A Christmas Homecoming: A Novel

n the morning the wind had subsided but the snow was conspicuously deeper. Although the sky was clear overhead, there were dark clouds shadowing the land to the north and far out over the sea. No one bothered to say that there was worse to come: It was obvious to anyone who looked.

“We’ll spend today running it through from beginning to end,” Joshua announced after breakfast.

“The whole play is only an hour long!” Vincent said, already short-tempered. “For God’s sake, why would the run-through take all day?”

“It will with your additions,” James snapped. “There won’t be a fly left in Whitby by the time you get around to Renfield’s death.”

“There aren’t any actual flies, you fool!” Vincent shot back at him. “It’s imagination. That’s what acting is about.”

“Then we’ll all try to imagine that you’re making a good job of it,” James said. He was not going to be beaten easily. “At least until Mr. Ballin comes back again and shows you how to do it better.”

“A pity he hasn’t shown you yet!” Vincent retorted.

“No doubt he will,” Joshua cut in. “But until he does, let’s see what we can do on our own. We’ll start with thunder and lightning effects …”

Vincent stared around the room and then toward the windows. “Probably unnecessary,” he observed.

“So was that remark,” Joshua said tartly. “The coffin will be on the stage and dimly lit, and I will climb out of it. Then the lights will go out, and come on again to be moonlight. Caroline, can you manage that?”

“Yes,” she said immediately. She had practiced with the limelight contraption and she felt more confident, though not quite as confident as she sounded. She too could act!

Joshua smiled. “Good. Lucy will be sitting on the seat or by the shore. I will attack her—”

“Are we going to go through that?” Lydia asked. “Please? We haven’t done it yet.”

“Yes, I suppose we’d better,” Joshua agreed. “Then we see Lucy at home with Mina and Harker. She is ill. Harker sees the bite marks on her neck. She gets worse and Mina cares for her. Dim lights to see Dracula at the window. He comes in and bites her again. In the morning she is far worse.”

“I thought Harker was supposed to be in Budapest?” James interrupted.

“In the book he is,” Joshua answered. “But since we have written Arthur and Dr. Seward out of the play, we have to have him here. We’ve altered the storyline appropriately.”

James shrugged.

“Van Helsing arrives and tells Harker about Renfield,” Joshua went on.

“When do Mina and Harker get married?” James interrupted again. “It’s supposed to happen in Budapest.”

Joshua glanced at Alice.

“They’ll have to be married before we begin,” she answered. “I didn’t think of that, but I can’t see that it matters.”

“Good.” Joshua looked at his notes again. “Lucy is attacked again and gets worse. We don’t need to see the attack—”

“Yes, we do.” Lydia was the one to interrupt this time. “Otherwise it doesn’t make sense.”

“No, we don’t,” Joshua told her. “If we show Dracula attacking too often it loses impact. The audience can deduce what has happened. One really dramatic and powerful scene is better than two weaker ones.”

“They aren’t that powerful,” Vincent pointed out. “You need to be far more sinister. At the moment you look like a lover coming up the garden ladder to elope. Or a burglar caught in the act!”

Alice was frowning. “There is something else important that we missed—”

“You missed,” Lydia corrected her.

“I missed.” Alice accepted the rebuke.

“What?” Joshua was puzzled.

“Mr. Ballin said that the vampire cannot come in unless he is invited. Someone has to invite him, and the audience needs to see that.”

“Mr. Ballin says?” Vincent allowed his contempt to darken his voice. “Since when has he been in charge?”

Alice blinked, but she did not retreat. “The suggestion is a good one, Mr. Singer, and that is all that matters. It is an important point that evil cannot come in unless we invite it. It is our choice.”

“But none of the characters had the faintest idea what he is, or that he’s evil,” Vincent argued. “Or did you miss that point?”

“Perhaps they should have known,” she countered. “It is naïve to imagine anyone is so good that they are immune to evil. Or perhaps it isn’t a lack of goodness, but a total lack of humility that makes one vulnerable?”

“Vincent wouldn’t know anything about that,” Mercy remarked. “Humility, I mean. He probably has no idea what you are talking about.”

“Neither have you, my dear,” Vincent said to Alice. “This is supposed to be drama, not a schoolgirl philosophy.”

