"Once upon a time children, there was a history teacher... who came home one day after giving a class on the French Revolution to find that his wife, a woman he has loved since they were children had herself committed a revolutionary, a miraculous act." "Mary?" "Mary?" "Mary..." "Children I should have seen it coming." "Three months before we'd been out walking." "Just one of our usual walks." "One of the many things we've enjoyed in the new life we built together over the twenty years we've spent in your country." "Yes he was naughty wasn't he?" "Well he wasn't that bad." "Were you Patty?" "I mean... we share on it." "Tom do you remember..." "After the war, you know, when we... met again," "Do you remember me telling you, when, that,..." "it would take a miracle for me to have a baby... yeah, yeah, I remember." "Well, it happened..." "Miracle happened." "But we can't..." "I mean, you..." "We are gonna have a baby." "God has said that I will." "Wait, you'll see..." "Why can't you just face the fact that you cannot have a baby, not by me, not by anybody." "You'll never be able to." "I thought you faced that." "I have to tell them at working that I'm leaving." "I probably should do it fairly soon." "What do you think?" "I was thinking, "I'm losing her..."" ""she's slipping away from me..."" "Away, to where I most feared to follow..." "Mary..." "Back..." "Mary..." ""Back to the past..."" "What, what you scared?" "Come on, Mary!" "I do not like this!" "I'm scared Ree..." "you done it before." "Yeah, but we never had your brother watching." "What's wrong with him?" "Well, he's a potato head, isn't he." "So?" "I don't like him seeing me." "Oh your such a womp Shirley." "And now, knickers..." "Yes, your knickers!" "We're equal now, you go in the drink first." "Go on Shirley you aren't scared are you?" "yeah go on Shirley." "Will you stop Freddie Parr." "There, you've had a feel." "Not bad, eh?" "Not like me... to try it." "Bugger off, nothing worth doing anyway." "Yeah bugger off!" "Get lost!" "You're coming Mary?" "So you're on, Mary." "You first." "The four of us." "You want to choose?" "Anyway, there's five of you ready." "Come you on then!" "Well?" "I do not know..." "That ain't fair!" "It's not right!" "You promised!" "Unless, unless you pass the test." "Test?" "Swimming test." "What?" "Whoever swims the furthest under water." "Under water?" "I'll show him!" "But I can't swim!" "Well, you'll just have to learn won't you?" "Come on, Freddie, it'll be a laugh!" "This isn't right!" "We made a bargain!" "One, two, three, Move!" "I won!" "Tom!" "Come on!" "Hold it!" "Tom!" "?" "I'm coming!" "Come on!" "Come on Freddy!" "We're coming!" "Freddy!" "Get to the hand!" "Are you all right, Freddie?" "It's okay." "Me swim too?" "Yes, Dick, you can swim too." "Oh, no..." "Dick!" "Where is he?" "Dick!" "Dick?" "he's gone..." "Oy, did you see?" "Dick won, Mary!" "He won the game!" "So?" "Well!" "So?" "Well you'll have to show him!" "Come on, Dick!" "Mary's waiting!" "Her knickers are gonna come down." "Come on, Dick, she gotta show some one!" "Here's your chance, Mary." "Come on Mary, loosen up for Dick, ha, ha!" "Come on, Dick!" "Where are you going, Dick?" "Dick?" "Tom?" "Hey." "Good morning!" "Good morning, Louis." "You know if a total stranger were to look at these two cars," "Which one do think he'd say belonged to the boss?" "I don't know how you do it, Tom." "No kids." "Oh is that it." "Then you must be a lucky man huh?" "How is Mary?" "Oh she's fine." "Good, good." "Rebecca and I were talking last night how it's been such a long time since we had seen her." "Tom how about dinner next weekend?" "On Saturday?" "No, not on Saturday." "Saturday is the school board meeting." "How about the Saturday after the Saturday dinner, what do you say?" "That would be... very, very nice Louis." "Thank you, thank you very much." "Then it's a date then." "Good, good." "Good I'll look forward to that." "Maggie Ruth, the light of my life!" "Mr. Scott, keeper of my destiny!" "And where were we last Tuesday at the school council meeting?" "I had this history test, I had..." "And what were we talking about, about how leadership brings responsibility..." "Remember, in the French Revolution people were looking to the past... just as much as to the future." "and when they turn out to cry "back to nature"..." "Eh, who's cry was that?" "Originally?" "Come on." "Which famous speaker?" "Oh!" "Price!" "Surprise and a pleasure." "Yes, who was it?" "What's the point?" "See sir, you're telling us something that