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Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you should know a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the Spookfest. I'm Josh and there's

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Speaker 2: Chuck and we're flying solo today. I should probably stop

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Speaker 2: speaking like this because I'll bet it's getting annoying.

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Speaker 3: That's right, Welcome to the One of our most fun

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Speaker 3: traditions are ad free Spooctacular, where in which we read

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Speaker 3: two stories, one of your choosing and one of mine,

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Speaker 3: and yours is up first by Edward Frederick Benson, Is

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Speaker 3: that right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, better known as EF to his friends.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Did you see where this was published? Should we

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Speaker 3: give a shout out to that?

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Speaker 2: It was published in one of his books? He wrote

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Speaker 2: several books, but this one comes from ninth Team twelve.

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Speaker 2: And I don't remember the name of the book, Chuck,

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Speaker 2: thank you.

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Speaker 3: Well, I have it, sir. It was first published in

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Speaker 3: an anthology called The Room in the Tower and Other Stories.

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Speaker 2: That's it.

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Speaker 3: And this is not The Room in the Tower. So

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Speaker 3: this is and other Stories, but it's called Caterpillars. And

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Speaker 3: at first I thought, by the way this was going

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Speaker 3: to be you know, we read stuff in the public domain,

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Speaker 3: so a lot of these stories are sort of like

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Speaker 3: you know, the creepy house and the you know, there's

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Speaker 3: not actually a creature or monster. It's like it was

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Speaker 3: within me all along. Sure that was the direction of

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Speaker 3: a lot of these stories, but this one actually has

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Speaker 3: a nice little payoff with some real creep stuff.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is a creepster for sure. And before we

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Speaker 2: get started, Chuck, I want to tip our hats to Ben,

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Speaker 2: guest producer, Ben that's right, who last year just laid

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Speaker 2: a smack down with his first version of editing one

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Speaker 2: of our Halloween spectaculars, and I expect to do it again.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, and we plugged it recently. But Ben

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Speaker 3: is a musician, so we might as well plug it

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Speaker 3: again here since everyone's listening here at the top. Ben

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Speaker 3: has a new collection of songs out called Songs for

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Speaker 3: Sleeping Dogs, and it is great. It's instrumental, it's very

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Speaker 3: biby and cool, and you can find it wherever you

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Speaker 3: find any music.

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Speaker 2: Yep, wait to go, Ben, Okay, I say we get

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Speaker 2: started as per usual. We haven't talked about this at

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Speaker 2: all up until this very moment.

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Speaker 3: That's right.

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Speaker 2: I didn't even know you knew the name of the

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Speaker 2: anthology until you busted it out. It was spectacular.

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Speaker 3: That's how we roll.

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Speaker 2: So who wants to read first? You or me?

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Speaker 3: I mean your story? So I say you kick it off?

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Speaker 2: Okay, all right? Are you ready for this?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, let's do it. Do your cheeks, Oh wow, it's

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Speaker 3: been a while. Let me see if they still flop.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, this is gonna be a good one, I

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Speaker 2: can tell. And everyone, here we go. Settle in, put

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Speaker 2: on some fake cobwebs all over your skin, get a

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Speaker 2: mug of bat juice, and get ready for caterpillars. By E. F. Benson.

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Speaker 2: I saw a month or two ago in an Italian

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Speaker 2: paper that the Via Cascana in which I once stayed

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Speaker 2: had been pulled down, and that a manufactory of some

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Speaker 2: sort was in process of erection on its site. There

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Speaker 2: is therefore no longer any reason for refraining from writing

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Speaker 2: of those things which I myself saw or imagined I

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Speaker 2: saw in a certain room and on a certain landing

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Speaker 2: of the via in question, nor from mentioning the circumstances

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Speaker 2: which followed, which may or may not, according to the

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Speaker 2: opinion of the reader, throw some light on or be

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Speaker 2: somehow connected with this experience. Everybody got that?

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Speaker 3: Can I stop you real quick? We're going with the via.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, what would you say a valet?

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Speaker 3: How I say a villa like a you know, an

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Speaker 3: Italian villa? You say, bea.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the l's make it nice. It sounds all right,

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Speaker 2: all right.

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Speaker 3: I'm following your lead. Bell.

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Speaker 2: Well, then maybe we can look up who is correct,

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Speaker 2: and then Ben cann edit in your voice over mine.

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Speaker 3: No, no for villa.

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Speaker 2: Are you ready?

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Speaker 3: I'm ready.

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Speaker 2: The Keskana wasn't always but one a perfectly delightful house.

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Speaker 2: Yet if it were standing now, nothing in the world

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Speaker 2: I use the phrase in the literal sense, would induce

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Speaker 2: me to set foot in it again, For I believe

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Speaker 2: it to have been haunted in a very terrible and

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Speaker 2: practical manner. Most ghosts, when all is said and done,

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Speaker 2: do not do much harm. They may perhaps terrify, but

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Speaker 2: the person whom they visit usually gets over their visitation.

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Speaker 2: I feel like that's quite a presumption, don't you. Yeah, totally,

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Speaker 2: Like what about somebody whose hair is white because they're

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Speaker 2: being that scared. It's tough to get over that's happened. Okay,

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Speaker 2: back to it. They may, on the other hand, be

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Speaker 2: entirely friendly and beneficent, but the appearances in the via

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Speaker 2: Cascana were not beneficent, and had they made their visit

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Speaker 2: in a very slightly different manner. I do not suppose

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Speaker 2: I should have got over it any more than Arthur

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Speaker 2: Inglis did me think.

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Speaker 3: I think, so far, so good. We have that scary

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Speaker 3: setup of a creepy place, which seems to be most

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Speaker 3: of our stories. But again, this one goes in a

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Speaker 3: different direction.

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Speaker 2: You want me to keep going?

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Speaker 3: Ah, yeah, I feel like you're doing strong work.

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Speaker 2: Oh okay. The house stood on an islex clad hill,

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Speaker 2: alex being holly bushes. Oh not far. Yeah, I looked

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Speaker 2: it up, not far from Sestry to Levante on the

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Speaker 2: Italian Riviera, looking out over the iridescent blues of that

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Speaker 2: enchanted sea, while behind it rose the pale green chestnut

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Speaker 2: woods that climb up the hillsides till they give place

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Speaker 2: to the that black in contrast with them, crowned the

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Speaker 2: slopes all round at the garden, in the luxurious of

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Speaker 2: mid spring, bloomed and was fragrant, and the scent of

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Speaker 2: magnolia and rose borne on the salt freshness of the

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Speaker 2: winds from the sea flowed like a stream through the

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Speaker 2: cool vaulted rooms.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's got it right.

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Speaker 2: This is a very nice house.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, sounds lovely.

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Speaker 2: He continues on the ground floor, a broad pillared loja.

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Speaker 2: And I look this up too. A lojah is a corridor.

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Speaker 2: But that is essentially like a place, a corridor where

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Speaker 2: you'd sit with arches in the front face. It's not

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Speaker 2: just open with like a railing, Okay. And also that

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Speaker 2: means that Robert Lojah's name means Robert corridor.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the first thing I thought of.

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Speaker 2: So the lojah ran round three sides of the house,

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Speaker 2: the top of which formed a balcony for certain rooms

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Speaker 2: of the first floor. The main staircase, broad and of

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Speaker 2: gray marble, steps led up from the hall to the

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Speaker 2: landing outside these rooms, which were three in number, namely

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Speaker 2: two big sitting rooms and a bedroom arranged en suite. Well,

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Speaker 2: the latter was unoccupied, the sitting rooms were in use.

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Speaker 2: From these the main staircase was continued to the second floor,

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Speaker 2: where were situated certain bedrooms, one of which I occupied,

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Speaker 2: while from the other side of the first floor landing,

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Speaker 2: some half dozen steps led to another suite of rooms, where,

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Speaker 2: at the time I am speaking of Arthur Ingliss, the

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Speaker 2: artist had his bedroom and studio. Thus the landing outside

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Speaker 2: my bedroom at the top of the house commanded both

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Speaker 2: the landing of the first floor and also the steps

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Speaker 2: that led to Ingliss's room, Jim Stanley and his wife finally,

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Speaker 2: whose guest I was occupied. Rooms in another wing of

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Speaker 2: the house were also were the servants quarters. And I

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Speaker 2: feel like this is way way too much detail about

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Speaker 2: this house.

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Speaker 3: That's what they all do though, all these old stories.

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Speaker 3: I feel like there's always a very detailed sort of map,

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Speaker 3: and at the end of all of them fa like

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Speaker 3: they almost should type does everyone get it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, I've read the story a bunch of times

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Speaker 2: and I still don't have any conception a mental map

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Speaker 2: of this house. It's all just blobs of steps in

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Speaker 2: like sitting rooms, you know.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but having known what happens, Really, the only important

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Speaker 3: thing you need to know is this guy's staying in

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Speaker 3: a room upstairs and there's another room close by that's unoccupied.

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Speaker 2: Very nice. Yeah you want to take over here?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, sounds like a good switch. I arrived just

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Speaker 3: in time for lunch on a brilliant noon of mid May.

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Speaker 3: The garden was shouting with color and fragrance.

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Speaker 2: Bernciena and not less.

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Speaker 3: Delightful after my broiling walk up from the marina should

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Speaker 3: have been the coming from the reverberating heat and blaze

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Speaker 3: of the day into the marble coolness of the villa.

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Speaker 2: Is that where you're going.

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Speaker 3: With with villa only in parentheses. The reader has my

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Speaker 3: bare word for this and nothing more. Only the moment

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Speaker 3: I set foot in this house, I felt that something

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Speaker 3: was wrong. This feeling, I may say, was quite vague,

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Speaker 3: though very strong. And I remember that when I saw

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Speaker 3: letters waiting for me on the table in the hall,

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Speaker 3: I felt certain that the explanation was here. I was

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Speaker 3: convinced that there was bad news of some sort for me.

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Speaker 3: Yet when I opened them, I found no such explanation

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Speaker 3: for my premonition. My correspondence all reeked to prosperity. Yet

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Speaker 3: this clear miscarriage of a presentiment did not dissipate my

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Speaker 3: uneasiness in that cool, fragrant house. That was something wrong.

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Speaker 3: So homeboy gets some letters and things like that's what

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Speaker 3: I think is my bad feeling, like I've got bad

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Speaker 3: news awaiting me. But it's all great news.

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Speaker 2: But also keep in mind he's a house guest, and

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Speaker 2: he plans to stay so long that he's forwarded as

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Speaker 2: mail here. I hope he cleared that with the hosts.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a little weird too. A lot of presumptions

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Speaker 3: going on here. Yeah, here we go. I'm at pains

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Speaker 3: to mention this, because to the general view, it may

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Speaker 3: explain that though I am, as a rule so excellent

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Speaker 3: a sleeper, that the extinction of my light on getting

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Speaker 3: into bed is apparently contemporaneous with being Paul. On the

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Speaker 3: following morning, I slept very badly. He could have said,

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Speaker 3: I sleep great.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but I kind of like that one.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I slept very badly on my first night in

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Speaker 3: the Villa Caskana. It may also explain the fact that

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Speaker 3: when I did sleep, if it was indeed in sleep

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Speaker 3: that I saw what I thought I saw, I dreamed

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Speaker 3: in a very vivid and original manner. Original, that is

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Speaker 3: to say, in the sense that something that, as far

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Speaker 3: as I knew, had never been previously entered into my

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Speaker 3: consciousness usurped it then. But since in addition to this

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Speaker 3: evil premonition, certain words and events occurring during the rest

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Speaker 3: of the day might have suggested something of what I

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Speaker 3: thought happened that night, it will be well to relate them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Benson never met a parenthesis that he didn't like.

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Speaker 3: Oh, man, you after lunch, then I went round the

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Speaker 3: house with missus Stanley, and during our tour she referred,

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Speaker 3: it is true to the unoccupied bedroom on the first floor,

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Speaker 3: which opened out of the room where we had lunched

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Speaker 3: a little more mapping going on. Uh are you going

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Speaker 3: to do? You want to read her voice?

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Speaker 2: Sure?

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Speaker 3: All right, we left that unoccupied, she said, because Jim.

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Speaker 2: And I have a charming bedroom and dressing room, as

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Speaker 2: you saw in the wing, and if we used it ourselves,

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Speaker 2: we should have to turn the dining room into a

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Speaker 2: dressing room and have our meals downstairs. As it is, however,

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Speaker 2: we have our little flat here. Arthur Inglis has his

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Speaker 2: little flat in the other passage. And I remember parentheses.

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Speaker 2: Aren't I extraordinary that you once said that the higher

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Speaker 2: up you were in a house, the better you were pleased.

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Speaker 2: So I put you at the top of the house

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Speaker 2: instead of giving you that room.

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Speaker 3: Hey, And I imagine this guy at this point is like,

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Speaker 3: oh god, lady, just can I go to my room?

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Speaker 3: Got a crossword puzzled to do you want to take

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Speaker 3: it from there?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Sure? It is true that a doubt vague as

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Speaker 2: my uneasy premonition crossed my mind at this I did

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Speaker 2: not see why missus Bany should have explained all this

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Speaker 2: if there had not been more to explain. I allow

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Speaker 2: therefore that the thought that there was something to explain

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Speaker 2: about the unoccupied bedroom was bometarily present to my mind.

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Speaker 3: I got to say, though, I really do love that

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Speaker 3: he did acknowledge what we disacknowledged, Like she didn't have

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Speaker 3: to say all that.

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Speaker 2: No, And if you're like, what is this guy talking about?

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Speaker 2: So basically he's laying all this out and he's letting

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Speaker 2: you know everything that possibly could have influenced him imagining this. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: to leave it to you, the reader slash listener, to

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Speaker 2: decide if it was imagined or not. I think that's

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Speaker 2: what he's doing. That's how I'm interpreting it same, that's

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Speaker 2: what cliff Notes said at least.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: The second thing that may have borne on my dream

245
00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:45,439
Speaker 2: was this. At dinner, the conversation turned for a moment

246
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Speaker 2: on ghosts. English, with a certainty of conviction, expressed his

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Speaker 2: belief that anybody who could possibly believe in the existence

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Speaker 2: of supernatural phenomena was unworthy of the name of an

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Speaker 2: ass burn. The subject instantly dropped. You can't imagine. As

250
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Speaker 2: far as I can recollect, nothing else occurred or was

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Speaker 2: said that could bear on what follows. I needed to

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Speaker 2: take a simple water.

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Speaker 3: Chuck, unworthy of the name of an ass.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that is pretty low.

255
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Speaker 3: Yeah, and or English is just roasting people.

256
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Speaker 2: But also you can see this guy with a walrus

257
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Speaker 2: mustache wearing a pith helmet at lunch, Yeah, being a

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Speaker 2: pompous jerk, and everyone's like, well, I'm not going to

259
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Speaker 2: say wow, I feel about it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, totally.

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Speaker 2: So dinner has taken place, and now he's going to bed.

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Speaker 2: And we know this because he says. We all went

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Speaker 2: to bed rather early, and personally, I yawned my way upstairs,

264
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Speaker 2: feeling hideously sleepy. My room was rather hot, and I

265
00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:46,160
Speaker 2: threw all the windows wide and from without poured in

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Speaker 2: the white light of the moon and the love song

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Speaker 2: of the many nightingales. I n dressed quickly and got

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Speaker 2: into bed. But though I had felt so sleepy before,

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Speaker 2: I now felt extremely wide awake. Yeah, but this guy

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Speaker 2: I was okay with it, because he says, but I

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Speaker 2: was quite content to be awake. I did not toss

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Speaker 2: or turn I felt perfectly happy listening to the song

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Speaker 2: and seeing the light. Then it is possible I may

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Speaker 2: have gone to sleep, and what follows may have been

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Speaker 2: a dream. I thought, anyhow, that after a time, the

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Speaker 2: nightingale ceased singing, and the moon sank. I thought also

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Speaker 2: that if for some explained reason, I was going to

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Speaker 2: lie awake all night, I might as well read. And

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00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:27,760
Speaker 2: I remembered that I had left a book in which

280
00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:30,640
Speaker 2: I was interested in the dining room on the first floor,

281
00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:36,800
Speaker 2: which has seventeen steps and is heady corner to the

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Speaker 2: maid's corners.

283
00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:41,720
Speaker 3: Each step is but eight inches in depth and made

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Speaker 3: of oak, white oak.

285
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Speaker 2: From the black forest. So I got out of bed,

286
00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:53,520
Speaker 2: lit a candle and went downstairs. I went into the room,

287
00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:55,520
Speaker 2: saw on a side table the book I had come

288
00:14:55,520 --> 00:14:59,440
Speaker 2: to look for, and then simultaneously saw that the door

289
00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:05,040
Speaker 2: into the unoccupied bedroom was open. Yeah, not only that, chuck,

290
00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:08,600
Speaker 2: A curious gray light, not of dawn nor of moonshine,

291
00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:12,440
Speaker 2: came out of it, and I looked in the bed.

292
00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:16,360
Speaker 2: Stood just opposite the door a big four poster, beautiful

293
00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:20,600
Speaker 2: lots of carvings hung with tapestry at the head. Then

294
00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:23,400
Speaker 2: I saw that grayish light of the bedroom came from

295
00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:26,480
Speaker 2: the bed, or rather from what was on the bed,

296
00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:31,880
Speaker 2: where it was covered with great caterpillars get this, a

297
00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:35,920
Speaker 2: foot or more in length, which crawled over it. They

298
00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:38,760
Speaker 2: were faintly luminous, and it was the light from them

299
00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:42,360
Speaker 2: that showed me the room. Instead of the sucker feet

300
00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:46,680
Speaker 2: of ordinary caterpillars. They had rows of pincers, like crabs,

301
00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:49,560
Speaker 2: and they moved by grasping what they lay on with

302
00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:58,120
Speaker 2: their pincers and then sliding their bodies forward. This is

303
00:15:58,160 --> 00:16:00,200
Speaker 2: where it turns creepster, right.

304
00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:03,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you have no idea the sense of relief.

305
00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:05,720
Speaker 3: When I was like, is this all just about a

306
00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:07,600
Speaker 3: sense of dread? Because I feel like all these stories

307
00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:09,360
Speaker 3: are just about a sense of dread. And then when

308
00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:13,680
Speaker 3: these crab caterpillars, mutant crab caterpillars came on the scene,

309
00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:15,400
Speaker 3: I was really knocked out.

310
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Speaker 2: It gets even worse, though, Chuck.

311
00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:18,520
Speaker 3: Yeah.

312
00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:22,160
Speaker 2: He says that in color, these dreadful insects were yellowish gray,

313
00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:26,920
Speaker 2: and they were covered with irregular lumps and swellings. There

314
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,280
Speaker 2: must have been hundreds of them. These are foot long

315
00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:33,960
Speaker 2: caterpillars with crab pincers for feet, For they formed a

316
00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:38,720
Speaker 2: sort of writhing, crawling pyramid on the bed. Occasionally one

317
00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:42,200
Speaker 2: fell off onto the floor with a soft, fleshy thud,

318
00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:45,640
Speaker 2: and though the floor was of hard concrete, it yielded

319
00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:48,120
Speaker 2: to the pincer feet as if it had been putty,

320
00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:52,080
Speaker 2: and crawling back, the caterpillar would mount onto the bed

321
00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:56,480
Speaker 2: again to rejoin its fearful companions. They appeared to have

322
00:16:56,640 --> 00:16:59,600
Speaker 2: no faces, so to speak, but at one end of

323
00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:03,200
Speaker 2: them was a mouth that opened sideways and respiration.

324
00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:13,080
Speaker 3: Yeah all right, I mean, bravo, bravo Ef Benson for

325
00:17:13,119 --> 00:17:16,080
Speaker 3: coming up with some really creepy stuff. Yeah, it shocked me.

326
00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:18,479
Speaker 3: I was not expecting this, and now we have a

327
00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:20,719
Speaker 3: genuine sort of monsters situation. I love it.

328
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:22,720
Speaker 2: You know, I thought this one was gonna get you,

329
00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:27,159
Speaker 2: because you're absolutely right. Almost all of our previous stories

330
00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:29,159
Speaker 2: have been about like a house, an empty house, and

331
00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:32,040
Speaker 2: most of the time it is just dread. Very few

332
00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:36,680
Speaker 2: things actually happened. Something happens here, and it is fat, lumpy,

333
00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:40,159
Speaker 2: foot long caterpillars, hundreds of them on this bed of

334
00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:41,400
Speaker 2: this unoccupied room.

335
00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,919
Speaker 3: Yeah. I wonder what kind of drugs Ef was taking.

336
00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:47,640
Speaker 2: He was passing the ether rag.

337
00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:49,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, what did they have back then yet probably ether.

338
00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:50,800
Speaker 2: Oh they had a lot of ether?

339
00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:52,840
Speaker 3: Is it me? Is it time?

340
00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:54,200
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah? I think so?

341
00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:57,280
Speaker 3: All right, Then as I looked, it seemed to me

342
00:17:57,359 --> 00:17:59,840
Speaker 3: as if they all suddenly became conscious of my presence.

