KK essays

KK articles The film A Fish Called Wanda is on the AFIs (American Film Institute) Greatest 100 Comedies list. Despite the fact that this film highlights capable entertainers like John Cleese and Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline effectively gets everyone's attention. Kline gives a splendid exhibition as the pseudo-scholarly Otto. What makes Kline so exceptional is the way that he moves and makes his character move over the screen. Directly from the start, in one of the movies first scene, we see that Klines Otto is no ordinary gem cheat. Despite the fact that Otto should be working under the appearance that he is Wandas (Jamie Lee Curtis) sister, he rapidly gives her bosom a crush in full perspective on Ken, one of different looters. What makes this development work cleverly is that Kline does it so helping quick and that on the off chance that you flickered you may miss it. He has such power over his arm that he can broaden it, and pull back it in a matter of possibly a second. This takes into account the suspended incredulity that Ken doesn't see him do it. Another development that Kline makes likewise says a lot about his body control. Otto and Wanda are together in what I take to be Ottos quarters. They are talking enthusiastically about something and he jumps into the air, gets a funnel that is suspended from the roof, lifts himself totally off the ground and sails on to the bed with the beauty of a ballet performer. This is so fascinating in light of the fact that Klines Otto should a be a revolting American burglar. His elegant development is confirm again when Otto and Wanda go to the carport to guarantee the gems the took from a safe. Otto is irritated by the way that the gems are not there. He heads toward kick a vehicle severely. Or maybe then simply kicking the tire, or covering his foot into the vehicle entryway, Kline jumps into up and kicks the vehicle twice while he is noticeable all around. He takes what is only a straightforward development and makes into something substantially more. While Kevin Kline is definitely not a major man I... <!

Netflix SWOT Analysis Essay -- essays research papers

S.W.O.T. Examination Qualities: ?     Netflix gives a membership style web based business administration. Over 95% of clients pay in any event $17.99 every month which incorporates boundless rentals with up to three titles one after another. A similarly low month to month charge, permits Netflix to lead piece of the overall industry of online DVD rentals while rivaling conventional physical rental stores. In the mean time, Netflix may keep the clients who attempt the administration and content with it keep paying the month to month charge. In this way, Netflix has less issues in foreseeing incomes. ?     Netflix appreciates lower fixed expenses because of the way that it is an online DVD rental organization. As a web business, Netflix acquires less overhead expenses than contenders, for example, Blockbuster, just as having less representatives to work the physical areas, in this manner work costs are enormously diminished. ?     Netflix gives clients boundless access to the biggest determination of DVD?s. Netflix?s video library comprises of more than 45,000 titles, making their determination the universes biggest, prevailing over Blockbuster, Movie Gallery, and Hollywood Video. ?     With more than 35 appropriation habitats over the United States, Netflix has the quickest conveyance time of any online DVD rental organization. Using the United States Postal Service over 90% of DVD?s are gotten by clients inside one day of requesting. ?     Netflix?s simple to utilize site permits clients to peruse the video library by class, for example, activity, sentiment, show (sixteen complete classifications) or by utilizing a far reaching interior inquiry of the library. ?     Netflix utilizes the innovation of Cinematch to give clients far and away superior help. Cinematch concentrates past choices made by individuals, and starts to suggest titles that would probably be delighted in by the client dependent on past choices. ?     Charging a month to month expense for boundless rentals, Netflix dispenses with due dates and late charges, just as wiping out the long queues of a physical store. ?     Netflix utilizes their incredible client support to keep clients cheerful which assistant shields clients from dropping there membership to the administration. On the off chance that there is a difficult that emerges during the rental procedure, for example, a harmed DVD, or lost DVD during the delivery procedure, Netflix addresses the issue quickly, and never charges the client for the issue. ?     Netflix was the main organization to offer DVD renta... ...fering comparable administrations, either legitimately or as an association with another association.  §Ã‚     Emerging rivalry from advanced link and satellite organizations that offer films on request. Time Warner advanced link offers video on request library comprising of a couple hundred choices and developing. Clients can buy a film with the dash of a catch for about $4.00. Clients approach the film for up to 24hours. Numerous video on request benefits are currently offering advancements that permit clients to stop, quick forward and rewind the motion pictures they buy. In spite of the fact that the determination offered by link organizations is very little in contrast with Netflix, it may involve time before the quantity of choices will increment radically.  §Ã‚     There are countless substitute items. Netflix is in the matter of giving individual diversion at a reasonable expense. Since some other type of diversion is viewed as a substitute, Netflix?s industry is in direct rivalry with every other type of amusement, regardless of whether it be perusing, physical exercise, standard TV, and so on. In the event that patterns in mainstream society move away from those identified with motion pictures, incomes might be influenced.

The Nature of Love free essay sample

What does such an announcement infer about the idea of affection? Compose a paper which contends your specific view on the idea of adoration and the object of that affection. Cutoff your response to the thought of sentimental love and use Robert Ehman as a beginning stage. Everyone appears to accept that affection is something to be thankful for. Be that as it may, not all concede to what love is. Is love that warm fluffy inclination an individual has when they are with a recognizable individual? As per the Bible, love is minding in real life. Love isn't what we feel, yet what we do; anyway the object of affection isn't characterized. (Book of scriptures Gateway, 2012) In this conversation I will depict what the idea of adoration depends on affection as an action word, as something one does and how the object of that affection is influenced commonly. I accept love is an occasion that transpires, that is out of our control and not an activity. As Robert Ehman (1989) recommends to encounter genuine romance, it is the characteristics of an individual and not simply the individual that drives you to feel and follow up on your adoration. Not every person will encounter being enamored. The possibility that nature influences how one characterizes love shows how in various societies love has gotten mingled and what is typical when alluding to adore. As expressed by Harlow, (1958) love reactions start to frame incredibly from the get-go in the advancement of a newborn child between a baby and the mother. This mirrors love is an action word to cherish being a feeling. Robert Ehman, (1989) contends the selectiveness of adoration is â€Å"a negligible types of either moral connections sexual want or the rationalistic battle to rule the other. (p. 256) To extend further he proposes it is an occasion, where the occasion is the demonstration of ‘doing. ’ To encounter genuine affection is about the individual association between two people and how they are sincerely attracted to each other. The ‘dialectical struggle’ alludes to the â€Å"truth of opinions† that become significant as an individual adjusts to offering their own side to their sweetheart. (Oxford word reference, 2012) Ehman (1989) keeps on expressing the point of individual love is to show that ground-breaking feelings of affection itself are novel in an individual’s style of life. The sentiment of the adored can be diverse for various individuals however possibly genuine affection exists when the association is the equivalent. The point of genuine romance is consistently to â€Å"share the private and cozy components of both your lives. †(p. 256) The announcement â€Å"Harry couldn’t help it, he was in love,† mirrors the possibility of Ehman’s conviction that adoration is an action word, something we do. It recommends that it is something one manages with no control. How can one ‘do love’ can be contended from numerous perspectives. Sigmund Freud (2006) portrays the premise of doing cherish is for the most part determined by wild sentiments of the â€Å"sexual appeal of the item. (p. 34) The object of Harry’s love is who he adores and a case of Harry ‘doing’ love could be imparting his own side to who he cherishes just as putting the relationship with who he cherishes over every single other relationship in his life. This thought is portrayed by Ehman is called genuine affection. Genuine affection is when the two darlings share an association with one another where their own sides are shared. For instance the two accomplices share their adoration for one another. In the event that Harry cherished a young lady yet she didn't adore him once more from Ehman’s see this isn't genuine affection. It is only Harry befuddling his feelings of desire with feelings of adoration. Ehman, 1989) Love can be seen as a feeling and as indicated by Stendhal, Tennov and Proust, (1954) feelings of adoration can be produced by numerous different feelings and considerations. For instance what could have been done or what may have happened to cause this feeling and occasion of affection. A feeling can be described by various things an individual does or ways the respond in circumstances that are quickly perceptible before any logical examination is completed. (Elster, 1999) Not all feelings are vital, fortunate or unfortunate. This draws upon why love itself is depicted all through general society as something to be thankful for. Stendhal (1980) states â€Å"love wilts away both when one is sure that it is responded and when one is sure it isn't. † (p. 23) This announcement features that adoration can likewise be a terrible thing as though love ‘withers away’ it is uncontrolled and we can not stop it. On the off chance that desire is confounded as sentiments of adoration in one individual this starts to draw upon the results where a darling might be harmed causing enthusiastic torment. Hence I concur with Ehman that affection requests the two people to encounter similar degrees of enthusiastic associations with characterize ‘true love. Harry may drive way his sweetheart through sentimental demonstrations of what he accepts to show love (kissing and so on) which may mean various things to his darling in the event that she isn't imparting the association of genuine affection to him. According to Ehman’s perspective on sentimental love Hatfield and Rapson, (1987) likewise recognized there are various sorts of adoration, known as sentimental and tender love. Sentimental love is enthusiastic and includes solid sentiments of yearning, want and fervor towards an uncommon individual. (Baumeister amp; Bushman, 2008) The passionate estimations of sentimental love make individuals need to get to know one another as could reasonably be expected. Sentimental sweethearts will in general need to contact one another and take part in cozy exercises, for example, sex to show how they do adore. ‘Doing love’ from an energetic and romanticized edge could include contemplations of not having the option to control enthusiastic sentiments. For instance continually considering a sweetheart is a typical method of ‘doing love. ’ (Baumeister amp; Bushman, 2008) Affectionate love is known as companionate love and is less passionate. This is the place the two darlings have a common understanding and minding to cause the relationship to succeed and is frequently done when a sweetheart sees their sweetheart as a perfect partner. This sort of adoration is the thing that makes individuals need to stay each other’s great allies. For instance somebody high in buddy love is bound to state â€Å"my spouse is my best friend,† (Baumeister amp; Bushman, 2008 p. 306) which prompts the following thought where the idea of adoration and being infatuated have various implications dependent on the statement of normal expressions in the public arena. Love can be seen as an item that â€Å"arises from all inclusive human emotions,† (Baumeister amp; Bushman, 2008 p. 204) that structure normally between two people. All through society numerous individuals contend that characterizing love itself is distinctive to characterizing the condition in affection. As indicated by Baumeister and Bushman (2008) it is conceivable to adore numerous individuals yet the idea of being ‘in love’ can mean something totally different. Anthony Giddens and Simon Griffiths (2006) propose this as they infer love is an encounter and allude to experiencing passionate feelings for as â€Å"something somebody manages without expectation. † (p. 204) An individual might need to encounter a more profound progressively important love when they experience passionate feelings for. Ehman (1989) likewise recommends this as he accepts ‘love isn't love’ except if both lovers’ share an individual association similarly. Love could just be ‘done’ by having a family together and along these lines this brings a typical thing no one but sweethearts can share where a point in both individual sides of their own sides are equivalent. This strengthens the conviction of affection as an occasion since something has occurred and because of the feeling of desire prompting love it is out of ones control. For adoration to be viewed as ‘true love’ people must share their own sides (Ehman, 1989) as this make the possibility of solidarity in the relationship. Chaney, (2002) states â€Å"The individual character of an individual is spoken to by an account solidarity. † By this Chaney is alluding to the possibility that in romanticized love, solidarity in the relationship is made from the profound obligation of the two sweethearts making an enthusiastic association. (p. 4) The idea of affection can be gotten from this part of encountering love as the aftereffect of an activity, for instance investing loads of energy with somebody. When alluding to the thought of sentimental love Ehman (1989) characterizes doing adore as â€Å"sharing the individual side of the life of a companion. †(p. 61) At the point when a definitive intention in a relationship is sharing their own sides of life and the relationship is viewed as most significant â€Å"above every single other relationship in an individuals’ life they have moved past companionship to real close to home love. † (Ehman,1987 p. 261) The idea of an individual’s childhood can likewise impact how one characterizes love. As expressed by Harlow, (1958) love reactions start to shape incredibly at an opportune time in the advancement of a baby between a newborn child and the mother. â€Å"The human newborn child turns into a self, a being equipped for discourse and activity, just by figuring out how to collaborate in a human network yearning for genuine affection. (Sartre 1989 p. 348) This in a case of the possibility that it is normal in each person need to encounter genuine romance eventually looking for it despite the fact that some may never discover it. Society has socially developed the possibility of ‘doing love’ as the result of friendship and a feeling. (Tennov, 1979) The presentation of fondness from a person to another has gotten connected to the cultural meaning of affection all through today’s culture. Usually people (particularly when one is male and the other female) who show fondness by clasping hands and being near one another are seen on early introduction to adore one another. This thought has been acknowledged all through society as ordinary. It is viewed as normal for the duration of regular daily existence and indicating friendship towards another can lead others to consequently connect with adoration. Social change difficulties the genuine meaning of affection and is obvious and very mutt

