the sand. But midway back to the bonfire, a familiar voice slowed his roll.
“You want to try it this time when I’m ready?”
Hartwell smiled and then turned back around, “You should know better than anyone that you should always be ready.”
Thaddeus looked over the two men and then screamed the first thing that came into his adolescent mind, “Fight!”
The group made a sticky circle around the two men.
“Do you really want to fight with your grandpa?” Manuel said as he approached Hartwell and then dropped his hands.
Hartwell thought about the question and hesitated for a moment as his foil Cal Brewster yelled, “No!” because he realized that the old man was turning the tables on his protégée.
Manuel balled his beefy right fist and raised his fist to the sky while stopping to connect with the bottom side of Hartwell’s chin in the process. The blow sent Hartwell flying through the thin night air and to the other side of circle, where he regained consciousness mid-way and landed on his feet.
“Whoa!” the collective exclaimed as they struggled to clap over marshmallow, graham cracker and chocolate-laden hands.
“That was quite a shot!” Hartwell yelled across the way to Manuel.
“Is this the way it is going to be, Thomas?” Manuel asked.
Hartwell looked around at the group. Either you’re in or you’re out, Manuel. We do everything as a group, either in this life or as mortals.”
“I’ll think about it,” Manuel said as he turned around and started walking toward the back porch of the house with a huge smile on his face. He had come back to point Hartwell in the right direction and convince him that his contribution was no more or less than any member of the family, although he knew there would never be complete equity in the family.
There was a clean separation between Manuel and the family the next day, as Manuel woke up just after noon because he was anxious to get back out there and fight again that night. The only person that dared to go near him was Daniel, who felt drawn to him since the previous night. They met ‘by chance’ at Beach Haven Sporting Goods that afternoon.
“Now this is a sport I can identify with!” Manuel said excitedly as he picked up a lacrosse stick. “I might have been one of the people that actually invented this game. Lord knows how many goals I would have scored if I had one of these!”
Daniel picked up a stick and then a ball and the two men tossed in gently back and forth.
“Why were you smiling last night?” Daniel asked.
“You saw that?” Manuel surprisingly questioned.
Daniel pulled up the image above their heads and then rotated the video so Manuel’s face could be seen.
“It looks like you have eyes everywhere,” Manuel replied.
“Do you really hit him as hard as you could?” Daniel asked.
Manuel smirked, “I hit him pretty hard.”
Daniel smiled back, “But not as hard as you could?”
“Probably not,” the original vampire conceded.
Then Daniel cut to the chase, “Are you going to be part of this family great grandpa’?”
“Only if you don’t consider Lowery to be your grandfather.”
Daniel was repulsed with the idea, “No way!”
Manuel caught the soft tossed ball in the web of his stick and then glided toward Daniel.
“You know, my boy, that I really came back for you and your children, and their children… is there anyone else I’m missing?”
Daniel shook his head “No.”
“This battle will rage on as long as we are the way we are. The second I become mortal, we all can live in peace and harmony until we turn to dust.”
“But we won’t live forever anymore,” Daniel stated. “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have my abilities?”
“What good is time if you can’t enjoy it?” Manuel asked, thinking he was spreading some wisdom to his young charge.
“But we used to be apart and now we are together. I never thought I would see the day that we would be so close with the hunters.”
“Those to which we have the most conflict with are the ones that we have the most in common.”
Daniel nodded in understanding.
“Except for the white man,” Manuel panned. “Your group excluded of course.”
“Of course,“ Daniel said.
“So, when is this all going to end?” Daniel followed up with a question.
Manuel thought about it and then replied, “When your father wants it to end.”
He could see Daniel wanted a more concrete answer. “When are the kids coming back?”
“Three days,” Daniel replied.
“Then we shall be one in three days,” Manuel stated.
Daniel smiled and then took a few steps back as the two continued their soft toss catch in the middle of the store.
