"¶ ¶  one, two, three," "four, five, six." "We're all out of nitroset." "Two." "Sorry we're all out." "I thought we had some more but... we are definitely all out." "I'm sorry." "I'll order some more in for you." "Migraine tablets." "Uh, unless you have a prescription... here." "Two?" "We wouldn't normally..." "I'll give him six of mine." "Here." "Oh, well." "Nitroset will be in..." "Sometime tomorrow." "C-c-can I pay for this..." "yeah,sure." "Then?" "You can't take those without water." "You can't take 'em without water." "Oh..." "Uh..." "I live nearby." "I'll get you a glass of water." "Come on." "I'm just around the corner." "you don't lock it?" "No, why?" "Does that seem unwise to you?" "Nothing ever happens in a town like this." "Bet I've even lost the key." "Come on." "Are you there?" "The key for this one's been gone a long while now." "Come on in." "It's old." "It certainly is." "Please." "It would be pleasanter to live in if the style of decor were more minimalist." "Dreamt of it being Japanese zen." "You know, bare boards and paper screens, simple rice bowl." "Please sit down." "Beautiful really." "But to have achieved that, I would have had to have ripped all of this out." "My poor, dear mother would have died if I'd done that." "Not that she didn't." "Die, that is." "15 years ago next month." "15 years, gosh." "I haven't touched anything really, which could lead you to believe that, like my mother, I, too, am reluctant to change, but it would be wrong." "I have introduced quite a few modern gems, uh, mostly in the kitchen." "Would you believe that I brought in the first potato masher?" "25 years ago." "They used to mash potatoes with a fork." "Then, one day, I found that so repulsively old-fashioned," "I just went out and bought a potato masher and..." "A couple of years later," "Ta-da?" "A microwave." "How 'bout that?" "Useful." "Hmm." "Nice place." "You don't seriously like it, do you?" "Why?" "It has a past." "The past is dead." "It's boring." "You don't seem like the kind of a man who would have allowed himself to suffer boredom." "I wish." "Hmm." "You see that picture behind me?" "She would have been painted probably at the end of the 19th century." "She was my first love." "Rocks a boy for life." "Indulging onanistically in front of the painting of a woman who's been dead for over 100 years." "Look at her." "Look at the disdain, the rejection." "I used to sit on this piano stool with a handkerchief." "Is it any wonder that my sexually active years in the outside world didn't shape up to much." "Depends what you mean by "shape up"?" "Philip Larkin summed it up best." "He's reputed to have said that sexual relations were akin to having somebody else blow your nose." "Funny." "Can I offer you a drink?" "Oh, gosh." "I do apologize." "The stupidity of old men." "I'm terribly sorry." "Hmm." "You don't have a lot to say for yourself, do you?" "I've always wondered what it would be like to be your kind of persona." "To be the silent stranger type, you know?" "The fellow who walks into the bar, doesn't utter a word, but the minute he comes through the door, the mood in the entire room changes dramatically." "The women grab their compacts, a little bit of lipstick, change an earring, flick of the hair." "It's not anything." "It's just there." "But he's messed with their heads." "You've seen too many movies." "No, I've probably read too many books." "But you have to indulge me a little." "The..." "The extent of my barroom experience is limited to ordering a strawberry milkshake." "Well, I appreciate your hospitality." "A couple of pills and a glass of water." "How's your headache?" "I'll live." "Thank you." "the hotel...  is closed." "Ah, yes." "It always is this time of year." "I'll take you to your room." "Up the wooden hill to bedfordshire." "These are two of my illustrious forebears." "They were both colonels in the dragoons at the battle of yellow tavern." "His regiment wasn't engaged, and, prior to that, at gettysburg, he was in the infirmary." "The day before, he had cut himself sharpening his sword." "His great Uncle there was guiding the ships, and he arrived at chesapeake after it was all over." "And then he stopped to show a grenadier how to cock his carbine, and he blew the right side of his head off... his head, not the grenadier's." "Now, these engravings are almost certainly taken from paintings by John trumbull." "I have to admit that..." "That I feel a certain