History:  First printed KNIGHTBEAT VII, 1996, Fenris
House, a division of SPECIAL SERVICES, Unlimited.
Disclaimer:  The usual.
Archiving:  Permission granted by author.

        “I’ve always liked dandelions.  There’s something
special about the way that brilliant yellow looks
against the lawn’s green.  I like them also because
they’re tough, persevering—they fight to survive!  No
matter how hard you try to kill them off, they always
spring back.
        “I don’t recall how many arguments I got into with
old Petersen next door about the dandelions.  He would
scream and yell about my letting them stay in our lawn
and by that we were infecting his.  He didn’t
understand. To him they were only weeds, but to me
they were memories.
        “Memories of sunny summer days.  Of childhood and
family.  Jenny as toddler, the look of wonder on her
face as a blow ball exploded into a thousand little
floating umbrellas.  A very pregnant Myra holding one
of the little flowers under her chin, asking if I
could see any color reflected there.  Something about
if you see yellow, the baby will be a boy or girl…I
don’t remember which.  And my beautiful Jenny, almost
a woman, sitting on the front steps, pulling the
petals off a dandelion.  Worrying if she was going to
get that all-important date to the dance or not.
Memories, so many memories.”
        Two men stood in front of a tangled mass of
vegetation and bramble.  The starless night sky,
overcast by dark gray clouds, pressed the world into a
still, lifeless silence.  The only disturbance was the
occasional breeze that startled the leaves into a soft
rustling.  Somewhere from within the twisted metallic
remains of the ruined city that lay about them came
the lonely sound of metal hitting against bare metal.
The sad, slow tolling of a death bell.
        “To think, a nuclear device small enough to be
carried in a suitcase—the ultimate in terrorism.  And
in the name of whatever madness they believed in, they
just walked into the city and detonated it, killing
thousands upon thousands of people and changing
everything forever.
        “In a blink, it was gone.  In a blink, it was all
ended.
        “When I could, I buried Myra and Jenny under what was
left of the front lawn.  They would have liked it that
way; it was their home.  But now look, after all these
weeks, the weeds have grown so thick, I can barely
find them.
        “Yeah Nick, I know, it’s time for us to move on.
There’s nothing more that can be done here.  The
city’s dead.  Let me have a few more minutes.  Alone.
I want to say good-bye to them—it’s for the last
time.”
        Nicholas Knight touched Don Schanke on the shoulder,
a gesture of understanding and companionship.  “Take
all the time you need, Schank.”  He said softly.  He
turned and walked away, leaving Schanke alone with his
memories.
        On crossing the weed-choked street, Nick approached
the skeletal remains of a two-story building.  A
figure detached itself from the darkness of the
remaining wall and glided towards him.
        “He’ll be alright, Nat.  He’s saying good-bye, as we
all had to do.  How are you doing?  I would have gone
with you.  You didn’t have to go alone to your
memories.”
        “Natalie Lambert held out her arms.  “”Hold me, my
love.  Please, just hold me.” She said, her voice
tear-choked.
        Gathering her in his arms, Nick held her in a tight
embrace, an embrace not of passion but of shared
pain—the shared pain of loss and of loneliness.  The
two remained locked together for several minutes as
the wind blew the dried leaves around and past them
with the sound of thousands of scurrying little feet.
        “It’s funny, Nick.”  Natalie started, “ All the time
I was standing at the graves of my parents, all I
could think of was an article I read years ago.  It
was about the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city
of Hiroshima.  I remember it said that in the first
weeks after the explosion, the weeds grew at a
fantastic rate.  They grew, covering the destruction
and the desolation as though Mother Nature was
triumphing over Mankind’s stupidity and cruelty.  Look
all around us, there’s a blanket of green covering the
entire city.  Feeding off the dead and encouraged by
the radiation.  It’s reclaiming what we humans took
from it so long ago.  Damn it!  Don’t we humans ever
learn from the lessons of the past!  In all of your
centuries Nick, did we, at least once, avert
destruction by remembering?”
        “It’s called survival, Nat.  If you don’t learn from
your mistakes, you don’t survive.  It’s a lesson you
must learn…even as a vampire.  But there’s certain
mistakes you do keep making over and over again.  Look
what I’ve done to you and Schanke.  I should’ve
never…!”
        “Oh Nick, what were you going to do?  Just sit by and
let us die.”  Natalie looked up into Nick’s face, her
fingers lightly caressing his cheek.  “All three of us
were trapped, down in the lower level of the Coroner’s
Building.    Don and I were dying from radiation
poisoning. You brought us across to save our lives.
Remember, it was just as much our choice as yours.
Schanke wanted time to get out to find his family, and
I…well, my reasons were obvious.
        “Nick, you’ve been so busy caring about us and the
other survivors, isn’t it about time for you to go and
say good-bye to your memories?  The Raven?”
        “It isn’t necessary.” Nick sighed.  “The Raven is
just another pile of dust and debris.  No memories
attached.  I felt Janette and LaCroix die.  They
didn’t know what hit them.  The echoing of their minds
screaming in pain and anger is the last memory I have
of them.”
        It was now Natalie’s turn to return the comforting
embrace.  “We are all we have now.”  She said.  “You,
Schanke and I, we are a family.  We are your family,
Nick.”
        “Nat, this wasn’t the way I wanted it to be.  I
wanted…”
        “Ah, excuse me.  Sorry for interruption you two
lovebirds, or should I say love-bats.”  Schanke
intruded with a wink and a smile.  “Here, my lady
Natalie, a flower for your beauty.”  He handed her a
large, fully bloomed dandelion.  “Sorry,” he continued
wryly, “it’s the only thing available right now.
They’re growing quite large, and even bloom at night.”
        “Why, thank you, Sir Don.” She answered with a smile.
        Schanke turned to Nick, the look of amusement gone
from his face.  “Where are we going now, Nick?  Where
can we go?  This wasn’t the only city at fall under
the nuclear cloud.  Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris,
London, and Moscow:  all gone to dust and that dust
poisoning the rest of the world.  The world will soon
be fit for only weeds, rats and vampires.  You know, I
used to hate rats, but now I’ve become rather fond of
them.”  Schanke licked the tips of his elongated
fangs.  “Tastes like chicken!” He chirped.
        Nick shook his head, laughing at Schanke’s rather
morose joke.  “Schank, I have no idea where we can go
or what we can do.  You and the rest of the vampires
who survived all of this are looking to me for
guidance.  I’m now the oldest and most experienced
left in this area.  What can I say?  I hope there will
be more to the world than just weeds, rats and
vampires.  That’d be a very boring world for
everybody.  But, for now at least, we don’t have to be
alone.
        “Don’t worry,” Nick spoke somberly.  “We will find a
place or make one for ourselves.  We have to, there’s
no choice in the matter.  I want to believe there’s
hope.  Even for…”
        Schanke quickly cut in.  “Even for two cops and a
doctor who only work the night shift.”