"The scene is Athens, 400 BC." "A bunch of the local braniacs have gotten together, the wine is being passed, and the ideas are flowing fast and furious." "The debate's in full force, and Socrates has the floor." "Who enters?" "Alcibíades, drunk, a beautiful man, hopelessly in love with his mentor, Socrates." "And, uniquely, in all of these dialogues," "Socrates doesn't get the last word." "Alcibíades does." "Why?" "Because passion, Plato seems to be saying, is essentially and mercilessly human." "And the best that we can hope to do is to quell it, through relentless discipline." "To Socrates, the healthy life is comprised of constant focus by the individual, to excise those forces that weaken or... or confuse his understanding of the world around him." "He implores us to devote our lives to this kind of control." "Meaning, our every waking moment." "Socrates recognized what every philosopher and religion, for that matter, in the history of the world, from Plato to Aristotle, from Epicurus to the Stoics, from the Judeo-Christians to the Buddhists, have all observed," "which is that the balance needed for a happy life is illusory." "And as soon as in our gorgeously-flawed human way we think that we've attained it." "We're pretending divinity, and we're gonna crash, like Icarus, flaming into the sea." "So think about that this weekend, when you think you're on top of the world, and then you pour a pitcher of beer down your throat and chase that upper-classman, who's out of your league." "Aristotle is next week." "Don't just look at it as words." "Imagine the scene." "These were people." "They were alive, like you and me." "They thought these things." "Breathe 'em into life." "So, I was thinking about doing a sort of contrast between dialogue and chorus in Sophocles." "Now you should check out Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy." "He says that tragedy emerges from the clash between Apollo, god of reason and harmony, and Dionysus, god of intoxication." "And that their struggle within our human condition is inevitable, and that is what has produced the most salient form of art the world's ever known." " Tragedy?" " What, you don't think so?" "I like comedies." "'Ya wanna see a movie?" "No, Miss Greenstein, I'm sorry." " Did you get my note?" " I did." " And?" "It was very clever of you to write it in Latin." "With the repeated use of the passive periphrastic?" " It was quite propagate." " And how I was sending up Cicero with all those alliterative adjectives thrusting themselves into the verbs?" " None of this was lost on me." " So?" "Miss Greenstein, you are very, very bright and very profession in your way," "But there are certain rules, mores, if you will, lines that we don't cross." "Ah, ha." "I'm not joking, actually, and I'm gonna ask you in the future to refrain..." "No!" "No, no, no..." "No!" "Please, don't do that!" "I'm gonna ask you to open that door, Miss Greenstein." "Lingua sed torpet, tenuis sub artus" "Flamma demanat, sonitu suopte" "Catullus 51, the Lesbia cycle, yes." "However," "Oh, no, no, no!" "Abs..." "Absolutely not!" "Miss Greenstein!" "This is not good for either of us!" "No, Miss Greenstein!" "No!" "Restrain yourself!" "Oh!" "Oh!" "Excuse me!" "Um..." "I..." "I..." "I..." "Maggie!" "Mag..." "Maggie!" "Please don't go." "Miss Greenstein was just leaving." " Maggie." "Absolutely nothing." " You don't have to say anything." "I would never..." "She..." "She..." "She went and just puh!" "They're all in love with you." "Just like Harvard." "Who told you that?" "This is the classics department." "No one is more gossipy than you people." "Ok, I am going to Cambridge in the morning." "It's just a lunch." "I don't wanna know." "We don't deal in crystal meth." "We don't deal in cocaine." "Not your rock stuff or your powder." "We don't do nothing ya gotta cook up in a spoon and shoot into your arm." "Pills?" "Pharmaceuticals?" "Hell, no, by and large." "Maybe, well, maybe the black molly's gonna pass through these hands on his way to somewheres else, just on account of the fact I used to like pop in high school, 'cuz I had to get my homework done." "But that's generally where we draw the line." "No, sir." "We deal in 100 % pure Oklahoma grown, exclusive." "Why?" "Because I ain't gonna blow my house up mixing up antihistamines into dynamite." "And, spiritually, I don't cotton to somethin' that's gotta pass through a needle." "Chemicals, well, I just don't like 'em." "My people was bootleggers before all this." "It was a backyard operation." "They did it natural." "Little bit more of a science nowadays." "I will grant ya that." "You say you changed your mind, getcha up north." " He mentioned Texas." " Texas ain't gonna happen." "Dick, we don't wanna sell in Texas." "Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri." "I ain't interested." "He say you'd better get your mind around being interested." "Meaning what?" "Meaning your choice is to expand your business, or we shut you down entire." "Then how you gonna pay your debt?" " Well, what happened to Fat Back?" " Arrested last week." " And the Rawls feller up in Liberty Mans?" " Blowed his house up." "Oh, see, that's." "That what I'm talkin' about." "Well, it's tough times." "Well, ain't it the truth." "Used to be, you could get a couple of trip wires, a couple of booby traps, a good set of dogs, you pay off your local constable, and you just live out on the property." "Feed her a little 13-13-13 fertilizer, like growing summer beans." "Even the war on drugs passed us by." "Course, now they come up with the war on terror." "Not that I ain't interested in the travails of a small-time drug dealer," " Oh, you calling me small-time?" " We gotta make it to Tulsa." "Do you know that I was the first grower in the State that ever employed hydroponics?" "What's hydroponics?" "Germinating the seed in water, you shit-for-brains." "Do you know how many generations of hybridization" "I've had to do to get my top three varietals?" "There is a goddamn reason I grow the best!" " Enough, Brady." "What's it gonna be?" " Pug wants his money!" "Well, If I'd a known about a timetable, we'd have been doing that." "Shut your face about a timetable." "He's offering you a way out." "You sure as shit better take it, or he's gonna bust up in your glory hole, like nobody's business." "We should turn it loose." "I ain't gonna manufacture or purvey anything that I won't ingest into my own sweet self." "Lookit here." "How you gonna call that a controlled substance?" " Well, the government do." " Look at the bud structure on it." "The crystal density, the smell of them terpenes." "You can't synthesize that." "That is nature's delivery system for goodness, distilled into a pure form." "It glides down into your belly, and blooms into a feeling of peace, in this world beset by evil." "That world is gonna be there, no matter how much grass you smoke." "Now, look here." "You wanted to build the fucking Taj Mahal to hydroponics." " Well?" " And you done it." "But you know what you was gettin' into with him, and he sure as shit ain't goin' away." "Brady!" "My mind's workin' on it." "Well, I sat down in the closet, with all my overalls" "Tryin' to get away from all the ears inside my walls" "Dreamed the police heard everything I thought... what then?" "Well, I went to court and the judge's name was Hoffman" " Howdy, Sharon." "Where's she at?" " Oh, she's in her usual spot." " Hi, Joe!" " Brady." "...to escape reality" "And you may see me tonight, with an illegal smile" "It don't cost very much..." " Hey, mama." " Oh, hey." "Whatcha got there?" "Oh..." "It's a new article on Billy, and a theory he wrote hisself." "Thank you." " Ya know, I've been thinkin'." " Hmm?" "Maybe, maybe your daddy wanted to get killed." "Somehow, I got this picture of him, runnin' toward a machine gun, because he'd rather die that way, than come back to Little Dixie, and grow old, stare