The next day, I was forced to go with mom to the airport to pay for a ticket for dad, since he was going to California to help out a lab in two weeks. I was sitting in one of the waiting chairs, writing writing the same song I've been working on these last two weeks. That is until everyone stopped talking behind the front desk. I looked up and saw creepy man, walking towards the front desk.

I slid down in my seat and hid my face behind my song book, except my eyes, so I could see everything. Mom stared at him for two seconds before she continued talking to the lady attending her.

"I'd like two tickets to Bucharest, " I heard him say to one of the workers. I think her name's Ruby.

"Bucharest?" Ruby asked.

"Yes, Bucharest, Romania."

"And when would you be going?"

"I'm not going, madam. The tickets are for Mr. And Mrs. Walker. They would like to depart on November first, for three months."

Ruby fiddled with her computer. "Two seats in economy?"

"No, first-class please. Just as long as the flight attendants serve them some bloody wine, the Walkers are always happy!" he said in his thick accent, laughing. Ruby laughed back awkwardly, and I snickered silently.

She went over the itinerary and handed him a copy. "It's like giving blood, the cost of tickets these days!" Creepy Man laughed, signing. This was getting good! Ruby swiped his credit card.

"And you're not going, sir?" she asked, as he signed his name, trying to pull more info out of him.

"No, the boy and I will stay behind. "

Boy? Was he referring to the almost roadkill guy? Or did the Walkers have a child I could baby-sit?

"The Walkers have a boy?" Ruby asked. "He doesn't get out much. Stays in his room listening to loud music. That's what they do at seventeen."

Seventeen? Did I hear him right? Seventeen? He was talking about Roadkill (yeah I'm calling him that now). But why wasn't he in school?

"He's always had a tutor. Or as you say in this country, he's been home-schooled, " Creepy Man answered, as if he had read my mind. Or he should have said, Mansion-schooled! No one was home-schooled in Dullsville.

"Seventeen?" Ruby repeated, trying to pump more information from his brittle bones.

"Yes, seventeen going on one hundred."

"I know how that is," Ruby interjected. "My girl just turned thirteen, and she thinks she knows everything!"

"He acts like he's lived before, if you know what I mean, with all his grand opinions about the world. " Creepy Man laughed a maniacal laugh that sent him into a coughing frenzy.

"Can I get you anything else?"

"I'd like a town map. "

"Our town?" she asked, with a laugh. "I'm not sure we even have them." She looked over at one of her co-workers who shook her head no.

"There's the main square and the cornfields, " Ruby said, rifling through her desk.

"Are you sure you don't want a map of somewhere more exciting?" she asked, offering him a map of Greece.

"This is all the excitement a man of my age can handle, thank you, " he said with a grin.

"The square reminds me of my village in Europe. It's been centuries since I've seen it. "

"Centuries?" Ruby asked, curiously. "Then you hide your age well, " she teased.

Creepy Man's face turned from a white wine to a bright burgundy.

"You are so kind, dear, " he said, tapping his bald head with a red silk handkerchief. "Thank you for your time, " he said, preparing to leave.

"It's been lovely, and you have been lovely, too. " He grabbed her hand in his bony fingers and smiled a crackling smile.

As he stood up, he turned and looked directly at me and through me like he knew he had seen me before. I could feel his cold stare as I frantically pulled up my book to cover my face I didn't dare look up until I heard the door close. I sighed and giggled mischievously as a plan began forming in my head.