Vampire Hunter: Corey Crowgarden's guide to killing vampires for fun and profit.

Lesson 3 part 8

It was after nine when they packed up the car and headed into Welland. None of them could really remember the last time they had visited their mum and they felt both anxiety and guilt at the prospect of seeing her.
The doctors had suggested that her condition was some type of unusual anemia and it was a condition that was progressing. She would have a few days where she felt better, but then she would have a day when she had no energy. Those days were she felt better got fewer and farther apart. They used some of their grandfathers money to hire a nurse that would check on her. She would still sew and try to bake occassionally, but it was really too much.
They stopped and bought a coffee and brought it with them for her.
When they arrived the nurses black sedan was parked at the far end of the drive by the door. The house was in need of some maintenance, the lawn was on the far end of overgrown, almost to the point where the city would come and cut it and fine her for having it long, then charge her a fee for cutting it, and charging a tax on the fee.
The city knew how to get their money.
The car was kind of like the nurse, old and a little bigger than needed. White with a white interior, it had no decoration, not even anything hanging from the mirror.
They looked at it as they stood at the back door. The interior was spotless, everything was in order. Bobby couldn't imagine driving a more bland car.
"Bet she get's an oil change right on the kilometer and the tank is always full," he smirked to the group as he nodded at the car.
The girls weren't looking, their eyes were fixed on the backyard. Dad was never around to finish the half hearted projects he had begun. The grass in the back was still long, but the bird feeder was assembled, painted and full of seed. The brick path that their father had started and bought the tiles for was completed and there was a small bench with a cover and a light nearby. Crystal walked the path that went west along the edge of the garage and gasped as she looked behid the garage.
"What??" Carrie said and hustled to see.
There was a large vegetable garden, complete with wire and posts. Tomatoes, Lettuce and green bean plants in neat, long rows. Mother had talked for a very long time about how she wanted a vegetable garden back here. The security light turned on, it's beam weak in the daylight but enough to flood the garden at night.
Carrie shook her head, "What the hell's been going on here?"
Bobby was still at the door when Patty answered.
"May I help you?" she asked.
"Hi Patty," he said. Had it really been so long that she didn't remember him?
"Hello," she said.
"I'm here to see Mrs.Crowgarden," he said, "her daughters are here too."
"I'm sorry, she's very ill," Patty said, as though Bobby wouldn't know that.
"Yes... we know," Bobby said.
"She's still resting, it isn't a good idea to wake her at this time of the day."
Carrie and Crystal were at the back door now, but Patty didn't seem to recognize or acknowledge them.
"I'm sorry," Patty said, "I'll tell her you came by."
"Patty... do you remember my name?" Bobby asked.
"No," she frowned, "I'm sorry. Have we met before?"
Bobby raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, we have. What about these two?"
"Aren't they her daughters?" Patty asked.
"Yes, Patty," Carrie said, "But do you remember our names."
Patty thought for a minute, running fat fingers with rough nails through her hair that used to be black but had a lot more grey in it. Her brow was knit in concentration and she squinted at the girls. She looked a little pale.
"No, I'm sorry" she said, and then let out a heavy sigh. "I'm just so tired these days. Your mother wakes up in the night and doesn't seem to get any rest. Neither of us do."
"Okay Patty," Crystal said," maybe mum can call us when she wakes up?"
"I'll have her call," Patty replied.
They walked back to the car.
"If she remembers," Bobby said, breaking their stunned silence.
"Our mother sleeping in until Nine?" Crystal said, shocked at the very idea.
"I know!" Carrie said, just as astonished. "Mrs early to bed and early to rise is still in bed and it's nine forty in the morning?"
Crystal covered her mouth in horror.
"Oh my God," she said, "What if she's on her deathbed?"
"Patty will check on her and call," Carrie said.
"Call who?" Crystal replied. "Our father, the invisible man?"
The conversation went a bit cold at that, Carrie biting her lip before defending her father.
"Did anyone else think Patty was just acting.. weird?" Bobby said, breaking the tension.
"Very weird...We hired her!" Crystal exclaimed, "and now she can't even remember our names?"
"Maybe it's just old age," Bobby said.
"No," Carrie said, "she isn't that old. I remember what our grandfather was like when he was losing his memory. When the dementia started to really take hold. It wasn't quite like that."
"But something isn't right, that's for sure," Crystal said and they all agreed.
They were about to pull out of the driveway when their neighbour Gary waved them down.
"Oh great," Carrie said,"just what we need."
Bobby stopped and rolled down the window.
Gary was a retired policeman who never lost the habit of speaking abruptly and with harsh authority.
"When are you people going to do something about the lawn? I'll call the city you know," he said.
"Hi Gary," Carrie said, "Nice to see you too. We'll cut it later today."
"And your mother is making a lot of noise at night," he said, leaning on the window as though he was about to ask for license and registration.
"Oh, sorry about that. We had no idea. Are there people coming an going?" Carrie asked, knowing that he was the Gladys Kravitz of the neighbourhood.
"Yes, at night," He said. "Usually early but sometimes very late."
"Okay, sorry Gary. We had no idea. We'll cut the grass this afternoon," Carrie said, leaving out the 'or you could cut it yourself, you lazy prick on your riding lawn mower.' How many times had their father cut his grass when he was busy doing policework? How many times had their father shoveled the sidewalk in front of the house?
"I'll come back and cut it this afternoon," Bobby said and that seemed to satisfy the old man as he stood up and started back towards his porch.
"Bye," Carrie said, shaking her head.