"You're not looking at me, Mike." "You're not looking at me in the eyes." "That's weak." "Only weak people do that." "I could look you in the eye if I wanted to, Daddy." "I just don't wanna look you in the eye." "I guess you're just a weak person." "You must have got that from your mother." "It probably would have been better for you... to have been born a girl." "Then we could have named you Michelle." "You see, weakness is more acceptable in a girl, Michelle." "I'm sorry, I mean, Mike." "I keep forgetting." "Wait a minute." "Why don't I call you Michelle all the time?" "Then I wouldn't have to be so goddamn ashamed of you and your weaknesses." "I could think of you as a girl all the time... by your frocks, dresses, and frilly hats and scarves." "You could be Daddy's little girl." "I wouldn't have to be so fucking ashamed of being seen with you in public, would I?" "What do you think of that, Michelle?" "Sound like a good idea?" "Don't, Daddy." "What?" "Did you say something?" "Such a soft little girl's voice." "I couldn't hear what you said." "I hate you, Daddy." " Speak up, girl!" " I hate you!" "I hate you, because I love..." "It makes me feel... guilty inside, hate." "I can't let the heart speak." "Then don't speak." "Don't speak to me." "Show me." "Don't tell me." "I'm not interested in what little girls say." "Show me!" "Show me your anger." "Then I can understand it." "There you are, Daddy." "I see you, Michelle." "I see everything." "This is me, Daddy." "This is what you do to me inside." "Go all the way through it." "Go all the way through it to the end." "Come out the other end." "Don't stop in the middle." "I'm watching you." "I'm watching everything you do, Mike." "Wow." "The man is a genius." "Dr. Raglan would like to thank you all for coming this afternoon." "I believe your bus is waiting outside now." "Thank you." "Candy... it's me, honey." "Daddy." "Okay, honey." "Warm enough?" "Okay, put the whale down." "Turn around." "Hold your hair up." "Oh, my God." "Sorry, Hal... but Mr. Carveth is still here." "He's starting to get passionate about the whole thing." "Okay, send him in." "Mr. Carveth." "Thanks a lot." "Frank, it's been some time." "What can I do for you?" "I want to see Nola." "I want to see my wife, now." "You know she's still undergoing intensive therapy." "I can't let you break that isolation." "You let her see Candice on the weekends, don't you?" "Yes, Frank, I do." "But that's different." "Visits from her daughter was in her program from the very start." "Her program has just changed." "What do you mean?" "You sound hostile." "My daughter's been beaten severely... and scratched and bitten!" "Her mother did it... her mother, who is under your psychiatric care." "That's an incredibly heavy accusation to make." "Did Candice tell you that?" "Candice won't talk about it." "She pretends the whole thing never happened." "But it was Nola... or some other crazy you have stashed away up here." "Either way, no more weekends with Mommy." "The kid stays with me." "To take Candice away from her at this stage... could send Nola over into the deep end." "It's a critical time for her." "I happen to think that Nola's been in over her head for a long time now." "You have no legal right to deny access." "Any time you'd like to test the matter in open court..." "I'd be more than happy to oblige." "For the ultimate good of your own family, Frank... we'd be prepared to do just that." "But don't you force it." "You bring Candy back to her mother next weekend." "She won't harm her." "There must be some other answer to what you've seen." "Until you give me that answer..." "Candy is not coming back." "Yes, Hal?" "Prepare Nola Carveth for another session tonight, will you?" "Sure." "And, Chris... make it phase two, after supper." "Okay, Hal." "This guy Raglan is strictly an emotional opportunist." "He's a legit M.D., right?" "He's a real psychiatrist." "Yes." "Goddamn it, psychoplasmics is a rip-off." "It's a sideshow." "I've seen it in action." "It doesn't matter what you think." "You listen to me." "You call up this Raglan, and you be a real mensch with him." "Otherwise, it's just a matter of time before the cops show up at your door... and you lose your kid for good." "The law believes in motherhood." "If I can dig up enough testimony to prove... that Raglan's a dangerous fraud, that Somafree is crawling with crazies... it's no place for a kid, any time..." "You're getting warmer." "But when Candy doesn't show up at Somafree next weekend... your wife can take legal action