Shadows of Memories Past
Wyndcliff Sanitarium 1966
Daphne smiled at the elderly gentleman sitting in the wheelchair soaking up the warm sunshine on a brisk autumn day. The glasses he wore were so think she imagined he could not look out over the wide garden's expanse to enjoy the changing colors of the maple trees. How the light danced delightfully over the pond that edged the edge of the garden's ground. The only thing he seemed to note was the singing of the birds in the carefully groomed tree lined pathway that meandered delightfully over the massive expanse of the grounds.
"Are you ready to go in Victor?" Daphne arranged the blankets around the large man's body. He had given the impression that he had been dozing in the warm sunshine, lifting his head that held a healthy set of natural thick sandy brown curls, he turned his myopic gaze to the pretty young dark haired lady and smiled.
"Hello my dear Daphne, so nice of you to come to visit me. Would you like to take a stroll in the garden, you will forgive me for not rising." He had taken her hand in his hand placing a gentle kiss on her wrist. His voice was heavily accented with a broad Germanic or Hungarian accent. Daphne was not sure what nationality her charge claimed. For the most part he was just a docile older gentleman with limited vision and some health issues in a failing body.
Daphne smiled indulgently at the older man then began to push him down the sidewalk that meandered around the garden. "It's fall Victor, and the wind is a bit brisk are you warm enough?" She spoke from behind the high back wood wheel chair that held an annoying click, click, click sound with the turn of the wheels.
"I am quite comfortable my dear, what of you? Are you dressed warmed enough?" He let that sightless gaze peer ahead and Daphne was sure his eyesight only permitted him to see outlines or colors but nothing more significant to define exactly what someone might actually appear. She knew he had used his other senses to determine more for his very astute and bright mind.
"I have my heavy sweater and will be fine, that is if you wish to stroll in the garden." She spoke so sweetly he smiled peered back to the sound of her voice and determined she was right behind him pushing his chair.
"I would be a man out of my mind if I did not enjoy the company of a very attractive young lady with such a tender and sweet voice." He had reached behind him to feel her hand now gloved resting on the handles of his chair and patted her hand. "You make an old man happy to be alive my dear."
Daphne chuckled and teased, "You may a big nosed wart faced girl happy to be your companion Victor." She gently turned her hand to clasp his hand and squeeze it gently.
"My dear Miss Harridge, you are hardly a a big nosed wart face girl. If anything you are one of those very rare finds. You are a collector's dream when it comes to searching for someone that is abundant in beauty, charm and obviously compassion. You are my dear a joy to be around." He in turn gently squeezed her hand back. "Now with the wind coming from the north, I suggest we head back inside. My joy for the day is ending too soon."
Daphne had turned his chair and guided it back through the pneumatic doors, past the reception area where she stopped briefly to sign Victor back in as a returned patient. After completing the protocol for the paper work, she guided his chair past the various low risk patients down a hallway that smelled suspiciously like urine, bleach and antiseptics. The various noises that followed the pretty nurse pushing the chair of an aristocratic looking gentlemen with limited eye sight was typical for any institution that catered to the old, infirmed or mentally disturbed.
Meds were being distributed in the recreation room, the occasional howl of a disenchanted patient was punctuated by another corresponding howl down the hallway. The food carts would be coming soon and Daphne wanted her charge comfortable in his private room before the activities of feeding began. "Victor would you like to go back out to the garden tomorrow if the weather permits?" Daphne had locked his chair, moved to stand in front of him bending down to move the lap robe aside and place his large feet on the floor.
She glanced up to see him smiling down at her bent head. Taking his gloved hand he stroked her hair, catching the plated braid to pull it forward and study its texture and color. "I bet when you let your hair down you have very beautiful hair, your eyes are so expressive my dear." He dropped her plat and cupped her delicately pointed chin in his palm. "if the weather permits I would say yes, we should make another trip outside so I can watch the sun play over her hair, and I wished you would let your hair loose so I could see the wind lift it to play it across that heart shaped face that was designed to melt a man's heart."
Daphne was caught in the moment and the tone of his voice had been so soft. She had smiled as she moved his feet to the floor and stood in front of him to offer her hands to steady his removal from the chair. "Daphne! Please call an orderly for that my dear. You will hurt yourself." Nurse Jackson had stepped in the room carrying Victor's food tray. She had frowned seeing Daphne trying to use her body to lift a man that was twice her size.