empathy towards those two characters, ludicrous though they may be." "My grandmother said that I was like them." "And I..." "I think the dear woman was probably right, because, like them, I seem to have an uncanny ability to..." "Miss out on all of the possible highlights of my life." "I-I-I've managed to opt out of everything:" "Every... every opportunity, every engagement, every challenge, everything." "Is it okay if I stay through Friday?" "Oh, stay... stay as long as you like." "Absolutely, yeah." "Through Friday is perfect." "I, uh..." "I'm going to be otherwise engaged on Saturday morning." "And anyway, the toilet's down there." "The extra blankets are in the wardrobe." "Uh, there's this room." "There are four other bedrooms, and, uh, you're welcome to stay in any one, but the advantage of this one is that the roof above it is intact, so, if it rains, you don't get wet." "It's fine, thank you." "I'll leave you to it." "If you need anything, uh, just call, let me know." "Okay?" "Would you like a nightcap?" "Not for me." "I've always thought I'd like to take to hard liquor." "There's something poetic about drinking to excess." "You know, Brendan behan, Dylan Thomas." "But after I have a sip or two, I have to stop." "I have the most extraordinary heartburn." "It's... it's... it's agonizing." "Good night." "Good night, yeah." "We can have supper tomorrow night, if you like." "Oh, my." "Hmm." "Hmm." "¶ Doo-do-doo-do-doo ¶ ¶ do-do-do-do-do ¶" "¶ do-do-do-do-do ¶ ¶ hup!" "¶" "¶ boo-bah-do-do ¶" "Huh." "It's rare that I have the inclination, but, your being here..." "I-I'm supposed to do it, doctors say that I should, but, mostly, I just can't." "It's so boring." "No harm, I guess." "Not much point either, actually." "What I do in my daily activities is equivalent to a sporting event." "Running to catch a bus is a marathon." "Bend over to tie your shoes, you're doing gymnastics." "Just climbing the stairs takes an effort out of me that I'm sure is what it would take out of you to scale the face of a cliff." "You... you work out regularly, right?" "Never." "Did you sleep all right?" "See you later." "Yeah, okay." "Come." "This is sado." "Hey." "Yeah, don't worry about it." "I-I'll explain later." "I'm worried already." "Explain now." "He only speaks once a day." "10:30 sharp every morning." "Okay, can he drive?" "He is shit hot." "Yes, aces." "You spread out a little." "Well, life moves on." "Um, loco does not get in till tomorrow." "That's so fucked up." ""In kyoto where is the heian shrine when spring reflects upon full of plentiful cherry blossoms, beware the sweetness of things."" "So what is at question here?" "Why did the poet write this poem?" "What line reveals that?" "Mm." "In kyoto, where is the heian shrine?" "Surely nothing could be clearer." "That's like saying, "in New York where is the statue of liberty."" "In kyoto, where is the heian shrine." "The... the poet is placing the poem, giving it context." "But he's asking the question." "What question?" "Where the heian shrine is." "No, no, no." "The heian shrine is in kyoto, and the poet states that." "Yes, but where in kyoto?" "If I say, "in New York where is the statue of liberty,"" "it means that I know it's in New York, but I don't know exactly where." "In Ellis island, the Hudson river." "Okay, but if it were a question, there would be a question mark." "Is there a question mark there?" "Mm, they left it out." "Sorry." "No, it was..." "it was left out because it is not an interrogative statement." "I don't know which of us is the more obtuse:" "You, who seek questions when there are only answers to be seen or me, who seeks an answer when there may not even be a question." "Anyway, we'll pick it up next Wednesday." "Think about it, all right?" "Think about it." "Don't ask anybody." "Just think about it." "Make sure your Henry James is prepared for Friday, will you?" "Oh, I have..." "I have an interesting anecdote about Henry James." "He was the mentor of the novelist Edith wharton, and before he went to england, he warned her about the American public, the reading public." "And he said that "the Americans love a tragedy with a happy ending."" "I'll see you Friday." "Oh, God." "Beware the sweetness of things." "Sorry?" "Beware the sweetness of things." "Isn't that the answer you wanted?" "What's wrong with the sweetness of things?" "Well, one could get used to it, couldn't one?" "Were you a good teacher?" "Not one of them was