Part Two
I awoke, feeling better rested. I got up and went to the loo in Minnie’s garage and came out. The dew was upon the grass and the sun was warm against my skin. God Speed and Sal and Dude had the fire pit already started for the hog. Jen and Minnie and Vi were sitting under the marquee at the table. I walked over and they had hot coffee. I poured a cup and doctored it and lit a cigarette.
“The pig is on its way and it will cook all day in the pit,” said Minnie.
“I am going to make macaroni salad and bread,” I said, sipping the coffee. “What time did you go to bed?”
“We were up til dawn,” said Vi. I had gone to bed early with my Bill and he left me sometime just before dawn with a cool kiss. Tonight, Bill would be with Renee. It was her birthday.
“Where did Eric go last night?” I asked.
“He went to rest with Fairy. She must have a light tight place because he did not come back,” said Minnie.
“Has she wakened yet?” I asked. Minnie shook her head. I knew Aolani was set to spend time with the Viking tonight. That was the tough thing about those Eric girls, there was only one him and so many of them.
Scarlett came out of the tent and shambled over to the table. I poured her a cup of coffee and she sipped it. “Early morning chere?” I asked. She nodded and sipped the coffee again. Butter came out of the big camper. She was all smiles.
“What are you grinning like a possum about?” I asked. She slid into the chair beside me.
“I spent the night with Eric,” she said.
“I thought he spent the night with Fairy,” I said.
“Fairy made the supreme sacrifice and just let him tuck her in but he spent the night with me,” she said.
“Where is he now?” asked Scarlett.
“Asleep in there,” she said. “It is light tight. You know, he lay behind me all night and rubbed my honey bun?”
“Really,” I said. “Have you told him it is a little boy?”
“I did, last night,” she said. “Afterwards, I was lying on my back and he was rubbing my belly and he kissed my belly. It was so sweet!!!”
“Do you think they ever wish they could make babies?” mused Vi.
“I am sure some of the men do,” I said. “I don’t know about the women. Maybe Jessica would.”
“Pam does not mourn her lack of a motherhood,” said Minnie. “So, what are we going to do tonight?”
“I want to dance,” I said. “Aolani is having the ceremony to usher in the spirit of spring and then I think she wants to run the traces with the Viking.” I wiggled my eyebrows in a meaningful way. “I want to drink and party, that is all I want.”
“I want to drink and party too,” said Vi. “But not too much.”
Renee came out of the tent and joined us. I poured her some coffee as well. “Good morning sister wife,” I said.
“Good morning,” she said.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, I just have a hard time waking up,” she said. The Kid followed her out.
Chris was lovely and soon old enough to join us on adventures. Renee was a mixture of pride and fear. She had extracted a promise from the Big Viking to keep his fangs off her daughter and he had thus far kept his promises to her, but there would be a time when the girl would be of an age when she could chose, and that included choosing to take a Vampire as a potential love mate. I felt sorry for her.
Frankly, though, if Chris were going to have a Vampire lover, I would rather it with Vampires we know, than some strange Vampire with questionable views about humans or Vampires who (gasp) sparkled.
I pulled myself out of my fancies and got up to begin the macaroni salad and the bread. I was making Indian pocket bread, like the Cherokee do. I chopped onions and pickles for the salad and boiled eggs and macaroni and put it all together with mayo and mustard. I sprinkled it with paprika for color and put it in the fridge to chill. I put together the ingredients for the bread and kneaded it gently to keep the bread from being too tough and began to make balls and flattening them to the size of salad plates. I took the pan with the breads out to the big grill with the heavy steel plate Minnie’s husband had built. I put a bit of olive on the steel and carefully laid the breads on the surface to cook, flipping them to cook them evenly. When I had all of them cooked, I put them in a basket and covered them with a clean tea towel and took them back in.
Aolani was making some little cakes and placing them on a lightly buttered cookie pan. They were made of oatmeal and raisins and honey and cinnamon. I sniffed them. “For cakes and ale?” I asked. She smiled and nodded. Mead would constitute the drink, but the cakes were particular to her tradition. There were many religions who had the partaking of food and drink as a part of their ritual and I looked forward to it.
