"Well, what do you know." "What do I know about what?" "I mean, it can't be." "What can't be?" "There's gotta be something in here." "Mark, what something?" "Some bad news." "I mean, I can't find any bad news in this newspaper." "I can not remember ever reading a newspaper where there wasn't any bad news." "I realise it's just a local paper, but not one bit of bad news?" "I mean, look at this, the economy's up, people are happy." "It's like for once all the bad times are behind us, you know?" "Oh, even though it is for one day." "It's like one of those days." "God's in his heaven and all is right with the world." "I mean, even the one piece of sad news is kind of good." "What piece is that?" "Well, it's this guy, he's a local kid." "He was reported missing in action for 18 years." "The Vietnamese are sending his remains home." "That means his family is finally gonna get to bury him today." "Do you realise how tough that had to have been?" "I mean, never knowing for sure all that time." ""Eighteen years after being reported missing in action--"" "Timothy Charles, Jr." "is finally coming home." "How did you know what it said?" "He's our assignment." "Mr. Charles." "What?" "Mr. Charles, I can wait a little longer before we start if you'd like, but" "No, no, no." "I guess no one's gonna show." "I don't understand how they could all have forgotten him." "Well, it's been 18 years." "People move away." "He was so popular in high school." "No, not just high school." "For as long as I can remember, the house was always full of kids." "The noise would drive you crazy." "There was a whole gang of them." "Before and after the game, the whole team." "You'd just see this bunch of kids and he'd be in the centre of it, see, laughing or telling jokes." "Why didn't they come, Padre?" "Why didn't this noisy damn bunch of kids show up at my son's funeral?" "You go ahead and start." "Don't you cut it short." "And don't leave out one thing." "I want you to do it as though all these chairs were occupied, you understand?" "Yes, sir." "I will." "There's one thing you can leave out." "All this merciful father crap and all this heaven stuff." "Because I don't believe in a god that could take my boy and not let even one of his friends remember." "Just read what it says on his citations." "Yes, sir." "Timothy Charles, Jr." "has come home today." "Warrant Officer Charles was an exemplary soldier and a loving son." "As a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, who rescued many hundreds of men" "he died in the line of duty fulfilling the motto of his fellow pilots." "That motto has only three words:" "Duty, not reward." "He'll be mourned by" "By us all." "Ready." "Load." "Ready." "Aim." "Fire." "Aim." "Fire." "Aim." "Fire." "Cease firing." "Present arms." "Forward arms." "Left face." "Forward march." "Mr. Charles." "Did you know my son?" "I don't remember you." "We're not from around here." "My friend and I were just passing through, we saw your notice in the paper." "I met your son a long time ago." "Where?" "In the service?" "In Vietnam or something?" "Yeah." "Yeah, I really didn't know him well." "Like I said, I just met him once." "But one thing I do remember about him and that was his smile." "Look, you fellas wanna come over to the hanger?" "I've got some refreshments and stuff set up there." "My place is too small." "I been living in a trailer since my wife, Maggie, died." "It's too small to hold a wake." "Irish, you know." "I'm sort of babbling, aren't I?" "Hey, that's okay." "I guess we could hold old Timothy's wake in a broom closet, couldn't we?" "Look, Mr...?" "Smith." "Jonathan Smith." "Mark Gordon." "I wish you could come over, just for a little while." "I need to talk about him." "I talk about him all the time anyway." "But usually I'm the only one in the room." "We'd love to come." "It's something all right." "It's a graveyard for planes." "Lots of ghosts, lots of ghosts." "I come down here a lot." "Too much probably." "I flew a bomber in the Second World War." " You were a bomber pilot?" " Yeah." "Leather jacket, cap set at a jaunty angle, knees shaking, wet pants most of the time." "I was a regular flyboy." "I got my wings when I was a 20-year-old kid." "Just about the same age that Timmy was when he got killed." "Quick reflexes when you're a kid, you know?" "Timmy was a good pilot, he was an athlete, and he was very responsible." "He wasn't foolhardy, you know?" " What kind of plane did you fly?" " What kind?" "I'll not only show the kind, I'll show you the plane." "You mean the actual plane you flew?" "In the flesh, what's left of it." "There she is." "Her and me, we're in about the same shape now." "Maggie's Pride." "Yeah, named her after my wife." "She wasn't my wife then." "She didn't take too kindly to the idea when she heard about it." "But I was the skipper and that's what we called her." "I bet she was only pretending to be angry." "I bet she was