I spent a lot of the day sitting on our porch, watching the circus. Now and again, my mother would come out of the house and look over at Mrs. O’Malley’s. Once or twice, I saw Jules’s mom do the same thing.

I woke up early on Saturday morning and drank my coffee out on the porch. It was hot as hades, and it wasn’t even eight in the morning. My mother was already on the swing chair on the porch. She was looking up and down the road. For a second, I wondered if she was looking for vamps, but that couldn’t be it. It was broad daylight. There was less than no chance of running into a vampire. Jules’s mom was out on her porch too. She was reading a book, but she didn’t seem all that engrossed. She looked at our place and then she cast her eyes up at Mrs. O’Malley’s.

I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, if not for the fact that I’d noticed them doing the same thing the day before. Before my curiosity had time to hit fever pitch, Mrs. O’Malley came out of her house. She had her broom in her hand and she gave the porch a couple of perfunctory sweeps. She stared into middle distance and then raised her head slightly and sniffed twice. Then she fixed her eyes on my mother and gave an almost imperceptible nod.

“Sully,” said my mother, “go get Jules. Tell him you’re going on a trip.”

“Wha…”

“Go now.” When she said it, she used a seldom used voice. It was a voice that made me feel paralyzed for a moment and a second later I found myself off the porch and on my way to Jules’s place.

“What’s happening?” He was bouncing with excitement.

“Dunno. Was told to tell you we’re going on a trip.”

That was all he needed to hear. He laced up his shoes as fast as he could. His mom dropped a duffel bag at his feet. She’d already packed everything he needed. When we got back to my place, I found that my mother had packed for me, too. She was hoisting my bag onto the back of our old, beaten-up GMC. My dad had loaded three coolers and several brown bags of food into the truck.

“What’s happening?” I asked again. “Where are we going?”

“You’re going to the cabin,” said my mother. “And you’re going now. No time for questions.”

“But, but what about the vamps? We should be here. We can fight too.”

“We’ll deal with them. You and Jules are unshifted. You’re strong compared to humans, but you don’t stand a chance against vampires. You need to go now.”