The beginning of all things

Written by; Thomas G. Arndt

Having fun at the beach

Chapter 6

Then she was out of our room, I grabbed my jacket after I slipped on my shoes, since our hall was small I had to turn to the side to allow the girls to go past me. I then came out and sat with Timothy, he then said in an overly polite voice. " You look nice Ryan."

He was a very nice guy, even if it seemed to be plastic at times, and the way he dressed, it was as if he stepped out of G. Q. from the 1960's. I mean the shiny black suit with white shirt and thin black tie, I mean even those who still wear ties wear the power types most likely, and his winged tipped shoes, man they have to hurt. So did I point out his fashion faux-pas, of course I didn't, I lied, " You look nice to Tim."

" Thanks, but you're the style monger here, I only dress for work and nothing else."

" Hey Tim have you ever thought about a power tie?"

" Yeah, but you and Xavier are the real power in this city, all I am is a glorified business man."

" Dude you represent us, as the power of the vampyre federation it's as if you represent one of the fortune 500 in us." He shook his head and looked away, so I continued with, " Hey Tim you know Amy is opening up a haven here, this city in our little world will become very important, as Houston she's making this a city of power. This city will become the center of our Prince's learning source, and he'll no longer have to send our new fledglings to other territories, do you really realize what that will mean, even the High Council may visit."

Then it was as if he spoke to the wall, " I used to be the head accountant for our Prince, then he got married and ship me down here, I don't think the Princess likes me much."

" Yeah well we won't allow that to happen up here, I mean I like you, and Tim I'm sure Mom likes you, even Carla enjoys your humor, even though I have a hard time understanding it."

He turned to me as if something had clicked inside him and asked, " Does Amy really like me, I mean I think she'd swell."

" Tim, how old are you?"

" Just one hundred thirty seven why?"

" Number one, no one says swell anymore, and she does have an eye for you, I can't tell if she loves or just likes you, but ask her out on a date, go have some fun."

" I just couldn't, I mean she's so powerful, and well, I'm just an accountant."

" Tim I'm not saying she's in love with you, that's your job to find out, and you know she's still just a woman, if everyone looked at her like that she wouldn't have many dates, just ask her out, have fun, nothing else." He put his hand to his lips, so I figure it was ok to change the subject, " Did you get her to drink any blood?"

" Yes, she drank it straight from the bag."

Then I myself got four styrofoam cups with straws and said, " We can drink on the move."

Then Amy and Carla came out, I could see that something was different, I knew they went to do her make up so my eye's went straight to her face, and yes it did look different, but within the norm. As I looked I saw how her hair bounced so my attention was drawn to that as I said, " You curled your hair, I like it, and that shade of red lipstick is very nice on you, is that purple eye shadow,-"

Amy cut me off with, " Enough Ran, now tell your girlfriend how she looks."

I knew she was just kidding, but I laughed as I spoke, " Amy I love you, but I've only got eye's for my Carla, anyways Tim has something he wants to ask you."

Carla then said in a stern voice, " RAN NO!"

" Hey I said nothing, this was all his idea, now Tim don't be nervous just ask."

He then made a nervous twitch as he moved his foot and spoke, " A Amy, well I was just, well really wondering, well it's just that, damn Ryan I wish you would of given me a little time, I-"

Amy cut him off with, " Out wit it-"

But Carla cut her off with, " For shits sake, he wants to ask you out on a date."

I then said in a stern voice, " Carla language."

She shuffled her feet as Amy asked in a siren voice, " Was that it Timmy, do you want to go out on a date."

This told me beyond anything else she was interested in him, and he kicked at nothing as he replied, " Yeah, I mean yes Amy, Ryan told me it was up to me to ask, and he wasn't promising me anything, he even said you might not even be interested in me, but to take the jump or leap so to speak."

I knew she would pay the next part very cool, but if she was interested she would slip into her Irish accent, " Just a date boyow, notin else right ow."

I loved to her in full Irish mode as he replied, " Yeah, well unless you want more I mean, I mean it has to be up to you right."

I smiled at him as I nodded my head and she replied, " Den what could I be sain ta ya. But wheel see ok Timmy."

