Joe Vampire

POST 16



Hooray for Sleeves



It never ceases to amaze me that something as inconsequential as sleeves can change the course of your life. And just when you least expect it, too. That statement makes no sense at this point, I’m sure.

Let’s see if I can connect the dots.

As a vampire, my body seems to hold at one temperature only: cold. Not naked-ass-buried-in-the-snow cold, or tongue-frozen-to-a-lamppost cold; more like a middling, lacking-a-vital-human-essence cold. It was somewhat uncomfortable at first, but like everything else with this whacked-out vampire trip I’m getting used to it. Hoodies have been my cure-all, my fail-safe. I could throw one on and accomplish several goals at once; not only does it keep others from accidentally feeling my supernaturally chilled flesh, but being covered neck to wrist I don’t have to worry about any nasty Vampire Skin Bubble while in the sun. And it helps keep my milk-colored arms hidden from view. It’s fool-proof. Even summer wasn’t an obstacle for this little plan. If anyone asked why the hell I was wearing a jacket in August, I told them: after my run-in with That Crazy Virus, I’ve tended a little toward the cold side. The AC blows on me all day at work, so it was a genius way to cover up what no one was really noticing anyway. Made me feel better, at least.

So hoodie sleeves = good.

There’s dot number one.

Late-year weather can’t come soon enough for my liking, but when autumn slammed down an early cold front, suddenly everyone was decked out in ugly sweaters and flannel. And hoodies. Having totally rocked the shit out of my hoodie up to this moment, I reached way outside of my box and grabbed something a little dressier, a little more fashionable. A little less me. Instead of hauling out a bunch of moth-eaten cardigans that even Mr. Rogers would have taken a pass on, I opted for some long-sleeved dress shirts to add a bit of aim to my game. Nothing fancy; I’m not posing for a Kohl’s ad or anything. Just wanted something that was slightly more presentable than what I wear on the regular, yet still serves to lend warmth and cover up my super-whiteness. And if it happens to sharpen my appearance, which is never not in desperate need of sharpening, then so much the better. Anything would be a step up from my brainless corporate uniform of wrinkled polos and faded khakis. So I grab a few lesser-worn items from the back of the closet, and suddenly I’m a brand new man… or vampire. Brand new man-pire.

Man-pire.

Whoa… I think like the sound of that. It’s sort of an okay compromise for the moment.

So anyway, woohoo for shirtsleeves.

That covers dot number two.

Something about long sleeves in my office always sets off buzz. Not sure if it’s the visual impact of not being able to see someone’s arms anymore, or just the added formality of extra fabric. Whatever the reason, they never fail to stun. My first full-sleeves day drew way more attention than I wanted, and not from nearly the desired sources. At least three people asked me if I had an interview for another job. One asked me if I had run out of wrinkled polos and if this was the only clean shirt I had left.

A*shole.

But the overall impression I think people took away was that Joe had spiffed up a little, was standing up straighter and looking people in the eye instead of walking in his typical European field worker slump. Not that I’m trying to impress everyone there. There’s only one someone in that place whose opinion of my sleeves matters to me.

Probably pretty obvious, but in case it isn’t: It’s Chloe.

Boom. Dot number three also happens to be Girl No. 3.

She always, always compliments me when I dress up, and in light of my new Just Do It attitude, I guess these sleeves were probably more than a little bit for her benefit.

If only she had been here to see them.

She’d been traveling back and forth for some big project recently, and this particular sleeve-worthy morning fell on the day she was supposed to finally be in the office again. We’d crossed paths in the hall once or twice over the past several weeks, I having slightly less anxiety about my vampire appearance with my hoodie sleeves in place, but she was always dashing off somewhere so I hadn’t had time to lay my moves on her. And I didn’t want to be rushed, so I just winked and smiled a hello. I did notice the last time I saw her she looked troubled, and it seemed to be more than just work stress. Where the sight of me used to make her a little happier, it really had no effect that time, and I got the impression that it might be more personal than professional in nature… not that I peeked at her thoughts to find out, anyway.