happened in France about two hundred years ago..." "Thank you, Price." "But if you do not know the answer to the question, just keep your hands..." "No, I know the answer!" "I was asking you what the point is?" "The only interesting thing I see about history is that it's about to end." "Not today Price?" "Alright?" "Um, Joe?" "Vanessa?" "Freddy?" ""Help!" "Freddie is drowning!"" "I'm sorry..." "Stephen." ""Somebody help Freddie!"" "OK..." ""In the name of God!" "Anyone!"" "Come on, anyone." "Alright Price." "Tell us..." "How is history going to come to an end?" "If you could be specific." "Take your choice..." "Well I like history." "I don't care if it's got no point." "You go ahead Mr. Crick." "And sir, sir, you don't, you don't care?" "It's just tha..., the fucking world is gonna end, right, and you don't..." "Are we finished with the French revolution, Mr. Crick?" "Yep, yah, I think ah..." "I think for today we are." "Wait a minute!" "We still have twenty minutes left." "Yes..." "So why don't I tell you another story..." "Tell us a murder story Mr. Crick." "Yah, there'll be murder in it..." "Why don't I tell you a story about the fen." "What's the fen?" "Well the fen are an area on the east coast of England reclaimed from the sea." "A land that was once water... and which, even today, is not quite solid." "So that people can only live there because they dig it and drain it..." "Year after year, century after century... and the sea is always trying to return, to break through the ditches and dikes, and cover the rich, flat earth again." "My brother Dick was one of those that dug and drained." "He worked on a dredger, keeping the River Lyn free of lime." "It was a job he loved, a job he did well." "Even though he was what the fen folk called a potato head." "He was simple, and I didn't care." "In fact, I think it made me love him even more." "My father, Henry Crick, took care of a sluice gate on a branch of the river Booz." "And that's where I was born." "I lived there, with my father, and my brother, Dick." "Mother... oh she was dead." ""..." "Last night the Luftwaffe's main target was again London." "Considerable damage was done to residential and industrial areas... and it's feared the loss of life will prove to be heavy." "Three enemy aircraft were destroyed." "Yes, you're right children..." "When I was your age, the second world war was raging... and every night we heard the bombers droning overhead, on their way to Germany." "You might say things were approaching, a bit of a climax." "But I have to tell you children, there were other climaxes happening just then... that seemed far more important to me." "Come on." "Why did you have to do it on the train?" "We didn't have a car." "Why not go to motel?" "That's what I'd do." "There were not a lot of motels in the fen Joe." "There was not a lot of anything." "Remember it was flat country, open." "I once asked my father why the fens were so flat." "And he said to me..." ""So God would have a clear view of us."" "But we weren't hiding from god, we were hiding from our parents." "Friends, well no..." "one friend in particular... and his big mouth." "Freddie Par." "Is that the one that put the eel down, down Mary's..." "Yeah, that was Freddy." "Did I tell you about that?" "Hmm..." "I forgot..." "No anyway that was years before this." "By now Freddie was into the big time, he was a smuggler." "Trading illegal bourbon and, and Camel Cigarettes." "You always have a trick up your sleeve don't ya?" "I had a secret." "I had an appointment each afternoon from 3:00 to 5:30, and I didn't want Freddy finding out about that." "What?" "Nothing." "Oh, come on..." "Well, I just think it's weird that you keep telling us these stories about... you doing your girlfriend." "That is what you were going to tell us, isn't it Mr. Crick?" "Oh we were sixteen!" "Well I'm sixteen and I'm not doing it." "That's for sure." "No look, come on..." "you mustn't, you mustn't misunderstand..." "Mary, my Mary, she wasn't like that, she wasn't..." "a Slut?" "It's just that were both, were both young and... into everything I mean..." "Everything was so fresh and so new, and to be discovered." "What Mary mostly was, was curious..." "Yeah... yeah about that, but... but it wasn't just about sex, she was..." "She was curious about everything." "Like what?" "Well she was curious about Dick." "My brother, Dick..." "I'll tell you..." "I'll tell you something she told me..." "He follows you?" "Are you sure?" "Where ever I go just about." "I never seen him." "I'm