through a window." "Well, seeing how he was on about every drug imaginable," "I..." "I wouldn't spend my time trying to figure out what was in his head over 30 years ago." "Do you remember him at all?" "I remember smelling weed the first time... on him." "Well, that certainly had its impact." "Daisy, why... why don't you come home with us and live with me and Colleen for awhile?" " Colleen and me." " Colleen and me." "What's your version of proper grammar?" "Rhythm, maybe." "Dumb Dutch question." "You're 12 years younger than anyone in here." "This is ridiculous!" "I like it here." "I can do what I want, and I'm not eager to get stranded when you get yourself killed or taken back to prison." "Mama, Colleen is pregnant." "You don't say?" "I've been dying to tell 'ya!" "Ahhh, well, I'm happy for you." "Well, how 'bout you?" "You're gonna be a grandma." "Are you gonna be a husband?" "I ain't dead." "Your father was a freaked-out genius who wasted his life." "He could have done anything." "Got a higher IQ than your brother, and he just passed you by." "I..." "I..." "I ain't tryin' to keep up with Billy." "I ain't him, and he ain't me." "Mama, I like who I am just fine." "You think I'll see him again before I die?" "I think it's gonna take one of us dying to get him to come back down here." "Well, nice sitting' with ya." "Gorgeous." "This is wonderful." "I..." "I..." "I almost never eat out in Providence." "Ya know, now and then on Federal Hill, but not nearly enough." "I hear your book on Marcus Aurelius has the whole community astir." " Oh, thanks." " Which press was that again?" " Oxford." "But they did your translation of the Menaechmi last year." "They did." "They've been terrific." "Plautus." "How do you find the time?" "Well, I don't have a life." "I read some biographical material on you last week, Bill." "You, ah, you come from humble beginnings." "I do, yea." " Where was it?" "Omaha?" " Oklahoma." "Oh, why don't you, ah, why don't you have an accent?" "With some considerable effort, I lost it." " Your father was a bootlegger." " It was my grandfather, actually." " Fantastic." " Why fantastic?" "I don't know." "So many of us were trained for this life." "Fancy private schools, parents in academia." "I'm always astounded by those who made their own way." "Oh, thank you." "I, ah, my family is a bit eccentric." "I found discipline in books." "Well, you're probably wondering why Dean Sorenson is here." "Bill, we'd like to offer you a position in the Law School." "You can't be serious?" "We've been wanting to incorporate more philosophy into the curriculum, and when we got wind of your hesitancy in transferring up from Brown in Classics, we came up with the idea of letting you create your own institute for our law students." "I, ah, don't even know how to begin to respond." "That is such a precipitous offer." "Savor it." "Digest it." "Moments like this come too seldom in life." "I, ah, I'll say." "We all want you here, Bill." "You've crafted your career diligently." "It makes absolute sense as your next step." "You've a dollop of japeno." "Mmm, honey, that's better, you're the best." "Thank you, Brady." " Look how sexy you look." " I do not." " You do." "How long the doctor give me till I got to throw up that old detour sign?" "Well, just wait till I'm done with these dishes." "Oh, well, push that..." "Gonna put you right on the burner." "Bring it, electric!" "Comin' at ya." "Dug in and comin' at ya." "Hello?" "Well, can I ask who's calling?" "Can I ask what this is about?" "Because I'm the girlfriend he's fixin' to marry, is why." " Who is it?" "Who is it?" " Some fellow named Pug." " I'll take it in the back there." " It better not be..." "It ain't, it ain't." "It's a man about a truck." "Hey, Brady!" " Hey, Pug." "How are y..." " down there, Brady?" " Ooh, oh, ah, yes we did." " They told you I needed an answer?" "Yes, sir, they made that pretty clear." "I was just hopin'..." "I want to see you tomorrow evening." " Well, tomorrow night's gonna be..." " You heard me, Brady!" " Yea?" " Bolger!" " Hey, buddy." " Pug just called me." "Pug called you hisself?" "Yea, he want us up there." " What does he want?" " No, he want to see us." " You gonna change..." " No, I ain't changing' my mind one bit." " I don't like this at all, Brady." " Well, we just gonna have to be ready to deal then and come what may." "You know me, I'm gonna be up there with ya." "I'll see ya." "Hello?" "Lola who?" "Ah, ah, ah, hang on, hang on." "How did you get this number?" "Hi, did that man get a hold of you?" "He did, yea." "He said it was an emergency, so I..." "You did the right thing, thanks." "Was there something else?" "Is everything all right?" "Well, my brother's been murdered." "Bill, that's awful!" "I didn't even know you had a brother!" "How?" "He got shot with a crossbow." "I beg your pardon?" "They're inexplicably popular where I come from." "Was it an accident?" "No, because then it wouldn't be a murder." "Ah, oh, I don't know even know what..." "When was the last time you saw him?" "Um, it had been a long time." "What will you do?" "Well, ah, I suppose I have to go home." "What brings you to Tulsa?" "Pardon?" "Oh, ah, family matter." "I was gonna say, because nobody visits Oklahoma, ya know, and it's one of those states where you live there, maybe you got business there, but you don't see people coming for the attractions." " Right." " What do ya do?" "I, ah, I write and teach." "I'm a professor." " Of?" " Classical Philosophy." "There's not too much use for that these days." "Humanity hasn't changed that much, actually." "Do you have family in Tulsa?" "No, no." "Idabel." "Little Dixie?" "I hope it's not tragedy that brings you back." " It is for someone." " I'm sorry." " Thanks" "I'm an orthodontist." "Was, I mean." "Will be again." "Have you had work done?" " No, no, actually, I haven't." " Yea, I can." "I can tell." "You got a nice face, though." "Thanks." " Ken Feinman" " Bill Kincaid" " You have kids, Bill?" " No" "I'm starting out all over." "Yea." "People don't realize it, but it's..." "It's tough to break in, and you get most of your business, ya know, through your kids' school, in your church, synagogue, in my case, ya know, but it's tough, I mean the costs of a practice these days" "is just, ah, it's downright humiliating." "Honestly, it's downright humiliating." " Hmm, yea, I believe you." " We were living in Manhattan, but, ah, I grew up in Tulsa, so, ya know, we just moved back." "Are there a lot of Jews in Tulsa?" "That's." "That's what." "That's what everyone asks, but." "But there are." "No, it's... it's a small community, but very cohesive, and, ya know, the pull was unimaginable." "Kenny, do you see the man is reading?" "I don't think he wants to sit and listen to you chronicle the evolution of Tulsa Jewry." "I'll let you get back to your reading." "Thanks." "It's a little embarrassing." "I don't." "Don't mean to be." "It's just, ah, if you've got family down there." " Ya know, nieces and nephews..." " I don't." "I mean, if you did or, you know..." "It's, ah, it's." "It's not too far away," " and, ah, you know, I do great work." " I. I know you do." "I never take accidental encounters for granted." " Kenny!" "Kenny!" " So..." "I'm gonna run." " Rick Bolger" " Hey, Rick." " Folks call me Bolger." " Nice to meet ya." "Man!" "You sure do look like him." "I think that's what they mean by identical." "Your brother was a great friend to me." "I..." "I hadn't seen him in awhile, but." "Thanks." " You ain't got no bags?" " No, that's it." "Nice to meet you." "My wildest dreams grow wilder every day" "There's nothing I can think or do or say" "I ain't been up here in awhile." "I was gonna stay in a hotel." "Where'd ya go?" "Found me a dead-end in a construction site near the airport." "Laid out, counting stars." "Crazy how much building they got goin' on up there." "Folks just don't take to the country no more, I