The Strange Love of Martha Ivers Page #3

before curfew.

That'll be $2.

- On me.

- Thanks.

Maybe you'd like to drink to

finding your people?

No, my mother wouldn't approve of that.

How would you know after all this time?

After all this time you probably

wouldn't care, one way or the other.

You talk awful cold-blooded about them,

don't you?

- That's life.

- Is it a big family?

No, it wasn't.

Besides me, there were just the usual two

people necessary to increase the population.

Mother left when I was a baby,

and my father...

probably drank himself to death by now.

Another man I know talks cold

like that's my Dad.

He's the most cold-blooded man

in Ridgeville.

Once he kicked me.

Gee, it made me sick.

I can guess why you didn't break your neck

to catch that bus back to Ridgeville tonight.

I probably would have got on

and got off before it started out.

Or I would have got the jitters

the minute I got on.

Anyway, it's gone now, for tonight anyhow.

There won't be another one

until tomorrow night.

And now I know for sure,

I'm not going to make that one either.

Not the one to Ridgeville, at least.

But I'm so glad you came

to have a drink with me tonight.

I was so lonesome, I like to have died.

- Have you ever been that lonesome?

- How lonesome is that?

About as much as you can hold

without busting open.

Wanna know how I got that way?

Curfew. Shall we go home?

The reason I picked the hotel,

your hotel, it's really very...

You read the hotel advertising

on that when you had it.

You're smart.

Maybe you think I've been trying too hard

to get acquainted.

- Maybe you have.

- Maybe you think that's wrong.

Maybe it's too soon to tell.

I wonder what you're thinking.

I don't think you'll take up too much room

in my Stanley Steamer.

Maybe you're all right.

You think you can hold that thought

all the way to the Coast?

We better wait here for a minute.

Hey, I wanna ask you something.

Does that guy look like

a scared, little boy to you?

He looks like he's going to cry any minute.

Let's get away from him.

- Is Mr. O'Neil in?

- No, madam, not to my knowledge.

Walter.

Hello.

No words?

Can I have a cigarette?

- My lady's lips.

- I'll ring for some coffee for you.

- No, thank you. I'll have another drink.

- Walter!

If there's to be a discussion,

I'll need another drink.

Otherwise, I shall neither hear,

nor be coherent...

when, and if, I reply to whatever

it is you're about to say.

Did you forget

that you were supposed to speak tonight?

I didn't forget, I...

It' s nice. Your room, I mean.

It's been a long time since I've been here.

- Where were you?

- Getting drunk.

- Where?

- I'm still the people's choice, honey.

I did not make a public display

of myself anywhere.

You realize, of course,

that you will one day, inevitably.

- Inevitably.

- It's your career, not mine.

What's mine is yours.

Don't you think

I'm entitled to an explanation?

What do you want me to say?

- I don't want to put words in your mouth.

- I'd prefer that you would.

All right. When did you get drunk?

Where did you get drunk?

Why did you get drunk?

Don't stand over me like that.

I'm a sentimental man, Martha.

I started to get dressed...

then I realized it was the fourth

anniversary of my father's death.

I thought it would be nice

if I went to the cemetery and...

laid a wreath of flowers on his grave.

However, I never got there.

Sentiment overwhelmed me.

I stopped off to have a drink

to his sainted memory.

As I drank, I thought to myself,

it's such a pity that my father isn't alive...

to be able to see for himself

all his dreams come true.

The dreams he worked so hard for.

His son, a famous man.

Married to a beautiful and wealthy woman.

All right.

Now tell me why you got drunk?

Because I couldn't get up

and speak before people.

Walter, listen to me, what's done is done.

- The deed's done, not the thought.

- You've got a life to live.

- I don't know, I'm not sure.

- A brilliant career.

- My father always said that.

- Your father was right.

He was never right about anything.

From the day he walked in

and found your aunt on the floor...

I told you I never want that mentioned.

To the day he sat beside you in

the courtroom, as I, the public prosecutor...

demanded that the state take the life

of a man...

for the brutal murder of Mrs. Ivers.

My father said nothing.

I looked at him, but he said nothing.

Your father was a realistic man.

My father, may he rest in peace,

was a greedy man.

The man they executed was a criminal.

If he hadn't hanged for that,

he would have hanged for something else.

The man was a man. Justice is justice.

That's the way it is. I...

I can't get up and speak before people.

The words stick in my throat.

I'd rather get drunk. I do get drunk.

I did get drunk.

Walter, dear, listen to me.

If you carry a thing in your mind,

it makes you sick.

- I want you well. Tomorrow...

- Will be like today.

You will leave on a trip

for your health for a few weeks.

- Will you go with me?

- No.

I'll stay here.

Then, I'll stay here, too.

What do you want to do? Give everything

up, is that what you want to do?

What do you want to do? Give everything

up, is that what you want to do?

You wouldn't let me do that,

would you, Martha?

- Do you want to?

- I don't know, Martha.

I ask myself that question all the time.

If my father were alive I could ask him.

Only I know what his answer would be.

He'd say to me, "Keep what you have...

"and make her live up to it."

"Make her live up to her bargain."

That's what he'd say.

I am living up to it, Walter.

There's another drink left,

might as well have it.

The bottle's empty now.

Goodnight, Martha.

Tell me, Martha, what shall I do

about my love for you?

Tell me, Martha,

why I don't abandon all this?

- Why I don't just throw it back in your face?

- You tell me, Walter.

- Well, this is it. Not good. Not bad.

- With bath?

With bath. And come out, come out,

wherever you are.

With bath, hey? There's half as many baths

as there is rooms.

Half the rooms has baths, and half hasn't.

That's one way of looking at it.

Another is, for each two rooms one has

a bath in the middle and the other hasn't.

Or, you might say, there's a half a bath to

each of two rooms.

How was that again, now?

There's half as many baths

as there is rooms...

- and if, and if the two...

- That's all right.

I've already sent the boy with those bags

up to your room, Mr. Masterson.

Well, they belong to Miss Marachek, here.

They came in my name

because she wasn't registered yet.

- I missed my bus to Ridgeville.

- That's too bad.

The boy went off at 12:00.

You'll have to manage yourselves.

- I can't leave the board.

- Thanks.

Good night.

- Sweet dreams.

- Good night, Cupid.

Twenty-five. Your room number's 25, I'm 23.

Makes us neighbors.

Why did you buy a ticket to Ridgeville,

if you didn't want to go back home?

I didn't.

I didn't buy the ticket.

I got it, but I didn't buy it.

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