Collinwood 2001 Part Twenty Seven
From: N.E. Collins
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 16:32:27

Julia Hoffman rose from her chair and made a beeline for the DJ booth.  "Carolyn, what is wrong?  I'm not the kind of doctor who usually makes housecalls, but there may be something I could do?" 

Carolyn got out of the booth, much to Flip's relief.  "Oh, Doctor Hoffman, it's my mother and I think you would be just perfect for the job.  You see, she's not hurt or anything like that.  She's,...she's...oh, Doctor Hoffman, she's losing her mind.  I'm afraid my mother is going crazy!" 

Julia remembered young David Collins saying much the same thing to her earlier. So, Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard had finally cracked under some great pressure.  Julia would never have considered doing this for any other family, but since she was already up to her neck in sessions with David she was curious to get a glimpse of what his home life was really like.  And she was also curious as to exactly how Elizabeth was "going crazy."  She had to see it for herself.  "I'll get my bag."

Carolyn returned to her group.  David had been getting upset.  He knew that his great-aunt Nora was on her way to the hospital.  He had run outside and heard the ambulance that had brought her in.  Miss Winters had gone outside to retrieve her young charge and he was a bundle of nervous anguish that could not be calmed down.  "Is Aunt Nora gonna die?  Is she?  Miss Winters?"  He had asked these questions and then he had started to sob and sob and sob.  He would not be quieted, but he did let her lead him back inside The Purple Cow to find Joe. 

Carolyn walked up soon after.  "Doctor Hoffman has agreed to go see about mother.  Oh, Joe, why can't anything ever go right for us?" 

Joe put a big strong arm around his girl.  "Don't worry, sugar.  I'm here."  

Doctor Hoffman came up to the group.  "I'm all ready.  I suppose I'll meet you all there?" 

David screamed.  "I WANNA GO SEE AUNT NORA!   I WANNA!  I WANNA!  I WANNA!"   David, unlike his cousin, Carolyn, didn't need a microphone to make himself heard throughout the room. 

Julia stepped forward and took David's chin in her hand.  "David!  Listen to me.  I need to go and see about your Aunt Elizabeth now.  The nurse is on her way to see about your Aunt Nora.  So, your Aunt Nora is being taken care of.  Do you understand?" 

David roughly pulled away from Julia.  "I'm not STUPID!  And I wanna see MY AUNT NORA NOW!"           There was just no arguing with the little prince.  Carolyn had gone with Doctor Hoffman in the doctor's car to Collinwood to see about Liz.  Vicky made a quick phone call to the great house to inform Roger Collins that Joe was taking her and David to the hospital to see about Nora Collins.  The two groups had left and as soon as they walked out of the club the tongues started wagging the Collinsport Two-Step as the locals called it.  Who really knows who said what?   It was all the same sort of malicious gossip that they always heaped on the Collins family.  Most of them did it out of jealously.  Some of them did it out of boredom, but everyone did it, and did it with glee.

Carol Worsinski and Burke Devlin arrived at the hospital only moments before Nora Collins was rapidly wheeled in.  Carol had quickly excused herself from Burke and she joined alongside of the moving gurney and disappeared behind some swinging doors.  Burke made himself as comfortable as he could in a waiting area.  He wasn't really interested in the old lady, but something inside him told him to stay, and he usually trusted his instincts.  Doctor Kim was on duty that night and he and Carol made a careful examination of the poor old woman.  She had been sedated and she was sleeping peacefully now.   They were readily able to determine that she had fallen and broken her right arm due to the fall.  She had not suffered a heart attack or any kind of a stroke.  And there was one more thing that had them both puzzled.  There were some strange marks on Nora's face that looked like rug burns.  Doctor Kim was using a small strong light to look more closely at her face when he spied something inside of her nose that did not belong there.  He instructed Nurse Carol to take some tweezers and pull out the foreign object from the patient's nasal passage.  She did as she was told and when she removed the tweezers there in the clamp was a large amount of what looked like brown lint.  She retrieved some of this material from both nostrils.  "Doctor, what do you think this is, and how did it get so far
in her nose?" 

The doctor was only too ready to put two and two together, but instead he said something that made Carol's blood run cold.  "Nurse, I would love to answer that question, but I'm afraid this is now a  matter for the police."   

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