The Royal Tenenbaums

---

Shh.

Royal Tenenbaum bought

the house on Archer Avenue

in the winter of his 35th year.

Over the next decade

he and his wife

had three children

and then they separated.

Are you

getting divorced?

At the moment, no...

but... it doesn't look good.

Do you still love us?

Of course I do.

Do you still love Mom?

Yes, very much, but your

mother's asked me to leave

and I must respect

her position on the matter.

Is it our fault?

No.

Obviously,

we made certain sacrifices

as a result of having children,

but, uh...

no, Lord, no.

Then why'd she ask you to leave?

I don't really know anymore.

Maybe, uh, I wasn't as true

to her as I could've been.

Well, she said...

Let's just drop it

shall we, uh, Chassie?

They were never

legally divorced.

Thank you, Pagoda.

Etheline Tenenbaum

kept the house

and raised the children

and their education was

her highest priority.

Yes, I'll hold, please.

Thank you.

I need $187.

Write yourself a check.

Bene. Si.

Grazie mille.

She wrote a book

on the subject.

- Chas, Chas!

- Richie!

Uh, the gentleman

in the blue cardigan, please.

Thank you. I have

a two-part question.

Go ahead.

Chas Tenenbaum had,

since elementary school

taken most of his meals

in his room

standing up at his desk

with a cup of coffee

to save time.

In the sixth grade,

he went into business

breeding Dalmatian mice

which he sold to a pet shop

in Little Tokyo.

He started buying real estate

in his early teens

and seemed to have an almost

preternatural understanding

of international finance.

He negotiated the purchase

of his father's summer house

on Eagle's Island.

Hold it, Chassie.

Hold it right there.

What are you doing?

You're on my team.

There are no teams.

The BB was still lodged

between two knuckles

in Chas's left hand.

Margot Tenenbaum was adopted

at age two.

Her father had always noted

this when introducing her.

This is my adopted daughter

Margot Tenenbaum.

She was a playwright, and won

a Braverman Grant of $50,000

in the ninth grade.

She and her brother Richie

ran away from home one winter

and camped out

in the African wing

of the public archives.

Hi, Eli.

You said I could run away, too.

No, I didn't, and don't

tell anyone you saw us.

They shared a sleeping bag

and survived on crackers

and root beer.

Four years later

Margot disappeared alone

for two weeks

and came back

with half a finger missing.

Richie Tenenbaum had been

a champion tennis player

since the third grade.

Do you copy, Anonymous?

He turned pro at 17

and won the U.S. Nationals

three years in a row.

He kept a studio

in the corner of the ballroom

but had failed to develop

as a painter.

Up... up...

right...

perfect.

Pagoda?

On weekends

Royal took him on outings

around the city.

Put it out there.

These invitations

were never extended

to anyone else.

Richie's best friend, Eli Cash,

lived with his aunt

in the building

across the street.

He was a regular fixture

at family gatherings

holidays, mornings before

school, and most afternoons.

The three Tenenbaum children

performed Margot's first play

on the night

of her 11th birthday.

They had agreed

to invite their father

to the party.

What'd you think, Dad?

Mmm... didn't seem

believable to me.

Why are you wearing pajamas?

Do you live here?

He has permission to sleep over.

Well, did you at least think

the characters

were well-developed?

What characters?

This is a bunch

oflittle kids, uh

dressed up in animal costumes.

Good night, everyone.

Well, sweetie...

don't be mad at me.

That's just one man's opinion.

# Happy birthday to you #

# Happy birthday to you... #

He had not been invited

to any of their parties since.

In fact, virtually all memory

of the brilliance

of the young Tenenbaums

had been erased

by two decades of betrayal,

failure, and disaster.

Go, Mordecai.

# Na, na, na #

# Na-na-na-na #

# Hey Jude #

# Na, na, na #

# Na-na-na-na... #

I've been instructed

to refuse any further charges

on your room account

and to direct you, in writing

to please vacate the premises

by the end of the month.

What about Sing-Sang?

I owe her $100.

Royal had lived

in the Lindbergh Palace Hotel

for 22 years.

Can you pay her in cash?

Uh-uh.

He was a prominentlitigator

until the mid '80s

when he was disbarred

and briefly imprisoned.

No one in his family had spoken

to him in three years.

Read it back to me so far,

Pietro.

New paragraph.

Richie had retired

from professional tennis at 26.

His last match had been

widely discussed in the media.

"Your friend Richie."

End ofletter.

For the past year,

he had been traveling alone

on an ocean liner

called the Cote d'lvoire

and had seen both poles,

five oceans

the Amazon and the Nile.

"The crickets

and the rust beetles scuttled

"among the nettles

of the sage thicket.

"'Vamanos, amigos,'

he whispered

"and threw

the busted-leather flint craw

"over the loose weave

of the saddle cock

and they rode on

in the friscalating dusk light."

Eli was an assistant professor

of English literature

at Brooks College.

The recent publication

of his second novel...

... had earned him a sudden,

unexpected literary celebrity.

Well, everyone knows Custer

died at Little Bighorn.

What this book presupposes is...

maybe he didn't.

Let me ask you something.

Why would a review

make the point of saying

someone's not a genius?

You think I'm especially

not a genius?

I know w...

You didn't even have

to think about it, did you?

Well, I just don't use

that word lightly.

I have to go, Eli.

Margot?

Uh-huh.

May I come in, please?

How are you, my darling?

Margo was married

to the writer and neurologist

Raleigh St. Clair.

I'm fine, thank you.

You need to eat something.

May I make you dinner?

No, thank you.

She was known

for her extreme secrecy.

For example,

none of the Tenenbaums knew

she was a smoker, which she

had been since the age of 12.

Norwere they aware

of her first marriage

and divorce to

a recording artist in Jamaica.

She kept a private studio

in Mockingbird Heights

under the name "Helen Scott."

She had not completed a play

in seven years.

ofDudley Heinsbergen.

All right, Dudley

make yours like mine.

Raleigh's next book was

on the subject

of a condition he called

"Heinsbergen Syndrome."

Where's that red one

going to go?

Done.

Good.

Very good.

My goodness.

How interesting. How bizarre.

Dudley suffers

from a rare disorder

combining symptoms

of amnesia, dyslexia

and color blindness.

He has a highly acute

sense of hearing.

There is also evidence of...

I'm not color blind, am I?

I'm afraid you are.

Ari, fire alarm! Let's go!

Out you go!

Let's go!

Uzi, emergency! Let's go!

Uzi... what did I just say?!

Look alive!

Fire!

Chas's wife Rachael

was killed in a plane crash

the previous summer.

What about Buckley?

It's too late. You forgot him.

Buckley! Buckley!

No elevator! There's a fire.

Go, go!

Go, go, go, go, go!

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