really flattered." "Yeah, that's right." "I remember when I first saw her." "It was in a train station in Kansas City." "I'd been stationed out there for a little while." "I remember she" "She had this sweater on and she was just" "She was just buxom." "Yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday." "There was this red-haired buxom gal." "I used to bring Timmy and we'd sit up there in the cockpit and he'd ask what Maggie was so proud about." "And she used to pretend to be mad." "If I didn't come down here so much and talk about it all the time maybe he wouldn't have wanted to be a pilot." "But he loved me a lot." "He wanted to be just like me." "If I hadn't filled his head with so much of this damn stuff." "Timmy, your boy, was proud of you." "He loved you." "He was lucky to have you for a dad." "If he was so damn lucky, how come he's so damn dead?" "I'm sorry." "Look, let's" " Let's go get a drink." "This is supposed to be an Irish wake." "I'm sorry, it's a big mess here, but like I said, the trailer's too small." "How about a cold one?" "Oh, that sounds good." " How about you?" " No, no, I'm fine, thank you." "Why don't you help yourself to some food?" "There's plenty of it there." "Make a sandwich." "Thanks." "Oh, he was a fine looking boy." "He was bigger than me by the time he was 14." "I don't know, kids are getting bigger and bigger all the time." "You don't know where it'll end." "I should've been killed a hundred times over in the war, but I wasn't." "It's the draw of the cards, I guess." "I figure I'm living on borrowed time." "He was a wonderful kid." "We were lucky to have him as long as we did." "What gets me though is that people don't remember." "Or if they do, they just don't care." "You remember." "So what?" "His mother's dead." "I'll be dead soon enough." "It's just that I'd like to know before I die that someone remembered him." "That it wasn't just all in vain." "That boy lived." "He walked the earth, he helped people, he" "He lit up a room when he walked into it." "Look at you, you just met him just for a second and you remembered." "And with the others it's as though he didn't exist." "Maybe you can help them remember." " How?" " Let's face it, the article in the paper was pretty small." "Maybe people just missed it." "You could take an ad." "There must be people in this town who remember him, who went to school with him, who were touched by him." "Maybe you could even start a scholarship fund in his name, to help kids." "Kids who would remember his name." "Kids who'd know that Timothy Charles, Jr." "must have been a pretty special guy because his friends got together and all chipped in to start a fund to help children." "I think people would do that, they just have to know about it, that's all." "Timmy would like that." "Yeah, he would." "Well, what are we waiting for?" "Let's put the ad in the paper." "Yeah, right." "Let's go." "Not one response." "I'm sorry, Tim." "Yeah, right." "People." "Give them a chance." "Well, we tried." "That's the end of it." " It's all for nothing, isn't it?" " What?" "Life, everything, it's all for nothing." "I don't believe that." "Well, then you're a sucker, pal." "You're a grade-A chump." "Are you gonna tell me there's some kind of plan?" "That we're all gonna meet in the great beyond?" "Would you believe me if I did tell you that?" "I'd believe you were an idiot." "You don't happen to see an angel walking around out there?" "I sure as hell don't." "Well, you know, most people wouldn't know an angel if he came up and sat down right next to them." "One thing I will tell you, it's not over." "Oh, yeah?" "And what are we supposed to do now?" "Go from door to door and beg his old friends to remember?" "Or are you gonna tell me the ad wasn't big enough?" "Maybe the front page of the New York Times would do." "You're beating a dead horse, my friend." "People don't care." "People don't remember." "Out of sight, out of mind." "You know what will be left of my son after I'm gone?" "A grave that nobody visits." "People will walk by and wonder who's buried there." "And you're telling me it's not all for nothing." "Well, you don't have an answer for that, do you?" "Do you?" "Mr. Barker." "My name is Jonathan Smith." "I told my secretary to tell you that I was busy." "Mr. Barker, Tim Charles was a boy who went to school with your son, Ted." "He died in Vietnam." "What we're trying to do is set up a scholarship fund in his name so" "I don't care about what you're trying to do, Smith." "My son was in Vietnam." "He was wounded there, almost killed." "I think our family has given enough." "Tim Charles gave his life, sir." "My son spent two years in a hospital, Smith, and I hate that war, and I hate everything to do with it." "It makes good sense to hate any war, Mr. Barker." "My son still wakes up with nightmares." "I am not going to aggrandize that kind of fiasco by contributing to some kind of war