telling you, he's always hanging about." "What for?" "What do you think?" "Not that!" "Dick..." "He don't think that way." "Since when he been following you?" "From that day when we went swimming." "When Freddie nearly drowned." "Don't you remember?" "But that were ages ago." "Do you mind?" "He is only following." "Never tries to talk to me." "Remember what happened that day?" "When Freddie got the eel?" "Big wasn't it." "The eel?" "...no the other eel." "He was twice as big as that." "What's he like?" "What's he like, living with him?" "Take it off..." "Do you ever feel sorry for him?" "Yes..." "You do not have to worry about Dick, if he's following you." "Dick wouldn't hurt, he wouldn't hurt anyone." "I ain't worried?" "I'm sad for him." "He's got nothing has he?" "Except the old motorbike." "He's got me and dad..." "And got this too..." "hasn't he." "If my brother keeps following you around, maybe it would be nice if you did talk to him." "then he'd know what girls are like, and maybe that would help him get a girl of his own." "Better watch yourself Mr. Pretty Par..." "Potato head!" "Potato head!" "Freddy..." "Hello, Dick!" "Hello..." "Your brother told me you came down here for the eel slow season." "Caught many?" "Many?" "Eels." "Some." "My dad is fond of eels you know?" "So am I." "If you could spare us a couple, or one big one would do." "Look!" "I brought something to take it home in." "Have you got a nice eel for me, Dick?" "Never mind." "Another time maybe." "No!" "Yes!" "Yes, that's a nice one." "You want?" "Yes, I do, Dick." "But how you gonna get it across to me?" "It's not gonna swim across to me by itself is it?" "You can swim with it though Dick?" "Can't you?" "I've seen you swim haven't I?" "Don't you remember?" "How you went swimming?" "How you showed me?" "No..." "But if you really want to know what's going on here" "You have to come even further back." "We are still in the fens, but its 1911 now." "And just down the road is Chestling Hall where I want to introduce you to some other members of my family." "I know what you are doing..." "What?" "What am I doing, Price?" "I mean if you wouldn't mind being specific." "You're doing what you doing..." "You're telling us these dirty stories." "It's not just dirty stories..." "Shut up!" "It's not..." "Enough!" "Alright, alright..." "What do you think I'm doing, Judy?" "Ah it's like history, right?" "Showing us..." "like, you were part of history too." "It's a part of history like the French Revolution..." "No bullshit..." "Price?" "What do you think I'm doing?" "I think you're trying to buy us off." "I think you are scared no one is listening to your lousy history lessons anymore so you're starting to make things up." "Yes thank you Price... you keep us quiet so that, so that you can get in with us, but you can't, because you are just a teacher." "OK?" "That's all." "Am I right?" "I'm right?" "You might be..." "so might you Judy." "...but I wasn't planning on telling you any dirty stories today..." "Are you going to tell us a murder story Mr. Crick?" "No not yet, Steven." "No." "Today children, I thought we'd talk about beer." "Right now, this is where my mother had been growing up." "Her father had brewed beer, as did his father, and his grandfather, before him." "This is the house..." "built on beer." "Atkinson's ale, millions of bottles of the stuff, look at it." "Leave your things on the bus, take your notebooks with you." "Don't... stay together." "Don't get lost." "And no smoking in the house!" "Is this your mothers place?" "Yeah." "It was built by her grandfather, George Atkinson." "You rich, Mr. Crick?" "No, I'm not rich." "But this place... ah they'll get rid of it long before I turn up." "Why?" "Why?" "Well..." "After the First World War, date somebody... 1917 to 18." "They were in England." "1914 to 18." "Good." "After the First World War It's gonna become an asylum." "For crazies?" "No." "For soldiers." "Well..." "Yes, crazies." "Soldiers of the war, as driven mad." "My father was one for a time." "He was here." "There's my grandfather, Ernest Atkinson." "He doesn't look like a beer maker." "Brewer, Bates." "Well..." "He was." "And a hell of a good one." "In fact, he will turn out to be the best of all the Atkinson brewers." "Today, he's creating a special beer to provide a revenge." "What do you mean, revenge?" "We'll get to that." "Who is the girl?" "His daughter, Helen Atkinson." "It my mother." "His only child." "His wife died when Helen was 12 years." "Let's go on..." "Price, you'd like my