From: Marni Centor <marni@panix.com>

GUIDING LIGHT UPDATE -- THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1997

                 THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING
            (unfortunately, the pudding's missing)

Highlights:
* Matt & Vanessa take a cybersail.
* Reva freaks over the missing fetus & hurls more accusations at Annie.
* Annie hurls accusations right back & tells her story to Frank.
* Josh tries unsuccessfully to reason with Reva. Reva vows to get proof.
* Rick turns the hospital upside down in a futile fetal search.
* Against Rick's advice, Michelle enlists Bill in her search for 
Maureen's heart recipient.

LUCERNE/REARDON HOUSE: In the chat room, "Tess" (Vanessa) tries to cheer 
up "Robert" (Matt) with a joke. (A horse walks into a bar. The bartender 
asks, "Why the long face?") It takes Matt awhile to get it. He thinks 
they're good for each other. She thanks him for the flowers he e-mailed 
her. She mentions that she's been doing work with "guided imagery." If 
she closes her eyes & focuses, she can actually believe she's in the 
middle of a beautiful garden, seeing & smelling the flowers. 

Matt says he has a perfect vision of a person who's always in his life. 
She's there every moment of his day. She's his wife & he misses her 
because she died. Vanessa is very sorry to learn this. Matt says it's 
been awhile. She asks if it's gotten better with time. Matt says he 
thought it would be different by now, but it's not. He can't let go. 
Vanessa thinks he must have loved his wife very much. She knows what 
it's like to miss someone you love. But thinking of her garden really 
helps. Matt says he doesn't have anything like that. Van asks what he 
loves most in the world.

CEDARS/RECEPTION: Reva is appalled to learn from Rick that Annie's dead 
fetus is missing. Frank shows up to investigate the disappearance of the 
fetal remains. Rick tells him to take it up with the morgue, but Frank 
wants to start with Rick. Rick says the fetus disappeared & no one knows 
how it happened. He personally supervised their preservation & storage & 
can't explain what might have happened. While Frank has Rick tied up, 
Reva slips into Annie's room.

ANNIE'S ROOM: Reva accuses Annie of stealing the evidence. Annie says 
Reva is crazy, but Reva thinks Annie's the one off her rocker. She can't 
believe Annie would stoop so low & wants Annie to admit what she did. 
She threatens to choke it out of her, but doesn't actually touch her. 
Reva knows Annie stole the remains to prevent the tests from revealing 
that Josh wasn't the father. Annie reaches for the phone to call 
security. Josh walks in & asks Reva what she's doing there. Reva's turns 
toward him & the tape recorder falls out of her pocket. "She's recording 
me!" cries Annie incredulously.

Annie demands that Josh keep Reva away from her. Josh tries to calm 
Annie down & says Reva isn't going to hurt her. Reva says she's sick of 
Annie's act. Annie accuses Reva of being nuts & tells her to go ahead & 
play the tape. Frank enters & says he'd like to hear it too.

NURSE'S STATION: Rick yells at Lillian to get all the records relating 
to Annie's case. He then apologizes for yelling & blames it on Frank. He 
can't believe that Frank Cooper, of all people, is giving him crap over 
this. Lillian can't understand what happened either. Rick says if 
there's a flaw in their system, they have to find it before the cops do.

Abby shows up & asks what's going on. Rick fills her in. Annie's 
claiming that Reva pushed her down the stairs. Rick says he wants to 
talk to David in pathology. He also wants records of everyone who's been 
in & out of the area since before the disappearance. 

Michelle shows up, wanting to talk to Rick about her mother, but Rick 
has too many problems to talk with her now. She asks what's wrong. He 
says he's dealing with a serious crisis. He walks away & Michelle is 
frustrated. Abby explains to her that Rick is very upset about the 
situation with Annie.

ANNIE'S ROOM: They listen to the tape, which doesn't help matters at 
all. Reva says they should have seen Annie's face when she was. It was 
like Annie knew she was being taped & was saying everything she could to 
incriminate Reva. She's sure Annie would have cracked if she had just 
had a little more time with her. [Frankly, I think Annie cracked a long 
time ago.] Frank says that's not what he's getting from the tape at all. 
He wants to talk to Annie alone & ushers Reva & Josh out of the room. 
Reva complains that Annie's just going to lie some more.

Annie tells Frank that it's so sad that Reva has never accepted the fact 
that she & Josh were having a child together. Frank offers to come back 
later, but Annie wants the horrible nightmare to end.

