292 - August 8, 1967

[bunniefuu]

[Vicki narrating] - There are those at Collinwood who wear many masks.

Who they are and what they are doing

may depend upon the dark of night

or upon the light of day.

For there is no time when evil sleeps.

Danger is everywhere at all times.

Even the dead can still be dangerous.

[knocking at door]

- Dr. Woodard, what are you doing here?

- I think the more pertinent question, Dr. Hoffman,

is what are you doing here?

- I'm continuing my research.

How did you know I was here?

- Oh, I was up looking for you at Collinwood.

Mrs. Stoddard told me you were down here at the old house.

What I would like to know is,

what kind of research are you conducting

in a musty old place like this?

- The work I'm doing is important.

That's all I can tell you.

- Well, to justify your being here

while your patient's a hundred miles away,

it'd better be pretty important.

- I assure you it is.

- This whole situation

has been getting more and more unethical.

Unless you can give me an answer that satisfies me, Julia,

I have no alternative.

I've got to take Maggie away from you,

away from Windcliff.

- You can't do that.

That would be the most dangerous thing in the world to do.

- Dangerous to whom?

- I can't tell you that.

- Well, I'm not leaving here until you do tell me.

♪♪

♪♪

- Very well.

I think taking Maggie Evans out of Windcliff

would be most dangerous for Maggie herself.

- Why?

- You certainly don't think she's in any position

to go out into the world, do you?

- No, I don't, but I don't think she's gonna get much better

while you're down here involved in...

well, distinctly unmedical activities.

- What I'm doing here

is the only thing that can help that girl.

- Julia...

you've got to admit that this whole business is--

is extremely unorthodox.

- Maggie's is a very unorthodox case.

She's got to be handled delicately.

- Hm, yes, I know that as well as you do.

A girl who's been kidnapped,

a girl who's been frightened into a fantasy world,

has to be drawn back into the real world

slowly, carefully.

Now, that takes a lot of effort and a lot of time,

but it also takes a doctor who's with her constantly,

and not a hundred miles away from her!

- You've got to let me handle this my way.

- Well, what am I supposed to do with her father and her fiancé

when they happen to wonder what you're doing here at Collinwood

while she's up in your sanitarium?

- We'll worry about that when it happens.

- It's already happened.

They got after me in the middle of last night,

demanding answers to what's going on,

and I couldn't give them any answers!

Apparently you can't give them either.

- I'm afraid I can't give them any answers yet.

- Julia, they have a right to know!

At least what's being done for the girl!

- Oh, Dave, if I were to tell them

even a little of what I know,

there would be three people in deadly terror,

not just Maggie.

- What exactly do you suspect?

- I believe that Maggie Evans

came face-to-face with the supernatural.

And in a way that frightened her

beyond anything you or I can understand.

I can't exorcise that fear in a usual manner.

I can't convince her that--

that what terrified her doesn't exist,

because I know it does exist.

- Are you, a scientist,

telling me that the supernatural exists?

- I have evidence that I've been working on.

If I'm right,

medicine is about to break through

the ultimate barrier between life and death.

You realize that the doctors who help make that breakthrough

will go down in history?

- Between life and death?

- Dave...

when you were in medical school,

didn't you dream of making some major contribution?

- Yeah.

- Well, that could happen now for both of us.

- Julia, I've got to know a great deal more

than I know now. - Oh, you will.

I'll tell you because I need your-- your skill

and knowledge to help see me through.

- Well, I'll help you any way that I can.

- Well, the first thing you have to do

is have Sam Evans and that boy-- make them stay calm.

Assure them that-- that Maggie is being properly taken care of,

getting the best possible treatment.

- And in the meantime, what are you going to be doing?

- Well...

I'm gonna continue my investigation here.

- Are you telling me that there's something at Collinwood

that relates to Maggie and what happened to her?

- Yes.

- Well, what is it?

- I can't tell you, Dave.

I... I can't tell you for your own sake.

I-- I don't want to put you in any danger.

- Danger.

Danger? What danger?

- The world that Maggie entered is a terrible one.

I don't want you or anyone else to have to see a moment of it

until I can devise some protection.

- You know, Julia...

if I didn't know that you were

a thoroughly dedicated professional,

I'd say that what you just said to me is utter nonsense.

- Believe me, it isn't.

Oh, all I ask is that you trust me

for just a little longer.

I know what I'm doing.

- You'd better know what you're doing, Doctor.