molested in 40 years." "Congratulations." "Thank you." "I've prepared the fixings for an omelet of my own invention." "Come on." "Ohh." "It's instantaneous." "The heartburn is..." "It's just you don't know how to do it." "There's a skill?" "Imagine you're thirsty." "Huh." "Okay." "Take a good mouthful." "Taste it." "Swallow." "Ohh." "How does that feel?" "Good." "Oh-ho." "Can I ask you something?" "Yes." "Could you lend me some slippers?" "Well?" "I've wasted my life." "Okay." "Oh, just wait." "Oh, these aren't broken in yet." "They're brand-new." "They're spares that I was keeping aside for when mine are completely worn out." "The ideal slipper, for it to be really comfortable, is almost worn out." "Try walking in them." "No, no, no, no, no." "You have to drag along, scuffle your feet, let the heel drop free." "Think Japanese geisha." "You just have to practice." "You must keep them." "How nice to give you a gift, to give you a piece of my life." "I mean, some other day, maybe you'll be able to think of something for me, or maybe not." "I mean, nothing from your life would suit me really, would it?" "Do you have a tattoo?" "Why?" "Oh, I don't know, I was thinking that if I had been you, I would have had a tattoo." "You know, uh, an eagle or a dragon." "A tattoo..." "Well, we decorate the things we love, right?" "But, of course, I mean, if it were somebody e..." "I mean, it would be a joke." "I mean, a roaring lion on a puny bicep." "It would be..." "Would you like to sit in the conservatory?" "I have a conservatory." "You know, a veranda, a porch, a stoop." "¶ ¶ Hmm." "Spare me your reflections on infinity." "What?" "Oh, every time anybody comes out here, they start babbling about the cosmos." "And I think I lack a cosmic sensibility." "Stars leave me cold." "They say we have one for each of us." "They do?" "What's that?" "Some fancy native American legend?" "No." "Ordinary old wives' tale." "So what's up with Saturday morning?" "Saturday morning, me?" "Oh, um, nothing really." "Just a check-up." "More of a tune-up actually." "I'm gonna get out the scissors, you know, snip, snip, bingo." "That's what they do these days." "They see a little blip on the old ect, and they haul you in for a tune-up, for repairs." "Don't like to talk about it, huh?" "Me?" "No, not much." "No." "Professor?" "Yes." "You have a scan scheduled?" "Yes." "Follow me, please, sir." "It... it... it was like nothing." "Any idiot could have walked in or out with his eyes shut." "But... but I..." "I copped two years, and then, when they put me inside, were they waiting for me, or what?" "Yes, motherfuckers." "I had no one there, no friends." "No one." "Thank Christ I got this early parole on account of..." "are you even listening to me?" "No." "Revenge is the justice of woe." "10:30." "Weird, no?" "Has he taken a vow, or is he just wacko?" "He has been this way since his wife left him." "When was that?" "Seven years back." "Not this time." "I'm calling it off." "What?" "But it's a cinch, like you said." "Loco's not here." "I wouldn't trust my life with wacko there." "You're way out of shape." "That's more than enough reason." "What?" "Are you kidding?" "But we've done totally tougher jobs than this over and over." "It just doesn't feel right." "If you'll not do it, then I will do it on my own." "Christ, I need the cash." "hey, how are you?" "How are you?" "I'm good." "This is a stick-up, freeze where you are." "We can't go on meeting like this." "Ah, it's a small town." "Can I tell you a secret?" "Can I stop you?" "I've had an account in this bank for more than 50 years." "And every time I walk through that door, do you know what I want to do?" "No, you haven't told me the answer to that one yet, and I'm sure you will." "Rob the place." "What?" "I've been fantasizing about it since I was a kid." "I walk through that door wearing a balaclava, pistol in one hand, submachine gun in the other." "What?" "You've never dreamt about being a bank robber?" "No." "We don't share the same kind of nightmares." "Look, I'd never kill anybody." "Nobody." "My imagination is very specific." "Everything goes perfectly." "Clean getaway, never arrested." "What do you do with the money?" "The Bahamas." "Always the Bahamas." "I'm at the casino, blowing all the money." "Me blowing money." "That's a fantasy." "But I did have somebody to do that with once." "When my mother died, she'd specified in her will that there was this particular sum and that