Imaginary Crimes (1994) - full transcript
Coming-of-age story set in the 1950's stars Harvey Keitel as a small-time hustler/dreamer, recently widowed, who tries his best to care for his two daughters, 17-year-old Sonya, and 12-year-old Greta, while Sonya's rapid disulisionment with her father puts her at odds with him more times than nessessary.
[triumphant music]
[elegant music]
- [Narrator] "Bucking the
wind" was Daddy's phrase
for what people had to
do together in life.
- [Ray] At times, life is
gonna be stormy, sweetheart.
And when those winds blow,
you're gonna have to
plant your little feet,
lean into it, and buck the wind.
- [Narrator] "Bucking the
wind" was also Daddy's excuse
on a cold winter night for a
quick trip to the corner store
to buy another
bottle of bourbon.
[laughs]
I came of age when he
agreed to take me along.
- How about some ice cream?
- In the snow?
- That's the best time.
- I'll get it.
- Evening, Ray.
What can I do for you?
- Carton of vanilla and
a fifth of Wild Turkey.
Listen, Vern, I've been
meaning to talk to you.
My partner, Edward Atkins, and I
are looking for just
the right guy
to go into the business
investment of a lifetime,
a man of vision, someone
who's not afraid
to step out of the mold,
take a risk.
Vern, a man such as yourself.
- [Narrator] Vern looked like
anything but a man of vision.
- What is it this time, Ray?
- NapRenew.
It's a miraculous formula.
A revolutionary new process
which actually enables
us to restore the nap
on old and worn serge suits.
I'm telling you, there's a
fortune to be made here, Vern.
Cleaning fluids are the
investment of the future.
- I'll have to think about it.
- You do that.
Don't take too long.
An opportunity like this comes
along once in a blue moon.
Come on, Sonya.
Let's get home before the
ice cream melts.
- Hey, Ray, wait up.
That will be 8.50.
- Put it on my tab, Vern.
♪ Oh, give me land, lots of
land under starry skies above ♪
♪ Don't fence me in
♪ Let me ride through
the wide open country ♪
- [Narrator] Years later,
this memory would always be
the memory that haunted
my imagination,
hand-in-hand, singing in
the deserted snowy streets,
me with the father who had
the audacity to buy ice cream
on the coldest night
of the year.
[bird chirping]
[knocking]
- Sonya?
Sonya.
Sonya Weiler?
You get out of bed this instant.
Come on, sweetheart,
rise and shine.
The early bird catches the worm.
Sonya?
We don't want to be
late for Edgemont.
Sonya, get up.
Get up, I want to see you up.
- [Sonya] I'm up.
- That's a girl.
Good morning, sweetie.
- Morning, Dad.
- [Ray] Greta, make sure
Sonya gets out of bed.
- Okay.
Roxie's packing.
She's leaving us the hair dryer.
- She's packing?
[Sonya sighs]
What'd she say?
- Not much.
She looked kinda mad.
Sonya, I was trying
to keep track.
Is Roxie number 11 or number 12?
- [Roxie] See ya, Ray.
- Knock it off, Greta.
- [Ray] Roxie, wait a minute.
Where are you going?
- I'm leaving.
- Why?
- You won't pay me my money.
- I told you, I'll have the cash
by the end of the week, Rox.
[car horn honking]
- You've been saying
that for months.
Bye, girls!
[car horn honking]
- Well, you know,
usually an employee
gives the employer a notice!
[door thuds]
Goddamn son of a bitch!
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!
[car whirs]
All right, girls, let's go.
- I told you I had a bad
feeling about Roxie, Daddy.
- [Ray] Sonya, you have a bad
feeling about all of them.
- Roxie was number 12,
wasn't she?
- Now, don't you start.
Well, sweetheart, you're
the family historian.
If you say 12, then
12 it must be.
- It was 12.
- Dad, about Edgemont...
- Look, we've
discussed this enough.
A promise is a promise.
Ray Weiler never
welches on a promise.
- They're not gonna take me
for just one year, anyway.
[footsteps clicking]
- Miss Tate.
It's such a pleasure to
finally meet you.
My daughter Sonya.
- Hello.
- I've heard so much
about you over the years.
- [Miss Tate] Oh, really?
From whom?
- My wife was an Edgemont girl.
Class of '34.
Hardly a day went by without
her discussing the school
and the refining influence
that you had on her life.
- [Miss Tate] What is
your wife's name, Mr.--
- [Ray] Weiler, Valery Weiler.
I mean, Beecham, when
she was here.
- Beecham?
1934.
Well, of course I
remember Valery.
She was in one of my
first classes here.
Do ask her to come see me.
I like to see what
becomes of our girls.
- Valery died eight years ago.
- I'm terribly sorry, Sonya.
- Thank you.
- I promised Valery that
I would send her
two daughters to Edgemont.
- Mr. Weiler, are you
raising two young girls
all on your own?
Oh, that is most admirable.
- Sonya's records.
All As.
Mostly all As.
[sighs]
I know Valery would feel
that even a year
under your influence
would be invaluable.
- Mr. Weiler, why did you
wait so long to apply?
Our semester has begun.
Enrollment is full.
- Miss Tate, you can't
imagine the pain it causes me
to be sitting here before you
like this, at this late date.
But circumstances have not
permitted me to do so sooner.
What can I say,
except that I know that you,
with your culture
and refinement,
would appreciate the burden,
a burden of love, of course,
but nonetheless a burden,
of trying to raise two
motherless children,
to try to keep a little
home together for them
and inculcate in them the values
that you so steadfastly
uphold here at Edgemont.
Miss Tate, if you knew
what it meant
to a widower like myself
to be able to entrust
his child to your care...
Well, Miss Tate,
I am beyond words.
- Well, I appreciate your
sentiment, Mr. Weiler.
And it's most unusual,
but I am willing to
make an exception.
Welcome to Edgemont,
Miss Weiler.
- Thank you.
- Good.
Then that's settled.
Now since you're here, Sonya,
you'll start school with
the other girls.
Mr. Weiler, you'll need to
leave a deposit
for the tuition with
our cashier.
- I seem to have
forgotten my checkbook.
I'll have my assistant
take care of it
first thing this afternoon.
- [Miss Tate] Fine.
- [Narrator] Valery Weiler
sits at the kitchen table
dealing herself a hand
of solitaire.
That's mostly what
my mother did.
She smoked Luckys and
played cards
and read paperback mysteries,
one after the other.
- I've got some big news
for my gals tonight.
- Hey, Ray.
- [Narrator] Everything lit up
when my father came
through the door at night.
- Honey, Weiler and
Atkins are about to patent
an invention that's gonna
revolutionize the mining
industry.
Where's Sonya?
[gentle music]
- Ladies and gentlemen,
Miss Carmen Miranda!
Hello, amigo.
♪ I'm Chiquita banana
and I've come to say ♪
♪ Bananas have to ripen in
a certain way ♪
♪ When they're
flecked with brown ♪
- Valery, you didn't tell
me the Brazilian Bombshell
was playing Portland.
- Sorry, Ray, I was
sworn to secrecy.
- Daddy, what's under there?
- Baby, you are looking
at Daddy's first million.
Now, if you ladies
would have a seat.
- [Narrator] He brought
a sense of excitement
from the outside world into
the tiny basement apartment.
- Voila!
Ladies, I present to
you the Finders Keepers.
[both applauding]
- What does it do?
[Sonya chuckles]
- This revolutionary
device is so simple to use,
even a child can strike it rich.
Finally, the little guy
will have a chance
up against the fat cat
mining companies.
Valery, the market
for these babies
is going to be so big
and so profitable
that we're just a technicality
away from your dream house.
- [Narrator] My mother's one
big wish in life was modest.
She wanted out of our
one-room apartment.
She wanted a home of her
own, any home would do.
- Now, who in the audience
would like to participate?
Hide the coin.
Anywhere you want.
- Close your eyes.
[laughs]
We are ready.
[device beeping]
Try going left.
- [Ray] No hints from
the audience.
Greta, I almost
forgot about you.
- Mommy, I'm hungry.
- I know.
- [Narrator] The Finders Keepers
went to the same
mysterious place
where all my father's other
revolutionary devices ended up.
My mother returned to her
cigarettes and solitaire,
and her dream house remained
just a technicality away.
- Sonya, dinner!
- How do you spell electricity?
- How do you think you spell it?
- E-L-E-C-T R-I-C-I-T-Y.
- Very good.
- [Ray] That's very good.
- So you picked
Benjamin Franklin?
- [Greta] Mm-hm.
- [Ray] What are you working on?
- American heroes, my
report for school.
- I got one for you.
Charles A. Steen.
- She already picked.
- The Uranium King.
He's the kinda man that
makes this country great.
The man strikes out on his own,
stakes everything he's
got on a piece of land
in the middle of nowhere.
He works that mine with
his bare hands
and comes out with $50 million.
- Dad, she already
picked Benjamin Franklin.
- A few years ago, he
didn't know where his next
Geiger counter was coming from.
[phone ringing]
That is what is beautiful
about America.
That sort of opportunity,
I'm not home.
That kind of spirit, that's
what makes this country great,
to have a dream, pursuit it,
no matter what the odds are,
no matter--
- Hello?
- Who's against you.
- Oh, Mr. Garrity.
No, he's not home right now.
Could I get him to
call you back?
The rent is in the mail.
It's on the way.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
[gentle music]
- That guy has a
hell of a nerve,
disturbing a family
at dinnertime.
Now, where was I?
- He didn't know where his next
Geiger counter was coming from.
- Right.
Everybody on the Colorado
Plateau called him crazy.
Now his dalmatian is
eating T-bone steaks,
and he's flying in his own
plane up to Salt Lake City,
take rhumba lessons.
- [Greta] Where is he now?
- [Ray] He's probably
off in Hollywood,
doing the rhumba
with Sandra Dee.
[Ray laughs]
- [Greta] How do you
spell rhumba?
- [Ray] R-H-U-M-B-A.
- "Has anyone supposed
it lucky to be born?
"I hasten to inform him or her,
"it's just as lucky to die,
and I know it.
"I pass death with the dying,
"and birth with the
new-washed babe,
"and am not contained
between my hat and my boots
"and peruse manifold
objects, no two alike."
- How'd you get just a
one-year sentence at Retchmont?
- [Mr. Webster] "And
their adjuncts all good.
"I am not on earth nor
adjunct of an earth."
- Just lucky, I guess.
- "I am the mate and
companion of people,
"all just as immortal
and fathomless as myself.
"And they do not know
how immortal, but I know.
"Every kind for
itself and its own,
"for me mine male and female,
"for me all that
have been boys--
- Sometimes, he gets so caught
up in what he's reading,
and he forgets we're here.
Lot of girls ditched
while he was reading
"Julius Caesar" last year.
- [Mr. Webster] "And
the old maid,
"for me mothers and
the mothers of mothers,
"for me lips that have smiled,
eyes that have shed tears,
"for me children and the
begetters of children."
- And he never ever sits down,
not even to grade papers.
- Miss Jenkins.
I know that your mouth is as
big as that bag that you carry,
but I would appreciate it
if you kept them
both closed in my classroom.
- I was just telling
Sonya about how we read
"Julius Caesar" last year.
- Miss Weiler, if you
think you have something
more important to say
than Walt Whitman,
why don't you share it
with the rest of the class?
No?
Good, okay.
"I see through the broadcloth
and gingham whether or no
"and am around, tenacious,
acquisitive--
- Stick of gum.
- "Tireless, and can never
"be shaken away."
- [Sonya] Bobby Darin.
- [Margaret] Yeah, I'll
take Bobby Darin.
I can go for that.
Oh, you gotta be kidding.
Roy Orbison?
How can you say that?
He's just so gross-looking.
- [Sonya] Well, it's not
the way he looks.
I mean, you have to
listen to his lyrics.
- Who cares about lyrics?
I'll take Frankie
Avalon any day.
- Frankie Avalon?
- Jeez, what is it
with you two?
- He's sexy.
- Margaret thinks Frankie
Avalon is sexy.
- I didn't mean he was sexy--
- They're both
a couple of greaseballs.
[Margaret chuckles]
And to think of all the
money they're raking in.
- I'd take some of that money.
Besides, what kind of
talk is that anyway
from two Edgemont girls?
"Sexy"?
[Margaret chuckles]
[Sonya chuckles]
What the hell are they
teaching you at that school?
- Not to swear.
[Margaret chuckles]
[Greta laughs]
Hi.
- Hi.
I was just talking to your dad.
He says you guys are gonna buy
some land up in the Rockies.
He says we can go skiing.
Sounds really great.
- Yeah.
- [Margaret] Come on.
- Come on.
[Greta laughs]
Come on, it's a big one.
- Sonya, come on.
- See these flecks of metal,
girls?
These little flecks are going
to make us all rich someday.
Daddy and Eddie are staking
four claims up here.
In fact, we named them
after you girls.
Sonya 1, Sonya 2, and
Greta 1 and Greta 2.
- [Sonya] How original.
- Did you say something, Sonya?
All right, now before we
go any further,
let's go over the three rules
by which we live in
the mountains.
