Suburban Vampire Ragnarok

Chapter 32

Scott had to make several excuses to several parties as to why he was going out of town that weekend. To his mother, he just said he was going with some friends from work. This pleased her, as Irene gushed about how glad she was that her Scotty was stepping out and making friends, and how most of the friends he had made recently were so nice, except for the fact that one of them was a criminal for having stolen her late husband's wooden box-like object. To Tim O'Neill, who Scott usually spent Saturday evenings with, he said he was checking up on a sick family member. Tim wished Scott well, then noted how he had been planning a weekend of yard work at the O'Neill homestead and how convenient it was that Scott was taking the time to visit this anonymous family member rather than helping him pull weeds. To Jeremiah, he gave the same excuse. Jeremiah offered his best wishes, then volunteered to go with him. Scott was quite adamant that Jeremiah should probably not come. ("They're... racists. Yeah. Very unpleasant. You wouldn't like them.") He then wondered to himself if Jeremiah actually had a life. Or, unlife, as it were.

Scott agreed to meet Dawn at a pre-arranged location, the last light-rail station on the line. He was concerned about the safety of Dawn's car being parked over the weekend in the lot, but Dawn understood that a 1995 Honda Civic with faded green paint and well over 100,000 miles was probably not very expensive to replace. They loaded his few items and her not-so-few items ("It's just for the weekend, Dawn! It's not like we're going out of the country!") into the trunk of his Mach I Mustang, then began the journey up Highway 26 toward the coast.

The ride itself wasn't as awkward as Scott thought it was going to be. Thankfully, Dawn didn't keep bringing up her desire to be a part of "Team Scott", especially considering that he still didn't consider himself as having a team, and didn't really want one. The conversation was lighter, less serious, and even devolved into various time-killing road games. At one point, Dawn and Scott argued over the music selection, Scott wanting to play either '80s hair metal or blues, Dawn insisting on contemporary Christian. Ultimately, he decided to play some Celtic music CDs, which Dawn found acceptable.

About an hour and a half later, Highway 26 met up with Highway 101, and they found themselves traveling northbound along the coast, from Seaside up towards Warrenton, then across Youngs Bay into Astoria itself. Scott piloted south toward the Nehalem highway, away from the city proper, to a property overlooking Youngs River. Scott told Dawn how he thought the large, old, two-story house resembled the one in a favorite movie of his youth, The Goonies. Dawn agreed, noting that the actual Goonies house wasn't far from this location, and that they should go visit it sometime.

Before they even pulled up to the house Scott rolled down his window, smelling the salt air, and one more aroma that brought back pleasant memories—the smell of baking cardamom.

"Mmmm! Anya's baking her pulla! Oh, my God, that stuff is so good! I could eat a ton of it!"

"Pulla? What's that?"

"It's like Finnish coffee bread. It's braided and made with cardamom. It's as close to sex as bread can get. Not that you'd know anything about that. But anyway, can you smell it?"

Dawn rolled down her window. At this point, one didn't need to be a vampire to be able to detect the ambrosial bouquet wafting through the air. "Oh wow, that does smell good!"

They came to a stop in the gravel-covered dirt driveway. An older man, with a pale, thin face and head of bright white hair, wearing a red and black plaid wool jacket, stepped out of the house, a Sako hunting rifle in one hand.

"Whoever you are," the older man said in a heavily accented voice, "whatever you're selling, we don't want none. Turn around and go away!"