(The following is the last part of a two-part series.)

NORA did not want to spend the night in the cabin, and so she didn't. She, Tommy, and Eric drove back to Cambridge to grab a few hours sleep. The mist was worse than ever at night, so the ride back was scary. At one point, Nora told Tommy, who was behind the wheel, that they were driving into a brick wall. She was speaking figuratively, but Tommy took her literally, slammed on the brakes, and nearly sent Eric through the windshield. "We almost got killed," said Nora the next day, "It was really funny."

That left Tim, Phoebe, and myself at the cabin Friday night. We sat by the fire after the others left, playing poker with a damp pack of cards Tommy had found, using sugar cubes for chips. Tim drank, which he almost never does, got rosy-checked and high. He said nothing about the night's shooting--and instead talked only about poker, as he slowly cleaned Phoebe and me out.

Early the next morning we went to town to wash up in the gas stations and eat breakfast at one of Milford's many greasy spoons. Today was to be a big day in the final New Hampshire shooting of the second segment of Prophetic Pictures, Eleanora. We were going to shoot some scenes on the highway during the day, at a horse stable in the afternoon, then Nora's ghost scene at night.

IT WAS A nice day. The mist was gone; the air, if not warm, was at least only faintly chilly. In my mind I was trying to piece together what had happened during the filming the night before. But it was like a dream: Too many of the parts were missing. And now, in the sunlight, the people working on this film seemed different. It was morning, and that is no time to think of ghosts. For a while anyway, last night faded out of my mind entirely.

Tim and I were returning from Peterborough in a newly rented jeep. Tim drove fast and the scenery zoomed by us. Neither of us had been in a jeep before, and we were enjoying the ride. New England villages unfolded in the distance, like Grandma Moses paintings, and we remained silent and let the chill exhilirate us.

At noon the others had arrived. We were doing the first take of the day: Steven (Tommy) speeds down the highway passing Eleanora (Nora), who is hitchhiking. He gets about a hundred yards past her, does a take, slams on the brakes, skids, shifts into reverse, backs up, picks up Nora and rides off into the distance.

To film this, Tim set up the camera by a stop sign on a small road that intersected perdendicularly with the highway. Tommy was stationed further down the road, within sight of Tim, who waved to him each time he wanted to start a take. Nora, wearing jeans and a Levi jacket, stood across the highway from Tim. Eric, near the camera, held the mike out towards the highway, and Phoebe and I leaned on the rented Dodge station wagon, parked behind the stop sign.

THE TAKE was hard. Tim wanted Tommy to wait until there were two cars in front of him before he started down the highway. This created problems: sometimes passing drivers would see the camera and slow down to find out what was going on; or, if there was a car behind Tommy's jeep, there was a possibility of collision at the point when Tommy suddenly lurches into reverse. Meanwhile, the sun kept going in and out of the clouds, necessitating constant shifts in the lens setting.

The run-through, however, went great. When Tommy shifted into reverse, the jeep nearly slid off the road, made a hell of a screech, and kicked up some dust. Tim looked at Eric and smiled; Eric returned with a big grin.

But, once the real takes began, the problems came out in force. Not only were there long periods when no cars appeared, but when they did, the drivers more often than not looked into the camera, ruining the shot. Once, a car ahead of the jeep stopped to give Nora a ride.

After noon, it got colder and the humor of the frustrating takes began to wilt. Phoebe, who had been talkative at first, started to withdraw from the group. She stood by the stop sign in silence, clutching her clapboard, waiting for each take to begin. As Tim put it, it was becoming a drag. But at 2 p.m., after 13 takes, the shot was over.

WE DROVE to another road to film the end of the scene--a conversaiton between Tommy and Nora in the parked jeep.

"Why aren't we using the same road as before?" asked Eric in Tim's absence. "Well, it's his prerogative. He's the only one who knows what he wants."

"I suppose," said Phoebe.