Had A Smoke And Then Someone Spoke

Collinsport. At the office of Collins investigations Esther Freidman and Samantha Brook have been working on a translation of the Hebrew and Yiddish entries in the journal of Esther’s grandfather. For most of the morning they have labored on just a few pages. Samantha, who has grown more and more restless as she concentrated on the translation has left, Esther remains to continue the translation.

Act 1— The Call

From the crystal ashtray, the center of which is hard packed with a skim of grey ash and nicotine, a curl of smoke arises. The stubbed out cigarette refuses to be extinguished. Esther concentrating on her translation of the journal looks up, noting the waft of smoke from the cigarette she thought she had put out. She sits for a moment looking at it – how stubbornly it refuses to give up its last glowing ember. She reaches over to pick it up and stub it down once more, crush the life out of it – only, she stops and looks at it thinking how like this cigarette she feels . . . how she too will refuse to give up the light of her life to the darkness and be extinguished by some horror hundreds of years old. Forced into a contract she never made.

She looks at the bent, broken remains of the Marlboro Red and places it back in the ash tray – she lays it down in order to let it go out when it chooses.

In the back room that Rhyaad had once used as an office, Esther sits at the desk with the photocopies of pages from the first part of the journal and several open books on the Yiddish language scattered about her. She’s getting a headache as she has totally forgotten when she last ate.

Sam had been helping, but she’s excused herself to do her Sam-like things.

Esther is startled now by the sound of her iPhone 4S as it rings.

She looks over at the caller ID, her eyes slightly brightening as she reaches over and lifts to phone to answer it, “Hello? Noah?”

The voice on the other end of the phone is indeed Noah Mankowski, a voice she has not heard in far too long.

“Esther! Look, I need to talk with you.” As always in his rushed voiced, “Is Nicole Collins there?”

“No.”

“Esther, look. I need to speak with you privately. There are a few things of grave importance.”

Esther looks up from her translation, “Uh, Sure. What time, where?”

“Right now,” His voice taunt with either concern or paranoia, “And someplace safe.”

“Well—there’s the old house.” She tells him.

“NO!” Noah nearly screams at the phone.”

“Noah?” What –“

“I mean, no.” He says not trying to reassure her, “Someplace else. How about your shack in the woods.”

“Ok. I suppose it could use some airing out.” She tries to remember when she was last back by her old cabin, “Give me a bit to walk there, but I’ll be right out.”

“Good. I’ll be there soon.”

The call ends.

What was that all about and why was he so admit about not going to the old house? She looks at the translations scattered on the desk before her, the water stained journal, for one final time, and sighs. So much work, so little time.

She takes note that the cigarette has finally gone out.

She gets up and walks over to the door, picking up her jacket on the arm of the chair beside the desk.

It takes her about an hour to hike from Collinsport back to the winding path leading to her cabin.

Act 2— The Visit

Esther looks around at the dusty cabin.. She is amazed now at how small it is, having spent now so much time with Nik at the Old House. Her bed, always made, looks as if it has been awaiting her return.

She picks up an old coffee cup to find what looks like a moldy Lilli pad growing atop a crushed skim of brown. She sighs and sits down thinking she should be working on the translation – on her grandfather’s journal. But, at the same time she has to admit she is more than a little excited at the prospect of seeing Noah again.

She steps over and flicks ashes into the small black plastic ashtray. She pulls back a chair and takes a seat – one that allows her to watch the road.

She checks her watch.

From the racing clouds moving in rain is coming. A storm no doubt tonight.

From the valley she can hear the sound of a car rising upward. Arising from the dusty chair, she pushes back the curtain to see Noah’s car pull up the dirt road below. She watches as the car comes to a halt and sees Noah reaching over to grab his bag from the passenger’s seat and exit the car.

It is a rental—that is obvious by the Ohio plates.

She crushes the cigarette out in the ashtray and waves a hand to dissipate the lingering smoke and gets up from the table.

Noah looks around, his eyes scanning for the glint of a sniper’s scope, the parabolic microphone being trained on him, the flash of sun off the lenses of high-powered binoculars as he approaches the door of the cabin in the woods. He knocks, ever ready to bolt at any moment.