Number one--
- Dad, we've gone over
this a hundred times.
We know them by heart.
And I already filled Margaret
in, didn't I, Margaret?
- Yeah.
The three rules by which we--
- Good.
You can't be too careful.
Besides, Sonya,
someday these claims
will belong to you and Greta.
And you will need to
come up here on your own
to check on the operation.
- Oh, that's right, I forgot.
- Number one.
- Always carry matches.
- Number two.
Speak up, girl, I
can't hear you.
- [Greta] Always look for
Forest Service markers.
- I wasn't talking to you.
- I was helping Sonya.
- I don't need your help.
- Don't snap at your
sister like that.
Come back here. Sonya.
There's one more rule to go.
Don't walk away from me!
Now what is the third rule
of the forest?
- Let go of me.
- What is the third rule--
- Let go of me!
- Of the forest?
- [Sonya] Always follow
rivers downstream!
God!
Just...
[Sonya sighs]
- Anybody down there?!
- Jarvis!
Over here!
[gentle music]
- [Margaret] You okay?
- You girls stay there
while Daddy and Uncle Eddie
speak with Mr. Jarvis!
- Hello, Ray.
- [Ray] How are you, Jarvis?
Follow me.
[Sonya sighs]
- [Greta] It's okay, Sonya.
Okay?
- You know, Ray, that
was not too cool,
making a move like
that on Jarvis.
- Eddie.
Don't worry about it.
I've got it covered.
- "In my hungry fatigue
and shopping for images,
"I went into the neon
fruit supermarket
"dreaming of your enumerations.
"What peaches and penumbras.
"Whole families
shopping at night.
"Aisles full of husbands.
"Wives in the avocados,
babes in the tomatoes.
"And you, Garcia Lorca,
"what were you doing down
by your watermelons?"
Get this back at the end
of the day, Miss Weiler.
"I saw you, Walt Whitman,
childless, lonely old grubber,
"poking among the meats
in the refrigerator
"and eyeing the grocery boys."
[gentle music]
- [Narrator] Valery Weiler
was addicted to the movies.
She'd named me after
Sonja Henie,
and my sister Greta
for Garbo in "Camille."
No matter what the movie
was, my mother always cried.
- No, the best part is when
Bette Davis is on the stairs
and she looks down at everybody
at the party and she says,
"Fasten your seat belts--
"You're in for a bumpy night!"
[Sonya laughs]
- Yeah.
- [Narrator] Movies were
her only social life
outside our small apartment.
Every Wednesday night,
we took the bus
to the magnificent Fox Theater
with its gilded, golden globes.
Wednesday's were raffle night,
and she always wore
her lucky scarf.
[elegant music]
- [Agatha] Oh, Matt,
you were right.
We have missed six
wonderful, exciting years.
I've been so blind.
Why didn't you make me see?
- Why didn't I make you see?
I...
[choir vocalizing]
[audience applauding]
- Put your hankies away, ladies,
'cause tonight is the night
of the Wednesday night raffle.
And the winning number is 925.
Miss Valery Weiler!
- [Narrator] My mother's
face was flushed.
She'd always dreamed
about winning,
but then never expected
it to happen.
Now that all those
eyes were on her,
she didn't know what to do.
[audience applauding]
- Oh!
[elegant music]
[Valery laughing]
- [Narrator] As we made our
way to the stage together
to claim her prize,
I wondered if this would be
her thrill of a lifetime.
- Ah, and a lovely
mother-to-be too.
Congratulations, Mrs. Weiler.
- Thank you.
[audience applauding]
- [Narrator] My mother
smiled for a week.
I'd never seen her so happy.
Even if the dishes were cheap
and an ugly shade of pink,
at least they were hers.
- What kind of color is that,
anyway?
You couldn't really
call it pink.
It looks more like flesh.
[laughs]
Who would want to eat off flesh?
[chuckles]
- Don't you talk about my
dishes that way.
- [Narrator] Valery
remembered her other dishes,
the ones my father had
hocked years ago
to finance some
imaginary goldmine.
- Hell, honey, you don't
need that crap.
As soon as the checks clear
on this Anaconda deal,
I'll get you the finest
set of china money can buy.
- [Narrator] She told
herself it doesn't matter.
Someday, Ray is sure to
strike it rich.
She swallows her disappointment.
She knows times were
hard for everyone.
- Well, it's not exactly
Fitzgerald, not yet, anyway.
Do you have any more of
these stories?
- No.
Well, yes.
Just a couple.
- Miss Weiler, I think you may
have the makings of a writer.
- No, they're just
little stories that I...
- I'll expect you to
keep up with the reading.
That is essential.
But you can turn in your stories
instead of some of
the assignments.
- Thank you.
- Well, don't thank me
until you've read my notes.
For instance, "gilded,
golden globes,"
I think you can do
better than that.
You have to be careful
with alliteration.
Keep it personal.
Use your own voice.
[elegant music]
- [Ray] Sonya's a lovely child.
- [Woman] I've noticed.
- [Ray] Very responsible
and she's very grown-up.
- Mm-hm.
- Very good qualities.
- [Ray] Very willing
to help out.
- Mm-hm.
- Mm.
- [Ray] She takes good
care of her little sister.
- Does she?
- Really?
- [Ray] Thank you, dear.
- Grace and balance,
Sonya, grace and balance.
Care for a mint?
[Margaret chuckles]
- [Woman] Mr. Weiler, I
think it's commendable
that you're taking care of
those two girls all on your own.
- [Woman] I can't imagine
Margaret's father ever doing
that.
- Can't imagine Margaret's
mother ever doing it either.
[Sonya chuckles]
- He's missing out on life's
greatest joy, I can say that.
My business may suffer
a bit at times,
but all I need to do is look
over here at my little girl
to know that it's worth
every sacrifice.
Mrs. Rucklehaus?
- Oh, no, no, please,
call me Ginny, Mr. Weiler.
- That's Ray, Ginny.
[Ginny chuckles]
Ladies?
- No, thank you.
- [Ginny] Oh, what business
did you say you're in, Ray?
- Mining, mostly.
But I do like to keep my
hands in lots of enterprises.
- Isn't that
enterprising of you?
[laughs]
[laughs]
Do you have your
hands in anything
really interesting right now?
- Mm.
[sighs]
Well, you must keep this
under your hats, ladies,
but, yes, my partner and I
are on to one of the biggest
veins this side of the Rockies.
- My lips are zipped.
But maybe you should
talk to my husband, Ray.
He's vice president of
First Federal.
He's always, always, always
looking for a good investment.
- I'll remember that.
- In fact, Sonya, why
don't you come over
to the house this weekend?
Gigi's...
Gigi?
Gigi's having a little
get-together for her girl
friends.
- I'd love to, thank you,
but I must take my little
sister to dance class.
- Oh, don't worry about that,
Sonya.
I'll drop you off at
the party myself
and I'll take care of Greta.
[upbeat music]
♪ Doo
♪ Doo
♪ Doo
♪ Doo
♪ Well, I went to a
dance the other night ♪
♪ Everybody went stag
♪ I said over and over
and over again ♪
♪ This dance is
gonna be a drag ♪
- I mean, I don't know
why they do it.
I mean, take Tony Curtis, you
know what his real name is?
Bernard Schwartz.
From Brooklyn.
- I just heard this story
about this girl,
she teases her hair out to here,
and one night, when
she's sleeping,
a little rat crawls inside
of her hair and dies.
What's even worse about it is,
one time,
when she's out with
her boyfriend,
the rat tail is going
down her face
when he goes to kiss her.
Isn't that yucky?
♪ I said, won't you come
over and talk to me ♪
♪ And be my girl
[doorbell ringing]
♪ It's June in January
- Ray, good to see you.
Come on in, meet Bud.
Sonya's in the back with
the other girls.
Bud.
Bud, honey, this is Ray Weiler,
Sonya's father, remember?
I told you about him.
- [Bud] Yeah, from the
mother-daughter tea.
- Mm-hm.
- How do you do, Bud?
- How are you?
- Pleasure.
- Listen, can I get you a drink?
- Oh. No.
No. Thank you.
That's kind of you to offer,
but it's a bit early for me.
- Oh, please, Ray,
don't run off.
Please.
Bud's really quite
the bartender.
Come on, mix Ray a drink.
[Ray laughs]
- [Ray] Well, if you insist.
Scotch on the rocks, Bud.
- All right.
- But only a short one.
- [Bud] You got it.
- Dad?
Greta.
- Having fun, honey?
[sighs]
- Go on and sit down.
I think I'll go get us
something to nibble on.
- [Bud] Here you go, Ray.
- [Ray] Thank you.
It's quite a home you have here,
Bud.
- [Bud] Thank you.
- Wonderful grain in the wood.
Cedar and hemlock, if
I'm not mistaken.
I like to think I know my woods.
- Well, you obviously do.
Did you see the corner
over here, Ray?
It's glass to glass, mitered.
The seam virtually disappears.
- [Ray] Mm-hm.
- Cheers.
[speaking in foreign language]
♪ In the middle of a kiss
- My wife loved this song.
♪ It dawned on me
[laughs]
♪ In the middle of a kiss
- We used to dance
to this music.
♪ I knew you were mine
♪ In the middle of a
sweet embrace ♪
- [Bud] So Ginny tells me
you're in the mining business.
- Mining, yes.
Mostly mining.
- She mentioned something about
a deal here in the Cascades?
- I'm so sorry.
[clicking tongue]
[laughs]
- Bud, I don't have to tell
you how iffy these things are,
but, frankly, a deal this good
comes along once in a blue moon.
♪ Of a sigh
- [Ray] As I was telling
your lovely wife,
my partner and I have staked
four claims in the mountains,
named them after Sonya
and her sister.
- [Narrator] Every
summer, my mother, Greta,
and I took the boat to Canada
to stay with my grandmother,
Nona.
- [Ray] Sonya, can I tell
Mom your joke?
- [Sonya] Yeah.
- Greta, why did the moron
throw the clock out the window?
[Greta babbles]
Wrong!
Because he wanted to
see time fly.
- Oh!
[Greta laughs]
[all laugh]
You understand your daddy,
don't you?
- Yeah.
[whistling]
- [Narrator] Each year, our
father saw us off at the dock,
but he never came along.
The journey lasted a
night and day.
There, in that world of open
sky and saltwater tides,
my mother was another person.
Gone were the paperbacks
and decks of cards.
Gone were my father's latest
schemes and inventions.
She'd escaped to that
familiar landscape
where she was born and
where she felt most alive.
- [Valery] Straight ahead. Push.
- [Narrator] Our last
summer there,
the summer that I was nine,
I learned to ride a bicycle.
Greta learned to toddle
and say, "Mommy" and "up."
Every night, I stayed out
playing long after dark.
And I wished on Nona's
favorite star
that the summer would never end.
That summer, my mother
spent a lot of time
with Everett MacGregor, her
old high school sweetheart.
She seemed happier with him
than she ever was with Ray.
Then it suddenly occurred to me.
If he had been my father, it
would have changed everything.
- [Everett] Yeah, I
can't do the fancy stuff.
[elegant music]
- [Valery] Mm.
Mm.
- [Narrator] Towards
the end of that summer,
my mother learned that
she had cancer
after an examination
by the doctor in town.
Strange days followed.
My confusion was
greater than anyone's
because the others knew.
Maybe if they'd told me,
maybe I could've done
something to help her.
- No, I heard it from
a specialist in town.
Good.
Well, they found something
on the right side as well.
- I don't know.
- Mama.
- Yeah.
- [Sonya] Mommy.
- Well, I just thought it
was, picking the girls up...
Ray, I'm scared.
- But you just got here!
I haven't shown you the
cave by the lake!
- I know, honey.
Maybe next year.
Right now, your mother and
I must get to Portland.
- [Sonya] I wanna show
you the cave!
- [Ray] Not now, Sonya!
- [Valery] See you soon.
- Okay.
- Bye, honey.
- Bye.
[car engine whirring]
[somber music]
Why aren't they taking
me with them?
- [Nona] It's okay.
- [Narrator] It was three
months before I left Canada
for the new dream house.
- This it, Daddy?
So pretty.
- [Narrator] I didn't know my
mother when I finally saw her.
I thought that there
was some mistake.
Who was that other woman
in the green chenille robe?
No matter how hard I looked,
I couldn't find the woman
that left me that
summer in Canada.
Over in the double bed,
frozen in a mute tableau,
my father is holding his wife.
In the crib against the wall,
baby Greta sleeps on through
the death of her mother
whom she will not remember.
I kept staring at my
mother's face.
It was pale and white and
it didn't look like her.
I was too young to understand
that her eyes were
closed forever
and I would never hear
her voice again.
[upbeat music]
♪ I don't know, baby
♪ Maybe it's all in my mind
- Sure this is the one?
- This is the address
on the roster.
Margaret.
- Don't have a cow.
Would you look at all
those plants?
Must have a woman in the house.
- He doesn't wear a
wedding band to school.
- He's living with someone,
living in sin.
Ooh.
- What about that tricycle?
- He's got an illegitimate
son, a bastard child.
[Margaret chuckles]
Mr. Webster.
- Mr. Webster.
