You'd certainly better.
I almost think you're serious.
No, you almost think you're serious. And it scares you.
Me?
Yes, you.
You're kidding!
I wish I were. I'll give you some good advice if you want me to.
Good advice? From you?
You haven't learned yet. Take it wherever you can get it. Listen.
I'm giving you good advice now.
There's quicksand here and you'll be dragged down before you know it.
Sucked down!
You disgust me on principle and you're a smug son of a bitch...
...but I'm trying to give you a survival kit. Do you hear me?
I hear you. You come in loud.
You want to play it by ear, right?
Everything will work out anyway, because the timetable's history, right?
Right. Just tend to your knitting, grandma. I'll be okay.
I've tried to...
...tried to reach you, to...
Make contact?
Communicate?
Yes, exactly.
Aw, that's touching. That's downright moving, that's what that is.
Up yours!
- What? - You heard me.
You take the trouble to construct a civilization...
...to build a society based on the principles of... principle.
You make government and art and realize they are, must be, the same.
You bring things to the saddest point, where there is something to lose.
Then, all at once, through all the music...
...through the sensible sounds of building...
...attempting, comes the Dies Irae.
And what is it? What does the trumpet sound?
Up yours!
Here we are. A little shaky, but on our feet.
It wasn't too bad, dear, really.
- I'm not cold. - Just put it on, we're leaving.
- You're what? - We're going home.
What's been going on here?
- What have you been up to? - I'll get the car.
I'll call a cab.
What the hell do you think you're doing?
Now let me see. I think what I'm doing is...
...I'm getting the car to take our little guests home.
Aren't you going to apologize?
The road should've been straight.
Not that. For making her throw up.
- I did not make her throw up. - You certainly did.
Who do you think did, sexy there? He made his own wife sick?
- You make me sick. - That's different.
Please! I throw up.
I get sick occasionally all by myself, without reason.
- Is that a fact? - You're delicate, honey.
I've always done it.
Like Big Ben?
Watch it.
George makes everybody sick. When our son was a little boy...
...he threw up all the time because of George.
It got so whenever George came into a room, he'd start right in retching.
Our son used to throw up all the time...
...because you were always fiddling at him.
Into his bedroom, kimono flying, fiddling...
I suppose that's why he ran away twice in one month.
Twice in one month! Six times in one year...
Our son ran away from home because Martha used to corner him.
I never cornered the son of a bitch in my life!
He'd run to me when I got home and say, "Mama's always coming at me. "
Liar!
Always coming at him. Very embarrassing!
If it was so embarrassing, why are you talking about it?
I didn't want to talk about it at all.
I wish I had some brandy. I love brandy, I really do.
- Good for you. - It steadies me.
I used to drink brandy.
You used to drink bergin, too.
Shut up, Martha!
- What? - Nothing.
Did he tell you about that? Come on, he must have said something.
Actually what we did is we sort of danced around a little.
I love dancing. I really do.
He didn't mean that.
Well, I didn't think that he did! Two grown men dancing!
He didn't tell how he tried to publish a book and Daddy wouldn't let him?
- A book? What book? - Just a book.
Just a book!
Oh, look, dancing!
Why don't we dance? I'd love some dancing.
- We're almost home. - I want some dancing!
- That's not such a bad idea. - Don't you love dancing?
- With the right man, yeah. - I dance like the wind.
Stop the car. We're going dancing!
- For heaven's sake! - Did you hear me?
Whatever love wants.
I dance like the wind!
Put one on, will you?
How are we going to work this, mixed doubles?
You don't think I'm going to dance with you?
Not with him around. And not with twinkle-toes either.
I'll dance with anyone! I'll dance with myself!
- Honey, you'll get sick again. - I dance like the wind!
All right, kiddies, choose up and hit the sack.
All right, George, cut that out!
Cut it out, George!
What, Martha?
All right, you son of a bitch!
- What'd you say, love? - It stopped!
