"Norman." "Norman, it's time to get up." "Morning, honey." "You want toast?" "Here, I'll do this for you." "Thanks." "Get me the butter, will you?" "Sure." " So what's up with Norman?" " What do you mean?" "Oh, I just..." "I walked by his room, and his bed was made." "Oh, we were talking in my room, and he fell asleep." "He was just so tired, poor thing." "Don't you think that's weird?" "No, I don't think it's weird." "It happens all the time." "We just stay up late." " What difference does it make?" " Norman's 18." "He shouldn't be sleeping in the same bed as his mom." "Come on." "You're overreacting." "It..." "He just fell asleep." "It's not a big deal." " All right, fine." " Okay." "I hear what you're saying." " Good." " Here's your toast." "You headed up to the cabin again?" "Yeah, I got a lot to do." "I'm gonna..." "I'm gonna take this and eat it in the truck." "I'll see you tonight." "Okay." "Okay." "Be careful." "Bye, Norma." "Hello?" "Hi, I'm looking for Norma Louise Bates." "Who's calling?" "This is Ryan Pena from the law firm of Hart," "Stebbins, and Pena in Boise, Idaho." "This is she." "Miss Bates, we're the executors of the estate of Francine Calhoun, your mother." "She died on the 17th, and my sincere condolences." "We're working here on the disposition of her estate." " I'm not interested." " Pardon?" "I'm not interested, but thank you for calling." "First day of school senior year." "It sounds horrible." "I know school always sounds horrible, but you'll get used to it." "I don't particularly want to get used to it." " I liked being home all summer." " I know." "I liked you being home too, but you got to go to school." "Besides, it's good for you, you know, meet new people, try new things?" "Oh, by the way, my mother died." "Here's your lunch." "Wait, what are you talking about, your mother died?" "I got a call this morning." "Yep, she's dead, and I'm only telling you this because you might need to know for some legal document some day." "Mother, I'm so sorry." "Are you okay?" "Do you want me to stay home with you?" "No, I'm fine." "Like, I haven't spoken to her in 20 years." "It doesn't mean anything to me." "I don't want to go in." "Oh, Norman." "Sweetie, what happened with you and Miss Watson is all in the past, okay?" "It had nothing to do with you." "No." "I can't." "I'm not going." "Norman, stop being dramatic." "Come on, you're just used to being home, but you got to rip off that bandage and just go." "I'm not going." "Get out of the car!" "Go to school." "It's gonna be fine." "I'll see you later." "I'll sit with you while you have your lunch, sweetheart." "I'm so glad you're back, Norman." "This year, we're starting with the modern poets with TS Elliot." "You'll love him." ""We have lingered in the chambers of the sea" ""with sea girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown till human voices wake us and we drown."" "Fuck!" "It's always beautiful to watch it burn." "How many was that in total?" "27." "27 fields burned down, 43 arrests." "Your town's free of this trash now." "You should be a happy man." "Gunner?" "Dude." "What are you doing up here?" "Remo told me where to find you before he blew town after all that DEA crap went down." "He said you rented this land, told me you could use a hand." "I don't need any help." "He said you'd say that, but I should come anyway." "We'll see." "Mother!" "Mother!" " What happened?" " I was at school." "I was eating lunch alone, and then..." "Tell me." "And then I felt very strange, and I thought that Miss Watson came and sat down next to me and started talking." "I'm sorry, Mother." " Do you think you blacked out?" " I don't know." "It didn't feel like it." "It just all felt very real." "I'm sorry." "I ran all the way here." "Hi." " Hi." " Hello." "I'm looking for a room for a couple nights." "Do you have anything available?" "Yes." "Um, yes, yes, yes, yes." "Of course." "Come on in, please." "Of course." "Let me just get your info." "Uh, what's your name?" " Annika Johnson." " Okay." "And I'll need to see an ID and a credit card." "Okay." "I'm gonna put you in room number four." "Here are the keys." "I'm just gonna take him up to the house." "He came home early from school." "He just wasn't feeling very well." "Um, but I'll be back down later if