343
00:18:00,359 --> 00:18:02,879
Speaker 3: All the mouths, at any rate were turned in my direction,

344
00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:05,960
Speaker 3: and next moment they began dropping off the bed with

345
00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:09,919
Speaker 3: those soft, fleshy thuds onto the floor and wriggling towards me.

346
00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:13,480
Speaker 3: For one second a paralysis as of a dream was

347
00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:16,240
Speaker 3: on me. But the next I was running upstairs again

348
00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:19,080
Speaker 3: to my room, and I remember feeling the cold of

349
00:18:19,119 --> 00:18:21,920
Speaker 3: the marble steps on my bare feet. They're marble, they're

350
00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:25,520
Speaker 3: not oak, right, Yeah, oh well I rushed onto my

351
00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:27,280
Speaker 3: You know, marbles a lot to take care of. So

352
00:18:27,359 --> 00:18:29,440
Speaker 3: that that's not the great, great choice for a floor,

353
00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:30,280
Speaker 3: especially stairs.

354
00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:32,360
Speaker 2: It's true, and it could have still possibly come from

355
00:18:32,359 --> 00:18:33,400
Speaker 2: the Black forest, so.

356
00:18:33,359 --> 00:18:35,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe so you got to seal that stuff though

357
00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:35,840
Speaker 3: every year or so.

358
00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:39,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, But I want to give a little shout out here, Chuck.

359
00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:42,760
Speaker 2: If this is genuine, you can make a poultice out

360
00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:45,080
Speaker 2: of baking soda and water only, and you have to

361
00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:47,000
Speaker 2: make it kind of thick. Okay, but if you have

362
00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:51,520
Speaker 2: like a wine spot or something sunk into your marble countertop. Huh,

363
00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:53,959
Speaker 2: put that on there, leave it for a couple of hours,

364
00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:56,919
Speaker 2: scrape it off and wipe it down. I'm not kidding.

365
00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,960
Speaker 2: Your red wine spot will be gone from the mark.

366
00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:02,960
Speaker 2: It's a miracle of housekeeping.

367
00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:06,399
Speaker 3: Well, mister fancy pants, I have no marble, but I

368
00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:07,960
Speaker 3: do drink wine. But I'll keep that in mind if

369
00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:09,359
Speaker 3: I'm ever at a fancy pants house.

370
00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:12,159
Speaker 2: It works. I have limestone on my countertop, and it

371
00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:14,399
Speaker 2: works for that too. Like, oh yeah, it works for

372
00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:19,320
Speaker 2: for Micah. For Micah, it works for whatever. The like

373
00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:23,280
Speaker 2: a plasticly shiny cabinet door is made of all right,

374
00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:26,200
Speaker 2: lamb in it. It works on lamin it's it works everywhere.

375
00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:31,359
Speaker 3: Man, I didn't see this coming. I didn't what a turn?

376
00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:37,479
Speaker 3: Where were we? Fleshy thuds, paralysis running upstairs marble floors,

377
00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:40,320
Speaker 3: that's right, all right? So he ran up the marble

378
00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:43,200
Speaker 3: floors and into that bedroom, which is the sensible thing

379
00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:45,800
Speaker 3: to do. I rushed into my bedroom and slammed the

380
00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:48,359
Speaker 3: door behind me, and then I was certainly wide awake.

381
00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:51,240
Speaker 3: Now I found myself standing by my bed with the

382
00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:53,840
Speaker 3: sweat of terror, pouring from me. The noise of the

383
00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:56,480
Speaker 3: banged door still rang in my ears. But as would

384
00:19:56,520 --> 00:19:58,880
Speaker 3: have been more usual if this had been mere nightmare,

385
00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:01,280
Speaker 3: the terror that had been mine when I saw those

386
00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:03,760
Speaker 3: foul beasts crawling about the bed or dropping softly on

387
00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:07,600
Speaker 3: the floor did not cease then awake. Now, if dreaming

388
00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:10,600
Speaker 3: before I did not at all recover from the horror

389
00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:13,119
Speaker 3: of dream, did not seem to me that I had dream.

390
00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:17,199
Speaker 3: And until dawn I sat or stood, not daring to

391
00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:19,600
Speaker 3: lie down, thinking that every rustle or movement that I

392
00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:22,399
Speaker 3: heard was the approach of the caterpillars to them, and

393
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:25,040
Speaker 3: the claws that bit into the cement. The wood of

394
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:28,400
Speaker 3: the door was child's play. Steel would not have kept

395
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:32,280
Speaker 3: them out. So basically like, this guy's just waiting for

396
00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:36,080
Speaker 3: these caterpillars to bum rush him. Yeah, and all night long.

397
00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:38,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's saying to himself the.

398
00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:41,439
Speaker 3: Horror, Yeah, That's what I'd be saying. But with the

399
00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:44,080
Speaker 3: sweet and noble return of the day, the horror vanished,

400
00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:48,320
Speaker 3: The whisper of wind became benignant again. The nameless fear,

401
00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:52,240
Speaker 3: whatever it was, was smoothed out and terrified me no longer.

402
00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:56,240
Speaker 3: Dawn broke queless at first, then it grew dove colored.

403
00:20:56,800 --> 00:20:59,320
Speaker 3: I like this detail, by the way. Then the flaming

404
00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:02,800
Speaker 3: pageant of life spread over the sky. The admirable rule

405
00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:05,320
Speaker 3: of the house was that everybody had breakfast where and

406
00:21:05,359 --> 00:21:08,240
Speaker 3: when he pleased, And in consequence, it was not till

407
00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:11,040
Speaker 3: lunchtime that I met any of the other members of

408
00:21:11,080 --> 00:21:13,720
Speaker 3: our party, since I had breakfast on my balcony and

409
00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:16,919
Speaker 3: wrote letters and other things to lunch. In fact, I

410
00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:19,760
Speaker 3: got down to that meal rather late, and the other

411
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,720
Speaker 3: three had begun. Between my knife and fork there was

412
00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:25,480
Speaker 3: a small pill box of cardboard, and as I sat

413
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:29,639
Speaker 3: down Ingliss spoke, should I do English?

414
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:31,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, let's hear what you got?

415
00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:36,199
Speaker 3: And these are Brits, right, m hm? And English is

416
00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:37,240
Speaker 3: kind of an ahole right.

417
00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:39,280
Speaker 2: A little bit. He was the guy wearing the pith

418
00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:44,960
Speaker 2: helmet and walrus and overly emphatically stating his opinion is fact.

419
00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:47,040
Speaker 3: Right, and we know what he does later, So he's

420
00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:52,600
Speaker 3: an a hole. Do look at that? He said, since

421
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:55,240
Speaker 3: you are interested in natural history, I found it crawling

422
00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:57,320
Speaker 3: on my couch of pain last night, and I don't

423
00:21:57,359 --> 00:21:59,920
Speaker 3: know what it is. You want to pick it up? There?

424
00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:03,320
Speaker 2: Sure? I think that before I opened the pill box.

425
00:22:03,359 --> 00:22:06,360
Speaker 2: I expected something of the sort which I found in it.

426
00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:10,760
Speaker 2: Inside it, anyhow, it was a small caterpillar, grayish yellow

427
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:14,639
Speaker 2: in color, with curious bumps and excreases on its rings.

428
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:16,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, what a word.

429
00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:21,000
Speaker 2: It was extremely active, hurried around the box this way, Matt.

430
00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:24,040
Speaker 2: Its feet were unlike the feet of any caterpillar I

431
00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:26,800
Speaker 2: ever saw. They were like the pincers of a crab.

432
00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:30,280
Speaker 2: M I looked and shut the lid down again.

433
00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:33,960
Speaker 3: All right, so this is These are in real life.

434
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,920
Speaker 3: Now They're not a foot long, but they have been realized. No,

435
00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:38,879
Speaker 3: it wasn't a dream.

436
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:43,080
Speaker 2: No, do you want you should be Oh? I don't

437
00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:45,720
Speaker 2: know that. We ever hear his name? Is it the narrator?

438
00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:47,920
Speaker 3: No, I'll be English. You could be the narrator.

439
00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:55,399
Speaker 2: Okay, let's see. Let's see. So he's terrified. No, I

440
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:59,439
Speaker 2: don't know it, I said, but it looks rather unwholesome.

441
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:03,080
Speaker 2: What are you going to do with it? Oh? I

442
00:23:03,119 --> 00:23:06,320
Speaker 2: shall keep it, Oh said English.

443
00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:09,439
Speaker 3: It has begun to spin. I want to see what

444
00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:10,680
Speaker 3: sort of Martha turns into.

445
00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 2: I opened the box again and saw these hurrying movements,

446
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 2: where indeed the beginning of spinning of the web of

447
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:19,600
Speaker 2: its cocoon. Then English spoke again.

448
00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:24,320
Speaker 3: It has got funny feet too, he said, they're like

449
00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:27,320
Speaker 3: crabs pincers. What's the Latin for crab?

450
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:28,440
Speaker 2: Oh?

451
00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:31,840
Speaker 3: Yes, cancer, So in case it is unique, let's christen

452
00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:34,960
Speaker 3: it mm cancer Engli censes.

453
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:40,320
Speaker 2: I love how inevitably all your voices end up being

454
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:45,400
Speaker 2: an old witch's every time. And it's a great voice too,

455
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 2: so I'm always very satisfied when that starts to happen.

456
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:50,760
Speaker 3: I love it. He names this thing after himself.

457
00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:54,280
Speaker 2: What a jerk, I know, he is? Uh Oh, I

458
00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:58,320
Speaker 2: continue on right, Yeah. Then something happened in my brain,

459
00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:01,879
Speaker 2: some momentary piece together of all that I had seen

460
00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:04,959
Speaker 2: or dreamed. Something in his words seemed to me to

461
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 2: throw light on it all, and my own intense horror

462
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:11,320
Speaker 2: at the experience of the night before linked itself onto

463
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:14,359
Speaker 2: what he had just said. In effect, I took the

464
00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:18,840
Speaker 2: box and threw it, caterpillar and all out of the window. Hugh,

465
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:21,520
Speaker 2: this must have been fairly surprising. In the middle of

466
00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:23,760
Speaker 2: the conversation, just picks up the box and throws it

467
00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:27,119
Speaker 2: out of the window. There was a gravel path just outside,

468
00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,159
Speaker 2: and beyond it a fountain playing into a basin. The

469
00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 2: box fell on to the middle of this English laughed.

470
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:39,240
Speaker 3: Oh, so the students of the occult don't like solid facts,

471
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:41,520
Speaker 3: he said, My poor caterpillar.

472
00:24:42,760 --> 00:24:45,200
Speaker 2: The talk went off again at once to other subjects.

473
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:47,720
Speaker 2: I can imagine everybody's a little embarrassed that I was

474
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:51,879
Speaker 2: just so anyway, how about them Yankees?

475
00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:52,359
Speaker 3: Right?

476
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 2: And I have only given in detail as they happen,

477
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,280
Speaker 2: these trivialities in order to be sure myself that I

478
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 2: have recorded everything that could have borne on occult subjects,

479
00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 2: or on the subject of caterpillars. He really wants you

480
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:08,280
Speaker 2: to know, like I'm giving you all this, all the

481
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:11,320
Speaker 2: stuff here. I'm surprised he didn't say what he had

482
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:12,440
Speaker 2: for launch and breakfast.

483
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:13,040
Speaker 3: Agreed.

484
00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:16,000
Speaker 2: But at the moment when I threw the pill box

485
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:19,040
Speaker 2: into the fountain, I lost my head. My only excuse

486
00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:21,840
Speaker 2: is that, as is probably plain, the tenant of it

487
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:25,800
Speaker 2: was in miniature exactly what I had seen crowded onto

488
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,000
Speaker 2: the bed in the unoccupied room. I think that was

489
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,240
Speaker 2: an unnecessary thing to point out. Yeah, and though this

490
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,879
Speaker 2: translation of those phantoms into flesh and blood or whatever

491
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:38,960
Speaker 2: it is the caterpillars are made of, ought perhaps to

492
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:41,600
Speaker 2: have relieved some of the horror of the night. As

493
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:43,840
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, it did nothing of the kind.

494
00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 2: It only made the crawling pyramid that covered the bed

495
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:50,119
Speaker 2: in the unoccupied room more hideously real.

496
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:54,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, I could imagine, Yeah.

497
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:57,679
Speaker 2: I wouldn't see this thing that was the actual, like

498
00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:01,600
Speaker 2: similacrum of what had scared the Jesus out of me

499
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:05,359
Speaker 2: the night before. Why would that make you feel any better?

500
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 3: Now? Agreed?

501
00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:09,600
Speaker 2: You want me to keep going? It seems like you

502
00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:10,920
Speaker 2: could do this now, all.

503
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:11,520
Speaker 3: Right, I'll take ever.

504
00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:12,159
Speaker 2: Okay.

505
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:14,920
Speaker 3: After lunch we spent a lazy hour or two strolling

506
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,639
Speaker 3: about the garden or sitting in the Robert loggia. And

507
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:19,919
Speaker 3: it must have been about four o'clock when Stanley and

508
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,920
Speaker 3: I started off to bathe down the path that led

509
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:25,200
Speaker 3: by the fountain into which I had thrown the pill box.

510
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:27,560
Speaker 3: The water was shallow and clear, and at the bottom

511
00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:30,280
Speaker 3: of it I saw its white remains. The water had

512
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,719
Speaker 3: disintegrated the cardboard, and it had become no more than

513
00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 3: a few strips and shreds of sodden paper. The center

514
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:39,440
Speaker 3: of the fountain was a marble Italian cupid, which squirted

515
00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:44,160
Speaker 3: the water out of a wine skin held under his arm.

516
00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:46,159
Speaker 2: That's not where I was expecting him to say, it

517
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:47,480
Speaker 2: was scorting from.

518
00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:48,879
Speaker 3: Nope, A lot of times it comes right out of

519
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:50,680
Speaker 3: a little marble peepee.

520
00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:51,440
Speaker 2: It's a tinkle.

521
00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:55,679
Speaker 3: It's a tinkle exactly. And crawling up its leg was

522
00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:59,399
Speaker 3: the caterpillar. Strange and scarcely credible, as it seemed. It

523
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:01,640
Speaker 3: must have served vibe the falling to bits of its

524
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:04,840
Speaker 3: prison and made its way ashore. And there it was,

525
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:07,879
Speaker 3: out of arms reach, weaving and waving this way and

526
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:11,880
Speaker 3: that as it evolved its cocoon. Then as I looked

527
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:14,280
Speaker 3: at it seemed to me again that like the caterpillar

528
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:16,879
Speaker 3: I had seen last night, it saw me, and, breaking

529
00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:19,600
Speaker 3: out of the threads that surrounded it, crawled down the

530
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:22,359
Speaker 3: marble leg of the cupid and began swimming like a

531
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 3: snake across the water of the fountain towards me. Oh

532
00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:29,639
Speaker 3: my god, it came with extraordinary speed. The fact of

533
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 3: a caterpillar being able to swim was new to me.

534
00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:35,240
Speaker 3: That's in parentheses, of course, And in another moment was

535
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:38,200
Speaker 3: crawling up the marble lip of the basin. Just then

536
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:43,399
Speaker 3: Inglish joined us, why if it isn't old cancer Inglish

537
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,320
Speaker 3: sensu again, he said, catching the side of the beasts.

538
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:50,000
Speaker 3: What a tearing hurry it is in We were standing

539
00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:52,359
Speaker 3: side by side on the path, and when the caterpillar

540
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:54,119
Speaker 3: had advanced to within about a yard of us, it

541
00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 3: stopped and began waving again, as if in doubt as

542
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,679
Speaker 3: to the direction in which it should go. Then it

543
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:04,399
Speaker 3: appeared to make up its mind and crawled onto English's shoe.

544
00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:08,720
Speaker 3: It likes me best, he said, But I don't really

545
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:11,560
Speaker 3: know that I like it. And as it won't drown,

546
00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:15,800
Speaker 3: I think perhaps he shook it off the shoe onto

547
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:20,920
Speaker 3: the gravel path and trod on it. Nice man. English

548
00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 3: guy just stomps this thing.

549
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:25,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, well he's the pith helmet type and they do

550
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 2: those kind of things. They don't have a huge value

551
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:33,480
Speaker 2: on bug life, agreed, They didn't even like the movie

552
00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:37,639
Speaker 2: A Bug's Life. Noh am, I starting again.

553
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 3: Yeah it feels like you.

554
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:43,240
Speaker 2: Okay, all afternoon, the air got heavier and heavier with

555
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 2: the Sirocco that was, without doubt coming up from the south.

556
00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 2: Would you say that as Sorocco or.

557
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 3: Sirocha, I mean, Chuck would say so.

558
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:55,520
Speaker 2: Well. VW always call it Sorocco.

559
00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:58,400
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, those are great cars here.

560
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 2: They are, uh and that night again I went to

561
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:05,240
Speaker 2: bed feeling very sleepy, but below my drowsiness, so to speak,

562
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 2: there was the consciousness, stronger than before, that there was

563
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 2: something wrong in the house, that something dangerous was close

564
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:20,400
Speaker 2: at hand. Breaking for water, gope, cope, ah. But I

565
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 2: fell asleep at once, and how long after I do

566
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:26,680
Speaker 2: not know. Either woke or dreamed. I awoke feeling that

567
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 2: I must get up at once, or I should be

568
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:33,720
Speaker 2: too late. That was in italics this time, then dreaming

569
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:37,400
Speaker 2: or awake parentheses. I lay and fought this fear, telling

570
00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:40,040
Speaker 2: myself that I was but the prey of my own nerves,

571
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 2: disordered by sorocco or what not, and at the same time,

572
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:46,400
Speaker 2: quite clearly knowing in another part of my mind, so

573
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:50,160
Speaker 2: to speak, that every moment's delay added to the danger.

574
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:54,120
Speaker 2: At last, the second feeling became irresistible, and I put

575
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:56,080
Speaker 2: on my coat and trousers and went out of my

576
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:59,440
Speaker 2: room onto the landing. And then I saw that I

577
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:02,360
Speaker 2: had already delayed too long, and that I was now

578
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:06,400
Speaker 2: too late. The whole of the landing of the first

579
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 2: floor below was invisible under the swarm of caterpillars that

580
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:14,080
Speaker 2: crawled there. The folding doors into the sitting room from

581
00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:16,440
Speaker 2: which opened the bedroom where I had seen them last

582
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:20,040
Speaker 2: night were shut, but they were squeezing through the cracks

583
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 2: of it and dropping one by one through the keyhole,

584
00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 2: elongating themselves in a mere string as they passed, and

585
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:32,640
Speaker 2: growing fat and lumpy again. I'm emerging, ghil. Some, as

586
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:35,880
Speaker 2: if exploring, were nosing about the steps into the passage

587
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 2: at the end of which were Inglish's room. Others were

588
00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:41,560
Speaker 2: crawling on the lowest steps of the staircase that led

589
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 2: up to where I stood. The landing, however, was completely

590
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:48,440
Speaker 2: covered with them. I was cut off and of the

591
00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 2: frozen horror that seized me when I saw that I

592
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:53,400
Speaker 2: can give no idea in words.

593
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:55,200
Speaker 3: I bet he could if you tried.

594
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:59,640
Speaker 2: Okay, continuing on chuck. Then at last a general movement

595
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:01,960
Speaker 2: began to take place, and they grew thicker on the

596
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 2: steps that led to Inglis's room. Gradually, like some hideous

597
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,200
Speaker 2: tide of flesh, they advanced along the passage, and I

598
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:12,640
Speaker 2: saw the foremost visible by the pale, gray luminousness that

599
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:16,760
Speaker 2: came from them, reach his door. He's like, better you

600
00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:19,920
Speaker 2: than me, Anglis. Yeah, again and again, I tried to

601
00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 2: shout and warn him and terror all the time that

602
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 2: they would turn at the sound of my voice and

603
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:27,800
Speaker 2: mount my stare instead. But for all my efforts, I

604
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:31,080
Speaker 2: felt no sound came from my throat. They crawled along

605
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:33,680
Speaker 2: the hinge crack of his door, passing through as they

606
00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 2: had done before, and still I stood there, making impotent

607
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 2: efforts to shout to him, to bid him escape while

608
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:45,080
Speaker 2: there was time. This is getting serious. At last the

609
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:48,600
Speaker 2: passage was completely empty. They had all gone, and at

610
00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 2: that moment I was conscious for the first time of

611
00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:54,160
Speaker 2: the cold of the marble landing on which I stood barefooted.

612
00:31:54,600 --> 00:32:01,920
Speaker 2: The dawn was just beginning to break in the eastern sky.

613
00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:04,120
Speaker 3: Sunrise always a good sign.

614
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:07,120
Speaker 2: Yeah. That seems to chase away the nasties.

615
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:10,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, I'm bringing it home.

616
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:11,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, bring us home, Chuck.

617
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 3: Six months later, I met missus Stanley in a country

618
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 3: house in England. We talked on many subjects, and at

619
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:19,680
Speaker 3: last she said.

620
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:23,040
Speaker 2: Oh, h oh, that's me. I'm hurt.

621
00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I don't think I've seen you since I

622
00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:28,880
Speaker 4: got the dreadful news about Arthur English.

623
00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:31,400
Speaker 2: A month ago. And this guy's still scared. So he

624
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 2: says I haven't.

625
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 3: Heard said I.

