Good Morning, Miss Dove Page #4

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Any family history of epilepsy,

night blindness or melancholy?

Certainly not.

What about your emotional life?

I beg your pardon?

Well,... Iove. Any feelings of

frustration, inadequacy?

I have never felt inadequate.

Suppose we call your emotional life

satisfactory?

That will be correct.

Are you subject to fantasy?

Does the world around you

ever assume an aura of unreality?

Yes, Dr Temple.

Could you say approximately when?

I can say definitely.

Since around noon today.

Oh...

Thank you, Miss Dove.

Dr Baker will be in later,

of course.

We're really old friends.

I feel I've known you all my life.

You've known me?

I'm Adams Temple.

My mother was a Liberty Hill girl.

Angela Adams. I should have known.

Mother moved to Maine when

she was 14, but she remembers you.

I remember her.

She, too, had an enquiring mind.

Still has. She boasts that she's

the only kid who ever asked you

a question you couldn't answer.

Indeed?

She says it was

in first or second grade.

You were reading a book on animals.

It said bears were fond of red ants,

which taste similar to pickles.

Mother asked you how the man who

wrote the book knew how ants tasted.

Did he eat an ant

or did a bear tell him?

I recall the incident.

I'm writing her tonight.

She'll get a wallop out of this.

If there's anything I can do,

just buzz.

One moment, Dr Temple.

You want Dr Temple?

Yes. To ask him a few questions.

He told me nothing

of my physical condition.

He couldn't.

You're Dr Baker's patient.

Then what is it

that Dr Baker suspects?

He'll tell you.

I see no occasion for mystery.

Don't try to see.

Let us do the thinking.

You, Thomas Baker and Angela Adams's

son will think for me?

Sure. We're experienced.

Oh, look. Your first flowers.

Bill... Officer Holloway

left it at the desk.

It is beautiful.

Good afternoon, Virginia.

I didn't know you'd been admitted.

I haven't. I came to see you.

How are you?

Comfortable. And you?

The suspense is killing me.

If nothing's happened by this week,

Dr Tillet's giving Nature a nudge.

He says keep walking - I'd better.

If Tommy knew I was here

he'd have a fit.

I just came to wish you good luck.

And to you, Virginia.

I just came to wish you good luck.

And to you, Virginia.

Thank you.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for us.

I know you'll take care of her.

I sure will.

I used to think she was

the snootiest, dumbest brat here.

She's really a good kid.

In marriage and maternity,

she has found her vocation,...

.. achieved her destiny.

'A year ago,

I was not quite so hopeful. '

~ Dear old Cedar Grove, to thee

~ We pledge our love and loyalty

~ And though peril may beset us

~ On life's tempestuous sea

~ Your spirit still will guide us

~ To shore and victory. ~

It seems only yesterday we marched

down that aisle. You too, Jincey.

Come on.

The final innings.

Let's not be downhearted. There's

always new rookies coming up to bat.

'For six years,

I pruned and polished them. '

'I tried to blow into them the breath

of purpose. I do not wish them back. '

'I wish only to believe that

they will do well without me. '

Good morning, Miss Dove.

Good morning, Virginia.

This was my place.

You may sit there now, Virginia.

The room is different.

Empty...

Like life.

Is that the same map?

Is China still orange?

It is a new map. China is purple -

cartographically, of course.

I liked the old map.

I liked the old world.

I felt secure in this room.

I felt that if I obeyed the law,

sneezed in my handkerchief, raised

my hand for permission to speak...

..that that was my oyster,

that nothing could go wrong.

At first it worked. Even flunking

out of university seemed like fate.

I won that talent contest and got a

job in New York singing commercials.

Oh, Miss Dove, tell me what to do.

Do your duty.

How, when your world has ended?

You are 19.

What difference does that make?

You need to know how it was.

I met him at the Stork Club,

I'd been in New York a week.

He spoke to the waiter in French.

He was everything that the papers

said he was when we were engaged.

Yale, a yacht,

and the skyon of a prominent family.

The word is scion. The "c" is silent.

Well, he looked like what he was.

Most sky... scions don't.

Every night it was the Stork Club

and El Morocco and Twenty-One.

Champagne and steaks.

Did you ever drink champagne?

No.

No.

It's like cider,

but the effect is different.

And the compliments he paid my hair,

my eyes and my figure.

I'm embarrassed to repeat them.

Reticence, Virginia,

is the sine qua non of gentility.

Anyhow, I came home to Liberty Hill

to prepare for my wedding.

I wanted to be married here

so all my friends could come.

I was modelling my wedding dress

when someone turned on the radio...

.. and then everything went black!

The next day I got a telegram -

"Gorgeous, only you can understand".

Could you?

No. I still can't! Can you?

Certainly.

Have you a handkerchief, Virginia?

My heart's broken, Miss Dove.

A broken heart is cumbersome baggage.

What can I do?

I am not undecided as to how you

should be answered, but I am not

convinced this is my province.

Oh, tell me, Miss Dove.

Very well. First,

return to your sister's house,...

..fall on your knees and give thanks

to your Heavenly Father.

For what?

Preserving you from

a fate worse than death.

Evidently, the young man to whom

you gave your affections discovered

his feelings for you had altered.

He had an honourable avenue of escape

He could have requested you

to release him.

Instead, he proved himself a coward

and a person of low principles.

I thought there was

something wrong with me.

Your fault lay in rashness

of judgement. His lay in dishonour.

After thanking the Power that kept

you from a disastrous alliance,...

.. consider your duty to

your neighbour and yourself.

Find an occupation.

Do you think I could teach?

Decidedly not,

but there are other ways to serve.

I might be a nurse.

You might.

Good morning, Miss Dove.

Good morning, Thomas.

I thought I'd drop by.

Jincey, I didn't expect to find you

here. Holy mackerel, you're grown!

You've done a mighty neat job of it.

Thank you.

The last time I saw her was before

med school, she was graduating.

She shot my brother

with a squirt gun in the...

Virginia cannot enjoy being reminded.

It's cute of Tommy to remember.

Does this room look different?

Yes. Considerably.

The hospital must keep you busy.

It calls me now. My car's outside

if I can take you someplace?

Oh, wonderful!

Goodbye, Miss Dove, and thank you.

I'll think about my nursing career.

Maybe Tommy can advise me.

I'll advise her very carefully.

'I am 54. '

'I won't have to retire until 67. '

'If they don't tarry, and from

all indications they won't,...

.. I could take their first child

straight through to graduation. '

'That child will need me. '

Oh, I'd better get you ready.

For what?

For night duty -

you have a special ordered.

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