you need anything." "I usually don't need anything." "Okay, come on." "What you got there?" "It's plans for a barn." "For the motel?" "No, someplace else." "You joining me for lunch?" "No, no, it's just a quick drop-by." "I..." "I thought we'd continue our conversation about, you know, the future of things around here, and I'm gonna have to take a more active role, I think." "Sheriff, look, I think I've had my fill of what it's like to work in the drug business as a boss." "I mean, I just..." "I want to have my own little farm, okay, and be legal about it and help people out who have glaucoma and anxiety." "Thanks." "And..." "And just make enough to get by." "Okay?" "That's..." "That's good enough for me, 99 plants legally with a permit." " I protected you." " I know." " I went out of my way for you." " I know." "No, I really appreciate that." "I do." "Okay, but you know if we're not working together, then I can't protect you anymore." "You know that, right?" "You'll be on your own." "Yeah, but what I'm doing is legal, so that shouldn't be a problem, right?" "It shouldn't be, but doesn't mean it won't." "All right, I'll see you around, Dylan." "Hey." "Is your mom here?" "No, no, she ran to the market." "Can I help you with something?" "Ah, it's just my ceiling light's out." "I can take a look at it for you." "All right." " Excuse me, would you..." " Sure." "Would you hold that while I change the bulb?" "Um... you and your mom seem very close." "Oh, yes, we are." "But, you know, she does have a lot on her plate, and I want to help her, so I..." "Your dad's gone?" "He died in an accident." "I'm sorry." "That's okay." "He, uh..." "It wasn't a good situation." "He wasn't a nice man." "Well, maybe he knew my dad." "Your mom's very lucky to have you." "Yeah, well, she's had a lot of bad breaks, even moving here to start over, and let me tell you, a lot of people around here have not been very nice to her." "And now they're putting this new road in, and we're afraid it's gonna wreck our business." "That sucks." "Yeah, it sucks." "It's..." "Sorry, I shouldn't be complaining." "I shouldn't be telling you any of this." "No, no, that's okay." "It's okay." "There." "So why are you visiting us?" "Work or..." "Well, I could give you the fake story or tell you the truth." "You've been so honest with me." "I work at parties." "What kind of parties?" "Big, expensive parties with a lot of wealthy men at them." "Oh." "Should I not have told you that?" "No, no." "It's fine." "I-I understand." "I'm glad you did." "You seem like a nice girl." "I am." "Thank you for saying that." "Get out of the car!" "It's me." " What do you want?" " I just..." "Stay there." "Look, I followed you up here so I could talk to you." "I didn't want to go to the motel 'cause" "I knew you wouldn't want that." "Talk about what?" "I just wanted to give you something." "My mom... she died, and there's some cash from the sale of the house, and I wanted you to have it." " I don't want it." " Dylan." "I don't want it!" "Get back in the van, turn around, and leave." " Are you sure?" " Yeah, I'm sure." "Leave." "Okay." "I've been thinking about something." "What is it?" "I don't think you need to go to school." "I don't?" "Well, I mean, you need to get your high school diploma, but I looked into it, and you could homeschool." "You'd be okay with that?" "I think so." "I mean, I don't think school's been good for you, and it's also a little selfish on my part." "I want to take a business class at the community college, self-marketing." "You know, we have to be proactive about this bypass happening." "We can't just sit by and lose our business, and so I thought maybe it's time that I gave you a promotion." "A promotion?" "I'm gonna make you motel manager." " No." " Yeah." " Yeah." " Hotel manager?" "Yeah, you would be in charge of everything." "You'd run the motel." "What do you think?" "All right, mother, I'll be motel manager." "I'm gonna go to sleep now..." "Okay." "But I think you should go to your bed." "I should?" "I-I can." "I do it all the time, but..." "Well, it's just that Dylan said something to me that it's not good for you to be sleeping in my bed or on my bed, like, sleeping in here." "What's Dylan got to do with us?" "Well, he's a man, and I'm just your mother." "I