Collinsport -- 24
From: DSRules

SUNDAY

Sally heard the tapping of keys on her laptop. She tried to ignore it, but the sound persisted.

After it had been going on for what seemed like hours, she felt something nudge her shoulder. At first, she thought it was Bubbles, asking for his breakfast, and she reached forward to push him away. When her hand didn't connect with his furry body, she rolled over and went back to sleep.

Something nudged her shoulder again.

"Go away, Bubbles!" she exclaimed as she opened her eyes.

There was nothing there. Nothing she could see, at any rate.

The tapping sound came again. {It's about time you woke up, sleepy!}

"What do you *want*, Jeb?" she asked.

{I need you to take me shopping.}

"Shopping?!? For what?"

{I just got the advance on my salary that I was expecting. If I'm going to be working with a computer, I think I need one of my own.}

* * * * *

Neil showed up on Rosario's doorstep early that morning. "Hi!" he said when she answered the door. "I brought us a little breakfast." He held out a box of doughnuts and a plastic bag filled with red liquid.

"Thank you, Neil," the witch replied with a forced smile.

"All right, what's the matter? I'd have thought that you'd be happy to see your brother again after so long," Neil removed his hat and gloves and, unbuttoning his suitcoat, sat down in his favorite chair.

"Would you like me to put this in a glass for you?"

"Yes, please." He could tell that she was avoiding the conversation, but wouldn't let her get away with it. "So, how was Emilio? Still working those long hours?"

She returned to the room with a glass which she handed to her friend. In her other hand, she carried one of the doughnuts on a plate. She put the plate on the coffee table, and sat down on the floor in front of it. "You know," she said. "I hope that no one ever has an excuse to search my apartment for traces of human blood. They'll really wonder what I'm doing in here."

Neil took a sip of his breakfast. Rosario had put it in the microwave for a couple of seconds to warm it up. "Mmmm. Almost as good as fresh," he grinned at her.

When she returned his smile, he noticed how red her eyes were, as if she'd been crying. He hastily downed the remains of the glass and put the glass down on the coffee table, leaning forward to peer deeply into her eyes. "What's the matter, Rosie?"

She started to sniffle. "Emilio wasn't the only person I saw while I was in Dallas. I also saw Bar -." With this, she burst into tears.

"Barnabas? Oh, God. I'm so sorry." He knelt on the floor next to her, cradling her head against his chest, not caring if her tears ruined his jacket as he rocked her back and forth.

After a while, her tears subsided. "You're such a good friend to me, Neil."

"It's only what you deserve, Rosie."

"No. I mean, you've moved to San Antonio to be with me, and I could never thank you enough for putting up with my obsession with Barnabas all of those years."

"Well," he said with a smile, "you know what they say. Greater love hath no vampire than to move to South Texas for his best friend."

* * * * *

Azura followed the smell of cinnamon down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Ms. Von Stein!" Margaret greeted the governess.

"Good morning, Margaret, and please, call me Azura."

The chef smiled at her. "Coffee?"

"Yes, please," Azura returned the smile.

Margaret put a cup in front of Azura, who poured cream and spooned sugar into the cup. She took a sip, then asked, "Are you new here in town?"

"I just moved here a couple of years ago," she replied, "but my family is from here originally. My grandmother used to work for the Collins family up at Collinwood in the '70's."

"Really?"

Margaret nodded.

"Then maybe you know what churches there are here in town."

"Churches?"

Azura nodded. "You know, the place a lot of people go on Sunday morning?"

"Well, there's St. Catherine's. There's a couple of others, I think."

"Whatcha talking about?" Zoe asked as she entered the kitchen. "Oh! Margaret! You're making cinnamon rolls!" She impulsively threw her arms around the chef.

"I was just asking Margaret what churches there are in town."

"Churches?" Zoe said the word in the same tone that she might have used if Azura had been asking about scorpions.

{Is everyone in this town going to be surprised that I want to go to church? When I get there, will I be the only person there?}

As Margaret put the plate of cinnamon rolls on the table between Azura and Zoe, Zoe asked, "are you going to church, Azura?"

"Well, I sort of had hoped to. . . "

"Cool! Can I come with?"

"You *want* to come to church with me?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Do you think that your father would let you go to church?"

Zoe licked some icing off her fingers and shrugged. "I can ask him."

"Well, you can if you want to . . . ."

"OK!" Zoe picked up a plate of cinnamon rolls and dashed out of the kitchen. Azura soon heard her climbing the steep staircase to her father's apartment.

A few minutes later, Zoe came back down the stairs, stuck her head into the kitchen, said, "Daddy says that I can go to church with you!" and went back up to her father's rooms.

Azura stared in amazement after her student, and Margaret said, "They have breakfast together every morning. He's a very devoted father, even if he is . . . " her voice faded out.

Azura nodded, knowing what she meant.

Azura and Margaret chatted companionably as they ate their cinnamon rolls.

Azura said, "I wonder what time services start. Do you know if there's a copy of the yellow pages around here?"

Margaret produced the required directory, and Azura looked up the local churches. Margaret was right -- there weren't a lot of churches in Collinsport. Azura decided to give St. Catherine's a try. "The last mass of the day starts in an hour. I guess I'd better start getting ready."

She walked to the bottom of the stairs. "Zoe!" she called up, oblivious to Margaret's stunned expression, "if you want to come to church with me, you'd better get a move on! I'm leaving in half an hour!"

When she turned around, she finally noticed Margaret's startlement. "What? Did I do something wrong?"

"I'm just not sure that Mr. Chance will approve of you yelling up the stairs like that."

It hadn't occurred to Azura that that might have been inappropriate. "I guess I just didn't think. It seemed the best way to tell Zoe that I'm leaving soon."

* * * * *

Sally's eyes glazed over as the saleslady droned on about the latest features of her company's PC's. Jeb wanted the full treatment, and since they couldn't exactly ask the sales staff to cater to the needs of a ghost, no matter how much money he intended to spend on his new computer, they had to pretend that Sally, not Jeb, was the customer.

"Do you have any questions?" she asked.

Sally shook her head, coming back to reality. "No. Thank you. I'm just fine. Can I have a few minutes to try these out?"

The saleslady gave Sally a forced smile. "Of course. Take as long as you like. If you need anything, my name is Gillian."

"Thanks." Sally watched the saleslady as she walked away.

Sally glanced down at the screen in front of her. On it were written the words, {Have you ever been tempted to ask one of those salespeople what their name is if you *don't* need anything?}

Trying not to laugh aloud, Sally typed back, {Only every time one of them says that to me.}

She hit the 'enter' key a couple of times and said, {Well, what do you think?}

{I think that I'm ready to place my order,} he responded.

{Good. Then let's get out of here.}