Suddenly, Last Summer Page #10

of percussion, do you know what I mean?

Yes, instruments of percussion,

like drums.

As far as I could make out in

the white blaze of the sand beach...

...the instruments were tin cans

strung together...

...and bits of metal,

other bits of metal...

...that had been flattened out

and made into...

Into what?

Cymbals, you know?

Yes, brass plates hit together.

That's right.

Tin cans flattened out

and clashed together. Cymbals.

The others had other things.

All sorts of things.

Things that they'd made or picked up

on the beach to make a sort of noise.

A music made out of noise.

Go on.

I am going on.

Nothing could stop me now.

Your cousin Sebastian, was he

entertained by this concert?

-Terrified of it.

-Terrified, why?

I think he recognized some

of the musicians.

Some of the boys.

Between childhood and older.

What did he do?

Did he complain to the manager?

What manager? God?

You don't understand my cousin.

How do you mean?

He accepted all as how things are...

...and thought nobody had any right

to complain or interfere whatsoever.

Even though he knew what

was awful was awful...

...what was wrong was wrong.

He thought it unfitting to ever take

any action about anything whatsoever...

...except to go on doing

as something in him directed.

What did this something in him

direct him to do?

He suddenly pushed himself

away from the table and said:

"They've got to stop that.

Make them stop. I'm not a well man.

I have a heart condition.

It's making me sick."

That was the first time that cousin

Sebastian had ever attempted...

...to correct a human situation.

I think that

that was his fatal error.

He stalked out of the restaurant after

throwing paper money on the table.

He fled from the place.

I followed.

It was all white outside.

White hot. A blazing white hot, it...

You followed Sebastian out of the

restaurant onto that hot, white street?

Running along the beach...

-You ran along the beach?

-No, no. We didn't.

We didn't move either way.

I rarely made any suggestion,

but this time I did.

What did you suggest?

Cousin Sebastian seemed to be paralyzed

near the entrance at the caf.

So I said, "Let's go."

I remember I said:

"Down that way is the harbor, and we're

more likely to find a taxi near there.

Or why don't we go back in

and have them call us a taxi?

Oh, let's do! Let's do that.

That's better."

And he said, "Are you mad?

Go back in that filthy place? Never!

That gang of kids shouted vile

things about me to the waiters."

I said, "Well, let's go down

towards the harbor.

Let's not try to climb that hill

in this dreadful heat."

And cousin Sebastian shouted,

"Please shut up!

Let me handle this situation, will

you? I want to handle this thing."

And he started up the steep street

with a hand stuck in his jacket...

...where I knew he was having

a pain from his palpitations.

But he walked faster

and faster in panic.

The faster he walked...

...the louder and the closer it got.

Closer what got?

The music!

The music again?

The music!

The noise of the following band.

They were following.

They were following...

...up the blazing white street.

Up. Straight up. That was the only

way open, so he went that way.

He tried to escape from those streets?

He tried to escape

from those streets...

But he couldn't find a way out?

He couldn't find a way out.

Did the band of children...?

When he tried to escape...

...from those streets...

...down those little side streets,

between the buildings...

...they came from everywhere.

So the only way was up.

The only way was straight up...

...up those steep, white streets...

...in the sun, that was like a great

white bone of a giant beast...

...that had caught on fire in the sky.

And Sebastian kept running straight up.

I don't know how he still ran.

He never ran...

...but he ran and he ran and he ran...

...where it was whiter and emptier.

What was emptier?

The light... The sky and the light.

Those steep, white streets and the sun,

and everything blazed white and empty.

Where did those streets lead to?

Nowhere!

He never reached...?

He never reached the end.

They stopped nowhere! Never!

Except, except...

Except?

At the very top of the hill.

Something. A place, a ruin.

Broken stones. Like...

Like what?

Like the entrance...

...to a ruined temple...

...some ancient ruined temple...

...which he entered.

And they overtook him.

There in that...

And you, Catherine,

what did you do then?

I heard Sebastian scream.

He screamed just once.

Then I...

Help!

Help!

And then? Then?

I ran. They let me run.

They didn't even see me.

Run where?

Down.

The waiters, police, people...

...ran out of buildings,

back up to where...

...to where cousin Sebastian...

He was lying naked...

...on the broken stones.

And this you won't believe.

Nobody, nobody could believe it.

It looked as if...

...as if they had devoured him!

As if they had torn or cut...

...parts of him away

with their hands...

...or with knives or

those jagged tin cans...

...they made music with...

...as if they'd torn bits of him away...

...and stuffed them

in their own gobbling mouths!

There wasn't a sound anymore.

There was nothing...

...but Sebastian...

...lying on those stones...

...torn and crushed.

Oh, Cathy.

Mrs. Venable.

There you are.

I thought you were still on deck.

And where's your hat?

Oh, dear, you'll get fever.

A whole day up there in the rigging

in the hot sun.

Watching those awful, hungry birds.

I don't know what you see

in such terrible sights.

It's too much for both of us,

my darling.

That horrible sun.

Of course God is cruel.

We didn't need to come to the

Encantadas to find that out, did we?

No, we've always known about Him.

The savage face He shows to people...

...and the fierce things He shouts.

It's all we ever see or hear

of Him now. Nobody seems to know why.

The difference is...

...we know about Him, the others don't.

That's where we're lucky.

Go rest, my darling.

Look out for that fever.

I'm going to see the captain and tell

him to change our course for home.

Oh, Sebastian.

What a lovely summer it's been.

Just the two of us.

Sebastian and Violet.

Violet and Sebastian.

Just the way it's always going to be.

Oh, we are lucky, my darling...

...to have one another

and need no one else, ever.

There's every possibility

that the girl's story is true.

George, tell her she's got to

come home with us.

-Catherine'll be all right.

-Can't she come home?

Don't worry, she will.

-Why don't you take your mother.

-Sure. Come on, Ma.

Miss Catherine?

She's here, doctor.

Miss Catherine's here.

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