- Mm-mm-mm-mm.
Well, I guess still
waters run deep.
[Sonya chuckles]
[door clacks]
Sonya?
Sonya, what are you doing?
- Shh.
- Sonya.
- [Sonya] Shh.
- What are you doing?
- Shh.
[child laughing]
[upbeat jazz music]
- [Child] Ha-ha!
[footsteps treading]
[door clacks]
[door slams]
[lighter clanks]
[lighter clicks]
- Jesus.
Sonya.
[child laughing]
[footsteps treading]
Sonya, I can't believe
you did that.
He almost got you!
[Sonya chuckles]
Oh, my god!
[Margaret chuckles]
- I was this close.
This close.
He looked so different.
- [Margaret] Yeah.
♪ Oh, my darling
♪ This, I swear is true
[knocking]
- Hello, anybody home?
Hello, girls.
Where's your papa?
- He's away on a big tour.
We don't know when
he'll be back.
- [Mr. Garrity] How come is it
every time I call or come by,
your papa's away on
some big trip?
Tell me this.
- Ray Weiler is a very busy man
who needs to be away on
business quite frequently.
- Hey, don't be smart with me,
sweetie.
Your papa owes me six months'
rent.
You know, if he can't
return my calls,
you and your sister are
gonna end up on the street.
[door clacks]
- Afternoon, girls.
[gentle music]
Mr. Garrity, to what do we
owe this honor?
- What do you think?
I'm here for the rent.
You know, the money
that you owe me
in the beginning of every month
that you haven't paid
in six months?
- Here, that should settle
what I owe you.
And here's for the
next two months,
just in case I'm forced
to travel again.
I'm busy.
I don't want you
bothering my girls.
- Pay the rent, I don't
bother the girls.
[Ray laughs]
- Oh, boy, oh, boy.
Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy.
Here it is!
Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy.
Honey, now do you believe
all the things
I've been telling you
all these years?
Our ship has come in!
Yippee!
Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy.
[Ray laughing]
- President Franklin.
[Sonya gasps]
- The old Weilers stuck
together and we made it.
♪ See them tumbling down
♪ Pledging their love
to the ground ♪
♪ La
[Sonya laughs]
♪ Lonely, but free
♪ I'll be found
♪ Drifting along with the
tumbling tumbleweeds ♪
- You sing up, my
little cowgirls.
- I like it when your
ships come in, Daddy.
[Greta laughs]
- Mm.
[upbeat music]
- Why are we doing here?
- Daddy is so sorry he
has to take his girls
on this little detour.
But he has some
important business
to discuss with Uncle Eddie.
- You mean a beer with Eddie.
♪ Would it matter at all
♪ If I should go away
♪ Would it matter at all
♪ If I should leave
♪ Would you worry about me
- [Narrator] After
Valery's death,
my father fell into a
profound despair
and lost all pretense of
keeping up with the rent
on the new dream house.
We moved from place to place,
finally landing at a
transient hotel downtown.
I tried to drive all thoughts
of my mother underground.
I filled the empty weekends
taking snapshots of Greta
with the old box camera.
She didn't like being
ordered around.
- Greta.
- [Narrator] But she
couldn't protest--
- Greta!
- Because I was all she had.
This is a snapshot.
[camera pops]
A moment in time.
No one looking at it could know
that Greta had been deaf
for three months.
She had also stopped talking.
[gentle music]
Of course, Daddy and I noticed,
but we refused to discuss it.
We didn't take Greta to a doctor
because neither of us
wanted to hear
that something else was
wrong with someone we loved.
We didn't wanna hear
that "your little girl was
deaf and dumb."
Once or twice, we
attempted to test her
by sneaking up from
back of her and yelling.
[claps]
- Fire!
- [Narrator] But she never
moved or turned around.
- Greta, can you hear me,
sweetheart?
- [Narrator] Or even
changed expression.
She didn't respond in any way.
[nails scraping]
I knew Greta's deafness
was somehow my fault
and it put me in a chronic
state of panic.
I was responsible for her,
but I couldn't even take
care of myself.
- Greta.
- Sonya!
[Sonya sighs]
[Sonya groans]
Where are your brains?!
Playing so close to the
edge with your sister!
Can't close my eyes
for a minute.
- [Narrator] One day, after
several months had passed,
the deafness disappeared just
as mysteriously as it began.
- I need to go to the bathroom.
- [Narrator] Daddy and
I never talked about it,
but a great weight seemed
to lift from his shoulders.
I was so relieved.
I stopped making
Greta pose for me,
and I promised myself she'd
never feel that lonely again.
- [Girl] You see mine in there?
- Well, it's nice to
see some of you ladies
actually listen to me
when I speak in class.
- [Girl] Where's yours?
- [Girl] A C?
Oh, no.
- You wanna talk
about your papers,
we can talk about them tomorrow.
- [Girl] My mom's gonna kill me.
- You tell me to write
about what I know
and then you tear it apart.
- Sonya, you only saw
the criticism.
You didn't see the
meaning of the criticism.
- That's all there is to see.
There's red marks everywhere.
- Sonya, your story
was beautiful.
I noticed you haven't signed
up for the college exams.
You do plan on going, don't you?
To college, I mean.
- No, Mr. Webster, actually,
I don't.
You see, things are just a
little complicated at home.
- Well, I gathered that.
But you can't let that stop you.
- You don't know my father.
[sighs]
- You know, in a way, I do.
- I have to get to class.
[phone rings]
[lively music]
- Hello?
No, he's not home.
No, I don't know where he is.
No, I don't know when
he'll be back.
Yeah, I'll give him the message.
Bye.
Daddy!
Daddy!
That was Mr. Jarvis again!
- What, darling?!
- [Greta] He said that
if you want him
to stay involved in the deal,
you better stop
avoiding his calls!
- Who's avoiding his calls?
[sighs]
Would you turn that
goddamn noise off?
[machine clacks]
[sighs]
[tapping]
I want an explanation for this.
I want an explanation
of what this cheap crap
is doing in your room.
Look at me, numbskull!
Where the hell are your brains?!
Did you hear what I said?!
- It's just a book.
- Don't play dumb with me.
I know trash when I see it.
I have tried to bring you up
to teach you culture
and refinement.
And you...
[book thuds]
Goddamn it!
I have forbidden you to
read this trash!
I have tried to bring you up
to appreciate the finer
things of life,
but all you do is
read cheap crap!
Excuse me.
- I'm gonna fix you one of
my pick-me-up specials, Dad.
- No, sweetheart, I just
need a few moments of quiet,
and this cup of coffee.
- Morning.
- Good morning.
- So I'll be back around four.
- Okay.
- Hold your horses.
Where do you think you're going?
You gotta take Greta to
her dance recital.
- Can't you take her just
this once, Dad?
- I've gotta meet Eddie.
I have to go meet Margaret.
I told her I would.
- Well, you'll just
have to call up Margaret
and tell her you'll be
there when you get there.
- All right, go get dressed,
Greta, and hurry up.
- [Woman] Sweetheart,
let me see how you look.
Turn around.
Oh, you're gonna do great.
- There's your friend.
- Shawna!
Hi!
[gentle piano music]
- [Sonya] Sure look
cute in your tutu.
- [Shawna] Thanks.
- [Greta] I gotta go
backstage and get changed.
- Okay, I'll go get a seat.
- No.
You better go or you'll
be late for your test.
- I love you, Greta.
You're gonna do just great.
- Yeah.
- Good luck.
- Good luck.
- Okay, go.
[sighs]
- Does everybody have a
sharpened number two pencil?
Let me see it.
[Margaret gasps]
[Margaret groans]
[students chattering]
All right, everything's
gonna be fine.
Everything will be fine.
Don't worry, she'll
be all right.
Does anyone know this girl?
- [Boy] No, not me.
- [Sonya] Margaret.
- Do you know this girl?
- Yes.
- Oh, god.
Did I faint again?
- Are you okay?
- I thought you'd
never get here.
[Sonya chuckles]
- [Eddie] Remember Artie?
The guy from the Calverton deal?
- [Ray] Artie Skaggs.
Big talk, no underwear.
- He stopped in the Dover last
night and we started talking.
So I started telling him
about Greta and Sonya,
not the girls, the claims.
- [Ray] Eddie, how many
times do I have to tell you
not to talk about business?
Jesus.
- [Eddie] Anyway, he
starts telling me
about couple of guys he knows
that got this great deal
around the same parts.
- [Ray] So what?
It's a big mountain.
- That's right, Ray, it's
a big mountain.
So I ask him who these
guys got this deal from.
It's Miller, Ray.
He sold our land to
somebody else.
- [Ray] What does Skaggs know?
Besides, Miller promised
he wouldn't do anything
without letting me know first.
- [Eddie] That was a while ago.
I hope you're right.
[stairs creaking]
- Jarvis.
Just the man I wanted to see.
I was just telling Eddie--
- Cut the crap, Weiler.
You've been steering
clear of me for weeks,
and I don't like it.
- [Ray] We've been up
in the mountains
getting things set up.
- What things?
- You ever started up a
mining operation, Jarvis?
There's equipment to lease.
We got a great deal on
a backhoe, by the way.
And there's men to hire.
These things take time.
And money, Jarvis.
- I know, Ray.
It's my money.
- [Ray] Well, we've all
got a lot tied up here.
- "We"?
So far, the only one I see
putting up any cash
is yours truly,
and it's starting to make
me a little nervous, Ray.
[laughs]
- What's the matter, Jarvis?
I thought you were a
high roller.
You're not the only one with
something on the line here.
- Oh? Who else?
- Well, Bud Rucklehaus for one.
- Oh, Bud Rucklehaus?
Should I be impressed, Ray?
Who the hell is Bud Rucklehaus?
- He's vice president of
First Federal.
Our kids go to school together.
- You better not be
bullshitting me, Ray.
Oh, and the next time I'm
looking for you, be here.
Take it easy, eh?
[door thuds]
[Greta chuckles]
- Shut up.
[Greta chuckles]
Shut up.
- [Greta] Mm.
[Greta chuckles]
- I'm gonna kill you.
[Greta chuckles]
- Ooh, someone's got
a boyfriend.
[gentle music]
Sonya, this is for you.
University of California?
Well, aren't you gonna open it?
Come on.
- I can't believe it!
I'm going away to college!
- What?
- I'm going away to college.
They accepted me.
[chuckles]
- You're going away?
[somber music]
Congratulations.
[lively music]
♪ Hawaiian Eye
- Don't you dare say
anything until I figure out
how I'm gonna tell him, okay?
- [Greta] What do
you think I am?
- Starring Anthony Eisley.
[footsteps treading]
[door clacks]
- Hello, girls.
- Hi, Dad.
- Hi, Dad.
- And Connie Stevens.
- Don't I deserve a little
more enthusiasm than that?
Daddy has had a rough day.
♪ Hawaiian Eye
[Ray sighs]
- [Ray] Has anyone
started dinner?
- Sonya's going away to college.
- [Woman] This is Tom Lopaka,
Mrs. Wells.
- How do you do?
- How do you do, Mrs. Wells?
Don't try and worry.
We left you a guest bed.
Anxious to meet your
husband for sometime.
- [Mrs. Wells] That's
very nice of you.
I'm sure he'll be delighted.
- [Woman] Come on, you two.
[TV clicks]
- [Ray] What is she
talking about?
- I got accepted to
the University
of California at Berkeley.
- What the hell are you
thinking about?
College?
- Why not?
- There are a thousand reasons.
- [Sonya] Name one.
- Oh, Jesus Christ.
Honey.
You don't know what
you're talking about.
You're too young to know.
Your daddy knows about college.
Your daddy knows
about professors.
I know, don't think
I don't know.
I've been around.
Those pinko intellectuals
will distort your values,
and do everything in their
power to turn your head around
and ruin everything that I,
and all decent
upstanding Americans
like your daddy, hold precious.
Well.
Precious darling, since you
feel that strongly about it,
who is Daddy to try
and stop you?
- [Narrator] How could
anyone's father be so selfish?
[Ray laughs]
Sometimes, Daddy would
turn to the housekeepers
for advice on how to raise us.
- [Svedka] Work clothes.
- Take off the...
Hi, honey.
I didn't hear you come in.
Svedka and I are having
a little chat.
So it snows a great
deal in Finland?
- [Svedka] Mm, yes.
- [Ray] Mm.
[door slams]
"My God, why hast thou
forsaken me?"
- [Narrator] Once, instead
of calling a doctor
when I had the flu,
he came and sat on my
bed with a Bible,
held in uncertain hands,
and he faked it so well
that I recovered in no time.
- [Ray] "I cry in the day
time, but thou hearest not."
- [Narrator] Sometimes, he
didn't have the answers,
and there was nowhere to turn.
[gentle music]
- Daddy?
I need some money.
- [Ray] What for?
- Just something I need.
- "Something"?
What thing?
- Just something from the store.
- Money doesn't grow on trees,
you know.
- Daddy, I need money for Kotex.
- [Narrator] Never has a
man less-equipped
for parenthood tried so hard.
- [Jarvis] I'll be a
son of a bitch.
Guy was being straight with me.
