The Single Undead Moms(23)
Still, I’d barely had time to get Danny showered and in bed before I heard a truck screeching through the cornfield and onto my driveway. I sighed, plucking Danny’s dirty clothes from the floor and switching on his Captain America night-light before I closed his bedroom door. I walked down the hallway, listening to the slap of Marge’s house shoes against the concrete walkway. For a short woman, she was moving at a pretty good clip.
Dear Lord, I prayed, please grant me the grace to explain this situation to my mother-in-law without permanently damaging our relationship. And if that’s not possible, please keep me from ripping her throat out, because that’s the sort of thing that will go on my undead permanent record.
Before Marge could pound on my door and wake my son, I pulled it open, startling her out of her furious posture for a second and making her step back. Marge was wearing one of her old cotton summer nightgowns. Her carefully dyed dark brown hair was up in pink sponge curlers, a nighttime ritual she still kept up, even with the invention of much more convenient hairstyling tools. I doubted she could get to sleep without the tight sensation against her scalp.
Les was standing near the truck, practically vibrating with rage. But he was silent, unable to do anything but stand there, glowering at me.
I opened the door just enough to stretch my arm across it, barring Marge from barging in. “Hi, Marge. I wasn’t expecting you. Everything OK?”
There was always the off chance that my in-laws were mad at me for non-vampire-related reasons.
“What have you done?” Marge shrieked, a pink roller dangling near her ear.
OK, maybe not. I sighed. “I got better.”
“Don’t you play flippant with me, Libby Stratton! You got yourself tangled up with some vampire, and he gave you his disease.”
And while she was sort of right on some counts, I couldn’t help but be a little hurt that she was implying that I’d picked up an STD from an ill-advised hookup. Honestly, where was my vampire Yoda when I needed her? What would Jane do?
“How could you do that?” Marge continued without waiting for an answer. “Was it an accident? Were you attacked?”
“I didn’t go looking for a good time, Marge,” I said as calmly as I could. “And I wasn’t attacked. I made this choice so I could see Danny grow up. I knew you would try to talk me out of it, so I didn’t say anything to you.”
“You’re damn right I would have tried to talk you out of it!” she yelled. My eyes went wide. In the eight years I’d known my mother-in-law, she’d never cussed once. “I cannot believe you could do something so stupid and selfish. There’s no going back from this, do you understand? You can’t take it back. How are you going to take care of him? How are you going to be a mother when you can’t even wake up during the day? What if he gets hurt and starts bleeding? Will you be able to control yourself?”
It hurt to hear my mother-in-law voice all the fears I’d had tumbling in my own head since I rose. I couldn’t blame her for feeling this way. If I were in the same position, I might react the same way. And if I’d felt any sort of hungry twinge for Danny’s blood, I would have packed his bags and sent him on to her house. But I hadn’t. Danny was safe with me. And her fears were something she was going to have to work through if she wanted to spend time with her grandson. I wasn’t going anywhere.
Just then, Jane rolled up the driveway in her SUV and screeched to a halt next to Les’s truck. I saw Les’s hand start toward his cab, but as Jane hopped out, she warned him, “Whatever you’re thinking about grabbing, don’t.”
In a flash, Jane was at my side, blocking the door. “Mr. and Mrs. Stratton, I’m Jane Jameson-Nightengale with the local Council office. I understand that you’re upset right now,” she said in a tone so smooth and even her little spiel had to have been thoroughly rehearsed. “Finding out that your loved one has made the transition to vampire can be a very confusing and upsetting time, but the important thing to remember is that Libby is still the same person you’ve always known. She just has a few new interesting skills. We have several chapters of the FFOTU meeting locally that could help you cope with the changes within your family. I have a brochure here that lists all of the meeting dates and locations.” Jane whipped out a slick brochure featuring the triangular logo of the Friends and Family of the Undead.
Marge stepped back as if Jane had offered her a dead rodent. “I have no interest in spending more time with your kind. I know what happens at those meetings. A bunch of people sitting around lying to themselves about not being upset at what their family has turned into.” She snorted. “And as for her being the same person? The girl who married my son wouldn’t have done this to herself. She’s obviously lost her mind.”