Dracula, Aka Ed. Poem by Tara Schley

Like in those stories
vampires love the dark and quiet of night. when everyone else is asleep. but the vampire didn't suck my blood, not blood. the vampire did bite. he left his vampire tooth marks on me that i was supposed to be good and keep covered up. but teacher saw the vampire tooth marks when i was jumping rope with my best friend Billy at lunch. my shirt untucked from my jeans. teacher told mother. mother told teacher little sister Molly had done this tooth marks. Molly was just a baby though with baby teeth not vampire teeth. teacher looked at mother the way she did at my friend Billy when he lied and said it wasn't him that ate the candies she kept in her desk. when we got home, mother made my ears ring and my nose bleed when I told her that the vampire that comes at night did these tooth marks, not my baby sister Molly with her six baby teeth.i didn't talk to mother about what the vampire does at night anymore after that and mother didn't ask.

unlike in the movies, vampires don't come in through the windows or hide in alleys waiting for people to walk by. they have keys to houses that they let the mothers and the kids live in. that is how they get in at night. and they like the curtains closed and doors locked when they get inside. but don't try to lock a vampire out of the house or your room they get real mad at that.and locks on inside of bedroom doors aren't allowed by vampires. they don't like to be told no. i heard my friend Billy tell the vampire no, when mother said he was allowed a sleep over. first time i had a friend sleep over. we were playing in the barn that night he said no. Billy didn't believe me vampires exist.he laughed at me. but Billy found out they exist. Billy didn't want to be alone with the vampire but I whispered to him before i left the barn you don't say no to a vampire. Billy did, he screamed it at the vampire. 'no, no, no, No! ' and then my friend Billy he fell from the hay loft and never woke up. An accident my mother and the vampire said. and i never asked to have a sleep over again.

mother knew this. Sometimes the vampire would come when it was still light out. my mother would make me take Molly to my room and tell me to keep her quiet. the vampire don't like babies. not even half vampire ones. the vampire called Molly 'that little ****' every time he saw her. 'Get that little **** out of my face, shut up that little ****, don't think i'm letting you keep living here because of this little **** '. i looked up the word in the dictionary at school and it wasn't in there. two years after the lady came and took Molly away, when i was fourteen, i learned what word meant from my second friend ever Dave. i think it was good i kept Molly away from the vampire when the vampire came over when it was still light out. those times mother would cook dinner for her and the vampire. then the vampire and mother would drink moonshine the vampire made in the shed. mother wasn't allowed to drink it unless it was with the vampire. if i couldn't keep Molly quiet in my room, mother would turn up the record player as loud as it would go and take the vampire to her room.when the record come to an end and id hear them, thumping around in her room, the vampire making his vampire sounds and mother yelling 'yes, yes, yes, yes, Yes! 'even if you couldn't sit down the next day, mother
also knew not to say no to the vampire.


after the lady took Molly away. and i got all a big bush of dark pubic hair and my voice changed. the vampire didn't come at night anymore. just to my mothers room after the moonshine drinking.
because i had been so good at not saying no, the vampire gave me his old truck. mother gave me a bloody nose, made my ears ring again because i wouldn't give the truck to her. i guess she thought she should have it because she not only didn't say no but she said yes.

but i'm glad i didn't give her the truck because then Suzy wouldn't have asked me for a ride home from the grocery store where she was a check out girl and i was a bag boy. i didn't tell her about the vampire and I didn't let her over to meet the vampire or be around mother.i kept Suzy to myself, i didn't want her to have an accident like Billy. but mother found out about Suzy six months later when her mother that lived two towns over called to invite mother to dinner. mother told me i wasn't allowed to see Suzy anymore and hit me with a frying pan on my head when i said she loved me. mother said what did i want with girls since i liked vampires and the things they do at night so much. she told me to stay away from girls, that the things done with girls can make babies. i left and slept in my truck for a week until the police found me. the vampire said i took his truck. he took it back. and mother didn't go to dinner and i still was with Suzy even if i didn't get the truck, mother did.

but then another six months later, the things i did with Suzy made a baby. mother told me my whole life never to make a baby with anyone.babies ruin your life.
i told mother i messed up,
and mother asked me if i killed someone. i think she was hoping i killed the vampire. but i didn't. i told her i had made a baby in Suzy. mother told me to get Suzy to kill the baby or have the lady take it like she took Molly away. she told me i would turn into a vampire.
but i am not mother, i wouldn't give my baby to that lady. i am not a vampire. i left that house and i hitched a ride to Suzy's house where there are locks on the inside of the bedroom doors, no moonshine in the shed, she is called princess not slut, and no one gets bloody noses or ringing ears. most important there are no vampires there. one day i told Suzy about the vampire and about Billy. she told me that the vampire was lying that he was just a regular man. that vampires don't exist. Suzy's mother and father took me to the police where i told them about the vampire and about Billy saying no. they also told me the vampire was just regular man. and the nice judge she also said the vampire was just a regular man. that he couldn't fly over the fences like the vampire said he could. he is still in the prison he didn't fly over the fence. so Suzy, the police officer, the judge must be right. that judge put the vampire in prison and mother in prison for a long time. that judge said to me, that me, Suzy, my and Suzy's baby will never have to be around mother, or the vampire, but who isn't really a vampire. they don't exist. i guess Billy was right, after all.

Tara Schley.