When Sally and Barnabas returned to the car, she fished a CD out of her purse. "May I play this on the way back to your house?"

"Certainly."

They got into the car and Sally popped the CD into the CD player. "Since we're having popular music appreciation class today, I thought you might enjoy this artist."

"Hmmm?"

"Well, he's very, well, I guess you'd say, literate. He used to be an English teacher, before his music career took off. And he tells this great anecdote on the liner notes of one of his albums about using Shakespeare to deflect the attentions of a drunk who accosts him in the street. I'll have to loan you that album later, if you like this one.*

They continued listening to the CD until they arrived back at Barnabas' house. "Before we go back in, may I borrow this?"

"Sure."

"You are coming in, aren't you? I have a number of architectural drawings of Collinwood that I'd like to show you."

"I have to go. I've got visitors coming over tomorrow, and I want to get home before dark."

"Well, then, at least let me lend them to you."

"I can't, Barnabas . . ."

"Nonsense. You were kind enough to lend me your compact disk, this is the least I can do. If it'll make you feel better about borrowing them, I'll keep mister," he looked at the case, "Sting until I get my drawings back."

Sally smiled at the thought of such a civilized gentleman as Barnabas Collins holding her CD hostage. "All right. You win."

They walked up to the house and were greeted by Julia. "Where have the two of you been?"

"Sorry, Julia," Barnabas said as he exchanged a quick kiss with his wife, "Sally hadn't had anything to eat all day, so we went out for lunch."

The three walked into the living room, where Barnabas picked up a book, and handed it to Sally. "This will probably be the most use to you."

"Thank you, Barnabas," Sally said, as she took the book from him.

Just then, Julia's breathing became labored. Sally stood by, helpless, while Barnabas helped her into a chair. Addressing Sally, he said, "she needs her medication. It's in the medicine cabinet in the powder room at the end of the hallway."

Sally put down the book and hurried down the hall. She opened the cabinet and saw several prescription medication bottles. She glanced hurriedly at the labels, "Barnabas, Barnabas, Benjamin, Julia!" She grabbed the bottle with Julia's name and hurried back to the living room.

Barnabas opened the bottle and spilled two capsules into his hand. As he handed them to his wife, Sally ran back to the kitchen, where she quickly located the clean glasses and ran a glass of cold water for Julia.

She returned to the living room and gave the glass to Barnabas, who looked at it as if it were a viper. "Where did this come from?"

"I just poured it for her. In the kitchen. I figured that she couldn't take her medication dry."

Barnabas looked up at Sally, said, "thank you," and handed the glass to Julia, who used it to wash down her pills.

As they waited for the attack to end, Barnabas gave Sally a modified explanation for Julia's illness. "We have a friend who suffers from a rare malady, and Julia traveled to the tropics to find a possible cure. While there, she picked up a parasite that has weakened her heart. The attacks are getting worse, but her prognosis is good." He didn't tell her that the {rare malady} was lycanthropy, and that the friend was Chris Jennings.

After the attack had passed, Sally picked the book up again and prepared to leave. As she walked past Julia, the older woman stopped her and said, "thank you for helping me."

"You're welcome," Sally said, slightly embarassed.

Sally walked to Barnabas. "I'll take good care of this book. I promise. You take good care of Julia. And of Gordon."

"Gordon?"

Sally smiled, "Gordon Sumner is Sting's real name."

* * * * *

Carolyn kicked off her shoes as she entered the carriage house. She was exhausted. She loved running the antique shop, but today a tour bus from Picayune had come into town with 35 senior citizens, who were all, of course, searching for just that particular antique that Carolyn didn't have in stock at the moment.

Carolyn wiggled her toes. It felt so good to be home. She wasn't sure she felt up to fixing dinner tonight. At the thought of food, Carolyn's stomach rumbled. She could swear that she smelled -- roast beef?

That was when she noticed light coming from the dining room. She walked in and found that the room was aglow with candles. Sally's laptop was over on the sideboard, and the table had been set with one place setting. That's when she noticed the card placed on her plate. It said, simply, {from Jeb.}

"I hope I don't have to stand on ceremony," she said aloud to the apparently empty room as she sat down in front of the place setting and served herself out of the large bowl of tossed salad. "I just want to know who's going to do the dishes."

She heard a typing sound from the sideboard, and when she looked over, she saw that Jeb had written, {That's been taken care of.}

As she started to eat, soft music began to come from the computer, followed by a cultured voice saying, "You're listening to WCLL-FM. Light sounds for residents of Collinsport."

