"Madame?" "Pain!" "Injection!" "Getting Goforth on the phone!" "Shove the phone!" "What I want Goforth on, is film and tape." "You idiot birdbrain, get your butt on the boat." "How did you get aboard?" "I, uh, just missed the boat she sent for me." "You know Goforth?" "If you're a friend of Goforth's, you can pay your passage by getting her to see us." "They say she's a bitch to approach." "How well do you know her?" "Well, it's been some time since I've seen her, but ... well, actually, I... a-actually, I know her quite well..." "Off!" "Bloody bitch of the world!" "Mrs. Goforth!" "Another one of their goddamned village delegations..." "Rudi!" "Buon giorno." "Basta, basta!" "Does one of you speak English?" "Yes, I speak enough." "Signora, we have come here because of the widow of the man you killed here." "The widow of this young man, does have no money to live." "The widow of that ladro - robber - will be given money to leave this island." " Quando?" " Uh, Quando?" " Quando." "When she gets on the boat with her fantastic lies - then, then is when!" "Then!" "Mrs. Goforth!" " Where was I?" " "The prince said to me..." "Oh, yes." "The, uh, prince said to me," ""Madame Goforth, your exact origins are a mystery to all of us."" "And I said to the prince," ""Without champagne, my origins are a mystery even to me," ""but I think it's safe to assume that I originated in the womb of my mother," ""with some assistance from a father unknown," ""on a day unknown, of a year unknown."" "Mrs. Goforth!" "My name has been in lights since scarcely more than a child." "Then marriage to five industrial kings, all who had vast fortunes, which, according to the looks of them they deposited in their bellies." "A pyramid of tycoons." "But then, after them, is once love." "My sixth and last marriage was to a young poet, light as a bird, who had a passion for altitudes far above sea level." "Mrs. Goforth!" "No interruption!" "In these pictures, which I'd like reproduced at this point in my memoirs, he's shown preparing to climb a mountain, down which he fell to his death." "Five thousand feet down to his death in a field of snow." "My heart fell with him, and was shattered, as he was." "How in hell can I work with those goddamned dogs of Rudi's barking up a storm?" "Go tell Rudi to either shoot them or shut them up!" "Rudi!" "Call your dogs off him before they tear him to pieces!" "hurry up, play golf." "Play golf." "Did they hurt you much?" "Well, I'm alive." "Mrs. Goforth!" "What does the sign on the beach say?" "'Private property, keep out.'" "Just 'keep out'?" "Not 'beware of dogs'?" "Says nothing about dogs." "Go down there right away and put up a 'beware of the dog' sign, in three languages." "And Arabic." "If that man's gonna sue me I'll have to prove that there was a 'beware of dog' sign." "Move, move, quick!" "Mrs. bloody Goforth!" "He's out there shouting my name as if he knew me." "Would you do something for me?" "Would you tell Mrs. Goforth that Mr. Christopher Flanders is here to see her?" "Oh, yes, and, uh..." "and give her this book, and tell her that I wish to see her." "And don't mention the dogs." "Just say that I..." "climbed the mountain," "and I'm tired." "Very tired." "Man bring this up road." "Man dogs bite?" "Yes, this brings up mountain." "Man resemble this photo?" "Yes, this man." "Go out and tell" "Vada fuoir e dica..." "Blackie!" "Tell him to go out and say that I'm terribly upset about the accident with the dogs, but I want to know why he came here." "And that I am not responsible for anyone that comes here without an invitation." "No, I will not." "Ha, you will." "I can't give a man nearly killed by dogs such an inhuman message." "What's human or inhuman is not for human decision;" "now you get out there and interrogate him!" "Now, you put some questions to him." "Such as, what he wants here." "If you get the proper answers, put him up in the little pink villa." "Tell him I'll see him after my siesta." "Lord knows I could use some male companionship." "Sorry, I forgot to warn you." "It's mountain spring water." "God, it's cold." "Brrr." "What's all this metal for?" "Well..." "I'll, uh..." "I'll, uh..." "I'll show you." "This one actually has a title." "It's called "The Earth is a Wheel in the Great Big Gambling Casino"." "I'd like you to show it to Mrs. Goforth as soon as possible." "You see, I, uh, I want to please her as soon as I can, as much as I can." "Perhaps it'd be a good idea if you hung it in the wind... so that it would show to best advantage." "I heard" " I was told - that Mrs. Goforth hasn't been feeling too well lately." "Mrs. Goforth is a dying monster." "Seems to think her legendary existence couldn't go on for less than forever." "Insists that she's only suffering from bursitis, neuritis..." ""Itis" this, "itis" that, this "itis", that "itis" - anything but death-itis." "Does she... does she remember meeting me?" "She inspected you through her owl window and seemed to like your looks, so I think you're in for a while." "Ah... well, tell me, what will be my program after I've woken up?" "Don't you make out your own programs?" "Oh, well, not when I'm visiting." "Is that much of the time?" "Well, you might describe me as a professional houseguest." "You like that thing?" "Very much." "Why don't you keep it." "Thank you, but I couldn't." "I'd better go now." "Oh, uh.." "I wonder... would it be possible..." "could you get me a bite to eat?" "I'd especially like a glass of milk." "I'll tell the cook." "Thank you, you're the kindest person I've met in a long time." "What are you grinning about, what's so funny, huh?" "Stronzi!" "Stronzi, che stronzi!" "You mustn't call them that." "It has a very insulting meaning." "I know what it means, Miss Black, and that's what I meant it to mean." "Now tell them to bring the table over here, so I can put my chair in the shadow when I want it in the shadow." "My skin's too delicate to be in the sun for more than half-hour intervals." "Now tell them what I want put on the table:" "a cold bottle of mineral water, suntan lotion, cigarettes, codeine tab, a bucket of ice, a glass, a bottle of brandy, my newspapers." "The Paris Trib, The Rome Daily American, The Financial