guess." "You figure?" "Mystery..." "I swear I'll get it right" "My wildest dreams grow wilder every day" "I'm wonderin' just how far my mind can stray" "Just how wild is too high a price to pay" "You need a drink or anything?" "Comin' up on Broken Bow." "Can stop off at the Me Tote Em." "Sure." "Me Tote?" "Oh!" "I almost forgot." "This here is your brother's." "I don't know if you want it." "You're shittin' me." "Buddy!" "You clean up nice." "How's that?" "Where's the tux from?" "Oh, God, no, no, wait a second, wait a second." "You, you..." " Where's Bolger at?" " He's around back, but I'm..." "I'm not who you think I am." " Oh, you're not?" " No, you don't know me." "Oh, well, what I wanna know is what you're doin' up here in Broken Bow, when we don't want you in Broken Bow?" "Um, it's my mistake." "I'm..." "I'm just gonna leave." "Yea, well, not till Buddy gets here, you won't." "Buddy?" "Calm down!" "Calm down!" " Keep it up, Brady." " I'm his brother!" "I'm not..." "Ohhhh!" "Ohhhh!" "You don't wanna be comin' up north, where you ain't got no tripwires, or booby traps, and hos you done bribed." "Maybe even sell your souped-up turbo grass to whoever you..." " I wondered where you was at." " Don't seem like too fair a fight." "Well, nobody asked you two to come up north, neither." "Well, we had some business to take care of up in Tulsa." " I heard somethin' about that." " What you heard?" "Heard that Brady here owes Pug a lot of money." "Will you explain this, please." "The less you say to these two fuckin' inbreds, the better." "Heard he thinks you're gonna expand business down to our Little Dixie." " The young pussy already said." " How 'bout I say THIS!" "How ya feelin'?" " Brady?" " Hey, buddy." "What the hell is goin' on?" "Well, I think Sally got razor happy." " What?" "Are you out of your mind?" " Okay, easy now." "Hold on to him, now." "Hold on." " No, let go of me!" "Let me go!" " Not until you calm down, he won't!" "You had him tell me you were dead?" "With a fucking crossbow?" "Well, all right, I'm sorry 'bout that, but there were no other way for me to get you to come down here." "Ow!" "Ow!" "Ahhh..." "Down here for what?" " I'm gettin' married." " As if I care." "What kind of excuse is that?" "And I'm having a baby." "You're gonna be an uncle." "Who..." "Who would be dumb enough to have a child with you?" "I would." "You remember the Dentons?" "On Luminus back home?" " Colleen Denton?" " You remember." "I babysat you when we were in high school." "You was my favorite." "You used to sit in the kitchen reading books." "I got to watch all the TV I wanted, as long as I kept the door shut." "You were reading Shakespeare sonnets when I was going to sleep." "And now you're gonna marry this pothead?" " No, he's not no more." " Ah, leaving all that behind." "Oh, oh, yea, I can see the evidence for that everywhere." "I get to keep on smokin' till my baby comes, and then it's cold turkey on that, too." "But me and Bolger's gonna smoke till the bottom drops out, ain't we?" "Oh, what a... what a great time." "Anyway, you know what?" "I wanna leave as quickly and painlessly as possible." " Hang on." "Just stay through the weekend." " No." " You could go see mom." "Look, Brady, I am leaving." "What..." "What you did here is cruel and irresponsible and exactly why I stay away." "No." "You..." "You know I read every goddamn article you write." "I read 50 pages on the interpretation of one word in Aristol." "Sat there the whole fucking day with a dictionary, and not the Merriam Webster, either, the motherfucking OED." "Ain't 20 people in the world read that whole piece, I'll bet, and you're lookin' at one of 'em." "What do you..." "What do you want, Brady?" "I mean, what do you fuckin' want?" "I just want to see my brother, who I love." "What's the crime?" "Why couldn't you pick up the phone, and call me, and just ask me to come down," " like anyone normal person?" " Because when I do, you never call me back." "And, if you did, you'd just say no." "Am I lying?" " Well, am I lying?" " No." "No, you're not." " Wow..." "We ain't bad people, Billy." " I know you're not." "You know mom put herself in a home?" " A rest home?" " She did." " Jesus." "You want her to die down here, and you don't even come to say goodbye." " Is she still using drugs?" " Just go see her and find out for yourself." "I can't." "I c." "I. I. I just can't." "I can't go and..." "What the hell did any of us ever do that made you hate us this way?" "I don't hate you." "I really don't." "I just..." "And." "And where you're from don't matter to ya?" "Your family?" "Your own fuckin' brother?" "Look, I try to live my life with a purposeful measure of control." "I adhere to certain philosophic tenets that were laid down centuries ago by some very introspective thinkers." "I'm talking about three fucking days in Idabel." "Son of a bitch." "Ok, look, I will stay through the weekend." "But then I'm out of here." "Do you understand?" "Hey!" "Hey, don't you fuck around." "Stop!" "Jesus!" "God!" "I think he thought we were selling dime bags." "What is all this?" "Well, let me enlighten you on a point or two." "It all starts in the mama room." "Ya got your young'uns over here, your juvies, and your adults in the back." "All these lights are sodium-vapor." "Portalux HP 1000 watts" "Incandescent's got too much far red in the spectrum." "Makes the plant grow too tall on the stem, and the leaves get all nine, and the whole thing just keels over." "Plus, it reduces the potency, which is definitely not what we want." "Now, LED's gettin' to be all the rage 'cause it's cooler and saves ya on power costs, but..." "I'm a sodium-vapor man!" "Ya know, we got your electronic digital balance" "Hey, raise 'er up, Bolger!" " Who built all this?" " Me and Bolger." "Had a few buddies help us with the heavy lifting'." "Your brother designed every bit of it." "The horticultural part." "Quonset, ah, comes in a fuckin' catalog kit." "Grade-schoolers could've assembled it." "We should've got a contractor to pour the pad, but we couldn't likely hire one of those, could we?" " And, and, what... what are all these?" " Oh, NFT Spiral System." " NFT?" "Yea, nutrient film technique." "No soil in there." "These pipes are filled with hydroclay." "It's like an expanded clay aggregate, supports the active capillaries." "It's just that and coconut husks, if you can believe that shit." "No acid, no alkaline in the base, totally sterile medium." "You're lookin' at cell generation of hybridization cloning, through all my special little children." "And we feed ya good, too, don't we?" "Pump the nutrients, see, up into the medium from underneath." "Big Bud, Connoisseur, Nirvana, Jungle Juice, Tarantula, the whole shitteroo." "You're looking at the motherfuckin' state of the art." "I don't know what to say." "You hear that, Bolger, we rendered him speechless!" "Huh!" " You wanna try some?" " No" "I make my living with my mind, and, so, I like to keep it clear." "I forgot who I was talking to." "Traveling through his optic space-time." "Shit." "Let's go sit on the back porch." "I've got a new varietal." "I really gotta give her a test drive." "Now, I read an article you wrote in the New York Review of Books," " 'bout a fellow called Heidegigger." " Heidegger?" "That's the one." "What kind of name is that?" "Oh, it was a review of a book exploring Jacques Lacan's take on Heidegger." "Exactly!" "That right there is what I don't understand about y'all!" "I mean..." "Y'all ever... hardly ever write about a topic!" "I mean, you write about what some other fellow wrote about the topic." "So, so Heidegger's got some idea, and then some, some French guy's got a take on that, then you write a review of that, and some other fellow's gonna come along and on and on and on and on." "You very neatly explained academia, Brady." "So, I'll write and say for all y'all." "It's just called, "What the Fuck's the