Scorchers (1991) Movie Script
[whooshing]
[whirring]
[roaring]
[birds chirping]
[music playing]
JUMPER: When I was
boy, there was a pond.
Oh, it was a spooky thing.
All around it was mountains
of kudzu and cane breaks.
I tell you, now, finding
it the first time,
that was a hard thing to do.
Ever finding it again,
now, that was a miracle.
So that's why we call this place
this place-- this magic place--
we call it Lost River.
And-- and there were folks
in town what did not believe
it exists.
But ever so often, some--
some young sweetheart
or wandering children
would stumble onto it, you know.
And it never needed to be told,
without a sign, without a map,
they know.
[chuckling]
Oh, I can hear them still, yeah.
"Mon Dieu, oh, mon Dieu,
we done found Lost River.
Now, I remember
the day I seen it.
I come through that cane
break right at sundown.
Well, I was lost, me.
And when I caught sight of that
place, I grabbed my heart--
swear to God, put
my hand on my chest
to grab hold of my very heart.
I thought I died.
There was-- there
was something like--
like mist coming off that
water, and all highways
of gold and yellow sunshine come
streaking through that gray old
spooky Spanish moss.
And when it hit that
mist, oh, gold everywhere.
It's in the air and the
water, and turned me gold.
And then-- and then
under that water,
I see a great giant
old black catfish,
big, big, big, like a submarine,
moving silent and confident
just like God.
And there just weren't
no such thing as time.
So me, I just had to.
I took off my clothes,
I had to dive into that.
I hit that cold gold and--
choo-- scared the
hell out of God.
Oh, and I knew it, see.
I was aware of it
right at that moment.
That place, it reach up, it
grabbed me right by my soul.
And I tell you the
truth, it got me still.
I close my eyes, and I'm
still there right now.
I hit that water, I swam in
pure sunlight, and turned old,
but got caught young forever.
[music playing]
After I left that night,
me, like everybody else,
could never find
that place again.
I'll never know how I got there,
I never knew how to get back.
Yo, but that night, when I
got home, I got my daddy.
I said Daddy, Daddy, I
done found Lost River.
And he smiled.
And he knew, knew by
the look on my face,
didn't need to explain,
wasn't exaggerating.
You know, peoples could tell,
peoples could always tell
when somebody really found it.
[chuckling]
My daddy, my daddy nod
his head, and he said,
hmm, yes sir, yeah, I was about
your age when I found it too.
Oh, I guess it was three
or four years later,
Daddy took me and
all six brothers down
with him to the civic center.
Well, the times, they
go against him then,
and he was looking
mighty hard for a job.
You see, down there in that--
how they call that--
bottom of the civic center,
they got the home of the
Army Corps of Engineers.
Oh man, I'm telling you they
got a map the like of which
you never saw before again.
It covered the wall down
there. 'Twas big, yeah, big
as a fat girl's appetite, it had
detail, and color, and contour.
Where there were hills.
It had hills.
Where there were
valleys, it had valleys.
Run your fingers over this map
was to be there, to go there,
to take a trip.
So right away, me and my
bucktoothed brother Scooter
began a-looking, tracing, by
[inaudible] and all around.
When all of a sudden, a
supervisor with a potbelly
and a gold tooth come
up and say, "What
you looking for, children?"
And me, I look him
hard in the eye, I say,
"We hunting up Lost River."
Oh, that gold tooth
flash right away.
"Ain't no such place."
And I say, "Damn if that's so."
And he say, "Look
here, boy, this here
is the official
government US Army
Corps of Engineers
geo-topographical map,
and it is right.
This whole area flood
control program depend
on that map being accurate.
I know that map, and there
ain't no Lost River."
And I say, "I swum in it."
He said, "No, no you
swum in Red River."
I say, "No, no, I
swum in Red River,
and I swum in Lost River,
and I know the difference."
[animal calling]
Oh, the room got quiet then.
And that supervisor,
he puff himself up,
he curl his lips so that
damn gold tooth shine.
And he say real condescending,
"You stupid coon ass boy,
I know what I'm talking about.
You're wrong."
So me, I go get Daddy, and
I say, "Daddy, tell him."
And that supervisor
turned quick on Daddy
like a snapping turtle.
And Daddy looked
down at the floor.
And I said, "Daddy,
Daddy, tell him.
He's wrong."
And my daddy look
up real slow at me
and say, "My son, oh
boy, he's the expert."
Mm.
Well, that was the
day that I learned,
I learned about experts
and now they know better
than you about some things.
But some things you know best.
And most likely, the secret,
most precious, most beautiful
things in your heart and in
your life just ain't on any map.
But you've been there.
You know they're real, they're
true, whether you can prove it
or not.
So don't ever let
anybody talk you out
or what you know to be true.
You see, I have learned.
I have learned that an expert
is a person who rarely gets wet.
So anything you yourself
done swum in, believe.
[music playing]
[moaning]
[laughing]
[creaking]
[moaning]
Come on.
Oh.
Come on.
Oh.
Oh.
[bell ringing]
Where that
sumbitch preacher at?
Jumper.
Don't you Jumper me.
I done paid that limp dick
holy prick 50 whole dollars.
He don't even bother to show up.
Holy cow.
He'll be here.
Oh, he'll be
here, he'll be here.
Sons-in-law ain't
that easy to come by--
even that one.
[fly buzzing]
[grunting]
Oh Jesus!
Oh!
Oh.
Oh Lord!
Oh!
Ah.
Oh.
[moaning]
[crying]
Almighty God, I'm so sorry.
I'm just a sinner,
please forgive me.
Come on, preacher
baby, get dressed.
You're gonna be late.
[music playing]
[dogs barking]
[bell ringing]
Jesus God, my worthless life.
I done gone and got myself
umpteen million dollar debt
putting on this wedding, just
so that butt-faced preacher be
here, make it all right on
God when the hard-on in yonder
take my baby tonight.
What happened?
Butt-faced preacher
don't show up.
I should have give in two year
ago, let Moby Dick have her.
[muttering]
Why'd the pervert
cross the road?
Because he was
stuck in the chicken.
[laughing]
I can't do this.
Splendid, you can do this.
No, not tonight, not
in that bed with Dolan.
I'm going to die.
You won't die.
Oh, but does it hurt?
Not as much as--
Not as much as what?
As much has not having it.
Talbot you and
Balford don't do it?
[muttering]
You mad, you got no issues.
You got him, have you?
How do you keep him off?
He don't want on.
Oh, aye-yai-yai.
Talbot, we've been best
friends my whole life,
and this whole ass
entire six months,
you didn't see fit to not
once tell me about what
you ain't been doing?
I'm going to fix it tonight.
Fix it tonight?
Talbot, what you
gonna do tonight?
Showtime.
Get out the way, goddamn it.
Asshole.
Girls, haul ass, please, I am
paying for this by the minute.
Go.
Splendid, come on, sweet angel.
Daddy, I'm going to die.
You ain't the one
that's going to die.
I have to go to the bathroom.
You should have
thought of that before.
[panting]
Ow.
Here we go.
[shouting]
[whooping]
[crickets]
Balford?
Balford?
Oh no.
Oh no.
Oh no.
[panting]
Balford!
Balford!
Balford!
Balford!
[muttering]
[shouting]
Balford!
[music playing]
[dogs barking]
[car horn]
[bell ringing]
[music playing]
[fireworks exploding]
[singing in french]
[screaming]
Help Me, Daddy!
[cheering]
Oh, me.
[shouting]
[screaming]
No!
Get away from me!
Get away from me.
Get back away from me.
[cheering]
[grunting]
[screaming]
What the hell's
going on up there?
[screaming]
[thunder]
[music playing]
[clicking]
[crickets]
Ah.
Ah.
I want the truth now.
You really like
that kind of music?
What the hell is it you like
about that kind of music?
It's got no beat, no melody.
What is it?
It leads you around corners.
What?
What does that mean, it
leads you around corners?
Well, if you can't hear it,
I can't explain it to you.
Why not?
Because you're so--
So what?
I can't think of
the word for it.
Oh.
You can't think of
the word for it, well.
I've been watching you
listening to that kind of stuff
for five years now, and I
want to know what's going on.
How come you like music
that's got no tune?
Because it's so beautiful.
It's got no beat.
What do you want me to say?
I want you to knock
off the double talk
and give me some answers.
Now, don't you
do that, goddammit.
Don't you smile at me like
you know something I don't.
I'm as smart as you.
Stop smiling.
All right.
Got this attitude like your
personal friends with God.
That's what they
call grandiosity.
You didn't think I knew
words like that, did you?
Grandiose.
That's what you are.
You know what it means?
It means deep down, you
feel worthless and stupid,
and you cover it up by
acting grand and superior,
like you know more
than anybody else.
Well, you don't, so just
stop acting like it.
All right.
I don't have to keep
classical records on that thing.
No.
BEAR: You're the only person
in town who listens to it.
Every month, the
record supply man
says I'm flat out
of my mind, losing
money catering to the highbrow
taste of the town drunk.
Yes?
Yes, yes.
You know that, don't you?
That's what you
are, the town drunk.
[bell ringing]
Yes, I know that.
I'm sorry I said that,
Howler, please forgive me.
What'd I do?
You should not
do that, Howler.
Give in like that.
I just insulted the
hell out of you.
It just rolls off your back,
doesn't cost you nothing.
And stop smiling like I
said something stupid.
I know what I'm talking
about, and I'm right.
Of course you're right, Bear.
I know I'm right, goddammit.
But pretty soon I won't
know what I'm talking about.
Having a conversation with
you is like wandering out
into that swamp.
And I've been caught in
this goop too many times.
And this is it, I'm
cutting the trail.
I'm laying a track,
you understand?
You're going to stay on
that track, you got it?
Got it.
Tonight, I'm going to get
some answers out of you.
[music playing]
[singing in french]
[screaming]
Dolan, go away!
[chuckling]
Splendid, open the door, now.
Never.
Splendid, open the--
Ow.
--goddamn door.
No.
DOLAN: Splendid, open
that goddamn door!
What the hell is
going on in here?
Nothing.
Dolan, go away.
Go away.
Oh, for crying out loud.
Young lady, you hear me?
[cross-talk]
You open that door
right now, this second.
Open that door.
Daddy, no.
Now, don't you Daddy no me.
I can handle it.
Yes sir, I see
how you handle it.
Splendid, open the door.
Girl, goddamn it, open that door
'fore I put my shoulder to it
and bust it down.
Oh, you start
busting on this door,
and I'm going to
start screaming.
Start screaming.
[screaming]
[grunting]
Splendid!
[screaming]
Get her now, Dolan!
DOLAN: I'll never be able
to show my face in daylight
again when them big old
baboons downstairs at the party
hear all this coming down.
Now, open the goddamn door!
Well, I don't care about
all those big old baboons.
[grunting]
Daddy, you start
busting on this door,
and I'm going to
jump out the window--
Open the door!
[screaming]
Dolan, get off of me!
[muttering]
Girl.
Baby, baby, baby, come here now.
Daddy, keep him off of me.
I don't want on you!
Good.
JUMPER: Now, sugar,
sweetie, come to your daddy.
[crying]
Come on now, honey baby.
Come here to me.
Daddy.
MAN: That's right.
Daddy.
That's all.
Daddy, Daddy, my aching ass.
Hush now.
Now, what's going
on, angel, baby.
What all this is?
It's spoiled rottenness,
that's all it is.
Ain't nothing else, Jumper.
Now, pipe down, here.
Daddy, I can't do this.
Not with your daddy
in the room, you can't.
Not with the door locked, and
me on the other side, you can't.
I'm glad you figured that out.
Now, stop.
No, no, no.
I'm scared.
Of what, child, what the
hell you scared of, Splendid.
- Daddy, make him get out.
- Fine.
Get out.
I'll just jump
out the window then.
Yeah, I wish you would.
Hey, now, hold on here.
Honey baby, he is your husband.
Don't need a husband, Daddy.
Just you and me, we'll
live together like always.
I'm going to be right here.
Well, then what I
need a husband for?
Splendid, now, you love Dolan.
No I don't.
Yes you do.
I don't.
Yes you do.
No, I-- I think
I'm going to be sick.
Uh oh.
You going to upchuck?
Mm.
Ooh, baby, wait,
wait, hang on, hang on.
All right, get over
here to the window now.
Go on.
Oh man.
Heads up.
[vomiting]
[groaning]
All right.
[bump]
Oop, oop, oop, come on now.
Hop up there, hop up.
Oh my God, that is gross.
Clean up, sweet angel.
What did I do to deserve this?
You better now?
You all done?
You scared yourself so bad
you tossed your cookies, huh?
- Yes sir.
- Well.
- Yes sir.
- All that's done now, huh?
Yeah.
All right.
Get on with the wedding night.
Oh.
No.
Ow.
Oh me.
[honking]
Now, there's a question
I've been meaning
to ask you for a long time.
How come you quit acting?
What?
How come you quit the theater?
I'm not going to
talk about that.
Yes, you are.
How come?
'Cause I'm going to
make you, that's how come.
How come you quit the theater?
Why?
What difference can it
possibly make to you?
Fine, you're starting
to squirm, good.
And why is that good?
Starting to cost
you something.
You're going to pay
your way again, Howler.
And why is it your job to
see that I pay my way again?
Stay on the track, Howler.
How come you quit acting?
I wasn't any good.
Not true.
Everybody in town says you
were some kind of genius.
This is not the way to
get me to stop drinking.
I'm trying to bring
you back to life.
Why don't you
try something else?
What happened to you
back there in London?
I fell on my face.