grandfather." "He worries about the world too." "Three months ago he ran for Parliament as a pacifist, but he got hardly a vote, even here in his hometown, Gilze population, 3000." "but swollen today to over 6000." "Why?" "Because today a nation hungry for war, glory and profit is crowning its new king..." "George the Fifth." "Mr. Crick, they're all drunk." "So they are Bates." "My grandfathers revenge." "Remember the beer he was brewing?" "He's giving it away today, thousands of bottles of the stuff." "Atkinson's coronation ale, a beer so powerful it shows these people for what they really are..." "Blind fools." "Just one bottle will do it." "I want you to remember something else..." "Within 3 years these people are going to get exactly what they want." "The war to end all wars." "Alright everybody back here in one hour." "OK?" "Don't get lost." "One hour exactly." "Are you listening in the back?" "get back here in an hour." "Bates do you hear that?" "I heard you." "Get Marshal then get lost." "Alright." "Do your best." "Can they see us, Mr. Crick?" "I think some of them can't see anything, Judy." "Come on in darling." "Where you going now Price?" "Go and enjoy yourself..." "I'll stick with you." "Well, I'm going into the pub." "Ok." "I'm Sorry, Price, you're under age." "Relax!" "Get out of here." "Get out." "What?" "What's this?" "Are you all open?" "Have you drunk any of that bloody coronation ale?" "No." "Then I'm open." "Good... but I'll have a brandy, and ah, better give the boy a lemonade." "I'll have a brandy too." "Oh, shit!" "What happening now?" "Better go and watch, Price." "They set the brewery on fire." "The brewery's on fire!" "Probably it'll be spectacular." "The whole place will burn to the ground." "The fire brigade won't be able to cope." "They're drunk, like everybody else." "Oh, this will be the end of the family firm." "All the stock will be destroyed,..." "including every single bottle of this." "Except for one crate, that my grandfather would rescue from the flames." "And one day, hand down to his son." "What son?" "I thought he had a daughter." "Au revoir!" "Adios!" "Good night everybody!" "Tom look, I have parents." "Parents can come to me and say:" "How is teaching my son or daughter history going help him, or her, to get a good job." "And what am I supposed to say to them?" "You say the truth." "You say to them that we're not just in the business... of turning out good job prospects." "Oh, that's what I say to them?" "Yeah!" "Just that simple?" "Yeah!" "Come on, Tom..." "You say that what really matters is what we teach them about life, and how to live it." "Yeah, but, for sure they're not going to have a very good life if they can't get a good job." "Right, Alex?" "Yeah." "Alex, honey, come on, it's time for bed." "Good night." "Give me a kiss." "I'm not trying to eliminate history I'm just trying... a little merger thing here with social studies, that's all." "Something that might, if you would, go along with it give what your trying to do a little shot in the old ah... foot." "Isn't it, really." "How amusing, give me a break, you know..." "give social studies a break." "I mean you have to admit there has been a steady decline in the number of students opting for history." "Frankly, they're voting with their feet." "That's not true." "In the last few weeks I've had 6 requests for transferring to history." "I mean, I've got to be doing something right." "Yeah, and don't think I don't know what it is." "What is that supposed to mean." "It means that you're not teaching the curriculum, you're telling these children stories." "Stories about the eels, and stories about crazy brothers, and god knows what." "Tom, what great news!" "Your wife has just told me." "About the new arrival?" "Sorry, I'm..." "About the baby!" "About your new baby." "What?" "What baby?" "Oh Come on, Tom, I mean, why hide it?" "It's the truth isn't it?" "Actually, we are lucky that it didn't happen before we were really ready." "I always liked working genital late comers..." "well we get there in the end." "Patty?" "Talking about Patty?" "Our new puppy." "I did not..." "I'm sorry,..." "Golden retriever." "But it's true, we um, we thought for ages, it wouldn't be fair to have a dog when we are always, out at work, and we leave him, all day, you know, so..." "we found him, and ah, he's great, he's really great." "Paddy." "Baby." "She, while we both call him..." "Private joke." "Was, a private, joke." "It didn't sound like a puppy." "No it was Patty." "Wasn't it darling?" "Yes, I