Carla then said, " Well you could just say yes."

" But dearie-"

I cut her off with, " Mom! Give him a chance, and you know you like him."

" RAN!"

And at the same time Timothy asked, " She likes me?"

Carla put her hand on his shoulder as she said sternly to me, " Yeah Tim, even though we agreed not to tell you."

I then said with a big happy smile on my face, " I'd like to say I'm sorry, but it just feels right to me, you two just give it a chance, and hey don't we have some houses to look at?"

Timothy then asked as I handed out the cups, " Well Amy what would you say to a movie?"

He moved to the door and held it open for us, I moved to the car and opened the doors as she replied with an impish grin, " I can do that even though I prefer dancing."

The four of us then moved into the car, he held Amy's door as he helped her in, I did the same with Carla, since we were in his car, I made sure Carla sat behind the driver side, and I the passenger side. I mean this was Amy's house so she got the front seat, and as I slid in he said, " We can do dancing, I rather enjoy the dance, but are there any dance clubs in this city?"

Well I had to admit that was a good question, I mean up until Carla I had no reason to even go to one, so Amy and Timothy looked at me, so I shrugged and turned to Carla. She then did the same and replied, " My music is probably to young for you guys."

Amy then said, " I'm partial to Rocka Billy."

Her very controlled proper voice had returned as Timothy said, " Really I kind of like Country Western music to, George Jones is cool."

I had to smile at him as Carla asked, " Ran what kind of music do you like?"

I had ti chuckle as I really didn't want to make a mistake here, " Mostly Hard Rock, and you?"

" Pop, Kesha, Lady Gaga, you know the contemporary artists, which artists do you like?"

" Well let me think, Led Zepplin, Deep Purple, Steppewolf, you know Hard Rock."

She looked totally confused as Amy asked, " Weren't most of them reclassified as Acid Rock?"

" I don't know, I just listen to my albums, I really haven't listened to the radio since 1984, even though I do like a little Van Halen, heck I don't even know who this Lady Gaga is."

Carla then said with a sigh, " I was glad you said that last one, I was so lost with those first three bands, well I have heard of that Led Zepplin group, what big hits did they have?"

" Well there biggest is Stairway to Heaven, but there's nothing like the classics Immigrant Song, and Kashmir."

" Kashmir, you mean like the sweater."

" No it's named after the city, even though I don't think it has anything to do with the real city, if there is a real city of Kashmir."

Timothy then turned on his radio as he said, " Carla your in for a treat, here you go Ran."

And as he slid in a silver disc, he handed me the cover, all it read was Led Zeppelin, I knew this album very well, I then turned to her and said, " Carla this is the album, I think it's the second song, but it's really cool, wait to you hear it."

I handed the album back to him, then his stereo started to play, he had four speakers in the car, as it started her lips turned up, and Timothy then said in a loud voice, " I maybe a Country Western fool, but even I like me some Led Zeppelin."

As it was very loud, we traveled in silence, I held her hand as I knew this was and entirely new experience for her, it was a long drive, but we still didn't have time to listen to the entire album. He had an entire group of songs that you wouldn't call Country Western, we listen to three new groups, Linkin Park, Queensryche, and a group called Godsmack. He also had some of my favorites, like Rush, Styx, and Van Halen 5150, and he had all the first four Led Zeppelin album, of course Carla corrected me and told me they were call Cd's now. I kind of took to technology slowly, I mean yes I did have a DVD player and a computer, she was surprised that I still had a land line and not a cell phone, and she said my computer was a little slow. I knew for her I would have to make many changes, Amy had made her decision to re-look at three of the houses at a later date, I think she was impatient to get to shopping. One was all the way across the city, one was in a place called Heritage Heights, and the last one was in Nichols Hills, that was almost right next door, he had three in the last city, and it made it easy to go to Quail Springs mall.