it was just for me to splurge with, you know?" "To have fun with." "So I went to New York City." "I was determined to paint the town red." "And?" "It rained." "The whole time." "And not your spring showers, you know." "It was torrential downpour, so I sat in the movies." "My mother, bless her soul, she must have been disappointed, but, uh..." "I-I don't actually have it in me to splurge, you know?" "That... splurging takes daring wit." "And I-I just don't have the kind of imagination that allows me to blow money." "You, though, you..." "I bet you've been through..." "I manage." "Were you going to get something to eat?" "Oh, yeah." "Absolutely." "The best place in town is just up here." "That's the uptown cinema." "That's been there for donkey's years." "I had my first real kiss in there." "Wasn't very romantic." "She stuck her tongue down my throat and I nearly choked." "Then she tried to grope me." "She grabbed me wrong and I screamed and the whole cinema turned around." "You know, the old limerick:" ""Said a young man to his lady friend please as he wriggled with pain on his knees, it would give me great bliss if you'd take hold of this and relinquish your grasp upon these."" "That was her." "A place in the sun." "That was the movie they were showing." "Theodore dreiser." "American tragedy." "Great novel, pinnacle of American realism." "Down there." "That's where I sit." "So this was your regular?" "It still is." "Every lunchtime." "Saved me from the students in the school cafeteria." "Hi, Tracy." "Hi, Professor." "Steak's off." "Steak's off?" "Steak's off." "Omelet." "Salad or fries?" "Both." "Professor, the same?" "Same." "And coffee or beer?" "What do you think?" "Beer?" "Two beers." "Two beers." "So how did it end?" "What?" "With the girl outside the uptown." "Oh." "Heartbreaking." "She went off with the school janitor's son." "And I was left in the thrall of the 100-year-old woman in the painting." "I dreamt of that girl for years." "Her eyes went this way." "There was something about that walleyed look that I find highly erotic." "What about you?" "When did you first lose your heart?" "I can't remember." "Oh, happened so many times that it's impossible to sort out the beginning?" "No, it's probably just pretty forgettable." "Oh, memories are important." "I prefer to forget." "Don't do that again." "Seriously, don't do that again." "I don't..." "I don't want to get into anything." "You know what?" "Stop." "Hey." "You want a sip of beer?" "No, no." "Come on, little sip, little sip." "Ah-ah-ah-ah-ohh, nice." "That's it." "That's good, bro." "You didn't say something?" "No, you know why?" "No." "They're a team." "One against two." "You don't stand a chance." "Well, except in the movies." "Should we get him..." "should we get him some alcoholic beer?" "It's how you know you're gettin' old." "A few years back, he would have backed down and apologized." "Now he knows there's no need." "The bill." "And you can give it to me." "He doesn't get paid." "He's really practically a street kid." "And there's nothing I can do about it." "We're two." "Does that make us a team?" "Knock it off, knock it off." "It's okay." "What a racket they're making." "Come on!" "You're being such a baby!" "Go, sit down, finish your beer." "I'm gettin' pissed off." "Really." "I'm really pissed off." "Go tell 'em." "I'd have to change my whole life if I were gonna do that." "I understand your caution." "You know, I've never been in a fight." "No, not once." "Not in my whole life." "Not even in the schoolyard." "That's not such a bad thing." "You're supposed to drink it." "Hey." "Dial it down, okay?" "Is he talking to us?" "cromorant fishing:" "How stirring, how saddening." "Summer grasses are all that remain of soldier's dreams." "You don't remember me, do ya?" "I'm class of '92." "You were my teach back in the day." "I'm Joseph." "Joey Peterson." "I work over at Carson's, the lighting shop over there." "How 'bout you?" "You still into the haiku poetry or?" "No, no, I'm retired now." "I have private students." "All right." "Time flies, man." "We were just..." "we were just gonna leave." "I guess we got a little too rowdy for you or?" "No." "Peterson." "What a... what a pleasure." "Well, it was great to see you again, Professor." "And you." "I was pretty good, me remembering that poem though, right?" "Oh, a ten out of ten." "Yeah." "I listen, I listen." "Oh." "Have a good afternoon." "Yeah, thank you." "You too." "Take