Only Human

Chapter 7 - A Day with Johnny

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Ericka kept one hand on the steering wheel of the blimp while she used the other to retrieve her phone from her back pocket. She grinned as she saw who the caller was. "Oh, look honey! It's Mav – "

The woman hardly got the name of his daughter out of her mouth when Drac swiped the device from her hands and eagerly answered. "Mavy-Wavy!" he cried out.

"Daddy!" Mavis happily chirped, waving to him. Then, she gave him a questioning look. "Did you snatch the phone from Ericka, or did she hand it to you?"

"Ehhhh..." Drac grinned sheepishly.

"He snatched it, Mavis!" Ericka called out to the phone.

Mavis gave her dad a stern look. "Seriously, Dad?"

Drac chuckled nervously. He very well knew that it was his own fault his old cell phone was floating in a lake somewhere in the middle of the Amazon, dead and useless, and probably even getting digested inside a piranha fish's belly by now. "I'm sorry, honeybat. Look, I promise the first thing I'll do is get a new cell phone when we reach Hawaii!"

Mavis nodded. "Good. Sorry about that, Ericka!" she called to the woman.

Ericka shrugged. "Eh, it's good. You are his little 'Voodoo Doll,'" she said, both women chuckling at the nickname. "And besides," she continued, "I've gotta focus on steering the blimp anyhow. We're gonna be hitting some turbulence soon."

"Oh!" Mavis said, "How far along are you guys?"

Johnny called out in response. "Just passed Cali, babe!" The redhead excitedly looked out the gondola window far below. Dennis was next to him looking just as excited, his face pressed against the glass. The young boy squinted his eyes, using his vampire vision, and then gasped delightfully.

"I think I can see Grandma Linda's house from up here!" he exclaimed.

"Seriously? Sweet!" Johnny laughed, ruffling his son's hair.

Mavis was delighted to hear from them both. "Johnny! Dennis! Oh, I'm so glad you guys are already having fun."

"Yeah!" Johnny said, sprinting up next to Drac so he could also wave to his wife. "I hope everything's cool in Transylvania with you."

"Better than that!" Mavis said excitedly. "Actually, so many folks answered the ad you posted online, I almost didn't have enough hardhats! See?" Mavis held up the phone in her hands high above her head, showing them the crew of what looked to be at least over a hundred humans and monsters behind her.

The redhead's jaw dropped. "Whoa!"

"Yeah, I know, right?" Mavis laughed delightfully. "And don't worry, I wrote down all the ideas you sent me by text, so we'll get started on them as soon as we're able to."

"Nice!" Johnny gave her two thumbs up.

"I am so ready for this," Mavis squealed. Suddenly, the group heard something crash offscreen, and then the sound of some sort of loud argument breaking out. Mavis shot a glance in its direction and cringed, then she looked back at the phone.

"Sorry, but I've gotta go."

Drac waved a hand. "Don't worry about it, honeybat. Love you Mavy-Wavy!"

"I love you too, Dad!" she said. Waving bye, Mavis disconnected.

Drac let out a pleased sigh. "It's good to see my little bedbug is doing just fine."

Johnny nodded enthusiastically in agreement. "She's gonna build the most awesome hotel! And, it's gonna be even more awesome when we put in all these ideas of mine! Wanne see em?" He began to pull out his phone.