All right, you
fell on your face.
How come?
Because I'm not a whore.
- Now, don't start that stuff.
- It's the truth.
It's not truth, it's junk.
I don't think you'd know
the truth if you heard it.
Answer the question.
I've forgotten what
the question was.
How come you fell on your
face back there in London?
- I don't know.
- Yes you do.
- Look, I need a drink.
- No, you don't.
- Well, you're wrong about that.
- Answer the question.
Because I'm not a whore.
Don't start that stuff.
Oh, get off my back, will you?
I'm gonna stick on
you like stink on shit.
That I can believe.
Now, don't run away from me.
Run away from you?
Howler!
Well, all right,
I'll tell you!
I stood up on the stage
that first night, I
stood up on that stage, and
nothing came out of my mouth.
How come?
You know, in the theater, you
know why they call it a part?
They don't call it a job.
Because you reach
down inside yourself
and pull out a part of you.
You don't have any idea what
I'm talking about, do you?
No.
I was an actor.
I wasn't a robot,
I wasn't a jukebox.
Don't start talking crazy.
Crazy, put your
money down, buy
a ticket, put a quarter
into the machine,
watch the actor
tear his heart out.
I didn't read lines, I put
my blood into those words.
I cut up my childhood
and cooked it.
I will not sell that for
the price of a ticket.
I'm not a whore.
[crackling]
[yelling]
No.
Boy, you're just
a spoiled brat, you.
He's pulling my leg off.
JUMPER: You keep this up,
he may pull your head off.
Do you blame me?
Baby, let go of
the bed, really,
come out from under there.
Like hell, I will.
Ow, you hurt my knuckle.
Well, let go.
SPLENDID: He's hurting my leg.
Then get your ass out from
under the bed, Splendid,
come on, now.
Oh, Daddy going at my hand.
Well, let go.
Fuck you!
JUMPER: What you said to me?
I say fuck you.
Come here, girl, goddamn
it, I'm your Daddy.
Never on your life.
I don't care if the devil with
a long red tail come up in here.
[screaming]
You don't talk that
filth, that trash to me.
You think you scared now?
I am going to give you
something to be scared about.
Oh no, daddy.
Oh.
Got you, you little witch.
[moaning]
Damn it.
Dolan, let go your end.
No, you let go
your end, Jumper.
Both ends belong to me.
[crying]
Ow.
Get out of here,
you old coonass.
You just try it.
You raise your hand
to me, you're going
to draw back a bloody stump.
Fine.
Bye.
Bye bye.
- Where are you going?
- I'm going back downstairs.
No, you ain't.
DOLAN: Yes, I am.
Lord have mercy, y'all about
to give me a heart attack.
I got to lie down here a minute.
I don't give a rat's ass
about your heart attack.
I'm going back downstairs,
I'm going to find that balding
preacher, and I'm going to tell
him it's off, the wedding over.
And tell him, I can't
get my father-in-law
out of the room, or my wife
out from under the goddamn bed.
It's plain to me that I've
done made one big ass mistake,
and I want out.
Then I'm going to find me a
great, big, fat, dumb, ugly
girl with two big giant
titties, a two-handed butt,
and no brains at
all, and I'm going
to hump her until the bird
catches the worm, yeah.
I'm gonna see if I can't bump
another 10 points off her IQ.
And some time
tomorrow morning, I'm
going to roll off
the top of her,
then I'm going to thank
God that I'm not waking
up a member of this family.
Boy, shut up and sit down.
Says who?
Say me.
Dolan?
What?
Are you really going to
get yourself another woman?
Hell no.
Don't
Be too quick sure.
Boy, you better hush up.
And you, get out
from under that bed.
- All right, all right.
- Come on now.
Ow, ow, don't hit me.
Ow.
[thunder]
HOWLER: I pay my bill.
BEAR: You haven't paid
a bill in six months.
HOWLER: Oh, that's up,
bring that up again.
BEAR: All that talk
about being a whore.
HOWLER: I am not a whore.
I am.
BEAR: Thais, goddamn it,
where the hell you been?
You're late.
Oh, don't mind me.
How was your night?
Long, hot, and sticky.
My feet are killing me.
Your feet?
Knock it off, Howler.
Long night, huh?
I'm thinking about
changing professions.
I recommend it
enthusiastically.
I'm going to recommend
your butt out of here.
Make any money?
About $400.
No fooling?
Yeah, no fooling.
Jesus.
[laughing]
Jesus.
Thais, tell me something.
When you see any of those creeps
in the daytime, on the street,
say, do that like they know you?
No.
Except preacher.
You had preacher?
Well, you didn't know that?
No, I didn't know that.
I wish I didn't know now.
Well, he's the
only one who acts
like he knows me in daylight.
Is that so?
Poor man.
He just stands there so full
of guilt. And he takes my hand,
he prays for me, he blesses me.
And like clockwork, that
night, he shows up at my door.
[laughing]
Merciful Jesus, the collection
money going to pay for whores.
That's not funny.
Yes it is.
Now, you shut up
about this, you hear?
He's a nice guy, and I don't
want this all over town.
You know, I just about did not
get him to that damn wedding
today.
You had preacher
before a wedding?
Well, you did not hear that.
Oh, yes I did.
Preacher was whore humping,
then Bible thumping.
[laughing]
Shut up.
Don't laugh at him.
That's sacrilegious.
Oh, bull, Bear.
When you finish with Preacher,
do you take up a collection,
or--
No.
Well, how does
he pay you, then?
He don't.
What?
Preacher is one
of my charity cases.
How many charity
cases have you got?
Two.
Thais.
Oh.
Oh.
Ha.
Can I be a charity case?
No.
Oh, please.
Please, please?
No.
[heartbeat]
[music playing]
JUMPER: Goddamn it, it is too
hot for all this foolishness.
Now, what all this about?
All them people.
That's bullshit.
Oh, baby, they're
your wedding party.
SPLENDID: Yeah, but
they'll hear us.
Oh, sweet angel,
they cannot hear you
way up here in this bedroom.
But they know what
we're in here doing.
We ain't doing it.
I know that.
What you think?
You think they're out there
listening up here to you?
Yeah.
Oh man, they got
their own good party.
Oh, boy, I can hear them now.
Hey, Dolan, we all heard you
couldn't get your wife out
from under the bed.
JUMPER: Watch your pride, boy.
Jumper, tonight I got precious
little to be proud about.
Oh, I appreciate that.
Oh and I appreciate the
way you've been acting.
Then why don't
you just stop then?
- Well, maybe I will.
- I wish you would.
Dolan!
- Stop it now, I mean it.
No, Splendid.
Splendid, now, stop it.
Hey, hey, no, no, no.
Splendid, stop that.
I can't believe this.
Hey, hey, hey, that's it.
Let go.
Let go, both of you.
Ow, shit.
Back.
Don't you want to
be a grown woman?
I am a grown woman.
A grown woman sleeps
on top of the bed.
JUMPER: Baby, aren't
you gonna take a man?
No.
Fine.
Why?
Honey, this your husband.
I don't care if
he's Huey Long.
[shouting]
Don't you denigrate
Huey Long that way.
Your husband, he love you.
Don't matter.
JUMPER: It don't matter.
Tell her, boy.
- Tell her what?
- You love her.
- Why?
'Cause I say.
I love you.
Oh.
Mean it.
I just married her two
hours ago, what you think?
Better.
Love hiccup, you hear that?
I don't care what I hear.
Well, what?
What is it, sweet sugar?
Daddy, I'm scared.
I'm really scared.
I'm scared, scared,
scared, scared, scared,
scared, scared, scared--
Let go of my pant
leg, let go of me now.
Scared, scared,
scared, scared.
What is the matter.
What you scared about?
You too, Daddy.
Great God, over my whole life
long, you say, girl, keep
the boys out of your britches.
You say they want one
thing only, poontang.
Put your fanny down.
Poontang, poontang, poontang,
poontang, poontang, poontang.
Since I was a little
girl, you say,
girl, keep your feet on the
floor, and your knees together.
Damn right, I did.
She was a young girl.
Yeah, I bet you tried to
teach me to sleep in the cradle
with my legs crossed.
I never done that.
If you could
have, you'd have had
my braid my pubic hair shut.
I told you about
talking that filth.
Daddy, you did
everything else.
For 20 years, you had me hanging
onto my pecan like a lifeboat.
You let go now.
I had me scared to death some
boy would catch me off guard,
and then you'd hate me forever.
So I didn't.
I didn't do it, daddy.
She's telling the truth.
I'm speaking from experience.
Daddy, I made it
to my wedding night.
Every boy in Bayou La
Teche took a shot at me
one time or another.
- I know that.
I sat right down that window
with the shotgun watching.
And them three Le Pew
boys, I'm here to tell you,
they got as close as
one human being can get.
Now, there's no need
for the details, OK?
But Daddy, I done made it.
You done good, sugar cane.
Yeah, I held out.
All right now, let go.
I can't just stay shut up
like an oyster for 20 years,
and then just jump
on top of the bed
and spread my legs
like a toll bridge.
Don't talk that way.
I'm not a garage door.
JUMPER: What you plan on doing?
Waiting.
You done waited 20 years.
Daddy, help me.
How, baby?
Baby, baby, it ain't no
good to put this off.
You're just going to
make it more worser.
Now, it's time.
Come here, baby.
I'm going to take real
good care of you now.
I want to be a charity case.
No.
How come?
'Cause you're past help.
No, he ain't.
No, he ain't past help.
What, are you
going to save him?
I'm working on it.
[laughing]
Yeah, sit down.
Get up off your knees, sit down.
Bear.
The day you save
this man, I will
bend over and kiss your butt
in front of the post office.
And just how do you
know all about it?
Honey, there is one thing
us whores know all about.
What's that?
Never mind.
Goddamn it.
Don't you smile at me and
say never mind, like I'm
too stupid to understand.
That's not what I meant.
That's what you meant.
No it isn't.
Yes it is.
All right, goddamn it.
I'm tired to hell of this.
How come all the losers in
the world got a secret smile?
Calm down.
I don't want to calm down!
Every night I've got to
put up with you two acting
like I'm not at
the end of my rope,
I don't know nothing about life.
Secret nods and winks, smiles
like I'm missing the boat.
One time when I
was a little boy,
Huey Long there walked
right in this bar,
he sit down right here.
My daddy looked him straight
in the eye, and said, Huey,
you don't look too good.
He said, well, I'm worried about
my children, just like that.
And that's what a good man is.
He looks you right in the
eye, and tell you what's
on his mind, and in his heart.
No big deal.
He wouldn't look at
me with that smile
and shake his head like
there's no way of flathead
like me is going to understand.
You two, it's like
your own whole highway,
you got your own pipeline.
Well, I've got
something to tell you,
you don't have to
be on your butt
to understand a few things.
Now, get the hell out of my bar.
Bear, wait.
Now just wait.
I've waited long enough.
Wait, wait, listen, listen.
Now, look at me.
I don't want to look at you.
Look at me.
I don't want to look at you.
Look at me.
Now, what was it
got you so upset?
That I wouldn't tell you the
one thing all whores know about?
Failure.
That's all.
[music playing]
[laughing]
Woo!
Get on her, Dolan!
You get her yet, Dolan?
You're a lucky damn dog.
Jump on it, Dolan.
Come here to your Papa, Dolan.
Shut up.
Shut up.
MAN: Faster, Dolan, Faster.
Faster, Dolan, Faster.
Faster, Dolan, Faster.
Faster, Dolan, Faster.
We'll see about this.
[still chanting]
Shut up, Jumper.
You're not sticking
your head out this door.
I'll never live it down if
they know you're in here.
They're just horsing around.
They're just cutting up, they
don't mean nothing by it.
Faster, Dolan, Faster.
Goddamn it, shut up
and let me concentrate.
Don't concentrate, penetrate.
Get the hell out
of here boy, come
out there and bust some heads.
Now goddamn it, I'm
getting it good.
Get her one for me, Dolan.
She owes me one.
All right.
All right, this next
one's for you, Pie Boy.
[grunting]
Oh.
[grunting]
[screaming]
God damn it.
I've had enough.
Baby, I'm not fucking around.
Daddy, help me.
You just shut your mouth, you.
Cool down, now, boy.
Shut up, Jumper.
I've had enough
of this bullshit.
This is my goddamn
wedding night.
And you, you've been dicking
me around long enough.
Daddy.
Damn it, Dolan,
this ain't the way.
Shut the fuck up, Jumper.
Dolan, you've gone crazy.
Yep.
Daddy.
Get off of her, boy.
Get the fuck off
me, you old coonass!
You hit my daddy.
What the hell's he even doing
in here tonight anyway, huh?
Answer me that.
Dolan, you're crazy,
out of your mind.
You shut up.
Stop fucking talking.
You've been talking and
putting me off two years,
stalling and prick teasing.
I wasn't prick teasing.
Shut up.
Two years I've been waiting
out for the wedding, and now
this shit.
I've had it.
And you're going to get it.
You're going to get what
you've been needed all along.
[unbuckling belt]
Dolan, are you going to rape
me in front of my own daddy?
This ain't rape, goddamn it.
This is your fucking wedding
I'm your fucking husband!
[bonk]
That'll teach
you to whomp on me.
What'd you do that for?
You calm down, boy,
else I'll cream your cob.
Daddy, you bust
my husband again,
I'm going to clean your cloud.
You ain't going to do
no such thing, missy.
Sit your ass down.
All right, son, now
let me see your head.
Let me see, son.
Let me see, boy, let go.
All right, hold still now.
Oh, you got yourself
a goose egg.