care." "No man can escape his past." "That took guts." "Can you imagine?" "The first time I look for a fight and I pick on someone who likes me?" "What did you expect?" "Breaking glass?" "No, a small memory to savor with my slippers, dreaming cognac dreams." "Haiku." "Ten out of ten." "Agh!" "Oof." "What?" "Shing!" "Oh." "Darbon." "You know the walnut tree's gone." "It's got the disease." "I know that you've been coming here on the last Thursday of every month for what..." "how many years now?" "Ten at least, right?" "How is it that I never expect to see you?" "Everybody always forgets about the gardener." "Have to get rid of the walnut tree, do we?" "Yup." "Pity that." "Slam!" "Hey." "Buffalo bill's defunct." "He used to ride a watersmooth silver stallion." "Shoot!" "One, two, three, four, five, pigeons just like that." "Jesus, he was a handsome man." "But what I want to know is, what do you think of your blue-eyed boy now, mister death?" "Oh, shit!" "Oh, lord." "Oh, God." "Oh, look at you." "Standard security." "Two shitty out-of-date black-and-white closed circuit TV cameras." "And local staff." "It's like breaking into a bag of pretzels." "You can choke on a pretzel." "What?" "What happened to you?" "You've changed, you know that?" "You have changed." "I mean, you've not put on any weight, but what?" "Are you going to retire with a slippers and a pipe?" "Eh?" "You can use the money." "Maybe." "Yes." "Well, then." "how come you got two of everything?" "Two combs, two toothbrushes, two razors." "Because I finally realized that, in general, there are two kinds of people:" "The kind who prepare for nothing and who have the wit and the imagination to deal with pretty much everything and then the others who... and I fall into that category..." "who are the opposite." "And what kind of people are they?" "They're the kind without that wit and that imagination." "They have to buy spares so that they will be prepared for every imagined eventuality." "So do you have two of everything?" "Pretty much." "Sometimes three." "There's a drink there for you." "Do you play?" "Yes, indeed I do." "I think with the exception of needlepoint, I possess all of the accomplishments of a well-bred young woman educated at the end of the 19th century." "Are you musical?" "I had a harmonica once." "Well, that's good for a traveling man." "Curious thing about music." "When people find out that you play a musical instrument, they always assume that you're enjoying it." "Oh, what wonderful hours he must spend at his piano." "They're so wrong." "It is so boring." "It is so very boring." "Schubert I like." "Schubert appeals to my sense of failure." "When I see you in those slippers, I can imagine myself festooned with tattoos, zipping down the highway in a sporty red convertible." "To your good health." "And yours." "Let me show you something else." "Watch the two lamps." "And there's an old French adage that comes into play for me." "Le temps qu'il passe plus tot que le temps qu'il fait." "So I have had much more affection for the time that I take, and I worry less about the time that it takes." "Have you found that?" "No." "Oh, poof." "Another certainty obliterated." "I'll put it down to progress." "Could I ask a consideration of you?" "Sure." "W-would you be so kind as to go down to the liquor store and buy me some tobacco?" "I can't go there myself." "Mm, why is that?" "Oh, uh, the woman at the cash register." "What about her?" "Oh, it's a long story, stupid really." "It's..." "Well, it's a... you know, for more than 40 years," "I've been going into that store to buy my tobacco." "That's all I buy there." "I don't buy anything else." "And every time I go to pay, she looks me straight in the eye and she says, "can I get you anything else, sir?"" "And it drove me mad." "And one day, I got completely and utterly fed up, and I said to her, "y-y-you just cannot any longer ask me, 'can I get you something else, sir?" "'" "I don't want anything else." "And if I want something else, I will ask for it."" "And I stormed out and slammed the door." "And then a week later, I went back, hoping against hope, and..." "Do you know what happened?" "No." "I went in." "She was looking me straight in the eye." "I asked for my tobacco, without taking her eyes off me, she went and got the tobacco, came back, gave it to me." "I gave her the money, and she didn't say, "can I get you something else, sir?" She said," ""will that be