immediately." "You could find yourself belted with a writ in seven days." "If I give Nola enough time, she'll really hurt the kid." "I know she will." "I'll do anything I have to." "Here's your daddy." "I bet he knows all about this zipper." "There we go." "All set, now." "I'd love to talk to you sometime soon, Mr. Carveth... about school activities and Candy." "You missed the last open house." "Okay, soon." "Thanks." "See you tomorrow, Candy." "Thank you very much, Frank." " For what?" " For bringing me my grandchild." "I know if it were up to Nola, I'd never see Candice." "Juliana, that's not true." "Nola and I both know how much she needs her grandma, especially now." "You're sweet." "I guess you know, now, what it feels like." " What it feels like?" " Being a parent." "Being blamed for everything." "To have the past distorted, so you don't even recognize yourself anymore." "Your child's version of the past, that is." "Juliana, Candice is only five." "She's working on it right now, believe me." "Thirty seconds after you're born, you have a past." "And 60 seconds after that, you start to lie to yourself about it." "I guess I've been indulging in a horrid bout of nostalgia these last few days." "It must be the weather." "At least now I have a partner in crime." " I've got to go." " Of course." "'Bye, Daddy." "Take your time, we'll both be just fine." "I'll be with you in a second, sweetie." "I'm just gonna get a refill, and then we'll look at those lovely old pictures." "Mommy." "Yes, Candice?" "Yes, sweetie?" "Mommy, you hurt me." "You hit me with your fists, and then you scratched me with your nails." "You hurt me." "I didn't, sweetie." "You must have had a bad dream." "Mommies don't do that." "Mommies don't hurt their own children." "They don't?" "They never do?" "They sometimes do." "Sometimes, but then they're bad mommies, they're fucked-up mommies." "Like whose?" "Like whose mommy?" "Like mine was." "Fucked up and bad." "No, I'm not, Nola." "You're being so unfair, sweetheart." "Mommies never do that." "Mommies never hurt their own children." "You did hurt me." "You beat me and you scratched me." "You threw me down the stairs." "Show me what I did." "Don't stop it now, darling, show me." "Show me your anger." "Show it to me." "Go all the way through it." "Go all the way through it, till the end." "Right to the end." "That one's my favorite." "This one's your favorite?" "Yes, Mommy in the hospital when she was a little girl." "That's right." "I remember this picture." "Your Grandpa Barton took this picture." "Tell me the rest of the story that goes with this picture." "Why was Mommy in the hospital so much?" "Some days, she would wake up and she would be covered... with big, ugly bumps." "And the doctors were very worried, because they could never find out... what those bumps all over her skin really were." "I guess I didn't stack the dishes too well." "I better go see what the damage is." "While I'm there, I think I'll freshen up both our drinks." "Jerry." "Hi, Frank." "You're really falling behind on this." "The Brenleys think that they are going to be moving in here by May." "We're not going to make that, for sure." "Maybe by June." "I heard that the city plumbing permit got held up... because of a change in the building code." "Mr. Carveth." "Telephone call for you." " Hello." " Is that Mr. Carveth?" " Yes." " Mr. Frank Carveth?" " This is Frank Carveth." " This is Sgt. Martel, with 78th Division." "One of our officers noticed a broken kitchen window... while on a routine patrol of the neighborhood." "He found your mother-in-law's body in the kitchen." "The murder weapon was on the floor, next to her." "He then found your daughter upstairs, sound asleep in the bedroom." "It seems she missed the whole thing." " Where is she now?" "I'd like to see her." " With our police psychologist, Dr. Birkin." " Psychologist?" "Why?" "Was she hysterical?" " No." "On the contrary, she was very cool throughout the whole thing." "A little too cool, I thought, so I asked Dr. Birkin to talk with her." "Just for an opinion." "In the meantime, can you think of the names of any persons... who would have a motive to murder this woman?" "You see, it doesn't seem to me to be a simple case of an interrupted break-in... or, say, a rape-murder." "Juliana had a long series of lovers." "I never met any of them." "What about her husband?" "His name is Barton Kelly." "He works for the government, out in Halifax." "They were divorced over 10 years ago." " Dr. Birkin." " You must be Candice's father." "I'd