"I don't know why they make such a big deal about playing baseball." " No." " Just put the bat like so... steady eye, and then swing!" "We're shutting down?" " Yeah." " But I got two more shows to go." " How are we supposed to make money?" " Shut your goddamn trap." " Dora Mae's dead." " What?" "Miners carved her up. I found the body." "Dora Mae?" "No." "She's inside with her daddy." "Libby." " l just heard, it's awful." " Where's Libby?" "Jesus." "Yeah, Mama." "You come here, girl." "Right now!" "They weren't johnnies." "So if you're looking for your cut... I got 500 men here." "How am I supposed to find out who killed your whore?" "I don't care if you find the right guy or not." "You pick him." "Could be the killer, could be you." "We don't care." "As long as someone stands tall before the wagon." "Ain't gonna happen, little man." "You got till morning." "What'd he say?" "About what you'd expect." "You sober?" "Enough." "Let's get a head count." "Management says make sure we don't miss nobody." "No more of this Management crap, just say what you want." "What's that mean?" "You want me to follow orders, fine, but just stop spinning these fairy tales." "There ain't no Management." " ls that what you think?" " What I know. I've been in the trailer." " ln the trailer?" " There was no one in there." "No one." "In the first place, you're lucky to be alive." " l told you, Management could..." " Bullshit, Samson!" "There ain't no Management." "There never was." "Got a head count." "No one missing except Hawkins and Lodz." "Management says we don't have to worry about them." "Jesus." "What do you think, that I been lying to you all these years?" "That I been sitting next to you, telling stories, pulling the whole thing straight out of my ass?" "is that what you think of me?" "I was in the trailer." "That don't mean squat." "Look, if Management... lf he don't want to be seen, then he ain't gonna be seen, I suppose." "He can do that." "He can do lots of things." "Save it for the rubes." ""And it came to pass after these things" ""that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him:" ""'Abraham, take thy son, thine only son, Isaac" ""'and offer him for sacrifice upon a mountain which I will tell thee of."'" "But you spared Isaac." "Why not my children?" "I know you have your reasons." "Please, tell me your plan." "Help me understand how their deaths serve your will." "You brought them back." "Praise your name." "You've brought them back to me." "What is it you want?" "I have done all that you've asked but now you mock me." "Why?" "What am I supposed to do?" "Tell me what you want me to do!" "Tell me!" "Justin?" "Come home, it's late." "I made you something to eat." "Leave me." " Or I could..." " Now!" "Bruno!" "Have you seen my bear?" "Lodz?" "What the hell are you doing here?" "Do I know you, soldier?" "So you're awake." "What did you see?" "Tell me, boy." "Here." "I never wanted a sister." "Never." "Always wanted brothers." "Twins." "Big-shouldered boys named Ed and Fred who played football and joined the Army." "What do you do with a sister?" "Just fight all the time." "Bad things happen in this world." "Mama says things are better in the next." "I'm leaving." "When?" "As soon as we get out of this place." "I'm walking out with the clothes on my back." "I'm going to Hollywood." "Easy there, my friend." "Now, tell me, what did you see in your dream?" "I ain't telling you nothing." "You need guidance. I can help you." "I don't need anything from the likes of you." "This gets tiresome." "When will you learn?" "Hawkins." "At least help me." "Knowing so damn much, you should know the way back." " You drinking again?" " Looks that way." "You gonna give me that pepper gun?" "Let's see your hands first." "Shells." "There you go, sweetie." "We'll be real gentle with you." "You remember this, don't you, Dora Mae?" "Got it from them two rubes down in Sweet Water last year." "They said they couldn't pay but they had a bolt of their grandmammy's silk." "Me and Ruthie, we've been cutting it up and using it ever since." "Remember that little silk G-string I made you with the roses on it?" "Well, that was from this silk right here." "Don't cover her face." "Honey, you don't want to lay her to rest with her face uncovered." "Don't cover her face." "You pull her hair back." "I want everybody to see what they did to my little girl." "Time to go." "You're gonna bring someone back." "Someone to stand tall before the wagon, you understand?" "We ain't coming back empty-handed." " Everyone clear on that?" " Yes." "Possum, you take your men that way." "Pearl, take a handful that way." " Gabe, follow me, come on." " Come on, boys." "Where