Josette Reborn
By: Lovely girl 10
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the added in text that the movie didn't provide.
If you people had seen the deleted scene where Carolyn tells Victoria about what Barnabas said about her 'birthing hips', I will do my best to expand it in detail. And just so that you know, for those of you who thought about if the deleted scene should have stayed in the movie or not, I think Victoria is still the innocent girl we all know and love.
Enjoy reading!
Chapter 4- The Reconstruction
Throughout the first three weeks at Collinwood there was thousands of workers who were in the mansion cleaning up the place from head to toe. And once they started working on one end to the next, the rooms seemed to be livelier than before. Elizabeth and Barnabas III had decided to clean up the mansion before they thought about going onto the factory. It was all Barnabas' idea in refreshing the place. I didn't know how they found all of the workers, but they managed to convince them to help out in cleaning up the place.
The tiles were polished to the brim. The mural paintings were being brought back to life. The furniture was dusted from head to toe. Everything was getting a makeover. I almost wanted to faint in amazement at the sheer expenses this must have taken to remodel the building. Elizabeth reassures me that we don't have to worry about getting back on top of the world.
David and I had to move into the drawing room in order to stay out of the construction workers ways as they painted on the walls, moved the furniture, and enhanced a lot of things in the mansion. It was a bit tedious at times to tutor David amid the chaos outside of the house, but we managed to get him set up with his writing lessons and reading lessons. The arithmetic problems were a bit of a problem, but with my helpful guidance, David was beginning to actually really like it. There were at times when he was distracted by the home makeover that he wanted to help out the family in getting the house back together.
I peeked out the window in the drawing room while David was writing his report to see Willie outside cleaning up the yellow car and Ms. Johnson was on the lawn mower cutting the grass as she sat in the seat of the lawn mower. Elizabeth had moved to her spare office room when the construction workers had to clean up her first office. Carolyn and Roger did their best to stay out of the way. Next I went over to the hallway for a moment to see what was going on at the grand staircase to see Barnabas III looking on at his newest creation he was doing for the house.
On the next day as the construction workers got finished on the house, Elizabeth decided that we should go take a look at the factory as the Collins family got themselves ready for the day. We were all ready to go outside and get into the Chevy. Carolyn and David fought for a bit on who gets to sit in the front passenger seat and Roger and Willie got themselves in the back seats, waiting for the arguing to subside. Elizabeth left Ms. Johnson in charge of the house while we are gone. Dr. Hoffman was hungover again and she told Elizabeth that she would like to remain at the house to cool it off. However, I did notice that when we crossed into the sunlight with our black clothing on, Barnabas III stayed put where he was at the door.
By telling David to wait for me at the car, I went back to Elizabeth to see what the matter was. "Barnabas, aren't you coming to see the factory?" Elizabeth asked in concerned.
He looked at us, hesitant as he didn't dare move a muscle. "I can't go out into the sun… I will burn if I go out." He simply stated as he stared at the sunlight on the floor. I can almost feel the same thing in his shoes. I remember a long time ago I was scared of the dark when I was in my room alone in the night.
I heard Roger scoffing and calling out from the car, "You won't get burned Barnabas! Just step outside!"
Barnabas turned his attention to Roger, clearly intending to not go outside. "I am serious; I will burn if I step out!"
I quickly gave a glance to Elizabeth, telling her. "I'll take care of him and I will get him out here. Just give me a minute." Elizabeth seemed relieved that I would take some of the load off her shoulders in taking care of our new family member. I moved up to the door and gently shut the door behind me. I immediately moved toward the coat closet and looked through them to find a huge black coat, hat, and sunglasses. I gently closed the door, carrying the necessary items for Barnabas. He looked at the pile I have for him and he cocked an eyebrow in confusion.
"What on earth are those?" He asked, obviously wondering what I was carrying as I placed them on him one at a time. The hat was the first to cover his head as it gave him some shade, same with the coat as it covered his body, and as I placed the sunglasses right by his eyes, he cocked his head, clearly shell-shocked, "Why has the room suddenly turned dark?"
I softly laughed, "That is what the sunglasses are for, Barnabas. They will protect your eyes, whereas the coat and hat will protect your head and your body." My hands moved toward the black umbrella that was hanging on the side of the closet and opened the door leading to the front yard once more. "You can also use this…," I gestured to the umbrella and allowed his hands to grab it. "…to protect yourself from the sun if it bothers you."