was talking about the dog." "I'm sorry, did I not make that clear?" "I'm sorry." "Anyone for coffee?" "And remember, we have a house rule:" "when coffee is served we all change places." "Oh In that case I'd like to sit next to Lewis." "Mary, I'm flattered." "Maybe you should go home, love." "Do not be silly, Tom." "Because, I want to ask him why there's no place at school assembly anymore for the teachings of our savior, Jesus Christ." "Marie Antoinette..." "Bastille..." "Tuileries Palace..." "King's home... from which it is dragged from it in 92 by the screaming mob." "La Place de la Revolución..." "Home... of what?" "Come on!" "dead easy!" "Bates?" "Guillotine?" "Guillotine." "Great new invention." "A better way of putting people to death!" "A kinder, more humane way." "Just the thing for an enlightened age." "Was it more humane?" "than hanging?" "Probably..." "But the ax..." "Well, it was quicker." "Mind you there are stories of limbs... moving, and eyes rolling and kind of lollying... even after the blade, had severed the head from the body." "So they were guessing about the kindness, really." "You see that, the trouble was that..." "the only people that could really tell them were dead." "Questions?" "Price, you had a question?" "No, I didn't." "Yeah, about a son... in regards to my grandfather, you asked that." "How was that possible?" "Mr. Crick?" "Mr. Crick?" "Are we done with the guillotine for good, or just for today?" "I mean, are we going to do more..." "Shut up!" "I want to know if I gotta..." "Please drop it!" "Yes." "Yeah sure I asked that question about your grandfather." "Well, how it happened... if, you gotta try, to imagine..." "When the 1st world war began..." "dates, Judy..." "I told you the dates..." "Just give it to him." "Fuck you!" "1914 to 18.." "When it began, the war that my grandfather had, predicted, he became, melancholy, despairing of... of the world, all the Slaughter and horror and..." "He didn't go out, from the hall at all." "He, he was mad." "He, the war, you see the war, made him... and, my mother, his daughter, stayed there, with him." "Looked after him, like a, like a mother." "Do you remember this?" "Yeah we were up there." "That's where your, grandfather and your mother lived?" "Not anymore." "They moved out to the gate lodge." "Its 1922 Price." "They moved down there after the war and the the hall became a home for mental patients." "For soldiers of the war driven mad." "It was my mother's idea." "My grandfather went along with it." "And when she wanted to train to be a nurse... and work there herself he went along with that too." "You see, he doesn't want to confine her." "He doesn't want to hold on to her for himself." "I mean it doesn't matter what people are saying..." "just rumors..." "What rumors?" "What's she doing?" "She often stops there." "You see..." "You see, that's half way between the lodge and the hall." "between her mad father, and her mad patients." "I think she stopped to say to herself..." "These are the only, sane moments, in my life." "This is insanity, come on." "Four years since the end of the war." "For them it hasn't ended." "For some of them, it will never end." "What's she looking for?" "My father." "Afternoon boys." "And what did gramps think about that?" "Oh, he was happy for her." "Ah, he still had a bit of influence in the town." "So he got my dad a job here." "And uh, the cottage went with it." "So my mom and dad came to live here." "This is where she died." "Influenza." "From plain flu." "This is the sluice gate." "Catches everything that comes down river." "Old clothes, dead sheep, branches, bottles..." "So what about those rumors?" "What?" "Ah huh." "Going out." "There must be a girl in Gilze..." "Been going on a couple weeks now." "It just shows, it just shows." "There's more to that Dick than people give him credit for." "Shit!" "Tom?" "What's the matter with him?" "Oh he's just jealous." "This is the room my mother died in." "Dad couldn't sleep in it after, so..." "It became my room." "It didn't seem to bother me." "Holy shit!" "Bombers." "Headed for Germany." "It's 1943 Price, there's a war on." "I remember a night, just before my mother died.." "She called Dicky." "Just him, not me, and..." "You see I was sleeping down here." "Dick was there." "I think they thought I was asleep." "But I heard." "This key is a special key..." "A key?" "Yeah." "A key." "The day that my grandfather died, this trunk appeared." "To be held in safe keeping for her first born child." "Do you know what's