730 - April 10, 1969

[bunniefuu]

[Roger narrating] - A dark and ominous night at Collinwood

before the turn of the century,

a night when a young child has had

a strange and disturbing dream

in which she saw the return of someone

she loves very much.

But even more disturbing

is the child's belief upon awakening

that the dream will somehow come true

if it is re-enacted.

And so she has gone alone, out into the night,

hoping to transform a dream into a reality.

- Mother?

Mother, are you here?

Oh, I was so sure it was going to come true.

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪

Mother!

- Nora, it's so good to see you again.

- It's so good to see you, too.

I knew I'd find you here. I knew it.

- You had a dream.

- How did you know?

- I had the very same dream.

- That's so strange.

- I know.

Oh, Nora, I've missed you so much.

- And I've missed you too and so has Jamison.

- How is Jamison? - Fine.

He'll be happy to know that you're here.

- Oh, I'm anxious to see him.

- Mother. - Yes.

Why did you stay away so long?

- I -I had to, Nora.

- Because you were so sick?

That's what Father and Aunt Judith kept telling us.

- Your father, Aunt Judith,

I'm sure that nothing about them has changed.

- Anyway, now, that we're all together again,

I'm sure that Father won't send us away to school.

- School? Where?

- Some place in Rockport. We don't want to go --

- But of course you don't want to go.

You'd much rather stay with me, wouldn't you? - Oh, yes.

- I'll tell you what,

why don't you go back to the house,

get Jamison and bring him down here to see me. Hmm?

- Aren't you going to come back to the house with me?

- I'm I'm not sure that I can.

- But why not?

- I don't think your father will allow me to.

- But when he sees you, I'm sure that -- - No.

No, no. I have a better idea,

a way of making absolutely sure

that you don't have to go back to that school.

- What is it?

- Well, you go and get Jamison.

Bring him here

and the three of us will go away

and then we'll be together always.

- But I don't want it to be that way, Mother,

neither does Jamison.

We want you here with us

and that's the way it should be, isn't it, Mother?

- Yes. Yes, it is.

- Why can't it be that way? Why?

- I don't know.

Perhaps it can.

- You mean you'll come home with me now?

- Oh, I'll come home to Collinwood

but I can't right now, not this minute.

- Well, when?

- Soon, very soon.

You must go back now, Nora.

- No! I don't want to leave you!

- But you must, dear.

But if I go back to Collinwood,

I'm afraid that you'd disappear again.

- But you know that it isn't true.

You know I want to be with you and Jamison.

- But why can't you come home with me now?

- Because there is something I must do

before I can return to Collinwood.

- But you really mean it, don't you?

You're not saying it just to make feel better.

- Of course not.

In fact, I will give you something just to prove it.

Here.

- What is it?

- It's a special kind of good luck charm.

I found it in a faraway place.

I was told never to be without it.

I want you to keep it

as I reminder that I'm going to keep my word.

- That's funny.

It's the same kind of symbols that I put on my drawing.

Father was very angry with me.

He thought Quentin had taught me the symbols.

- Quentin?

Is Quentin back at Collinwood?

- Yes.

He came back just before Great Grandmother died.

- I see.

You must - you must go back to the house now, Nora.

It's late.

- But can't I stay and talk with you

just for a little while longer?

- We will have lots of time when I return.

In the meantime, dear,

I want you to keep this little

meeting of ours secret.

Do you understand that?

- And not even say anything to Jamison?

- Oh yes to Jamison, but to no one else.

I want my return to Collinwood to come as a surprise

to everyone.

- Mr. Trask, Edward Collins here.

Very well, thank you.

Yes, that's what I'm calling about.

I've decided that school would be best for the children.

Yes, I knew you would be.

No, not today.

I haven't had the chance to talk to them yet.

Well, I don't want to make the same mistake as before.

It did come as a severe shock to them.

I'll prepare them for it over the weekend

and they'll be ready on Monday.

Yes.

Good bye.

♪♪

[knocking on door]

Hey, that's some kind of manly knock you have there. - I've got to talk to you.

My father has made up his mind

about sending Nora and me to school.