Times," "The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Express." "What's that goddamned thing?" "Something he gave me to give you." "It seems he makes mobiles." "Does he seem like some kind of a nut case to you?" "No." "Help me up, will you?" "The sun's making me dizzy." "Oh- god damn, you... broke the skin with my ring." "Bring a telex report out to me." "Ow!" "Shit on your mother!" "God damn it, I'll sign myself into a criminal institution!" "What does this Manders" " Sanders have to say for himself?" "His name is Christopher Flanders, and he wondered if you remembered him or not." "Well, I may have met him sometime, somewhere." "When I used to like to meet people." "Before they all seemed to become the same person over and over again, and I tired of that person." "Blackie... you know what I need to get me over this depression this summer?" "What would do more good than all the shots and pills in the pharmaceutical kingdom?" "I need myself a lover." "What do you mean by a lover?" "I mean a lover." "What do you mean by a lover?" "I've only had one lover - my husband Charles." "He died last spring." "Yeah, last spring... it beats me how you could have a husband named Charles and not call him Charlie." "Hmm, mixed market with light trading..." "Did he take a bath without resistance?" "He seemed happy to bathe." "Did you hang around and have a look at him in the bathtub?" "Naturally." "Yes, of course." "Well, I would've looked." "I'm not a child of nature, as you say you are." "Pity..." "The only clothes he as are the ones the dogs demolished, so I suppose you'll have to provide him with something to wear." "I'll provide him with something to wear." "That should be an interesting costume for him." "Robe of a professional Japanese warrior." "Put that in the pink villina." "Oh, wait." " With the sword?" " Heheh..." "Yeah, why not?" "A man has the right to defend himself if he wants to." "Now, do that, and do this:" "Call the uh, Witch of Capri." "The one that wired me last month, "Are you still living?"" "Say I've never been better, and to come here for dinner this evening." "And that it's urgentissimo." "And that I'll dispatch a boat around sundown." "Urgentissimo..." "like everything else this summer." "The bitch would have me over here at high tide so's that I should get up there looking like a bit of seaweed..." "Well, no comment?" "hurry up" "The Witch of Capri has landed." "Hey, what's this third place at the table?" "Are you having dinner with us?" "No, thank you." "Well, who's the third place reserved for?" "The man in the pink villa." "I thought he'd be dining with you." "Well, you thought wrong." "He's having no meals with me till I know more about him." "The Witch should be able to give me the lowdown on this mountain climber." "Yahooo, yahoooo -- yahooo." "Sissie!" "Billy!" "Uh... don't tell me we're going to have a Chinese dinner!" "This isn't a Chinese costume, it's a Kabuki costume." "That so..." "Yes, it's, um, some centuries old." "Hmm- don't you feel ancient in it?" "Hahaha..." "No... no, no, no, no." "Actually, I studied Kabuki once." "That's right, I became quite good at it." "Is that so?" "Umm." "I was the guest artist at a relief thing for... tycoon, or typhoon victims." "I can still do... watch " "Haha" " I have a touch of, er, neuritis tonight." "I'm suffering too, Sissie." "The sea is full of medusas - you know, those giant jellyfish that sting." "One of them got me today." "Ah- what did he do with you, or would you rather not say?" "Have a gull's egg, Bill." "Oh, no, I can't stand gulls." "We eating their eggs cuts down on their population." "What is this monster of the deep?" "It has a very horrid expression." "Well, don't look at it." "Eat it." "I couldn't possibly." "Are you still living on blood transfusions, Bill?" "Not good, turn you into a vampire." "Your neck's much too thin, Billy love." "Is it true that you had all those monkey glands or shots, or whatever they are in Switzerland?" "I don't approve of it." "It keys you up for a while, and then you have a complete collapse." "What did they say at the hospital, Sissie?" "I just went into the hospital for a regular checkup." "The doctors were disgusted with my good health." "When you called me this morning, I was so relieved I could die," "I shouted a silent "hallelujah" to myself." "I've heard some very disturbing rumors about you, Sissie." "Rumors?" "Such as what rumors?" "I love you too much to repeat them." "Repeat them." "Astonish me with them." "Well... this party you had over from Capri..." "Last month went back to Capri... babbling about poor Sissie." "They said they couldn't sleep here because you spent the whole night shouting over loudspeakers and pressing electric buzzers." "Capri has turned into a nest of vipers, and the sea is full of medusas, and the medusas are spawned by the witches." "Male and female." "The kind that have little forked tongues in their mouths, like lizards." "I shall tell you truth, if you should care to hear it." "I am writing my memoirs over a very elaborate intercom system to my secretary, Miss Black." "And that is the truth of the story." "Has it ever occurred to you that life is all memory?" "Except that each present moment goes by so quickly you can hardly catch it?" "Ha-ha, now, don't depress me." "Oh, no, look - watch..." "I walk." "When I was there, is a memory." "I take another step." "Where I was before I took the other step is a memory, Bill." "Now watch - watch:" "I walk to the end of the terrace." "I come back." "When I was at the end of the terrace is a memory now." "Look!" "A shooting star." "Shot!" "It's a memory." "All husbands, all lovers... are a memory now." "You seem very wrought up, dear." "Today when I was dictating to Blackie the story of the one great love of my life, my marriage to a wildly beautiful and beautifully wild young poet named Alec." "He loved mountain climbing, fast cars, roulette, and me." "We'd begin our day at sundown." "He'd get out of bed and put on the robe of a Samurai warrior, with the sword belt and the sword, and I'd jump out of bed as naked as he, and pick up a little pearl-handled revolver." "Then we'd threaten each other." "I'd say, "Surrender your sword or I'll shoot you!", and he'd answer, "Put down your pistol or I'll chop off your head!"