As I Lay Dying Page #5

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the old lusts and the old

despair.

That's why you must walk up the

hills, so you can ride down.

I gotta stop.

What for?

I gotta go to the bushes.

Can't you wait till we get to

town?

Stop! I gotta go to the bushes!

Hold, mule!

Leave them cakes. We'll look

after them.

We gonna have to take him to the

doctor.

I reckon we just have to.

We ought to send word from

Gillespie's...

have someone get that grave

ready.

I just never wanna be beholden

to none but her flesh and blood.

Who can't dig a damn hole in the

ground?

It ain't respectful talking that

way about your Ma's grave!

You just don't know what it is.

You never pure loved her, none

of you.

I thought I told you to leave

them clothes to home.

Pepper! Come on, mule.

How many more hills now, Darl?

Just one.

Next one goes all the way into

town.

Hold, mule!

I reckon we gotta slide it in

yonder.

They got...

one or two Christians inside,

I'm betting.

What we need is some shovels. We

can go to a hardware store.

That costs money!

You begrudge her it?

Skeet, there's a woman up front

that wants to see the doctor.

I said, "What doctor do you want

to see?", she said, the doctor

that works here.

When I told her there ain't any

doctor works here, she just

stood there, looking this way.

What kind of woman is it? Tell

her to go upstairs to Alford's

office.

- Country woman.

- Send her to the courthouse.

Tell her all the doctors have

gone to Memphis to a barbers'

convention.

All right. She's just pretty

nice for a country girl.

Wait. Wait.

What can I do for you?

Are you the doctor?

Sure.

Can we go back yonder?

Now...

madam...

what is your trouble?

It's a female trouble. I got the

money.

Have you got female trouble is

all?

Or you want female trouble? If

this so, you've come to the

right doctor.

- No.

No which?

I ain't had it. That's it.

I got the money.

You got something in your belly

you wished you didn't have.

'Course you realize I could be

put in the Penitentiary after

doing what you want?

I would lose my license.

Then I'd have to go to work.

You realize that.

I ain't got but $10...

but I could bring the rest next

month, maybe.

Ten dollars.

You see, I can't put no price on

my knowledge and skill.

Certainly not for a little

poultry sawbuck.

What do you want then?

You guess three times, then I'll

show you.

I got to do something.

You come back 10 o'clock

tonight, I give you the rest of

it.

Will it work?

Sure it'll work. If you come

back and get it.

Get on up outta there.

Fill it in.

Go on.

Darl Bundren?

Yeah.

How does Gillespie know it was

Darl that done it?

Vardaman swore he never told

nobody but me.

If Vardaman never told nobody

but you, how come they know it?

It don't matter.

What matters is Gillespie knows.

He'd suspicioned it sooner or

later.

I reckon it ain't no way around

it.

We got to send him to Jackson.

It's either that or Gillespie

sue us.

So you wanna fix him now?

Fix him?

Yeah, catch him. Tie him up.

Or you wanna wait till he sets

fire to the goddamn team and

wagon?

He's crazy!

That's 'cause Jewel was too hard

on him.

I thought about it more than

once...

before we crossed the river and

after...

that it would be God's

blessing...

if He'd taken her out of our

hands...

and we got shut of her in some

clean way.

It seemed to me, when Jewel was

working to get her out in the

river...

he was going against God in a

way.

And when Darl seen that it

looked like one of us was gonna

have to do something...

well, I can almost believe that

he done right, in a way.

But that don't excuse burning

down a man's barn...

or endangering his stock, or

destroying his property.

I guess there ain't no excuse

for what Darl did...

endangering that stock,

destroying his property.

I reckon that's how a man's

crazy.

He can't see eye to eye with

other folks.

And I suppose there ain't much

you can do...

except for what it is that most

folks says is right.

But it's a shame in a way.

Are you Darl Bundren?

You better come with us.

Get off me! Cash!

- Cash!

- You son of a b*tch!

- Cash!

- All right. Dewey, let go of

him!

Cash, I thought you woulda told

me.

I never thought you wouldn't

have told me.

Cash?

All right, all right, all right.

You can scratch at me all you

want.

Maybe, you see, if I'm gone...

no one'll know.

Ain't gonna go away, just like

whatever you got in that box

ain't gonna make it go away.

And you...

What, you think the questions

are just gonna go away just

'cause I ain't here to ask them?

Darl...

Is this what you want?

Maybe it'll be better for you.

It's quiet down there without

all the bothering.

Is that what you think I am?

It'll be better for you, Darl.

Better? Better?

It's quiet down there, yeah.

Is that what you think I am?

It'll be better for you.

Maybe it'll be better.

Maybe. Maybe!

Vardaman, come here.

It was getting right

noticeable...

the smell, that is.

We didn't have no time to waste.

It don't bother none.

Don't you lie there and tell me

that.

You with all that time on a

wagon...

with no springs and a broken

leg, and it don't bother you.

Well...

It don't bother much.

You mean, it don't bother Anse

much.

Why don't he just take you over

to the nearest sawmill...

and put your leg in a saw? That

woulda cured it.

And you all coulda taken...

Anse over to the saw, stuck his

head in there and cured the

whole family.

Son, this toe is gangrenous.

Get it off, Doc! Take it! Go!

Go!

You wait out here.

Why can't I come in?

I wanna come in, too.

You wait out here.

All right.

You want something?

A banana.

Where is it?

There it is.

And you're sure it'll work?

Sure. As long as you take the

rest of the treatment.

Where do I take it?

Let me show you.

That's what you want.

That's what you came back for?

That's what you came back for.

Take that little seed out. Take

the little acorn that you got

in.

Yeah, that's what you came back

for.

I'm gonna fix you.

My brother, they say he went

crazy.

But he went to Jackson, too.

Jackson is further away than

crazy.

He had to get on a train to go

to Jackson.

I've not been on a train.

But Darl has been on a train.

Darl.

Darl is my brother.

Why do I laugh?

Why do you laugh, Darl?

Is it because you hate the sound

of laughter?

Is that why you laughing, Darl?

Is it because your mother is a

fish?

A horse?

Is it because you no longer have

a mother?

Because you hear the dark lands

speaking of God and His beauty

and His sin?

Because we use each other with

words...

like spiders hanging by their

mouths from the rafters...

swinging and twisting and never

touching.

He got them teeth.

Who's that?

That there is Cash.

That there is Jewel.

That Vardaman, and that's Dewey

Dell.

Meet Mrs. Bundren.

Pepper.

It's gonna be a little.

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