You'll be all right.
your goddamn head hotter
than his goddamn dick.
Tell me about it.
You don't know
nothing about my dick.
I know it's hard all the time.
Whose fault is that?
Now, don't you two
start this up again.
Oh, it's my fault you
want to bone day and night.
Well, you could give me a
little relief once in a while.
Relief?
I'm the one needs relief.
You've been poking me with
that thing two years straight.
I can't get no sleep.
In the car, in the
school, in the church,
that thing never goes down.
Some women in the
world do it like that.
Oh, fine, go and poke
fun one of them with it.
Maybe I might.
Now, don't you be too
hard on this boy, here.
Girl, the day's going
to come you wish
he could get it up like this.
You gonna get old as me,
look back on this day,
and wonder where it all went.
- I doubt it.
- You doubt it.
Now, but believe
me what I'm saying,
you going to want it back.
There ain't nothing wrong
with him, it's natural.
Oh Daddy, he ain't natural.
JUMPER: I was the same
way when I was his age.
No, you were never
as bad as Dolan.
I was as bad as Dolan
when I was his age.
All right.
JUMPER: Now today at my age,
I'd pay $100,000 to have
that boy's dick for one night.
You understand that?
No, I don't.
Well, you will one day,
believe me what I say.
Now, goddamn it, Dolan, you
got to ease up a little,
you hear me?
Yes, sir.
Son, you ain't drilling for
oil with that thing, you know?
Yes, sir.
[gunshots]
[glass breaking]
What the hell?
[gunshot]
[clicking]
Talbot!
Go to hell, Bear!
[gunshot]
I know she's in there!
I know she's in there!
Don't lie to me!
Leave me alone, Bear.
Talbot!
Are you happy?
No.
Was it worth the money?
Never is.
Talbot, what the hell
is this, shooting at us?
What the hell you even
doing out so late?
If you're looking
for trash, you
got to go out late at night.
Talbot.
Some people do better not to
show their faces in daylight.
You want to dig them up,
you got to go out at night.
Talbot, what the
hell is going on?
Where's your husband Balford?
I imagine by now,
he's home in bed.
It's the second bed
he's been in tonight.
Thais, is that truth.
Oh, Thais, honey.
They've been married six months.
You bitch!
Talbot, stop before
somebody gets hurt.
Somebody's been hurt.
But you don't care about
that, do you, trash?
You don't care who gets
hurt, long as you get paid.
Talbot, get your
butt home now!
What, Bear?
Am I disturbing a
paying customer?
Not bothering me.
[laughing]
You're bothering me.
You shot up my bar.
I'll pay too.
Go on, serve me up
something, I'll pay.
That's what tonight
is all about, right?
Who pays cash?
Come on, trash.
How much did my husband pay you?
Don't you turn your
head away from me.
Look at me.
How much did my husband--
$100.
$100?
He paid you $100?
He can't even make rent.
I feel sick.
Uh oh.
You going to upchuck?
[groaning]
Oh, please don't do that.
If you do it, I'll
want to do it.
You all right?
Yeah.
You sure?
Yeah.
[crying]
Oh good.
Are you feeling better now?
I must be flat out
of my head, Bear.
I got no idea why I
came here tonight.
When did your husband
stop making love to you?
Did he tell you that?
Honey, he didn't tell me.
Don't call me honey.
How'd you know?
Oh, Jesus Christ, does
the whole town know?
Nobody else knows.
Nobody knows.
How'd you know?
Honey, in my line
of work, you can't
help but learn a few things,
much as you'd like not to.
[bird calling]
[singing in french]
It's hard thing
for man and woman
to come together, that's
just all there is to it.
It's the cutting edge of
creation, man and woman
coming together.
It's going to be
hard, now, there's
going to be some friction.
But damn it, you just got
to put up with the heat.
All there is to it.
It's like being on
the bayou out there.
And we growed up our whole
life on Bayou La Teche,
so you've seen it for yourself.
You've seen the carp,
and the mud turtle,
and the catfish
and water moccasins
all eating up on each other,
seen it day in day out.
Catfish eat the crawfish,
alligator eat the nutria,
us eat them all.
Now, how we call that?
Death, that's the hunger of
death everywhere, all the time,
eating up on everything.
Tonight you two is
the hunger of life,
and I'm gonna tell you
right now, life every bit
as hungry as death.
Splendid, right there
in your hot belly,
and in that boy's big old
hard dick, the hunger of life.
Just as strong, just as mean
that old alligator yonder
in the swamp, pulling down a
deer, snap his legs in two,
and eat him up.
Now, you think this
going to eat you up, huh?
Yes, sir.
No, ma'am.
It's life.
Now, Splendid, I
know you love Dolan.
You told him so.
Do I, Daddy?
Oh, for crying out loud, girl,
can you look him in the eyes
hours and hours?
He look at you, and
you look at him,
and, oh, well, there
just ain't nothing else.
You feel like, oh, maybe
them eyes the bayou,
and you floating in
it on a hot Sunday.
You feel that way?
Yes, sir, I guess.
Well, you can't
look at somebody
you ain't in love with
in the eye that way.
No, you're not in love, got to
have to turn your head away.
And I told you something
else some more,
the best way to know that
you fall out of love is,
can you watch him eat?
What?
You done had it with somebody,
you done falled out of love,
mm, mm, don't set at the
table with that person,
don't try to watch him eat.
It going to make you sick.
Every bite he take, you gonna
say, oh, no, look at that pig.
Yeah, him get a little
milk on his mustache,
a little food on
his chin, it going
to make you want to
jump up from that table
and run out the house screaming.
Now, that's the truth.
But when you're in
love with the boy,
then you're going to
love to watch him eat.
And it don't matter
what a mess he make,
no, milk dripping down his
chin, he let out a big ole
nasty burp, it don't matter.
Now, you gonna say,
oh, don't he cute
look just like a little baby.
Girl, when you're
in love with a man,
you just gonna want to
see him happy, that's all.
Well, I love to
feed you, baby.
That's right.
I love to watch you eat.
Splendid in love with Dolan.
And my daddy.
Yes, ma'am.
Now, you look here.
You take off them clothes,
you lie down on that bed,
love him back good.
I sneak on down
to the party now.
Oh, no, no.
Goddamn it.
No, no, no.
I give up,
Jumper, I've had it.
No, you don't had it.
No, no, no.
Jesus.
No, no, no.
What in the hell's
the matter with you?
I told you a million billion
times, daddy, I'm scared.
[yelling]
You're going home.
I can't go home!
Oh, Lord.
Howler, would you drive
her to her Daddy's house?
Do what?
Sober up, and drive
her to her Daddy's house.
Oh, what the hell.
Where does he live?
Church.
Church?
Her Daddy is Preacher.
You don't know him?
No, I fear I don't
know him personally.
Why does my husband pay
money to sleep with you?
'Cause it's me, right?
I'm doing something wrong?
I'm not woman enough
to please my man.
Talbot, you aren't to
go into all that here.
If I'm desperate
enough to seek marriage
counseling from the
town whore, I sure
God am past caring who hears.
Is that it?
Am I doing something wrong?
What are you smiling at?
Thais, don't you do that?
What'd I tell you
about that smile?
I'm gonna wipe that
smile off your face.
How many times did I tell
you about that smile?
What am I doing wrong?
I don't know.
Yes you do.
And you, shut up.
Honey.
Don't call me honey.
Anything I say is just
going to make you feel worse.
I could not feel any worse.
Girl, come out from
behind that bed drape, now.
No, sir.
[inaudible].
There ain't but so much of
this a man going to take.
Amen.
He has done put up with more
than any man ought to have put
up with on his wedding night.
Oh you bust my heart open.
I'm going to bust your
head open, you lip me again,
you heard that?
- I heard that.
- You better say yes sir to me.
- Yes sir.
Now, you take
off your clothes,
you get your ass down here in
this bed, right this minute.
No, I will not, I
cannot, I will not--
Daddy, what you doing?
You gonna whoop me?
You gonna whoop me?
Don't whoop me?
No.
Oh.
Ah.
Put the belt down, Daddy.
You can't whoop your
daughter on her wedding night?
- Watch me.
- No.
You want me to go
to a cottonwood tree
and pick a switch?
No.
Then get your butt down here.
Daddy, why are
you whooping me?
Because I have been patient,
this boy has been patient,
and you ain't being
nothing but hardheaded.
I'm not being hardheaded.
What you being?
Scared.
Scared of what?
This is-- this--
th--
What?
This is how Mama died.
No.
Oh, my sweet precious baby,
that's what you think?
[crying]
No, sweet baby.
What all this is?
Baby, now come
let me explain it.
No, child, that
ain't what happened.
- What ain't what happened.
- She mama.
She mama what?
She died.
No.
Listen to me now, child,
listen to me explain it.
You didn't do it.
Damn it, girl, you didn't do it.
It was God his own
self done that.
You told me your mama
died when you was a baby.
She mama died giving
birth to my baby.
I killed Mama.
No, sweetie.
- I killed Mama.
- No.
I killed Mama.
No, baby.
I killed Mama.
I killed Mama.
I killed Mama.
Kill me too.
All right.
No, child, it ain't
going to kill you.
It'll kill me.
No, sweet angel.
I don't need that, Daddy.
If I do this, you're
going to hate me too.
And then I'm going
to lose you as well.
Splendid, you ain't
never going to lose me.
Never?
Never ever.
Oh, sweet angel, oh, child.
No matter where you go,
no matter what you do,
your daddy going to love you.
You hear that?
Yeah.
Yes, my sweet angel,
you take that to the bank.
[kissing]
Now, look at me, now.
Can you tell Daddy?
Can you tell me what
you need for you can
go ahead and be a grown woman?
I need my Mama.
I need my Mama.
Your mama give
you her blessing,
and tell you it all right to
go ahead and be a grown woman.
I'm a crazy old fool.
I understand,
baby, I understand.
Girl, I'm not your mother.
Thank God.
Talbot.
I don't need a mother now.
What am I doing wrong?
I don't know.
I tried everything.
I read all those dirty books.
I spent a week's salary on
this damn black underwear.
Balford just laughs at me.
Oh, Talbot.
Why won't my husband
make love to me?
Yes, darling, listen.
Why don't you take my place, mm?
What do I do, go
to a sex therapist?
No.
Act like a scorcher,
go buy trashy clothes,
and be a sugar baby?
No.
Talk dirty?
No.
Are you really
supposed to blow on it?
Oh.
[laughing]
I do not know what the
point of all this is.
No.
You stay on the track.
There's that track again.
It may be the same train.
Shut up.
What do you do that I don't?
You aren't any better
looking than me,
and I'm younger than you are.
Whatever it is, if you
can do it, I can do it.
Fine.
Fine.
I'll pay you.
I'll pay you to teach me
how to please my husband.
Oh, come on, Talbot, stop it.
Don't worry about
my pride, Bear.
I've taking it on the chin,
turned the other cheek,
cried my eyes out.
I don't have any
face left to lose.
Don't worry about my pride.
What do you do that I don't.
It's not what I do.
It's what I am.
A whore?
You noticed.
I'm not a whore, I'm his wife.
Well, maybe
that's the problem.
Oh, it's a problem that
I have morals, values,
self-res-- that I used
to have self-respect,
that's the problem?
Morals don't count
that much in bed.
Obviously, not to you.
Talbot, you asked for her
advice, now shut up and listen.
I did not ask for advice.
What then?
I don't want to be analyzed.
What do you want?
Answers.
It is the same train.
[chuckling]
What is your problem?
What?
Oh, uh, this.
This.
THAIS: Oh, honey, you best
stop looking for answers,
and start creating
a little mystery.
What does that
MEAN, create mystery?
THAIS: Stop acting like a
preacher's daughter in bed.
What does that mean?
Try leading him
around a few corners.
Oh, absolutely!
Absolutely what?
Nothing.
What are you smiling at?
Uh oh.
Nothing, honey.
No, don't call her honey.
You shut up.
I know some God awful thing has
gone wrong with my marriage.
If you know what it
is, then you tell me.
I don't know.
Then wipe that shit
grin off your face.
I am a preacher's daughter.
What am I supposed to
act like in bed, a whore?
I would.
You are.
That's why I don't
act like one in bed.
What do you act like?
A loving wife.
That's what I am.
I believe you.
OK.
DOLAN: What?
All right, then.
You need your mama, that's
what we've got to do.
What?
DOLAN: Jumper,
she mama and dead.
You ain't got to
tell me that, boy.
Splendid, come here, now.
I want you to sit here in
this straight back chair,
and put your mama in
the rocking chair.
Did which?
Girl, come on, you're going
to have to cooperate with me.
I'm never going to get
downstairs to that party.
Sit down there now.
Go and pretend,
that's all, baby.
But imagine you can see your
mama, alive and beautiful
like she was, sitting right
there in the rocking chair.
Jumper, what the
hell are you doing?
What is this shit?
Hush up now.
You know what she look like?
Oh, I seen
pictures at Mamaw's.
That's right.
So you see your mama sitting
in that rocking chair,
looking back at you.
Tell me again what
she looked like?
All right.
She was-- oh, she was a
tiny little bitty girl.
Smaller than Mamaw?
Mm, mm, near about.
Oh, and she had that
red and white hair.
How they call that again?
Strawberry blonde?
That's it.
And, oh, them great
big old brown eyes.
Yeah, I saw them
in the picture.
Heh heh.
Look like a Palomino eyes, huh?
Mama looked like a Palomino?
Mm, that horse with
wings, what his name is?
What horse with wings?
Pegasus.
That's it.