Everything You Need to Know about Vitamins :: Science Biology

All that You Need to Know about Vitamins Nutrient, any of the natural mixes required by the body in limited quantities for digestion, to secure wellbeing, and for legitimate development in kids. Nutrients likewise aid the arrangement of hormones, platelets, sensory system synthetic concoctions, and hereditary material. The different nutrients are not synthetically related, and most vary in their physiological activities. They by and large go about as impetuses, joining with proteins to make metabolically dynamic compounds that thus produce several significant concoction responses all through the body. Without nutrients, a large number of these responses would back off or stop. The mind boggling manners by which nutrients follow up on the body, be that as it may, are still a long way from clear. The 13 very much recognized nutrients are arranged by their capacity to be caught up in fat or water. The fat-dissolvable nutrients A, D, E, and K-are for the most part expended alongside fat-containing nourishments, and on the grounds that they can be put away in the muscle to fat ratio's, they don't need to be devoured each day. The water-solvent nutrients the eight B nutrients and nutrient C-can't be put away and must be devoured as often as possible, ideally consistently (except for some B nutrients, as noted beneath). The body can make just nutrient D; all others must be gotten from the eating routine. Absence of them causes a wide scope of metabolic and different dysfunctions. In the U.S., since 1940, the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council has distributed suggested dietary remittances (RDA) for nutrients, minerals, and different supplements. Communicated in milligrams or global units (IU) for grown-ups and offspring of typical wellbeing, these proposals are helpful rules for experts in sustenance as well as for the developing number of families and people who eat sporadic dinners and depend on arranged nourishments, a large number of which are presently required to convey dietary marking. An even eating routine contains all the vital nutrients, and most people who follow such an eating regimen can address any past nutrient insufficiencies. In any case, people who are on unique weight control plans, who are experiencing intestinal disarranges that forestall ordinary ingestion of supplements, or who are pregnant or lactating may require specific nutrient enhancements to reinforce their digestion. Past such genuine needs, nutrient enhancements are likewise frequently prevalently accepted to offer fixes for some ailments, from colds to malignant growth; however in actuality the body rapidly dispenses with a large portion of these arrangements without retaining them. Also, the fat-dissolvable nutrients can hinder the impact of different nutrients and even reason extreme harming when taken in abundance.

Business Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 4

Business Law - Essay Example illuminates the dealer the specific target or requirement for which the merchandise are being ordered , in order to show that the purchaser places trust and confidence on seller’s expertise or judgment, and the products are of a portrayal which it is over the span of the seller’s business to gracefully (regardless of whether he is the producer or not), there is an inferred condition that the provided item will serve this purpose...† (Modification of Act for Certain Contract: Implied Terms About Quality of Terms. 1979). One might say that the customers had depended on the aptitude and ability of the merchant organization, Ace Computer Ltd., however tragically fourteen of the twenty PCs provided ended up being flawed. In such a circumstance, it is conceivable that by applying the Warranty provision that is in power, Ace Computers would need to supplant the blemished PCs with great ones. It should be contended that under such conditions, the topic of reclaiming the blemished PCs and reimbursing the sum doesn't emerge, since the legally binding commitment between Ace Computers Ltd. what's more, the customers, Stevens, Wiley and Company, doesn't consider discount of the price tag. The agreement doesn't charge that expenses of blemished merchandise would be discounted, however it is potentially that substitutions of four imperfect PCs could be made, and furthermore the models provided to Damien, could be supplanted. It could be contended for this situation, that the authoritative commitments under the understanding marked between the gatherings are official, and there being no provision that explicitly accommodates discount of price tag, it might be not be enforceable under law. Be that as it may, while thinking about contentions from perspective of the customers, their principle charges would be regarding the way that they are not in the standard business of purchasing PCs, however Ace Computers are in the matter of giving PC business answers for years. They have put in the request based on affirmations gave by Gerald, the executive,

Experts Tips to How to Cite A Poem With Perfection

Experts Tips to How to Cite A Poem With Perfection Here in this blog, we are going to share with you the most effective tips on how to cite a poem. But before we getting the start, lets have a look at the short introduction of poetry. Poetry is one of the most beautiful and artistic forms of writing and can be a valued resource to consider, such as a paper topic or as per a piece of evidence for a research paper. A lot of students have a question in what way to cite a quote from the poem, such as the format of the essay has a great influence on the grade you acquire through the end of the period. Besides this, Scholars might search for appropriate paper instances or find specific guidelines. Purpose of Cite A Poem Summary Purpose of Cite A PoemHow to Cite a Poem in Different Referencing Styles?How to Cite a Poem in APAHow to Cite a Poem in MLAEssential features of MLA StyleWhen Should You Cite a Poem?Conclusion Citing direct quotes as well as making a reference page from prose or poem is one of the most significant complex phases in essay writing. To organize it in an accurate method, a student has to be acquainted with a number of academic writing styles as his five fingers. How to Cite a Poem in Different Referencing Styles? Varioustypesofreferencestylesareavailable.Itmaybeofdifferentkinds; on the other hand,themaintypesarethefollowing: APA: The American Psychological Association (APA) style guide is very prevalent, particularly in the social sciences. If you need to write a paper in APA style, there are a lot of distinct formatting rubrics to consider. Citing sources, for example, poems can be one of the most unclear things; on the other hand, if you follow fewer simple rules, you will have flawlessly formatted citations.MLA: it is the most frequently expected format. And, MLA is the abbreviation for the Modern Language Association. Besides this, it is a popular style that is not hard to master and creates quoting poetry very informal. How to Cite a Poem in APA If you want to cite a poem using the APA style, consist of your quote from a poem in quotation marks, if it is not more than 40 words, as well as utilize forward, slashes to indicate line breaks. To cite a longer passage, initiate the quote on a newer line and indent it to make a block quotation. How to Cite a Poem in MLA At what time you quote a single line of a poem (or part of a line), just put it in quotation marks such as you would for some another quote. If you used two or three lines for the quote, make sure to use a forward slash to mark the line breaks. Put a space previously as well as later the slash. Confirm to use similar punctuation, styling, and capitalization, such as in the unique text. Essential features of MLA Style AnMLA in-text citationshould continuously consist of the last name of the authors, whichever in the introductory text orafterthoughtsnext tothe quote.Whenthe sourceincludeslinenumbersorpagenumbers,addthemtotheguide.Whenspeakingaboutnumerouspoemsbyasimilarpoet,makesurethatyouas wellmentionthepoemtitle(shortifnecessary).Inquotationmarks,thetitlegoes. When Should You Cite a Poem? A student must understand why, when it is important to make a poetry quote in an essay. You can receive different writing assignments when you are a student, and you will also have to submit hundreds of essays of distinct types if you are an English, Literary, or Arts student: Descriptive;Reflective;Classification essay;Argumentative;Compare contrast,Critical thinking; While you are working on these essays or the research paper, your good skills in the book, as well as poem citing, will be unknown over perfect. Checked the greatest methods to get ready through your assignment as soon as probable. Conclusion Now you have well-read how to cite a poem, and that poem quotation is one of the greatest methods to show you have read the collected works and your agreed aim of the author. Even though the information in poetry citations are similar in any paragraph, arranging the citation differs, contingent on exactly how many lines of poetry are being cited. The above explanation is very beneficial for the student who wants to cite a poem. If you are facing any problem while doing the assignment on how to cite a poem, you may get help from us. Submit your requirements at www.calltutors.com