." "What fun!" "Oh, yes." "Yeah." "But the point is," "Today, while I was describing Alec, the poet and mountain climber, another poet climbed the mountain to see me." "He, uh, he sent this book to me." "to identify himself." "His picture's on the frontispiece." "What, Christopher Flanders, still in circulation!" "Well, God help you, Sissie." "I don't want to go into any terrifying details, but Christopher Flanders has the unfortunate reputation of calling on a lady just a step or two ahead of the undertaker." "Why, just last summer he was staying with some Texas oil people, not in the best of health, but in the worst," "Well, one night at dinner that wicked old Duke of Parma - we always called him the Parma Violet - poured a bottle of champagne over Christopher's head, and said," ""I christen thee Christopher Flanders, the Angel of Death." "Il angelo de la morte."" "And the name has stuck to him, Sissie." "I'll tell you more:" "When the Texas oil lady found out why the Parma Violet had given poor Chris that name, she was thrown into a panic, and told him he must check out the first thing next morning." "Well, that night he swallowed some sleeping pills, Sissie." "He's done this before." "We called it a sleeping trick." "And it is a trick, because Chris always tells a servant wherever he's staying to call him early in the morning so that he can get on the road." "Consequently, you see, he's always found and revived, before the pills can be fatal." " Bill, follow me." " Where to?" "The pink villina." "He's been asleep ever since he's been here." "I think he may have been playing his sleeping trick on me!" "Now, be quiet." "Shhh!" "Breathing and pulse, normal." "Good color." "Seems to be sleeping naturally." "What the hell is that?" "Many years ago I had a call in New Orleans, a particularly elegant gentleman know as 'Cher'." "who would never go out in the evening without a little vinaigrette like this filled with ammonia." "And whenever he saw a girl approaching along the sidewalk," "He would cry, "Poisson, poisson", means fish, you know, dear, and hold the little cut glass decanter to his nostrils until the girl had passed by." "Be that as it may, I've always found girls to be fragrant... in any phase of the moon." "Pronto, dica." "Sicily?" "I didn't place any phone call to Sicily." "How do you like that?" "He's making long distance-telephone calls." "And what's that - a tray of food." "If there's anything I can't stand, it's a houseguest, especially one who hasn't been invited, you views your house like a hotel, charging long distance telephone calls, calling up room service." "Pain... awful..." "Injection." "Oh... oh, God!" "Yoohoooo" " Sissie..." "Sissie!" "Yoohoo..." "Chris..." "Chris, Chris..." "Where were you?" "Sissie!" "She's disappeared!" "She's left me, she's lost." "Woo-woooo" "You're drunk." "Woo-woooo!" "I don't understand bird language." "No, don't go out." "Don't go, stay!" "Pain gone till tomorrow..." "Hello?" "You still prowling around here?" "Well, I..." "I just woke up hungry." "What're you hungry for, huh?" "You want some of this?" "You hungry for this?" "How does that feel, does that feel good on your stomach," " you want some more of that, do you?" " What's going on here?" "Oh, he's got the dry heaves, Blackie" "He's Mrs. Goforth's guest, you drunk gorilla, now get off the terrace!" "Mr. Flanders, what happened?" "Thank you." "I'm lucky that you were..." "not asleep." "I don't sleep much this summer." "I couldn't find any clothes when I woke up, so I put on this strange robe." "I think I'll take off this sword." "I would keep the sword on at all times while you're here." "Don't I, uh, don't I look frightening?" " No, but..." " You look frightened." "Last spring I lost my husband." "What are you--?" "It's wrong?" "I'm going to do two simple things for you:" "First I'm going to put this picture of your husband in the drawer, and I'm going to put away your sleeping pills." "In the drawer." "Now... one more thing:" "I think you're taking unfair advantage of" "Of a... chance situation?" "Yes, and you're using" "Tricks?" "Wrong." "Wrong." "Wrong." "No, right!" "Blackie!" "Oh, it's her!" "She wants to give me dictation." "I can't." "Yes?" "Yes, Mrs. Goforth." "It's night." "Late at night." "Yes, it's late Mrs. Goforth." "Don't answer me, this is dictation!" "Don't interrupt me." "This is clear as a vision." "The death of Harlon Goforth." "Remembered, just now, clearly." "Clear as a vision." "It's night." "Late, late night." "Without sleep." "And I, scarcely more than a child, am in bed with the great Harlon Goforth, whose name I still carry after five later marriages." "The great Goforth, king of munitions, a gentleman." "A warlord who monarchs and presidents place next to their wives at banquets." "In bed... all dignity gone." "A powerless thing without shame." "Now... he mounts me again." "He's crushing me under the awful weight of his body." "He mounts me again." "He's trying to make love, he never could." "He stops suddenly now." "He whispers, "Baby, I have a pain." "I have a terrible pain in my head."" "Silently I say to myself, "Oh, thank God", but aloud I say, "Tablets?" "You want-- you want tablets?"" "Harlon." "What is it, Harlon?" "He answers me with a grunt, with a groan." "I look at Harlon." "I see death in his eyes." "I see, I know " "He has death in his eyes, but he has something worse in them:" "Terror!" "He has terror in his eyes!" "I see it." "I feel it myself." "I get out of the bed." "I get out of the bed as if escaping from quicksand." "I don't look at him any more!" "I move" " I move away from the bed." "I move from the bed." "I move from death!" "Terror!" "I leave him with, It's him, it's him!" "It's not" "I go straight to the door." "To the door, yes." "Wanting escape." "The door" "It's closed!" "I can't open it!" "I leave him alone with his death, his" "I've got out!" "I've got out now." "I'm on the terrace, 25 stories high, above the high, high city of Goforth." "I see lights blazing below the high, high city, but there's not a light blazing, no, not one," "not a light blazing as bright as the terror in his eyes!" "Ohh, wind-- cool wind, clean." "Release!" "Relief!" "Escape