you been?" "Thought maybe you took a powder." "What's wrong?" "Everything." ""And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan" ""and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness."" ""And was led by the Spirit into the wilderness."" "Goddamn it!" " Got anything?" " Nothing." "Nothing." "Nothing!" "Whole town's hightailed it." "How is that?" "Whole town cleared out in one night?" "Don't make sense." "No, it don't." "So what's going on?" " Why you asking me?" " Cos you're the one who brought us here." " lt weren't me..." " Don't say it's Management." "You brought us here." "You." " We'll talk about this later." " Why?" "Don't want to tell Stumpy you got his girl killed?" "You listen to me, you son of a bitch, and you listen good." "You can drink yourself stupid, you can go on and call me a liar, but don't you hold me up for what happened to that little girl." "No one here, Samson." "I can see that." " Ain't in the bunkhouse, ain't in the mines." " Whole town cut and run." "Well, what are we supposed to do now?" "I wanna bury my girl." "Wanna bury my little girl." "Hell, Stumpy, we can't let them get away with this." "Somebody got to pay." "Justin?" "is that deep enough?" "All set." "About 200 yards south, on a rise." "After we pack up, I'm moving on." "Where to?" "Tulsa, maybe." "Dailey Brothers Carnival should be heading through there in the next month." "Dailey Brothers." " lt's a good outfit." " So I hear." "Jonesy..." "There's men you trust and men you don't trust." "I trusted you, even when no one else would." "I'd like to think it's always gone both ways." "Lord... I knew this girl." "Her name was Dora Mae Dreifuss." "She was like kin to me and everyone standing here." "You know her, Lord." "You know she had a hard life." "Some of what she done you may not approve of." "Some of what she done you may call sin." "But she was a good girl, Lord, and we loved her," "and we want you to welcome her into your arms." "And we know you will." "Dora Mae," "you was a real good dancer." "Lib!" "This is from Management." "He got it in the old country." "He said it would never need winding." "Walk me back?" "Sure." "Everything is changing." "Nothing's the way it used to be." "That is a fact." "Doesn't feel like home, either." "Feels like a prison." "And I can't... I can't leave Mama." "I can't keep going." "I'm trapped." "Sof, I..." "Samson!" "There's still one man left in Babylon!" "Gabe, let's do it." "Easy." "This thing's ancient." "Go." "I know you're here, boy." "Good for you." "Would that be the sound of a decrepit wagon that looks as if Noah had it on the Ark?" "Gabriel's hauling it into the ten-in-one." "Then you're in luck, Hawkins." "You're about to participate in an obscure but fascinating ritual known as "carnival justice"." "Not to be missed." "Close the flap." "What's your name, son?" "You know my name." "Protocol." "What's your name?" "Stangler." "You live in Babylon?" ""Live" ain't the word I would use." "Do you reside there?" "Yeah, I guess I do." "You know what happened here last night?" "I heard someone died." "She was killed." "Defiled and killed, actually." " Terrible thing." " lt certainly is." "So you can imagine that we wanted justice." "But when we rode into town today, why, there wasn't a soul there." "Am I being funny?" "Guess not." "Truth is, there's a lot of souls in Babylon." "A lot of them." "We didn't see no one there this morning." "They're still there." "It's just your bad luck then that we found you." "Get on with it, Samson." "Bring it in." "What's he doing?" "The wagon is circled three times around the accused." "Why three times?" "I doubt anyone here even remembers but that's the way it's always done." "Speak the name of the dead." "Dora Mae Dreifuss." "One of ours is dead." "One of theirs is gonna answer for it." "Pick a number, one through six." "What do you mean?" "I mean, pick a number." "One through six." " Why?" " lf you don't pick one, we'll pick one for you." "Six sounds good to me." "Three." "The number is three." "He's just gonna shoot him dead right here?" "He'll have a chance." "More of a chance than Dora Mae did." "Y'all don't even know if he did it." "That's not the point." "There's times when we have to make our own justice." "This is who we are, Ben." "If you have anything you'd like to say, now would be the time." "I see what you're doing and I understand, I really do." "Can't say I blame you none, either." "But she's got a lot of snap in her garter, that one." "She weren't no good girl." " Come on!" " Stumpy, get back." "Hold him." "If one's taken, it's best it's her." "You got to understand." "We ain't got no women here in Babylon." "Be right nice to