Point"?" "Ya know what?" "I think this is right about where I leave." "Come on, come on." " Give you a tug on that." " I said no." "You used to do this more'n I did." "You couldn't get enough of it." "Well, I just don't do it anymore." "Oh, I know you want some." "It's written all over your face." "Look, the shit I grow is better than anything you're gonna taste anywhere." "Makes that Jamaica shit we used to buy taste like tobacco." "Oh, I'll bet it does." "A tiny taste." "A little, little, bitty, ole taste." "Just." "Taste!" "Fine, fine." "Fuck, I don't believe I'm doing this." "This is so fucking stupid!" "When was the last time you did it?" " Graduate school." " I'll bet this is gonna lay you out." " You remember the first time?" "With ma?" " I remember." "Fucking ridiculous." "I guess she just figured we were gonna find out on our own, anyway." "I..." "I don't wanna know what she was thinking about." "Oh, come on, give it a real pull there." "Now, how many buds are you gonna smoke that's that smooth after you ain't done it in a number of years?" "I've been lengthening the maturing process more in the Dutch tradition," " and I got just the right amount of resin." " Wow!" "Ooohhh!" "Now we're cookin'." "So, anyways, I seem to recall you didn't." "you didn't think too much of this fellow, Heidegigger." "What?" "No, he was a fucking fascist." "He..." "He held down the National Socialists." "All right, but this article was about logic and... and truth, and about him and some other fellow related to, uh..." " Analytic philosophy." " What was it?" " Analytic philosophy." "Analytic philosophy." "Analytic philosophy." "There was one word I didn't know." "I had to look it up." "Epista..." " Epistemology." " Epista what?" " Epistemology." "Epistemology, bingo, bingo." "Why are we talking about this?" "Just solving problems." "Just solving problems." "Like..." "Like, when all of a sudden, you get hit with a answer, to a mess you've been in, and as soon as it hit ya, ya can't hardly believe ya didn't think of it before." "What is it you want, Brady?" " Here, git ya another pull on that." " No, I'm fucking euthanized." "Go on, now." "Go on!" "All right, now, here's the thing." "All that equipment you see out yonder." "It was expensive." "So I had to go see this Jew up in Tulsa, who's kinda in the business." " What do ya mean, he's in the business?" " Well, the dope dealing business." "A Jew in the business?" "How do ya know he's a Jew?" "Well, he..." "Trust me, he's a Jew." "Well, what does that mean?" "He has a Jewish last name?" "He's a goddamn Jew!" " Don't be anti-Semitic." " Anti what?" " Anti-Jew." "I ain't anti-Jew!" "I loves everybody!" "Oh, Jesus!" "So, okay, he's a dope dealer." "So what..." "Well, he's not really a dealer." "He's..." "He's a little more upstream than that, but I've been his main supplier of grass." " I still don't see..." " Will ya listen?" "Ya just." "Ya know, ya never listen!" "Okay, okay, fine, I'm listening." "I need you to be me." "What?" "Down here, just like we used to back at home, while I go up there and figure out this whole situation." "No fucking chance, Brady." "Well, look, I've got this one figured." "It's so simple." "All you gotta do is go and visit mom." "You don't think mom is gonna know the difference between you and me?" "It ain't about mom, goddamn it." "It's the sheriff." "It's he we're gonna fool." "We don't even look alike, anymore." "Has that occurred to you?" "Bolger said when you walked into that Me Tote Em, it took all of five seconds for them boys to figure out it was me with a shave and haircut." " Which is why he took me to Broken Bow." " He said you wanted to go." "Brady, Brady, I swear to God, even for you..." "Well, that might have been Bolger's idea, but I didn't know nothing about it till you all showed up here." "And let me tell you something else." "We're going back up to Broken Bow, and we're gonna whip some country ass." "No, no, you're not." "Started without us?" "Well, you know you can't have none of this good stuff." "I know, but I'm being polite." "The rest of 'em came." "That is so weird." "Oh, Janet, this is my dear brother, Bill." "Bill, this is our good friend, Janet." " Hi, I'm Bill." " You havin' a smoke?" " Oh, I wa..." "I was, yea." " Oh, uh, do you want some?" " Oh, I'm gonna get a beer, thanks." "Yea, I..." "I..." "I usually don't, either." "I..." "I..." "Actually, actually, I never do." "I..." "I'm..." "It's all right." "Nobody can say no to Brady." "Mojo, I got the mojo." "I kinda forgot." "So, Bolger says you're a famous, what was it you said, Bolger?" " A famous thinker." " A famous thinker." " He's real famous." " In certain esoteric circles, aught maybe." "And they pay you for that?" "Well, I..." "I..." "I lecture, and I..." "I teach." "I am a professor." " I was just fuckin' with you." " Ah, you're..." "Yea..." " Nice to meet you." "Go ahead, get in the coda." " She's a poet." " What?" " Seriously, she writes fuckin' poetry." "And she's the ladies noodling champion of '05." "125 pounds of catfish, in under 10 hours, with nothing but her bare hands." "I tried to get her and Colleen in a three-way once, but wouldn't neither of 'em go for it." " I'm..." "I'm leaving on Sunday, you do understand that, right?" " I understand that." " I am not gonna participate..." " No, no, we'll talk about that later." "Hey, Bolger, crank her up, man!" "All this happened in one day." "Almost everything that has happened here has only served to vindicate why I stay away." "Oh, come on." "Don't tell me that goblet of goodness in your hand hadn't made ya happy." "No, even that, whatever it actually is." "That's Ambrosia, Billy." "That's pure Ambrosia." "Oh, ride the blue wind high and free, she'll lead you down through misery," "Leave you low, come time to go, alone and low as low can be." "Well, if I had a nickel, I'd find a game." "If I won a dollar, I'd make it rain." "If it rained an ocean, I'd drink it dry, lay me down dissatisfied." "Oh, legs to walk and thoughts to fly, eyes to laugh..." " So, where do you live now?" " Mmm, Providence, Rhode Island." " Why, why would you come back here?" " It's where I wanna write." " I teach for money." " Is it a college?" " High school, here in town." "High school?" "I tried the tenure track, but college students are already too culturally informed." "Closes their minds." "How come there aren't more girls, like you, writing Hugo?" "Maybe they don't know how to look." "Well, you... you teach..." "English?" " I do." " Hmm..." " My mother used to do that for awhile." " She must be very proud of you." " I haven't talked to her in quite awhile." " Why not?" "That is a very complicated subject." " You're some world-famous thinker?" " Har..." "Hardly" "Some minorly famous thinker?" " And you don't let your mother enjoy that?" " That's correct." "It's not good to have unresolved problems with your mother." " Why?" " Because some day, she'll be gone." "Then where will you be?" " Probably the same place I am right now." " Exactly." " You're smart." " You aren't as smart as you think you are." "Well, hey, I just got tricked by my dope-dealing brother." "We all get tricked some time or other." " Mmm, I don't think so." " No?" " No" " Why?" "A combination of what you've been smoking and what I'd do with you." "You'd never recover." "I'll do my best." "I'm goin' home." "Well, can't light a cake." "Can... could we just like, um..." "I mean, we were, we were kind of lost... having a hug." "I'm going noodling tomorrow, if you want to tag along." "My brother said that you did that." "Sweet dreams." "Here you go." "Check out the best part." " Holy shit!" " This here's why I keep it alive." " Wait a minute." "Some of these are from our room." " Oh, yea." "Yup, a few more I picked up along the road, but all originals." "Ain't no knockoffs." " Wow" " Now sit you down." "Ain't that the coup de grace?" "I got her off from Taylor in