The City of Your Final Destination Page #4

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I think

it's the right thing to do.

If you can trust me

not to screw it up.

Ah, we shall see.

Please, sit down.

So here's the treasure.

Some of it is mixed up

with my father's.

That's my father's watch.

Mother used to keep them

locked in the safe,

but sometimes she'd take it out

and wear it for me to show me.

And, uh...

I was her favorite, you know,

her firstborn,

her Adam, she called me.

[chuckles]

Of course,

Jules could never get over that.

She would show me

how she wore them

and where.

This at the opera.

She had much smaller wrists

than mine.

- Wow.

- It's beautiful.

Go on, you can take it.

It's all right.

And these at the Burgtheater.

- [chuckles]

- Isn't that beautiful?

Oh, yes, and this little horse

was for the races.

And she'd wear this

attached to her cloche hat.

[bees buzzing]

[knock at door]

It's me, Omar Razaghi.

[door squeaks open]

I hope I'm not disturbing you.

I'm just having my breakfast.

Come in.

[loud cracking]

Oh.

No, thank you.

You don't have to say

anything nice about it.

No, I like it.

It's very interesting.

It's only a copy.

That's all I do nowadays,

is copies,

copy the masters.

It's safer.

That way,

I don't reveal anything.

It's what art does,

even biography.

Especially biography.

I would be very discreet.

I would absolutely

respect your wishes

as to what to reveal.

What if I were to tell you

that Jules explicitly said

he didn't want a biography

of himself?

He wrote it to me in a letter.

I suppose

you'd want to see that letter.

Well, yes.

I'd like to very much.

And why

would I show it to you?

I don't know anything about you,

no more than you know about me

or ever will.

What if I were to ask you,

have you ever been in love,

passionately in love?

See, you can't answer me.

You're not sure.

I am sure.

Do you have a girlfriend?

A partner?

Why do you want to know?

Are you romantically involved?

Yes.

I suppose I am.

Suppose?

That doesn't sound very

positive, let alone passionate.

We've been together two years.

Her name is Deirdre.

If it weren't for her,

I wouldn't be here.

I mean, here in Uruguay.

I would have accepted

your decision.

I would have given up.

I see.

Sit.

So it is your friend Deirdre

who made you come

to change our minds.

And what if

you can't change our minds?

What will she think?

She'll think you failed.

Yes.

And she'd be right.

I will have failed.

Sometimes it's good to fail,

to try but to fail.

There's nothing ignoble in that.

You don't understand.

Everything depends on it:

my job, my career,

maybe my relationship

with my girlfriend.

You're so young.

Are you sure that's

what you want your life to be

forever and ever:

that job, that career,

that girlfriend?

I'll show you

a real picture I painted.

It's Jules, only it's not him,

not as he really was,

which only I knew.

You don't see it

because I couldn't paint it.

I wasn't good enough

to paint it.

I suppose now you'll write

how the widow of Jules Gund

is sitting

in a south American jungle

painting atrocious paintings

and slowly going mad

or not so slowly.

I promise to write nothing

you don't want me to write.

Point is,

I want you to write nothing.

If you could just give me

one reason.

I don't have a reason.

As anyone will tell you,

I am an unreasonable person.

Jules himself

would have told you that

if he'd still been here.

In fact,

it's the very word he used

when he felt I wasn't

being accommodating enough

to his arrangements.

"You're so unreasonable,

Caroline."

I'm sorry.

I shouldn't have come here.

Don't apologize.

No, it's good sometimes

to hear another voice.

I was beginning to think

that apart from

our little group here,

there was no one else

left in the world.

[plaintive woodwind music]

[crickets and frogs chirping]

Do you want to hear

how Arden met Jules?

Yes.

- Omar doesn't want

to know that at all.

He's writing a book;

he has to know everything.

Mm-hmm.

Um... I was traveling

around Spain

when I met some people

going to Uruguay.

So I went with them,

and they turned out

to be a missionary group

sent to convert

the heathen of south America.

[both laugh]

Don't laugh.

Our name was joyful noise.

[both laugh]

And we went around in a bus

and gave concerts in the street.

We never drew much of a crowd,

but people listened

very politely.

But by the time we'd finished,

there was usually

only one or two left.

But we went right on singing

and playing.

Arden shook the tambourine.

Anyway, one day,

Jules stopped to listen.

And when we were through,

he came up to me and said,

"What are you doing?

And why are you doing it?"

So I stopped.

And then I was born.

Well,

not quite so quickly, darling.

Nine months later, anyway.

I'm packing a picnic lunch.

Why are you going on a picnic?

I'm taking Omar

to show him the gondola.

Why?

As if that gondola

isn't the most ludicrous

of all the ludicrous

collected items here.

I don't feel that.

No...

You've changed your mind

about the biography.

Well, haven't you?

[sighs]

Why shouldn't he

write the biography?

He seems-

he's just the right person

to understand Jules.

In what way

is he the right person?

Because he's good-looking

and charming

and because he's charmed you?

What is it?

I'm sorry.

It's just that what we decided

before still stands for me.

Maybe I shouldn't tell you this.

Tell me what?

Do you know

he's in love with someone?

I didn't know that.

He told me he has a fiance.

Maybe they're not engaged,

but he has

a romantic attachment.

Why are you telling me this?

Because I thought

you should know.

It has nothing to do

with anything.

I never said that it had,

but I wouldn't blame you.

You're lonely.

I'm not lonely.

Or maybe I am

and I didn't know it

until there was a new person.

When do we ever see anyone

or get to talk to anyone?

And now-

why are you talking to me

like this?

Why do you want to hurt me?

I don't want to hurt you.

I never wanted to hurt you.

Hola!

So you're off

to see the gondola.

Oh, yes.

You'll be coming with us?

I've been there.

[sighs]

Mmm.

Maybe we shouldn't go.

It's a long way.

Uh, well, if you're not

feeling up to it.

Well, if you're not allowed

to write the biography,

there's no point in going.

And Caroline

won't change her mind.

That's the way she is.

She has a much stronger

character than I have.

That's not true.

Oh, but it is.

Jules used to say that

any breeze could come

and blow me any which way.

But actually,

why shouldn't we go?

Right.

Why shouldn't we?

[hooves clopping]

[cattle lowing]

[horse whinnies]

Whoa.

[clanking]

[motor rumbling]

[brakes screeching]

[brakes hiss]

[doors squeak]

Who won?

We did.

[speaks Spanish]

[motor rumbles]

I have to go find Arden.

She is showing Omar

the gondola.

Without me?

They'll take you another time.

What if Omar goes away?

Is he going away?

Do you want him to stay?

Definitely.

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