Essay on Disaster Management Reflections

Essay on Disaster Management Reflections Example Essay on Disaster Management Reflections: The earth has been affected by the natural hazards over a long time as man emerged into picture the picture that the natural occurrences were becoming disaster, together with being documented in various ways providing a warning for the future generation. However in 1920, there was a published study referred to as the catastrophe and social change by Henry Samuel Prince. This was the Halifax Disaster documented account and the occurrence of the social change. The first person to deliver evidence based study was Prince, by use of theory founding a paradigm which paved way for the management of disaster to be studied (Sperling, 2004). A change in social can be caused by disasters. Social change always is not for better depending on affected population resources (Oliver, 2002). Change in disaster study started changing with theories like as Carr discussing a cultural protection collapse. Carr made a discussion on how we got the tools in place encountering the act of disasters though if there was lack of these tools there was no more protection. Disaster is any occurrence that causes ecological disruption, damage, human life loss, health services and health deterioration on sufficient scale to warrant response extraordinary from the outside area or community affected (De Boer, 2000). In addition, it can be also defined as the series or event which disrupts the normal activities seriously. Disaster means a sudden or great misfortune. This may include tsunami; fires; floods; droughts; flood and many others. The major disasters naturally may include earthquake, cyclone, flood, and drought. Minor disasters naturally include storm, heat waves, cold wave, mud slides, and thunderstorm. The major disasters that may occur in man made activities include deforestation, fires, setting of fires, and pollution due to their prawn activities. Minor man made occurrence of disasters may include accidents on the roads or trains, riots, industrial riots, food poisoning, and environmental pollution. In history throughout disasters had some impacts significantly on the number, life style and health status of the population such as death, shortage of food, movements of the population, damage of water systems and the health facilities, and severe injuries which requires treatment extensive. Health problem that is common to every disaster include mental health, social reactions, nutrition and food, climatic exposure, health infrastructure damage, and population displacement. Whether a disaster is man- made or natural, it can occur at anytime and anywhere. General response to any disaster is thereby in terms of rescue and relief operations which are after the event. If we are well and adequately prepared, it is very easy to reduce the impact of that disaster. There can be reduction of the impact through being aware by understanding well the preventive actions, together with having knowledge of particular tools and techniques; at the time of disaster event these tools and techniques can be used to control total damage to belongings and life. The biggest problem and very sad thing is the way a disaster occur; they occur with swiftness and suddenness hence, for a disaster serenity to be reduced, the response has to be swift equally(De Boer, 2000). It is hard for a day to pass without news about complex or major emergency happening in different parts of the world, as disasters continue to strike causing destruction to both developed and undeveloped countries (Dyregrov, 1999). This raises vulnerability concern to occurrences that may affect gravely our daily lives and the future. In vulnerable populations, some emergency in particular those occurring in nature become catastrophic events only when they are in combination with the vulnerability factors like populations density and the human settlements. An occurrence of earthquake in deserted area is might be considered as a natural hazard, rather than if it occurred in mega city where it is recognized as major disaster (Stewart, 2005). Any type of emergency that has anything to do with vulnerability population together with man made included, concerns some technological disasters like the ones of chemicals or nuclear; these demonstrates complex and major emergencies are linked closely to an anarchic growth population that leads to poverty, unplanned population settlements, and environmental degradation. Disasters themselves have no limitation to specific parts of world. There are no countries that are disaster immune, but there is variance in disaster vulnerability (Sperling, 2005). However, some countries might be more prone to a particular type of disaster. The more advanced a country is, the level of their preparedness is slightly higher. High level of preparedness enhances them have good control over loss. Some disasters where loss during actual event is not required as high, hence losses become a bit high due to the inability in managing the situation in a timed manner. Another thing that might lead to a big loss during certain disasters is the secure utilities and properly manages inability (Pearce, 2003). In one way these utilities tend to be very important, and on the other hand, due to ruptures or leakage, some of them might be in contact with each other, where they are not supposed to therefore leading to further damage. The most important thing and the most motivation of disaster management are minimizing losses at disaster time together with ensuring that resources are utilized effectively; as they are scarce already. The major disasters naturally may include earthquake, cyclone, flood, and drought. Minor disasters naturally include storm, heat waves, cold wave, mud slides, and thunderstorm. The major disasters that may occur in man made activities include deforestation, fires, setting of fires, and pollution due to their prawn activities. Minor man made occurrence of disasters may include accidents on the roads or trains, riots, industrial riots, food poisoning, and environmental pollution. There are four types of disaster mainly. These include environmental emergencies, natural disasters, pandemic disasters, and complex disasters. Disaster prevention is activities that are designed for provision of permanent disasters protection. Not every disaster can be prevented and particularly natural disasters; the loss risk of injury and life can be only mitigated with plans of good evacuation, design standards and environmental planning. Disaster preparedness is activities for life loss and damage minimization (Pearce, 2003). Preparedness is the best way of reducing disasters impact. Disaster relief is a multi-agency coordinated response of reducing disaster impact and its results of long-term. These activities may include relocation, rescue, water and food provision, preventing disability and disease, repair of vital services like transport, provision of temporary shelter and health care emergency. Once the needs of emergency has been accomplished and the crisis is initially over, those affected together with the community supporting them remain vulnerable. Management of disaster is linked with the development sustainably, in particular with vulnerable people relation like the ones with disability, children, elderly people and groups marginalized. ______________ AdvancedWriters.com is a professional essay writing service which can provide high school, college and university students with 100% original custom written essays, research papers, dissertations, courseworks, book reviews, lab reports, presentations and other assignments of top quality. More than 700 professional Ph.D. and Master’s academic writers. Feel free to buy online essay on Disaster Management from our professional essay writing service. 2.00 avg. rating (1 vote)

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Research Paper about Six Sigma Steps For On The Baltimore Orioles Baseball Team

Definition of Six Sigma Six Sigma is a methodology of managing performance of processes. It does not only include improvement of projects but also all the steps which help in improving its success. The steps involve: Establishment of roles: Can be most successful if the leadership has a commitment to the philosophy and methodology that it entails. At each operational level, Process owners should be identified. They will be charged with the responsibility of tracking their group performance and hence determining the actions to be taken when some sort of improvement is needed. Some training should also be done to the Process owners so that they have some basic understanding and tools for working in managing processes. Creating a dashboard After putting the personnel in place, the team should then start at the highest level which involves determining the success of the organization. The success can be in form of shareholder satisfaction or measures of profitability or achievement of the mission or vision depending on the organization’s goals. The dashboard is a summary of the key measuring procedures of an organization. The dashboard will ensure that there are quantifiable measures put in place to ensure that there are improvements in the overall performance of the organization. Establishment of performance Expectations After the clarification of the key metrics as in step 2 above, the level of performance acceptable in each area now needs to be determined. This may include the threshold level of customer satisfaction. The performance level can also be incorporated into the dashboard through several ways. Identify needs for Improvement: After putting the dashboard in place, there is need to monitor the process performance by leaders regularly. If the established requirement is not met, the leaders will have to determine how to act. Decision making is a very important aspect at this point. A standard method should be established for putting the priorities on the improvement opportunities and determination of the best methodology in each case. Determining improvement approaches: The approaches for having the improvement strategies in place is very vital at this stage. If a wrong approach is taken, then there is no positive improvement that will be realized instead there will a negative change in the overall performance of the organization. For a better improvement to be realized, there is need to lay an improvement methodology which should be followed to the latter. After achieving the improvement goal, the project is then closed out and an update is done on the dashboard to reflect the new level of performance. Maintain the Framework There is need for a continuous attention which ensures that the established procedures are maintained. Employees need to be trained and the dashboard   updated with current performance levels and the changes that may appear to the key metrics. Priorities should also be revisited and documentations of such high-level procedures be made. References Nichols, F. (1991). The Final Season. St, Louis Browns Historical Society. Bialik, C. (2008). Baseball’s Biggest Ninth-Inning Comebacks. The Wall Street Journal.

