The Joys of Spring (female, Rose Red)

[Chanel_no5]

***Note***

Okay, yes, I know. I need to stop posting fics about characters that nobody else are into. But… maybe there is someone else out there who does like the same characters, something I obviously still hope for. Anyway. I re-watched the series Rose Red some time ago and also relapsed into my old crush on Joyce. Doodled with a few drabbles for fun and this one grew. Like the house. Meh, whatever. Happy Easter.

Story takes place a few weeks before the events of the mini series Rose Red.

Also, the title is a wordplay that I chuckled at because it’s so bad.

***

Professor Joyce Reardon wouldn’t exactly call springtime “joyful”. In fact, if she could somehow remove the months of April and May from the year altogether, she would. There were just too many things in bloom that her nose had decided to be allergic to, and she had to breathe, didn’t she? Yes. Unfortunately.

In her office, the windows were firmly closed when spring arrived. So were - usually - the windows in the classrooms where she lectured, but only a few minutes into this morning’s first class she suspected that somebody had kept the windows open before she got here. Probably just to let in the fresh spring air for the most innocent reason, however… maybe she was just being paranoid after the big fight she had with the department head Carl Miller yesterday, but…

No way, she thought. Even Miller wouldn’t sink that low. He knows how miserable I am, he wouldn’t…

Snapping back to reality, she realised that she had fallen silent in the middle of a sentence, and her students were beginning to give her puzzled looks. Some even looked worried. She was a well-liked and respected teacher, and her classes were immensely popular; among her students, she had never encountered any mocking or berating. Not even from her ’normal’ psychology classes when she slipped in a supernatural topic now and then simply because she couldn‘t help herself. No, her students liked her. It was the other professors, and particularly her boss, that could be assholes.

“Miss Reardon?” one of her students said. She took a deep breath to keep talking - although she honestly had no idea what she had been talking about - and sneezed instead. At the very last moment she managed to suppress it into something of a smothered half-stifle into one loosely cupped hand.

“AamptSCH!”

The student sitting right next to where she had stopped during her stroll around the classroom startled.

“I’m sorry,” Joyce said with an apologetic laugh and gave said student a brief pat on the shoulder with the hand she hadn‘t sneezed into. “I was waiting for that one,” she continued as if to explain her unusual silence. “Now where was I?”

“Um… magnetic fields?” a male student offered.

“Yes, thank you. Some research of paranormal phenomenon shows highly increased magnetic field reading during a ghost manifestation…”

As she, with studied slowness, made her way back to the front of the classroom, she cursed her allergies, not for the first time and certainly not the last. Her eyes, nose, her entire sinuses, were all a hot inferno of allergic irritation. Normally she was quite an optimistic person and shrugged at what basically was a seasonal head cold, deciding to focus on being grateful it wasn’t asthma. But today it was bad, and she really, really didn’t want to suffer one of her loud, messy allergy attacks in front of her class. Not because she thought her students would think less of her, but because, well…

I don’t have time for that nonsense.

Joyce had a remarkable ability to twist people into doing her bidding without them even realising that they were being manipulated, but unfortunately she couldn’t manipulate herself. At least not her body’s physical response.

The incessant itch in her nose grew worse and she realised she was on the verge of sneezing again. She sniffed and rubbed the heel of one hand against the itchiest nostril and was disgusted when she heard a wet, squishing sound. Turning away from the class to hide the tortured pre-sneeze expression that was slowly creeping into her facial features, she pretended to look at the notes on the whiteboard.

Eventually, she couldn’t hold back the teasing, building sneeze any longer, and raised her hands up to her face to catch what was about to come. Had she seriously forgotten to bring tissues? Yes, it seemed that way. Great.

“HmpTSCH! MnnTSCHoo!”

“Bless you, Miss Reardon,” several students said. She sniffed before turning back to the class.

“Thank you. I’m sorry about that; I’m not contagious. It’s just my annual war with spring pollen,” she said in a light tone and was rewarded with a few giggles from the class. “It’s the only field where I admit defeat,” she said in a slightly louder voice when she saw Miller stepping inside the projector room with a smug look on his face. “I…” but about here the itch completely overwhelmed her sinuses and she had to sneeze again, her nostrils flaring as she fought the sneezes with all her willpower. Allergic tears seeped out of her irritated eyes.

“EeISCHHoo! KtSCHHoo! HahIIIDSSChhew! HeeeIITTSSHHEW!”

Each sneeze misted her hands with spray and she winced at this lack of control, but she was unable to stop herself. Her nose was burning. Oh, she didn’t have time for these stupid allergy fits.

She sent a murderous glare up towards Miller, and his smug grin widened, confirming her suspicion that he was the one responsible for all the extra pollen in this room. Damn that man. But if he intended that she’d be embarrassed - which of course he did - she wasn’t going to be. Not a chance.