Ponca City, before me and Colleen hooked up." "That was my deal closer, baby." "If Colleen knew what went on in that bed, she'd never let me." " Lovely." " Let's get you somethin' for that buzz you got working'." " Hey!" "Remember this?" " You still goin' with vinyl, huh?" "Oh, hell, yea!" "I don't go in for no digital." "They can't improve a phono classics man." " Come on, lay you down." " Lie down." " Now you sound like mom." " Sorry." "Lady in a turban, a cocaine tree" " How's that for a lullaby." " Ahhh..." "Does a dance so rhythmically" "Hey, don't think that this means that I'm in any way..." "We ain't gonna talk about that right now." "Having a time" "I'm just glad you're here, Billy." "Cocaine tree lookin' fine" "Gotta put on your sailing' shoes." "Put on your sailing' shoes" "Everyone will start to cheer" "When you put on your sailing' shoes" "Doctor, doctor, ahhh" "Oh, cut it out." "How ya feelin', professor?" " Mmmm, what did you do?" " Well, I bumped into some clippers." "Hmm, feels weird." " Whaddya think?" " Ahhh..." " Oh, God." "What time is it?" " It's time to get up." "Here, I bought you a few things." "Put 'em on." "What?" "Why?" "Remember that thing we were talkin' about." " No, no, Brady." "That's... that's just not gonna work." " Why?" "Well, for one thing, because you've given yourself the stupidest haircut in human history." "Oh, bullshit, you ain't that fancy." "Can't hardly tell the difference." "No, I'm..." "I'm sorry, I never said..." "Haven't I fixed you up with Janet?" "And then you like her?" "My opinion of her is totally unrelated to your infantile scheme." "You listen!" "I ain't foolin'." "You gotta help me, because if I don't get up to Tulsa," "I'm gonna be in some real trouble." "Then go up to Tulsa." "Why do I have to..." "Because some shit might happen in Tulsa to where I..." "Where..." "Where you would rather be seen down here, so that you're not implicated in whatever typically insane criminal behavior that you intend." "No fucking way!" "All I'm askin' you to do is go and see mom." "That one little good deed." "That's all." "Well, it's not a good deed, and I really don't wanna see mom." "You come all the way down here!" "No!" "No!" "You tricked me into coming, actually." "Oh!" "Please!" "It's..." "It's so simple!" "All you gotta do is walk into a fucking rest home and see your own mother you ain't seen in 12 years, for God knows why!" "I don't know why you wanna pass a pig eating' a bear claw." "They don't call them that anymore." " What?" " Nope!" "They aren't called pigs anymore." "That's exactly..." "Called the police." "How do you even know that he'll be there?" "'Cuz he's got a shine on his heifer who sits behind the desk." "All you gotta do is walk in and say, "Hi, ya, Sharon." "I'm goin' to see my ma."" "And don't say another fuckin' word." "And just walk on by." "That is the most ridiculous alibi." "All anyone would have to do is find out that you have a twin and that I was down here." "When we ever been busted before?" "You took tests for me all the time." " And I let you go on dates as me." " No, I did that one time when we were 16." " And she guzzled your custard, didn't she?" " I have felt bad about that ever since." "Come on, Billy." "I'm trying to change my life here." " Fucking hell." " I'm asking, as your brother." "Ugg." "I just walk by." "I got kicked off of Noah's Ark I turn my cheek to unkind remarks" "There was two of everything but one of me" " Say, ain't it Saturday?" " Yeah, so?" "Think the Jews is in church Saturdays." "You know where it's at?" " Can't we look it up?" " What if it's more'n one?" "There can't be more than one." " Can I ask you a question?" " Shoot" "Do you believe in a higher power?" "Yea, I do." "I do." "It's the only way to make sense of all this." "Otherwise, it's just pure fucking chaos." "Like, the world was created by Him, and He judges what we do?" "No, I think it's more like, like parallel lines." "Parallel lines?" "Ya know, like two lines go on and on forever and don't ever touch." "Yea" "'Cept, 'cept they don't actually exist in nature." "And man can't create no true parallel." "It's just more of a concept." "I learned that shit in high school geometry." "Ah huh" "Well, that concept, that perfection..." "We know it exists, and we think about it." "But we can't never get there ourselves." "I think that right there is God." " You ready?" " For what?" " Come on over here." " Jesus!" " You just gonna stand there?" "You have a spiritual aversion to monofilament?" "This is the way it was done a thousand years ago." "I think I can understand that." "You still leavin' tomorrow?" "I think so." " I'll miss you." " And we barely even know each other." "You have not known what you are." "You have slumbered upon yourself all your life." "Your eyelids have been the same as closed most of the time." "What you have done returns already in mockeries." "The mockeries are not you." "Underneath them and within them, I see you lurk." " Who is that?" " Walt Whitman" "I don't think I ever imagined hearing him recited to me by a girl getting a 40-pound catfish." "That's exactly how he should be recited." "He wrote without rhyme or meter." "Free verse... just whatever he felt inside, coming out in his own intricate rhythm." "Pure, unashamed passion, without definable restriction." " I'm sorry, see, I ha." "Have a few issues with that." " Why?" "Because some have dared to suggest that even poetry has rules." "Or you make your own." "Right there, that's the part I never bought into." " Because?" " Because if everybody runs around, making their own rules, how can you find what's true?" "There's nothing..." "There's nothing to rely on." "One night," "I, devoured your leaves, knowing no poison, no love nourishment" "in that larval blindness, a hunger finally true." " Who's that?" " That's me." "Maybe what's true is in front of us, and we're moving toward it without even knowing it's there." "Once you think you've got it all solved, what's left?" "Don't get any fish innards on me, okay?" "Shut up." "So, what is the Halakhah?" "It's the law." "It's the path we follow in our daily lives." "It comprises those rituals that make our lives complete." "Without them, the violence and anarchy of the world prevail." "When Moses talks with God on Sinai, the Jews abandoned the law, and danced ecstatically before the calf, forgetting the one who brought them out of Egypt." "My friends, in every generation, we are threatened with chaos and slavery and despair." "And then this... this spirit and confusion." "Halakhah allows refuge in a world we can't explain." "Violence, anarchy in which the workings of justice may falter, there is a larger and deeper coherence." "Who the fuck is that?" "To know this with certainty is to belief as a Jew." "Without law, we are lost" "Fuckin' faggot." "in an arid wasteland." "No good to each other." "Not this mess" "No good to our God." " Shabbat Shalom" " AUDIENCE:" "Shabbat Shalom" "So, I would like to thank the Taubmann family for the beautiful flowers that adorn our bema, and please join us after the Musaf service for Kish" " Thanks for doing this." " Happy to." "All right." " You sure you don't wanna come in?" " I'll be waitin' right over there." "But will look kindly later on boys who sort shit out with their mamas." "How do I look?" "Well, hi ya, Sharon, just goin' to see my mom." "Officer" "Oh, oh, oh, ah!" "Whoa!" "Whoa!" "Whoa!" "Whoa!" "Wait!" "Wait!" "Oh, okay, okay, hang on, man!" "No, no, not a word from you, Brady, you hear, you're just gonna listen." "The staff here, they found your mama smokin' pot the other day." "Now she's a crazy lady, don't even belong in here, but it wouldn't do nobody no good to put her away." "The only reason I ain't hauling' you in is 'cuz" "I ain't got proof it was you give it to her." "As soon as I do, we gonna get on your property and we gonna find every last ounce of that super charged