all, sir?" Andyoudidn'tkillher?" "I could have jumped over the counter and rung her neck." "But I didn't." "I left the store and I never went back." "And I've been buying my tobacco at the supermarket, and it's not nearly as good and..." "Here, it's called condor ready rub." "Won't be long." "Okay, thank you." "Anything else, sir?" "75 cents, please." "Thank you." "Anything else, sir?" "That's $5.95, please." "Thank you." "Packet of condor ready-rub pipe tobacco." "No, two." "Make that two packs." "$9.23, please." "Anything else, sir?" "Nope." "What'd I tell you?" "Unbelievable." "It was kind of you to lie" "about the woman at the cash register." "She didn't say it to you, did she?" "She said it to me, but she doesn't say it to you." "That's the difference." "I wouldn't get too bugged out on that kind of stuff." "No, but it says something, doesn't it?" "Get you more salad?" "No." "Why did you get two?" "There are two kinds of people." "I decided to side with those who are prepared for everything." "Thank you." "Are you going to tell me what brought you to this town?" "There's no need." "There isn't?" "You already know." "Yes, I suppose I do." "Is it the bank?" "Don't worry." "If it goes wrong, we'll keep you out of it." "No." "No, it's not that." "Not at all, no." "I wa..." "I was thinking that perhaps I might be able to help." "I mean, I-I-I know I probably wouldn't be any good." "I'm completely useless with anything that involves split-second timing or improvisation, but..." "It's a lot simpler than you think." "You stroll in, wave a gun around, grab the money, and leave." "Off to the Bahamas." "My, oh, my." "Oh, my." "It's going to be quite a Saturday morning." "Yes, it is." "There... there are gonna be" "three of us for dinner tomorrow night." "Is that... is that all right?" "A woman." "Well, um, sort of." "I mean, technically, yes." "Ah." "I have another favor to ask you." "A favor." "No problem." "I'll make myself scarce." "No, no, no, it's not that." "No, no, nothing like that at all." "I want something else all together." "It's just that I'm..." "There's something..." "I mean..." "I mean, if it's possible, it's something that I've always wanted, but, um... and I've thought about it often." "It's just that..." "The opportunity has, uh..." "Never presented itself." "I'm listenin'." "what should I imagine?" "What's there to imagine?" "I don't know." "What am I shooting at?" "It's a coke can." "You're shooting at a row of coke cans." "How 'bout the gardener?" "No, you're not shooting at the gardener." "It's a row of tin cans." "I missed." "Yeah, you missed." "You need to relax." "Just take a breath." "There they go." "I think, wasn't it?" "I mean, a closer miss." "You know what they say?" "A miss is a miss by an inch or a mile." "Perhaps it requires a special gift." "No, it doesn't." "Oh, certainly it takes practice." "Not even." "What's the trick then?" "Self-pity maybe." "My arm isn't too stiff?" "Just find a position that's comfortable for you, a stance that's your own." "There you go." "Listen..." "Can I run something past you?" "Yes." "I'm an old eagle smoking this fine Italian cigar." "Think of it." "An old eagle smoking a fine Italian cigar." "You know it?" "It's bukowski." "What comes next?" "I have caged the world away from me." "I'm an old eagle smoking this fine Italian cigar." "Think of it." "An old eagle smoking a fine Italian cigar." "It has become pleasant again to be alive." "But you know that, don't you?" "I heard it once, but I just couldn't remember how it ended." "Never one of my favorites, bukowski, but I've always held an affection for that poem." "Do you know how it ends?" "Just like you, just for a time there," "I didn't think I was going to make it." "Are you still dead-set on Saturday?" "Are you?" "Me?" "I have no choice." "Me neither." "Another round?" "No." "No, I've reached my limit." "Thank you." "It's like..." "Beautiful poetry." "It's the essence of it." "Less is more." "You know, I haven't decided on Saturday yet." "What does your decision depend on?" "On whether someone shows up or not." "Aw, fuck." "I can't even just..." "these painters are all fucking mad." "I can't even look at this shit." "It's like..." "Makes you mad painting, you know?" "Agonizing over these fucking details drive you fucking insane." "Well, this guy here understood, you know, how to alternate between light and shape, to give tonality to his palette." "Look at him." "But he kind of