626
00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:38,680
Speaker 2: No, he's got cancer. They don't even advise an operation,

627
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 2: for there is no hope of a cure. He is

628
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:43,000
Speaker 2: riddled with it, the doctor's say.

629
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:46,200
Speaker 3: Now, during all these six months, I do not think

630
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:47,960
Speaker 3: a day has passed on which I had not had

631
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,040
Speaker 3: in my mind the dreams, parentheses, or whatever you like

632
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 3: to call them, which I had not seen in the

633
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:56,040
Speaker 3: villa Cascana.

634
00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:57,760
Speaker 2: It is awful, is it not.

635
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:02,680
Speaker 4: She continued, And I can't help feeling that he may

636
00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:04,840
Speaker 4: have caught it at the via.

637
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:06,400
Speaker 3: What's a villa?

638
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 2: Caught it at the villa?

639
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,840
Speaker 3: I asked. She looked at me in blank surprise.

640
00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:15,880
Speaker 4: Why did you say that, she asked?

641
00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:17,040
Speaker 2: How did you know?

642
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:21,480
Speaker 3: Then? She told me in the unoccupied bedroom, a year before,

643
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:25,040
Speaker 3: there had been a fatal case of cancer. She had,

644
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:27,280
Speaker 3: of course taken the best advice, and had been told

645
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:30,680
Speaker 3: that the utmost dictates of prudence would be obeyed, so

646
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 3: long she did not put anybody to sleep in the room,

647
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 3: which had also been thoroughly disinfected and newly whitewashed and painted.

648
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:51,800
Speaker 2: But that's it, Yeah, that's it. But ellipses, I even

649
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,720
Speaker 2: went back and double checked that I had copied and

650
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:55,600
Speaker 2: pasted everything.

651
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 3: But I did too, that was it. Yeah, it just

652
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:02,400
Speaker 3: ends with the you know that room had cancer in it.

653
00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 2: It seems like, yeah, and those things transferred cancer, which

654
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:09,840
Speaker 2: explains why they were lumpy. Sure they were tumorous, I

655
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:12,719
Speaker 2: guess you'd say. And then also when he said that

656
00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:17,799
Speaker 2: Arthur Ingliss called them cancer eng census, I think, yeah,

657
00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:20,800
Speaker 2: English census. That that kind of trips something in his mind.

658
00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:22,960
Speaker 2: So yeah, was it maybe.

659
00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:27,120
Speaker 3: It's a vanity tale, morality tale.

660
00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:30,040
Speaker 2: Was it a dream, Chuck or did he really experience

661
00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:30,319
Speaker 2: all this?

662
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:31,600
Speaker 3: I think it's all real.

663
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:34,279
Speaker 2: I do too. Let's go with that since it's a

664
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:35,800
Speaker 2: good horror story.

665
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:39,319
Speaker 3: All right. Moving on, then we come to my pic,

666
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:45,520
Speaker 3: which is it's called the Deep Brows. It is what

667
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,120
Speaker 3: I say, brows, the deep drowse, and it's this is

668
00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:53,400
Speaker 3: taken from Weird Tales, which volume was this September nineteen

669
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:57,319
Speaker 3: forty nine, that the Great pulp Rag Weird Tales. And

670
00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:00,160
Speaker 3: this is sort of a mysterious case because Alison be

671
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:03,520
Speaker 3: Harding is listed as the writer. But Alison b Harding

672
00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:04,799
Speaker 3: is a bit of a mystery, right.

673
00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:09,279
Speaker 2: Yeah. The closest I've seen as someone a master as

674
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:14,120
Speaker 2: Gene Milligan. But that's pretty far from being proven without

675
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:14,600
Speaker 2: a doubt.

676
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:17,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. I've seen various things. I've seen

677
00:35:17,600 --> 00:35:22,200
Speaker 3: Gene Milligan or Lamont Buchanan or maybe a husband wife team.

678
00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:26,479
Speaker 3: But it was a non diplom and this is someone

679
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:29,120
Speaker 3: who didn't want to be recognized because they wrote whoever.

680
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 3: It was like ten or fifteen stories, most of which

681
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 3: were in weird weird tales in like the nineteen forties

682
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:37,960
Speaker 3: and fifties, and then just sort of stopped writing and disappeared.

683
00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:40,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty neatly interesting. I think that they were so

684
00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:44,759
Speaker 2: adamant about their pseudonym because that they were being paid

685
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:45,560
Speaker 2: under the table.

686
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:49,719
Speaker 3: Oh maybe so, or maybe they had some I think

687
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,319
Speaker 3: one of them was an attorney or something, so maybe

688
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:55,000
Speaker 3: they didn't like sometimes they have like a proper job

689
00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:58,280
Speaker 3: in writing for a pulp rag wouldn't be looked upon favorably.

690
00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:01,160
Speaker 2: It would be today because they turned out to be

691
00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:04,160
Speaker 2: one of the great overlooked horror writers of all time.

692
00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:09,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, agreed? All right, So without any further ado, maybe

693
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:11,600
Speaker 3: i'll start this one out. Does that sound good?

694
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:13,360
Speaker 2: I think that's a great idea.

695
00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:17,400
Speaker 3: This is the Deep Brows by pen name Alison B. Harding.

696
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:19,000
Speaker 2: Did you say brows again?

697
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:22,360
Speaker 3: I think I did the deep drowse? What is my

698
00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:28,759
Speaker 3: deala the deep drows Wow? All right, here we go.

699
00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:35,359
Speaker 3: Arthur Hodges had very bad hay fever. He and his

700
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 3: wife Francis lived in a cheerful white painted woodhouse with

701
00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:41,960
Speaker 3: a big stone chimney and a tastefully designed stone terrace

702
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:44,120
Speaker 3: out back. That they lived in this house in the

703
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:46,640
Speaker 3: country was one of the factors that made the Hodges

704
00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:49,680
Speaker 3: place in the history of this world secure. For whatever

705
00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:53,120
Speaker 3: stretch of time there is a head for this universe, everything,

706
00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:56,919
Speaker 3: of course, had to dovetail perfectly. Have you ever thought

707
00:36:56,960 --> 00:36:59,400
Speaker 3: about an accident, for instance, a man who was hit

708
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:01,840
Speaker 3: on the head by flower pot or a brick. The

709
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:04,479
Speaker 3: man is say, forty years old, and yet the months

710
00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:07,120
Speaker 3: and days and hours and seconds of those forty years

711
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:10,319
Speaker 3: have to be perfectly synchronized to bring him to that

712
00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:13,400
Speaker 3: spot on the sidewalk precisely at the time that the

713
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:16,799
Speaker 3: brick is unloosened by the wind and sent plummeting on

714
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:21,200
Speaker 3: its mission of death. Three pt Anderson Magnolia set up

715
00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:25,160
Speaker 3: for sure. So it was with the Hodges. Then, you see,

716
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:28,719
Speaker 3: Arthur Hodges was a writer. That's important. If everything else

717
00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:31,440
Speaker 3: had been perfect but he hadn't been a writer, there

718
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:33,920
Speaker 3: would have been no record for the incredible events that

719
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:38,040
Speaker 3: follow Likewise, everything else would have been upset if Arthur

720
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:41,560
Speaker 3: Hodges just hadn't been a successful writer, Just being a

721
00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:44,279
Speaker 3: writer wouldn't have been enough, because his junk, as he

722
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:48,040
Speaker 3: called it in his deprecating fashion, was turned out with

723
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:51,279
Speaker 3: sufficient facility and talent to have made his name a

724
00:37:51,320 --> 00:37:54,719
Speaker 3: headliner on many of the nation's biggest magazines. He had

725
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:55,880
Speaker 3: more than enough money.

726
00:37:56,480 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 2: All this is important, I think, is what Alison B.

727
00:37:58,800 --> 00:37:59,560
Speaker 2: Harding is saying.

728
00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:02,920
Speaker 3: That's right. Money meant two new autos in the two

729
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:07,400
Speaker 3: car garage out back. His pretty redhead wife Fran dressed inconspicuously,

730
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:11,000
Speaker 3: but in the good taste, which signals expensive clothes. And

731
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:13,640
Speaker 3: this is of course the most important part. He had

732
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:16,800
Speaker 3: What he jokingly confided to his neighbors was a hermetically

733
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:21,000
Speaker 3: sealed study and bedroom for those summer months when ragweed,

734
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:24,520
Speaker 3: Timothy and other such deadly pollens would have made his

735
00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:27,239
Speaker 3: life in the country quite terrible. They had a joke,

736
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:30,399
Speaker 3: Fran and Arthur did from July through September he takes

737
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:33,080
Speaker 3: some manuscripts down to the post office to mail, and

738
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,680
Speaker 3: also provide himself with a few other errands in town

739
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:38,080
Speaker 3: to keep him away a couple of hours. By the

740
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:40,200
Speaker 3: time he got home. Depending on the length of his mission,

741
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:43,880
Speaker 3: fran could predict almost exactly how red his eyes would be,

742
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:47,040
Speaker 3: how uncomfortable his nose. It's quite a joke, all right,

743
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:49,719
Speaker 3: So these are This is a wealthy or at least

744
00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:52,520
Speaker 3: a well to do author living in the country. But

745
00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:55,400
Speaker 3: he has very bad allergies. So he has a safe room.

746
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:57,839
Speaker 2: Yes, a hermetically sealed one too.

747
00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:00,400
Speaker 3: That's right, you can pick it up from their mind,

748
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:00,879
Speaker 3: all right.

749
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,640
Speaker 2: Arthur had a habit of coming in with whatever packages

750
00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:07,839
Speaker 2: he collected in the village, banging the summer screen door

751
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:11,240
Speaker 2: of the porch and saying, funny thing, Darling, I feel

752
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:15,040
Speaker 2: fun I guess we'll turn off the damn air conditioning

753
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:20,800
Speaker 2: unit and save on our electric bill. But this was

754
00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 2: always announced in a deeply nasal voice. Oh let me

755
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:24,320
Speaker 2: try that again.

756
00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:28,600
Speaker 5: For I, Thirk Darling ar felt fine, our gust will

757
00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:31,239
Speaker 5: turn off the damn air conditioning save on.

758
00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:37,759
Speaker 2: Our electric bell. Oh man, go for it, and he

759
00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:41,320
Speaker 2: would almost immediately subside into a frenzy of sneezing and wheezing,

760
00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:44,280
Speaker 2: whereupon his wife would push him into the study bedroom

761
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:46,960
Speaker 2: part of the house, where the engineers who'd installed the

762
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:50,840
Speaker 2: expensive but efficient unit swore not a breath of outside

763
00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:55,240
Speaker 2: air could penetrate. Arthur worked in here most of the day,

764
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:58,040
Speaker 2: except for periods of never more than a few hours

765
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:00,600
Speaker 2: when he played tennis at the club or used the

766
00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:03,920
Speaker 2: swimming pool there with Fran and his other friends. If

767
00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 2: there was a bridge game schedule, it always took place

768
00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:10,839
Speaker 2: in Arthur's study. He's got some bad, bad allergies.

769
00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:12,279
Speaker 3: Yeah.

770
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:14,960
Speaker 2: The whole business, in other words, was accepted by the

771
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:18,760
Speaker 2: neighbors and nobody thought anything about it. If he'd been poor,

772
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:21,440
Speaker 2: Arthur obviously would have had to suffer or live in

773
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:24,480
Speaker 2: the city as far away as possible from growing things.

774
00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:27,920
Speaker 2: But his three months of travail had now been neatly

775
00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:32,480
Speaker 2: gotten around by the ACME Air Conditioning Units Company, Detroit, Michigan.

776
00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:36,719
Speaker 2: Of course, it had taken extra airproofing of the windows

777
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:38,960
Speaker 2: so that all cracks of the two rooms could be

778
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:43,120
Speaker 2: perfectly sealed, and that, in addition to the conditioning machines themselves,

779
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,400
Speaker 2: was expensive, but it kept them both out in the country,

780
00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:48,960
Speaker 2: which they liked and had become as much a part

781
00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:51,239
Speaker 2: of their lives to be taken for granted as the

782
00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:58,279
Speaker 2: dishwasher in the kitchen or the electric door on the garage. Fancy. Yeah,

783
00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:00,800
Speaker 2: so now it is easy to see the component parts

784
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:03,400
Speaker 2: of the whole affair. Arthur had very bad hay fever,

785
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:06,359
Speaker 2: but he liked the country, lived in the country, and

786
00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:09,520
Speaker 2: got around his July through September agonies because he had

787
00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:13,120
Speaker 2: the money to purchase for himself a hermetically sealed refuge.

788
00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:15,520
Speaker 2: And he was a writer. Don't forget that.

789
00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:18,760
Speaker 3: It's actually written in there, yeah.

790
00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:19,799
Speaker 2: With an exclamation point.

791
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:24,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a nice little summation. Shall I takeover you?

792
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:25,200
Speaker 2: Shall?

793
00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:25,879
Speaker 4: All right?

794
00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:28,839
Speaker 3: It was a late afternoon of August fourteenth. Brand came

795
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:31,200
Speaker 3: back from the village in the convertible to find Arthur

796
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:34,000
Speaker 3: out on the lawn practicing with a putter. She forgot

797
00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:36,799
Speaker 3: to upbraid him for his running nose and swollen eyes

798
00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:39,600
Speaker 3: because of the important looking envelope in her hand. A

799
00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:43,799
Speaker 3: writer's wife gets to sense these things, open it up,

800
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:47,320
Speaker 3: she ordered. The registered letter was from a movie company.

801
00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:51,000
Speaker 3: Hodges had been dickering with them on his latest cereal

802
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:53,920
Speaker 3: for one of the big magazines. The letter was good news.

803
00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:56,759
Speaker 3: They were offering to buy, and at the kind of

804
00:41:56,800 --> 00:42:02,160
Speaker 3: fabulous price that movies deal in. Woh, said Arthur, holding

805
00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:04,560
Speaker 3: the open letter in one hand and clutching for his

806
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 3: pocket handkerchief with the other.

807
00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:08,160
Speaker 2: Well that's pretty cot.

808
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:12,279
Speaker 3: He tried, as always to appear unconcerned, but Fran threw

809
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:15,280
Speaker 3: her arms around his neck and gave him a big kiss.

810
00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:19,440
Speaker 3: You're wonderful, darling, she cried gaily. He sighed, trying not

811
00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:21,640
Speaker 3: to show how pleased he was with the news at

812
00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:22,600
Speaker 3: her attentions.

813
00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:25,000
Speaker 2: At least those will play for the air conditioner for

814
00:42:25,080 --> 00:42:25,920
Speaker 2: another summer.

815
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:27,200
Speaker 1: Man.

816
00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:28,479
Speaker 3: How did she tolerate this guy?

817
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:31,239
Speaker 2: I don't know, but she is pretty pretty kind to him,

818
00:42:31,239 --> 00:42:31,680
Speaker 2: it seems.

819
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:34,200
Speaker 3: Uh. Then Fran took him by the elbow and steered

820
00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:37,360
Speaker 3: him inside. You'll get back into the cave, she ordered him.

821
00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:40,200
Speaker 3: It was their pet name for their sanctified haven of

822
00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:44,440
Speaker 3: pure manufactured pollen tree air. The breeze died down, and

823
00:42:44,480 --> 00:42:47,240
Speaker 3: with the wind gone, it grew very hot. Fran prepared

824
00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:49,960
Speaker 3: a cold supper and brought it into Arthur's den. She

825
00:42:50,160 --> 00:42:52,640
Speaker 3: thought it was actually much nicer here than outside, where

826
00:42:52,680 --> 00:42:55,320
Speaker 3: the humidity had become a crescent. She looked out across

827
00:42:55,360 --> 00:42:57,319
Speaker 3: the green country from the window of his study, and

828
00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:00,319
Speaker 3: noticed and the failing light, the pockets of fog to

829
00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:04,319
Speaker 3: the lower lives of land art, she said, turning away

830
00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:07,160
Speaker 3: from her contemplation to the window scene and spooning up

831
00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:12,480
Speaker 3: some of her potato salad. It's nice detail, she said.

832
00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:15,279
Speaker 3: I think we ought to celebrate your latest triumph. She

833
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:18,400
Speaker 3: went back to American by the way, Kay, she forgot

834
00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:20,759
Speaker 3: where she was from for a moment. He made a

835
00:43:20,840 --> 00:43:24,360
Speaker 3: deprecating gesture with his hand. No, I really mean it.

836
00:43:24,600 --> 00:43:26,319
Speaker 3: We haven't seen some of the old gang for a while.

837
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:28,360
Speaker 3: Jack and Cynthia, for instance. We ought to really have

838
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:31,239
Speaker 3: them out. And then there's Tim and Mary. Let's have

839
00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:35,680
Speaker 3: quite a party, he warmed to the idea. Thinking about

840
00:43:35,719 --> 00:43:38,520
Speaker 3: it as she went, she took some plates into the

841
00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:40,399
Speaker 3: other part of the house and got some ice cream

842
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:42,080
Speaker 3: out of the freezer to bring it back to the study.

843
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:44,319
Speaker 3: She noticed then how warm the rest of the house

844
00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:46,879
Speaker 3: was after the clean cool air of the cave. As

845
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:49,200
Speaker 3: an afterthought, she decided first to bring a deck chair

846
00:43:49,239 --> 00:43:51,400
Speaker 3: in that they'd left on the terrace where she'd been

847
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:54,640
Speaker 3: sunning herself in shorts earlier that day. When Fran went outside,

848
00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:57,200
Speaker 3: she noticed again the oppressive heaviness of the air made

849
00:43:57,239 --> 00:43:59,320
Speaker 3: it hard to breathe. It made her sleepy. With the

850
00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:02,840
Speaker 3: evening approach, the darkening sky was burned with purple and orange.

851
00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:06,839
Speaker 3: She thought it probably meant another blisterer tomorrow. She went

852
00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:08,720
Speaker 3: back into the cave with the ice cream in the plates,

853
00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:11,759
Speaker 3: slammed the special door which hermetically sealed it, and they

854
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:14,680
Speaker 3: started talking about their plans again. This is the night

855
00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:18,240
Speaker 3: of August fourteenth, the night which would initiate Arthur Hodges

856
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 3: to the part he would play, which in its way,

857
00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:23,720
Speaker 3: would make him as famous in the sweep of history

858
00:44:23,719 --> 00:44:29,960
Speaker 3: as the names of Darwin, or Columbus or fran Aside

859
00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:33,000
Speaker 3: from being pretty, was a methodical girl. She was self

860
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:37,360
Speaker 3: appointed watchdog of the budget. No Darling Brand insisted it

861
00:44:37,400 --> 00:44:38,960
Speaker 3: would be a lot of fun to have a celebration

862
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:42,080
Speaker 3: next weekend would be fine, and she mentioned his very

863
00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:45,040
Speaker 3: best friends, the Fisks and the Barns. Fill out the

864
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:48,520
Speaker 3: big guns. I'm going to call them, she said, resolutely.

865
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:49,680
Speaker 2: Do no.

866
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 3: You'se trying to Arthur suggested.

867
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:55,840
Speaker 2: He's one of those office wretches, and you'd simply remind

868
00:44:55,880 --> 00:45:00,319
Speaker 2: barn and I think he wasn't home. Yet, it's nearly eight.

869
00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:03,520
Speaker 3: O'clock, said Fran, reproachfully with a new look at the

870
00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:06,919
Speaker 3: small desk clock, getting ready to tinkle the news. I'll

871
00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 3: try Jack and Cynthia. Doodling with a phone pad, she

872
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:12,880
Speaker 3: noted the time eight pm, just as the clock chimed

873
00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:15,800
Speaker 3: out musically, she asked the operator for the FISKS number

874
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:19,880
Speaker 3: and waited for three rings. Cynthia, she helloed to the

875
00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:25,239
Speaker 3: feminine voice. It answered, it's Fran Hodges. Take it away.

876
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:27,600
Speaker 2: I will, but first I want to point out happily

877
00:45:27,680 --> 00:45:30,240
Speaker 2: that Tinkle has made an appearance in both stories.

878
00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:32,719
Speaker 3: Now, oh, that's right to tinkles.

879
00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:36,399
Speaker 2: Arthur could hear the other girl squeal with delight over

880
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:39,560
Speaker 2: the phone. Fran began to explain the invitation, and from

881
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:42,840
Speaker 2: his wife's expression and the noises from the earpiece, Arthur,

882
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:45,360
Speaker 2: from the other side of the room could tell that

883
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:48,000
Speaker 2: the invitation had gone over well and the girls were

884
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:50,480
Speaker 2: about to get on all sorts of other subjects. He

885
00:45:50,600 --> 00:45:54,000
Speaker 2: came over, say hello, to sit there for man, let

886
00:45:54,080 --> 00:45:57,399
Speaker 2: me speak to that shyst the husband of hers. Fran

887
00:45:57,520 --> 00:45:59,919
Speaker 2: wrinkled up her nose and mocked anger at this inner

888
00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:04,880
Speaker 2: eruption of their gossip, but after all, it was his night. Cynthia,

889
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:08,799
Speaker 2: where's Jack, She relaid over the phone.

890
00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:11,680
Speaker 3: Oh so early, Well, throw some water on him or something.