I've heard him talking to Reverend Trask on the telephone. - Now, now.

Let's not - let's not get yourself so upset.

- Well, I don't want to go away to school.

I want to stay right here.

- Don't you think I want that, too?

- Well, how am I going to get my father to change his mind?

- I'm afraid we're not.

We're going to have to approach this problem

from some other direction.

- What do you mean?

- Well, we can't keep your father from sending you away,

but maybe we can keep Reverend Trask

from coming to get you.

- How?

- We're going to play our little magic game, Jamison.

- The one we played with Barnabas.

- Exactly.

- Oh. - Hmm?

- Well, when we played it with Barnabas,

we needed something that belonged to him.

We don't have anything that belongs to Reverend Trask.

- Oh, well, but we do. We do.

When he was here the other night,

he left a book that he'd brought with him.

Yes. I think that's all we'll need.

Now, you and I will go to the cottage this afternoon.

You'll concentrate very hard

and I'll say all the magic words

and Reverend Trask will be too scared

ever to come back to Collinwood again.

[knocking on door]

Come in.

- Nora, what are you doing here?

- Looking for you.

- Jamison, I'll, uh, go get the things ready.

You wait for me in the foyer.

I'll meet you there in one hour.

- All right.

I don't feel like playing if that's what you came for.

- That isn't way.

I came to tell you that everything

is going to be all right now.

- Huh! That's what you think.

- That's what I know, Jamison,

because I saw Mother

and I talked to her,

and she is going to come back to us, Jamison.

♪♪

You really know how to be impossible, Jamison Collins.

- Would you please stop talking to me?

I've got other things to worry about.

You don't want to go to that school, do you?

- Mother said that she wouldn't let us go.

- This is about the hundredth time that you've either

seen or heard, or spoken to,

or even dreamed about Mother coming to us.

It hasn't happened yet, has it?

- But this time it did happen.

She even held me in her arms.

- Would you mind telling me where all this happened?

- Out on Widow's Hill.

You see, first I had a dream -- - That's what I thought.

- Now, wait a minute.

And then I had a feeling

that the dream was going to come true.

So, I went out there and there she was.

- Well, where is she now?

- She'll be here. Don't worry.

- Well, how come she didn't come back with you?

- Because she said she had something else to do first.

- Sure.

- You still don't believe me, do you?

- You're just imagining it, Nora.

That's it! You're just imagining it!

[clock chiming]

- All right.

If you're so smart, where did I get this?

- What is it?

- A brooch.

- You could have gotten it almost anywhere.

- But I didn't.

She gave it to me.

She told me it was a good luck charm.

- You know, that's exactly what we need.

We want to stay in Collinwood, a good luck charm.

- Not after Mother comes back, Jamison.

You wait and see.

She told me that we wouldn't be sent --

- What did I tell you last night, Nora?

- I - I don't remember, Father. - Yes, you do.

I told you to stop all this nonsense about your mother.

Here you are babbling about it again.

- I'm sorry, Father.

- You maybe sorry.

Apparently, it takes more than a warning

to teach you a lesson.

You will both stay in your room today.

- I didn't do anything.

- I want no argument, Jamison.

Go upstairs. - But it isn't fair.

I have something important to do today. - What?

- Just something.

- Something so secret that you can't even tell your father.

- Quentin was going to take me out in a hike.

- Oh yes.

I might have known that I would have

something to do with Quentin.

I don't understand, Jamison,

why you can't do things with other people.

Why must it always be Quentin?

- Because no one else ever asks me.

- You should have to postpone your little hike nonetheless.

Now, go upstairs.

[door opening]

- Oh, come now, Edward.

It can't be all that bad or can it?

- It will be all right after this weekend. - Hmm?

- I've decided to send the children to the school.

- And not the least of your reasons

is Jamison's inordinate affection for me, huh?

- Oh. The boy is young and impressionable

but he's had enough of your chicanery and humbug.

It's time that he matures in more healthy surrounding.

- You would never ask me for my opinion, Edward,

so I'm going to volunteer it.

