Subj: Absolute Power, Part 1
Date: 12/9/98 9:29:52 PM Central Standard Time
From: Whitey Pale

Chapter 1 -- Carolyn Collins

The wind swished through the dead branches outside the great manor house, rattling them to and fro, up and down, moving them about like a blind man's fingers grasping at an object for support. The brisk chill of a New England November had descended on the house, challenging the new heating system that Willie Loomis had recently installed. The leaves were long gone from the trees, raked up and bagged by the dilligent servants of the masters of the Great House of Collinwood.

Oblivious to the commotion of the wind behind her, shielded by the thick window in her bedroom, Danielle Collins was absorbed in her own reflection as she brushed her long blond hair. She was so preoccupied that, at first, she failed to notice the brooding figure staring at her from the doorway. . .

"She looks so much like me," Carolyn Collins thought as she watched her daughter carefully stroke the strands, trying to avoid unsightly split ends. Carolyn still could not believe that her only child would be getting married in just three weeks. Only yesterday, she thought, she herself was as young and carefree as her daughter, who had been a noted party animal at school. Carolyn considered how she had changed from all of the trials and tragedies of her early 20s: her mother's near-marriage to Jason McGuire; her discovery that her mother had believed for 18 years that she had killed her father; the unexpected return of her father and his apparent mental illness that played a part
in his mysterious death; and, finally, her early widowhood just days after marrying the man she loved, Jeb Hawkes.

Carolyn had gone into a depression following Jeb's death. Her mother, Elizabeth, and her Uncle Roger had tried to encourage her to put the tragedy behind her as she had a long life ahead of her. But Carolyn knew then that she could never marry or fall in love. Much to the consternation of her Mother and Uncle, she would gravely remark that the Collins curse would doom any man who would be foolish enough to have her. Not even Cousin Barnabas's charms and persuasion had been able to shake Carolyn's deep meloncholy.

She had wanted to join a convent and become a nun. But her family won out there. Instead, Carolyn decided to go to nursing school so that she could help heal the sick and provide solace to other troubled souls.

She was at home one summer day in 1973 when there was a knock at the heavy, oaken front door of the Great House. Not one to stand on ceremony, Carolyn answered the door herself, as she had been in the drawing room. When she opened the door and saw the large muscled figure at the entranceway, all of her breath left her in shock. "YOU!" she gasped.

"Please Carolyn, don't be frightened. I'm not here to harm you, believe me. I just wanted to stop by and say hello and see how you were doing."

The voice was gentler, softer, than Carolyn had remembered it. His face had none of the tortured anger or bewilderment as it had before. He was dressed in an immaculately tailored gray suit with a maroon tie, as opposed to the dark green turtleneck which he always used to wear. He no longer had the unbearably strong stench of body odor, but the pleasant scent of Polo cologne. Carolyn, registering these changes, narrowed her eyes and responded warily, "Adam? Is that you?"

"Yes, Carolyn, it is me," Adam replied. "I wasn't going to come, but when I asked about you at the cannery, they said that you were widowed and I wanted to extend my condolences."

Carolyn started to thank him, but then, puzzled by another incongruity, replied, "The cannery?"

Adam blushed. "Yes, I just started working there today. I'm assisting the manager."

Carolyn's eyes widened. "B-but how?"

Adam lowered his head. "I know that you don't trust me and I can't say that I blame you after the way I treated you in the past. But if you let me come in, I can explain why things are so much different now."

Carolyn could definitely sense a significant change from the man, who, just five years earlier, had been romantically obsessed with her and kidnapped her. She invited Adam into the drawing room. There he explained that, with the help of Professor Stokes, he had moved to Boston, received a degree at Beantown Community College in Business Administration, had worked part-time as a security guard and had interviewed for the assistant manager's position at the Collins cannery.

Adam explained that Professor Stokes had strongly opposed his return to Collinsport, to say nothing of his interviewing at the cannery. Adam also told Carolyn that he never intended to come anywhere near the house, but did ask about her and found out about her tragedy. Leaning forward unconfortably on the crimson sofa in the drawing room, his huge fingers interlocked with themselves resting heavily on his broad legs, Adam concluded, "I'm sorry that I made you nervous. I promise that I will never come up here again." He paused. "In fact, if it will make things easier for you, I'll quit my job at the cannery today and leave town immediately."

"No!" Carolyn blurted, then smiled an embarrassed grin, "I mean, I'm very happy that you've been able to get your life together. Of course, you don't have to leave town." She paused and continued, "And feel free to stop by anytime to say hello if you want."

Adam shook his head and got up. "No. I know you have too many bad memories of the past. A relationship is built on trust, and I forfeited your trust long ago. I really have to be getting back to work now. I'm glad that you're well."

Carolyn had let Adam go that day. But after he had left the Great House, she began thinking about how much Adam had changed--his speech, his personality, his manner. Adam was far removed from the feral child-like creature who had held her captive. In the ensuing months, Carolyn heard her Uncle Roger talk about how industrious and earnes the new assistant manager was. Carolyn was shocked to find out one day from her Uncle Roger that Adam was going by the last name "Collins." Roger would quip that Adam's most valuable asset to the company was that, because of his last name, he made the family look good through his hard work. At first appalled, Carolyn was quickly amused that, for all his new refinement, Adam was still guileless enough to choose a high profile last name that surely did not endear him to the other employees at the cannery.