I went out and sat in the sun and watched my friends as they worked and played. It amazed me that here we were, so different from each other, we were all friends. Scarlett and the Kid picked flowers in the woods nearby and put them in big canning jars with water, arranging them artfully. They would be on the altar dedicated to spring, the maiden and her lover who would announce that the time of fruitfulness was with us. God Speed and Sal and Dude were working the pig, watching over it, turning it to keep it cooking evenly. The smells of the pork were intoxicating. Minnie and Jen and Fairy were shucking corn, keeping some in the husk to roast on the grill, but making the rest ready to be boiled. Renee was breaking green beans. I moved over to help her.
“This is so wonderful,” said Renee. “It is great to be here.”
“It is,” I said. “The only thing that blows when you like Vampires is that they can’t be with you in the day.”
“Yeah, it would be nice if they could be here with us,” she said. “I am so excited about the new book coming out.”
“I am too,” I said. “And then the adventures. The winter has been so long.”
“It has,” she said. “It still is where I am.”
“Poor Renee,” I said. Butter came over and sat down, rubbing the honey bun. “How’s the mommy?”
“Okay,” she said. “Tired.”
“Go lie down in the tent,” I said, nodding at the tent.”Rest up before tonight.”
“I might do that,” she said. She sat there a while longer and finally got up and made her way to the tent and went in. Linzy and Lina and Blue Belle was chatting with Raki and Vi, sitting in the sun, trying to get a little of the sun on their skin, so their Vampires would smell the sun.
I went to lie down for a while before sundown and woke up later and cleaned myself up, changing into a festive broomstick skirt of purple with a bright green summer sweater. It was about 45 minutes til sundown and the boys had finally cut the pig up into carvable chunks. The ribs had been separated and rubbed liberally with spice and the other succulent sauces. Roasts and loins were shaved of their meat and set out in platters. Eric was the first to come out with the death of the day. He walked regally to Aolani and kissed her warmly as she handed him a warmed bottle of Blood and Vi brought Bill’s his.
Nicky presented Pam her bottle and was rewarded with a warm kiss and the Kid brought Jessica hers, who noticeably sighed and began to drink the detested bottled blood.
Finally, the supper eaten and the tables cleared and the bale fire lit, Aolani, who had changed into her Beltane regalia, complete with her crown, adorned with the sign of the triune goddess, went to the altar and lit the candles and I poured the chalice of mead. She turned to us and invited us to take our places in a circle. We clasped our hands, standing around the fire. It was funny to see all these humans and four Vampires standing there together, celebrating the beginning of the renewal of earthly life, while among us were beings for whom “life” was something radically different. She began to speak:
“Beltane means many things. It is a celebration of spring coming into full flower. It is a celebration of life. But for us, here in this community, it is also the time when we leave the confines of our building and return to the temple of the forest.
Picture the forest extending on and on, as far as you can imagine, in all directions. The great wild forest surrounds and embraces us, and we are the people of the forest.
Here in the great wild forest, we have no need of a tool to cast the circle, for we have each other, our hands, our minds, our bodies. Join hands, and breathe in deeply, and breathe out, as one. Feel the circle being formed now by our touch, the energy leaping from hand to hand. Feel it forming, a place set apart from the trials of daily life, a sacred, wild place... “Her speech reminded me of something I had written, about whether the circle would be unbroken, would we all stand together? Most of us had, but there was a time when we felt that we were adrift, when we had to turn to each other til we had found a home, where we were free to do what we wanted and create the world we wanted to live in, without the solace of shadows, where we could coexist with the four among us and share in the adventures, with them and with each other.
“Here in the great wild forest feel all fears, doubts and negativities ebbing away from you, as the forest absorbs them and transforms them to good...” And we had done those things. We supported each other through good times and bad and kept each other in thoughts and prayers in our candle room, in our chat box and in our hearts. It was more than just being a fan of something, it was about being a fan, and family, to each other.
“Here in the great wild forest, we have the arching sky above our grove, and the rushing wind that ruffles our hair and caresses our skin. Breathe deeply, and take the wind and the sky into yourself. The spirits of the air are here always, it is we who have come to their place. Greet them, now, silently, in your own way... “ And I did. We all had our notion of the Creator, even the Vampires, if they were not religious, were spiritual. They felt emotions and had tenderness toward all of us. We all had our unique experiences with them and each other and we thanked the creator and their creatures in our hearts.