Why did it stop?
I said give me some change.
Stop that!
You are always at me when I'm having a good time!
Just leave me alone. I like to dance and you don't want me to.
Just leave me alone!
Choose it. Do your stuff.
You're damned right.
Hi, sexy!
You want to dance, angel boobs?
What'd you call my wife?
No, if I can't do my interpretive dance, I don't want to dance at all.
I'll just sit here.
Okay, stuff, let's go.
- We'll just sit here and watch. - That's right.
You are strong, aren't you?
I like that.
They dance like they've danced before.
A familiar dance, monkey nipples, they know it.
I don't know what you mean.
- I like the way you move. - I like the way you move too.
- They like the way they move. - That's nice.
I'm surprised George didn't tell you his side of things.
- Well, he didn't. - That surprises me.
- Does it? - Aren't they cute?
He usually does when he can.
I don't think he trusts me.
It's really a very sad story.
It would make you weep.
You have ugly talents, Martha.
Is that so?
Don't encourage her.
Encourage me.
I warned you, don't encourage her!
He warned you.
- Don't encourage me. - I heard him. Tell me more.
Georgie-boy had lots of big ambitions...
...in spite of something funny in his past...
...which Georgie-boy here turned into a novel.
His first attempt and also his last!
I rhymed!
I warn you!
But Daddy took a look at Georgie's novel.
You're looking for a punch in the mouth.
Do tell!
And he was very shocked by what he read.
- He was? - Yes, he was.
A novel all about a naughty boy-child.
I will not tolerate this!
Oh, can it!
A naughty boy-child...
...who killed his mother...
...and his father dead!
Stop it!
And Daddy said, "Look here...
"... I will not let you publish such a thing!"
The dancing's over!
Violence!
And Daddy said...
..."You don't think I'm going to let you publish this kind of crap?"
"Not on your life, not while you're teaching here. "
"You publish that and you're out on your ass!"
Desist! Desist!
I will not be made mock of.
He will not be made mock of, for cripes sake!
The game is over!
Just imagine...
...a book all about a boy who murders his mother and kills his father...
...and pretends it's all an accident.
Hey, wait a minute!
You want to know the clincher?
You want to know what big brave Georgie said to Daddy?
But Daddy...
I mean, "But, Sir, this isn't a novel at all. "
You will not say this!
The hell, I won't! Keep away!
"No, sir, this is no novel at all. "
"This is the truth. This really happened to me!"
- I'll kill you. - It happened!
Violence!
Very quiet now.
We'll all be...
...very quiet.
Murderer!
What's the trouble in here?
Nothing. No trouble, just playing a game.
Well, we're closing.
One more round.
Same for everybody.
Give us one more round and we'll be on our merry way.
All right? Good!
Thanks.
Well, that's one game. What shall we do now?
Let's do something else. We played Humiliate the Host, what'll we do now?
Oh, look!
We must know other games, us college types.
- Can't be the limit of our vocabulary. - Haven't had enough?
There are other games.
How about...
How about Hump the Hostess?
Want to play that one? Do you want to play Hump the Hostess?
Or do you want to wait till later, off in the bushes?
Hump the Hostess!
Will you shut up?
You want to save that for later. What shall we play now?
- Portrait of a Man Drowning. - I'm not drowning.
- You told me to shut up. - I'm sorry.
I'm sorry!
I know what we do.
Now that we've done this round of Humiliate the Host...
...and don't want to play Hump the Hostess yet.
I know what! How about a little round of Get the Guests?
How about that? Get the Guests?
Book dropper, child mentioner!
I don't like these games.
We've only had one game, we've got to have another. You can't fly on one.
Silence!
How will we play Get the Guests?
You be quiet!
I wonder.
Martha, in her indiscreet way, told you all about my first novel.
True or false that there was such a thing.
She told you about my first novel, my memory book.
I preferred she hadn't, but that's blood under the bridge.
But what Martha didn't tell you...