She smiles at the sight of Esther in the doorway as she opens the door.

“Noah! It’s good to see you!” She hurriedly steps out and gives him a hug.

On the doorstep he stand, frankly, quite surprised to receive a hug. But liking it immensely, “Esther. I’ve got some things here I need to show you,” He says and holds up his bag.

Esther backs up and allows him to enter and closes the door, “Of course. Come on in.”

He nods and sits down in one of the chairs, putting his bag on the table.

“Can I get you anything? Whiskey? Beer?”

He notices the coffee cups, “Any coffee?”

“Sorry. Afraid not. I have not been living here you see – now gotten any supplies.”

“Looks a bit like it, Esther. How are you doing? Is everything all right? With you?”

She sighs and shakes her head, “No.”

“No!?” He is very concerned and leans forward, “What’s happened?”

“Well—I wouldn’t tell just anyone, but you. We went back in time –“

“Back in time!? Are you actually telling me that you went back in time? Did some old man with a Delorian come and take you back in time?

“No.” Esther raises and eyebrow, “But it did involve my parents.”

“Esther, I’m so sorry.” He reaches out a hand and touches her, “I mean, I know your parents are dead but tell me what happened.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Please?”

She looks away, knowing how it will sound, “Vampires.”

“W-What?”

“I never told you – but vampires killed my parents. I saw it once and I blocked it. Now I’ve seen it twice. Oh god Noah,” She looks back at him, into his eyes, “You can’t imagine.

“No.” He says, “No I can’t imagine Esther. And I thought having separated parents where bad, but, well, I wish I could have—“

“No, don’t.” She tells him, “There’s nothing we could have done.”

“We?”

“Nikki and Sam and I.”

Noah looks down, glances at his bag, “Esther. Part of what I have to say is about Nicole Collins.”

She nods, “I know—I know you don’t like her.”

“I didn’t say that? Did I say that? Who said that?: He asks, then looks at her as if trying to decide who might have told her.

She smiles, “Just a guess.”

“Well, when she revealed it to me that she was a vampire it was quite the shock.”

“Noah, she’s not a bad person.” She now touches his hand, “She hasn’t killed anyone for some time now, thanks to my help.”

His face can not contain his alarmed expression, ”What? What do you do? What do you do that makes it so that she does not kill?”

“I feed her the blood from my kills.”

“Oh,” there is only a bit of relief in his voice.

“And she Drinks from Sam.”

“Sam would be the obnoxious, homeless looking person that accompanies her?” he said, really not liking her—and the sarcastic way she handled his mother.

“She’s not that bad once you know how to work around her.”

“Look. Nicole Collins has killed – you know that, right?”

“I try to forget it. But I feel she has redeemed herself.”

“No, “ he shakes his head sadly, “No, I mean before.”

“Before what?” Puzzled by this rely.

Noah reaches over and opens his bag and pulls out a French newspaper and hands it to her. She looks at it . . .

“In 2009 she, along with a certain wealthy business woman named Marceline de Champeaux, where brought in for questioning concerning a murder. The murder was an occult ritual aimed at summoning something.” He tells.

Esther looks at the newspaper unable to comprehend a word of it, but it looks more like something one would buy in the rack at the register of a convenience market, “I don’t read French, but I’m pretty sure this is a tabloid.”

“Of course it’s a tabloid. “ He admits taking the paper from Esther, “Just like in men in Black, tabloids are usually telling the actual truth.”

“Noah, that’s absurd. I once saw a tabloid in the general store that claimed Dick Cheney was a robot from some planet beyond Pluto.”

He shakes his head, “That’s impossible. The planet Yuggoth is not known for their robotics.”

Esther looks at him, “What?”

“Dick Cheney?” he says rhetorically.

She just looks at him, and down at the French newspaper on the table.

“Look, never mind, the point is . . . that this is true.” He points at the paper, “She has killed and she did so before she was a vampire.”

“Look, even if it is true, which I do not believe for a second, what does this have to do with anything relevant now?”