like to take her home now." "Please." "Give me just two minutes with you." "It's important." "Have a seat." "To put it bluntly, I don't think your daughter escaped this incident entirely unscathed." " You think she saw what happened?" " I suspect she did." "Or she saw something which traumatized her, confused her... disturbed her in some way." "The officer who found her said that she was very difficult to wake up." "To me, that indicates a kind of abnormal deep sleep... which a lot of people, even children, will use... to escape something that's too painful to face." "And she says that she doesn't remember being brought to her grandmother's... or seeing her at all." "Do you think she'll remember, eventually?" "Mr. Carveth, I think you must encourage her to remember." "Why?" "My concern is that the child could have a very serious breakdown... if she doesn't come to terms with what she's experienced." "You see, these things tend to express themselves in one way or another." "I've seen five-year-olds like her... with ulcers as bad as any middle-aged businessman." "Okay, I get the picture." " Now can I take her home?" " I think that's fine." "No problem." "You're sure you don't want a story?" "You don't have to read, you know." "I can make one up for you." "Do you want to tell me a story... about what happened today at Grandma's?" "You go to sleep, honey." "I'll leave the hall light on." "Damn." "No outside calls." "You're in isolation." "You know that." "I tried to reach Dr. Raglan." "He hasn't come." "He's on his way." "Chris..." "Is something wrong?" "Anything?" "Then it's me again." "Nothing's wrong, except with me." "No, that's Frank talking, Frank twisting my words." "He won't be patient, he won't trust me, he won't wait until I get well." "He thinks... that I'm turning into my mother." "Day by day, moment by moment, he thinks that I'm trying... to make Candy into Baby Nola." "Is he right?" "No." "That's the last thing on earth I'd..." "Who's that?" "It's Daddy." "Frank hates me, Daddy." "He despises me." "He thinks I'm trying to harm my little girl... and I know that he's thinking of a way to take her away." "And that's very unfair of him." "That's very arrogant of him." "You mustn't be too hard on him, Nola, sweetheart." "He's just trying to be a good, protective father." "No." "Yes." "He's just doing what a good father should do." "He's protecting his little girl." "There's nothing wrong with that, is there?" "He doesn't want to see her hurt." "He doesn't want to see her hurt by anybody, not even her own mother." "Now, is there anything wrong with that?" "No." "No, there isn't." "After all, it's just what I did for you, isn't it?" "Frank's protecting Candy the same way as I protected you, isn't he?" "Isn't he?" "No." "What do you mean, "no"?" " What do mean when you say "no"?" " I love you, Daddy." "I don't want you to think that I don't love you." "I mean, you didn't." ""Didn't"?" ""Didn't" what?" "You didn't protect me." "You didn't." "You didn't, and you should have." "You shouldn't have looked away when she hit me." "And you shouldn't have walked away from the table... when she twisted my words." "You should have stopped her." "You should have hit her when she hit me!" "And you should have smacked her when she smacked me." "Oh, God, I love you." "But you didn't protect me." "And you should have." "You pretended it wasn't happening." "You looked away." "And you should have." "Why didn't you?" "Didn't you love me?" "Look, there he is." "There's your grandfather." "Barton." "Hello, Frank." "How you doing?" "Good to see you." " Let me take that." " Hello." "How you doing, Candy?" "I guess you don't remember your old granddad?" "Right this way." "You didn't have to come way out here." "We could have met later, at the hotel." "I just didn't like the idea of you coming in alone." "How long you plan to stay in town?" "I guess we could have the funeral tomorrow... but Juliana's parents might want to come in from Arizona." "Then there's that sister in Vancouver." "I don't know just how it's going to work out." " All right." "What hotel are you staying in?" " Park Plaza." "You know, I was even thinking about going out to that old house again." "I still have the key, after all these years." "Juliana used to make a big fuss about never having changed the locks." "I could never understand why." "Maybe it's because she really couldn't admit that we were finished." "When I think about you and Nola... and this sweet child having to go through the same heartaches we went through... it's