...what Martha didn't tell at all about was my second novel.
You didn't know about that, did you? True or false?
Well, it's an allegory really, probably.
It's about a nice young couple who comes out of the Middle West.
It's a bucolic, you see.
This nice young couple comes out of the Middle West.
He's blond and he's about thirty.
And he's a scientist, a teacher, a scientist.
- His mouse, wifey, gargles brandy... - Just a minute here!
This is my game! You've had your game!
I want to hear. I love stories.
Mousie's father was a holy man, see?
He ran a traveling clip joint and he took the faithful, just took them.
- This is familiar. - No kidding.
Anyway, Blondie and his frau out of the Plains States came.
Very funny, George.
Thank you.
They settled in a town like Nouveau Carthage.
- I don't think you should go on. - Do you not?
I love familiar stories. They're the best.
How right you are! But Blondie was all in disguise as a teacher...
...because his baggage ticket had bigger things writ on it. H.I.!
Historical Inevitability.
- There's no reason to go further. - Let them go on.
He had this baggage, and part of his baggage was in the form of his mouse.
We don't have to listen.
- Why not? - She has a point.
Nobody could figure out Blondie's baggage, his mouse.
I mean, here he was pan-Kansas swimming champion or something...
...and he had this mouse.
Of whom he was solicitous to a point that faileth human understanding...
...given that she was something of a simp.
This just isn't fair of you.
Perhaps not. His mouse tooted brandy immodestly...
...and spent half her time in the upchuck.
- I know these people. - Do you?
But she was money baggage among other things.
Godly money from the golden teeth of the unfaithful and she was put up with!
- I don't like this story. - And she was put up with!
Stop? Hah!
- Please, please, don't. - Beg, baby!
- Flashback to "How they got married. " - No!
- Why? - How they got married was this.
The mouse got all puffed up one day...
...and she went over to Blondie's house and stuck out her puff...
...and she said, "Look at me. "
I don't like this.
"Look at me, I'm all puffed up. " "Oh, my goodness," said Blondie.
And so they were married.
And then what?
And then the puff went away again like magic. Poof!
The puff went away?
Honey, I didn't mean to. Honestly.
You shouldn't have told them!
No! You couldn't have told them!
And that's how you play Get the Guests.
Oh, please! I'm going to be sick!
You shouldn't have done that.
- I hate hypocrisy. - That was cruel and vicious.
She'll get over it. She'll recover.
- And damaging to me. - To you!
To me!
Beautiful. You got to have a swine to show you where the truffles are.
Rearrange your alliances. Make the best of things.
Put your wife in the car.
I've had enough rides tonight. We'll walk.
Right, you go plan some new strategy.
You'll regret this.
No doubt. I regret everything.
No, I mean I'll make you regret this.
Clean up the mess.
You just wait.
- Very good, George. - Thank you.
- Really good! - I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I mean, you did a good job. You really fixed it.
That's the most life you've shown in a long time.
You bring out the best in me.
You really are a bastard!
You can go around like a hopped-up Arab...
...slashing at everything, scarring up half the world...
...but let somebody else try it? Oh no!
Why, baby, I did it all for you! I thought you'd like it, sweetheart.
It's to your taste, blood, carnage and all.
I thought you'd sort of get excited.
Heave and pant and come running at me, your melons bobbling...
You have really screwed up, George.
I mean it! You really have!
You can sit, gin running from your mouth...
...you can humiliate me, tear me to pieces all night, it's perfectly okay.
You can stand it!
I cannot stand it!
You can stand it! You married me for it!
That's a desperately sick lie.
Don't you know it even yet?
My arm's gotten tired whipping you.
- Year after year! - Deluded, Martha.
It's not what I wanted.
I thought at least you were onto yourself. I didn't know.
No. You're sick!
I'll show you who's sick!
You really are having a field day, aren't you?
Well, I'm gonna finish you before I'm through with you.
You and that quarterback? You both going to finish me?