He was about ready to open up the umbrella inside of the house, but I quickly refrained him from doing so. I explained, "Opening an umbrella in the house is an invitation for bad luck."
"Ha! Superstitious nonsense!" He commented with a huff, giving me a quirky smile. I do my best to hide the blush on my face. He is pretty intelligent as an admirer for me, always giving me compliments or just trying to tease me on certain things. At least, I think he is doing that just to make himself comfortable with his new surroundings. I walked outside and watched as Barnabas pulled the umbrella out and allowed it to cover his whole body in the shade. As he stepped out of the door and into the sunlight, with the umbrella over his head, he looked around as if he was waiting for the sun to burn him. Realizing that he was safe under the umbrella, Barnabas III sighed in relief while still grasping onto the new weapon that saved his life.
"Let's go see the factory, shall we?" He turned to Elizabeth before she leads the way to where their business building was in the town. Before we all got into the yellow car one by one I heard Barnabas calling out to me in a whisper. "Thank you Victoria." I blushed and look away as he softly smiled at me, "Your welcome."
The drive through the town was quick as we stood by the doors of the abandoned workplace where we would get the Collins Family business afloat again. Once Barnabas and Elizabeth opens the doors to a very grizzly scene. Utterly hideous is an understatement on the inside of the building. Some parts of the wood are broken and feeble like they are fragile as glass, numerous mice and birds inhabited the place as they cooed and squeaked in response at our overwhelming presence. I almost wanted to puke at the sight, but I had to keep my cool.
"Okay," Elizabeth started. "Once we clean up this place, we will be back on track with our business." The clean-up went on for more than four hours as we dusted, mopped, and chased out the mice and birds with the brooms to get them out of the place. In a few days, as how Elizabeth planned, we will work on redecorating the business workplace as soon as the house is done.
David and I decided to team up and dust the place from head to toe. Carolyn provided us the music in the gloomy place as she did some sweeping while Roger was the only one to complain about the work he was doing only to hush up when Elizabeth got after him as he was cleaning up the windows. Elizabeth helped out Barnabas with moving some of the furniture. And Willie was stuck with the job of getting us some garbage cans to collect the majority of the dust and get me and David some water to soak up our dust rags. He didn't look like he minded at all doing that job. Eventually as we were only about halfway to cleaning up the mess, Barnabas told me and David to take a break and step outside for a while to get some fresh air. Once we got outside, we saw a huge gathering of construction workers that were ready to take over where we left off. For the rest of the afternoon, David, Carolyn, and I were standing on the sidelines as we watched the workers clean up the rest of the mess. Barnabas went outside with Elizabeth and was surveying the blueprints on the building with her until he spotted Angel Bay in the distance right across from him. He left Elizabeth to discuss her plans with another worker as he watches the building that caught his attention.
I got concerned for him as I remember how incredibly hostile the woman Angie was to me when I first encountered her in the hallway, so I cautiously walked up and stood beside him. Now that I think about it, I wasn't sure why at the moment when I first saw Angie I became bold and determined to protect Barnabas. I am usually cautious around strangers and the people who would seek to harm me, but I would never be that bold to go up against them. "Are you worried about competing with Angie?" I ask him carefully.
He shook his head. "I wouldn't worry at all. I have beaten her before, and I can certainly do it again if necessary."
"Well if you are sure, I will do my best not to worry." I sigh as I silently remain by his side for a few minutes. I wince in pain a bit from my sore back. How in the world was Angie that strong to render me helpless? She probably went to the gym quite often.
Barnabas immediately saw the discomfort I was trying to quietly quell by myself as he asks me in concern. "Are you alright Victoria?"
"Yeah." I grit my teeth and bite back a jolt of pain in my back. "I'm alright. I probably slept on the wrong side of the bed." Inside my mind I felt horrible in telling this little white lie to him, but I am too busy in fighting back against the pain. I could handle bolts of electricity, a sore back will be no big deal.
"You should let your back recover by resting on the bench with Master David." Barnabas told me. "I can't have a member of this family be injured in the process of rebuilding Collinwood and the family business." I could feel his left hand caressing my back in a effort to calm my nerves. I don't know why but when he stopped doing it and shooed me back to David, my heart felt like it didn't want his touch to go away.
We stayed at the building as it is being fixed up until nightfall and we were forced to go back to the house and restore our energy for the next morning.
