a yellowing note. Dorthy you are the most beautiful woman I have ever met. It was crossed out and three more were written in its place. I laughed remembering Dorthy Summers, she was pretty enough but couldn't even compare to my Alexa. My brother snatched the note from my fingers.
"You liked Dorthy?" Emmett asked. "Dorthy the good girl the always yes mam no sir girl?" He laughed.
"I was young." I replied and took back the note turning if possible whiter than I was already.
"Look we have a blushing brother." Christopher said. "Dorthy and Edgard sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G."
"I am a married man." I told him. "Even if I weren't it would be like kissing Grandma Ursula." I shuddered and they both laughed. "Do you want me to bite you now?" I asked and Christopher nodded he got into his own hammock and I bit him on the hand. He let out a small whimper and breathed in and out steadily. He somehow missed the snoring gene that all our other brothers had gotten. I climbed into my own hammock. "Goodnight Em."
"Goodnight Ed." He replied and I felt the world slipping away and dissolving into my dreams.