have someone to dance with every night." "What?" "You killed her so you could dance with her?" "She'll be fine." "I'll watch out for her best I can." "I can't believe this." "He did it." "He's admitted it." " Pull the goddamn trigger, Samson." " Yeah, go ahead." "OK!" "But don't do it here." "I die here, I stay here, like the rest of them." " Like everyone else since Scudder left." " What's that?" "Just take me over the hill before you do it." "That's all I'm asking." "Just take me over the hill, please." "Why?" "What's over the hill?" "Nothing." "Nothing at all." "It just ain't here." "Pull the trigger on the son of a bitch." "One." "Two." " Pull it again." " Pull it again, Samson." " Pull it again!" " Come on!" "That ain't the way." "It ain't the way we do this." "We got rules." "He confessed, Samson!" " How can you stand there..." " Felix!" "I buried three children before today." "Influenza took two and one was stillborn." "But me and Felix, we got through that because it was God's will." "But last night..." "Last night was not God's will." "It was this man!" "And he is gonna pay for it!" "Now, I would like my husband's gun back." "The man picked his number." "That's the end of it." "Rita Sue, Stumpy, Libby, I'm sorry." "We ain't doing this." "The man picked his number." "We got a code here." "If we break the code, we got nothing left." "You two take this son of a bitch and bring him back to town." "Safe and sound." "Not a hair from his head or you answer to me." "You got it?" "Go." "OK, it's slough time." "We're packing it up." "Management wants us on the road by dawn." "OK, you heard the man." "Management gives the orders, we jump." "Them's the rules." "Gabe, move that wagon, bring this canvas down." "Hawkins, you and Schmidt are on Colossus." "I never saw her again." "She left." "With my money, with my best friend." "With my car, even." "So I started riding the rails." "I decided that this is the life." "I don't need a job." "And so I'm a happy man." "That's it?" " That's the end?" " That's it." "But I could tell another story about when I..." "No, let's let someone else talk for a change." "How about you, friend?" "You got a story to tell around the campfire?" "Friend?" "You got a story to tell?" "You know, lost your job, lost your girlfriend." "Lost your dog." "I lost my God." "Now, ladies and gentlemen, we present at this time" "True Tales From On The Road, reported by our own Tommy Dolan." "Good evening, friends." "Tonight, another story I found on the road in the Great San Joaquin Valley." "It's the story of a preacher who tried to bring hope to the hopeless, tried to lift up the downtrodden, tried to bring light to those lost in the darkness." "It's the story of a man named Brother Justin and a town called Mintern." "...so six innocent children perished in the flames of hate." "This was no accidental fire." "This was the work of evil men." "The same men who blocked the good work of Brother Justin because he dared to minister to the destitute." "The city fathers of Mintern called 'em Okies and wanted 'em out." "And when Justin stood up to them, someone burned down his church and murdered his children." "What kind of world is this, friends?" "Where people burn down churches in the night?" "And what of Brother Justin?" "Where is he?" "When this reporter last saw him, he was out there, walking alone, looking for a sign from God that his work was not in vain." "Where are you, Brother Justin?" "Where are you?" " How long?" " 20, 30 maybe." "I'll be back." "Where are you going?" "Whiskey, please." "Hell, I didn't expect to see you here." "This one's on the house." "I sure appreciate what you did yesterday." "Can't have been easy going against all your folk like that." "I respect a man who lives by a code." "I am grateful, let me tell you." "I kind of thought you might be." "That's why I thought maybe you'd do me one in return." "What do you know about Henry Scudder?" "Strange fellow, that one." "Came to work the mines but people knew right off there was something different about him." "And then he killed old Carlton with a pickaxe, and that was it." "People were mighty unhappy, let me tell you." "No law here, of course." "So, the miners, they set out to take matters into their own hands." "They were gonna string Scudder up." "He wasn't going to have none of that, no, sir." "That's when it happened." "A cave-in wiped out the whole company." "Terrible thing. I was there, I saw it." "And then the next night... they came back." "Every one of them, they came back." "They just keep coming back." "Sounds crazy, don't it?" "Not that crazy." "Thanks for the whiskey." "Let's go." "Still heading south?" "Yup." "Figured."