"Each person who tries to see beyond his own time, must face questions to which there cannot yet be proven answers." "Hey, thanks a lot." "Take it easy." "Hey, 'bo." "Hi." "What are you doing, you... boiling coffee?" "Yeah." "That's good." "That's real good." "You hoboing?" "You know, kind of." "I'm trying to get to California." "I'm walking, hitchhiking, and I'm getting there kind of slow." "What's in California?" "My older sister and my brother-in-law in Fresno." "Grapes?" "I said, "Grapes?"" "My brother-in-law works for Sears and Roebuck." "He's gonna get me in there." "I need a job." "Pretty good job, too." " Where do you come from?" " Horseheads, New York." " Yeah, I know where that is." " You've been to Horseheads?" "No, I ain't never been to Horseheads, but I've been to the Finger Lakes district, but that was... a long, long time ago." "Long ago." "Listen, you're going a long way to find a job, ain't you?" "Well, yeah, I..." "Just wasn't anything to keep me in Horseheads." "Except maybe the Scouts." "Well, my mother died July 24th." "Peritonitis." " You were a Boy Scout?" " A scoutmaster." "Troop 170, Horseheads." "What's that?" "Oh, that ain't nothing." " My dog." " What?" "I said, it's my dog." "He's my buddy." "He must be roasting in there." "No, he's not roasting." "He likes it hot like I like it hot." "I'm sorry, I never saw a dog in a bag." " Well, maybe he has to go." " Maybe." "Gee, he's cute." "Yeah, well, he's 14 years old." " Oh, well, he sure doesn't look it." " I know he don't." " What's his name?" " His name is Peke, like in Pekinese." "But he's a Pomeranian, isn't he?" "No, he ain't." "He's a bum just like me." "We're two bums." "How..." "How long you been in this part of the state?" "Oh, almost two weeks." "I got a job on a dairy farm not too far from here." "You know, to make a little extra cash." "I'm a real good milker." "What's your name?" " Willie." " Come here." "Come here." "Now sit down." "Let me tell you something, when you're on the road, see another bum, you meet anybody, you don't tell him you got any money, because, boy, they're liable to kill you to get it." "Why, it wasn't even $10." "That don't make no difference!" "You tell them nothing!" "Yes, sir." "Have you ever seen a house that looked like that?" "Don't look at the hand, look at the house." "Oh, it looks like any ordinary little farmhouse to me." "You see, this is a photograph that I cut out of Liberty magazine." "Now, that's not the exact house, but it sure does look like the one I'm looking for." "Yeah." "I doubt I ever seen it." "All right now, come on, you, sit up." "Sit up for Carl." "You little bastard." "This house, you see, this house has a post in front of it." "On that post there was a sign." "And on that sign it says, "Skin Illustrations."" "Skin Illustration." " Oh, well..." " Listen to me." "You tell me, boy, and you tell me goddamn true." " Have you ever seen a sign that say that?" " No, sir, I never did." " Are you sure?" " I am sure." "I'd remember something like that if I did." "I never saw anything like that." "Honest." " You're sure?" " Oh, yes, I'm sure." "I'm positive, honest." "Well, I'm gonna find it." "I'm gonna find it." "Well, there must be 100 houses like that around here." "I'm only looking for one." "And I'm looking for the lady that lives in it." "And when I find her," "I will kill her." "Oh, yes." "Oh, yes," "I will kill her." "I don't know, you know, sometimes I know where that house is." "Exactly." "I mean, it comes into my..." "Comes into my mind as clear as a bell." "And then I start going there, and then I knew that I'm getting close to it because I can feel it inside of me." "I just know that I'm getting close to it and then..." "Just when I think that I'm there," "the damn thing goes right out of my head." "Maybe she moved." "Yeah." "Oh, boy, she moved." "She moved and she took the whole blessed house with her." "She moved all right." "That was a long time ago." "Long time ago, that was..." "It was on Labor Day." "Tomorrow's Labor Day." "Same as any other day to me." "Well, not to me, it ain't." " That's a garter snake." " Yeah, well, I'm gonna kill it." "Well, it's a garter snake." "Out of the way, I said it's a snake." "I'll kill it." " They're good." "They're not gonna hurt you." " They're not good!" "Come on." "Die." "Die!" "Die!" "Die!" "Get it away from him." "No, no." "Let him eat it." "Do him some good." "Maybe he'll