Subj: Charade: Chapter 18
Date: 12/7/01 4:43:57 PM Central Standard Time
From: Nicole

December, 9, 2008, Collinwood, 6:55 PM-Parallel Time

Constance hated the concept of the family meeting. During her entire 31 years, she only had to sit through three full-blown family meetings. The first had been between her, Daniel, and Josef on the eve of their departure from their old home for Collinwood. The second had been between her, Quentin, and Daniel on her decision to be put in private school instead of taking on the traditional Collinwood governess. The last meeting had been between her, Maggie, Daniel, and Chris Collins on whether or not she should be sent to a psychiatrist after her near death experience at the cottage. Each of those marriages had left her feeling more confused than she had been before the meeting. Constance had left the house to escape the mind numbing awe that was a Collins family meeting. She had convinced herself that she would never have to face that hell again.

Thirteen years after her escape, Constance sat between her husband and the strong upholstered arm of the sofa as she waited for another family meeting to begin. Across from her sat Sylvia, who barely seemed able to sit upright in the ancient antique of a chair that Daniel insisted was still functional. Amy sat near the fireplace. In her present mental state, Constance seemed certain that a burning hearth was the wrong area for her to sit by. Josef sat in a wheelchair away from the group. His enchanting nurse, Avery, knelt at his side, waiting to act on his every whim. Constance often wondered if the doctors had left enough inside of Josef to feel anything for the woman who seemed to be aching for his attention. From the look on her brother’s face, she could tell that they had not. The usual suspects were present. Where was their glorious leader? “Where the hell is Daniel?” asked Constance. “Doesn’t he realize that we–well, most of us, anyway–have lives to live?”

“If your time is so precious, perhaps you should spend it living in conditions more to your liking?” They turned to see Daniel standing in the doorway. He looked as if he were an angry Colossus waiting to strike. He grandly entered the room and walked its coordinates, carefully casing his family members out like a hunter watching its prey. He eventually took the chair next to Sylvia. He did not bother turning to his wife or acknowledging her existence. He only took that seat so that he would be sitting in the center of the room. Daniel focused his attention onto Constance and asked, “Do you honestly wonder why I’ve decided to call this meeting?”

“I can’t deny that the question hasn’t popped into my mind.”

“Well Constance dear, it should be painfully obvious. No one in this room have any other solvable problems except . . . what is it Amy?” bellowed Daniel, clearly angry to have his diatribe interrupted. Amy’s raised hand slowly fell back to her side and she twisted back toward the fire. Once Daniel was convinced that he had embarrassed his cousin into permanent silence, he turned his attention back to Constance and continued. “As I was saying, the only problem any inhabitant of this house has is with you.”

Constance giggled quietly and fell back into her seat. David attempted to wrap his arm around her but she shook him off. As much as he thought she might need comforting, Constance felt no need for it. For the first time, Constance truly felt at home. “Come now, Daniel. I can’t be the only problem these people are having. After all, they are living with you.”

Daniel face grew a fierce shade of crimson. He would not have colored had Sylvia not burst into disjointed cackles after Constance’s quip. Daniel cast his wife the evil eye and she silenced instantly. He turned back to Constance, allowing her to see his anger; it was not a pretty sight. “Of course it’s not just you. There is your husband, who spends the wee hours of the morning banging away on that god awful project that no one will ever want to buy even if it promises to save their souls. And of course, there are your children, whom I believe to be devils incarnate. Did you know that girl of yours was in the west wing? She was near Josef’s room.”

“Did she break anything?” asked Constance wearily.

“Well, no,” muttered Daniel, “but . . . ”

“Did she disturb anything in the west wing?”

“She disturbed my peace of mind,” answered Josef whiningly. “I can’t live with people wandering around my side of the house like it’s a fucking amusement park.”

“I don’t see why not? You are the freak show.”

“Silence, both of you!” screamed Daniel. He leapt from his chair and began to pace around the room again. “You are both older than five; I suggest you act your age.”

“I know I wasn’t screaming, Daniel, and for that matter, neither was Josef. So, who’s acting liking the five-year-old?”

Daniel snorted but retook his seat. Sylvia placed her hand on his shoulder; Daniel twisted out her grasp and moved as far away from her as possible. Sylvia’s eyes pleaded for an answer but Daniel turned away from her, allowing his eyes to wander between his mutilated son and faux daughter. “God, what a lovely pair you make! Why was I cursed with such a family?”