- [Foreman] Hey, this is
private property.
- I know it's private property.
It's my private property.
I'm one of the
partners in all this.
- [Foreman] You're one
of the Carver brothers?
I don't think so.
They're twins and I've
met both of 'em.
You don't even remind me of 'em.
- Wait a minute.
There must be a
misunderstanding.
I'm with Ray Weiler.
You know, Unified Minerals?
- There's a
misunderstanding all right,
but it's on your end, not mine.
This property is owned
and being mined
by the Carver
brothers of Seattle.
I think I remember some talk
that another company was
undercut on this deal.
Could have been
Unified Minerals.
[sighs]
[sighs]
- You son of a bitch, Weiler.
[knocking]
Ray?
Anyone in there?
[knocking]
- Honey, there's someone
at the door for Daddy.
You go and answer it
and say I am not here.
- Weiler, are you in there?!
- [Ray] Tell them I'm
in the mountains
and you don't know when
I'll be back.
- Ray?!
[knocking]
- Don't give me that look.
You know Daddy wouldn't
ask you to do anything
unless it was
absolutely necessary.
[loud thudding]
- See someone in there, Ray!
- Come on.
- For Christ's sake, get
off the goddamn couch.
Now!
[loud thudding]
Go answer the door.
- [Jarvis] Ray?!
Open up the damn door!
[loud thudding]
Don't make me bust the
damn door down now, Ray!
Open it up!
[loud thudding]
- Hello?
- [Jarvis] Tell your
daddy Mr. Jarvis is here.
- He's not home, he's in
the mountains.
- That's funny, his partner
told me he was here.
- Well, he's not, he's in
the mountains.
- Don't play games with me,
missy.
I know he's here.
- Mr. Jarvis, you
don't understand.
Ray Weiler's a very busy man
who needs to be away
on business.
- [Jarvis] Yeah, he's busy,
stealing money from honest men.
Ray?!
Ray!
- [Sonya] He's not here!
- What's the rush, Ray?
- Daddy!
- Got a client to meet?!
Huh?!
We got business to
attend to first.
You owe me, Weiler.
- Don't worry, you'll get
your money back.
Your investment will come
back, double, Jarvis.
- I'm sick of your lies.
- What are you talking about?
They're breaking ground Monday.
We just got stalled waiting
on some equipment from--
- Shut up, Ray!
I've been up to the site!
I've been introduced
to the Carver brothers
and I phoned Rucklehaus!
It's over, so don't insult
me with more of your crap!
I want my money by Monday,
or I swear to you, Ray...
I want my money, plus 20%.
That 20% is for aggravation,
Ray.
You get it, you get it,
goddamn it!
Got nice girls, Ray.
Oughta take better care of 'em.
[somber music]
[car engine rumbling]
[tires screech]
- I had no intention.
[Ray speaking faintly]
That was wrong.
I was trying to protect
your investment.
I was trying to do the
right thing here.
That old geezer hadn't have
sold out from under me,
everything would be all right.
- Ray, Ray!
- Yeah?
- I called my lawyer.
I'm pressing charges.
- [Ray] Oh, Bud, don't do that.
Think about your own daughter.
Bud, please, I'm
appealing to you, Bud.
Bud, please, have some mercy.
[door thuds]
[lock clicking]
- [Sonya] Daddy, are
you all right?
[Ray sighs]
- All I needed was a
few more days.
These sons of bitches don't
know the first goddamn thing
about the mining business.
A little bit of trouble,
and they panic.
- What are we gonna do now?
- It's the guys like Bud
Rucklehaus that really kill me.
I lay the deal of a
lifetime in their laps,
and look what I get,
while they sit in their
fancy offices
and never even get
their hands dirty.
These guys have no guts,
no vision.
Well, they can't pull
this shit on Ray Weiler.
- I found a lawyer
for your father.
- Your dad will be
out any minute.
Desmond took care of the bail,
so there won't be any delay.
- Mr. Webster put up the...
- Don't worry about that.
He'll get it back.
Sonya.
Sonya, you need all the
help you can get.
Your father's charged with
grand larceny and fraud.
This is serious business.
- So what's gonna happen now?
- Well, we got a court
date in a couple of weeks.
Now, I'll need you and your
sister in court every day.
- It's just gonna upset
Greta to have to go to court.
- Yeah, look, Sonya,
Social Services isn't gonna
look kindly on your situation.
- But she's my sister.
I can take care of her.
- Yeah, I know that,
but we have to do everything
we can to convince them.
[footsteps treading]
- [Ray] Let's go home,
sweetheart.
Thank you, sir.
- Sure.
I'll see you, Sonya.
- [Sonya] All right.
- Bye.
[gentle music]
- [Narrator] My
father is changing.
I can sense the shift,
the profound upheavals that
are taking place in him.
He's on the road a lot
of these nights,
gripping the wheel of
the beat-up Ford,
driving aimlessly
through deserted streets.
I've seen him from my
bedroom window,
circling the block as if
he were trying to decide
whether to stay with
us or to just run away.
I lie awake, watching the clock
long after Greta's
fallen asleep.
And while I wait for him,
I write.
I imagine the thoughts that
must be going through his mind
as he stares down the
darkened highway.
He's watching his
dreams unravel.
When my mother was alive,
he'd be bristling with plans.
I imagine that, deep
in his heart,
he thinks he's failed her,
and the thought of our
future is always on his mind.
I know he must think
about leaving
and letting us shift
for ourselves.
But there seems to be
something deep inside him
that just won't let
him desert us.
- Here she comes.
- What are you doing here?
- Can't a father pick
his daughter up
after school once in while?
[gun clicks]
- Bang!
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
[gun clicking]
[Ray laughs]
[Sonya chuckles]
- Who are you, Dale Evans?
[gun clicking]
- [Ray] All right, sweetheart.
- Part of the surprise.
This is what they wear at
the dude ranch.
- [Sonya] What dude ranch?
- The one in Reno.
I'll go horseback riding,
you'll go to college,
and Daddy won't have
to go to jail.
Right, Dad?
- What's she talking about?
- Honey, I've given this a
lot of thought.
There are a lot of opportunities
opening up in Reno.
It's a place a guy like
me can really make a mark.
- "Opportunities"?
I can't believe
you're saying this.
You're running away?
Are you crazy?
- Sonya, can't you see
that the whole thing
is stacked against me?
With guys like Rucklehaus,
I don't stand a chance.
In a few months, he'll
forget about it
and they won't even bother
looking for me.
We can all make a fresh start.
- We don't need a fresh start.
- I can't go to jail, Sonya.
- Daddy, stop the car.
Stop the goddamn car, now!
We're not going with you!
- Of course you're going.
The Three Little Weilers
stick together, you know that.
- Three Little Weilers,
The Three Little Kittens,
Three Little Pigs!
Stop calling us that!
Stop the car, now!
[loud thudding]
Leave me alone!
God!
Stop the car!
- Sonya.
Sonya.
Where are you going?
Come off the road.
Come off the road.
Come back to the car.
- What about your promise?!
You promised my mother that I
would graduate from Edgemont!
Now, doesn't that mean
anything to you?!
- Of course it does.
But, sweetheart, a diploma
is a mere formality.
You take a test in Reno,
they send you some paperwork,
poof, you've graduated.
[Sonya sighs]
- "A mere formality."
A technicality.
What about Mr.
Webster's bail money?!
Was that just a formality too?!
He was my friend!
He trusted me and now
you're ruining that too!
- He'll have that
investment back
by the end of the month,
with interest!
You think I wasn't
thinking about that?
- You don't think about
anyone or anything
but yourself and your deals.
What about us?!
Don't you ever think about us?!
- What do you mean?
This has all been for
you, and your sister,
to give you girls what I
didn't give your mother.
- You conned my mother and
maybe you can con Greta,
but I'm not listening to
any more of your lies!
- [Ray] Look.
- You let me go!
- Look!
- Let me go!
Let go of me!
- I stood by you girls,
and now I'm asking you
to stick by me.
- Maybe we would have been
better off without you!
- That's how you feel?
Fine.
When I think of the
opportunities I passed up
because of you two,
maybe I should have
left you to shift
for yourselves a long time ago.
[somber music]
[knocking]
[knocking]
[knocking]
[knocking]
- Is your father here?
- [Greta] No.
- Do you know where he is?
- [Greta] Ray Weiler is
a very busy man
who needs to be away on
business quite frequently.
- Honey, is your sister here?
- Sonya!
- What is it?
- [Policeman] We have a
warrant for the arrest
of Raymond Weiler.
- I already told them that he--
- Are you aware that he
was supposed to appear
in court yesterday?
- No.
Yes.
- I'm Mrs. Cole from
Social Services.
Miss Abigail Tate
informed our department
that you have an
unsupervised minor here.
I'm sorry, I'm gonna have
to take your sister with me.
- No, I'm 18.
I can take care of her.
- Sonya, you don't have
legal guardianship.
Please, don't make this any
harder than it already is.
Help Greta get packed and
dressed, okay?
- Sonya.
- I'm calling Mr. Drew.
[phone clacks]
[dial whirring]
It's okay.
It's okay, Greta.
[somber piano music]
- Lucky I was already packed.
- Yeah, that was real lucky.
Come on, Greta.
Come on.
- I don't wanna go, Sonya.
- Listen, everything's
gonna be okay.
- No.
Sonya!
- Greta, you've got to.
- Sonya!
- It's only temporary!
Now, come on!
- Sonya, stop!
- Come on!
- Stop it!
Stop!
- [Sonya] Greta, please!
- Stop!
- Here.
Let go of her, let go of her,
Sonya.
Come on, Greta, I promise
you're gonna see her soon.
Come on.
[somber music]
[crying]
- [Man In Brown] So
here's how it goes:
You've got a captive
audience here in Reno.
Lonely woman moves to town--
- [Man In Blue] She's
got six weeks to kill,
just waiting for her
divorce to come through.
- All she's got is time
and the ex-husband's money.
- [Man In Blue] Maybe we
help her catch
a little a case of
uranium fever.
- [Eddie] Bingo.
Instant investment, right?
- [Man In Blue] So you
guys interested?
- [Eddie] Yeah, sure.
Piece of cake for us, right,
Ray?
[somber music]
Right, Ray?
We're in.
[sighs]
[crying]
[door clacks]
- Your Honor?
- [Judge] Yeah.
- I'm Ray Weiler.
- Oh, yeah.
We had a date to meet
in court, Mr. Weiler,
not in front of my home.
- Yes, sir, I know.
I know.
- And if you think you're
gonna get more sympathy
by coming here than in my
courtroom, you're very mistaken.
- I'm not asking
anything for myself.
It's about my daughters.
They've been through enough.
- Isn't it a little late for
all this fatherly concern?
Should have thought about
that before you took off.
You abandoned your children, Mr.
Weiler.
- I'm not much of a father,
and I've made more than
my share of mistakes.
Sonya never got to be
much of a kid,
and Greta never even
knew her mother.
I didn't make it any
easier on them.
The only thing they have
right now is each other.
Please.
Don't take that away from
them too because I screwed up.
[audience applauding]
- Congratulations to the
Edgemont
graduating class of 1962.
[audience applauding]
[audience cheering]
[gentle music]
[loud whistling]
[audience cheering]
[people chattering]
- Very nice to meet you.
- Well, it was a pleasure
having her in the class.
Very nice to see you.
- Thanks very much.
[people chattering]
- Mr. Webster, I'm sorry
about my father.
I never should have let
you put up that money.
I'm gonna get a job
in the summer
and I'm gonna pay you
back every--
- Sonya, you don't have to
apologize for your father.
That's between me and him.
He is one hell of a source for
material, though, isn't he?
[Desmond chuckles]
- Yeah.
I guess you could say that.
- You just keep
writing your stories
and I'll keep reading them.
- Okay.
- Okay.
I believe you know where I live.
[gentle music]
- Can I go find Sonya?
- Yes.
- So good to see you.
[laughs]
You came back.
[Ray crying]
- I wouldn't have missed
your graduation
for all the tea in China.
Nothing could stop me.
You look so grown-up,
just like your mother wanted.
I wish she were here with
me to see you.
- I wish she was too.
[Sonya crying]
- I have something I
want to give you.
For your stories.
You're looking at the best
damn pen money can buy.
14 carats.
If you melted that pen down,
the weight of the metal alone
could pay for a year of college.
- [Narrator] When he was young,
he pursued a dream of
silver in Mexico.
Later, the lure was gold.
By the time Daddy had
gotten outta jail,
the Space Age was upon us
and he'd moved onto an obsession
with rare Earth metals.
By then, Greta and I were
used to being on our own.
Mr. Webster helped set
me up at State.
I waited tables at night
and I wrote my stories
on the weekends.
I shared an apartment
with my sister,
whose junior high was
just a block away.
She was like a daughter to me.
One November, after many
years had passed,
our father went into the
mountains and he never came
back.
A hunter found his body
in the spring,
still propped up against a tree.
I used to wonder if a con man
was capable of genuine love
and if that love was enough
to cancel out his crimes,
real or imaginary.
Now, I wonder if it's
possible that the wish to love
can be stronger than
the need to hate.