sit up straighter." "They're good to have around." "They weren't gonna hurt anybody." "Wouldn't have hurt you." "They're no good for nothing in any goddamn place in the world!" "It's a snake, ain't it?" "And I tell you what I could use right now, boy." "I could use some good, cheap bourbon whiskey." " You got any of that?" " No." "I love that." "Peke don't like it, but I love it." "Why would you wanna kill anybody?" "You wanna know why?" "All right." "I'll show you why." "Oh, my God." "Well, go on, take a look!" "Wow." "Pretty, ain't they?" "I never saw anything like that." "Well, that..." "That's the most fantastic thing I ever saw." "Is that what you meant by skin illustrations?" "Tattoos?" "They're not tattoos." "They're skin illustrations." "Don't you ever call them tattoos." "Let me tell you, don't you look at those illustrations too long, because they'll come alive and they'll tell you stories." "You remember that lady that I was talking to you about?" "Remember her?" "Well, I tell you what she did for me, she created for me my own private hell." "You see that blank space on my back there?" "See it?" "And now the people look into that and they see the future." "Well, that's all well and good." "But if you want to see your future, you may have to pay a price because you may look in there, see how you're gonna die." "You may look in there and see what you're gonna look like when you're old and rotten and shriveled and mean and through." "Well, people don't like to see that, do they?" "No, they don't!" "So after a while, they don't like me and then after a while, they grow to hate me!" "But didn't you have any doubts about getting tattooed all over like that?" "I wasn't thinking about getting tattooed." "I was thinking about getting laid." "And I told you once before, and this is the last time I am gonna tell you, please, don't ever call them tattoos." "I'm sure I never saw a house like that with a sign like that anywhere around here." "Well," "maybe she went back into the future someplace." ""Back" into the future?" "That's what I said, back into the future." "Maybe 1,000 years." "I was working this two-bit carnival." "I was putting up tents." "Anyway, it was a hot day and there was this lion, he was screaming and there was this elephant, he was answering back." "And I don't know, I was horny that day, I just had to get out of there, so I took myself a little walk." "I walked along and I came to this place." "This house." "And there was a post in front of it." "On that post was a sign, and on that sign it said," ""Skin Illustrations."" ""Skin Illustrations."" "Hello." "Hello." "Well, it's..." "It's kind of hot, ain't it?" "Very." "Well, does it always get this hot around Labor Day?" "Sometimes." "Can I offer you something cold to drink?" "Well, water'd be fine." "I have some lemonade all ready." "Come on in." "All right." "Come on." "Come on." "Nothing satisfies like lemonade when it's real hot like this." "Well, I guess you could say that." "What a magnificently strong hand." "Well, I don't know, I guess it got that strong swinging the big hammer at the carnival." "Carnival life must be very exciting." "I also handle the elephant shovel, and I don't think you could call that exciting." "Come and sit down." " Over there?" " Next to me." "Anyway, that's what I do." "I put tents up and then I take tents down and, well, that's about it." "Anyway... you know, sometimes when they have a heavy day, you see, they let me..." "Hand." "When they have a heavy day, they let me collect tickets." "And then, of course, some days when it ain't too heavy, they don't let me do nothing." "Right there." "In the very center." "I know just what belongs there." "That's when I learned what her name was." ""There's a rose," she said," ""a rose you'll always carry in your hand." ""A rose from Felicia."" "Well, I think the rose is just beautiful." "I haven't seen anything like that even in the circus." "Circus?" "Let me tell you something, son." "There ain't a circus or a carnival in this country touch us with a ten foot pole, you know." "I told you before, these things come alive, and when they come alive, they scare people." "Nobody's gonna hang around and look at them." "And I know they come alive, 'cause, you see," "I can feel them squirming, moving on my back." "I can't hear what they're saying, but, boy, I can feel them moving." "Peke, he don't, well, he don't hear nothing