Before I'm through with you you'll wish you'd died in that automobile!
You'll wish you'd never mentioned our son.
I warned you.
- I'm impressed! - I warned you not to go too far!
I'm just beginning!
I'm numbed so I can take you when we're alone. I don't listen.
And if I do listen I sift it so I don't really hear, which is the only way.
But you've taken a new tack in the last century...
...which is just too much. Too much!
I don't mind your dirty underthings in public. I do, but I'm reconciled to it.
You've moved into your own fantasy world! You don't know...
- You have! - Nuts!
You can go on...
Have you ever listened to your sentences? You're so convoluted.
You talk like one of your stupid papers.
Actually, I'm rather worried about you. About your mind.
Don't you worry about my mind, sweetheart!
I'll commit you.
You what?
I think I'll have you committed.
Baby, aren't you something?
I've got to find a way to get at you.
You've got at me, you don't have to do anything, George.
A thousand years of you has been enough!
You'll go quietly then?
Do you want to know what's really happened?
It snapped! Finally. Not me, it! The whole arrangement.
You can go on forever and ever, everything is manageable.
You make all sorts of excuses: "To hell with it, this is life. "
"Maybe tomorrow he'll be dead. Maybe tomorrow you'll be dead. "
All sorts of excuses.
Then one day...
...one night, something happens...
...and snap!
It breaks and you just don't give a damn anymore!
I tried with you, baby. I really tried.
Come off it.
You're a monster. You are.
I'm loud, and I'm vulgar...
...and I wear the pants in the house because somebody's got to!
But I am not a monster!
I'm not!
You're a spoiled, self-indulgent, dirty-minded, liquor-riddled...
Snap! It went snap.
I won't try to get through to you any more.
There was a second back there, when I could've...
...gotten through to you.
When maybe we could've out through all this crap!
But it's past. And I'm not going to try.
Once a month, Martha. I've gotten used to it.
We get Misunderstood Martha, the good-hearted girl beneath the barnacles.
The little miss that a touch of kindness will bring to bloom again.
I believed it more times than I'd admit. I'm that much of a sucker.
But I don't believe you, I just don't believe you!
There is no moment any more when we could come together.
You can't come together with nothing. And you're nothing!
Snap!
I looked at you tonight and you weren't there!
It finally snapped. And I'm gonna howl it out!
I won't give a damn what I do.
And I'll make the biggest goddamn explosion you've ever heard!
And I'll beat you at your own game.
- Is that a threat, George? - That's a threat, Martha.
You're going to get it, baby!
Be careful, I'll rip you to pieces.
You are not man enough. You haven't the guts!
Total war?
Total!
Bells.
I've been hearing bells!
Bells ringing.
And I couldn't sleep for the bells.
That woke me up.
What time is it?
Don't bother me.
I was asleep.
And I was dreaming of something...
...and I heard the sounds coming...
...and I didn't know what it was...
...and it frightened me.
I'm going to get you, Martha.
Somehow, Martha.
And there was someone there and... I didn't want someone there.
I was naked.
You don't know what's going on, do you?
I don't want to know.
Listen to them!
- I don't want to! - Look at them!
I don't want any children.
I don't want any children, please!
I'm afraid. I don't want to be hurt.
I should have known.
Does that stud you married know about that?
How do you make your secret little murders? Pills?
You got a secret supply of pills? Apple jelly? Willpower?
Going to throw up?
Where is he? I want my husband! I want a drink!
That's right, go at it!
You know what's going on there?
I don't want to know anything. You leave me alone.
Who rang?
What were the bells? Who rang?
He's up there and you ask who rang?
Someone rang!
Someone rang.
The bells rang and it was someone...
Somebody.
Somebody rang. The bells rang and it was somebody...
I've got it!
I've got it, Martha!
It was a message. The message was...
...our son... it was a message... The bells rang...
...and it was a message. And it was about...
...our son...
And the message was...
...our son...