Before she got a chance to ask, Jeb typed, {I found that a couple of local stations broadcast over the Internet. Isn't that cool?}

Carolyn smiled fondly, "Yes, it is, Jeb. It's very cool."

* * * * *

"Thank you for dinner, Mr. Loomis, Mrs. Loomis."

Willie smiled, "Beth, how many times do I gotta tell ya to call us Willie and Gina?"

Beth's future mother-in-law added, "after all, you are marrying our son in a couple of months. You'll be part of the family, then."

Beth went over and took the hand of her fiance. "Can we go for a walk?"

"Sure." The serious tone in Beth's voice concerned Devin.

They hadn't gotten to the back gate of his parents' immaculately-landscaped yard before Beth lost her patience. "No. We've got to talk now."

"What is it?" Devin said, concern in his voice.

"There's something you have to know about me before we get married." She sat on one of the concrete benches.

He sat down next to her, waiting for her to speak.

Eventually, she did. "I suppose I don't need to tell you that Jeb Hawkes isn't my biological father."

"Well, since you're 22 and he died nearly 30 years ago. . . ."

"Have you ever wondered who my biological father is?"

"I didn't think it mattered." Fear seized him. "It's not my dad, is it?"

Beth laughed. "No. It actually doesn't matter {who} as much as it does {what}, really."

"{What}?" Devin was perplexed.

"Well, a gypsy put a curse on my great-great-" she paused to count, "great grandfather that affects the firstborn son in each generation."

"What does it do to them?"

"It makes them werewolves."

Devin laughed. "You're kidding, right? Everyone knows that there's no such thing as werewolves."

Beth's expression remained solemn. "I'm not kidding. My biological father is the firstborn son in his family. He's a werewolf. I've seen him make the transformation with my own eyes."

"So you're saying that any son we have . . .?"

"Just the first one."

"{Just the first one}? Do you have any idea what you're telling me? Maybe this sort of thing is normal in the Collins family, but I don't think I want it to be normal in the Loomis family." He stood up and stalked to the gate and out of the yard.

Tears welling up in her eyes, Beth returned to Willie and Gina's house.

Willie cornered Devin when his son returned to the house. "What did ya say ta Beth that got her all upset?"

"What did {I} say to {her}?" Devin asked, astonished.

"Yeah. Ya musta said something ta her, 'cause she came back ta the house, cryin', an' she wouldn't talk ta me or your mother about it."

"Why do you think that {I'm} the one to blame?"

"'Cause {you} ain't the one that's cryin'!"

"Only because I've stopped!"

Willie felt that he'd just been hit in the stomach. "You were cryin'?"

"Yes," tears began to well up in his son's eyes.

"Why?"

"Because of something that Beth told me."

"Did she break up wit' ya?"

Devin laughed, "No. I think that would have been easier to take. She told me something that she's been keeping from me the whole time we've been together. If we have a son, there'll be something wrong with him."

Willie closed his eyes {I was hopin' ta avoid this,} he prayed silently. "What'll be wrong wit' him?"

Devin laughed again. "If I'd heard this from anyone other than Beth, I wouldn't have believed it. She says that our first son will be a werewolf."

"Oh."

"You don't seem too surprised by this."

"Well, I sorta suspected that Chris Jennings was Beth's father, but I didn't know for sure until now."

"Wait! Chris is her father?"

"You didn't know?"

"No! She didn't tell me who her father is, just that there's a curse on his family, and, as a result, on her."
Willie looked ashamed.

"And you knew? You knew that if I had a son, that he'd become some kind of -- of {thing}?!? What else do you know about my in-laws that you haven't told me?"

Willie was somewhat relieved when he heard that his son still spoke of the Collinses as if he were going to marry into their family. All of the secrets he'd become privy to in the 31 years since he was brought to Collinsport by Jason McGuire came back to him -- the {cousin from England} who was a 233 year old vampire, another {cousin} who was actually Chris Jennings' great-great grandfather, David's mother, the phoenix, the list was nearly endless.

"Nothin' that affects you."

"Nothing that affects me! How many more curses are there, then?"

Of the curses that Willie knew of, Judah Zachery's curse, the vampire curse, the dream curse and the werewolf curse, only the werewolf curse was still extant, so he stretched the truth a little, "just that one."

"You know what, Dad? For the first time ever, I don't believe you! And I don't know if I'll ever trust you again. Any of you." Devin walked away and back into the darkness.