memorial." "It's not a war memorial, it's a scholarship fund for children, in the name of a boy who died so others could live." "You must have known him." "He was probably in your home." "Take a look at this picture, you might remember." "I don't need to look at anything." "And I don't need anyone to come in here and remind me and my family of a war that we need to forget." "Have you ever talked to your son about what he went through over there?" "My son is trying to forget what he went through over there." "But you've never asked him, have you?" "That's none of your business." "Maybe that's why he still has nightmares." "Get out of here." "I said, get out." "There are some things that shouldn't be forgotten." "And some people who mustn't be forgotten." "What was his last name again?" " Charles." "Tim Charles." " Charles." "He went to high school in this town." "He was a classmate of yours." " You must remember him." " Yeah, yeah." "I think so." "He was some kind of football star or something." " Right." " I didn't play football." "I didn't hang around with those guys." "They got all the girls and stuff." "Mr. Lee, all Tim got was killed." " Were you in Vietnam?" " No, I wasn't." "I mean, I didn't do anything to get out of it, I" "I wasn't drafted." "They met their quota." "Did you get drafted?" "No, I joined up." "Hey, well, I didn't, okay?" "And I'm getting a little tired of all these guys parading around with their camouflage shirts on trying to make me feel guilty because I was lucky and they weren't." "I mean, I don't see how because they got drafted and I didn't, that makes them some kind of big heroes." "Pal, I'm not trying to make you feel guilty." "A class mate of yours got blown away and some people want to start a scholarship fund." "Yeah, well, I got my own scholarship fund." "I got a kid graduating from high school." "I gotta save every cent I can to put her through college." "I gotta think of her future." "I gotta take care of my own, you know?" "Tim Charles is one of your own." "So is every man who wore that uniform." "I didn't know the guy, okay?" "Look, I'm sorry he got killed, I really am, but that's the way it goes." "I don't owe him anything." "I don't owe you anything." "Did I say you did?" "Hey, like I said," "I got lucky, he didn't." "If it were the other way around, he'd be here telling you the same thing." "No." "No, he wouldn't." "Mr. Smith, I just don't see what this has to do with me." "Well, he was a boy that lived in this town." "I've never had much to do with the children who lived in this town." "I don't have any children." "All I have is Queenie, Jr. here." "We're all the family we've got." "I know, but you must have known the boy." "He lived just down the block." "Mr. Smith, I don't mean to be unkind, but I'm a senior citizen." "I live on a fixed income." "I don't have the money to" "Well, just to throw around for every cause." "And besides, I never had much to do with politics." "Well, this has nothing to do with politics, Miss Foley." "I mean, it's a scholarship fund to try to help children." "And who's going to help me?" "I'm an old person." "They have the future, I don't." "All I have is Queenie, Jr. here." "I'm sorry, Mr. Smith, but this boy, this scholarship fund, the war, it just has nothing to do with me." "It never has." "I'm sorry." "Come on, Queenie." "Yeah, yeah." "Come on in, come on in." "Hey, how you doing?" "Hi, Jonathan." "I just wanted to return this." "Oh, yeah." "Set it down there, will you?" "Thanks." "And thanks for trying to help." "It didn't work out, but you tried." "It's crazy, isn't it." "You're a stranger and you tried." "To hell with them." "If they don't wanna remember, to hell with them." "Like I said, it's all for nothing." "Hey, wait a minute." "I'm not done trying." "It's not over yet." "Yeah, right." "Look, I know you mean well, but I don't want you to go around begging that bunch of ingrates to remember my boy." "He doesn't deserve that." "I'm not gonna do any begging." "And I'm not doing this just for your boy anymore." "What are you talking about?" "There's too many people in this town trying to forget too many things, and for all the wrong reasons." "There's too many wounds here that haven't healed." "I don't give a damn about their wounds." "They forgot about my son, now I wanna forget about them." "Tim, you all right?" "Yeah, I'm all right." "I'm all right." "I just wanna sit down." "Sure, sure." "Thanks." "You know, this is all a crazy dream anyway." "I just wish..." "What?" "I just wish I could see him again." "See that smile." "Hear that laugh." "Hear him say, "Hi, Pop, I'm home."" "Maybe you will some day." "Yeah, sure." "Up in the clouds, huh?" "Just leave me alone." "I'm--I'm tired." "Sure." "I'll see you later." "I just hope those people sleep good at night." "I bet they do though, you know." "I wouldn't be so sure of that, Tim." "At least not tonight." "Jonathan, do you really need