XXXXX
The next day came by and I was outside watching David right by the beach reading a new book I had found in the library called "Love Story". Our next lesson was to focus on David's physical attributes and get him some exercise outside of the mansion. I gazed back and forth from the book to David and back again, the story looked pretty interesting once I got to the more exciting parts of the story. From time to time, I just kept one of my fingers inside of the book as I watched David, who was playing in the water calling "Come and get me Mom!" I laughed softly to myself as I wondered what was going through his head.
"What are you reading, if I may ask?" Barnabas' voice asked right behind me as I jumped in surprise and turned to see him looking down on me, giving a small smile like usual as if he was pleased to see me. His umbrella was providing us some shade until he sat down beside me to close it.
I shuddered from shock. "I never heard you coming right by me..." I took a deep breath to calm myself. Does he like to scare people by sneaking around the place? I had recently heard from Elizabeth that he might have been in the mood to scare people since he tried to catch Ms. Johnson off guard by fitting into the shelf where the towels were, the old woman didn't seemed to be fazed by it. Another story from Elizabeth was that he managed to hang upside-down on the curtains right by the bed without any troubles, so I thought that he must have learned how to be flexible when it comes to exercising his body. I thought for a moment to join him on hanging upside down on the side of the bed, but I decided against it seeing that it would not be proper for a woman my age.
He chuckled. "I sometimes like to surprise people." He leans over to examine the book in my hands. "What 'Love Story' is the book talking about?"
I looked at him, bewildered by how he is going to handle reading something that is completely unknown to him. I took a breath and explained, "It is a tale of two college students who love each other and their love enables them to overcome the challenges they encounter in life." He gingerly took the book from my hands and begins reading it.
He started right at the beginning and became engrossed in the writing style. He didn't seem to find the books sense of humor funny at first, but after looking back into it he managed to chuckle at those parts. He even frowned sadly at the parts that were tragic. As he continued reading out loud, I leaned my head to rest upon his shoulder, listening to his words. Somehow, he didn't mind when my head was resting next to him.
XXXXX
The next day was when the workplace was complete and ready to open to the public. The Collins family went to spread the news that they are back in business in order to show that Angie is not the top dog at Collinsport anymore. I had to stay behind at the mansion along with Ms. Johnson while the rest of the group was in the town. Barnabas remained on the sidelines while he was watching Elizabeth bask in the spotlight, his work on helping restore the family business was complete.
As soon as the family returned to get back on track of the mansion, I asked them if I could go to the library to research a few things. David offered to escort me since he was about to go over there anyway to research about his family tree. Once we arrived at the library, David immediately helped me out in finding a book about the Collins family tree. I looked over to where the pages that described the ghost that haunted me in my childhood.
"Josette DuPres was the only daughter of the famous family that was close friends of the Collins family." I read. "When she was at the coming age to be given away to marriage, she was at first hesitant because she didn't know if the Collins' remaining heir would be friendly and kind to her. She was very active in her father's fishing business. Despite her love for her families fishing business, she was considered by others to be the black sheep from the girls because they liked to concern themselves with dancing, gossiping, and getting hitched with a man early in their lives. When the time came for the young woman to be engaged to the heir of the Collins family, Josette became worried if her husband would restrain her on controlling the family business. Barnabas Collins allowed her to keep control of the business, seeing how she made it more prosperous for the people of Collinwood. When she first encountered the heir of the family, she felt immediate relief when he began to treat her like she was his queen. She began to fall in love with him as if he was her most precious memory that she didn't want to part with.
However, little did she know that she was igniting the Witch's wrath after when she and Barnabas shared their first kiss. One night, Josette suddenly had the urge to go outside and get some fresh air, not knowing that she was being cursed by the Witch to jump off of Widow's Hill. Some of her relatives thought that she committed suicide because she was unhappy about the upcoming marriage and that she never loved the Collins heir in the first place, while her soon-to-be husband said that she was cursed by the very woman who was deeply jealous of Josette because she got to be with him and that she didn't.
"Help me." was her last words before her life ended on that very cliff where her corpse was put to rest. Nobody knew of what happened to her fiance after her death, except that he was rumored to have disappeared from his home. Heartbroken over the loss of his beloved, Barnabas attempted to throw himself off of the cliff, tragically to no avail. After realizing that his attempted death failed, he disappeared from the house, leaving no sign that he was alive or not."
