Friday Evening

Jason and Ama sat in the police station waiting for their parents to pick them up. Jason was happy that he got to sit behind the desk, though he wasn't allowed to touch anything. Ama and Hobart sat on the other side of the desk. Ama had her arms crossed, and she had pulled her chair so that it would face away from Hobart.





Hobart said, "Ama, c'mon. You can't get mad at me. My dads asked after your parents called. You know I can't lie to my dads."

Ama refused to look at his pleading eyes. "Hmph!"

Jason sat quietly. When his mother saw him, he knew he would be in big trouble.

They hadn't thought that their mothers might contact each other! Ms. Smith, Jason's mom, had called Ama's mom at her work. It was all over after that. Ama's father was the local police chief.



"Oh, my baby!" The high pitched sound of Jason's mother's voice brought him back from his thoughts to the present. She kissed him all over his face so that he had to wipe his sleeve across his entire face to get off the feeling of her lips (and any lipstick).



Ama's mother and father were there right after Jason's mother. From what Jason could see over his mother's shoulder, Ama's mom was very unhappy. Jason heard her saying, "Young lady, you are SO grounded! From here on out, after school you are going with me to work. Not another word!"

Ama's father could be heard saying to Hobart and his dad, "Thanks, man. I don't know what we'd do if we didn't have responsible Hobart here."

Jason's mother was still fussing over him in a way that upset him. "Mom, I am NOT a baby."

"You are my baby. And you'll always be my baby. Now come along. Let's get you home. Do you want some hot cocoa? You must be cold."

Jason followed dejectedly after his mother. Ama's fierce gaze caught his eye, just for a second, before her mother started lecturing her again. For that second, Jason didn't feel like a little kid. He had been a brave adventurer ready to catch a murderer. He'd certainly been braver than Hobart, who had told on them to the grown ups. Jason liked the thought that he was braver than the older and taller Hobart. At least Hobart couldn't call him a baby now.

**********

In a few days:



Alberta has a friend who tells her a few things about Gabe.

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Friday Afternoon

It was Friday before Ama’s plan could be put into action.

Their parents were called. Jason had a much harder time with his mom than Ama had with her mom.



“Geeze!” Ama had said after his long phone call with his mom . “No wonder you’re such a baby. Don‘t do this and don‘t eat that!” She leaned back to laugh at him.





“I am not!” There were no good retorts for being called a baby especially when Ama was involved. Jason just wanted the adventure. “When do we go?”

“Hold your horses.” Ama began stuffing snack bars and a bottle of water into her back pack. “We can’t go too early, or the grown ups will wonder what we’re doing out. If it’s a little dark, they might not notice us. Besides,” she said as she chuckled to herself, “I want to see if you’ll actually make it.”



The sky was turning orange before they started out.

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By the time they reached the edge of town, it was dark. Jason refused to admit he was scared though he hadn’t ever been out when it was this dark before.



Suddenly, Ama broke into a run. There was no time to call for her to wait; she moved much too fast. Jason ran after her just as she disappeared into a bush. Branches scratched along his face as he hastily followed, his breath coming quickly.


When he finally caught her, she stood looking at a lake in the distance. Jason was too out of breath to say anything. Ama patted him on the back, “Just another test. You passed!” She smiled at him in a way that was reassuring until he asked the question that was playing on his mind now that they had accomplished their first goal.



“So what now?”

“I dunno. We wait.” With her announcement made, Ama sat down on a near by log.



Jason sighed and sat down next to her. He examined his now muddy and scratched shoes. His mother would have questions about that, but then he hadn’t really liked these shoes anyway. He wanted a pair of Captain Hero shoes that lit up when you walked. His mother had promised he could have those next.

Ama drew in her breath. They hadn’t been sitting there long, but she put a hand on his arm. “Did you hear that?”

He shook his head, and then he heard it too. The sound of leaves crunching underfoot reverberated in the distance. Silently, Ama stood and motioned for Jason to follow. The sound was far off, but it bounced around the clearing so that they couldn’t tell from where it came.



Ama picked a large willow tree to stand behind, and Jason stood behind her. “Keep an eye out behind us!” She whispered fiercely at Jason, clearly frightened as much as he.

Jason watched the trees behind them as the sound became louder. Whoever was walking through the forest didn’t care about behind heard. In fact, they were talking! There were two voices, somewhat low, but clearly two voices. Jason thought he might recognize one.



Jason turned around so that his back faced Ama who was peeking around the tree. It was rather dark, but he was sure he was seeing something moving through the trees. “Ama…”

“SHHHHH!”

“But Ama…” Jason willed his voice to steady itself as he tried to get Ama to turn around. The voices had stopped, but the noises were suddenly much louder and seemed to come from in front of him.

He was rewarded for doing the job she told him to do with a blow to the back of his skinny arm by Ama's elbow.

Jason didn’t say anything again after that. Their new visitor greeted them with Ama’s full name in the kind of warning growl that Jason thought only their own parents were allowed to use. “Amália Marie Centowski.”

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Amália seems to have a plan. Unfortunately.

Both of the boys turned towards her. "What?" They said it almost in unison.



Seeing Hobart's interest, Amália turned towards him. "Yeah! My dad sent me to my room early, but they didn't know I wasn't asleep. Dad said that it looked like her blood had been drained through her neck-- like a vampire did it. Isn't that weird?"



Hobart was trapped. He looked over Ama's head at poor Jason who was faced with the back of Ama's head. In a way, it was better this way. Jason could not expect what Ama would suggest.

"I think we should look for him!"



Hobart looked at her, surprised even after his mental preparations. "Who?"

"The guy who did it, duh! I bet he is a real vampire."

Hobart groaned. He was only a year older than Ama, but he felt himself to be the wiser of the two. "Oh no. No way. You're on your own."

"Pfft!" Ama stuck her tongue out and turned back to Jason. "What about you, Jason?"

Jason seemed to perk up when Ama turned her attention back to him with the offer of adventure. "Yeah! I wanna see him. Maybe we could catch him."

"Maybe. But it's gonna be dark. Are you scared of the dark like you are of bugs?"

"Shut up, Ama. I am not."

Hobart rolled his eyes. "And how are you going to get out of the house at night?"



Ama's response was full of her classic smugness. "Easy. I'll say I'm at his house and he'll say he's at my house."

Hobart's head was starting to hurt from the eye rolling.

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Amália has information

"Psst!"

Hobart tried his best to ignore Amália. Class would begin as soon as Amberle walked into the classroom and he didn't want to be caught talking about what ever Ama wanted to talk about. (Amberle was late again, which was usually due to her bad luck.) But besides that, Amália had the look on her face that usually meant she had an idea that was bound to get him in trouble. He had made the mistake of trusting her once, but he was a very quick learner.



"Hobart, c'mon!"


"No, Ama. I definitely don't want to know."




Jason, on the other side of Amália, became curious. "I wanna know!"



Ama rolled her eyes. "Ok fine. At least someone wants to know." She had never been fond of Jason. He was the youngest of the three students at the Maria Rodriguez elementary school. But just because Amália found him annoying that didn't mean she couldn't use him when she felt she needed to.



She turned towards Jason. "Promise you won't get sick?"

"I promise!" Jason was already anxious to hear it. A big mistake.

"You sure? You know how you get when I talk about the bugs."



Jason looked like Ama had insulted him. "Cause you usually do it when we're eating."

"Ok. But I warned you." A smug look crossed Ama's face. Hobart realized that he hadn't wanted to hear what Ama had to say, and now he was going to whether he wanted to listen or not. Ama always won.

"Someone was killed in the forest on the outside of town."

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