Vibrant Vampires – part 2 – Lillian Morpork

Vera was playing Bach’s Fugue in D Minor as she and the others waited for Valarie to return from an emergency meeting with Mrs. Palmer, the organizer of the Hallowe’en gig. The others were talking and giggling as they tried to sing at a masculine pitch. The door opened, and Valarie stepped in. There were figures behind her, but it was dark outside, and they were too dim to see.



HI, Vees!” Valarie said. “Everything is ok, the gig is still on, but the Busy Bees can’t make it. Brandon and Bruce were in a crash last night and are in hospital. They will be ok, but they have some broken bones and will be out of commission for a couple of months. The rest of the BBs do need the money, so I suggested that they join us. They will give the male voices and add to the sound with their instruments.” She turned, holding the door open, “come on in, guys!”

Five young men, contemporary in age with the girls, stepped in, smiling and looking anxious; they were as dark as the girls were fair, and dressed in Tee-shirts, yellow with brown stripes.. They were carrying cases, guitars, violin, base fiddle and others. “Hi,” Barny said. “Is it ok? We really do need the gig, and being vampires will be great. Benji and Blaize do excellent work on Monster Mash and Dragula, they sound remarkably like Bobby Pickett and Rod Zombie. We want to change our name the Busy Bees is just too wimpy!”

Velma giggled. “Yeah,” she said. “It always makes me think of Kindergarten kids.”

“Hi, guys. Come on in and make yourselves comfortable. If we can meet and rehearse every night from now to the 29th, we should be ok. No, we will be great!” Vanessa waved her hand at the seats, and everyone settled down to tuning instruments.

“Another thing – Mrs. Palmer said the new group want to play from eight thirty to eleven thirty. Vera will play the Bach Fugue, and we can play something else spooky while everyone arrives. Then there’s the dancing. At eleven thirty there will be the grand march, the unmasking and price awarding while we eat, and we entertain for an hour while they eat.

Dancing will go on until whenever. It’s supposed to be over by one, but she says she thinks it will be more like two. Anyway, we’ll be paid after the supper, and we can leave then. So we need more than the five we have picked. Any suggestions?”

“What have you picked, besides Monster Mash and Dragula?” asked Benji.

Somebody’s Watching Me, Nightmare on My Street and It’s too Spooky For Me.” Vivian said.

“Well, for a female voice, what about Come Little Children?” Brice asked.

“Great!” Vanessa exclaimed. “Vicky does the perfect voice for that one. Everyone agreed.

Brandon said “We could all do It’s Hallowe’en, Van could be sister Jane.” Ideas were coming thick and fast, and soon the list was complete.

“So,” Vanessa said, “it will be the five we picked plus Come Little Children, It’s Hallowe’en, Do You Believe in Monsters, and Ring Around a Rosy, and Velma will do Ring around. There was unanimous, enthusiastic agreement, and they settled down to work.