“Are you okay, Miss Reardon?” one of the female students in the first row finally asked. She sounded almost shocked, and no wonder. Joyce had sneezed in front of a class before, if you taught twenty classes a week year in and year out it was inevitable, but she had never had fits like this. Not in front of people. Okay, yeah, sure, when it got really bad she sometimes had ducked back to her office and sneezed her head off, figuratively speaking, and she knew perfectly well that the walls were far from soundproof, but at least then nobody saw her lose control.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she tried to assure them, but even then her breath hitched as her treacherous lungs tried to fuel the next onslaught of sneezes. The itch was maddening.

“EeIISCHH! ErrSSHHHEW!”

Oh, if she could just get the pollen out of her nose, maybe she’d be able to stop sneezing. She doubled over with the next one, actually spraying the front of her blouse. Now it was starting to get embarrassing in spite of what she had promised herself.

“Miss Reardon, you’re not fine,” another student chimed in, sounding worried. A third rummaged through her bag and pulled out a chart of antihistamines. At least half a dozen students were searching through their stuff to find tissues to offer her. In between sneezes, Joyce caught another glimpse of Carl Miller, but by now he looked disappointed rather than smug. She felt a bitter sense of victory when he clenched his jaws and turned to leave. He had obviously not taken into account just how popular she was and how loyal her students were. How little joy they found in seeing their teacher lose control.

I’ll never let you win, she thought. I will go to Rose Red, I will bring the equipment you try to deny me, and I will get measurable data that is going to change the way the world look at paranormal phenomenon. You will never defeat me.

She sneezed again and groaned.

Pollen might, but you won’t.

 

[Ali Marie]

Oooh! I LIKE this. 

I love Rose Red!  I absolutely gobble up anything Stephen King related!

This is awesome, I've always had mixed feelings about the character of Joyce Reardon but I'm a total Nancy Travis fan, so you have won me over! 

Edited March 26, 2016 by Alexandra Marie

[Chanel_no5]

Just now, Alexandra Marie said:

Oooh! I LIKE this. 

I love Rose Red!  I absolutely gobble up anything Stephen King related!

This is awesome, I've always had mixed feelings about the character of Joyce Reardon but I'm a total Nancy Travis fan, so you have won me over! 

Awwww, thank you for your sweet comment!! Oh yeah, King is the man. I love his works! I'm actually surprised that most people (who saw it) dislike Rose Red so much. I thought it was damn good. Okay, so the last part was so-and-so, but still...

Honestly, I had mixed feelings about Joyce too, I felt like the story was supposed to focus on her descent into madness, because her first scenes implies that she was a highly respected and popular teacher (there are so many students in her classroom there aren't even seats for everyone, noticed that?), and she seemed like a nice person. Then it's as if everything "normal" she does after the scene where she smears her blood on Miller's face is just pretend, she's definitely gone insane there. I always wanted to know more where she came from, why that obsession of hers had gone so far, what her honest goal really is. Or maybe the house has gotten hold of her as well, using her to gather these psychics? I thought that seemed to be a likely reason, and I think that would have made her character more interesting if they had decided to develop that part a bit further. *sigh* Nevertheless, I thought Nancy Travis did a great job with her.

[SexyGodlikeHair]

Though I'm entirely unfamiliar with the...uh...book? Show? The thing. ANYWAY-I enjoyed reading this, nonetheless

[Chanel_no5]

18 hours ago, SexyGodlikeHair said:

Though I'm entirely unfamiliar with the...uh...book? Show? The thing. ANYWAY-I enjoyed reading this, nonetheless

Thank you! Well, it's a mini series for TV. Sadly it was never written in book form, I feel like it would have gotten deeper into the characters that way, but, well, you can't have everything.

 

[Ali Marie]

16 hours ago, Chanel_no5 said:

Thank you! Well, it's a mini series for TV. Sadly it was never written in book form, I feel like it would have gotten deeper into the characters that way, but, well, you can't have everything.

 

I don't mean to Thread jack, or come across as a Know-It-All, but King did write a book based off the film. It's called The Diary Of Ellen Rimbaur. I was never personally interested in reading it but maybe you would be. 

[Chanel_no5]

19 minutes ago, Alexandra Marie said:

I don't mean to Thread jack, or come across as a Know-It-All, but King did write a book based off the film. It's called The Diary Of Ellen Rimbaur. I was never personally interested in reading it but maybe you would be. 

It's fine. I actually have that book. It's not written by King though, but by one of his friends, and it doesn't cover the events in the mini series at all, but is, well, Ellen Rimbauer's diary. The only character development of the RR characters is in fictional editorial comments, as Joyce Reardon is presented as an actual person who found and published the diary. I guess what you could tell from her character in these notes is that she's a passionate scientist hunting for a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a compassionate person who has a lot of sympathy for the abused women in the diary. Steven Rimbauer's note says nothing about his character, really. So as a character development of the RR team it's completely useless. Ah, anyway. I guess that's what's interesting about it, you can make up any story at all behind their actions.