American Pastoral Page #4

Oh, I deserve it.

It's the same at school

with my friends.

I get started with

something and I go...

[stuttering]

too far and I get carried aw...

[engine revs, tires screech]

[Lou] There's nothing wrong

with that little girl.

Her mind goes too fast

for her tongue. That's all.

There, I just saved you the money

you were going to give to the shrink,

- because that's all there is to it.

- We just want to help her, Dad.

"Help"? That girl?

Just give her a little bit of time.

Let her tongue catch up to that brain.

The rest will follow from that.

Freddy, is something up

with this machine?

Every now and then, she kicks.

No, no, no. You'll be throwing stitches

soon. Send it down to the shop.

See my son, Vick?

He picks out the bad machine from 100.

He's got the ear.

He gets it from you, Lou.

How are you feeling, Dad?

You don't have to come in every day.

Who comes in every day?

I don't%

- Besides, where else am I supposed to go?

- [knocking on door]

- Time cards, gentlemen.

- Thank you, Vicky.

Vicky, my son is trying to tell me never

to come around here anymore.

I didn't say "anymore,"

I said "not every day."

But, Lou, you built this place.

You made a home for all of us.

Where else do you belong?

Exactly my point.

- [Dawn] Here you go.

- [Seymour] Oh, thank you.

- [Dawn] You finish your stuttering book?

- Mm-hmm.

Have you written down

all the words that stopped you today?

D... do you want to check?

[Dawn] Not if you say you finished.

My teacher in school never believes me

unless she checks.

Well, your teacher says that you have

a stubborn streak.

Merry, why does she say that?

Because of the homework.

The class had to write an answer

to the question "Why are we here?"

- and Merry wrote...

- [Seymour] Merry can tell me herself.

[Dawn] Sorry.

"Why are apes here?"

That's it?

She made her rewrite it.

So I wrote...

"Why are...

kangaroos here?"

- [Seymour chuckles]

- And then last week,

the teacher asked them,

"What is life?"

This is what they ask in school?

"What is life?"

What did you answer?

[stuttering]

I don't...

- remember.

- Yes, you do.

"Life is just a short space of time

in which you were alive."

Daddy,

do you understand?

Yes, I think I do.

[reporter on TV]

He assumed the lotus posture

and another priest stepped forward

and poured gasoline over him.

- A very frail, old man in his 70s,

- [Dawn] Oh, my God.

- Quang Duc.

- What is this?

This monk burned himself

and he sat there.

- Oh, Merry shouldn't be seeing this.

- No.

And then suddenly, a towering flame

and the smell of gasoline and of burning

flesh in the air for ten minutes.

And the priests and the nuns in the

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