The first place we went was a place I had only looked at at a distance, it was called Victoria Secrets, do you know what they carry, you guest it, underwear, it was a wondrous place. Oh I had to help with this part, Amy had made a decision that her and Carla would pick out four pair for her to wear, four pair a piece, but they neglected to tell me. So they had a good laugh as I had brought them about twenty pair myself, it was a little embarrassing, but then I just made up my mind that I would go ahead and buy six on my own accord. Oh woman would know this, but just in case men don't know, they sell bras and panties already matched, that's how I bought mine, well hers really, and Amy made sure to show me to look for certain types. Well not to look for them, more like don't look for them, you know the type, the ones that only lovers and the like would buy, man the tings they expose, well I had to buy three in secret, you know just for us. I had to wonder if they had that type for men, not woman's underwear, the sexually active type, well Timothy would tell me of a place call Christie's Toy box, well I would have to visit this place just to be fair to her, even though I would call Victoria Secret a toy box for men.

Timothy knew what I had done, because I had him text the Prince to tell him what I had done, I mean I didn't want another incident like the last one, and I also had him text him that we were buying Carla a new wardrobe. As his reply came back, Timothy laughed at what it was, then he showed it to me, what was written was, Ryan have fun, don't worry, I'll make sure the Prince is clueless. The Princess Stephanie. P. S. The Prince could learn a few things from you. I had to laugh to then. Then we went to the Gap, or should I call it Jeans paradise, we were there for Carla, but she kept having me try on jeans, since we were in this mode, I figured I would do the same, she laughed as I gave Amy a few pair to try on. You know I hate shopping, but we were in seventh Heaven as we did this, even Timothy got into the game, at one time we had made him try on three pair, it was really funny. Amy gave him a pair, he was on his way to the dressing room and Carla then gave him a pair, as we was in there trying them on I gave him a pair, well a pair with three T-shirts, I really wanted to help him with his appearance.

Mom carried a duffel bag size purse, and Carla carried what she called her duffel bag, but it was far smaller then Amy's, you should have seen the two of us, as we went to buy our women the drinks they so wanted. We looked like two husbands carrying there honeys purses down the hall, not that either of us would ever go into them, a purse is a scary place to men, well up until they are really married, then you have to learn how to get past your fears. Amy made sure she had two pant suits, three regular suits with both pants and skirts, plus two skirts and four dresses, I got into this game, I bought her four myself, shoes were a little more difficult. Do you know that their hand bags have to match their shoes, well unless they were really cute, like the boots Carla wanted, I just had to buy them for her, when we got back out to the car we filled Timothy's trunk, as well as the ones we had to carry inside the car. The only one that didn't carry bag was of course Timothy, I mean he was driving, I think a police officer laughed at us, we were a little over filled, and it took Timothy and I four trips to bring in all the bags, so we had Christmas in March.

Timothy then beat a hasty retreat after we were done and the women asked, " Is that the lot of them."

I mean they did carry in a few bags, but Timothy and I carried in the lot, I figured that there would be a show then Carla came to me and asked, " Ran, Amy's never had a latte before, can you drive us to Starbucks?"

Well I could never deign Carla anything so I nodded my head and we headed out to my car, and headed that way, well I've never paid five dollar for a roll and a cup of coffee before in my life, excuse me a scone and latte. All together it came up to eighteen dollars, I probably could have gotten the same stuff a seven eleven for like six dollars, man what people will pay for a name. It was very late and they were getting ready to close so we got it to go, apparently a latte is supposed to be cold, and you're not supposed to heat them up in the microwave. I learnt this after I did this to my cup, it was apparently good that I switched it to a normal cup, she had told me that the styrofoam cup would have melted, Amy was going to do the same as me, but my mistake was enough to change her mind. So I was the only one that had a hot latte and warm scone, I kind of liked the scone, not so sure about the coffee, oh latte. I preferred my coffee with a little sugar and cream, well really milk, and my refrigerator started to gain items.

First she really liked orange juice, so I added this, then English muffins and a loaf of bread, both had to be wheat, oh yeah with peanut butter and jam, and no jelly. Then came eggs from Braums, with this I started to buy my milk and stuff from there, as well as cheese, Amy liked Canadian bacon so I got that for her, Carla showed her how to make something called an egg Mcmuffin, Amy loved them, I had to go to a special market for the bacon. I also bought two clothes racks until we moved, my books got put out in the garage, and one of the racks became all mine. Then you had my movie collection, I had maybe four before she moved in, it grew to eighty or ninety, and well we watched all of them. My music collection also grew along with my music tastes, we started to like some of the same music, Korn, Linkin Park, Red Hot Chili Peppers and more. And we had hers, mine, and ours, of course Amy didn't care for any of our music. It seemed Timothy and Amy were getting pretty serious, she invited him over for sleep overs, that's what Carla called them, and all this happened before the end of march.

