The shower didn't last nearly as long as I hoped it would, though. Even taking the time to blow-dry my hair, I was soon out of things to do in the bathroom. Wrapped in a towel, I crossed back to my room. I couldn't tell if Charlie was still asleep, or if he had already left. I went to look out my window, and the cruiser was gone. Fishing again.
I dressed slowly in my most comfy sweats and then made my bed — something I never did. I couldn't put it off any longer. I went to my desk and switched on my old computer.
I hated using the Internet here. My modem was sadly outdated, my free service substandard; just dialing up took so long that I decided to go get myself a bowl of cereal while I waited.
I ate slowly, chewing each bite with care. When I was done, I washed the bowl and spoon, dried them, and put them away. My feet dragged as I climbed the stairs. I went to my CD player first, picking it up off the floor and placing it precisely in the center of the table. I pulled out the headphones, and put them away in the desk drawer. Then I turned the same CD on, turning it down to the point where it was background noise.
With another sigh, I turned to my computer. Naturally, the screen was covered in pop-up ads. I sat in my hard folding chair and began closing all the little windows. Eventually I made it to my favorite search engine. I shot down a few more pop-ups and then typed in one word.
Vampire.
It took an infuriatingly long time, of course. When the results came up, there was a lot to sift through — everything from movies and TV shows to role-playing games, underground metal, and gothic cosmetic companies.
Then I found a promising site — Vampires A—Z. I waited impatiently for it to load, quickly clicking closed each ad that flashed across the screen.
Finally the screen was finished — simple white background with black text, academic-looking. Two quotes greeted me on the home page:
blow-dry 吹乾頭髮
comfy 舒服的
substandard 標準以下的
pop-ups 彈出窗口
infuriatingly 令人發怒地
但是，沐浴並沒有像我所希望的那樣耗時間。儘管花了不少時間吹乾頭髮，我還是很快把在浴室裡能做的事都做完了。我裹上一塊浴巾，走回我的房間。我說不準查理是還在睡呢，還是已經出去了。我走到窗前看出去，發現巡邏車已經開走了。又開始釣魚了。
我慢慢地穿上自己最舒適的汗衫，把床鋪好——我很少這樣做的。我再也不能把這事往後推了。我走到書桌前，打開了我的舊電腦。
我討厭在這裡上網。我的調制解調器相當過時了，我的免費上網服務完全在標準之下。光是撥號就得花上很長一段時間，所以在等待的時候，我決定先去給自己弄一碗麥片粥。
我吃得很慢，每一口都細細咀嚼。吃完以後，我把碗和勺子洗好，擦乾，然後放回去。上樓時我故意磨磨蹭蹭地拖著步子走路。我先走向我的隨身聽，把它從地上撿起來，精確地放到桌子正中央。我把耳機拔下來，放回抽屜裡。然後我把原來那張CD外放，把聲音調低到剛剛好能成為背景音樂的那個點上。
我又嘆了口氣，這才轉向我的電腦。自然，屏幕上全是彈窗廣告。我坐到我那張硬邦邦的扶手椅上，開始把所有的小窗口關掉。最後，我打開了我最喜歡的搜索引擎。我又關掉了另外幾個彈窗廣告，然後鍵入了一個詞。
吸血鬼。 當然，這花了簡直讓人氣憤的相當長的時間。當結果出來的時候，還有很多內容需要進行篩選——那些內容從電影電視節目到角色扮演遊戲，黑市金屬，以及哥特式化妝公司。
然後，我發現了一個看上去比較可信的網址——吸血鬼A-Z。我迫不及待地等著它打開頁面，飛快地關閉屏幕上一閃而過的每個廣告。最後，整個屏幕都清空了——簡潔的白色背景和黑色標題，看上去很有學術氛圍。主頁上的兩段引述首先映入了我的眼簾。
