Chapter Twelve: Breakfast
As the boxes of cereal went on the table, Elizabeth Stoddard questioned this new fellow with, "And you? Who are you? A squatter?"
"Just as you say," Buzz admitted, "I've been here for a month or five. It's hard to remember sometimes. I call myself Buzz. I forget what others called me."
"Buzz?" Elizabeth worded the name in certainty, "it seems to fit. You're not the standard brand of handy man…"
"And I'm not offering myself as one," Buzz asserted, "I only want to help on my own and be a friend. I'm not here for hire."
"Just passing through?" Elizabeth wondered at him.
"That has been said of me," Buzz nodded, "but I think I'd like to stay a lot longer if it's possible."
Mrs. Johnson placed a few bowls and the mixed powdered milk with water in a jug on the table.
"Thanks, Mrs. Johnson!" David called out; jumping to the fare and grabbing one of the blue boxes nearby as he took the best chair closest to him that strangely did not squeak or flare with dust when he dropped himself down on it.
"The kid knows his manners," Buzz smiled.
"And how about what you know," Elizabeth began, "are you aware of who we are and why we all are here?"
"Oh, sure!" Buzz grinned, "You're the Collins of Collinwood and Collinsport and you were made nearly-homeless from The Great House exploding last night. Then you all tumbled in here with nowhere else to go and I noticed Carolyn show up in the room I'd been using so I got out of her way when she asked me to."
"Oh?!" Elizabeth inquired, eyes widening.
"Yes," he answered, "it's more gentlemanly than I am used to, but—"
"We expect," a booming voice made itself known, "gentlemanly behaviours are anticipated upon these grounds, more often than not." Barnabas stepped forward; cane in hand, the wolf head on the top shimmering from a strand of sunlight he did not allow his fingers to reach.
Elizabeth wondered at the cane, but noticed it had a metal wolf head rather than the ivory one he'd previously carried. Not silver, of course, it couldn't be.
"Barnabas Collins?" Buzz asked, rhetorically.
"Buzz Hackett?" Barnabas responded in kind, with the glimmer of a smile, "And my bride."
Josette, once Victoria, stepped in beside him, also keeping away from whatever strands of sunlight pervaded the room.
"Ah!" Buzz considered quizzically, "It's not often we hear of The Collins gaining new alliances. I am curious how recently this proposal was made."
The clear, rich voice of Josette answered with her usual amusement, "One hundred and ninety six years ago."
If one could give a resounding blink, Buzz did this at Josette. She made good to respond to the look, "I've just affirmed my previous resolution to it from long ago."
If Buzz was meant to take this news seriously, he didn't. He knew The Collins were renown to be eccentric, which was why he felt comfortable squatting in their midst prior to meeting them. At this juncture he felt little different about it.
A sigh was unloaded by Elizabeth, "And might I ask everyone here why this young man has any right to these family secrets?"
"He's also been blessed with something unusual," Josette answered her, "and he's been looking after The Old House before we needed to move in again. Besides, I think he'd like to be a good friend to Carolyn."
"Who was not," Elizabeth said, "the charge you were hired to look after, Miss Winters."
"You can't blame me for caring about David's sister, can you, Mrs. Stoddard?" Josette smiled.
Elizabeth sighed, "No…." then she stepped forward with a resigned, happy regard, "Josette cared about everyone, didn't she?"
"Yes, she did," Barnabas recalled, then added, "and still does."
As all the talk went on David kept shoveling in his cereal with rapidity, then switched gears.
"Aunt Elizabeth, can I go out now?"
With a fluttering of eyelashes, Elizabeth remembered her nephew was present at all, "Sure, David. Go out and play."
"Thanks!" David said, and rushed to the front door to meet the new day.
A clinking of dishes began to resound as Willie and Mrs. Johnson began setting the long table.
"Well," Elizabeth breathed, "looks like we're about ready to settle in for a bit of breakfast. I presume we are all eating or able to eat."
"My bride and I have the ability to digest all mortal vittles," Barnabas announced.
"No need to be so formal about it, Barnabas" Josette simpered, "I propose we share the head of the table and Miss Stoddard will look more regal on the other head of it."
A sinewy echo reverberated from the doorway, "Mind if I join you all?"
Carolyn stood, gift of radio in hand which was playing a light, classical number.
"The tunes aren't my favourite but I suppose this station works well at The Old House."
"Bach is always welcome," Barnabas agreed.
"Come in, Carolyn," her mother offered an inviting smile, "the choices aren't grand, but neither are we for the time being."
Carolyn was too busy noticing the young man she'd met in the previous moonlight.
"You're still here?"
"No," Buzz answered, "I left, got some Frosted Flakes, powdered milk and water and I came back with it."
"No eggs? Don't wolves usually ransack a hen house?"
"I don't," Buzz responded with reserved, "do you?"
"Children!" Elizabeth felt the irresistible urge to announce, "Shall we sit to breakfast now? And Barnabas, do tell me about this cane that is both metal and that you are not allergic to."
Josette took said cane and hung its hook over one chair back, "It's steel, Elizabeth. It was under my bed and I was happy to present it to him this morning. It's been hiding there all this time. A replica from the ivory one that, at one time, wasn't to his liking."
"But it certainly is now," Barnabas told her happily, not sure who he was confessing this toward.
Josette sat beside her beloved, moving a plate and setting and making the head of the table compatible for two.
Freshly toasted bread was passed from person to person, while the open cans of sardines were dropped unceremoniously about by Mrs. Johnson to the point barely one person had a chance to thank her before she was placing the next can down before the following person.
"Sardines on toast?" Carolyn asked with a touch of disdain.
"You can eat it now, can't you?" her mother asked.
"Well, I couldn't notice them without mentioning it," Carolyn managed, "You know how I tried to swallow a sardine when I was a kid."
"Yes," Elizabeth murmured, "I remember, Carolyn."
"Sounds intriguing," Buzz grinned, sitting down.
Willie Loomis had a platter of fried eggs and a spatula that he was carrying around to each member of the table. Elizabeth took her share, then Carolyn, then he reached Josette and asked, "Would you like any eggs, Miss Winters?"
Josette looked up to Willie Loomis and had a hard time containing her delight as she reminded him of when he'd answered the door of The Great House to her for the first time, "Mr. Loomis…" she told him, "My name is Josette duPres."
Willie Loomis was taken aback at first, and came to recall that moment in time and made a very slight bowing gesture in the shared remembrance between them, then he told her, again, "Congratulations."
When she nodded gratefully back at him for this he placed two fried eggs on her plate and moved on.
A/N: Let me know what you liked in this chapter and more to the point let me know what you are enjoying in the narrative. What is happening in the story that you are digesting? That is how we know you are reading it and understanding it. Thanks!