anyway." "With his garter snakes and his little bugs anyway." "But, boy, I know they're there." "I still think the rose is beautiful." "So did I." "So did I." "She knew everything and she had been everywhere." "There's a rose you'll always carry in your hand." "A rose from Felicia." "Come." "Come on." "Come and see it outside." "The colors are so much more alive." "Come on, come over here." "Come here." "Tell me you love it." "I love it." "What's your name?" "My name is Carl." "Carl." "Tell me what you smell right now." "Right this very minute." "What I smell?" "Well, I'll..." "I smell dust and I smell... dry weeds." "Yeah, something else." "Yeah, but I'm, I don't know unless you can say..." " Something else." " Well, I do." "I kind of smell the heat." "Yeah, that's right." "Now try to imagine all those smells somewhere else, not here, somewhere else." "Well, I don't know." "Where..." "I could say where the lions live, down in Africa." "That's right." "Where the lions live, down in Africa." "Right there, Carl." "Right there." "Right there, well..." "I was the one that said it." "Idiot me." "Oh, yeah, right there, where the lions live, down in Africa." "She had lived in the past, and she had lived in the future and she put it all on me." "They're filthy things." "The lions?" "No, not the lions, the stinking vultures in the tree." "I wanted you to see just what I've been seeing every day for weeks." "Well, I've seen it." "Come on, let's go." "What do you suppose they're feeding on?" "I don't know." "Maybe zebra, giraffe." "Something like that." "Come on." "Come on." "Carl, did you hear a scream?" "No." "You didn't hear anything?" "No, I didn't hear anything." "I don't want our children to play here anymore, Carl." "Please turn it off." "It's been the same African veldt for weeks now." "Ever since you and Johnny had that argument." "All right, all right." "I know that, I know that." "It was your idea to install the playroom in the first place, so our children could work off the..." "What was it you called it?" "Natural hostilities?" "I'm sorry we ever bought the damn thing!" "So am I. So am I." "But you're the one that sold me on the free involvement theory, instantaneous atmosphere." "If a child wants anything, wishes it hard enough, all he has to do is flip a switch and there you are." "Well, electronic image or not, I don't like it." " We've got to get rid of it, Carl." " We'll have to talk to the children first." "The children can go in there and think of anything." "The past, the future." "They can think of anything." "It could become destructive." "Apparently, the Minister of Mental Health doesn't share your protective attitude." "Well, to hell with him." "I don't want to experiment with my own children." "All right, then for the time being, we'll consider the playroom out of bounds." "All right?" "Now what we need is a good, stiff drink." "Maybe it's just me." "Just my imagination." "No, it's not you, it's not your imagination." "It's the world we live in." "Everything is done for us." "You throw a glass into the glass incinerator and out comes a freshly molded glass." "What's left for us to do?" "What, the body functions?" "Sleep, sex?" "What's left?" "I don't know." "I don't know, maybe it's the stupid labor laws." "Can't work more than six months a year." "So you mustn't upset the great planned global balance of economy." "Well, that's great for business, isn't it?" "What about the other six months of the year?" "I don't know." "Carl," "make love to me." "Why?" "Well, why?" "Maybe this time it'll be different." " Who is it?" " It's Will McLean." "Caught you both with a drink in your hand." "Don't tell me the sun's already over the yardarm out there in Baltimore." " Hello, Will." " How's it going?" "Oh, putting in my time." "Talking to a lot of sick people." "Hey, listen, I got a breakfast meeting in Havana tomorrow morning." "I thought I might stop off on my way back." " Well, we'll be here." " Can you make it for lunch?" " I'd love to." "How are the kids?" " Great." "Will, Carl doesn't share my concern, but when you come, I'd like to talk to you about a possible problem." " Johnny?" " Yeah, Johnny, I think." "Maybe both." "Listen, how long have you been our Mental Health Counselor?" "Anna was three." "Well, then you know how sometimes her mother, she gets over-excited about something that may not exist." "It's that nursery, Will." "It scares me." "What do you mean, "Uh-oh"?" "Well, what do you mean, "Uh-oh"?" "Well, we've been having our share of problems in that area of The Free Involvement Program." "Hey, look, I'll talk about it with you tomorrow." "Okay?" "Okay." " See you about 1:00?" " Around then. 