I closed the book, shocked to know of the terrible fate that claimed the woman who haunted me. However, it still made me wonder about how to help the ghost pass onto the afterlife peacefully. Could her murderer be still alive? I shook my head at that thought because I knew better about that question... Her murderer might have died a long time ago. That left me with one other possibility; Josette's ghost might be stuck in between like how other ghosts do when they can't leave the one thing they hold dear to their hearts.
So that meant I am probably not going to get her to leave me in peace if she is allowed to continue.
I didn't notice that night came to the mansion as I looked out the window. David's voice took me out of my thoughts as he simply told me. "Carolyn wants to talk with you." I turned to look at him, only to see that Carolyn was right by the door, waiting for me to come with her. I obliged as I left David with his ghostly mother that he said will watch him as I go see what Carolyn wants to talk with me about. And from the look of things, Carolyn's face told me that it had something to deal with me.
Not that I could blame her curiosity about me living in New York, but I felt it was something else she wanted to know about. Once when she locked the door and I sat on the floor, she simply spoke. "There is something that you should know about that I think you need to hear, and it has to deal with the new relative of ours; Barnabas III." She laid down on the floor and proclaimed in her usual tone when she is around me, while I carelessly took out a cigarette from my pocket. Okay, I admit, I hardly smoked ever since I came to the mansion, but I was curious to try it out and see what all the fuss was about, and I stole it from Dr. Hoffman when she wasn't looking.
I listened to what Carolyn was talking about as she said. "Barnabas came into my room to ask me about how to date a woman of the modern era."
That new information caught my attention as I asked, confused. "Why did he have to ask you? He could have gone to your mother or Julia for that information." It didn't surprise me that Barnabas would begin to think about courting a woman while he was in town, so I do my best to act like it didn't matter to me.
"He told me that he didn't want to disturb them when they were working." Carolyn explained. "He then asked me how old I was and I told him that I was fifteen years old. He stated in an old fashion manner, like the weirdo he is 'Fifteen and no husband. You must put those birthing hips to good use at once, less your womb will shrivel up and die.' I told him that he was weird when he told me that, and he asked me if he was too weird, but he wasn't here to talk about me, he wanted to talk about you Vicky."
"He was talking about me?" I asked, stunned. I hoped that he didn't say anything bad about me as I waited for Carolyn to tell me what he said. It was embarrassing enough when I wanted to faint on the spot when he insisted on calling me Victoria instead of Vicky. I half wonder if he would still feel the same if I told him my name was Maggie in my past.
She nodded. "In his own words, he said that he wanted to court you, and he said that you have the most fertile birthing hips that he ever laid eyes upon." She softly giggled at my surprised expression.
I gasped, taking the cigarette out of my mouth. "He didn't!"
"Yeah, he did." Carolyn countered in a soft tone. "I swear, he started singing Steve Miller and talked about your birthing hips. He has the hots for you, big time!"
I shook my head. "I don't know. He's strangely..." I trailed off because I didn't know how to put him into words. I mean, yeah, he is handsome, and treats me like a queen whenever we encounter each other, and he is also a very good gentleman at that, but I never thought that he would want to go for a girl like me. If he knew about my dark past, he would turn away from me as quickly as he was attracted to me. Then he might think that I was crazy if I told him that I see Josette's ghost. I was almost going to finish my sentence by saying 'he's strangely... attractive for a man of his age, but I am not sure if he wants to court me like how he wanted to.', but Carolyn cut me off guard by standing up on her arms. I handed her the cigarette that I was smoking, because I finally had it with the smoke, but I successfully hid that expression from my face as Carolyn slowly grabbed it from my hand.
"If you tell my mother, she'll-" She started before I told her.
"If I tell your mother, it would be my ass, not yours." I finished as I watched her expression go from hesitant to relief and laid back down. "I know that it is none of my business, but it seems like you two are having a hard time of getting along. Why is that?"
"She doesn't understand what it is like to be me..." Carolyn answered. "Nobody in this stupid family does." I kind of took pity for her because I somehow felt that way too when it comes to being the outsider of the family. However, she was lucky enough to have a family who cares about her while mine just swept me under the rug just because I was different, or cursed because they didn't want me to be different from any of the other girls.
Over my stay at the Collins mansion, I had learned to use the saying 'forgive and forget', since that my parents were trying to do what was best for me. So I explained to Carolyn. "It might seem that way, Carolyn, but these are things that all young women go through..."
Carolyn stood up, looking at me like she was serious. "Look. You seem nice and I know that we should be having this girl talk. But trust me, you don't understand either." I wanted to protest that I do understand, but I kept my mouth shut. I don't want her to unleash her anger out on me.