after the night after night weight of the impotent-- crushing me, weight of the-- dead?" "No." "Behind me now-- body of Goforth!" "Goforth!" " Goforth!" "Die!" " Mrs. Goforth!" "Don't move!" "I'm lost, I'm blind!" "I'm dying." "Oh, Blackie, don't leave me alone!" "Don't leave me alone!" "Blackie, don't leave me alone." "Still here?" "The air's turned cold." "Church bells are waking up." "Yes." "Taking off my sword." "Everything you say or do is like you're playing a game." "Games can be honestly played." "Hot sun, cool breeze, white horses on the sea, and a big shot of vitamin B in me." "Now" " I want to begin this chapter on a more serious note:" "The meaning of life." "Pictures now?" "What's he pushing that thing out here for?" "Looks like a baby buggy for a baby from Mars." "It's just a portable X-ray machine that your doctor in Rome sent here, to spare you the trouble of going back there for another examination." "Examination for what?" "Later." "A little later." "Leave that here!" "And get your fat ass and your sneaky grin off this terrace!" "Out!" "Down!" "Go!" " Shall we call it a day?" " Hurry up." "Begin!" "Continue dictation." "Meaning of life." "Monkey off balcony!" "Remove it!" "Breakfast?" "There's nothing out here but black coffee and saccharin tablets." "But soon as I get a chance, I'll raid the kitchen for you." "Sooner or later, a person's obliged to face the meaning of life." "Dictation?" "No, no." "Reflection." "I'll raise my hand when I begin dictation." "I've often wondered about -- wondered more, lately-- what the hell are we doing?" "Just going from one goddamed frantic distraction to another." "Tell finally one too many goddamed frantic distractions lead to... disaster!" "Blackout." "Eclipse of, total of, total... sun?" "There's a fog coming in." "Do you see that over there, that fog coming in?" "Why, no." "It's perfectly clear in all direction today." "Excuse me." "Blackie, will you kindly or unkindly" "Yes, immediately!" "Meaning of life, what is it?" "Oh, ho... no wonder." " Banzai, samurai." " You're the kindest person I've ever met." "Yeah." "Er, sorry, I seem to have disturbed you in your work." "This day's work is shot to hell!" "Blackie, what's the matter with you?" "Manners." "I have them too." "Yeah." "I guess they're epidemic." "Blackie?" "You've had the pleasure of meeting this gentleman." "I haven't." "Blackie, will you introduce me to him?" "I was hoping you'd remember our meeting, Mrs. Goforth," " I'm Christopher Flanders." " That I had suspected." "No, no, I don't go in for hand kissing." " Well, it was in, er..." " Yes?" "Name a date." "Mrs. Fergusson's table at the ball..." "Did you come out for battle with that sword on you?" "Well, not unless I run into those black devil-dogs again." "Ah, yes." "I heard about your little misunderstanding with the dogs." "I'm sorry if it disturbed you, but their bite was worse than their bark." "Well, didn't you read the 'private property' sign in three languages?" "The 'beware of dog' sign in three languages, as you climbed up that goat path?" "I didn't notice any reference to any dogs in any language." "Naturally not." "The 'beware of dog' sign was put up after Mr. Flanders' little misunderstanding with the dogs." "Blackie, that is not so." "Yes, it is so, I was in the room with you when you ordered that" "Blackie, you were not hired this summer to contradict me!" "I've never been hired for a job that called for supporting falsehood." "Miss Black, it's obvious that I trespassed on private property," " it's, uh- it's quite true." " That is true." "It is true." "If that true statement is typed up" " Blackie, type it up - would you be willing to sign it, Mr. Flanders?" "Yes, certainly, of course." "He was attacked again last night." "What, the dogs attacked him last night?" "Your watchman Rudi attacked him when he woke up hungry and came out" "Blackie, get off this terrace!" "I try to help you, I try to feel sorry for you because you're" "What?" "What am I?" "Allright." "Go on, it's all right." "I've been surrounded by traitors all summer!" "Dio!" "I, Christopher Flanders, agree that I entered a gate called 'private' at my own risk, and that the encounter with the dogs was my own responsibility." "Chris Flanders." "Unscrew that bottle." "One tablet?" "Two." "Thank you." "Blackie... the boss is sorry she took her nerves out on you." "It's those nighttime injections, I guess." "Oh, God, Blackie." "Some awful things crawled up the mountain this summer, and I've gotta shove it off like I did that baby buggy from Mars, it scares me." "Maybe... it just could be... possible that... the boss is... dying... this summer, under that angry old lion, the sun... and the... the... unsympathetic, insincere, sympathy of the far-away... stars." "You have a good pair of legs on you." "I mean, under you." "I find them very useful for climbing mountains." "You've good teeth, too." "I'd love to sink them into some hot, buttered toast, Mrs. Goforth." "Oh, no, no toast, no-no, thank you, but I..." "I" " I never have anything solid or semi-solid for breakfast, because I find it takes the edge off my energy for work." "Now, I began today's dictation with a serious comment on the meaning of life." "Oh?" "Then you came out on the terrace." "Well, if I distract you, Mrs. Goforth, I'd be delighted to go into the kitchen" " and make myself a bite of breakfast." " No, have some coffee with me." "Ah." "With cream and sugar." "Well, we have no cream, but, um... do have a saccharin tablet, Mr. Trojan Horse Guest." "Ah, yes, well, it was in the Waldorf Astoria some years ago-- quite a few-- you said that whenever I was in Europe I should stop in and see you." "Ah." "Well, uh, passports expire, and so do invitations." "How about a little piccolo passaggiato?" "That means little walk." "I was hoping you'd show me your... kingdom." "We'd better got no further," "I'm frankly scared of a cliff without a balustrade." "You won't be scared with me beside you." "Come, I'll show you." "No!" "No, turn back, I don't know you!" "If I were a doctor, and you were my patient," "I would make a little note in your files:" "the fearless lady's subject to fits of unreasonable panic." "Have I... changed much since you