'Licia." " Be well." " Bye." "Carl, Felicia, we're home!" "The Science Carnival was great!" "That's too far to go alone." "Too far?" "Don't argue with your father." "Get ready for dinner." "We're not hungry." "We ate all kinds of stuff at the Carnival." "We just loved Bermuda." "We're going back again tomorrow." "You're not going anywhere, unless I give you permission." "That goes for you, too, young lady." "Now you go with your mother and get ready for dinner." "Come on." "All I know is that, when I was your age," "I wasn't allowed to attach my space capsule to any navigational beam over 100 miles in distance." "I mean, not until I was over 16 years of age, anyway." "Suppose you had to go 150 miles?" "You just didn't go." "Well, what could they do to you if you did?" "What do you mean?" "If you got caught?" "Yeah." "Oh, they'd revoke your space license." "Did you think that was fair then?" "Since you're asking so many questions, let me ask you a question about that fancy nursery of yours." "I don't know what you're talking about." "I'm talking about Africa and I'm talking about the lions, that's what I'm talking about." "There's no Africa in the nursery." "There isn't, no?" "Well, I think it's only fair to tell you that your mother and I spent a little time in there today." "I don't remember any Africa." "Do you, Anna?" "Go see, Anna." "See what we left on." "She doesn't have to go see." "We've both seen it already." " You're mistaken." " I'm mistaken?" "All right, we're gonna find out who's mistaken." "You come with me, young man." "Come on." "Let's go, and let's go quick." "I've had enough of this now." "Let's go, Felicia." "We'll find out pretty quick who's mistaken." "All right." "Whose idea was this?" "Anna and I play all the time here." " Every day?" " Not every day." " Almost every day." " Almost every day." "I see." "Well, of course, you... do play in the African veldt from time to time though, don't you?" "I think we did once." "A long time ago." "Do you remember how long ago, young lady?" "A long time ago." " Months and months ago." " I see, I see." "All right, I wanna tell you something now." "Your mother and I know that you're lying, you understand that?" " Oh, Carl, leave it alone." " I don't care." "We don't..." "Leave it alone." "All right, go on." "Go get cleaned up." " We're not that dirty." " Go get cleaned up." "Sound waves can't hurt you." "Go on, do as your father says." "Go on." "Well, obviously our children are trying to make fools out of us." "Well, Carl, Will will be here tomorrow." "He'll..." "He'll know what to do." "He's trained to deal with these problems." "Look, I tell you what." "Let them play in here tomorrow if they want to, but don't say anything about Will coming to lunch." "All right?" " All right." " And don't worry." "We'll straighten it out." "It's been like that for weeks now, just the way we found it." "What are they eating?" "I don't know." " Vultures here all the time?" " All the time." "Doesn't feel good, Carl." "What do you mean it doesn't feel good?" "Well, all children get the feeling that their parents are persecuting them, but this goes beyond that." "In what way?" "Well, Johnny and Anna aren't releasing destructive thoughts here anymore." "They're embracing them." "Embracing them?" "There's a point at which fantasy becomes dangerously close to reality." "Carl, rip it down, get rid of it." "I was wrong to recommend it in the first place." "I realize that." "Just get rid of it." "That's Felicia's scarf." "That's my slipper." " The room will hate you if you kill it!" " Now, you stop talking like that, Johnny." " It has feelings, too." "You can't kill it!" " Listen, I'm not killing anything." "It's not a human being." "It's a machine." "A machine you can have if you've got the money to buy it." "That's all it is." "So, now, you stop it!" "Johnny, tomorrow Dr. Will is coming to take us to therapy refuge for a vacation." " Doesn't that please you?" " No, it doesn't." "I like it here." "I'm not going to any creepy place where I have to do everything myself." "Now, you listen to me and you listen to me good, young man." "You talk to your mother one more