...is dead!
Our son is dead and I haven't told Martha!
Our son is dead, Martha doesn't know, and you won't tell her!
I'll tell her myself. In good time I'll tell her myself.
I'm going to be sick.
Are you? That's nice.
- I'm going to die. - Good, go right ahead.
Martha, I have some...
...terrible news.
It's about our son.
He's dead.
Do you hear me, Martha?
Our boy is dead.
Where the hell is everybody?
I'll give you bastards five to come from wherever you're hiding!
By God, you've gone crazy too.
I said you've gone crazy too.
Probably.
You've all gone crazy.
I come downstairs and what happens?
What happens?
My wife's in the can with a liquor bottle and she winks at me.
Winks at me!
She's never winked at you?
What a shame!
She's lying down on the floor, on the tiles, all curled-up...
...and she starts peeling the label on the brandy bottle.
Maybe she'd be more comfortable in the tub.
And I asked her what she's doing and she goes...
..."Sshh, nobody knows I'm here. "
And I come down here...
...and you're stumbling around going "clink", for God's sake, "clink".
You've all gone crazy.
Sad but true.
Where is your husband?
He is vanished.
You're all crazy.
Nuts!
'Tis the refuge we take when the unreality of the world...
...sits too heavy on our tiny heads.
Relax! Sink into it. You're no better than anybody else.
I think I am.
You're certainly a flop in some departments.
What'd you say?
I said you're a flop in some departments.
I'm sorry you're disappointed.
Maybe some time when I didn't drink for ten hours.
Baby, you sure are a flop!
You're something. You know that? You're really something!
To you, everybody's a flop!
Your husband's a flop, I'm a flop.
You're all flops.
I am the Earth Mother and you are all flops.
I disgust me.
There's only been one man in my life who's ever made me happy.
You know that? One.
The gym instructor or something?
George.
My husband.
You're kidding?
You must be. Him?
You don't believe it.
Why, of course I do.
You always deal on appearances?
For God's sake!
George who is out somewhere there in the dark.
Who is good to me. Whom I revile.
Who can keep learning the games we play as quickly as I can change them.
Who can make me happy and I do not wish to be happy.
Yes, I do wish to be happy.
George and Martha.
Sad, sad, sad.
Whom I will not forgive for having come to rest.
For having seen me and having said...
..."Yes, this will do. "
Who has made the hideous, the hurting...
...the insulting mistake of loving me.
And must be punished for it.
Sad, sad, sad.
Some day...
...some night...
...some stupid liquor-ridden night I will go too far.
I'll either break his back or I'll push him off for good, which I deserve.
I don't think he's got a vertebrae intact.
Oh, you don't?
You don't think so?
Oh, little boy!
You've got yourself so hunched over your microphone...
Microscope!
Yes. And you don't see anything, do you?
You see everything but the goddamn mind.
You see all the specks and the crap, but you don't see what goes on, do you?
You know so little. And you're going to take over the world, huh?
I said, all right!
The stallion's mad, huh?
The gelding's getting all upset, huh?
You swing wild, don't you?
You poor little bastard!
Hit out at everything!
Go answer the door.
What'd you say to me?
I said go answer the door. What are you, deaf?
You want me to go answer the door?
That's right, lunkhead, go answer the door.
Or are you too drunk to do that, too?
There's no need for you to...
Answer it!
You be houseboy around here awhile.
You can start in being houseboy right now.
Look, I'm no flunky to you.
Sure, you are! You're ambitious, aren't you?
You didn't come back here with me out of driven passion, did you?
You were thinking a little bit about your career.
You can just houseboy your way up the ladder for awhile.
There's no limit to you, is there?
No, baby, none. Go answer the door.
Go on, git!
Aimless. Wanton.
Now, you just do as you're told.
You show ol' Martha there's something you can do.
I'm coming, for Christ's sake!
Wonderful! Marvelous!
Just a gigolo everywhere I go.
Stop that!