grass you're growin' out there." "I don't care how many money men you're payin' off." "You understand?" "Yessir." "You ain't foolin' a soul by cleaning' up." "I know just what you is." "That ain't at all what I asked you." "I asked you why you was supposed to be here three days ago, and you just walk in here now?" "We just had some business back at home we had to take care off, is all." "I heard you made an appearance in Broken Bow." "Well, I just stopped in at the Me Tote Em, there." "My girl wanted some licorice." "Everybody knows those Fuller boys work out of the Me Tote Em." "Even the police know that." "She wanted the licorice." "I sure hope my money's in Yonder Bay." "Well, that's just the thing." "Either that, or you got samples of what you goin' be up to down there." "Don't tell me you done interrupted my day of rest." "To other shit, I got no interest makin' its way between my ears." "We went to the wrong temple at first." " Temple Jester?" " Over on Utica." "If I wanted to go to church, I'd be a Krustian." "Might make your life a little easier." "Who says my life ain't easy?" "I don't know." "Maybe folks ain't too partial to Jews." "Law would never mark out a Jew as a dope dealer, neither." "They leave me alone, by and large." "The way of the world is mysterious, but every man has his place, each according' to his lights." "That could be." "Shaver and Wendell done presented to you a deal, Brady." "Uh, opportunity." "Now, either you got my money in that bag, or we gonna talk about expanding your situation down there." "Well, I can't do neither." " Why not?" " I wanna have a family." "I ain't never had a dad myself, so I aim to be a good one." "So, I'm done." "I might be growin' for myself, but I ain't gonna be growing for you or nobody no more." "At least, not in the selling facet." "So, that's a bag full of money paying' me back for settin' you up down there." " Well, now, hear me out, Pug." " That's gettin' harder, because of all the shit I'm listenin' to." "Okay, look." "Me and Bolger." "We gonna take that whole operation that you paid for, we gonna haul it up to Broken Bow." "We gonna set it up, turn it over to the Fuller brothers." "I'm gonna teach them everything I know." "You can take Bobby Fuller and brain, and stick it in the head of a cat, that animal will keel over and die." " Me and Bolger will do whatever it takes." " Who is paying me back?" "I'm working on that, but you ain't never said nothing about a timetable." " Ohhh!" "It has been over a year, hadn't it?" " Yea, so?" "In all that time, have you heard me ask you for a nickel?" "In all those 12 months?" "No, but you and me both know I've been selling you at a cut rate." "Ohhh!" "So!" "Now you want me to be nice!" "Well, I guess I do." "What the fuck is wrong with that?" "Brady, my people been kicked out of near every country on this planet." "My granddaddy came here, because of the pogroms in Russia." "He traveled all over the South, selling czachkers out of a wagon, because nobody else wanted the job of taking a wagon 50 miles a day." "Jews got good with money, because Krustians didn't wanna touch it." "Now, Krustians say, Jews got all the money." "I wonder how that happened?" "I give nearly every cent I make to the State of Israel, because Israel is where we put our foot down, and we said no more." "We ain't gonna be took advantage of no more!" "I would just like a little more fucking time." "Well, ya know what I'd like?" "I'd like everybody in the world to call me a cocksucker and give me a dollar!" "Why is that?" "Because that way I'd be rich and everybody'd love me!" "Shaver, check that pickle." "And if they ain't got my money, kill those sons-of-bitches!" "Now, Pug, it ain't gotta go this way." "Oh, bring it on, sonny." "You tricked me, motherfucker!" "I sure as shit gonna bleed." "All right, shit!" "All right, shit!" "Get the spray paint!" "Because Jesus is a loving and forgiving God," "He don't care where you've been." "He don't care whatcha done." "He just wants to love ya up, and wants you to do the same to him." "Ya know, He was there when you was born, and He just wants you back again before you perish." "He loves ya and holds ya and He comforts ya, and gives ya everlasting rest, because Jesus is a compassionate God." "Brings to mind the story of the old man who's walking down the beach," "He stops and he's just... he's just takin' in the glory of the creation." "And, suddenly he realizes there's somebody behind him, and he turns, and he looks, and it's Jesus!" "And he says, "Lord, Lord, if..."" "Are you listenin' to this bullshit?" "Hey, Mom." "Billy?" "Well, you've got a nice view." "I like watching the storms come in." "You used to get so scared of 'em." "Do ya still?" "I don't think anything like that scares me anymore." "If you aren't scared these days, you aren't alive." "I'm sure many people would agree with you." "Coming here didn't scare you?" " Nah, ah, maybe a little." " Why?" "Ah, I didn't come here to have that conversation, Daisy." "So, one minute you were there, and then you were gone." "What happened?" "No, I'm..." "I'm serious, I'm really..." "Really not gonna do this." "Why, Billy?" "Billy?" "Why?" "All right." "Because we needed a mother, and not another friend to get fucked up with." " I could be both." " But you weren't both." "Are you saying that I didn't raise you?" "I don't know what the fuck you were doing." "Reading every book you read, every paper you wrote, even when they were beyond me." "I didn't need you to tell me I was smart," " I needed guidance." " You never needed anything." " Brady did!" " You don't have to tell me about Brady." "I..." "I don't need to be reminded." "Don't you think I know that every time he comes here?" "All I ever wanted was a tiny taste of something resembling a normal and rational life." "Where everything's a lie?" "Do you know that I actually went away to school and took a class in the culture of the 60s, just to try to understand the way you lived?" "The..." "The choices that you made, just to... to try to make sense out of all that new freedom, and... and upheaval and fucking anarchy?" "Ya know, and the... the problem is you tore everything down, but you were too lazy to actually build anything, as an alternative." "As usual, you've got it all figured out." "Am I ever gonna see you again?" "I don't know." "I don't think so." "I'm sorry." "Yea, me, too." "They say everything can be replaced." "They say every distance is not near." "So I remember everything" "Of every man who put me here." "I see my light come shinin'" "From the west unto the east" "Any day now" " He's gonna get here in time." " Ugh!" "Brady!" "Ugh!" "Oooh!" "Now you tell Buddy, the next time I slide into Broken Bow, if Bolger wants to shake a snake, or if I just want a refreshing' potable," "I expect a little more fucking time..." "They say that every man must fall" "Yet I swear I see my reflection" "Somewhere so high above this wall" "Jack Rothbaum, known as Pug to his friends, was a controversial figure in Tulsa's small Jewish community." "An enormous success in the oil bill equipment business, he gave millions of dollars to the State of Israel," " as well as, other Jewish and statewide causes." " Uh, oh." "Pug Rothbaum was a man of generosity and valor." "Every nickel he made, most of it went to help others," " Jews, Christians, everyone." " He didn't." " What?" "Our community and the city of Tulsa have lost a great man." "Indeed, Pug Rothbaum's name adorns buildings and signs all over our city and state, including various hospital wings, his Museum of Indian Heritage, and this rest stop on the Will Rogers Turnpike." "Hey, y'all, we're home!" "Hey, buddy." " What have you done?" " What's it all about?" " This?" "One curious aspect of this case is that the swastikas were drawn backwards, indicating either haste or a lack of familiarity with this most infamous of anti-Semitic emblems