that light on?" "The light." "The light." "I can't sleep with the light on." "Sure you can." "Just close your eyes." "Jonathan, you may know a lot of things, but I know about me, and I cannot sleep in a room with the lights on." "Well, try." "That's more like it, buddy." "You sleep good." "You've got work to do." "I'm hit." "Sarge, I'm hit." "Where are the choppers?" "When do the choppers get here?" "Oh, God, no." "When do the choppers get here?" " Come on, Ted." " Timmy." "Timmy, is that you?" "Don't try to talk." "We're gonna get you out of here." "Tim, I never knew it was you." "You were delirious then, how could you remember?" "Timmy, you gotta get me out of here." "I will, I will." "Come on, buddy, we're going home." "We're going home." "Home." "I'm going home." "I'm going home." "I'm going home." "I'm going home." "Gary, wake up." "Come on, up and at them." "Wake up." "It's all right, all right." "Take it easy." "What are you doing here?" "Who are you?" "I'm the guy who talked to you about the scholarship fund." "Oh, you gotta be crazy coming in here like this." "I'm calling the cops." "Gary." "Gary." "Gary, look." "Don't start anything with me." "I'm warning you." "Gary, will you look?" "See that?" "You're still asleep." "I'm having a dream about you, that's all." " You're having a dream about me?" " Right." "Well, get out of my-- Get out of my house." "I'm trying to have a dream about Christie Brinkley over here." "You wanna have a dream?" "Do it in your own place." "This is my place." "I don't wanna dream about you." "And I don't wanna dream about you, but evidently Jonathan does." "Who's Jonathan?" "That's a long story and this is a short dream." "Come on." " Where?" " To your draft board." "That's my closet, you jerk." "Not tonight." "Come on, let's go." "You recognise that young fellow over there?" "You get your draft notice too?" "No, they want to ask me about my student deferment." "Hey." "That's me, when I was 18." " Hey, how'd you do that?" " Never mind." "Just listen." "Didn't we have a biology class together?" "Yeah." "Student deferment, huh?" "What did you get, a football scholarship?" " Yeah, sort of." " What do you mean, sort of?" "I got a couple of scholarships." "You football jocks make me sick, you know?" "Just because you throw a ball around, they're not gonna draft your butt." "I'm engaged to be married." "Do you think that means anything?" "I don't know, does it?" "No way." "I'm history, man." "They're gonna ship my butt to Vietnam." "It isn't fair." "You're right." "That's not fair." "Well, hey, don't lose any beauty sleep over it, all right?" "Because while you're out there dating girls," "I'm gonna be over there in those rice paddies." "It isn't fair." "Timothy Charles, Jr." "That's me." "Would you step over to the table, please?" "Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky and someone will volunteer." "Fat chance." "I'm history, man." "So is my marriage." "Now do you recognise him?" "Yeah." "That's right." "He was in the draft board that day." "That's right." "With a student deferment in his pocket." "I guess he never used it." " You mean he-?" " That's right." "He went in your place." "See you around, Lucky." "I never knew." "I swear to you, I never knew." " I never knew." " Gary." "What?" "Are you all right?" "Yeah." "I guess I was just dreaming." "Miss Foley." "Miss Foley." "Don't be afraid, ma'am." "This is just a dream." "It's you." "That's right." " Jonathan?" " Yeah." "This is a dream?" "That's right." "Oh, my." "I haven't had a dream like this in a long time." "A dream like what?" "Oh, don't be coy, big boy." "There might be snow on the roof, but there's still heat in the furnace." "Miss Foley, I'm afraid it isn't that kind of a dream." "What a shame." "Where's Queenie, Jr.?" "She hasn't been born yet." "What?" "This is a dream about Queenie, Sr." "Queenie, Sr.?" "Is she in my dream?" "You bet she is." "But she was just a puppy." "Come on." "The dream's right outside." "It's awfully bright." "Your eyes will get used to it in a second." "Where is my Queenie?" "She's been gone for years." "You remember when she was a pup, how she used to run away all the time?" "Oh, my, yes." "She was a naughty girl." "You remember the time she ran away and didn't come back for a long, long time?" "Yes." "Yes, I remember now." "There was an accident, she was hurt and somebody called me." "A little boy." "Here she is, Miss Foley." "You naughty girl." "What happened?" "She ran out in front of this car." "It hit her and kept right on going." "I took her to the vet." "He said she's gonna be okay." " You did that?" " Yeah." "She's a real sweet pup." "She's an awfully lucky pup that someone like you was around to help her." " What's your name?" " Timmy." "Timmy Charles." "We live down the street." "Well, Timmy Charles, you saved my baby's life and I'll never forget it." "That's okay." "What's her name, anyway?" "Queenie." "Queenie, huh?" "Well, if