time in that tone of voice and I'll give you a slap across the face that you'll never forget." " You'd better not." " Don't you talk to me like that!" " Carl, leave him alone." " I don't care." "I'm not gonna have any son of mine talk to me like that in my house." "Now, go to bed!" "Go on, get going." "Oh, I don't know, I don't know." "You don't know what?" "What do you want me to do?" "What are you looking at?" "You're as guilty as he is." "You're both in this thing together and I know it." "Go on, get out of here." "Go on." "When I say go, go." "Leave her alone, Carl." "She's not causing any trouble." "What do you mean she's not causing any trouble?" "This house is loaded with trouble." "The nursery, that's trouble, isn't it?" "Go on, go to bed when I tell you." "Johnny's right!" "I'm certainly glad to get away for a while, I tell you." "The thing I love about Will, he's so understanding." "I guess he is." "I guess he is." "Listen." "Yesterday, before Will called, we were about to come up here and make love." "Do you remember?" "Were we?" "Can I ask you a question?" "Yeah." "How do you feel now?" "No." "Carl, Felicia, come quickly." "Hurry!" "Mommy, Daddy, quick, quick!" "Mommy, Daddy." " Carl!" "Felicia!" "Come quick!" " Carl!" "Felicia!" "Hurry!" "Quick!" "Mommy!" "Mommy!" "Daddy!" "Come quick!" "Hurry!" "Daddy!" "Mommy!" "Carl!" "Felicia!" "Quickly!" "Hurry!" "Morning." "Everybody ready?" "Carl?" "'Licia!" "Where is everybody?" "Johnny?" "Carl?" "Johnny?" "Anna?" "Where are your parents?" "May I offer you a cup of coffee?" "Doctor?" "Oh, my God." "You want a cup of coffee?" " Hey." " Huh?" "May I offer you a cup of coffee?" "Oh, yes, thank you." "I know what you're thinking." "The funny thing is that women usually ask that question before men do." "Well, the answer is yes." "I'm covered with pictures from the neck right down to the toes." "Everywhere, and I mean everywhere." "Yes, sir." "Everywhere." "I remember that lady." "Boy, she had lilacs around her house and in the heat it used to stink to high heaven, and I mean to the high heaven." "Man, they smelled so sweet, they made you dizzy." " Did I tell you about the lilacs?" " No, I don't think so." " I didn't tell you about it?" " No, I don't think so." "They made you puke." " Yeah, you told me about the lilacs." " I thought I did, yeah." "Yeah." "I remember her." "I remember it was about this time of evening and" "I was sitting there and all of a sudden it hit me." "It hit me that I had had enough." "I had just had enough." "I mean, I was..." "Man, I was there with the wherewithal, I was ready, willing and able." "I was more than able." "And then it dawned on me that nothing was gonna happen, ever." "And there I was." "Boy, I was sitting there like a big idiot, with half my body covered in" "skin illustrations." "Skin illustrations." "And all the time, she knew what she was doing." "Well, no more, thank you." "Why don't you sit down and rest for a bit?" "No, thank you." "That last one hurt." "No, thank you." "I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna..." "Rig the midway and" "get ready for the night time rubes." "When you coming back?" "What?" "When you coming back?" "I don't know." "Maybe sometime tomorrow." " You're lying." " I am not." "Don't you ever call me a liar." "I never lie." "I never lie." "When I've finished with you, think of the money you can make." "You'll be more beautiful than anyone on this entire planet, I promise you." " I'd be a freak." " You'd be beautiful." "I would not be beautiful." "I would be a freak." "No, Carl." "You'll be something special." "You'll be beautiful." "You'll matter." "Jesus Christ in heaven, these damn things don't come off." "I'm half a freak now." "Carl..." " Let me finish." " You're not gonna finish nothing." "Did you let me touch you for one second?" "You did not." "What do you think I am, some kind of stupid animal or something?" "You're a man, Carl." "A man." "Never flinch from pain." "Pain is part of everything good." "Lie down." "I'll make you happier than you've ever been in your whole life." "You know what I'm gonna put there?" "What?" "A rocket." "I'm gonna look like the Fourth of July." "That's what I said." "I'll look like the Fourth of July." "What was the reason you didn't leave when you started to?" "Well, why haven't you left?" " Don't you get personal." " I'm sorry." "Now, shut up now!" "Come on now!" "Shut up!" "All you do