Grandpa went back home where he stayed up half the night in his lab concocting his special potion which caused vampire's and other such nocturnal beings to become tolerant of the sun's rays. Once he had completed it he rested for a short while and as he had set his alarm he woke up at half past six o' clock in the morning and he tucked the potion away into his inside pocket of his coat and flew back to the graveyard where he found the Countess awaiting him.
He smiled and bowed as he took out the potion bottle and handed it to her saying, "Here, my fair lady, is the answer to all your limitations!"
The Countess took the bottle and examined the contents inside which looked like liquid pink bubble gum. "Are you certain this will cure me?" she asked dubiously. "The sky is starting to turn pink, the sun is almost up!"
"Trust me," urged Grandpa reassuringly. "I spent over two hundred years perfecting this potion and if it wasn't perfect now I wouldn't even be here with you right now. Go on, drink!"
And so the Countess downed all of the potion in several quick gulps. It actually tasted as much as it looked like pink bubble gum.
A short time later they both watched as the sun rose up from the horizon. It's great golden rays casting a renewed wash of color over the sky and lighting up the world. And sure enough, just as Grandpa had assured her, the sunlight caused the Countess no harm whatsoever.
"Great Scott! It worked! I am free to go wherever I want and to do whatever I please now!" she exclaimed in delight.
"You sure are!" said Grandpa gaily. "Now if you will accompany me, I will show you around town!" He offered her his arm and she took it and off they went.
They strolled into the town of Mockingbird Heights and walked along the sidewalk and watched people walk along beside them, some of them casting curious glances towards them every now and then. They watched the cars speeding along the streets with people going off to work and to school in them.
"What are those?" asked the Countess as she pointed to the cars.
"Those are automobiles," replied Grandpa. "Humans get around in them, and my family owns one ourselves. Perhaps one day you'll be able to ride in it."
"I can't believe I am actually walking outside in broad daylight!" the Countess said as she took in all the sights and sounds of the city. "And amongst humans no less!"
"I know how you feel," said Grandpa. "I used to be just as leery of humans as they were of me. But one day I got curious about what life was like for them and how they were during the day and so I started on my anti-sunlight potion and once I had perfected it I started seeing human lives from a whole new perspective. Once you actually get to know them you find they're really worth more than just for their blood."
"Haven't you bitten anyone's neck since then?" inquired the Countess curiously.
"Nope, not since I left the old country actually," replied Grandpa solemnly.
"But why?" asked the Countess.
"I don't know," said Grandpa. "I guess I just sort of lost my taste for blood after four-hundred years. Human blood anyway," he added reflectively. "I sometimes like to go up to a farm somewhere and take a drink of cow's blood. Have you ever tasted of it?"
"Only once," replied the Countess. "It had a rather unsavory and unsatisfying taste to it. I much prefer the old fashioned way of things." She then shielded her eyes from the brightness of the early morning sun."
"Are you alright?" asked Grandpa concerned.
"Well, I guess my eyes just aren't yet used to such brightness," she said.
"I can fix that," said Grandpa cheerfully. He pointed up at the sky flicked his index finger at the sun and instantly a mass of thick white clouds sailed over it, concealing its rays from the town.
"Ah, that's better. Thank you," said the Countess gratefully. "You are most impressive with your magical arts."
"Aw, it's just a hobby really," replied Grandpa modestly. "I just love dwindling with the forces of nature, as well as trying to cure ailments and what causes them. For instance I have invented a potion that enhances the capacity to be happy and another one that enhances the capacity of energy. Maybe someday I'll let you try them out. They sure worked on my son-in-law," he added as an afterthought.
"Your son-in-law?" the Countess inquired. "What about him?"
"His name is Herman, Herman Munster," replied Grandpa. "He's always happy and full of energy. He's also very foolish, but my daughter Lily loves him to death and so if he makes her feel happy and loved I cannot complain about him... much. You see, I had always wished for Lily to marry one of our race, but she met Herman and it was love at first sight from what I heard and I was never one to deny the happiness of one of my family. The day before the wedding he was so nervous he came to me for a remedy and so I gave him a confidence potion I had just invented and I think it worked a little too well. But at least he usually uses his confidence for good purposes."