“Here in the great wild forest, we have the balefire in the center of our circle, and the stars above. See the leaping flames now, hear their crackle, and see them reflected in the tiny fires in the sky above us. Feel their warmth, and take them into yourself. The spirits of the fire are here always, it is we who have come to their place. Greet them, now, silently, in your own way...” Not only were there fires in the things Aolani addressed, there were fires in all of us: fires of love and passion and compassion and justice and longing and missing those who were not with us. I am sure that all of us thought of Godric, the lovely maker of our Eric, who wanted so much to see us as we are now. Maybe he was here in spirit and in his spirit world we would see him again.
“Open yourself, now, to the pulse of life all around you. It is there, if you can free your spirit enough to sense it. Feel the life straining to be born in every sprouting seed, the exhilaration of the blossoms bursting from their buds on the trees, the joy of the very grass itself, of every bush and shrub and piece of moss, greening again as the earth is warmed by the sun, as the life-giving rains fall from the sky, and all of nature is borne into the ecstatic dance of life’s return. And feel, in the midst of it all, the presence of the Creator, however you see him or her, who are the soul of all nature, the consciousness of the wild, the beauty of the green earth, the sun and moon and stars, and the mystery of the waters.” I saw Eric’s eyes close. It was strange to think I might be seeing him pray in thanks for life, especially because his kind is reputed to be dead. Perhaps they are to a degree, but as Bill said, we are all run on Magik, and that magik, I do whole heartedly believe in.
“We need not bid farewell to the creator, nor to the spirits that surround us, the wind, the fire, the stream, or the earth, for they are always here. It is we who shall take our leave of them, later on, and when we do, each of us shall say our own farewell, in our own words. But for now -- LET THE CELEBRATION BEGIN!!!” she announced triumphantly. We let go of one another’s hands long enough to clap and we began to hug and kiss each other. I stepped up to the Viking.
“Happy Beltane Viking,” I said, reaching up to kiss him briefly on the mouth.
“Happy Beltane Aslinn,” he said back.
We spent some of the evening together but slowly, it was just humans on the grounds as the Vampires and their lovers went into the night and found their own frolic.
I awoke, feeling better rested. I got up and went to the loo in Minnie’s garage and came out. The dew was upon the grass and the sun was warm against my skin. God Speed and Sal and Dude had the fire pit already started for the hog. Jen and Minnie and Vi were sitting under the marquee at the table. I walked over and they had hot coffee. I poured a cup and doctored it and lit a cigarette.
“The pig is on its way and it will cook all day in the pit,” said Minnie.
“I am going to make macaroni salad and bread,” I said, sipping the coffee. “What time did you go to bed?”
“We were up til dawn,” said Vi. I had gone to bed early with my Bill and he left me sometime just before dawn with a cool kiss. Tonight, Bill would be with Renee. It was her birthday.
“Where did Eric go last night?” I asked.
“He went to rest with Fairy. She must have a light tight place because he did not come back,” said Minnie.
“Has she wakened yet?” I asked. Minnie shook her head. I knew Aolani was set to spend time with the Viking tonight. That was the tough thing about those Eric girls, there was only one him and so many of them.
Scarlett came out of the tent and shambled over to the table. I poured her a cup of coffee and she sipped it. “Early morning chere?” I asked. She nodded and sipped the coffee again. Butter came out of the big camper. She was all smiles.
“What are you grinning like a possum about?” I asked. She slid into the chair beside me.
“I spent the night with Eric,” she said.
“I thought he spent the night with Fairy,” I said.
“Fairy made the supreme sacrifice and just let him tuck her in but he spent the night with me,” she said.
“Where is he now?” asked Scarlett.
“Asleep in there,” she said. “It is light tight. You know, he lay behind me all night and rubbed my honey bun?”
“Really,” I said. “Have you told him it is a little boy?”
“I did, last night,” she said. “Afterwards, I was lying on my back and he was rubbing my belly and he kissed my belly. It was so sweet!!!”
“Do you think they ever wish they could make babies?” mused Vi.
“I am sure some of the men do,” I said. “I don’t know about the women. Maybe Jessica would.”
“Pam does not mourn her lack of a motherhood,” said Minnie. “So, what are we going to do tonight?”
