Right there on the television is where I saw it. But now I know that it was something that I would be seeing a lot of soon. And yet, at this time right now I didn't really dwell on such a soon-to-be monumental part of my life.
On the news, it showed a deer and the only way that I knew it was a deer was because the reporter said that was what it was. But it really looked like a shriveled up piece or something brown with shortish hair or fur. They said that it was drained of its blood. A hiker found it in the woods when he started to travel off a marked trail. Ten he called the police and that was how it ended up on the news.
"Vanessa come here a minute, you have to seen this story on the news!" my dad shouted to my mom who was in the kitchen two rooms down.
"Honey, I have food all over my hands. Can it wait?" my mother replied. It seems she was constantly cooking, but at least her food was always excellent and that is far more than I could say for my dad.
"No it can't wait because it will be over soon!"
I could hear the water faucet running in the kitchen and then my mother came into the living room with a hand towel to dry the hands she just washed.
She heard the last few minutes of the news report and stayed to hear the weather also but she looked like she was in some sort of a shock. Then my dad turned off the T.V.
My mother went back to cooking and we ate in a semi silence. I tried to bring a little conversation in but all I got were monosyllable answers. When dinner was over I cleared the dining room table and went to the kitchen to wash the dishes.
While I was doing that I over heard my parent's conversation
"Did you see that dear? I mean it was drained, completely emptied of all blood!" my mother said finally coming out of her temporary astonishment.
"I can't believe it. And they even started to say that it was some sort of new disease. I have never heard of any blood draining disease. Some sort of cannibals has invaded us-only they drink blood. Who knows, maybe these weirdoes will go after a human and slowly start to drain us too!"
"Alexander!" my mother said in a sharp whisper, "what are you talking about? How do you know it is not a disease? And why are you going insane over one drained deer?"
"I know," my father replied in a calmer whisper, "because at the police station we have actually found more animals like this. Smaller ones, like rodents, but still now that we have a bigger animal they want the news doing reports on it. I just don't feel safe in this world any more."
"Well, honey, how do you know that its not just some sadistic pranksters who want to give us a good scare?"
"I don't know what I know anymore. Everything is just very stressing lately. I just need a break is all."
"Well then why don't we go for a little escape vacation? I mean we can pull Bella out of school and I can take a break from work. Your next vacation is in a week and it will still be warm! Why don't we go down to Seaside, Oregon or Ocean Shores or something? When we get back in a week or so everything will be fine and you will be more relaxed!"
"Ok sounds fun" my dad replied
At this point, I 'finished' doing the dishes-even though I had finished much sooner-and then I made my way back to the dining room where my parents were.
"Hey, were gonna go on a vacation soon, kiddo!" my mother said to me extra giddy.
"We are!? That sounds fun. When are we going?" I told her.
"Um…maybe sometime next week. That's when your dad gets his next vacation and I thought we might be able to pull out of school for a little while and I am supposed to get a mini-vacation sometime this month!" my mother said, almost babbling.
"that sounds really fun! Should I tell my teachers that I won't be at school or let them figure it out themselves?" I said.
"we can write you a note so you won't get into trouble, I suppose," my dad said, who had been quiet up till this point.
"Ok. Well, I gotta go to bed now 'cause I actually do have to go to school tomorrow!" I joked. But I was actually kind of tired.
"Good night," my parents said in unison.
"Night," I replied.
I actually was a little happy that we were going to go on a vacation. But I really hated missing school because the teachers seem to notice you're gone and they make extra long make-up assignments at my school. But it won't be that bad really. At least I hope not. It will be a chance to get away from all the drama with the new "disease" spreading.
So when I was crawling in bed that night I started to think about the whole blood drained animals thing but I couldn't make any sense of it so I just drifted into a sound sleep.