"Hi, this is Robert." "I can't talk right now." "Leave a message and I'll get back to you." "Hi, Robert, it's Alison." "Call me." "If you get this, will you call me, when you get this, will you call me, please?" "I'm trying to find a J Bridge." "Jude." "Short for Judith, I presume." "But I don't know." "I can't find her in the book anywhere." "I'm sorry, I'm not being very clear." "Erm, I'm trying to find..." "Erm, he works at Cabot University in the, erm..." "psychology department." "Er, no, actually." "I'm trying to find out if there's been an accident anywhere tonight in Bristol anywhere..." "Well, it's a bit obscure..." "I do know what time it is!" "Yes, of course I know what time it is!" "Robert!" "Hello?" "Can I help you?" " Who are you?" " Who are you?" "Tutte le volte che sto facendo qualcosa d'importante c'e qualcuno che rompe..." " Chiudi quella porta, ho freddo." " Allora..." "Non fare il bambino." "I want Robert." "This is Robert's boat." "Sorry, this is our boat now." "Can you tell me if you've got a patient here by the name of Robert Bridge, please?" " When did he come in?" "Do you know?" " I don't know." " Do you know what ward he's in?" " I don't know anything." " Robert Bridge." " Yep." " B-R-I..." " D-G-E!" "Barbara?" "Barbara?" "Barbara!" " He's dead, isn't he?" " What are you doing here?" " I saw him." "He appeared to me." "I knew..." " Oh, please!" "Well, for your information, you're wrong." "He's not dead." "Oh, thank God." "Thank Christ." "So..." "And what's happened?" "I don't understand!" "Oh!" "Your powers seem to have deserted you." " He collapsed while he was driving home." " Oh, OK." "OK." "So his heart must have stopped beating." "Is that what they said?" "Did they say that?" "Go away!" "I... can't!" "Oh, God." "He didn't tell you." "Erm..." "He found out he had a tumour in the brain." "The doctor said it was inoperable." "Terminal." " Where is he?" " They gave him months, weeks." " He was coming to terms with it." " Where is he?" " Now they don't know..." " Where is he?" "He's in intensive care." "Excuse me." "Can you tell me the way to intensive care, pl...?" "Excuse me!" "Excuse me!" "Excuse me..." "Can I help you?" "Can I help you?" "I'm starving!" "Excuse me." "I've come to see Robert Bridge." "He's your patient." "Could you let me know when his visitor's gone?" " I'm sitting over there." " He's allowed two visitors at a time." "No, it's OK." "I'll wait." "We're helping him to breathe at the moment because he can't do that himself." "Can you tell how bad things are?" "You'll have to talk to Dr Pran about that." "There's been no change since he got here." "Sometimes no change is good." "Why didn't you tell me?" "What did you think I'd say?" "Why didn't you let me help you?" "What were you afraid of?" "Don't you know that you could have talked?" "Just talked." "Just... talked." "And I'd have listened." "It's getting late, love." "Maybe you should go home and get some rest." "Just a while longer." "I'm Zoe." " I'm Alison." " Are you a relative?" "No." "I'm his friend." " He's a fighter." " Yeah, I know he is." "Have you known him long?" "I'm sorry." "Hey, listen." "You stay as long as you like." "Wh..." "What's that woman doing here?" "I don't want her here." "Get her out of here." "Jude..." "Don't talk to me." "Don't be here." "No, wait a minute." "It's all right." "Let me talk to you." "You see, he's not ready to die." "He told me." "What?" "He, er..." "He came to me." "W" " When it happened, I saw him." "When his heart stopped beating he came to me." "He came to you?" "He came to YOU?" "You bitch!" "You bitch!" "You bitch!" "Get out!" "Get out!" "Get out!" " Get out!" " It's OK, she's gone, she's gone." "Shh." " Get out!" " It's OK." "She's gone, she's gone." "She's gone now." "She's gone." "I always talk to them." "Sometimes you'll see the flick of an eyelid." "Any sort of response, really." "Sometimes they can't move or even breathe, but they can hear." "Robert?" "Robert..." "I don't know what to say." "It doesn't matter." "Just anything." "Just so long as he hears your voice." ""Once upon a time, in the heart of a deep, dark forest, there stood a castle." ""And in the castle lived a king and queen." ""One day, the queen was walking in the forest" ""and she found a pretty bird trapped in a thorn bush." ""She released it." ""Soon afterwards, the queen gave birth to a lovely daughter." ""And all the fairies of the land were invited to the celebrations." ""One gave her the gift of beauty." ""One the gift of a singing voice." ""And one the gift of dancing. "" "Now, I should tell you, it's rare for a coma to last more than two to four weeks." "Thank God." "However... the other possibility is that he might not come out of a coma at all... and instead slip into what we call a persistent vegetative state." "Oh, God." "I'm telling you these possibilities, Mrs Bridge, because... as next of kin, there may be difficult decisions ahead." "Decisions?" "What decisions?" "His mother's in a nursing home, his father's dead, and there's