It appears to me that you've given yourself

very little margin for error.

♪♪

[gentle sobbing, birds chirping]

- Sarah!

- Hello.

- What's the matter? Why are you crying?

- I've lost something.

- Well, that's nothing to cry about.

Here, I'll help you look for it.

- You can't.

- Well, yes, I can.

Did you lose it in the woods? I mean, around here?

What was it that you lost?

Come on, Sarah, tell me what it was you lost.

- I lost a friend.

[gentle sobbing]

- What friend?

- Her name was Maggie.

- You mean Maggie Evans?

- She's lost and I miss her.

- Well, Sarah, I'm sorry that you miss Maggie so much,

but if it's Maggie we're looking for,

well, we'd better not look anymore.

- Why? - Here, why don't you help me

look for different kinds of leaves.

- Why should we stop looking for Maggie?

- Well, if we keep looking, we'll never find her.

- Why not?

- 'Cause she's dead.

- [laughing]

- What are you laughing about?

- She isn't dead at all.

She's just lost.

- Sarah, of course she's dead.

My father told me,

and so did my aunt and Vicki and everybody else.

- Well, everyone's wrong.

Because if Maggie were dead, I'd know it,

and then I wouldn't have to cry.

- Don't cry. It makes me feel bad.

- She's gone away somewhere, but I don't know just where.

Sometimes I almost know where she is.

Then it all fades away, and I begin to cry again.

- Look, Sarah, I've got a good idea.

You can come to my house, and we can play together there.

- I'm not allowed to go to other people's houses.

They don't like me there.

- Well, my family won't mind.

They'll be very glad to have you.

- I don't think I should.

Maybe sometime but not now.

You'd better go now. It's getting late.

- Uh-uh.

You're coming with me to my house.

Because if I leave you here,

you'll get sad 'cause Maggie's dead.

- She isn't dead. She's just lost.

- Everyone else says she's dead.

- Well, everyone else is wrong.

- How can yoube so sure?

- You know about leaves and everything.

Well, I know who's dead and who isn't.

♪♪

[knocking at door]

- Hello, I'm Burke Devlin.

- Oh, Vicki's gone out. She'll be back in a moment.

She has a date with you.

[chuckling] - Well, you seem to know something about me,

and I don't even know your name.

- I'm Julia Hoffman.

- Well, yes, I do know something about you, too.

You're doing some investigations into the Collins family.

- I'm doing a history of the Collins family.

- Yes, I know.

Why?

- Why? - Yes.

Why the Collins family?

- Well, as a matter of fact, I'm going to do

the histories of other families as well.

It just happens that I've started with the Collins family.

- I see.

What other families were you planning to investigate?

- If I gave you a list of names, it would mean nothing to you.

- All right, then, I'll try again.

Why are you investigating all these families?

What is it you're looking for?

- Mr. Devlin, my research is quite specialized.

I'm not sure I could explain it to an outsider.

- Oh, but I'm not an outsider. I grew up in Collinsport.

In this town, we were fed the past

right along with our first spoonful of oatmeal.

- You were fed the past as far as it's now known.

My plan, my research, will prove that the Collins family

and other families

go back even farther than most people think.

- Well, so what? Why is that so important?

- Mr. Devlin, if you don't think it's important,

then you don't and that's the end of it.

- I'm sorry, Ms. Hoffman, I didn't mean to be rude,

but as I said, I grew up in Collinsport,

and I've seen dozens of people poking around old papers

and deeds and wills and books,

and I never thought anything of it.

But you...

there's something about you.

I mean, you just really aren't the type.

- Aren't the type for what?

- Oh, to be satisfied to carry, uh,

some old family back a generation or two.

Or, uh, or to putting a footnote on a genealogical volume.

No, you seem to be quite a different kind of person.

- Do I? - Yes.

After something much bigger than a footnote.

And I'd like to know just what it is you're looking for,

just why it is you're here.

- Very well, then, I'll-- I'll make a full confession.

I heard that an old sea captain

left a trunk of jewels in the basement,

and I'm gonna get them.

Is that what you want to hear?

- [chuckling] Not exactly.

Try again.

- Mrs. Stoddard? Carolyn?

Oh, Burke, I'm so glad you're here.

- Hello, Ms. Hoffman. - Hello.

You look as if you ran all the way home.

- No, just from the driveway. - What's the matter?

- Nothing's the matter.

The most wonderful thing has just happened.

- What? - I'm in love.

- Well, I don't think that's so wonderful.

