"That," I told my mum, "was a particularly good dinner."
"Really," she asked me, as she started picking up our empty plates from the table. "And why was it so particularly good tonight?"



I considered this for a moment, then said "Well, it had a good salad, good potatoes, and no bacon."
Adam groaned. "I love bacon," he said.
"I don't," I said. I always have to hold my nose if I smell cooking bacon, otherwise I feel a sudden urge to purge.
Mum started carrying the plates into the kitchen, while Adam stood up and wandered over to the fridge, where he immediately started searching for more food, despite the perfectly satisfying meal we'd just eaten.
"Will you be coming to the community meeting, honey?" my dad called to Mum.
"Ah…no," she replied. "I have so much stuff to file."
"How's it all going, anyway?" I asked.
She nodded. "Pretty good," she replied. "The new seedlings are coming along really well. I'll be able to start making some more slides of the mature ones tomorrow…if I can clean up my lab."
"I'll send your regards, then," Dad said, getting up. He looked at me and glanced in Adam's direction. "Coming?"
Solitaria has regular community meetings each Sunday evening, where all of the residents gather at the hall to chat or discuss important stuff. Apparently, at this meeting we'd be introduced to Lola and Adrianna, the newcomers.
It doesn't take long to walk to the hall. In fact, in Solitaria, it doesn't take long to walk anywhere. The hall is a leisurely five minutes away, Lou's shop is right next to it, and they form a central 'hub' from which anyone's house is no more than ten minutes away (fifteen if you're lazy).
There were already quite a few people there when we arrived; in fact, it looked like most of the town. Typically, everyone had divided into age groups – children were clustered around the swing set, teenagers were gathered near the tree, and most of the adults were already inside.
I sidled up next to Tamara. "Are we planning to go inside?" I asked.



She shrugged. "Yeah, probably," she replied. "When the adults start calling us in."
I nodded. "Is Amelia here yet?" I inquired.
Tamara nodded. "Yeah, I think she's inside though," she said. "She said something about mosquitoes and left."
I smiled to myself. "Thanks," I said, and went to find Amelia.
The community hall is divided into two main rooms: the youth room, where we meet during the evening (and where the children meet for their classes during the day), and the meeting room, which is just a general room with some seats and a kitchenette. I headed into the latter.
It was filling up surprisingly quickly. Scanning the crowd, I managed to spot Amelia, who was talking to the Desslers while holding her camera. Marie kept looking hesitantly at her husband, who was looking rather uncertain and scowling as Amelia spoke to him.
I moved through the crowd until I was a little closer, and I was able to hear Amelia talking.
"…not going to be displayed anywhere, it's not going on the Internet, it's just a private interest project that I'm sort of sharing with Ellie, I promise…"
"But what I don't understand," Anthony Dessler said, "is why you need a photo of us in the first place."



"Well, you see, Ellie's got a kind of journal-slash-scrapbook thing happening, about what happens in this town. And you're a part of this town, so you get your very own page in the scrapbook. But it would look really odd if we didn't have a picture of you guys anywhere. So I'm just asking if, please, it might be possible for me to take just one quick group shot, while you're all here…"
I had to hand it to Amelia - she was using her very best 'dealing-with-difficult-people' tone that she was able to use so well. It came in especially helpful when we went shopping together in Eridessa and I needed help convincing store assistants that I didn't want to buy that particular dress, that I wanted to order in a particular book, that I hadn't actually stolen the CD but had just thrown away the receipt, etc. I have next to no social skills when it comes to people I don't know – I trip over my sentences, mix vowel sounds, and generally end up stammering my way through my clumsy words. This is why I prefer writing words rather than speaking them.
Before I could hear the Dessler's reply, someone gave a loud, high-pitched whistle and the room fell quiet. Someone ducked out of the room to call the teenagers and children in, while I heard Lou begin speaking.
"It'd be great if everyone could gather round, take a seat, you know…" he suggested, prompting the crowd to shift through the room and roughly assemble themselves facing towards Lou. I quickly headed for one of the seats, and ended up behind him as he spoke.
Two twenty-something girls were standing beside him, and I assumed that they were the people we were here to meet.



