FOR THE WANT OF A NAIL

Author's Note:

This story is the sixth in a series, following: "The End of the Beginning", "Ethan to the Future", "Busman's Holiday", "Attack of the Gremlins" and "The Case of the Counterfeit Curses". "Full Disclosure" is a distant sequel. Thanks to MBAV fan66 for the idea for this story and suggestions for the plot.


The Yearbook

If you were a student at Whitechapel High and wanted to buy a yearbook, come February you needed to hand in your order form and your yearbook fees to a member of the student yearbook committee. This was done in a very old school way, with a paper form and twenty dollars cheque or cash money down.

Buying a yearbook was so old school in fact, it hadn't changed materially since the days Evelyn Weir went to high school.

But this year, this meant heading over during lunch to the small corner classroom marked "Yearbook", and giving your ten dollars to the attractive, dark brunette. Sarah.

Ethan thought this was yet another example of the backwardness of the yearbook committee; even more backwards than not being allowed to post your gamer avatar in place of your school picture in your yearbook.

In the past, Ethan wouldn't have minded any chance to talk to Sarah. But now that Ethan and Sarah were boyfriend and girlfriend; and had been that way for eight months, this archaic procedure meant less time for Ethan to check up with Sarah midday.

Besides, as Benny mischievously pointed out to Ethan, it meant that every guy in the school had the perfect chance to hit on Sarah.


"We should be able to pay online . . . or order online" Ethan had finally told Sarah, when he paid his twenty dollars. "Or make a yearbook ap."

"A yearbook ap?" Sarah giggled.

"You're on the yearbook committee now . . . why are we are still in the dark ages?"

"You're a reporter on the school paper" Sarah returned.

"So?" Ethan shrugged. "What's that have to do with it?"

"Why do you still print a newspaper hardcopy?" Sarah asked.

"Because . . . ." Ethan tried.

The truth was that, even to Ethan, printing a hardcopy made the paper seem like more of a newspaper than some school blog. And there was the faculty adviser, Mr. G. He had no intention of abandoning the hardcopy in spite of being a middle aged hippy (the newsprint was environmentally sustainable: it was 100% recycled paper). But that wasn't how Ethan answered.

"Then you could eat lunch with me" Ethan said hurriedly. "Instead of hanging out in the yearbook office, waiting for the newbs to drop off their fees."

Ethan looked at Sarah with what she considered his best feature; deep sincere brown eyes. "Come on Sarah" they begged.

"I love being the chairwoman of the yearbook committee" said Sarah in reply.

"Yes, I know" said Ethan. "That's some picture you have this year. At least you have a webpage."

"It's not so much the dark ages after all" said Sarah.

"So maybe you could make some time to have lunch with me today?"

"There'll be plenty of time tomorrow" said Sarah. "After I take in the money, I have to count up the receipts. Erica's helping me with the receipts during our free period."

"Do you think you can trust her?" Ethan thought of saying. He didn't say it because Sarah wasn't usually aboard with "Erica jokes", given Erica was Sarah's best friend. Besides . . . to the best of Ethan's knowledge, Erica's stealing ended as soon as she ceased to be a vampire.

"Would you like to walk home with me this afternoon?" was what Ethan did say.

"Why? Benny and Rory busy?" joked Sarah.

Ethan grinned.

"No" Ethan said. "But Rory's taking his dog to the vet for a checkup, Benny's trying to win back Della . . . again. In time for the Valentine's Day Dance. But really, I wanted to talk to you about Valentine's Day . . . do you want to try again for dinner before the dance? I know going to a fancy restaurant has been a bust two times in a row . . . but third time's a charm?" And I have all the money I made from playing kids parties with Musetronics?

Ethan added the last part hopefully.

"I'd love to Ethan" said Sarah.

Ethan bent in to kiss Sarah, but was interrupted by Erica, who loudly slammed the door as she entered the room.

Erica no longer hated Ethan. Even for Erica, it was difficult to despise Ethan after he had saved her from a fate worse than death a few months before. And saved her from being the victim of a twofaced vampire plotting her murder six months before that (or so Ethan claimed). But Erica did think it was a waste for Sarah to be officially girlfriend and boyfriend with Ethan: a geek whose sole claim to a modicum of popularity was his talent show entry turned band Musetronics.


