Shadows in the Sun Page #6

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It is what you are

and you're a great one, at that.

A great writer knows

when he is not a great writer anymore.

- So then what, he just gives up?

- I didn't give anything up.

Something more important than my writing.

How can I explain it to you?

I can't explain it to myself.

- Stop it. Just stop.

- Stop what?

If you don't wanna write, that's fine,

but stop blaming it on your dead wife.

[Groaning]

[Grunting]

[Panting]

[Crying] What do you want from me?

You want to prove I'm miserable?

You know, you say

you don't wanna write, Weldon...

but you write every single day.

You just stopped putting the pen to the page.

Sometimes life tosses you this way, that way...

and you find yourself in a place you never...

imagined you'd be in.

Before you realize it, it's too late to go back.

- No, it's never too late.

- I can't do it.

I don't believe you, Weldon.

- I can't.

- Why?

- Because...

- Because why?

Because I'm afraid!

Weldon, you're not afraid of writing.

You're afraid of failing.

We all fail.

Courage is in the trying.

[Sheep bleating]

[Birds chirping]

[People chattering]

[Jeremy sighing]

Are you all right?

You should've seen me today, Father.

You'd have been proud. I was very clever.

What happened?

I forced Weldon down a road

he didn't wanna go...

and I'm a little afraid

of what he's gonna find at the end of it.

Sometimes you must knock something down

in order to build something new.

Did it ever occur to you

that maybe the great Weldon Parish...

just simply does not have anything left to say?

You don't really believe that, do you?

[Sighing]

I know that you think

I'm his salvation, but I'm not.

I am just not.

Every night, I go home,

and I struggle to write...

one paragraph that tells me

that I have something...

anything important to say.

And there is a man

who can do it standing on his head...

and he chooses not to, he chooses that.

And I'm supposed to feel sorry for him?

Well, I'm sorry, I don't.

And I know life has dumped on him,

but life dumps on all of us, Father.

And we move on, we get past it.

At least most of us do.

Look, I'm not responsible for Weldon Parish.

I only did what I was sent here to do...

and I told him that

right from the very beginning.

It's not like I lied to him.

If that's true, why are you so upset?

[Speaking Italian]

[Chattering on TV]

Maura, where is everybody?

Still sleeping.

[Typewriter clacking]

[Door opening]

[Typewriter stops clacking]

[Exhaling]

What are you all gawking at?

You act as if

you've never seen a writer before.

[Girls laughing]

[All cheering]

You could stay.

And do what?

Write.

Besides, I don't think

I'd be the only one sad to see you go.

I don't know about that.

Jeremy, what have you got to go back to?

My life, my job.

I can't just pull up stakes

and move out here, Weldon.

Why not?

I have...

I just can't.

Well...

What about the contracts?

- What about them?

- Can't sign if you don't give them to me.

[Exhaling]

You know...

Why don't you just see how it goes?

I want you to write the book for yourself.

There's no need for you to have to deal

with the pressures of editors and publishers.

And if you like what you've written...

then, believe me,

we would be happy to publish it.

[Brakes squealing]

[Laughing]

- Arrivederci.

- Arrivederci.

JEREMY:
Bye.

- Ciao, Jeremy.

- Ciao.

Goodbye, my son.

Ciao, Jeremy.

Isabella?

In Italy, we say a good friend is someone

who is there through the good and the bad.

[Speaking in Italian]

- Sir.

- Yeah?

And it's because

I can't imagine doing anything else.

- What?

- That's why I wanna be a writer.

Because I can't imagine doing anything else.

Okay.

- Bye, everybody.

- Ciao.

Ciao, Jeremy.

[Train whistle blowing]

[People chattering]

[Speaking Italian]

[Bird chirping]

[Speaking Italian]

I don't know... He broke his wing?

No fly. No fly.

Ah, no fly, no fly.

No fly.

[Speaking Italian]

[Brakes screeching]

Si, mama.

[Lo Che Amo Solo Te playing]

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