Joshua drew in his breath. Caroline knew it was to defend Alice, but she spoke for herself before he could say anything.

“I did not invent vampire lore, Mr. Singer. I am simply quoting what Bram Stoker wrote. Since it is his book, and it greatly adds to the power of the drama, I wish to keep it in.” She looked for a moment at Joshua, to make sure he approved, then turned back to face Vincent.

Joshua was amused. He tried, and failed, to hide it.

“Then we will add it, even if it requires another scene,” he agreed. “You are quite right. It makes moral sense, and it will be good for the audience to see it. Then we will do Lucy’s death scene, as witnessed by Mina. We will dress her in white and keep the light on her to suggest that Lucy is still innocent in appearance and still beautiful.”

Lydia smiled.

“Then we will move to the scene of Lucy attacking the children,” Joshua continued. “We haven’t got any real children so we’ll have to have Alice create children’s voices for us offstage—high-pitched and terrified.” He looked at Alice. “You’ll have to practice that. Then Lucy appears with blood on her mouth and face, and walks through the gravestones to return to her coffin.”

“How are we going to get gravestones on the stage?” James asked.

Joshua looked at Caroline.

“Eliza and I have found some very good old cabin trunks,” she replied. “They are solid and about the right size, stood up on end. We can easily cover them in paper and paint on them appropriately. We can get some stones and a little bit of earth from the kitchen staff.”

“Very good,” Joshua said with satisfaction.

“We may have to condense this next scene a bit for the sake of time; instead of finding the coffin empty multiple times, we’ll just have her in it, serene and lovely. Then empty, to get the point across.”

“It will be stronger if it is shorter,” Alice agreed. “But we should see her smile a terrible smile.”

“We will.” Joshua did not even think to argue. “We’ll see Lucy as a vampire quite clearly, and the struggle that Harker, Van Helsing, and Mina have to kill her. Then, with lights, we can make her seem to return to herself and finally be at peace in death. That is really the end of the middle act.”

“Bravo,” Vincent said sarcastically.

Joshua ignored him. “Then we move into the beginning of the climax, the search for Dracula. We start to see that Renfield’s behavior reflects Dracula’s being nearby.” He looked at Vincent now. “Van Helsing will recount that, with the mimicry,” he instructed. “Including Renfield’s death, with appropriate sadness from Mina and Harker. We’ll include his reference to rats and flies. I know that’s a repeat of his previous references, but this time his manner will be different, and it should be a nice counterpoint.”

No one interrupted, but looking around at them, Caroline saw that he had his troupe’s complete attention. Even Douglas Paterson had nothing to say, as if at last, despite himself, he was drawn into the story.

“Then we have the series of scenes where Dracula appears and attacks Mina. The audience knows it, but Harker and Van Helsing don’t …”

Eliza Netheridge was sitting next to Caroline. “This is getting rather exciting, isn’t it? I begin to understand why Alice cares so much.” She looked across at Alice, who was standing at the far side of the stage, her eyes on Joshua.

“Van Helsing realizes the awful truth of Mina’s condition when he places the holy wafer on her forehead and she screams with pain. It leaves a red scar,” Joshua went on. “They corner Dracula, but he escapes.”

Eliza shuddered.

“Mina tells them that at sunrise and sunset Dracula loses much of his control over her.” Joshua continued the narrative. “Van Helsing hypnotizes her and she says that when Dracula calls her—and he will—then she will have no choice but to go to him, wherever he is, and whatever it costs her.” Joshua smiled. “At that point we should have the audience on the edge of their seats. Then we have the climax.” He glanced at Caroline, then away again.

“This will call for some clear lighting to create the illusion of movement,” he went on. “And then of a screaming wind and a snowstorm in the Carpathian Mountains. Our three remaining characters are huddling together as darkness falls, waiting for the coach that holds Dracula in his coffin, as he is returning to his native soil to regenerate his power. They have to drive a stake through his heart to destroy him forever, or else he will destroy them. We have to make certain that all the necessary information is given without slowing down the action or breaking the sense of doom and terror.”

Vincent grinned. “Actually, it sounds quite good,” he said reluctantly. “It might even be passable, by the time Boxing Day comes. Let’s just hope there is an audience.”

“If there isn’t, we’ll put it on for the servants,” Joshua retorted. “Now let’s get to work.”