“I want to dance,” I said. “Aolani is having the ceremony to usher in the spirit of spring and then I think she wants to run the traces with the Viking.” I wiggled my eyebrows in a meaningful way. “I want to drink and party, that is all I want.”
“I want to drink and party too,” said Vi. “But not too much.”
Renee came out of the tent and joined us. I poured her some coffee as well. “Good morning sister wife,” I said.
“Good morning,” she said.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, I just have a hard time waking up,” she said. The Kid followed her out.
Chris was lovely and soon old enough to join us on adventures. Renee was a mixture of pride and fear. She had extracted a promise from the Big Viking to keep his fangs off her daughter and he had thus far kept his promises to her, but there would be a time when the girl would be of an age when she could chose, and that included choosing to take a Vampire as a potential love mate. I felt sorry for her.
Frankly, though, if Chris were going to have a Vampire lover, I would rather it with Vampires we know, than some strange Vampire with questionable views about humans or Vampires who (gasp) sparkled.
I pulled myself out of my fancies and got up to begin the macaroni salad and the bread. I was making Indian pocket bread, like the Cherokee do. I chopped onions and pickles for the salad and boiled eggs and macaroni and put it all together with mayo and mustard. I sprinkled it with paprika for color and put it in the fridge to chill. I put together the ingredients for the bread and kneaded it gently to keep the bread from being too tough and began to make balls and flattening them to the size of salad plates. I took the pan with the breads out to the big grill with the heavy steel plate Minnie’s husband had built. I put a bit of olive on the steel and carefully laid the breads on the surface to cook, flipping them to cook them evenly. When I had all of them cooked, I put them in a basket and covered them with a clean tea towel and took them back in.
Aolani was making some little cakes and placing them on a lightly buttered cookie pan. They were made of oatmeal and raisins and honey and cinnamon. I sniffed them. “For cakes and ale?” I asked. She smiled and nodded. Mead would constitute the drink, but the cakes were particular to her tradition. There were many religions who had the partaking of food and drink as a part of their ritual and I looked forward to it.
I went out and sat in the sun and watched my friends as they worked and played. It amazed me that here we were, so different from each other, we were all friends. Scarlett and the Kid picked flowers in the woods nearby and put them in big canning jars with water, arranging them artfully. They would be on the altar dedicated to spring, the maiden and her lover who would announce that the time of fruitfulness was with us. God Speed and Sal and Dude were working the pig, watching over it, turning it to keep it cooking evenly. The smells of the pork were intoxicating. Minnie and Jen and Fairy were shucking corn, keeping some in the husk to roast on the grill, but making the rest ready to be boiled. Renee was breaking green beans. I moved over to help her.
“This is so wonderful,” said Renee. “It is great to be here.”
“It is,” I said. “The only thing that blows when you like Vampires is that they can’t be with you in the day.”
“Yeah, it would be nice if they could be here with us,” she said. “I am so excited about the new book coming out.”
“I am too,” I said. “And then the adventures. The winter has been so long.”
“It has,” she said. “It still is where I am.”
“Poor Renee,” I said. Butter came over and sat down, rubbing the honey bun. “How’s the mommy?”
“Okay,” she said. “Tired.”
“Go lie down in the tent,” I said, nodding at the tent.”Rest up before tonight.”
“I might do that,” she said. She sat there a while longer and finally got up and made her way to the tent and went in. Linzy and Lina and Blue Belle was chatting with Raki and Vi, sitting in the sun, trying to get a little of the sun on their skin, so their Vampires would smell the sun.
I went to lie down for a while before sundown and woke up later and cleaned myself up, changing into a festive broomstick skirt of purple with a bright green summer sweater. It was about 45 minutes til sundown and the boys had finally cut the pig up into carvable chunks. The ribs had been separated and rubbed liberally with spice and the other succulent sauces. Roasts and loins were shaved of their meat and set out in platters. Eric was the first to come out with the death of the day. He walked regally to Aolani and kissed her warmly as she handed him a warmed bottle of Blood and Vi brought Bill’s his.
Nicky presented Pam her bottle and was rewarded with a warm kiss and the Kid brought Jessica hers, who noticeably sighed and began to drink the detested bottled blood.
