American Pastoral Page #6

to meet a young piece of ass?

Say it.

Just say it, Swede.

"I came here to f*** you."

Will you stop all this?

I'm 22.

I do everything.

I do it all.

You're not scared, are you?

A big guy like you can't have met

your match in little me.

Pillar.

Pillar of the f***ing community,

Swede Levov.

Come on, let's see the pillar.

- What is the aim of all this?

- To introduce you to reality.

And it ain't going to be no picnic,

jock-o.

I'll tell you where your daughter is.

First we f***,

and then I'll zip up your little fly

and take you to where she is.

My daughter has no part in this.

You're not fit to wipe

my daughter's shoes.

She has nothing to do with you

or the bombing.

There.

Put it right there.

Do you know what size it is?

Let's see what kind of guesser you are.

I'm guessing it's a four.

In ladies', that's as small as they come.

Stick it in.

But slowly,

always slowly the first time.

This has nothing to do with anything.

[Rita] You great, big Boy Scout.

Do you want to know what this has to do

with what's happening?

[moans]

Taste it.

Taste it and you'll know.

Do you want to know

how it tastes?

[imitates stuttering]

It tastes like your daughter.

[]

[toilet flushing]

[horns honking]

[man 1] Get out of the street, clown!

[man 2] What the f*** are you doing?

[horn honks]

When you add it up,

your daughter's a minor,

she's seen a psychologist for years.

That's evidence of mental stress.

That bomb, she plainly

had no intent to kill,

not at that hour in the morning.

Protecting her from us

is not intelligent.

It's pretty unintelligent,

if you think about it.

- What is it you want from me?

- Nothing.

The description that you gave

of this girl, Rita Cohen,

if that's her real name, that's fine,

all right? You can go.

Mrs. Levov know

what happened here today?

Yeah, I just called her.

She's disappointed, naturally.

This was our only hope.

You should have called us in

on this, Mr. Levov.

You've done everything wrong

you possibly could've.

Since when?

Excuse me?

I've done everything wrong

since when?

That's a question you're gonna have

to answer for yourself, Mr. Levov.

Seymour.

- How long ago did she get here?

- I don't know. I didn't see her come in.

She won't let me near her, poor thing,

and I didn't want to scare her.

Excuse me.

What do I do on Monday?

Dream, dream, dream

What do I do on Tuesday?

Dream, dream, dream

- Wednesday, Thursday...

- Excuse me.

Come and then

- I do the same thing all over again

- Dawn.

Well...

Dawn. Baby, come on.

I do the same thing

all over...

- All right, all right, all right.

- [wailing]

All right. Stop it.

Stop, stop, stop.

All right.

Don't.

[sobbing]

I'm afraid.

I'm frightened.

I'm frightened.

I'm frightened all the time.

It's not time for your medicine.

Dawn. Dawn.

Think of the most pleasant place

you've ever been. Hmm?

Um...

At the... at the shore, in Avon.

It's my uncle's house and...

I'm a girl.

Come on, lie down.

Come on.

And the...

the lifeguards are all...

Catholic boys from Fordham

and Holy Cross.

They'd come down for summer.

And they were all in love with you.

I should have married one of them.

[]

- See you again tomorrow, Mr. Levov.

- Good night.

[reporter on radio]

At one minute before 1:00 this morning,

the switchboard at the U.S. Capitol

received a phone call.

A man's voice said a bomb would go off

in the building in half an hour.

At 1:
30 in the morning, it did,

in a small, unmarked restroom

on the ground floor of the Senate side,

next to a barbershop

and near several small offices,

including one

committee hearing room.

For a report on the first serious damage

to the nation's foremost structure

since the British burned it in 1814,

here is congressional correspondent

Lawrence Lawson.

[Lawson] There was alarm for a time

that other bombs

might still be hidden

inside the Capitol.

They're forced to be outlaws

by the way this society is run

and we think they're great.

[reporter on TV] Across the nation,

between January of last year

and April of this year,

a total of 4,330 bombings

have been reported.

[man on megaphone] We're going

to remake this country in the streets.

We've got to build a strong base

and someday we've got to knock

those motherfuckers who control

this thing right on their ass.

Seymour.

Yeah?

The first time I was in Princeton,

I was at the Governor's mansion.

[Seymour] That's right,

just after the contest.

Twenty-one, scared to death.

And his chauffeur drove me

from Elizabeth in my crown.

I danced in my crown

with the governor of New Jersey...

and I ended up here. How?

How did I end up here?

You.

You.

You wouldn't leave me alone.

Had to marry me.

I just wanted to teach music.

That's what I wanted.

To teach kids music

in the school system...

and be left alone by boys.

That's it.

I never wanted to be

Miss Union County...

Miss crazy New Jersey...

Miss America.

I wanted a scholarship.

I wanted a degree... a job.

But then you arrived.

You. Those hands.

You wouldn't let me breathe!

Every time I looked up,

there's my boyfriend,

gaga because I was some

ridiculous beauty queen.

You were like a child.

And you made me a princess.

Look where I wound up.

In a madhouse.

Your princess.

[sniffles]

In a madhouse.

Thank you very much.

- Take care.

- Goodbye.

She read a magazine article

about a doctor in Geneva.

- [Sheila] What kind of doctor?

- A plastic surgeon.

That's all she's talked about

since she came home.

I see her looking in the mirror.

She thinks somehow

that by having a facelift,

even though she's only 43...

[Sheila] She thinks that it will help her

to start over, and why not?

Imagine all that Dawn's been through.

I don't have to imagine.

I've seen this before. Women in trauma,

women who have been ill,

it can help them

to become a new woman.

But I want the old Dawn.

I want my wife and I want Merry.

[Sheila] We're not talking about Merry.

But as for Dawn,

what if you were to go along with her,

support her in this,

in the trip to Switzerland,

the operation?

It could help the both of you

to put the past behind you.

[Seymour] I don't want

to put the past behind.

The past is Merry. There's no way I want

to put that behind.

[Sheila] But Dawn does.

[]

What is it?

Can you help me out?

Lou, keep your voice down.

This is the way

your friend paints?

You know it is, Dad. You've seen the one

in our living room.

The one you paid

an arm and a leg for.

I don't care what you say,

she looks like a million dollars.

Yeah, all right, Dad.

She looks great.

"Great"?

The girl's herself again.

Getting rid of those cows

was the smartest thing she ever did.

I never liked 'em.

But getting that facelift?

I was against it, but I was wrong.

- Darling, a million dollars.

- Thank you, Lou.

I'm serious, Dawn.

The best money ever spent.

You seem better.

Lou, Sylvia, you know

Bill and Jesse Orcutt.

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