We buried Ray Weiler on
the dark mountain
beneath the land he loved.
In time, he would harden
into mineral and ore
and become that thing
that he used to seek.
[gentle music]
[triumphant music]
[elegant music]
- [Narrator] "Bucking the
wind" was Daddy's phrase
for what people had to
do together in life.
- [Ray] At times, life is
gonna be stormy, sweetheart.
And when those winds blow,
you're gonna have to
plant your little feet,
lean into it, and buck the wind.
- [Narrator] "Bucking the
wind" was also Daddy's excuse
on a cold winter night for a
quick trip to the corner store
to buy another
bottle of bourbon.
[laughs]
I came of age when he
agreed to take me along.
- How about some ice cream?
- In the snow?
- That's the best time.
- I'll get it.
- Evening, Ray.
What can I do for you?
- Carton of vanilla and
a fifth of Wild Turkey.
Listen, Vern, I've been
meaning to talk to you.
My partner, Edward Atkins, and I
are looking for just
the right guy
to go into the business
investment of a lifetime,
a man of vision, someone
who's not afraid
to step out of the mold,
take a risk.
Vern, a man such as yourself.
- [Narrator] Vern looked like
anything but a man of vision.
- What is it this time, Ray?
- NapRenew.
It's a miraculous formula.
A revolutionary new process
which actually enables
us to restore the nap
on old and worn serge suits.
I'm telling you, there's a
fortune to be made here, Vern.
Cleaning fluids are the
investment of the future.
- I'll have to think about it.
- You do that.
Don't take too long.
An opportunity like this comes
along once in a blue moon.
Come on, Sonya.
Let's get home before the
ice cream melts.
- Hey, Ray, wait up.
That will be 8.50.
- Put it on my tab, Vern.
♪ Oh, give me land, lots of
land under starry skies above ♪
♪ Don't fence me in
♪ Let me ride through
the wide open country ♪
- [Narrator] Years later,
this memory would always be
the memory that haunted
my imagination,
hand-in-hand, singing in
the deserted snowy streets,
me with the father who had
the audacity to buy ice cream
on the coldest night
of the year.
[bird chirping]
[knocking]
- Sonya?
Sonya.
Sonya Weiler?
You get out of bed this instant.
Come on, sweetheart,
rise and shine.
The early bird catches the worm.
Sonya?
We don't want to be
late for Edgemont.
Sonya, get up.
Get up, I want to see you up.
- [Sonya] I'm up.
- That's a girl.
Good morning, sweetie.
- Morning, Dad.
- [Ray] Greta, make sure
Sonya gets out of bed.
- Okay.
Roxie's packing.
She's leaving us the hair dryer.
- She's packing?
[Sonya sighs]
What'd she say?
- Not much.
She looked kinda mad.
Sonya, I was trying
to keep track.
Is Roxie number 11 or number 12?
- [Roxie] See ya, Ray.
- Knock it off, Greta.
- [Ray] Roxie, wait a minute.
Where are you going?
- I'm leaving.
- Why?
- You won't pay me my money.
- I told you, I'll have the cash
by the end of the week, Rox.
[car horn honking]
- You've been saying
that for months.
Bye, girls!
[car horn honking]
- Well, you know,
usually an employee
gives the employer a notice!
[door thuds]
Goddamn son of a bitch!
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!
[car whirs]
All right, girls, let's go.
- I told you I had a bad
feeling about Roxie, Daddy.
- [Ray] Sonya, you have a bad
feeling about all of them.
- Roxie was number 12,
wasn't she?
- Now, don't you start.
Well, sweetheart, you're
the family historian.
If you say 12, then
12 it must be.
- It was 12.
- Dad, about Edgemont...
- Look, we've
discussed this enough.
A promise is a promise.
Ray Weiler never
welches on a promise.
- They're not gonna take me
for just one year, anyway.
[footsteps clicking]
- Miss Tate.
It's such a pleasure to
finally meet you.
My daughter Sonya.
- Hello.
- I've heard so much
about you over the years.
- [Miss Tate] Oh, really?
From whom?
- My wife was an Edgemont girl.
Class of '34.
Hardly a day went by without
her discussing the school
and the refining influence
that you had on her life.
- [Miss Tate] What is
your wife's name, Mr.--
- [Ray] Weiler, Valery Weiler.
I mean, Beecham, when
she was here.
- Beecham?
1934.
Well, of course I
remember Valery.
She was in one of my
first classes here.
Do ask her to come see me.
I like to see what
becomes of our girls.
- Valery died eight years ago.
- I'm terribly sorry, Sonya.
- Thank you.
- I promised Valery that
I would send her
two daughters to Edgemont.
- Mr. Weiler, are you
raising two young girls
all on your own?
Oh, that is most admirable.
- Sonya's records.
All As.
Mostly all As.
[sighs]
I know Valery would feel
that even a year
under your influence
would be invaluable.
- Mr. Weiler, why did you
wait so long to apply?
Our semester has begun.
Enrollment is full.
- Miss Tate, you can't
imagine the pain it causes me
to be sitting here before you
like this, at this late date.
But circumstances have not
permitted me to do so sooner.
What can I say,
except that I know that you,
with your culture
and refinement,
would appreciate the burden,
a burden of love, of course,
but nonetheless a burden,
of trying to raise two
motherless children,
to try to keep a little
home together for them
and inculcate in them the values
that you so steadfastly
uphold here at Edgemont.
Miss Tate, if you knew
what it meant
to a widower like myself
to be able to entrust
his child to your care...
Well, Miss Tate,
I am beyond words.
- Well, I appreciate your
sentiment, Mr. Weiler.
And it's most unusual,
but I am willing to
make an exception.
Welcome to Edgemont,
Miss Weiler.
- Thank you.
- Good.
Then that's settled.
Now since you're here, Sonya,
you'll start school with
the other girls.
Mr. Weiler, you'll need to
leave a deposit
for the tuition with
our cashier.
- I seem to have
forgotten my checkbook.
I'll have my assistant
take care of it
first thing this afternoon.
- [Miss Tate] Fine.
- [Narrator] Valery Weiler
sits at the kitchen table
dealing herself a hand
of solitaire.
That's mostly what
my mother did.
She smoked Luckys and
played cards
and read paperback mysteries,
one after the other.
- I've got some big news
for my gals tonight.
- Hey, Ray.
- [Narrator] Everything lit up
when my father came
through the door at night.
- Honey, Weiler and
Atkins are about to patent
an invention that's gonna
revolutionize the mining
industry.
Where's Sonya?
[gentle music]
- Ladies and gentlemen,
Miss Carmen Miranda!
Hello, amigo.
♪ I'm Chiquita banana
and I've come to say ♪
♪ Bananas have to ripen in
a certain way ♪
♪ When they're
flecked with brown ♪
- Valery, you didn't tell
me the Brazilian Bombshell
was playing Portland.
- Sorry, Ray, I was
sworn to secrecy.
- Daddy, what's under there?
- Baby, you are looking
at Daddy's first million.
Now, if you ladies
would have a seat.
- [Narrator] He brought
a sense of excitement
from the outside world into
the tiny basement apartment.
- Voila!
Ladies, I present to
you the Finders Keepers.
[both applauding]
- What does it do?
[Sonya chuckles]
- This revolutionary
device is so simple to use,
even a child can strike it rich.
Finally, the little guy
will have a chance
up against the fat cat
mining companies.
Valery, the market
for these babies
is going to be so big
and so profitable
that we're just a technicality
away from your dream house.
- [Narrator] My mother's one
big wish in life was modest.
She wanted out of our
one-room apartment.
She wanted a home of her
own, any home would do.
- Now, who in the audience
would like to participate?
Hide the coin.
Anywhere you want.
- Close your eyes.
[laughs]
We are ready.
[device beeping]
Try going left.
- [Ray] No hints from
the audience.
Greta, I almost
forgot about you.
- Mommy, I'm hungry.
- I know.
- [Narrator] The Finders Keepers
went to the same
mysterious place
where all my father's other
revolutionary devices ended up.
My mother returned to her
cigarettes and solitaire,
and her dream house remained
just a technicality away.
- Sonya, dinner!
- How do you spell electricity?
- How do you think you spell it?
- E-L-E-C-T R-I-C-I-T-Y.
- Very good.
- [Ray] That's very good.
- So you picked
Benjamin Franklin?
- [Greta] Mm-hm.
- [Ray] What are you working on?
- American heroes, my
report for school.
- I got one for you.
Charles A. Steen.
- She already picked.
- The Uranium King.
He's the kinda man that
makes this country great.
The man strikes out on his own,
stakes everything he's
got on a piece of land
in the middle of nowhere.
He works that mine with
his bare hands
and comes out with $50 million.
- Dad, she already
picked Benjamin Franklin.
- A few years ago, he
didn't know where his next
Geiger counter was coming from.
[phone ringing]
That is what is beautiful
about America.
That sort of opportunity,
I'm not home.
That kind of spirit, that's
what makes this country great,
to have a dream, pursuit it,
no matter what the odds are,
no matter--
- Hello?
- Who's against you.
- Oh, Mr. Garrity.
No, he's not home right now.
Could I get him to
call you back?
The rent is in the mail.
It's on the way.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
[gentle music]
- That guy has a
hell of a nerve,
disturbing a family
at dinnertime.
Now, where was I?
- He didn't know where his next
Geiger counter was coming from.
- Right.
Everybody on the Colorado
Plateau called him crazy.
Now his dalmatian is
eating T-bone steaks,
and he's flying in his own
plane up to Salt Lake City,
take rhumba lessons.
- [Greta] Where is he now?
- [Ray] He's probably
off in Hollywood,
doing the rhumba
with Sandra Dee.
[Ray laughs]
- [Greta] How do you
spell rhumba?
- [Ray] R-H-U-M-B-A.
- "Has anyone supposed
it lucky to be born?
"I hasten to inform him or her,
"it's just as lucky to die,
and I know it.
"I pass death with the dying,
"and birth with the
new-washed babe,
"and am not contained
between my hat and my boots
"and peruse manifold
objects, no two alike."
- How'd you get just a
one-year sentence at Retchmont?
- [Mr. Webster] "And
their adjuncts all good.
"I am not on earth nor
adjunct of an earth."
- Just lucky, I guess.
- "I am the mate and
companion of people,
"all just as immortal
and fathomless as myself.
"And they do not know
how immortal, but I know.
"Every kind for
itself and its own,
"for me mine male and female,
"for me all that
have been boys--
- Sometimes, he gets so caught
up in what he's reading,
and he forgets we're here.
Lot of girls ditched
while he was reading
"Julius Caesar" last year.
- [Mr. Webster] "And
the old maid,
"for me mothers and
the mothers of mothers,
"for me lips that have smiled,
eyes that have shed tears,
"for me children and the
begetters of children."
- And he never ever sits down,
not even to grade papers.
- Miss Jenkins.
I know that your mouth is as
big as that bag that you carry,
but I would appreciate it
if you kept them
both closed in my classroom.
- I was just telling
Sonya about how we read
"Julius Caesar" last year.
- Miss Weiler, if you
think you have something
more important to say
than Walt Whitman,
why don't you share it
with the rest of the class?
No?
Good, okay.
"I see through the broadcloth
and gingham whether or no
"and am around, tenacious,
acquisitive--
- Stick of gum.
- "Tireless, and can never
"be shaken away."
- [Sonya] Bobby Darin.
- [Margaret] Yeah, I'll
take Bobby Darin.
I can go for that.
Oh, you gotta be kidding.
Roy Orbison?
How can you say that?
He's just so gross-looking.
- [Sonya] Well, it's not
the way he looks.
I mean, you have to
listen to his lyrics.
- Who cares about lyrics?
I'll take Frankie
Avalon any day.
- Frankie Avalon?
- Jeez, what is it
with you two?
- He's sexy.
- Margaret thinks Frankie
Avalon is sexy.
- I didn't mean he was sexy--
- They're both
a couple of greaseballs.
[Margaret chuckles]
And to think of all the
money they're raking in.
- I'd take some of that money.
Besides, what kind of
talk is that anyway
from two Edgemont girls?
"Sexy"?
[Margaret chuckles]
[Sonya chuckles]
What the hell are they
teaching you at that school?
- Not to swear.
[Margaret chuckles]
[Greta laughs]
Hi.
- Hi.
I was just talking to your dad.
He says you guys are gonna buy
some land up in the Rockies.
He says we can go skiing.
Sounds really great.
- Yeah.
- [Margaret] Come on.
- Come on.
[Greta laughs]
Come on, it's a big one.
- Sonya, come on.
- See these flecks of metal,
girls?
These little flecks are going
to make us all rich someday.
Daddy and Eddie are staking
four claims up here.
In fact, we named them
after you girls.
Sonya 1, Sonya 2, and
Greta 1 and Greta 2.
- [Sonya] How original.
- Did you say something, Sonya?
All right, now before we
go any further,
let's go over the three rules
by which we live in
the mountains.
Number one--
- Dad, we've gone over
this a hundred times.
We know them by heart.
And I already filled Margaret
in, didn't I, Margaret?
- Yeah.
The three rules by which we--
- Good.