The girl closest to me had long, flowing blonde hair, pale skin and dark eyelashes, and was wearing a short pink summer dress. The girl next to her was her total opposite – dark skin, a narrow face framed by short black hair, and she was clad in skinny leggings, high heels, a blue T-shirt and a cropped black leather jacket. I tried to figure out how such complete opposites had both arrived in Solitaria together.
As it turned out, they were an example of how opposites attract. Lou gestured towards them and announced, "Now, the reason we're gathered here tonight is to meet our town's newest arrivals, Adrianna Smythe and Lola Marchetta. They're going to be renting the room above my shop for a few months at least – so, husbands, you can't come to my place now when you've been kicked out for forgetting your anniversary."
There was a general murmur of chuckles – it seemed quite a few of the town's members had made use of Lou's spare bed on dire occasions. Lou waited for the noise to subside before continuing.
"They'll also be helping me out in the shop, since they've decided to work for part of their keep, so don't be surprised to see them working the espresso machine or cash register."
"Aw," I murmured to no one in particular. "I want Lou to keep making the coffee."
"Anyway," Lou went on, "please make them feel welcome here, and – well – I'll let them introduce themselves." Lou moved aside and gestured again to Adrianna and Lola. "Fire away."
The two girls looked at each other, before Adrianna spoke. "Well, I guess I should say thankyou," she began, "and especially for the, ah, welcome…we've never really had that kind of welcome when we've arrived in a new town before…"
"That's because you've never come to Solitaria before!" someone called out, and people around them laughed.
Adrianna smiled. "Oh, we've been to some other small towns before…just never one quite as small as this."
She paused, and Lou said, "Tell us why you've come to Solitaria."
This time it was Lola who spoke. "Well, we've just come from a fairly enormous city, so we were kind of looking for a change."
"We're kind of like nomads," Adrianna added. "We tend to keep moving around from place to place all the time. In fact, the last time we stayed somewhere longer than six months was…oh, I can't even remember—"
"Littleton," Lola provided, nodding. "Which wasn't little, by the way," she added.
She paused again, and Adrianna glanced over at Lou, looking a bit uncomfortable at all the attention. Lou smiled encouragingly, and said "So - tell us about yourselves. What do you do to earn a living, what are your hobbies, and so on."
Adrianna smiled. "Well, we've both had a lot of different jobs over the years," she said with a small laugh. "Mine have mainly been secretarial work, office jobs, so on."
"I do a bit of this, and a bit of that," Lola said evasively. "Worked in a music store once. But that was a long time ago."
"Hobbies?" Lou prompted.
Lola tilted her head to one side, considering. "Uh, I dunno about that one, actually," she said. "I don't really have...hobbies, as such. Adrianna likes cooking..."
Adrianna smiled at this, nodding timidly. There was another lengthy pause, before Lola finished "So…yeah. Thanks, everyone."
Lou started clapping, and we all joined in. People started drifting away, forming small conversation groups and talking again, until a steady level of chatter filled the room. A few people made their way towards the newcomers to introduce themselves personally.
Amelia came and found me. "Ugh," she said.
"Hello to you, too," I replied.
She made a face. "Hi. You would not believe how long I've spent trying to convince the Desslers that I'm not going to spread the word about their presence here, and that all I want is one harmless photograph of them."