“Well, this woman, de Champeaux, is a stockholder in Mimecom, the Pharmaceutical Company that recently bought out the old Interfaith building here.” He begins and once again he starts shuffling through papers from his bag.

“The one with that pyramid?”

“And the surrounding complex. Yes.”

“Aren’t they turning it into a factory? A Lab? Something?

Noah pulls out some papers, loose newpaper clippings, “Really I don’t know what they are doing, or going to do, there for certain, but, Mimecom has a history.”

Esther sighs, “More history.” As if history itself has not become her enemy. She is not going to say anything to him about the Bathory’s – not the way he feels about Nik. But she has to admit – this story about her involvement in a murder – if it is true – before she became an vampire – this is disconcerting . . . .

“Senator Anton Kreutzer, Republican from California.” He begins as he opens a file he now pulls out of the messanger bag and drops on the table before her. “Have you heard of him?”

“No,” and she picks up the file and starts looking through it..

“Well—back in 2006, Dianne Feinstein lost by an incredibly narrow margin to CEO and founder of the Mimecom Corporation, Anton Kreutzer. The Company had been researching the effects of mind control and implanted memories. He even created a new cult named Synthiotics.”

“More crazy cults.” She says looking at the file, “Just what we need.”

“Tell me about it.” He says and glances out the window, “Anyway, the plan was that Kreutzer of course had to give up his job as CEO, but would subvert the government and the population with the mind control drug, giving him more and more power. Surprising that the mooks in Washington didn’t stop him sooner.”

Esther still flipping pages in the file asks, “Was he stopped?”

“The official story is that he died of a stroke 48 hours after he was elected. Of course, I don’t buy it. I don’t trust much from the Government. In fact, I don’t trust much from most people. “He continues to glance from her and then to look out the windows. “You are sure this place is safe?”

“Most definitely. And if any Black SUVís show up, I’ve enough ammo stockpiled between here and the old house to keep them well off our backs. But Noah, I don’t think the Government is out to get us.”

“Don’t you? Well I wish you best of luck in trying to convince yourself of that.”

Esther closes the file, her eyes glancing at the French newspaper folded beneath the stack of pagers and clippings, “How does any of this relate to us now? You said yourself, Kreutzer’s dead!”

“But the Company still remains and it is in the hands of his son, Anthony Kreutzer Jr.” he tells her. “This Kreutzer has been having mental issues and is possibly being influenced by things that it is not wise to speak of, even in the safest of safe-houses.”

Esther frowns, “Such as?”

Noah whispers, “Louis Castaigne.”

“Who?”

“Well, he appears now to be a businessman, but he was a Painter with no known origin, that anyone can seem to find, that is being supported by Marceline de Champeaux – who is another whole can of worms entirely. You know me, Esther, II have tried to run a background check on the man, but he has no background TO check. He just appeared – out of . . . well, who knows? But I have it on good authority that this man has been in contact with Kreutzer Jr., and that a book arrived for him. A play well known in occult circles.”

“What play?”

“You know about the 1848 French Revolution and mass hysteria that swept through Europe?”

“No.” She tells him.

“Well this play was the spark . . . Wait, you seriously don’t know about the third French Revolution.”

“Education was never my strongpoint, Noah.”

He sighs and sits back, “Please, go read a history book or something. Goodness gracious woman.”

“More to the point, you think this book is influencing him, what does this information have to do with Nikki?”

“Kreutzer is connected to Castaigne, who is connected to de Champeaux, who is connected to Nicole Collins! Point A to Point B to Point C – you just follow the connection of the dots – that is how you untangle the conspiracy.”

“I think you’re seeing conspiracies where there are none Noah.”

He shrugs, “I’ve seen conspiracies where they have existed in the past, when others said there was no conspiracy . . . I see no reason not to believe myself this time.”

“So, Noah, what are you going to do about it?”

“Well I haven’t gotten that far yet. But I plan on sneaking into the Mimecom building sometime in the future.” He says as he puts some of the papers back into his bag – still ready to bolt at a moments notice.