Sorry, baby. Now you go answer the little door, huh?
How lovely!
Why, sonny, you came home for your birthday at last!
Get away from me!
That's the houseboy, for God's sake!
That's not our own little Sonny-Jim, our own all-American something or other?
I certainly hope not. He's been acting awful funny if he is.
I'll bet. Chippie, chippie, huh?
I brung these flowers...
...'cause youse...
Aw, hell, Martha!
Pansies, rosemary, violence, mah wedding bouquet!
If you don't mind, I'll get my wife...
You stay right where you are. Make my hubby a drink.
I don't think I will.
No, Martha. That would be too much. He's your houseboy, not mine.
I'm nobody's houseboy!
I'm nobody's houseboy now
Vicious.
Children? That right?
Vicious children with their sad games hopscotching their way through life?
Something like that.
Screw, baby.
Him can't! Him too full o' booze!
Weally? Here! Dump these in some gin.
A terrible thing to do to Martha's snapdragons!
Is that what they are?
Yup. And I went by moonlight to Daddy's greenhouse to pick them for her.
There is no moon. I saw it go down from the bedroom.
From the bedroom?
There is a moon.
There is no goddamn moon, the moon went down.
That may be, Chastity, but it came back up.
Bull!
Once when I was sailing past Majorca, the moon went down...
...thought about it awhile then, pop, came up again.
That is not true. That is such a lie!
You must not call everything a lie. Must she?
I don't know when you people are lying.
- You're damn right! - You're not supposed to.
- So, I was sailing past Majorca... - You never sailed past Majorca.
You were never in the Mediterranean at all, ever!
My mom and dad took me as a college graduation present.
After you killed them?
Maybe.
Yeah. And maybe not too.
Jesus!
Truth and illusion. Who knows the difference, toots? Houseboy?
I'm not a houseboy.
You don't make it in the sack, you're a houseboy.
Then you must have made it, yes?
Somebody's lying, not playing the game straight. Who's lying? Martha?
Tell him I'm not a houseboy.
You're not a houseboy.
So be it.
Truth and illusion. You don't know the difference.
No, but we must carry on as though we did.
Amen.
Snap went the dragons.
Thank you.
Skip it.
I said snap went the dragons!
Yeah, we know.
Don't!
Don't do that.
Shut up, stud!
I'm not a stud.
Then you're a houseboy. Which is it?
Does it matter to you?
No, actually it doesn't. Either way I've had it.
Stop throwing these damn things at me!
- Either way. Snap! - Shall I do something to him?
You leave him alone!
Which are you, baby, houseboy or stud?
Truth or illusion, George? Doesn't it matter to you at all?
Snap! You got your answer, baby.
Got it.
You just gird your blue-veined loins, girl.
There's one more game to play. It's called Bringing up Baby.
I don't want a fuss. Don't want any scandal around here, do you?
Want to keep to your timetable? Then sit!
And you, pretty miss, you like fun and games! You're a sport from way back!
All right.
Good. But we're not all here.
Your little wifelet isn't here.
She had a rough night...
We can't play without everybody. We need your little wife.
Cut that!
Just get off your butt and bring that little dip back in here!
Now be a good puppy, go fetch. Fetch, good puppy.
One more game.
I don't like what's going to happen.
Do you know what it is?
No. But I don't like it.
Maybe you will, Martha.
It's a real fun game.
No more games.
One more, Martha. One more game and then beddie-bye.
Everybody packs up his tools and baggage and stuff and go home.
And you and me...
...we're going to climb them well-worn stairs.
No, George, no.
Yes, baby.
It'll all be done before you know it.
No climb stairs with Georgie?
No more games. It's games I don't want. No more games, please.
Sure you do. Original game girl! Of course you do.
Don't you touch me!
Keep your paws clean for the undergraduates.
Listen to me!
You've had an evening.
You can't stop when there's enough blood in your mouth. We're going on.