"Maybe they have a phobia of camera flash," I suggested. "It could run in the family."
"Just one photo!" Amelia exclaimed, grumpily. "That's all I'm asking for."
"Well you'd better hurry up and take it, because they're all waiting around for you over there," I said, pointing.
Amelia turned to look. "Oh!"
She bustled off with her camera, leaving me seated on the couch. Since people were standing directly in front of me, chatting, I couldn't easily get up without having to ask someone to move. Not wanting to interrupt anyone, I simply stayed put for a moment. The only other person sitting down was Julian, on the couch near my own. I deliberately avoided looking at him, for fear a glaring match would start – or for fear he might look at me and I'd have no idea how to arrange my face into some kind of appropriate expression.
In a few minutes, however, Dad provided my escape for me. He gradually weaved his way through the crowd towards me, looking a little anxious.
"Mum just called," he said, holding up his mobile phone. "She's hurt her finger rearranging the lab and she's asked me to bring Edward back to take a look at it."
I sighed. "What does she think she's done?"
"She thinks she might have dislocated or fractured one of the joints," he said. "Anyway, we'd better leave now…where's your brother?"
I shrugged. "Probably outside or something. I'll go find him, where do I meet you?"
"Well, I'm just going to start walking back. Edward will probably fly there before we arrive, so if you wanted to start making your way back, I don't mind when you do that…in fact, you can stay here if you really wanted to—"
"No, I'm coming," I said quickly, finally able to get off the couch. I walked out through the crowd to look for Adam, while Dad went to look for Edward Guildenstern, who was a fully qualified doctor. It seemed strange that a vampire – someone attracted to blood – would want to be a doctor, but he was brilliant at it. He was also a fully qualified electrician, plumber, carpenter, lawyer, schoolteacher, mechanical engineer, and architect.
When you're immortal, apparently, you spend a lot of time studying different things.
In the end, I discovered Adam outside under the tree, talking to Anastasia and Oswald. When I approached, they suddenly stopped talking and just looked at each other kind of shiftily.
I looked at them. "What's going on?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing," my brother said nonchalantly.



I looked at them suspiciously for a few more moments, then told Adam what was going on. While I spoke, I noticed a bat fly out of the community hall and fly towards my house.
"There goes Dad," Anastasia said, somewhat unnecessarily.
Adam and I left, walking quickly towards the house. Just before we went in the front door, I tried to catch him off guard.
"What were you guys talking about back there?" I asked.
He cast an irritatingly knowing look in my direction, then tapped his nose, before silently walking inside.
Brothers, I thought, following.
Mum was sitting on one of the couches, looking dejectedly at her hand. Her middle finger was swollen and red, and Edward was studying it carefully.



"Ouch," I said, taking a seat. "How'd you do that?"
Mum winced. "I must've really slammed the fridge door shut last time I closed it, and it was really hard to open…so I tried pulling extra-hard, but at a strange angle, and I felt my hand crack." She shrugged. "The door opened, though."
Dad just shook his head. "I leave you alone for a moment…"
"Don't start that," Mum said, mock-crossly. "When I left you alone once, you ended up breaking your leg!"
I guess we're an accident-prone family.
Edward let go of Mum's hand and sighed. "Well, it will have to be X-rayed, but I'd say you've either sprained it, torn a ligament, or somehow damaged the cartilage in that joint," he announced. "You'll need to get that X ray as soon as you can…try taking some ibuprofen, that should settle down any inflammation, and keep a cold pack on for a while to stop the swelling, OK?"
"OK," Mum sighed. She looked up at Dad. "Looks like we're travelling into Eridessa tomorrow, then."
Dad nodded. "It does look that way, doesn't it?" Eridessa has the closest medical facilities, including an X ray and pathology place.
"Thanks a lot for your help, Edward," Mum said. She smiled ruefully. "I'd shake your hand, but it might aggravate it."
Edward smiled. "Probably not a good idea."
"How much do we owe you?" Dad asked.
Edward shook his head. "Don’t worry about it," he said, gathering his things. "Free of charge."
"Are you sure?" Dad asked.
They haggled for a while – Edward refusing payment, Dad refusing the refusal of payment. Edward eventually won when he smiled, said a firm 'Goodbye', and turned into a bat before flying off.
Dad looked miffed. "How am I supposed to argue with a bat?"