Ep 143 - Lock in a Locket
Shebastorm
By Kayrand
After waking to the horror of his mother's face eerily hovering over his bed,
David yells for his aunt. Liz and Vicki come in and he points to the picture as
the problem, telling them he saw his mother's face in it. Liz tries to console
him, saying it was only a nightmare--but David says he's *sure* he was awake.
Liz blames the dream on the picture (which she doesn't approve of, either), and
she suggests to David that he doesn't want the picture anymore. He agrees--but
only until she goes to take it down from the wall. He asks her to leave it
there because he wants it. She leaves it on the wall, but tells him they'll
talk in the morning. She and Vicki leave, turning out the lights.
Instead of sleeping, David goes over to the picture to look at it.
In the drawing room, Liz tells Vicki that she's worried about David's
nightmares. Liz also tells Vicki that it's not certain David will be given into
the custody of his mother. While it's true that Laura needs David, does he need
her? What about these nightmares? Her presence really seems to disturb him!
In his room, David is looking for answers in his crystal ball. He looks from it
to the picture, and then back again. He leaves the ball, turns on the light,
and stands before the portrait of his mother.
The next morning, Sam is back at the canvas when David and Vicki come to see
him. David want to thank him for the picture, and he also wants to find out why
Sam painted his mother standing in fire. Sam tells him that's not the kind of
thing to ask an artist; pictures just "happen." Nonetheless, David asks again.
Why did Sam paint his *dream*? He then explains his dream to Sam, telling him
his mother looks in the dream just like she does in Sam's painting; even the
expression is the same. In the dream, he sees her standing in fire, and the
fire is all around her. She calls out, but he can't hear what she's saying. It
just gets hotter and hotter and soon fire is "falling from everyplace and I can
hardly see her through the smoke." It keeps getting hotter and hotter, but then
David wakes up. He feels that something is going to happen, but he doesn't know
what it is. Sam agrees it's like a dream; it's a *nightmare*. He tells an
unconvinced David they must be on the "same psychic wavelength" so that they
can share some thoughts. He then offers David cider and cookies in the kitchen.
With David in the other room, Sam admits to Vicki that his own vision was
exactly like David's dream with the woman in the fire, the heat, and the smoke.
He then shows Vicki his latest painting, which began as a seascape, but is now
another picture of a woman in fire. She asks him if it, too, is Laura; he
replies that he doesn't know. With the first picture, it wasn't supposed to be
Laura; her face came later. Vicki notices that, like the first, the second
picture has a blank area, although this time she thinks that the woman appears
to be holding something in that space. Sam can't tell her what it is. Vicki
confesses to Sam that she felt very strange yesterday. She didn't want the
picture, nor did she want to show it to David later, but she felt taking the
picture, and then giving it to David, was beyond her power. She and Sam agree
they both feel forced. He says he *can't* work on the picture anymore! Vicki
and David soon leave, with David thanking Sam one last time. Alone, Sam resumes
painting, his eyes taking on a wild look.
David and Vicki return to Collinwood, and David is sent off to the kitchen for
lunch. Vicki and Liz begin to talk but are interrupted by a knock at the door.
The man at the door identifies himself as Lieutenant Riley, a detective with
the state police department. He has some questions for Laura, as well as the
few things the Phoenix police salvaged from the fire. He offers to let Liz
look at them to see if she recognizes any of them. With Vicki looking over her
shoulder, Liz quickly puts aside as unfamiliar the first few pieces she looks
at before finding a locket she recognizes. She explains the locket is a family
heirloom, and that Roger had given it to Laura for their wedding. Vicki
examines the locket, and pronounces it "very strange;" Laura had shown her one
just like it the other day. There must be two of them. Liz denies there could
be two, but Vicki insists there *must be* because they're identical. Laura had
told her that she keeps the locket with her all the time, and it has a lock of
David's baby hair in it. Liz remembers that Laura did cut a lock of David's
hair right after he was born. Lt. Riley, at Liz's request, opens the locket
from Phoenix. Inside is a picture of a small boy...and a lock of hair.