891
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:12,920
Speaker 3: Art wants to speak to him.

892
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:15,160
Speaker 2: She covered the mouthpiece with her hand.

893
00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:18,279
Speaker 3: Old Ad just crept up on the barrister. Sin says,

894
00:46:18,280 --> 00:46:19,880
Speaker 3: he's sleeping on the living room sofa.

895
00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:23,560
Speaker 2: Probably what too many on the way home? Art put

896
00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:28,319
Speaker 2: in irreverently. Oh, Jack, Friend's attention was called back to

897
00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:28,760
Speaker 2: the phone.

898
00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:32,320
Speaker 3: Don't make your excuses to me. If I were your wife,

899
00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:35,120
Speaker 3: I'd make you do the dishes that would keep you awake.

900
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:38,080
Speaker 3: Here's my genius husband with a momentous word for you.

901
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:41,000
Speaker 3: It's probably a lie, Jack about his latest golf score.

902
00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:41,920
Speaker 3: Don't believe it.

903
00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:45,600
Speaker 2: Fran handed the receiver over to her husband. Oh, counselor

904
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:49,400
Speaker 2: said Art into the phone. They talked and joked, and

905
00:46:49,400 --> 00:46:52,919
Speaker 2: then Jack relaid through Art to Fran. Some thought about

906
00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:54,960
Speaker 2: a big casey heg coming up at the end of

907
00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:57,839
Speaker 2: next week. If it broke in a certain way, he'd

908
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:00,200
Speaker 2: probably not be able to make it, or at least

909
00:47:00,200 --> 00:47:03,320
Speaker 2: it would be difficult. He was hearing from the client involved.

910
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:06,279
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact. Later that evening, Friend made

911
00:47:06,360 --> 00:47:08,600
Speaker 2: another face and took the phone away from Art.

912
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:13,359
Speaker 3: Jack put Cynthia back on. You men always louse everything up. Look, Sin,

913
00:47:13,640 --> 00:47:16,279
Speaker 3: after Jack has heard from this old client, you call

914
00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:18,960
Speaker 3: us back tonight, will you. Oh, we'll be up to

915
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:22,880
Speaker 3: well after midnight. How is it in there, hot? I

916
00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:25,080
Speaker 3: bet it is. We're in the cave now to cure

917
00:47:25,160 --> 00:47:27,760
Speaker 3: Art sniffles. I stepped outside for a minute after supper,

918
00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:29,600
Speaker 3: and there wasn't a breath of air even here in

919
00:47:29,640 --> 00:47:33,160
Speaker 3: the country. You be sure and do that, Sin. We'll

920
00:47:33,200 --> 00:47:35,840
Speaker 3: wait for you. We're going to call Tim and Mary Barnes.

921
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:38,359
Speaker 3: We thought we'd get them because you and Jack can

922
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:42,160
Speaker 3: always beat them at bridge, and Art loves mister Barnes

923
00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:44,320
Speaker 3: because he once took him in a golf match.

924
00:47:44,760 --> 00:47:49,840
Speaker 2: Here from you later, baby friend hung up. It was

925
00:47:49,920 --> 00:47:51,280
Speaker 2: eight thirty.

926
00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:55,799
Speaker 3: Grains, a real pistol. We really shouldn't have talked so long,

927
00:47:56,239 --> 00:47:59,040
Speaker 3: she reproached. But I guess we can afford it now,

928
00:47:59,080 --> 00:47:59,400
Speaker 3: can't we.

929
00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:02,720
Speaker 2: Genius Art ruffled her hair and then kissed an auburn

930
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:06,000
Speaker 2: curl on the top of her head. Night rates. He murmured,

931
00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:07,239
Speaker 2: That's what I'm counting on.

932
00:48:07,719 --> 00:48:10,479
Speaker 5: Tried Tim marry old mad Barnes ought to be hoped

933
00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:13,919
Speaker 5: from his vulgar money baking pursuits by now, Gee, I'm

934
00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:16,480
Speaker 5: glad I don't commute to the city every day and

935
00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:19,560
Speaker 5: then come back to some suburban neighborhood house that looks

936
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:22,080
Speaker 5: so much like the neighbors on either side. You have

937
00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:24,080
Speaker 5: to be careful, you don't go in the wrong door.

938
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:25,799
Speaker 5: Cut somewhere out to Bothe.

939
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:31,040
Speaker 3: You skirted very closely to Homer Simpson there first I did.

940
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:33,200
Speaker 2: That was a complete accident. I've never been able to

941
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:34,680
Speaker 2: do Homer. But now I know the secret.

942
00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:35,960
Speaker 3: That's amazing.

943
00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:40,600
Speaker 2: Yes, agreed, I just amazed myself. Should I continue?

944
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:42,000
Speaker 3: Ah? Sure?

945
00:48:43,280 --> 00:48:45,800
Speaker 2: Frank gave the suburban number that belonged to the Barns,

946
00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:48,440
Speaker 2: and Art stole the phone from her hand. The study

947
00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:52,760
Speaker 2: window showed that it was completely dark outside. Now, miss Barnes,

948
00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:56,200
Speaker 2: Arthur boomed, these are your long art country colored to

949
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:59,640
Speaker 2: the hodges. He frowned a bit, and after a moment,

950
00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:02,319
Speaker 2: passed the phone back to his wife. His mouth formed

951
00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:06,560
Speaker 2: the words think we just start them? Frank carried on nobly.

952
00:49:07,040 --> 00:49:09,879
Speaker 2: Tim wasn't back from the city yet. Was it beastly hot?

953
00:49:09,920 --> 00:49:13,120
Speaker 2: There couldn't be much worse off in the city. Oh, yes,

954
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:16,000
Speaker 2: Fran nodded to reassure Mary. She just talked to the

955
00:49:16,040 --> 00:49:19,640
Speaker 2: Fisks and they said the city was simply unbearable. Poor Tim,

956
00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:22,040
Speaker 2: what was keeping him? Well? Anyway, you too need a

957
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:25,439
Speaker 2: vacation in the country. How about next weekend. Look, we'll

958
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:29,120
Speaker 2: call again a bit later after Tim's home. She hung up. Funny,

959
00:49:29,480 --> 00:49:30,320
Speaker 2: Fran said.

960
00:49:30,080 --> 00:49:34,920
Speaker 3: It, what well, I mean, we lead this bucolic life

961
00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:37,120
Speaker 3: of solitary splendor, where you can't see your next door

962
00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:40,080
Speaker 3: neighbor's house without a telescope. We're supposed to be lazy

963
00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:42,040
Speaker 3: and going to weed, while our city friends and their

964
00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:45,120
Speaker 3: first cousins, the suburbanites are still supposed to be in

965
00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:47,440
Speaker 3: there swinging with their eyes on the main chance.

966
00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:50,200
Speaker 2: What's the point, Arthur asked.

967
00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:54,680
Speaker 3: Oh, nothing, exactly, replied Fran. Except when we call these

968
00:49:54,719 --> 00:49:57,000
Speaker 3: live wires. Jack sounds asleep at the end of a

969
00:49:57,040 --> 00:50:00,320
Speaker 3: big career punching day, and Mary, well, I have the

970
00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:01,839
Speaker 3: sneaky feeling we woke her up.

971
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:06,360
Speaker 5: Art nodded, Think you're right. Well, I always said this

972
00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:08,440
Speaker 5: was the racking out here of the real country.

973
00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:11,239
Speaker 3: Aren't you glad that I agree with you?

974
00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:14,000
Speaker 2: Frank came over to his side and rumpled his hair.

975
00:50:14,640 --> 00:50:18,000
Speaker 3: You wouldn't like it so much out here without me, honey.

976
00:50:18,040 --> 00:50:19,120
Speaker 2: He said, and kissed her.

977
00:50:19,640 --> 00:50:19,879
Speaker 3: Whah.

978
00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:22,240
Speaker 2: Then he had a thought.

979
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:26,040
Speaker 5: You're gonna put the garage door down, did you?

980
00:50:26,080 --> 00:50:29,560
Speaker 3: No? But silly, don't bother about it. It's not going

981
00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:31,880
Speaker 3: to rain or snow tonight as.

982
00:50:31,719 --> 00:50:37,160
Speaker 2: Well, said Art. Principals turn and all that. You know, silly, silly,

983
00:50:37,280 --> 00:50:38,080
Speaker 2: said Fran.

984
00:50:38,200 --> 00:50:39,640
Speaker 3: And you might get sneezing again.

985
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:42,279
Speaker 5: I hope I do so I could come back here.

986
00:50:42,280 --> 00:50:45,080
Speaker 5: I really appreciate. But this setup is costure bay.

987
00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:50,680
Speaker 3: Homer was it again? Yeah, just a little tinge, a

988
00:50:50,760 --> 00:50:51,640
Speaker 3: homeric tinge.

989
00:50:52,040 --> 00:50:55,040
Speaker 2: This also has just evolved into a John Cheevers story

990
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:56,960
Speaker 2: where a couple in the country's trying to get their

991
00:50:57,000 --> 00:50:59,120
Speaker 2: city friends to come out for a night of bridge.

992
00:50:59,560 --> 00:51:00,520
Speaker 3: Totally.

993
00:51:00,680 --> 00:51:01,560
Speaker 2: You want to take it a call?

994
00:51:01,920 --> 00:51:02,040
Speaker 5: Uh?

995
00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:05,200
Speaker 3: Sure. He went out and into the unair conditioned part

996
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:07,480
Speaker 3: of the house. It was very warm, and almost immediately

997
00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:09,880
Speaker 3: he began to sweat. God, how it must be in

998
00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:12,520
Speaker 3: the city. He started out the back door and found

999
00:51:12,560 --> 00:51:14,640
Speaker 3: he couldn't see a thing in the starless night. He

1000
00:51:14,680 --> 00:51:16,400
Speaker 3: came back and got the torch that hung in the

1001
00:51:16,480 --> 00:51:19,640
Speaker 3: coat closet, followed its rays to the garage. He thumbed

1002
00:51:19,640 --> 00:51:21,920
Speaker 3: the down switch that controlled the electric doors, and they

1003
00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:24,719
Speaker 3: rumbled into place. Because he got pleasure out of the

1004
00:51:24,760 --> 00:51:28,960
Speaker 3: accoutrement that science had designed for easier living, he thumbed

1005
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:32,239
Speaker 3: the upswitch and watched the doors rise again. Doat up

1006
00:51:32,280 --> 00:51:37,360
Speaker 3: door groats down. It was neat the whole operation. He

1007
00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:39,520
Speaker 3: let them descend, and then stood there with the flash

1008
00:51:39,600 --> 00:51:41,400
Speaker 3: turned off, trying to see if his eyes would grow

1009
00:51:41,400 --> 00:51:44,399
Speaker 3: accustomed to the gloom. Somewhere out towards where the bird

1010
00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:47,560
Speaker 3: bath stood, a firefly pricked the wall of blackness. Momentarily,

1011
00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:49,720
Speaker 3: he shone the light and picked up the marble path.

1012
00:51:50,360 --> 00:51:53,000
Speaker 3: Oh more marble. Mm hm, you know what's good for that?

1013
00:51:54,000 --> 00:51:56,560
Speaker 2: A poultice made a baking soda in some water.

1014
00:51:56,840 --> 00:51:59,719
Speaker 3: That's right. Arthur walked a few steps away from the

1015
00:51:59,760 --> 00:52:02,640
Speaker 3: house in the garage, passed the bird bath towards the field,

1016
00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:05,239
Speaker 3: enjoying the freedom of these few steps as someone does

1017
00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:08,120
Speaker 3: who has even the relatively inoffensive restriction that he did.

1018
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:11,560
Speaker 3: Things always looked different at night, he reminded himself, as

1019
00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:14,239
Speaker 3: he torched the yellow beam of the flashlight. Here and there,

1020
00:52:14,960 --> 00:52:18,920
Speaker 3: the trees and shrubbery had a particular lifeless aspect, as

1021
00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:21,720
Speaker 3: though they were prop scenery from the ridge that crowned

1022
00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:24,120
Speaker 3: the southern horizon of his property. The far away lights

1023
00:52:24,120 --> 00:52:26,600
Speaker 3: of a speeding car shoveled the gloom back for a

1024
00:52:26,640 --> 00:52:29,200
Speaker 3: few instants, and then with a vehicle gone on its

1025
00:52:29,280 --> 00:52:31,400
Speaker 3: dark errand there was nothing but the little light in

1026
00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:34,799
Speaker 3: his hand and the occasional, very seldom pinprick of a

1027
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:37,680
Speaker 3: firefly off to the left, or perhaps over.

1028
00:52:37,520 --> 00:52:39,319
Speaker 2: To the right, and just.

1029
00:52:40,280 --> 00:52:43,279
Speaker 3: Not in front of him. The ground underneath his moccasins

1030
00:52:43,320 --> 00:52:46,240
Speaker 3: had its fine sheen of night dew. He could feel

1031
00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:49,520
Speaker 3: the taller blades of grass swish damply against his ankles.

1032
00:52:49,520 --> 00:52:53,000
Speaker 3: As he walked from out of the endless blackness that

1033
00:52:53,080 --> 00:52:55,720
Speaker 3: stretched away from where he stood across the universe, something

1034
00:52:55,800 --> 00:52:58,719
Speaker 3: came that blinked green and red in the sky. It

1035
00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:00,839
Speaker 3: was the male plane heading for the state capitol one

1036
00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:04,120
Speaker 3: hundred miles north, and idly he turned his flash upward

1037
00:53:04,600 --> 00:53:07,760
Speaker 3: and pinched the switch and a staccato series, then, thinking

1038
00:53:07,760 --> 00:53:11,240
Speaker 3: foolishly of the action, flicked it off to them. If anything,

1039
00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:13,960
Speaker 3: it would be as a firefly was to him, a

1040
00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:17,160
Speaker 3: tiny indistinct something for an instant against the pall of

1041
00:53:17,239 --> 00:53:18,440
Speaker 3: darkness that cover the earth.

1042
00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:22,320
Speaker 2: I just want to add here, Chuck that if you listener,

1043
00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:24,560
Speaker 2: like me, thought that that was going to become something

1044
00:53:24,640 --> 00:53:26,080
Speaker 2: later on, it doesn't.

1045
00:53:26,960 --> 00:53:28,400
Speaker 3: Well, it sort of does. The plane.

1046
00:53:28,560 --> 00:53:31,879
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, him flashing the plane, I thought something bad

1047
00:53:32,040 --> 00:53:34,160
Speaker 2: was going to come of it, and nothing does whatsoever?

1048
00:53:34,719 --> 00:53:37,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right, but you know, if a plane flies

1049
00:53:37,680 --> 00:53:41,680
Speaker 3: over an act one, it may not fly over neck three.

1050
00:53:42,040 --> 00:53:43,319
Speaker 2: That's true, the spoiler. Yeah.

1051
00:53:43,840 --> 00:53:46,560
Speaker 3: The plane fled from him into the northern night, fled

1052
00:53:46,640 --> 00:53:49,680
Speaker 3: as though afraid, and a feeling of momentous loneliness welled

1053
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:52,160
Speaker 3: up inside of him, making him turn abruptly so he

1054
00:53:52,200 --> 00:53:54,680
Speaker 3: could see the lights of the house, their house, brands

1055
00:53:54,680 --> 00:53:57,799
Speaker 3: and his you know, their house, the one they live in,

1056
00:53:58,239 --> 00:53:59,560
Speaker 3: just right there where he just came from.

1057
00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:01,799
Speaker 2: Sometimes off the left, sometimes off to the right.

1058
00:54:03,320 --> 00:54:05,880
Speaker 3: He walked rapidly back in this time, secured the front

1059
00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:08,560
Speaker 3: and back doors and windows for the night, before rejoining

1060
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:11,960
Speaker 3: Fran in the cave. You can pick it up, but

1061
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:12,839
Speaker 3: I believe I'm Fran.

1062
00:54:13,040 --> 00:54:16,919
Speaker 2: You are Nobody's called, she said petulantly.

1063
00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:19,560
Speaker 3: Have you been outside all this time fussing with that

1064
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:21,000
Speaker 3: old garage door that tickles you?

1065
00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:25,560
Speaker 2: So he nodded, how many sneezes? Not one, he avowed,

1066
00:54:25,600 --> 00:54:29,560
Speaker 2: surprised at the realization himself. She squinted at him dubiously.

1067
00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:32,919
Speaker 2: Upop my honor. He put a hand on his heart

1068
00:54:32,920 --> 00:54:35,200
Speaker 2: and raised the other. I don't think there's a tough

1069
00:54:35,280 --> 00:54:37,040
Speaker 2: air out there to blow the old Paul on a

1070
00:54:37,080 --> 00:54:40,440
Speaker 2: round bity stuffy. He sank down in a chair and

1071
00:54:40,520 --> 00:54:45,480
Speaker 2: enjoyed the cool, pure oxygen of the room. I tell you, Fran,

1072
00:54:45,600 --> 00:54:47,880
Speaker 2: this thing's worth it. I mean, even if you didn't

1073
00:54:47,880 --> 00:54:50,360
Speaker 2: have an allergy or ghastly hay fever or anything.

1074
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:56,080
Speaker 3: I'm picturing Dennis Hopper now in blue velvet, sucking off

1075
00:54:56,120 --> 00:54:56,800
Speaker 3: that mask.

1076
00:54:57,400 --> 00:55:04,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was trying for Dennis Miller. No crop, this

1077
00:55:04,160 --> 00:55:07,520
Speaker 2: is silly, Fran said. After a while longer.

1078
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:09,719
Speaker 3: I'm going to call the FISKS. They promised to call,

1079
00:55:09,800 --> 00:55:10,239
Speaker 3: and they have it.

1080
00:55:10,840 --> 00:55:13,360
Speaker 2: Fran picked up the receiver and it was just past

1081
00:55:13,360 --> 00:55:16,479
Speaker 2: ten thirty. Arthur went over and sat beside her, held

1082
00:55:16,480 --> 00:55:21,000
Speaker 2: his head close to hers eavesdropper, she whispered. They both

1083
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:23,920
Speaker 2: stropp her. They both had the same reaction when the

1084
00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:27,799
Speaker 2: voice answered. As they said afterward, and as Arthur wrote it,

1085
00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:30,120
Speaker 2: it was don't forget he was a writer and he's wealthy.

1086
00:55:31,080 --> 00:55:34,319
Speaker 2: It was Cynthia's voice, and yet it wasn't. Arthur's first

1087
00:55:34,360 --> 00:55:37,839
Speaker 2: thought was that she'd been drinking. Fran more charitably thought

1088
00:55:37,880 --> 00:55:38,720
Speaker 2: that she was ill.

1089
00:55:39,680 --> 00:55:42,680
Speaker 3: Darling, you were going to call where's Jack? You sound

1090
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:43,920
Speaker 3: a little funny.

1091
00:55:43,880 --> 00:55:47,360
Speaker 2: Cynthia talked, and as she talked her voice got stronger.

1092
00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:50,880
Speaker 2: It was so terribly hot there in town, she apologized.

1093
00:55:51,239 --> 00:55:54,840
Speaker 2: Finally Jack came to the phone, groggy in voice too. Yes,

1094
00:55:54,880 --> 00:55:56,919
Speaker 2: his client had called up quite a long time ago.

1095
00:55:57,320 --> 00:56:00,520
Speaker 2: It had been kind of unsatisfactory, but hang it all

1096
00:56:00,800 --> 00:56:02,280
Speaker 2: they'd come out the next weekend.

1097
00:56:04,920 --> 00:56:07,040
Speaker 3: I guess that should be Cynthia. I'm gonna mony python

1098
00:56:07,080 --> 00:56:10,480
Speaker 3: this whole thing, all right, all right, who is Cynthia?

1099
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:11,040
Speaker 3: Who is Sydney?

1100
00:56:12,120 --> 00:56:12,960
Speaker 2: What's her motivation?

1101
00:56:13,920 --> 00:56:17,520
Speaker 3: Yeah? Exactly? Well she's not sounding well too though, right.

1102
00:56:17,440 --> 00:56:18,640
Speaker 2: No, she sounds very tired.

1103
00:56:19,280 --> 00:56:22,040
Speaker 6: Okay, gee, I think we need to get.

1104
00:56:21,920 --> 00:56:23,440
Speaker 2: Away, Cynthia confided.

1105
00:56:24,560 --> 00:56:27,040
Speaker 6: Jack's just worn out, and I feel pretty mush too.

1106
00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:30,640
Speaker 2: Then Frank couldn't get Cynthia's attention for a few minutes,

1107
00:56:30,880 --> 00:56:32,880
Speaker 2: and when the other girl came back on the phone,

1108
00:56:32,960 --> 00:56:35,840
Speaker 2: she had an edge of excitement in her voice, Chuck,

1109
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:37,880
Speaker 2: can you hear that?

1110
00:56:38,040 --> 00:56:40,919
Speaker 6: Fan, I mean over the phone. Listen as I hold

1111
00:56:40,920 --> 00:56:42,080
Speaker 6: the mouth piece this way.

1112
00:56:41,880 --> 00:56:42,680
Speaker 4: Can you hear it?

