"Okay, my little herpetologists." "Let's review." "Warm or cold-blooded?" "Cold!" " Covered in..." " Scales." "Found on every continent except..." "Antarctica!" "You are brilliant!" "And your snakes are tired, so please return them to their homes and we'll return to our textbooks." "I hear your heart beating." "Don't be afraid." "I know you are a good snake." "The attack on the school bus took my friends' lives... took my sight... but I survived." "My father wanted to keep that a secret." "He smuggled me out of Russia to America, to a boarding school for the blind." "He felt I'd be safe there." "My maternal aunt would check in on me and he would join me as soon as he could." "Until then, I had every Sunday night to look forward to." "Did you like it?" "I could find you in the midst of a million violins if you played just one note." "Maybe three notes." "But no more." "How was the food this week?" "Don't wrinkle your nose!" "I'll have Auntie bring you some vatrushka." "I told my friend I would be with you soon." "Soon." "I promise." "I need to be careful... find a new home, where we'll be safe." "It's like hide-and-seek." "Right now we are hiding." "Can you stay hidden a little longer?" "Because of you, I know I can do anything." "You can do anything." "Nina... listen carefully." "No one can know who you are." "You need to stop speaking Russian until we see each other again." "Understand?" "Yes." "I have one last request." "Play." "He was my lifeline." "And I was his." "Every Sunday, we saved each other." "We shed our skins and plotted the future." "I had escaped the Voi, and he would, too." "We'd fool everyone together." "But then, one day, I was called down to the headmistress' office." "Nina, your aunt... she's here because something has happened to your father." "I'm so sorry." "Ninachka." "Auntie." "There was an accident... a horrible accident." "Your papa is gone." "He isn't dead." " He's in hiding from the Voi." " Ninachka..." "Your aunt is here to take you to live with her." "I can't speak Russian." "I can't go with her!" "I'm sorry, Nina." "You have to go home." "But I don't have a home until he comes and we make one!" "I'm sorry, sweetheart, I know it's been good for you here." "I felt my father was in hiding, but my aunt believed he had died, and both of our lives had changed for the worse." "See, as long as I was in school and she was watching out for me, my father made sure money, more money than she had ever seen in her entire life, flowed into her account." "For my tuition, for her attention." "But that was all done now." "What little money was left in the account wasn't enough to cover the burden of raising a blind child." "Her name is Nina." "She's my niece." "She is fucking blind?" "Be decent." "Her father, my brother in-law, a great man, just died." "I was really lonely then." "For the first time, my blindness felt like a prison." "It was cold where I slept." "I rarely spoke to anyone... except for the babies, who would come and go." "Believe me, that picture doesn't do him justice." "Beautiful." "How can his mother not want him?" "She's young, a college student." "No, he was meant for you." "We're so lucky." "We never thought, at this point, a baby." "Mmm." "We have his room all ready." "Yeah, of course." "Have you brought the money?" "Yes, Abel brought it." "Um, we've... been in the car all day." " May I use your restroom?" " Oh, yeah, of course." "It's upstairs." "The first door, you can't miss it." "What's your name, sweetheart?" "Shh." "You can talk to me." "I'm Nancy." "I'm Nina." "Does your mom live here?" "No, she's dead." "What the hell is this?" "Do you know why I'm here?" "I'm a cancer survivor." "Nina?" "It's okay, I said she could." "Enough, Nina." "Go ask Tamara to help you with your homework." "She said you are behind." "Couldn't we take them both?" "Nance, this..." "I..." "Abel, this child is special." "She... she needs more than this." "I can imagine it's very hard." "It is." "Both her parents have passed." "We'll pay you." "Better for you to take the baby." "We choose her." "If you want her, I can't stop you." "You can provide for her better than I could." "Only, no one should know." "No one would know anyway." "We'll change her name." "Blank slate." "We'll... we'll make her an American girl." "Do you... do you wanna come live with us?" "Yes, I'd like that." "Oh, your eyes are blue as the prairie sky." "Prairie." "That's what I'll call you." "Here we go, Prairie!" " Careful, Abel!" " Oh, she isn't going to break." " Careful!" " Are you, Prairie?" " No." " No?" "I can't hear you." " No." " I can't hear you." " No!" " I can't hear you!" "No!" "Okay!" "This is your new home." "Well, Prairie, we take off our shoes here." "Let me help you." "Okay, can I lift this foot?" "And lift that foot." "Wow!" "How is that?" "Good." "Feel all the branches on it, and the leaves." "You're climbing a tree!" ""'You don't know what these beans are, ' said the man to Jack." "'If you plant them overnight, by morning they'll..." "Up, up, to the sky." "And if it does not turn out to be true, you can have your cow back.'"" "Okay, we'll go to the next one." "She's sleeping." "She's been doing this for a couple of weeks." "I'm taping it so we can show a doctor." "She needs a doctor, Nancy." "Honey!" "Prairie, let go." "Prairie." "Nina!" "Oh!" "Prairie believes her father's alive and sneaking her messages about where to find him in dreams." "She also believes her dreams are premonitions, and that the Russian Mafia are after her." "Kids tell tall tales." "I did myself." "Yes, but hers are tales of grandeur that she believes are reality." "Myths that make her special." "So what are you saying exactly?" "Prairie's exhibiting early signs of serious mental illness." "You don't happen to know the mental history of her biological parents, do you?" "No." "Um..." "But I am sure that when she's been with us for a while, she's gonna be..." "Her new stability is essential, yes, but the best way to support her, ma'am, is with the right mix of medication." "But how..." "how will medication make her better?" "I can't medicate her." "She's a child!" " What she needs is love." " Okay, let me be clear." "Untreated, she gets worse." "Blind children are extraordinarily imaginative, but this is different, okay?" "We're dealing with a psychosis." "If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna get some samples." "I'll be right back." "Because we've got friends and relatives far away from here who wanna see you." "And also, I think a good mom should have a picture of her little girl." " You ready?" " Yes." "One, two, three." "There we go." "Nina!" "Prairie, honey... have one of these." "It'll make you feel better." "Okay, there you go." "And here's some water." "Good girl." "You feeling better?" "Mmm." "Okay, how does that feel to you?" "Good." "Fine, fine." " Is his collar okay?" " Yeah." "It's very nice." "I'm starting to sweat." "The lights are hot, sorry about that." "All right, this is gonna be sweet, not many grandparents come in with their grandkids." "She's our daughter." "Open mouth, insert foot." "Sorry." "All right, everybody, relax." "Looking good." "Prairie, my dear, toward the sound my voice." "Prairie?" "Prairie, toward the sound of my voice, honey." "Yeah, there you go." "I was medicated for 13 years." "It made me feel numb inside." "But it didn't stop my premonitions." "Nina!" "Nina!" "Nina!" "Papa." "You up, sweetheart?" "Yeah, I'm good." "I'm up!" "Let me see in the light." "Oh." "This time of year is..." "is always hard on you." "Hold on." "Let's not tell your father." "The medicine dulled me." "But it didn't stop the dreams." "They just kept coming, for years." "Because they were messages from my father, reminding me that he was alive, that he was waiting for me, that he was calling for me." "Maybe you dreamed of him because you missed him." "Hmm, normal dreams don't make your nose bleed." "The premonitions were powerful because I could see in them." "Twenty-one wax candles, my birthday." "That's when we were to meet." "The face of a giantess, surrounded by water." "There's only one place that could be." "I made a plan to go there." "Wait a minute." "So you just left?" "Come on, she didn't just run away." "Right?" "I did." "I knew my father was waiting for me, that Nancy and Abel would never understand." "A girl I knew from school was going to Chicago." "I got her to give me a ride to the Greyhound station." "And from there..." "I disappeared." "Miss, we're closed." "I have to ask you to get on the ferry." "I can't, I'm waiting for someone." "Maybe you've seen him?" "He's tall, blonde." "His hair might be gray now, or grayish." "No, sorry." "But, miss... you have to get on the ferry." "I turned 21 today." "Happy birthday." "I wondered all day what it said about her." "Would you read it to me?" "Yeah." "But then you have to get on the ferry." "You gotta go." ""Here, at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name, Mother of Exiles." "From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome, her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame." "'Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" "' cries she with silent lips." "'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore." "Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me." "I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" "'"" "I should have gone home... but I was heartbroken and ashamed." "Too proud." "I didn't wanna give up, so I devised one last plan." "If I couldn't see my father, maybe he could hear me." "I would play my violin in the underground until he stepped off a train, heard my song, and came running." "And do you know?" "My plan worked." "But it wasn't my father who found me." "It was another man." "The man who would change my life." "Oh, hey, later, French." "See you tomorrow." "Right." "We haven't done that in a while." "Mmm." "We can now." "Your eyes... they're sparkling." "You want breakfast in bed?" "Well, of course I want breakfast in bed." "What?" "I went on a walk." "Your mom and I could go with you." "Alone." "Sometimes, I..." "Sometimes I just need to be alone." "The last time you went out on your own, you came back with dog bites." "And then this thing with Steve Winchell's teacher, and now you're hiding things from us." "Look, I know that you're trying to keep me safe." "And I know that I let you down." "I... embarrassed you." "I'm sorry, but I can't..." "I can't live cooped up in this house all the time." "Maybe the doctor in St. Louis was right, and we... we took you home too soon." "Maybe you need time in medical care." " Please don't say that." " Professionals..." "Please, I'm..." "I'm sorry that I scared you." "Please don't send me away." "If you talk to that trauma counselor, the one from the FBI, the one that keeps calling." "You need someone with experience." " If I do, can I walk at night?" " Prairie..." "On my own." "Just for clearing my head, not to..." "It's not safe, Prairie." "One hour." "She can have an hour walk." "Right?" "Maybe she needs some wide open space, Nance." "Adrian." "Here you go, bud." "Eat." "Let's go." "Come on." "Last bite, last bite." "You gotta go brush your teeth, all right?" "I did." "No, you didn't." "Your toothbrush was dry." "All right." " You good?" " What?" "You good?" "Everything good?" "My butthole stinks, but yeah." "Great." "We'll have the doctor check that out for you." "All right." "Hey, come on." "Last bite, last bite." "Come on, there we go, there we go." "Gotta get to the bus stop, all right?" "Yo!" "What's up?" " Mr. Harris?" " Hi, Alfonso." "This is Kevin Harris from the Knightsman Foundation." "Uh, hi!" "It's, uh... it's nice to meet you." "Well, phone meet you." "We're very impressed by you, Alfonso." "Athletics, grades, community involvement." "And your essay about bees." "Phenomenal." "Bees?" "Oh." "Oh, my mistake." "You wrote about learning CPR!" "Sorry." "Anyway, we loved it and we want to offer you the scholarship." "How's that feel?" "Wow, that's, uh..." "Wow." "That's what we like to hear." "Your abuela will be over the moon." "He's actually gotta get back to class, Mr. Harris." "Uh, keep up those grades." "We'll follow up soon." "Uh, this means a lot to me." "Thank you." "Welcome to the Knightsman family, Alfonso." "You have a great day." "You got it." "What matters is you got it." "It's okay." "It's a lot to process." "Uh, do I need to do anything?" "Like, write 'em a letter, something?" "Just e-mail and accept." "There's also a dinner, always awkward." "And of course, carry a full course load, uh, abide by the character clause." "Oh." "I don't know what that means." "Ah, just don't do anything weird." "Don't get in trouble with the cops or anything." "It'll be fine." "Yo, you spell "Voi" with a "y" or an "i"?" "I can't find anything." "Maybe it's with Russian letters." "Open your mind." "Hey." "I, uh..." "I got your text." "That bus is messed up, right?" "Yeah." "Fucked up." "Uh, can I..." "Can I sit here?" " Can you help us look shit up?" " Uh, yeah, yeah, sure." "You gotta help us find some shit." "Yeah, we haven't found anything on Nina Azarov yet." "Well, she was a kid." "Maybe her dad scrubbed it" " so she couldn't be traced." " Mmm." "Uh, I'll look up "Azarov mine."" "I mean, she said her father had a mine, right?" " Yeah." "Yeah, good idea." " Mmm-hmm." "She trying to get you out of Asheville?" "Fat chance." "But just 'cause they haven't come yet, doesn't mean they won't." "Plan on talking to your parents?" "What's Asheville?" "Uh, it's like boot camp, or military school." " You know, for bad kids." " Are you even trying to find anything?" "Try some Russian shit." "Hey, you sent me that Snapchat?" " Oh, yeah." " No, I don't want to look at that." "I know." "We're tracing her story." "Like, nothing so far, uh, except for the bus." " Which is huge." " Yeah." "You'll be there tonight, right?" "That guy thinks he's the shit, doesn't he?" "He's a fucking dick if he doesn't come back." "Come sit, baby." "Maman has a headache." "Is something wrong?" "No, no, actually, uh, I have good news." " Ah?" " Really good news." " I got the call today, from that trust." " Uh-huh." "Uh-huh?" "And I got the scholarship." "I can go to any school in Michigan, for free." "So you don't have to worry about anything." "Nothing, Maman." "Not even a cent." "So you're done with Harvard?" "Uh, well, I..." "I haven't heard back from them." "But this is an option, a really good one." "I just want the best for you, baby." "We'll make it without you..." "By the skin of our teeth, we will." "Well, I can drive down some weekends, and we can go to Carlos' baseball games together." "Baby, you know I can't go to those things in my condition." "If you really feel like you have a condition, you should let me take you to the doctor." "See?" "What am I going to do without you worrying about me all the time, huh?" "Well, that's what I'm saying." "You know, I'll be close." "Michigan." "I'm proud of you." "And you deserve everything in the world... and more." "Merci, Maman." "A favor, my star?" "Pick up milk?" "I can't have my coffee in the morning without it." "Yeah." "Sure." "Hey, hey, French." "Hey!" "Hey." "Yeah, I thought I saw you there." "So I..." "I like cold stuff in the cold." "Cool." "You're bringing milk?" "That's... that's weird." "Oh, no, uh, I'm not going." "You're worried being at the house with her will mess up getting into college, right?" "Yeah, well, I just got a scholarship, actually." "Full ride." "Wow." "If anyone would, it would be you." "You know, my parents kind of want me to be you." "It's..." " Really?" " Yeah." "Uh, first they wanted me to be Christine Yee, but..." "There's a character clause for the scholarship?" "I mean, I know they have one for the Mabel Allen." "Wow, you know your shit." "Yeah, it's like... they think people like us will just slide into being criminals unless they specifically prohibit it." "You gotta read up." "Yeah." "If I'm caught at a house with drug deals, it's over, you know?" " Mmm-hmm." " It's different for someone like Steve." "He's fucking his own life up." "And I'm just trying not to fall into the default of getting my life fucked." "Well, if that makes sense." "No, that makes sense." "It's just..." "Aren't you curious as to how it ends?" " What, her story?" " Mmm." "No, I..." "I don't really care." "Her story, but..." "Us." "I mean, don't you think that... she picked us for some reason?" "Like, Steve's probably a murderer, and, uh, Jesse's totally checked out of life, and Ms. Broderick-Allen is weird and sad, and I'm... well, you know." "I don't need help." " No, I know, I wasn't..." " No, I do everything on my own." "I know." "I..." "Yeah." "Well, I gotta get this back in non-ice cube form." "So..." "Okay." "Damn it." "Buck!" "Buck!" "Come on, let's go." "Oh, that's cool." "Got fucking frostbite last night." "If we're gonna keep doing this, you can't deal outta here." "What's it to you?" "You just can't." "Guys, OA said we only have an hour." " Let's not waste time." " Whatever, man." "But that means your supply is cut, too, Buck." "Including the testosterone." "I can tell you everything that I did wrong." "I didn't eat when I was hungry." "Didn't sleep when I was tired." "Didn't get warm when I was cold." "It made me weak." "But the biggest mistake I made was believing that if I cast a beautiful net..." "I'd catch only beautiful things." "Your music, it's..." "Russian, yes?" "Are you Russian?" "Me?" "No." "I'm American." "Hap is my name." "Dr. Hunter Aloysius Percy, so, Hap for short." "Can I..." "Can I help you with something?" "No, no, no." "Can I ask you something?" "I'm sorry, I'm late." "I have to go." "Did you always play that well?" "Or did something happen to you?" "It did, didn't it?" "Something happened to you and then you, then you could play..." "transcendently like that." "Did..." "I'm sorry." "Did... did you have an NDE?" "I don't know what that is." "Uh, a near-death experience." "Did you die?" "Then come back to life?" " You okay with lemon?" " Yeah." "All right." "Here we go." "You take this, put it up to your mouth, and you just slurp the oyster down like you're sucking sea water out of a shell." "Oh." "All right, I hated my first one, too." "Uh, can we get some fries, please?" "But everything good in this world takes, uh, getting used to." "Right, I remember my first coffee in college." "I wanted to throw up." "But by the end of medical school," "I couldn't get out of bed without a double shot." "That's a lot of school for someone who said they hated it." "Well, I didn't..." "I just didn't understand why I wasn't supposed to ask the questions that had no answers." "They're the most interesting questions, aren't they?" "What is consciousness?" "Where does consciousness go after..." "you know, after this place?" "Hmm." "But you know." "Right?" "I mean, when you were..." "Let me ask you a question, when you returned after dying, was that..." "Did you feel like that was a choice?" " You experienced it as a choice?" " Yeah." "Wow." "Wow." "You called it a near-death experience?" " Yeah." " So you had one?" "Uh, here, ketchup at midnight, mustard at four o'clock, mayo at eight o'clock." "Good stuff, okay?" "Did I have an NDE?" "No." "I didn't, but I, uh..." "It's pretty much all I..." "Well, it is all I think about." "What my life's about." "So I was an anesthesiologist in the ER, and the first time I heard... uh... a patient flat-line, I thought... like, I almost heard... something." "You know?" "Something..." "I don't know." "Something." "So I went to this bunch of doctors, summoned my courage." "I asked them, they're like," ""Eh, yeah, everybody thinks they feel something."" "No, I heard... a whoosh... of something leaving the body, and the whoosh... of it coming back." "Now if they came back, it means they went somewhere." "Where did they go?" "We could prove that." "Wow." "I..." "I did what any reasonable scientist would do." "I walked away from the ER and I started what has become a... a lifetime of study of, uh, NDE survivors." "So you know people like me." "Yeah." "Yeah, well, I'm..." "I'm doing a study right now with three people just like you." "Well, one of them is particularly like you." "She came back with, uh, special skills, musical ability." "Like, what is that?" "Perfect pitch, in her case, but there are others I've met who've..." "People come back with, uh, mathematical or artistic, or, you know, um..." "linguistic abilities." "It's..." "It's..." "That's not what makes them amazing." "What makes you incredible... is that you have traveled outside this... that we're all in." "You know?" "Ever since I left Russia, the only thing I've thought about every day is how to find my father." "And he was the only person who never made me feel like" "I was demented or..." "No, of course not." "You should never have been medicated." "Never." "Why, because you're..." "you have vivid dreams?" "That's insane." "Sorry, this is so strange to hear that..." "I am weird, but that you like weird." "No, weird is good." "I mean, there's some pathetically ordinary guy somewhere wearing a T-shirt with that emblazoned on the front:" ""Weird is good."" "I have to go." "Can I get the check, please?" "I have to fly home tonight, get back to work." "Um..." "I have something I think you might like." "Um..." "It's kind of an offshoot of my work." "So, I was here, I sold a patent at a conference yesterday, and..." " Can I show you something?" " Yeah, yeah." "Yeah?" "Okay." "Here." "Okay, let's get this stuff out of the way." "So, like I said, a lot of it is about trying to hear the whoosh, okay?" "I'm just gonna put that right in there." "Okay, is that in?" " Okay?" " Mmm-hmm." "All right, now..." "You switch it on down there." "This can make a heartbeat audible at 500 feet." " Just press this?" " Uh-huh." "That!" "She's move..." "Someone's moving." "Yeah." "Younger maybe?" "Like a kid?" "Absolutely, absolutely." "You know, a heartbeat is..." "is more unique even than a fingerprint." "Here, try this." " Wow!" " Yeah." "That's what you sound like." "That's what I sound like." "Take me with you." "Study me." "Are you sure?" "How long?" "No headwinds." "Just a few hours." "Put your hands to the right." "There's a window there." "Pull it." "Okay, slide it down and back." "There's a latch in the middle." "Keep going, there you go, and pull it up and over and back." "Up and over and back, all the way." "Push the window." "Push, go on." "Okay, here we are." "Glad I left the heat on." "I don't know what you would've thought of me if you walked into a freezing house." "Oh, there's a bed downstairs in the lab, hope that's okay." "It's so quiet." "There aren't any roads nearby?" "Uh, that and there's insulated glazing on every window." "The winters here are brutal." "Glass of water." "Can I use your phone, just to call my parents and tell them I'm okay?" "Yeah, sure." "Here, let me take that." "And, uh, there's a chair right behind you now." "Okay." " You want help to dial?" " Oh, no." "Okay." "It just keeps ringing." "They're probably on the other line." "Well, we'll call them again tomorrow." "We don't want 'em to worry." "So... long day for you, must be tired." " Can I show you downstairs?" " Yeah." "All right." "Okay, it's two sets of stairs." "First one's the easy one." "There's a handrail on your left." "Okay, got it?" "And then there's a spiral coming up." "Okay." "Here, you're about halfway down." "Oh..." "I'll take your bag." "Sorry." "Smells like rock." "Shale." "Here." "I built this lab myself." "Okay, there's a big step coming up." "Is that running water?" "Yeah." "It's a natural spring." "I just left it." "Never the same river twice, as they say." "And... hold on, here we are." "Okay." "There's a bed three steps ahead of you." "Turn around." "Okay." "You are an incredible asset, Prairie." "I'm..." "I'm so lucky that I met you, and to be working with you." "Thank you." "You get some rest." "Good night." "Hap?" "Okay, okay." "Let me walk you through this, 'cause I know where your head's at." ""This is not happening."" "It is." ""This is a dream."" "You are wide awake." ""Someone will find me."" ""Why am I locked in a cage?"" "Well... you'll find out soon enough." "Know this:" "It may be a while before he comes for you." "And as you think about every step that led you here, you'll eventually realize it's no one's fault but your own." "Your thoughts are gonna try to take you down." "Don't let them." "You'll find your freedom." "In sleep." "In your dreams." "It's how we stay sane." "What's your name?" "Prairie." "Prairie." "My name is..." "Homer."