is make noise in the world." "That's how you handle little things, see?" "You just yell at them and they shut up like a clam." "And that puts them in their proper place." "Man, I don't like little things." "I don't like bugs and frogs and spiders and creepy, crawly things that zing out at you and bite you when you're not looking." "You know what a tick looks like?" "Well, sure." "I've seen ticks." "Yeah, well, they're the worst because they find you no matter where you are." "And they creep up on you and they suck your blood, see?" "Oh, they stink." "They is rotten things." " Yeah, I don't like ticks either." " Yeah, neither do I." "Let me give you a word of advice." "Don't get too personal with me." "Okay." "I didn't mean anything by it." "Yeah, that's enough now." "I don't wanna talk about it no more." "Understood?" "All right, come on, Peke, come on." "It's time to go to bed." "That's a good dog." "Just say your prayers and you get a good night's sleep." "She's..." "She's very beautiful, isn't she?" "You've seen her, haven't you?" "Haven't you?" "Well?" "Haven't you?" "Yes." "Well, now you know." "I'll tell you one thing." "And I told her," ""Lady, you put anything on me," ""and I want it to be big," ""and I want it to have power," ""and I want it to have energy," ""like a..." "A rocket."" "How long have we been here?" "Six days." "Can't be six days." "It's more than six days." "Just six days." "Can't be six days." "It's more than six days." "We've been here longer than six days." "Can't be six days." "It's more than six days." "We've been here longer than six days." "Well, shut up!" "I'm in command here, and don't you forget that." "That goes for the rest of you, too." "Anybody who tries to think on his own is going to get shot down like a deserter." "Is that understood?" "I've been in this situation before and I've survived it." "Why?" "What did you say?" "I said, Colonel, why do you think you have survived any more than we have?" "Yeah, that's good, Williams." "Answer him that one, Colonel." "Because I'm stronger than you are, that's why." "And what about you, Simmons, huh?" "Wanna see how strong I am, how tough I am?" "You wanna push your luck in with these two and see how far you can push me?" "I just wanna get to a Sun Dome, that's all." "He doesn't know where there's one, Sim." "What the hell are we following him for?" "Colonel, you don't know where we are any more than we do." "Why the hell are we following you?" "Will you listen to me?" "Four of us got out of that wreckage alive." "Alive!" "That means something." "That's the big difference." "That means we got a chance to survive." "Now, there's 120 Sun Domes scattered over 1 1 continents on this stinking planet, and if we find one, one Sun Dome, we've made it." "We came through, we survived." "They can get a ship up here and pull us off within a month." "You got a better idea, Simmons?" "Pickard?" "You, Williams, you're so bloody smart, so sarcastic." "Show me the way to a Sun Dome." "Everything's a guess, isn't it?" "Well, I only know one thing." "Keep moving and you keep alive." "That's all I know." "And we're gonna move." "We're gonna follow this stream and we're gonna pray that it takes us to the shore of the Single Sea." "There's one Sun Dome every 20 miles." "If we get there, we've made it and we are alive." "So, on your feet and let's go." "We'll follow the stream and pray it gets us there." "The rain hurts my head." "You put your head in there, it's like a kettle drum." "In three hours you're stone deaf." "Well, a deaf man is a cripple, and I'm not having a cripple on my back." "Get up, get on your feet, and you follow me." "Come on, move out." "There's not enough space between this rain to breathe." "My lungs feel like they're going to split open." "All right, listen to me, listen to me." "Bend your head forward." "Bend your head forward, and try to get the water out of your mouth and breathe deep, come on." "Take a deep breath." "I don't think you're getting us anywhere." "All right." "Shut up." "Keep your mouth shut, save your energy." "Keep talking, that's a convenient way to commit suicide." "You'd like that." "You've been waiting for that, haven't you?" "I said no talking." "That goes for you, too, now." "Yes, sir, Colonel." "Don't talk." " My head." " I said, don't talk." "Come on, come on, come on, no more of this standing here." "It's our ship." "Well, Colonel, here we are, right