They were now passing by the grocery store, the bakery, and the butcher's shop. On the curb they saw two middle-aged men talking loudly to each other in very irritated voices.
"You were wrong!" one of the exclaimed.
"I was right!" the other one declared.
"No, you're never right!" the other one shouted back.
"I'm always right!" exclaimed the other one.
Grandpa shook his head at such an uncivil display.
"Those two remind me of animals," said the Countess.
"So they ought to be animals!" declared Grandpa. He flicked his left index finger at the two men and at once they bent down on their knees and walking and hooting and waving their arms like monkeys.
The Countess giggled at the sight, and yet also asked Grandpa in a serious tone, "How funny, but what if they end up in a zoo?"
"No need to worry," he assured her. "The spell will wear off within five to ten minutes and then they won't remember anything about it or their argument either."
He looked across the street and saw the clothing store and found a few people standing in front of mirrors and looking at themselves in new duds. One man caught Grandpa's attention. He was wearing only a white shirt with a green vest and brown trousers and he his expression looked as boring as his appearance.
"The poor guy has no sense of taste!" declared Grandpa. "I'll fix it for him!"
He flicked his index finger once again at the man and in flash of bright lights his plain clothes turned into a bright blue blazer with gold chains and dark purple bell bottomed pants with green and red suede shoes. The man looked stunned for a moment and then grinned at his reflection and started posing.
"How brilliant that was!" exclaimed the Countess looking at Grandpa in admiration. "How did you get started in the arts of magic?"
"When I was a boy a wandering sorcerer came to our castle and gave my father a spell-book and a magic cauldron, but he locked them away in the basement and forgot about them. Then when I was old enough I found them again and started to study the spells in the book and practicing potions in the cauldron. And now it's all in my fingertips!"
"You're so different from any other vampire I have ever met, especially a Dracula," said the Countess.
"So tell me, have you ever been married?" asked Grandpa after a while.
"Well, no... not really... I... No, I have never been married," the Countess replied, stammering slightly.
"I have. Many times," replied Grandpa exuberantly. "Most of the women I've loved have been human and I've never made sure it work out with us before biting a woman. The last time I had a fully blooded vampiress for a spouse was in the beginning and she gave me two beautiful daughters. She left me after a few years because she wanted more out of life than what I gave her, or so the note she left had said. I admit I was heartbroken for a long time but at least I have precious mementos of our marriage to console me. I got married again so much to try to ease the pain I carried around in my heart, but I could never have any more children with any of the others, it just didn't seem right."
"So you never saw your first wife again?" inquired the Countess sympathetically.
"I did, actually," said Grandpa brightening. "She came to visit my family and brought gifts for them, the gift she brought me was herself and it was enough for. I finally had the chance to confront her with all the pain she'd caused me, but at the same time I realized I still loved her and we went to the old country for a while just to relive the old days. Afterward she planned to come live with us but she not surprisingly she didn't, and I'll just keep holding onto the memories forever."
The Countess changed the subject rather abruptly. "So you have a family? Do tell me some more about them."
"My niece, Marilyn Mundane is living with us right now since she started attending a college in the States. She is a full-blooded vampiress being the daughter of my second daughter, and yet she doesn't look anything like the rest of the family, sadly. She has blonde hair and blue eyes and a very bright complexion. I don't know why she turned out to be an ugly duckling but she did, but we still love her and treat like we treat the rest of us. I've been working a a cure for her, but it's proving to be my most challenging concoction yet."
"And," Grandpa continued with a warm glow in his eyes, "there's my grandson, Edward Wolfgang, Eddie for short. He's thirteen years old and he is the best grandson ever. He's been getting straight A's for three years now and he takes after the wolverine side of the family, he howls at the moon whenever its full, though he does have a bit of me and his mother in him too and it's really starting to show now that he's reached the age in which he thinks about girls. Just before I left today I gave him a special formula to help him impress a girl he likes."
They had now entered the park in which they found some very young children playing a swing set, a slide, a jungle gym, a seesaw, and a merry-go-round. There was a bench sitting in the shade with an elderly man laying on it fast asleep. Grandpa noticing this, flicked his index finger at him and almost immediately he sat up, rubbed his eyes, and then walked away.
Grandpa smiled in satisfaction and led the Countess over to the bench where he gestured for her to sit down before him and she did and he sat down beside her.
