Miss Stockbridge

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

Spoiler:

I messed this up, but basically I was rolling to see if Victoria has to stay as a material witness, or will be allowed to go back with David to Collinwood.

The District Attorney is informed of Victoria's wild story, and determines that she needs to remain in Phoenix until this thing is cleared up. Since the other two have less to say about the case, they be allowed to determine who will stay with Victoria and who will accompany the minor back to Collinwood.

"But we'll be in touch with the Maine authorities, so don't leave Collinsport."

Meanwhile, the police find out that there are no records at all on either Reverend Trask or Nathan.

"You guys got driver's licenses? Diner's Club cards? Library cards? Anything that can prove you're who you say you are?"

[SunlessNick]

"You should go with the boy, Reverend," suggests Nathan. "A man of the cloth will command trust, and the boy may still need your counsel. I swear no harm shall come to Miss Winters in your absence." (Nathan means to remain with Victoria at all times, in case Laura Collins is still not in fact dead - the one thing everyone knows about phoenixes is that they rise from their ashes).

[Mr. Handy]

"Very well," says Reverend Trask. "I shall bring David back to his family. I'm afraid I have none of those things with me, but Roger Collins and Elizabeth Collins Stoddard can vouch for me if you telephone them. I've been a guest of theirs for some time."

[Mr. Handy]

"Take care," says Victoria. "I'll stay in Phoenix until this is over and Jerry recovers, and we can stay in touch by telephone."

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

Quite some time passes. The Arizona authorities are frankly baffled by the evidence of two different remains, burnt to fragments of bones and ashes, both of which contain teeth with identical markings and fillings. After much considerations, they decide to label the ones found in Laura Collins' fire-ravaged apartment as truly hers, and the other as unknown, the identical dental remains being chalked up as a million-to-one coincidence. (They don't seem to place much credence in Victoria's hypothesis that the first death was faked.)

Somehow, a reporter for The American Enquirer, a notorious tabloid better known for sensationalism than accuracy, finds out about the case, probably from a connection he has with the police.

ARE ALIENS IMITATING PEOPLE AND DESTROYING THE EVIDENCE WITH RAY GUNS?

What follows this blaring headline -- the question mark helps the paper avoid being sued -- is an article about the incident that manages to suggest all sorts of wild possibilities without stating anything that could be proven wrong. The publicity draws unwanted attention to Victoria and Nathan. The latter, in particular, is going to find it hard to explain why there are no records of his existence. Even more so, in the case of Jeremiah, who, when he is sufficiently recovered from his burns, spins all sorts of wild tales about following a succubus through the ages.

Meanwhile, Reverend Trask and David return to Collinwood without incident. As one might expect, the young boy is reluctant to talk about the incident; his father and aunt dismiss much of what he says anyway. They ask Reverend Trask for a full account of what happened in Arizona.

You both also feel an increasingly strong desire to return to your own time, as if staying here will eventually cause you to wither away into nothing; but how can this be done?

[Mr. Handy]

Reverend Trask explains how they visited the police and found out from them where Jeremiah and David were staying, then went out to the ranch to find them. The two of them had already ridden out on horses and had not returned, so the Reverend, Nathan, and Victoria had hired horses of their own and gone to track them down. When they caught up to them, they found that there was a fire, and that Jeremiah had protected David from harm, though Jeremiah had suffered burns and was still recovering in the hospital.

Reverend Trask realizes that he may need to return to his own time the same way he got to this time in the first place. He consults local records to see if the building where they had met the man with the sticks still stood today, and to find out who had owned it back in his own time. While he is certain that the man is long dead, unless he too had traveled through time, he could still have descendants, and it may be possible to find them by tracing genealogy.

[Mr. Handy]

"Perhaps it would be best not to discuss certain things in front of others," Victoria tells Jeremiah when they have some privacy. "Just as you guided me when I was a guest in your time, I must now guide you in mine. As for Laura, I'm sorry that she's gone, but you will get over her. You once professed your love for me, and you managed to get over me, didn't you?"

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

Reverend Trask explains how they visited the police and found out from them where Jeremiah and David were staying, then went out to the ranch to find them. The two of them had already ridden out on horses and had not returned, so the Reverend, Nathan, and Victoria had hired horses of their own and gone to track them down. When they caught up to them, they found that there was a fire, and that Jeremiah had protected David from harm, though Jeremiah had suffered burns and was still recovering in the hospital.

Reverend Trask realizes that he may need to return to his own time the same way he got to this time in the first place. He consults local records to see if the building where they had met the man with the sticks still stood today, and to find out who had owned it back in his own time. While he is certain that the man is long dead, unless he too had traveled through time, he could still have descendants, and it may be possible to find them by tracing genealogy.

This account is accepted by the Collins family, for want of any other explanation, if for no other reason.

Investigation of records held by the Collinsport Historical Society, which are quite extensive for a community of modest size, indicate that the former site of the Oriental man's shack must have been somewhere in what passes for the "downtown" of the city, although the exact location is impossible to ascertain. There appear to be no records of a particular person from the Far East being resident in Collinsport during the late 18th century; such were part of the nearly anonymous folks of many nations who passed through the port without leaving traceable evidence of their presence.

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

"Perhaps it would be best not to discuss certain things in front of others," Victoria tells Jeremiah when they have some privacy. "Just as you guided me when I was a guest in your time, I must now guide you in mine. As for Laura, I'm sorry that she's gone, but you will get over her. You once professed your love for me, and you managed to get over me, didn't you?"