That would just be rude.

Plus: she was moving too fast for me to get a read.

She was supposed to be back the morning of All Sleeves Day, but after my eighth trip to the copier we’d had no accidental-on purpose running-intos. So I grabbed a couple of random forms off my desk and loped around to her department, slyly “searching” for “someone” to help me with my “papers”. Passing her cube gave no sign of her, but her cubemate Delilah noticed me skulking. “Nice sleeves,” she said. “Do you have an interview?”

For crying out loud.

“No, I was just hoping for help with… ”

“With your Sudoku? Is that it?” She could see right through me… and my papers, apparently.

Busted.

Topic change. “Isn’t Chloe supposed to be back today?”

Delilah cocked an eyebrow. “From her presentation in Seattle? Yes. From her vacation? No… that’s just starting.”

Vacation? Damn.

“Is she going somewhere special to decompress? A cruise or something?” I tried to sound casually interested, not desperately obsessed.

“Not really. She said something about she and the Tool being in two different places, and her needing to move out.” Holy crap. That was more than I was expecting. “I can pass on your Sudoku question if I talk to her. Might be a while, though… maybe you should move on to the Jumble or do a word search until she gets back.”

Everyone’s a smart ass around this place.

I did a quick shuffle back to my desk and dropped into my chair. Two different places. Moving out. So this is what renewed hope feels like. I tried to hold down my excitement, but I felt sort of giddy, which is rare in this man-pire’s emotional vocabulary. Not that I had much of it when I wasn’t undead. But it had been way too long since things had gone this much my way.

And it was about to get even better.

In the space left behind by my decoy documents there was, poking out from beneath all the other papers in the pile, a corner of orange. It lay there like a hoarder’s flattened cat, amid the pile that had collected when I was out struggling with This. Yeah, I know… it’s been a big while, and I’m still not quite caught up. What can I say? I’m very methodical, even when I’m behind the eight ball. But I’m almost through the whole stack now, so it made sense that I would have finally found something hidden there from those missing days. It felt kind of like the unearthing of a distinctly personal artifact on an archaeological dig of corporate America. After months of strange, life-altering rearrangements I was finally being thrown a bone of sorts. The find of a lifetime, really, in an orange Hallmark envelope with my name written on it.

From Chloe.

I tore into it, regretting my need to be so freaking anal about catching up work that amounted to useless crap anyway. I looked past the cartoon dog with the thermometer in its mouth, past the hokey “Hope you get well pretty doggone soon!” printed across the front. Inside was a note that made my standing-still heart miss a beat anyway. In perfect looping cursive that public education doesn’t teach anymore she had written, When you’re feeling better, we should talk…

Dot. Dot.

Dot.

How had I missed this for so long? No wonder she hadn’t been thrilled at the sight of me when we last saw each other. She probably thought I’d blown her off. Hearing that she was spending her vacation ending things with the Tool, and knowing about her shit storm workload, she probably hadn’t had time to think about it too much. Maybe a little, though. But now that I knew that she wanted to talk, I actually let myself believe that my Just Do It plan was too big to fail. It sounded like we were both headed in the same direction after all. I must have looked like an idiot with my interview-worthy sleeves and my huge shit-eating grin when Hube swung by to pick me up for lunch. “Nice shirt, dude,” he commented. “All snazzed out like you’re moving on up around here.”

“Brother, that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

To think, if I would’ve stuck with my hoodie, I wouldn’t have had any reason to go passing by Chloe’s desk to impress her with my business formalwear, and I wouldn't have learned what I learned from her cubie. And without the need to look busy as I walked I wouldn’t have had cause to grab my Sudoku sheets off the pile, which means I wouldn’t have seen the card for at least another week. And if that had happened, I still wouldn’t know what I now know, which is that this thing between us looks like it’s really going to be a thing. All signs point there, as far as I can tell. Chloe and the Tool, in two different places. Moving out.

We should talk.

Dots connected.

Which is why I will never again underestimate the awe-inspiring magic of sleeves.