A Girl's Guide to Guns and Monsters - Martin Harry Greenberg [34]
“No. You are very fast.”
She looked at me the way adults looks at each other when they have something serious to discuss. She brought me to the couch and we sat down together.
“What you saw me do—what you saw me become, I’m sorry if I scared you.”
I shook my head. “That man scared me more.”
Her lips turned up, like she wanted to smile but shouldn’t. “I know. But I have to ask you to do something that you may not understand. I wouldn’t ask you at all if it wasn’t so important.”
I sat very still and put my hands together to show her I was listening.
“I have to ask you to keep what you saw me do a secret—between the two of us. No one else can know. Not even your parents or Uncle David. Can you do that?”
Just then we heard lots of sirens coming down the street. Aunt Anna looked toward the door and then back at me. “I don’t have time to explain why right now. I will soon though, I promise. Do you trust me?”
I nodded my head. “You saved me. I trust you. You can trust me, too. I promise not to say anything.”
And I did the best thing I could do to show her how serious I was. I crossed my heart and held out a pinkie finger. “Pinkie promise.”
She linked her pinkie with mine and we sealed the oath.
There were lights flashing outside by now and someone banged on the door.
Aunt Anna went to open it and lots of policemen in uniform burst in. Right behind them came Mommy and Daddy. They practically knocked Aunt Anna down to get to me. There was a lot of hugging and kissing and asking if I was all right.
The man who broke in was beginning to wake up. A policeman put handcuffs on him and hauled him to his feet. Another policeman did the same to the woman, but she was bleeding from the back of the head and they weren’t so rough with her.
As soon as the man saw Aunt Anna, he began to yell. “Look at her. She’s a monster. She has eyes like a cat and she tried to bite me. I think she’s a fucking vampire.”
He must have seen the movie, too.
Of course, Aunt Anna didn’t have eyes like a cat anymore and she was sitting quietly on the sofa so the policemen just rolled their eyes at him and told him to shut up.
Daddy came to sit with Aunt Anna, Mommy, and me on the couch.
“Who is he?” Mommy asked Daddy in her you-have-some-explaining-to-do voice. She still had her arms tight around my shoulders.
Daddy looked sad and angry at the same time. “His name is Jake Halloran. He and his brother, Frank, shot a convenience store clerk nine years ago. I was the prosecutor on the case. Jake wasn’t the trigger man, so he did his time and was released on parole.”
“Why did he come after you?” Aunt Anna asked.
“We heard that his brother was killed in prison. A week before his parole hearing. I guess he holds me responsible.”
“And the woman?”
“Frank Halloran’s widow.”
Daddy turned to Aunt Anna. “I can’t thank you enough for calling us. And for saving our little girl. I don’t know how you did it. He had a gun. David was right when he said you are one hell of a woman.”
The man in the corner starts to yell again. “She’s not a woman. She’s something else. Her teeth are pointy and she has fangs. Tell her to open her mouth. She has fangs. I’m telling you, she’s a vampire.”
Aunt Anna smiled at him. I guess to show how normal her teeth were. Then she said to my daddy, “It’s Elizabeth who is one hell of a woman. She never got scared and she never lost her head. If anyone deserves credit for what happened here, it’s your daughter.”
I was really proud. No one ever called me a woman before. Even Mommy and Daddy were looking at me as if I wasn’t a little girl any more. I scooted over to hug Aunt Anna and she hugged me back.
The police were ready to take the man and woman away. He was still screaming that Aunt Anna was a monster and they should be arresting her, too.
Aunt Anna and I looked at each other and I knew she could tell what I was thinking.
There are monsters in the world. I know it for sure now. That man would have hurt Daddy and me . . . or worse. There are monsters.
But my friend Aunt Anna isn’t one of them. She’s brave and