Erica had brought her lunch from home, something Ethan never did. In fact, as smart as Ethan was, it seemed to Erica typical that Ethan didn't think of bringing a lunch today and offering to stay with Sarah at the yearbook. So to Erica went the privilege of sitting with Sarah and taking in the yearbook receipts. The main reason Erica wanted the experience was one Benny had guessed at: Erica could check out all the boys in schools and flirt with any that appealed to her.

But soon enough lunch ended, and Erica found herself helping Sarah with the dull job of sorting order forms and counting money: mostly twenties, but a large number of tens and fives.

"Doesn't it bother you that everything had been so normal around here lately" Erica whined, as she recorded another name, order and homeroom while putting their twenty dollar bill in the official "Yearbook Committee" cashbox with the rest. "Less than a year ago we were powerful immortals living the Dusk dream . . . ."

"Your dream, my nightmare" said Sarah tolerantly, cracking a smile.

"Now we're just two ordinary girls, finishing high school, hopefully for a good party, thinking about dances."

"Before you were turned into a vampire, you would have loved just to be popular" Sarah pointed out. "And now you are."

"And looking hot in my latest yearbook photo" said Erica, as she unsealed her own order form and twenty dollars. "But it's a small thing compared to being a vampire."

"Ethan promised that he'd get in touch with those vamp nurses if you wanted to be a vampire again" Sarah reminded Erica.

Sarah continued with her work, but was intently listening intently to gauge Erica's reaction.

"Ethan says I have to wait until I'm twenty . . . and in return I can't encourage you, my BFF, to join me" said Erica in a bored voice. "And I especially . . . I know how Ethan thinks . . . not undo whatever con-job they pulled on Rory to make him happy to be human again. Like I care about him. But I might not even take up Ethan on the offer. I don't know. Paying off vampire nurses with Ethan's rare blood isn't what I'd call a real way to become a vampire. It should just happen. Besides, in a few years I'll be so out of practice I'll have to learn how to be an immortal all over again . . . and I do know that director I met at the Dusk theatre show . . . and I might be fated to serve my fans in the future, and for that I'll need to photograph . . . ."

"Or" thought Sarah, "you might have been scared off the idea when you were almost dragged off with Stephanie by the demonic bellhops."

Erica opened an envelope and frowned. "Nothing says loser like paying twenty bucks by cheque."

"Money's money" said Sarah. "We take cheques. Mr. G said if anyone used a cheque this time, to accept it."

"Speaking of losers" said Erica, who had taken a look at the order form, "no surprise here, Benny Weir, name all in capitals."

"His grandmother's paying" said Sarah, taking the cheque and looking at the neat handwriting, "A lot of older people still pay by cheque. What's this on the back? A post-it-note?"

Written neatly on the post-it note, in Evelyn's handwriting, was a poem. Sarah read it aloud:

For want of a nail a horseshoe was lost,

for want of a horseshoe a horse went lame,

for want of a horse a rider never got through,

for want of a rider a message never arrived,

for want of a message an army was never sent,

for want of an army a battle was lost,

for want of a battle a war was lost,

for want of a war a kingdom fell,

and all for want of a nail.

"What's that all about?" sneered Erica.

"I don't know" Sarah admitted, as she read over it. "But I do know that besides magical powers, Mrs. Weir has some seer power of her own; she sometimes leaves clues for Ethan and Benny suggesting how to fight the monster-of-the-week. It's sort of her idea of a spellmaster training course."

"It's too bad" said Erica touchily, "that because of Ethan, there isn't really anything out of the ordinary happening around here. Him and his Team SaBRE. It's been perfectly normal the last few months."

Sarah felt she could be happy without ever seeing another monster or paranormal-related thing for the rest of her life. She knew Ethan felt the same; it was obvious even if Ethan hadn't said so himself (although in Ethan's case, he liked to see other people run into the paranormal on T.V.). It occurred to Sarah that, in wanting to have another weird adventure, Erica was more like Benny and Rory.

Sarah quietly smiled as she picked up the envelope with the hastily printed capital letters.

"I think that's Benny's printing on the outside of the envelope. His grandmother must have handed Benny the cheque and he sealed it and stuffed in his backpack without even looking at the note. I'm going to text him a copy of the poem."

"Waste of time" said Erica, as she went through the order forms.

The girls worked in silence for a couple minutes until Benny sent his reply.

