Suddenly, Last Summer Page #4

-lt's almost 5:
00.

-That's right.

Violet always has,

I mean, used to have...

...her 5:
00 daiquiri

here with Sebastian.

Now I have it here alone.

Well, we must fly now.

I do pray you can help my poor Cathy.

Goodbye, doctor.

Violet, bye now.

Say thank you, George.

Bye, Aunt Violet.

Thanks. Thanks for everything.

Aren't they awful?

Sebastian and I used to speculate...

...on how that family

of Neanderthals...

...could have produced a girl

as rare as Catherine.

You would have liked Sebastian...

...and he would have been

charmed by you.

He wasn't a family or a money snob,

but he was a snob, all right.

He was a snob about loveliness

and elegance in things...

...about personal charm

and physical grace in people.

We had a perfect little troupe...

...of young and beautiful people

around us always whenever we traveled.

-May I sit here?

-Sebastian's seat.

-Oh, well...

-No, no, please.

It's a court jester's chair.

A rare one, 500 years old.

Please, sit on it.

Say something funny.

Make me stop wanting to cry.

I'm afraid I'd make a miserable jester.

You see, I get concerned when

people stop wanting to cry.

Time for your medicine

and your frozen daiquiri.

In that order.

Isn't it nice of the drugstore

to keep me alive?

-Thank you.

-Foxhill.

See the Hollys off the premises.

They're apt to remove the silver.

Yes, Mrs. Venable.

He would sit in his chair,

I in mine, at 5:
00 every day...

...and we'd have our daiquiris

with St. Sebastian brooding above us.

But you stayed here last summer.

Yes, I did. I wasn't well.

He took Catherine with him.

-And he died.

-Of a heart attack.

Was she with him?

She was there with him when he died.

It was that day that she lost her mind.

When will you see her, doctor?

As soon as I can.

What can I tell Dr. Hockstader

about your interest in helping us?

Can't it wait until

you've met my niece...

...and decided if you think

your operation could help her?

Yes, of course it can wait.

Surely there's no connection between...

Aren't we always more interested in

something that concerns us personally?

Aren't we, doctor?

I understand.

Please don't bother.

I can find my way out.

Millions of years ago, dinosaurs fed

on the leaves of those trees.

They were vegetarian.

That's why they became extinct.

They were just too gentle

for their size.

Then the carnivorous creatures,

the ones that eat flesh...

...the killers, inherited the earth.

But then they always do, don't they?

Catherine.

It's Sister Felicity, Catherine.

Please get up. You're to come with me.

Catherine.

I'm not being violent, sister.

What are you doing?

Just smoking a cigarette.

No.

You know we're not allowed

to smoke at St. Mary's.

Please let me smoke.

-Please.

-Give it here.

Don't be a bully!

Disobedience has to be paid for later.

-All right, I'll pay for it later.

-Now, Catherine.

I'm putting out my hand for it.

-All right then! Take it!

-You burned me!

-I'm sorry...

-You deliberately burned me.

You said to...

You stuck the lighted end of it

into my hand.

I'm so sick of being bossed

and bullied.

I'm sick of being t...

You saw that, doctor.

Saw her deliberately burn me.

-You better put something on that hand.

-I can't leave her.

-Patients who are classified violent...

-Sister.

Very well, doctor.

I'll wait outside.

Just outside the door.

You know, you're very brave

being in the room alone with me.

Do you plan to burn me too?

Oh, much worse.

You see, I'm classified as violent.

I'm apt to attack you physically

and then accuse you of rape.

Do you do that sort of thing?

Of course. That's why

I'm in isolation.

I molested an elderly gardener

of great virtue.

When he refused my advances,

I denounced him as a lecher.

After that, I was punished.

Was it true?

That I was punished?

Yes.

That you accused him unjustly.

Of course I accused him unjustly.

After all, I'm insane.

It's the sort of thing

an insane woman would do.

Besides, haven't you noticed how...

...oddly I've looked at you?

Have you?

How I've been staring at your eyes.

Your beautiful, blue,

frightened eyes.

Why are they so frightened?

Do you need help?

Do you want help from me?

I'm making you nervous.

You have every reason to be.

Because now I'm going

to attack you. Yes, attack.

But it won't be for your beauty.

No, it's for these cigarettes.

Doctor, let me have one.

Of course. Help yourself.

You are good.

-Who are you?

-I'm a doctor.

-Sent by my aunt?

-Yes.

-Because I didn't respond to treatment.

-So they say.

You have been invited to try your

hand at what is clearly a hopeless case.

Is it hopeless?

What do you think?

Where are you from?

Lions View.

The state asylum.

Where they have The Drum.

What you call "The Drum"

is not a torture chamber.

It's really a recreation hall.

They'll keep me there forever.

Like an animal in a cage.

She is merciless, isn't she?

Who?

Aunt Violet. Why else

do you think I'm here...

...where no one can see me, hear me?

You sound as if you

think she hates you.

Doesn't she?

Do you hate her?

What, hate?

No.

I don't understand what hate is.

I don't see how anyone could hate

and still be sane.

I really do think I am sane...

...despite considerable evidence

to the contrary.

Your aunt, Mrs. Venable...

Can no more help herself than I could.

Help herself? How do you mean?

You see, we all loved Sebastian.

Women, men, children, animal,

mineral, vegetable...

Sebastian was a vocation, not a man.

Poor Aunt Vi was hooked

from the beginning.

Loved Sebastian from the beginning

and nobody else.

She gave up everything for Sebastian.

Even her husband.

What was Mr. Venable like?

Mr. Venable was a good man...

...but dull to the point of genius.

That was Sebastian

you just heard talking.

He would've said that, and it

wouldn't have sounded cruel.

When I talk like him or when Aunt Vi

talks like him, we sound heartless.

And we're not really.

Though we do terrible things.

What do you consider terrible?

Aunt Vi let her husband die

because of Sebastian.

Killed him, some people thought.

How, killed him?

One summer, Sebastian decided

to give up the torments of this world...

...and become a Buddhist monk.

That was in Tibet in the Himalayas.

He shaved his head, was given a wooden

bowl to beg rice with and was happy.

Till Aunt Vi came.

Why? What did she do?

Lived in a hut, even took vows, or

whatever women do in such countries.

Anything to be near him, to get to him,

to make him come home.

While they were there, word came.

Mr. Venable was dying.

He had to see her.

And she chose to stay?

She chose to let her husband

die alone.

If you'd known Sebastian, you'd

understand how she had no choice...

...how none of us ever had a choice,

once Sebastian had decided we were...

...to be used.

Used?

You mean he used people?

Yes.

Isn't that what love is?

Using people?

And maybe that's what hate is.

Not being able to use people.

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