You can't be too careful.
Besides, Sonya,
someday these claims
will belong to you and Greta.
And you will need to
come up here on your own
to check on the operation.
- Oh, that's right, I forgot.
- Number one.
- Always carry matches.
- Number two.
Speak up, girl, I
can't hear you.
- [Greta] Always look for
Forest Service markers.
- I wasn't talking to you.
- I was helping Sonya.
- I don't need your help.
- Don't snap at your
sister like that.
Come back here. Sonya.
There's one more rule to go.
Don't walk away from me!
Now what is the third rule
of the forest?
- Let go of me.
- What is the third rule--
- Let go of me!
- Of the forest?
- [Sonya] Always follow
rivers downstream!
God!
Just...
[Sonya sighs]
- Anybody down there?!
- Jarvis!
Over here!
[gentle music]
- [Margaret] You okay?
- You girls stay there
while Daddy and Uncle Eddie
speak with Mr. Jarvis!
- Hello, Ray.
- [Ray] How are you, Jarvis?
Follow me.
[Sonya sighs]
- [Greta] It's okay, Sonya.
Okay?
- You know, Ray, that
was not too cool,
making a move like
that on Jarvis.
- Eddie.
Don't worry about it.
I've got it covered.
- "In my hungry fatigue
and shopping for images,
"I went into the neon
fruit supermarket
"dreaming of your enumerations.
"What peaches and penumbras.
"Whole families
shopping at night.
"Aisles full of husbands.
"Wives in the avocados,
babes in the tomatoes.
"And you, Garcia Lorca,
"what were you doing down
by your watermelons?"
Get this back at the end
of the day, Miss Weiler.
"I saw you, Walt Whitman,
childless, lonely old grubber,
"poking among the meats
in the refrigerator
"and eyeing the grocery boys."
[gentle music]
- [Narrator] Valery Weiler
was addicted to the movies.
She'd named me after
Sonja Henie,
and my sister Greta
for Garbo in "Camille."
No matter what the movie
was, my mother always cried.
- No, the best part is when
Bette Davis is on the stairs
and she looks down at everybody
at the party and she says,
"Fasten your seat belts--
"You're in for a bumpy night!"
[Sonya laughs]
- Yeah.
- [Narrator] Movies were
her only social life
outside our small apartment.
Every Wednesday night,
we took the bus
to the magnificent Fox Theater
with its gilded, golden globes.
Wednesday's were raffle night,
and she always wore
her lucky scarf.
[elegant music]
- [Agatha] Oh, Matt,
you were right.
We have missed six
wonderful, exciting years.
I've been so blind.
Why didn't you make me see?
- Why didn't I make you see?
I...
[choir vocalizing]
[audience applauding]
- Put your hankies away, ladies,
'cause tonight is the night
of the Wednesday night raffle.
And the winning number is 925.
Miss Valery Weiler!
- [Narrator] My mother's
face was flushed.
She'd always dreamed
about winning,
but then never expected
it to happen.
Now that all those
eyes were on her,
she didn't know what to do.
[audience applauding]
- Oh!
[elegant music]
[Valery laughing]
- [Narrator] As we made our
way to the stage together
to claim her prize,
I wondered if this would be
her thrill of a lifetime.
- Ah, and a lovely
mother-to-be too.
Congratulations, Mrs. Weiler.
- Thank you.
[audience applauding]
- [Narrator] My mother
smiled for a week.
I'd never seen her so happy.
Even if the dishes were cheap
and an ugly shade of pink,
at least they were hers.
- What kind of color is that,
anyway?
You couldn't really
call it pink.
It looks more like flesh.
[laughs]
Who would want to eat off flesh?
[chuckles]
- Don't you talk about my
dishes that way.
- [Narrator] Valery
remembered her other dishes,
the ones my father had
hocked years ago
to finance some
imaginary goldmine.
- Hell, honey, you don't
need that crap.
As soon as the checks clear
on this Anaconda deal,
I'll get you the finest
set of china money can buy.
- [Narrator] She told
herself it doesn't matter.
Someday, Ray is sure to
strike it rich.
She swallows her disappointment.
She knows times were
hard for everyone.
- Well, it's not exactly
Fitzgerald, not yet, anyway.
Do you have any more of
these stories?
- No.
Well, yes.
Just a couple.
- Miss Weiler, I think you may
have the makings of a writer.
- No, they're just
little stories that I...
- I'll expect you to
keep up with the reading.
That is essential.
But you can turn in your stories
instead of some of
the assignments.
- Thank you.
- Well, don't thank me
until you've read my notes.
For instance, "gilded,
golden globes,"
I think you can do
better than that.
You have to be careful
with alliteration.
Keep it personal.
Use your own voice.
[elegant music]
- [Ray] Sonya's a lovely child.
- [Woman] I've noticed.
- [Ray] Very responsible
and she's very grown-up.
- Mm-hm.
- Very good qualities.
- [Ray] Very willing
to help out.
- Mm-hm.
- Mm.
- [Ray] She takes good
care of her little sister.
- Does she?
- Really?
- [Ray] Thank you, dear.
- Grace and balance,
Sonya, grace and balance.
Care for a mint?
[Margaret chuckles]
- [Woman] Mr. Weiler, I
think it's commendable
that you're taking care of
those two girls all on your own.
- [Woman] I can't imagine
Margaret's father ever doing
that.
- Can't imagine Margaret's
mother ever doing it either.
[Sonya chuckles]
- He's missing out on life's
greatest joy, I can say that.
My business may suffer
a bit at times,
but all I need to do is look
over here at my little girl
to know that it's worth
every sacrifice.
Mrs. Rucklehaus?
- Oh, no, no, please,
call me Ginny, Mr. Weiler.
- That's Ray, Ginny.
[Ginny chuckles]
Ladies?
- No, thank you.
- [Ginny] Oh, what business
did you say you're in, Ray?
- Mining, mostly.
But I do like to keep my
hands in lots of enterprises.
- Isn't that
enterprising of you?
[laughs]
[laughs]
Do you have your
hands in anything
really interesting right now?
- Mm.
[sighs]
Well, you must keep this
under your hats, ladies,
but, yes, my partner and I
are on to one of the biggest
veins this side of the Rockies.
- My lips are zipped.
But maybe you should
talk to my husband, Ray.
He's vice president of
First Federal.
He's always, always, always
looking for a good investment.
- I'll remember that.
- In fact, Sonya, why
don't you come over
to the house this weekend?
Gigi's...
Gigi?
Gigi's having a little
get-together for her girl
friends.
- I'd love to, thank you,
but I must take my little
sister to dance class.
- Oh, don't worry about that,
Sonya.
I'll drop you off at
the party myself
and I'll take care of Greta.
[upbeat music]
♪ Doo
♪ Doo
♪ Doo
♪ Doo
♪ Well, I went to a
dance the other night ♪
♪ Everybody went stag
♪ I said over and over
and over again ♪
♪ This dance is
gonna be a drag ♪
- I mean, I don't know
why they do it.
I mean, take Tony Curtis, you
know what his real name is?
Bernard Schwartz.
From Brooklyn.
- I just heard this story
about this girl,
she teases her hair out to here,
and one night, when
she's sleeping,
a little rat crawls inside
of her hair and dies.
What's even worse about it is,
one time,
when she's out with
her boyfriend,
the rat tail is going
down her face
when he goes to kiss her.
Isn't that yucky?
♪ I said, won't you come
over and talk to me ♪
♪ And be my girl
[doorbell ringing]
♪ It's June in January
- Ray, good to see you.
Come on in, meet Bud.
Sonya's in the back with
the other girls.
Bud.
Bud, honey, this is Ray Weiler,
Sonya's father, remember?
I told you about him.
- [Bud] Yeah, from the
mother-daughter tea.
- Mm-hm.
- How do you do, Bud?
- How are you?
- Pleasure.
- Listen, can I get you a drink?
- Oh. No.
No. Thank you.
That's kind of you to offer,
but it's a bit early for me.
- Oh, please, Ray,
don't run off.
Please.
Bud's really quite
the bartender.
Come on, mix Ray a drink.
[Ray laughs]
- [Ray] Well, if you insist.
Scotch on the rocks, Bud.
- All right.
- But only a short one.
- [Bud] You got it.
- Dad?
Greta.
- Having fun, honey?
[sighs]
- Go on and sit down.
I think I'll go get us
something to nibble on.
- [Bud] Here you go, Ray.
- [Ray] Thank you.
It's quite a home you have here,
Bud.
- [Bud] Thank you.
- Wonderful grain in the wood.
Cedar and hemlock, if
I'm not mistaken.
I like to think I know my woods.
- Well, you obviously do.
Did you see the corner
over here, Ray?
It's glass to glass, mitered.
The seam virtually disappears.
- [Ray] Mm-hm.
- Cheers.
[speaking in foreign language]
♪ In the middle of a kiss
- My wife loved this song.
♪ It dawned on me
[laughs]
♪ In the middle of a kiss
- We used to dance
to this music.
♪ I knew you were mine
♪ In the middle of a
sweet embrace ♪
- [Bud] So Ginny tells me
you're in the mining business.
- Mining, yes.
Mostly mining.
- She mentioned something about
a deal here in the Cascades?
- I'm so sorry.
[clicking tongue]
[laughs]
- Bud, I don't have to tell
you how iffy these things are,
but, frankly, a deal this good
comes along once in a blue moon.
♪ Of a sigh
- [Ray] As I was telling
your lovely wife,
my partner and I have staked
four claims in the mountains,
named them after Sonya
and her sister.
- [Narrator] Every
summer, my mother, Greta,
and I took the boat to Canada
to stay with my grandmother,
Nona.
- [Ray] Sonya, can I tell
Mom your joke?
- [Sonya] Yeah.
- Greta, why did the moron
throw the clock out the window?
[Greta babbles]
Wrong!
Because he wanted to
see time fly.
- Oh!
[Greta laughs]
[all laugh]
You understand your daddy,
don't you?
- Yeah.
[whistling]
- [Narrator] Each year, our
father saw us off at the dock,
but he never came along.
The journey lasted a
night and day.
There, in that world of open
sky and saltwater tides,
my mother was another person.
Gone were the paperbacks
and decks of cards.
Gone were my father's latest
schemes and inventions.
She'd escaped to that
familiar landscape
where she was born and
where she felt most alive.
- [Valery] Straight ahead. Push.
- [Narrator] Our last
summer there,
the summer that I was nine,
I learned to ride a bicycle.
Greta learned to toddle
and say, "Mommy" and "up."
Every night, I stayed out
playing long after dark.
And I wished on Nona's
favorite star
that the summer would never end.
That summer, my mother
spent a lot of time
with Everett MacGregor, her
old high school sweetheart.
She seemed happier with him
than she ever was with Ray.
Then it suddenly occurred to me.
If he had been my father, it
would have changed everything.
- [Everett] Yeah, I
can't do the fancy stuff.
[elegant music]
- [Valery] Mm.
Mm.
- [Narrator] Towards
the end of that summer,
my mother learned that
she had cancer
after an examination
by the doctor in town.
Strange days followed.
My confusion was
greater than anyone's
because the others knew.
Maybe if they'd told me,
maybe I could've done
something to help her.
- No, I heard it from
a specialist in town.
Good.
Well, they found something
on the right side as well.
- I don't know.
- Mama.
- Yeah.
- [Sonya] Mommy.
- Well, I just thought it
was, picking the girls up...
Ray, I'm scared.
- But you just got here!
I haven't shown you the
cave by the lake!
- I know, honey.
Maybe next year.
Right now, your mother and
I must get to Portland.
- [Sonya] I wanna show
you the cave!
- [Ray] Not now, Sonya!
- [Valery] See you soon.
- Okay.
- Bye, honey.
- Bye.
[car engine whirring]
[somber music]
Why aren't they taking
me with them?
- [Nona] It's okay.
- [Narrator] It was three
months before I left Canada
for the new dream house.
- This it, Daddy?
So pretty.
- [Narrator] I didn't know my
mother when I finally saw her.
I thought that there
was some mistake.
Who was that other woman
in the green chenille robe?
No matter how hard I looked,
I couldn't find the woman
that left me that
summer in Canada.
Over in the double bed,
frozen in a mute tableau,
my father is holding his wife.
In the crib against the wall,
baby Greta sleeps on through
the death of her mother
whom she will not remember.
I kept staring at my
mother's face.
It was pale and white and
it didn't look like her.
I was too young to understand
that her eyes were
closed forever
and I would never hear
her voice again.
[upbeat music]
♪ I don't know, baby
♪ Maybe it's all in my mind
- Sure this is the one?
- This is the address
on the roster.
Margaret.
- Don't have a cow.
Would you look at all
those plants?
Must have a woman in the house.
- He doesn't wear a
wedding band to school.
- He's living with someone,
living in sin.
Ooh.
- What about that tricycle?
- He's got an illegitimate
son, a bastard child.
[Margaret chuckles]
Mr. Webster.
- Mr. Webster.
- Mm-mm-mm-mm.
Well, I guess still
waters run deep.
[Sonya chuckles]
[door clacks]
Sonya?
Sonya, what are you doing?
- Shh.