"Thnx" Benny wrote. "Sending it Ethan ASAP. Grndm forgot, I don't have a horse."

"Maybe being born with the ability to draw on the natural magic hidden in the world," said Erica impatiently, "or however Benny puts it, also means you're born with a screw loose. Or a nail loose, if you want to use the Mrs. Weir's poem."

"No" said Sarah. "Benny's grandmother has magical powers, and she's nothing like Benny."

"A loser" said Erica. "Speaking of losers . . . Benny's cheque is bad enough, but look at this! Twenty loonies in a plastic sandwich bag. This can only be Rory."

"I don't think so" said Sarah, with a wry smile as she continued with the order forms before her. "Ethan said Rory's always had the latest toys, and was always bringing them around since they were in kindergarten. Rory may be the geekiest boy around, but even when he was a vampire I don't remember him being short on cash."

"There was the time when he was teaching you to fly, went after a pigeon for his snack and dropped ten dollars" Erica observed. "He was upset, because it was tomorrow's lunch money or something."

"No, this isn't Rory" said Sarah, reading the form. "It's one of the Grade 9 students . . . Henry Webb. I heard from Ethan that he lives with his dad in two rooms above a convenience store downtown . . . the poor guy probably had to put the money together himself. Ethan used to pay with coins sometimes. It was just last year Ethan was still paying with the coins rolls he had won from Benny over some bet."

"That just proves it's hopelessly geeky thing to do" said Erica. "If the two had any self-respect, they'd use real money."

"Once I count these and put them away in a roll, they'll be real money" said Sarah, impatiently pouring the twenty $1 coins on the table.


The Canadian loonie is a gold-coloured coin an inch in diameter. On one side is a loon swimming in water, on the other is a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Sarah quickly put away the first nineteen of the coins. On the last, she stopped.

At first glance it might look like a loonie, and it sure helped that the coin was partly tarnished black. But the pictures on the one-inch-in-diameter coin were all wrong.

"That's not a loonie" said Sarah.

"Duh" said Erica. "I think that loser Henry was trying to cheat you."

"I don't think so" said Sarah. "The coin looks the same. If we weren't sitting under fluorescent light we wouldn't have noticed."

Erica picked up the coin. Instead of the loon there was a lizard-like creature on one side.

"Obviously a salamander" said Erica, after a moment.

"Let me see that" said Sarah.

Sarah looked at the dingy salamander, and turned the coin over. Here was the profile of a young, angry-looking man with sharp facial features; or perhaps it was just that the man's face was carved into the coin that made his features look sharp. The year of the coin was uncertain, it was blurred, while the denomination, currency and even country was a mystery to Sarah. The letters were strange symbols Sarah had no way of deciphering.

"It's not Greek" said Erica. "And not Cyrillic. It can't be worth very much. Probably a cent or less."

"Well, Henry's getting his yearbook" said Sarah.

Sarah took a dollar out of her own pocket, and in turn pocketed the strange coin.

What Sarah didn't realize was that the coin, under its tarnish, began to glow. At first the dull radiance flickered on and off, but then it grew steady and eventually the grime atop the coin disappeared.

"You're too nice for your own good" said Erica.


Toward the end of their free period, Sarah and Erica finally finished counting the money and took a well-deserved break. They drank pop, and after talking about schools and Erica's potential new boyfriends for a few moments, they fell silent. Without knowing why, the girls felt short-tempered. Sarah wanted to take the money to the office, and go to her next class as soon as possible. Erica felt like complaining about something . . . anything.

Erica asked to see the fake-loonie again.

The coin had stopped glowing, but neither girl realized it was now clean as new.

"I swear" said Erica, breezily "This isn't a fake. I know exactly what that is. Just a cheap ride token at some park. Or some game only an Ethan-type would love. How else could the tarnish be wiped off so easily? You lost a dollar."

"I didn't lose a dollar, I donated a dollar" Sarah returned. "And it's only a dollar."

"It's not the dollar . . . it's the principle of my letting my BFF have some crybaby newb slip her a cheap token" said Erica with a shrug. "The problem with hanging out with Ethan so much is you're now letting all geeks take advantage of you. You're always so hopelessly na?ve . . . you'll never learn."

Erica stopped. Sarah was plainly angry at being called na?ve. Erica realized it was with good reason; Jesse Black was the prime example of Sarah's past naiveté.