or, perhaps, rather more implausibly, that Hindus were involved." "I ain't no Hindu!" "The guy you owed money to, a Jew up in Tulsa?" "Don't point your finger at me!" "I've been with Bolger all day!" "Oh!" "Come!" "Ugh!" "Hey, Billy!" "Hey!" "Ah!" "Calm 'er down now, I don't want to upset Colleen." "I mean it." " Tell me that you didn't do this." " He was gonna kill us, and I had no choice." "Ugh, ugh!" "You..." "You..." "You..." "You go to the cops and explain things." "You go and hide!" "You do anything but that!" "And..." "And..." "What..." "What were those swastikas?" "Well, those were the symbols that the Nazis put on all their little trinkets." "I..." "I..." "I'm familiar with the contextual history of the swastika." "Why would you want it to look like a hate crime?" "So it don't look like a drug crime!" "Great!" "Perfect!" "Just..." "Just confirm that we're the rednecked hick state that everybody thinks we are." "Don't you talk down on Oklahoma!" "How?" "How is it possible that you are so brilliant, and so monumentally, selfishly ignorant at the same time?" "Oh, look!" "When you ever been in a situation you had to fight your way out of?" "Whether it was you or someone else?" "I don't put myself in those kind of situations!" "Well, that's the real world, Billy." "I hate to tell ya, and if you had to kill someone to protect you or your own, you'd do the same thing I done." "I got a baby coming." "I..." "I..." "I am leaving tomorrow." "You gonna turn me in?" "No." "I don't know." "I don't know what I'm going to do!" "Listen, listen." "This guy." "He hauled drugs all over this state." " You said he didn't sell." " He sold to the ones what sold 'em." "All right?" "Now, he will come down here to force me to explain the shit I don't even wanna talk about." "They're gonna find you, and you're gonna get killed, or you're gonna go to jail, and then where are your wife and kid gonna be?" "That's the beauty of it." "Well, I wasn't up there." "I was down here." "Remember?" "Ah!" "You asshole!" "Do you have any idea what you're doin' to me?" "Son of a bitch!" "Billy!" "Ugh!" " You are going to ruin my life!" " Ain't nobody gonna know!" "Ugh!" "Go answer the phone." " Colleen'll get it!" " Just answer the fucking phone!" "Hello?" "No, it ain't." "It's his brother." " Who..." "Who is it?" " Well, he's right here, I know." "Hello?" " Bill, ah, Nathan Levy." " Nathan?" "Ah..." "How did." "How did you get this number?" "I hope you don't mind." "I, ah, spoke to Maggie Harmon down at Brown." "Is this a bad time?" "It's fine." "Ah, you know what?" "Hang on one second." "Sorry, Nathan, go ahead." "Well, you didn't hear this from me, Bill." "But you're about to be ambushed down there." " By whom?" " Something about a coed and a poem, and some other behavior, which I would rather allow you to infer." "What?" "You've got to be kidding me." "Nobody would say that." "Apparently there was a witness, Bill." "Nathan..." "Nate..." "Nathan, listen to me." " That is absurd." " That's why I'm reaching out." "But until whatever happened blows over, we can't..." "I understand." " Everything all right?" " No, it isn't." "Now, where can I find the signal for this?" "I wrote a poem for you in Latin for when you got back." "It was incentive of Virgil in dactylic hexameter, and it was all about what would happen if we were together in the." "Stop." "Inappropriate." "I don't wanna hear it." "So, I was in the library, and Mark Laub read it over my shoulder." "He site-translated it?" "Oh, no, he was really good." "He had like five hortatory subjunctives." "Anne, didn't you tell him that it was just a fucking poem, that it never happened?" "Yes, but he didn't believe me, so he went to the Department." "I guess he was really pissed about some B+ you gave him on a Lucretius paper last year." "Fucking hell!" " Did you give him a B+?" " I don't remember, Anne." "So, that bitch, Maggie Harmon, said she caught us that day" " making out with my shirt off in your office." " Ohhh!" "So, I went to her, and I told her the truth, and I begged her." "But the door was closed, and I was partially undressed." "And then Professor Lockwood said that, in a world of phenomena, appearances are truth." "Going around quoting the cynics." "He's such a fucking lightweight!" " I don't." "I don't wanna hear any more." " Bill!" "When are you coming home?" "Stop it!" "I told you to leave Stacy alone!" "She's been on my nerves since Hebrew school." " Eat shit, Gabe!" " Well, after you eat mine!" "Don't you dare speak to anyone that way, Stacy Feinman!" "He cusses all the time!" "And so do you!" "You both make spectacles of yourselves back there!" "The pizza there sucks compared to the pizza in New York!" "Well, it is the pizza that we have!" "And, by the way, did I hear you ask your mother for money?" "Honey, I don't wanna talk about it." " Don't you have any pride?" " Of course, I do." " It's your mother!" " We're strangling, Suzie." "Strangling!" "The credit card bills alone." " Now, until I get my practice up..." " When?" "When?" " I told you." "I told you." "It's when the kids make friends at school, and we meet the parents." "I hate the kids at school!" "They suck!" "They're a bunch of idiots!" "A brutal murder occurred earlier today, after Mr. Rothbaum attended Sabbath services." " I said, when?" " Yea, Dad?" " Shh!" "Everyone be quiet!" "Sources close to the investigation say it was a hate crime." "Mr. Rothbaum was last seen alive at approximately 1:00 pm by fellow worshippers in Congregation Nevei Kodesh, here in Tulsa." "I'm supposed to get three kids out of the car by myself?" "Just give me a minute!" "Bill Kincaid" "Hugo Central High School" "Honey!" "I'm just gonna, ah..." "Don't wait up for me!" "What?" "Well, 180 dollars will limit ya, but it don't mean you can't put a bullet in there that's gonna pack a wallop." "I..." "I really don't need..." "Need the bullets." "None of my business, friend, but you carry a firearm, you'd better be ready to use it." "Uh, huh." "Well, ah, see, it's... it's really more for protection." "Now, these here is hollow points." "I..." "I appreciate that, but, um, like I said, I..." "I'm content..." "Dog eat dog." "You wanna be the one who's chowing' down." "I really don't..." "I don't plan to chow down." "I'll just take the gun." "Yup, nope." "Well, that's what... honey, you just got to trust me on this." "Yes, right." "Tomorrow night at the latest." "Just give 'em..." "Give everyone a big kiss." "And I'm telling you, you was at that rest home, plain as day." "And Erica." "Looked like a choirboy." "So, how could he have been there, here, and in Tulsa?" "He was in Tulsa before he was here." "This is one big waste of my time." "And I tell you what else!" "I'd better not hear about any vigilante bullshit." "And you know why he would've been in Tulsa?" "No, Buddy, educate me!" "Because him and Pug Rothbaum was fixin' to make a lot more than grass down here." " Who told you that?" " Pug Rothbaum" "He was gonna push me and Jimmy out of Broken Bow." "He was into Pug for more than $200,000 for the equipment in his grow house." "You tellin' me the truth, Buddy?" "Ya know, there's... there's rumored to be excellent noodling in the rivers around Boston." "How about that." "Something you might want to confirm." "Okay" "Hey" "You ain't gonna stop off and see mom one more time?" "I don't think so." "Well, I'll see ya when I see ya." "Hello, there." "You have got to be kidding me." " You know this guy?" " Sort of." " Well, I'll be damned." " How can we help ya?" "Okay, ah, which of you was it I met on the airplane?" "You!" "And you murdered Pug Rothbaum!" " Get in the house!" "Get in the house!" " No!" "Don't go there!" "Don't go there!" " Over there!" " Just calm down!" "Just calm down!" "Calm down!" "It's all right!" "No, no, you get back..." "Get back..." "No, no..." "No, no, no..." "Back!" "Back!" " I got hollow points!" " Hollow points?" "Join it!" "Join