The Sense of an Ending Page #3

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that you are clear that

that diary belongs to me.

Hello.

Andrew, this is Tony.

My ex-husband.

Ah. How are you

doing, Tony? All right?

Hi.

We work together.

Can we talk?

It's important.

Well, I'll leave you

to it, then.

Good to meet you, Tony.

I'll see you Monday.

This is not on, Tony,

coming around

without being asked. Sorry.

You told me to call

when I was ready to tell you

what was going on.

Are you gonna let me in?

Headmaster:

From summer to Autumn.

So, too, do we think ahead...

Rather him than us.

To what we may achieve together.

Good morning, gentlemen.

I trust that

you had good holidays,

but time and tide

tarry for no man. So...

Henry viii.

Which of you bright young

things can give me

a characterization

of the age, hmm?

Hmm?

Simpson.

Any thoughts?

There was unrest, sir.

No, no. Insightful, as always.

But might you perhaps

care to elaborate?

There was great unrest, sir.

Oh, dear.

Anyone?

Finn?

Now I'm conscious it's your

first day with us, but, uh,

any thoughts?

I don't know.

What don't you know?

Well, I cannot know

what I don't know, sir,

that's philosophically

self-evident.

What we do know is that

something happened, sir.

Mr. hunt:
Come again?

Well, something happened.

All one can ever truly say

of any particular

period of history, sir,

is that something happened.

Young Tony:

A great line to hunt, earlier.

About something happened?

Adrian:
Oh, yes.

I was disappointed

you didn't take that up.

Well, I thought you made

an extremely valid point.

I'm, uh, Tony Webster.

I'm Adrian Finn.

That's cheery.

Are you familiar

with Dylan Thomas?

Hmm, yes.

I find him to be one of

the most humane poets

of the 20th century.

Young Colin:
But then he did

say it, it was ridiculous.

Parents. What a load

of effing bastards.

Adrian Finn, Colin Simpson.

Colin Simpson, Adrian Finn.

Hello, Adrian Finn.

And this is Alex Stuart.

Really great line

to hunt. Really great.

Is there an issue

with your parents?

Ugh! Issue is

putting it mildly.

Just when you think

you can trust them...

Effing bastards.

Just when you think

you can trust them, they go

and behave like...

Henry viii?

Like Henry the

f***ing viii, exactly.

Why are all your

watches turned inside?

Ah, because...

Young Colin:

That is a very good question.

We're taking a stand against...

hierarchically imposed...

Intrinsically flawed...

notions of time.

It also looks quite cool.

Young Colin:

So Dylan Thomas, interesting.

Yes.

Any good?

Do you know him?

Not really.

Young Alex:
Not personally.

I'm really sick

of staring at wood paneling.

I'm sorry to report

that I have some rather sad news

which I wish to share with you

all this morning.

Joseph Dobson,

of the science sixth,

has been found dead.

He was a gifted pupil

with a natural aptitude

for both science

and modern languages.

He was sadly cut down

in the flower of his youth.

"Flower"? Dobson is

more vegetable material.

Young Alex:
Was.

Must have killed himself.

Headmaster:

His brother, sister...

What?

Young Colin:
Sh*t.

Mr. hunt:
Finn.

You're unusually quiet

this afternoon.

I'm not sure I can add

anything to the debate, sir.

Will wonders never cease.

I don't find

the historian's need

to ascribe responsibility

a particularly

fruitful arena, sir.

Care to elaborate?

Historians yearn for an answer

to the question

of who's to blame for this event

or for that atrocity, but...

I don't know, sir.

Sometimes it seems to me

it is impossible to know.

Go on.

Well, Patrick Lagrange,

sir, said that,

"history is the certainty

produced at the point

"when the imperfections

of memory

"meet the inadequacies

of documentation."

It's the lies of Victors, sir.

As long as you understand

that it is also

the delusions of the defeated.

Adrian:

Take Dobson's suicide, sir.

Mr. hunt:
Okay.

We are told Dobson

came to take his own life,

perhaps when he understood

his girlfriend was pregnant.

Finn. Dobson's death

is a private matter.

No. It's also

a historical matter.

The point

I'm trying to make, sir,

is that nothing can now be known

in the absence

of Dobson's own testimony.

We...

We may never know the truth,

and no amount of intellectual

posturing can alter that.

Do you see the problem, sir?

Finn, I see the

problem, thank you.

Camus says that suicide

is the only true

philosophical question.

Apart from ethics,

politics, aesthetics,

and all that other stuff.

All that other stuff we're

learning about in school.

The only true one.

The essential one on which

all the others depend.

When we left school

and went our separate ways,

out of everyone,

Adrian was the only one I desperately

wanted to stay in touch with.

Lovely. Thank you.

Cheers.

Cheers.

Both:
Mmm!

That is good. I dare say

it's almost as good as sex.

Couldn't possibly comment.

Maybe I need to improve

my taste in wine.

Or your taste in sex.

Speaking of which, are we going

to address the fact that

almost everything you've told

me in the last few days,

you've told me

for the very first time?

I've never told you

about all this stuff

because it wasn't important.

In all the years that we

were together, Mr. Webster,

it has never occurred to you

that it might be

important to tell me

about your former love?

Your first love, no doubt.

I'm not talking

about Adrian Finn.

I see. Well, Mrs. Webster,

I think you're very much

barking up the wrong tree.

Indeed, on the wrong

patch of land altogether.

Veronica and I were never

in love, I can assure you.

She gave you your

first camera, didn't she?

Tony, it doesn't feel right.

Do you ever think about where

our relationship is heading?

Is this a thinly veiled attempt

to bring up our sex life?

No.

I'm positively laidback

about the fact that

we haven't had sex yet.

Does it have to?

Does it have to what?

Head somewhere?

Our relationship.

At the time I thought,

at least nobody died.

Nobody got pregnant.

You sound

positively crestfallen.

Mmm.

Oh, please, no.

I'll be all over the place.

Stop.

But how did your friend's diary

end up with fruitcake's mother?

I think Adrian's stuff

ended up with Veronica.

And that's how the diary

found its way to Sarah Ford.

Yeah, but how did Adrian's

stuff end up with fruitcake?

Veronica.

I was just coming to that.

Adrian:
Dear Tony,

I wanted to write to you

as in recent months,

Veronica and I have

grown very close.

Indeed, we have now embarked

upon a relationship together.

This would no doubt

come to your attention,

and we thought it best

you heard it from us.

Your friendship is deeply

important to us, Tony.

When did you last see him, then?

About three months ago.

Right where you're sitting.

That's why I suggested it.

He was going down

to Chislehurst.

How did he seem?

Cheerful.

Happy. Like himself.

Only more so.

As we said goodbye,

he told me he was in love.

How did he do it?

Wrists in the bath.

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