Amy finally got her house, and it took ten days to pack up my house, we did used a local moving company, and Timothy used these days to bring the house up to code, vampyre code, oh and it was in Heritage heights. We knew that we would need more furniture, but first we would use up the furniture that she had bought me, I mean I had enough to fill two of my little houses. The new house had a ball room on the second floor, and a study on the third, on the first was a formal dinning room, and a breakfast nook off the kitchen, that's where we put my little dinning room set. All the front room furniture I had was a full couch, love seat, and recliner, we put my recliner and love seat up in the study along with all my books, they maybe covered six selves, all the shelves looked barren. The couch went down in what looked like a den, the largest bed room was on the third floor, we gave it to Amy, the largest room on the second floor would be ours, Amy's closet was hug, and even though our was the second largest room, we had a walk in closet as well. Carla was very happy with this, my bed room set was dwarfed by this room, we added two seat from the garage to our room, plus I bought a dresser that matched mine for her, Amy bought a table and lamp to set in between our chairs.

My guest bed room set was just a twin bed, we all went out and bought her a new bed room set for Amy's room, it had two dressers one had a very big mirror on the back, and two night stands, she seemed to want to buy everything in twos for her room. We would find out in just a short time why, you see I fully intended to invite Timothy into our house, but I had to make my request first to Amy, when I did she told me she already made the move, and she hoped it wouldn't be embarrassing to see him coming out of her room. Well I can tell you that Carla and I were over joyed with this, he also had a lot of furniture, some how with a very few additions we filled the first floor, he had only a twin bed for his room so with his and mine we were able to fill two of the eight other bedrooms. Two of them were very small, Amy said at one time they may have been servant quarters, she did hire a maid service to come in once a week, it was a very popular service called Merry Maids. That set us up to by the rest of the furniture, Timothy and I went and bought generic furniture for the rest of the house, Amy and Carla did give them their personal touches. But we did explain to them that it should be more of our student work, and that the more personal rooms should go to our new professors, not that any had applied yet.

You see a professorship was only given through invitation, Amy had invite both Timothy and I as partial professors, as we had personal reasons for being there. I mean I'm no professor, and Timothy was old enough to be a full professor, classes were set by the professors and approved by Amy, we used the ball room as a personal fitness room. We had bought all the stuff for an indoor rock climbing facility, with mates to boot, it was to teach climbing and jumping skills before you went out in public to use them. Of course we couldn't set it up yet, she had to open up her school, and she would need a ball room for this, Timothy went on line and bought all the books we would need for study. A class room was very informal, and it would be up to the teacher to supply the books if any, most vampyres like it this way, it gave a very personal touch to the new vampyres studies. We started to call the study the library, classes were generally held out side the rooms, but you could call your class to your room, and one of the most important one would be vampyre sexuality, it was very important for a vampyre to learn how to control this.

A good vampyre could have a stable of followers if they weren't careful, and this would surely attract the attention of the High Council, and of course they would have to be taught these laws, vampyre laws mostly covered the unwanted attention of others. Most High Council members weren't so much worried about how we fed, just as long as we didn't attract attention while we did this, and one of my early lessons was on our famous vampyre Jack, if you guest Jack the Ripper you'd be right. But hie name wasn't Jack, it was George, and he was shown the errors of his way, he was forced to move to the United States, and was still living here, he wasn't recognize until after his spree, then he finally got the training he so needed. Did you know he was a doctor, and most of what he did was to see what he had done, kinda like exploratory surgery, he told the High Council that he wanted to find out why or if they suffered. I've never met him, but I've heard he was a nice man, Amy actually met him, she said he was nice even though a little strange for her tastes, oh he lives somewhere in Chicago now.