last saw me?" "Why, no, not at all." "People are always amazed at how little I change." "Hurry." "Who?" "What?" "I've paid you several compliments." "Now it's time you paid me some, huh?" "Yes." "Well, I've never in my life met anybody at all like you." "You bet you haven't." "You stay around here, you're in for a lot of surprises, mister." "Because when I return to this mountain every summer, I shed." "I throw off all social conventions, shams and proprieties of behavior." "I live in absolute naturalness of nature." "And if it shocks anybody?" "Too bad." "Goodbye, anybody." "I give not a tinker's damn." "Yes, I pop out with things unexpected, and I do anything I have an urge to do." "Some people... can't take it." "Ok, then - goodbye, some people." "Mrs. Goforth, some people - most people - get panicky when they're not cared for by somebody." "I get panicky when..." "I've nobody to care for." "Yeah?" "Is that so?" "You seem to be setting yourself up as a saint of some kind." "Yahoo-oo." "Yahooo." "Oh, God..." "Why, it's Christopher, Christopher Flanders." "I think I saw you last night." " What's this?" " He must've been dreaming about me." "Yeah, having a nightmare." "How is it you missed the return trip to Capri last night?" "Oh, last night." "What confusion." "Chris - where was it I last saw you?" "I know - that party those Texas oil people gave in Portofino." "You were staying with them." "And you were terribly depressed over the sudden death of" " Yes." " What's that curious costume you're wearing?" "It's a Samurai warrior's outfit." "Better watch the sword, Bill, he might chop off your head." "The chopping of a head is a sure cure for a tongue that's too big for a mouth." "Something dreadful happened, and you were involved in some way." "I can't remember the details." "Let him forget!" "Yes, it's best forgotten." "Are you leaving us, Sissie?" "Yes, Mrs. Goforth." "I originated in the womb of my mother," "How did this happen?" "The Witch spent the night here!" "He's out there now, putting the make on the poet." "Call the boatman!" "He's going straight back to Capri whether he knows it or not!" "Going?" "Going?" "You're going?" "No, I mean Sissie." "She's going." "Going..." "It's ghastly." "Do you intend to stay here?" "Well, if invited I'd like to stay." "You've been foolish too long." "The years you devoted to that Ferguson bitch, and what did it get you?" "She had you." "You were had." "And she left you with nothing, I'll bet;" "otherwise you wouldn't be here at poor Sissie's, wearing one of her mad, Oriental costumes." "Go, quickly, before she dies and the talk about you starts all over again." "Don't make me say things about you that I'd rather not say." "What could you say about me that hasn't been said?" "You're the heart of a world that has no heart." "The heartless world that you live in." "Has that ever been said about you before, Mr. Ridgeway?" ""Barone", Mr. Death Angel Flanders..." "Ah, yes... we both have new titles." "Sally, Laurie, Phyllis, Emerald, Sissie..." "Time for death, old girls!" "Beddy-bye." "Beddy-bye, old girls!" "The Death Angel's with you." "No dreams." "Now, now, now" " No violence." "My heart pumps blood that isn't my own blood, it's the blood of anonymous blood donors." "And as for the world I live in, you know it." "You've lived in it." "Oh, Chris, come to Capri." "It's a mountain too." "Are you frightened of the new nickname they've given me, the new title, Angelo de la Morte?" "No, I think it's a joke you take too seriously, you've become too sullen." "Let me take that curse off you." "Come to Capri." "Bill?" "The boatman is waiting for you." "Mr. Flanders, get off that balustrade!" "If you lost your balance, you would fall one thousand feet down!" "I can't go back in a dinner jacket before sundown." "Oh, yes, you can." "Frankie, put this 'gentleman' in the funicular, and speed him back to Capri in a speedboat." "Chris, come down and help me, I'm being evicted, haha." " Be brave, Sissie..." " Brave about what?" "!" "Heheh, you two watch out for each other." "Ciao..." "Would you care if I fell a thousand feet to the sea?" "It would make a scandal." "Mrs. Goforth " "I'm going to tell you the truth about myself, if you'd like to believe it." "The truth about yourself, I think, is the only thing I would believe." "Boom." "I had an invitation to visit a lady who lives on top of Ravello." "I wired her that I'd arrived." "She sent me a wire back." "What the wire said was this:" ""Not yet." "Not ready for you yet, dear Angel of Death."" "Ridiculous!" "Hmm." "An inconvenience, since I'd, uh" "Since you'd invested all your income in this standing invitation that had stopped... standing." "Banzai!" "Stop this, this... exhibitionism, or I shall put an immediate stop to this meeting!" "I usually let a man know when I want to be kissed." "And it's not so quickly." "Blackie!" "There." "It's moving again." "Fearless lady subject to fits of unreasonable panic." "When the villa and the villinas are overcrowded," "I pick out the ones I want to get rid of and send 'em down here, to my charming little grass house on the beach." "Down they go, and what becomes of them I do not know." "No skeletons in here!" "Get back in your robe!" "Put your clothes on!" "I can't take the beach today." "You've got more things going for you than your teeth, baby." "What've you got there, Blackie?" "Some food for Mr. Flanders." "Oh, Blackie's so-o thoughtful sometimes..." "Put it down over there." "I said, over there, not here!" "And bring my menthol inhaler and tissues, I've run out." "Simonetta!" "Simo-netta!" "Take that tray away, I can't stand the sight of food now." "Mrs. Goforth, I feel my presence here has disturbed you, annoyed you." "Don't reach for a smoke!" "Wait till I offer you one." "May I have one?" "Kiss me for it." "Mr. Flanders keeps looking at my jewels, as if calculating their value." "And he's constantly fiddling with that sword." "Oh." "The sun's left the terrace." "I have, what the French call, droit de domain, which means 'complete dominion' on this island." "And freedom to do whatever's necessary to protect myself and my possessions from any and all possible threats." "That should make you feel safe." "Safety is something