back where we started from seven days ago." "I could get in there for the map case, Colonel." "You go near the ship, you'll get contaminated." "Forget it." "Without those survival maps, we're never gonna find anything." "You don't think he's gonna admit that, do you, Sim?" "He won't even admit he's been leading us around in circles." " Hey, Williams." " What?" " Let's kill him." " What for?" "Our lives mean nothing to him." "If Sim had listened to him, he'd still be here." "You know, I hate him, Williams." " Yeah, well." " God, I really hate him." "Come here." "Now, what's that?" "What is it?" " A Sun Dome." " That's right." "My guess!" "My guess!" " This is it, isn't it?" " This is what?" "Just means there should be another Sun Dome about 20 miles from here." "How do we know it's not destroyed like this one, Colonel?" "I don't know." "We just hope, that's all." "Pickard!" "Pickard!" "He's trying to drown himself." " Let me go." " It's too late for him." "Even this little bit of shelter is better than none." "It doesn't pound you all the time." "It pounds you, the rain." "I tell you something, Williams." "I'm glad that you made it this far with me." "Not because it's you, but because somebody's with me." "Colonel," "I've got a surprise for you." "I'm deaf." "Why don't you issue me one of your famous survival orders, so I can tell you what to do with it, huh?" "I can't hear you." "Can't hear you, Colonel." "Gone." "Well, damn you, look at my mouth." "Read my lips." "I read your lips, Colonel." "But I can't understand what you're saying." "I don't understand you at all." "Williams, I figure we've only got about 10 more miles to go." "If we get there..." "Look at me." "If we get there, it will be dry, it will be warm." "There will be the sun." "And women." "Women?" "There are old, sexy women just around the corner." "Is that what you're trying to tell me, Colonel?" "Now, tell me, are they whores?" "Space whores?" "That's supposed to suck me in, huh, Colonel?" "Does the Space Manual say, "At last resort, promise your men anything," ""including a gorgeous whore," huh?" "What if, Colonel, what if" "a certain kind of man doesn't want a whore?" "If, in fact, the thought repulses him." "What then?" "Then I'd say..." "I'd say he was a liar." "I'm not a liar." "Do me one last favor, will you, Colonel?" "Go find yourself a nice, private, quiet, lovely" "Sun Dome whorehouse." "You're not a man, Williams." "You're a shit!" "And what are you, Colonel?" "What are you?" "Destroy, right?" "Destroy and command." "Anything." "Anything." "Anything that gets in your way." "Anything that's more refined, more sensitive, anything that loves." "Destroy and command and take over." "And stamp out anything." "Colonel." "Oh, Colonel, you're a rotten breed." "Low, basic, rotten breed." "You destroy." "You'd destroy the world, wouldn't you?" "To survive." "Get on your feet." "And that's an order!" "Get out of here." "Go on, get out of here." "This is my time." "I know it." "And I'm glad I know it." "You wanna know something funny?" "I won't even hear the laser pop." "But you will." "Welcome, Colonel." "Where are you going?" "None of your damn business where I'm going." "You want to hear what happened later on in the night?" "No." "She almost treated me like I were her husband." "Please." "I have to go." "She really got to love them illustrations." "She'd look at them, then she'd begin to study them." "And then she'd laugh." "After a while, she'd begin to touch them all over." "And then, she'd begin to kiss them." "And that made her real happy." "I wanna go." "Go." "What makes you think you can keep me here?" "What makes you think you can go?" "Be quiet, you little fool." "Nobody's talking to you." "Go back to sleep." "She couldn't have wanted you." "You're never gonna find her." "Never." "You're never gonna find her." "Never." "I love you so." "So glad you're back." "Tell me what happened." "There was a final World Forum." "It is as we dreamed, isn't it?" "Yes." "All the male population of the world attended." "It was 2193." "And they all agreed." "They had the same vision, without exception." "Tonight is the last night of the world?" "Tonight's the last night of the world." "Tonight's the last night of the world." "Tonight's the last night of the world." "Tonight's the last night of the world." "How, Carl?" "No one knows how." "But all dreamed of an ending." "As it was in 4187, when