I nodded, acknowledging the fact that I have yet to understand her and the rest of this family. "I could understand if you told me what is bothering you, but I guess that you won't be able to let me in to know what is going on. Besides," I got myself to stand up and walk over to the door, being careful to not step on the young girl. She followed me with her gaze. "I was in the same boat as you, Carolyn... But, you are really lucky to have a mother that cares about you and would do anything to be sure that your happy. I am sure that you and your mother will find a way to get along." After I said what I needed to say, I left her in her room to think through the information I gave her. I managed to find my way back to the library where David was waiting for me as I sat down right by the table he was sitting in, studying him as he worked on his crossword puzzle that he was just finishing.
"How did the talk with Carolyn go?" He asked.
"It went good. She told me that Barnabas III is looking for ways to court me." I explained, blushing at the mention of his name.
His face brightens, which told me that he was getting excited about something that I wished to know. He whispered to himself. "Uncle Barnabas is interested in my nanny? I would like to see how that goes. Then, Vicky would be my new aunt!"
That caught me off guard. I almost fell out of the chair for it, but I caught myself before my body slammed into the ground. "Did you just call Barnabas your uncle, David? He is your aunts cousin that you didn't know about, and here you are calling him your uncle."
David turned to me and explained. "He maybe is a cousin to my aunt, but I think he is more than a cousin to me. So I call him Uncle Barnabas whenever we see each other. I like him, Vicky, he is my idol and I want to be just like him!"
I shook my head, questioning. "Does he allow you to call him that?"
"He didn't mind." David confessed. "He actually is like a father I never had, aside from my Dad of course." He became silent as he took his attention back to the book for Old English as he studied the words one at a time.
I went on to a different subject in order to keep the conversation going. "Do you really see your mother, and feel her, like how you described?"
David nodded. "Yes. Don't tell me you now believe me to be crazy like how my aunt and my doctor think so, because I really do see my mother."
"David, I would never think of that about you." I simply stated in a soft tone. "I was once like you when I was young. My family thought I was crazy too when I talked to a ghost." I could tell that he seemed intrigued by what I told him.
"Your family thought that you were crazy too?" David asked softly.
I nodded. "Yeah. But unlike you, I was taken to the Insane Asylum because I had been talking to the ghost. You are pretty lucky to not be taken to that place, David." I didn't want to relay the information about the nightmarish attempts the employers tried to clear my mind of the ghost to David. I was afraid that would scare him to death.
"So that explains why you didn't want me to act like I can see ghosts. You were just trying to protect me from becoming like you." David cocked his eyebrows playfully at me, he was beginning to understand why I was protective of him in our first meeting. "So, who's ghost did you see?"
Instead of speaking out my answer, I looked over to the bigger picture of Josette and pointed my finger to it, David followed my gaze and gasped softly. "You see her too! And here I thought that I was the only one who could see ghosts!"
"Since that you can see and hear the ghost, David, do you know what I could do to get Josette's ghost to leave me alone?" I asked, curious.
He shook his head. "I don't, but I think my Mom can tell you what she knows. I once tried to communicate with Josette, but she wouldn't answer me."
"She seems to love torturing me with her silence." I inform him, agreeing with that notion.
The young boy seemed to be in deep thought before he responded. "I'll see if I can have my mother come visit you and give you the information you need. Or maybe she can convince Josette to explain herself to you." I nodded as we made a plan to have a ghostly visit with either one of the ghosts.
A few hours went by as I got myself ready for bed once more. As I laid in my bed, I kept a lookout to see if the ghost of Josette would show-up. Now that I learned a little bit more information about the ghost, I am determined to find a way of getting rid of her once and for all. But I still have no way into knowing what she wants. But I made a plan for myself to research a bit more about the ghost before I have that visit with David's mother. Along with trying to figure out my feelings towards Barnabas.
Author's Note: Review whenever you like, and if you see any mistakes in this chapter, please tell me so that I can re-enhance the chapter for you. I hope that you liked this chapter.
Chapter updates: I expanded the interactions with Barnabas and Victoria in the construction of the business and changed some things that were in the chapter before. Disappointingly I didn't do much for their interaction in reading Love Story, I did try to have it where Barnabas reacts to certain parts of that story.. (I don't even have that book myself.) Also the chapter was once the Love Bug but I switched it to focus on the Reconstruction.