Collinwood 2001 -- 42
From: N.E. Collins
Date: Dec. 13, 2001

"You are to remove every item off of every shelf and then you are to clean each and every shelf thoroughly. And then you are to clean every item from every shelf as well before you return it to the immaculately clean shelf from which it came."

Vikkie Gee listened to Nurse Cruz as she handed out her endless instructions. The room had shelves on three of it's walls and although they only went up to about seven feet it looked more like twenty. And there were so much stuff on them. None of it was very heavy as this was a light equipment room, but the lab tech did not care much for heights and so ascending the ladder was not going to be fun. But she didn't dare mention this fear of heights to her superior. But then she had not said much of anything since her encounter with that strange man.

"MISS GEE! Are you on drugs?" Vikkie gave Nurse Cruz her full attention. "I don't think you have heard anything I have said and I do not intend to say it all again, but I will if I have to."

Vikke made a quick move to the nearest ladder and started up it. She hesitated for a moment about halfway up it, but she just took a deep breath and kept on going. Rosemary had continued droning on and Vikkie thought she would scream and tear her own hair out. The sound of that woman's voice just racked on her nerves. Why was she still there? Vikkie had her instructions and she would carry them out. Why was this bitch still here giving her this endless and useless lecture? Vikke got to the top and she got a hold of some small glass container and she made the mistake of looking down. It made her dizzy and she accidently lost her hold on the container and it smashed to the ground.

"You stupid girl! Are you incapable of doing the smallest tast? Get down from there right now and go and get a broom and gride and sweep this mess up if you think that you can handle it! I may have to give you another assignment. We certainly cannot afford to have Miss Butterfingers handling breakable objects, now can we?"

As Vikkie came down the ladder she wished some wishes. She wished that Nurse Cruz would shut up. She wished that Nurse Cruz would go away. She wished that Nurse Cruz were dead.

Roger Collins had just deposited young Harry Johnson at the Cannery. He had handed him over to the personnel director and he had lauded such praise upon the youth that the director assumed that there were nothing the boy couldn't do. Why in the world Roger had suddenly taking such a liking to Harry was anybody guess. Maybe he was just so ready for his own son to be older and Harry Johnson was just available.

Roger Collins was a business man morning, noon and night and for him to basically turn his business over to an experienced young man was completely out of character for him. It didn't make sense, but no one said anything about it. Not Carolyn and not even his own mother, Sarah Johnson. It was almost as if they had all been expecting it for a long time now and the day had finally arrived.

Roger arrived at the Collinsport Inn and asked the clerk if Laura Collins was in. She was and she had left word at the desk that he was to come right up and get his surprise. Well, Roger thought, the knowledge of this surprised certainly was not one. He was almost sure that everyone in town already knew there was to be one. Damn, Laura anyway. Didn't she have sense of decorum? It was bad enough when had filed the papers for the two of them to be legally seperated, but when she had run off with that New Age nut case that's when Roger really blew his top! And when she started making a name for herself in the field of things of the spirit he had been furious! No wonder David is so attracted to all this nonsense. His own mother is a fucking celebrity in this so called business. Roger grumbled with himself and found himself outside her room.

He was just about to knock on the door when it opened and there she was and she was as beautiful as he remembered her to be. Laura Collins was and always would be the most beautiful woman Roger had every laid eyes on and he could forgive anything just because of that. That IS why he married her in the first place.

"Roger. It's so good to see you and now before you say one word here is your surprise." She stepped aside and Roger saw a woman standing behind her by the door of the kitchenette.

He thought he rocognized her, but no it couldn't be her.

And then the woman spoke. "Dear brother, aren't you going to come over here and give your big sister a hug?"

It WAS her! It was his eldest sister, Merideth. But Merideth was an invalid. They had said she would never be better, but here she was standing and talking!

"I told you it was a surprise!" Laura clapped her hands together in glee.

Vikkie made her way back to the storage room with Besty Bobbin, candy stripper, by her side. Betsy chattered like a happy Pollyanna magpie. "Nurse Cruz is always giving me extra things to do, but you know what, Vikkie? I think she really means well. I mean, golly, why would she do it to be mean? I don't think she is. But a lot of people say she is and a lot of people have ALSO said that one of these days she is gonna get hers, but I just think they are a lot of gloomy Guses."

The two women heard a loud crash up ahead they seemed to come from the light equipment storage room. Betsy threw open the door saw the chaos within. An entire wall of shelving along with most of the wall that had supported them had fallen in a dusty crumbly mess on the floor. And then Betsy saw a figure lying beneath the rubble. Vikkie made way to the body of Rosemary Cruz and felt for a pulse. She looked at Betsy and gave her the results. "She's dead."

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.