Your mama looked just like
that beautiful angel horse.
Pegasus.
Yeah.
Now, you look at that chair.
You tell me when you see her.
Am I going to see
something that ain't there?
I love her too much, baby.
Too much for what?
Too much for her to
be gone all the way.
Daddy, I can't do this.
You can do it.
No, no, no.
What's the matter?
What are you scared of, baby?
Daddy, will mama like me?
Splendid, what make you think
your mama wouldn't like you?
Cause I killed her.
No, girl, oh, sweetie,
your mama loved you.
Daddy, loved me,
she never even saw me.
But she carried
you for nine months.
Sweetie, girl, she
used to sat right there
in that rocking chair, and
she would rock, and rock,
and pat her big old belly.
And she'd look up
to me in the eye,
and she'd say, oh, Jumper,
how I love this baby.
Is that true, Daddy?
That is true for sure.
Mama loved me?
Now, Splendid, you knew that.
Yeah.
Yeah, I did know that.
Somewhere, girl,
down deep inside,
you could remember being
that tiny baby in the womb,
and you felt all that love
that you mama gave to you.
Oh.
She never did see
your face, no ma'am.
But she loved you, girl,
she loved you all the same.
You, well, you never
did see your mama,
but you loved her all your
life, now ain't that right?
That's right.
Well, tell her honey.
Go on and tell her.
I love--
I love you, Mama.
Ooh.
Hey, Jumper, what kind of
voodoo you conjuring up here,
huh?
Tell your mama
how you grow up,
and you feel like the
world is a good place,
because Mama loved you, and Mama
wanted you here in the world.
Thank you, Mama.
Ah.
The hell you doing?
Baby, there's nothing there.
Shut up, baby.
It's all right.
What do you want
to thank Mama for?
I want to thank--
I want to thank you--
thank you, Mama for--
thank you, Mama,
for birthing me.
Well, all right, I reckon
that's what she done.
Yeah, and thank you
Mama for giving me
Daddy, and taking care of him.
I took care of him too.
I want you to know that.
- You sure did.
- Yes.
Now, you haul off
and told mama what
you wish she could have seen.
I wish you could have
seen me grow up, Mama.
That's right.
Yeah, I grew up good.
Sure did.
And people say that
I remind them of you,
and I always take
that as a compliment.
Exactly what it was.
Yeah, and-- and,
oh, Mama, I wish
you could have seen my wedding.
Oh, now we're talking.
Mama, I made it.
[squealing]
Yeah, it was beautiful.
And my husband Dolan,
You'd like him too.
Leave me out of this, OK?
I saved myself my whole
life, my whole life.
And now, Mama, he wants me
so bad he's about to explode.
I held out my whole life, I
saved myself for just one man,
gave myself to
him body and soul.
Now he don't want me.
No matter what I do, no
matter how hard I try.
But you, you don't love him.
You sell yourself to
any man for money.
And my husband will lie,
cheat, steal, bounce out of bed
and break the door down just
to spend an hour with you
in a filthy motel, and pays
cash for the privilege.
Why?
Please, one of you tell me why.
I'm so stupid.
You know my daddy, don't you?
No.
Don't lie to me.
Say it out loud.
I know your daddy.
You were with him today.
That's right.
That's where he was.
[crying]
My husband and my
daddy in one day.
Oh God, I feel like
I've been raped.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
Did you know?
Did you know it was my
husband and my daddy?
Oh God, my heart, my heart.
Did you know?
Yes.
Did you care?
No.
Oh that's what a
whore is, isn't it?
Someone who just doesn't care.
Best actresses in the world.
How could you do that to me?
You sure God are
one spoiled brat.
Me?
You.
Why the hell should
I care about you?
Because I'm a human being.
What am I, huh?
When your husband and your daddy
crawled on top of me tonight,
I don't recall them asking
me what I wanted, how I felt.
How much you think your husband
cared about my feelings, huh?
All that sweating and screaming.
Shut up!
Fighting about the
price, howling about how
his hour wasn't up yet.
Bellyaching how his half-assed
wife leaves him cold.
He said that?
Yes, he said that.
His eyes bugged out like a frog.
He wants me, he needs me.
Lay down, shut up, roll over.
I don't remember your
daddy or your husband
or you asking me what I wanted.
Stop it, Thais.
I've been laying
underneath your sweating,
stinking husband half the
night, paying for your sins.
I don't want to hear
anymore of your troubles.
[thunder]
My whole life has been a lie.
Oh, well.
Most lives are.
No, no, goddamn it.
That's not true.
Your life has not been a lie.
You've been lied to.
There is a difference.
Damn little.
Where am I going to go?
I can't go home to my husband.
I can't go home to my daddy.
Go to a hotel.
That's how it starts.
Thais, I think
you've said enough.
Mama, there was 100
people at the wedding.
Preacher was late, and
Daddy liked to pitch a fit.
Daddy really kicked
him in the butt.
And, oh, Mama, I made
my own wedding cake,
but I think I threw up on it.
Oh, and I found Daddy's
love letters to you,
and I read every one of them.
That's why I feel like
I know you so well,
because we both think alike.
And that time when I was in--
Sweet baby.
What?
Let's tell Mama about
how old you are now.
I'm about the same age
as you were when you died.
That's right.
I never thought of that.
Tell Mama how you
feel about her dying.
Mama, I'm sorry you
had to die so young.
That's right.
And what?
And I wish you could
have lived your whole life.
Well, why she didn't
do that, Splendid?
Because she died
giving birth to me.
Mm-hm.
Now, you tell Mama that.
Mama, I--
I know you died for me.
No, no.
I know you died because of me.
That's right.
And what?
And it wasn't worth it.
Oh no, sweet angel, you
don't know that's true.
No, you don't know that.
Ask mama was you worth it.
Daddy.
Now, Splendid, come on.
Look at the chair.
Look at the chair, and
then you'll find out.
Mama, are you mad at me?
No, got to be honest about it.
Mama, was I worth dying for?
Oh, my sweet baby.
You need to hear it OK for
you to be alive, don't you?
Come on now, we ask again.
You can do it.
I got you, sweetie.
It's all right, all right.
Come on now.
Get it out now.
Go on ask her.
Come on, Splendid.
[crying]
I got you.
Come on, honey.
No.
Go ahead.
No.
Mama, was I worth dying--
Mama-- Mama, was I worth--
Mama, was I worth dying for?
You did it.
You got it up.
Yes.
It's going to be all
right, you hear me?
I want you to turn around
there now, and be your mama.
I want you to sit in
that rocking chair,
and take your mama's place.
Jumper, this is showing
disrespect for the dead.
Baby, don't sit on your mama!
Oh man.
Boy, all these years I've
been hearing them stories
about that inbreeding
in your family,
I've tried not to believe them.
You better shut up
'fore I can't help
myself what I'm gonna believe
Don't-- don't embarrass
me about my family.
Go on over there and sit down.
I'm sorry.
[footsteps]
I got to know
this one last thing.
Tonight-- tonight, did my
husband say he loved you?
I don't remember.
You don't remember?
Jesus God, you really
don't care at all, do you?
I've been waiting for my husband
to say that to me for six
months, and you don't remember?
[sighing]
What difference does
it make what he said?
Men say a lot of things.
I've been listening
to my daddy's sermons,
reading love letters,
believing in Champagne promises
all my life.
[chuckling]
Oh, baby.
Oh baby.
It's not $100,
but you earned it.
Talbot, where are you going?
Fuck you.
Fuck me?
What'd I do?
Talbot!
It's fixing to rain.
Talbot, where are you going?
You going home?
THAIS: She may go home, but
she better not go to bed.
How come?
Her husband will jump
her before her head
hits the pillow.
Why's that?
Look at her.
BEAR: She looks older.
That ain't age.
Now you'll be your Mama.
I don't know how.
Oh, yes, you do.
All right, all right,
now close them eyes.
That's right.
OK, come on, close them.
Sit up here, now, sit up.
That's right,
that's OK, sweetie.
All right.
What I want you to do is just
feel that part of your mama
that's still alive
in you, that's all.
[bell ringing]
All right.
Now, I want you to look yonder
at that straight back chair,
and see Splendid.
Oh, Splendid.
Splendid young and beautiful
and alive on her wedding night.
All right.
Now, Sarah, Sarah, did
you hear all them things
that your daughter told you?
Yeah, I heard them.
Well, Sarah,
tell your daughter
how you feel about her.
She's proud.
No, no, don't tell me.
Tell Splendid.
I'm proud of you, Splendid.
Proud of what?
I'm proud--
I'm proud of you being alive.
Why?
'Cause I'm not.
Right.
Oh, Mama's mighty
proud that a baby
make it to her wedding night.
[chuckling]
All right, now, you be
Mama and tell her so.
Tell her what?
Say, baby, I wish I could
have seen your wedding.
Baby, I wish I could
have seen your wedding.
Oh, she would have loved it.
Would she, Daddy?
[chuckling]
How could she help it?
All right, come on now, sit up
here, be your mama some more.
Now, Sarah, tell your daughter
what you feel guilty about.
Oh no, Daddy, that
wasn't her fault, Daddy.
That wasn't her fault.
- Splendid.
Daddy.
We're going to
let mama talk now.
Come on, sit up there, be Mama.
Be Mama now.
Mama's turn to get
it off her chest too.
What's your guilt, Sarah?
I-- I'm sorry I died.
And?
I'm sorry I left
you without a Mama.
That's right.
I'm sorry I left you.
All right now, Sarah,
tell her, tell her
you tried not to leave.
Did she, Daddy?
I didn't know that.
What happened?
All right.
All right, I'll tell you about
the night your mama died.
I sat right there, right
there in that operation room
when she had that trouble,
and I hold her hand
and pray, you know.
Last thing-- last thing I
ever heard your mama say, she,
she reach up her hands to God,
and she said, please, please
don't take me away
from this sweet baby.
Did Mama really say that?
Yes, ma'am.
Now come on, you
got to be your mama.
Tell Splendid that, now.
Say Splendid.
Splendid.
I try.
I tried to stay alive for you.
I tried to stay alive for you.
But what?
But I couldn't keep
my heart beating.
And what, you couldn't
keep that little bitty heart
beating.
I didn't know that.
God knows, I'm sorry,
I'm a crazy old fool.
Should have told you
that long time ago.
I thought you
knew, I thought you
knew your mama wouldn't have
left you if she could help it.
All right, come on, now.
Got to be your mama some more.
All right, now.
Sarah, Sarah, Splendid done
asked you something else.
All right, honey baby,
tell your daughter.
Tell your daughter, was
she worth dying for?
Yes.
Well, tell her why.
'Cause-- 'cause as
long as you're alive,
a part of me is too.
That's right.
Yeah.
Sarah, you know, Splendid,
she all grown up now.
Look yonder, took a husband,
and soon she and Dolan
have their own babies.
But before she do that, she'd
like to have your blessing,
so you give that to her.
Yeah.
All right, well,
you tell her that.
Tell her what?
Say Splendid.
Splendid.
[chuckling]
Live for both of us.
Live for both of us.
Live your life.
Live your life.
And you haul off
and live the life that
slipped through my fingers.
And live the life that
slipped through my fingers.
C'est bon.
Jumper.
JUMPER: Oh.
One last thing, Sarah.
Your baby mighty
afraid the same thing
going to happen to
her what happened
to you, so she afraid to get
in that bed with her husband.
No.
What you mean, no?
That's your daddy afraid
of sex, not you and me.
That's probably true.
So tell your daughter
she won't die.
No, you won't die,
honey, you won't die.
Hallelujah.
Tell her why.
Because it wasn't
you, or loving
your daddy that killed me.
What was it?
It was my heart.
Why your daughter safe?
Because she got
her Daddy's heart.
You bet your life.
Well, guess we better tell
your daughter bye now.
No.
I don't want her to go yet.
You got to let a
little girl grow up
now, it's all there is to it.
Oh my Lord.
Oh, Splendid, that
might as well be
your mama sitting right there.
I don't know what to say.
Adieu, douce ange.
Goodbye, sweet angel.
Je t'aime.
I love you.
Et elle est toujours.
And I always will.
That's right, sweet angel.
Always and forever.
Thank you, Daddy, thank you.
You got what you need now.
All right, all right.
Come on, now, come on, go on.
Time for you to go on
over there with that boy--
that man.
Your husband what love you so
much, you love him back good.
Dolan, I love you.
I want you all the time babe.
[music playing]
[crickets]
[thunder]
[yelling]
[thunder]
[grunting]
[moaning]
[thunder]
[rain]
All right.
All right.
I may have been born at night,
but I wasn't born last night.
[laughing]
Look out now, 'cause
I think I'm fixing
to understand something here.
Going to hear it once more.
I'm going to play it myself.
[coin clinking]
Now.
[whirring]
You explain it to me,
so I can understand.
[music playing]
Ho!
[laughing]
Now, I'm listening to this
music, and it's got no melody.
You tell me that's
pretty, right?
Oh, very, very.
Why?
Goddammit, don't you
go smiling again.
Huh.
It's got no beat, no--
no rhythm, no melody, nothing.
You like it?
Well, stay on track, man.
Do you like it?
Oh.
[chuckling]
I hate to admit it--
absolutely.
Why?
Uh.
Uh.
Uh, I can't put
my finger on why.
No, that won't
do at all, Bear.
I need an answer.
I don't know why.
Never will.
Oh.
Taking us around corners, huh?
[laughing]
Here we go again.
Look out, here
comes another one.
[laughing]
JUMPER: So anything that you
yourself done swum in, believe.