I'm having at you, and your performance will look like an Easter pageant.
Get yourself alert.
- Get some life in you. - Stop!
Pull yourself together!
I'm going to knock you around and I want you up for it!
What do you want?
- An equal battle. - You'll get it.
- I want you mad. - I'm mad. Don't worry about it!
Good girl! We'll play to the death.
- Yours? - You'll be surprised.
Here come the tots. Be ready.
I'm ready for you.
Hip, hop. Hip, hip, hop.
Are you a bunny, honey!
- How's the bunny? - Bunny funny!
Bunny funny. Good for bunny.
Honey funny bunny.
All right, here we go.
Last game. All sit.
- Sit down. This is a civilized game. - Just get on with it.
I think we've been having a real good evening, all things considered.
We've got to know each other. And we've had fun and games.
Like Curl Up On The Floor.
The Tiles.
The Tiles, Snap The Dragon.
Peel the Label!
Label. Peel the Label.
I peel labels.
We all peel labels, sweetie.
When you get through the skin, and through the muscle...
...and slosh aside the organs, down to the bone, you know what you do?
When you get down to the bone...
...you aren't all the way. Something's inside the bone.
The marrow. That's what you got to get at.
But bones are pretty resilient, especially in the young.
Now take our son...
Our son. Martha's and my little joy.
Just what are you doing?
- I'm talking about our son. - Well, don't.
I want to. It's important we talk about him.
You want to hear about our bouncy boy, don't you?
Martha's and my son.
You have a child?
Yes indeed, do we ever!
Will you talk about him or shall I?
- Don't. - All rightie, now let's see.
He's nice, despite home his life.
Most kids would be neurotic, Martha carrying on the way she does.
Sleeping till 4 p. m. Climbing over the poor bastard...
...trying to break the bathroom door to wash him in the tub when he's 16.
Dragging strangers to the house all hours.
That's enough.
Do you want to take over?
Why would anyone want to wash a 16 year-old?
For Christ's sake!
Well, why?
Because it's her baby-poo.
All right.
Our son, you want our son? You'll have it.
Do you want a drink?
We don't have to hear it if you don't want to.
Who says? You in a position to set the rules?
Good boy. You'll go far.
All right, your recitation please.
Our son...
All right!
Our son.
Our son was born in a September night, a night not unlike tonight...
...though tomorrow...
...and sixteen years ago.
See, I told you.
- It was an easy birth. - No, you labored, how you labored!
It was an easy birth!
Once it had been...
...accepted.
- Relaxed into. - That's better.
It was an easy birth, once it had been accepted.
And I was young.
And he was healthy...
...a red, bawling child.
Martha thinks she saw him at delivery.
With slippery, firm limbs.
And a full head of black, fine hair.
Which, later...
...later became...
...blond as the sun.
Our son.
He was a healthy child.
And I had wanted a child. Oh, I had wanted a child!
A son? Daughter?
A child!
I had my child.
Our child.
And we raised him.
Yes, we did. We raised him.
And he had green eyes.
Such green, green eyes.
Blue, green, brown.
And he loved the sun.
And he was tan before and after everyone.
And in the sun...
...his hair became...
...fleece.
Beautiful, beautiful boy.
So beautiful, so wise.
All truth being relative.
It was true.
Beautiful, wise, perfect!
There's a real mother talking.
I want a child!
On principle?
I want a child. I want a baby.
This perfection could not last.
Not with George.
Not with George around.
There, you see, I knew she'd shift.
- Be still! - Sorry, Mother.
Can't you be still?
Not with George. A drowning man takes down those nearest, and he tried.
And, God, how I fought him! How I fought him!
The one thing...
...I tried to carry unscathed through the...
...sewer of our marriage...
...through the sick nights and the pathetic, stupid days...
...through the derision and the laughter. God, the laughter!
Through one failure after another.
Each attempt more numbing, more sickening than the one before.
The one thing, the one person I tried to protect...