RECEPTION: Michelle tells Abby that she was accepted to Stevens College, 
Maureen's alma mater. Abby asks if Michelle called her dad. Michelle 
says she e-mailed him. Abby is sure Rick will be thrilled with the news 
too. Michelle says she was talking to Phillip & he gave her a really 
good idea that she wants to discuss with Rick. She decides to plant 
herself in the hospital until Rick is free. Abby thinks it won't be 
anytime soon. They watch Rick yell at some guy in white that his answer 
isn't good enough. Rick sends the guy back to look for a better one. He 
tells Lillian they have to find out what happened to the baby.

ANNIE'S ROOM: Annie doesn't know how she provoked Reva into attacking 
her. She knows Reva's resented her ever since she married Josh. Frank 
wants to nail down what happened at the party. Annie says the whole town 
knows how Reva feels about her. Frank says that's not enough evidence to 
arrest someone. Annie says Frank should know how volatile Reva is; she 
was married to his father. Frank says that's not the point. Annie says 
wherever Reva goes, trouble follows. Frank asks if it's possible Annie 
provoked Reva. Annie wonders if she could have unconsciously done 
something to set Reva off. She mentions that Reva told her about looking 
for her sister & how sympathetic she was to Reva's quest.

Frank asks if Reva might have been lying about having another sister. 
Annie gets caught up in talking about how Reva went all over the country 
talking to strange people. Frank asks how the people were strange. Annie 
corrects herself & says it was Reva who was acting strange. Frank asks 
for details. Annie says it got really weird when Reva decided that Annie 
was her sister. One time, she hugged Annie so hard, it scared her. And 
she knew deep down that Reva hated her. Frank asks if she thinks Reva 
would actually harm her. Annie says she just knew something terrible 
would happen, but she never thought Reva hated her so much that she'd 
kill her baby.

HOSPITAL CHAPEL: Reva complains to Josh that Annie set her up & now 
she's playing on Frank's sympathies. Reva vows to make it stop. Josh 
says Reva has to ease up because she's only making things worse. She 
says they can't be any worse. "You wanna bet?" he asks. He tries to make 
her see reason. He points out how bad her obsession looks. Reva goes off 
on another rant against how Annie has been lying for months. She asks 
Josh to come to the fertility clinic with her. He says he's already been 
& they told him Annie was never a patient there. Reva's theory that the 
baby wasn't his is blown. 

CYBERSPACE: Vanessa & Matt talk about skipping stones. Matt claims to 
hold the world's record. Van says she's not a good skipper of stones, 
but she's a good skipper of boats. She loves to sail. Matt says he likes 
big sailing boats that can take you to fantastic places. He tells her 
about a magical-sounding island he's heard of in the Indian Ocean. They 
plan a cyber-sailing trip there together. They name their boat the Sea 
Star. Vanessa thinks the name is very romantic. They set sail.

CEDARS/ANNIE'S ROOM: Frank asks about Josh's recent trip out of town. 
Annie explains that she & Josh were separating. Frank didn't know that. 
Annie says Josh still had feelings for Reva & Annie had decided not to 
get in the way. Frank asks if that means she had accepted that her 
marriage was over & she says yes, until the night of the party. Her 
biggest mistake was telling Reva that she intended to fight for Josh. 
Frank asks when Annie said that. "On top of the stairs, before she 
pushed me down them." She starts sniveling about how Reva had children & 
knew how important this baby was to Annie. Frank has a daughter; he must 
understand. Frank can't even imagine what it must feel like to lose a 
child. Annie says it's not enough for Reva that Annie lost her baby; now 
she's making accusations at Annie. "That woman caused all this agony & 
she doesn't even have any remorse." 

CHAPEL: Despite what they told Josh at the clinic, Reva is still sure 
that Annie was inseminated there. Josh say Reva has to stop saying 
things she can't prove. She has to understand how bad she's making 
herself her look. Reva says she did not push Annie; Annie pushed herself 
down the stairs. Josh repeats that all of Reva's actions are just making 
her look guilty to the rest of the world. Reva just shakes her head & 
looks around the room in utter frustration.

NURSE'S STATION: Rick sifts through files & yells at Lillian that he 
doesn't have everything he needs. Lillian goes to get the missing 
reports. Michelle brings Rick a cup of coffee & he suddenly realizes 
that she's hanging around the hospital on a school day. She tells him 
about her acceptance to Stevens. He gives her a hug & tells her how 
proud he is. He wants her to go to school now, but she insists on 
telling him one more thing first. She tells him that Maureen's heart was 
donated. Rick didn't know. Michelle wants to find the person who 
received the heart. Rick thinks it's a bad idea. He tells her to forget 
about it. Michelle is ticked & says Phillip thought it was a good idea. 
She thanks him sarcastically for all his support.