I never take for granted." "I suppose you, um..." "dine out here, just about the time when the little boats are going to sea with their lamps, for night fishing, and the poem's sea fades into the poem's sky." "Sky?" "Not 'firmament'?" "Why not call it 'firmament', much more poetic." "Hey!" "How many books of, uh..." "poetry have you come out with?" "Just the one I brought you." "You mean, you burned out as a poet?" "What?" "You mean, you burnt out as a poet?" "Ha ha ha." "Why are you laughing, I didn't say anything funny." "Well, my nerves are" "Gone, like your list of suckers?" "Mate in two." "Do you want me to go, Mrs. Goforth?" " That depends." " Depends on what?" "Well, frankly I've been lonely up here this summer." "I can understand that." "Now, you're not stupid." "You're attractive to me, you know you are." "You deliberately set out to make yourself attractive to me, and you are." "So don't be a freeloader." "Mrs. Goforth, I think you've been exposed to the wrong kind of people" "Oh, don't give me that moral blackmail!" "You know what that is - people who impose on you with that old, old trick of making you feel that it would be unkind of you if you did not permit them to impose on you." "I give away nothing." "I sell and I buy in my life." "And I always wind up with profits one way or the other." "You came up here with an old book of poems, published 10 years ago, by playing on the terrible, desperate loneliness of a rich, old, broken-hipped woman." "I made her walk again." "She published my poems." "You latched onto a good thing." "I didn't need it, I was, uh..." "fashionable then." "Do you sit while a woman stands?" "Sorry." "Sit down." ""In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan, a stately pleasure dome decree" ""Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man:" ""Down to a sunless sea."" "What?" "You're suffering from the worst of all afflictions, and I don't mean one of the body, I mean, the thing people feel when they go from room to room for no reason, then go back from room to room for no reason," "then go out for no reason, and come back for no reason." "All I have to do is pick up that telephone, and this island will be so crowded with anybody I" "Is it so easy for you?" "Is it so easy for you this summer, proud as you are?" "Full known, absolute monarch of an island kingdom that a golden griffin?" "You don't summon guests who might ignore the summons, because you've developed some curious habits, like keeping a revolver in your pocket, and keeping your hand in the pocket." "And there's the still unclarified story of the young fisherman, one of your subjects from the village that you had sentenced to death and executed one night" "Vicious lies!" "M-malicious distortion!" "So, he's still living and fishing?" "He's as dead as the deadest fish he ever netted or caught." "Look." "See this ring with the famous stone, called The Aurora?" "It's a very noticeable object." "Yes." "I noticed you noticed it." "Well, late one night I woke up, feeling the ring being pulled from my finger, pressed the alarm button under my pillow." "On the way down the mountain he was, naturally, halted." "I put his widow on a very generous pension." "That's not true, he was in your bedroom by invitation." "What if he was?" "Or wasn't?" "Boom." "Boom?" "Boom..." "The shock of each moment, of still being alive." "When a wave breaks against the rock it looks like a fan." "A delicate, white lace fan." " But if it hits you" " Me?" "!" "But if it hits you, you would be smashed against the rocks, and you would be broken in pieces." "You're... you're fiddling too much with that sword." "You suspect me of being a possible assassin?" "Take it off." "Take that off, take that sword-- give it to me!" "Call for Mr. Flanders." "For me?" "How could anybody possibly know I'm here?" "Oh, cut the bull." "You received a phone call here last night." "Business must be picking up for you." "Excuse me." "Take it here!" "Pronto, pronto?" "Madelyn, how are you?" "How's your dear mother?" "Oh, my God." "I meant to go straight down there." "Was the end... what they call..." "peaceful?" "Yes." "Yes, I know, but" "Simonetta!" "Simonetta - tell Etti - Listen!" "Understand!" "Tell Etti, that man on the terrace, bring his" " Simonetta!" "Bring his bags on the terrace." "Capito?" "Subito!" "Capito!" "Rudi!" "Rudi!" "Come back to the terrace." "I think..." "I think..." "It was expected and inevitable, yes, but I did so hope to be there when it happened." "I had to stop off at Madame Goforth's island." "Had to... had to!" "Oh, did you." "And you, Madelyn, how are you?" "Are you all right?" "Yes, I know, but, er..." "I could come along and make some arrangements, I'm good at that." "No." "Well, Madelyn, what can I say, but accept it..." "Accept it." "I've just had some news that shocked me." "Another name you had to scratch off the list?" "Did you say list?" "You know, I went to a spiritualist one." "And she said to me, "I hear many dead names calling Flora, Flora"." "I knew then that she was a fake, since all my close friends call me Sissie." "So I said to her, "Tell them to mind their own business," ""and play their gold harps and mind their own harp playing."" "Sissie Goforth is not ready to go forth yet, and will not go forth until she is ready!" "Etti!" "What's that noise?" "Open - open el sacko, open it, empty everything out!" "Mrs. Goforth, you mustn't do this." "It's ridiculous of you." "This is my island, and you are on my island, all of you." "And I reserve the right to do as I please on my island!" "Droit de domain." "Hurry it up, presto, this is not a Christmas stocking!" "Oh, for god sakes, Rudi, you open it," "Empty everything out, dump it out!" "What's that black thing that looks like an address book?" "Exactly what it is." "Lady Emerald Fowler." "She's been in hell for 10 years." "Cristobel Smithers." "That name rings a long-ago church bell for a dead bitch too." "Nancy Cove." "Dead..." "Mary Cunningham." "Dead." "They're all dead!" "What are you, some kind of graveyard sextant?" "I'm a man who has lost many friends." "Now, is that finished?" "P-put everything. er, back in the sack." "Er, tutti dentrez el sacko." "I'd rather do that myself if you have