* * * * *

Knowing that Jeb was going to be with Carolyn all night, and reluctant to go back to the house on the hill alone so early, Sally decided to have dinner at the Collinsport Inn.

The same waitress who'd waited on her on her first night in Collinsport waited on her again. "Hey! I hear that you moved into Collinwood."

Sally nodded. "Yep."

"I guess you are insane, after all, even if you look like you're OK."

"Actually," Sally replied, "it turns out that I'm descended from someone who used to live up there."

"You're a Collins?!?"

"No. Actually, I'm a Winters. One of my ancestors, Victoria Winters, used to be a governess up there."

"David Collins' governess? What, are you her daughter or something?"

"Something like that."

"Is Bradford your married name, then?"

Sally was perplexed by this question, then she remembered that Carolyn had told her that Vicki had married a man whose name was Jeff Clark before she went back into the past to be with Peter Bradford. "Oh! I'm from her second marriage -- to Peter Bradford."

"Bradford? There used to be some of them around here, but they disappeared something like 20 years ago."

With that the waitress disappeared -- into the kitchen to place Sally's order.

Sally sat watching the traffic through the window when she heard a voice behind her say, "Sally Bradford?!? What the heck are you doing in Collinsport, Maine?"

Sally spun in the direction of the voice, "Lana Thorne!" She leapt to her feet and the two women embraced. "I haven't seen you since college! As for what I'm doing in Collinsport . . ."

"You're working for that software company that just moved to town, aren't you?"

Sally nodded. "Not only that, but I've actually met the elusive Adam Von Stein."

"You're kidding!"

"In fact, he's coming over to see my new place tomorrow."

"Why aren't you home cleaning, then?"

"Well, he knows that my place is a disaster area. . ."

"So?"

"Literally. I've moved into Collinwood."

"You're living up at Collinwood? Carolyn didn't say anything to me about finding a renter."

Just then, a little girl who had been hiding behind Lana came around and tugged on her sleeve. "Lana? Are we going to eat soon?"

"Sorry, Zoe! May we join you?"

Sally indicated the empty seats across from her. "Certainly."

After Zoe and Lana had been seated, Sally extended her right hand across to the little girl. "Hi. I'm Sally Bradford. And you're . . ."

Zoe cautiously took Sally's hand. "Zoe."

"Give her your last name, too," Lana prompted.

"Chance," she said shyly.

"I'm very pleased to meet you, Zoe," Sally said.

The two women spent most of their dinner time catching up on each others' lives, then Sally looked at her watch. "Oh! I'd better get going. It's really getting late, and I do have a busy day tomorrow," and with that, she left.

* * * * *

"Willie, I'm really worried about Beth," Gina Loomis confided in her husband.

"I know. I just had a talk wit' Devin, and I think I know what's botherin' her." Willie mounted the steps and headed up for the guest bedroom.

He knocked at her door, with no response. "Beth?" he called out quietly. The only response was a quiet sobbing sound. Well, she was awake, and Willie thought that maybe she needed someone to talk to, so he pushed the door open.

"Can I talk to ya for a second?" Willie asked.

"Can I stop you?" she asked.

"Not really, no," Willie responded with a half-smile as he entered the room and sat down next to Beth on the bed. "Devin told me what ya told him."

"And now you think I'm awful, too."

"No, I don't think you're awful," he countered. "I just wish ya'd told him earlier. Give him some time to adjust to the idea of having a son who's, well, different."

"Different!" Sally laughed bitterly at that.

"Well, ya gotta admit that bein' a werewolf ain't exactly normal. And Chris does just fine otherwise. He's employed, married, has those great boys o' his," he paused. "O' course, I remember when he an' Sabrina adopted those kids. They were so happy. Sabrina had been wanting to be a mother for so long, but Chris didn't wanna have any -- other -- biological children. . ."

"You mean you know that I'm Chris's daughter?"

Willie laughed. "Well, there were only a few guys up at Collinwood when you were born. Roger was Carolyn's uncle, David was her cousin, Barnabas was married to Julia, who wouldn't exactly'a been pleased if Barnabas had been your father, and I knew that it wasn't me, so that left Chris. Ya know that Chris an' your mother dated for a while, right?"

Beth nodded, "until she met my -- until she met Jeb."

"Ya can call Jeb your father. He is your father in every way that counts, ya know."

"I know."

"I just wanted ta say that Devin'll come around. Ya just haveta give him time."

"I hope you're right," Beth said, as Willie gave her a hug.

"I sure hope so, too."