Jeremiah is agitated by this reminder.

"Yes! Witchcraft! Dark and damnable witchcraft, everywhere I turn! Be gone, servant of Satan, and all your kind!"

Having drawn some attention with this outburst, a physician orders a nurse to administer a tranquilizer.

[Mr. Handy]

"I'm sorry," says Victoria. "I'll leave now, if that's what you want, but I'm here for you. I only want what's best for you. Perhaps Reverend Trask will be able to help once we see him again."

[Mr. Handy]

Reverend Trask seeks out Professor Stokes, who seemed to know something about time travel.

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

Professor Stokes is almost always ready to welcome visitors to his bachelor quarters, where books are the dominant form of decoration. After welcoming Reverend Trask (and perhaps other guest or guests) and offering sherry, he begins conversation with such usual topics as the weather and its effect on the fishing, shipping, and tourist industries, only gradually making inquiry if his visitor(s) had some particular subject they wished to discuss.

[Mr. Handy]

"I've told you before about whence I came, Professor," says Reverend Trask. "I believe I have accomplished the task for which the Almighty brought me here, and I wish to go home. I also feel I cannot remain here indefinitely, for if I do, I shall eventually cease to be, if that makes sense to you. Yet I do not know how it is that I can return home. I was hoping you might have some ideas."

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

"From what you have described, it sounds as if the fellow who sent you here made use of the I Ching. I have come across rather obscure texts, poorly translated, which suggest such a possibility. I have never attempted to make use of this supposed effect myself, as it appears to be fraught with hazard. If I understand the texts correctly, one might wind up in another plane of reality altogether; a sort of Parallel Time, if you will. If you are still interested in the possibility of journeying back to your own time, I do possess a very old set of yarrow sticks. Besides the ritual of throwing I Ching, great power of concentration would be required."

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, I believe Miss Winters referred to the I Ching," says Reverend Trask. "That is one possibility, though perhaps we should wait for Nathan Forbes and Jeremiah Collins to return from Arizona, in case they also wish to return to our time. But how did Miss Winters come to my time in the first place? Perhaps there is another way."

[SunlessNick]

Sorry for the absence.

"You seem troubled," says Nathan to Victoria after her visit to the hospital. "I assume you would have said had Mr Collins taken a turn for the worse - has something else occurred?"

[He will also have asked what aliens and ray guns may be, thought he latter may be presumed to be some manner of weapon]

[Mr. Handy]

"He's in good health," says Victoria, "but he's upset because he keeps being bewitched into falling in love, first with me and then with Laura. He got angry because I reminded him of how he felt for me. I just feel bad for him and wish I could help him, but it seems that my presence makes it worse. Aliens and ray guns are things you might find in what's called science fiction, which speculates about the future. There are books about it, but also movies and television shows. Aliens are beings from other planets that can be very different than people. They aren't real, or at least I don't think they are. Nobody's ever found one and proven it, anyway. Ray guns are a type of weapon that doesn't exist, at least not yet, but people have imagined them. Instead of shooting a ball or a bullet, a ray gun will shoot heat or light or some other kind of energy."

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

"Yes, I believe Miss Winters referred to the I Ching," says Reverend Trask. "That is one possibility, though perhaps we should wait for Nathan Forbes and Jeremiah Collins to return from Arizona, in case they also wish to return to our time. But how did Miss Winters come to my time in the first place? Perhaps there is another way."

Professor Stokes ponders this question for some time, sipping sherry and pacing around the room, stopping now and again to consult a volume for a moment.

"Allow me to propose a hypothetical scenario. Given the fact that Miss Winters arrived at Collinwood before Mrs. Stoddard intended to invite her -- I confess I have an interest in the frequent gossip that surrounds the illustrious Collins family -- I took the liberty of making some discrete inquiries. It seems that a Miss Victoria Winters, according to my sources of information, is still in residence in an orphanage in New York, and knows nothing about the Collins or Collinsport. Was the Miss Victoria Winters who arrived at Collinwood an imposter?

"From what you have told me, I have dismissed this possibility. Rather, I must suggest that the Miss Victoria Winters in New York and the Miss Victoria Winters currently in the Great American Desert existed in parallel times, and exist in the same plane of reality only due to the dislocation in time the latter experienced. As to how this occurred, I can only speculate.

"Given, from what you say, of her disorientation at the time of her arrival in your time, it seems likely that she had participated in some sort of parapsychological ritual; a séance, for example. If she happened to possess psychic abilities herself, perhaps unknown to her, that could have caused a sort of slippage between two parallel times, out of synchronicity with each other, if you see what I mean. She may have been transported from 1967 One to 1795 Two. Do I make myself clear?

"Whether such a procedure could be undertaken to reverse the effect is difficult to determine."

[VictoriaSilverwolf]

Jeremiah's body heals reasonably well, but not, according to physicians, does his mind. Perhaps as a result of the trauma of the inferno, he continues to spin wild stories. Having no known relatives or friends, and no means of support, it is thought best to secure him a place in a minimum security mental hospital, to which he does not object.

Whether Miss Winters and Mister Forbes should remain here, to see if he requires any other assistance, or whether they should return to Collinsport, remains to be seen.

[Mr. Handy]

"But he does have family," says Victoria. "He is part of the Collins family in Collinsport, Maine, headed by Roger Collins. He'll be much better off with his family around him than among strangers. Please let us take him back to Maine with us."