Chap1 :The Ceiling of Stars (1st revis)

Trouble. A dead body on ANY beach on Cape Cod  guaranteed to bring up visions of  Great Whites. But not this time. There was no blood , not a drop , to mark her existence on the sugar white sands of Sothwold  . At first, she appeared to be just a mound of sand, perhaps tinted with food coloring or Tempura paint wash . Some artistic gift to the community by an unknown artist. Her long dark hair was splayed like the crowning glory of a beached mermaid. A dried star fish garnished her hair above her right ear. Two dried seahorses hung on wired earrings . Her eyes were closed in some eternal nap-her more intimate parts thoughtfully covered by sprays of giant kelp. Her mascaraed lashes dusted by the sea breeze that had started at dawn. The jewelry that she wore could have been bought at any gift shop on the Cape. What she had worn earlier the prior evening, was nowhere to be seen. There was no sign of struggle either in her person or the area which surrounded her. Any foot prints would have blown away , kept securely secret by the beach and its errant breezes . The only color that stood out was the frosted chianti of her lips,more stain than lipgloss.

I have always loved the white sanded beaches of Southwold. We had the best sand bars, you could walk out forever at low tide. The pity of it is , is that as pale as I am , I do not tan. I do occasionally freckle but even that becomes more rare as I get older. I tend to agree with scientists that the Earth was growing warmer . The sun seemed hotter to me with each passing year. My uncle said that is normal. That I am growing up. That it happened to us all. He only went out in the late afternoon. Living on Cape Cod had  to be the best place to live. There was great energy to be had in all of that sea air.

I saw the blue lights of the town sheriff as I rode my aged bike back along the blacktop. The yellow of crime scene tape fluttered in the breeze. Curious, I rode up closer. I could just make out the form of the mermaid on our beach, when the boots of the sheriff appeared before me as I stood behind the gate.

“Go along with you. I doubt your uncle would want you here. ” he barked. Skip was not much older than I. His position gave him authority to order people around. His post high school frame had added pounds . Joyce must be a good cook. Confident  I would follow direction, he turned back to his deputy , who was preoccupied taking pictures .I turn to leave because I had a rehearsal to attend. My bike creaked as I peddled away. Salt air pits and corrodes everything.

We have a wonderful town rep theater  . Its nowhere near as large or well known as The Cape Rep  which was in Brewster . Our production of  Our Town , was even written up by the critic from the Globe. Its a nice little theater . Mr Volkey , from the high school  was working again , this summer as the director. He had been the director for the last two years.During the fall, he taught world history at the local high school.  At least, that is what I was told . He was a rather quiet man, tall ,gaunt, with a cragged  features. I had to lean in to hear what he instructed-he was fascinating.

This summer, it had been considered to do something musical , like Carousel or Cats. But its been about five years since Arthur Miller died, so we were doing his plays ALL season this year. We had decided to  start with The Crucible.  Our director  was really surprised that I tried out for Abigail Williams. Even though I excelled academically, I had hung back in the shadows when it came to social  challenges.  .

I was a good actress. I have had lots of practice. I was surprised to get the lead, as I have never appeared on stage.  Nature had ways of hiding the young of species endangered by another. I had learned to practice hiding my true nature. I suppose that the closest that I could come to describing who my family and I are , would be  to use the common word vampire. No demons, no ghouls, no good and evil-we were born that way. It is egocentric to assume that what most people accept as humans were  the only species that comes under that category. We  lived  human lives-just different. As children, we were the same as all other human children,,even in the sun. Sun sensitivity increased with age. Puberty , which ran  late in our own, usually marked the beginning of change. Do we drink blood? Yes.  Its an adult thing. You trade the sun for sex and blood. We have not hunted as a common practice. in centuries preferring to manipulate in our way to feed. . There is an exception called a Wild Hunt. But someone on a wild hunt would not leave dead bodies lying around like empty beer cans, never mind take the time to decorate them. We did not turn into bats, wolves, fog...and we were not immortal . We could not convert you. We do live a great deal  longer than those  commonly believed to be humans.  As I said, the girl on the beach was trouble.

“Do you think that it is  a rogue, Jean Paul?” I heard my uncle's worried tone on the white wall phone in our kitchen. A horsefly buzzed around him as he spoke He absently flapped a striped dishtowel at it.

“Do we know yet why this girl was chosen? “ Andrew smiled as he listened to Jean-Paul on the other end of the line.” Really foolish if you ask me for any woman, ours or theirs. to walk the beach after dark alone.”

He paused . “ No , I suppose that you are right. Its not fashionable. “ He shook his head as he spoke.