1.)Key Concepts Of The Framework . Cognitive Behavior

1.) Key concepts of the framework: Cognitive behavior therapy also referred to as CBT is one of the most practiced forums of evidence-based therapy used today. CBT approaches in therapy have demonstrated a high degree of success rates in treatment. CBT is known for treating anxiety, alcohol and substance abuse, and depression among many other difficulties one might experience (Padesky, 2012). Cognitive behavioral therapy maintains the belief that what people believe holds significant value. A person’s belief has a strong influence on how the person feels and acts upon those feelings (Corey, 2017). Around the mid-1970’s therapists started emphasizing the interaction between behavioral, affective, and cognitive dimensions which led to the†¦show more content†¦REBT believes that people contribute to his or her own psychological problems. According to Cory, the basic assumptions of rational emotive behavior therapy are that cognitions, emotions, and behaviors have a reciprocal cause-and-effect type relationship. Albert Ellis said that the basic framework for REBT is the hypothesis that a persons emotions stem directly from his or her beliefs, which then impact the interpretations made causing the reactions a person has to specific life events (Corey, 2017). The A-B-C framework as described in our textbook is a model that is used primarily to understand a client’s feelings, thoughts, events, and behavior. The A-B-C model is a tool that encompasses five different stages of the process. The existence of an activating event or adversity, or a inference about an event by the individual is the A of the framework (Corey, 2017). The B of the framework is considered to be the individual’s beliefs about the activating event. Thus causing C which is the emotional and behavioral consequences of the individual, this is mainly created by the person’s beliefs (Corey, 2017). After A, B and C then D and E are created to help balance the framework. D basically disputes or c hallenges the beliefs using three components: detecting, debating and discriminating which are used to dispute the irrational beliefs. Clients are then encouraged to develop anShow MoreRelated1.Provide A Brief Overview Of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy1462 Words   |  6 Pages1. Provide a brief overview of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Your definition should include key concepts/assumptions of CBT as well as the therapeutic process (e.g., structure, therapist role, client role). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a mixture of both Cognitive Therapy (CT), which deals with a person’s thoughts and Behavioral Therapy (BT), which concentrates on an individual’s overt or outside personality. According to Barbara P. Early and Melissa D. Grady, CT specializes in theRead MoreMajor Categories Of Direct Practice1306 Words   |  6 Pagestheories is to translate insights into personality changes within the client. The second category is cognitive-behavioral theories, which connects the cognitive processes and their influence on behaviors and focuses on the present with hopes to improve the future. These theories focus on the current conditions of the client and identify distortions, beliefs, and misconceptions that contribute to the behaviors and symptoms of the client. The third theories are the humanistic theories which are theories concernedRead MoreThe Theory Of Reasoned Action1529 Words   |  7 Pagesrelationship between attitudes and behaviors with human action. This theory is also used to predict how people will behave based on his/hers pre-existing attitudes and behavioral intentions. The decision to engage in a particular behavior is based on the outcomes the individual expects will come as a result of performing the behavior. Behavioral intent is allegedly created or caused by two main factors, which include our attitudes and our subjective norms. Some key constructs for this theory include;Read MoreAdult Learning Is The Best Known Of These Theoretical Approaches Essay1333 Words   |  6 Pagesbeen several theoretical approaches to adult learning which have proved to be beneficial for the research on adult learning. Some of the frameworks have helped researchers think about practices across various contexts of adult learning. Andragogy is arguably the best-known of these theoretical approaches. Malcolm Knowles is credited with bringing this framework to attention. 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The theory or approach that is chosen by a counselor must be one that they are knowledgeable in and feel comfortable withRead More Childhood Play Behavior and Cognitive Development Essay1717 Words   |  7 PagesChildhood play behavior is an important part of every child’s life. Starting in infancy, children begin to explore their world through play. This behavior can serve as an indicator of the child’s cognitive and social development. The research on play and development is a key to helping caregivers understand the importance of childhood play. This paper will focus on the psychological aspects of childhood play behavior and its relation to cognitive development. According to the cognitive development

Analysis Of Frankenstein Or The Modern Prometheus

Knowledge in the Beginning o Myth of Prometheus †¢ Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is the complete title of Mary Shelley’s flamboyant monster novel, which includes an allusion to Prometheus. Her referral to Prometheus is not only about how he was the Titan punished by Zeus because he stole fire from the gods and presented it to mankind; it is also more focused on how he was titan and mythical being who created mankind and was not able to control his own creation. †¢ Prometheus is claimed by others to be one of the wisest if not the wisest Titan. When he brought fire to mankind, he transported knowledge and illumination to mankind. For going against the gods, he was harshly punished. Prometheus was chained to a rock and his punishment was that his liver had to be eaten out every day by an eagle. Every night his liver would grow back and every day an eagle would devour it. His punishment was to last an eternity. o Connection with the Modern Prometheus (Frankenstein) †¢ Marry Shelley was clearly influenced by the tale of Prometheus as she implemented the Titan’s name for part of her title. †¢ Shelley also adopted the concept of a certain consequence from the result of seeking power and knowledge. The novel illustrates this in how Victor was tortured throughout the story after he created the monster. As Prometheus was tortured for a consequence, so was Victor. At the end of the novel, Victor proclaimed that his curiosity caused all his misfortunes and sufferings. PastShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Frankenstein And The Modern Prometheus 1567 Words   |  7 PagesVictor’s Foolishness: Using Science to Learn Natures Secrets â€Å"I have always described myself as always having been imbued with a fevering longing to penetrate the secrets of science† Victor Frankenstein (Shelley, pg34). In the novel Frankenstein and the Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley romanticism of nature ties in to her fear of science. In the novel a knowledgeable individual named Victor creates a creature out of dead human parts and sparks life into it with electricity. The birth of the creatureRead MoreAnalysis Of Frankenstein The Modern Prometheus 1123 Words   |  5 PagesBrian Markewicz 3/31/15 Per. 5 English CP Frankenstein the Modern Prometheus You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. Mahatma Gandhi. In Frankenstein, the creature encounters many judgmental people that are mean to him at first glance. The story of Frankenstein compared to real life has many of the same problems. This story relates and will relate to society throughout time because these problems areRead MoreAnalysis Of Mary Shelley s Frankenstein Or The Modern Prometheus 1710 Words   |  7 PagesFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, is one of the most iconic tales of 19th century literature. Grandly displaying a mastery of psychological depth within the characters, the author portrays a flawed society inherent within their scientific progression. As such, the enriching tale draws many criticisms from the society in which Shelley lived in, some of which encompasses appearances, feminism, and class restrictions. Retold through multiple mediums , the story is generally seenRead MoreMary Shelley ´s Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus, an Analysis of the Subtitle1219 Words   |  5 PagesVictor Frankenstein, the main protagonist, is being put on a level with Prometheus through the subtitle. An indication that Mary Shelley did indeed have the myth in mind as she wrote the novel, is not only her subtitle, but moreover the parallels between the Prometheus myth and Frankenstein, which are undeniable. The title itself gives a lot away of the story which follows. It links the modern world with the ancient Greek myth. Victor Frankenstein â€Å"steals† the secret of life, just like Prometheus stoleRead MoreFrankenstein : Emotionally Bound By Mary Shelley1745 Words   |  7 PagesVictor Frankenstein: Emotionally Bound The creation of life is an extraordinary event which humanity usually attributes to the work of a higher being. Because of this common belief, Mary Shelley’s: Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus often triggers mixed feelings when human Victor Frankenstein experiments and creates the creature known as Frankenstein or Frankenstein’s monster. 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Sawyer And Gary Marcus1056 Words   |  5 PagesMarcus reveal the relationship of science fiction and ethics to technology which relates to the themes of Prometheus through science fiction and ethical motives. Prometheus was well known for giving the human race the gift of fire. He delivered fire to the world by stealing it from Zeus due to a conflict between the two. Prometheus was punished for his wrongdoing in which Zeus chained Prometheus to a boulder so an eagle would come to eat his liver every day. Prometheus’s actions can represent a themeRead MoreAnalysis Of Prometheus And Frankenstein By Mary Shelley Essay1996 Words   |  8 Pagesworld around us. The modern world has a lot to do with the monster that we create to help us understand the world better. Rather than being blunt and saying what scares us, we as people create monsters to give a face of our internal fears. The faces we give the monsters are not always the faces of what scares us as people. We mix imagination with reality to create this monsters that scare us. Yet we can’t seem to get enough of monster’s stories. Comparing Prometheus and Frankenstein both written in two

