"There’s a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere.”

Barnabas smiled as he removed the record from the turntable and slipped it back into its red jacket. He was smiling much more of late, much more than he had smiled since the end of the 18th century. And he knew that there was only one reason causing his face to relax into what had become an unusual expression for him over the many years.

And the reason was Julia.

1968

Julia Hoffman wrinkled her nose as the mustiness of the Old House cellar rose to greet her as she descended the stairs. She was surprised that she wasn’t accustomed to it by now, after all the long hours she had spent in the damp and chilly makeshift laboratory. All the long hours trying to cure Barnabas, all the long hours working on a mate for Adam. Maybe it wasn’t the smell of the cellar that continued to bother her; maybe it was the smell of the distasteful and sometimes horrible things she had had to do in this room.

Julia sighed and set to work assembling her equipment. Adam was getting impatient (getting? He had been “born” impatient) with their lack of progress on his bride, and despite her exhaustion, she needed to accomplish something today. She wearily opened a box of test tubes and began to line them up on the table, hoping that the vague repetition and routine would keep her mind off of what her, their, ultimate goal was. One, two, three, crash….

“Damn!” she muttered under her breath, bending down to sweep the shattered glass fragments into her hand. As she stood back up, it suddenly seemed that the smell and the feel and the darkness of the room were bearing down on her, and she grasped the table tightly for support. How she wanted to leave this place behind, to run up the stairs and out of the Old House into the light, into the fresh air. But those were not options, because if she did not complete this experiment, Adam would wreak his vengeance on Vicki and on the rest of the Collins family. Barnabas was depending upon her to perform this loathsome task again so that Adam would take his mate and leave Collinsport forever.

Barnabas was depending on her. Barnabas, always Barnabas. How had he become her life? How had Julia Hoffman, M.D., such an independent woman, come to put him first, always?

She knew the reason: he was the only man she had ever truly loved. There had been other men in her life, surely, but she had always been able to subordinate them to her career. There had even been a man or two whom she had thought she had loved, but her career had always come first, and in some perverted way, it had pleased her that she had been able to put her profession before her love life.

But Barnabas had turned all of that on its head, had turned her on her head. And she had had to admit that she must not have really loved those other men after all because she had been able to leave them. And she was not able to leave Barnabas.

Julia sighed again realizing that her musings were just putting off the inevitable. She had to work on the experiment; she had no choice. She took a deep breath and crossed the room to where she kept a small radio. At least the music would provide some small distraction while she worked.

The doctor soon found her rhythm again as she studied the journals and made notes of her own, but she put her pen down when a familiar song came on the radio. It was a tune from West Side Story that she had always particularly liked because of its pretty but haunting melody, and before long, she found herself singing along with Andy Williams’ sweet rendition:

“There’s a time for us,
Some day a time for us,
Time together with time to spare,
Time to look, time to care,
Someday!
Somewhere.
We’ll find a new way of living,
We’ll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere.”

As Andy crooned on, Julia Hoffman realized how appropriate his words were for Barnabas and her, and her eyes filled with tears at her hopelessness about their relationship.

“Oh, Barnabas,” she murmured as she buried her head in her hands. “If only there was a time for us….”