Timothy decided he would handle history, he said it was a little passion of his, well vampyre history really, did you know that Rasputin had a vampyre lover, and that's why he was like he was. He knew so much about our history, I could sit for hours listening to him, and I did when Carla had class with him, and because he was an accountant he also handled economics. My two classes would be the training of using your control, kind of like Vampyre Ti-chi, and the use and control of the jump of a vampyre, that's what the ball room would be set up for. Amy only told us of one of her classes, she would handle the personal hygiene of a vampyre, you see even in the early day vampyres had to watch themselves as our odor would give us away, it's not a bad odor, but we explained it as the small of death. Her other class would be held away from campus, and she made it a rule no other vampyre would be allowed to participate in it, I had to figure she was going to handle vampyre sexuality in this class. So we were set up for our opening, well as ready as we could, we still had to attract a tracker, and of course students, well and more elder teachers.

Oh I should tell you about the garage, it was an old one, it's doors opened up like normal door, they didn't roll up like normal door, and it was a four car garage. Timothy and I had put our cars in there first, the four of us went out and bought Carla a new car, Amy insisted on a BMW Roadster for her, it was her very first car. And she was so excited that she wanted to drive it all the time, then we had to do all the stuff to get Amy her license, it was easy to get her a currant birth certificate, all the vampyres were happy to loan their resources to help her out. The real fun job was to teach her how to drive, the three of us took turns, it's a good thing she's a vampyre, it would have been very hard if she was a three hundred year old human, well I just figured that, she really never told anyone her real age. She pasted the test with flying colors, the drive portion was a little bit more tricky, we used a small town, and even in the end had to use our mind trick to get her passed, she wasn't a bad driver, she just was a bad test taker. And of course she took us all out to help by her her car, Timothy wanted to buy her one of those bomb proof cars, he was very protective of her.

She settled on a Mercedes 550, oh everyone had tinted window except for me, even Carla's little Roadster had them, the man that did it for us thought it was funny because she had a convertible. And you might want to know the garage had three small apartments above it, she used one for storage, and the other two would be rooms as well, one specially for our tracker when he showed up. Because of what the trackers had to do, and the fact that they were almost never there, they are a strange bounce, distant and aloof, my tracker that found me didn't have them, but most trackers had tattoo's, more like tribal tattoo's. Well that wasn't a job for me. I was different from all vampyres, and I would find out shortly, but for noe we had a party to get ready for, Timothy pulled out all the stops, he got a local caterer to handle the food, and one of those rental places to get all the furniture. He bought two high back chairs for the Prince and Princess, I kinda liked her as a friend, Carla and I set up all the ceiling toys for the room, not for the opening, for after once I could start her training in earnest, well she helped when she could.

You see this was going to be the first time she met the Prince and Princess, and Amy was the host, so they were gone a lot getting their dresses fitted, Amy even had a theme for this party, it may have been Timothy's suggestion, the old south. They both got large dresses that were all white trimmed in their favorite colors, Amy's had emerald green, and Carla's had a very deep purple, speaking of Deep Purple, that was the one band of mine that she hated. They had bought us suits to match, mine looked black, but if you got close you could see the purple, but at least she got me a western ties. Timothy's was dark green with a bow tie and light green shirt to match, and it wasn't as if he could hide the fact, at least my light purple shirt was cool, and mine was silk, can you imagine having to wear velvet. Well we were set for the big party, and the beautiful invitation she sent out were very cool, it had her name in green as well as Timothy's, can you imagine Timothy Raymond O'Leary. And her's had to be chosen by her, Amy Annabel O'Shakley, later we would find out that all but her first name was really her's, I'll tell you Carla's name, Carrliasis Annastasia Regilorisuoa.

It was half Indian and half English, so Ran fell in love with a Car, her Momma called her Carri, but she preferred Carla, she told me all this, and I told her my Mom called me Ryan, but all my friends call me Ran. My Momma, I had found out this year she had died a year ago, she would have been eighty in eight days when she died, she had been dead for a year and I just barely found out. Carla held me all day while I tried not to cry, but I didn't succeed, I think this is how I would be if Amy died for any reason, and I didn't realize how much I missed her until then, Carla and I got closer then ever, her grave is here in Oklahoma. Well now on to the party.