don't always know what's good for you in a manly kind of a way." "I mean, you are 18 years old." "So you don't want me sleeping in here anymore?" "No, it's not that I don't want it..." "No, no, you just don't think it's good for me." "Maybe not." " Okay." " Okay." "Goodnight then, mother." "I love you, Norman." "I know." "Shit." "Damn it." "I thought you left." "Yeah, well, where was" "I supposed to go in the middle of the night?" "I drove a couple miles down the road and bedded down." "And now it's day, and you're still here." "Yeah, well, this morning, old Millie wasn't feeling too good." "She started but overheated after a couple of miles." "Hey, you got a spare radiator hose?" "On me?" "On my person?" "No." "Yeah, well, don't worry about it." "I'm sure you got stuff to do." "Nothing more important than making sure you get out of town." "How far a walk is it to the nearest auto parts store?" "It's a ways." "Can I get a ride?" "All right." "Thanks, man." "Did you know I owned Millie, my van, three different times?" "The last time I thought I sold it for good, but when I got back from Costa Rica, my buddy, Tom..." "I don't want to make small talk." "Look, you don't have to be so angry." "What were you expecting?" "I don't know what I was expecting." "It's just..." "It was a bad idea coming here." "I'm full of them." "Now that my mother's gone, I don't have any more family." "That's a strange feeling." "Look, before I leave, I just..." "I had one thing I wanted to say." "What's that?" "I know I'm your dad." "I thought so much about it since I was here." "That's why Norma ran away from home and married that kid from high school." "I now know that's what must've happened." " I don't care." " Look, do you know my mother?" "She was crazy." "I mean, she was literally crazy." "And my dad, our dad, he was the most violent man I've ever known." "There was no place safe for us, for me and Norma," "except with each other." "I'm taking you back to your van." "Sheriff." "Off duty, huh?" "What can I do for you?" "We both just lost our jobs." "Yeah, what with the DEA coming over here and burning up all the fields." "Yeah, well, at least you're not in jail." "That supposed to be funny?" "My understanding was that you were supposed to be protecting us." "And this town." "All right, let me get this straight." "So you both worked in the drug business, and now you're shocked that the DEA showed up?" "This town's been growing weed for nearly 40 years." "You screwed up." "You screwed it up for everybody." "I hope they run your ass out of town." "I wish you weren't a cop." "If I wasn't a cop, what?" "I'd kick your ass, you piece of..." "Hey, Emma." "You're not busy, are you?" "I have something I need to tell you." "Everything okay, Norman?" "Yeah." "Yeah, yeah." "I just..." "You should know" "I'm not coming back to school this year." "Mother's letting me homeschool." "She needs help around the motel." "I've been made manager." "Oh." "Actually, there's something I need to tell you too." "I got some bad news at the doctor." "Are you okay?" "My lung capacity has diminished, like, a lot," "and that's not the reason why I'm telling you, I just..." "I hate to hear that you won't be at school anymore." "I'm sorry, Emma." "I wish I could leave school." "Well, why can't you?" "We could study together here." "Would that be weird if I homeschooled too?" "I don't want you to think I'm, like, copying you or anything." "No, I'd like it." "You were the only reason I liked school anyway." "This is so great." "I mean, if these are my best years," "I want to spend them with you and your mom and Dylan." "I think we should date." "What?" "Will you go out with me, Emma?" "Are you saying this because you think I'm dying?" " It's not imminent." " No, that's not why." "It's just time." " Really?" " Really." "Don't you think?" "It's been time for a while." "Hi, Norma." "Hi, Dylan." "Sit down." "I got to talk to you." "Your grandmother died." "I'm sorry, Norma." "I guess it won't make a difference about anything, but I don't know, I just thought you should know." "You okay?" "It's her hair ribbon." "She used to..." "She used to tell me how she wore it to a dance in high school with a blue dress." "You know that's the only memory I have of her where she sounded