Part One, Chapter Six
Shortly after Una’s birthday, Boris became a teenager. He decided that he wanted to become a doctor, like their mother. Una thought he would make a good doctor because he already looked very mature and serious.
When Prom Night came, she wasn’t surprised that Boris was elected Prom King. He had the usual up-and-down prom experience – his crush wouldn’t dance with him and he got into a fight with someone who stepped on his toes, but the decorations were wonderful, they played his favorite song, and he ended the night with a romantic interest in Irene Su – who happened to be a senior.
Una herself had a wonderful magical time. Her date was Marcelo, of course. Not only did he persuade her to kiss him by saying that a meteorite might land on the school (“Well, yeah, that’s why they built the school underground,” she thought, but she wanted to kiss him so she went along with it.), but he also asked her to go steady. Everyone agreed they were the cutest couple at the prom.
Una was glad they thought so, because she herself wasn’t entirely happy with the way Marcelo had dressed. True, he looked gorgeous in whatever he chose to wear, but she couldn’t help wishing he’d chosen something other than sweatpants for the prom. One might almost think he was insane.
A few nights later, she got confirmation of this suspicion while they were outside looking at Simhome.
“Do you ever wonder what it’s like to live there?” she said.
“I don’t have to wonder,” said Marcelo. “I’ve been there.”
“How?” she said. “When?”
“I can go any time I want,” he said. “I just have an OOBE.”
“An ooby?” repeated Una.
“An out-of-body experience,” said Marcelo. “You see, basically I’m just a computer program, so all I have to do is e-mail myself to another port, and the computer program assembles all the material needed to construct my body and clothes and everything. I’ve been to Riverview and Sunset Valley and everywhere, even Bridgeport.”
He sounded so matter-of-fact that Una almost asked him what Bridgeport had been like, but then she thought “No, that would be crazy.” She wondered if she could handle living with someone who was crazy, but then she realized she had already had lots of practice.
A few days later, her dad offered to teach her how to drive in the van he had recently acquired. It was a very nice van, almost a home away from home, but it was so big that she felt nervous about driving fast in it.
“The accelerator’s on your right,” said her dad. “No, that’s the brake.”
Eventually they decided they had both had enough and traded places. Her dad started to tell her then about what the Watcher had asked of him. “And the Watcher was right about the vampires,” he said. “My best friend Stefan Bayless is one and so is someone else I work with. Your mother works with one, too, and her best friend is married to one. It really is a curse spreading through Lunar Lakes.”
“How is my amassing a collection of ten objects and doing all the other stuff supposed to help defeat vampirism?” asked Una.
“Honey, I don’t know,” said her father. “But it’s what the Watcher wants. I am sorry. It means you’ll have to wait a while before you and Marcelo can get married and have children.”
Una thought that on the whole, that might not be such a bad thing.
