Subj: COLLINWOOD 2001 PART TWENTY EIGHT
Date: 7/27/01 3:41:32 PM Central Daylight Time
From: N.E. Collins

Willie Loomis pulled into the gravely driveway of his father's small property. Joe Loomis raised chickens in nearby Ellsworth and when his only son had gotten a job with the Collins family of Collinsport he had been wary. He had warned him, "There's been a powerful world a-hurt put on them folks, and I don't know that they didn't come by it fairly. You watch your step with those Collins." He had spat on the ground as if the family name had brought a bad taste to his mouth.

Willie had not been able to get away for a visit for a couple of weeks. It had been a couple of weeks since the night that Miss Nora Collins had broken her arm and been taken to the hospital. And then the police had come and there had been questions and questions and all of them snooping around and taking prints and collecting things as evidence. It had been pretty unnerving for the lad. He didn't have a criminal record, but he wasn't the shapest knife in the drawer either, and if Roger Collins and Mrs. Johnson had not spoken on his behalf he might very well have wound up in the Collinsport jail as a possible suspect.

They still had not determined who had tried to suffocate Nora Collins with a pillow that awful night. In fact, they were beginning to wonder if anyone had. Joe Loomis was out front in old faded coveralls throwing feed to his wandering flock when his son drove up in the fancy car that his well to do employers allowed him. He ambled toward the vehicle with the pail in hand and black and white chickens that surrounded him came along. They moved across the land like a single beast. "So ya thought you'd come back to yer roots, huh, boy? I swain, I thought fer sure you'd be in that Collinsport pokey, by gum. Folks 'round here have been flapping their gums and asking me all kinds a-fool questions. And them nosy reporters! I finally had ta show them the end a-my shotgun!"

Willie chuckled. He knew better then to correct his pa. The old man was tough and had just gotten tougher as time went by, and his ways may be wrong to some, but to Willie his father was never wrong. "Pa, it's good to see ya. I'm sorry I hadn't been sooner, but ya know, it's been a big mess up there and none of us could leave. All those questions and all those police! It's a good thing that Mr. Collins likes me, not to mention old Mrs. Johnson."

"Son, Sarah Johnson's not that old. She's a poor widow woman who lost her man at sea, and raising that hellion boy, Harry, is whats made her old. You show that lady some proper respect. You're not too big for a-strappin', ya hear?"

Willie inwardly shuddered. He knew old Joe was good for his word. "Yes, pa. I, I hear ya and I didn't mean no disrespect."

Joe leaned into the car and gave Willie's hair a tousled shake. "Yer a good boy! Now, get out a-that fancy smancy automobile and hand out the rest a-this feed to these bottomless pits. I'll go into the house and set up some victuals. How long ya stayin'?"

"I can stay for the weekend. Mr. Collins understands I need to spend time with my own family and after what we've all been through he said it would be no problem." Willie got out of the car and took the pail from Joe. "Pa, I hope yer ready for a tale or two cuz I've got some to tell."

Joe raised his eyebrows and waited.

"I won't go into it much now, but to begin with the lady of the house, Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard, well, she's saying she not herself. She's thinks she a little girl named Lisa. They had to take her to Windclyffe. Dr. Hoffman insisted. Pa, why do people have such misery?"

Joe Loomis sighed heavily. "Son, I'm afraid we truly reap what we sow. Now, spread this feed and come into the house when your through. And don't forget to wipe your feet and wash yer hands!"

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.