“Noah.” He touches his hand to stop him for a moment, “Are you sure you don’t want to join us? You could make a great contribution to our little band. The number of trustable people is steadily declining anyway. We could really use a true friend.”

“I’m touched.” He says his eyes glancing down at her hand pausing his, “Really, I am. But I cannot stay in one place for too long. Not doing what I do. It’s just not safe.”

“Perhaps you need to see a psychiatrist about this paranoia Noah?” She looks into his eyes – uncertain whether he is correct or this is part of his mania.

“Oh yes.” He says suddenly terrified at the prospect, “Yes go and tell someone all about everything I know and then be certain to set up a routine schedule to meet with them again, but really potentially with a number of people, all of them hiding in the other room ready to spring out as soon as you are all nice and comfortable on the sofa. Because, that sounds like the safest thing in the world. Right? No Esther. I just can’t risk that much. It’s not paranoia if there really are things out to get you, and you know that they are.” He looks at her, his eyes softening, “You’ve seen them too!”

She sighs, remembering Casimir lighting her cigarette out of no where, “Yeah. I suppose you’re right. “

They sit now in an awkward silence. So much to say – so much to conceal.

Noah suddenly stands up and starts putting papers back in his bag.

“So how is your mother?” Esther asks, watching him prepare to leave.

“Scared shitless of burglars and psychotic girlfriends.”

“Girlfriends!?’ Her voice has an odd edge.

“No! No! What I mean is that your Sam has a way with words and actions, and Mame has difficulty understanding subtleties such as sarcasm.”

She smiles slightly, relieved, “I see.”

“Sam seems to feel she can just barge right in and do whatever the hell she wants.”

“Basically we let her do whatever the hell she wants.”

“Well she did calm down, but that’s no excuse for her behavior in front of my mother.”

“Well, I’m fairly certain the dislike is mutual.” She rises from her chair.

Noah finishing up stuffing all the papers back into his bag, looks at her with a bright smile, “I’ll have these faxed to your office. I don’t know if you’ll have time to look into it with all this business about your parents, but if you think you can spare a day or two, take a look at them.”

“Will do.” She slips her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.

“And try to keep it away from Nicole.” He warns her.

“No can do.” She shakes her head.

He looks at her incredulously.

“I trust her as much as you trust me. She’s the brains of this operation after all.”

“Look, Esther, you’re smarter than you put on. There is no reason to trust her. After all, she is a Vampire.”

“I don’t know why. I just feel that I can – that I always can.”

Noah now looks at her with a different expression, one of suspicion. “Did she put you under some kind of trance? Has she been biting you!”

“No no, it’s not that.”

“No?” Then he looks shocked, “Are you . . . are you attracted to her?”

“What!? No! She’s like a sister!”

“Oh.” He says still not reassured.

And now they stand in more awkward silence.

Then suddenly the both start talking at the same time:

“Well you kno-“

“I think th-“

They both stop and flush slightly.

“You go ahead.” She tells him.

“Umm-well—‘ The normally talkative Noah says as he seems to flounder about, glancing briefly at his watch, “Is it that late already? I’d best be on my way!”

Esther frowns slightly, “Oh, well okay, if you must.”

“Yeah,” And then he frowns also, “Unfortunately this whole knowing too much thing, really a strain on time related things.”

“Well, best of luck to you.”

“You as well.” She says not wanting him to go, but not sure how to say it.

“Well” he says and steps away from the table, and looks back at her, “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.”

He hurries over to the door and opens it, stops, turns and smiles, and then rushes out the door and to his car.

Esther walks over to stand in the doorway watching.

In some version she would have liked, he would have stopped, come back – said nothing but taken her in his arms. They would have looked at each other and there would not have been the awkward silence as he—

Only in the versions she is watching, he looks back from his driver’s side window and waves.

She waves back.

Noah looks at her in the doorway, pauses for a moment. His hand reaching for the key to his car – for a moment he thinks to shut the motor off, open his door, and get out—and walk back to Esther. Only, he puts the car into drive and then starts off down the dirt road.

Cue music End of Episode