inside of it?" "I do now." "It's a letter from my grandfather, to my mothers first born," "To be opened on his eighteenth birthday, and 11 bottles of beer." "He left beer?" "Yes, special beer." "Oh what, the um, the coronation ale he got from the fire." "Right..." "Twelve bottles of this stuff." "You said eleven." "Well there are 11 now." "Dick had one of them." "Made him drunk." "Yeah I bet..." "Very drunk, I was watching." "There he is back from his date." "Already?" "Hard to keep track of time." "Where do babies come from?" "Where do babies come from?" "They come from love, Dick..." "They are made with love." "Love?" "Yes." "That's a feeling, Dick." "That's a beautiful feeling." "Like the feeling you had for your poor mom." "Like the feelings she had for you." "Love..." "Say it!" "Come on!" "You said it to him." "It's true isn't it?" "I'm, I'm gonna have a baby." "Oh, God..." "It's Dick's isn't it." "It's his baby." "No!" "You been seeing him all these weeks." "I've never..." "You're lying!" "We didn't do it." "I tried to..." "I tried to show him." "It wasn't any use." "He was too big." "Down there." "You said..." "You said to show him about girls." "I was sure you'd be pleased." "He's your brother and you wanted him to know." "Why didn't you tell me." "Cause I didn't know how." "Mary!" "Tom, make way for Freddie Par." "The hells..." "Mary, Tom." "Freddy Par..." "Where did he get that?" "Borrowed it off a yank probably." "Freddy ain't got a license." "Everybody's doing it." "We got caught." "What are we gonna do?" "Don't know." "We gonna have a baby." "I'm sixteen!" "So are you." "We love each other." "That's all that matters." "What'll we tell Dick?" "He frightens me sometimes." "Sometimes, when I was telling him, and showing him what people do, he got upset." "I was scared of him." "You don't have to worry about Dick." "He wouldn't hurt anyone." "A baby!" "That's my baby." "I'm sure it is." "I mean, I know it is." "It has to be." "Mother of God!" "Dick!" "Dick!" "Come here, boy!" "Bring the boat, Dick!" "Bring that boat down here!" "Bring the boat over Dick!" "That's it boy!" "What is that!" "Is it what I think?" "Bring it around Dick, bring it around." "That's it." "Lean into it." "Bring him in." "That's it Dick." "Steady now." "Jesus Christ!" "Easy." "God!" "Freddy Par..." "Freddy Par..." "That's better." "That's better." "Right you are." "Has anyone seen anything?" "Like what?" "How he died." "He drowned." "How he drowned?" "He fell in the river." "Probably Drunk." "He couldn't swim, could he." "Somebody made Freddie fall in." "Dick made him." "Why would Dick?" "I told him." "I thought he'd have to know in the end the baby couldn't be his." "That he hadn't really done it." "So I said it was Freddie's." "Freddie's?" "I don't know why I said it." "I couldn't think." "I said, he scares me." "So I said it was Freddie's." "Dick killed Freddie Par cause he thought it was him that made the baby." "Which means I killed Freddie too!" "You don't know that." "Mary!" "Everything's alright!" "Mary!" "The verdict is accidental death!" "Accidental!" "Did you hear me?" "At the inquest, at the court." "They said it was all an accident." "I heard you." "They said that he was drunk, that's why he fell in." "So it's an accident." "Well if it was an accident, then Dick didn't..." "and Freddie... he's not your fault." "Mary?" "What are you doing?" "Go away!" "You'll hurt yourself!" "Go away!" "Mary?" "Mary!" "It's dangerous!" "Leave me alone!" "Stop!" "Isn't that dangerous for the baby!" "You're so stupid!" "Mary!" "God, forgive me..." "When you think your caught you'll muss that in the end." "Just like Freddie did." "I saw the marks, Dick." "Freddie's face." "Hook... that was the hook." "That wasn't a boat hook." "The marks were there before you used the hook." "It was you." "You made Freddie drunk." "You hit him with this, and pushed him into the river and threw the bottle in after him didn't you." "Jig big potato head." "You think Freddie took the baby." "Well, it isn't Freddie's baby, or yours." "It was mine." "Go on, go on." "Do it again!" "What are you doing?" "Let me go!" "Go on!" "Do it again!" "You gonna kill everybody?" "Is this what you did with Freddie?" "To the first born of Mr. Henry Crick" "This is for you, Dick." "You read it Tom." "Well it's not important." "Yeah." "You don't have to know." "Read it Tom." "No it's nothing Dick." "No, read it." "Read it to me Tom." "Dick..." "I ain't gonna read it, Dick." "No, you read it, you read it." "No!" "You Read it!" "Tell me!" "You