- Sonya.
- [Sonya] Shh.
- What are you doing?
- Shh.
[child laughing]
[upbeat jazz music]
- [Child] Ha-ha!
[footsteps treading]
[door clacks]
[door slams]
[lighter clanks]
[lighter clicks]
- Jesus.
Sonya.
[child laughing]
[footsteps treading]
Sonya, I can't believe
you did that.
He almost got you!
[Sonya chuckles]
Oh, my god!
[Margaret chuckles]
- I was this close.
This close.
He looked so different.
- [Margaret] Yeah.
♪ Oh, my darling
♪ This, I swear is true
[knocking]
- Hello, anybody home?
Hello, girls.
Where's your papa?
- He's away on a big tour.
We don't know when
he'll be back.
- [Mr. Garrity] How come is it
every time I call or come by,
your papa's away on
some big trip?
Tell me this.
- Ray Weiler is a very busy man
who needs to be away on
business quite frequently.
- Hey, don't be smart with me,
sweetie.
Your papa owes me six months'
rent.
You know, if he can't
return my calls,
you and your sister are
gonna end up on the street.
[door clacks]
- Afternoon, girls.
[gentle music]
Mr. Garrity, to what do we
owe this honor?
- What do you think?
I'm here for the rent.
You know, the money
that you owe me
in the beginning of every month
that you haven't paid
in six months?
- Here, that should settle
what I owe you.
And here's for the
next two months,
just in case I'm forced
to travel again.
I'm busy.
I don't want you
bothering my girls.
- Pay the rent, I don't
bother the girls.
[Ray laughs]
- Oh, boy, oh, boy.
Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy.
Here it is!
Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy.
Honey, now do you believe
all the things
I've been telling you
all these years?
Our ship has come in!
Yippee!
Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy.
[Ray laughing]
- President Franklin.
[Sonya gasps]
- The old Weilers stuck
together and we made it.
♪ See them tumbling down
♪ Pledging their love
to the ground ♪
♪ La
[Sonya laughs]
♪ Lonely, but free
♪ I'll be found
♪ Drifting along with the
tumbling tumbleweeds ♪
- You sing up, my
little cowgirls.
- I like it when your
ships come in, Daddy.
[Greta laughs]
- Mm.
[upbeat music]
- Why are we doing here?
- Daddy is so sorry he
has to take his girls
on this little detour.
But he has some
important business
to discuss with Uncle Eddie.
- You mean a beer with Eddie.
♪ Would it matter at all
♪ If I should go away
♪ Would it matter at all
♪ If I should leave
♪ Would you worry about me
- [Narrator] After
Valery's death,
my father fell into a
profound despair
and lost all pretense of
keeping up with the rent
on the new dream house.
We moved from place to place,
finally landing at a
transient hotel downtown.
I tried to drive all thoughts
of my mother underground.
I filled the empty weekends
taking snapshots of Greta
with the old box camera.
She didn't like being
ordered around.
- Greta.
- [Narrator] But she
couldn't protest--
- Greta!
- Because I was all she had.
This is a snapshot.
[camera pops]
A moment in time.
No one looking at it could know
that Greta had been deaf
for three months.
She had also stopped talking.
[gentle music]
Of course, Daddy and I noticed,
but we refused to discuss it.
We didn't take Greta to a doctor
because neither of us
wanted to hear
that something else was
wrong with someone we loved.
We didn't wanna hear
that "your little girl was
deaf and dumb."
Once or twice, we
attempted to test her
by sneaking up from
back of her and yelling.
[claps]
- Fire!
- [Narrator] But she never
moved or turned around.
- Greta, can you hear me,
sweetheart?
- [Narrator] Or even
changed expression.
She didn't respond in any way.
[nails scraping]
I knew Greta's deafness
was somehow my fault
and it put me in a chronic
state of panic.
I was responsible for her,
but I couldn't even take
care of myself.
- Greta.
- Sonya!
[Sonya sighs]
[Sonya groans]
Where are your brains?!
Playing so close to the
edge with your sister!
Can't close my eyes
for a minute.
- [Narrator] One day, after
several months had passed,
the deafness disappeared just
as mysteriously as it began.
- I need to go to the bathroom.
- [Narrator] Daddy and
I never talked about it,
but a great weight seemed
to lift from his shoulders.
I was so relieved.
I stopped making
Greta pose for me,
and I promised myself she'd
never feel that lonely again.
- [Girl] You see mine in there?
- Well, it's nice to
see some of you ladies
actually listen to me
when I speak in class.
- [Girl] Where's yours?
- [Girl] A C?
Oh, no.
- You wanna talk
about your papers,
we can talk about them tomorrow.
- [Girl] My mom's gonna kill me.
- You tell me to write
about what I know
and then you tear it apart.
- Sonya, you only saw
the criticism.
You didn't see the
meaning of the criticism.
- That's all there is to see.
There's red marks everywhere.
- Sonya, your story
was beautiful.
I noticed you haven't signed
up for the college exams.
You do plan on going, don't you?
To college, I mean.
- No, Mr. Webster, actually,
I don't.
You see, things are just a
little complicated at home.
- Well, I gathered that.
But you can't let that stop you.
- You don't know my father.
[sighs]
- You know, in a way, I do.
- I have to get to class.
[phone rings]
[lively music]
- Hello?
No, he's not home.
No, I don't know where he is.
No, I don't know when
he'll be back.
Yeah, I'll give him the message.
Bye.
Daddy!
Daddy!
That was Mr. Jarvis again!
- What, darling?!
- [Greta] He said that
if you want him
to stay involved in the deal,
you better stop
avoiding his calls!
- Who's avoiding his calls?
[sighs]
Would you turn that
goddamn noise off?
[machine clacks]
[sighs]
[tapping]
I want an explanation for this.
I want an explanation
of what this cheap crap
is doing in your room.
Look at me, numbskull!
Where the hell are your brains?!
Did you hear what I said?!
- It's just a book.
- Don't play dumb with me.
I know trash when I see it.
I have tried to bring you up
to teach you culture
and refinement.
And you...
[book thuds]
Goddamn it!
I have forbidden you to
read this trash!
I have tried to bring you up
to appreciate the finer
things of life,
but all you do is
read cheap crap!
Excuse me.
- I'm gonna fix you one of
my pick-me-up specials, Dad.
- No, sweetheart, I just
need a few moments of quiet,
and this cup of coffee.
- Morning.
- Good morning.
- So I'll be back around four.
- Okay.
- Hold your horses.
Where do you think you're going?
You gotta take Greta to
her dance recital.
- Can't you take her just
this once, Dad?
- I've gotta meet Eddie.
I have to go meet Margaret.
I told her I would.
- Well, you'll just
have to call up Margaret
and tell her you'll be
there when you get there.
- All right, go get dressed,
Greta, and hurry up.
- [Woman] Sweetheart,
let me see how you look.
Turn around.
Oh, you're gonna do great.
- There's your friend.
- Shawna!
Hi!
[gentle piano music]
- [Sonya] Sure look
cute in your tutu.
- [Shawna] Thanks.
- [Greta] I gotta go
backstage and get changed.
- Okay, I'll go get a seat.
- No.
You better go or you'll
be late for your test.
- I love you, Greta.
You're gonna do just great.
- Yeah.
- Good luck.
- Good luck.
- Okay, go.
[sighs]
- Does everybody have a
sharpened number two pencil?
Let me see it.
[Margaret gasps]
[Margaret groans]
[students chattering]
All right, everything's
gonna be fine.
Everything will be fine.
Don't worry, she'll
be all right.
Does anyone know this girl?
- [Boy] No, not me.
- [Sonya] Margaret.
- Do you know this girl?
- Yes.
- Oh, god.
Did I faint again?
- Are you okay?
- I thought you'd
never get here.
[Sonya chuckles]
- [Eddie] Remember Artie?
The guy from the Calverton deal?
- [Ray] Artie Skaggs.
Big talk, no underwear.
- He stopped in the Dover last
night and we started talking.
So I started telling him
about Greta and Sonya,
not the girls, the claims.
- [Ray] Eddie, how many
times do I have to tell you
not to talk about business?
Jesus.
- [Eddie] Anyway, he
starts telling me
about couple of guys he knows
that got this great deal
around the same parts.
- [Ray] So what?
It's a big mountain.
- That's right, Ray, it's
a big mountain.
So I ask him who these
guys got this deal from.
It's Miller, Ray.
He sold our land to
somebody else.
- [Ray] What does Skaggs know?
Besides, Miller promised
he wouldn't do anything
without letting me know first.
- [Eddie] That was a while ago.
I hope you're right.
[stairs creaking]
- Jarvis.
Just the man I wanted to see.
I was just telling Eddie--
- Cut the crap, Weiler.
You've been steering
clear of me for weeks,
and I don't like it.
- [Ray] We've been up
in the mountains
getting things set up.
- What things?
- You ever started up a
mining operation, Jarvis?
There's equipment to lease.
We got a great deal on
a backhoe, by the way.
And there's men to hire.
These things take time.
And money, Jarvis.
- I know, Ray.
It's my money.
- [Ray] Well, we've all
got a lot tied up here.
- "We"?
So far, the only one I see
putting up any cash
is yours truly,
and it's starting to make
me a little nervous, Ray.
[laughs]
- What's the matter, Jarvis?
I thought you were a
high roller.
You're not the only one with
something on the line here.
- Oh? Who else?
- Well, Bud Rucklehaus for one.
- Oh, Bud Rucklehaus?
Should I be impressed, Ray?
Who the hell is Bud Rucklehaus?
- He's vice president of
First Federal.
Our kids go to school together.
- You better not be
bullshitting me, Ray.
Oh, and the next time I'm
looking for you, be here.
Take it easy, eh?
[door thuds]
[Greta chuckles]
- Shut up.
[Greta chuckles]
Shut up.
- [Greta] Mm.
[Greta chuckles]
- I'm gonna kill you.
[Greta chuckles]
- Ooh, someone's got
a boyfriend.
[gentle music]
Sonya, this is for you.
University of California?
Well, aren't you gonna open it?
Come on.
- I can't believe it!
I'm going away to college!
- What?
- I'm going away to college.
They accepted me.
[chuckles]
- You're going away?
[somber music]
Congratulations.
[lively music]
♪ Hawaiian Eye
- Don't you dare say
anything until I figure out
how I'm gonna tell him, okay?
- [Greta] What do
you think I am?
- Starring Anthony Eisley.
[footsteps treading]
[door clacks]
- Hello, girls.
- Hi, Dad.
- Hi, Dad.
- And Connie Stevens.
- Don't I deserve a little
more enthusiasm than that?
Daddy has had a rough day.
♪ Hawaiian Eye
[Ray sighs]
- [Ray] Has anyone
started dinner?
- Sonya's going away to college.
- [Woman] This is Tom Lopaka,
Mrs. Wells.
- How do you do?
- How do you do, Mrs. Wells?
Don't try and worry.
We left you a guest bed.
Anxious to meet your
husband for sometime.
- [Mrs. Wells] That's
very nice of you.
I'm sure he'll be delighted.
- [Woman] Come on, you two.
[TV clicks]
- [Ray] What is she
talking about?
- I got accepted to
the University
of California at Berkeley.
- What the hell are you
thinking about?
College?
- Why not?
- There are a thousand reasons.
- [Sonya] Name one.
- Oh, Jesus Christ.
Honey.
You don't know what
you're talking about.
You're too young to know.
Your daddy knows about college.
Your daddy knows
about professors.
I know, don't think
I don't know.
I've been around.
Those pinko intellectuals
will distort your values,
and do everything in their
power to turn your head around
and ruin everything that I,
and all decent
upstanding Americans
like your daddy, hold precious.
Well.
Precious darling, since you
feel that strongly about it,
who is Daddy to try
and stop you?
- [Narrator] How could
anyone's father be so selfish?
[Ray laughs]
Sometimes, Daddy would
turn to the housekeepers
for advice on how to raise us.
- [Svedka] Work clothes.
- Take off the...
Hi, honey.
I didn't hear you come in.
Svedka and I are having
a little chat.
So it snows a great
deal in Finland?
- [Svedka] Mm, yes.
- [Ray] Mm.
[door slams]
"My God, why hast thou
forsaken me?"
- [Narrator] Once, instead
of calling a doctor
when I had the flu,
he came and sat on my
bed with a Bible,
held in uncertain hands,
and he faked it so well
that I recovered in no time.
- [Ray] "I cry in the day
time, but thou hearest not."
- [Narrator] Sometimes, he
didn't have the answers,
and there was nowhere to turn.
[gentle music]
- Daddy?
I need some money.
- [Ray] What for?
- Just something I need.
- "Something"?
What thing?
- Just something from the store.
- Money doesn't grow on trees,
you know.
- Daddy, I need money for Kotex.
- [Narrator] Never has a
man less-equipped
for parenthood tried so hard.
- [Jarvis] I'll be a
son of a bitch.
Guy was being straight with me.
- [Foreman] Hey, this is
private property.
- I know it's private property.
It's my private property.
I'm one of the
partners in all this.
- [Foreman] You're one
of the Carver brothers?
I don't think so.