Bloodsucking Fiends A Love Story Chapter 27~28 Free Essays

Chapter 27 Bridging the Boredom Half past midnight. He stood at the top of the southwest tower of the Oakland Bay Bridge, some fifty stories above the gunmetal-cold bay, thinking, Jump or dive? He wore a black silk suit and he paused for a moment, regretting that the suit would be ruined. He liked the feel and flow of silk on his skin. We will write a custom essay sample on Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 27~28 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Oh well. Two miles away Jody was walking up Market Street wishing that she could just get drunk and pass out. I wonder, she thought, if I found someone who was really drunk and drank his blood? No, this damn system of mine would probably identify alcohol as a poison and fight the effects. So many questions. If only I’d remembered to ask them. She stopped at a phone booth and called Tommy at the store. â€Å"Marina Safeway.† â€Å"Tommy, it’s me.† â€Å"Are you still mad?† â€Å"Not mad enough, I guess. I just wanted to tell you to stay in the store until after daylight. Don’t go outside for any reason. And stay around the other guys if you can.† â€Å"Why? What’s the matter?† â€Å"Just do as I say, Tommy.† â€Å"I cleaned up the loft. Mostly, anyway.† â€Å"We’ll talk about it tomorrow night. Stay at home until I wake up, okay?† â€Å"Are you still going to be pissed?† â€Å"Probably. I’ll see you then. Good-bye.† She hung up. How could he be so smart sometimes and so ignorant other times? Maybe the vampire was right, a human could never understand her. She suddenly felt very lonely. She ducked into an all-night diner and ordered a cup of coffee as rent on a booth. She still could enjoy the smell of coffee, even if she couldn’t keep it down. She opened the paper she had bought from the bum with her cosmetics bag and began to read through the personals. â€Å"Men Seeking Women,† â€Å"Women Seeking Men,† â€Å"Men Seeking Men,† â€Å"Women Seeking Women,† â€Å"Men Seeking Small Fuzzy Animals†; there was a wide selection of categories. She scanned over the more mundane entries until her eye settled on one under â€Å"Support Groups.† â€Å"Are You a Vampire? You don’t have to face your problem alone. Blood Drinkers Anonymous can help. Mon.-Fri. Midnight. Rm. 212 Asian Cultural Center, Non-Smoking.† It was Friday. It was midnight. She was only ten minutes from the Asian Cultural Center. Could it be this simple? The first thing she noticed when she walked into room 212 of the Asian Cultural Center is that all of the people sitting in a circle in molded plastic chairs, all twenty of them, were giving off heat signatures. They were all human. She was backing out of the door when a pear-shaped woman in a leotard and black cape intercepted her and took her hand. â€Å"Welcome,† said the woman. She sported a set of rather wicked-looking fangs that caused her to lisp. â€Å"I’m Tabitha. We’re just getting ready to start. Come on in. There’s coffee and cookies.† She led Jody to an orange plastic chair and urged her to sit down. â€Å"It’s hard the first time, but everyone here has been where you are.† â€Å"Not bloody likely,† Jody said, wiping a speck of Tabitha’s spittle from her cheek. Tabitha pointed to a plastic medallion that hung from her neck by a heavy silver chain. â€Å"See this chip? I’ve been clean and bloodless for six months. If I can do it, so can you. One night at a time.† Tabitha squeezed her arm, then threw her cape over her shoulder, turned dramatically, and stalked across the room to the cookie table, her cape billowing behind her. Jody looked at the other occupants of the room. All were talking, most were sneaking looks at her between sips of coffee. The men were all tall and thin with protruding Adam’s apples and bad skin. Their dress ranged from business suits to jeans and flannel. They might have been a chess club out for the evening if not for the capes. To a man, they wore capes. Four of seven had fangs. Two sets of four were made of glow-in-the-dark plastic. Jody focused on two of them whispering in the corner. â€Å"I told you, this is a babe-fest. Did you see the redhead?† He sneaked a look. His partner said, â€Å"I think I saw her at Compulsive Cleaners last week.† â€Å"Compulsive Cleaners, I was going to try that. How are the odds?† â€Å"Lots of gay guys, but a few babes. Mostly they smell like Pine Sol, but it’s hot if you like latex gloves.† â€Å"Cool, I’ll check it out. I think I’m going to quit going to Adult Children of Alcoholics, everybody’s looking to blame, no one’s looking to get laid.† Jody thought, I don’t know if I want to hear quiet desperation this clearly. She changed her focus to the women in the room. A six-foot-two brunette woman in a black choir robe and Kabuki-like makeup was complaining to a washed-out blonde wearing a tattered wedding dress. â€Å"They want to be tied up, I tie them up. They want to be spanked, I spank them. They want to be called names, I call them names. But try and drink a little of their blood, and they scream like babies. What about my needs?† â€Å"I know,† said the blonde. â€Å"I asked Robert to sleep in the coffin one time and he left.† â€Å"You have a coffin? I want a coffin.† Christ, Jody thought, I’ve got to get out of here. Tabitha clapped her hands. â€Å"Let’s get the meeting started!† Those who were standing found seats. Several men tried to shove their way into the seats next to Jody. A skinny geek with peanut-butter breath leaned in to her and said, â€Å"I was on ‘Oprah’ on Halloween. ‘Men who drink blood and the women who find them disgusting. If you want, you can come by my place and watch the tape after the meeting.† â€Å"I’m out of here,† Jody said. She jumped up and headed for the door. Behind her she heard Tabitha saying, â€Å"Hi, I’m Tabitha and I’m a bloodsucking fiend.† â€Å"Hi, Tabitha,† the group said in chorus. Outside Jody looked up and down the street wondering which way to go, what to do. She paused by a phone booth, realizing that there was no one she could call. Tears welled in her eyes. Why even bother to hope? The only person who had the slightest idea how she felt was the vampire who had made her. And he had made it clear that he wasn’t interested in helping her – the evil fucker. I should set him up with my mother, she thought, then the two of them can look down on humanity together. The thought made her smile. Then the phone rang. She looked at it for a second, looked around for someone else who would answer it, but except for a guy standing by his car a couple of blocks away, the street was empty. She picked up the phone. â€Å"Hello.† A man’s voice said, â€Å"I thought you would show up here eventually.† â€Å"Who is this?† Jody asked. The man sounded young, his voice was unfamiliar. â€Å"I can’t tell you that yet.† â€Å"Okay,† Jody said. â€Å"Bye.† â€Å"Wait, wait, wait, don’t hang up.† â€Å"Well?† â€Å"You’re the one, aren’t you? You’re real. I mean, you are a real vampire.† Jody held the phone away, stared at the receiver as if it were an alien object. â€Å"Who is this?† â€Å"I don’t want to tell you my name. I don’t want you to be able to find me. Let’s just say that I’m a friend.† â€Å"That’s how most of my friends are,† Jody said. â€Å"They don’t tell me their names or how to find them. It keeps my social calendar pretty clear.† Who was this guy? Who could possibly know that she was here, right now? â€Å"Okay, I guess I owe you something. I’m a med student at†¦ at a local college. I did some research on one of the bodies†¦ one of the bodies of the people you killed.† â€Å"I didn’t kill anyone. I don’t know what you’re talking about. If I am who you think I am, how did you know I’d be here? I didn’t even know I would be here until an hour ago.† â€Å"I’ve been waiting, watching every night for a couple of weeks. I had a theory that you wouldn’t have any noticeable body heat, and you don’t.† â€Å"What are you talking about? No one notices anybody’s body heat.† â€Å"Look up the street. By the white Toyota. It’s running, by the way. If you make a move to come toward me, I’m gone.† Jody looked more closely at the person up the street standing by a white car. The car was running. The man was holding a cell phone and looking at her through some very large binoculars. â€Å"I see you,† she said. â€Å"What do you want?† â€Å"I’m looking at you through infrared glasses. You’re not giving off any body heat, so I know you’re the one. My theory was right.† â€Å"Are you a cop?† â€Å"No, I told you, I’m a medical student. I don’t want to turn you in. In fact, I think I might be able to help you, if you’re interested in being helped.† â€Å"Talk,† Jody said. She held her hand over the phone and focused on the guy by the car. She could hear him talking into the cell phone. â€Å"They gave one of the cadavers to our department after the coroner was done with it. It was a male, about sixty years old, the third victim, I think. I noticed that there was a clean spot on his neck, as if it had been washed. The coroner hadn’t put that in his report. I took a tissue sample and put it under a microscope. The tissue in that area was living. Regenerating. I cultured it and it started to die, until I added something on a hunch.† â€Å"What?† Jody asked. She didn’t know what to think. This man knew she was a vampire, and strangely, she felt an urge to attack. Some protective instinct wanted her to hurt him. Kill him. She fought to stay calm. â€Å"Hemoglobin. I added some human hemoglobin and the tissue started to regenerate again. I ran it through the sequencer. It’s not human DNA. It’s close, but not human. It doesn’t produce heat, doesn’t seem to burn fuel the same way that mammalian cells do. The coroner said that he was the one that had drained the blood from the body, but he’d never done that before. And I knew that the guy had been murdered. I made a guess. I saw the ad in the Weekly for a vampire support group, so I’ve been watching.† Jody said, â€Å"Suppose I believe what you’re saying. Suppose I believe that you believe this bullshit, how could you help me? Supposing I wanted to be helped?† â€Å"My major is gene therapy. There’s a chance I could reverse the process.† â€Å"This isn’t science. I’m not saying that you’re right about your theory. There are a lot of things that you don’t know, that can’t be explained by science. If you don’t know that by now, you will. What you’re talking about is magic.† â€Å"Magic is just science that we don’t know yet. Do you want me to help or not?† â€Å"Why would you want to do that? As far as you know, I kill people.† â€Å"So does cancer, but I still work on it. Do you have any idea what kind of competition there is for jobs in my field? It’s an all-or-nothing field. I could end up getting my PhD and giving saccharine enemas to rats for five bucks an hour. What I learn from you would put my resume at the top of the stack.† Jody didn’t know what to say. Part of her wanted to drop the phone and go after him. Another part wanted to accept his help. She said, â€Å"What do you want me to do?† â€Å"Nothing yet. How can I get hold of you?† â€Å"I can’t tell you that. I’ll call you. What’s your number?† â€Å"I can’t tell you that.† Jody sighed. â€Å"Look, Mr. Scientific Genius, figure out something. And by the way, I really didn’t kill those people.† â€Å"Then why are you even listening to me?† â€Å"I guess this conversation is over. Get in your car and get comfortable with asking rats to bend over. Good-bye.† â€Å"Wait, we could meet somewhere. Tomorrow. Someplace public.† â€Å"No, it has to be at night. Someplace private. You could have cops everywhere.† She watched him as she talked. He had put the binoculars down and she could see that he was Asian. â€Å"You’re the killer here. Would you meet you someplace private and dark?† â€Å"All right. Tomorrow night. Seven o’clock, at Enrico’s on Broadway. That public enough for you?† â€Å"Sure. Can I bring a blood-sample kit? Would you let me?† â€Å"Would you let me?† she asked. He didn’t answer. â€Å"Just kidding,† she said. â€Å"Look, I don’t want to hurt you, but I don’t want to get hurt either. When you leave here, drive like hell and take an indirect route home.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Because I really didn’t kill those people, but I know who did, and he’s been following me. If he’s seen you, you’re in danger.† The line was quiet for a minute, just the ghost voices of a cellular connection. Jody watched the Asian guy watching her. Finally he cleared his throat. â€Å"How many of you are there?† â€Å"I don’t know,† she said. â€Å"I know that all of the victims don’t change. It couldn’t work. The geometric progression would have the entire human race turned to vampires in a month.† He sounded more confident now that he had brought the conversation back to science. â€Å"I’ll tell you what I know tomorrow. But don’t expect much. I don’t know much. Or I’ll tell you now if you want to talk face to face, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk about this with you on a cell phone.† â€Å"Yeah, you’re right. Not now, though. Not here. You understand, don’t you?† Jody nodded, exaggerating the gesture so he could see. â€Å"The longer you stand there, the better chance you have of being seen by†¦ by the other one. Tomorrow night, then. Seven o’clock.† â€Å"Will you be wearing that dress?† Jody smiled. â€Å"Do you like it? It’s new.† â€Å"It’s great. I didn’t think you would be a woman.† â€Å"Thanks. Go now.† She watched him climb into the Toyota, the cell phone still in hand. â€Å"Promise not to try and track me down?† â€Å"I know where you’ll be tomorrow night, remember?† â€Å"Oh yeah. By the way, my name’s Steve.† â€Å"Hi, Steve. I’m Jody.