tell me!" "You tell me Tom." "You wanna know." "From grand dad, grand dad Atkinson." "That you're going to be very special, he's made sure of it." "You're going to be savior of the world." "You are going to save the world from blood and war and horror." "The reason he's so sure you'll succeed cause dad, he ain't your dad." "He's mine, but he's not yours." "My, but not yours." "Your grand dad is your real dad." "Easy..." "Tom?" "I read him grand dad's letter!" "And he killed Freddie!" "He killed who?" "Freddie Parr." "Dick!" "Dick!" "Tom!" "Tom!" "What did you say?" "Tom, come here!" "Dick!" "Dick!" "He must a got a bottle." "Dick!" "Come back here boy!" "Dick!" "Dad this way..." "Hey, help!" "Help us!" "We need a boat!" "Ah I can't see nothing." "Here son, have a look." "Dick!" "We're gonna help you, Dick!" "We're going to take you home!" "How much of that bloody beer has he drunk Tom?" "Dick, someone gonna get hurt for!" "Stop with that!" "Dad..." "He seen em, they're in uniform." "That's alright Dick!" "Never you be afraid!" "Its only me, and Tom, and Stan." "These here men are nothing!" "Dick!" "Dick!" "Stop fooling around." "Dick!" "Dick!" "I'll be your father!" "I promise!" "Mommy!" "Help me, mommy!" "Its mommy!" "Dick!" "Dick!" "No!" "Christ... he's gone." "No, dad you don't know..." "he can swim so far!" "Mary?" "Mary?" "I said it would happen didn't I?" "I told you..." "Oh, look..." "Come and look." "Look at your son." "Oh, Christ..." "Where did you get him?" "I got him from god." "It's because we've been forgiven." "Give him to me." "No, he's my baby!" "Give it to me!" "No!" "No!" "He's my baby!" "God promised it to me..." "Mary where did you get him?" "I got it from God..." "Where did you get him?" "God." "Where?" "God." "Mary!" "Where?" "God..." "God, God..." "Where..." "Where did god leave him?" "Shop and save." "It was easy, easy." "She left the stroller by the turn style." "It was risking it wasn't it." "When I was at the checkout I saw her, I saw them just leaving him there." "Going off like that." "Wasn't she... wasn't she bad, bad..." "shhh... bad, bad..." "Come on..." "Where is the policeman is responsible?" "There, sir." "Lieutenant, we found the baby." "Is it here?" "Yes, um, my wife has it." "Get the mother." "Right away, sir." "My name is Crick." "I'm a teacher at Franklin High." "We... we found the baby outside the school." "Excuse me, where is he..." "where is he(he's alright)... oh my god (he's alright)." "He's quite safe." "Mary?" "Mary..." "Thank you!" "Mary!" "I can't... just talk, talk to me." "Just..." "Just talk to me, Mary." "Just talk to me..." "About what?" "I'm stupid... you've got to see someone." "A counselor." "And we could both go." "Just..." "I Just think you need some help, I mean... you just stole a baby!" "what are going to do next, you gonna kill someone?" "I'm sorry..." "I didn't mean..." "sorry." "No I've done that, haven't I." "I wouldn't want to repeat myself." "It's my fault." "Your leaving me aren't you." "How could I leave you?" "Hmm." "Not much, but pack some clothes..." "I'd say." "But she did leave me, children." "A week later I came home to an empty house, and a note." "She said she left me, probably forever." ""I know what I did was wrong..."" "I'll never forget." "Or forgive myself, or the look on that mother's face." ""But, I swear I knew no other way to break out of this prison."" "We've been in it for so long Tom." "At the end, she asked me if I'd take back her library books." "because... two week overdue." "Mr. Crick?" "Mr. Crick..." "Price?" "Yeah, hi..." "What are you doing here?" "Extra math." "Extra math?" "After school?" "What, voluntary?" "Yeah, I just started." "huh..." "Bloody hell Price, why you go to all that effort for mathematics and nothing for history." "Math makes sense." "Hum!" "45, 45..." "Where is the 45 bus stop, Price?" "Why, can't you use your car?" "Oh no, I've loaned it to Mr. Scott." "I thought it was best if I... didn't um..." "I didn't drink and a, you know..." "Did you get fired?" "Is they're all expecting me to get fired?" "Yes." "Well they're wrong." "I've been retired." "Sounds much better doesn't it." "Do you want a drink?" "I mean, unless you've got to go off somewhere." "Well I'm under age." "Oh hell, Price it's a drink..." "I mean, it's not as if it's the first time is it." "I mean you must have been to a bar before, did you?" "It was no surprise, Scott has been after my job for years." "You know... mr Crick, I'm sorry." "Oh it's alright, it's alright..." "No, No, I'm sorry