[music playing]
[singing in french]
[roaring]
[whirring]
[roaring]
[birds chirping]
[music playing]
JUMPER: When I was
boy, there was a pond.
Oh, it was a spooky thing.
All around it was mountains
of kudzu and cane breaks.
I tell you, now, finding
it the first time,
that was a hard thing to do.
Ever finding it again,
now, that was a miracle.
So that's why we call this place
this place-- this magic place--
we call it Lost River.
And-- and there were folks
in town what did not believe
it exists.
But ever so often, some--
some young sweetheart
or wandering children
would stumble onto it, you know.
And it never needed to be told,
without a sign, without a map,
they know.
[chuckling]
Oh, I can hear them still, yeah.
"Mon Dieu, oh, mon Dieu,
we done found Lost River.
Now, I remember
the day I seen it.
I come through that cane
break right at sundown.
Well, I was lost, me.
And when I caught sight of that
place, I grabbed my heart--
swear to God, put
my hand on my chest
to grab hold of my very heart.
I thought I died.
There was-- there
was something like--
like mist coming off that
water, and all highways
of gold and yellow sunshine come
streaking through that gray old
spooky Spanish moss.
And when it hit that
mist, oh, gold everywhere.
It's in the air and the
water, and turned me gold.
And then-- and then
under that water,
I see a great giant
old black catfish,
big, big, big, like a submarine,
moving silent and confident
just like God.
And there just weren't
no such thing as time.
So me, I just had to.
I took off my clothes,
I had to dive into that.
I hit that cold gold and--
choo-- scared the
hell out of God.
Oh, and I knew it, see.
I was aware of it
right at that moment.
That place, it reach up, it
grabbed me right by my soul.
And I tell you the
truth, it got me still.
I close my eyes, and I'm
still there right now.
I hit that water, I swam in
pure sunlight, and turned old,
but got caught young forever.
[music playing]
After I left that night,
me, like everybody else,
could never find
that place again.
I'll never know how I got there,
I never knew how to get back.
Yo, but that night, when I
got home, I got my daddy.
I said Daddy, Daddy, I
done found Lost River.
And he smiled.
And he knew, knew by
the look on my face,
didn't need to explain,
wasn't exaggerating.
You know, peoples could tell,
peoples could always tell
when somebody really found it.
[chuckling]
My daddy, my daddy nod
his head, and he said,
hmm, yes sir, yeah, I was about
your age when I found it too.
Oh, I guess it was three
or four years later,
Daddy took me and
all six brothers down
with him to the civic center.
Well, the times, they
go against him then,
and he was looking
mighty hard for a job.
You see, down there in that--
how they call that--
bottom of the civic center,
they got the home of the
Army Corps of Engineers.
Oh man, I'm telling you they
got a map the like of which
you never saw before again.
It covered the wall down
there. 'Twas big, yeah, big
as a fat girl's appetite, it had
detail, and color, and contour.
Where there were hills.
It had hills.
Where there were
valleys, it had valleys.
Run your fingers over this map
was to be there, to go there,
to take a trip.
So right away, me and my
bucktoothed brother Scooter
began a-looking, tracing, by
[inaudible] and all around.
When all of a sudden, a
supervisor with a potbelly
and a gold tooth come
up and say, "What
you looking for, children?"
And me, I look him
hard in the eye, I say,
"We hunting up Lost River."
Oh, that gold tooth
flash right away.
"Ain't no such place."
And I say, "Damn if that's so."
And he say, "Look
here, boy, this here
is the official
government US Army
Corps of Engineers
geo-topographical map,
and it is right.
This whole area flood
control program depend
on that map being accurate.
I know that map, and there
ain't no Lost River."
And I say, "I swum in it."
He said, "No, no you
swum in Red River."
I say, "No, no, I
swum in Red River,
and I swum in Lost River,
and I know the difference."
[animal calling]
Oh, the room got quiet then.
And that supervisor,
he puff himself up,
he curl his lips so that
damn gold tooth shine.
And he say real condescending,
"You stupid coon ass boy,
I know what I'm talking about.
You're wrong."
So me, I go get Daddy, and
I say, "Daddy, tell him."
And that supervisor
turned quick on Daddy
like a snapping turtle.
And Daddy looked
down at the floor.
And I said, "Daddy,
Daddy, tell him.
He's wrong."
And my daddy look
up real slow at me
and say, "My son, oh
boy, he's the expert."
Mm.
Well, that was the
day that I learned,
I learned about experts
and now they know better
than you about some things.
But some things you know best.
And most likely, the secret,
most precious, most beautiful
things in your heart and in
your life just ain't on any map.
But you've been there.
You know they're real, they're
true, whether you can prove it
or not.
So don't ever let
anybody talk you out
or what you know to be true.
You see, I have learned.
I have learned that an expert
is a person who rarely gets wet.
So anything you yourself
done swum in, believe.
[music playing]
[moaning]
[laughing]
[creaking]
[moaning]
Come on.
Oh.
Come on.
Oh.
Oh.
[bell ringing]
Where that
sumbitch preacher at?
Jumper.
Don't you Jumper me.
I done paid that limp dick
holy prick 50 whole dollars.
He don't even bother to show up.
Holy cow.
He'll be here.
Oh, he'll be
here, he'll be here.
Sons-in-law ain't
that easy to come by--
even that one.
[fly buzzing]
[grunting]
Oh Jesus!
Oh!
Oh.
Oh Lord!
Oh!
Ah.
Oh.
[moaning]
[crying]
Almighty God, I'm so sorry.
I'm just a sinner,
please forgive me.
Come on, preacher
baby, get dressed.
You're gonna be late.
[music playing]
[dogs barking]
[bell ringing]
Jesus God, my worthless life.
I done gone and got myself
umpteen million dollar debt
putting on this wedding, just
so that butt-faced preacher be
here, make it all right on
God when the hard-on in yonder
take my baby tonight.
What happened?
Butt-faced preacher
don't show up.
I should have give in two year
ago, let Moby Dick have her.
[muttering]
Why'd the pervert
cross the road?
Because he was
stuck in the chicken.
[laughing]
I can't do this.
Splendid, you can do this.
No, not tonight, not
in that bed with Dolan.
I'm going to die.
You won't die.
Oh, but does it hurt?
Not as much as--
Not as much as what?
As much has not having it.
Talbot you and
Balford don't do it?
[muttering]
You mad, you got no issues.
You got him, have you?
How do you keep him off?
He don't want on.
Oh, aye-yai-yai.
Talbot, we've been best
friends my whole life,
and this whole ass
entire six months,
you didn't see fit to not
once tell me about what
you ain't been doing?
I'm going to fix it tonight.
Fix it tonight?
Talbot, what you
gonna do tonight?
Showtime.
Get out the way, goddamn it.
Asshole.
Girls, haul ass, please, I am
paying for this by the minute.
Go.
Splendid, come on, sweet angel.
Daddy, I'm going to die.
You ain't the one
that's going to die.
I have to go to the bathroom.
You should have
thought of that before.
[panting]
Ow.
Here we go.
[shouting]
[whooping]
[crickets]
Balford?
Balford?
Oh no.
Oh no.
Oh no.
[panting]
Balford!
Balford!
Balford!
Balford!
[muttering]
[shouting]
Balford!
[music playing]
[dogs barking]
[car horn]
[bell ringing]
[music playing]
[fireworks exploding]
[singing in french]
[screaming]
Help Me, Daddy!
[cheering]
Oh, me.
[shouting]
[screaming]
No!
Get away from me!
Get away from me.
Get back away from me.
[cheering]
[grunting]
[screaming]
What the hell's
going on up there?
[screaming]
[thunder]
[music playing]
[clicking]
[crickets]
Ah.
Ah.
I want the truth now.
You really like
that kind of music?
What the hell is it you like
about that kind of music?
It's got no beat, no melody.
What is it?
It leads you around corners.
What?
What does that mean, it
leads you around corners?
Well, if you can't hear it,
I can't explain it to you.
Why not?
Because you're so--
So what?
I can't think of
the word for it.
Oh.
You can't think of
the word for it, well.
I've been watching you
listening to that kind of stuff
for five years now, and I
want to know what's going on.
How come you like music
that's got no tune?
Because it's so beautiful.
It's got no beat.
What do you want me to say?
I want you to knock
off the double talk
and give me some answers.
Now, don't you
do that, goddammit.
Don't you smile at me like
you know something I don't.
I'm as smart as you.
Stop smiling.
All right.
Got this attitude like your
personal friends with God.
That's what they
call grandiosity.
You didn't think I knew
words like that, did you?
Grandiose.
That's what you are.
You know what it means?
It means deep down, you
feel worthless and stupid,
and you cover it up by
acting grand and superior,
like you know more
than anybody else.
Well, you don't, so just
stop acting like it.
All right.
I don't have to keep
classical records on that thing.
No.
BEAR: You're the only person
in town who listens to it.
Every month, the
record supply man
says I'm flat out
of my mind, losing
money catering to the highbrow
taste of the town drunk.
Yes?
Yes, yes.
You know that, don't you?
That's what you
are, the town drunk.
[bell ringing]
Yes, I know that.
I'm sorry I said that,
Howler, please forgive me.
What'd I do?
You should not
do that, Howler.
Give in like that.
I just insulted the
hell out of you.
It just rolls off your back,
doesn't cost you nothing.
And stop smiling like I
said something stupid.
I know what I'm talking
about, and I'm right.
Of course you're right, Bear.
I know I'm right, goddammit.
But pretty soon I won't
know what I'm talking about.
Having a conversation with
you is like wandering out
into that swamp.
And I've been caught in
this goop too many times.
And this is it, I'm
cutting the trail.
I'm laying a track,
you understand?
You're going to stay on
that track, you got it?
Got it.
Tonight, I'm going to get
some answers out of you.
[music playing]
[singing in french]
[screaming]
Dolan, go away!
[chuckling]
Splendid, open the door, now.
Never.
Splendid, open the--
Ow.
--goddamn door.
No.
DOLAN: Splendid, open
that goddamn door!
What the hell is
going on in here?
Nothing.
Dolan, go away.
Go away.
Oh, for crying out loud.
Young lady, you hear me?
[cross-talk]
You open that door
right now, this second.
Open that door.
Daddy, no.
Now, don't you Daddy no me.
I can handle it.
Yes sir, I see
how you handle it.
Splendid, open the door.
Girl, goddamn it, open that door
'fore I put my shoulder to it
and bust it down.
Oh, you start
busting on this door,
and I'm going to
start screaming.
Start screaming.
[screaming]
[grunting]
Splendid!
[screaming]
Get her now, Dolan!
DOLAN: I'll never be able
to show my face in daylight
again when them big old
baboons downstairs at the party
hear all this coming down.
Now, open the goddamn door!
Well, I don't care about
all those big old baboons.
[grunting]
Daddy, you start
busting on this door,
and I'm going to
jump out the window--
Open the door!
[screaming]
Dolan, get off of me!
[muttering]
Girl.
Baby, baby, baby, come here now.
Daddy, keep him off of me.
I don't want on you!
Good.
JUMPER: Now, sugar,
sweetie, come to your daddy.
[crying]
Come on now, honey baby.
Come here to me.
Daddy.
MAN: That's right.
Daddy.
That's all.
Daddy, Daddy, my aching ass.
Hush now.
Now, what's going
on, angel, baby.
What all this is?
It's spoiled rottenness,
that's all it is.
Ain't nothing else, Jumper.
Now, pipe down, here.
Daddy, I can't do this.
Not with your daddy
in the room, you can't.
Not with the door locked, and
me on the other side, you can't.
I'm glad you figured that out.
Now, stop.
No, no, no.
I'm scared.
Of what, child, what the
hell you scared of, Splendid.
- Daddy, make him get out.
- Fine.
Get out.
I'll just jump
out the window then.
Yeah, I wish you would.
Hey, now, hold on here.
Honey baby, he is your husband.
Don't need a husband, Daddy.
Just you and me, we'll
live together like always.
I'm going to be right here.
Well, then what I
need a husband for?
Splendid, now, you love Dolan.
No I don't.
Yes you do.
I don't.
Yes you do.
No, I-- I think
I'm going to be sick.
Uh oh.
You going to upchuck?
Mm.
Ooh, baby, wait,
wait, hang on, hang on.
All right, get over
here to the window now.
Go on.
Oh man.
Heads up.
[vomiting]
[groaning]
All right.
[bump]
Oop, oop, oop, come on now.
Hop up there, hop up.
Oh my God, that is gross.
Clean up, sweet angel.
What did I do to deserve this?
You better now?
You all done?
You scared yourself so bad
you tossed your cookies, huh?
- Yes sir.
- Well.
- Yes sir.
- All that's done now, huh?
Yeah.
All right.
Get on with the wedding night.
Oh.
No.
Ow.
Oh me.
[honking]
Now, there's a question
I've been meaning
to ask you for a long time.
How come you quit acting?
What?
How come you quit the theater?
I'm not going to
talk about that.
Yes, you are.
How come?
'Cause I'm going to
make you, that's how come.
How come you quit the theater?
Why?
What difference can it
possibly make to you?
Fine, you're starting
to squirm, good.
And why is that good?
Starting to cost
you something.
You're going to pay
your way again, Howler.
And why is it your job to
see that I pay my way again?
Stay on the track, Howler.
How come you quit acting?
I wasn't any good.
Not true.
Everybody in town says you
were some kind of genius.
This is not the way to
get me to stop drinking.
I'm trying to bring
you back to life.
Why don't you
try something else?
What happened to you
back there in London?
I fell on my face.
All right, you
fell on your face.