the gas cloud covered the earth and the only people that survived were on the highest mountains." "This time no one will survive?" "No one." "That was the unanimous conclusion of the Forum." "How are the children?" "Beautiful, as always." "What did the World Forum rule?" "Peoples of the Earth are reconciled that this is the last night of the world." "And only the children are not to know." "What do we do?" "They're to be spared." "Tell them nothing, then?" "The ruling was that they were spared the dream so they should be spared the experience." "How can they be spared?" "They're to be put to sleep." "Put to sleep?" "Put to sleep?" "They're to be given these at bedtime." "Kill the children?" "Oh, that's impossible." "I don't believe it." "The world's agreed." "Oh, no, never." "Never." "Our children are everything." "They're the future." "There will be no future." "They're all agreed." "They had the same dream." "Nothingness." "No one on Earth had a different dream?" "No one." "I will not kill my children." "We're subject to the ruling." "I don't care about the ruling." "Felicia, all those at the Forum love their children as we love ours." "But none want to see them suffer." "We don't know how the end will be." "Will it be sudden?" "Will it be lingering?" "Will they be burned to death?" "Mommy!" "Father!" "Father's back!" "Oh, Father, we missed you so much." "Is anything wrong?" "No, no, no." "No, nothing's wrong." "It's just that... your mother was so pleased to see your father home, she started to cry." "Sometimes people do that when they're happy, you see." "Now, which one of you rode the animals most today?" " He did." " No, she did." "Wait, wait, wait now." "That's no way to welcome your father home with an argument." "I tell you what." "You..." "You go outside and play some more." "All right?" "Go on." "You're their father, Carl." "Could you kill them?" "It didn't happen." "Carl." "It didn't happen." "You bastard." "You killed them." "You killed your own children." "Shut up." "What the hell?" "Didn't I..." "Well, what the hell are you doing there?" "Boy, I tell you, these days..." "Get over there and get in there." "You give me any more trouble tonight and I'll throw you in the lake." "Don't you come out either, or I'll crown you." "You're evil." "You killed them, didn't you?" "You killed them." "You killed Pickard." "You killed Simmons." "You kill people." "You crummy bastard." "What the hell are you talking about, huh?" "I never killed anybody." "The one person I'm gonna kill, that's the lady, if I find her." "Boy, if I find her, I'm gonna step on her like a cockroach and throw her away like a dog throws away a dead snake." "No, you won't!" "What are you going to do, little boy?" "Go ahead." "Go ahead." "Get down there." "Get down there." "Come here." "All right now, watch it!" "You made love to her, didn't you?" "Didn't you make love to her?" "Why don't you just shut up before I split your skull." "Shut up!" "Now, you listen to me and understand." "You're the one who was curious." "You're the one who wanted to see the future." "So now, you just take it easy, sonny boy." "And you just relax." "And just relax now." "Relax, sonny boy." "It's almost daybreak." "Why don't you lie on my bed and relax?" "I won't be long." "Carl!" "Carl!" "Carl!" "Felicia?" "Did you call me?" "Carl." "Carl." "Felicia!" "Felicia!" "Yeah, you're trying to tell me she didn't come back to the house, huh?" "She took the house with her." "What do you mean she took the house with her?" "I mean that she took everything except the kitchen chair." "She took everything and left one chair?" "Is that what you're trying to tell me?" "She took everything but the kitchen chair." "On it was my clothes and my shoes." "And there it was, standing all alone in the middle of the field." "Where'd she go?" "She went back into the future, beyond our own time." "People don't disappear." "Houses don't disappear." "Nothing disappears." "Well, then you show me the house." "You find me the lady." "You're a liar." "You." "If I'm a liar, where did these come from?" "You've been looking at them, haven't you?" "You watched them come alive, didn't you?" "Didn't you?" " Didn't you?" " Yeah." "Well, who put them there?" "'Cause I didn't." "You think that over, Willie." "Oh, my God." "Each person who tries to see beyond his own time" "must face questions to which there cannot yet be absolute answers." "English"