Daphne flushed. "I really don't use much of my body except to allow Victor to pull himself up Karen, really." To demonstrate Victor moved forward and up using only the minimal amount of strength to stand straight up and peer over at the middle age woman that was jealous of the younger nurse.
"Thank you my dear. I shall be fine now." Turning to Karen he nodded to her briefly and frowned deeply. "I do so enjoy your company my dear. You have no idea how much I look forward to your visits." Turning to sit on the side of his bed he turned his attention to the charge nurse standing in the doorway still holding his tray.
Daphne realized she was waiting for her to come and take his tray. Daphne made sure her charge was safely resting on the edge of his bed, turned with a bright smile to the dour faced Karen and took the tray. "Thank you Miss Jackson." She turned not seeing the dark and contemptuous look that just hit the center of Daphne's back before Karen Jackson turned and moved out of the door and from sight.
"I really do not like that woman my dear, she is rude to you and obviously very jealous." Victor watched Daphne flush with embarrassment, tucking her chin and push his tray table over to in front of him. "She resents you and may be a danger to your well-being my sweet Daphne."
Daphne kept herself busy with uncovering a big thick steak, baked potato and salad for her charge. She was amazed that he was able to have a gourmet meal delivered for his enjoyment for every meal unlike some of the other patients here who enjoyed the pureed meals served to them through a straw. Arranging his knife and fork and tucking a linen napkin into his shirt she looked up with wide innocent eyes. "I feel sorry for her Victor. She is an unhappy woman that is trapped in a job she hates and she liked to project her anger and angst onto those of us that are here to learn and help sweet people like you."
He reached for his knife and fork and holding them in a European fashion carved into the rare juicy steak. Daphne was amazed at how dexterous he had become with his prosthetic hand that looked like a wooden hand covered with a black leather glove. Regardless of his lost limb he was able to manage the fork in the tightened fingers of his fake hand while with the precision of a surgeon he could use the knife with his good hand. "She is dangerous." He remarked before putting a nice sweet piece of meat into his mouth. "You should watch yourself around her. She will bode you no good." He began to chew the meat with a drizzle of juice flowing down his chin.
Daphne smiled leaned over lifted his napkin and wiped his chin. "You know if I were a young man I would carry you off and make you a very happy and wealthy woman. You could be my queen to my empire my dearest Daphne, you give a poor old man great joy with your presence." He paused in the act of cutting another piece of meat to peer at her through those thick glasses. He watched her intently waiting for a spark of recognition to light those liquid brown eyes that only held innocence and compassion for his broken and fading body.
Daphne paused in the middle of cleaning his face., her gaze went distant. His voice was soft and seductive tone, "Daphne take my glasses off." Without realizing what she was doing, Daphne dropped the napkin lifted her fingers to his glasses and eased them off. "Look into my eyes my dear." Daphne peered into his watery faded blue eyes gazing intently to see eyes that saw more than she thought, they were not milk covered as she anticipated they should be with cataracts clouding his vision.
"Remember Daphne, in dreams and through time, remember and lead me to the one I seek. Find Quentin Collins." He watched the dawn of realization cover her features. She was remembering from the past from the darkness and shadows of a long forgotten past. "Very good Daphne, now forget. Forget until I need you to remember again." Once again he watched her eyes cloud over and the shadows covered her memories and she was now as she was before. Smiling at him and dabbing his mouth with the edge of his napkin.
"There all better now." She sat back in the chair near the bed. "Now I need to go check on my other patients but before you retire for the night, I will come and check on you." Daphne had stood moved to the door turned back and smiled at the elderly gentleman sitting on the edge of his bed enjoying his feast.
1967
Vicki sat on the edge of the sofa, she was so tired and all she wanted was to go to bed and forget this horrible day had even happened. Sitting next to her pressing his leg to her leg was Barnabas. He studied her bent hand, her back curved over and her hands clasped together in front of her. He was not particularly fond of her mode of dress; it seemed to degrade her statues by wearing such garb. "Perhaps you should retire my dear. You look exhausted. I regret we shall not spend this night together but somehow I feel your rest is far more important than my own needs or desires to share the night with you."
