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Of all the people who have been born... and have died... while the trees went on living. |
Their true name is Sequoia Sempervirens: always green, ever living. |
I don't like them. |
Why? |
Knowing I have to die... |
Do you hear anything? |
Only silence. It's always like this. |
And no birds sing. |
No birds live here. |
No. |
Would you like a drink of water? |
No, thank you. |
Somewhere in here I was born... and here I died and it was only a moment for you... you took no notice... |
Madeleine! |
Where are you now? |
Here with you. |
Where? |
The tall trees... |
Have you been here before? |
Yes... |
When? |
Where were you born? |
Long ago... |
Where? |
No!... No! |
Tell me what it is. Where do you go? What takes you away? |
No, don't ask me! |
When you jumped in the bay, you didn't know where you were. You guessed but you didn't know. |
I didn't jump, I fell! You told me I fell! |
Why did you jump? |
No! |
What was it inside that told you to jump? |
No, I can't tell you! |
What?! |
No! Please! Please, please, please, please, don't ask me! |
Take me away from here? |
Home? |
...somewhere in the light. |
I'm responsible for you now, you know. The Chinese say that once you have saved someone's life, you are responsible for it forever. And so I'm committed. And I have to know. |
And you'll go on saving me? Again and again? |
There is so little I know. It is as though I were walking down a long corridor that once was mirrored, and fragments of mirror still hang there, dark and shadowy, reflecting a dark image of me... and yet not me... someone else, in other clothes, of another time, doing things I have never done... but still me... And I c... |
Yesterday. |
But the small scenes, the fragments in the mirror: you remember them. |
Vaguely... |
What do you remember? |
A room... there is a room, and I sit there alone... always alone... |
Would you know the room? |
No... it's in shadow. |
What else? |
A grave... |
Where? |
I don't know. An open grave. I stand by the gravestone looking down into it. And it's my grave. |
How do you know? |
I know. |
There's a name on the gravestone. |
No. It's new and clean, and waiting. |
What else? |
This part is dream, I think. There is a tower and a bell and... a garden below... but it seems to be in Spain... a village in Spain. And then it clicks off, and is gone. |
A portrait? Do you ever see a portrait? |
No. |
Of the woman in the mirror. Would you know her if you saw her? |
But I'm the woman in the mirror! |
No! |
If I could find the key... find the beginning put it together... |
And so explain it away? But there is a way to explain it, you see. If I'm mad? That would explain it, wouldn't it? |
I'm not mad. I'm not mad. And I don't want to die, but there's someone inside me, there's a somebody else, and she says I must die... Scottie, don't let me go! |
I'm here, I've got you... |
I'm so afraid... ...you won't let it happen... |
Don't leave me... stay with me... |
All the time. |
I should have phoned... but I wanted to see you... be with you... |
Why? What's happened? |
I had the dream. The dream came back again... |
No, don't go away! |
Only this far. |
Where's your husband? |
I didn't wake him. I don't want him to know... |
It was a dream, you're awake, you're all right, now. Can you tell me? |
It was the tower again... and the bell, and the old Spanish village... |
Yes |
But clear... so very clear... for the first time... all of it... |
Tell me. |
There was a village square, a green with trees... and an old whitewashed Spanish church with a cloister. Across the green: a big, grey, wooden house with a porch and shutters and a balcony above... a small garden, and next to it, a livery stable... with old carriages lined up inside. |
Go on. |
At the end of the green there was a whitewashed stone house with a lovely pepper tree at the corner |
and an old wooden hotel of the old California days, and a saloon... dark... lowceilinged... with hanging oil lamps. |
Yes?! But |
It's all there. It's no dream. |
You've been there before. You've seen it. |
No, never! |
Madeleine, a hundred miles south of San Francisco there's an old Spanish Mission, Mission San Juan Bautista. It's been preserved exactly as it was a hundred years ago as a museum. Now, think hard, darling. You've been there before. You've seen it! |
No, never! I've never been there! Scottie, what is it? I've never been there! |
Go on with your dream. What was it that frightened you? |
I stood alone on the green, searching for something, and I started to walk to the church. But then the darkness closed in, I was alone in the dark, being pulled into darkness, and I fought to wake up... |
Here with you. |
And it's a all real. |
Yes. |
Not merely as it was a hundred years ago. As it was a year ago, or six months ago, whenever you were here to see it. Madeleine, think of when you were here! |
My love... because I love you. |
I love you too... too late... too late... |
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