Finally, the supper eaten and the tables cleared and the bale fire lit, Aolani, who had changed into her Beltane regalia, complete with her crown, adorned with the sign of the triune goddess, went to the altar and lit the candles and I poured the chalice of mead. She turned to us and invited us to take our places in a circle. We clasped our hands, standing around the fire. It was funny to see all these humans and four Vampires standing there together, celebrating the beginning of the renewal of earthly life, while among us were beings for whom “life” was something radically different. She began to speak:
“Beltane means many things. It is a celebration of spring coming into full flower. It is a celebration of life. But for us, here in this community, it is also the time when we leave the confines of our building and return to the temple of the forest.
Picture the forest extending on and on, as far as you can imagine, in all directions. The great wild forest surrounds and embraces us, and we are the people of the forest.
Here in the great wild forest, we have no need of a tool to cast the circle, for we have each other, our hands, our minds, our bodies. Join hands, and breathe in deeply, and breathe out, as one. Feel the circle being formed now by our touch, the energy leaping from hand to hand. Feel it forming, a place set apart from the trials of daily life, a sacred, wild place... “Her speech reminded me of something I had written, about whether the circle would be unbroken, would we all stand together? Most of us had, but there was a time when we felt that we were adrift, when we had to turn to each other til we had found a home, where we were free to do what we wanted and create the world we wanted to live in, without the solace of shadows, where we could coexist with the four among us and share in the adventures, with them and with each other.
“Here in the great wild forest feel all fears, doubts and negativities ebbing away from you, as the forest absorbs them and transforms them to good...” And we had done those things. We supported each other through good times and bad and kept each other in thoughts and prayers in our candle room, in our chat box and in our hearts. It was more than just being a fan of something, it was about being a fan, and family, to each other.
“Here in the great wild forest, we have the arching sky above our grove, and the rushing wind that ruffles our hair and caresses our skin. Breathe deeply, and take the wind and the sky into yourself. The spirits of the air are here always, it is we who have come to their place. Greet them, now, silently, in your own way... “ And I did. We all had our notion of the Creator, even the Vampires, if they were not religious, were spiritual. They felt emotions and had tenderness toward all of us. We all had our unique experiences with them and each other and we thanked the creator and their creatures in our hearts.
“Here in the great wild forest, we have the balefire in the center of our circle, and the stars above. See the leaping flames now, hear their crackle, and see them reflected in the tiny fires in the sky above us. Feel their warmth, and take them into yourself. The spirits of the fire are here always, it is we who have come to their place. Greet them, now, silently, in your own way...” Not only were there fires in the things Aolani addressed, there were fires in all of us: fires of love and passion and compassion and justice and longing and missing those who were not with us. I am sure that all of us thought of Godric, the lovely maker of our Eric, who wanted so much to see us as we are now. Maybe he was here in spirit and in his spirit world we would see him again.
“Open yourself, now, to the pulse of life all around you. It is there, if you can free your spirit enough to sense it. Feel the life straining to be born in every sprouting seed, the exhilaration of the blossoms bursting from their buds on the trees, the joy of the very grass itself, of every bush and shrub and piece of moss, greening again as the earth is warmed by the sun, as the life-giving rains fall from the sky, and all of nature is borne into the ecstatic dance of life’s return. And feel, in the midst of it all, the presence of the Creator, however you see him or her, who are the soul of all nature, the consciousness of the wild, the beauty of the green earth, the sun and moon and stars, and the mystery of the waters.” I saw Eric’s eyes close. It was strange to think I might be seeing him pray in thanks for life, especially because his kind is reputed to be dead. Perhaps they are to a degree, but as Bill said, we are all run on Magik, and that magik, I do whole heartedly believe in.
“We need not bid farewell to the creator, nor to the spirits that surround us, the wind, the fire, the stream, or the earth, for they are always here. It is we who shall take our leave of them, later on, and when we do, each of us shall say our own farewell, in our own words. But for now -- LET THE CELEBRATION BEGIN!!!” she announced triumphantly. We let go of one another’s hands long enough to clap and we began to hug and kiss each other. I stepped up to the Viking.
“Happy Beltane Viking,” I said, reaching up to kiss him briefly on the mouth.
“Happy Beltane Aslinn,” he said back.
We spent some of the evening together but slowly, it was just humans on the grounds as the Vampires and their lovers went into the night and found their own frolic.
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