Vicki shook her head. "No I promised Mrs. Stoddard I would wait for her and Sheriff Patterson before I retired." She leaned back folding her arms over her chest, resting her head against the back of the sofa. "Barnabas, you took a really hard hit, are you sure you are ok?" She rolled her head to the side to look at the man that had become her everything in her life. She knew there was something weighing on his mind. He had been so quiet since their arrival.
He leaned back and slumped down next to her to be on the same level as she was. He rolled his head to peer into her concern filled gaze. "I am fine my dear. There was a concussion and I shall be up for a while, but I am perfectly fine." He smiled lifted his hand to brush her hair back from her face and cup her chin with the gentleness of his caress. "My concern was for you. I have decided my dear; I do not wish to wait much longer for our marriage. I was thinking of a summer wedding. Perhaps we could have it in the garden of Collinwood."
Vicki sighed and smiled, "I saw us having a Christmas wedding." She said wistfully. Sliding her gaze to his she moved her cheek against his caress. "But if you wish to have a summer wedding I will be happy to see if we can plan it for summer. She shuddered at the wailing of the wind that was still batting ice rocks at the glass panes of the windows to the drawing room.
"You saw what happens in the winter here and especially around Christmas my dear. If we wished to have a more formal wedding with attendees we could not expect them to travel in weather like this." He nodded to the window.
"No I suppose not. I just thought it would be pretty with all the colorful lights and a blanket of white snow covering the ground as a perfect backdrop to our wedding. But I could also see the garden full of roses and being serenaded by a cacophony of blue jays, whippoorwills and morning doves happily enjoying the nice weather." Vicki could see the grass green and lush, the gardens full of flowers and the heady scent of their fragrance accenting their wedding. "I was going to ask Carolyn, Julia, Maggie and Amy to be a part of the bridal party. I suppose I could ask Roger to give me away."
Vicki's voice had grown soft with her thoughts and they were beginning to jumble together with her thoughts about her impending wedding coming up in six months time. "I need a wedding gown. We need to make out a guest list and I suppose we should think about where you want to go for our honeymoon." She smiled and flushed at the thought of consummating her marriage with this man at her side.
Hearing the door to the foyer open, she sat up and glanced tiredly to the double doors that now stood open and allowed a rush of cold wind and dampness to follow whomever had entered the foyer. Hearing their voices Vicki sighed, it was Sheriff Patterson and Mrs. Stoddard. They more than likely had a more difficult time making their way home.
Quentin had been more adept and helpful with his skills navigating the treacherous roads home. They had only narrowly missed on nasty slid off but Quentin's quick reflexes had made sure they kept to the roadway. Vicki was more exhausted from the drive home than from her ordeal with the whack-a-doddle Elias . Although it had been trying and she was going to be sore for a week from all the bruises he had inflicted on her poor battered body, she was a lot more mentally accepting of what happened than the other poor girls who were still suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
She had over heard some nurses speaking about two of the girls wanting to defend Elias for what he had done and they had called them victims of Stockholm syndrome. This was horrifying to think they would willingly submit to his baser needs and desires and then defend what he had done. She had seen what he was capable of in that room that held those dead women's bodies. She shuddered to think what perverse acts he had used on their bodies.
Folding her arms over her chest she waited for Mrs. Stoddard and Sheriff Patterson to enter the room. Vicki was not sure what was going to happen but that little sixth sense she had always depended on her innate feelings to bring her through more horrific experiences than this one had presented. At least in this one experience she had more control over what was happening until he pulled the life force sucking card on her.
Elizabeth Collins Stoddard breezed into the room with red cheeks and looking chilled to the bone from the ice storm that was encasing the whole of Collinsport in its icy grip. George Patterson followed behind her at a slower more sedate pace. Both of them moved to the fireplace to warm their chilled bodies and look at the girl sitting tiredly on the sofa.
"Good, you waited up for us. Vicki, there is something that George and I both need to tell you." Elizabeth was becoming agitated and looked to George for support. Vicki had known that Elizabeth was very much attached to George Patterson; he was up here at a drop of a hat at her beck and call when she needed help.
Vicki had caught him looking with longing at Mrs. Stoddard and had long suspected that George Patterson had a crush on her employer. This was confirmed when she noted that George's hand snaked out to take Elizabeth's hand in his and turn his very serious and very worried gaze on the young woman sitting on the sofa. He had always thought she looked a lot like Elizabeth had at that tender age when he was head over heels in love with her and they had found comfort and love in each other's arms so long ago.