1113
00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:45,879
Speaker 2: Fran listened intently, and Arthur pressed his ear as close

1114
00:56:45,880 --> 00:56:48,440
Speaker 2: to the receiver as he could. There was something like

1115
00:56:48,520 --> 00:56:53,439
Speaker 2: a hissy radiator, little boiler letting off steam. Cynthia came

1116
00:56:53,480 --> 00:56:53,759
Speaker 2: back on.

1117
00:56:54,960 --> 00:56:57,480
Speaker 3: I don't know, I think the heat Scottess.

1118
00:56:58,080 --> 00:56:59,840
Speaker 6: We just love to come out to the country.

1119
00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:04,400
Speaker 2: Before they rang up, which means hang up, hung up.

1120
00:57:06,040 --> 00:57:08,640
Speaker 2: Cynthia dropped the phone once and had to pick it up.

1121
00:57:09,239 --> 00:57:15,200
Speaker 2: Ran hung up. Worried, drunk, said Arthur. His hay fever

1122
00:57:15,280 --> 00:57:15,879
Speaker 2: had come back.

1123
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:18,360
Speaker 3: Don't be silly, his wife.

1124
00:57:19,000 --> 00:57:20,120
Speaker 2: Is it remonstrated?

1125
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:21,880
Speaker 3: I think remonstrated.

1126
00:57:21,960 --> 00:57:22,840
Speaker 2: Okay, I don't know.

1127
00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:24,440
Speaker 3: Remonstrat It sounds right too, but.

1128
00:57:24,480 --> 00:57:27,000
Speaker 2: Also it looks a lot like demonstrated. But the D

1129
00:57:27,200 --> 00:57:28,720
Speaker 2: and the R were switched at birth.

1130
00:57:29,720 --> 00:57:31,760
Speaker 3: That's right. Don't be silly.

1131
00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:35,880
Speaker 2: Oh, his wife remonstrated, remonstrated.

1132
00:57:37,480 --> 00:57:40,720
Speaker 3: She doesn't drink jack. Maybe once in a while, but

1133
00:57:40,800 --> 00:57:44,240
Speaker 3: she doesn't. I'm worried. I think they're both sick, like

1134
00:57:44,360 --> 00:57:45,480
Speaker 3: food poisoning or something.

1135
00:57:45,880 --> 00:57:47,800
Speaker 2: So now his hay fever is coming in and out

1136
00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:50,720
Speaker 2: by the second. Well, as long as it's over by

1137
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:54,320
Speaker 2: the next weekend. Arthur put in, go ahead, try the

1138
00:57:54,400 --> 00:57:57,320
Speaker 2: Barnes And my little technique didn't work as well as

1139
00:57:57,400 --> 00:58:00,240
Speaker 2: I thought. But I was ramming the sides of my

1140
00:58:00,400 --> 00:58:03,280
Speaker 2: nose trying to come in and out of a nasally quality,

1141
00:58:03,360 --> 00:58:06,840
Speaker 2: and I can tell you from experience it doesn't work.

1142
00:58:07,240 --> 00:58:08,960
Speaker 3: Okay, don't try it at home.

1143
00:58:09,640 --> 00:58:12,480
Speaker 2: Frank gave the number and waited. The connection took quite

1144
00:58:12,520 --> 00:58:14,800
Speaker 2: a while, and when it was made, Arthur saw his

1145
00:58:14,840 --> 00:58:15,960
Speaker 2: wife's face tighten.

1146
00:58:17,400 --> 00:58:20,760
Speaker 3: I can hardly hear you, Mary. What is it. Yes,

1147
00:58:20,840 --> 00:58:26,520
Speaker 3: it's Fran Hodges. We're calling up about next weekend. What Mary?

1148
00:58:26,640 --> 00:58:29,960
Speaker 3: It's awfully hard to understand. You must be a bad connection.

1149
00:58:30,240 --> 00:58:31,120
Speaker 3: What's wrong with Tim?

1150
00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:34,120
Speaker 2: Arthur was watching her expression from the lounge chair.

1151
00:58:35,400 --> 00:58:38,520
Speaker 3: Yes, he's probably been working too hard. You don't sound

1152
00:58:38,560 --> 00:58:41,920
Speaker 3: too spry yourself, my chicken. Hey, listen, you both need

1153
00:58:41,960 --> 00:58:44,800
Speaker 3: a rest. What here? What?

1154
00:58:45,440 --> 00:58:49,320
Speaker 2: Fran's face blanched a bit then, and her eyes saw Arthur's.

1155
00:58:50,360 --> 00:58:52,760
Speaker 3: Now you just pack yourself into bed, young lady, and

1156
00:58:52,800 --> 00:58:55,320
Speaker 3: make your plans tomorrow morning. With that overworked money making

1157
00:58:55,400 --> 00:58:58,480
Speaker 3: husband of yours, come out before the weekend. Have Tim

1158
00:58:58,560 --> 00:59:01,640
Speaker 3: knock Off come out Wednesday. We'd love to have you anytime.

1159
00:59:01,960 --> 00:59:04,120
Speaker 2: Fran hung up slowly.

1160
00:59:05,520 --> 00:59:07,760
Speaker 3: I think our friends are all giving out. She sounded

1161
00:59:07,800 --> 00:59:12,320
Speaker 3: awfully funny and said, oh, you men are terrible. She

1162
00:59:12,480 --> 00:59:15,200
Speaker 3: said she couldn't seem to wake him up, that he

1163
00:59:15,280 --> 00:59:18,640
Speaker 3: got back from the station and just sort of collapsed. Apparently,

1164
00:59:21,400 --> 00:59:22,640
Speaker 3: Arthur commented.

1165
00:59:22,440 --> 00:59:25,160
Speaker 5: The Barns and the fifth separated by what fifty or

1166
00:59:25,280 --> 00:59:28,480
Speaker 5: sexty miles? And your theory is that they both got

1167
00:59:28,520 --> 00:59:31,200
Speaker 5: food points in from the Saint Bad oysters.

1168
00:59:32,760 --> 00:59:34,080
Speaker 3: We might eat subs for you.

1169
00:59:35,280 --> 00:59:38,040
Speaker 2: Can you understand what he's saying essentially? So this is

1170
00:59:38,040 --> 00:59:40,760
Speaker 2: what I'll do. I'll read it like that, unintelligibly, and

1171
00:59:40,800 --> 00:59:42,480
Speaker 2: then I'll explain what he just said.

1172
00:59:42,920 --> 00:59:45,920
Speaker 3: It's sort of like Gary Oldman and slow Horses. You

1173
00:59:45,920 --> 00:59:47,080
Speaker 3: really need to turn those subs on.

1174
00:59:47,200 --> 00:59:50,840
Speaker 2: Okay, I don't know the reference, but I will do

1175
00:59:50,880 --> 00:59:51,400
Speaker 2: what you say.

1176
00:59:51,560 --> 00:59:53,240
Speaker 3: Oh you don't watch the Horses. I thought you watched that.

1177
00:59:53,440 --> 00:59:53,520
Speaker 1: No.

1178
00:59:53,680 --> 00:59:54,640
Speaker 2: Is it a TV show?

1179
00:59:55,120 --> 00:59:55,520
Speaker 3: Yeah?

1180
00:59:55,640 --> 00:59:56,760
Speaker 2: Is it a limited series?

1181
00:59:57,680 --> 00:59:57,800
Speaker 6: Uh?

1182
00:59:57,960 --> 00:59:59,960
Speaker 3: No, I think it's in season five or so. It's great.

1183
01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:02,439
Speaker 2: I tried Tulsa King last night and was like, I'm

1184
01:00:02,480 --> 01:00:04,760
Speaker 2: just not in the mood for any like mean bullying

1185
01:00:05,720 --> 01:00:08,160
Speaker 2: right now. So I didn't go any further than the

1186
01:00:08,160 --> 01:00:09,360
Speaker 2: first like fifteen minutes.

1187
01:00:09,960 --> 01:00:12,080
Speaker 3: Oh, I have not seen that. But a friend of

1188
01:00:12,120 --> 01:00:14,120
Speaker 3: the show, Kevin Pollock, is in the new season.

1189
01:00:14,160 --> 01:00:14,720
Speaker 2: He sure is.

1190
01:00:15,280 --> 01:00:16,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're shooting here in Atlanta.

1191
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:18,760
Speaker 2: Oh, I didn't know that. It looks a lot like Tulsa.

1192
01:00:19,560 --> 01:00:23,400
Speaker 3: I think they do some exteriors there, I see anyway,

1193
01:00:24,120 --> 01:00:24,480
Speaker 3: is this me?

1194
01:00:25,120 --> 01:00:25,400
Speaker 2: Yeah?

1195
01:00:25,920 --> 01:00:29,880
Speaker 3: All right, Franz smiled. It's funny, though, art about one thing.

1196
01:00:30,480 --> 01:00:34,280
Speaker 3: She said something about hissing too, just like sin. Fran's

1197
01:00:34,320 --> 01:00:37,280
Speaker 3: hand came up to her mouth and her eyes got bigger. Darth,

1198
01:00:37,920 --> 01:00:41,160
Speaker 3: you don't suppose you don't suppose it's any sort of

1199
01:00:41,440 --> 01:00:44,640
Speaker 3: enemy attack. You know that article we read about, you

1200
01:00:44,640 --> 01:00:48,560
Speaker 3: know the way when war came this time, Arthur laughed heartily.

1201
01:00:49,680 --> 01:00:53,640
Speaker 2: Oh okay, So, by a quick instant poll on social media,

1202
01:00:53,680 --> 01:00:57,400
Speaker 2: we've decided that Arthur's hay fever no should go away.

1203
01:00:58,800 --> 01:00:59,960
Speaker 3: No snappole.

1204
01:01:00,240 --> 01:01:03,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, Now, wait a minute. I'm supposed to be the

1205
01:01:03,880 --> 01:01:07,240
Speaker 2: one with the imagination. I make money out of it,

1206
01:01:07,280 --> 01:01:10,160
Speaker 2: and you're doing it for free.

1207
01:01:10,400 --> 01:01:12,480
Speaker 3: She relaxed. But he saw the puzzlement was still in

1208
01:01:12,520 --> 01:01:15,240
Speaker 3: her face. To reassure her, he switched the radio on

1209
01:01:15,360 --> 01:01:17,280
Speaker 3: and the sounds of a jazzy record filled to study.

1210
01:01:17,640 --> 01:01:20,400
Speaker 3: The MC came on sounding sleepy, but then they all

1211
01:01:20,440 --> 01:01:23,440
Speaker 3: do and have her ages. There was certainly no momentous

1212
01:01:23,800 --> 01:01:26,160
Speaker 3: we interrupt this program to bring you a special bulletin.

1213
01:01:26,400 --> 01:01:29,280
Speaker 3: The president has just announced that this country has been

1214
01:01:29,320 --> 01:01:32,040
Speaker 3: attacked by and so forth. Nothing like that.

1215
01:01:32,120 --> 01:01:33,720
Speaker 2: He sounded like, pee wee herman.

1216
01:01:34,240 --> 01:01:38,160
Speaker 3: Oh Beijing, mister Harriman, that's right, that's one of my

1217
01:01:38,160 --> 01:01:41,360
Speaker 3: favorite parts of That's great. He saw that Frans Fright

1218
01:01:41,440 --> 01:01:45,240
Speaker 3: had passed. But then she said, resolutely turn that thing down, art,

1219
01:01:45,280 --> 01:01:47,440
Speaker 3: will you. I'm going to call Jack and Cynthia again.

1220
01:01:47,720 --> 01:01:50,240
Speaker 2: So he did another snappole, and it turns out people

1221
01:01:50,280 --> 01:01:51,720
Speaker 2: did like the nasally voice.

1222
01:01:51,760 --> 01:01:53,280
Speaker 3: After all, great, it's back.

1223
01:01:53,520 --> 01:01:53,680
Speaker 2: Now.

1224
01:01:53,720 --> 01:01:56,880
Speaker 5: Look this time you really are going to wake them up.

1225
01:01:56,920 --> 01:01:58,600
Speaker 5: It's getting hot towards midnight.

1226
01:01:59,560 --> 01:02:01,720
Speaker 3: But I knew his wife, and when she was determined

1227
01:02:01,760 --> 01:02:04,560
Speaker 3: to do something, she did it. Luckily, he reflected many

1228
01:02:04,640 --> 01:02:06,600
Speaker 3: times in the past it usually had turned out to

1229
01:02:06,600 --> 01:02:09,200
Speaker 3: be the right thing. He shrugged his shoulders and said,

1230
01:02:09,240 --> 01:02:10,360
Speaker 3: half jokingly.

1231
01:02:10,560 --> 01:02:13,439
Speaker 5: Well, I warned you after this, they'll never even think

1232
01:02:13,480 --> 01:02:16,520
Speaker 5: of accepting our invitation next weekend, we'll be in their

1233
01:02:16,560 --> 01:02:17,600
Speaker 5: doghouse for weeks.

1234
01:02:18,080 --> 01:02:20,600
Speaker 3: Fran dialed the operator, gave the number, and in the

1235
01:02:20,680 --> 01:02:23,000
Speaker 3: interim before the connection was made, the quiet of the

1236
01:02:23,040 --> 01:02:25,920
Speaker 3: country seemed depressed from the black out of doors around

1237
01:02:25,960 --> 01:02:29,040
Speaker 3: them in this lit oasis of the night. Takes that

1238
01:02:29,080 --> 01:02:32,400
Speaker 3: operator an awfully long time, said fran aloud. Finally the

1239
01:02:32,480 --> 01:02:36,120
Speaker 3: ringing commenced. It seemed interminable to Art, sitting on the

1240
01:02:36,160 --> 01:02:37,960
Speaker 3: other side of the room. At last there was an

1241
01:02:38,000 --> 01:02:41,800
Speaker 3: answer for Franz said hello, Cynthia, but all was not well.

1242
01:02:41,920 --> 01:02:44,240
Speaker 3: Art knew from the way his wife's hand tightened to

1243
01:02:44,280 --> 01:02:47,720
Speaker 3: whiteness around the receiver. Frand seemed to be explaining, pleading,

1244
01:02:47,760 --> 01:02:50,760
Speaker 3: and finally Arthur came to her side and spoke down

1245
01:02:50,840 --> 01:02:52,320
Speaker 3: to her upturned.

1246
01:02:51,800 --> 01:02:54,200
Speaker 2: Face, what's the matter?

1247
01:02:55,360 --> 01:02:57,760
Speaker 3: She shook her head. He took the phone, and a

1248
01:02:57,800 --> 01:03:01,160
Speaker 3: sloth's voice assailed him, droning on. Fran was sitting on

1249
01:03:01,160 --> 01:03:05,480
Speaker 3: the edge of her chair, terrified that he called, sharply.

1250
01:03:05,280 --> 01:03:09,840
Speaker 2: What wrong, aren't you ill? Worre doc put a mom He.

1251
01:03:09,760 --> 01:03:12,480
Speaker 3: Could barely make sense out of this thing. Cynthia was

1252
01:03:12,640 --> 01:03:17,280
Speaker 3: saying slowly laboriously, as though drugged or sick, that Jack

1253
01:03:17,280 --> 01:03:20,800
Speaker 3: had passed out, and that funny she couldn't seem to

1254
01:03:20,840 --> 01:03:23,000
Speaker 3: get any help. He listened for a moment more and

1255
01:03:23,000 --> 01:03:25,400
Speaker 3: then hung up. Quickly he died for the operator, and

1256
01:03:25,640 --> 01:03:27,120
Speaker 3: after long seconds she came on.

1257
01:03:28,160 --> 01:03:30,160
Speaker 2: I'm going to call doctor McCollum in tout.

1258
01:03:30,200 --> 01:03:33,320
Speaker 3: Do you remember how fran nodded approval?

1259
01:03:33,960 --> 01:03:36,800
Speaker 2: So something really weird is going on with everybody.

1260
01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:41,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is no John Cheever, No, I think.

1261
01:03:41,120 --> 01:03:43,840
Speaker 2: I suspect it has something to do with the shrubbery

1262
01:03:43,880 --> 01:03:45,560
Speaker 2: looking like movie props.

1263
01:03:46,200 --> 01:03:46,640
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1264
01:03:47,360 --> 01:03:48,760
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm going to start up again.

1265
01:03:48,840 --> 01:03:50,440
Speaker 3: You ready, I'm ready.

1266
01:03:50,640 --> 01:03:53,640
Speaker 2: He was a physician they'd known. This is a doctor McCollum,

1267
01:03:53,680 --> 01:03:56,840
Speaker 2: who Art's calling. He was a physician they'd known when

1268
01:03:56,880 --> 01:03:59,480
Speaker 2: they lived not many blocks away from the Fisks. The

1269
01:03:59,600 --> 01:04:02,680
Speaker 2: McCallum connection seemed to take an eternity, and then there

1270
01:04:02,760 --> 01:04:05,280
Speaker 2: was a voice at the other end. Arthur asked for

1271
01:04:05,320 --> 01:04:13,000
Speaker 2: the doctor, and the voice said, slowly, Doctormer calms Becking.

1272
01:04:14,040 --> 01:04:17,440
Speaker 2: Hodges identified himself and told what he thought that the Fisks,

1273
01:04:17,600 --> 01:04:20,560
Speaker 2: good friends of his, were apparently unable to get aid.

1274
01:04:20,960 --> 01:04:24,520
Speaker 2: Could doctor McCollum, go himself or get someone. There was

1275
01:04:24,560 --> 01:04:27,440
Speaker 2: a long pause, then the voice answered.

1276
01:04:27,760 --> 01:04:33,760
Speaker 5: Funny Hodges, damn funny, something strange.

1277
01:04:34,680 --> 01:04:38,440
Speaker 2: There was a noise and an interruption. Arthur's helloes brought

1278
01:04:38,600 --> 01:04:41,480
Speaker 2: no new response. He kept us back to Fran as

1279
01:04:41,480 --> 01:04:43,520
Speaker 2: he hung up for fear she would find fuel for

1280
01:04:43,560 --> 01:04:46,960
Speaker 2: her fright in his expression, he would try the Barnes.

1281
01:04:47,840 --> 01:04:51,080
Speaker 2: The minutes ticked away. Their village operator was apparently no

1282
01:04:51,280 --> 01:04:53,800
Speaker 2: here she was. He gave the number and there was

1283
01:04:53,840 --> 01:04:56,680
Speaker 2: another long wait, and then the sound of ringing in

1284
01:04:56,720 --> 01:05:00,520
Speaker 2: the city suburb. He waited no usual time, but allowed

1285
01:05:00,560 --> 01:05:05,000
Speaker 2: fully five minutes. Finally he pictured the scene. The phone

1286
01:05:05,080 --> 01:05:08,880
Speaker 2: was dragged from its cradle. It was Tim, a lethargic Tim,

1287
01:05:08,960 --> 01:05:12,080
Speaker 2: who slurred his words. Arthur asked Tim if Mary was

1288
01:05:12,120 --> 01:05:15,960
Speaker 2: all right? Was the mumbled answer, you.

1289
01:05:15,920 --> 01:05:20,760
Speaker 3: Know what's happening? What the deep browse, the beep drowse,

1290
01:05:21,400 --> 01:05:22,520
Speaker 3: the pep trows is happening?

1291
01:05:23,440 --> 01:05:26,360
Speaker 2: Okay, Arthur spoke quickly. Then I want you listen to

1292
01:05:26,480 --> 01:05:29,960
Speaker 2: me carefully, call a doctor, Tim, or your local police.

1293
01:05:30,120 --> 01:05:31,160
Speaker 2: Do it immediately.

1294
01:05:31,280 --> 01:05:32,000
Speaker 3: Do you hear me?

1295
01:05:33,080 --> 01:05:36,919
Speaker 2: Hear you, echoed the voice weakly. Tullip, tell them how

1296
01:05:36,960 --> 01:05:39,680
Speaker 2: you feel and ask for help. Do that, Tim, do

1297
01:05:39,760 --> 01:05:42,800
Speaker 2: it right away. The voice at the other end gurgled

1298
01:05:42,800 --> 01:05:43,880
Speaker 2: something unintelligibly.

1299
01:05:44,000 --> 01:05:45,080
Speaker 6: Oh god, what.

1300
01:05:47,200 --> 01:05:50,120
Speaker 2: Arthur cradled the phone. He turned squarely to face frame.

1301
01:05:50,680 --> 01:05:53,880
Speaker 2: Something happened, darl like, I don't know what. See what

1302
01:05:53,960 --> 01:05:57,120
Speaker 2: you can get on the radio. She jumped at his bidding.

1303
01:05:57,480 --> 01:06:00,680
Speaker 2: He was at the phone again, dialing, dialing. Finally, the

1304
01:06:00,760 --> 01:06:06,440
Speaker 2: operator sounding like Cynthia, like doctor McCollum, like Tim. The police,

1305
01:06:06,600 --> 01:06:11,680
Speaker 2: he said, distinctly, great band, give me the police. The

1306
01:06:11,720 --> 01:06:15,160
Speaker 2: operator's fumblings were audible. He heard her mouth the word

1307
01:06:15,360 --> 01:06:18,920
Speaker 2: police as a drunk would. But at last her instinctive

1308
01:06:18,960 --> 01:06:22,160
Speaker 2: reflex is taking over, he guessed. The connection was made.

