Dark Shadows - A New Beginning

Chapter Seven

Having stayed up so late the night before - it seemed like Stanley had been asleep for almost no time before it was time to rise and start his first day on the job.

He made his way to the kitchen and started the Mr. Coffee coffeemaker to dripping. Then he took out a big bowl and started cracking eggs. 

He'd gotten a whisk and had just set to whipping the eggs when Junior came in and yawned.

"Good morning, Stanley," Junior greeted in a friendly enough voice. 

"Good morning," Stanley replied. "Coffee's ready..."

"Thank goodness for that," Junior said gratefully, grabbing a coffee cup from one of the cabinets. "Did something happen last night? I could have sworn that I heard movement in the halls. Of course, it could have been one of Collinwood's resident ghosts..."

"Resident ghosts?" Stanley asked curiously, placing a frying pan on the big stove burner.

"Oh, yeah," Junior confirmed. "You heard that right. Resident ghosts! David doesn't like me to talk about it..."

"Where is David anyway?"

"Probably seeing his dad before breakfast," Junior said. "Then he'll go to see Uncle Roger again and take him a tray. That gives us time. Which ghost you want to hear about first?"

Stanley tipped his egg mixture into the frying pan and began to stir.

"Like I would know anything about your resident ghosts?"

"True enough," Junior said. "Well, first there's Josette Collins. She was the wife of Jeremiah, even though Cousin Barnabas used to say that she had initially intended to marry the first Barnabas, his direct ancestor. Anyway, David says that Josette hasn't appeared for years and years, to his knowledge. Though if you listen really carefully on some nights, you might hear her crying."

Stanley felt a shiver run down his skin. He wasn't sure he fancied this line of discussion.

"You can hear crying?" he asked, his curiosity aroused.

"That's what they say," Junior replied, sounding a little skeptical. "I've never heard her. That's one of the local folk tales you might hear down in town about our little house of haunted thrills..."

"That'll be enough of that," David said firmly, choosing that moment to cut in. "We don't want to send Stanley running for the hills, or we'll be stuck eating cereal for breakfast from now until Doomsday."

Junior and Stanley both shared an amused look and laughed at David's joke. David smiled, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Good morning," he said to Stanley. "I heard that you got up to some adventures last night. You're fortunate that my cousin seems to have taken an immediate liking to you. He isn't like that with everyone."

"I liked him a lot," Stanley said honestly. "He seems like a very nice and charming person."

"Oh, he is," David affirmed. "Say, I just remembered - I was thinking about taking a ride into town after lunch. Do you want to go?"

Stanley started to say 'no'. He couldn't see that he had any real reason to leave Collinwood on this, his first day working.

...but then he thought of his friend Adam, the mechanic in town. 

'I would like to see him again' - Stanley thought to himself. '...and see if he'll say anymore about Barnabas...'

He agreed to David's offer, while Junior said that he thought he'd probably sit this one out.