about what I did." "Some of the kids were talking about going to Scott and complaining... and I said "go ahead"..." "I'm sorry." "Oh, I had it coming..." "hmm, long time." "Well, some of those girls, they ah..." "You can't really,..." "I mean, an eel down the pants..." "I know, I know..." "It's absolutely right!" "It's a story about betrayal, it's absolutely disgusting!" "I mean, I should be the one to apologize..." "I was absolutely wrong, I shouldn't have done it, it wasn't fair, it wasn't fair on you." "I didn't mind..." "Didn't you?" "I though you did mind." "I seem to remember you didn't..." "you weren't very fond of my stories." "Well I wasn't, not at first, but I thought you were telling them for us, hey, you know, give me a break, but ah, then I figured you were doing it for yourself, so, that's okay." "You know I didn't mind it." "Strange..." "I thought I..." "I thought I was telling them to you." "I mean, I,..." "I thought you were scared!" "Well that's what you do with the children when they are scared, You tell them stories, I'm sorry, not children." "Well..." "Have you, have you heard from your wife?" "No." "Do you know where she is?" "Yes." "Come on..." "One for the road." "The kid, you sure he's 18?" "Yeah." "Yeah?" "Yeah, look..." "I mean, I know." "He's my son!" "Today, as many of you, will already know, it is my sad task... to have to say goodbye,... to Mr. Tom Crick." "Who after, twenty years as a pillar of our school... is leaving us." "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Tom Crick." "As, Mr. Scott told you I've been teaching here for a long time." "Probably much too..." "Oh, maybe you'd be interested to learn, why I chose, history." "I was in Europe, ah, Germany, right at the end of the war." "The second World War." "I was about your age." "And they were still digging the, the corpses, out of the, the rubble... and, women, and children, and ah, of course, babies." "and the only way that I could cope with what I was seeing, was to think of it... as history, as part of a,... part of a story..." "And not just ah..., bits of meat." "And that's what we've been doing, telling stories,... children." "But there's one story,... we never quite finished isn't there." "Tom Crick, and Mary Metcalfe." "We did it together, did we?" "We ain't got no money, but we can get you something, anything." "You know my old Bill says young Freddie Parr, don't come around no more." "We use whiskey bottles for stuff." "My Bill is missing his bottles." "Anything Martha please." "Martha?" "Mrs. Clay to you boy." "Where's your manners?" "Well girl, you swallow some of this." "No matter if you don't like it, swallow." "Ain't gonna be so much fun getting it out, were putting it in!" "Fetch the kettle." "You're a pretty one ain'tcha." "Well, girl,..." "Martha don't want to hurt you." "But if she do, you just put your hand, over the candle, right over the flame." "Put the kettle there." "Martha's tool kit." "You make yourself scarce boy." "Holy Mary mother god... help us god!" "Holy Mary mother of god..." "And that day I discovered there are many ways the world can end." "As many ways as there are people..." "You've got to do it boy." "No one else..." "In the river boy." "And when you throws it..." "never you look." "It's bad luck if you do." "Then you best get back here." "She doesn't look so good." "May have to take her to the hospital." "And I think too that in one life there can be more than one ending." "It been like that in mine." "But as for what..." "really bothers some of you," "The end of the future, the final end," "How can I help you?" "I can't." "So I'm the same as you now." "Do not expect much from my future, I mean I'm gone, I'm..." "I'm history." "But at your age, Price..." "O..." "At your age!" "You know, sometimes I think all this story telling is a..." "like a disease..." "A disease that I caught a long time ago." "A disease of the fens." "Like influenza." "I caught from my father." "He was a storyteller, and he caught it from his father,... and he caught from..." "back track it went." "Goblins and sprites, and murders." "Will of the wisp." "The headless ferry man..." "Mad woman of the marsh..." "Still it seems to keep my father, going, through his life, telling stories... though they never ended, well." "and there's always, blood and horror, or, sadness and despair." "I said to him once, I said, don't you know any stories that have a happy ending?" "He said: "No... no."" "He said that if I was ever to find one, I should be sure to let him know."