† â€Å"‘Bye,† he said. He disconnected. Jody hung up the phone and watched him drive away. She thought, Great, another one to worry about. It hadn’t occurred to her that her condition might be reversible. But then, the med student didn’t know about how the body had turned to dust. Science indeed. Jump or dive, he thought. The silk suit whipped about his legs in the chill wind. The tower’s aircraft warning light flashed red across his face and he could see heat swirling off it, dissolving over the bay. His name was Elijah Ben Sapir. He stood five feet ten inches tall and he had been a vampire for eight hundred years. In human life he had been an alchemist and had spent his time mixing noxious chemicals and chanting arcane incantations trying to turn lead into gold and tap the secret of eternal life. He hadn’t been a particularly good alchemist. He had never been able to pull off the gold transformation, although by a bizarre miscalculation of chemistry he did manage to invent Teflon some eight hundred years before DuPont would find a use for it. (It should be noted, though, that archaeologists recently uncovered a Viking rune stone in Greenland that mentions a Jew who entered the palace of Constantine the Magnificent in 1224 selling a line of nonstick hot pokers for the Emperor’s torture chamber and was promptly given the bum’s rush to the city gates. The accuracy of the story has been questioned, however, as it begins, â€Å"I never believed that your letters were true until Gunner and I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and goes on to recount the sexual exploits of two Vikings and a harem of brown-skinned Byzantine babes.) Ben Sapir’s search for eternal life had been somewhat more successful. Granted, it came with the side effects of drinking human blood and staying out of sunlight, but he had gotten used to that. It was the loneliness that he couldn’t abide. Perhaps, after all these years, it would end. He was afraid to hope. It had been a hundred years since a fledgling had lasted this long. She had been a Yanomamo woman in the Amazon Basin and she had hunted the jungle for three months before she returned to her village and turned her sister. The sisters declared themselves gods and demanded sacrifices from the village. He found them by the river feeding on an old woman, and he took no pleasure in killing them. Perhaps the redhead, perhaps she would be the one. Dive, he decided. He leaped away from the tower, jackknifed into a dive, and plunged fifty stories to the black water. The challenge was to avoid changing to mist before hitting the water. That was too easy. The impact of the water ripped the clothes off his back; the stitching of his shoes exploded with the pressure. He surfaced, naked except for one sock that had strangely survived the impact, and began the long swim back to his yacht thinking, I shouldn’t have saved her from the sunlight. I must be desperate for entertainment. Chapter 28 Is That a Blackjack in Your Pocket? Tommy booted the Emperor out of the store at dawn. It had been a long night trying to keep the crazed ruler away from the Animals while throwing stock and trying to figure out the logistics of his meeting with Mara, all while under the influence of Dr. Drew’s polio weed, which seemed to affect the part of the brain that motivates one to sit in the corner and drool while staring at one’s hands. When the shift ended, he declined the Animal’s invitation for beers and Frisbee in the parking lot, swiped a baguette from the bread-delivery man, and caught the bus home, intent on going straight to bed. He knew his plan was foiled when Frank, the biker/sculptor, met him outside their building holding a familiar-looking bronze turtle. â€Å"Flood, check it out.† Frank held up the turtle. â€Å"It worked!† â€Å"What worked?† Tommy asked. â€Å"Thick electroplating process. Come on in, I’ll show you.† Frank turned and led Tommy through the roll-up door into the foundry. The foundry took up the entire bottom floor of the building, here was a huge furnace making a muffled rumbling sound. There were several large pits filled with sand, and plaster-of-Paris molds lay in them in various states of completion. In the back, near the only windows, stood wax figures of naked women, Indians, Buddhas, and birds, waiting to be cut up and placed in plaster of Paris. Frank said, â€Å"We’ve been doing a lot of statues for people’s gardens. Buddhas are big with the koi-pond types. That’s what we needed the turtles for. Monk already sold one of them to a woman in Pacific Heights for five hundred bucks. Sight unseen.† â€Å"My turtles?† Tommy said. He looked more closely at the bronze turtle Frank was holding. â€Å"Zelda!† â€Å"Can you believe it?† Frank said. â€Å"We did them both in less than eight hours. Lost-wax process would have taken days. I’ll show you.† He led Tommy to the other side of the shop where a short, portly man in leather and denim was working beside a tall Plexi-glas tank filled with a translucent green liquid. Frank said, â€Å"Monk, this is our neighbor, Tom Flood. Flood, this is my partner Monk.† Monk grunted, not looking up from a compressor that he seemed to be having trouble with. Tommy could see how he had gotten his name. He had a large bowl-shaped bald spot with a fringe of hair around it: the Benedictine version of Easy Rider, Friar Tuck on wheels. â€Å"This,† said Frank, gesturing toward the ten-foot tank, â€Å"as far as we know, is the biggest electroplating tank on the West Coast.† Tommy didn’t know quite how to react. He was still stunned by seeing the bronze likeness of Zelda. â€Å"That’s just spiffy,† he said finally. â€Å"Yeah, dude. We can do anything we can find. No molds, no wax carvings. You just dunk and go. That’s how we did your turtles.† Tommy was beginning to get it. â€Å"You mean that that is not a sculpture? You covered my turtles with brass?† â€Å"That’s it. That liquid is supersaturated with dissolved metal. We sprayed the turtles with a thin metal-based paint that would conduct current. Then we attached a wire to them and dipped them in the tank. The current draws the metal out of the water and it fuses to the paint on the turtle. Leave it a long time and the coating gets thick enough to have structural integrity. Voila, a bronze garden turtle. I don’t think anybody’s ever done it before. We owe you, man.† Monk grunted in gratitude. Tommy didn’t know whether to be angry or depressed. â€Å"You should have told me you were going to kill them.† â€Å"I thought you knew, man. Sorry. You can have this one, if you want.† Frank presented the bronzed Zelda. Tommy shook his head and looked away. â€Å"I don’t think I could look at her.† He turned and walked away. Frank said, â€Å"C’mon, man, take it. We owe you one. If you need a favor or something†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tommy took Zelda. How would he explain to Jody? â€Å"By the way, I’ve turned your little friends into statues.† And this right after they’d had a big fight. He slunk up the steps feeling completely lost. Jody had left him a note on the counter: Tommy: Imperative that you are here when I wake up. If you go out you are in serious, life-threatening trouble. I mean it. I have some very important things to tell you. No time now, I’m going to go out any second. Be here when I wake up. Jody â€Å"Great,† Tommy said to Peary. â€Å"Now what do I do about Mara? Who does Jody think she is, threatening me? What does she think she’s going to do if I’m not here? I can’t be here. Why don’t you keep her busy until I get home.† Tommy patted the chest freezer and an idea came to him. â€Å"You know, Peary, scientists have frozen vampire bats and thawed them completely unharmed. I mean, how would she know? How many times has she thought it was Tuesday when it was really Wednesday?† Tommy went to the bedroom and looked in on Jody, who had made it to bed, but not in time to change out of her black dress. Wow, Tommy thought, she never dresses like that for me. She looked so peaceful. Sexy, but peaceful. She’ll be angry if she finds out, but she’s angry now. It won’t really hurt her. I can just take her out tomorrow morning and put her under the electric blanket. By sundown she’ll be thawed out and I’ll have handled the Mara thing. I can tell Mara that I’m involved. I can’t start something new until this is finished. Maybe with the extra time, Jody will have chilled a little. He smiled to himself. He opened the lid of the freezer, then went into the bedroom to get Jody. He carried her into the kitchen and laid her in the freezer on top of Peary. As he tucked her into the fetal position he felt a twinge of jealousy. â€Å"You guys behave now, okay?† He tucked a few TV dinners around her nice and snug under her arms, then kissed her on the forehead and gently closed the lid. As he crawled into bed he thought, If she ever finds out about this, she’s really going to be pissed. Tommy had been asleep three hours when the pounding started. He rolled out of bed, stumbled across the dark bedroom, and was blinded when he opened the door into the loft. He was just regaining his eyesight when he opened the fire door and Rivera said, â€Å"Are you Thomas Flood, Junior?† â€Å"Yes,† Tommy said, bracing himself against the doorjamb. â€Å"I’m Inspector Alphonse Rivera from the San Francisco Police Department.† He held up a badge wallet. â€Å"You’re under arrest† – Rivera pulled a warrant from his jacket pocket – â€Å"for abandoning a vehicle on a public street.† â€Å"You’re kidding,† Tommy said. Cavuto stepped through the door and grabbed Tommy by the shoulder, whipping him around as the big cop pulled his handcuffs from his belt. â€Å"You have the right to remain silent†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Cavuto said. Two hours later Tommy had been processed, probed, and printed, and as Cavuto had expected, Tommy’s fingerprints matched those on the copy of On the Road that they had found under the dead bum. It was enough for them to get a search warrant issued for the loft. Five minutes after they entered the loft a mobile crime lab was dispatched along with a forensics team and two coroners’ trucks. As far as crime scenes went, the loft in SOMA was the mother lode. Cavuto and Rivera left the crime scene to the forensics team and returned to the station, where they took Tommy from a holding cell and put him in a pleasantly pink interrogation room furnished with a metal table and two chairs. There was a mirror on one wall and a tape recorder sat on the table. Tommy sat staring at the pink wall, remembering something about how pink was supposed to calm you down. It didn’t seem to be working. His stomach was tied in knots. Rivera had done dozens of interrogations with Cavuto and they always took the same roles: Cavuto was the bad cop, and Rivera was the good cop. Actually Rivera never felt like the good cop. More often he was the I-am-tired-and-overworked-and-I’m-being-nice-to-you-because-I-don’t-have-the-energy-to-be-angry cop. â€Å"Would you like a smoke?† Rivera asked. â€Å"Sure,† Tommy said. Cavuto jumped in his face. â€Å"Too bad, punk. There’s no smoking in here.† Cavuto took great pleasure in being the bad cop. He practiced in front of the mirror at home. Rivera shrugged. â€Å"He’s right. You can’t smoke.† Tommy said, â€Å"That’s okay, I don’t smoke.† â€Å"How about a lawyer then?† asked Rivera. â€Å"Or a phone call?† â€Å"I have to be at work at midnight,† Tommy said. â€Å"If it looks like I’m going to be late, I’ll use my call then.† Cavuto was pacing the room, timing his path so he could wheel on Tommy with every statement. He wheeled. â€Å"Yeah, kid, you’re going to be late, about thirty years late, if they don’t fry you.† Tommy pushed back in his chair with fright. â€Å"Good one, Nick,† Rivera said. â€Å"Thanks.† Cavuto smiled around an unlit cigar and backed away from the table where Tommy sat. Rivera moved up. â€Å"Okay, kid, you don’t want an attorney. Where do you want to start? We’ve got you hands-down on two murders and probably three. If you tell us the story, tell us everything, about all the other murders, we might be able to waive the death penalty.† â€Å"I didn’t kill anybody.† â€Å"Don’t be cute,† Cavuto said. â€Å"We found two bodies in your freezer. We’ve got your fingerprints all over a book that we found under a third body outside your apartment. We’ve got you staying at the motel where we found a fourth body. And we’ve got you with a closetful of women’s clothing and eyewitnesses that put a woman near where we found a fifth body†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tommy interrupted, â€Å"Actually, there’s only one body in the freezer. The other is my girlfriend.† â€Å"You sick fuck.† Cavuto drew back as if to hit Tommy. Rivera moved to restrain him. Tommy cowered in his chair. Rivera led Cavuto to the far side of the room. â€Å"Let me take this for a minute.† He left Cavuto grumbling to himself and went to the seat across from Tommy. â€Å"Look, kid, we’ve got you cold, so to speak, on two murders. We’ve got circumstantial evidence on another. You are going to jail for a very long time, and at this point, the death penalty is looking pretty good. Now if you tell us everything, and don’t leave anything out, we might be able to help you out, but you have to give us enough to close all the cases. Do you understand?† Tommy nodded. â€Å"But I didn’t kill anybody. I put Jody in the freezer, which I admit is inconsiderate, but I didn’t kill her.† Cavuto growled. Rivera nodded in mock acceptance of the story. â€Å"Fine, but if you didn’t kill them, who did? Did someone you know force you into this?† Cavuto exploded, â€Å"Oh Christ, Rivera! What do you need, a videotape? This little bastard did it.† â€Å"Nick, please. Give me a minute here.† Cavuto moved to the table and leaned over it until his face was next to Tommy’s. He whispered, raspy and gruff, â€Å"Flood, don’t think you can use a wiggle and a wink to get yourself out of this. That might work down on Castro, but I’m immune to it here, you got me? I’m going to leave now, but when I come back, if you haven’t told my partner your story, I’m going to cause pain. Lots of it, and I won’t leave a mark on you.† He stood up, smiled, then turned and left the room. Tommy looked at Rivera. â€Å"A wiggle and a wink?† â€Å"Nick thinks you’re cute,† Rivera said. â€Å"He’s gay?† â€Å"Completely.† Tommy shook his head. â€Å"I would have never guessed.† â€Å"He’s a Shriner, too.† Rivera tapped a cigarette out of his pack and lit it. â€Å"Looks can be deceiving.† â€Å"Hey, I didn’t think you were allowed to smoke in here.† Rivera blew smoke in Tommy’s face. â€Å"You had two people in your freezer, and you’re giving me shit about smoking.† â€Å"Good point.† Rivera sat down and leaned back in the chair. â€Å"Tommy, I’m going to give you one more chance to tell me how you killed those people, then I’m going to let Nick back in here and I’m going to leave. He really likes you. This room is soundproof, you know.† Tommy swallowed hard. â€Å"You’re not going to believe me. It’s a pretty fantastic story. There’s supernatural stuff involved.† Rivera rubbed his temples. â€Å"Satan told you to do it?† he said wearily. â€Å"No.† â€Å"Elvis?† â€Å"I told you, it’s supernatural.† â€Å"Tommy, I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone before. If you repeat it, I’ll deny I said it. Five years ago I saw a white owl with a seventy-foot wingspan swoop out of the sky and pluck a demon off a hillside and take off into the sky.† â€Å"I heard that cops get the best drugs,† Tommy said. Rivera got up. â€Å"I’m going to bring Nick in.† â€Å"No, wait. I’ll tell you. It was a vampire. You can thaw Jody out and ask her.† Rivera reached over and turned on the tape recorder. â€Å"Now slow down. Start at the beginning and go until we walked you into this room.† An hour later Rivera met Cavuto behind the one-way mirror. Cavuto was not happy. â€Å"You know, I’d rather you just threaten that I would beat him up.† â€Å"It worked, didn’t it?† â€Å"There’s nothing there we can use. Not a thing. If he sticks with that story he’ll get off on insanity. It’s too wild. I want to know how he got the blood out of the bodies.† â€Å"The kid thinks he’s a writer. He’s showing off his imagination. Let’s let him sit awhile and get something to eat. I want to find the Emperor.† â€Å"That wacko?† â€Å"He’s been reporting seeing a vampire for weeks. Maybe he saw the kid doing one of the murders.† How to cite Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 27~28, Essay examples