Grandpa noticed a little girl of about three years trying to push herself on a swing and she was having a lot of difficulty. Grandpa flicked his finger at the swing and suddenly it came to life and began to swing back and forth going higher and higher as if an invisible hand were pushing it from behind. The little girl squealed with delight.
"Now, I think that's enough about my family," he said. "Why don't you tell me about yours?"
The Countess seemed suddenly troubled. "My family lives mostly in Scandinavia. I have many cousins there who have many young nieces and nephews whom I have yet to meet."
"So why don't you fly over there and see them?" asked Grandpa in puzzlement.
"Because I can't," replied the Countess sorrowfully. "I've never learned how to fly... and besides... they don't know that I am a vampiress."
"They don't?" Grandpa said, staring at her in surprise as she lowered her gaze from him. "But why ever not?"
"My mother was made a vampire when she was in her teens and I was the result of her marriage which lasted only a year. My mother was always so ashamed of what she had become that she never learned the ways of the vampires and I didn't learn them until I was much older, and so most of our relatives never found out about that my mother was bitten."
Grandpa felt rather shocked at learning this. But he didn't know how to respond for he had never heard of such a thing as a vampire being ashamed to become one, let alone to be born one. He placed his hand over hers and rubbed it gently for a while. Then he finally said,
"But you shouldn't be ashamed of what you are. Being a vampire is one of the best things to be born as, and I should know because I was born as one."
"But it's different with you," she replied. "You come from a proud heritage."
"But just because you're different from the rest of your family doesn't mean you shouldn't know them," he continued. "Remember how I told you about Marilyn? We are sorry that she is different from us but we are not ashamed of it and we love her all the same. How do you know your family won't unless you give them the chance?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "But I'm afraid I'm uncomfortable talking about this here and now, and I'm also getting hungry, you know I haven't had a bite all morning."
"Neither have I," said Grandpa. "I know of a restaurant in town that serves the best raw meat steaks on the house. Come with me."
So he and the Countess ate their fill at the restaurant and he told her more about his family and all of the misadventures they had met with over the years but he kept the subject of her family at rest.
"Grandpa! Grandpa!" Eddie exclaimed as he tried to shake his Grandpa awake.
"Eddie? Oh! How was school today? How did you do with Penelope?"
"Not so good," Eddie said miserably.
"What do you mean?" asked Grandpa in surprise. "All of the potions you tried on the hologram last night worked like a charm."
"I think the problem was trying all of them," Eddie replied. "You see, I walked up to her at her locker this morning and said, "Comment allez vous, Senorita! What light through yonder window breaks! Mamma Mia! It is a' dee East and you are 'a zee sun! Come 'a wit moi and vee vill 'a flamenco de night away!" Eddie hung his head in embarrassment. "She laughed and walked away, said she thought I was playing a joke on her."
Grandpa choked back his laughter and said, "I see. Well, Eddie it was really all my mistake to begin with. I should have just told you to just be yourself. Like old Shakespeare once said, 'To thine own self be true'. After all, you do want Penelope to like you for who you really are, don't you?"
"Well, I guess so," said Eddie. "But how can I be sure she'll like me and even be willing to go to the dance with me?"
Grandpa thought a moment and then an idea came to him. "Eddie your father was just as nervous when he and your mother were first dating each other and he came to me often to give him advice and potions, and I gave him one that boosted his confidence so high it has yet to wear off and it gave him the courage to propose to your mother, and so if it hadn't been for it you wouldn't be here now."
"Gee, Grandpa, could you give it to me?" asked Eddie hopefully.
"Of course," Grandpa assured him. "Come, let's go down to the lab."
So Grandpa and Eddie went down to the secret lair and Grandpa mixed up the potion for overt confidence and gave Eddie a dosage of it.
Mmm... it tastes like frog juice!" exclaimed Eddie.
"Well, how do you feel now, Eddie?" asked Grandpa.
"Gosh, I feel stupendous!" exclaimed Eddie. He grinned hugely and showed his long shiny fangs. "I feel just super!" He brought up his arms and flexed his muscles from side to side. "I feel like I can take on anyone and anything! I feel like no girl can resist me easily! I feel like I can fly to the moon!" Eddie put his head back and let a long loud howl.