enough to make you cry." "Yes, it is." "I'm here to see Mr. Jan Hartog." "Come in." "Right in." "Sit down." "I'll be right there." "Sit down." "I'll be there in a second." "Goddamn son of a bitch." "Okay." "That's my... heart, over there on the floor." " Your heart?" " My second heart." "Your first heart makes your blood circulate, right?" "But what about your lymphatic fluids?" "I don't know." "Movement, walking and running, fucking, rolling on the floor, anything." "People have this whole other system they don't even know about." "The lymphatic system, it's like the blood system... with its own style of veins and arteries... but no heart." "You have to keep moving to get it to circulate." "And they've just given me pills." "They do that every day." "And I've got to move them through the lymphatic system." "Goddamn it." "Pardon my sweat." "I'm gonna take a bath, real soon." "So, Mr. Carveth... how did you get my name?" "My lawyer knows your lawyer." "I see." "I get it." "Is your lawyer preparing a case against Raglan, too?" "Basically, yes." " Slightly different from yours." " How different?" "My wife is still in therapy with Raglan." "I'm claiming psychological damage, not physiological." "I see." "Give him some more time with your wife... and you'll be able to claim physiological damage, too." "Wouldn't this look impressive in court?" "Do you like it?" "I do." "That's Raglan." "That's psychoplasmics... and it's called lymphosarcoma." "And it's spreading." "It's a form of cancer of the lymphatic system." "You blame Raglan for that?" "Raglan did it." "Raglan encouraged my body... to revolt against me." "And it did." "I have a small revolution on my hands... and I'm not putting it down very successfully." "Then your lawyer really thinks he can prove Raglan's responsible?" "Are you kidding me?" "You can't prove something like that in court." "Right from square one, you're into, what, metaphysics?" "How do you know I'm not going to get cancer at age 32... whether I'd gone into psychoplasmics therapy or not?" "No, we'd get laughed out of court." "Then why are you going into court?" "Revenge." "Even if we lose, people will get nervous about psychoplasmics." "It will be bad publicity." "They won't even remember whether we won or lost." "They'll just remember the slogan:" ""Psychoplasmics can cause cancer."" "Catchy." "Is that going to help?" "Maybe." "I'm not alone." "I'm in touch with a lot of people who did psychoplasmics." "We might form a club." "I want to help you." "Okay." "Thanks." "Dr. Raglan?" "Yes?" "I'm Barton Kelly, Nola Carveth's father." "Glad to meet you." "I'm sorry to accost you like this... but your receptionist wasn't too helpful." "She probably knew I was on my way to..." "Did you know that Nola's mother died yesterday?" "That she was murdered?" "Yes, the police spoke to me." " Then you've told her." " No, I haven't." "That's why I'm here, to tell her." "Mr. Kelly, your wife's death was a tragic and shocking thing." "That's why Nola must not be told." "What?" "Nola's going through a very critical stage in her therapy." "I'm not sure she could take it." "Are you saying that I'm just supposed to bury the girl's mother... and not tell her about it?" "Yes, that's what I'm saying." "You are one ignorant son of a bitch, Dr. Raglan." "Now, I have left my phone number... on your front desk." "If I don't hear from my daughter by tomorrow afternoon..." "I'm coming back up here to get her." "Shall I have him stopped?" "No, it's all right." "He's drunk." "Hi." "Sorry I'm late." " You two look like you're having fun." " We were." "Daddy, Ms. Mayer said she was starving." "Can we feed her at our place tonight?" "Candy..." "We could if she wanted to." "What do you think?" "Well, I..." "We could talk after Candy goes to bed." "Sure." "As soon as Candy realized she had me alone... she got me to play "mother and daughter" with her." "She obviously needs mothering, and isn't getting it." "Sometimes it just kills me to think I might have screwed my kid up already." "She's not even six." "It's not just you." "Sometimes when I'm being easy on myself, I say, "It's not your fault." ""You got taken in." ""You got involved with a woman who married you for your sanity..." ""hoping it would rub off."" "Instead, it started to work the other way." "Hello?" "It's Barton Kelly, Frank." "How are you?" "Just mediocre." "How are you?" "I made a mistake." "I came back to the old place." "It's got me." "I'm depressed as hell." "Barton, get in a cab, will you?" " Just tell him to take..." " That's