Bloodsucking Fiends A Love Story Chapter 27~28 Free Essays

Chapter 27 Bridging the Boredom Half past midnight. He stood at the top of the southwest tower of the Oakland Bay Bridge, some fifty stories above the gunmetal-cold bay, thinking, Jump or dive? He wore a black silk suit and he paused for a moment, regretting that the suit would be ruined. He liked the feel and flow of silk on his skin. We will write a custom essay sample on Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 27~28 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Oh well. Two miles away Jody was walking up Market Street wishing that she could just get drunk and pass out. I wonder, she thought, if I found someone who was really drunk and drank his blood? No, this damn system of mine would probably identify alcohol as a poison and fight the effects. So many questions. If only I’d remembered to ask them. She stopped at a phone booth and called Tommy at the store. â€Å"Marina Safeway.† â€Å"Tommy, it’s me.† â€Å"Are you still mad?† â€Å"Not mad enough, I guess. I just wanted to tell you to stay in the store until after daylight. Don’t go outside for any reason. And stay around the other guys if you can.† â€Å"Why? What’s the matter?† â€Å"Just do as I say, Tommy.† â€Å"I cleaned up the loft. Mostly, anyway.† â€Å"We’ll talk about it tomorrow night. Stay at home until I wake up, okay?† â€Å"Are you still going to be pissed?† â€Å"Probably. I’ll see you then. Good-bye.† She hung up. How could he be so smart sometimes and so ignorant other times? Maybe the vampire was right, a human could never understand her. She suddenly felt very lonely. She ducked into an all-night diner and ordered a cup of coffee as rent on a booth. She still could enjoy the smell of coffee, even if she couldn’t keep it down. She opened the paper she had bought from the bum with her cosmetics bag and began to read through the personals. â€Å"Men Seeking Women,† â€Å"Women Seeking Men,† â€Å"Men Seeking Men,† â€Å"Women Seeking Women,† â€Å"Men Seeking Small Fuzzy Animals†; there was a wide selection of categories. She scanned over the more mundane entries until her eye settled on one under â€Å"Support Groups.† â€Å"Are You a Vampire? You don’t have to face your problem alone. Blood Drinkers Anonymous can help. Mon.-Fri. Midnight. Rm. 212 Asian Cultural Center, Non-Smoking.† It was Friday. It was midnight. She was only ten minutes from the Asian Cultural Center. Could it be this simple? The first thing she noticed when she walked into room 212 of the Asian Cultural Center is that all of the people sitting in a circle in molded plastic chairs, all twenty of them, were giving off heat signatures. They were all human. She was backing out of the door when a pear-shaped woman in a leotard and black cape intercepted her and took her hand. â€Å"Welcome,† said the woman. She sported a set of rather wicked-looking fangs that caused her to lisp. â€Å"I’m Tabitha. We’re just getting ready to start. Come on in. There’s coffee and cookies.† She led Jody to an orange plastic chair and urged her to sit down. â€Å"It’s hard the first time, but everyone here has been where you are.† â€Å"Not bloody likely,† Jody said, wiping a speck of Tabitha’s spittle from her cheek. Tabitha pointed to a plastic medallion that hung from her neck by a heavy silver chain. â€Å"See this chip? I’ve been clean and bloodless for six months. If I can do it, so can you. One night at a time.† Tabitha squeezed her arm, then threw her cape over her shoulder, turned dramatically, and stalked across the room to the cookie table, her cape billowing behind her. Jody looked at the other occupants of the room. All were talking, most were sneaking looks at her between sips of coffee. The men were all tall and thin with protruding Adam’s apples and bad skin. Their dress ranged from business suits to jeans and flannel. They might have been a chess club out for the evening if not for the capes. To a man, they wore capes. Four of seven had fangs. Two sets of four were made of glow-in-the-dark plastic. Jody focused on two of them whispering in the corner. â€Å"I told you, this is a babe-fest. Did you see the redhead?† He sneaked a look. His partner said, â€Å"I think I saw her at Compulsive Cleaners last week.† â€Å"Compulsive Cleaners, I was going to try that. How are the odds?† â€Å"Lots of gay guys, but a few babes. Mostly they smell like Pine Sol, but it’s hot if you like latex gloves.† â€Å"Cool, I’ll check it out. I think I’m going to quit going to Adult Children of Alcoholics, everybody’s looking to blame, no one’s looking to get laid.† Jody thought, I don’t know if I want to hear quiet desperation this clearly. She changed her focus to the women in the room. A six-foot-two brunette woman in a black choir robe and Kabuki-like makeup was complaining to a washed-out blonde wearing a tattered wedding dress. â€Å"They want to be tied up, I tie them up. They want to be spanked, I spank them. They want to be called names, I call them names. But try and drink a little of their blood, and they scream like babies. What about my needs?† â€Å"I know,† said the blonde. â€Å"I asked Robert to sleep in the coffin one time and he left.† â€Å"You have a coffin? I want a coffin.† Christ, Jody thought, I’ve got to get out of here. Tabitha clapped her hands. â€Å"Let’s get the meeting started!† Those who were standing found seats. Several men tried to shove their way into the seats next to Jody. A skinny geek with peanut-butter breath leaned in to her and said, â€Å"I was on ‘Oprah’ on Halloween. ‘Men who drink blood and the women who find them disgusting. If you want, you can come by my place and watch the tape after the meeting.† â€Å"I’m out of here,† Jody said. She jumped up and headed for the door. Behind her she heard Tabitha saying, â€Å"Hi, I’m Tabitha and I’m a bloodsucking fiend.† â€Å"Hi, Tabitha,† the group said in chorus. Outside Jody looked up and down the street wondering which way to go, what to do. She paused by a phone booth, realizing that there was no one she could call. Tears welled in her eyes. Why even bother to hope? The only person who had the slightest idea how she felt was the vampire who had made her. And he had made it clear that he wasn’t interested in helping her – the evil fucker. I should set him up with my mother, she thought, then the two of them can look down on humanity together. The thought made her smile. Then the phone rang. She looked at it for a second, looked around for someone else who would answer it, but except for a guy standing by his car a couple of blocks away, the street was empty. She picked up the phone. â€Å"Hello.† A man’s voice said, â€Å"I thought you would show up here eventually.† â€Å"Who is this?† Jody asked. The man sounded young, his voice was unfamiliar. â€Å"I can’t tell you that yet.† â€Å"Okay,† Jody said. â€Å"Bye.† â€Å"Wait, wait, wait, don’t hang up.† â€Å"Well?† â€Å"You’re the one, aren’t you? You’re real. I mean, you are a real vampire.† Jody held the phone away, stared at the receiver as if it were an alien object. â€Å"Who is this?† â€Å"I don’t want to tell you my name. I don’t want you to be able to find me. Let’s just say that I’m a friend.† â€Å"That’s how most of my friends are,† Jody said. â€Å"They don’t tell me their names or how to find them. It keeps my social calendar pretty clear.† Who was this guy? Who could possibly know that she was here, right now? â€Å"Okay, I guess I owe you something. I’m a med student at†¦ at a local college. I did some research on one of the bodies†¦ one of the bodies of the people you killed.† â€Å"I didn’t kill anyone. I don’t know what you’re talking about. If I am who you think I am, how did you know I’d be here? I didn’t even know I would be here until an hour ago.† â€Å"I’ve been waiting, watching every night for a couple of weeks. I had a theory that you wouldn’t have any noticeable body heat, and you don’t.† â€Å"What are you talking about? No one notices anybody’s body heat.† â€Å"Look up the street. By the white Toyota. It’s running, by the way. If you make a move to come toward me, I’m gone.† Jody looked more closely at the person up the street standing by a white car. The car was running. The man was holding a cell phone and looking at her through some very large binoculars. â€Å"I see you,† she said. â€Å"What do you want?† â€Å"I’m looking at you through infrared glasses. You’re not giving off any body heat, so I know you’re the one. My theory was right.† â€Å"Are you a cop?† â€Å"No, I told you, I’m a medical student. I don’t want to turn you in. In fact, I think I might be able to help you, if you’re interested in being helped.† â€Å"Talk,† Jody said. She held her hand over the phone and focused on the guy by the car. She could hear him talking into the cell phone. â€Å"They gave one of the cadavers to our department after the coroner was done with it. It was a male, about sixty years old, the third victim, I think. I noticed that there was a clean spot on his neck, as if it had been washed. The coroner hadn’t put that in his report. I took a tissue sample and put it under a microscope. The tissue in that area was living. Regenerating. I cultured it and it started to die, until I added something on a hunch.† â€Å"What?† Jody asked. She didn’t know what to think. This man knew she was a vampire, and strangely, she felt an urge to attack. Some protective instinct wanted her to hurt him. Kill him. She fought to stay calm. â€Å"Hemoglobin. I added some human hemoglobin and the tissue started to regenerate again. I ran it through the sequencer. It’s not human DNA. It’s close, but not human. It doesn’t produce heat, doesn’t seem to burn fuel the same way that mammalian cells do. The coroner said that he was the one that had drained the blood from the body, but he’d never done that before. And I knew that the guy had been murdered. I made a guess. I saw the ad in the Weekly for a vampire support group, so I’ve been watching.† Jody said, â€Å"Suppose I believe what you’re saying. Suppose I believe that you believe this bullshit, how could you help me? Supposing I wanted to be helped?† â€Å"My major is gene therapy. There’s a chance I could reverse the process.† â€Å"This isn’t science. I’m not saying that you’re right about your theory. There are a lot of things that you don’t know, that can’t be explained by science. If you don’t know that by now, you will. What you’re talking about is magic.† â€Å"Magic is just science that we don’t know yet. Do you want me to help or not?† â€Å"Why would you want to do that? As far as you know, I kill people.† â€Å"So does cancer, but I still work on it. Do you have any idea what kind of competition there is for jobs in my field? It’s an all-or-nothing field. I could end up getting my PhD and giving saccharine enemas to rats for five bucks an hour. What I learn from you would put my resume at the top of the stack.† Jody didn’t know what to say. Part of her wanted to drop the phone and go after him. Another part wanted to accept his help. She said, â€Å"What do you want me to do?† â€Å"Nothing yet. How can I get hold of you?† â€Å"I can’t tell you that. I’ll call you. What’s your number?† â€Å"I can’t tell you that.† Jody sighed. â€Å"Look, Mr. Scientific Genius, figure out something. And by the way, I really didn’t kill those people.† â€Å"Then why are you even listening to me?† â€Å"I guess this conversation is over. Get in your car and get comfortable with asking rats to bend over. Good-bye.† â€Å"Wait, we could meet somewhere. Tomorrow. Someplace public.† â€Å"No, it has to be at night. Someplace private. You could have cops everywhere.† She watched him as she talked. He had put the binoculars down and she could see that he was Asian. â€Å"You’re the killer here. Would you meet you someplace private and dark?† â€Å"All right. Tomorrow night. Seven o’clock, at Enrico’s on Broadway. That public enough for you?† â€Å"Sure. Can I bring a blood-sample kit? Would you let me?† â€Å"Would you let me?† she asked. He didn’t answer. â€Å"Just kidding,† she said. â€Å"Look, I don’t want to hurt you, but I don’t want to get hurt either. When you leave here, drive like hell and take an indirect route home.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Because I really didn’t kill those people, but I know who did, and he’s been following me. If he’s seen you, you’re in danger.† The line was quiet for a minute, just the ghost voices of a cellular connection. Jody watched the Asian guy watching her. Finally he cleared his throat. â€Å"How many of you are there?† â€Å"I don’t know,† she said. â€Å"I know that all of the victims don’t change. It couldn’t work. The geometric progression would have the entire human race turned to vampires in a month.† He sounded more confident now that he had brought the conversation back to science. â€Å"I’ll tell you what I know tomorrow. But don’t expect much. I don’t know much. Or I’ll tell you now if you want to talk face to face, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk about this with you on a cell phone.† â€Å"Yeah, you’re right. Not now, though. Not here. You understand, don’t you?† Jody nodded, exaggerating the gesture so he could see. â€Å"The longer you stand there, the better chance you have of being seen by†¦ by the other one. Tomorrow night, then. Seven o’clock.† â€Å"Will you be wearing that dress?† Jody smiled. â€Å"Do you like it? It’s new.† â€Å"It’s great. I didn’t think you would be a woman.† â€Å"Thanks. Go now.† She watched him climb into the Toyota, the cell phone still in hand. â€Å"Promise not to try and track me down?† â€Å"I know where you’ll be tomorrow night, remember?† â€Å"Oh yeah. By the way, my name’s Steve.† â€Å"Hi, Steve. I’m Jody.