On my usual Thursday shopping excursion I came across a talking Christmas ornament in the Carlton Cards store. I haven’t gotten into collecting ornaments, mostly because i don’t get into trees anymore. Still my shopping buddy enjoys the anticipation of seeing the new collectibles when they start showing up around June each year, so I was looking at them while she decided which ones she wanted to add to her warehouse sized collection.
As a Twilight fan I would have considered buying any such themed ornaments had they been available: they weren’t. What did attract my eye was a talking ornament featuring Bela Lugosi as Dracula, with several classic (dare I say immortal) lines from the appropriately accented voice of the greatest king vampire portrayer ever. After listening to the first phrase to respond to my press of the hidden button (“I am. . . .Dracula, I bid you velcome!”) I moved on to check out the other ornaments and catch up with my friend.
While I was in the middle of noticing that the employees had mixed up the names of the South Park Cartman and Kyle in the display, a woman came into the store and gravitated immediately to the same Dracula ornament. What struck me about the visitor was her pale mien, lack of hair and sheer scarf wrapped stylishly around her head. My guess, like anybody else’s, was that she was likely undergoing chemo, and I tried not to seem as if I was staring.
Suddenly my mind began to whirl. Being a Dracula fan for years, I am very familiar with the most popular lines Lugosi spoke in the role, and as I saw her press the button on the ornament I anticipated–and got–an unexpected scene played out in front of me. The next line to come up on the ornament was, “There are worse things awaiting men than death.” She released the ornament and walked quietly away, but the implications of that moment were simply mind-numbing.
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