“So, what’s new?”
Kelly Ann giggled. “Shall we tell him?”
Jamie was irritated by her; she’d probably grow up to be just like his mother, he could tell. There was an expectant silence. Monaghan scraped moss from the chapel wall with his fingernail, his tone deceptively matter of fact as he announced, “We’ve found a vampire’s tomb.”
Jamie shielded his eyes from the sun as he looked up at the gang leader. “You’ve what?”
Kelly Ann wagged her head knowingly.
“We found a vampire’s tomb. You never, cause you weren’t here.”
Jamie ignored her. He did not want to start an argument with Kelly Ann, she always got the better of him with her fund of smart remarks. He spoke directly to Monaghan.
“Is that right?”
“Yep.”
“A real vampire’s tomb!”
“Right.”
Jamie shook his head in disbelief. He smiled through his tousled bangs. “Ah, you’re kiddin’ me.”
Little Cliffie wet his finger and drew several swift crosses over his stomach. “We’re not kiddin’, cross my heart and hope t’die.”
Jamie narrowed his eyes. “Well, where is this vampire’s tomb?”
Kelly Ann pointed dramatically off to where the broken cemetery wall was met by the overgrowing woods.
“It’s right over there in the bushes where no one ever goes.”
Monaghan took out a broken penknife and began scraping his initials into the church wall. “Want me to show you it?”
Jamie stood up. “Come on then, I’m not scared.”
As they walked across the graveyard, Paula and Gary, the remaining gang members, explained to Jamie, “We came through the woods this morning and climbed over the far side of the cemetery.”
“Yeah, you should see the graves there, all foreign. Hungarian, I think. Vampires come from Hungaria, don’t they?”
Kelly Ann scoffed. “It’s not Hungaria, silly, it’s Hungary.”
Jamie paused by a marble angel with outspread wings.
“How d’you know it’s Hungary if they’re all foreign graves, Smartypants?”
“It said Magyar on some of them. Magyar’s in Hungary, my big brother’s stamp album says so. Smartypants yourself!”
Just like his mother, Kelly Ann had an argument and an answer for everything. Jamie walked the rest of the way in silence.
Monaghan pointed with the broken blade of his penknife at a rickety wood cross on an overgrown grave plot. “There’s one of ‘em, look. Zillibor Zorbigowitch or someone. See the funny writing? He died in 1902. There’s another one, that grey stone cross, two of ‘em in there, they died in 1895 and 1898.”
Jamie blew hair out of his eyes as he inspected the stone.
“Doesn’t make ‘em vampires though, does it? Just ‘cause they’re from Hungaria and died a long time ago.”
Kelly Ann parted the edge of a vastly overgrown lilac bush.
“Well take a look at this one, Mr. Knowitall!”
It was not a grave, it was a tomb. Dark, mossy stonework, entwined with weeds and creepers. Two broad steps led up to a bronze door that had long ago acquired a patina of green verdigris. Jamie stood goggle eyed at the sight of the sinister stone heap. It resembled a small temple, squared off ledges and columns with kneeling angels at each corner. Even in the midday summer sun it was a fearsome vision. Monaghan tapped his broken blade against the bronze door.
“What d’you suppose this is?”
Jamie peered at the representation of a bird embossed upon the metal.
“It’s an eagle, isn’t it?”
Kelly Ann curled her lip and folded her arms.
“Shows how much you know. Huh, even little Cliffie knows what that is. Tell him, Cliffie, go on.”
“It’s a bat, a vampire’s bat!”
Jamie borrowed Monaghan’s knife and scraped at the bronze. He turned and shrugged, trying to redeem himself in the gang’s eyes.
“Hard to tell, it’s so old. Could be a bat, I suppose.”
Monaghan folded his knife away.
“It’s a vampire bat all right, I’ve seen them in books. Look at the bottom here, it says ‘Magyar’ in big letters and there’s a sort of a round shape. Looks like a full moon if you ask me.”
Jamie nodded his agreement. It was always best to nod when Monaghan said anything—he was the biggest and toughest of the gang.
“Oh yeah, right. Can you make out the names of the dead people?”
“Nope, all this green stuffs grown too thick around the letters. Bet they’re Hungarians though, and look what Paula found on the steps.”
Paula pulled a face, wringing her hands nervously.
“Yukk! I’m not touching that thing!”
Gary turned it over in the long grass with his foot. “Here it is.”
It was a dead bat, a tiny pipistrelle. Jamie could not resist a smile as he watched them goggling at the pitiful carcass.
“Haha, bit little for a vampire bat, isn’t it?”
Kelly Ann sniffed.
“You were a bit little for a boy when you were born, pity your brain never grew up.”
Monaghan and the rest broke into raucous laughter. Immediately Jamie was put on the defensive; his cheeks flushed red.
“At least I’m not scared like you lot. I’m not frightened of a little dead bat on some moldy old foreign grave!”
“Yes you are!”
“No I’m not!”
“Are!”
“Not!”
Monaghan intervened. “Okay, let’s see you sit alone on those steps for ten minutes if you’re not scared.”
Jamie plonked his behind firmly on the top step and rammed his back hard against the bronze door.
“There. See!”
Monaghan stuffed his hands deep in his pocket and leaned forward, staring hard at Jamie.
“Right! You’ve got to stay there for ten full minutes all on your own. We’ll walk to the arcade and back; that should take about ten minutes more or less.”
“But I haven’t got a watch. How’ll I know when the ten minutes is up?”
Kelly Ann provided a solution. Jamie had known she would somehow.
“Sixty seconds in a minute, so if you count up to six hundred that should be ten minutes exactly. You can count, can’t you?”
Jamie thrust his chin forward aggressively. ” ‘Course I can!”
“Well see you do!” She had got the last word in again; he wondered if she were a distant relation of his mother’s.
After they had gone Jamie sat alone with his thoughts on the step of the tomb. The metal door felt like ice on his back… supposing it swung inward all of a sudden. He had seen that happen in a film on television. Moving forward, he sat on the bottom step, muttering quietly.
“Bet I’ve got that green stuff all over the back of my shirt, that’ll give Mum something to shout about. Huh, I’ve missed lunch too, and my second lot of allergy tablets. She’ll prob’ly hit the roof when I get home. What was that sound?”
A low moan issued from the nearby bushes.
Despite the warmth of the day Jamie felt ice-cold sweat prickling his forehead. He was about to galvanize his legs into action for a quick dash away from the tomb when he heard a stifled giggle from the thicket. His quick glance caught a flash of pink T-shirt.
Kelly Ann!
Straight away he relaxed. The gang was playing some sort of trick, trying to scare him off. But he resolved to sit tight.
The tiny dead bat was tossed out of the leafy screen. It landed floppily by his feet.
Jamie would show them. Smiling inwardly, he gave a massive yawn and snuggled down on the steps, pretending to be asleep.
“Jaaaaayyyymmmmeeeeeewoooooooh!”
That was Monaghan’s voice, he could tell it anywhere. Lying quite still, Jamie listened to the whispered conversation coming from the thicket.
“He’s pretending to be asleep, the fool.” (That was Kelly Ann.)
“Are you sure? He looks awfully still.” (Little Cliffie.)
“Here, this’ll move him!” (Monaghan.)