no other close family." "Well, if there's anyone else who needs to see him," " now would be a good time to ask them." " What?" "What are you saying?" "He's not going to die." "He's not ready to die." "He's not." " He's not!" "He's not!" " Excuse me." " Sorry, do you know who this is?" " He needs someone with him." "Robert!" "I want to see him." "You can't stop me seeing him!" "I want to go to him and be next to him." "He knows me, he needs me." "He doesn't know you." "You don't care about him." "You don't understand me." "He doesn't know you." " Robert!" " I'm going to have to ask you to leave." "Come on." "I listen to them and it's like nails going in." "And I'm not even listening." "And I know I should." "I have to." "And then I hear her and she's saying, "His spirit"..." ""His spirit says" and..." "There's this feeling in my heart." "Of course." "You wouldn't be human if there wasn't." "No, I mean real feeling." "Jude, people like Alison feed on..." "People like Alison..." "Not people like Alison." "Alison saw him." " She says she saw him." " I know." "I know." "I'm not looking for a rational argument, Barb, I'm just..." " I just want support." " What Alison offers isn't support, it's madness." "What's more, it's a madness Robert spent his entire academic life exposing." " Exposing or exploring?" " What's the difference?" "Everything." "It's the very thing he despised, the exploitation of the vulnerable." " Thank you." " Oh, come on!" "You know what I'm saying." "You're an intelligent woman." "At times like this, especially at times like this, the urge to believe must be overwhelming." "But you've got to listen to the doctors, for God's sake." "For Robert's sake." "You know I'm right." "Look, I-I don't care what you believe or don't believe." "What I care about is Robert's welfare and whether he's suffering." " Oh, and I don't?" " Of course you do." "And that's why it's hard." "It's harder for you." "But you've got to find the courage not to be selfish, not to give over to miracles and life after death and the idea that Robert's going to spring back to life because she says so." "Because it'll hurt you, and I don't want to see you hurt." "I don't think he did despise her." "I don't think he ever did that." "It's Alison Mundy to see Robert Bridge, please." "I'll just come and get you." " Has his wife been back in?" " Yeah." " Is she there now?" " No." " Can I come in, please?" " Dr Pran said not to admit you in the future." " Dr. Pran isn't working tonight." " Thank you." "Are you all right?" "Alison, maybe I've got this wrong, but I..." "I thought I heard you say that you saw Robert's spirit." "I did." "He's still alive." "What does that mean?" "I don't know." "What's it like?" "Do..." "Do they come to you?" "What do you do?" "I try to help them if I can." "And sometimes I can, sometimes I can't." "And..." "Now I..." "I want to help him." "But I don't know how." "Zoe." "I saw... a nurse... wearing an old-fashioned uniform standing by that old lady just before she died." "You saw her?" "Who is she?" "Well, you hear lots of different stories over the years." "Who is she?" "They say she's a night nurse who lost her lover." "He was in this awful accident." "She was on duty when he was brought in with these burns." "She tried to save him but couldn't." "And she died of a broken heart." "He died in agony." "And now it's her mission to take people away peacefully when their time is due." "So I was told." "What was her name?" "Nobody knows." "Like I say, maybe it's only a story." "Hi, this is Robert." "If you want to leave a message for me or Jude, do so after the beep." "Hi, this is Robert." "If you want to leave a message for me or Jude, do so after the beep." "Sweeping you up in my arms..." "Type... number..." "Mm..." "I'm gonna have to take a rain check." "Certainly." "Have they been good to you?" "They've been great." "That's what I'm doing... in here." "Sweeping you up in my arms." "Me too." "Hey..." "Hey, fine, fine." "It's strange." "The gift of beauty." "The gift of dancing." "The gift..." "What was the other gift?" "Jude, he probably needs some rest now." "Maybe you should take a break as well, yeah?" "Whenever you're ready, though." "When will he be able to come home?" "Let's take this one step at a time, shall we?" "The progress of the tumour may make that... unachievable." "No." "You hear stories all the time." "People are told they have six months to live, the cancer goes into remission." "Those cases are rare." "Very rare indeed." "But it happens." "They can't explain it, but it happens." "Robert's awake." " He's talking." " Oh..." " Erm, well, I'll just get..." " No, he needs rest." "I just came to get a few things, someone to look after the baby." "I'm going back as soon as I..." "Erm, do you want to come in?" "Take a seat." "Would you, er..." "Would you like a drink?" "No, thanks." "He was on his way round here with that when he collapsed." "Was it on the passenger seat?" "Yes." "The nurses said that they'd call but they're probably busy, they've