The Coffin Club(5)

Tell me all!

He has pool-colored eyes and salt-and-pepper hair.

He sounds dreamy.

I noticed him in the audience when I was onstage. I almost couldn`t see him because he was just outside the glare of the spotlight. He has the most piercing blue eyes I`ve ever seen. Our eyes locked and I forgot my lines. I stood there, frozen, for what seemed like hours. He had this hypnotic stare.

I laughed. Aunt Libby was like a sixteen-year-old girl who had fallen in love.

When the show was over, he was waiting for me. We had this intense connection I`ve never felt before.

I know exactly what you mean. That`s how I feel about Alexander. That`s why I had to come here....

Come here? she asked.

Uh...yes, for girl time.

I know what you mean. I`m bursting at the seams to talk about him, but there`s not much I know--besides how handsome he is!

I`m sure I`ll be calling him Uncle Devon within a matter of days. Can I wear black to your wedding?

I wouldn`t want it any other way. We have a date in the next few days and you have to come.

You are going out on your first date with him and you`re going to show up with me? Your vampire-obsessed niece? Even I don`t think that`s a good idea. You have to come. I can`t wait for you to see him...and I can`t leave you here alone.

Of course you can. But we can talk about it tomorrow.

We had just placed the dishes in the sink when Aunt Libby noticed the time.

I have a drumming class tonight. I was hoping you`d join me.

Well...I...

I don`t have to go.

No, I don`t want you to miss it on account of me.

It`s a master class tonight. Otherwise I wouldn`t think about going.

Please go. I`ll be fine. I wouldn`t be able to run across town and try to make contact with Alexander if I were stuck in a drumming class all night.

Think about it while I get ready.

While Aunt Libby prepared for class, I stretched my legs out on her futon and turned on the nineteen-inch TV with a leaning cactus on it. Her TV received only local channels and the color faded in and out at will.

How do you live without cable? I asked, frustrated.

I switched on the local news. Normally I would have turned the set off quickly and kept myself busy text-messaging Becky about my arrival. But something caught my eye.

Hi, I`m Anne Ramirez, reporting to you live. I`m standing with Fred Sears, a farm owner who discovered a crop circle in his wheat field. This is the second one reported in this county in less than a month, this one being a little more intricate than the last.

The camera panned to the wheat field, where stalks had been crushed against the ground in the shape of a fifty-foot circle, with several smaller circles in the center.

The petite woman stood next to the black-haired farmer, who was three times her size. When did you notice this? she asked.

When I woke up. It just cropped up,` he joked.

I rolled my eyes as I watched two preteens running around it.