As Adam gained more responsibility at the cannery, he would occasionally have to come to the Great Mansion. Carolyn found herself trying to discover when Adam would be there. When she was successful, she always found that Adam was reluctant to be there and very nervous. One time, she collared him and asked him why he was so nervous. After he replied it was because he knew that his presence upset her, Carolyn, in her first impetuous move in years, invited him out on a date.

One thing led to another and, by late 1975, they were engaged. The family was thrilled, as by that time, Adam had risen to Bill Molloy's old position. Her mother remarked that, back in the mid 1960s, she had always wanted Carolyn to marry Joe Haskell, who she had always anticipated would one day take over Molloy's position. Now, she had remarked, Carolyn was marrying someone who was, in Elizabeth's words, "a carbon copy" of Joe.

The only family member who was disturbed by the turn of events was Barnabas. He and Julia had spent much of the previous four years traveling together around the world, "living in sin" as Carolyn always teased them. Carolyn knew that Barnabas and Julia had known Adam as he was before and tried mightily to convince them that he was changed. But after awhile, and after speaking with Adam at length, they were won over as well. In fact, Adam convinced Barnabas to be his best man.

But the marriage was not idyllic. While things went well for Adam at work, sexually things were less satisfying. Carolyn was surprised that such a virile looking man could be so impotent. Carolyn soldiered on because Adam truly loved her and showered her with affection. But Carolyn did so want to have children and this seemed a distant dream.

Complicating matters was the fact that Adam, gentle as he had become, was adamant to the point of fury in refusing to see a doctor. At first, Carolyn thought that it was stubborn manly pride, but then realized that it was something much more ingrained than that--even, she curiously thought, a fear of some sort. At one point Adam blurted out that he had become a Christian Scientist during his time in Boston, but Carolyn found this less than convincing.

One night, Carolyn, in tears, said that she wanted to help him and work through the problem together, but that if he was unwilling to do so, she would have to leave him. At that point, Adam agreed to seek medical help, but only if Julia Hoffman was involved. Carolyn found this exasperating, since infertility was not one of Julia's specialties, but agreed.

It turned out that Adam was totally sterile. The doctors could not understand why. In fact, they remarked that, in general, Adam had the strangest metabolism they had ever seen. It was, they said, as if he were several different people in one. Resigned, Adam and Carolyn decided to adopt. Using the foundling home in New York from which Victoria Winters had come over a decade earlier, and which now bore Carolyn's mother's name thanks to Elizabeth Stoddard's lavish monetary gifts, Adam and Carolyn adopted a new born girl. They decided to name her Danielle, after one of the Collins ancestors, Daniel Collins.

Danielle had been a happy child and, while adopted, almost seemed to be the spitting image of her adopted mother. Danielle was impulsive, independent, somewhat wild and kept her blonde hair long and straight as Carolyn had done at her age. Elizabeth Stoddard used to tease Carolyn about how, in frustration she used to tell Carolyn when she annoyed her about how "she hoped that one day she had a child like her." And now Elizabeth was having the last laugh as Carolyn would often have to scold, wait up for, lecture and put up with lip from her own daughter.

And Carolyn had to do it too, as the men of the house, Adam, Roger and Willie Loomis (who was now the caretaker of the estate) spoiled Danielle terribly, just as Carolyn had been spoiled when she was a girl.

But Danielle differed from her adoptive mother in one significant way. Unlike Carolyn, who had sought dangerous or unsuitable men in her youth, Danielle had better sensibiities. When Frank Garner III, a young real estate attorney and grandson of Elizabth Stoddard's longtime attorney came to the mansion, he was immediately stricken with the precocious Danielle, although she was six years his junior. Frank was sober, conservative but loyal like his family, however Danielle's exhuberant love of life attracted him. Danielle, in turn, even at the tender age of 20, seemed to long for an older, more stable man to take care of her. So much to Carolyn's surprise, when Frank proposed to Danielle after only six months of dating, she enthusiastically said yes.

Now suddenly Carolyn had to deal with thoughts of being a mother-in-law, and, perhaps soon, a grandmother. But she did not have much time to brood on those life transitions yet. There were so many wedding preparations to be made, including a huge engagement party to be held at the Great House in just three days time.

"Mom? Is anything wrong?"

Carolyn was startled out of her reverie to notice that her daughter's focus had left her golden tresses and that Danielle's penetrating blue eyes were now firmly locked onto her mother's pensive expression.

Carolyn smiled and kneeled over to kiss Danielle's cheek. "No darling. I was just thinking about all of the things that need to be done for this party that you keep insisting on."

Danielle curdled her lips into a frown. "You know, Mom, when I was in high school you used to always bitch about me being irresponsible. Now here I am doing the responsible thing and marrying a handsome, young, well-thought of, up-and-coming lawyer, from a family that you've known for years, and you're STILL not satisfied!"

Carolyn knelt over and locked her arms around her daughter's shoulders and hugged her. "You know that I'll only be satisfied if you escape the family curse and be happy."

Danielle stiffened. "Now Mom, will you cut this curse crap? Sometimes, I honestly think that you think that we live in a horror movie. I've never seen or heard anything strange in all the years I've lived here."

Carolyn thought, "That's true. It has been years since anything terrifying or unexplainable has happened here. Perhaps Danielle is a good luck charm for the Collins family." But rather than express this, she said, "Never mind. What I came up here to tell you is that Grandma wants to see you in her room. She says that she has a special present for you."