5
Victoria saw no sign of Carolyn as she woke the next morning and found a note in the kitchen for her. Apparently, there was a breakfast plate warming for her in the oven. Loving the idea of having a sister, she ate the big breakfast alone in the dining room as she looked up to paintings of forgotten relatives. She left the dishes in the dishwasher as dutifully as possible as she then noticed there were no plates left behind from when Carolyn ate. For that matter, where were the frying pans for the omelets and pancakes or even the bowl as she whipped them up? What about even a spatula? There was not even a second plate or glass. She wondered if she had just reused her old plate as she pulled open one drawer and noticed everything neatly and cleanly tucked away in the drawer. In a grand wooden cabinet with glass windows, all the prominent Collins china also sat reasonably untouched except for fine traces of dust. Things were not making much more sense to her the more she analyzed them and thought about them.
Trying to attribute the strange habits as a person who had lived alone for too long, Victoria spent part of the morning outside exploring the grounds and reflecting on the sounds of the estate rather than the idiosyncrasies of a younger sister she barely knew. Keeping the main house in view, she often found herself looking up at the grand estate with its numerous windows and balconies and parapets and chimneys. There was so much inside she wanted to explore as she tried to think of ancestors and relatives who had once roamed its walls. Thinking about them, she hurriedly returned inside back through the kitchen mud porch and found the study where books upon books of the Collins family history rested partially touched on a prominent shelf near another fireplace. Her whole family history was laid out before her and all she had to do was look as she pulled one book and then another. Her mind was reeling excitedly as she absorbed facts of colorful family members going back to England and
back to the dusk of the Middle Ages. The whole American family turned out to be descended from Isaac Collins, the town founder, a relative connected by marriage to the British aristocracy. Her roots and origins filling her head, she beamed in private as she read of forgotten grandfathers and uncles. It seemed like just a little while, but almost immediately she realized the room was getting dark. Dusk was occurring outside as she heard Carolyn moving through the house.
"Vicki?"
"In here." Vicki responded as Carolyn turned back down the foyer to the source of the voice.
"Ah, the study," Carolyn grinned in retrospect. "After all this time I can still hear my Uncle Roger telling me to stop disturbing his important papers." She chuckled under her breath.
"He must have been very no nonsense." Vicki guessed as she held up a book. "Carolyn, who's this?" She held up an album with a picture of a very beautiful woman in her late thirties.
"That's our mother." Carolyn responded proudly but a bit heartbroken. "She was beautiful, wasn't she?"
"She was." Vicki agreed. "I saw her ghost last night."
"Vicki," Carolyn became upset. "That's not funny."
"I'm serious. I saw her."
"Vicki," Carolyn glared oddly at her. "If my mother was here, don't you think I'd know it ? Wouldn't she appear to her own daughter?!"
"I guess..."
"I loved my mother very much." Carolyn continued. "And she loved me. If she was here, I'd know it. I mean, why would she appear to you and not to me?"
Vicki didn't have an answer as Carolyn scoffed and turned out. She stayed where she was for a few minutes as she continued looking through the albums. All the pictures stopped in the winter of 1967. Numerous pre-dated pages were blank as Carolyn had stopped taking pictures of herself. There was no trace of David even allegedly taken by his mother or even of his mother herself.
Vicki felt a bit unnerved as Carolyn called her to dinner. She rose and looked out to the dining room at the single serving.
"You're not eating?" She noticed no other plates.
"I got a date." Carolyn responded. "Have a nice night..." The vivacious blonde passed by her and rushed to the foyer around her. Vicki started to say something as the fleet-footed blonde vanished on her. She just sat down and stared at her baked fish, cucumber salad and okra. Under the tin, there was a piece of blueberry cheesecake just waiting to join her hips. She was certainly being fattened up.
"Oh, Carolyn..." She had forgotten to ask her about a trip to town. Not hearing the front door, she rushed to catch her, but just seemed to miss her. She opened the double doors expecting to see a car, but there wasn't one. There were no taillights in the distance either. Vicki heard footsteps upstairs as she figured Carolyn was still getting ready. She jogged upstairs and crossed the balcony to open the door as a strange man passed her. She froze in surprise as he drifted by.
"Hello?" She tried to get his attention. Tall, distinguished and rather somber, he was dressed in a thick cape of some sort as if he had just come in from outside. His wolf-handled cane touched the floor every so often as he leaned into it on every other step. He looked so solemnly serious he seemed to be unaware of her presence.
"Excuse me," Vicki followed him. "Can you hear me?" She tried to remember her sign language as he seemed to just barely acknowledge her presence. At the door to the end of the hall, he turned and looked to Vicki as he gestured to her to come. His expression became a tortured grin looking for solace as he gradually drifted away into nothingness.
Vicki's scream began echoing the myriad halls of Collinwood.