1922 Page #5

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- Describe what you're feeling

now that your son's body

is back in Hemingford.

- Mr. James.

- Just give us something to print.

Mr. James.

[Wilfred hisses]

I'm sorry, Mr. James.

Rats got to them.

Got to both of them

before they were found.

[sniffles]

[sobbing] Look what they done...

to my boy.

You...

fix him up.

Mr. James, sir...

- the damage is...

- Yeah. I can see what the damn damage is.

You fix him up, get him off this...

- Sir...

- ...plate here

and put him in a coffin.

A fine coffin.

Your finest coffin.

- Yes, sir.

- I got money.

Certainly, Mr. James.

Now, you cover him up now.

My boy.

All right.

What...

I got money, so...

Whatever it takes.

No father should have to kiss his son

for the last time...

but if any father deserved such a fate...

it was I.

[man] "You believe in God,

believe also in me.

Do not let your heart be troubled.

Believe in God...

believe also in me.

In my father's house

are many dwelling places.

If it were not so,

I would have told you.

And the way you know..."

[Wilfred] The attendance was much smaller

for Henry.

"If I go and prepare a place for you

I will come again

and receive you to myself.

That where I am

there you may be also.

And you know the way where I go..."

Um...

Now, just hear me out.

Um...

I wanna sell you my 100 acres.

That's good land, Harl.

Hard times, huh?

[chuckles]

Half your house and half your barn

all caved in.

Hermie Gordon says you even got a cow

living in there with you.

[laughing]

[sighs]

Nonetheless...

I wanna give you that land...

for $500.

Arlette's rolling in her grave.

[grunts]

Sallie left me.

I don't think she's coming back.

[grunts]

Called me a self-righteous fool

and she's right.

We're in that same broke wagon.

Two men who started the year with wives...

ending the year without them.

[Harlan laughs]

Two men started the year

with living children...

ended the year with dead ones.

I still got both my hands.

That's something, I suppose.

[groans]

[sighs]

That land's cursed.

Sell it to the bank.

Well, now...

See, uh...

they'd just turn around

and sell it to Farrington.

Harl...

that stream there...

they'd be filling up with blood...

hog intestines.

That's your stream, too, Harl.

And all I ask is...

they don't get their hands on it.

Not...

Not them.

Wilf...

don't come back here ever.

[sobs]

[cow mooing]

What the hell happened to you, girl?

[gun c*cks]

[grunts]

All right, girl.

Take it easy.

All right, easy now.

Shh.

It's all right. Easy now.

Shh.

Okay.

Almost over.

[sighs]

Okay, girl.

It's nearly over.

Shh.

It's okay.

It's okay.

Shh. [Gun c*cks]

[gunshot]

[grunts]

That was the end of 1922.

I lost the farm, of course.

When the hog-butchers finally swooped in,

I was forced to sell

at an insanely low price.

Harlan Cotterie hung on

till about '25 or so...

and then the bank took his farm.

I went to Omaha.

A city of fools...

and I hauled pallets for 14 months.

The only reason I stopped?

Whenever I tried to busy myself with work,

to keep out the thoughts...

they'd find me.

Took me two solid years

to drink up Arlette's hundred acres.

When I wasn't drinking...

I visited the places that Henry had been

during the last month of his life.

Can I help you, sir?

There was a robbery here, uh...

oh, about two years back.

You wouldn't happen to know

about nothing like that?

Well, that was my son.

Henry was right.

There was another way.

There always is.

But in 1922...

the conniving man

inside farmer Wilfred James...

had begged to differ.

[Henry] But I can't pray now

or ever again.

If I got down on my knees,

I think God would strike me dead.

I hope there is no God.

I imagine all murderers hope there isn't.

Because if there's no heaven,

there's no hell.

[Wilfred] Son...

...I was the one...

who killed her.

[Henry] No, Pa.

We did it together.

[Wilfred] All right, Hank.

I love you... son.

[Henry] I know.

But I don't much deserve it.

[inaudible]

Papa...

it'll be quick.

[sobbing]

[Wilfred] In the end...

we all get caught.

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