American Pastoral Page #4

There ain't no telling

how bad it's going get.

Won't be safe for anybody,

and not you.

The place will be safer

with someone inside.

Then I'll stay, too.

[distant clamoring]

- [Seymour] I've got that.

- [Vicky] No, I'll put it.

- Vicky.

- They're shootin' outside...

I got it.

[woman]

Are you talking to me?

[man] I told you not to move!

Keep your people back!

- [grunts]

- [glass shatters]

[clamoring continues]

[loud rock music playing]

[knocking on door]

What do you want?

Turn it down.

All dressed up for your stupid...

[stuttering]

award that they gave you?

You expect me to...

congratulate you, too?

What was the award for anyway?

[Seymour] We didn't shut down

after the riots.

The people who worked there,

who have always worked there,

were welcomed back

to their jobs.

The mayor thought that

that was good,

that other businesses

should have done the same.

There was a ceremony in his office.

Congratulations...

Swede.

And I would have liked it

if you had come.

I would have...

f***ing hated it.

Have you thought about

what I asked you?

Going away to private school?

If you don't like

living here with us.

I just want to be able to go to New York

again on the weekends.

No. You didn't come home last time.

You knew the rules.

I never thought my own father

would keep me prisoner.

Merry.

I have an idea for you.

I've been thinking

and I have an idea.

You want to protest the war.

Protest it right here in Old Rimrock.

What am I going to do,

march around the post office?

"Bring the war home."

Isn't that the slogan?

Look, they gave me this award.

It's just a stupid plaque,

but it means one thing.

If you take a stand, people notice.

If you oppose the war right here

with all your strength...

This is part of America too, you know.

Read Marx.

Revolutions don't begin

in the countryside.

- We're not talking about revolution.

- You're not talking about revolution.

You think about what I'm saying.

[footsteps receding]

[rooster crowing]

[distant dogs barking]

I'm sure she's just with her friends

in New York.

Should we call the police?

No, let's give her some more time.

Swede...

do you think...

the post office...

- Do you think Merry...

- No.

It's not possible.

You told her to bring the war home.

Well, that was just talk.

I hope so.

A warrant. How many lies

did you tell to get that?

We have an informant that confirms that

your daughter and another young woman

placed a bomb in the post office.

An informant?

Who is this informant?

Does your daughter know Russ Hamlin,

the Storekeeper?

We all know Russ, Penny.

Do you know Russ Hamlin is dead?

I know it because it was on the radio.

- It has nothing to do with...

- Hey, hey, hey.

Open that up.

[Dawn] What does my daughter

know about dynamite?

- Mrs. Levov.

- This is a girl.

This is a high school girl.

She didn't make a bomb.

She doesn't even know what a bomb is.

How could you even think that she could

make a bomb or... or kill somebody?

- Where is she, Mrs. Levov?

- I don't know.

- She's been tricked.

- Mm-hmm.

She's been tricked!

Why does everybody say that she did it

when she couldn't have done it?

She's been tricked and abducted.

Somebody is brainwashing her

right now.

- We need to find her, Mrs...

- She doesn't have anything to do with it!

My daughter could not have had

anything to do with this!

Then why did she run off?

Maybe she doesn't even know

you're looking for her.

You know that they've probably taken her

underground already, right?

- Seymour.

- It's all right, Dawnie. Who's "they"?

You said she has political friends

in New York.

"We are against everything

decent in America.

We will loot and burn"

and on and on and on.

All right, that's written on a wall.

That's probably written

on a lot of kids' walls.

Not in Old Rimrock it's not.

Not in...

"our f***ing little town."

What is that?

What are you reading?

- Your daughter stutters?

- Oh, my God.

What does that have

to do with anything?

A police officer in Newark

made a note about it two months ago.

- You were present, sir.

- Oh, for Christ's sake. That?

Yeah, that. That and a couple questions

raised by her teachers.

[Jerry] Come on. Swede!

We're the family,

that's who we are.

They have a right to be here.

They're my family.

- Seymour.

- Mom.

- Our beautiful little girl.

- I know. Dad.

How could this be? Would you tell me

how this thing could be?

[Dawn] Lou?

Make them stop.

They keep saying that Merry did this.

Make them stop saying it.

- Not Merry. Nobody knows if she did it.

- That's right. Nobody knows.

Let them talk.

You're the mother.

She's just a little girl.

Maybe not so little anymore.

- [Dawn] Tell them, Lou.

- [Lou] I will. I will.

It'll be all right.

It's going to be fine.

- You going to be all right?

- We said we'd do this.

Let's do it.

[Seymour] Penny...

We got the news

like everyone else, like you.

We're sorry.

Dawn and I, we're sorry for you,

your son, your children,

sorry for this t... terrible thing,

this terrible, awful...

Whatever happened...

whatever Merry did or did not do,

all I'm saying is, I blame myself.

Mrs. Hamlin...

Penny.

I don't know if you can understand,

b... because Merry...

Well...

This is hard to say,

but if Merry did this,

and I understand that's the way it seems,

then it's myself I blame.

Because I did

what I thought is right.

I... I raised her the way I thought best.

I mean, you're a parent, Penny.

My God, you know how hard it is!

And then, things come up with kids,

from inside them, someplace inside.

How can you know what to do?

You try.

You love them.

And I still love my daughter ri...

Maybe I shouldn't be saying this, but...

I love her right now more than ever.

- I hurt for her more now...

- [Penny] I don't blame you...

Mr. Levov.

I don't blame either one of you.

You didn't go out and buy the dynamite

and make the bomb.

You didn't plant the bomb.

I feel badly for you both.

The two of you are as much victims

of this tragedy as we are.

I lost a husband.

My kids lost a father.

But the difference is that, for us...

we will survive as a family,

a loving family.

We will survive

with our memories intact...

and our memories to sustain us.

We are the same family we were

when Russ was here.

And we will survive.

That's the difference.

[]

[reporter on radio]

Police have widened their search

for the missing teenager,

Meredith Levov,

for her involvement in the bombing

of a post office.

[whispering] Where is she?

Swede.

Dawnie.

I want her to come home now.

Right now.

Now.

[voice breaks]

Now.

- [sobbing] Now. Now.

- Precious.

[crying]

Now.

[]

There were three blasts.

The townhouse is totally destroyed.

If there was anybody else in there...

But the two women who escaped,

they're young, they're white.

- "Is one of them Merry?"

- Why not? Why couldn't it be?

Mr. Levov, it's been over a year.

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