They're twins and I've
met both of 'em.
You don't even remind me of 'em.
- Wait a minute.
There must be a
misunderstanding.
I'm with Ray Weiler.
You know, Unified Minerals?
- There's a
misunderstanding all right,
but it's on your end, not mine.
This property is owned
and being mined
by the Carver
brothers of Seattle.
I think I remember some talk
that another company was
undercut on this deal.
Could have been
Unified Minerals.
[sighs]
[sighs]
- You son of a bitch, Weiler.
[knocking]
Ray?
Anyone in there?
[knocking]
- Honey, there's someone
at the door for Daddy.
You go and answer it
and say I am not here.
- Weiler, are you in there?!
- [Ray] Tell them I'm
in the mountains
and you don't know when
I'll be back.
- Ray?!
[knocking]
- Don't give me that look.
You know Daddy wouldn't
ask you to do anything
unless it was
absolutely necessary.
[loud thudding]
- See someone in there, Ray!
- Come on.
- For Christ's sake, get
off the goddamn couch.
Now!
[loud thudding]
Go answer the door.
- [Jarvis] Ray?!
Open up the damn door!
[loud thudding]
Don't make me bust the
damn door down now, Ray!
Open it up!
[loud thudding]
- Hello?
- [Jarvis] Tell your
daddy Mr. Jarvis is here.
- He's not home, he's in
the mountains.
- That's funny, his partner
told me he was here.
- Well, he's not, he's in
the mountains.
- Don't play games with me,
missy.
I know he's here.
- Mr. Jarvis, you
don't understand.
Ray Weiler's a very busy man
who needs to be away
on business.
- [Jarvis] Yeah, he's busy,
stealing money from honest men.
Ray?!
Ray!
- [Sonya] He's not here!
- What's the rush, Ray?
- Daddy!
- Got a client to meet?!
Huh?!
We got business to
attend to first.
You owe me, Weiler.
- Don't worry, you'll get
your money back.
Your investment will come
back, double, Jarvis.
- I'm sick of your lies.
- What are you talking about?
They're breaking ground Monday.
We just got stalled waiting
on some equipment from--
- Shut up, Ray!
I've been up to the site!
I've been introduced
to the Carver brothers
and I phoned Rucklehaus!
It's over, so don't insult
me with more of your crap!
I want my money by Monday,
or I swear to you, Ray...
I want my money, plus 20%.
That 20% is for aggravation,
Ray.
You get it, you get it,
goddamn it!
Got nice girls, Ray.
Oughta take better care of 'em.
[somber music]
[car engine rumbling]
[tires screech]
- I had no intention.
[Ray speaking faintly]
That was wrong.
I was trying to protect
your investment.
I was trying to do the
right thing here.
That old geezer hadn't have
sold out from under me,
everything would be all right.
- Ray, Ray!
- Yeah?
- I called my lawyer.
I'm pressing charges.
- [Ray] Oh, Bud, don't do that.
Think about your own daughter.
Bud, please, I'm
appealing to you, Bud.
Bud, please, have some mercy.
[door thuds]
[lock clicking]
- [Sonya] Daddy, are
you all right?
[Ray sighs]
- All I needed was a
few more days.
These sons of bitches don't
know the first goddamn thing
about the mining business.
A little bit of trouble,
and they panic.
- What are we gonna do now?
- It's the guys like Bud
Rucklehaus that really kill me.
I lay the deal of a
lifetime in their laps,
and look what I get,
while they sit in their
fancy offices
and never even get
their hands dirty.
These guys have no guts,
no vision.
Well, they can't pull
this shit on Ray Weiler.
- I found a lawyer
for your father.
- Your dad will be
out any minute.
Desmond took care of the bail,
so there won't be any delay.
- Mr. Webster put up the...
- Don't worry about that.
He'll get it back.
Sonya.
Sonya, you need all the
help you can get.
Your father's charged with
grand larceny and fraud.
This is serious business.
- So what's gonna happen now?
- Well, we got a court
date in a couple of weeks.
Now, I'll need you and your
sister in court every day.
- It's just gonna upset
Greta to have to go to court.
- Yeah, look, Sonya,
Social Services isn't gonna
look kindly on your situation.
- But she's my sister.
I can take care of her.
- Yeah, I know that,
but we have to do everything
we can to convince them.
[footsteps treading]
- [Ray] Let's go home,
sweetheart.
Thank you, sir.
- Sure.
I'll see you, Sonya.
- [Sonya] All right.
- Bye.
[gentle music]
- [Narrator] My
father is changing.
I can sense the shift,
the profound upheavals that
are taking place in him.
He's on the road a lot
of these nights,
gripping the wheel of
the beat-up Ford,
driving aimlessly
through deserted streets.
I've seen him from my
bedroom window,
circling the block as if
he were trying to decide
whether to stay with
us or to just run away.
I lie awake, watching the clock
long after Greta's
fallen asleep.
And while I wait for him,
I write.
I imagine the thoughts that
must be going through his mind
as he stares down the
darkened highway.
He's watching his
dreams unravel.
When my mother was alive,
he'd be bristling with plans.
I imagine that, deep
in his heart,
he thinks he's failed her,
and the thought of our
future is always on his mind.
I know he must think
about leaving
and letting us shift
for ourselves.
But there seems to be
something deep inside him
that just won't let
him desert us.
- Here she comes.
- What are you doing here?
- Can't a father pick
his daughter up
after school once in while?
[gun clicks]
- Bang!
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
[gun clicking]
[Ray laughs]
[Sonya chuckles]
- Who are you, Dale Evans?
[gun clicking]
- [Ray] All right, sweetheart.
- Part of the surprise.
This is what they wear at
the dude ranch.
- [Sonya] What dude ranch?
- The one in Reno.
I'll go horseback riding,
you'll go to college,
and Daddy won't have
to go to jail.
Right, Dad?
- What's she talking about?
- Honey, I've given this a
lot of thought.
There are a lot of opportunities
opening up in Reno.
It's a place a guy like
me can really make a mark.
- "Opportunities"?
I can't believe
you're saying this.
You're running away?
Are you crazy?
- Sonya, can't you see
that the whole thing
is stacked against me?
With guys like Rucklehaus,
I don't stand a chance.
In a few months, he'll
forget about it
and they won't even bother
looking for me.
We can all make a fresh start.
- We don't need a fresh start.
- I can't go to jail, Sonya.
- Daddy, stop the car.
Stop the goddamn car, now!
We're not going with you!
- Of course you're going.
The Three Little Weilers
stick together, you know that.
- Three Little Weilers,
The Three Little Kittens,
Three Little Pigs!
Stop calling us that!
Stop the car, now!
[loud thudding]
Leave me alone!
God!
Stop the car!
- Sonya.
Sonya.
Where are you going?
Come off the road.
Come off the road.
Come back to the car.
- What about your promise?!
You promised my mother that I
would graduate from Edgemont!
Now, doesn't that mean
anything to you?!
- Of course it does.
But, sweetheart, a diploma
is a mere formality.
You take a test in Reno,
they send you some paperwork,
poof, you've graduated.
[Sonya sighs]
- "A mere formality."
A technicality.
What about Mr.
Webster's bail money?!
Was that just a formality too?!
He was my friend!
He trusted me and now
you're ruining that too!
- He'll have that
investment back
by the end of the month,
with interest!
You think I wasn't
thinking about that?
- You don't think about
anyone or anything
but yourself and your deals.
What about us?!
Don't you ever think about us?!
- What do you mean?
This has all been for
you, and your sister,
to give you girls what I
didn't give your mother.
- You conned my mother and
maybe you can con Greta,
but I'm not listening to
any more of your lies!
- [Ray] Look.
- You let me go!
- Look!
- Let me go!
Let go of me!
- I stood by you girls,
and now I'm asking you
to stick by me.
- Maybe we would have been
better off without you!
- That's how you feel?
Fine.
When I think of the
opportunities I passed up
because of you two,
maybe I should have
left you to shift
for yourselves a long time ago.
[somber music]
[knocking]
[knocking]
[knocking]
[knocking]
- Is your father here?
- [Greta] No.
- Do you know where he is?
- [Greta] Ray Weiler is
a very busy man
who needs to be away on
business quite frequently.
- Honey, is your sister here?
- Sonya!
- What is it?
- [Policeman] We have a
warrant for the arrest
of Raymond Weiler.
- I already told them that he--
- Are you aware that he
was supposed to appear
in court yesterday?
- No.
Yes.
- I'm Mrs. Cole from
Social Services.
Miss Abigail Tate
informed our department
that you have an
unsupervised minor here.
I'm sorry, I'm gonna have
to take your sister with me.
- No, I'm 18.
I can take care of her.
- Sonya, you don't have
legal guardianship.
Please, don't make this any
harder than it already is.
Help Greta get packed and
dressed, okay?
- Sonya.
- I'm calling Mr. Drew.
[phone clacks]
[dial whirring]
It's okay.
It's okay, Greta.
[somber piano music]
- Lucky I was already packed.
- Yeah, that was real lucky.
Come on, Greta.
Come on.
- I don't wanna go, Sonya.
- Listen, everything's
gonna be okay.
- No.
Sonya!
- Greta, you've got to.
- Sonya!
- It's only temporary!
Now, come on!
- Sonya, stop!
- Come on!
- Stop it!
Stop!
- [Sonya] Greta, please!
- Stop!
- Here.
Let go of her, let go of her,
Sonya.
Come on, Greta, I promise
you're gonna see her soon.
Come on.
[somber music]
[crying]
- [Man In Brown] So
here's how it goes:
You've got a captive
audience here in Reno.
Lonely woman moves to town--
- [Man In Blue] She's
got six weeks to kill,
just waiting for her
divorce to come through.
- All she's got is time
and the ex-husband's money.
- [Man In Blue] Maybe we
help her catch
a little a case of
uranium fever.
- [Eddie] Bingo.
Instant investment, right?
- [Man In Blue] So you
guys interested?
- [Eddie] Yeah, sure.
Piece of cake for us, right,
Ray?
[somber music]
Right, Ray?
We're in.
[sighs]
[crying]
[door clacks]
- Your Honor?
- [Judge] Yeah.
- I'm Ray Weiler.
- Oh, yeah.
We had a date to meet
in court, Mr. Weiler,
not in front of my home.
- Yes, sir, I know.
I know.
- And if you think you're
gonna get more sympathy
by coming here than in my
courtroom, you're very mistaken.
- I'm not asking
anything for myself.
It's about my daughters.
They've been through enough.
- Isn't it a little late for
all this fatherly concern?
Should have thought about
that before you took off.
You abandoned your children, Mr.
Weiler.
- I'm not much of a father,
and I've made more than
my share of mistakes.
Sonya never got to be
much of a kid,
and Greta never even
knew her mother.
I didn't make it any
easier on them.
The only thing they have
right now is each other.
Please.
Don't take that away from
them too because I screwed up.
[audience applauding]
- Congratulations to the
Edgemont
graduating class of 1962.
[audience applauding]
[audience cheering]
[gentle music]
[loud whistling]
[audience cheering]
[people chattering]
- Very nice to meet you.
- Well, it was a pleasure
having her in the class.
Very nice to see you.
- Thanks very much.
[people chattering]
- Mr. Webster, I'm sorry
about my father.
I never should have let
you put up that money.
I'm gonna get a job
in the summer
and I'm gonna pay you
back every--
- Sonya, you don't have to
apologize for your father.
That's between me and him.
He is one hell of a source for
material, though, isn't he?
[Desmond chuckles]
- Yeah.
I guess you could say that.
- You just keep
writing your stories
and I'll keep reading them.
- Okay.
- Okay.
I believe you know where I live.
[gentle music]
- Can I go find Sonya?
- Yes.
- So good to see you.
[laughs]
You came back.
[Ray crying]
- I wouldn't have missed
your graduation
for all the tea in China.
Nothing could stop me.
You look so grown-up,
just like your mother wanted.
I wish she were here with
me to see you.
- I wish she was too.
[Sonya crying]
- I have something I
want to give you.
For your stories.
You're looking at the best
damn pen money can buy.
14 carats.
If you melted that pen down,
the weight of the metal alone
could pay for a year of college.
- [Narrator] When he was young,
he pursued a dream of
silver in Mexico.
Later, the lure was gold.
By the time Daddy had
gotten outta jail,
the Space Age was upon us
and he'd moved onto an obsession
with rare Earth metals.
By then, Greta and I were
used to being on our own.
Mr. Webster helped set
me up at State.
I waited tables at night
and I wrote my stories
on the weekends.
I shared an apartment
with my sister,
whose junior high was
just a block away.
She was like a daughter to me.
One November, after many
years had passed,
our father went into the
mountains and he never came
back.
A hunter found his body
in the spring,
still propped up against a tree.
I used to wonder if a con man
was capable of genuine love
and if that love was enough
to cancel out his crimes,
real or imaginary.
Now, I wonder if it's
possible that the wish to love
can be stronger than
the need to hate.
We buried Ray Weiler on
the dark mountain
beneath the land he loved.
In time, he would harden
into mineral and ore
and become that thing
that he used to seek.
[gentle music]
[triumphant music]