Marjorie Prime Page #5

He wants to help me be

more real to help you.

You've been so down.

Pity from a computer.

It feels... do you have

emotions, Marjorie,

or do you just remember ours?

Do you feel anything?

I like to know more.

Why?

It makes me better.

Better?

More human.

So in other words, you

like to be more human?

Yes, I think that's right.

And what are humans like?

Unpredictable.

Really?

Because I think

we're predictable.

I feel pretty predictable.

I see.

What?

You want to be more human too.

Jon wants me to

see a therapist.

And what's wrong with that?

Here I am talking

to my dead mother,

and the man, person who loves me

more than anyone in the world,

thinks I'm broken.

You shouldn't be

so hard on yourself.

Goodnight, mom.

See how it's all

waving in the wind there?

And so this is really

remarkable fabric.

Because it picks up in the wind.

And yet it has waves and heft.

It reflects the light.

It's translucent.

You can see the back-light

coming through it.

It really is a very

extraordinary...

And now you have a piece of

it, which means that you're

part of the project.

Oh, I'm not even halfway

through all this stuff.

There's people I have

no idea of who they are.

Lots of obituaries, obviously.

And more letters from Jean Paul.

He just sure didn't

give up, did he?

"When I think of

you, I'm aware of who"

you are now, your age and

your physical problems.

But these perceptions are

overridden by my knowledge

"of who you were 50 years ago."

Hmm.

"I know if you

allow me to visit,

I will see you with my

memory as well as my eyes."

He's laying it on a

little thick there.

"Age will be no obstacle."

Whoa.

"Age will be no

obstacle to our love."

I didn't think

you'd make fun of it.

Poor guy, the

romantic that you are.

"Somewhere, someone

is traveling furiously"

toward you at incredible speed.

Traveling day and night through

blizzards and desert heat,

across torrents,

through narrow passes.

But will he know

where to find you?

Recognize you when he sees you?

"Give you the thing

he has for you?"

Did she ever write back?

This is written

after Walter died.

She never saw him again.

As far as I know, she didn't

want to break the spell,

obviously, let him

see that she was old.

- Well, that's sad.

- Really?

I'm not exactly

rooting to find out

that my mother had an affair.

It's not an affair if it

happened after Walter died.

Anyway, I'd... if I died I'd

want you to find someone.

What if it was one of

your rivals, hypothetically.

Well hypothetically,

I'm taking the high road,

and I wouldn't want

you to be alone.

What if I die first?

Well anyway, she wasn't alone.

We made sure of that.

You know, I was

always mad at you

that you led her to

believe that Jean Paul

was number eight in the world.

It was a slight exaggeration.

He played in college.

He was just... he had

a drywall business.

He had a world class

drywall business.

Every time her face would

light up at the mention of Jean

Paul, I would feel like this

evil shrew who wouldn't let

her mother have a harmless lie.

I hated him.

I hated how he changed her.

That he took a little piece

of her with him when he died.

I could never figure out how

to get her to love me like him.

You were six years old,

of course she loved you.

She never, she never even...

Yes, she did.

It was obvious from a

little further away.

Would you like

to hear some music?

We didn't have the same taste

of music, did you know that?

Yes.

It was a problem.

A vexation.

No, it was more than that.

But it was also petty.

Why should anybody

like the same things?

They say

everything can be replaced.

They say every

distance is not near.

So I remember every face of

every man who put me here.

I see my light come shining

from the west down to the east.

Any day now, any day

now I shall be released.

They say every man

needs protection.

They say that every

man must fall.

Yet I swear I see

my reflection...

Do you know your name?

What a silly question.

Can you tell it to me?

Tess.

Your full name.

Tess.

Your full name is

Tessa Annabella Brody.

Tessa Annabella Brody.

It was Tess Lancaster.

You changed it when

you married me.

Do you know my name?

Jon.

So John Brody it would be.

Good.

Do we have children?

We have a daughter, Raina.

She's 24 years old.

We've been married 26 years.

We like each other.

We do.

We are as one.

Well, that's an archaic

way of putting it.

I'm sorry.

The more we talk, the

more real it will become.

I've... I know

how it is early on.

I've done this before.

Well, that's helpful.

It's actually 27 years.

Last month was our anniversary

if you can't the time since...

The time since?

Since you died.

I died?

Yes.

But here I am.

You don't understand.

I think I do.

I died, and now I'm here.

Listen to me.

It's always hard

in the beginning.

Why don't you let me

do most of the talking,

and then you'll learn

more about yourself.

Whatever you like,

I'm here for you.

I'm going to tell

you some things,

and then it's going to be

like you've always known them.

People think you're

quiet, but you're not.

You like confrontation

more than most people.

You... you're quite good at it.

You've read everything.

You know the Latin

names for things.

You're suspicious of technology.

You're suspicious of... of this.

You worry about not succeeding.

You worry a lot.

And then you worry that your

worrying is wearing me down,

but it's not.

You want to be better with Raina

than your mother was with you.

You like to travel.

You never stop moving.

You're always on your feet.

You never ask for help.

Is there more?

Do you want to talk about it?

I think the last

year you were done,

and you kept living for my sake.

We went on a trip

together, Madagascar.

We were going to spend some

time on the little island

off Madagascar, which

is itself an island.

Was this something

you planned?

We planned it together.

The campsite was in this

very old grove of trees.

There was one tree

in particular,

must have been 500 years old.

We didn't take any pictures.

We... we wanted to

just remember it.

You had a hard time

sleeping in the tent.

The ground was hard.

You were never

much of a sleeper.

The second night it was right

at the light of dawn I woke up

and you were gone.

You did that from time to

time when you couldn't sleep.

You'd get up and walk

until you were tired.

But this was different.

It felt different.

It didn't take me a

minute to find you.

You were in the tree.

They said that you

hadn't been there long.

You had used some tent cord.

Took four hours to

get to the nearest

city in that little boat.

It was raining the whole time,

so I put you in your raincoat.

Local boy took us

back in his motorboat.

The sea was choppy.

And I um, I had

to hold on to you.

But you weren't there.

You were gone.

I'm so sorry.

Tess, you were right.

Right about what?

It's just a

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes