Read Online The Blind Vampire Hunter by Tim Forder - Free Book Online

asked her to marry me and have my
children. Computer printouts outside a computer complex were rare.
I thought she would be impressed with the uncommonness of it.
Eagerly waiting for an answer she simply said, “It does not rhyme
well.”
    About a month later, on my birthday she gave
me a birthday card that had inked in very large print, “YES”
inside.
    Six months later we were married. One of my
fondest memories of our wedding day, I did not even learn about
until years later. We had agreed not to shove wedding cake into
each other’s face, so when I went to feed Diana her piece of cake I
took careful aim for her mouth. I succeeded in this performance only because as the cake was about to go up her nose, she
quickly went up on her toes so the cake made it to her
mouth .
    After we married, she moved into my
apartment. Eventually, with two incomes, we started looking for a
house we could afford. When we started to look around, Diana said,
“Jack, you know the bad shape my mother’s house is in—it’s falling
apart around her. Then she has to take care of my sister, Chris,
with her birth-related disability. Mom’s only job is a part-time
job that’s a four hour round-trip. Lately, she’s been having some
health problems of her own. Do you think we could find a house big
enough that my mother and sister could move in with us?” I assumed
as Diana was the oldest of six, she felt the most responsible for
her mother and sister.
    The health problem was news to me. She seemed
healthy during our visit. With concern, I asked, “What is this
health problem? I don’t recall her having any problem, other than
her bad back, when we were visiting with her during Christmas.”
    “It started shortly after Christmas. I don’t
know all the details as she is reluctant to talk about it. What do
you think, about my mother and sister moving in with us?”
    After giving it some thought and seeing no
problems, I said, “I think your mother is something special, like
her daughter. Your sister and I sure hit it off when I visited for
Christmas. If we can find a place big enough and affordable, I see
no problem in having them move in with us.”
    We did find a place big enough. Our future
home had two bedrooms on the ground floor, one bigger than the
other. When we viewed the house, the bigger room was being used as
an office. I could easily see using the room as a bedroom, as this
“office” came with its own closet. With two more large bedrooms
upstairs, that gave us enough bedrooms for mother-in-law and
sister-in-law on the ground floor, and upstairs, one for Diana and
me and one room for a child. We figured if we had two children, one
boy and one girl, the girl could share a room with her live-in
Auntie.
    Her mother, Elaine, and sister, Chris, were
indeed no problem at all. All newlyweds have their adjustment
period. While we never fought, we did have our arguments, some more
heated than others. It always impressed me that Diana’s mother
refused to get in the middle of our marital conflicts. I did
quickly learn that I had to watch my tone anywhere near Chris; if I
raised my voice she would run off and bury herself in her
room—something to do with her upbringing with her father. You’ll
never hear any mother-in-law jokes from me. Unfortunately it turned
out my mother-in-law was even sicker than any of us knew, and a
little over a year after she moved in with us, we were back in Ohio
giving this fine lady her final rest.
    Over the years, my workplace had developed,
and my boss enjoyed showing off this work area. Going from left to
right, there was a copier with all its controls that were wired to
a Kurzweil reader with its control panel. (Papers and paperbacks
fed to the copier would be verbally read by the Kurzweil, while a
copy would be saved within the computer.) The Kurzweil was wired to
my PC, so that what was read to me from the copier went to the IBM
PC. The PC had its keyboard, plus a Jaws control panel so I could
tell