lost his frenzy along the way." "You know, he knew the rules of art, but he lost the art of the rules, which is why he's here and not at the metropolitan." "What kept you?" "Why weren't you on time?" "I was on time." "Not in a great state." "So I decided it would be better to wait a little." "I ran into a bottle two hours before, and..." "one of those fucking meetings you can't shake off, you know?" "So how was detox?" "Fucking murder." "Fucking hell." "Max here?" "Yeah." "He's hired a driver." "Well, if Max chose him, he should be fine." "Can you at least stay sober for a couple of days?" "Well, that's forever." "Just till Saturday?" "Yeah, well, forever always lasts till Saturday." "What's the estimate on the job?" "Three." "100 grand each." "Wow." "Can't complain about that." "No." "Fuck." "Hey, what do you say we go grab a beer and we celebrate?" "I'm just joking." "Don't..." "I-I'm just joking." "Forget I said it." "This one's almost certainly an original John trumbull." "John trumbull?" "Where'd you get the John trumbull from?" "Afternoon." "Ah!" "Well, I don't know what the weather's doing out there now, but I nearly turned the heat on this morning." "Must be that global warming you're advertising." "Oops." "I don't want the usual." "You don't?" "No." "I want different." "How different?" "Slicked back." "You gonna have to change the cut a lot for that?" "Eh?" "Slicked back like..." "yeah,noparting." "You?" "No parting?" "Straight back." "Well, we can do the no parting, I mean... hey." "My life's been a prison, and I'm gettin' out now, and that's what I want to look like, like I'm comin' out of prison." "Well, well, well." "I'm gonna keep the mustache, though." "Well, I'm grateful for that." "I... you know, I think I'm seeing everything these days." "That brandier boy came by the other day." "He asked me for a double-zero cut, saw it on mtv." "I'm glad you don't want a double-zero cut." "Well, we're breaking new ground." "You have no idea where I might end up." "Ah." "Well." "I had to walk around the block three times before I could figure out to come in here." "I've come for my tutorial with the Professor?" "He's not here right now." "Are you standing in for him?" "Yes, I suppose I am standing in for him." "So what are you studying with the Professor?" "We do Henry James on Fridays." "The portrait of a lady." "And what's the story about?" "There isn't much of one." "There's always a story." "No such thing as a book without a story." "Have you read it?" "Yes." "So you know it then?" "And you've had this guy in here for, what, how long?" "Two days already?" "But... but... but but he leaves tomorrow." "I have never missed it." "Oh, there you are!" "This is Vivienne." "First meetings are always intimidating, I know." "Not always." "First meetings aren't always intimidating?" "Aren't... aren't you intimidated?" "No." "Neither am I." "Oh." "Me, when I meet someone for the first time, it's like I'm a little boy sent to the principal's office." "In short pants." "Yeah, short pants." "Would you get us a drink, darling?" "On my way!" "I have no idea why he wanted us to meet." "Me neither." "Well, he has this idea everyone he likes should get along." "He could be wrong." "He's an optimist at heart." "Not a bundle of laughs, but an optimist." "So you're fond of him?" "Just because it's and old affair doesn't mean it's tired." "Drinks are in the drawing room." "Beep beep." "Straight up or on the ice?" "Ice broken?" "To smithereens." "quiet little town." "Yeah, and very trusting." "why don't you get yourself someone younger or prettier?" "I think Vivienne's good looking." "Of course, but are you fond of each other?" "Ah, we're familiar." "We don't shake each other to the core like we used to, but..." "Well, yeah, yeah, yeah." "We're... we're fond." "It's not fondness you need tonight." "Yeah, well, at least she doesn't intimidate me, how's that for starters?" "How'd he do?" "He passed." "Oh, good, good." "I told you he would." "Vivienne's son is taking his finals." "Now, he didn't do well enough to get into the top universities, but..." "whydon'tyoutellher you don't give a shit?" "Wha..." "I-I do..." "I give a..." "no,hedoesn't." "All he wants is sex." "He has no interest in your kid's exam results." "Wha..." "And you?" "What about me?" "What do you want?" "What do you want, other than to stir things up?" "Hmm?" "You want to watch?" "Oh, Vivienne." "Anyone would think you're jealous." "I just call