“ Call me if you hear anything. Yeah, I am keeping a watch on my girl. Trouble's trouble. If its a wanna be- they are worse than a rogue. They believe all the propaganda. There is a whole new generation misinformed.” He swatted at the annoying insect with the dishtowel. The fly was stunned,dropping to the ground . His life was crushed  beneath  my uncle's  slipper shod foot. I hear the receiver click back into place.

“Rae? Get the vacuum. Cat's left her paw print on the rug  your grandmother hooked. The one in the hall.” 

I pulled the vacuum from the front closet . Between beach sand and litter box clay- its a miracle  the house was not peppered with them. But Bunny was my best friend. I would  have done anything for her. Andrew liked her too- but she was my responsibility -so it was my job to care for her. Calico contrary, she snuggled when she choose She was definitely in charge. She had assumed a guardian position in the house. If I woke needlessly, she pushed me back into my pillows with a nudge of her front paw. She once brought me a gift of a headless mouse. I screamed at her and ordered it taken away. In typical cat logic, she decided that the problem was that it was dead. The very next evening, she brought me a live one. It was two weeks before we scared it out of the house , giving distance to its mouse rump with the bristles of a broom.

The tv boomed from the living room. The news played. “Nineteen year old Tami Smith, of Brocton  spent her last day and night on this beach in Sothwold. Originally from Sunnyvale, CA . She was a first year  student at... “

The shot changed to a petit brunette being interviewed by the the aggressive blonde news woman.” I came down to the beacb because she didn't come back to the cabin we  rented  for overnight. “

The corononer's report showed. Her lips were stained by her own dried blood.  Skip got to notify Tami's family.  A job that he hated.

The door bell sounded. Jean Paul and his son , Henri stepped in.  His son stood silent . He was just a little taller than I . He had straight dark brown hair that hung to his shoulders . Like his father , his eyes showed signs that he smiled often. His body was well developed , his arms showed years of manual lifting.  I guessed his age at about mid to late twenties, Although not the largest male in the Colony, he had a solid look to him that would be hard to beat in battle, should someone oppose him. I suspected that there were not many who tried in that department. I was fascinated by the dinples in his cheeks.

“ You are done with the play , “ commanded Jean-Paul . He was over six feet tall, slighly balding with a  sturdy frame . “ You and every other woman are not to walk the beach alone at night. . “

“ I am unChanged,” I reminded him .

“ All the more reason , he replied. “You can keep it if you can get it during daylight hours. I may not be part of your ruling body but I do rule your uncle. He is responsible for you. “

I was astounded “Rehearsal sometimes runs late. The performance is in a week. “ I was sputtering.

I had worked hard for the part. “There has got to be a better way . “I hated the idea of giving up in the face of something that I could not control.

“ Papa” began Henri, brushing his hair away from his face . “What if she had an escort?  Could she do it then? “

Jean-Paul nodded. “That might work. Who would you suggest?”

“Me” he replied.

“ What about the cafe? There is still a lot to be done,” his father replied.

“ I can do both. I will sleep less. “ He smiled at me, raising his eyebrows. I looked at his fingers behind his back. He had crossed them for luck.

Jean Paul lit a cigar, blew the smoke out then regarded  his son.” Get into the play  and I will agree. .”

“ Thank you” I whispered.

“ I am not in yet. “

“ You will be. “

He tried out the next day . His precision at hitting his marks was incredible. He won the role of John Proctor away from Frank at the gas station. Frank could not get off work for rehersals.

Every evening he walked me home. On the third night , I punched him lightly on the shoulder. “ Told ya , that you would get it. “ He laughed .  He play punched me in return in our living room.

“That the best you got? You hit like a human girl.”  He dumped me in the oversized armchair in the corner. He reached over and  tickled me until I fell to the floor in a heap.

“ I am  a human girl .My uncle thinks at least for this summer.  And what would you be knowing about human girls? ” I taunted back. I rose from the floor stepping back as I spoke.

He pulled the waist band of his jeans up, and faced me  .He puffed up . ” Enough not to starve or suffer”

I started for him once again, interrupted only by the sound of my uncle as he walked into the living room. Henri sidestepped me, swinging me by my upper arms onto the couch. I grabbed him pulling him down after me . He smiled with anticipation as he tickled me against our  couch. His hand randomly brushed against my breasts. I blushed and he laughed , raising his eyebrows as he did.

“Quit your larking , you two. “ I hear the glasses clink as my uncle put them up in the cabinet in the dining room. “You might break something.”

Jean Paul put a hand on his son. He shot me a warning look. The merriment ceased. We tried our best to look and sound serious . Jean -Paul shook his head . We settled  down to listen.

