The Mosquito Coast Page #3

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- Wood or lumber?

- Lumber.

Look, girls, look. Come and have a look.

These are wonderful treasures.

Look. Here. You take that.

Look at that. What a beauty.

Mother!

Where is she?

- It's all right, honey. It's all right.

- Leech attack all over this place.

- Some of them baboons bigger than man.

- Okay, Mr. Haddy, thank you.

Oh, my God.

Look at you.

Look at me?

Look at you.

What's that?

I miss my old home in America.

Me, too.

We all do. Now, who wants some orange?

No, thanks.

Nobody loves America more than I do,

you know.

That's why we left,

'cause I couldn't bare to watch.

You kids have got to understand this.

It's like when my mother died.

She'd been strong as an ox.

Fell down, broke her hip, went into

the hospital and caught double pneumonia.

She's laying in bed dying

and I went over and held her hand.

She looked up to me.

You know what she said?

"Why don't you give me some rat poison?"

I couldn't listen. I couldn't watch,

so I went away.

People said I was the height of callousness.

It's not true.

I loved her too much to watch her die.

I'm not here to boss you around.

I'm here to work for you.

And if I'm not working hard enough,

you just tell me and I'll work harder.

You just come up and say:

"Mister, you gotta do

a whole lot better than that."

And I will.

What do you want to do first?

Where do you want to begin?

You tell me.

Fish farm? Chicken run? Bridge?

What? You tell me.

Right. I heard that.

You want to begin with the planting.

That's sensible.

Take care of the animal needs first.

Come along, we've got it all worked out.

Go to your assigned row

according to the colors that...

...you were told about earlier.

These are pumpkin seeds.

About this deep, this far apart.

Jerry, corn for you.

- How are you doing, Charlie?

- All right, Dad.

Right now, someone in America

is pushing an electric squeezer...

...down a garbage disposal

and saying it's busted.

Someone else is opening

a can of chocolate-flavored soup...

...because the car wouldn't start to eat out.

They really wanted a cheeseburger.

- That for true, Father?

- That's right, Francis. That's why I'm here.

That's why I came.

It was not an easy life

those first weeks in Jeronimo.

It was no coconut kingdom of free food

and grass huts...

... and sunny days "under the bam,

under the boo."

Watch the strings, kids.

Good morning, ladies. Let's get up.

I need this tent out of the way.

Charlie, help your mother with the tent.

This was work and more work.

A routine that took up every daylight hour.

In Hatfield we had done pretty much

what we pleased.

Here things were different.

Have you got some flooring up there?

Charlie's supposed to have the flooring

up there for the men to work.

Let's get that lumber up here now.

It's an absolute sin to accept

the decadence of obsolescence.

Why do things get worse?

They don't have to. They could get better.

We accept that things fall apart,

but they don't have to.

Things will last forever.

We eat when we're not hungry,

drink when we're not thirsty.

We buy what we don't need

and throw away everything that's useful.

Why sell a man what he wants?

Sell him what he doesn't need.

Pretend he has eight legs,

two stomachs and money to burn.

It's wrong. Wrong! Wrong!

There are people in New York

who'd kill you for a quarter.

You don't dare take a walk for fear

somebody'll stick a knife in your ribs.

Stay home and they come in

through the windows.

Ten-year-old homicidal maniacs

on every corner.

They go to school.

They go to school.

You know what the biggest problem

with the 20th century is?

People can't stand to be alone.

Can't stand it.

Double-digit inflation

and a $2.00 loaf of bread.

Good.

Great. You're going to be my fish farmer,

Mr. McGregor.

- I think about it.

- Right. You think about it.

We'll breed all the fish we need to eat

right here. It'll be here when we need it.

Just scoop 'em up and put 'em in the pot.

We gotta get this cleared up.

Clear all this trash out of the water.

How am I doing, boy?

Fine, Dad.

Strictly speaking, there's no such thing

as invention, you know.

It's just magnifying what already exists.

Father often talked

of things being revealed.

That was true invention, he said.

Revealing something's use,

and magnifying it.

Discovering it's imperfections

and proving it...

... and putting it to work for you.

God had left the world incomplete, he said.

And it was man'sjob to understand

how it worked.

To tinker with it and to finish it.

I think that was why

he hated missionaries so much.

Because they taught people

to put up with their earthly burdens.

For Father there were no burdens

that couldn't be fitted...

... with a set of wheels or runners

or a system of pulleys.

- Look what we found.

- Can you help us?

- What have you got, girls?

- Can you fix it?

Yeah, I can get this going.

Don't just sit there, honey, pedal.

No need to worry about

these kids' education, Mother.

This is the education they need.

This is the kind of education

every American should have gotten.

When America's devastated

and laid to waste by nuclear holocaust...

...these are the skills

that are gonna save 'em.

Not finger painting or home economics,

or what is the capital of Texas...

...but survival!

Rebuilding a civilization

from a smoking ruin!

Experiment!

Hey, it's Mr. Haddy, Charlie!

Hey, kids. Good to see you!

How's everything?

They're going to be longer

'cause I'm gonna put cuffs on them, okay?

- Hello, Mr. Peaselee.

- Hello, ma'am.

Can I help you with something?

That is a nice yellow, isn't it?

I surely like this color.

Thank you.

Mr. Fox!

A very good morning to you.

Oh, God!

Well done, Foxes.

Well done.

Mrs. Kennywick...

...is that you?

Yes, sir, Father.

Now, we haven't seen you in God's house

in quite a while.

Jeedoof to you.

Jeedoof to you, Father.

What can we do for you, Reverend?

The word has spread upriver

of your doings.

I thought I'd come and have a look

for myself.

Mrs. Fox. How nice to see you.

- Hello.

- I love your parrot.

It's Arthur.

I brought some preserves from Aurora

specially for you.

Thank you. Will you thank her for me?

Papaya and yams, I believe.

- State your business, Reverend.

- It's the Lord's business I'm about, Mr. Fox.

Is that so? I didn't know the Lord

was franchising in the neighborhood.

The Reverend looks a little hot.

Perhaps some cold tea, Allie?

Mother.

The Lord sent me here, Mr. Fox.

That's what I love about you people,

your complete lack of presumption.

The Lord hasn't any idea this place exits!

If he did, he'd have done something

for these people a long time ago.

But he didn't! I did!

The river doesn't belong to you.

Nor to you! But this place belongs to me...

...and I didn't give you permission

to come ashore!

This man cannot speak for you, good folk!

The Lord is your Father!

I'm a fair man!

If any of you wanna go listen to this man

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