It was my parents! My mom was in black bell-bottoms, black platform sandals, and a silky black shirt, with a string of red love beads around her neck. My dad was wearing black-rimmed John Lennon glasses and had squeezed his body into black Levi's and a black silk shirt unbuttoned halfway.
"Are you on drugs?" I wondered aloud, astonished.
"Hi, honey," my mom said. "We had to do something to get you out of bed."
My dad laughed and two young kids in Dracula outfits came whizzing by. One extended his cape with his hands and pretended to fly toward me.
"I've come to suck your blood!" It was Billy Boy.
"You look divine! You're the cutest vampire I've ever seen," I said.
"Really? Then I'm going to wear this to school on Monday."
"Oh, no, you're not," my dad scolded. "One radical in the family is more than I can handle."
My father looked at my mother for help. Billy winked at me and flew off.
Jameson stepped out of the Mansion holding a black jacket.
"Here is your sports coat, Mr. Madison," he said, handing the jacket to my dad. "The boy wouldn't let it go. Something about your daughter's perfume."
I was totally embarrassed, but I melted inside. "It's good to see you, Miss Raven."
I wanted to see Alexander. I wanted to see him right then. I wanted to see his face, his hair, his eyes. I wanted to see if he still looked the same, if he still felt our deep love connection. Or if he thought it was all a lie.
As if he could read my thoughts, Jameson said, "Won't you come in?"
I walked inside, thankful that the reunion-- or the blowout-- would be a private one. It was quiet inside, no music pulsing from the attic, and dark, with only a few candles lighting the way. I checked the living room, the dining room, the kitchen and the hallway. I climbed the grand staircase.
"Alexander?" I whispered. "Alexander?"
My heart was pounding and my mind frenetic. I peeked in the bathrooms, the library, the master bedroom.
I heard voices from the TV room.
Renfield was ratting to the doctor about Count Dracula. It was during this scene that Alexander had kissed me and I had fainted. I sat on the couch and watched impatiently for a minute, expecting him to return. But I grew anxious and wandered back out to the hallway.
"Alexander?"
I looked at the faded red-carpeted staircase leading to the attic. His staircase!
The door at the top of his squeaky stairs was closed. His door. His room. The room he wouldn't let me see. I gently knocked on the door.
No answer. "Alexander?" I knocked again. "It's me, Raven. Alexander?" Behind that door was his world. The world I had never seen. The world that had all the answers to all his mysteries--how he spent his days, how he spent his nights. I twisted the knob, and the door creaked slightly open. It wasn't locked. I wanted more than anything to push it open. To snoop. But then I thought. This is how the trouble began: with my snooping. Haven't I learned anything? So I took a deep breath and acted against my impulse. I shut the door and hurried down the creaky attic stairs and the grand staircase with a new confidence. I paused at the open front door, and feeling a familiar presence once again, I turned around.
There he stood, like a Knight of the Night, looking straight at me with those dark, deep, lovely, calming, lonely, adoring, intelligent, dreamy, soulful eyes.
"I never meant to hurt you," I blurted out. "I'm not what Trevor said. I've always liked you, for who you are!"
Alexander didn't speak.
"I was so stupid. You're the most interesting thing that's ever happened in Dullsville. You must think I'm so childish."
He still didn't speak a word.
"Say something. Say I was totally third grade. Say you hate me."
"I know we are more similar than different."