Victorian America - chapter 2

The town he drives me to looks pretty much like any other town in America, except for the fact that the cars are driven upside down, if you follow my drift, and that the American flags are replaced by the Union Jack.

We stop in front of a large building.

"This is where you get off young lady. Ask for Doctor Mitchell, he'll know what to do with you. Now, I have to hurry back before night fall."

Still under the shock, I thank him and watch him hurry back on the road. Washington looks at me through the rear window. I stand there for a while. What the hell should I do now? I could go in that hospital and have my head checked. After today's events that would make perfect sense. Or I could just wander around town to try to find out a bit more about the place I have been dropped in. Obviously I choose the wandering part... I'm a curious girl.

People seem pretty normal at first sight. They dress like us, they walk like us, they mostly speak like us... they all seem to have this weird British accent. They seem to be concerned by the same things we are concern about. I soon become convinced that this is just the America I know under Queen Elizabeth's rule.

I enter in a dinner and sit on a stool. There's a newspaper sitting on the bar. That's when things start to get tricky. The main announcement is that Queen Victoria will be celebrating tomorrow her third diamond jubilee... If I'm not mistaken a diamond jubilee is sixty years... sixty times three that's a hundred and eighty! Maybe here the diamond jubilee is not sixty years and maybe here Elizabeth was replaced by her scrawny little sister Victoria or the king from that movie with a stutter decided that Victoria was a more pronounceable name ... Anyway...

I keep looking at the picture. She does look a lot like the queen Victoria from the eighteen hundreds...

"What can I get you?"

The waitress is staring at me, impatient.

I'm about to order when I realize that I have left my bag with my money in the truck and that even if I had thought of it, it's highly unlikely that they would take my all American dollars here.

"Err... I'm sorry but I think I left my wallet at home. I'll see myself out now, sorry for the inconvenience..."

I'm back on the street and suddenly I realize that I should have definitely chosen the hospital option. I look around me and I suddenly realize; second realization in less than thirty seconds, cool; so I realize that I don't have a clue on how to go back to the hospital. Fuck!

I turn around and see the small sign on the door of the dinner: help wanted. Yes me too, I'm looking for help. I get back into the bar.

"So you have found your wallet?" the waitress asks me.

"No, as matter of fact, I'm looking for a job."

She details me from head to toe. What she sees? A small redheaded with short hair; a bit too much fat here and there, freckles all over the face and body , well that part she doesn't get to see, and a winning smile...

"Okay, you will have to do. Get an apron behind the counter and start clearing the tables. The pay is eight pounds a day paid on Friday. We'll talk when we close about the details. I'm Susan by the way."

So I start my first job in this new world. The menu is simple; it contains a lot of spam. The people tend to prefer tea over coffee but apart from that it's similar to the other bars I have worked in. After an hour or so there's suddenly a huge rush. Everybody seems to be in a hurry to get their checks. I run for a while after Susan and finally the last client leaves. Susan closes the restaurant in a rush and finds me waiting in the parking.

"Girl! What are you still doing here? It's going to be dark soon."

She stops and once again details me.

"Don't you have somewhere to go?"

"I... I..."

"Okay, I understand, here take the keys to the restaurant, there's a small room in the back with a bed and shower, you can sleep there for now, help yourself to something in the fridge but not the expensive stuff, now be careful the place hasn't been consecrated in a while."

After this cryptic affirmation she closes the left door to her car and drives away in the descending night. I look at the keys. I look at the restaurant. I look at my watch, five forty six. I look at the closed restaurant. I turn around and look at the streets, the empty streets. I look at my watch again, five forty seven. I look at the sky, the darkening sky. I think about the garlic, the diamond jubilee, the queen Victoria, the Count. I look at the empty streets. I look at the night sky. And suddenly everything makes sense. Not only I'm not in Kansas anymore but there are vampires in the magical kingdom of Oz!

Fuck me.

I quickly get into the restaurant and close the door behind me.

Fuck me!

The Great British Empire is ruled by the Fucking Vampire Queen Victoria.

Fuck me again, sideways!

I sit behind the bar, grab a beer and look out the window. There are no street lights, why would there be streets lights if everyone is home past nightfall. I sit for a long while and the darkness starts surrounding me. I raise my warm beer to the night!

Now let's be clear. I should be fucking terrified, you would, wouldn't you? Well I am, a bit, but at the same time... How can I put it? I always had something for vampires. I kind of dig them, a lot. Well I dig them a lot on TV and I dig them a lot in comic books, and on the internet and in video games and... you get the drift right? And by the way when I say I dig them, I mean they make me wet... Yeah I know it's strange but what can I say; we all have our little eccentricities...

But to be completely honest, right now, sitting at this counter, with my warm beer in hand, surrounded by darkness in this brave new world, I'm not totally sure that I dig them so much.