1309
01:06:22,760 --> 01:06:26,640
Speaker 2: A gruff male voice mumbled what might have been police heads,

1310
01:06:27,240 --> 01:06:30,959
Speaker 2: and then subsided into a deep, long yawn. Before Arthur

1311
01:06:31,000 --> 01:06:35,440
Speaker 2: had a chance to say anything. Look, this is Arthur Hodges,

1312
01:06:35,720 --> 01:06:39,600
Speaker 2: he persevered. I big colleagues of friends abide around the country,

1313
01:06:39,640 --> 01:06:42,320
Speaker 2: and I don't know what it is, but everybody acts

1314
01:06:42,440 --> 01:06:47,520
Speaker 2: kind of drugged. The policeman's gruff voice mumbled something about

1315
01:06:47,760 --> 01:06:54,240
Speaker 2: just drunks, yawned again and became quiet. Hello, Hello, shouted Arthur.

1316
01:06:54,800 --> 01:06:59,800
Speaker 2: There was no response, he hung up. Finally, Darling Frank

1317
01:06:59,840 --> 01:07:03,520
Speaker 2: called a small, frightened voice, Starley from the other side

1318
01:07:03,600 --> 01:07:04,240
Speaker 2: of the room.

1319
01:07:04,560 --> 01:07:06,520
Speaker 3: There seems to be an awful lot of silences on

1320
01:07:06,560 --> 01:07:08,520
Speaker 3: the air, even for past one.

1321
01:07:08,960 --> 01:07:11,880
Speaker 2: But even as she spoke, a cophony of jazz broke

1322
01:07:11,920 --> 01:07:16,840
Speaker 2: into the still room, and they both brightened with the

1323
01:07:16,880 --> 01:07:24,440
Speaker 2: noise of a saxophone being strangled over and over again. Ark,

1324
01:07:24,520 --> 01:07:27,720
Speaker 2: the jobs are down, he said, in an attempt at lightness.

1325
01:07:28,560 --> 01:07:32,120
Speaker 2: They sat and waited for what neither knew. Frank kept

1326
01:07:32,160 --> 01:07:34,160
Speaker 2: looking at the telephone, and they both had their ears

1327
01:07:34,240 --> 01:07:36,880
Speaker 2: glued to the radio. It was a typical all night

1328
01:07:36,920 --> 01:07:39,720
Speaker 2: disc jockey show, the record set up in a series

1329
01:07:39,720 --> 01:07:43,800
Speaker 2: beforehand and automatically playing one after another, but without the

1330
01:07:43,960 --> 01:07:47,920
Speaker 2: MC's comments between each. That was Arthur's fear, but he

1331
01:07:47,960 --> 01:07:50,560
Speaker 2: did not give words to it. He knew Fran and

1332
01:07:50,640 --> 01:07:53,440
Speaker 2: he knew what she was thinking. He was thinking himself.

1333
01:07:54,080 --> 01:07:58,760
Speaker 2: Somehow something had happened. The record on now was something

1334
01:07:58,800 --> 01:08:03,080
Speaker 2: by Andre Pustole. Yes, it had a noisome, crashing crescendo

1335
01:08:03,200 --> 01:08:08,720
Speaker 2: at the end. The silence following it was, by contrast,

1336
01:08:08,800 --> 01:08:13,560
Speaker 2: even heavier. No other record, no voice making between disc comments,

1337
01:08:14,360 --> 01:08:17,920
Speaker 2: They both waited, smiled bravely inside their heads, thinking the

1338
01:08:17,960 --> 01:08:21,240
Speaker 2: next minute, the next second, there are silences on the air.

1339
01:08:21,439 --> 01:08:23,720
Speaker 2: Suppose you had to go to the washroom. Even disc

1340
01:08:23,760 --> 01:08:27,679
Speaker 2: jockeys are human. Somebody will come on. But there was nothing.

1341
01:08:28,320 --> 01:08:32,479
Speaker 2: Finally they knew it. They looked at each other, and

1342
01:08:32,600 --> 01:08:36,639
Speaker 2: Arthur managed another smile. Franz answering grin. Like the radio

1343
01:08:36,960 --> 01:08:40,599
Speaker 2: lacked life, to keep busy, to keep from saying anything.

1344
01:08:40,960 --> 01:08:43,519
Speaker 2: Arthur picked up the phone again. He held it free

1345
01:08:43,560 --> 01:08:47,480
Speaker 2: for fifteen minutes, dialing at intervals, but there was no operator,

1346
01:08:47,560 --> 01:08:49,840
Speaker 2: and the telephone was as dead as if he must

1347
01:08:49,920 --> 01:08:51,920
Speaker 2: wait till tomorrow for it to be invented.

1348
01:08:54,560 --> 01:08:56,600
Speaker 3: All right, should I pick it up? H All right,

1349
01:08:56,640 --> 01:08:58,719
Speaker 3: here we go. There were still the dial numbers left

1350
01:08:58,720 --> 01:09:01,599
Speaker 3: to him, and one after or another, Arthur methodically dialed

1351
01:09:01,600 --> 01:09:04,800
Speaker 3: the numbers of friends and acquaintances. Hereabouts the phones would ring,

1352
01:09:05,080 --> 01:09:07,759
Speaker 3: each with their different timber, but there were no answers.

1353
01:09:08,200 --> 01:09:10,360
Speaker 3: Across the dark brow at the town with its mantle

1354
01:09:10,400 --> 01:09:13,519
Speaker 3: of night. From this valley and this ridge on across

1355
01:09:13,520 --> 01:09:16,000
Speaker 3: the black shrouded lanes and vales and hills, the phones

1356
01:09:16,040 --> 01:09:19,040
Speaker 3: chimed and vibrated and rang and shrill, but they stopped

1357
01:09:19,040 --> 01:09:22,360
Speaker 3: only when he admitted defeat by hanging up across this

1358
01:09:22,479 --> 01:09:25,320
Speaker 3: town and further, much further. As he knew, there seemed

1359
01:09:25,520 --> 01:09:28,800
Speaker 3: no one. A peculiar theory was forming in Arthur's mind.

1360
01:09:29,200 --> 01:09:32,840
Speaker 3: After all, they were all right, unaffected. Apparently there was

1361
01:09:32,840 --> 01:09:35,680
Speaker 3: a mister Hoskins, a small bentman who was caretaker at

1362
01:09:35,680 --> 01:09:37,960
Speaker 3: the movie house. He took tickets and often worked in

1363
01:09:37,960 --> 01:09:39,960
Speaker 3: the projection room and slept in the barn like building

1364
01:09:40,000 --> 01:09:43,000
Speaker 3: at night, for he, like Arthur, was a hay fever sufferer.

1365
01:09:43,520 --> 01:09:46,880
Speaker 3: The building was air conditioned, even though not with the

1366
01:09:46,920 --> 01:09:50,880
Speaker 3: scientific perfection of the cave. Anyway, Hoskins swore it helped.

1367
01:09:51,439 --> 01:09:54,400
Speaker 3: So Arthur called the theater, knowing that the late movie

1368
01:09:54,439 --> 01:09:56,680
Speaker 3: would have been out now for about an hour. The

1369
01:09:56,720 --> 01:09:58,920
Speaker 3: phone was downstairs. He could picture it from his and

1370
01:09:59,000 --> 01:10:02,240
Speaker 3: Frans excursions by a window in the lobby. Hoskins room

1371
01:10:02,320 --> 01:10:04,600
Speaker 3: was above. The phone rang and rang. It was like

1372
01:10:04,640 --> 01:10:06,960
Speaker 3: those others. As he was about to give up, a

1373
01:10:07,000 --> 01:10:10,480
Speaker 3: click made it suddenly importantly different, and there was Hoskins,

1374
01:10:10,800 --> 01:10:15,320
Speaker 3: his old man's quavering voice, sleepy and queerless. But it

1375
01:10:15,400 --> 01:10:18,439
Speaker 3: made sense, as he understood. When Arthur identified himself.

1376
01:10:19,800 --> 01:10:23,280
Speaker 2: Mister hawk sits listen very carefully. Your life may depend

1377
01:10:23,360 --> 01:10:23,639
Speaker 2: on it.

1378
01:10:24,560 --> 01:10:27,400
Speaker 3: The other man made some protest about was this a joke,

1379
01:10:27,520 --> 01:10:28,519
Speaker 3: but Arthur went.

1380
01:10:28,400 --> 01:10:33,200
Speaker 5: On, whatever you do, whatever you do, mister Hoskins, don't go.

1381
01:10:33,640 --> 01:10:34,880
Speaker 3: But the caretaker broke in.

1382
01:10:36,640 --> 01:10:39,160
Speaker 2: I think you're the caretaker. If anybody you're born to

1383
01:10:39,160 --> 01:10:39,840
Speaker 2: play that part.

1384
01:10:40,160 --> 01:10:42,719
Speaker 3: That's right way, mister Hodges.

1385
01:10:43,240 --> 01:10:45,960
Speaker 6: Mister Hodges through the window here, I can see him

1386
01:10:45,960 --> 01:10:50,240
Speaker 6: through the street. There's really some people lying there, mister Hodges.

1387
01:10:50,960 --> 01:10:53,400
Speaker 6: I think there must have been an accident. I have

1388
01:10:53,520 --> 01:10:54,280
Speaker 6: to go out and see.

1389
01:10:55,240 --> 01:10:57,840
Speaker 2: See. That was wonderful. I could not come up with

1390
01:10:57,880 --> 01:10:58,240
Speaker 2: that one.

1391
01:10:58,880 --> 01:10:59,680
Speaker 3: Uh take it over.

1392
01:11:00,640 --> 01:11:04,240
Speaker 2: Even as Arthur screamed at the man screamed no, no,

1393
01:11:04,560 --> 01:11:07,600
Speaker 2: what urry dude, don't go out. He knew it was

1394
01:11:07,640 --> 01:11:10,640
Speaker 2: too late. The phone clicked and Hoskins was off on

1395
01:11:10,720 --> 01:11:13,839
Speaker 2: his Errand there must be others like that, Arthur reasoned,

1396
01:11:13,880 --> 01:11:17,000
Speaker 2: in the country, in the state, the nation. But who

1397
01:11:17,040 --> 01:11:19,840
Speaker 2: knew how broad this was or what it was? But

1398
01:11:19,960 --> 01:11:24,040
Speaker 2: had those others any chance? Without knowing suspecting, Arthur made

1399
01:11:24,080 --> 01:11:27,040
Speaker 2: up his mind, rad I'm going out a bit. She

1400
01:11:27,160 --> 01:11:29,519
Speaker 2: was on her feet, her arms around him, tears very

1401
01:11:29,520 --> 01:11:30,479
Speaker 2: close to the surface.

1402
01:11:31,520 --> 01:11:35,760
Speaker 3: No art, Please, don't, please, please, something's terribly wrong. Don't

1403
01:11:35,800 --> 01:11:36,120
Speaker 3: leave me.

1404
01:11:36,439 --> 01:11:39,479
Speaker 2: He held her gently and caressed her red hair, only

1405
01:11:39,600 --> 01:11:42,439
Speaker 2: for a take of friend, Honey, I'm trying to dope

1406
01:11:42,479 --> 01:11:43,560
Speaker 2: this thing out.

1407
01:11:44,920 --> 01:11:47,320
Speaker 3: It's war, isn't it? Art? Some kind of poison gas.

1408
01:11:47,400 --> 01:11:49,600
Speaker 5: I don't know, honey, but it's the best that I

1409
01:11:49,640 --> 01:11:52,320
Speaker 5: can take a turn around outside. I won't go far,

1410
01:11:52,880 --> 01:11:56,519
Speaker 5: but we've got to know what's going on, you mean,

1411
01:11:56,640 --> 01:11:57,000
Speaker 5: she said.

1412
01:11:57,000 --> 01:12:00,960
Speaker 3: Hopefully we might be in some sort of pocket here

1413
01:12:01,000 --> 01:12:03,559
Speaker 3: on the ridge that doesn't get the gas.

1414
01:12:04,000 --> 01:12:07,759
Speaker 2: Could be, he said, but it was a forlorn hope.

1415
01:12:08,400 --> 01:12:10,600
Speaker 2: He took the flashlight and she walked him to the

1416
01:12:10,600 --> 01:12:13,160
Speaker 2: door of the cave, her fingers entwined tightly in his.

1417
01:12:14,240 --> 01:12:16,280
Speaker 3: If you're not back in ten minutes, I'm coming.

1418
01:12:16,080 --> 01:12:19,519
Speaker 2: Out, don't worry. Frad He opened the door abruptly and

1419
01:12:19,600 --> 01:12:22,479
Speaker 2: shut it as quickly, walking rapidly through the other part

1420
01:12:22,520 --> 01:12:25,600
Speaker 2: of the house, The air impressed him immediately. It was

1421
01:12:25,720 --> 01:12:29,320
Speaker 2: flat and had a peculiar stale quality, although some of

1422
01:12:29,360 --> 01:12:31,600
Speaker 2: this he discounted as being the result of having just

1423
01:12:31,640 --> 01:12:34,680
Speaker 2: come from the pure oxygen of the cave. They left

1424
01:12:34,720 --> 01:12:38,000
Speaker 2: that part out there breathing pure oxygen in the cave. Yeah,

1425
01:12:38,000 --> 01:12:41,200
Speaker 2: it seems foolish. He didn't bother to turn on the

1426
01:12:41,240 --> 01:12:44,360
Speaker 2: other house lights, but used his flash instead. The bright

1427
01:12:44,400 --> 01:12:47,840
Speaker 2: wallpaper and the cheerful chintz on the chairs looked strangely

1428
01:12:47,920 --> 01:12:52,120
Speaker 2: forlorn and unreal. Outside, the black world was very quiet,

1429
01:12:52,320 --> 01:12:55,040
Speaker 2: as quiet as any two am. As he stood on

1430
01:12:55,080 --> 01:12:58,960
Speaker 2: the terrace, he first noticed lightheadedness. A feeling of illness

1431
01:12:59,000 --> 01:13:01,200
Speaker 2: touched the pit of his stone, and the palms of

1432
01:13:01,240 --> 01:13:04,160
Speaker 2: his hands began to sweat unduly. He thought it back

1433
01:13:04,200 --> 01:13:07,799
Speaker 2: as best he could, listening looking for any other sound

1434
01:13:07,920 --> 01:13:10,840
Speaker 2: or sign in the night around of human movement, a

1435
01:13:10,920 --> 01:13:13,519
Speaker 2: car light from the state highway up the ridge, a

1436
01:13:13,560 --> 01:13:16,360
Speaker 2: plane in the heavens, a train whistle in the distance.

1437
01:13:16,720 --> 01:13:20,160
Speaker 2: There was nothing. There might not have been in this

1438
01:13:20,320 --> 01:13:23,160
Speaker 2: chosen space of time at this hour, anyway, but it

1439
01:13:23,240 --> 01:13:29,000
Speaker 2: was peculiarly disturbing. His brain was suddenly dull and very lonely.

1440
01:13:29,600 --> 01:13:31,719
Speaker 2: He wanted to sit there and then on the terrace,

1441
01:13:31,920 --> 01:13:35,519
Speaker 2: to recline, to put the flashlight down, loosen his belt

1442
01:13:35,680 --> 01:13:38,760
Speaker 2: in his collar. He turned and sped for the door

1443
01:13:38,760 --> 01:13:41,719
Speaker 2: of the house, his heart pounding, lights within his head

1444
01:13:42,040 --> 01:13:45,520
Speaker 2: despite himself and the chiding that it was purely psychological.

1445
01:13:45,800 --> 01:13:49,000
Speaker 2: He yawned and knew the yawn was real. Fatigue and

1446
01:13:49,080 --> 01:13:52,680
Speaker 2: sleepiness had struck suddenly like a heavy dose of sedative.

1447
01:13:54,760 --> 01:13:58,840
Speaker 2: Still going, yeah, all right, he found the knob and

1448
01:13:58,920 --> 01:14:01,920
Speaker 2: jerked it open through the dark corridors of the unlit

1449
01:14:02,000 --> 01:14:04,640
Speaker 2: part of the house and thankfully reached the door of

1450
01:14:04,640 --> 01:14:07,719
Speaker 2: the cave. Yanked it open and went in. His face

1451
01:14:07,760 --> 01:14:10,040
Speaker 2: showed more than he wanted it to, for fran came

1452
01:14:10,080 --> 01:14:12,280
Speaker 2: over to him and there were tears in her eyes.

1453
01:14:13,160 --> 01:14:14,160
Speaker 3: Are you all right, Arthur?

1454
01:14:14,320 --> 01:14:16,559
Speaker 2: He nodded his head and tried to smile, but the

1455
01:14:16,600 --> 01:14:19,400
Speaker 2: heaviness was still on him. He turned his head away

1456
01:14:19,479 --> 01:14:22,519
Speaker 2: so she wouldn't see his yawn, and sat down. Very suddenly,

1457
01:14:23,040 --> 01:14:25,920
Speaker 2: his wristwatch told him that he'd been gone but eight minutes,

1458
01:14:26,280 --> 01:14:28,960
Speaker 2: a very short time, so that if franz hunch about

1459
01:14:28,960 --> 01:14:31,559
Speaker 2: the poison gas was right, it must be a fairly

1460
01:14:31,640 --> 01:14:35,320
Speaker 2: potent one to strike so fast in the oxygen of

1461
01:14:35,360 --> 01:14:39,000
Speaker 2: the cave. Hodges soon felt better. As the small hours

1462
01:14:39,000 --> 01:14:41,519
Speaker 2: of the morning wore on. He made trips into other

1463
01:14:41,560 --> 01:14:44,760
Speaker 2: parts of the house, quick trips for his tolerance to

1464
01:14:44,800 --> 01:14:48,160
Speaker 2: the outside seemed to grow less and less. The almost

1465
01:14:48,240 --> 01:14:52,200
Speaker 2: incredible drowsiness became stronger, and he could stay away less

1466
01:14:52,240 --> 01:14:53,280
Speaker 2: long each time.

1467
01:14:54,920 --> 01:14:57,680
Speaker 3: All right, but in those trips he brought every bit

1468
01:14:57,720 --> 01:15:01,000
Speaker 3: of food in the house back to the cave, some sternocns,

1469
01:15:01,040 --> 01:15:03,400
Speaker 3: and whatever odds and ends he decided they might need.

1470
01:15:03,800 --> 01:15:06,240
Speaker 3: At five am, they held what he called a council

1471
01:15:06,280 --> 01:15:09,840
Speaker 3: of war. There was, Arthur admitted something going on. What

1472
01:15:09,880 --> 01:15:12,360
Speaker 3: it was, he didn't know and couldn't guess, but they

1473
01:15:12,400 --> 01:15:15,640
Speaker 3: were particularly lucky for their hermetically sealed quarters and the

1474
01:15:15,640 --> 01:15:18,880
Speaker 3: oxygen supply. They ran the radio dial up and down

1475
01:15:19,360 --> 01:15:23,400
Speaker 3: at intervals and found only silence. Arthur tried Hoskins again

1476
01:15:23,439 --> 01:15:26,160
Speaker 3: on a forlorn chance. There was no answer. No operator

1477
01:15:26,200 --> 01:15:27,479
Speaker 3: answered when he dialed the zero.

1478
01:15:27,920 --> 01:15:29,960
Speaker 2: It didn't be alone right now.

1479
01:15:30,360 --> 01:15:33,320
Speaker 3: He admitted. The first threads of gray were streaking the

1480
01:15:33,320 --> 01:15:36,320
Speaker 3: eastern view, and Arthur packed Fran onto the couch with

1481
01:15:36,360 --> 01:15:38,920
Speaker 3: a blanket around her, and saw her dripped off for

1482
01:15:38,960 --> 01:15:41,680
Speaker 3: a little nap. He sat at the desk and calculated

1483
01:15:41,680 --> 01:15:44,240
Speaker 3: the two most important items of their lives now food

1484
01:15:44,320 --> 01:15:48,080
Speaker 3: and oxygen. Of the you need water, that's really the

1485
01:15:48,080 --> 01:15:51,519
Speaker 3: most important. He forgot that part of these. The latter

1486
01:15:51,680 --> 01:15:55,040
Speaker 3: was a prime significance. The can goods, he felt could

1487
01:15:55,040 --> 01:15:58,320
Speaker 3: be rationed to last almost indefinitely. They'd had quite a

1488
01:15:58,320 --> 01:16:01,760
Speaker 3: stock in the kitchen cabinets, but oxygen. He toted up

1489
01:16:01,800 --> 01:16:04,200
Speaker 3: the number of fresh cylinders available. It seems like that

1490
01:16:04,240 --> 01:16:08,800
Speaker 3: should be totalled. But whatever, with continuous use, usually they

1491
01:16:08,880 --> 01:16:11,040
Speaker 3: turned the mechanism off to save on the precious stuff.

1492
01:16:11,080 --> 01:16:13,720
Speaker 2: As the spirit of E. F. Benson that's right.

1493
01:16:14,040 --> 01:16:16,280
Speaker 3: Their supply would last at the most seven or eight days.

