Well, that was nothing personal, son. You had it coming. But, after what those ingrates tried to do to me last night, and in a church! They nicked me, son. Maurice, can I be frank? You're no good on the radio. Your choice of material is, um... Well, it's awful. And your personality is like, uh, lox or olives, or a strong cup of coffee. It's an acquired taste. So what you're saying is I'm too different. Yeah, sort of. In a way. You know you have it in your power to square things with Chris. No, I can't do that, son. I've got my pride. That's what it comes down to, doesn't it? You, Maggie, Chris, Anku... Who was that last one? - Excuse me, Mr Anku? - Dr Fleischman. What a pleasant surprise. - Was I expecting you? - No. I was thinking about you and I stopped by. Your wife told me you were in here. I see. Do you know a four-letter word for "biting remark"? Barb? Of course. - So you work crossword puzzles, too? - On occasion. - New York Times. I presume? - Of course. Pencil? - Pen. - Oh. Wouldn't you be more comfortable naked? Look, I know you didn't ask me to come here and I told myself no way would I do this again after you gave me the slip, but... You are going to die if you don't take care of your cancer. We all die. I know we all die sometime. But you're choosing to die. And that burns me up because you are a doctor and you know better. I've been practising medicine for almost 50 years. I've treated everything under the sun. Most of the time, people got better. Sometimes not. But they always listened to me, believed in me and I always treated them my way. I'd rather die than lose face with them. What are you talking about? You'd rather die than lose face? Nobody would rather die. This is stupid, it's nuts. Either you are crazy or you are a coward and we both know you aren't crazy. It's just pride, Anku. It's just stupid pride. When I was growing up in Oklahoma City, I'd go to the show on Saturday. My favourite was John Wayne. Didn't matter what kind of a movie it was, cowboy picture, war movie, I was with him all the way. Except for The Quiet Man. That one bored the hell out of me. By the time I was nine years old, I was walkin' and talkin' like the Duke. And then one day, the walls came crashin' down. I was playing army with the Marshall boys, Jed and Jeff, in Bailey's Wood and Jeff said kind of offhandedly that John Wayne didn't do his own fightin'. Didn't throw his own punches, didn't take his own hits or his own falls. I kicked the hell out of the Marshalls and ran home and asked my daddy if it was true that John Wayne didn't do his own fightin'. And he said yes. John Wayne was my hero and the Marshall boys gave him feet of clay. I don't give a damn if Walt Whitman kicked with his right or his left foot. Or that J Edgar Hoover took it better than he gave it. Or that Ike was true-blue to Mamie. Or that God-knows-who had trouble with the ponies or with the bottle. We need our heroes. We need men we can look up to, believe in. Men who walk tall. We cannot chop 'em off at the knees, just to prove they're like the rest of us. Now, Walt Whitman was a pervert, but he was the best poet that America ever produced. And if he was standing here today and somebody called him a fruit or a queer behind this back, or to his face, or over these airwaves, that person would have to answer to me. Sure, we're all human. But there's damn few of us that have the right stuff to be called heroes. And that closes the book on it. It's open. - Dr Fleischman. - Mr Anku. - How you doin'? - Fine, fine. I told the missus about our conversation. She took your side. Pride is a powerful narcotic but it doesn't do much for the autoimmune system. You wanna join me for a salami sandwich? I can't. I got a plane to catch. Maybe when I come home from the hospital you can ------------------------------ Читайте также: - текст Покаяние на английском - текст Война в доме на английском - текст Бетховен 4 на английском - текст Ганг Хо на английском - текст Родня на английском |