happy?" "She gave it to me when I was little, and I-I always kept it." "I-I always hoped that she would be that person again." "What was wrong with her that she wasn't happy?" "I don't know." "She just wasn't healthy." "It was something that was never discussed." "She..." "She took a lot of pills." "I didn't even know where she got them, and she was sedated a lot." "Hey!" "Psst!" "Get out of here!" "Hey." "Norman!" "Get in the house!" "What the hell were you thinking?" "You can't do stuff like this, Norman." "You are the motel manager now." "You can't be skulking around the dark, peering into the guests' bathrooms." "It's not normal!" "You're right." "I'm so sorry, Mother." "It won't ever happen again." "Mother." "Mother." "Mother, I'm sorry." "I'm so sorry." "I was just picking up trash that some raccoon got into, and I saw her through the window." "I didn't mean anything." "I know it was wrong of me, but it's nothing more than what it looked like." "I'm not crying because of that." "I'm crying because my mother's dead." "It's stupid." "I didn't even really know her." "I think that I am just grieving because I never had a mother." "And now you're growing up." "Maybe growing up, but I'm not going anywhere, okay?" "You know that, Mother." " I love you." " I love you too." "I'm gonna slide over a bit." "Why?" "I just thought you were gonna lay down just for a minute." "Oh, well, I thought we weren't doing that anymore." "Just for tonight, because I'm so sad." "Move over, you silly woman." "Hey, dude." "Hey, did you know your uncle knows all about construction?" "No, I didn't." "He's built houses and a couple barns in Costa Rica." "How lucky is that?" " You were leaving." " Yeah, that's true." "But the van..." "It wasn't the rad hose." "It needs another part." "They ordered it for me, so it should be here tomorrow or the day after, latest." "So you decided to drive back up here?" "That's bullshit." "Whoa." "Take a walk, Gunner." "All right." "How do you expect me to have a relationship with you under the circumstances?" "Norma never has to know I'm here." "Please." "You're my son." "Just let me be with you a little while." "I won't ever ask you for anything beyond that." "It looks like we can take all the same classes." "We have a quiz in English next week." "We better get started." "I'm excited." "This is gonna be fun." "It's very empowering." "So, uh..." "So how are we gonna do this?" "Homeschooling?" "We're just gonna sit here..." "No, dating." "Well, I guess we're just gonna go places together like a normal date." "Yeah." "I've never been on a date." "Never?" "What about Bradley?" "We never..." "We never dated." "You know, that's, uh... yeah, that was something different." "Well, if you accomplished all that without dating, and may she rest with God," "then you should do just fine on a date." "Hello?" "Hi, may I help you?" " Um..." " Oh, Emma, this is..." "This is Annika, room four." "Nice to meet you." "That's a beautiful dress." "Thank you." "I'm wondering, could you tell me where a restaurant called Olive and Anchor is?" "I looked it up online, but I can't quite figure out how to get there." "It's in the village." "It's very nice." "Yeah, but it's a little bit hidden." "It's down one of the side streets." "It's, uh..." "Well, actually I, uh..." "I have to go into town anyway to pick up that new thermostat for room seven." "So, um, I was gonna walk, but why don't I drive with you and show you where it is, and then I can walk home." "That's very nice of you, Norman." "How can I say no to that?" "You can go now?" "Yeah." "I'm the manager." "Um, I'll be back in an hour or so." "It was nice to meet you." "Shall we?" "So you're working?" "Is that where you're going?" "It's a kind of work." "Why do you do this kind of work?" "You know how your mom takes care of you?" "I didn't have that luxury, so I'm doing this to get some money saved and make a living, that's all." "I'm sorry." "Don't be." "I'm fine." "It's just people..." "People's bodies." "Once you start touching somebody's body, the rest of it just kind of melts away, and then you're just there, two bodies." "Sometimes it even feels good." "It's just sex." "Sex is sex." "We all need it." "Do I turn up here?" "Not..." "Not here, no." "Not yet." "Turn down that road up ahead."