Page 13 of How a Vampire Falls

“Well then, disrupt away.”

She let out a low laugh. “I love you, Mom.”

“Love you too. Now why don’t you go to bed?”

“I think I will.”

They hung up, and Leslie let her phone fall beside her while she stared up at the ceiling. Shewaspretty tired now. Ought to change out of her dusty fair clothes, put on some pajamas, crawl under the covers. But first…

She got up, knelt beside the bed, and reached under it to pull out her memory box. It was a glossy cardboard hatbox, pasted all over with cutout pictures of rabbits that ten-year-old Leslie had printed from internet sites. The round lid was held on with a woven blue cord and stiff with disuse as she removed it. Inside the box nestled the most important memorabilia of her second decade of life. These were the things that had survived multiple purges when the need for space required it. She had always pledged not to become a packrat like Dad. To that end she’d restricted herself to three hatboxes total. Everything she cared about but no longer used had to fit beneath her bed.

Ten-year-old Leslie had filled the hatbox before she turned eleven. Then she had parted with and added things over the years. She had pressed a rose, preserved her own fingerprint in plaster as the hand of an artist still growing, rolled her eyes at concert T-shirts and friendship bracelets that had seemed so significant a few summers before. She lifted the tassel from her graduation cap and set it aside. She slid a silver ring with a garnet stone onto her little finger.

Here was the plaster fingerprint. Her right pointer finger no longer fit the mold, of course. What a sentimental little artist she’d been.

Suppose she was remembering wrong and hadn’t kept the matchmaker test results? She’d certainly felt less than sentimental toward them.

A sheaf of papers, folded in half, peaked up from the bottom of the box. Leslie slid it from under a few other items and unfolded it. In the top left corner her alma mater’s logo burst off the page—a purple horizon line, orange and yellow sunbeams of promise. And centered beneath that…

Your True Match!

Congratulations!

Her heart gave a solid extra thump. She drew a deep, deep breath the way humans sometimes did. It seemed to fill her body with more than oxygen. She continued reading, unable to devour the words fast enough.

Leslie Meredith Snow

your match is

Laurence Ryker Gould Maddox

Well, look at that. No wonder the name Ryker hadn’t pinged her memory. She gnawed her bottom lip. To be fair, if he’d called himself Laurence, she might not have recognized that name either. Of course, as a vampire he hadn’t changed much from his undergrad picture, only grown into his good looks.

Now here it was. The test itself. The answers—hers and his.

The first several pages were marked with a header: LMS. She flipped past them without glancing. Who cared what she’d said about herself ten years ago? But here—the next page’s header was different. LRGM. Here he was. And his answers… They were fascinating. Some of the questions were set up on a numeric scale from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. Every scaled question also included blank space for comments, and Ryker had commented. Every time. Some were actual fill-in-the-blank, and Leslie wondered who on earth had “graded” that section;but maybe the test was graded based on the scaled questions, and the miniature essays were just another way to get to know your match.

Would you rather give up social media or eat one meal for the rest of your life?What vampire gives up culinary variety in favor of social media? Oh yeah, guess if you’re one of the vampires who thinks he’s too good to eat food. Insert eye roll here.

Rank these ideals 1-5 in order of their value within your personal belief system.

Truth

Justice

Ambition

Beauty

Affability

I know how this looks, ranking ambition so high. Just being honest (see ranking #1).

Name the one book you would re-read for the rest of your life, if you could read only one.The Lord of the Rings. In this scenario it’s one book. Because I said so. I don’t read a lot of fiction but I’d still pick this book over everything else I’ve ever read.

Would you be willing to relocate for the job of your dreams?Of course.

Would you be willing to seek a new job for a home in your dream location?Of course not.

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