The coin's dull glow reappeared underneath the fluorescent lights.

"Ethan and I have, as he puts it, an awesome time together" said Sarah icily. "I think I've learned a lot about love this last couple of years. It's not just what seems romantic in a Dusk novel. And it's definitely not some two-hundred and fifty year old living dead man pretending to be my sixteen-year-old dream date."

"Or your three thousand year old mummy" Erica pointed out.

"That's what I said" Sarah returned in a voice of steel.

Erica fell silent for a second. She was torn by the need to pick a fight, and not wanting to offend Sarah. For a moment, her better nature won out.

"Is . . . is . . . Ethan actually going to take you out for Valentine's Day?" asked Erica.

"You were here" said Sarah. "Couldn't you hear?"

Erica flinched. The moment had passed.

"I heard the tail end" said Erica, jadedly. "Ethan's going to take you to a fancy restaurant. You'll have dinner. No vampire will try to eat Ethan. Stephanie won't turn Ethan into a werewolf again. And you'll have the same boring talk and bad jokes you hear from Ethan, plus some bad kissing and awkward dancing thrown in."

"Try a fun talk, hanging out over a dinner we're looking forward to, sincere romance and a slow dance at the school" Sarah corrected angrily. "The problem with you Erica, is having been a vampire you can't let your guard down and really enjoy your last year of being a teen in high school."

"Letting my guard down?" said Erica, who now felt insulted herself. "I enjoy it way better than you are, stuck dating a geek. If you weren't always my BFF . . . tell me, Sarah, how many actually cool parties have you been to this year? Can you imagine Ethan at a real house party?"

Erica laughed.

"If he gets in a fight, you'll have to use your new green-belt to protect him!"

"He can defend himself" Sarah said.

"Really, Sarah?" said Erica. "Now that's Ethan's grown a couple inches again, he looks like he's been stretched out on the rack Anastasia used to keep at the Vampire Council chambers.

"That's not exactly true" Sarah said bitterly.

"How about playing seven minutes of heaven with Ethan?" Erica added hurriedly. "He probably thinks it something new for Playstation 4?"

"How did you know there is a Playstation 4?" Sarah said. "If you're not a geek."

Erica avoided the question.

"I can't believe what you're giving up for a skinny nerd . . . that's one year younger than you. You're the one whose throwing away your final months of high school. And he might actually go to the prom with you in June! If I were still an immortal, I'd make sure he never get there.

"After all Ethan's done for you?" Sarah said impatiently. She wasn't a vampire, but fire figuratively flashed from her eyes.

The coin too shone bright under the florescent lights.

"You have an awkward nerd . . . okay, let's say Ethan's a nice, even sometimes a heroic geek, but he's hopeless and can never sweep you off your feet . . . ."

"Like Edwin in Dusk" Sarah said sarcastically.

"Exactly" said Erica, ignoring Sarah's eye-roll. "One who won't embarrass you. I mean, let's Ethan did get invited to a house party. Or a bush party. What do you think the chances are that he'll show up in costume, with Benny in tow. And maybe even Rory?

"I told you Erica . . . for the last time . . . I like Ethan" said Sarah. "I love Ethan."

The two girls glared at each other, but in a moment they each took a breath.

The coin started to lose its shine.

"Friends?" asked Erica. "I wouldn't ever really harm Ethan."

"Friends" Sarah agreed. "I agree Ethan is an awkward guy, but I like him."

"Okay" said Erica, sulkily. "So you like Ethan. But don't you wish he could just be cool and popular?"

"Yes" said Sarah. "I wish Ethan was cool and popular . . . and more aware of the world around him. And the sooner he loses the beanpole look the better. But I love him and . . . Erica, the coin!"

"That's not a token" said Erica softly.

When Sarah had spoken last, the coin began to shine as bright as if it had been in the brightest daylight. The girls stepped back as the coin reflected the sunlight in an angry blaze of light.

"We'd better leave" said Sarah.

But the doors locked and the blinds on the windows pulled shut. Now the outline of the salamander began to burn a bright red and reflect on the ceiling. The coin flipped and the angry features of the man on the obverse glowed more brightly.

And in an instant a cloud of dank, yellow fog poured from the coin and hid the room from view. Sarah and Erica couldn't even see one another.