Grandpa suddenly got another excellent idea. He smiled and patted Eddie on the back. "That's great, Eddie! Now you'll get your date for certain!"
Just then they heard a loud thumping coming from upstairs and knew at once what it meant.
"Pop's home! I can't wait to see him!" exclaimed Eddie as he dashed up the stairs again.
Grandpa followed him and they met Lily and Marilyn in the foyer where they all stood gazing awestruck at what Herman had done to his appearance.
He was wearing a shiny golden tuxedo which glimmered off sparkles even in the dimly lit house and a pair of matching golden boots. Over his eyes he wore a pair of shiny black and gold rimmed sunglasses. His hair seemed to have also been given a slightly different style as it was combed into a suede cowlick and covered the stitching on his forehead.
"Well, what do you think everybody? Do I look good, or do I look good?" asked Herman with a slight curling of his lip.
"Why, Hermie baby! You look just like a rock star!" exclaimed Lily.
"Well, that's because I am one, dear," Herman replied as he lifted his sunglasses. "You all know perfectly well that the Groovie Ghoulies have asked me to join them and I have no intention of turning them down. Tonight shall be my first official concert of many to come with them!"
"Oh, I'm so proud of you, sweetums!" exclaimed Lily as she went up to kiss him.
"Me too, Pop," said Eddie. "I bet you'll really knock them dead!"
"I always knew you'd make it big someday, Herman!" said Grandpa, stretching the truth a bit.
So that evening they all went to the Stadium Concert Hall and Herman met the Groovie Ghoulies backstage and they all complimented him on his new trend.
"Whoa, what's shaking Daddy'o!" exclaimed the witch Agatha with a low whistle.
"You really seemed to have outdone yourself, Mr. Munster," said the vampire, Vlad.
"Please do call me Herman," Herman insisted. "We are after all going to be together now."
"How did you get such an expensive looking getup?" inquired the werewolf.
"Not much to it," Herman replied casually. "We keep all kinds of spare clothes down at the parlor."
"We'll here is your instrument," said Vlad, and handed him an extra large guitar "You will be leading us in with your own solo tonight."
"My own solo!" exclaimed Herman in rapturous joy and delight. "Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!"
So the rest of them took their seats as the curtains opened and Herman began to play:
"She's the daughter of Frankenstein, and she's everybody's dream.
She's the daughter of Frankenstein.
She ain't got stitches, she's got seams.
She's the daughter of Frankenstein, and she's the real thing.
All right.
She's the daughter of Frankenstein.
She's got all the right parts in all the right places.
She's good at filling negative spaces
She put all those smiles on all those faces
All right
Try not to love her: I bet you can't
Try not to love her: I bet you can't
She's a wonder to behold: She can charm and enchant
She's a wonder to behold: She can charm and enchant
All right
She's the daughter of Frankenstein."
After the concert Herman sat backstage with the rest of the band and read over a series of contracts they gave him to sign in order to officially join them.
"Well, all this seems to be good and fine," he said as he finished reading the last one. "I guess I'm ready to sign now."
"Good," said Vlad as he handed Herman a ballpoint pen. "It sure will be fantastic to have a partner for Frankie along the road."
"Um... Excuse me. Did you say 'on the road'?" inquired Herman pausing with the pen in hand.
"Yes, indeed," replied Vlad. "Don't you realize we are a well known and popular band and we must constantly be on the move from place to place performing concerts all over the world?"
"So then I'll be traveling with you? How often?" asked Herman a bit uneasily.
"Oh, um... about three times a week or so," replied Vlad easily.
"Three times a week?" exclaimed Herman. "But how will I keep up with my job?"
"I suppose you won't because you'll just have to quit it," replied Vlad calmly.
"Quit? But Mr. Goodbury says I'm the best in the business! And what about my family?"
"Don't worry, you'll still get to see your family... occasionally," replied Vlad.
"Only occasionally!" exclaimed Herman in alarm. "What about at Christmas?"
"Oh, I'm afraid at Christmas we'll be performing in Mexico this year and in Hollywood next year," replied Vlad.
Herman looked crestfallen and he slowly put the pen down on the desk. "Um..." he muttered after a moment. "Could you give me some time to think it over?"
"Of course, we understand," replied Vlad.