not all." "There's Nola, too." "How do you mean?" "I went up to that place to see her." "They wouldn't even let me talk to her." "They said no to me, her own father!" "Jesus." "So I'm going back up there, to Somafree." "We'll leave just as soon as you get here." "Soon as I get there?" "I'll be waiting for you." "I know you'll want to go up there with me." " You're not far from here, are you?" " Barton, listen to me." "I don't think that's a very smart thing to do." "I'm doing it, with or without you." "Okay." "I'm only about 15 minutes away." "Wait for me." "I'll be there." "You're a good lad." "We'll go up there together, and kick their ass." "I'm waiting on you." "I've a feeling I've just been recruited to baby-sit." "Would you?" "It'd take 45 minutes." "He's drunk." "He'll drive his car off a bridge, unless I talk some sense into him." "45 minutes?" "That's all it'll take." "Okay." "Thanks." "Help yourself to some coffee." "Here." "Look at this while I'm gone." "If you like it, I'll give it to you." "45 minutes." "I shouldn't have..." "I never planned it to be this way." "Nola?" "Barton!" "It's me!" "I can't get over it." "The thing was in the house." "It was in the house all the time." "We searched the place... but we weren't looking for anything that small, and we missed it." "We were spending our time checking out an Estonian musician." "Have you found out who it belongs to, the kid?" "No." "My guess is... some crazy woman didn't want anyone to know she had a deformed child." "She's locked this kid up in an attic for years and never told anybody." "Wouldn't be the first time." "Hello." "Who's this?" "Ruth Mayer." "Did you want to speak with Frank Carveth?" "Ruth Mayer?" "From Krell Street School?" "Yes." "Is this Mrs. Carveth?" "Are you and my husband having your own private PTA meeting?" "I won't even bother to answer that." "You bitch!" "You're killing my family!" "Our friend has very strange eyes." "They have irises, but no retinas." "I should think his vision of the world is very distorted." "I'm pretty certain he sees things only in black-and-white." "No colors." "The upper lip is cleft." "Real harelip... but the palate is not." "And the tongue is too thick and inflexible for proper speech." "It has no teeth... but you can get a pretty nasty bite... from these strange, beak-like gums." "Why did it die?" "I found some sort of collapsed, fleshy sac... between the little fellow's shoulder blades." "It contains traces of a solid nutrient material... a bit like the yolk sac of certain fish... or a camel's hump." "Basically, it's a gas tank that was full at birth." "Once the hump material is completely assimilated..." "I think the creature simply starves to death." "Runs out of gas, so to speak." "And that brings us to the last point of interest." "There's an external deformity." "I mean, apart from the lack of sexual organs." "It's extremely subtle and extremely provocative." "I wonder if either of you have noticed it." " Has no navel." " No what?" "No bellybutton." " The thing has no bellybutton." " That's right." "And that means this creature has never really been born." "At least, not the way human beings are born." "Jesus." "You're the beginning of the end, Ms. Mayer." "The beginning of the end for me, my family, my dream." "So sad." "And I feel so guilty for my part in it." "I wish it had never happened." "I wish we could be together again, just the three of us." "You're kidding yourself." "Right now, you're dreaming." "From what Frank tells me, it was lousy from the very start." "You never had anything real together." "It would be better for everybody if you..." "If Frank divorced you and married me." "We'd still let you see Candy in the weekends." "That stinks!" "We had a lot." "We had beautiful things, things that you couldn't understand." "And we'll have them again, if you'd just leave him alone... and stop poisoning him against me and taking advantage of his loneliness." "Then he'd wait for me." "He'd help me to get better, instead of abandoning me." "He would do that, if you would just leave him alone." "Leave him alone!" "Listen, I'm sorry." "I called a few times." "You didn't answer." "I didn't want to talk to your wife again, that's why." "Once was enough." " Nola called?" "What did she say?" " Look, I have to go." "Your life is just a little too complicated for me right now." "I'll see you at the next open house." "Daddy." "What's the matter, sweetheart?" "Why aren't you sleeping?" "I had a bad dream." "A scary bad dream." " What was the dream