Subj: Collinwood 2001 Year One Part Four
Date: 3/6/01 7:34:09 AM Central Standard Time
From: N.E. Collins

Vicky reached into the drawer of the desk and took out her cellphone. Sitting on the edge of the desk she hit the autodial feature that instantly connected her to Matthew Morgan. One ring, two, part of three, an answer. "Yes, Mr. Morgan?"

A pause. "Yes, it's Miss Winters."

Another pause. "Yes, he's done it again. Well, Mr. Morgan, it's not MY fault that the boy has locked me in the schoolroom. It wasn't my fault yesterday, OR the day before that!"

A longer pause took place, so Vicky changed her position to that of standing. "Well, did it ever occur to you to just REMOVE the lock from this door?"

She waited while Matthew replied. "I am NOT suggesting that you deFACE the doorway and BRING down the property values, Mr. Morgan. I am only saying that IF this door HAD no lock on it, then David could NOT lock me IN here."

She strolled over to the window and peered down and saw David Collins on the lawn shooting the finger at her. "Hold on, Mr. Morgan!"

She threw open the window and leaned out and shouted down at the boy, "DAVID! When I get OUT of here, I am going to have a LONG TALK with your Aunt! And DON'T think that you are getting out of doing ANY HOMEWORK!"

She pulled back into the room and resumed speaking with the caretaker. "Now, Mr. Morgan...what?"

After a brief pause she let out a angry breath before she continued. "Well, HOW long will you be?"

A pause. "I KNOW I am not the ONLY thing you have to deal with today, but I am LOCKED IN HERE, and I don't think it would TOO much trouble if SOMEONE could come and let me OUT in a reasonable amount of time, do YOU? Mr. Morgan? Hello? HELLO?"

Vicky sighed and turned off the cellphone and resignedly place it down on the desk.

She had come more prepared then the last two days of unscheduled captivity, as she strolled leisurely to the small kitchenette that was also housed here in the small makeshift schoolroom. This was the old tower room that looked out over the back of the great house. The whole structure of the place was immense. There must have fifty or sixty rooms and there might have been more. Not all of the house was even opened and used anymore these days. There was an east and a west wing that were completely shut down to help stave off high heating bills. Vicky fixed herself a tuna fish sandwich and grabbed a bottle of pop. She opened her satchel and rummaged around until she retrieved a paperback novel, Phantom of the Swamp, by Marilyn Ross. Marilyn Ross was really Dan Ross and he wrote what were once called gothic novels. Now they called this genre suspense or horror, but back in the late sixties and early seventies gothic was the prevelant term. She laughed at the lead in line for the book: Have the voodoo gods decided Karen will share her cousin's tragic fate? She said to herself outloud, "As long as she doesn't have to deal with any twelve year old monsters she should be JUST fine."

Vicky munched contendedly on her "prison" fare as she began the almost too easy read of her paperback. It wasn't the kind of story that required her utmost attention and she was able to think back over her first week here at the strange house with an even stranger family. They were Collinsport royalty to say the least and they lived apart from the local community. What little she did know she had received so far from Mrs. Stoddard, who didn't tell her much and Mrs. Johnson who talked a bit too much. Mrs. Stoddard has told her that David and his father, Roger Collins, had returned to Collinwood to live about a year ago after David's mother, Laura, had become quite ill and had to be hospitilized. Mrs. Johnson's version was by far juicier. She told Miss Winters that after years of fighting like cats and dogs with Roger, Laura Collins had turned to drink and had suffered a complete mental breakdown. She was at present in a sanitarium in Phoenix, Arizona, and her future was uncertain.

Miss Winters was the third governess in less than a year for the young master. The first one had been, in Mrs. Johnson's opinion, a nut case, or she had become one soon after her arrival to Collinwood. She had been the one with the wild stories of ghosts and other wild imaginings. "Not that such things don't happen in the real world, but the way this young woman went on and on, like it was ALL around us here, well, Mrs. Stoddard sent her packing." Mrs. Johnson reminded Vicky that 'she was not one to talk, but', and the information flowed freely after her disclamimer. The second woman had lasted longer, but the family had found out later that she had been hiding from the police, and when they did catch up with her due to a call she put in herself she wasn't in a much better frame of mind than her predecessor had been. "If ya ask me it's ALL the boys doing. He's obssessed with the dead and dreadful things like that. It's not healthy, I tell ya, and I'm telling you not to give him to much free rein, and don't put any stock in his wild tales. I like you, Miss Winters. You appear to have a good head on those shoulders. You even remind me of someone I used to know a long time ago, but I can't quite put my finger on who?" The woman had excused herself and then come back with a stack of old year books from Collinsport High School. She found the one for the year 1976, and she flipped through it to the events page concerning homecoming that year, and then she triumphantly put her finger on the picture that looked SO much like Miss Winters, in her opinion. Vicky looked at the picture of that year's Homecoming Queen, Betty Hanscomb, and she did bear a resemblence to this beauty from the past.

Vicky put down on her book and made a speedy return to the present when she heard someone attempting to open the schoolroom door. It was Mrs. Stoddard who was all apologetic. "I discovered David downstairs earlier and when he told me that you had dismissed him for recess I was angry that you would do something so frivilous. But then it occurred to me that you may just be trapped up here again, so I came to investigate, and it's a good thing that I did. Miss Winters, I cannot tell you how sorry I am about all this and I just hope you will not leave us. I don't think I could take another search for another governess. Tell you what...there is a new club opening in town. Why don't you go to the beauty parlor and get yourself all fixed up, and then go shopping for a nice new outfit. And send me the bill for it all, please!" So she decided that would stay and do just that. She wasn't doing too bad for it only being her first week at Collinwood.

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.