A dollar’s worth of vampiric destiny

/ Doug Jacquier

This piece was adapted from an earlier piece of mine for the Six Sentence Challenge, for the prompt word of ‘film’.

I’ve picked up a job as an extra in the Coen brothers’ new film, ‘Fargo Is No Country For Old Men’, starring Nicole Theron, and I’m Customer No. 3 on the set of the Transylvania Bar, the one with the bushy beard and mostly in shadow, so no-one picks up on the fangs.

At lunch Nicole sits, alone, under a giant beach umbrella, wearing dark shades (just like mine) and her caked-on make-up gives her skin the look of alabaster as she sips her Rhesus Negative Highball.

We each look over the top of our shades and spiral into each other’s vampiric vortex and she says ‘Do you have a pen and paper?’, leaving me to fumble through my pockets and find a pen and a dollar bill, and she writes in tiny script in the space next to Washington’s head.

She leans toward me and breathes urgently ‘The gods have brought us together but tonight I fly out to my castle in the Carpathians and you must meet me at the address I’ve written on the bill and come with me.’

I head home to pack (what do you pack for an indefinite stay in a castle?) and, stepping out of the cab in front of my apartment building, I see near the entrance a pathetic old man sitting on cardboard to protect him from the rapidly freezing footpath and silently proffering a paper cup, more in hope than expectation, but I take the dollar from my top pocket and drop it in to his cup. Inside my apartment front door, I realise with horror what I have done and, in panic, I return to the street, where the homeless man is nowhere in sight.

31 thoughts on “A dollar’s worth of vampiric destiny”

  3. Oh,oh. Was that a Freudian slip, something meant to be. It reminded me of a time, fifty years ago, when I had a $20 and a $1 bill in my pocket. I went to church and put the $1 bill in the collection box. I went to a restaurant and the bill came to $15. I went to pay but only had the $1 bill, I had mistakenly put the $20 bill in the collection box. Shit happens.

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  4. talk about the risk of being bitten… a serial Six is surely one of the most seductive of imaginings… it seems so innocent to start (“This is an interesting set up… and that character, really deserves more…) lol

    so, do reformed vampires hang out in front of skid row blood banks>

    fun Six (interesting… the reference to ‘Fargo’ produced a totally immersive climate, if not setting, for your Six)

    join you on the acknowledgment of Larry’s mention of Samhain (had to look it up… but, you know, you never know when a story can use a Celtic artifact)

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  8. Hmm, I’m embarrassed to say I had to Google Nicole Theron only to discover she’s two people!
    And I’m left pondering your question: what do you pack for an indefinite stay in a castle?
    Entertaining as ever, Doug

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  9. The reward for an act of generosity! Let’s hope the homeless guy doesn’t read the bill…spends it all in nmn one place. And the gift…er…curse gets passed along.
    Hey, I feel a longer story comin’ on strong!

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