You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger Page #6

Yeah, but we all know

what a shambles that is,

and it's not because of me.

I don't know, it just all got very serious,

very quickly.

Since when?

For a while now. At first, we just met

and we talked about my work.

He is so perceptive. And then he told me...

He told me I wandered into his dream,

and he put his hand on mine

and told me how miserable he was

at home...

and, well, things just went from there.

He's a fabulous lover, and...

I just don't know.

I don't want him to leave his wife for me,

and he was going to do that already.

I don't know, it feels like I'm

in a soap opera, but it's so lovely.

But I don't know if it's just a reaction,

you know, after spending six years

with a wife that's bipolar.

I don't know.

Are you okay?

Will you please not leave

your bicycle in the hallway?

I nearly broke my neck.

- What's the matter?

- Nothing. Did you hear anything?

About?

What the hell do you think about?

Your book!

Hey, back off! What is eating you?

I've been by the goddamned phone all day!

What's the problem?

I can't stand working for Greg Clemente!

He treats me like a f***ing secretary!

Book his tables, get his lunches,

arrange his theater tickets!

I need my own gallery!

I've got a headache. My head is splitting!

Take your pills.

What the hell do you think

I'm trying to do here?

Where are they? Excuse me.

I thought you liked working for him.

I need to start a family!

You know, I wouldn't have to be doing this

if you could just support us.

You know what? You've had trouble

on your last three jobs.

Maybe it's not always your employers.

Yeah? What the hell

is that supposed to mean?

Look, start your own art gallery!

And with what?

We can't afford to

pay the food and rent around here

without my mother helping!

Hey, you have a migraine!

Don't take it out on me!

Hello.

Roy? Malcolm Dodds.

Hello.

Hi. Look, we are so sorry that

we've held you up for so long on this book.

But there's been a lot of talk

about it up here,

and we've decided

it's not going to work for us.

And?

I mean, obviously, we liked it.

But it's not that different

to something else we're going to publish,

and we didn't want two books

with the same idea.

I see.

But in the end, you preferred the other one.

To be perfectly frank, Roy,

there are nice moments in it.

But a lot of people here

didn't think it was your best work.

Anyway, I hope you're going to try us again.

What if I can rewrite it?

Am I disturbing you?

Mum, can't you call sometimes

before you come over?

I've got a horrible headache.

- Migraines are tension, darling.

- Yes, I know what migraines are!

And I need to change my life.

You shouldn't be working.

You should be raising a family.

I really don't want

to discuss this right now, Mum.

Well, I've come to share

an incredible insight.

I've spent two hours with Cristal Delgiorno,

two riveting hours.

I'm not in the mood.

I'm just not in the mood

to get into any of that right now.

Can I help myself to a drink?

For some reason,

I love your brand of whiskey.

I'm not normally a whiskey drinker.

Well, that's it. They rejected my novel.

- Roy.

- They don't think it comes off.

Not my best work, try harder.

After all this time,

leaving you dangling like that.

I can't try harder. That's all I have in me.

You gave them sections to read.

They seemed okay with it.

They seemed to like sections,

but the whole book...

- Can I tell you an insight?

- What? What is it?

Well, I know

you're going to pooh-pooh this, Roy,

being so scientific minded,

but it turns out that I've lived before.

No. No, Mother!

No, I've existed before

in other incarnations!

- Cristal is certain of it.

- Look, Helena,

I'm not in the mood

for that crap right now, okay?

- No, no, no. I'm not.

- But...

but you will be in the mood...

when you realize

the importance of that fact.

If it's so for me, it's so for everyone.

You, as well.

Make her shut up, Sally.

I'm going to kill her.

Please, let's not get ugly here.

Mum, he just got some really bad news.

If you mean the rejection

of that silly book,

I tried to prepare you for it.

Cristal predicted it.

I was sure the book came off fine.

Am I that blind about my own work?

Cristal says your future is not in the arts.

I'm telling you, Sally,

get her out of here! Out!

Well, what's wrong with medicine?

You have the education.

If writing is not in your future,

medicine is a noble way to earn a living.

Okay, all right... Are you thick?

I am never going to be a doctor, okay?

That boat sailed years ago, okay?

You got it? Maybe I'll be

a chauffeur or a messenger.

So, your daughter married badly.

Now can you get the hell out?

How can you ask her to get out

when she is the one paying the rent?

I'm sick of hearing that.

She'll get it back,

- she'll get all the money back!

- How!

How will she get it back?

What are you gonna do, rob a bank?

I am sick and tired of sitting around,

watching my life evaporate,

while you keep trying to prove a point!

It's all futile.

Cristal said it's not his moment.

Arcadia was the only one interested,

but they're knowledgeable men,

so I guess it doesn't come off!

Cristal was right! I have to face it!

I was a one-book fluke!

Cristal said at some point,

in the distant future.

Maybe she was talking about another life.

Mother! Will you be still?

You drink and chatter incessantly!

Christ, my head is killing me.

I drank a little, yes,

to celebrate the miraculous!

Is that so terrible?

That I come here with great news,

news that renders all this futile

in the grand scheme of things.

I mean, I'm saying we don't only live once.

We live over and over again.

Cristal says I existed

in Elizabethan England.

All I'm saying is there's hope,

hope that maybe Roy will write another book,

but in some future incarnation.

I've got to get out of here!

Oh, God. I can't do it anymore.

I can't be in this marriage.

Let him go. Let him go. Let him go.

You can do so much better.

You know, Cristal says that

that man you work for,

the one you're always so high on.

She says don't rule him out.

At that moment,

with his life going down the drain,

Roy only wanted to see Dia.

And, suddenly, there she was.

But even if she wasn't getting married,

what the hell chance did he have?

What could he offer her? What was he?

A washed-up writer at 38?

A member of the "formerly promising" club?

"Royal Channing". A hell of a name

for a limo driver or a bike messenger.

The thought of beginning a new book

paralyzed him.

He'd lost all his nerve.

And what was he supposed to do,

work days and write nights?

Not that he had an idea for another book.

And just when you think

things can't possibly get any worse,

fate lets you know

there's bigger trouble out there.

Hello.

I just thought you should know.

Jeez, I'm in a state of shock here.

I can hardly speak.

There was a car accident,

a terrible car accident.

Mike Prince, Henry,

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