no objection." "What I did was the natural thing to do." "Yes, yes, you're quite right, since I invaded your island." "Buona sera, buona sera..." "This man is a complete stranger to me, and I've heard very odd things about him." "Senora" "Mr. Flanders, I can get a fishing boat to take you off the island." "Oh, no you can't." "A guest of mine leaves my island on one of my own boats." "And you, what're you doing out here?" "Do you have any business out here?" "The air is too cold for you now, signora" "Off the terrace, all of you off!" "Not you, Mr. Flanders." "Me?" "You're talking to me?" "You don't want me to go?" "No." "I want you to stay." "We all of us invite death, Mr. Flanders." "The light has changed." "It's darker than this time of day." "It's the kind of light that comes from an eclipse of the sun." "The sun of- has gone off the terrace, and there's no" "Lower terrace to go to." " No!" " Which way is the sun?" "Naturally." "Where does it sit?" "In the sea or beyond the mountains?" "Who?" "The lion." "Ohh." "Let's go back to the table." "You're at the table now." " Oh." "I-i-it's..." "It's the..." " It's the eclipse of the sun, unexpected." "Your... body... has more warmth than most men have." "It burns through the sleeve of your robe like radiation." "It makes a difference to me if a man's skin is... warm or not." "I know they all have the same temperature, but some are warmer to touch than others." "Yes, and your voice - it vibrates in my ears." "Not so much like a voice, or a sound, so much as like a sensation." "Radiation?" "vibration?" "sensation?" "You'll make me as vain as a peacock if you go on like this, and I have to keep the humility of my faith." "Is this a time for kissing?" "Thank you." "A woman doesn't usually thank a man for kissing her." "Especially when she's lovely, and owns an island, and the man is a guest." "What's usual is usually unimportant." "You want to sit down, or do you want to walk awhile?" "If we sit at the table, we'd be at opposite sides." "Let's walk a bit further." "Not as far as where the balustrade ends." "In my faith I have to be humble, but about my voice, yes, I suppose it's a good one, because many ladies have asked me to read to them, by their bedsides." "And in their beds, too." "Never read to a lady in her bed, with her." "No!" "No further!" "It was silly of me, but.. but.. it was silly of me." "Yes, a great many people in your nervous condition are frightened of heights." "Especially unprotected ones." "That Polynesian hut on the beach attracted my very much." "I" " I'd better go in now." "Have a little siesta." "Might I stay there for a while?" "What?" "No, I must sleep now." "I didn't mean your bedroom." "I meant the grass hut on the beach." "Mrs. Goforth, is it true you've discharged the kitchen staff again?" "Yes, that's true." "Haven't you heard about the inventory?" "What inventory?" "Inventory of what?" "I had an intuition about things disappearing, and had Rudi check my list of fabulous chinas." "And half of them were gone!" "Decimated." "And my Medici silver, banquet silver used by the Medicis hundred of years ago - gone!" "That's what the inventory showed." "Mrs. Goforth, is it possible you don't remember?" "What?" "You had it shipped to a storage house in Naples with an armored convoy." " Me?" " You." "That's not true!" "Mrs. Goforth, when people are very ill, and taking drugs for it, they sometimes get confused." "This mountain has been systematically pillaged," " that's what the inventory shows!" " An inventory made up by the" " ex bodyguard of a syndicate gangster?" " How dare you suggest - and I have a guest." "I will always dare to say what I know to be true." "Blackie, go into the house and get my checkbook, and write yourself out a check for whatever is coming to you." "Bring it out here and I'll ok it for cash." "Now, you've wanted out." "Take it!" "Go on" "Glad to!" "Gladly!" "Mutually gladly." "Go on!" "Hurry, hurry." "Boom." "Fantastico!" "The hemorrhaging has stopped!" "She has had a transfusion, I've given her a shot of adrenalin." "And now she want the gentleman to... to come in to join her." "Heheh." "Well, that is sufficient." "I put a bottle of milk by your rucksack, in the library." "You did, you're the kindest girl I ever" "You said the same thing to Mrs. Goforth just a few hours ago." "Yes." "Yes, well, I frequently tell the same thing to different people." "Who is out there?" "It's, uh, Chris Flanders, Mrs. Goforth." "Uh, wait up there a moment." "The doctor gave me a shot of something that made me uh, a little light-headed." "So, you're feeling better?" "Oh, it wasn't much, just a little blood vessel at the back of my throat, but the doctor did tell me to... to lay off the heavy work for a while." "So I'm just going to finish the volume I'm working on now, facts... and a figure." "And then... save the... rest till... for... se- sequel." "I think that's a wise idea." "Yes, I've..." "I'm worn out," "I'm burnt out with the pressure," "I'm literally burnt up like a house on fire." "All right..." "I'm coming out." "You look, uh... you look wonderfully recovered." "Well, I never had paid a morbid attention to illness, it's usually so... so nothing much." "All that happened was, I stayed on the terrace too long, in the sun." "You see, you were so fascinating in your" "Samurai warrior's robe that I forgot... time was imprudent." "It's so much cooler at my bedroom... or it's this robe is too heavy." "I'm going back into my bedroom." "Come on in." "I have lots of art treasures in my bedroom." "Heheh, including myself." "Included." "Come in, what's holding you up?" "Ahhhh..." "That's better." "Come in!" " Oh." "Excuse me, I'll wait until..." " Modesty?" "Modesty." "I wouldn't have suspected you of suffering from modesty, Chris." "Myself, I've never indulged in that kind of foolishness." "If you have a world-famous figure, why be selfish with it?" "It was a privilege and a pleasure." "Well then, why do you back away?" "Back out of my bedroom?" "Ohh, I love the cool air and cool water on my skin in the summer." "I think it's the nicest thing about summer." "So throw off your robe and come in." "it's tiring my voice to talk across the room." "You have a beautiful