Boom Page #5

You've lived in it.

Oh, Chris, come to Capri.

It's a mountain too.

Are you frightened of the

new nickname they've given me,

the new title, Angelo de la Morte?

No, I think it's a joke you take

too seriously,

you've become too sullen.

Let me take that curse off you.

Come to Capri.

Bill?

The boatman is waiting for you.

Mr. Flanders, get off

that balustrade!

If you lost your balance, you

would fall one thousand feet down!

I can't go back in a dinner

jacket before sundown.

Oh, yes, you can.

Frankie, put this 'gentleman'

in the funicular, and

speed him back to Capri

in a speedboat.

Chris, come down and help me,

I'm being evicted, haha.

- Be brave, Sissie...

- Brave about what?!

Heheh, you two watch out

for each other.

Ciao...

Would you care if I fell

a thousand feet to the sea?

It would make a scandal.

Mrs. Goforth...

I'm going to tell you the truth about

myself, if you'd like to believe it.

The truth about yourself, I think,

is the only thing I would believe.

Boom.

I had an invitation to visit a lady

who lives on top of Ravello.

I wired her that I'd arrived.

She sent me a wire back.

What the wire said was this:

"Not yet. Not ready for you yet,

dear Angel of Death. "

Ridiculous!

Hmm. An inconvenience,

since I'd, uh... -

Since you'd invested all your

income in this

standing invitation that

had stopped...

standing.

Banzai!

Stop this, this... exhibitionism,

or I shall put an immediate

stop to this meeting!

I usually let a man know

when I want to be kissed.

And it's not so quickly.

Blackie!

There. It's moving again.

Fearless lady subject to fits

of unreasonable panic.

When the villa and the villinas

are overcrowded,

I pick out the ones I want

to get rid of and

send 'em down here, to my charming

little grass house on the beach.

Down they go, and what becomes

of them I do not know.

No skeletons in here!

Get back in your robe!

Put your clothes on!

I can't take the beach today.

You've got more things going

for you than your teeth, baby.

What've you got there, Blackie?

Some food for Mr. Flanders.

Oh, Blackie's so-o thoughtful

sometimes...

Put it down over there.

I said, over there, not here!

And bring my menthol inhaler

and tissues, I've run out.

Simonetta!

Simo-netta!

Take that tray away, I can't

stand the sight of food now.

Mrs. Goforth, I feel my presence

here has disturbed you, annoyed you.

Don't reach for a smoke!

Wait till I offer you one.

May I have one?

Kiss me for it.

Mr. Flanders keeps looking at my

jewels, as if calculating their value.

And he's constantly

fiddling with that sword.

Oh. The sun's left the terrace.

I have, what the French call,

droit de domain,

which means 'complete dominion'

on this island.

And freedom to do whatever's

necessary

to protect myself and

my possessions

from any and all

possible threats.

That should make you

feel safe.

Safety is something I

never take for granted.

I suppose you, um...

dine out here,

just about the time when the little boats

are going to sea with their lamps,

for night fishing,

and the poem's sea fades into

the poem's sky.

Sky?

Not 'firmament'? Why not call it

'firmament', much more poetic.

Hey! How many books of, uh...

poetry have you come out with?

Just the one I brought you.

You mean, you burned out

as a poet?

What?

You mean, you burnt out

as a poet?

Ha ha ha.

Why are you laughing, I didn't

say anything funny.

Well, my nerves are...

Gone, like your list of suckers?

Mate in two.

Do you want me to go,

Mrs. Goforth?

- That depends.

- Depends on what?

Well, frankly I've been

lonely up here this summer.

I can understand that.

Now, you're not stupid.

You're attractive to me,

you know you are.

You deliberately set out to

make yourself attractive to me,

and you are. So don't be

a freeloader.

Mrs. Goforth, I think you've been

exposed to the wrong kind of people...

Oh, don't give me that

moral blackmail!

You know what that is - people who

impose on you with that old, old trick

of making you feel that it would be

unkind of you if you

did not permit them to

impose on you.

I give away nothing.

I sell and I buy in my life.

And I always wind up with

profits one way or the other.

You came up here with

an old book of poems,

published 10 years ago,

by playing on the terrible,

desperate loneliness

of a rich, old, broken-hipped

woman.

I made her walk again.

She published my poems.

You latched onto a good thing.

I didn't need it, I was, uh...

fashionable then.

Do you sit while a

woman stands?

Sorry. Sit down.

"In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan,

a stately pleasure dome decree

"Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man:

"Down to a sunless sea. "

What?

You're suffering from the

worst of all afflictions,

and I don't mean one of the body,

I mean, the thing people feel

when they go from room to room

for no reason,

then go back from room to room

for no reason,

then go out for no reason,

and come back for no reason.

All I have to do is

pick up that telephone,

and this island will be so

crowded with anybody I...

Is it so easy for you?

Is it so easy for you this

summer, proud as you are?

Full known, absolute monarch

of an island kingdom that

a golden griffin?

You don't summon guests who

might ignore the summons,

because you've developed some

curious habits,

like keeping a revolver

in your pocket,

and keeping your hand

in the pocket.

And there's the still unclarified

story of the young fisherman,

one of your subjects

from the village

that you had sentenced to death

and executed one night...

Vicious lies! M-malicious distortion!

So, he's still living and fishing?

He's as dead as the deadest fish

he ever netted or caught.

Look. See this ring with the

famous stone, called The Aurora?

It's a very noticeable object.

Yes.

I noticed you noticed it.

Well, late one night

I woke up,

feeling the ring being

pulled from my finger,

pressed the alarm button

under my pillow.

On the way down the mountain

he was, naturally, halted.

I put his widow on a

very generous pension.

That's not true, he was in

your bedroom by invitation.

What if he was? Or wasn't?

Boom.

Boom?

Boom...

The shock of each moment,

of still being alive.

When a wave breaks against

the rock it looks like a fan.

A delicate, white lace fan.

- But if it hits you...

- Me?!

But if it hits you, you would

be smashed against the rocks,

and you would be broken in pieces.

You're... you're fiddling too much

with that sword.

You suspect me of being

a possible assassin?

Take it off.

Take that off, take that sword...

give it to me!

Call for Mr. Flanders.

For me? How could anybody

possibly know I'm here?

Oh, cut the bull. You received

a phone call here last night.

Business must be picking up

for you.

Excuse me.

Take it here!

Pronto, pronto?

Madelyn, how are you?

How's your dear mother?

Oh, my God.

I meant to go straight

down there.

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