Hope Springs Page #2

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Mr Fisher.

And hopefully, if this works out, I'll be able

to emphasise that quality even more.

Dramatic, eh?

Now, is that a position

that you can hold for 30 minutes or so?

I can do that.

If you'd like to put your hands on your lap,

once you've finished your...

- Are we allowed to talk?

- Yup, we can talk. Calmly.

Mandy told Joanie, who told Tina, who

told me, what happened in your homeland.

- Sorry, could you tip your head...?

- Sorry.

Maybe not quite that much.

If you just keep your eyes on a fixed point,

sometimes that way your head stays still.

Listen, my friend,

once the pain wears off, I'm tellin' ya,

you'll be a better and stronger man

than if it never happened at all.

- If it ever does wear off.

- Sure it does.

That's the one good thing about pain,

it wears off.

You know, I was having a think earlier.

About six months ago, she took up yoga.

She joined a local club,

and it made her happy.

I remember thinking

"How can yoga make anyone that happy?"

And especially so when the swami

started one-partner exercises.

- Swami?

- Yes, the swami.

He'd pair them off and they'd all sit on

the floor, back-to-back with locked arms,

and they'd pull against each other

and chant things.

Chanting? Oh, boy.

And I was just thinking maybe that was it.

They were all paired off,

and that was the moment,

when maybe I lost her.

Cos maybe the guy that she was

paired off with was this Roger Pelham.

- Colin, would you like a cup of tea?

- No, I'm fine, thanks.

Fisher?

I can't turn my head.

I'll have to talk to you later.

Should that shadow be coming down

over Fisher's mouth like that?

It's dramatic, Joanie.

Fisher has such fine lips.

I hope they'll show.

They'll be shown to full effect, Mrs Fisher.

Just as soon as we lose that mayonnaise.

I think it's OK to call me Joanie now.

Joanie, let the man work.

So, Roger Pelham?

I was just thinking

of all those times when I picked her up

and I'd sit in the car waiting for her to come

out of the club, watching them come out...

Just trying to remember

what they all looked like, because...

Well, one of the men I used to see

would've been...

Did they have

a kind of glazed expression?

Could they be described as "transfixed"?

See, from what you're sayin' - delirium

and swamis, chants, glazed expressions -

I hate to say it, my friend, but I think

you have lost your good woman to a cult.

Colin?

Joanie!

Colin, all you have any business

thinkin' about at this point is movin' on.

Maybe folks in England

sit around chewin' on the past,

but over here that ain't done much.

Before you get out,

can I just say something?

Of course.

Excuse me, I just need a little...

- Do you want some?

- Not this morning, thanks.

You're gonna have to drive us back.

You can drive, right?

On the left I can, but I'm not very...

Over at the Shining Shores

I really feel I'm helping people.

A lot of people never get that feeling...

- Shining Shores?

- The rest home where I work. And live.

God, when I was in high school,

the things we used to do in there.

Non-botanical things?

Non-botanical things!

What-ho, Jeeves!

I'm just wondering if this is the best time

for us to be trying to take this in.

You know, if I was back in high school,

I'da just thrown this out in the street!

I wouldn'ta cared. Somebody walking

over broken glass - like, who gives a sh*t?

But I'm not like that now. Now

I'm responsible and mature and boring.

I'm sorry. It's you that's supposed

to be getting the therapy from this.

Listen, Mandy,

I think if I drive very, very slowly

we stand a small chance

of getting back to the motel alive.

- I'm really sorry about this.

- That's OK.

I was just nervous.

- Are we going back to your room?

- Sorry?

- I mean I need some coffee.

- Right, yes. Of course.

We are, like, hardly moving here.

I think you'll find we're moving.

No, no, Mandy, don't...

No, stop... No, no, don't... Seriously...

Did you do these?

It's Fisher. That's incredible.

- He looks almost...

- Lifelike?

Handsome.

And she's beautiful. Who is that?

Sorry.

I decided I'm going to

put together an exhibition.

Portraits of people in this town.

Might take my mind off things.

I know every face in town,

so if you need a face-finder, I'm your man.

I'm sure you've got better things to do

than to go around looking for faces for me.

- Anyway, coffee.

- Are you happy, Colin?

- Generally speaking, yes.

- Why are you happy?

Probably because we're not

being scraped off the front of a truck.

No coffee for me, thanks.

Can I ask you a question?

Cos you seem like you wouldn't

get mad at me, no matter what I said or did.

- You wouldn't, would you?

- It depends.

I'm gonna do something

I've never done before in my whole life.

I'm gonna close the curtains.

- You've never unbuttoned your blouse?

- Not for this reason.

I've taken off my clothes for other reasons,

obviously, but not for this one.

This one being what, exactly?

When I was little,

whenever I got really happy

I got this uncontrollable desire

to take off my clothes.

And when I was little

I was happy a lot, obviously,

so I'd just take 'em off any old where,

and people would be shocked

and I'd get in trouble...

It's funny, but with you

I don't even feel self-conscious.

Well, that's good, I think.

This is the first time I've ever stripped for

joyfulness with someone else in the room.

And it's wonderful!

Cos when you take off

your clothes in private,

you might be expressing your joy,

but you always knew

you had to go off by yourself to do it.

So the joy's never quite complete.

- Incomplete joy.

- Try it yourself if you want.

It feels wonderful. It has nothing

to do with sex, if that's what you're thinking.

No, I wasn't.

Most men would think it did,

but I can tell you accept it for what it is.

That's why I feel comfortable enough

to do it with you.

Go on. It feels wonderful.

- I might just take some of them off.

- Not some of them. All of them.

- I'm just not quite as joyful as you are yet.

- You will be once they're off.

I bet you've had sex

with your clothes on.

If I have, it was a long time ago.

See? People with their clothes off

aren't gonna have sex

any more than people with their clothes on

would not have sex.

I think people with their clothes off

probably have it more often.

That might be true, but that's not the point.

Although it kinda does seem like we might.

Does it seem that way to you?

I feel like it could go either way.

If it does go that way,

maybe we should put our clothes back on.

Back on? To have sex?

Because that way we wouldn't risk spoiling

the feeling of joy - the innocent kind of joy.

Why take the chance of spoiling that?

Would we take them back off again

afterwards?

What?

I'm just asking if, after we had sex -

if that's the way it went -

would we take our clothes back off

afterwards?

- Don't you wear underwear?

- I left home in a hurry.

I'm starting to feel kinda cold.

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