body, Mrs. Goforth." "Let's cut out the Mr. and Mrs. bit, now that we're on intimate terms." "And now I'm going to lie down on these nice cool, clean sheets." "Ahhh" "Why are you standing there in the doorway, as if you were paralyzed?" "How many times do you have to be invited into a lady's bedroom?" "You knew I was famished." "What was it you offered me?" "Black coffee, or else." "And the else was nothing." "Was nothing else!" "Wait!" "Kitchen." "Cuchina?" "Momento." "Tell the cook what you want for supper." "Cuchina?" "Senta-- Pranzo questa sera." "Pastina in brodo." "Capish?" "Si, si, si." "Una grande pesca, uh, carne freddo, freddo..." "Roast beef." "Uh, Bif" " Beeef!" "Prosciutto, legumi, tutti, tutti legumi." "Capito?" "Poi, un' insalata verde." "No, Mista!" "Insalata mista, Mista!" "God dammit!" "They don't even know their own bloody language." "E vino bianca e rosso." "Si." "Va bene." "Now, you see?" "You're not only going to be fed, you're going to be wined and dined in high style." "On the terrace tonight." "But in the meantime, we're going to have a long siesta together." "In the cool of my bedroom." "Mrs. Goforth, I'm afraid it's too late for me to accept your... invitation." "To dinner." "Where else have you been invited?" "Where else in the world?" "I'm past the point where I wait for invitations." "But I think the spinster lady whose mother died last night will make me welcome." "And how're you gonna get there?" "Can you walk on water?" "Goodbye, Mrs. Goforth." "Mr. Flanders." "You have the distinction - the dubious, the insulting distinction - of being the first man that ever - ever - ever went from my bedroom without getting into my bed." "Oh, bravo, hero..." "Angelo." "Man bring this up mountain?" "This... this insult?" " I brought something up the mountain." " What else did man bring up mountain?" "Oh, his book of poems." "His calling card." "You must be running out the them." "Take this back!" "What did I bring up the mountain?" "Up the goat path, past the dogs?" "I brought you this possibly timely piece of advice:" "That tough as you are, you're not so tough that one day, perhaps soon, you're gonna need someone, or something, that'll mean God to you, if it's only a human hand." "Or a human voice." "You came to bring me God, did you?" " I said someone or something." " I heard what you said." "You said God." "My eyes may be out of focus, but not my ears." "All right, then, bring him!" "How do you do it, huh?" "Do you whistle?" "Do you ring a bell for Him?" "Or do you press buttons for Him?" "Huh?" "Huh!" "Can you hear me?" "Can you still hear me?" "Yes." "I failed." "I've... disappointed some people in what they wanted from me, or thought that they wanted from me." "Sometimes I've been able to give them what they need, even when they didn't know what it was." "Rudi." "Rudi!" "Your bodyguard's gone, Mrs. Goforth." "If Ru- all my important jewels are with me." "If Rudi's gone I want you to go." "You - you've tired me." "You've done me in." "This has been the most awful day of my life." "Yes." "That's why you need me here." "No!" "Don't, you... you scare me!" "Let me take you to your bedroom, Mrs. Goforth," " and I'll put you to bed." " No!" "No!" "Go!" "Let me go!" "Hey..." "Did somebody tell you I was dying this summer?" "Did somebody tip you off that Sissie Goforth was about to go forth this summer?" "Yes." "That's why I came." "Well..." "Well..." "I've escorted six husbands to the eternal threshold and come back alone." "Without them." "Now it's my turn." "I've no choice but to do it." "But I want to do it alone." "I don't want to be escorted." "I want to go forth alone." "And you - you counted on touching my heart because you knew I was dying." "Well, you miscalculated with this one." "The milk train doesn't stop here anymore." "A paper rose." "Before you go, would you help me up to my room?" "I don't think I could make it alone." "Don't leave me alone." "Are you frightened of me, or attracted to me, or both?" "Perhaps I should..." "yes, I will." "Tell you a story." "You know- you knew - Sally Ferguson." "Well, I was staying in her mountain home, above Palm Springs." "I wasn't used to her world, the bloodless cold, cold elegant ritual of it." "So one day I went down the mountain across the desert to Baja California, where a great Indian teacher had gathered disciples about him." " You look..." " I look forth." "touchingly young, tired, sleepy." "Why don't you rest in my arms while I tell you the rest of the story." "So I went down the mountain, across the desert, to Baja California." "On the way there, I passed a rest home for the incurably ill." "It looked more like a grand hotel." "Royal palms, marble statues, fountains..." "And a little further along I came to the ocean." "An inlet, an estuary of the ocean." "It was a boiling day, the beach was deserted." "The water was cool." "I swam out, lay on my back in the water." "Suddenly, I heard someone crying from the shore." "I looked back." "It was no longer deserted." "There was an old man standing there, crying for help as though he were in the ocean and I were on the shore." "I swan back, fast." "He stood there, pitifully thin, finely dressed. "Why did you call for help?", I said." "Help to get out there." "I've gone past pain I can bear." "He stretched out a withered hand to me." "I took it and led him into the water." "As the water rose higher, he panicked for a second, but I held him as tightly as a lover." "When the waves rose to our shoulder, he took out his wallet, took out the money, and thrust it, much money, into my hands." "You took it?" "Oh, yes." "The sea had no use for it." "A wave broke over our heads and blinded my for a second." "When I was able to see again, the tide had carried him out, light as a leaf." "I went back to the Hindu teacher, and I said," ""Master, I've just helped a dying old man to get through it", and what he said to me was:" ""You have found your vocation"." "And I gave him all the money the old man had given to me." "I'll bet you did." "Too tight..." "Ah, yes... yes, the ring..." "Cuts your finger." "Be here when I wake up?" "Dr. Luilo, your patient is... is weak." "Hurry up!" "Lights off." "The shock of each moment." "Of still being alive..." "Boom."