How come?
Because I'm not a whore.
- Now, don't start that stuff.
- It's the truth.
It's not truth, it's junk.
I don't think you'd know
the truth if you heard it.
Answer the question.
I've forgotten what
the question was.
How come you fell on your
face back there in London?
- I don't know.
- Yes you do.
- Look, I need a drink.
- No, you don't.
- Well, you're wrong about that.
- Answer the question.
Because I'm not a whore.
Don't start that stuff.
Oh, get off my back, will you?
I'm gonna stick on
you like stink on shit.
That I can believe.
Now, don't run away from me.
Run away from you?
Howler!
Well, all right,
I'll tell you!
I stood up on the stage
that first night, I
stood up on that stage, and
nothing came out of my mouth.
How come?
You know, in the theater, you
know why they call it a part?
They don't call it a job.
Because you reach
down inside yourself
and pull out a part of you.
You don't have any idea what
I'm talking about, do you?
No.
I was an actor.
I wasn't a robot,
I wasn't a jukebox.
Don't start talking crazy.
Crazy, put your
money down, buy
a ticket, put a quarter
into the machine,
watch the actor
tear his heart out.
I didn't read lines, I put
my blood into those words.
I cut up my childhood
and cooked it.
I will not sell that for
the price of a ticket.
I'm not a whore.
[crackling]
[yelling]
No.
Boy, you're just
a spoiled brat, you.
He's pulling my leg off.
JUMPER: You keep this up,
he may pull your head off.
Do you blame me?
Baby, let go of
the bed, really,
come out from under there.
Like hell, I will.
Ow, you hurt my knuckle.
Well, let go.
SPLENDID: He's hurting my leg.
Then get your ass out from
under the bed, Splendid,
come on, now.
Oh, Daddy going at my hand.
Well, let go.
Fuck you!
JUMPER: What you said to me?
I say fuck you.
Come here, girl, goddamn
it, I'm your Daddy.
Never on your life.
I don't care if the devil with
a long red tail come up in here.
[screaming]
You don't talk that
filth, that trash to me.
You think you scared now?
I am going to give you
something to be scared about.
Oh no, daddy.
Oh.
Got you, you little witch.
[moaning]
Damn it.
Dolan, let go your end.
No, you let go
your end, Jumper.
Both ends belong to me.
[crying]
Ow.
Get out of here,
you old coonass.
You just try it.
You raise your hand
to me, you're going
to draw back a bloody stump.
Fine.
Bye.
Bye bye.
- Where are you going?
- I'm going back downstairs.
No, you ain't.
DOLAN: Yes, I am.
Lord have mercy, y'all about
to give me a heart attack.
I got to lie down here a minute.
I don't give a rat's ass
about your heart attack.
I'm going back downstairs,
I'm going to find that balding
preacher, and I'm going to tell
him it's off, the wedding over.
And tell him, I can't
get my father-in-law
out of the room, or my wife
out from under the goddamn bed.
It's plain to me that I've
done made one big ass mistake,
and I want out.
Then I'm going to find me a
great, big, fat, dumb, ugly
girl with two big giant
titties, a two-handed butt,
and no brains at
all, and I'm going
to hump her until the bird
catches the worm, yeah.
I'm gonna see if I can't bump
another 10 points off her IQ.
And some time
tomorrow morning, I'm
going to roll off
the top of her,
then I'm going to thank
God that I'm not waking
up a member of this family.
Boy, shut up and sit down.
Says who?
Say me.
Dolan?
What?
Are you really going to
get yourself another woman?
Hell no.
Don't
Be too quick sure.
Boy, you better hush up.
And you, get out
from under that bed.
- All right, all right.
- Come on now.
Ow, ow, don't hit me.
Ow.
[thunder]
HOWLER: I pay my bill.
BEAR: You haven't paid
a bill in six months.
HOWLER: Oh, that's up,
bring that up again.
BEAR: All that talk
about being a whore.
HOWLER: I am not a whore.
I am.
BEAR: Thais, goddamn it,
where the hell you been?
You're late.
Oh, don't mind me.
How was your night?
Long, hot, and sticky.
My feet are killing me.
Your feet?
Knock it off, Howler.
Long night, huh?
I'm thinking about
changing professions.
I recommend it
enthusiastically.
I'm going to recommend
your butt out of here.
Make any money?
About $400.
No fooling?
Yeah, no fooling.
Jesus.
[laughing]
Jesus.
Thais, tell me something.
When you see any of those creeps
in the daytime, on the street,
say, do that like they know you?
No.
Except preacher.
You had preacher?
Well, you didn't know that?
No, I didn't know that.
I wish I didn't know now.
Well, he's the
only one who acts
like he knows me in daylight.
Is that so?
Poor man.
He just stands there so full
of guilt. And he takes my hand,
he prays for me, he blesses me.
And like clockwork, that
night, he shows up at my door.
[laughing]
Merciful Jesus, the collection
money going to pay for whores.
That's not funny.
Yes it is.
Now, you shut up
about this, you hear?
He's a nice guy, and I don't
want this all over town.
You know, I just about did not
get him to that damn wedding
today.
You had preacher
before a wedding?
Well, you did not hear that.
Oh, yes I did.
Preacher was whore humping,
then Bible thumping.
[laughing]
Shut up.
Don't laugh at him.
That's sacrilegious.
Oh, bull, Bear.
When you finish with Preacher,
do you take up a collection,
or--
No.
Well, how does
he pay you, then?
He don't.
What?
Preacher is one
of my charity cases.
How many charity
cases have you got?
Two.
Thais.
Oh.
Oh.
Ha.
Can I be a charity case?
No.
Oh, please.
Please, please?
No.
[heartbeat]
[music playing]
JUMPER: Goddamn it, it is too
hot for all this foolishness.
Now, what all this about?
All them people.
That's bullshit.
Oh, baby, they're
your wedding party.
SPLENDID: Yeah, but
they'll hear us.
Oh, sweet angel,
they cannot hear you
way up here in this bedroom.
But they know what
we're in here doing.
We ain't doing it.
I know that.
What you think?
You think they're out there
listening up here to you?
Yeah.
Oh man, they got
their own good party.
Oh, boy, I can hear them now.
Hey, Dolan, we all heard you
couldn't get your wife out
from under the bed.
JUMPER: Watch your pride, boy.
Jumper, tonight I got precious
little to be proud about.
Oh, I appreciate that.
Oh and I appreciate the
way you've been acting.
Then why don't
you just stop then?
- Well, maybe I will.
- I wish you would.
Dolan!
- Stop it now, I mean it.
No, Splendid.
Splendid, now, stop it.
Hey, hey, no, no, no.
Splendid, stop that.
I can't believe this.
Hey, hey, hey, that's it.
Let go.
Let go, both of you.
Ow, shit.
Back.
Don't you want to
be a grown woman?
I am a grown woman.
A grown woman sleeps
on top of the bed.
JUMPER: Baby, aren't
you gonna take a man?
No.
Fine.
Why?
Honey, this your husband.
I don't care if
he's Huey Long.
[shouting]
Don't you denigrate
Huey Long that way.
Your husband, he love you.
Don't matter.
JUMPER: It don't matter.
Tell her, boy.
- Tell her what?
- You love her.
- Why?
'Cause I say.
I love you.
Oh.
Mean it.
I just married her two
hours ago, what you think?
Better.
Love hiccup, you hear that?
I don't care what I hear.
Well, what?
What is it, sweet sugar?
Daddy, I'm scared.
I'm really scared.
I'm scared, scared,
scared, scared, scared,
scared, scared, scared--
Let go of my pant
leg, let go of me now.
Scared, scared,
scared, scared.
What is the matter.
What you scared about?
You too, Daddy.
Great God, over my whole life
long, you say, girl, keep
the boys out of your britches.
You say they want one
thing only, poontang.
Put your fanny down.
Poontang, poontang, poontang,
poontang, poontang, poontang.
Since I was a little
girl, you say,
girl, keep your feet on the
floor, and your knees together.
Damn right, I did.
She was a young girl.
Yeah, I bet you tried to
teach me to sleep in the cradle
with my legs crossed.
I never done that.
If you could
have, you'd have had
my braid my pubic hair shut.
I told you about
talking that filth.
Daddy, you did
everything else.
For 20 years, you had me hanging
onto my pecan like a lifeboat.
You let go now.
I had me scared to death some
boy would catch me off guard,
and then you'd hate me forever.
So I didn't.
I didn't do it, daddy.
She's telling the truth.
I'm speaking from experience.
Daddy, I made it
to my wedding night.
Every boy in Bayou La
Teche took a shot at me
one time or another.
- I know that.
I sat right down that window
with the shotgun watching.
And them three Le Pew
boys, I'm here to tell you,
they got as close as
one human being can get.
Now, there's no need
for the details, OK?
But Daddy, I done made it.
You done good, sugar cane.
Yeah, I held out.
All right now, let go.
I can't just stay shut up
like an oyster for 20 years,
and then just jump
on top of the bed
and spread my legs
like a toll bridge.
Don't talk that way.
I'm not a garage door.
JUMPER: What you plan on doing?
Waiting.
You done waited 20 years.
Daddy, help me.
How, baby?
Baby, baby, it ain't no
good to put this off.
You're just going to
make it more worser.
Now, it's time.
Come here, baby.
I'm going to take real
good care of you now.
I want to be a charity case.
No.
How come?
'Cause you're past help.
No, he ain't.
No, he ain't past help.
What, are you
going to save him?
I'm working on it.
[laughing]
Yeah, sit down.
Get up off your knees, sit down.
Bear.
The day you save
this man, I will
bend over and kiss your butt
in front of the post office.
And just how do you
know all about it?
Honey, there is one thing
us whores know all about.
What's that?
Never mind.
Goddamn it.
Don't you smile at me and
say never mind, like I'm
too stupid to understand.
That's not what I meant.
That's what you meant.
No it isn't.
Yes it is.
All right, goddamn it.
I'm tired to hell of this.
How come all the losers in
the world got a secret smile?
Calm down.
I don't want to calm down!
Every night I've got to
put up with you two acting
like I'm not at
the end of my rope,
I don't know nothing about life.
Secret nods and winks, smiles
like I'm missing the boat.
One time when I
was a little boy,
Huey Long there walked
right in this bar,
he sit down right here.
My daddy looked him straight
in the eye, and said, Huey,
you don't look too good.
He said, well, I'm worried about
my children, just like that.
And that's what a good man is.
He looks you right in the
eye, and tell you what's
on his mind, and in his heart.
No big deal.
He wouldn't look at
me with that smile
and shake his head like
there's no way of flathead
like me is going to understand.
You two, it's like
your own whole highway,
you got your own pipeline.
Well, I've got
something to tell you,
you don't have to
be on your butt
to understand a few things.
Now, get the hell out of my bar.
Bear, wait.
Now just wait.
I've waited long enough.
Wait, wait, listen, listen.
Now, look at me.
I don't want to look at you.
Look at me.
I don't want to look at you.
Look at me.
Now, what was it
got you so upset?
That I wouldn't tell you the
one thing all whores know about?
Failure.
That's all.
[music playing]
[laughing]
Woo!
Get on her, Dolan!
You get her yet, Dolan?
You're a lucky damn dog.
Jump on it, Dolan.
Come here to your Papa, Dolan.
Shut up.
Shut up.
MAN: Faster, Dolan, Faster.
Faster, Dolan, Faster.
Faster, Dolan, Faster.
Faster, Dolan, Faster.
We'll see about this.
[still chanting]
Shut up, Jumper.
You're not sticking
your head out this door.
I'll never live it down if
they know you're in here.
They're just horsing around.
They're just cutting up, they
don't mean nothing by it.
Faster, Dolan, Faster.
Goddamn it, shut up
and let me concentrate.
Don't concentrate, penetrate.
Get the hell out
of here boy, come
out there and bust some heads.
Now goddamn it, I'm
getting it good.
Get her one for me, Dolan.
She owes me one.
All right.
All right, this next
one's for you, Pie Boy.
[grunting]
Oh.
[grunting]
[screaming]
God damn it.
I've had enough.
Baby, I'm not fucking around.
Daddy, help me.
You just shut your mouth, you.
Cool down, now, boy.
Shut up, Jumper.
I've had enough
of this bullshit.
This is my goddamn
wedding night.
And you, you've been dicking
me around long enough.
Daddy.
Damn it, Dolan,
this ain't the way.
Shut the fuck up, Jumper.
Dolan, you've gone crazy.
Yep.
Daddy.
Get off of her, boy.
Get the fuck off
me, you old coonass!
You hit my daddy.
What the hell's he even doing
in here tonight anyway, huh?
Answer me that.
Dolan, you're crazy,
out of your mind.
You shut up.
Stop fucking talking.
You've been talking and
putting me off two years,
stalling and prick teasing.
I wasn't prick teasing.
Shut up.
Two years I've been waiting
out for the wedding, and now
this shit.
I've had it.
And you're going to get it.
You're going to get what
you've been needed all along.
[unbuckling belt]
Dolan, are you going to rape
me in front of my own daddy?
This ain't rape, goddamn it.
This is your fucking wedding
I'm your fucking husband!
[bonk]
That'll teach
you to whomp on me.
What'd you do that for?
You calm down, boy,
else I'll cream your cob.
Daddy, you bust
my husband again,
I'm going to clean your cloud.
You ain't going to do
no such thing, missy.
Sit your ass down.
All right, son, now
let me see your head.
Let me see, son.
Let me see, boy, let go.
All right, hold still now.
Oh, you got yourself
a goose egg.