...to raise above the mire of this vile, crushing marriage...
...the one light in all this hopeless darkness! Our son!
Stop it!
Why, don't you like it?
You can't do this.
Who says?
- I say! - Tell us why, baby.
Is this game over?
Oh, no! Not by a long shot.
I've got a surprise for you. It's about sonny-Jim.
I'm running this show!
Sweetheart...
...I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you.
For both of us, I mean. Some rather sad news.
What is this?
Martha, while you were busy, while the two of you were busy...
...I don't know where, but you were somewhere...
...while you were busy for awhile...
...Missy and I were having a little talk.
You know, a chaw and a talk.
And the doorbell rang.
Chimed.
It's hard for me to tell you.
Please don't!
Tell me!
It was good old Western Union, some little boy about seventy.
Crazy Billy?
That's right. Crazy Billy.
And he had a telegram and it was for us.
I have to tell you about it.
Why did they bring it? Why didn't they telephone it?
There are some telegrams you have to deliver, Martha. Some you cannot phone.
What do you mean?
I can hardly bring myself to say it.
You want to do it?
Well, Martha, I'm afraid our boy isn't coming home for his birthday.
Of course he is!
Of course he is! I say he is!
He can't.
Our son...
...is...
...dead.
He was killed late in the afternoon...
...on a country road with his learner's permit.
He swerved to avoid a porcupine and drove...
You can't do that!
...into a large tree.
You cannot do that!
I thought you should know.
You cannot do that!
You can't decide these things for yourself!
I will not let you do that!
Have to leave around noon, I suppose.
I won't let you decide these things.
There are matters of identification, arrangements to be made.
You can't do this! I won't let you!
- Get your hands off me! - I haven't done anything!
Now you listen to me. Our son is dead!
Can you get that through your head?
Listen carefully. We got a telegram. There was a car accident and he's dead!
Poof! Just like that! Now how do you like it?
Let her go. She'll be all right.
He is not dead.
He is dead.
You cannot decide.
He hasn't decided anything.
It's not his doing. He doesn't have the power.
That's right. I'm no god. I have no power over life and death, do I?
You can't kill him.
You can't let him die!
There was a telegram.
Show it to me! Show me that telegram!
I ate it.
What did you just say to me?
I ate it.
Good for you, Martha.
You make a joke at a time like this?
Did I not eat the telegram?
You ate it. I watched you and you ate it all down.
Like a good boy.
You won't get away with this.
You know the rules, for God's sake!
What are you talking about?
I can kill him if I want to.
He is our child.
- You bore him. A good delivery. - He is our child.
And I've killed him.
Oh my God, I think I understand this.
Do you?
- Oh my God, I think I understand this. - Good for you.
You've no right. You've no right at all.
I have the right, we never spoke of it. I could kill him any time I wanted.
Why?
You broke our rule, Martha.
You mentioned him to somebody else.
- I did not. - Yes, you did.
To me, you mentioned him to me.
I forget.
Sometimes when it's late night and everybody's talking...
...I forget and I want to mention him.
But I hold on. I hold on.
I've wanted to so often.
But, George, you've pushed it.
There was no need, there was no need for this!
I mentioned him, all right?
But you didn't have to push it over the edge.
You didn't have to kill him.
You didn't have to have him die.
That wasn't needed.
It's dawn.
I think the party's over.
You couldn't have any?
We couldn't.
Home to bed, children. It's way past your bedtime.
You two go now.
- I'd like to... - Goodnight.
You want anything?
No. Nothing.
Time for bed.
Tired?
Yes.
I am.
Sunday tomorrow.
All day.
Did you have to?
Yes.
You had to?
I don't know.
- It was time. - Was it?
I'm cold.
It's late.
It will be better.
I don't know.
It will be. Maybe.
I'm not sure.
Just us?
- You don't suppose maybe... - No.
- You all right? - Yes.
No.
Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?
I am, George.
I am.
Ripped by: SkyFury