“Just lucky, I suppose,” mumbled Constance.

“Don’t be foolish,” warned Daniel. “Foolishness will not be tolerated in this house!”

“I don’t see why not! You’ve tolerated much worse before.” Daniel sniffed at her jab and turned his back to her. Constance pulled away from David and sprang to her feet, making the quick trip to Daniel’s chair only to have David pull her back to her seat. She squirmed out of her husband’s grasp and moved to the farthest end of the sofa. She turned back to Daniel and hissed, “Foolishness is all I have going for me. It’s too late in the game for me to give that up.”

“Then why don’t you start over,” offered Daniel snidely. “Move you and your little family to some other end of the country . . . no, the world . . . and begin life anew. Lesser people have done so and succeeded. I don’t see why you can’t.”

“I don’t have anything to move with.”

“You’ve got your legs,” sniveled Josef.

“I probably have bigger balls than you too but that’s beside the point.” Constance turned back to Daniel and said, “Do you know what happened to my trust?”

Daniel’s eyes grew wide. He glanced around the room quickly before returning his gaze to Constance. Even then, his eyes seemed menacing, disturbed. “I never knew you had one. Who filled your mind with such garbage?”

“I’m pretty sure it was Chris when he said that a trust had been established in my name during the reading of Quentin’s will. You remember Quentin? Your father?”

“Your constant references to my father are disgusting! You don’t even know who your father is,” spat Daniel as Josef laughed on in the background.

Constance ignored the high-pitched squeaks of her half brother and the large grin that sat on Daniel’s face. “I know damn well who my father is.” She watched in glee as everyone turned toward her with eyes filled with new found curiosity. She most enjoyed watching Daniel’s smile deflate to nearly nothing. She thought that his lips would curl in and retreat into his mouth if they were shrivel further. She knew that Daniel had probably always known who the man was; she had learned the information on her fifteenth birthday. She had always hid the fact that she had known to protect what little dignity she had possessed in the house. Why bother to maintain what she no longer felt she had? “I can’t believe you thought that I didn’t know. So many others did!”

“Then why don’t you enlighten us,” snapped Josef.

“Yeah,” agreed Sylvia with uncommon vigor. “Tell us who your dad is!”

Constance glanced across each face as she decided whether or not to tell. David looked distinctly uncomfortable. Constance felt for him but she could not ease his agony. She had spent enough time in the Blake household to know that they were loving, sensitive individuals who cared about one another and valued each other’s opinions. His quick immersion into the Collins household must be a rude awakening as to how cruel some people can actually act. She looked over to Amy and saw her pessimism. Amy had to know the truth; behind that occasionally deranged glare lay an intelligent mind that knew things that the others did not. Apparently, Constance’s lineage was one of those things. Josef and Sylvia both appeared anxious. They looked like the greedy slobs that they were. Daniel, on the other hand, still looked frightened. The revelation would not have an effect on his life. Why did he care? “Okay folks,” she sighed, “My father is . . . ”

“I’ll have no more of this nonsense!” blurted Daniel. He quickly rose from his seat and called everyone’s attention onto him. “I will not sit here and listen to Constance’s nonsense.”

“Would you prefer to listen to my nonsense while standing?” asked Constance bitterly. She strode next to Daniel and stood in front of him, unafraid of what he could do to her although he was twice her weight and six inches taller. “I’m sick of your shit! What does it matter who my biological father was? You screwed me over well enough; you’ll always be family to me.”

Daniel would have retorted had Amy not risen. She calmly walked to the center of the room, inching her way between Daniel and Constance and pushing her older cousin aside to get closer to the angry young woman. She touched her finger to Constance’s nose and whispered, “It doesn’t matter, dear. Your real daddy doesn’t matter in this house. In the end, this line is always ruled by the matriarch–always.”

“I don’t understand,” murmured Constance.

Amy laughed as she turned toward Daniel. “Do you still believe it was correct to send her to Ms. Harridge?” She did not wait for her cousin to answer. Amy shrugged and turned back to Constance. “You don’t remember a thing, do you dear?” Constance reluctantly shook her head. Amy shook her head as she tried to restrain her giggles. “That’s too bad . . . too, too bad. After all, who’s going to save us when,” murmured Amy, her eyes suddenly shifting to Josef, “SHE returns!”