You'll be all right.
your goddamn head hotter
than his goddamn dick.
Tell me about it.
You don't know
nothing about my dick.
I know it's hard all the time.
Whose fault is that?
Now, don't you two
start this up again.
Oh, it's my fault you
want to bone day and night.
Well, you could give me a
little relief once in a while.
Relief?
I'm the one needs relief.
You've been poking me with
that thing two years straight.
I can't get no sleep.
In the car, in the
school, in the church,
that thing never goes down.
Some women in the
world do it like that.
Oh, fine, go and poke
fun one of them with it.
Maybe I might.
Now, don't you be too
hard on this boy, here.
Girl, the day's going
to come you wish
he could get it up like this.
You gonna get old as me,
look back on this day,
and wonder where it all went.
- I doubt it.
- You doubt it.
Now, but believe
me what I'm saying,
you going to want it back.
There ain't nothing wrong
with him, it's natural.
Oh Daddy, he ain't natural.
JUMPER: I was the same
way when I was his age.
No, you were never
as bad as Dolan.
I was as bad as Dolan
when I was his age.
All right.
JUMPER: Now today at my age,
I'd pay $100,000 to have
that boy's dick for one night.
You understand that?
No, I don't.
Well, you will one day,
believe me what I say.
Now, goddamn it, Dolan, you
got to ease up a little,
you hear me?
Yes, sir.
Son, you ain't drilling for
oil with that thing, you know?
Yes, sir.
[gunshots]
[glass breaking]
What the hell?
[gunshot]
[clicking]
Talbot!
Go to hell, Bear!
[gunshot]
I know she's in there!
I know she's in there!
Don't lie to me!
Leave me alone, Bear.
Talbot!
Are you happy?
No.
Was it worth the money?
Never is.
Talbot, what the hell
is this, shooting at us?
What the hell you even
doing out so late?
If you're looking
for trash, you
got to go out late at night.
Talbot.
Some people do better not to
show their faces in daylight.
You want to dig them up,
you got to go out at night.
Talbot, what the
hell is going on?
Where's your husband Balford?
I imagine by now,
he's home in bed.
It's the second bed
he's been in tonight.
Thais, is that truth.
Oh, Thais, honey.
They've been married six months.
You bitch!
Talbot, stop before
somebody gets hurt.
Somebody's been hurt.
But you don't care about
that, do you, trash?
You don't care who gets
hurt, long as you get paid.
Talbot, get your
butt home now!
What, Bear?
Am I disturbing a
paying customer?
Not bothering me.
[laughing]
You're bothering me.
You shot up my bar.
I'll pay too.
Go on, serve me up
something, I'll pay.
That's what tonight
is all about, right?
Who pays cash?
Come on, trash.
How much did my husband pay you?
Don't you turn your
head away from me.
Look at me.
How much did my husband--
$100.
$100?
He paid you $100?
He can't even make rent.
I feel sick.
Uh oh.
You going to upchuck?
[groaning]
Oh, please don't do that.
If you do it, I'll
want to do it.
You all right?
Yeah.
You sure?
Yeah.
[crying]
Oh good.
Are you feeling better now?
I must be flat out
of my head, Bear.
I got no idea why I
came here tonight.
When did your husband
stop making love to you?
Did he tell you that?
Honey, he didn't tell me.
Don't call me honey.
How'd you know?
Oh, Jesus Christ, does
the whole town know?
Nobody else knows.
Nobody knows.
How'd you know?
Honey, in my line
of work, you can't
help but learn a few things,
much as you'd like not to.
[bird calling]
[singing in french]
It's hard thing
for man and woman
to come together, that's
just all there is to it.
It's the cutting edge of
creation, man and woman
coming together.
It's going to be
hard, now, there's
going to be some friction.
But damn it, you just got
to put up with the heat.
All there is to it.
It's like being on
the bayou out there.
And we growed up our whole
life on Bayou La Teche,
so you've seen it for yourself.
You've seen the carp,
and the mud turtle,
and the catfish
and water moccasins
all eating up on each other,
seen it day in day out.
Catfish eat the crawfish,
alligator eat the nutria,
us eat them all.
Now, how we call that?
Death, that's the hunger of
death everywhere, all the time,
eating up on everything.
Tonight you two is
the hunger of life,
and I'm gonna tell you
right now, life every bit
as hungry as death.
Splendid, right there
in your hot belly,
and in that boy's big old
hard dick, the hunger of life.
Just as strong, just as mean
that old alligator yonder
in the swamp, pulling down a
deer, snap his legs in two,
and eat him up.
Now, you think this
going to eat you up, huh?
Yes, sir.
No, ma'am.
It's life.
Now, Splendid, I
know you love Dolan.
You told him so.
Do I, Daddy?
Oh, for crying out loud, girl,
can you look him in the eyes
hours and hours?
He look at you, and
you look at him,
and, oh, well, there
just ain't nothing else.
You feel like, oh, maybe
them eyes the bayou,
and you floating in
it on a hot Sunday.
You feel that way?
Yes, sir, I guess.
Well, you can't
look at somebody
you ain't in love with
in the eye that way.
No, you're not in love, got to
have to turn your head away.
And I told you something
else some more,
the best way to know that
you fall out of love is,
can you watch him eat?
What?
You done had it with somebody,
you done falled out of love,
mm, mm, don't set at the
table with that person,
don't try to watch him eat.
It going to make you sick.
Every bite he take, you gonna
say, oh, no, look at that pig.
Yeah, him get a little
milk on his mustache,
a little food on
his chin, it going
to make you want to
jump up from that table
and run out the house screaming.
Now, that's the truth.
But when you're in
love with the boy,
then you're going to
love to watch him eat.
And it don't matter
what a mess he make,
no, milk dripping down his
chin, he let out a big ole
nasty burp, it don't matter.
Now, you gonna say,
oh, don't he cute
look just like a little baby.
Girl, when you're
in love with a man,
you just gonna want to
see him happy, that's all.
Well, I love to
feed you, baby.
That's right.
I love to watch you eat.
Splendid in love with Dolan.
And my daddy.
Yes, ma'am.
Now, you look here.
You take off them clothes,
you lie down on that bed,
love him back good.
I sneak on down
to the party now.
Oh, no, no.
Goddamn it.
No, no, no.
I give up,
Jumper, I've had it.
No, you don't had it.
No, no, no.
Jesus.
No, no, no.
What in the hell's
the matter with you?
I told you a million billion
times, daddy, I'm scared.
[yelling]
You're going home.
I can't go home!
Oh, Lord.
Howler, would you drive
her to her Daddy's house?
Do what?
Sober up, and drive
her to her Daddy's house.
Oh, what the hell.
Where does he live?
Church.
Church?
Her Daddy is Preacher.
You don't know him?
No, I fear I don't
know him personally.
Why does my husband pay
money to sleep with you?
'Cause it's me, right?
I'm doing something wrong?
I'm not woman enough
to please my man.
Talbot, you aren't to
go into all that here.
If I'm desperate
enough to seek marriage
counseling from the
town whore, I sure
God am past caring who hears.
Is that it?
Am I doing something wrong?
What are you smiling at?
Thais, don't you do that?
What'd I tell you
about that smile?
I'm gonna wipe that
smile off your face.
How many times did I tell
you about that smile?
What am I doing wrong?
I don't know.
Yes you do.
And you, shut up.
Honey.
Don't call me honey.
Anything I say is just
going to make you feel worse.
I could not feel any worse.
Girl, come out from
behind that bed drape, now.
No, sir.
[inaudible].
There ain't but so much of
this a man going to take.
Amen.
He has done put up with more
than any man ought to have put
up with on his wedding night.
Oh you bust my heart open.
I'm going to bust your
head open, you lip me again,
you heard that?
- I heard that.
- You better say yes sir to me.
- Yes sir.
Now, you take
off your clothes,
you get your ass down here in
this bed, right this minute.
No, I will not, I
cannot, I will not--
Daddy, what you doing?
You gonna whoop me?
You gonna whoop me?
Don't whoop me?
No.
Oh.
Ah.
Put the belt down, Daddy.
You can't whoop your
daughter on her wedding night?
- Watch me.
- No.
You want me to go
to a cottonwood tree
and pick a switch?
No.
Then get your butt down here.
Daddy, why are
you whooping me?
Because I have been patient,
this boy has been patient,
and you ain't being
nothing but hardheaded.
I'm not being hardheaded.
What you being?
Scared.
Scared of what?
This is-- this--
th--
What?
This is how Mama died.
No.
Oh, my sweet precious baby,
that's what you think?
[crying]
No, sweet baby.
What all this is?
Baby, now come
let me explain it.
No, child, that
ain't what happened.
- What ain't what happened.
- She mama.
She mama what?
She died.
No.
Listen to me now, child,
listen to me explain it.
You didn't do it.
Damn it, girl, you didn't do it.
It was God his own
self done that.
You told me your mama
died when you was a baby.
She mama died giving
birth to my baby.
I killed Mama.
No, sweetie.
- I killed Mama.
- No.
I killed Mama.
No, baby.
I killed Mama.
I killed Mama.
I killed Mama.
Kill me too.
All right.
No, child, it ain't
going to kill you.
It'll kill me.
No, sweet angel.
I don't need that, Daddy.
If I do this, you're
going to hate me too.
And then I'm going
to lose you as well.
Splendid, you ain't
never going to lose me.
Never?
Never ever.
Oh, sweet angel, oh, child.
No matter where you go,
no matter what you do,
your daddy going to love you.
You hear that?
Yeah.
Yes, my sweet angel,
you take that to the bank.
[kissing]
Now, look at me, now.
Can you tell Daddy?
Can you tell me what
you need for you can
go ahead and be a grown woman?
I need my Mama.
I need my Mama.
Your mama give
you her blessing,
and tell you it all right to
go ahead and be a grown woman.
I'm a crazy old fool.
I understand,
baby, I understand.
Girl, I'm not your mother.
Thank God.
Talbot.
I don't need a mother now.
What am I doing wrong?
I don't know.
I tried everything.
I read all those dirty books.
I spent a week's salary on
this damn black underwear.
Balford just laughs at me.
Oh, Talbot.
Why won't my husband
make love to me?
Yes, darling, listen.
Why don't you take my place, mm?
What do I do, go
to a sex therapist?
No.
Act like a scorcher,
go buy trashy clothes,
and be a sugar baby?
No.
Talk dirty?
No.
Are you really
supposed to blow on it?
Oh.
[laughing]
I do not know what the
point of all this is.
No.
You stay on the track.
There's that track again.
It may be the same train.
Shut up.
What do you do that I don't?
You aren't any better
looking than me,
and I'm younger than you are.
Whatever it is, if you
can do it, I can do it.
Fine.
Fine.
I'll pay you.
I'll pay you to teach me
how to please my husband.
Oh, come on, Talbot, stop it.
Don't worry about
my pride, Bear.
I've taking it on the chin,
turned the other cheek,
cried my eyes out.
I don't have any
face left to lose.
Don't worry about my pride.
What do you do that I don't.
It's not what I do.
It's what I am.
A whore?
You noticed.
I'm not a whore, I'm his wife.
Well, maybe
that's the problem.
Oh, it's a problem that
I have morals, values,
self-res-- that I used
to have self-respect,
that's the problem?
Morals don't count
that much in bed.
Obviously, not to you.
Talbot, you asked for her
advice, now shut up and listen.
I did not ask for advice.
What then?
I don't want to be analyzed.
What do you want?
Answers.
It is the same train.
[chuckling]
What is your problem?
What?
Oh, uh, this.
This.
THAIS: Oh, honey, you best
stop looking for answers,
and start creating
a little mystery.
What does that
MEAN, create mystery?
THAIS: Stop acting like a
preacher's daughter in bed.
What does that mean?
Try leading him
around a few corners.
Oh, absolutely!
Absolutely what?
Nothing.
What are you smiling at?
Uh oh.
Nothing, honey.
No, don't call her honey.
You shut up.
I know some God awful thing has
gone wrong with my marriage.
If you know what it
is, then you tell me.
I don't know.
Then wipe that shit
grin off your face.
I am a preacher's daughter.
What am I supposed to
act like in bed, a whore?
I would.
You are.
That's why I don't
act like one in bed.
What do you act like?
A loving wife.
That's what I am.
I believe you.
OK.
DOLAN: What?
All right, then.
You need your mama, that's
what we've got to do.
What?
DOLAN: Jumper,
she mama and dead.
You ain't got to
tell me that, boy.
Splendid, come here, now.
I want you to sit here in
this straight back chair,
and put your mama in
the rocking chair.
Did which?
Girl, come on, you're going
to have to cooperate with me.
I'm never going to get
downstairs to that party.
Sit down there now.
Go and pretend,
that's all, baby.
But imagine you can see your
mama, alive and beautiful
like she was, sitting right
there in the rocking chair.
Jumper, what the
hell are you doing?
What is this shit?
Hush up now.
You know what she look like?
Oh, I seen
pictures at Mamaw's.
That's right.
So you see your mama sitting
in that rocking chair,
looking back at you.
Tell me again what
she looked like?
All right.
She was-- oh, she was a
tiny little bitty girl.
Smaller than Mamaw?
Mm, mm, near about.
Oh, and she had that
red and white hair.
How they call that again?
Strawberry blonde?
That's it.
And, oh, them great
big old brown eyes.
Yeah, I saw them
in the picture.
Heh heh.
Look like a Palomino eyes, huh?
Mama looked like a Palomino?
Mm, that horse with
wings, what his name is?
What horse with wings?
Pegasus.
That's it.
Your mama looked just like
that beautiful angel horse.