Who's the lucky guy?

- No, no, no, it's with a house.

I-- I found the most enchanting old house in the world.

It's on the end of the north road by the sea.

I must have passed it hundreds of times.

Only this is the first time I'd ever really noticed it.

Burke, it's like it was just waiting there,

just for me.

♪♪

- Haven't you ever had that feeling, Burke,

that you're supposed to find something

at a particular moment?

- Vicki, what's this house like?

- I'm sure you two would prefer to be alone.

- Oh, no. Wait, Ms. Hoffman.

I-- I want you to hear about it.

I think you'd be very interested.

The house is very old.

It faces onto the sea.

In fact, it's almost part of the sea.

I think that whoever built it

felt much more at home on the sea than on land.

- Probably some old sea captain.

- And it's completely isolated.

No houses, no people. Just it and the sea.

And it's bleached very pale as though the sea

had washed through it and cleaned it.

And there it sits like a dowager queen,

waiting for the ocean to bring her beautiful gifts

from all over the world.

- Boy, this place really got to you.

- Yes, it did.

Because it's the house I've been dreaming of all of my life.

- I'd kind of like to take a look at it.

- Maybe all you'll see is an empty old house.

In fact, maybe that's all I'll see

the next time we go back there.

But it was wonderful.

Finding it and standing there

and listening to the sea

and feeling that I really belonged there.

And the house knew it.

And the sea knew it.

And I knew it, too,

and we were all very happy there together.

- Now, you wait right here, and I'll go tell Vicki

that I've brought another friend.

- I don't think I should.

- Look, Sarah, you'll see.

They'll be very happy to have you stay for dinner.

[Vicki] - David?

- Yes? - Is that you?

- Yes.

I brought a friend.

Can she stay for dinner?

- Sure. Who?

- Well, she came in with me.

Now, where'd she go?

Well, I met her in the-- in the woods,

and she was crying,

so I said she could come home and have supper with me.

And then...

she said she was-- well, she acted very shy.

- Well, of course she could have supper with us,

but I don't see her anywhere here.

- Well...

- Listen, maybe she's outside.

You-- You said she was shy.

Perhaps she was afraid to come in.

- Hey, maybe you're right!

She's isn't out there either.

- Well, it looks to me like she went home.

Do you know where she lives?

- No.

I meant to ask her that, but she was crying too much.

- What was she crying about, David?

- Maggie Evans.

[Vicki] - She was a friend of Maggie's?

- Well, Sarah kept telling me she isa friend of Maggie's.

[Vicki] - She must know that Maggie's dead.

- Yes, but I kept telling her that,

and she said that she wasn't.

She said that she'd just gone away someplace.

- Oh, the child was probably just talking nonsense.

Doesn't he have anyone else to play with?

- I like playing with Sarah.

Besides, I'm very sorry that she was crying.

- Well, we're all sorry that Sarah was crying, but...

was Sarah really crying?

- What do you mean?

- Well, sometimes when you're alone

and you feel very lonely,

you pretend that someone's with you.

You make up a friend.

- The way you made up Sarah.

- I did not make up Sarah!

- David, these friends can become very real.

And when you're happy, she's happy.

And when you're sad, she's sad too,

and perhaps she'd even cry.

- But Sarah was really crying.

I brought her home to try to cheer her up.

- Well, maybe you'll find her tomorrow

and she'll play with you then.

- Oh, you don't know anything!

[door slams]

- It's amazing how real

imaginary friends can be to children.

- If you don't mind an unsolicited opinion,

I wouldn't encourage it in David.

- What?

- Oh, I don't think David should be encouraged

to dwell in fantasy.

I think it'd be harmful for him.

- Is child psychology another of your specialties, Ms. Hoffman?

- Oh, of course not.

But children shouldn't be encouraged

to believe their own fantasies

like-- like this business of a--

of a dead girl being alive.

- Well, in the first place,

I think David will get over that.

And then, too, I don't think there's any danger of people

believing that there's a Sarah or that Maggie is still living.

[Vicki] - Well, I-- I think that we should plan

a picnic or something to keep David occupied.

- Speaking of picnics, I'm hungry.

Let's drive out for something to eat.

- Oh, no, I don't want to leave David now.

- Oh, don't worry, I'll look after him.

- Well, thank you.

All right, I'll just get my coat.

Burke, come here.

- What's the matter?

- I... found this cap on the floor.

It's a little girl's bonnet.

♪♪

♪♪

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