† â€Å"‘Bye,† he said. He disconnected. Jody hung up the phone and watched him drive away. She thought, Great, another one to worry about. It hadn’t occurred to her that her condition might be reversible. But then, the med student didn’t know about how the body had turned to dust. Science indeed. Jump or dive, he thought. The silk suit whipped about his legs in the chill wind. The tower’s aircraft warning light flashed red across his face and he could see heat swirling off it, dissolving over the bay. His name was Elijah Ben Sapir. He stood five feet ten inches tall and he had been a vampire for eight hundred years. In human life he had been an alchemist and had spent his time mixing noxious chemicals and chanting arcane incantations trying to turn lead into gold and tap the secret of eternal life. He hadn’t been a particularly good alchemist. He had never been able to pull off the gold transformation, although by a bizarre miscalculation of chemistry he did manage to invent Teflon some eight hundred years before DuPont would find a use for it. (It should be noted, though, that archaeologists recently uncovered a Viking rune stone in Greenland that mentions a Jew who entered the palace of Constantine the Magnificent in 1224 selling a line of nonstick hot pokers for the Emperor’s torture chamber and was promptly given the bum’s rush to the city gates. The accuracy of the story has been questioned, however, as it begins, â€Å"I never believed that your letters were true until Gunner and I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and goes on to recount the sexual exploits of two Vikings and a harem of brown-skinned Byzantine babes.) Ben Sapir’s search for eternal life had been somewhat more successful. Granted, it came with the side effects of drinking human blood and staying out of sunlight, but he had gotten used to that. It was the loneliness that he couldn’t abide. Perhaps, after all these years, it would end. He was afraid to hope. It had been a hundred years since a fledgling had lasted this long. She had been a Yanomamo woman in the Amazon Basin and she had hunted the jungle for three months before she returned to her village and turned her sister. The sisters declared themselves gods and demanded sacrifices from the village. He found them by the river feeding on an old woman, and he took no pleasure in killing them. Perhaps the redhead, perhaps she would be the one. Dive, he decided. He leaped away from the tower, jackknifed into a dive, and plunged fifty stories to the black water. The challenge was to avoid changing to mist before hitting the water. That was too easy. The impact of the water ripped the clothes off his back; the stitching of his shoes exploded with the pressure. He surfaced, naked except for one sock that had strangely survived the impact, and began the long swim back to his yacht thinking, I shouldn’t have saved her from the sunlight. I must be desperate for entertainment. Chapter 28 Is That a Blackjack in Your Pocket? Tommy booted the Emperor out of the store at dawn. It had been a long night trying to keep the crazed ruler away from the Animals while throwing stock and trying to figure out the logistics of his meeting with Mara, all while under the influence of Dr. Drew’s polio weed, which seemed to affect the part of the brain that motivates one to sit in the corner and drool while staring at one’s hands. When the shift ended, he declined the Animal’s invitation for beers and Frisbee in the parking lot, swiped a baguette from the bread-delivery man, and caught the bus home, intent on going straight to bed. He knew his plan was foiled when Frank, the biker/sculptor, met him outside their building holding a familiar-looking bronze turtle. â€Å"Flood, check it out.† Frank held up the turtle. â€Å"It worked!† â€Å"What worked?† Tommy asked. â€Å"Thick electroplating process. Come on in, I’ll show you.† Frank turned and led Tommy through the roll-up door into the foundry. The foundry took up the entire bottom floor of the building, here was a huge furnace making a muffled rumbling sound. There were several large pits filled with sand, and plaster-of-Paris molds lay in them in various states of completion. In the back, near the only windows, stood wax figures of naked women, Indians, Buddhas, and birds, waiting to be cut up and placed in plaster of Paris. Frank said, â€Å"We’ve been doing a lot of statues for people’s gardens. Buddhas are big with the koi-pond types. That’s what we needed the turtles for. Monk already sold one of them to a woman in Pacific Heights for five hundred bucks. Sight unseen.† â€Å"My turtles?† Tommy said. He looked more closely at the bronze turtle Frank was holding. â€Å"Zelda!† â€Å"Can you believe it?† Frank said. â€Å"We did them both in less than eight hours. Lost-wax process would have taken days. I’ll show you.† He led Tommy to the other side of the shop where a short, portly man in leather and denim was working beside a tall Plexi-glas tank filled with a translucent green liquid. Frank said, â€Å"Monk, this is our neighbor, Tom Flood. Flood, this is my partner Monk.† Monk grunted, not looking up from a compressor that he seemed to be having trouble with. Tommy could see how he had gotten his name. He had a large bowl-shaped bald spot with a fringe of hair around it: the Benedictine version of Easy Rider, Friar Tuck on wheels. â€Å"This,† said Frank, gesturing toward the ten-foot tank, â€Å"as far as we know, is the biggest electroplating tank on the West Coast.† Tommy didn’t know quite how to react. He was still stunned by seeing the bronze likeness of Zelda. â€Å"That’s just spiffy,† he said finally. â€Å"Yeah, dude. We can do anything we can find. No molds, no wax carvings. You just dunk and go. That’s how we did your turtles.† Tommy was beginning to get it. â€Å"You mean that that is not a sculpture? You covered my turtles with brass?† â€Å"That’s it. That liquid is supersaturated with dissolved metal. We sprayed the turtles with a thin metal-based paint that would conduct current. Then we attached a wire to them and dipped them in the tank. The current draws the metal out of the water and it fuses to the paint on the turtle. Leave it a long time and the coating gets thick enough to have structural integrity. Voila, a bronze garden turtle. I don’t think anybody’s ever done it before. We owe you, man.† Monk grunted in gratitude. Tommy didn’t know whether to be angry or depressed. â€Å"You should have told me you were going to kill them.† â€Å"I thought you knew, man. Sorry. You can have this one, if you want.† Frank presented the bronzed Zelda. Tommy shook his head and looked away. â€Å"I don’t think I could look at her.† He turned and walked away. Frank said, â€Å"C’mon, man, take it. We owe you one. If you need a favor or something†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tommy took Zelda. How would he explain to Jody? â€Å"By the way, I’ve turned your little friends into statues.† And this right after they’d had a big fight. He slunk up the steps feeling completely lost. Jody had left him a note on the counter: Tommy: Imperative that you are here when I wake up. If you go out you are in serious, life-threatening trouble. I mean it. I have some very important things to tell you. No time now, I’m going to go out any second. Be here when I wake up. Jody â€Å"Great,† Tommy said to Peary. â€Å"Now what do I do about Mara? Who does Jody think she is, threatening me? What does she think she’s going to do if I’m not here? I can’t be here. Why don’t you keep her busy until I get home.† Tommy patted the chest freezer and an idea came to him. â€Å"You know, Peary, scientists have frozen vampire bats and thawed them completely unharmed. I mean, how would she know? How many times has she thought it was Tuesday when it was really Wednesday?† Tommy went to the bedroom and looked in on Jody, who had made it to bed, but not in time to change out of her black dress. Wow, Tommy thought, she never dresses like that for me. She looked so peaceful. Sexy, but peaceful. She’ll be angry if she finds out, but she’s angry now. It won’t really hurt her. I can just take her out tomorrow morning and put her under the electric blanket. By sundown she’ll be thawed out and I’ll have handled the Mara thing. I can tell Mara that I’m involved. I can’t start something new until this is finished. Maybe with the extra time, Jody will have chilled a little. He smiled to himself. He opened the lid of the freezer, then went into the bedroom to get Jody. He carried her into the kitchen and laid her in the freezer on top of Peary. As he tucked her into the fetal position he felt a twinge of jealousy. â€Å"You guys behave now, okay?† He tucked a few TV dinners around her nice and snug under her arms, then kissed her on the forehead and gently closed the lid. As he crawled into bed he thought, If she ever finds out about this, she’s really going to be pissed. Tommy had been asleep three hours when the pounding started. He rolled out of bed, stumbled across the dark bedroom, and was blinded when he opened the door into the loft. He was just regaining his eyesight when he opened the fire door and Rivera said, â€Å"Are you Thomas Flood, Junior?† â€Å"Yes,† Tommy said, bracing himself against the doorjamb. â€Å"I’m Inspector Alphonse Rivera from the San Francisco Police Department.† He held up a badge wallet. â€Å"You’re under arrest† – Rivera pulled a warrant from his jacket pocket – â€Å"for abandoning a vehicle on a public street.† â€Å"You’re kidding,† Tommy said. Cavuto stepped through the door and grabbed Tommy by the shoulder, whipping him around as the big cop pulled his handcuffs from his belt. â€Å"You have the right to remain silent†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Cavuto said. Two hours later Tommy had been processed, probed, and printed, and as Cavuto had expected, Tommy’s fingerprints matched those on the copy of On the Road that they had found under the dead bum. It was enough for them to get a search warrant issued for the loft. Five minutes after they entered the loft a mobile crime lab was dispatched along with a forensics team and two coroners’ trucks. As far as crime scenes went, the loft in SOMA was the mother lode. Cavuto and Rivera left the crime scene to the forensics team and returned to the station, where they took Tommy from a holding cell and put him in a pleasantly pink interrogation room furnished with a metal table and two chairs. There was a mirror on one wall and a tape recorder sat on the table. Tommy sat staring at the pink wall, remembering something about how pink was supposed to calm you down. It didn’t seem to be working. His stomach was tied in knots. Rivera had done dozens of interrogations with Cavuto and they always took the same roles: Cavuto was the bad cop, and Rivera was the good cop. Actually Rivera never felt like the good cop. More often he was the I-am-tired-and-overworked-and-I’m-being-nice-to-you-because-I-don’t-have-the-energy-to-be-angry cop. â€Å"Would you like a smoke?† Rivera asked. â€Å"Sure,† Tommy said. Cavuto jumped in his face. â€Å"Too bad, punk. There’s no smoking in here.† Cavuto took great pleasure in being the bad cop. He practiced in front of the mirror at home. Rivera shrugged. â€Å"He’s right. You can’t smoke.† Tommy said, â€Å"That’s okay, I don’t smoke.† â€Å"How about a lawyer then?† asked Rivera. â€Å"Or a phone call?† â€Å"I have to be at work at midnight,† Tommy said. â€Å"If it looks like I’m going to be late, I’ll use my call then.† Cavuto was pacing the room, timing his path so he could wheel on Tommy with every statement. He wheeled. â€Å"Yeah, kid, you’re going to be late, about thirty years late, if they don’t fry you.† Tommy pushed back in his chair with fright. â€Å"Good one, Nick,† Rivera said. â€Å"Thanks.† Cavuto smiled around an unlit cigar and backed away from the table where Tommy sat. Rivera moved up. â€Å"Okay, kid, you don’t want an attorney. Where do you want to start? We’ve got you hands-down on two murders and probably three. If you tell us the story, tell us everything, about all the other murders, we might be able to waive the death penalty.† â€Å"I didn’t kill anybody.† â€Å"Don’t be cute,† Cavuto said. â€Å"We found two bodies in your freezer. We’ve got your fingerprints all over a book that we found under a third body outside your apartment. We’ve got you staying at the motel where we found a fourth body. And we’ve got you with a closetful of women’s clothing and eyewitnesses that put a woman near where we found a fifth body†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tommy interrupted, â€Å"Actually, there’s only one body in the freezer. The other is my girlfriend.† â€Å"You sick fuck.† Cavuto drew back as if to hit Tommy. Rivera moved to restrain him. Tommy cowered in his chair. Rivera led Cavuto to the far side of the room. â€Å"Let me take this for a minute.† He left Cavuto grumbling to himself and went to the seat across from Tommy. â€Å"Look, kid, we’ve got you cold, so to speak, on two murders. We’ve got circumstantial evidence on another. You are going to jail for a very long time, and at this point, the death penalty is looking pretty good. Now if you tell us everything, and don’t leave anything out, we might be able to help you out, but you have to give us enough to close all the cases. Do you understand?† Tommy nodded. â€Å"But I didn’t kill anybody. I put Jody in the freezer, which I admit is inconsiderate, but I didn’t kill her.† Cavuto growled. Rivera nodded in mock acceptance of the story. â€Å"Fine, but if you didn’t kill them, who did? Did someone you know force you into this?† Cavuto exploded, â€Å"Oh Christ, Rivera! What do you need, a videotape? This little bastard did it.† â€Å"Nick, please. Give me a minute here.† Cavuto moved to the table and leaned over it until his face was next to Tommy’s. He whispered, raspy and gruff, â€Å"Flood, don’t think you can use a wiggle and a wink to get yourself out of this. That might work down on Castro, but I’m immune to it here, you got me? I’m going to leave now, but when I come back, if you haven’t told my partner your story, I’m going to cause pain. Lots of it, and I won’t leave a mark on you.† He stood up, smiled, then turned and left the room. Tommy looked at Rivera. â€Å"A wiggle and a wink?† â€Å"Nick thinks you’re cute,† Rivera said. â€Å"He’s gay?† â€Å"Completely.† Tommy shook his head. â€Å"I would have never guessed.† â€Å"He’s a Shriner, too.† Rivera tapped a cigarette out of his pack and lit it. â€Å"Looks can be deceiving.† â€Å"Hey, I didn’t think you were allowed to smoke in here.† Rivera blew smoke in Tommy’s face. â€Å"You had two people in your freezer, and you’re giving me shit about smoking.† â€Å"Good point.† Rivera sat down and leaned back in the chair. â€Å"Tommy, I’m going to give you one more chance to tell me how you killed those people, then I’m going to let Nick back in here and I’m going to leave. He really likes you. This room is soundproof, you know.† Tommy swallowed hard. â€Å"You’re not going to believe me. It’s a pretty fantastic story. There’s supernatural stuff involved.† Rivera rubbed his temples. â€Å"Satan told you to do it?† he said wearily. â€Å"No.† â€Å"Elvis?† â€Å"I told you, it’s supernatural.† â€Å"Tommy, I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone before. If you repeat it, I’ll deny I said it. Five years ago I saw a white owl with a seventy-foot wingspan swoop out of the sky and pluck a demon off a hillside and take off into the sky.† â€Å"I heard that cops get the best drugs,† Tommy said. Rivera got up. â€Å"I’m going to bring Nick in.† â€Å"No, wait. I’ll tell you. It was a vampire. You can thaw Jody out and ask her.† Rivera reached over and turned on the tape recorder. â€Å"Now slow down. Start at the beginning and go until we walked you into this room.† An hour later Rivera met Cavuto behind the one-way mirror. Cavuto was not happy. â€Å"You know, I’d rather you just threaten that I would beat him up.† â€Å"It worked, didn’t it?† â€Å"There’s nothing there we can use. Not a thing. If he sticks with that story he’ll get off on insanity. It’s too wild. I want to know how he got the blood out of the bodies.† â€Å"The kid thinks he’s a writer. He’s showing off his imagination. Let’s let him sit awhile and get something to eat. I want to find the Emperor.† â€Å"That wacko?† â€Å"He’s been reporting seeing a vampire for weeks. Maybe he saw the kid doing one of the murders.† How to cite Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 27~28, Essay examples