Alive like Me

I came in early this evening, hoping to get some work done, and found the parlor empty except for the Sheriff of Area Five. He was sitting on one of the couches, his head back, his hands passive between his thighs, his eyes shut.

"Eric?" I said softly. "Are you okay?"
"Do you really care Aslinn?" he asked, his eyes still closed.
"Of course I care," I said. I sat my purse down on the chair and sat down beside him and put my feet up on the edge of the coffee table.
"How did you spend your day Aslinn?" he asked softly. He'd never asked me that.
"Oh, I went to a flea market with my dad. Do you know what a flea market is?" I asked.
"That is where humans go and sell things they can no longer use," he said.
"That is what I did today," I said.

"Tell me about your father," he said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Just tell me," he said.
"Well, he is Vietnam Veteran, he was born and raised in West Virginia, like me. He has done many things, but mostly, I like to remember that he was the town barber," I said.
"Barber?" he asked.
"He cut people's hair, gave shaves," I explained. I looked at him and he nodded. "To me and my sister, he was the best barber in the world. We would turn our little pug noses up at all the other barber and beauty shops because we thought he was the best."
"And then he built that beautiful monument," said the Vampire.
"Yeah, he built the monument," I said.
"Does he still barber? Is that the correct way to say it?" he asked softly. There was that soft accent I sometimes caught in his voice.
"Yes, that is how you say it. No, he's retired, he cuts my hair, and my mom's," I said. "But now he makes furniture and plays on the computer and works in the yard and grows things in the summer."
"What does he grow?" he asked.
"Tomatoes, peppers, snow peas, lettuce, onions, cabbage, carrots," I said.

Eric opened his eyes and looked far away.
"Are you okay Eric?" I asked.
"My father had a farm too," he said. "Everyone farmed, whether you were a king or a commoner. He grew grain and barley and other things I don't remember. We had goats and cows and sheep and we hunted and fished. In the summers though, my father would go off with the other men and go to war. But I remember when I was still a boy and I would go out with my mother and help bring in the harvest. It was very hard work, but then my father would come home and he would see the harvest and we would celebrate the harvest and drink and dance."
"I look forward to meeting your father in the adventures this summer," I said. "Do you miss him?"
"I was not what he hoped for, I think I disappointed him because I was too interested in women and mead and having a good time," said the Viking.

"Do you remember your mother?" I asked.
"No, not really, not the way I remember him. When a boy is of a certain age, he is taken from his mother and trained to be a Norse man. We learn to fight and hunt and we learn religion," he said.
"Did you learn to read and write?" I asked.
"No, we did not write a lot of things down and very little has survived," he said. "I learned to read and write later."
"Did Godric teach you?" I asked.
"No, but he said it was important to learn," he said. "Were you very old when you could read and write?"
"I don't remember ever being unable to read and write," I said. "I do remember actually reading when I was in my first year of school. We call it Kindergarten."
"You were very young then," he said. "I like the things you write. They make me remember."
"They make you sad and I am sorry for it," I said.
"So you do not hate me?" he asked. Had he asked another way or smiled at me with that lopsided smart assed grin on his face I would have been upset.
"I don't hate you Eric," I said.
"It was never important for me to have human friends, but I find that I like having them very much," he said. He closed his eyes again and put his head back. I patted him on the leg and got up and started up the computer.

And that is how I spent my evening this evening, alone in the parlor, save a lost Viking Vampire, out of his homeland and way out of his time, sitting quietly, his eyes shut, remembering a time when he was alive like me and had friends and lovers and family around him.