The City of Your Final Destination Page #3

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Not even to each other.

There's mysterious Aunt Sarah.

She left for India

to follow her guru.

Ugh.

There she is,

signing away the family fortune.

[piano music continues]

They went to Venice

for their honeymoon.

And after that,

they went every year

for as long

as it was still possible.

But then the gondola

was the epitome of Europe,

of their Europe.

They persuaded the gondolier

to sell them his gondola.

They called it

the honeymoon gondola

and they had it shipped

all the way from the Adriatic,

right across the Atlantic,

here to Montevideo.

[piano music continues]

Their maddest

and saddest enterprise maybe.

[music stops abruptly]

But you've heard all about

our gondola from Jules' book.

It's still here with us,

rotting in the boathouse.

[projector whirring]

Buenos dias.

I'm Pete.

You must be Omar.

Yes.

Hello.

Hi.

I'm looking

for the mill house.

Miss Langdon said

it was down this way somewhere.

Mr. Gund has invited me

to lunch.

He has?

He hasn't told me.

I'm the one who does the cooking

around here.

I haven't bought anything.

He'll have to take you

to the parilla.

There is no other place.

Do they take Visa?

Don't worry about that.

Adam always picks up the tab.

He's very generous.

Get in.

It's a mile away.

This is where I found him,

Jules,

by that big palm.

I was the one who found him.

So near to the house?

Come on.

[motor rumbling]

Blew the top of his head

right off.

I'm glad it was me

who found him

and not one of the others.

The odd thing

is that we all stayed here.

No, thank you.

Anyway,

here we all are...

including me.

Where are you from originally?

From Tokunoshima.

A small island.

I was poor with no family.

When I was 14,

someone liked me enough

to take me with him to England.

[loud clunking]

Here.

I find this old furniture

and make it look older.

A lady comes twice a year

from New York and buys it.

She says I have a good eye.

Adam used to work at Christie's

in London.

- Hello, Mr. Gund.

- Hello.

He sent me to a school there

where I learned everything

about furniture.

That was 25 years ago.

Yes.

We're about to have our

silver anniversary, aren't we?

Ready?

Should we go?

[sizzling]

I've ordered us

a platter of grilled meat

and some red wine.

Not too much for me.

I'm a bit of a lightweight,

I'm afraid.

Really?

How sad.

What about all those

drunken Persian poets of yours?

What about Hafez?

"Bring me a cup of red wine

that is dark red

and smells of musk..."

"Don't bring me

that expensive stuff..."

"That tastes like money..."

Both:
"And smells like lust."

[chuckles]

So now, about the biography.

Please understand,

unlike my two sisters-in-law,

or the two ladies,

I should say,

I'm on your side.

- You are?

- Entirely on your side.

See, I've been trying

to explain to them

that to revive an interest

in Jules Gund and his work,

a biography

would be invaluable to us.

Well, if only

I could convince everyone.

I would be very respectful

of the past,

everyone's feelings.

My dear boy,

he was my brother.

I knew him better than anyone.

I knew him when we were still

tearing the wings

off butterflies.

I was eight years older,

but it was he who invented

all the little torments

an older brother

inflicts on the younger.

We were both sent to school

in England.

I was utterly miserable,

but he, when in a system,

was in his element.

I suspect it was there at school

that he began to learn

how to exert power

over those who adored him.

It's that simple.

So we must work together,

you and I.

We must co-conspire.

[laughs]

I hadn't thought of conspiring.

Well, of course not.

Ah!

Gracias.

Ooh!

[speaking Spanish]

This is Mrs. Van Euwen.

The chatelaine

of Las Golondrinas,

our local grand dame.

Very grand.

Local color, you know?

I told them all they would see

was red meat.

Yes.

Worse,

why do you keep your new friend

away from me?

Oh, yes, he's very beautiful,

isn't he?

Yes, I thought

you'd be interested.

This is-

he's blushing.

- Ooh!

- This is Omar Razaghi.

He's come to do research

on my brother's biography.

- Mucho gusto.

- Ah!

Then you must research me.

I can tell you

things about Jules

that a brother

could never know...

or a wife or even a mistress.

[laughs]

You should write his life,

his and Pete's.

That a more interesting story,

yeah.

Go away.

Go away.

- Thank you.

- I go. I go.

You should come

to Las Golondrinas.

Have a sausage.

Is it pork?

Maybe.

I don't know.

[chuckles]

You don't drink;

you hardly eat meat.

Um... well, as I said before,

I know I can trust you.

I feel I can ask you

for your help

as you're asking for mine.

Like I said, I'll do anything.

Wait, wait,

this is non-literary.

It's nothing to do

with the biography.

When our mother-that is,

Jules' mother, my mother-

when our mother arrived here

as a refugee,

she brought with her from

Germany some valuable things,

her jewelry.

Now, I have her jewelry.

And I would like

to dispose of it,

and I would like you to help me

dispose of it.

Is it legal?

Is what legal?

Taking these things

out of the country?

No, it's moral.

They're my things.

They were my mother's.

When she arrived here,

she hid them away.

Because of her experiences

in Germany,

she trusted no one.

She didn't feel safe anywhere.

Outside of this cocoon

that they built here,

why, she and my father

didn't feel safe on this planet.

[chuckles]

So after her death,

very shortly after my father's,

I found the jewels.

Do Arden and Caroline know

about them?

Nope.

They know nothing

of that history.

Even Caroline

hardly knew my mother.

She certainly knew nothing

of what was precious to her.

So I took the jewels.

I felt I could assume

that they were mine

as Caroline, in due course,

felt free to take what was hers.

From what your mother left?

With Caroline,

it was what my brother left.

Have you never thought,

never suspected that

there might be another book?

Other than The Gondola?

Mm-hmm.

It is well known, Jules Gund

wrote only that one book.

Well, he was working

on another one when he died.

It is my theory that he died,

or killed himself,

because he couldn't...

couldn't write anymore.

Or because of what

he was writing

or trying to write.

A psychological impasse.

Caroline has the manuscript?

I don't know.

You have to ask her.

But that is not the subject

of our present little talk,

is it?

My jewels.

My need for money.

Ah, here's Pete.

Hail to thee!

[motor rumbling]

Come upstairs.

Follow me.

I want to show you something.

It is not for myself

that I need the money;

it is for Pete,

who may be free to leave me.

Does he want to leave you?

He should.

He still has a chance at

a better life than with me here.

You know, in order to bring him

here to Uruguay,

I had to adopt him.

Legally, he is my son.

Come and sit down, please.

I'll do what you ask.

Even though it's illegal

and dangerous?

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