I have spent the months since my arrival on this island establishing a garden on the sandy beach. A near futile attempt, at best, but I was able to make my plants thrive in this clime. I cleared a patch of beach, digging down several inches, and brought in come heavier soil from midway up the central mountain; it seems to be infused with volcanic ash. My plants seem to like it and that’s all that matters.
I take great pains to maintain my garden and reap his bounty. It gives me a sense of accomplishment.
“Did you miss me?” asked the once familiar voice. I couldn’t quite place it, but I know I’ve heard it before. As I turned in the direction of the voice, it came to me; the man who had come to me that night long ago.
“Well, did you?”
“Did I…” I stammered.
“Miss me; did you miss me?”
“How can I very well miss you, when I don’t even have a clue as to who you are?”
“Ah, but you do. You know who I am.”
“Yeah, right! I know who…you…are...” I trailed off. Then all of a sudden, I did know who he was. “Yes, I do know who you are.”
“Ah, I knew you would.”
“What do you want of me?” I challenged.
“It is not what I want of you, but what you need of me.”
“Need? From you? You can offer nothing that I need.”
“Why must you be so obstinate?”
“I have done fine for myself without your help thus far. Be gone!”
“You have so much to learn,” he began to laugh.
This did nothing, except to piss me off. “If all you can do is ridicule, then I need none of it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some business to take care of.”
“As you wish, but you really do need to talk to me.”
“I’ve had enough of your games. Go away!” I waved him off as I rose from my chair. I made my way into the house. I did have questions, that much was true. But I will not sit and be ridiculed by someone I do not know.
It was close to lunch, so I made my way to the kitchen and began to prepare something to eat.
“Mind if I join you? Have enough for two?”
I didn’t hear him enter; or the door open and close for that matter. “What is your problem? Don’t you get that you are neither wanted nor welcome here? Get out of my house and leave me alone.”
“Ah, but he would not like that I left without fulfilling my duties.”
“He? Who is he? What duty would that be?”
“Now, see, you’re making me get ahead of myself.”
As if on cue, my phone rang. I was thankful to have an excuse not to talk to my uninvited guest. To my dismay, the voice on the other end of the phone was less welcome than the visitor.
“You would be wise to hear what he has to tell you.”
“Who is this? How did you know someone was here?” I demanded.
There was no response except the click of the connection being severed.
“Suit yourself; I’ve got things to do and can’t waste my time on you and your fairy tales.”
“You’re only making this harder on both of us, you know. Let me say what I need to say, and then I’ll be out of your way. I’m only the messenger.”
“YOU don’t get it, do you Messenger? I don’t want to hear your message; his message; any message. ”
“Whatever. I’m going to tell you anyway. Whether or not you listen is up to you. I’m here on behalf of your father; your biological father.
“If you haven’t guessed, your father is a vampire. He is of the Princeps Bloodline. Your father first found your mother in the city of which he was Regis. He had gone to her several times while she resided there with her husband. Although relations with humans are discouraged, he continued to see her. He became enamored of her to the point of falling in love with her.”
“What’s a Regis? And why did she not speak to my father of this?” I asked.
I was curious to what he had to say, but I could not get past the fact that he entered my house uninvited and was trying to force me to listen. He had the edge on me and I didn’t like that.
“First, the Regis is the leader of a coven or region in the vampire world. Second, the man she was married to is not your father.”
“So you keep saying, but you have offered no proof to back your claim.”
“The Princeps have strong mental powers. They can manipulate one’s memories to keep from being discovered; one of the strongest bloodlines to be able to do so. He masked her memories; she remembered nothing of their time together.”
“You expect me to believe all this? You know what? You can leave now; I think I’ve heard more than enough.” He was clearly getting on my nerves. I wouldn’t be doing all of these menial tasks if I weren’t trying to busy myself in an attempt to get him to leave.
“Believe as you wish, however everything I am telling you is truth. Aren’t you the least bit curious of who you really are and where you came from?”
“I know who I am and where I came from. I have a life, and it is apart from yours. Let’s keep it that way, shall we? Now please leave.”
“Once I have delivered the message, I shall go. You know as well as I do that there is something different about you; something inhuman, if you will. You cannot deny that you are aging slower than your peers; much slower.”
“Granted, I do appear to be aging slower, but there is a medical explanation for it.”
“And that would be…?”
“I don’t need to explain anything to you. You seem to know all the answers. Just take your answers and leave, would you please?”
“If we could just sit down and you let me finish what I have to say, I can get out of here a lot sooner, than following you around while you pretend to be uninterested.”
“Pretend to be uninterested? You are presumptuous, aren’t you? Okay, okay, if it will get you out of here faster, I will let you deliver your message.”
I led him to the back porch where we sat and looked out upon the cove while he spun the rest of his yarn.
“Now where was I? Oh, yes, I remember now…”
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