Josef’s body went completely still, but his mouth silently continued to move. The more he lipped the phrase “when she returns,” the more frantic his body became. Josef soon began to scream, thrashing his body to and fro inside his wheelchair as Avery tried to comfort him. Amy did not help that matter by moving in Josef’s face, taunting him about an unseen danger that both were convinced would come back to harm him. He tried to swat at his deranged cousin, but she moved too fast for him, allowing her to safely return to her post by the fire. Amy now seemed calm, much calmer than she had since Constance had returned to Collinwood. Josef, however, seemed unwilling to stop screaming. His shrill screams soon grew intolerable to the rest of the family, forcing almost all to press their palms to their ears in an attempt to dull the sound. “Take him away,” ordered Daniel. “And when you get him settled, come back for Amy and take her to her room.”

“But Mr. Collins,” insisted Avery quietly, “Amy isn’t my ward. You didn’t hire me to care for her.”

“You’ll care for anyone I damn well tell you to care for!”

“Better do what he says, Avery,” snapped Constance nonchalantly. “If you don’t act quick enough, you’ll be sponge bathing the stable hands by midnight.”

“That’s enough!” screamed Daniel.

Constance would not allow him to silence her again. She moved back into Daniel’s face, forcefully egging him on with accusations and smart remarks. She had barely heard when Avery ushered Josef from the room. To her surprise, Amy left on her own; she had done enough damage for one day to be of any more use to anyone. David and Sylvia had been left behind to sit back and watch. From the few fleeting glimpses she had stolen of her husband’s face, Constance could tell that David was uncomfortable. She, unfortunately, did not care. She had things that she had to tell Daniel, and she could wait no longer to say them. “I really don’t understand why you don’t like the idea of me speaking the man of my real father. Are you embarrassed? Did it hurt to know that found more passion in an older man than she did with you?” she asked coldly, her voice finding a steely cadence that made her words sound hard, strong.

“If that’s the case, we certainly know where you picked up your obsession for older men!” snapped Daniel. “Honestly, I’ve never seen a woman more depraved than you when it came to illicit matters.”

For a moment, Constance’s heart sank into her stomach. How did Daniel know about that? She could only recently remember glimpses of the affair herself. Had she really been so brazen as a teenager? “It’s good to hear you make accusations you can’t back up!” screamed Constance. “For a minute, I thought you were going to make a real point.”

Daniel snorted and turned away. Constance repealed her emotional guards for a moment, letting her body deflate and nearly slump to the ground. David rose to his feet and grabbed her by the shoulders. He began to whisper to her, trying his best to soothe her tired spirit as he physically tried to pull her out of the room. Constance came through and resisted, rising to her feet but unable to escape David’s grip. As her husband urged her to go with him back to their room, Daniel swung around, his finger pointing toward her accusingly as he pushed in toward her. “I finally realized why my father liked you so much,” he snapped. “You’re loud; you’re obnoxious; and you whine when you can’t get your way. You are just like him!”

Constance pulled away from David and moved back toward Daniel. Without stopping to think, she pulled back and slapped him as hard as she possibly could. Daniel stumbled back a second but soon resumed his place in front of her. “Hmm . . . that didn’t hurt a bit,” he cackled. Constance smiled as she sent her right fist crashing into Daniel’s jaw. He immediately fell to the floor. When he looked up at her, all were able to see the trickle of blood slowly begin to ooze down from between his lips. “Get out of here before I call the police!”

Constance only grinned. She pulled away from David and ran out of the drawing room into the foyer. She moved to the side, and once out of sight, attempted to massage the numbness out of her right hand. She had not planned on hitting him; more than that, she had not planned on her small fist making such an impact. Constance knew that she should be embarrassed, but she felt nothing like that. She was not pleased, only happy to get it over. She had been waiting quite a long time to send Daniel Collins to his knees. She looked up to see David standing in front of her. He appeared to be a mixture of worried and embarrassed. “Why did you do that?” he whispered forcefully. “There were so many better ways of dealing with that situation than knocking Daniel to the ground.”

“Well, I didn’t see you coming up with any better solutions,” snapped Constance. She pulled away from David and stormed off the stairs. She knew he was following her. Part of Constance wanted to turn around and apologize to him, take the blame, and promise to control herself next time she is around Daniel; yet most of her wanted to walk on and wash away the dirt of this dreary evening. She had to check on the children, anyway. After all that had happened, she was sure that they had heard at least some of the commotion. She had to make sure that they were all right. Many years ago, Constance had vowed that her children would grow up in a virtually scream free zone. She was more than ashamed to know that she had helped permanently break that vow on this evening.

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.