she ever has any pups, I'd sure like to have one." "I'll remember that, Timmy Charles." "I surely will." "Okay." "Bye-bye, Queenie." "Bye, Miss Foley." "Now do you remember?" "That was the boy." "But he's too young to be a soldier." "He grew up." "I tried to find him when she had her litter, but they moved away." "To the other side of town." "I should have remembered him." "Tell me how to help the others." "The other children." "This is only a dream." "You can't help them in a dream." "I have to go now." "Goodbye, Miss Foley." "But I want to." "Please, tell me how I can help them." "Tell me how I can help them." "Good morning." "Good morning." "What's so good about it?" "I don't know." "It seems like the kind of morning when everything's good." "Well, maybe for you." "I had a miserable night." "I told you, I can't sleep with the lights on." "Mark, come on, if you weren't asleep last night, somebody snuck into your room with a buzz saw." " Here." " What's this?" "It's the names and numbers of the people we have to call about the gathering." "What people?" "What gathering?" "The people who are going to contribute to the Tim Charles, Jr." "Scholarship Fund." "Jonathan, that is a group numbering zero." "Nobody wants to contribute." "I wouldn't be so sure." "Start with Gary." "Give him a call and tell him we're gonna get together at the hangar at 3:00 this afternoon." "I have already talked to Gary." "He's just like all the others." "None of them remember." " Hi, Miss Foley." " Hello, Mr. Gordon." "I'm looking for" "There he is." "Mr. Smith, I- I remember that boy after all." "No, I don't understand." "You come into my office and you tell me you want me to give $10,000 to this scholarship fund because you had some kind of a nightmare." "That's right." "I do." "Son, you've been having nightmares ever since you got back." "Well, this was different." "It started out like it was gonna be the same." "I was hit." "My squad leader kept saying that the choppers couldn't get to us." "And just like all the other times," "I felt someone holding me." "I was delirious." "I don't even remember being in the chopper." "And there was always this face." "And I could never make it out." "Except last night." "I saw him." "It was this kid that I went to high school with." "I know it was him." "I never knew that before, but I know it now." "He was the one who took me out of there." "It was Tim." "It was Tim Charles, Dad." "I figured I might find you here." "Sorry, Jonathan, I" "I must have been day dreaming or something." "I feel so tired today." "Kind of fogged in, you know?" "You still have a lot of Tim's stuff over at the hangar." "You want me to give you a hand getting it home?" "Oh, yeah, yeah, thanks." "I could use some help." "Thank you." "What--?" "What's going on here?" "They remember, Tim." "All of them." "Go on." "I" "I don't quite know what to say." "These last few days, I" "I decided the world didn't give a damn whether my son, Tim, was ever here or not." "But I can see today that I was wrong." "Very wrong." "I wanna apologise for all the things I felt about you." "But try to understand that Tim was my son and..." "We are the ones that ought to apologise." "We're the ones that turned our backs." "Not only on your son, but on the sons of so many." "Tim." "Tim, your boy, saved my son's life." "He fought for us." "He didn't have to." "He felt it was his duty." "He made me remember what a precious thing a child is." "He was filled with love." "Let's make sure that kind of love isn't forgotten." "Let's make this scholarship fund in his name a way to keep his memory alive." "I can't believe it." "You ought to see the size of this fund." "It's unbelievable." "Tim, are you all right?" "Yeah." "I'm just a little tired." "I sure wish my son could have seen this today." "I'm sure he did." "Yeah." "You want me to drive you home?" "You ought to get some rest." "No, I'm all right." "I want to go out to the plane." "Just for a little while." "Want me to wait for you?" "No, that's okay." "Thanks for everything." "Jonathan, is he all right?" "He will be." " Jonathan?" " How you doing, Tim?" "What's going on?" "Am I dreaming?" "No, you're not dreaming." "I must be." "I mean, this old plane doesn't work." "There are no propellers." "There's" "What is this?" "Your last mission." "What are you talking about?" "I'm talking about touching the face of God." "You mean that I--?" "Yeah." "Then there is something." "There is." "You bet there is." "Come on, let's go." "Check." "Maggie's Pride to tower." "Requesting clearance to take off on runway" "Tim." "You already got clearance." "Oh, yeah." "Yeah." "I see what you mean." "Hey, this is great, Jonathan." "This old plane never handled like this." "I mean, this old crate" "Oh, yeah." "I guess I gotta go the rest of the way all alone." "What are you talking about, alone?" "Timmy." "We're going home now, Pop." "We're going home."