"Vicki, what Liz is trying to tell you and what I just found out tonight is that you are . . . "
"No George let me, this is what I needed to have done a long time ago." Elizabeth Collins Stoddard took a deep breath and Vicki's stomach tightened up. This was serious or they would have come right out and said what needed to be said.
"Vicki, twenty-four years ago, George and I were lovers. We were young and in love and we found ourselves trapped during one of those famous storms in the fishing shack by the beach. It was summer and we were planning our lives with each other. We wanted to become engaged but my father was very strict and would not permit me to even consider tying myself down with anyone until I finished college."
George cleared his throat and nodded, "My father was pretty much at the mercy of Mr. Collins and he had warned me to stay away from the daughter of Collinwood. But neither of us could stay away we were young and rebellious." He looked apologetically to Elizabeth.
Barnabas knew what was about to be divulged so he had reached for Vicki's hand clutching it close to his leg he waited and watched Vicki for any sign that she knew what was about to be told. Not seeing anything but dread and confusion at being the recipient of these two star crossed lover's story she was waiting for them to continue.
Elizabeth leaned into George taking strength from his body and support from him emotionally. "Summer ended and George went away to college and I discovered on the eve of my departure for Finishing School in Paris, that I was pregnant. I was scared to death over what my father might do if he found out that George was the father of my child. So, I made some very elaborate plans with the help of our family butler Hanscombe at the time, he found an unwed mother's home and under the guise of being his sister and her name I was sent off to this home."
Vicki could hear the emotional filled voice of Mrs. Stoddard. "My father thought I was going to Paris and we even arranged for Hanscombe's sister to take my place in Paris, while I was pretending to be her in New York." Liz's voice choked with her emotions. "I was going to let George know I was pregnant with his child and when I called his house to get the phone number of his dorm, his mother told me George was engaged to be married and that unknown young girls should leave him alone."
George cleared his throat. "My mother had emotional issues and she thought she was protecting me from one of my old girlfriends that had been harassing me for a couple of years. She thought by telling this story that it would discourage Rachel from pursuing her interests in me, she did not know it was Liz on the phone."
Liz had tears in her eyes and began to sniff lightly. George handed her a clean kerchief and put an arm around her shoulder. "I was of course devastated by the news that George was engaged after our brief affair so I spent the rest of my pregnancy waiting for the birth of our child." Liz felt her body begin to tremble. "I had a baby girl. I knew I could not keep her so I placed on the doorstep of a foundling home with a note."
Vicki's eyes widened she sat bolt upright and said, "Her name is Victoria, I cannot take care of her." Vicki stood up looked at Mrs. Stoddard who looked at her with such a longing and a need for acceptance for what she had done and a plea in her gaze that sought forgiveness. Liz nodded when Vicki had spoken the words that were indelibly burned into her memory.
Vicki was feeling a rush of so many emotions that the range was off the scale. She now knew who her parents were and why she was put up for adoption but was never adopted. She had figured she was a war baby abandoned by an unwed mother that would never be able to be with the man that had made her because he was either married or had died in the war.
Elizabeth was not one to stand on ceremony but also not ready to rush forward and drag her into an embrace that may not be welcomed. "Please Vicki say something. Just don't say you hate me." Elizabeth felt the warmth of George's hug as he gaze held Vicki's tragic looking figure.
"I don't hate you, either of you. I just feel numb and hurt. I am not sure how I feel. I just. . . " She needed time to think this through and she needed to process what she had just learned. It was rushing over her with such intensity that she turned peered at Barnabas then moved out of the room, grabbing her coat she slid it on and opened the door heading out into the cold dark night that embraced her with its icy cloying clutch. Her mind was not wanting to function, her feelings were starting to feel very much like her body, cold and ice encrusted.
Moving with no set direction of where she wanted to go, she moved forward to the woods and into the darkening shadows of the trees. She felt they mocked her with every step she took. Moving along lost in her own thoughts of feeling betrayed, hurt and angry, she paused to look up through the ice encrusted branches that bowed under the weight of the burden they carried. Her newfound senses she had alerted her to the cracking sound.
With the wind whipping and the ice hitting the trees she was not alert to the threat that was so obvious to her tortured senses. She glanced up at the loud crack and saw the limb plummeting towards her. She stood waiting for it to impale her when she felt her body knocked aside and she landed hard on the ice covered ground.