about, honey?" " I'm afraid to tell you." " Why?" " The dream doesn't want me to." "Candy, listen to me." "I know what happened at Grandma's." "I know what you saw there." "I just came from the police... and when I was there, I saw the thing that hurt Grandma." "And, Candy, it's dead." "I saw it lying on a table, and the police were there, and it's dead." "It can't hurt you now." "And it can't hurt me or anybody else." "Do you understand me?" "It's dead?" "Yes." "It's all right now, baby." "What do you think?" "How many people do we have at the main house?" "Twenty-seven." "Okay, I want them out by this afternoon... and the house closed." "It'll be hard on them, Hal, especially Mike." "Then do it gently." "But get them out." "All right." " Put your suitcases in the compartment." " I don't want to go." "You have to go." "Come on." "I just want you to get on the bus..." "You'll see the doctor." "I don't want to go." " Don't make me leave." " I'm not making you leave." "Just be a good boy and get on the bus, all right?" " Hi, Jan." " Frank, hi." "Look, I think we've got ourselves a real live one." "Come on upstairs." "There's somebody I want you to meet." "Is this the guy from Chicago?" "No." "He's a local boy." "He lives a lot closer to home than you expected." "Mr. Carveth is here to see you." "Look who's here." "Nola's old man." " The queen bee's favorite drone." " Jeez, he's pretty far gone." "He'd be dynamite in court." "What did you mean when you said Nola's the queen bee?" "She's the queen bee, all right." "She's the star." "She's the one he's interested in, and the rest of us don't count anymore." "She doesn't even have to pay for it." "That's because she's the one who was born to prove... that "psychoplasmics is the ultimate therapeutic device."" "That's the quote, isn't it?" "Can you be my daddy?" "He won't do it anymore." "And my real daddy won't do it." "And that bastard, Dr. Raglan, won't do it anymore." "You see, my real daddy rejected me." "And my surrogate daddy rejected me." "That's just fucking wonderful, don't you think?" "Calm down, Mike." "Cool it, and tell him what happened at Somafree." "Look..." "I'll make a deal with you, okay?" "Just be my daddy." "Please." "I'll tell you anything you want to know." "I'll bleed for you." "Want me to bleed?" "No." "That's silly, right?" "Repulses you, I can see that." "You're not into it, so why do it, right?" "Besides, nobody could do it like Dr. Raglan." "Not even real daddy." "And he knows it." "Dr. Raglan knows I'm addicted to him... and he doesn't care." "He's such a hard man." "I was at that demonstration last Monday." "You and Raglan seemed very close." "What happened?" "He threw us out." "All of us." "Locked the door." "It's true." "I've been in touch with some of the others." "They've all been thrown out of Somafree, and all therapy suspended." "All except for your wife." "She's still there." "Doesn't anybody know why?" "Sure somebody knows." "I know." "He wants to be alone with her." "Dr. Raglan wants to be alone with your wife." " 'Bye, Daddy." " 'Bye." " Hi, Frank." " Hi, Wendy." "Quickly but quietly, children." "Rebecca, do you want to pass out the blue papers, please?" "And Clayton, how about you pass out the purple ones?" "Okay, let's see." "This person here?" "You can do snowflakes, too." "That's a good idea." "Help!" " What's the matter?" " They're hurting Ms. Mayer." "The bad kids are hurting Ms. Mayer." "They knocked her to the floor and they're hitting her." "They're hitting Ms. Mayer." "They made her fall down!" "Candy!" "It's all right." "It's Hal." "Where's Chris?" "Chris usually wakes me up." "Chris had to go into the city." "You've been dreaming?" "Yes." "I was having a wonderful dream." "Wonderful." "And painful, at the same time." "My daughter was coming back to me." "And Frank." "And Ruth Mayer?" "Was she in your dream?" "Candy's teacher?" "I don't remember." "Then maybe we should talk about her." "But I don't feel the need to talk about her." "You don't?" "Why not?" "I don't know." "I think I must be getting stronger, because somehow..." "I just don't feel threatened by her anymore." "This is where my wife and kid lived for nine months... before Nola moved out to Somafree." "This is the first time I've seen the place." "What are we doing here?" "Tell me, again." "I don't know." "I thought Candy might come back here." "It's not a coincidence." "Those things, those creatures... they all disappeared together." "They've got her." "You've got to help me." "Somebody's following me." " Somebody's always following