The Traveling Vampire Show(31)
“Yeah! Fantastic! She got four tickets?”
“Bought ’em,” I said. “They cost her forty bucks.”
“She forked over forty bucks?”
“Well, not cash. She used a check.”
“Do we have to pay her back?”
“She didn’t say anything about it. I think she’s treating us.”
“Wow!”
“It didn’t even matter that we’re underage. The guy knew it, but he didn’t care. Julian? He’s the owner. He’s the one we talked to when we went looking for you guys. He sort of warned Lee that it’s an adults only show....”
“What’d he say?”
“He said the show can be real gory. And clothes get ripped off.”
“Holy shit!”
“Yeah. But Lee didn’t seem to mind. She said she wanted the tickets anyway, so the guy went ahead and sold them to her. But only on the condition that she goes to the show with us. We can’t, like, go without her.”
“Ah. I bet he’s got the hots for her.”
“You know what else? If we stick around after the show, he’ll introduce us to Valeria.”
Rusty moaned almost as if in pain. “We get to meet her face to face?”
“If Julian keeps his word.”
“Ohhhhh, man. This is gonna be some night, huh?”
“I’ll say,” I said. “If we can go.”
“We’re going. Man, we’re going—I don’t care what.”
“Maybe I can finish mowing the lawn before Slim gets here.”
Chapter Thirteen
Rusty sat on the porch stairs of my house and watched me finish mowing the front lawn. Then he stood around while I did the back yard and both sides. I was sweaty and out of breath by the time I’d finished. He came with me when I put the mower away in the garage.
Just as we were leaving the garage, Mom drove up. She parked in the driveway and climbed out of her car. She was dressed in her tennis whites—a good clue as to where she’d been.
“I was afraid you’d given up on the yard,” she said.
“No. I just took a little break.”
“Hello, Russell.”
“Hi, Mrs. Thompson.”
“How’s everything?” she asked him.
“Just fine, thank you.”
After a quick glance around, she asked us, “Where’s d’ Artagnan?”
She could only mean Slim.
“On her way over,” I said, though I was starting to wonder why she hadn’t shown up yet.
“She had to stop by her house,” Rusty explained.
To deflect a possible interrogation, I asked Mom, “How was the tennis?”
She beamed. “I trounced Lucy.”
“Good going,” Rusty said.
“Shouldn’t you have let her win?” I asked.
I asked that because Lucy Armstrong was the principal of Grandville High—where Mom taught English and where Rusty, Slim and I were students.
“She wins often enough with no help from me. It’s high time I got the upper hand. I beat her in three straight sets and she had to pay for our lunch. Just wasn’t her day, I guess.” Mom looked us over for a moment, then said, “Have you fellows had lunch yet?”
“Not yet,” I said.
“Well, why don’t you come inside the house and I’ll make you some sandwiches?”
She trotted up the porch stairs ahead of us, her tiny white skirt flouncing. I guess she was in pretty good shape for a person her age, but personally I wished her skirt could’ve been a little longer—like maybe long enough to cover her underwear?
Not that Rusty seemed to mind the view.
Inside the house, I said, “If you’d rather do something else, I can go ahead and make our sandwiches. No problem.”
“Sounds good. Any time I can get out of making a meal....” She smiled. “I’ll just go ahead and take my bath.”
Did she have to say that in front of Rusty? He was probably already imagining her in the tub. That’s the kind of guy he was. I know, because that’s also the kind of guy I was. Except not about my own mother. Not about Rusty’s mother, either, you wouldn’t want to imagine her naked. But Slim’s mom was another matter. She looked a lot like Slim, only taller and curvier. Whenever she was around, I had a hard time taking my eyes off her. Slim noticed, too, and seemed to think it was funny.
Rusty watched my mother climb the stairs. If she’d been Slim’s mom in a tiny skirt like that, I would’ve been doing the same thing, so I tried not to let it annoy me.