“ I am serious. There is something out there. We will find it whatever it may be. Its more in our interest than Skip's . We have more to lose. “ The tapering gray in his  temples seemed larger tonight. He has lead our community for decades in peace. “Keep an eye on her . We don't know how he is finding his victims.”

“ I promise, Papa, “ Henri  replied.

Jean-Paul stared at me. “ Any weirdness and the play is over. Get her out of there and to a safe place.”

“Maybe he is done.” I suggested  I looked around the room . There was no one who would agree with me. All three men had made it very clear that the play was on probation .

“ Maybe he is waiting for everyone's guard to drop” comment Henri. Jean- Paul was satisfied with his son's answer. “ We will play it by ear. There is a very good chance that we will make it through the run of the play. “

I smiled “ I hope”.

If I had to have a two hundred year old babysitter, at least, I had one that was easy to be with and someone that watching would not be a problem . He kept his private life exactly that , private. I had never seen him with a female more than once. It never seemed to be anything serious beyond the hunt. One step at a time , I reminded myself. For now I was human girl.

His father  was much older than he looked. Jean-Paul and Sophie  had a bakery a long time ago , lost in the Revolution. Those were hard days. Jean Paul was lucky to escape with his life when the Bastille fell. Sophie had died when Henri was still a baby.  We weren't  all counts and nobles, sometimes we just do business with them. It did not always make us safer.

#

Brightly colored tents dotted the road as well as the beach during  the week of our performance. Vendors from all over the state pushed their wares, hoping to escape a winter of welfare. Jugglers toss lighted torches into air. Shoreline dinners boiled as vigorously as any witches cauldron exposing the odors of clams, corn , fish and lobster into the humid night air. Former hippies slept in bags on the beach until prodded by Skip to move along.

Business men with tan free faces ,mollified their Neiman Marcus dressed wives that they never spend time together. Indulged youngsters stuffed pink cotton candy into their mouths as they raced along the beach. Carnival double  ferris wheels lifted local and visiting alike into a star dotted sky. A drummer enticed people into his area to squirt water down the throats of brightly painted metal clowns. Its a race. Winner was determined by filling the various colored balloons that rise from the top of their heads. Strangers, strangers , everywhere. Henry stayed right by me as we headed towards the Rep . Two Puritans passing through the festive crowd. In the olden days, this would have condemned all the participants to Hell. Cootchie girls, more modest than their predecessors , keep their show family friendly . 

Inside the Rep, the young women from Salem Village , bowed before Tituba. They rise. Lead  in the painted woods, by Abigail ,swaying,twirling as they encircle the small fake fire on stage, Passing the chalice from hand to hand,they began a spiral dance that picked up speed.

They were not alone . They have been spotted by Reverend Parris. They know of the severe punishments that await them. Betty Parris fainted at the sight of her father.

The outside door crashed open. I look up , pulled from my character . Henry stepped slightly in front of me from stage right.

Skip and Jean Paul looked grim . “Stay calm” Skip instructed. His hand carressed  the butt of his gun.

Jean Paul watched as Skip stepped up “Excuse me ,ladies and gentlemen but we may have a suspect  in the recent murder on the beach. He may not have been working alone. May I ask that you exit the theater in an orderly fashion.”

  The drummer from the clown game was found with a hyperdermic needle drugging another young girl. She would survive. He had followed her off of the fairway and onto the beach. He caught her alone. He was carrying a dried star fish. He did not stop when Skip saw her slump. The drummer could not support her dead weight and fight Skip. Sheriff  and Jean Paul wrestled him to the ground. A lumpy quilt was softly wrapped around the dazed young woman. Everyone was being dispersed for the evening all over the beach.

I was surrounded by my uncle,  Jean-Paul , and Henri , still in full makeup. I felt a circle of protection close around me.

“I have called a meeting at Mark's house. I would like Andrew to be there,”explained  Jean Paul.

Henri nodded “ You can fill me in at home. “

“ I will call you to make sure that all is well,” Andrew said climbing into back seat of  the black sedan  next to Jean- Paul . I liked Jean-Paul. As authority figures went, he was easy going. I had seen him be stern with the careless and even rough with repeat offenders who threatened our community . He had always been kind to my uncle and I when it became necessary for Andrew to join a colony.

“ She will be fine. I will check the house before I leave her,“. Henri promised as the other two men got intothe long black limo.

“I appreciate the care that you have extended to us “ My uncle smiled , shutting the back door.  The car drove off to the meeting. We started our walk down the beach as the lights from the carnival were extinguished on the order of the sheriff.