1494
01:16:16,479 --> 01:16:19,280
Speaker 3: It was unthinkable that by then some explanation or solution

1495
01:16:19,360 --> 01:16:22,479
Speaker 3: to this whole business would not be found. At the worst,

1496
01:16:22,520 --> 01:16:25,080
Speaker 3: in that time an enemy would take possession, but they

1497
01:16:25,080 --> 01:16:27,439
Speaker 3: would at least be free from their present dilemma. It

1498
01:16:27,560 --> 01:16:29,560
Speaker 3: was daylight when Fran woke up, and the sun was

1499
01:16:29,600 --> 01:16:31,840
Speaker 3: a molten gold burning a hole through the hazy sky.

1500
01:16:32,360 --> 01:16:35,280
Speaker 3: As on the previous evening. The trees stood silent, almost

1501
01:16:35,360 --> 01:16:37,640
Speaker 3: too tired to hold up their limbs. The breath of

1502
01:16:37,680 --> 01:16:40,599
Speaker 3: the air stirred it was though the outside All outside

1503
01:16:40,640 --> 01:16:43,519
Speaker 3: was a vacuum. They opened some cans and ate, and

1504
01:16:43,560 --> 01:16:46,200
Speaker 3: then Arthur went into the adjacent bedroom and slept till noon.

1505
01:16:46,760 --> 01:16:48,960
Speaker 3: When he awoke and rejoined fran in the study. Her

1506
01:16:48,960 --> 01:16:51,960
Speaker 3: fright had surged upward again. He found out why almost

1507
01:16:51,960 --> 01:16:56,240
Speaker 3: immediately she'd admitted she'd gone out. There was some small

1508
01:16:56,280 --> 01:16:59,400
Speaker 3: things she wanted to get the feeling art. It was

1509
01:16:59,479 --> 01:17:02,400
Speaker 3: so terrible. Well, I couldn't fight against it. It was

1510
01:17:02,479 --> 01:17:05,080
Speaker 3: like when you take either at the hospital and you

1511
01:17:05,120 --> 01:17:09,040
Speaker 3: begin to float. You fight and fight, but it's stronger

1512
01:17:09,080 --> 01:17:11,120
Speaker 3: than you are. I just got back here. I almost

1513
01:17:11,160 --> 01:17:14,000
Speaker 3: fell outside the door, but I got back. It angered

1514
01:17:14,040 --> 01:17:16,680
Speaker 3: him a little, for he had been asleep, and if

1515
01:17:16,680 --> 01:17:18,800
Speaker 3: she failed to get back, he wouldn't have known until

1516
01:17:18,800 --> 01:17:21,280
Speaker 3: probably too late. They swore not to leave the cave

1517
01:17:21,320 --> 01:17:25,360
Speaker 3: hereafter at all unless absolutely necessary, and then only while

1518
01:17:25,360 --> 01:17:27,680
Speaker 3: the others stood by inside to perform rescue work if

1519
01:17:27,720 --> 01:17:31,880
Speaker 3: need be. They spent hours talking, wondering, speculating. They coaxed

1520
01:17:31,960 --> 01:17:34,280
Speaker 3: and wheedled the radio for sounds. It would not come.

1521
01:17:35,439 --> 01:17:39,000
Speaker 3: Commercials and soap operas and five piece bands became precious

1522
01:17:39,000 --> 01:17:41,920
Speaker 3: by their very absence. And then, as a writer will

1523
01:17:42,080 --> 01:17:45,439
Speaker 3: under almost any circumstances, Arthur found his way to the

1524
01:17:45,479 --> 01:17:49,440
Speaker 3: typewriter and began tapping the keys. Franz said, with mock pestilence,

1525
01:17:49,800 --> 01:17:53,240
Speaker 3: my God, you're not going to do a story now, Darling.

1526
01:17:53,439 --> 01:17:55,920
Speaker 3: You've forgotten, but we don't know if you have any

1527
01:17:55,960 --> 01:18:00,600
Speaker 3: audience left anywhere. The joke fell flat, perhaps too frightfully

1528
01:18:00,600 --> 01:18:02,360
Speaker 3: true for all they knew to be funny.

1529
01:18:03,200 --> 01:18:06,439
Speaker 2: We took another snappole, and everyone agrees that I should

1530
01:18:06,479 --> 01:18:07,960
Speaker 2: do Arthur as euphoric.

1531
01:18:08,960 --> 01:18:13,519
Speaker 3: Oh wow, no, Fran, Arthur replied, seriously, I just want to.

1532
01:18:13,520 --> 01:18:16,280
Speaker 2: Put the dope down on this thing since last night,

1533
01:18:16,400 --> 01:18:19,640
Speaker 2: sort of a chronology. You know, you can fuss with

1534
01:18:19,680 --> 01:18:22,600
Speaker 2: those tin cans, and so I like to keep busy.

1535
01:18:22,840 --> 01:18:24,120
Speaker 2: I might as well be this.

1536
01:18:25,640 --> 01:18:28,680
Speaker 3: And he began to bang away at the typewriter. Take

1537
01:18:28,720 --> 01:18:29,120
Speaker 3: it away.

1538
01:18:29,479 --> 01:18:32,360
Speaker 2: At first. Time passed very slowly, as though the weight

1539
01:18:32,400 --> 01:18:34,800
Speaker 2: of doubt that clouded their minds clung to the hands

1540
01:18:34,800 --> 01:18:37,400
Speaker 2: of the clock, slowed them so that one wondered if

1541
01:18:37,439 --> 01:18:40,200
Speaker 2: time too, had become affected by the lethargy of the

1542
01:18:40,240 --> 01:18:44,519
Speaker 2: outside world. Occasionally, Arthur or Fran, one or the other

1543
01:18:44,600 --> 01:18:47,360
Speaker 2: of them would go to the phone dial the operator

1544
01:18:47,439 --> 01:18:51,759
Speaker 2: or some familiar, unfamiliar number series. There was ringing showing

1545
01:18:51,760 --> 01:18:55,240
Speaker 2: that the inanimate sinews of wire and electricity and mechanical

1546
01:18:55,280 --> 01:18:59,679
Speaker 2: appliances were still alive, but nothing else, and the radio hummed.

1547
01:19:00,200 --> 01:19:02,679
Speaker 2: The small needle that moved across the dial from low

1548
01:19:02,760 --> 01:19:06,960
Speaker 2: to high chilicycles. Touching the familiar stations that customarily fed

1549
01:19:07,000 --> 01:19:10,920
Speaker 2: so much noise, both human and instrument, into a nation's ear,

1550
01:19:11,200 --> 01:19:14,720
Speaker 2: found nothing on its course. They spent much time at

1551
01:19:14,760 --> 01:19:16,960
Speaker 2: the windows of the study and bedroom. Off of it.

1552
01:19:17,560 --> 01:19:20,360
Speaker 2: They looked out at the countryside, so green with August,

1553
01:19:20,600 --> 01:19:24,280
Speaker 2: so familiar with things they had done. Why there see

1554
01:19:24,280 --> 01:19:26,880
Speaker 2: from the window was a divot dug in the lawn

1555
01:19:27,080 --> 01:19:29,920
Speaker 2: where Arthur had practiced as golf swing. Now in the

1556
01:19:30,000 --> 01:19:33,000
Speaker 2: late afternoon, there was still some haze across the land,

1557
01:19:33,280 --> 01:19:35,960
Speaker 2: but the sun had burned part of it away. Still,

1558
01:19:36,000 --> 01:19:39,040
Speaker 2: though there was no wind, and all the outside had

1559
01:19:39,040 --> 01:19:44,599
Speaker 2: the flat, motionless appearance of scenery weird. Without giving voice

1560
01:19:44,640 --> 01:19:47,160
Speaker 2: to their reason, both Arthur and fran took themselves to

1561
01:19:47,200 --> 01:19:50,200
Speaker 2: the window. At six p m. A four motored commercial

1562
01:19:50,240 --> 01:19:53,479
Speaker 2: passenger plane always shot over just southward. At the time.

1563
01:19:53,960 --> 01:19:56,599
Speaker 2: It was a twilight flight that impressed itself on them

1564
01:19:56,600 --> 01:19:59,760
Speaker 2: with the roar of its high speed, heavy motors. Arthur

1565
01:19:59,800 --> 01:20:02,639
Speaker 2: had joked once that he could even feel the vibration.

1566
01:20:03,040 --> 01:20:07,000
Speaker 2: Sitting in his bathtub. Six came and went, as did

1567
01:20:07,080 --> 01:20:10,439
Speaker 2: six point fifteen. A quarter of an hour later, which

1568
01:20:10,479 --> 01:20:14,040
Speaker 2: is appropriate. Towards six point thirty, Franz said, matter of.

1569
01:20:13,920 --> 01:20:16,120
Speaker 3: Factly, I guess there's no plane either.

1570
01:20:16,479 --> 01:20:19,679
Speaker 2: Arthur turned from the window and translated that fact onto paper.

1571
01:20:20,840 --> 01:20:23,800
Speaker 2: It was after supper out of cans that fran sitting

1572
01:20:23,840 --> 01:20:26,160
Speaker 2: cross legged on the floor, asked, suddenly.

1573
01:20:26,000 --> 01:20:28,320
Speaker 3: What are we going to do? We can stay here

1574
01:20:28,360 --> 01:20:30,880
Speaker 3: only so long. Suppose we're the only people.

1575
01:20:31,160 --> 01:20:33,920
Speaker 2: She left the sentence unfinished, and her fingers went to

1576
01:20:33,960 --> 01:20:38,000
Speaker 2: her temples. He boshed and poo pooed. But much later,

1577
01:20:38,240 --> 01:20:40,840
Speaker 2: after she was asleep in the bedroom, he examined the

1578
01:20:40,840 --> 01:20:44,559
Speaker 2: oxygen supply, computed the number of full cylinders left, and

1579
01:20:44,640 --> 01:20:48,360
Speaker 2: adjusted the flow of the precious air downward. The days

1580
01:20:48,400 --> 01:20:51,880
Speaker 2: went a little faster than as though for spite. Arthur

1581
01:20:51,960 --> 01:20:54,599
Speaker 2: worked some of the time at his typewriter, and Franz

1582
01:20:54,600 --> 01:20:57,640
Speaker 2: stood looking over his shoulder, not once again saying what

1583
01:20:57,720 --> 01:20:58,520
Speaker 2: she'd said.

1584
01:20:58,280 --> 01:21:00,880
Speaker 3: First, But darling, who's going to read this?

1585
01:21:01,680 --> 01:21:03,680
Speaker 2: If it had been a joke, then it was not.

1586
01:21:04,120 --> 01:21:07,439
Speaker 2: Now the telephone, it might as well be that the

1587
01:21:07,479 --> 01:21:12,320
Speaker 2: wires were cut radio likewise, it was like a detective

1588
01:21:12,360 --> 01:21:15,920
Speaker 2: play cat and the canary, or people marooned on an island,

1589
01:21:16,360 --> 01:21:18,840
Speaker 2: and the most important people in their lives were the long,

1590
01:21:19,000 --> 01:21:23,120
Speaker 2: gray oblong cylinders with the silver diamond shaped labels that

1591
01:21:23,240 --> 01:21:30,679
Speaker 2: said oxygen dangerous, inflammable, which means flammable. They were people,

1592
01:21:31,080 --> 01:21:34,519
Speaker 2: They lived, or at least they contributed life, and their

1593
01:21:34,560 --> 01:21:36,720
Speaker 2: two lives would last just so.

1594
01:21:36,880 --> 01:21:40,439
Speaker 3: Long, Darling, I've got an awful headache. I feel funny.

1595
01:21:40,680 --> 01:21:43,040
Speaker 2: And Arthur would have to turn up the oxygen supply

1596
01:21:43,120 --> 01:21:45,799
Speaker 2: a bit more, for it was quite suddenly seven days

1597
01:21:45,840 --> 01:21:48,679
Speaker 2: now the length of time their air supply would last them.

1598
01:21:49,080 --> 01:21:50,360
Speaker 2: But he had husbanded it.

1599
01:21:50,560 --> 01:21:51,479
Speaker 3: Never heard that term.

1600
01:21:51,680 --> 01:21:52,880
Speaker 2: I think this is you, buddy.

1601
01:21:53,360 --> 01:21:56,160
Speaker 3: They talked less now. A few times Art came upon

1602
01:21:56,280 --> 01:21:58,360
Speaker 3: Fran in the bedroom crying, but she always tried to

1603
01:21:58,400 --> 01:22:00,880
Speaker 3: hide it and found him a smile on short notice.

1604
01:22:01,200 --> 01:22:04,360
Speaker 3: That's a great sentence. Toward the end of their alloted time,

1605
01:22:04,400 --> 01:22:07,120
Speaker 3: as Arthur could figure it, as the last cylinder hissed

1606
01:22:07,120 --> 01:22:09,559
Speaker 3: out its oxygen, he wondered whether it would be better

1607
01:22:09,600 --> 01:22:11,799
Speaker 3: to stay here in the cave and let the stale

1608
01:22:11,920 --> 01:22:15,759
Speaker 3: air slowly, ever so slowly, sap their strengthen their senses,

1609
01:22:15,960 --> 01:22:18,400
Speaker 3: or whether they should open the door and go outside

1610
01:22:18,400 --> 01:22:21,439
Speaker 3: into whatever there was waiting out there. But Fran, to

1611
01:22:21,479 --> 01:22:23,320
Speaker 3: whom he had not wanted to bring up the subject,

1612
01:22:23,320 --> 01:22:25,920
Speaker 3: had thought of it. Two spoke of it, and together

1613
01:22:26,000 --> 01:22:29,559
Speaker 3: they decided that the known capital K was better than

1614
01:22:29,600 --> 01:22:33,679
Speaker 3: the unknown capital U. Besides, they'd had experience out there,

1615
01:22:33,680 --> 01:22:36,800
Speaker 3: and the memory of that sudden, melancholy and pathological drowsiness

1616
01:22:36,880 --> 01:22:40,000
Speaker 3: was not all pleasant. They started on what must be

1617
01:22:40,040 --> 01:22:43,400
Speaker 3: the last day. Arthur announced, somewhat weakly, for there wasn't

1618
01:22:43,439 --> 01:22:45,960
Speaker 3: much air left, that they'd stretch the oxygen out five

1619
01:22:46,040 --> 01:22:50,000
Speaker 3: days more than he'd figure it the twelfth day, murmured Fran.

1620
01:22:50,760 --> 01:22:54,200
Speaker 3: It reminded her of something biblical. Arthur had finished whatever

1621
01:22:54,240 --> 01:22:56,559
Speaker 3: he had to finish at the typewriter earlier, with nearly

1622
01:22:56,640 --> 01:22:59,160
Speaker 3: the last of the strength in his fingers. The page

1623
01:22:59,200 --> 01:23:02,120
Speaker 3: merely gave the fact of their predicament, the supreme fact

1624
01:23:02,160 --> 01:23:05,040
Speaker 3: of which was that their fresh oxygen had been gone

1625
01:23:05,040 --> 01:23:08,040
Speaker 3: since early morning. Nobody had worried about opening a can

1626
01:23:08,080 --> 01:23:10,760
Speaker 3: of food this day. Instead, they found themselves arm in

1627
01:23:10,840 --> 01:23:13,479
Speaker 3: arm and the settee by the window. He gave Fran

1628
01:23:13,560 --> 01:23:16,280
Speaker 3: an affectionate squeeze and noted with the terrible sadness that

1629
01:23:16,720 --> 01:23:19,160
Speaker 3: must be controlled for her sake. How pale she looked,

1630
01:23:19,600 --> 01:23:23,080
Speaker 3: he knew that he likewise must look affright. They'd leaned

1631
01:23:23,080 --> 01:23:26,160
Speaker 3: their heads together, their foreheads rested against the window pane.

1632
01:23:26,360 --> 01:23:28,040
Speaker 3: It was another warm day from the feel of the

1633
01:23:28,080 --> 01:23:30,800
Speaker 3: thick glass, and already the temperature of the room without

1634
01:23:30,840 --> 01:23:34,720
Speaker 3: its fresh, mechanically cooled oxygen, had risen noticeably. It was

1635
01:23:34,800 --> 01:23:37,559
Speaker 3: no day to die, Arthur thought, as men have thought

1636
01:23:37,600 --> 01:23:41,600
Speaker 3: of every day so marked by destiny capital. Indeed, he

1637
01:23:41,680 --> 01:23:45,000
Speaker 3: looked at the greenness outside, the sameness, so funny that

1638
01:23:45,040 --> 01:23:47,719
Speaker 3: all this had happened, that all this could have happened.

1639
01:23:48,120 --> 01:23:51,280
Speaker 3: He felt very tired. His breath was shallow and unsatisfying.

1640
01:23:51,760 --> 01:23:54,360
Speaker 3: Fran pressed against him, and he'd managed to turn his head.

1641
01:23:54,760 --> 01:23:57,160
Speaker 3: She was crying, and he kissed her. Their mouths dry

1642
01:23:57,360 --> 01:23:59,720
Speaker 3: except for where tear ran down and touched their lips

1643
01:23:59,760 --> 01:24:03,599
Speaker 3: in This would be at least their way to die

1644
01:24:04,160 --> 01:24:07,439
Speaker 3: as completely together as two people could be. Yeah, not

1645
01:24:07,520 --> 01:24:11,080
Speaker 3: quite h and that had compensation. He was going to

1646
01:24:11,120 --> 01:24:13,280
Speaker 3: tell her after the kiss how much he loved her.

1647
01:24:13,680 --> 01:24:16,280
Speaker 3: When her head moved away from his, her eyes slid

1648
01:24:16,280 --> 01:24:19,240
Speaker 3: from his eyes to peer out It widened and a

1649
01:24:19,240 --> 01:24:22,439
Speaker 3: little gasp came from her mouth. He turned. It was

1650
01:24:22,479 --> 01:24:25,760
Speaker 3: an effort. He looked where she was looking through the

1651
01:24:25,800 --> 01:24:31,599
Speaker 3: window into the outside the lawn. D D take it away?

1652
01:24:32,040 --> 01:24:33,920
Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, Before I do, I should say to all

1653
01:24:33,960 --> 01:24:36,400
Speaker 2: of the listeners who are used to our episodes for

1654
01:24:36,439 --> 01:24:38,559
Speaker 2: Halloween and are like, wow, this one's going really long.

1655
01:24:38,960 --> 01:24:41,200
Speaker 2: We don't practice these, and we had no idea how

1656
01:24:41,240 --> 01:24:43,280
Speaker 2: long this one was going to be, so we're finding

1657
01:24:43,320 --> 01:24:43,760
Speaker 2: out with you.

1658
01:24:44,320 --> 01:24:47,439
Speaker 3: I read this in twenty minutes myself, but uh, you.

1659
01:24:47,360 --> 01:24:49,840
Speaker 2: Know, did you speed read it?

1660
01:24:50,400 --> 01:24:50,479
Speaker 6: No?

1661
01:24:51,000 --> 01:24:53,160
Speaker 2: You know, well I added some time with all of

1662
01:24:53,200 --> 01:24:57,360
Speaker 2: my jokes, snapples, quips and stupid stuff in the first one.

1663
01:24:57,560 --> 01:24:58,920
Speaker 3: Oh that's right, let's get on with it.

1664
01:24:59,120 --> 01:25:03,800
Speaker 2: Oh okay, The lifeless stage scenery had become alive for there,

1665
01:25:03,960 --> 01:25:07,599
Speaker 2: Hopping nonchalantly across the grass was a plump brown rabbit.

1666
01:25:08,160 --> 01:25:10,360
Speaker 2: It seemed to eye their window for a moment, as

1667
01:25:10,400 --> 01:25:12,400
Speaker 2: though it knew of the two people there, and then

1668
01:25:12,400 --> 01:25:16,920
Speaker 2: a hippity hopped unconcernedly on toward the terrace. The two

1669
01:25:16,960 --> 01:25:21,360
Speaker 2: overwhelmed people turned from their window, uttered small, meaningless noises.

1670
01:25:21,880 --> 01:25:23,599
Speaker 2: They made their way to the door of the cave.

1671
01:25:23,640 --> 01:25:26,680
Speaker 2: As best they could. Fran reached at first, but they

1672
01:25:26,680 --> 01:25:29,479
Speaker 2: pulled it open and went out together, arm in arm,

1673
01:25:29,720 --> 01:25:32,600
Speaker 2: leaving behind the manuscript neatly clipped and piled on the

1674
01:25:32,640 --> 01:25:37,280
Speaker 2: typewriter table, memorandum of the twelve days that eternity that

1675
01:25:37,360 --> 01:25:40,439
Speaker 2: had yet been so short. The rest of the house

1676
01:25:40,439 --> 01:25:44,320
Speaker 2: burst upon their senses, the familiar furniture, the bright wall paper.

