Dying Young Page #2

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- How's that?

- Thank you. Thank you. I'm all right.

Oh!

Too loud!

Too loud!

It's... too loud.

Too loud.

It's OK. It's OK.

Come on, come on.

- Much too loud.

- No, no. I turned it down.

- Much too loud.

- It's OK. I turned it down.

Come on. Let me get you into the bed, OK?

I've got you. I've got you.

I've got...

OK, OK.

The room is humming.

Go to sleep.

Go to sleep.

Sh*t.

Hold it, hold it, hold it.

I don't get it. What do you mean, poison?

I mean poison. I mean,

I thought he was gonna die.

I thought, one more time

and this guy is gonna f***in' die.

Shauna, I need help.

I feel sorry for him, I do.

I don't think anybody comes to see him.

I wish I knew how to care for him,

but I don't. He needs a nurse.

He needs somebody who can...

deal with this sort of thing.

I don't think I can deal with this.

I don't.

I have to tell him tonight.

No.

You've reached the home of Victor Geddes.

Leave a message after the tone.

This is your father.

Are you there?

I know you're there.

I'm calling to find out how

the chemo went. Are you all right?

I understand you didn't hire

the nurse. You got that redhead.

I guess I don't have to ask why.

I'll be back in a couple of weeks.

I love you, Victor.

- Dinner.

- Thank you.

- Eggs.

- Thanks.

That's all this redhead could find.

There's no real food in the house.

No. Oh.

Unless you want a Twinkie omelette.

Twinkie omelette.

- Uh... oops.

- Oh. Oh, God. I'm sorry.

No, that's all right. It's nothing.

- I'm sorry. This is important. It's your diary.

- It's nothing. It's notes.

I'm...

This is what I do. It's my PhD thesis.

I've been working on it for five years.

When I can, I will finish it.

- I'm determined to finish it.

- What's it on?

Uh, art. Art history. Do you know

the German Impressionists?

Do they live in Oakland?

Uh, no. Well, then, uh,

just Impressionism in general?

Do...

Like, um...

Renoir? Or, uh... Monet?

Gauguin.

Uh, Van Gogh.

- The flowers.

- Sunflowers.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Well, that's not who I'm doing.

Oh.

Would you like to see who I'm doing?

Klimt.

Gustav Klimt.

He was obsessed with women.

He needed them the way

most people need food.

Valerie Neuzil.

He called her Wally. She was 16.

For a while she was the embodiment of it all.

Beauty, love, sex.

Until he got bored and passed her on.

She lived only another five years,

and died, it is said, of a broken heart.

- Too late for spying, Malachi.

- Never too late, sir.

Good night, Malachi.

Good night, sir.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Also obsessed, but with just one woman.

Elizabeth Siddal, his wife.

She was only 28 when she killed herself

with a drug called laudanum.

Beautiful name for a drug.

Rossetti couldn't stop painting

her image, over and over again.

Until he died just a few years later.

Klimt again. It's called The Kiss.

Did he use real gold?

I should have explained

the chemo more clearly to you.

It wasn't fair. So, if you...

if you'd like, I can pay you now.

For the week.

You've earned every penny of it.

And, uh... we can... we can just...

You know, we can just...

It's OK.

Thank you, Moamar.

I'll pull this back forjust a second.

I was reading today that the survival rate

of adult-onset leukaemia is now 50%.

And it is even greater

with aggressive therapy.

Here we go.

This therapy aggressive enough for you?

This is gonna get warm in just a minute, OK?

- Victor. What can I do? What can I do?

- Nothing.

- What do you want me to do?

- Nothing! Nothing!

There's nothing you can do.

Not a goddamn, motherfucking thing.

F***! F***!

F***!

F***.

I'm right here.

All gold. That's right, all gold.

Oh! She has teeth.

See? That is so rare. You never see that.

I mean, anybody can paint

a little closed mouth, you know?

Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Tell me that's not a snake.

It's part of a snake.

A whole snake is too expensive.

- He eats that?

- He doesn't eat.

Well, Hilary, honey, bake him a ham.

- It sticks to the ribs.

- Ham has too much fat and too much salt.

You can get two or three dinners

out of it and some sandwiches.

I mean, your grandmother never ate

Chinese snake for lunch, for God's sakes.

- Or Aunt Elma, who lived to be what?

- 206?

92 years old, thank you very much.

And she smoked a pack of Luckies and

drank a pint of Scotch every day of her life.

God rest her soul. Did he pay you yet?

- He offered.

- Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And you said "Oh, it's OK."

And I'm not married and

Rosemary Kinsella has a Cadillac.

- Do you do his wash too?

- No, Mom, I don't.

The man weighs 14 pounds,

but I tell him "You want clean socks?"

"Get off your skinny ass

and wash them yourself. "

I just thought maybe you were a nurse

instead of a cleaning lady, that's all,

who makes a better wage

than I do, by the way.

And is it possible, is itjust possible, that he

wants a little more than a ham dinner, huh?

Huh?

Sorry. Is the music too loud?

No. May I come in?

Um, just a second.

- Hi.

- Hi.

- Everything all right?

- Mm-hm.

You have something...

Oh.

Thanks.

Oh, did I say thank you for the other night?

You said "f***" a lot.

Well, thank you.

So, it's almost eight,

and you're not going out.

I mean, you could. You can. You're allowed.

You don't have to stay home.

It's not part of the deal.

- Thanks.

- But you're not.

So, um...

How about a date?

- Malachi.

- I let myself...

Let yourself in, yes.

- Shall I leave you two alone?

- It's not necessary, sir.

Your mail.

- And your news.

- Thank you for the personal delivery.

My pleasure, sir. One additional news item:

Your father returns at the end of the week.

And may I assume from the intense

odour of mayonnaise in the air

that you will be dining in tonight?

Actually, no. We're going out.

Aren't we?

Going out?

Sure.

We're going out.

Isn't it great? The Chronicle said

it was the best new place in town.

Best... Isn't this great?

It's great.

OK.

- Great. Thank you.

- Certainly, sir.

My mother said you don't have to

like everything, but to try everything.

Oh. My mother always said

"Pass the Velveeta. "

- What is it?

- Raw cow.

- Dead.

- What if I throw up?

Then I'll take care of you.

Go ahead.

- Carpaccio.

- Carpaccio.

- Isn't that great?

- It's great.

What do they, um,

charge for something like this?

I don't know. 30, was it?

30? Wow.

- Wow.

- What?

No, it's great. This place... is great.

It's not great, is it?

Victor, do you really wanna have some fun?

Hi!

Victor. Jim.

- Come on, let's dance.

- Can you dance?

- Could you hold my jacket?

- Yes, of course.

- Hi.

- You were great.

Thanks.

This place isn't really that great either, is it?

Shall we go back to the restaurant?

No.

Arthur Rubinstein.

He was almost 80 when he played this.

I met him. My mother took me

to his apartment and I shook his hand.

Size of a basketball player's.

Little skinny man.

- How'd she know him?

- He was a client of my father's law firm.

- I'm impressed.

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