got better things to do, much better things to do like looking after Robert." "I didn't mean to hurt you but when he appeared to me I knew he was still there," " he was still fighting, still clinging on and..." " He was." "The thing is, Alison... why didn't he appear to me?" "He would've if he could." " But you're special." " No." "Not special." "Different." "He said he wanted to help you." "Did he help you?" "He held my hand and took me to the past... and told me not to be afraid." "He saved my life." "He thought my life was worth saving." "He's the first person I think I've ever met who did." "I should go." "Well, thank you very much for coming." "I do appreciate it." "You didn't have to." "Yes, I did." "Do you want to come with me?" "I'm sorry, he..." "He's been unconscious for the last two hours." "He's not responding." "I'm sorry." "I'm, er, gonna go and get a drink of water." "Do you want one?" "Did he ever talk to you about Josh?" "Yeah." "Please tell me the truth when I ask you this." "In the beginning... did Robert come to you to contact our son?" "No." "But from the very first time that I met Robert," "I saw Josh." "Josh needed his daddy... to let him go... so that he could be at peace." "And then... so could Robert be at peace." "When we talked recently, I think... he was nearing an acceptance of the tumour." "Almost ready to accept the mystery..." "He said to me recently..." ""I don't know what it all means but I love my life. "" "Maybe that's all the meaning you need." "After all this time listening to..." "Robert's scepticism about faith and religion." "I think he's the most spiritual person I've ever known." "I just want my husband back." "Wait!" "Wait!" "Stop!" "Don't take him!" "It's not his time." "Tell me that you won't." "You can't." "Wait." "You know what it's like to lose someone that you love, don't you?" "You know what I'm going through." "I don't want to have to watch him die like you did and I don't have to if you help me." "Please." "I don't want to have to suffer like you suffered." "You don't take them till they're ready, do you?" "Well, he's not ready." "He's not, he's not." "He told me that he's not." "He's struggling." "Take somebody else." "Take anybody else, only please, please, don't take him." "Please don't take him." "What do I have to do?" "What do I have to do?" "All my life I've done things for you!" "And now I ask this, this one thing." "Tell me what I have to do and I'll do it!" "He's not ready to die, but I am." "Is that it?" "You don't have to take him." "Take me." "I'm not afraid of death." "I've been there." "Twice." "Do you want me to help you?" "Do you want me to help you pass over?" "I-Is that it?" "I can do that, I know I can." "For you, I'll do it for you." "We'll do it together." "We'll go now." "Tell me that you'll let him be and I'll do it." "Tell me that you'll let him live and I'll do it." "Take me instead." "Are you OK?" "Sometimes..." "I think the spirits are good... and just." "And sometimes I think they're evil... and selfish." "I'd like to think that they can be more than human beings." "But they're not." "They can do good." "They can help." "But they don't." "Maybe there are some things that they can't interfere with." "Or stop." "They just have to happen." "He has so much more to live for than I do." "Oh, that's not true." "How can you measure the value of a life anyway?" "I know this is Robert's slot." "I'm going to take it today." "You all know why he's not here." "I just thought it might be appropriate to read these notes that were typed up on his desk." "I don't know if he was going to share them with you." "They're from a chapter from his unfinished book on the psychology of mediumship." "I'll read them." ""To quote University of Chicago sociologist of religion Andrew Greeley," ""'Humankind is born with two incurable diseases." ""'Life, from which it inevitably dies," ""'and hope, which hints that death may not be the end. "'" ""Unquote." ""I have spent my life hoping," ""hoping, I now realise, to find undeniable proof of life after death." ""But the truth is, as it must be... the only proof we will ever grasp is in the moment when it happens." ""The moment we die." ""Then I have no doubt all will become clear. "" "Robert?" "Listen to me." "I..." "I want a few more arguments with you, all right?" "Cos, erm... it... it's good for the soul." "My soul." "I need it." "It's time, isn't it?" "It is." "You know it is." "Help me." "I can't." "I thought it would be so clear but it isn't." "I thought all the questions would be answered but they're not." "It's so hard." " It's so hard to let go." " I don't want to lose you." "What I'm leaving behind is so precious to me." "You know that, don't you?" "Yes." "I do." "I'm afraid." "Don't be afraid." "I'm right here." "I'm right by your side." "There's nothing to be afraid of any more." "You just leave that behind and take all the good things." "My body." "My life." "Your body let you down." "But your body isn't you." "What am I, then?" "Free." "No!"