Wish You Well Page #5

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But it was harder on your daddy,

losing first his mother

and then his father.

You know, I loved your daddy as much

as I loved anything in this whole world,

but I understand why he didn't

wanna come back here,

the place where...

all that sorrow got a hold of him.

I tried to help him,

I really did,

but...

I failed.

I just... I just failed him.

No.

He... he named me after you.

And this.

My dad's last book.

Open it to the first page.

"To Louisa Mae Cardinal,

"the one who showed me...

light from the dark."

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hey, Billy!

Come here! Come here, you! Get.

Come on!

The next one that touches

Eugene is dead.

Hang on a second. Crazy woman.

Thank you for coming to tell us.

What? Louisa, what's wrong?

- Louisa!

- Ms. Louisa!

Ms. Louisa!

She's resting now,

but she's had a stroke.

It'll be fine.

She'll be fine.

Afternoon, Wheeler.

What can I do for ya?

Coal's run out.

Town's going to hell.

Well,

every lick of coal and gas

could disappear from this earth

and Louisa will be just fine.

I'm... raisin' my offer.

I assume you have power of attorney.

No, I don't.

Anything else?

Consider yourself served.

The coal company was trying

to declare Louisa incompetent

so that they could take her land.

But her mind was still with us.

Even if she couldn't speak,

her eyes were telling me

not to be afraid.

- Good luck.

- Well, thank you, Lou.

You ready to have a go at this?

As ready as you are.

I seriously doubt that.

Judge.

Judge, George Davis has a vested

interest in the outcome of this case.

- George?

- Yes?

Can you keep a fair

and open mind about this case?

Sure, Henry.

Sure I can.

Me and Louisa, we're like good friends.

We get along good.

- He's lying!

- Oz, sit down.

He's a sweet boy.

Doctor Ross, can you state

your fine credentials for the jury?

I'm chief of the psychiatric department

at the county hospital.

And I've handled

more than 500 cases like this one.

And what, in your expert opinion,

is Ms. Cardinal's condition?

She should be institutionalized.

No further questions.

Mr. Longfellow.

Doctor,

how many of the people that you have

examined have you found to be incompetent?

A hundred percent? Ninety five?

Ninety five sounds about right.

That is a lot of crazy people.

I just call 'em like I see 'em, lawyer.

Yeah, I'm sure that you do.

How many stroke victims

that you have examined have you found

to be mentally incompetent?

None that I can recall.

So even though one

may not be able to talk or move,

she may fully understand what is going on.

In fact, over time, Ms. Cardinal

may have a complete recovery.

I doubt that.

Since you yourself admitted that

you are not an expert in stroke victims,

I would like that last statement

removed from the record.

You are hereby instructed

to disregard that last

statement of Dr. Ross.

No more questions.

Judge...

Ms. Cardinal, when she gets better,

can take care of her own affairs.

She won't have any land left.

Well, I think she can take comfort

in the hundred thousand dollars

that Southern Valley has offered her.

Judge? Judge, he has just... just as good

as bribed this jury and the whole town.

I withdraw the statement.

" Three cows lay in the grass

in one protected space

"while a Rhone horse grazed alone

in a small snake rail corral.

"And rising high above all this

were the Appalachians."

Ms. Amanda, you need to come back to us.

For more reasons than you know.

Memories are a funny thing.

People like to change the past

so they can remember

what it is they want to remember.

Not now, Amanda!

We can't live off awards, Jack,

unless we move to Virginia.

- Leaving New York?

- Not now, Lou!

- I don't want to move!

- I said not now!

It wasn't your fault that dad died.

It was mine.

I love you.

She's gonna lose the farm, isn't she?

Well,

sometimes you can't get justice

even in a court of law, Lou.

I think I just got my miracle.

Your Honor, I call Eugene Randall.

Cotton found his miracle.

He put Southern Valley on trial

for Diamond's death.

How many times do you reckon

you used dynamite in that mine?

Fifty times or more.

Well, I'd say that makes you an expert.

And after you set the dynamite

what did you do?

Well the... the shaft curves

in a couple of different places

so I usually just wait around

the curve or go outside.

When the dynamite exploded,

where were you?

Forty feet in.

Not even to the first curve.

Throwed me ten feet.

And where did you set the dynamite?

Well, past the second curve.

Two hundred twenty feet in.

And where did you find Diamond's body?

Another 40 feet in.

And in your expert opinion,

do you think that there is any way

that that dynamite could have thrown

Diamond's body that far?

No, sir.

Thank you, Eugene.

Nothing further.

You ever been to school, boy?

There ain't no school for colored here.

And yet you're up here

testifying under oath

to all these precise distances.

Yes, sir.

Now how can that be

for an uneducated colored man

who has never even added one plus one

under the eyes of a teacher?

Ms. Louisa taught me.

And I handy with saw and hammer.

Now you cut a three foot board

to fill a four foot space

what exactly have you done?

But...

in a dark mine how can you be

so sure of the distances, boy?

I painted the walls in that mine

in ten foot parcels over 400 feet in.

You can see 'em as clear as day.

And you can put down

what I done said here

as the word of the Lord.

Are you done with the witness?

I have no further questions, your Honor.

You're excused, Mr. Randall.

The court thanks you

for your expert testimony.

You heard Eugene testify.

Now under those circumstances,

is there any way

that that dynamite charge

could have caused

those injuries to Diamond?

That would have been impossible.

Have you ever seen

injuries like that before?

There was an explosion

at a manufacturing company,

12 men were killed.

And what caused that explosion?

Natural gas leak.

Natural gas leak.

Nothing further, your Honor.

You found natural gas

on Ms. Cardinal's property, didn't you?

Yeah, that's right.

And why didn't you post signs saying

that there was gas in there?

We... we didn't want people to know

what we were doing up there.

Because you wanted to buy her land

for a lot less than it was worth.

Why didn't you come forward

when Diamond Skinner was killed, sir?

Answer the question.

Why didn't you come forward

after Diamond Skinner was killed?

- Why didn't you come forward...

- I didn't want the boy to die like that!

It was...

It was just business.

Well, he did die.

Just like that.

Let me give you good folks the...

legal side of this case

and it's not complicated.

Like a good birddog,

it points in one direction

and one direction only.

Southern Valley killed Diamond Skinner.

And now they seek to use the tragedy

of Louisa Mae to take her land.

The law clearly states...

that one cannot profit

from one's misdeeds.

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