it as I see it." "yes, doctor?" "Oh, you are still there." "Of course." "Yeah, is, um...  yes?" "My patient still the, uh, first case up in the morning?" "It... not till noon." "Good." "You're in operating room 1 with a full bypass team." "Thanks." "Good night." "Good night." "I have 25." "Do-do-do-do-do-do." "Well, that's that." "She always wins in the end." "Women always win in the end." "I'll just go tidy up." "I like it." "You do?" "Mm-hmm." "Thank you." "I was wrong back there." "You were right." "Must be sweet comfort, an old mistress." "It is, you know." "15 years now." "Since your mother died?" "You remembered that, huh?" "Yeah, two incidents did coincide." "Why didn't you marry her?" "Oh, I thought about it." "I thought about it, but..." "I panicked." "You... you never married, I'm sure." "Endlessly changing, moving on." "I'd have liked to have sailed from woman to woman, a new America every time, another continent to explore, never dropping anchor." "Women aren't what they used to be." "Still, it would have been nice to have discovered and explored new embraces." "It's poetry that gets you in the end." "Without the words, it's all so forgettable." "Hmm." "What do you think of her?" "I don't think of her." "She's yours." "We should have one last snifter on the stoop before the big day tomorrow." "this used to be my favorite spot." "The surroundings weren't so built up then." "I could breathe." "I had a future." "Hope." "And I stopped living before I got old." "Years went by and..." "I fell into decay just like this damned house." "Do you know why women look away when you pass them on the street?" "Why?" "Because they're dazzled." "Why wouldn't they fall for you?" "Don't you know how extraordinary you are?" "Look at yourself." "There's so much to see." "The older we get, the more precious we are." "That's what you've missed." "You haven't understood that." "I haven't thought of it like that, no." "It's the right way." "The only way." "You shouldn't keep a lady waiting." "No, you're right." "Thank you." "Good night." "She turned you down?" "No." "I have a proposition for you if you will listen... listen it out." "Let's hear it." "I'd like to give you the money." "It's... it's a very small bank." "It will not be a very good haul." "If you would take it from me, you can pay it back if you want." "I-I don't really need it." "No, I can't do that." "Okay." "Off to bedfordshire." "I've met guys" "like you before, you know?" "You're always trouble." "Sadness follows you wherever you go." "It's not that women like me don't know that." "It's just that we're attracted to it all the same." "I've never met a good girl but she didn't have a bit of badness in her somewhere." "Maybe I'm too old for all that now." "I just wanted to let you know that I know that." "Do you love him?" "He said you never ask questions." "I don't usually." "Forget I asked." "I have already." "There you are." "You look green." "I hope it's the light." "No, uh, I can't, thank you." "Fasting, doctor's orders." "There's a train at 9:15." "You've just got time to make it." "Tempting." "Give into it." "Just this once." "Well, you can't say I didn't try." "The bukowski." "Poem's in there." "Thank you." "Just like you, just for a time there," "I thought I wasn't going to make it." "And, j-j-just it's how we met, it was, uh, so extraordinary from m-m-me giving you those pills, and I never would have done that." "No." "It's like it was pre-ordained." "I don't believe in that kind of stuff." "Neither do I." "well." "Be seeing ya." "See ya." "ah." "Oh." "Elaine?" "Oh, hey." "Um, you're just down at the end, 638." "638." "It's on the left." "We all pass on like centuries and doves." "All good." "I'll be back." "¶ ¶  I have contact." "Suspects entering bank." "Red team." "Positions." "down, down on the ground!" "Oh, God!" "Down on the ground." "Put your hands on your head." "Go now!" "Go!" "Down!" "Now!" "Hands on your head!" "On the ground!" "Back, back down!" "Now!" "Nobody move." "Don't touch anything." "Stand there." "No, nobody talk." "Nobody move." "This will be over very soon." "Go, go." "Keep your fucking head down." "I'll blow it off." "Where's the vault?" "Nobody move." "Nobody talk." "Swab." "Move in." "Get it, get it, get it, get it." "Stay there." "What's the matter?" "Fuck!" "Fuck!" "Fuckin' fake!" "Fuck!" "Fuckin' Max." "Fuckin' Max." "I'll fuckin' kill him." "No, stop!" "Fuckin'." "No, stop!" "Time of death 12:36."