1677
01:25:44,720 --> 01:25:48,800
Speaker 2: Fran was sobbing unashamedly, and Arthur, with a surge of

1678
01:25:48,880 --> 01:25:53,000
Speaker 2: new strength, helped her forward. After the stale, nearly airless

1679
01:25:53,040 --> 01:25:56,519
Speaker 2: atmosphere of the cave, even the hot stuffiness of out

1680
01:25:56,520 --> 01:25:59,880
Speaker 2: here was welcomed. They made the terrace door, and their

1681
01:26:00,040 --> 01:26:02,599
Speaker 2: weakness was a joke to be laughed at. Now they

1682
01:26:02,600 --> 01:26:05,200
Speaker 2: went out. They staggered out onto the lawn and the

1683
01:26:05,240 --> 01:26:07,840
Speaker 2: sob beneath their feet, hard and dry, for lack of

1684
01:26:07,920 --> 01:26:11,639
Speaker 2: rain still was a treat for their footsteps. They had

1685
01:26:11,640 --> 01:26:14,519
Speaker 2: not walked far when Arthur realized, with the stabbing shock

1686
01:26:14,560 --> 01:26:16,960
Speaker 2: of a knife in the heart, that all was not well.

1687
01:26:17,640 --> 01:26:21,120
Speaker 2: The same feelings as before, not the weakness and suffocation

1688
01:26:21,200 --> 01:26:24,280
Speaker 2: of the cave a few moments earlier, but the before

1689
01:26:25,000 --> 01:26:28,200
Speaker 2: when they'd been outside, since this terrible thing had happened.

1690
01:26:28,680 --> 01:26:31,720
Speaker 2: He turned abruptly and almost fell, and they reached for

1691
01:26:31,760 --> 01:26:34,760
Speaker 2: each other for mutual support. He saw that Fran was

1692
01:26:34,800 --> 01:26:38,439
Speaker 2: so affected too. They had not walked far, but it

1693
01:26:38,520 --> 01:26:41,479
Speaker 2: was too far. The stretch of lawn to the terrace

1694
01:26:41,560 --> 01:26:45,400
Speaker 2: to the back door was impossible, leagues uphill, dragging weight

1695
01:26:45,520 --> 01:26:49,840
Speaker 2: beyond measure. They fell together and lay close, panting into

1696
01:26:49,840 --> 01:26:54,519
Speaker 2: one another's face. There was simply an overwhelming desire to sleep,

1697
01:26:54,840 --> 01:26:57,920
Speaker 2: to rest. Now. Arthur saw it in Fran's face, and

1698
01:26:58,000 --> 01:26:59,960
Speaker 2: he had not the heart to hold up her bedtime,

1699
01:27:00,400 --> 01:27:04,439
Speaker 2: nor the strength to stay sleeping himself. The grass was

1700
01:27:04,479 --> 01:27:07,280
Speaker 2: home in a mattress, and as his head came down

1701
01:27:07,360 --> 01:27:11,479
Speaker 2: to it, the greenness unfolded and engulfed him. The rabbit, meantime,

1702
01:27:11,720 --> 01:27:15,040
Speaker 2: popped unconcerned around the corner of the house and perhaps

1703
01:27:15,439 --> 01:27:18,280
Speaker 2: wondered at the strange antics of these humans as he

1704
01:27:18,320 --> 01:27:21,200
Speaker 2: took his plump brown body across the lawn and into

1705
01:27:21,240 --> 01:27:22,160
Speaker 2: the field beyond.

1706
01:27:23,640 --> 01:27:28,680
Speaker 3: All right, this is about to get Scooby, dude.

1707
01:27:27,840 --> 01:27:30,680
Speaker 2: It is. But also I just want to say I

1708
01:27:30,720 --> 01:27:33,080
Speaker 2: triumphantly finished Arthur's parts.

1709
01:27:34,080 --> 01:27:35,400
Speaker 3: Well done, Robo.

1710
01:27:36,520 --> 01:27:38,840
Speaker 2: The same to you, my friend. You did a great sin,

1711
01:27:39,280 --> 01:27:44,759
Speaker 2: a great fran a great mister Hoskins, all of them bamed.

1712
01:27:45,400 --> 01:27:48,320
Speaker 3: Nice work. All right, I'll take this part and then

1713
01:27:48,320 --> 01:27:50,680
Speaker 3: you can take it home at the next Here we

1714
01:27:50,720 --> 01:27:57,360
Speaker 3: go the conclusion of the Beep Drowse. The Institute of

1715
01:27:57,439 --> 01:28:01,520
Speaker 3: Hieroglyphics had made an intensive study of all data, particularly

1716
01:28:01,560 --> 01:28:04,439
Speaker 3: with an eye to evaluating and discovering new facts concerning

1717
01:28:04,439 --> 01:28:07,960
Speaker 3: that momentous change in the solar system whose influences had

1718
01:28:08,080 --> 01:28:11,200
Speaker 3: caused what came to be known in future eons as

1719
01:28:11,840 --> 01:28:17,519
Speaker 3: the suspension polty capitalists. Amazingly enough, one of the clearest

1720
01:28:17,560 --> 01:28:20,040
Speaker 3: records found for in the beginning it did not seem

1721
01:28:20,040 --> 01:28:23,080
Speaker 3: possible that this species could be wiped out universally and

1722
01:28:23,120 --> 01:28:26,280
Speaker 3: so abruptly, was one made by a biped who confessed

1723
01:28:26,320 --> 01:28:30,200
Speaker 3: ability in existence was the making of hieroglyphics. It had

1724
01:28:30,200 --> 01:28:32,920
Speaker 3: taken much time, of course, for the Institute and other

1725
01:28:33,000 --> 01:28:37,280
Speaker 3: such institutes to understand these record symbols of another age.

1726
01:28:37,320 --> 01:28:40,800
Speaker 3: But this biped, whose name was A. Hodges, this is

1727
01:28:40,920 --> 01:28:44,960
Speaker 3: art with his companion Biped F. Hodges, good old friend,

1728
01:28:45,680 --> 01:28:48,439
Speaker 3: had written of the twelve days a day being a

1729
01:28:48,479 --> 01:28:52,000
Speaker 3: measure of time commonly used by biped science. It was

1730
01:28:52,080 --> 01:28:55,519
Speaker 3: in its way a classic the sudden, far more sudden

1731
01:28:55,560 --> 01:28:58,840
Speaker 3: than could be imagined by the most sanguine thinking of

1732
01:28:58,880 --> 01:29:04,160
Speaker 3: that time. The suspension of Biped civilization. This A. Hodges

1733
01:29:04,560 --> 01:29:06,640
Speaker 3: had told well of it in his Marks, and the

1734
01:29:06,680 --> 01:29:10,040
Speaker 3: Institute of Hieroglyphics, along with the other learned of the age,

1735
01:29:10,080 --> 01:29:12,439
Speaker 3: were inclined to accept the details set down as an

1736
01:29:12,439 --> 01:29:15,320
Speaker 3: accurate picture of what had taken place, at least in

1737
01:29:15,360 --> 01:29:18,800
Speaker 3: the first twelve days of the suspension. From the start

1738
01:29:18,840 --> 01:29:22,719
Speaker 3: of this event which Biped thinking would have unquestionably accepted

1739
01:29:22,720 --> 01:29:25,040
Speaker 3: and labeled a catastrophe, to the end of the record,

1740
01:29:25,600 --> 01:29:29,080
Speaker 3: there was, interestingly enough, no accurate guesses on the part

1741
01:29:29,479 --> 01:29:31,960
Speaker 3: of the one identified as A. Hodges as to the

1742
01:29:32,040 --> 01:29:35,599
Speaker 3: real significance of what was happening. Those who had studied

1743
01:29:35,600 --> 01:29:39,599
Speaker 3: tribal customs and actions of the Biped world averred that

1744
01:29:39,680 --> 01:29:42,719
Speaker 3: in that faraway period, the chief concern of any segment

1745
01:29:43,360 --> 01:29:46,520
Speaker 3: was that some other faction would make war upon them,

1746
01:29:46,680 --> 01:29:49,479
Speaker 3: a word which had vanished from the now capital n

1747
01:29:50,080 --> 01:29:52,800
Speaker 3: but meant the violent attacked with intent to destroy as

1748
01:29:52,880 --> 01:29:56,080
Speaker 3: much in the way of living organisms and material as possible.

1749
01:29:56,760 --> 01:30:00,760
Speaker 3: Message Biped Hodges had concerned himself with marking referring to

1750
01:30:00,920 --> 01:30:04,559
Speaker 3: Adam Baum and poison gas. It took some time before

1751
01:30:04,680 --> 01:30:09,240
Speaker 3: present eon scientists could correctly evaluate precisely what these terms meant,

1752
01:30:09,520 --> 01:30:12,600
Speaker 3: but both were eventually tied in by semanticists, which the

1753
01:30:12,640 --> 01:30:17,400
Speaker 3: tribal factionalism and the obvious intent of Biped to destroy Biped.

1754
01:30:18,200 --> 01:30:21,080
Speaker 3: It was the most interesting report this hieroglyphic of Hodges,

1755
01:30:21,400 --> 01:30:23,959
Speaker 3: for at first it was quite difficult for these enlightened

1756
01:30:24,000 --> 01:30:27,280
Speaker 3: of the now capital n to appreciate fully what had

1757
01:30:27,320 --> 01:30:30,360
Speaker 3: gone on. And then the capital t an examination of

1758
01:30:30,400 --> 01:30:33,920
Speaker 3: the universe and the Earth does not reveal everything, for

1759
01:30:34,040 --> 01:30:36,840
Speaker 3: after all, meanings and values themselves change.

1760
01:30:38,160 --> 01:30:42,360
Speaker 2: Oh boy, so this is taking place way into the future.

1761
01:30:42,439 --> 01:30:45,360
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, they found his writings and don't even know

1762
01:30:45,400 --> 01:30:49,280
Speaker 3: what war is. And interesting to see what happens here. Right.

1763
01:30:50,680 --> 01:30:53,679
Speaker 2: For instance, much of the lore of those misshrouded dark

1764
01:30:53,720 --> 01:30:56,800
Speaker 2: ages had been handed on from generation to generation of

1765
01:30:56,840 --> 01:30:59,880
Speaker 2: the enlightened by what in the vernacular of the then

1766
01:31:00,320 --> 01:31:04,160
Speaker 2: would have been called informers in those unions called households

1767
01:31:04,439 --> 01:31:07,320
Speaker 2: of the biped age. Even the use of the word

1768
01:31:07,400 --> 01:31:10,759
Speaker 2: biped must be qualified, for there are, as any student

1769
01:31:10,880 --> 01:31:14,840
Speaker 2: knows bipeds today but not uniquely so, whereas in the

1770
01:31:14,840 --> 01:31:19,040
Speaker 2: then the biped was supreme and reigned over all, including

1771
01:31:19,080 --> 01:31:21,920
Speaker 2: the other forms of life that inhabited the planet, whose

1772
01:31:22,000 --> 01:31:26,559
Speaker 2: moraseabilities in true eventual place were neither understood nor even

1773
01:31:26,680 --> 01:31:32,280
Speaker 2: considered by the biped. Painstakingly information from that forgotten biped

1774
01:31:32,320 --> 01:31:35,719
Speaker 2: species was gathered, and of the catastrophe that had removed

1775
01:31:35,760 --> 01:31:38,200
Speaker 2: them from the rule of the Earth. It seemed apparent

1776
01:31:38,280 --> 01:31:41,760
Speaker 2: now that some cosmic force, whose mechanization had been set

1777
01:31:41,800 --> 01:31:45,519
Speaker 2: in motion by the shifting of great astrobodies, had altered

1778
01:31:45,560 --> 01:31:49,160
Speaker 2: not only the oxygen belt which surrounds this globe some

1779
01:31:49,439 --> 01:31:53,519
Speaker 2: very made up, but more subtly altered its ingredients. Of

1780
01:31:53,600 --> 01:31:56,920
Speaker 2: all living things, only the biped species, which then ruled

1781
01:31:56,960 --> 01:32:00,240
Speaker 2: the world had been unable to adjust to it. Because

1782
01:32:00,240 --> 01:32:04,040
Speaker 2: of certain structural peculiarities of the cortex. The race had

1783
01:32:04,080 --> 01:32:09,120
Speaker 2: been stupefied, made unconscious by the withdrawal from other's atmospheres

1784
01:32:09,320 --> 01:32:12,920
Speaker 2: of an ingredient necessary for the retention by the species

1785
01:32:13,080 --> 01:32:18,400
Speaker 2: of consciousness. The Hodges Report and other hardwon indications proved

1786
01:32:18,400 --> 01:32:22,440
Speaker 2: this beyond a doubt, and it was accepted by historians. Contrary,

1787
01:32:22,439 --> 01:32:25,360
Speaker 2: of course, to the hieroglyphics manuscript, there had been no

1788
01:32:25,479 --> 01:32:29,920
Speaker 2: poison gases such. There had been instead a closing of

1789
01:32:30,000 --> 01:32:33,200
Speaker 2: that conscious and the biped species went into a state

1790
01:32:33,320 --> 01:32:37,120
Speaker 2: of suspension through sleep, though it was in the last

1791
01:32:37,160 --> 01:32:42,519
Speaker 2: analysis starvation that caused the wiping out of that civilization. Later,

1792
01:32:42,680 --> 01:32:48,559
Speaker 2: these atmospheric alterations had righted themselves.

1793
01:32:46,320 --> 01:32:49,800
Speaker 3: So people fell into a drowse and slept such that

1794
01:32:49,840 --> 01:32:51,759
Speaker 3: they didn't eat and starved to death in their sleep.

1795
01:32:52,240 --> 01:32:56,880
Speaker 2: Pretty gnarly jeez. Another day of considerable moment in this

1796
01:32:57,000 --> 01:33:00,480
Speaker 2: present eon had occurred not too long ago, when ours

1797
01:33:00,520 --> 01:33:04,519
Speaker 2: had brought from some remote far cave place a biped who,

1798
01:33:04,520 --> 01:33:07,840
Speaker 2: as the last of his species, had survived. It seemed

1799
01:33:07,880 --> 01:33:09,800
Speaker 2: that somewhere else in the world at the time of

1800
01:33:09,840 --> 01:33:13,439
Speaker 2: the Great Suspension, two bipeds, one of each sex, had

1801
01:33:13,479 --> 01:33:16,720
Speaker 2: survived through some quirk of fate and nature. They had

1802
01:33:16,760 --> 01:33:19,240
Speaker 2: passed on what was left to their age through children

1803
01:33:19,320 --> 01:33:22,320
Speaker 2: and children's children, and so on and so forth through

1804
01:33:22,360 --> 01:33:25,320
Speaker 2: the years, but conditions were now too adverse for them

1805
01:33:25,320 --> 01:33:28,240
Speaker 2: to multiply and take back the earth as they would

1806
01:33:28,320 --> 01:33:32,559
Speaker 2: indubitably try to. Present historians surmised had they been able

1807
01:33:33,720 --> 01:33:36,759
Speaker 2: for centuries, this spark from another age had rekindled itself

1808
01:33:36,800 --> 01:33:39,360
Speaker 2: with new prodigy reared in a cave high in a

1809
01:33:39,439 --> 01:33:43,040
Speaker 2: ridge of desolate mountains at the loneliest spot in the world.

1810
01:33:43,720 --> 01:33:48,080
Speaker 2: Atmospheric conditions in that spot, because of natural phenomena, maintained

1811
01:33:48,080 --> 01:33:51,400
Speaker 2: a vacuum which allowed the retention of an ozone form

1812
01:33:51,720 --> 01:33:55,559
Speaker 2: not antagonistic to the Biped. But the day of greatest

1813
01:33:55,600 --> 01:33:58,559
Speaker 2: moment was when the last Biped was brought to the

1814
01:33:58,600 --> 01:34:03,519
Speaker 2: administration building. Nature Samantisis decided had robbed this one of

1815
01:34:03,560 --> 01:34:07,120
Speaker 2: his last chance to prolong himself in flesh and blood image.

1816
01:34:07,760 --> 01:34:10,000
Speaker 2: I don't know what that means, but it sounds bad.

1817
01:34:11,680 --> 01:34:14,799
Speaker 2: He came then to their administration halls, a strange creature

1818
01:34:14,840 --> 01:34:18,360
Speaker 2: on two legs, making strange, angry sounds that until the

1819
01:34:18,400 --> 01:34:22,439
Speaker 2: wisest were summoned, could not be interpreted. As the Biped

1820
01:34:22,520 --> 01:34:25,479
Speaker 2: stood in front of their councils, they urged a tablet

1821
01:34:25,520 --> 01:34:28,839
Speaker 2: on him and a writing device, and this being, thinking

1822
01:34:28,880 --> 01:34:31,559
Speaker 2: that perhaps his message would reach those of his kind

1823
01:34:31,640 --> 01:34:36,360
Speaker 2: somewhere some day, made markings feverishly. Then the Biped was

1824
01:34:36,439 --> 01:34:40,639
Speaker 2: led away, despite his violence and ravings, orders were given

1825
01:34:40,680 --> 01:34:43,479
Speaker 2: to care for him, well, feed him, and give attention

1826
01:34:43,560 --> 01:34:47,559
Speaker 2: to his every need. Afterward, wise and aged scholars were

1827
01:34:47,600 --> 01:34:50,679
Speaker 2: brought to study the tablet. This then had been a member,

1828
01:34:50,960 --> 01:34:54,559
Speaker 2: the last member of that race which had called itself human.

1829
01:34:55,080 --> 01:34:58,760
Speaker 2: The human had written angrily and self chiding that he

1830
01:34:58,800 --> 01:35:01,880
Speaker 2: had been captured by jack in wolves and brought before

1831
01:35:01,960 --> 01:35:05,960
Speaker 2: a jury composed of a lynx, a giraffe, two squirrels,

1832
01:35:06,080 --> 01:35:10,839
Speaker 2: a bear, and other creatures. His hieroglyphic markings had trailed

1833
01:35:10,840 --> 01:35:13,520
Speaker 2: off at the end, but there were words of obscure

1834
01:35:13,600 --> 01:35:17,520
Speaker 2: meaning which the wise men decided stood for anger markings.

1835
01:35:18,040 --> 01:35:22,320
Speaker 2: So chuck. Thus the big reveal. Eh, yeah, we'll talk

1836
01:35:22,360 --> 01:35:25,840
Speaker 2: about it in a second. Despite the best of care,

1837
01:35:26,080 --> 01:35:29,880
Speaker 2: the Biped died not long afterward, still, according to records

1838
01:35:29,880 --> 01:35:33,840
Speaker 2: of the event, making loud noises at his caretakers. In

1839
01:35:33,920 --> 01:35:37,000
Speaker 2: reviewings of the whole affair at Animal Institute, it was

1840
01:35:37,040 --> 01:35:40,599
Speaker 2: decided that this fact, far more clearly than any markings

1841
01:35:40,720 --> 01:35:44,000
Speaker 2: or other dead evidence that had been found, illustrated the

1842
01:35:44,040 --> 01:35:48,719
Speaker 2: basic unfitness of the Biped civilization, which should so proudly

1843
01:35:48,760 --> 01:35:52,840
Speaker 2: call itself human. It is obvious was the finding that

1844
01:35:52,880 --> 01:35:56,320
Speaker 2: the shortcomings of the Biped were many. Likewise, it was

1845
01:35:56,400 --> 01:35:59,639
Speaker 2: inevitable even many centuries before it happened at the time

1846
01:35:59,680 --> 01:36:04,120
Speaker 2: of the suspension that the biped human would vanish, that

1847
01:36:04,280 --> 01:36:08,920
Speaker 2: animals is enlightened of the present eon would inherit the Earth.

1848
01:36:25,640 --> 01:36:27,840
Speaker 3: So uh, sort of Planet of the Apes.

1849
01:36:28,439 --> 01:36:31,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of, but with giraffes this time in squirrels.

1850
01:36:31,520 --> 01:36:33,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, this is a good one. I will

1851
01:36:33,240 --> 01:36:36,799
Speaker 3: say it's a fifteen pager that could have been nine easily.

1852
01:36:37,160 --> 01:36:39,600
Speaker 2: I mean, the whole boondoggle about trying to get the

1853
01:36:39,640 --> 01:36:43,000
Speaker 2: neighbors to come out seven times this was a bit much. Yeah,

1854
01:36:43,040 --> 01:36:45,439
Speaker 2: but it was still good and you can see why

1855
01:36:45,600 --> 01:36:47,679
Speaker 2: Gene Milligan was the best.

1856
01:36:47,920 --> 01:36:53,599
Speaker 3: Yeah, agreed. And that's the spectacular twenty twenty five style.

1857
01:36:54,240 --> 01:36:56,920
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and I'm pretty happy with it, Chuck.

1858
01:36:57,160 --> 01:36:59,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't wait to see what Ben and Jerry

1859
01:36:59,000 --> 01:36:59,519
Speaker 3: do with the thing.

1860
01:37:00,120 --> 01:37:02,040
Speaker 2: Yeah. Same here, and to all of you while we're

1861
01:37:02,040 --> 01:37:05,040
Speaker 2: waiting for Ben and Jerry to whip this thing into

1862
01:37:05,080 --> 01:37:09,080
Speaker 2: good shape, Happy Halloween to you. Enjoy lots of candy,

1863
01:37:09,280 --> 01:37:11,920
Speaker 2: look out for razor blades and apples and all that stuff,

1864
01:37:12,320 --> 01:37:16,200
Speaker 2: and we'll see you back in regular time after Halloween.

1865
01:37:34,880 --> 01:37:37,760
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

1866
01:37:37,840 --> 01:37:42,040
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1867
01:37:42,160 --> 01:37:44,000
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