CHAPEL: Reva is sure that Annie was artificially inseminated. Josh says 
she has no proof. "That doesn't mean I'm wrong," says Reva. Josh doesn't 
know what Reva wants him to say. Reva starts crying. She says the last 
time she was in the chapel, she thought Annie was her sister & she 
prayed for the strength to do the right thing. Josh asks if that's when 
she started pushing him away. She says she had to do it. Josh wishes she 
had just told him the truth. Reva hated lying to him, but she knew if 
she told him that Annie was her sister, Josh would still leave her & 
Reva would have to live with the guilt. Reva knows now that Abby was 
right when she said Reva's lie was just as bad as what Annie had done & 
was a repudiation of her wedding vows to Josh. 

Reva approaches Josh & asks if he remembers it. He does. She remembers 
all of it, how her heart was pounding because she loved him so much. How 
could something that started out so beautifully, with so much hope, get 
to a place like this?

NURSE'S STATION: Rick has his head on the counter. Abby comes over & he 
lifts his head, complaining about everything that's gone wrong in the 
last 24 hours. He invites her to tell him how wrong he's been about 
everything. He has no energy to argue about anything. Abby says she 
didn't come over to argue. She thought he might need a friend & says 
she's available if he wants to talk. Rick looks like he's been hit by a 
Mack truck.

CYPERSEA: Van & Matt continue their imaginary trip. They spot an island 
& decide to check it out. Bill shows up & is amazed that Matt is still 
wrapped up in the computer. He excuses himself from "Tess" so he can 
talk to Bill. Van says she'll just luff in the meantime. Bill asks who 
Matt's talking to. Matt says it's a friend & offers Bill a chance to say 
hi. Bill answers the doorbell instead. It's Michelle. They go outside to 
talk. 

Matt returns to the PC. The wind has died. Matt says he has to "go 
ashore" because he has to get to work. Van asks what kind of work he 
does that he has to go "at this hour." Matt is confused. He says it's 10 
AM. Vanessa says they're many hours apart, but it feels closer. She asks 
where he is. 

REARDON HOUSE/EXTERIOR: Michelle asks for Bill's help in finding the 
recipient of her mother's heart. Bill isn't sure. He doesn't think it 
will be easy & could take forever. He also says they could both get in a 
lot of trouble. He wants time to think about it. Michelle says this is 
the most important thing in her life right now. Bill says this is how 
she's always been, since they were kids. When she wants something, she 
just goes ahead & does it without thinking it through. Michelle says 
they will think it through together. What if it were Bill's mom? 
Wouldn't he want to know?

CYPERSPACE: Matt says his location is top-secret. He's working on secret 
experiments. It's so secret he doesn't even know where it is. She asks 
for a description. He mentions a few chairs, a couch & a coffee table. 
Van says where she comes from they call that a living room. Matt laughs 
& asks where she comes from. From another place far away from where she 
is now, she says. Matt decides she's a woman of mystery & a "wonderful 
luffer." Van asks what Matt does for a living. Matt says he doesn't do a 
lot, & he'll do even less today, if he doesn't get going. He says good-
bye & says it's been nice sailing with her. He hopes they can do it 
again soon. She agrees. They both sign off.

Van grabs a globe from her window & tries to figure out where "Robert" 
is located by his time zone. She doesn't think Mexico, because he hasn't 
spoken Spanish. Could be Houston. She laughs gently as she sees it could 
also be Springfield. 

CEDARS/ANNIE'S ROOM: Frank thanks Annie for talking with him. Annie says 
rather unconvincingly that it was really hard for her to relive all 
those painful memories. She'll never understand why Reva attacked her. 
Frank says Annie should try not to think about it. Annie starts crying 
over how Reva killed her precious baby. Frank leaves her his card, in 
case she ever wants to talk. 

Annie has something else she wants to talk to Frank about. She says she 
wanted to give her baby a decent burial, but now she can't even do that. 
She doesn't want to sound as crazy as Reva, but she wonders if Reva 
stole her baby's body.

CHAPEL: Josh says the important things haven't changed. He still loves 
her. "But you're not sure if what I'm saying about the baby is true," 
replies Reva. Josh says there's no proof. There is, says Reva. It's out 
there somewhere. She's convinced that Fran is the key to this whole 
thing. She went away very suddenly & did not return from her vacation. 
Reva says she has to find Fran & if Josh loved her, he would help her. 
Josh is concerned about Reva. They start yelling at each other -- Reva's 
bent on proving her case & Josh keeps telling her she has no proof. She 
asks what it's going to take to get through to him. She realizes that 
she can't get through to him, because he doesn't believe her. "You think 
I'm the one who's lying, don't you?" She runs from the room. Josh shakes 
his head & looks defeated as the screen fades to black.


--Marni (marni@panix.com)