Hartwell was eating lunch at the Beach Haven Diner with a big group including Cal, Agent Blake, Brandon, Thaddeus, Drew and Garrison, while Nicole, Carla, Emily, Maggie, Sharon, Belinda and Valerie were at the Beach Haven Nail Salon getting their usual mani/pedi.
The conversations were vaguely similar and could have been combined as one seamless discussion.
“What do you think will happen next?” Cal and Sharon asked.
Hartwell answered, “Why, do you have a tee time at the Beach Haven Golf Course?” while his wife replied, “Do you think we should book our next appointment ahead of time? Next week should be clear.”
The guys laughed as Cal said, “We haven’t played golf in a while. Do you think it will be as fun without our abilities?”
Drew rolled his eyes and wondered where Daniel was before he said, “It never was fun to begin with!”
“I hope our nails don’t chip tonight,” Emily said in a rare public display of femininity.
“Nails chip, you come back tomorrow and we touch up,” the Asian owner of the nail salon said for her best customers.
The women got all excited as Daniel came through the door with a couple of lacrosse sticks and then sat down.
“Where have you been? We were just talking about golf,” Drew said to his first cousin.
Daniel shot him a look and replied, “I was at BH Sports getting a few lacrosse sticks.”
Daniel handed Drew one of the sticks and he exclaimed, “I love lacrosse!” as he flung the ball across the restaurant and it was headed for an old man’s head. Daniel sped across the room and caught the ball only a few inches from the man’s head. The man looked at Daniel and wondered why he was in such a close proximity to his steaming bowl of soup.
He looked at the white ball in his hand and said as he looked at the soup, “The matzoh balls look great today!”
The man looked at his wife and then back at Daniel, “Can you believe this kid? He should be working for Zagat’s. Four stars for the matzoh ball soup!” and then he nodded for Daniel to give him some space as he opened a small packet of Saltine crackers and crumbled them in his soup.
Daniel returned to the table in normal speed and then said to Drew as he took possession of his stick, “I can see why they never let us play.”
“Do you think your husband will fight with Manuel again?” Nicole asked Maggie as Cal asked almost the same question of Hartwell, “If you don’t want to fight him again I would be happy to take a crack at him?”
Hartwell and Maggie thought about the queries and replied, “My husband will do whatever is best for us,” and then Hartwell asked the group, “What is the best thing for us?” which mirrored a question then asked by Belinda.
“Together,” Sharon and Agent Blake replied and then got conformation from the rest of the group.
“Fully powered or mortal?” Carla and Aaron asked.
Garrison looked at Thaddeus and the two men had seen their ‘share of rodeos’ and were tired from the fight. “We are ready to make the turn,” Gary answered for the two of them.
Maggie took the lead ag
ain, “There are advantages and disadvantages to both sides, but I think I’d prefer to see you go back to college,” as she looked at Nicole, Carla and Valerie, “and it would be nice to see your children not grow up so fast!”
“I like being who I am,” Daniel defiantly stated.
“Me, too!” Drew exclaimed in support of his cousin and 100 miles per hour lifestyle.
Emily Brewster echoed the sentiment, “I have always been comfortable in my hunter skin. It was the boost I needed in life to feel comfortable, to be in place.”
Carla added, “It’s what brought Drew and me together.”
Similar tales of sentimentality were exchanged as years of being special could not be expected to melt away over night after a stranger came into town and offered the ultimate antidote.
The family gathered in the main room of the house just before midnight and awaited the appearance of Manuel so they could head out to the night’s battle. Manuel had been thinking since the previous night about how he should approach the family going forward, and came to a harmonious conclusion.
He stopped in the middle of the room and addressed the people scattered in front of him.
“We could drag this out for days,” he started saying.
Belinda interjected, “I don’t want to kids to be out there at Disney and experiencing the change alone.”
“Yes, we all should be together,” Maggie added.
“Have we even decided if mortality is the way we all want to go?” Drew asked.
“Some of our best times have been together,” Nicole added.
All the while Hartwell listened as one after another spoke about the merits of both mortality and supernatural. It wasn’t until everyone had a chance to speak that Thaddeus turned to Hartwell and asked,