THE CAR ONLY WENT thirty giant steps before it commenced to bucking and finally cut right off. The vampire guy finally caught up with me. He was looking very surprised, he just tapped on the window with his knuckle. He said, "Roll the window down for a minute, Jojon."
Sometimes it's terrible to have been brought up proper. I couldn't help myself, I rolled the window down just enough so that our words could get in and out but his hand or claws couldn't.
He said, "OK, what's this'!"
I said, "Don't you think I can read? How come you're carrying real human blood around in your car?" I showed him my jackknife. "I'll warn you, I know how to kill vampires. This knife is genuine solid twenty-four- karat silver."
He put both of his hands over his face and shook his head back and forth a couple of times. He said, "Sweet baby Jesus, why me?"
Then he said, "Jojon, if you were from Flint I might think you believe that, but you're a Grand Rapids boy, you've got to be smarter than that. If I was a vampire why have I got that sandwich and bottle of red pop?"
I thought for a second, then the answer jumped out. "Bait!"
He put his hands back over his face. This time when he pulled them away he was laughing. He said, "Jojon, if I was a vampire I wouldn't have to catch little boys, I'd just stick my fangs into one of those bottles and have my supper.
Besides, where've you ever heard of a vampire that knew how to drive a car?"
That made sense, in all the moving picture shows I'd seen and all the books I'd read about vampires I never could think of seeing one that could drive a car.
But I wasn't going to take any chances. "Could I please see your teeth, sir?" "What?"
"Your teeth, sir."
The man mumbled something, shook his head again, then leaned close to the window glass and opened his mouth.
Even though he didn't have fangs his teeth still looked kinda scary. They looked like they could bite a pretty good grapefruit-sized chunk out of you.
Then he said, "Jojon, I've got to get this blood to Hurley Hospital in Flint, they need it right away for someone's operation. I can look at you and tell you're far too smart to believe in any nonsense like vampires, son. Be a good boy and open the door."
I pulled the lock up for him and scooted over to the passenger's side of the car. I unlocked my door just in case he had any tricks up his sleeve.
He got in the car and said, "You'll never know how grateful I am to you, Jojon. I'll take that horrible image of you putting the car in gear to drive away while I stood by the side of the road in Owosso, Michigan, at two- thirty in the morning to my grave with me. Thank God you don't know how to drive."
"No, sir, but if you'da showed me some fangs I'da learned real quick."
Just in case, I watched the way he put the car in gear so's the next time something like this happened I'd know how to make a clean getaway. Me and the man headed back toward Flint, driving over the same road it took me so long to walk. Going like this I wasn't never going to get away from this doggone city.
We hadn't been driving for a minute before he started asking a whole slew of questions. Questions that I had to be very careful about giving the right answers to.
He said, "Don't you feel bad about worrying your mother like this, Jojon-not- Jones?"
"My mother is dead, sir." Most times if you tell a adult that they'll leave you alone, but not this man.
"What? I'm sorry to hear that, Jojon. So you stay with your daddy?" "Yes, sir."
"Right in Grand Rapids?" "Yes, sir."
"What's his name, does he work for the railroad?"
"No, sir." The seed started sticking its head out further and further. "His name is Herman E. Calloway and he plays the biggest doggone fiddle you'll ever see."
The man shouted, "What?"
I said, "Really, sir, I swear 'fore God it's the biggest fiddle in the world" He said, "I know your father, everybody in Grand Rapids does."
I didn't say anything.
He said, "Well, I'll be. You know, at first glimpse I wouldn't say you look that much like Herman, but now that I look at you I suppose you do. Of course he's quite a bit bigger, if you know what I mean." This was the best news I'd had all day, my face nearly split in half from my giant smile. "Yes, sir, folks say I'm the spitting image of my old man."
He really started shooting the questions at me so to stop him I said, "Sir, could I please have the sandwich and the rest of the red pop before I answer any more questions?"
He slapped his forehead and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, Jojon, I was so surprised about who you are and so happy that you didn't drive off that I forgot all about our deal."
He handed me the sandwich and the pop and the apple. I was so hungry that I forgot all about scraping the mustard off the baloney sandwich and even like that it was the best sandwich I'd ever had in my life.
"Jojon" he said, "my name's Mr. Lewis. Now if you were about fifteen, twenty years older you could call me Lefty. But you're not, so you can't. Mr. Lewis will do just fine."
I shoved the part of the sandwich that I was chewing into the side of my mouth so I could say, "Yes, sir, Mr. Lewis, sir."
He said, "I'm not ashamed to admit it, you gave me a scare here tonight that I'll never forget. I just know I'll be having nightmares about meeting you for the rest of my life. I'll wake up in a cold sweat many a night with the picture of you and my car pulling away with that blood on the seat.