Your children would be better off with Simon Legree

than with that so-called Reverend Trask.

- We can't stay here, Jamison.

He told us to go back to our rooms.

- I've got to talk to Quentin.

- What if Father goes to our rooms

and finds out we're not there?

- You're so scared.

Why don't you go to your room?

- No. I just --

I just don't want you to get into more trouble, that's all.

- It doesn't matter.

I'm in enough as it is. Thanks to you.

- I'm sorry, Jamison.

I didn't know that he was going to hear us.

- I thought I heard voices in here.

Hmm-hmm.

- Quentin! - Huh.

- I couldn't wait in the foyer for you.

- Well, now, that's all right.

Don't worry about it.

- Jamison, you know that little game we're going to play.

Now, it's strictly for men, Jamison,

so Nora won't be allowed to play.

- I guess I won't be able to play, either.

Father has punished us.

We have to stay in our rooms.

I don't know how I'm going to get out.

What's the matter, Quentin?

- Nora.

Nora, what have you got there?

- It's nothing. - Let me see it, please.

- It's only an old brooch.

- Where'd you get this?

- I found it.

[knocking on door]

- Aren't you going to ask me to come in, Edward?

♪♪

Please say something, Edward.

- I think the most appropriate word

I can think to say to you, Laura, is good-bye.

- Well, if you wish to be unkind,

I'm not going to stop you. I know I deserved it.

- How dare you come back to this house!

- I couldn't stay away, Edward.

- Why did you come here?

- Because in spite of everything I've done,

this is where I belong.

- No! You're certainly not going to stay here.

Understand that right now.

- You're looking very well, Edward.

- Spare me your flattery, Laura.

- No. I mean it.

Edward, I'd like to see my children. - You may not see them.

- I'm their mother.

There is much a part of me

and everything I feel is they are of you.

- You feel nothing for them and you never have. - You know that isn't true.

- You abandoned them and ran off with Quentin.

As far as I'm concerned that ended the right for you

to see those children ever again.

- I can't believe that the children

wouldn't want to see me.

- How they feel is quite beside the point.

- How can you say that?

- I have no doubt, Laura,

that you have some special reason

for coming back here.

If you will be good enough to tell me what it is,

I will try and accommodate you and then you will leave.

I cannot express my feeling more clearly than that.

Now, what is it?

- I want you to take me back, Edward.

- You must be insane.

- I know how you feel.

You have every right to hate me but I beg you not to.

I know how wrong -- - Spare me your feelings, Laura.

It will mean nothing to me.

- Oh, Edward, I am so sorry

but I can't help myself.

I'm throwing myself on your mercy, Edward.

Do you think that's easy for me?

- Yes, I do.

- Please, don't be cruel.

- Laura, I refuse to be taken in by all this.

Edward, my God, all I'm asking for is a second chance

on any terms you dictate.

Please, don't turn me out of the house.

Oh, Edward, I've been through so much suffering,

so much misery but I've learned from it.

I swear to you I have.

I've learned from it, Edward.

All I want is a chance to prove that to you.

Oh, Edward.

I have no one else to turn to, nowhere else to go.

Don't you understand that?

- Nora.

Nora, you must tell me where you got this brooch.

- I already told you. I found it.

- Well, where?

- I don't remember exactly. - Where.

- It was some place in the woods.

- Nora, now, listen.

Now, listen, it's very important.

Are you sure someone didn't give this to you, huh?

Answer me, Nora.

- No one gave it to me, Uncle Quentin.

♪♪

- Edward, please give me an answer.

- Have you quite recovered now?

- Yes. - Good.

You will wait here for me.

I'll be back in a moment.

- Where are you going? - To my study.

- Why?

- There is a sum of money there,

several thousand dollars.

I will give it to you on the condition that you'll promise

to leave this house and to never come back.

- Edward! - We have nothing more to discuss, Laura.

You'll be so kind to just stay in this room while I'm gone.

♪♪

- Edward!

- Hello, Quentin.

I've been looking forward to seeing you again.

You and I have a lot to talk to each other about,

don't we?

- No.

You're dead.

I saw you die.

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