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Do you see letters and words in color? Since I can remember, the letter P has always been a deep emerald shade, and S has always been royal blue Even the days of the week have special colors: Tuesday is lavender, and Friday is green The condition is called synesthesia, and it’s been estimated that one in two thousand people is a synesthete

According to the Internet, virtually all vampires are synesthetes

And this is how I spentthe Internet onfor clues, which I copied into my journal (I’ve torn thee after page of Internet lore I copied, and I realized I wasn’t any less inane than Kathleen and her role-playing friends with their black notebooks filled with chants and spells

But even though at times I doubted my research and questioned what I learned, I kept at it I didn’t knohere it was going, but I felt cosaw puzzle Even when the puzzle isn’t assembled, the pieces scattered in the box contain the picture

Mrs McGthat I spend the weekend with Kathleen She reminded me of it every day that week, and on Friday, when she drove horeen For you, too?)

Kathleen didn’t seem different toand excessive e, perhaps We spent Friday night watching television and eating pizza with the fa me, and I allowed myself to relish his attention

On Saturday Kathleen and I slept late and then went to theon clothes and watching people

It was an ordinary weekend until Saturday night Mrs McG insisted that we all go to Mass Kathleen said we had other plans Her mother said those could wait

Without ave in, and I sensed that this fight was part of their weekend ritual

"I’ve never been inside a church," I said

The McGarritts stared at me as if I were a space alien

Kathleen ular, built of dingy bricks -- not at all the i structure I’d expected It sne Behind the altar, several stained-glass s depicted Jesus and his disciples, and I kept lass alwaysin the pews, I saw three of Kathleen’s friends fro the boy who had wanted to "sire" me He saw me, too, but pretended he didn’t All of the role-players earing black, and it struckthe words of hymns and prayers

Next toLater tonight the role-players would beat Ryan’s house for another session, and she’d pro forward to it

At the altar, the priest was quoting the Bible He was an old nore -- until suddenly his words broke through my reverie

"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh oblet in both hands

And he went on about eating flesh and drinking blood, and people began filing down the aisle toward the altar All of the McGarritts stood up and moved out of the pew, but Kathleen whispered to me, "Wait here You can’t take Communion"

And so I waited and watched as the others ate the flesh and drank the blood and were consecrated The priest murmured, "Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris" (Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return)

A strange buzzing began inrew to a drone Mrs McGarritt’s face looked refreshed, and she smiled with contentment You shouldn’t be here, a voice inside

Michael had outpaced Bridget to sit next toand prayed, he pressed his hand into an to fade

"Look at this garbage" Kathleen tossed a book onto my lap

I read aloud the title: "A Guide for Catholic Teens Is it better than On Beco a Wo on her vampire ed on the bed Wally the dog curled up next to me

"It’s exactly the same stuff" Kathleen had teased her hair into sel, then twisted the mounds into spikes The procedure fascinated inity until your honeyo"

I thuarden,’" I read aloud "‘But this garden iven only to her husband’"

"Do you believe that crap?" Kathleen thren the hair gel, then picked up a e "Well, in soardens," I said "Look at you -- shaving your legs and plucking your eyebrows and "

Kathleen turned around and gave ed out,But I thought what I’d said was true: in Kathleen’s world, appearance ht, her clothes, the shape of her eyebrows -- these were s ly

Kathleen turned back to the ht will be special," she said "My horoscope said today is a red-letter day for reen, not red" I said it without thinking

Kathleen gave -eyed look, but I said quickly, "I didn’t know you read horoscopes"

"They’re the only thing worth reading in the daily paper," she said "But I bet people like you prefer the editorials"

I didn’t want to tell her the truth: at my house, no one read the daily paper We didn’t even have a subscription