Suddenly, Last Summer Page #7

as if they were...

...items on a menu.

That one's delicious-looking.

That one's appetizing.

Or that one is not appetizing.

I think really he was half-starved...

...from living on pills and salads.

You just relax now.

We'll fly north, little bird.

It's what he called me sometimes.

Little bird.

We'll walk under those radiant,

cold northern lights.

I've never seen the aurora borealis.

He never saw those northern lights.

Who said, "We're all of us children...

...in a vast kindergarten...

...trying to spell God's name...

...with the wrong alphabet blocks"?

Thank you.

I do want to speak with you...

Oh, this forgetfulness,

my greatest failing.

I have a little gift for you,

this book.

Thank you.

-Poem of Summer.

-By my son, Sebastian Venable.

That volume contains one poem,

as do the others I have at home.

Each with the title Poem of Summer

and the date of the summer.

If you like that one,

I'll bring you the others.

He wrote one poem a year?

One for each summer

that we traveled together.

The other nine months of the year

were only a preparation.

Nine months?

The length of a pregnancy, yes.

I gather the poem was hard to deliver.

Even with me.

Without me, impossible.

Doctor, he wrote no poem last summer.

He died last summer.

Without me, he died.

That was his last summer's poem.

Mrs. Venable, how exactly

did your son die?

I told you, heart attack.

Is that what the letter said?

How did Catherine know

I received a letter?

Catherine? She knows very little.

She can't remember.

That's her illness. She was there,

but she can't remember.

Mrs. Holly told me.

You've seen her too?

I must say, you have been observing.

There was no letter,

only a death certificate.

-I'd like to see that.

-Why?

I think it's important.

I want to know what happened

the day your son died.

You shall have it tomorrow.

And tomorrow you shall also have

the permission to operate.

And now I'd better go.

I've got lawyers waiting for me.

You'd think giving a building was

simple. I must sign papers till I drop.

Not that I'm not used to it.

Sebastian never signed anything.

-He must have suspected...

-Mrs. Venable.

Your son...

What about my son?

What sort of personal life

did he have?

He was chaste.

You mean he was celibate?

You don't believe me, do you?

-Do you believe that he never...?

-Never.

As strictly as if he'd taken a vow.

This sounds like vanity...

...but I was actually

the only one in his life...

...that satisfied the demands

he made of people.

My son would let people go,

dismiss them...

...because their attitude toward

him was not...

-As pure?

-As pure as my son, Sebastian, demanded.

Would you want to see Catherine?

Is that wise?

It might help me.

But the lawyer.

Surely you've kept the lawyer

waiting before.

Yes, I have.

Such a strong,

such a persuasive doctor.

She's been under sedation.

She's just coming out of it.

She looks lovely, doesn't she?

Doesn't she?

Where are we going?

His eyes.

This one's eyes are so blue...

...such strange, frightened...

I'm sorry. I must have been dreaming.

Hello, Catherine.

I thought l... We would have

seen each other before this.

At St. Mary's they wouldn't

let any of us see you.

Mama was here today.

It was today, wasn't it? I lose all

track of time with all these shots.

You look very well.

Mama told me how you got her

to agree to commit me here...

...and then let them...

She seems disturbed, doctor.

Aunt Violet! I am disturbed.

Don't you think I have

every reason to be?

Forcing my mother

into signing a paper.

I've never forced anybody

to do anything.

Oh, yes, you have.

Always.

And now you're holding

$1 00,000 under...

...Mother and George's

poor greedy noses...

...to force her to sign a paper...

...authorizing this doctor...

I see no purpose in remaining here

listening to this.

I'll wait for you in that sun room.

Doctor, I wanted to speak

to you alone.

She wanted to see you again

before you left.

I didn't want to take your place

last summer.

Please believe that, Aunt Vi.

But Sebastian insisted. He said...

...you weren't well enough

to travel with him.

He couldn't travel alone,

so he insisted...

...that I go along with him

in your place.

And he died last summer.

Aunt Violet, would you like me

to tell you?

You fell in love with Sebastian,

didn't you?

I tried to give him what

you had always given him:

The tender understanding

and love...

My son and I had a rare and wonderful

love and trust between us.

A contract, a covenant between us...

-I know about the covenant.

-He broke it when...

...he took her, not me, to travel

with him while he created his poem.

Even when I was with him,

he would sometimes be frightened.

I'd know when and what of.

I'd reach across a table to him

and touch his hands.

Say not a word, just look,

and touch his hands with my hand.

Then in the morning, the summer poem

would be continued...

...until it was finished.

-I couldn't help him.

-Naturally. He was mine.

I knew how to help him.

You couldn't.

-I tried.

-I'd say, "You will."

All right! I failed him.

I knew that the day we flew down

to Cabeza de Lobo from...

...where he'd given off

writing his poem.

-Because he had broken our...

-Yes, something had broken.

-That string of pearls old mothers...

-Old?

-...hold their sons by.

-Hold them from death.

No, life! Hold them from life!

What do you know?

You were the destroyer.

-We were life.

-You fed on life.

Both of you. Taking!

People were objects for your pleasure.

That's what you taught each other.

-You were superior to mere mortals.

-We needed no one but one another.

Sebastian only needed you

while you were still useful.

-Useful?

-I mean young, able to attract.

She's babbling and lying.

-He left her home because she lost...

-You stole him!

Lost her attraction!

What would attraction have to do

with a son and a mother?

I'll tell you.

-Can we stop these lies?

-Yes! Have my brain cut.

This was a mistake.

The mistake was my going

with Sebastian.

When he left her home,

she had a stroke.

Not a stroke!

A hysterical stroke.

Sebastian left her home

like a toy he tired of.

And he took me with him

like a new toy.

-On his last voyage.

-Lies.

You see, doctor, we both...

-We were decoys.

-Decoys?

For Sebastian.

He used us as bait!

When she was no longer able to lure the

better fish into the net, he let her go.

Bait for what?

What were the better fish?

We procured for him.

She used to do it in the fashionable

places they went before last summer.

Sebastian was shy with people.

She wasn't.

Neither was I.

But we both did the same

thing for him.

We both made contacts for him.

I can't listen to this obscenity.

Stop her, doctor.

Cut the truth out of my brain.

Is that what you want?

You can't. Not even God

can change the truth.

We were nothing but a pair of...

-Doctor!

-lt's the truth!

See how she destroys us

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes