"Let's remember the energy." "America had won the war." "The depression was over." "Sacrifice was over." "The upsurge of life was contagious." "We celebrated a moment of collective inebriation that we would never know again." "Nothing like it in all the years that followed from our childhood until tonight, the 45th reunion of our high school class." "At 30 or 40, a gathering of my old classmates would have been exactly the kind of thing I'd have kept my nose out of." "But at 62, I found myself drawn to it as if in the crowd of half-remembered faces" "I'd be closer to the mystery at the heart of things, a magic trick that turned time past into time present." "The Swede." "Swede Levov." "During the war years, this was a magical name in our neighborhood." "Of the few fair-complexioned students in our predominantly Jewish public school, none possessed the Viking mask of this blue-eyed hero, the Swede." "Big brother of my best friend, Jerry, born into our tribe as Seymour Irving Levov, the greatest high school athlete New Jersey had ever seen." "Watching the Swede, people could forget the way things actually were." "We could forget the war." "The Swede went off to the Marines in '44, just missing the end of the fighting, and came home to Dawn Dwyer, a plumber's daughter from Elizabeth, who made it all the way to the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City." "A shiksa." "The Swede had done it." "But before he could marry Dawn, she had one great test to pass;" "She had to meet the old man, the Swedes father," "Lou Levov, founder and owner of Newark Maid gloves." "He just wants to ask you a couple of things, that's all." ""That's all"?" "Can't you answer for me?" "He wants to get to know you and he's not an easy guy," " but if you stand your ground..." " Oh, Swede." "He'll respect that." "He'll respect you for it." "I'll be right there." "Dawn, let's get down to brass tacks." "What do you people say about Jews?" "My family doesn't talk much about Jews." "I don't mean that as an excuse." "We don't talk much about anything." "But marrying a Jew isn't a big deal." "Until the issue of what to raise the kids as." "I would want our child to be baptized, yes." "Baptized?" "No." "That's a no." "But..." "Baptism, it washes away original sin." "Without it, if they die, they go to limbo." "Limbo, I don't know about, but baptism, I can't allow." "It's important to me, Mr. Levov." "All of the sacraments are important." "Like communion, the Eucharist." "What is that?" "Well, everybody kneels and you eat the Body of Christ." "I cannot go that far." "I'm sorry." "I have the highest respect, but my grandchild is not going to eat Jesus." " I can give you Christmas." " What about Easter?" "Easter?" "She wants Easter, Seymour." " What about Catechism?" " No!" "Whatever that is." "Now, both of you, we have to talk about the bar mitzvah." "Why can't we just let him decide?" "A child cannot decide." "But I don't want a bar mitzvah." "Then I don't think we can reach an agreement." " Dad." " She wants the child to decide?" "A child cannot decide." "Then we won't have a child." "We can marry, but we won't have children." "Miss Dwyer, you are as pretty as a picture." "I congratulate you on how far you've come." "Your parents must be proud." "But I think we should just shake hands and everybody go their own way." "I'm not leaving." "I'm not going to go." "And I'm not a picture, Mr. Levov, I'm myself." "I'm Mary Dawn Dwyer and I love your son." "I love him." "That's why I'm here." "So, please..." "Let's go on." "So, the old man was won over." "In a few years, the Swede took over the glove factory, built it up." "He commuted from the home he and Dawn had made together 30 miles west of Newark, out past the suburbs in wealthy Old Rimrock, where they were raising the child they had, a daughter, Merry." "Count!" "Where are you?" "Count!" "I hear him." "Count!" "We're here!" "Count!" "Come on, Count." "Penny, Russ, how are you doing?" " How's the family, Mr. Levov?" " Real good, thanks." " You two have a good rest of your day." " You, too, Mr. Levov." "Something was smiling down on him." "This is the way I thought it would always be." "Daddy!" "Life would open its arms and he would carry all before him." "He was the Swede, after all." " Hey," " Hey." "♪ Won't you play the music so the cradle can rock ♪" "♪ To a lullaby in ragtime ♪" "♪ Sleepy hands are creeping to the end of the clock ♪" "♪ Play a lullaby in ragtime... ♪" "Jerry Levov." "God, Nathan!" "I didn't expect to see you here." "Well, I didn't expect to see you either..." "I was sure you'd find all this sentimentality repellent." "Yeah, I do." "This nostalgia." "Bullshit." " You wanna find a spot?" " Sure." "So, why did you come?" "Well, of all the forms of bullshit available, this was the most likely to have unsettling surprises." "And you like unsettling surprises?" "I suppose I do." "Hey, did you see that display they have for your brother?" "Like I said, I'm not one for nostalgia." "We were..." "I don't know, we were probably ten, and we went to watch one of his practices." "He ran the ball and his teammates took him down and they piled on." "And we were worried for a second, you and I." "Worried about the Swede?" "No, never." "No, we were, because they took him down hard." "But he popped up and dusted himself off." "And as he trotted by, he turned, uh... he turned to me, his brother's friend." "I mean, I was a nobody, and he said..." ""Basketball was never like this, Skip."" "Yeah." "Yeah, that's right." "He called me Skip." "My brother's dead." "That's why I, uh, came up from Florida, for his funeral." "Not for this reunion thing." "The... the Swede is..." "Just a sweetheart whose fate was to get himself fucked over by some real crazies." "My brother, the best you're going to get in this country, got caught in a war he didn't start." "Jerry..." "I have no idea what you're talking about." "No?" "You don't know?" "Were you alive during the '60s?" "Well, I wasn't here." "I was... you know..." "I was out of country for most of the '60s." "Oh, I guess you're the last person to hear, huh?" "The famous writer, the last one to hear the big story." "What is it, then, th... this big story?" "Well, you know he and Dawn had a kid." "You wrote to me after she was born." "Adorable when she was little." "So, she had a stutter, that was nothing." "To hell with that." "But then Merry got older and when she did..." "I told him." "I told him, "Let her go." "Otherwise, it will rot your gut and take your life, too."" "But... he couldn't." "And now I'm burying my brother." "She was a good kid..." "Jerry was correct." "Here I was, the famous writer, the last one to know the story." "But now I wanted all of it." "I wanted to hear what had become of the young man from whom we had expected everything." "Our hero." "Our Kennedy." "Grandpa." " Grandpa." " Yes, Merry, what?" "Lady Jane's going to have a calf, grandpa." "I hope it's a heifer." "What's a heifer, sweetheart?" "You're talking to a guy from Newark." "It's a girl, grandpa." "Oh. a girl!" "I bet it's going to look just like Count." "That's who mounted her." ""Mounted"?" "ls that a way for a young girl to talk?" "That's what it's called, Dad." "Yeah, what's she supposed to say?" ""Make love"?" "It's a cow." "And what does my son need with cows?" "Why do they need to live this far from civilization?" "No offense to the locals, Mr. Orcutt, Mrs. Orcutt, but let's be candid." "This is all rock-ribbed Republican out here." " That's true." "That's so." " Lou, don't start." "What did I say?" "We're out in the middle of nowhere." "This is Ku Klux Klan country." "Dad, will you stop?" "I don't see why my brother wants to live here either, but a couple of cows doesn't make it Mississippi." " This is Morris County." " Grandpa!" "Jerry's right, Dad." "No one thinks like you anymore." "We can live where we want." "This is America." " Newark is in America." " Grandpa!" "Yes, darling." "What?" "Yes, sweetheart." "Come to the barn to see Count." "Wait till you meet him." "He's so..." "I adore Merry." "I think she's very special." " Thank you." " We all do." "She likes coming here." "She told us that." "Very much." "Sometimes when she's here, I ask her," ""Merry, what terrible thing do you think would happen if you stopped stuttering?" "How do you think your father or your mother would feel if you stopped?"" "But she can't stop." "I think Merry's stuttering is a strategy." "A strategy for what?" "For avoiding competition with the beautiful mother, the beautiful Miss New Jersey mother, for winning the handsome father." "This is about our looks?" " Doctor..." " Sheila." "Sheila, stuttering isn't something that Merry chooses." "It makes her suffer." "Maybe the benefits outweigh the suffering." "But it's killing us to see her." "It's killing Merry's mother." "Maybe that's one of the benefits." "Have you thought about how difficult it must be for Merry growing up the daughter of someone who's had so much attention for something as trivial as beauty?" "Maybe the reason Merry stutters is to stop people from asking her," ""Do you want to be Miss New Jersey just like your Mommy?"" "But who asks her that?" "Nobody asks her that." "I'm not Miss New Jersey, for God's sake." "I'm her mother." "It's just that in a highly-pressured perfectionist family, you..." "Who says we're a highly-perfectionist family?" "We're an ordinary family." "What about the physiological basis for her stuttering?" "I read an article where..." "I can give you organic theories if that's what you want, but that's not the way I've found I can be most effective." "Ouch." "Ouch." "I told you to wear your shoes." "You didn't tell me about how sharp the rocks would be." "No!" "Dad!" "Do I look..." "look like Audrey Hepburn?" "Better." "You look like Meredith Levov." "Do you..." " miss Mother?" " Sure I do." "Me, too." "She wanted to come." "She couldn't." "I..." "I know." "Lady Jane's going to have her calf any day now." "Mom had to be there." " Yes, Dad." "I know." " She'll come next time." "Have you had a nice time here?" "With you?" "Terrible." "♪ Two drifters off to see the world ♪" "♪ There's such a lot of world to see ♪" "♪ We're after the same rainbow's end ♪" "♪ Waitin' around the bend ♪" "♪ My huckleberry friend ♪" "♪ Moon river and me ♪" "Hold these for your mother." "Daddy..." "Kiss me." "No." "Really, really kiss me." "Kiss me the way you kiss mother." "No!" "And fix your dress." "Oh, I'm sorry, Cookie." "Oh, I deserve it." "It's the same at school with my friends." "I get started with something and I go... too far and I get carried aw..." "There's nothing wrong with that little girl." "Her mind goes too fast for her tongue." "That's all." "There, I just saved you the money you were going to give to the shrink," " because that's all there is to it." " We just want to help her, Dad." ""Help"?" "That girl?" "Just give her a little bit of time." "Let her tongue catch up to that brain." "The rest will follow from that." "Freddy, is something up with this machine?" "Every now and then, she kicks." "No, no, no." "You'll be throwing stitches soon." "Send it down to the shop." "See my son, Vick?" "He picks out the bad machine from 100." "He's got the ear." "He gets it from you, Lou." "How are you feeling, Dad?" "You don't have to come in every day." "Who comes in every day?" "I don't%" "Besides, where else am I supposed to go?" " Time cards, gentlemen." " Thank you, Vicky." "Vicky, my son is trying to tell me never to come around here anymore." "I didn't say "anymore," I said "not every day."" "But, Lou, you built this place." "You made a home for all of us." "Where else do you belong?" "Exactly my point." " Here you go." " Oh, thank you." " You finish your stuttering book?" " Mm-hmm." "Have you written down all the words that stopped you today?" "D... do you want to check?" "Not if you say you finished." "My teacher in school never believes me unless she checks." "Well, your teacher says that you have a stubborn streak." "Merry, why does she say that?" "Because of the homework." "The class had to write an answer to the question "Why are we here?"" " and Merry wrote..." " Merry can tell me herself." "Sorry." ""Why are apes here?"" "That's it?" "She made her rewrite it." "So I wrote..." ""Why are... kangaroos here?"" "And then last week, the teacher asked them, "What is life?"" "This is what they ask in school?" ""What is life?" What did you answer?" "I don't..." " remember." " Yes, you do." ""Life is just a short space of time in which you were alive."" "Daddy, do you understand?" "Yes, I think I do." "He assumed the lotus posture and another priest stepped forward and poured gasoline over him." " A very frail, old man in his 70s," " Oh, my God." " Quang Duc." " What is this?" "This monk burned himself and he sat there." " Oh, Merry shouldn't be seeing this." " No." "And then suddenly, a towering flame and the smell of gasoline and of burning flesh in the air for ten minutes." "And the priests and the nuns in the audience moaned and prostrated them..." "Why did that poor... why did that poor man have to burn himself?" "Hey." "That gentle man and those gentle people." "It's far away, baby." "It's far away." " Doesn't anybody care?" " Of course people care." "Doesn't anybody... doesn't anybody have a conscience?" " Yes, you have a conscience." " Cookie." "Don't cry." "Shh." " Do they look good, Daddy?" " You've got the touch." "If you don't end up senator for New Jersey, you'll make a great short-order cook." "I'd rather cook any day." "Mmm." "Great." "This makes you the first Levov in history who can prepare edible food." "As long as it's hamburgers." "What's wrong with hamburgers?" "It's an American classic." "I came hereto speak to you about Vietnam." "Talk about an American classic." "There's an American classic asshole." "We abhor the political murder of any state by another." "Fucking liar." "He's better than the guy he ran against." "Barry Goldwater would have buried us all." "Fucking madman." "Lyndon Baines" ""Baby Burner" Johnson." " What's going on?" " Johnson's press conference." "We don't disagree, Mer." "We're all against the war in this family." "You heartless, miserable prick." "Merry, stop." "Please." "What do you care about the war?" "You're just contented, middle-class people." "Some people would be very happy to have contented, middle-class people for parents." "Well, I'm not brainwashed enough to be one of them." "Merry." "Dawn." "What?" "Don't tell me." "Tell her." "Tell her to behave like a civilized person." " Don't tell me what to do." " I'm your mother." "I can and I will tell you what to do." " I'm turning this off." " Sure, turn it off." "The Democratic Republic of Hanoi could just burn down and Mom would just go on worrying about her cows." " Merry..." " Don't touch me, Dad." "I can't stand this." "You're not anti-war, you're anti-everything." "And you're pro..." "COW." "I don't know why she's turned against me." "Is it her stuttering?" "Is she angry because she can't make friends?" "She's made friends, all right?" "The ones she's made in New York." "Who is she?" "I thought she was smart." "She's becoming stupid, Seymour." "No." "She's just a kid with a strong will, a strong idea." " It's not very well worked Out..." " You're defending her." "She hates me." "Dawn." "She talks to me like..." "I don't know what." "With no respect." "And if I ever spoke to my mother like that, do you know what my father would have done?" "He would have turned you over his knee." "You think it's funny?" "I have to pick her up from the train." "I can't believe we let her go to New York." "She's 16, Seymour." "We don't even know who she's with." "We don't know who her friends are." "Well, she likes them, they like her." "That's what's important." "I don't like those pamphlets they give her." "What pamphlets?" "In her room, Seymour." "Police and fire departments are on the alert as negro demonstrators take to the streets of Newark after the arrest and alleged beating of cab driver John W. Smith." "You were supposed to be on the 8:00 o'clock." "You were involved in something there, something political." "Everything is political." "Brushing your teeth is political." "People who are against the war." "Is that who you see?" "They're just people who don't believe in the war." " I don't believe in the war myself." " Then what's your problem?" "I don't want you getting mixed up in things that could hurt your chances for college." "My friends have been to college." "They had to leave because of the way they treat student protestors." "Is that who they are?" "College kids who have gotten thrown out?" "They're just my friends." "Can't you believe that I have friends?" "Don't you believe that?" "Of course I believe you have friends." "They wanted me to stay the night." "No." "That's..." "You can never even think about staying over with people that we don't know or you'll never be allowed to go again." "What do you believe in, Daddy?" "This is not about politics." "My responsibility is to you, not the war." "Oh, I know." "That's why I have to go to New York, because people there do feel responsible, responsible for blowing up Vietnamese villages, blowing up little babies." "But you don't care." "And neither does Mother." "No one in our family or in our fucking little town does." "Sir, could you go to your vehicle?" "You need to get off the street." "There's a curfew in effect." ""Curfew"?" " What kind of fascist bullshit is that?" " Merry!" "We've got enough trouble tonight." "The curfew's to protect people." "From what?" "They should riot." "I'm sorry, officer." "We... we're both sorry." "I am not fucking sorry." "She's 16." "You got any at home, you'll understand." "I don't%" "Right." "Hundreds of protestors have gathered in the Fourth Precinct where cab driver John W. Smith is being held after allegedly being beaten by police, who are calling this an isolated incident." "Yet some local residents are urging violent retaliation." "More news as it comes in." "And now, back to our regular programming." "Get on out of here!" " Streets to the people." " Power to the people!" "Get the fuck back home now!" "Black power!" "Black power!" "Black power!" " Black power!" " Get out of here!" "Jesus, Merry!" "Your father called from Florida." "He wants to know if they've come near the factory." "I'll see in the morning." "You're not going to work tomorrow, not with the riot going on." "It's not a riot." "It's a revolution." "People standing up for their rights." "If you're going to defend them, maybe you should just join them." "That's a good idea." "The governor called the National Guard in." "Of course." "I mean, what else can he do?" "He can treat black people like human beings, that's what." "No blacks on the city council, the poverty, the unemployment." "We have 80% negroes working at the plant." "We're proud of that." "Oh, I forgot." "You're a hero." " Hello?" " Seymour." " Vicky." " It's bad." "What is it?" "I ain't never seen anything this bad." "They're beating 'em and dragging..." "Oh, my God." "Sniper!" " Vicky." " People are shooting." "Police are shooting, and soldiers." "People have lost their minds." "Thank you." "Thank you, sir." " Going to war, huh?" " It's what it is." "No." "It isn't, either." "These are just troublemakers, so think." "What we're saying is, you're hereto keep the peace, son." "That means protecting the people and the property of this neighborhood." "What I'm saying is to think." "Think before you start shooting at somebody's window." " Vicky." " These aren't snipers." "These are people, good people who live around here, people just like your own mothers and fathers." "That's who lives up there." "Now, this is their home." "And they've got to live here long after you're gone." "This is their home." "Not yours." "All right." "Well done." "I'm just telling them how it is, that's all." "But tonight is going to be bad." "Do you hear me?" "So, go home." "Take everybody who came to work and go home." "You're staying, though." "There ain't no telling how bad it's going get." "Won't be safe for anybody, and not you." "The place will be safer with someone inside." "Then I'll stay, too." " I've got that." " No, I'll put it." " Vicky." " They're shootin' outside..." "I got it." "Are you talking to me?" "I told you not to move!" "Keep your people back!" "What do you want?" "Turn it down." "All dressed up for your stupid... award that they gave you?" "You expect me to... congratulate you, too?" "What was the award for anyway?" "We didn't shut down after the riots." "The people who worked there, who have always worked there, were welcomed back to their jobs." "The mayor thought that that was good, that other businesses should have done the same." "There was a ceremony in his office." "Congratulations..." "Swede." "And I would have liked it if you had come." "I would have... fucking hated it." "Have you thought about what I asked you?" "Going away to private school?" "If you don't like living here with us." "I just want to be able to go to New York again on the weekends." "No." "You didn't come home last time." "You knew the rules." "I never thought my own father would keep me prisoner." "Merry." "I have an idea for you." "I've been thinking and I have an idea." "You want to protest the war." "Protest it right here in Old Rimrock." "What am I going to do, march around the post office?" ""Bring the war home." Isn't that the slogan?" "Look, they gave me this award." "It's just a stupid plaque, but it means one thing." "If you take a stand, people notice." "If you oppose the war right here with all your strength..." "This is part of America too, you know." "Read Marx." "Revolutions don't begin in the countryside." " We're not talking about revolution." " You're not talking about revolution." "You think about what I'm saying." "I'm sure she's just with her friends in New York." "Should we call the police?" "No, let's give her some more time." "Swede... do you think... the post office..." " Do you think Merry..." " No." "It's not possible." "You told her to bring the war home." "Well, that was just talk." "I hope so." "A warrant." "How many lies did you tell to get that?" "We have an informant that confirms that your daughter and another young woman placed a bomb in the post office." "An informant?" "Who is this informant?" "Does your daughter know Russ Hamlin, the Storekeeper?" "We all know Russ, Penny." "Do you know Russ Hamlin is dead?" "I know it because it was on the radio." " It has nothing to do with..." " Hey, hey, hey." "Open that up." "What does my daughter know about dynamite?" " Mrs. Levov." " This is a girl." "This is a high school girl." "She didn't make a bomb." "She doesn't even know what a bomb is." "How could you even think that she could make a bomb or... or kill somebody?" " Where is she, Mrs. Levov?" " I don't know." " She's been tricked." " Mm-hmm." "She's been tricked!" "Why does everybody say that she did it when she couldn't have done it?" "She's been tricked and abducted." "Somebody is brainwashing her right now." " We need to find her, Mrs..." " She doesn't have anything to do with it!" "My daughter could not have had anything to do with this!" "Then why did she run off?" "Maybe she doesn't even know you're looking for her." "You know that they've probably taken her underground already, right?" " Seymour." " It's all right, Dawnie." "Who's "they"?" "You said she has political friends in New York." ""We are against everything decent in America." "We will loot and burn" and on and on and on." "All right, that's written on a wall." "That's probably written on a lot of kids' walls." "Not in Old Rimrock it's not." "Not in..." ""our fucking little town."" "What is that?" "What are you reading?" " Your daughter stutters?" " Oh, my God." "What does that have to do with anything?" "A police officer in Newark made a note about it two months ago." " You were present, sir." " Oh, for Christ's sake." "That?" "Yeah, that." "That and a couple questions raised by her teachers." "Come on." "Swede!" "We're the family, that's who we are." "They have a right to be here." "They're my family." " Seymour." " Mom." " Our beautiful little girl." " I know." "Dad." "How could this be?" "Would you tell me how this thing could be?" "Lou?" "Make them stop." "They keep saying that Merry did this." "Make them stop saying it." " Not Merry." "Nobody knows if she did it." " That's right." "Nobody knows." "Let them talk." "You're the mother." "She's just a little girl." "Maybe not so little anymore." " Tell them, Lou." " I will." "I will." "It'll be all right." "It's going to be fine." " You going to be all right?" " We said we'd do this." "Let's do it." "Penny..." "We got the news like everyone else, like you." "We're sorry." "Dawn and I, we're sorry for you, your son, your children, sorry for this t... terrible thing, this terrible, awful..." "Whatever happened... whatever Merry did or did not do, all I'm saying is, I blame myself." "Mrs. Hamlin..." "Penny." "I don't know if you can understand, b... because Merry..." "Well..." "This is hard to say, but if Merry did this, and I understand that's the way it seems, then it's myself I blame." "Because I did what I thought is right." "I..." "I raised her the way I thought best." "I mean, you're a parent, Penny." "My God, you know how hard it is!" "And then, things come up with kids, from inside them, someplace inside." "How can you know what to do?" "You try." "You love them." "And I still love my daughter ri..." "Maybe I shouldn't be saying this, but..." "I love her right now more than ever." " I hurt for her more now..." " I don't blame you..." "Mr. Levov." "I don't blame either one of you." "You didn't go out and buy the dynamite and make the bomb." "You didn't plant the bomb." "I feel badly for you both." "The two of you are as much victims of this tragedy as we are." "I lost a husband." "My kids lost a father." "But the difference is that, for us... we will survive as a family, a loving family." "We will survive with our memories intact... and our memories to sustain us." "We are the same family we were when Russ was here." "And we will survive." "That's the difference." "Police have widened their search for the missing teenager, Meredith Levov, for her involvement in the bombing of a post office." "Where is she?" "Swede." "Dawnie." "I want her to come home now." "Right now." "Now." "Now." " Now." "Now." " Precious." "Now." "There were three blasts." "The townhouse is totally destroyed." "If there was anybody else in there..." "But the two women who escaped, they're young, they're white." " "Is one of them Merry?"" " Why not?" "Why couldn't it be?" "Mr. Levov, it's been over a year." "Look, the bombs they were building in the townhouse, they were pipes filled with dynamite." "Well, the bomb that blew up Hamlins, that's what it was." "It was a pipe filled with dynamite." "One of the missing women, we know who she is." "Her parents own the building." "They're down in the Caribbean growing a tan while their rich-fuck daughter's making bombs to blow people up with." "But the other girl, you don't know the identity of the other girl." "And therefore it's Merry?" "Go home, Mr. Levov." "This is my daughter." "We'll tell you." "All right, Mr. Levov?" "No, you won't." "You're not telling us anything." "And for Christ's sake, stop tapping our phone." "There's... there's nothing." "All right?" "There's one thing." "It was nothing." "What?" "Someone said they saw her at the train station." " Here in Newark?" " It didn't make any sense." "We thought she'd be halfway across the country." "We worked it." "It went nowhere." "This was months ago." "Main line going to Pittsburgh arriving from New York, the 5:30 Express on track two," "5:30 Express from New York arriving on track two." ""Rita Cohen."" "From the Wharton School of Business." "I'm doing my thesis on the leather glove industry here in Newark." "I'd be grateful for anything you could teach me." "Mm-hmm." "Go ahead, feel it." "It's sheepskin." "Cabretta." "It's lovely." "They've been shipped from the same ports in Africa for hundreds of years." "You want to learn about gloves?" "We'll make you up a pair." "Here?" "Now?" "Here." "I'm guessing you're a four." "Let me see what kind of guesser I am." "Four it is." "That's as small as ladies' come." "Any smaller is a child's." "Harry, make up a four for this young lady, British tan." "You're witnessing a dying business, Miss Cohen." " Am I?" "I'm sorry, I didn't realize." " Oh, not us." "Knock wood." "No, we've still got the big accounts, Bendel's, Macy's." "No, I meant the whole industry." "Everyone's moving to Hong Kong, Puerto Rico." "To cut labor costs." "Exactly." "Precisely." "Everybody's hurting." "It used to be that a woman owned ten, 12 pairs of gloves." "Imagine that." "These are for you, Miss." "Slowly." "Always slowly the first time." "Feel how it expands when you make a fist." "Thank you." "She wants her Audrey Hepburn scrapbook." " Talk to me." " Not near the house." "Swede, what is it?" "Somebody came to me from Merry." "She's all right?" "Where is she?" "I don't know." "I don't know where she is, but this person, this little person, she looked younger than Merry." "She wants to meet me tomorrow." " Merry?" " No, this Rita person." "She wants me to meet her in a parking lot downtown." "She gave me all these instructions." ""Drive through the park." "Make sure you're not followed."" "The agents." "Are you going to tell the agents?" "I don't know." "I don't know what to do, Dawn." "She knew about the Audrey Hepburn pictures." "She knew about the stuttering books, the ballet classes, the cows." "This girl, she could lead us to Merry." "Where are the cows?" " What?" " The cows, where are they?" "I sold them." "I'm selling them." "Why would you sell your cows?" "You can't tell the agents..." "Swede." "This girl, just do whatever she says." "Please." "Why are you wearing Merry's coat?" "She gave it to me." "Surely, you can..." "Surely, you can now tell me something about Merry." " I surely cannot." " I would like to speak with her." "Well, she wouldn't like to speak with you." "She hates you." "Does she?" "Thinks you ought to be shot." "Yes?" "That, too?" "Swede Levov." "How much do you pay the workers in your factory in Puerto Rico?" "I don't have a factory in Puerto Rico." "I stayed right here." "How much do you pay the women going blind stitching gloves for the ladies at Bendel's and Macy's?" "You've seen how unhappy my employees are." "That's why they've worked for me for 40 years, because they're so exploited." "Who are you?" "You don't even know what you're talking about." "You own your people." "You own them, you use them, you sleep with them, and then when you're done..." "Please, Rita." "I haven't two minutes' interest in your cliches." "I want you to tell me where my daughter is." " That's all I want to hear from you." " Your daughter never wants to see you again." "Or that mother." "You don't know anything about her mother." "Lady Dawn?" "Lady Dawn of the manor?" "I know all there is to know about Lady fucking Dawn." "So ashamed of her class origins, she had to become lady of the fucking manor and turn her daughter into a debutante." ""A debutante"?" "Merry shoveled cow shit since the age of six." " She rode tractors, she's 4-H." " Fake." "All fake." "The daughter of the beauty queen and the captain of the football team?" "What kind of nightmare is that for a girl with a soul?" "Dawn is not a beauty queen." "She works a farm all day." "Fake, fake." "She works a farm like a fucking upper-class landowner." ""Upper class"?" "Her father was a plumber!" "Her grandfather was an Irish milk farmer!" "This is crazy!" "Where's my daughter?" "Somebody is dead." "My daughter is accused of murder!" "You're really hung up on that, aren't you?" "Do you know how many Vietnamese have died in the time we've been talking here?" "You give her back to me!" "She's not a possession." "You don't own her anymore, the way you own your factory and your Buick fucking Electra." "Where is she, Miss Cohen?" "So, where is she?" "The girl's our link, our only one." "You let her go?" "Why?" "Why did you let her go?" "Well, she's just a kid." "I know I can work around her to get to Merry." "That's nonsense." "That's crazy." "You go to the cops." "You go to... what's it, the FBI." " You tell them everything." " No." "No." "No?" "Did you get the infant's phone number, at least?" "That's not the plan." "She makes contact with me." "If she feels like it." "If she feels like it." "You've got nothing." " Dr. Levov?" " What?" "I don't need you." " But, doctor..." " Just go jump in a lake, nurse, please." "I've got to do this, Jerry." "You should see Dawn these days." "I'm worried about Dawn." "This has to work." "Rita has to take us to Merry." "This Rita and the others." "What others?" "The ones that have her." "They're controlling her." "If she did this, if she blew up Hamlins then these are the people that made her do it." "Don't you see?" ""If"?" "If she blew up Hamlins?" "That's what you're asking yourself?" "What kind of man are you?" "You go to the FBI." "Do you hear me?" "No." "And you can't tell anyone what I told you." "Promise me." "All right." "Good morning, boy." "Do come in." "Make yourself at home." "I brought the money, Miss Cohen." "I brought the $10,000 in small bills." "Now, where's my daughter?" "Come off it, Swede." "You came here to fuck me." "What?" "Please, Miss, if you have any feeling for what everyone is going through..." "Ask anybody." "Why does a middle-aged capitalist come to a hotel room to meet a young piece of ass?" "Say it." "Just say it, Swede." ""I came here to fuck you."" "Will you stop all this?" "I'm 22." "I do everything." "I do it all." "You're not scared, are you?" "A big guy like you can't have met your match in little me." "Pillar." "Pillar of the fucking community, Swede Levov." "Come on, let's see the pillar." " What is the aim of all this?" " To introduce you to reality." "And it ain't going to be no picnic, jock-o." "I'll tell you where your daughter is." "First we fuck, and then I'll zip up your little fly and take you to where she is." "My daughter has no part in this." "You're not fit to wipe my daughter's shoes." "She has nothing to do with you or the bombing." "There." "Put it right there." "Do you know what size it is?" "Let's see what kind of guesser you are." "I'm guessing it's a four." "In ladies', that's as small as they come." "Stick it in." "But slowly, always slowly the first time." "This has nothing to do with anything." "You great, big Boy Scout." "Do you want to know what this has to do with what's happening?" "Taste it." "Taste it and you'll know." "Do you want to know how it tastes?" "It tastes like your daughter." "Get out of the street, clown!" "What the fuck are you doing?" "When you add it up, your daughter's a minor, she's seen a psychologist for years." "That's evidence of mental stress." "That bomb, she plainly had no intent to kill, not at that hour in the morning." "Protecting her from us is not intelligent." "It's pretty unintelligent, if you think about it." " What is it you want from me?" " Nothing." "The description that you gave of this girl, Rita Cohen, if that's her real name, that's fine, all right?" "You can go." "Mrs. Levov know what happened here today?" "Yeah, I just called her." "She's disappointed, naturally." "This was our only hope." "You should have called us in on this, Mr. Levov." "You've done everything wrong you possibly could've." "Since when?" "Excuse me?" "I've done everything wrong since when?" "That's a question you're gonna have to answer for yourself, Mr. Levov." "Seymour." " How long ago did she get here?" " I don't know." "I didn't see her come in." "She won't let me near her, poor thing, and I didn't want to scare her." "Excuse me." "♪ What do I do on Monday?" "♪" "♪ Dream, dream, dream ♪" "♪ What do I do on Tuesday?" "♪" "♪ Dream, dream, dream ♪" " ♪ Wednesday, Thursday... ♪" " Excuse me." "♪ Come and then ♪" " ♪ I do the same thing all over again ♪" " Dawn." "Well..." "Dawn." "Baby, come on." "♪ I do the same thing all over... ♪" "All right, all right, all right." "All right." "Stop it." "Stop, stop, stop." "All right." "Don't." "I'm afraid." "I'm frightened." "I'm frightened." "I'm frightened all the time." "It's not time for your medicine." "Dawn." "Dawn." "Think of the most pleasant place you've ever been." "Hmm?" "Um..." "At the... at the shore, in Avon." "It's my uncle's house and..." "I'm a girl." "Come on, lie down." "Come on." "And the... the lifeguards are all..." "Catholic boys from Fordham and Holy Cross." "They'd come down for summer." "And they were all in love with you." "I should have married one of them." " See you again tomorrow, Mr. Levov." " Good night." "At one minute before 1:00 this morning, the switchboard at the U.S. Capitol received a phone call." "A man's voice said a bomb would go off in the building in half an hour." "At 1:30 in the morning, it did, in a small, unmarked restroom on the ground floor of the Senate side, next to a barbershop and near several small offices, including one committee hearing room." "For a report on the first serious damage to the nation's foremost structure since the British burned it in 1814, here is congressional correspondent Lawrence Lawson." "There was alarm for a time that other bombs might still be hidden inside the Capitol." "They're forced to be outlaws by the way this society is run and we think they're great." "Across the nation, between January of last year and April of this year, a total of 4,330 bombings have been reported." "We're going to remake this country in the streets." "We've got to build a strong base and someday we've got to knock those motherfuckers who control this thing right on their ass." "Seymour." "Yeah?" "The first time I was in Princeton, I was at the Governor's mansion." "That's right, just after the contest." "Twenty-one, scared to death." "And his chauffeur drove me from Elizabeth in my crown." "I danced in my crown with the governor of New Jersey... and I ended up here." "How?" "How did I end up here?" "You." "You." "You wouldn't leave me alone." "Had to marry me." "I just wanted to teach music." "That's what I wanted." "To teach kids music in the school system... and be left alone by boys." "That's it." "I never wanted to be Miss Union County..." "Miss crazy New Jersey..." "Miss America." "I wanted a scholarship." "I wanted a degree... a job." "But then you arrived." "You." "Those hands." "You wouldn't let me breathe!" "Every time I looked up, there's my boyfriend, gaga because I was some ridiculous beauty queen." "You were like a child." "And you made me a princess." "Look where I wound up." "In a madhouse." "Your princess." "In a madhouse." "Thank you very much." " Take care." " Goodbye." "She read a magazine article about a doctor in Geneva." " What kind of doctor?" " A plastic surgeon." "That's all she's talked about since she came home." "I see her looking in the mirror." "She thinks somehow that by having a facelift, even though she's only 43..." "She thinks that it will help her to start over, and why not?" "Imagine all that Dawn's been through." "I don't have to imagine." "I've seen this before." "Women in trauma, women who have been ill, it can help them to become a new woman." "But I want the old Dawn." "I want my wife and I want Merry." "We're not talking about Merry." "But as for Dawn, what if you were to go along with her, support her in this, in the trip to Switzerland, the operation?" "It could help the both of you to put the past behind you." "I don't want to put the past behind." "The past is Merry." "There's no way I want to put that behind." "But Dawn does." "What is it?" "Can you help me out?" "Lou, keep your voice down." "This is the way your friend paints?" "You know it is, Dad." "You've seen the one in our living room." "The one you paid an arm and a leg for." "I don't care what you say, she looks like a million dollars." "Yeah, all right, Dad." "She looks great." ""Great"?" "The girl's herself again." "Getting rid of those cows was the smartest thing she ever did." "I never liked 'em." "But getting that facelift?" "I was against it, but I was wrong." " Darling, a million dollars." " Thank you, Lou." "I'm serious, Dawn." "The best money ever spent." "You seem better." "Lou, Sylvia, you know Bill and Jesse Orcutt." "You'll see them at our house for the barbecue." "I hear you're the artist." "And Bill is helping us on the design for our new house." "An artist and an architect." "Architect's my day job." "Can't make a living just being an abstract painter." "No, I should think not." "A glove, everybody understands." "These, you might be the only one." " I think they're divine, Bill." " Thanks, Dawn." "Still, I've got to hand it to anybody who's got the guts to wear that shirt and those pants." "What?" "What did I say?" " Lou." "Every time." " What?" "Well, I for one had enough pretentious art talk for one night." "But you enjoyed yourself." "You had a good time." "All right, I did." "I'm glad you're doing so well, Dawn." "I am doing well, aren't I?" "I haven't seen you this happy in a long time." "Thank you, dear." " You drive them home." " What do you mean?" " You drive them home." " Seymour." "Don't argue." "I want my daughter." "If you turn me in, she'll die." "She'll have no one." " What?" "What are you talking about?" " Stop." "All right, all right." "If you let me go, I'll tell you where she is." "You take me." "Where is she?" "Is she here?" " You take me there." " No." "I don't want to see her." " What?" " I can't take it anymore." "You can't take it?" "You can't take it?" "!" "Wait a minute." "She's in Newark?" "That's the building." "Get out of the van." " Out." " All right." "All right." "There's a dog and cat hospital on the second floor." "She's got a job there." "But don't go in." "Wait for her." "If you go in, you'll make a scene." "She'll be discovered." "She couldn't handle that." "She'd never survive the FBI." "Take care of her, Mr. Levov." "Daddy?" "I'm lonesome." "Where do you even get a word like that?" "I like it when you hold me." "Then I'll never let you go." "Ever?" "Not ever." "Merry?" "Daddy." " You're not stuttering." " No, I'm not." "I've become a Jain, Daddy." "A "Jain"?" "We're a small Indian sect." "I wear the veil to do no harm to the organisms that dwell in the air." "Merry, this is awful." "Do you walk this way every night?" "Nor do we bathe, to do no harm to the water." "We step carefully for fear of crushing some living object." "There are souls imprisoned in even the lowest form of life." "Forgive me, Merry, but..." "How can you stand this?" "It's okay, Daddy." "Really, I'm okay." "You always had things over your bed." "Used to be pictures of Audrey Hepburn." "Those are the five vows." ""I renounce all killing of living beings, whether subtle or gross, moveable or immovable."" ""I renounce all vices of lying speech arising from anger." "I renounce all sexual pleasure with either Gods or men, all taking of anything not given."" "I think you're terrified of what you've done." "I'm not going to ask what you've done." "I made up my mind." "I'm not going to ask you anything like that." "But I think that rather than evade punishment, you've taken it into your own hands." "It's all right, Daddy." "I can believe that you can't understand." "I don't believe it's a difficult conclusion to reach, honey." "I don't think I'm the only person who, seeing you here, would come up with that idea." "You want to do penance, but this is not penance." "Not even the state would punish you like this." " Daddy." " No." "Look at what you've done to yourself." "You could die if you keep this up." "But only to be reborn." "Will you at least take off that mask while we're talking so I can see you?" "See me stutter, do you mean?" "My stutter was only my way of doing no violence to the air." "Well, maybe you would have been better off with your stutter if you had to go this far." "Where have you been?" "Did you come to Newark to help me find you?" "I got a ride and here I was, you see?" "Coincidence?" "That's all?" "The world is not a place on which I have any influence or wish to have any." "As to what constitutes a coincidence, you and I, Daddy." "Where have you been all these years?" "After Hamlins, I went to Sheil♪s." "Sheila Smith, your therapist?" "She kept me for a few days and then she sent me on to people in the underground." " She sent you to them?" "Sheila?" " Yes." "They took care of me." "But it wasn't safe to stay anywhere." "In two months, I had 15 aliases and moved every four or five days." "I took a name from a tombstone in a cemetery." "Merry..." "One morning, I received a phone call that I was to go to the Greyhound station." "They gave me a ticket to Chicago." "I would stay there for two days and then travel to Oregon, where there would be sanctuary." "I was raped the night I arrived in Chica... cago." "Oh, my God." "Held captive and raped and robbed." "Come home with me, Merry." "You go, Daddy." "Leave you?" "You think I could leave you?" " After everything I've..." " You must." "Is go." "No." "You're asking me to do something impossible." "I've looked for you for so long." "I can't." "Come home." "Come home, Merry." "Please go now, Daddy." "Please go." "What's wrong, Swede?" "You never told me." " You've seen her, you've seen Merry." " She came to your house." "Why did you let her go?" "Answer me!" "You knew." "It was on the news." "She blew up a building and you hid her in your house?" "When I heard, I couldn't believe it." "But I was her therapist." "I couldn't betray her." "You did betray her!" "You sent her to people, the worst people in the world, the ones who got her to do what she did." "That's not true." "Merry believed in what she did." "No!" "A man died!" "A good man." "I'll never believe that that's what she wanted." "They manipulated her." "They used her for their crazy, fucking politics." "You used her." "You're trying to make this my responsibility." "You and your radical friends." "They don't believe in peace or war or the Vietnamese people." "They just wanted to blow a hole in the world, the biggest hole they could in everything that was good!" "They don't care if people get killed!" "And you sent her right to them!" "I sent her to where she'd be safe." "She couldn't stay here." "She was a troubled girl." "Going to prison was not what she..." "You think she was troubled then?" "Oh, my God, Sheila, you haven't seen her now!" "How she lives!" "Where she's been!" " She was raped!" " No, don't say that." "Listen, I'm telling you something!" "Did you hear me?" " Stop it." " She's been raped!" "My daughter!" "She's sick in her body... sick in her mind!" "Dawn says to get the steaks going, Swede." "Right." "Okay." "She wants me inside, helping with the corn." "And it's going to be close, and he is out at home plate." "He's out!" "It's a double play with a tag from Ray Fosse." "And here comes Mets manager, Yogi Berra, to argue with the ump..." "Ah, I don't believe it." "God damn this team!" " I thought Bill told you to put the..." " I can't." "I need to talk to you." "I hope this is important." "Leaving the Orcutts to your parents like this..." "Look, have you seen where Bill and I moved the sunroom?" "He was so wrong about the Western light." "It's about Merry." "What about Merry?" "All this time, we've had no idea where she is." "And we aren't going to." "If she'd wanted us to find her, she would have told us how." "She hasn't wanted to." "We've had to accept that." " Dawn..." " We've had to accept that and we have." " But just suppose..." " Suppose what?" "What?" "Suppose that we knew where she was." "Go on." "What is it now?" "Do you have a new lead?" "Some hunch?" " Some information?" " More than that." "Why?" "Did someone call?" "Some nut who saw her at an airport in Phoenix or at a fucking Hare Krishna meeting?" "Is that what it is, Swede?" "Will you listen?" "I'm telling you something." "When are you going to give up on her?" "I can't." "I tried so hard, but I can't." "Our old life is gone, Swede." "It's dead." "This." "This is our only future." "Excuse me, we have guests." "Nixon." "Watergate." "It's all I hear." "Day and night, he goes on..." "Von Ehrlichman, von Haldeman, von Nixon." "They're all mamzers." "I agree with you, Mr. Levov." "They should all go to jail." " And I'm a Republican!" " Good for you, Mrs. Orcutt." "Are you okay, son?" " Sure I am, Mom." " Oh, my boy." "Who could want a better son?" "Jesse, don't you think you've had enough, dear?" "Can I get you something, Dad?" "No." "Rest, you don't look so great." "I'll get you another drink." "Not now." "Not now." "Seymour?" "Don't say anything!" " Swede." " No." "Why are apes here?" "Why are kangaroos here?" "Life is just a short space of time in which you were alive." "Merry." "I have to ask you something." "I have to ask you something I promised I wouldn't ask, but I must." "You can ask me anything." "Did you do it?" "Do what, Daddy?" "Plant the bomb in the post office." "Yes." "Who made you do it?" " Lyndon Johnson." " No, who talked you into it?" "How strongly you still crave the idea of your innocent child." "Was it Rita?" " Who's Rita?" " Rita, the girl you sent, the one who came to my office." "I never sent you anyone." "Was this just some kind of game you were playing with me, the two of you?" "I relinquish all cruelty, I relinquish all control, all influence over the world." "Do you?" "Do you?" "Well, you have influence over me, Merry." "I renounce all attachments whether little or much, small or great, living or lifeless." "Were there others?" "Did others die?" "Were you involved in other bombings?" "Two." "You built the bombs." "I built and planted the bombs." "Was anyone killed?" "Yes." "Who?" "People." "How many people?" "Three." "I'm going in now." "Don't go away from me." "Don't go anywhere." "Daddy, how much suffering do you want?" "Who are you?" "Where is my daughter?" "My daughter did not kill four people." "Say it isn't you." "Say it isn't you!" "Look"." "Merry." "Your ballet shoes, your riding ribbons, all your things." "My stuttering book." "Why have you brought these things?" "Does it mean that you aren't coming back?" "Because if it does, maybe that's best." "Merry..." "I'm your father." "I made you and I found you." "And there's no way I can ever lose you or you can ever lose me again." "Let me take you home." "I can't leave you here." "You've seen me." "Please go now." "If you love me, you'll let me be." "That was to be the last time he ever saw her." "He never got over Merry." "He never got over her... and never gave up on her." "It was good to see you." "Will you excuse me?" " Are you taking off?" " Oh, there you are." "Uh..." "Yeah." "These days I'm asleep on my feet after 9:00." "Yeah, me too." "Uh, well, it was good to see you." "Really." "Well, night." "Jerry." "The Swede's funeral tomorrow, do you mind if I come?" "No." "No, not at all." "I'd be happy to see you." "You remember." "You were there." "He called you "Skip."" "As we prepare to recite the mourner's Kaddish, we remember the Swede one last time." "A football hero, a baseball hero, an officer in the Marines." "What Merry blew up with that bomb of hers was nothing less than his life." "He never got past the Rimrock Bomber, a girl who perhaps didn't deserve anything from him, who wasn't on the same playing field as him or anybody else." "At this time, please rise for the mourner's Kaddish." "You come at people with an open mind and yet you never fail to get them wrong." "You get them wrong while you're with them or you tell someone about them and get them wrong again." "That's how we know we're alive." "We are wrong." "About the Swede, how life was going to open its arms and shower blessings upon him." "I was never more wrong about anyone in my life." "Thank you." "It's nice to see you." "Thanks for coming today."