me." " Did you find out anything?" " Did you find out why they moved you out?" " I've got to have something to eat." "Anything." "What did you find out?" "Why did they close Somafree down?" " Talk to me!" "Now!" " Okay." "Raglan's onto something very big, something to do with the kids." " He just got bored with the rest of us." " Kids?" "What kids?" "The disturbed kids in the work shed... the ones your wife's taking care of." "What have you done with my kid?" "Where is she?" "Carveth, what the hell are you talking about?" "They took her." "They killed Ruth Mayer, and then they brought Candice back here." "They killed Ruth Mayer?" "I want my daughter back, now." "Did they bring her back here, back to Nola?" "I don't know." "If they brought her back here, then she'd be up there, in the attic." "That's where they live." "Frank, I've got a gun." "They'll kill you if you try to take her away from them." "Why?" "Because they understand that she's one of them." "You're insane." "Frank, they exist." "You've seen them." "They're just freaks." "Deformed children." "You've got Nola taking care of them." "I'm sure she loves being their surrogate mother." "She's not their surrogate mother." "She's their real mother." "Their only mother." " I'm not gonna listen." " They're her children." "More exactly, they're the children of her rage." "They're motivated only by her anger, whether that anger... is conscious or subconscious." "I mean, when Nola got cross with Candy last weekend... annoyed, really... the brood beat her." "But when she released her rage against her parents, under therapy... then they killed them." "I know, I didn't want to believe that... but now they've killed Ruth Mayer... and they could kill you or me, and she wouldn't even be aware of it." "I mean, she doesn't even know that Candy's here." " I want Candice back." " Then do it my way." "Please." "It's the right way." "What do you want me to do?" "I want you to go back into that hut... and persuade Nola that you want her back... that you want your family back." "I want you to play the role of apologetic lover and husband." "Why?" "Because if you can keep Nola calm and happy... then the brood's neutral." "If she's mellow, then I can just walk into that attic... pick up Candy, tuck her under my arm and walk out." "Now, can you do that?" "I don't know." "Frank, if things go wrong... if Nola gets angry, if the kids get angry..." "You understand?" "I'm not going to be the only one to pay for that anger." "Raglan, I don't trust you." "What does it matter?" "I'll move up there 30 seconds after you're in." "Frank, be nice to her." "Hal?" "It's me, Nola." "It's Frank." "Am I dreaming?" "I thought you said you weren't going to come and see me while I was here." "I think that was a misunderstanding." "That's why I'm here." "I want us to understand each other." "You're the only woman in the world for me." "You always have been, you always will be." "It won't ever change." "I want you to know that." "I wish it were true." "God, I wish it were true." "We lost touch." "That's the only reason all this ever happened." "All we have to do is make sure we don't lose touch again." "Isolation is part of my therapy." "What's been happening to me has been just too strange... too strange for me to share with anyone from my old life." "Then make me a part of your new life." "Let me be part of it." "Show me, educate me, involve me." "I'm ready now." "I wasn't before, but I'm ready now." "Candy?" "Are you ready for me, Frank?" "Are you really?" "I seem to be a very special person." "I'm in the middle of a strange adventure." "Let me be with you." "I want to go with you wherever you go." "Do you?" "Do you?" "Yes." "Then look." "Daddy?" "Is it time to go to school yet?" "No, sweetheart." "It's Dr. Hal." "And Daddy's downstairs talking to Mommy." "He wants to see you." "Oh, God, Nola." "No, I disgust you." "I sicken you." "You hate me." "You didn't come here because you love me." "You came here to take our daughter away and give her to somebody else." "I wouldn't do that." "I wouldn't do that to you." "You go out of that door." "You find your daddy." "You liar." "You're lying." "You're lying!" "I know!" "I know you so well, and it won't work." "I'd kill Candice before I let you take her away from me." "Do you hear me?" "I'd kill Candice before I let you take her!" "Make them stop." "They're doing what you want them to do." "You want them to kill Candice." "You make them stop, or I'll kill you." "Kill me." "We're going home, Candy." "We're going home."