Pegasus.
Yeah.
Now, you look at that chair.
You tell me when you see her.
Am I going to see
something that ain't there?
I love her too much, baby.
Too much for what?
Too much for her to
be gone all the way.
Daddy, I can't do this.
You can do it.
No, no, no.
What's the matter?
What are you scared of, baby?
Daddy, will mama like me?
Splendid, what make you think
your mama wouldn't like you?
Cause I killed her.
No, girl, oh, sweetie,
your mama loved you.
Daddy, loved me,
she never even saw me.
But she carried
you for nine months.
Sweetie, girl, she
used to sat right there
in that rocking chair, and
she would rock, and rock,
and pat her big old belly.
And she'd look up
to me in the eye,
and she'd say, oh, Jumper,
how I love this baby.
Is that true, Daddy?
That is true for sure.
Mama loved me?
Now, Splendid, you knew that.
Yeah.
Yeah, I did know that.
Somewhere, girl,
down deep inside,
you could remember being
that tiny baby in the womb,
and you felt all that love
that you mama gave to you.
Oh.
She never did see
your face, no ma'am.
But she loved you, girl,
she loved you all the same.
You, well, you never
did see your mama,
but you loved her all your
life, now ain't that right?
That's right.
Well, tell her honey.
Go on and tell her.
I love--
I love you, Mama.
Ooh.
Hey, Jumper, what kind of
voodoo you conjuring up here,
huh?
Tell your mama
how you grow up,
and you feel like the
world is a good place,
because Mama loved you, and Mama
wanted you here in the world.
Thank you, Mama.
Ah.
The hell you doing?
Baby, there's nothing there.
Shut up, baby.
It's all right.
What do you want
to thank Mama for?
I want to thank--
I want to thank you--
thank you, Mama for--
thank you, Mama,
for birthing me.
Well, all right, I reckon
that's what she done.
Yeah, and thank you
Mama for giving me
Daddy, and taking care of him.
I took care of him too.
I want you to know that.
- You sure did.
- Yes.
Now, you haul off
and told mama what
you wish she could have seen.
I wish you could have
seen me grow up, Mama.
That's right.
Yeah, I grew up good.
Sure did.
And people say that
I remind them of you,
and I always take
that as a compliment.
Exactly what it was.
Yeah, and-- and,
oh, Mama, I wish
you could have seen my wedding.
Oh, now we're talking.
Mama, I made it.
[squealing]
Yeah, it was beautiful.
And my husband Dolan,
You'd like him too.
Leave me out of this, OK?
I saved myself my whole
life, my whole life.
And now, Mama, he wants me
so bad he's about to explode.
I held out my whole life, I
saved myself for just one man,
gave myself to
him body and soul.
Now he don't want me.
No matter what I do, no
matter how hard I try.
But you, you don't love him.
You sell yourself to
any man for money.
And my husband will lie,
cheat, steal, bounce out of bed
and break the door down just
to spend an hour with you
in a filthy motel, and pays
cash for the privilege.
Why?
Please, one of you tell me why.
I'm so stupid.
You know my daddy, don't you?
No.
Don't lie to me.
Say it out loud.
I know your daddy.
You were with him today.
That's right.
That's where he was.
[crying]
My husband and my
daddy in one day.
Oh God, I feel like
I've been raped.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
Did you know?
Did you know it was my
husband and my daddy?
Oh God, my heart, my heart.
Did you know?
Yes.
Did you care?
No.
Oh that's what a
whore is, isn't it?
Someone who just doesn't care.
Best actresses in the world.
How could you do that to me?
You sure God are
one spoiled brat.
Me?
You.
Why the hell should
I care about you?
Because I'm a human being.
What am I, huh?
When your husband and your daddy
crawled on top of me tonight,
I don't recall them asking
me what I wanted, how I felt.
How much you think your husband
cared about my feelings, huh?
All that sweating and screaming.
Shut up!
Fighting about the
price, howling about how
his hour wasn't up yet.
Bellyaching how his half-assed
wife leaves him cold.
He said that?
Yes, he said that.
His eyes bugged out like a frog.
He wants me, he needs me.
Lay down, shut up, roll over.
I don't remember your
daddy or your husband
or you asking me what I wanted.
Stop it, Thais.
I've been laying
underneath your sweating,
stinking husband half the
night, paying for your sins.
I don't want to hear
anymore of your troubles.
[thunder]
My whole life has been a lie.
Oh, well.
Most lives are.
No, no, goddamn it.
That's not true.
Your life has not been a lie.
You've been lied to.
There is a difference.
Damn little.
Where am I going to go?
I can't go home to my husband.
I can't go home to my daddy.
Go to a hotel.
That's how it starts.
Thais, I think
you've said enough.
Mama, there was 100
people at the wedding.
Preacher was late, and
Daddy liked to pitch a fit.
Daddy really kicked
him in the butt.
And, oh, Mama, I made
my own wedding cake,
but I think I threw up on it.
Oh, and I found Daddy's
love letters to you,
and I read every one of them.
That's why I feel like
I know you so well,
because we both think alike.
And that time when I was in--
Sweet baby.
What?
Let's tell Mama about
how old you are now.
I'm about the same age
as you were when you died.
That's right.
I never thought of that.
Tell Mama how you
feel about her dying.
Mama, I'm sorry you
had to die so young.
That's right.
And what?
And I wish you could
have lived your whole life.
Well, why she didn't
do that, Splendid?
Because she died
giving birth to me.
Mm-hm.
Now, you tell Mama that.
Mama, I--
I know you died for me.
No, no.
I know you died because of me.
That's right.
And what?
And it wasn't worth it.
Oh no, sweet angel, you
don't know that's true.
No, you don't know that.
Ask mama was you worth it.
Daddy.
Now, Splendid, come on.
Look at the chair.
Look at the chair, and
then you'll find out.
Mama, are you mad at me?
No, got to be honest about it.
Mama, was I worth dying for?
Oh, my sweet baby.
You need to hear it OK for
you to be alive, don't you?
Come on now, we ask again.
You can do it.
I got you, sweetie.
It's all right, all right.
Come on now.
Get it out now.
Go on ask her.
Come on, Splendid.
[crying]
I got you.
Come on, honey.
No.
Go ahead.
No.
Mama, was I worth dying--
Mama-- Mama, was I worth--
Mama, was I worth dying for?
You did it.
You got it up.
Yes.
It's going to be all
right, you hear me?
I want you to turn around
there now, and be your mama.
I want you to sit in
that rocking chair,
and take your mama's place.
Jumper, this is showing
disrespect for the dead.
Baby, don't sit on your mama!
Oh man.
Boy, all these years I've
been hearing them stories
about that inbreeding
in your family,
I've tried not to believe them.
You better shut up
'fore I can't help
myself what I'm gonna believe
Don't-- don't embarrass
me about my family.
Go on over there and sit down.
I'm sorry.
[footsteps]
I got to know
this one last thing.
Tonight-- tonight, did my
husband say he loved you?
I don't remember.
You don't remember?
Jesus God, you really
don't care at all, do you?
I've been waiting for my husband
to say that to me for six
months, and you don't remember?
[sighing]
What difference does
it make what he said?
Men say a lot of things.
I've been listening
to my daddy's sermons,
reading love letters,
believing in Champagne promises
all my life.
[chuckling]
Oh, baby.
Oh baby.
It's not $100,
but you earned it.
Talbot, where are you going?
Fuck you.
Fuck me?
What'd I do?
Talbot!
It's fixing to rain.
Talbot, where are you going?
You going home?
THAIS: She may go home, but
she better not go to bed.
How come?
Her husband will jump
her before her head
hits the pillow.
Why's that?
Look at her.
BEAR: She looks older.
That ain't age.
Now you'll be your Mama.
I don't know how.
Oh, yes, you do.
All right, all right,
now close them eyes.
That's right.
OK, come on, close them.
Sit up here, now, sit up.
That's right,
that's OK, sweetie.
All right.
What I want you to do is just
feel that part of your mama
that's still alive
in you, that's all.
[bell ringing]
All right.
Now, I want you to look yonder
at that straight back chair,
and see Splendid.
Oh, Splendid.
Splendid young and beautiful
and alive on her wedding night.
All right.
Now, Sarah, Sarah, did
you hear all them things
that your daughter told you?
Yeah, I heard them.
Well, Sarah,
tell your daughter
how you feel about her.
She's proud.
No, no, don't tell me.
Tell Splendid.
I'm proud of you, Splendid.
Proud of what?
I'm proud--
I'm proud of you being alive.
Why?
'Cause I'm not.
Right.
Oh, Mama's mighty
proud that a baby
make it to her wedding night.
[chuckling]
All right, now, you be
Mama and tell her so.
Tell her what?
Say, baby, I wish I could
have seen your wedding.
Baby, I wish I could
have seen your wedding.
Oh, she would have loved it.
Would she, Daddy?
[chuckling]
How could she help it?
All right, come on now, sit up
here, be your mama some more.
Now, Sarah, tell your daughter
what you feel guilty about.
Oh no, Daddy, that
wasn't her fault, Daddy.
That wasn't her fault.
- Splendid.
Daddy.
We're going to
let mama talk now.
Come on, sit up there, be Mama.
Be Mama now.
Mama's turn to get
it off her chest too.
What's your guilt, Sarah?
I-- I'm sorry I died.
And?
I'm sorry I left
you without a Mama.
That's right.
I'm sorry I left you.
All right now, Sarah,
tell her, tell her
you tried not to leave.
Did she, Daddy?
I didn't know that.
What happened?
All right.
All right, I'll tell you about
the night your mama died.
I sat right there, right
there in that operation room
when she had that trouble,
and I hold her hand
and pray, you know.
Last thing-- last thing I
ever heard your mama say, she,
she reach up her hands to God,
and she said, please, please
don't take me away
from this sweet baby.
Did Mama really say that?
Yes, ma'am.
Now come on, you
got to be your mama.
Tell Splendid that, now.
Say Splendid.
Splendid.
I try.
I tried to stay alive for you.
I tried to stay alive for you.
But what?
But I couldn't keep
my heart beating.
And what, you couldn't
keep that little bitty heart
beating.
I didn't know that.
God knows, I'm sorry,
I'm a crazy old fool.
Should have told you
that long time ago.
I thought you
knew, I thought you
knew your mama wouldn't have
left you if she could help it.
All right, come on, now.
Got to be your mama some more.
All right, now.
Sarah, Sarah, Splendid done
asked you something else.
All right, honey baby,
tell your daughter.
Tell your daughter, was
she worth dying for?
Yes.
Well, tell her why.
'Cause-- 'cause as
long as you're alive,
a part of me is too.
That's right.
Yeah.
Sarah, you know, Splendid,
she all grown up now.
Look yonder, took a husband,
and soon she and Dolan
have their own babies.
But before she do that, she'd
like to have your blessing,
so you give that to her.
Yeah.
All right, well,
you tell her that.
Tell her what?
Say Splendid.
Splendid.
[chuckling]
Live for both of us.
Live for both of us.
Live your life.
Live your life.
And you haul off
and live the life that
slipped through my fingers.
And live the life that
slipped through my fingers.
C'est bon.
Jumper.
JUMPER: Oh.
One last thing, Sarah.
Your baby mighty
afraid the same thing
going to happen to
her what happened
to you, so she afraid to get
in that bed with her husband.
No.
What you mean, no?
That's your daddy afraid
of sex, not you and me.
That's probably true.
So tell your daughter
she won't die.
No, you won't die,
honey, you won't die.
Hallelujah.
Tell her why.
Because it wasn't
you, or loving
your daddy that killed me.
What was it?
It was my heart.
Why your daughter safe?
Because she got
her Daddy's heart.
You bet your life.
Well, guess we better tell
your daughter bye now.
No.
I don't want her to go yet.
You got to let a
little girl grow up
now, it's all there is to it.
Oh my Lord.
Oh, Splendid, that
might as well be
your mama sitting right there.
I don't know what to say.
Adieu, douce ange.
Goodbye, sweet angel.
Je t'aime.
I love you.
Et elle est toujours.
And I always will.
That's right, sweet angel.
Always and forever.
Thank you, Daddy, thank you.
You got what you need now.
All right, all right.
Come on, now, come on, go on.
Time for you to go on
over there with that boy--
that man.
Your husband what love you so
much, you love him back good.
Dolan, I love you.
I want you all the time babe.
[music playing]
[crickets]
[thunder]
[yelling]
[thunder]
[grunting]
[moaning]
[thunder]
[rain]
All right.
All right.
I may have been born at night,
but I wasn't born last night.
[laughing]
Look out now, 'cause
I think I'm fixing
to understand something here.
Going to hear it once more.
I'm going to play it myself.
[coin clinking]
Now.
[whirring]
You explain it to me,
so I can understand.
[music playing]
Ho!
[laughing]
Now, I'm listening to this
music, and it's got no melody.
You tell me that's
pretty, right?
Oh, very, very.
Why?
Goddammit, don't you
go smiling again.
Huh.
It's got no beat, no--
no rhythm, no melody, nothing.
You like it?
Well, stay on track, man.
Do you like it?
Oh.
[chuckling]
I hate to admit it--
absolutely.
Why?
Uh.
Uh.
Uh, I can't put
my finger on why.
No, that won't
do at all, Bear.
I need an answer.
I don't know why.
Never will.
Oh.
Taking us around corners, huh?
[laughing]
Here we go again.
Look out, here
comes another one.
[laughing]
JUMPER: So anything that you
yourself done swum in, believe.
[music playing]
[singing in french]
[roaring]