over!" "Get in the cluster!" "Get in the cluster!" "No, this is not happening." "I've got a plane to catch." "Well, I'm afraid I can't let you do that." "You are not pointing that gun at me." " Join the group!" " This is not happening!" " Join the group!" " Billy, Billy, come on." "Thank you!" "Now, lis... now, listen." "Wha..." "Wha..." "Wha..." "Why don't you stop waving that thing around?" "I don't wanna hurt anyone." "No, all right." "Then let's..." "let's just put the gun down, then." "I just wanna talk." " Why are you doing this?" " You flew down here to be his alibi." "Making him a murderer, and you an accessory, and this is a Christian state." "We're very Old Testament, when it comes to murder." "He'll get the chair, and you'll get life!" "Who the fuck is this guy?" "You're an orthodontist." "I am drowning in debt!" "I've been trying to set up a new practice, but I still owe on the insurance premiums from the last one!" "Plus all the equipment!" "I have a wife and three kids!" "Why don't you get to the fucking point?" "Until my kids can make friends at school, and we meet their parents!" "No, no, no, listen." "Bill, Bill, hey, Bill!" " I am a guy that you met on an airplane!" " Keep back!" "Keep back!" "I said keep back!" " Really, really, please." " I really mean it." "Get the hell back!" "Pull the trigger." "Put a bullet in my skull." "I give up." "It's perfect." "I'm sorry!" "I'm sorry!" "It's fine." "Just go home." " Billy, we can't let him go now." " We are." "Just let it go, and everybody just go home." "Go, go." " Brady!" "Brady!" " Hey, hey, you!" "Where do ya think you're going?" " Get back!" " Aaahhh!" " Bill, no!" " Aaahhh!" "Brady!" "Janet, call 911!" "Baby, I think my mama might have called it." "She might have been right!" "Police coming." "Bill." "Hey, Bill!" "We're gonna need an EMT." " Bill..." "Hey, Bill!" " Bill..." "Bill..." "Bill..." "Gimme that!" "Gimme it." "Look at me... at me..." "Go see that rabbi up in Tulsa." "All those drawings we did at Pug's." "Tell her we didn't mean nothing by 'em." "Just promise me." "You promise me?" "You're gonna tell her yourself." "Okay." "Now you ain't killed nobody." "Diogenes Laertius has recorded for us the Greek philosopher, Epicurus's thoughts on death." "It is irrational to fear an event, if when that event occurs, we are not in existence." "And, since when death is, we are not, and when we are, death is not, then it's irrational to fear death." "One might just as well, Epicurus argued, fear birth." "I was born just a few minutes before my brother, Brady." "He lived life on his own terms, indifferent to fear, either his own, or those of others." "And, let's be honest." "By any normal measure, my brother was a criminal and a colossal fuckup." "But, in the years that we were together, when we were growing up," "he gave me the happiest, freest times that I will ever know." "I don't know why it took me so long to realize that." "I left Little Dixie because of my own fears." "My greatest regret is that" "I never told him how difficult that really was." "Bolger, how'd you get those scars?" " Prison, with your brother." " My brother wasn't in prison." "Two years on possession." "I think he ain't wanted you to know that." "Saved my life, too." "Three guys jumped me with box cutters." "Your brother, Brady, went berserk." "Kept the both of us alive in there." "Can't believe he never..." "Wished I could've repaid the favor." "So tell my baby I said so long" "Tell my mother I did no wrong" "Tell my brother to watch his own" "Tell my friends to mourn me none" "I'm chained upon the face of time" "Feelin' full of foolish rhyme" "There ain't no dark till something shines" "I'm bound to leave this dark behind" "So, to what do I owe this visit?" "My brother killed Pug Rothbaum." "Your brother?" "Who's the... same man who was shot by Ken Feinman." "Have you told the police?" "I will." "He wanted you to know that it wasn't a hate crime." "I find it hard to believe your brother didn't have something against Jews." "I know, but he didn't." "Then I'll have to believe you." "Is there something else?" "Why..." "Why do you think..." "Why do we..." "We are animals, Professor Kincaid." "Brains that trick us into thinking we aren't." "What do I..." "What can I do with that?" " Repair." " What?" "All of us." "You, me, your brother, Pug..." "We break the world." "Help repair it." "Hey, come on over here." " What's this about, Bolger?" " I'll let Billy speak." "Have a seat." "Well, go on." "Say whatcha got to say." " My brother had a lot of equipment." " His grow house." " Yea" "We talked to a lawyer." "The police can't confiscate it." "Now, it's a high quality system." "It's hydroponic." "I'm proposing to sell it to you." "That's the whole list." "That's at a... a discount price." "Yea, well, I don't see it quite like this." "Why not?" "Because your brother never paid Pug for that equipment." " So what?" " So why I gotta pay you for it?" "Because my brother is dead." "I have to cover funeral costs." "He had bills that weren't paid." "He had a mortgage, and his wife is expecting a baby now." "Okay, all I'm trying to do is to cover his debts and leave his family with a little something." " Can you understand that?" " Well, I'm one of his debts, see." "Ya know, before your brother and Bolger got out of the penitentiary," "I had this whole area, southeastern Oklahoma." "And Pug Rothbaum come to me for his grass!" "And now you're going to have all of that again and better product besides." "Your brother owes me that equipment!" "Come on, man!" "Don't you want to repair the world?" " What?" " We're breaking the world!" "Don't you want to fucking repair it?" "What I want is for you to give me that equipment and then to go back East with all the other faggots who think that New York City is the only place on Earth." " I don't live in New York." " Well, that don't mean that you don't think you're better than us!" "Now, do it." "You know what?" "We are better than you!" "We use our powers of thought!" " Don't you turn your back on me!" " Fucking hick!" " Don't you walk away!" " Just keep walking." "Don't look back." " Watt's wife." " Who?" "She turned into a pillar of salt." "Motherfucker." "Help!" "Help me!" " I can't." " Get it out!" "It's a bow." "I think got a fletchette." "Oh, my God!" "No, no, no!" "He's been shot!" "Fuckin' arrow!" "Folks, wanna come with me." "Now, the arrow missed his heart by an inch and his spine by centimeters." "So, what does this mean for him?" "Well, it'll be a long recovery." "I guess I don't need to tell ya this, but you saved his life." "Yes, yes, yes, dear..." "Billy, it's fixin' to rain." "Thanks, mom." "Think I'm just gonna sit here for awhile." "In the rain?" "I used to be so scared of these summer storms." "And when I went East, I missed them." "I was so frightened, I used to hide in the closet and cover my ears." "And I hated that." "So, I went to the library, and I studied them." "Learned everything I could about them." "How they happened." "What made them happen." "The name of every cloud." "And?" "They still happened." "Mind if I stay out here with you?" "I wish you would." "Lonely are the free" "'Cuz there ain't that many of 'em" "They don't walk like you and me" "They just tumble in the breeze" "Lighter than a feather all together separately" "That's how it supposed to be, no matter where they wander, from post to in-between" "From here to over yonder, there's no place for them to land" "Lonely are the free" "The silent are the strong, not so much as a whisper, tell ya anything is wrong" "You've known all along that you can't help but listen" "And now the moment's gone" "It keeps you hanging on until the stillness signaling the breaking of the dawn is shattered by the sirens, singing sacrificial songs" "The silent are the strong" "Every line was edited by Deb Ackley, Michigan, and took over 30 hours." "Final version-06/23/10."