The Other Sister Page #2

and we'll explore

your options later.

- Okay. To the Ta...

- I would like to explore my options now, Mother.

Carla, we're all just a little bit too

tired for such an important conversation.

So, Radley...

To the Tate family,

all of us together again.

Follow me. Hurry.

- Just follow me.

- Stop it.

Stop following me.

I can't, stupid.

- Stop it!

- I told you, I can't, stupid.

Stop laughing at me!

Oh, my goodness!

Are you all right?

- Carla!

- Yeah.

All right. Now, I want you

to close your eyes. Close your eyes.

Okay, Carla.

All right.

- No, stop, stop. Stop.

- Yeah.

You can stop. Good girl.

Open your eyes. Surprise. Do you...

What do you think?

You think... Do you like it?

- You gave my room to somebody else?

- No!

I redecorated it for you, dear.

I just changed it a little.

- But where is my tea party table that was right here?

- Who did this?

Well, Carla, those are little-girl

things, and you're a young woman now.

Remember, downstairs you were talking

about taking on more responsibility.

- Well, this is...

- I want my things.

Carla, I really think that you should

live with these things for a while...

and you'll see, I'm sure that

you will grow to like them very much.

And, anyway, Dr Johnson said that, uh,

that these are your favourite colours.

Uh, you like red,

don't you? Where...

Carla, wh...

Why are your eyes closed?

I'm remembering my old room.

Ohh! Heather?

Heather!

Bye.

I'm really sorry we didn't

visit you more frequently...

but I got a job in New York,

and Caroline went to college.

- So...

- Yeah, but that's okay 'cause sometimes...

we thought that the visits

sometimes upset the parents...

more than it made

the kids happy.

Well, we're sorry, Carla.

But I liked all your letters

that you wrote, Heather.

They were better

than Caroline's...

'cause she mostly drew pictures.

- What?

- Honey, I think you just...

She's overwhelmed by all of this.

Now, why don't you just relax?

You did great, okay?

Just don't be

so hard on yourself.

Radley, I'm gonna

make it up to that girl.

I really am.

Winnie!

Your mother said

another 15 minutes.

Did you tell her that

I don't like tennis still?

She said that all

well-bred girls play tennis...

chess or bridge.

Oh.

Is it 15 minutes yet?

- We'll look at that. We'll look at that right...

- Hello, Mrs Tate.

- How are you? - Oh, Victoria,

you look so lovely. - Thank you.

I'd like you to meet my daughter.

This is Carla.

- Hello, Carla.

- Hello.

Didn't your other daughter,

Heather, get married?

- No, no. Actually, it's, uh, Caroline is engaged.

- Oh!

But anyway, I want to see

a couple of sweater sets.

- And, Carla, come on.

- That's a very nice shirt, Mom.

Very beautiful feet.

Nice toes.

And the sock really

accentuates your feet.

You know that the,

uh, the Chinese say...

that the toes are

the windows to the soul?

- They do?

- I've been to Hong Kong several times, and I've never heard that.

Why don't you just, uh, enlighten us

with your knowledge of shoes?

- Do you have this in a size eight?

- She's a little uptight, isn't she?

- What?

- It's tight. This shoe's a little tight.

It'll... Here.

How 'bout these? These red ones here.

- Yes, this is a fun shoe, Mom.

- I don't think so. Thank you very much.

What about these with the heels?

Remember the leather?

- This is hip. Hip.

- Those are not what we want. Thank you so much.

Mothers are always right.

And today the dogs

are here to be seen...

in the hopes that they'll be adopted

by the nice people of Sutter Hills.

- And I'm a friend of your mother's.

- And so, thank you from me...

You know that your mother was the one who

made this animal rescue shelter a possibility.

- No. I didn't...

- Yes, and she did a lot of other things in Sutter Hills.

- You're too kind.

- The youth orchestra, the theatre, the library.

- Wow.

- And today your mother's gonna get some recognition, which she deserves.

My job to introduce the head

of our Sutter Hills City Council...

- Drew Edison. - Excuse

me. - Oh, sure. Of course.

Good afternoon,

ladies and gentlemen.

There are so many people

to thank for this wonderful shelter.

- Hello, puppy. - And they

used every... - Carla, please.

- Fund-raising device known to man...

- Hello, puppy.

From a, a bake sale in my mother...

Pucky Ryan's... garden.

Carla, please don't do that.

Please. You're disrupting.

- ... country club.

- Woof!

- Woof! Woof!

- Carla.

Elizabeth. Elizabeth,

your daughter is barking.

- Carla!

- Woof!

- Elizabeth, now they're all barking.

- I know.

- Carla, dear. Carla. Carla!

- Oh, I'll quiet them, Mom. They like me.

- Carla, Carla!

- Hello, puppies. I'll teach you how to behave, little puppies.

Stay! No, go, go, go.

- No!

- Come back in the cage. Come on.

Behave! Mom!

It was so embarrassing, Radley.

I feel like... I feel like I try

all these things, and nothing works.

I've been doing my best to have fun with

her, but I don't know what fun for her is.

And she won't even tell me.

Honestly, I just want to quit.

Mrs Tate! Mrs Tate!

Carla's run away!

When the police picked her up,

she gave them another name...

and listed this as her home address,

so they threw her back here.

- Here's the police report.

- Did she really say that I'm smothering her?

In so many words. Yeah.

Do you want to read the police report?

I just want you to know that I don't

understand any of this, not for one second.

I give her love, I protect her, I teach

her, and suddenly that's smothering.

Those are her words,

not mine, Mrs Tate.

Did she tell you that I took her to the

pet shelter so she could possibly get a job?

Yes, and we agreed it ended badly.

Could you... Could you not?

- That's a hand-carved Indian relic.

- I'm sorry.

I also enrolled her in

a calligraphy class, an origami class.

- And I, I even got her into that...

- She doesn't want to do those things.

They... They don't interest her.

They don't work for her.

- Maybe Carla doesn't know what works for her.

- And you do.

I think so. I'm her mother.

That's why she tried to hitchhike

over 200 miles to get back here?

- Would she do that again?

- I believe she will, yes.

If things continue at home the way

they've been going, yes, absolutely yes.

And we were lucky this time.

She came back here.

A lot of kids run away,

we never hear from them again.

This is a girl who is determined

to push the edge of the envelope.

And I, for one,

I like the fact that she never quits.

Specifically, she wants to attend

this, uh, uh, Bay Area Polytech.

A public vocational school?

Is that what you're talking about?

They do welding there.

She can't possibly keep up with that.

- And she's going to be humiliated by those people there.

- You don't know they're going to humiliate her.

- Of course they're going to humiliate her!

- Please...

They... They did it

when she was young. L...

She's got to have the opportunity

to meet challenges.

Rate this script:3.5 / 2 votes