Chapter 2
Buffy crumpled the letter. Vicky apologized to her. For giving her the job of running the school. That she had dumped it all on her lap, in her hurry to leave Collinsport...
So Vicky had never believed her capable of running the place.
Yes. She could do several jobs there. She could teach. She could run errands. But the big job, it was not for her...
Vicky had never believed in her... For her Buffy was just a housekeeper. A housewife with some free time,. but never competent enough to make the big decisions...
She was nothing... less than nothing...
"Anything wrong?" Frank saw her, how despondent she was.
"I hope you are glad. Vicky says that I am not good enough to run the school by myself. She agrees with you and everyone else."
"And this hurts you?" He knew that he had to tread carefully around her. Say the wrong thing...
"I thought that I could..."
"Few people could do it. I know that I could not..." he sighed. "I know. Do you know how many times I was passed up for promotion, myself? How I struggled to get that promotion and never got it? Of course, there were office politics, and all that... It took me a while to accept the truth."
'What truth.?
"That I did not have what it takes to be a supervisor or a manager. That I was best on the field,... Eventually I accepted it, but it hurt to come to terms with it."
"It is not the same thing."
He sighed. :Well, so there are some things you are not good at. Some things you are good at."
"Yeah. Running errands, doing odd jobs, teaching a few classes,... I wanted more."
Frank sighed. He sensed that the less he said now, the better.
But he'd better talk to Megan, who could explain it better. Buffy had to come to accept what she could do and could not do...
It felt badly, the way she had had to answer David., Amy thought. Even if it was the only sensible thing to do, still the hurt he had felt rankled her.
If only there was a way to let him know, a way to tell him not to give up hope.
But hope, such as she could offer, was a fragile things. And the wrong move could shatter it.
Far,, far better to be cautious.
She curled up in her cot, ostensibly to sleep, but in reality shuffling the cards in her mind again.
The cards came, huge and imposing as they had become since her eyes had been burned away. And one card stood out.
Justice, holding the scales and the sword.
That was her card. Like Justice, she was blind. And like Justice she was armed, and ready to use her weapon.
The card had become a door, and she visualized herself walking towards it, opening it, entering...
Willie heard the knock at the door. He did not get up. He tried to tell himself that it was a dream, and that it would go away. But it did not. It insisted, more and more strongly.
In the end, he had to get up and see what it was.
His father stood in front of him.
"You!" Willie shouted at him. "What do you want this time? Will you ever get out of my life?"
But his father gestured and Willie was struck speechless. And the next time that his father gestured, Willie knew that he had to follow him.
They were now in a large corridor, shrouded in mist, and there was a door at the end of it.
"No!" Willie recovered his voice in his fear. "I know what this is! This is the Dream Curse, again!"
He went through the door, helpless to prevent it. His father stayed behind, and the door closed behind him.
He was not alone. There was a figure seated at the table. A woman.
It was Amy, shuffling the cards.
"Have you brought the card? The card that your father gave you?"
"Card...?" But indeed, his father had pressed something on his hand as he had gone through the door, and he had taken it.
"I... I have a card."
"Show it to me."
Willie turned up the card on the table."
"The Fool." Amy said. "This is your card. Do you know why this is your card, Willie Loomis?"
"Because..." he stopped "Amy... you are Amy... what happened to you? Is that you, for real? Did you escape?"
"No time for your questions now. Just tell me why this is your card." And this time her tone admitted no argument. Willie swallowed and answered the best he could.
"I guess because I have been a fool lately."
"Indeed you have been. You have disregarded warnings that you should have heeded."
"My father..."
"You should have listened to him. He would have guided you to our enemy."
Willie gulped again. "I have been a fool on this thing from the start. It was I who pushed Louella so that she fell under Laura's power, and now I was too scared that it would happen again that I could not think straight."
"Yes, Willie Loomis. Your folly was great. But there is a remedy for it, if you wish it."
"I wish it."
"There will be two things for you to do. One is a task that can be performed only when you awaken, not immediately, but it must be done. And for then other, you must take another card, the one who will follow the Fool, which is only the first rung of the ladder."
Willie extended his hand to the deck, but Amy stopped him. "I must tell you of your task. You must not fear it. The spread which I will build to conquer the Sun is under the Sign of Justice. Though it takes the outward form of a curse, still it is a good an needful thing. So, give yourself joyfully to your task, which is this. You will build a five pointed star out of wood. You will build it alone, at night, under the light of the moon, and with no other. And seven days from now it should be finished."
"I will do so."
"Choose now your card, Willie."
Willie pulled out a card.
"The Hierophant." Amy said "You must bring him to me, as your father brought you."
"But who is it? And how?"
"You shall know who it is, and how to enter his dreams."
"But..."
"Go back now. And do as you promised."
Hell, that was no answer. How was he supposed to know what the Hierophant meant? What if he chose wrong? Why couldn't she explain it better? Then, if he screwed up, it would be all her fault...
He woke up. The moon shone through the window, and he could feel its rays over him, like cool fingers.
He had promised... He was to help build a ladder to reach into the Sun...
It was a very pretty, very winning baby. Barnabas held her in his arms, a bit scared, since she looked so small and fragile.
And he knew that George was not too wiling to have him hold her.
That was not the only change that would come between him and George. Like it or not, George was not free anymore to do as he wished. They bond that he had with his daughter was stronger than the bond he had with Barnabas. And Barnabas had to understand it... After all, Barnabas was an adult who could shift by himself, while Georgina was wholly dependent upon his father...
But understanding did not take away the hurt.
"I never believed I would have a child of my own." George said, half apologetic.
Barnabas knew what that meant... That George was not sure that he wanted a vampire around her, even if it was him. Even if there was love between them. Even if he thought that Barnabas could be trusted...
"I envy you, George. I did have children, too, but I did not care for them, since they were just...bastards... Maybe I don't deserve to hold her now, since I abandoned my own children...
"Barnabas...George stared at him, gathering his courage. To tell him what? That he was welcome anytime to be Uncle Barnabas to the little girl? Or that it was better that he kept his distance?
Barnabas got up. "Don't make any comments to which you may be bound later."
"I didn't mean..."
"Of course, you did." Barnabas handed the baby back to George. "It is something that we have to deal with."
And he vanished.