Baile Siochanta (Southern Vampire Mysteries)

Chapter 3 - Bells Ring

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.  The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise.  No copyright infringement is intended.

Sookie set the bags down on the floor of the wraparound porch and flipped over to the house key on her key ring. She was just turning the second dead bolt when the door swung open. "I thought that was you," Sam, her landlord, greeted her.

"Thanks," Sookie ducked her head, avoiding eye contact. It was silly because Sookie was pretty sure that with his bad eyes, all Sam could see was a blur where her face was. Stooping for the grocery bags, Sookie marched past him and into the hall.

Sam was taller than both Sookie and her mother, Michele. If Sookie had to guess, she'd put him in his mid-forties. He had sandy hair that was thinning a little on top. He was thick and soft around the middle, the way people got when they didn't get out much. Sam smiled in his pleasant, slightly vacant way, then stepped forward, forcing Sookie to pause. Rather than simply push past him, Sookie pasted her smile on her face, "How are you, Sam? How's the book coming?" she asked politely. Sookie sensed that Sam took any conversation she offered as more encouragement than she meant, but she couldn't bring herself to be rude to her landlord.

Sam didn't write fiction as the nurse who'd introduced them thought. Sam wrote books on military history. Before he developed the disease that was slowly robbing him of his sight, he'd been a researcher and instructor at one of the military academies. This house was his family home, and it was where he chose to retreat. When Sam was growing up here, this had been a quiet, family neighborhood, but as Boston continued its slow, inevitable sprawl, things grew up, and then started to go to seed all around it. Now, this was a small, unnoticed street that branched off a busy thoroughfare. It was a dead end, and that spared the half-dozen houses from witnessing a parade of cars every day as people sought quicker ways from one place to another.

What the neighborhood wasn't spared was the occasional squall of street thugs who blew in from time to time, looking for easy pickings. There was a small park only one house down, and young bloods would congregate there, perching on swings and the old-style push merry-go-round, noisy and aggressive. On those days, Sookie would walk past the playground with purpose, her eyes trained ahead of her. She would ignore the calls and hoots, and think, gratefully, of the three heavy bolts that Sam had installed on his front door.

"Can I carry that bag for you?" Sam offered, and Sookie thought he was looking altogether too hopeful.

"Thanks for offering," Sookie said brightly, her standard answer to his standard question, "but, no, it's only a little bit this week. Well," and she glanced at the stairs that led to her apartment, "I should probably get going."

"Oh," and Sookie heard his disappointment. "Well, you have a nice day," Sam told her, "Tell your Mom Hi for me," and Sam purposely brushed her arm with his fingers as she passed by.

"I will," Sookie replied, keeping her voice light and pretending she hadn't noticed his touching her. She deliberately turned the doorknob and walked steadily up the stairs, one foot after the other, refusing to let Sam know he'd flustered her in any way.

Michele was sitting at the kitchen table peeling potatoes for dinner. "You're looking perky!" Sookie told her.

"Oh!" Michele looked startled. "You went out?"

Sookie held up the grocery bags, and then pointed at the note that sat on the table directly in front of her Mother. "Yes," she replied. "And you wrote down a note so you wouldn't forget." Sookie fought back her frustration. This wasn't Michele's fault. It was the result of the surgery. Michele remembered who she was, and she remembered the people in her life, but her short-term memory was impaired. She couldn't remember whether she'd washed or where people went. Michele would get confused about why she was doing something, and she couldn't go outside on her own because she'd forget the way home. There was one bright side, though. Michele forgot her strange yearning for her husband, and Sookie found her relationship with her Mother was better than it ever had been.