American Playhouse (1981–…): Season 7, Episode 7 - Pigeon Feathers - full transcript
A young boy suffers a crisis of faith when he begins to question whether or not the soul exists and if there is life after death. Based upon a John Updike story.
[music playing]
[birds chirping]
DAVID: Roscoe eyes Jackson at third.
He winds up.
The pitch.
Parrish, it's a ground ball that Santana scoops it up
beautifully, but throws wild to Carter.
Jackson scores!
Parrish rounds first.
He's going for two.
Carter makes a beautiful throw to second, but not in time.
So Phillies score another run in the fifth-- one
out, man on second, and Hayes steps up to the plate.
[music playing]
-He knows we're back.
-Granmom, you think he knows who I am?
-He's been waiting for me.
[dog barking]
ELSIE: David!
Mother!
Come on in.
They're here.
I need your help.
These boxes go to the bedroom right at the top of the stairs.
-Why can't we have that in the house?
-No room.
-My room.
-The bed takes all the space.
-But, Mom, I like to read on that.
-Sorry.
GRANMOM: And I'd follow along with him.
In those days, you did everything for yourself.
-When the time comes, we'll hire somebody to cut the hay.
-Your father and I never hired anyone.
ELSIE: Mother, George is a schoolteacher.
He works very hard at that.
And I want to start up the herb garden again.
-We can only do so many things at once!
-What are you so absorbed in, huh?
-Dad, you can't believe this.
Look at this.
-Oh, HG Wells, "The Outline of History."
This book belonged to my father.
Yeah, I read that when I was in high school.
It's not exactly "War of the Worlds," but it's interesting.
-Look where I was reading.
-"About Jesus, we have to write not theology, but history.
We shall treat him as being what he appeared to be-- a man.
Jesus was a penniless teacher."
Well, it's fair.
-That stuff can't be true.
There are churches everywhere, and millions and millions
of people wouldn't believe in him
if he wasn't the Son of God.
-Some people believe he's the Son of God.
Others don't.
Wells was free to make his own interpretation.
-Come on.
Jesus is the Son of God.
That's why we all go to church.
-No, you and I go to church.
Your mother is a more rational creature.
-But what about things like Heaven and Hell?
I mean, if Jesus isn't the Son of God, well,
then how can we even be sure about life after death?
-Look, David, don't worry about all this, all right?
Where's your mother?
[footsteps]
You know, Elise, I hate to disappoint you,
but it all comes down to a matter of simple chemistry.
Earth is nothing but chemicals.
You talk about it as though it had a soul.
ELSIE: But it does.
If you cared at all about this farm--
if you would just walk out on the land,
you would know it has a soul.
GEORGE: Soil has no soul.
ELSIE: Well, this soil has no soul,
because the last owners killed it with superphosphates!
It had a soul when you and Pop farmed it, didn't it, Mother?
GEORGE: Only human individuals have souls.
GRANMOM: He said he could hear it talk to him.
He'd stand out there at night in the middle of the field,
listening.
ELSIE: How can you be so stubborn?
GRANMOM: Almost where he's lying now.
ELSIE: Don't you read the papers?
Between bug sprays and chemical fertilizers,
we're all going to be dead in 10 years.
Heart attacks are killing every man in this country over 45.
-Well, I don't have long to wait then.
That's a comforting thought, isn't it?
GRANMOM: He said, in winter, the earth creaked,
just like floorboards.
ELSIE: Go ahead.
Make your little jokes, George.
But I promise, you, in the end, science
is not going to improve on nature.
You know, when I was a girl, you could
eat a peach without washing it.
-Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash-- that's
what the soil needs.
The human animal after thousands and thousands of years
has finally learned how to maintain
the balance of the soil.
Don't you send us back into the Dark Ages.
-What do you know about the Dark Ages?
-Oh, I just know I don't want to be sent back to them.
ELSIE: Have you fed the dog?
-No.
I'll go do it.
Copper!
Copper!
Copper!
-I know you didn't want to buy back this farm.
But now that we're here, just help me make the best of it,
would you?
-Copper!
Copper!
Copper?
Copper?
Hey, Copper--
[growling]
[footsteps]
-Now what's the matter, David?
-Granmom, Copper's eaten a rabbit.
-I thought he'd be a good hunter.
-But it's a rabbit.
-Now, David, that's nature's way.
-Granmom, do you think animals have souls?
-I don't know.
Yes, I suppose they might.
-But you believe people have souls?
-Yes, of course, they do.
Why, David?
-Then what is it?
-What is what?
-A soul.
What is the soul?
Now where-- where did we put his dictionary?
He was always looking up words.
[george talking in background]
-So what precious piece of knowledge
are you two seeking, huh?
-David wants to know what a soul is.
-Oh, you mean what the soil has.
-George, you wouldn't recognize a soul
if it took shape and chased you.
-Wait a minute.
I'm the churchgoer here-- the sincere visible believer.
ELSIE: Sincere isn't true, is it?
-Listen.
Soul-- "an entity conceived as the essence, substance,
or actuating cause of life, separate in nature
from the body and usually held to be separable in existence."
-I think that's going to require a little thought.
-A soul is something to feel, not understand.
-Christ said our souls go to Heaven when we die.
GEORGE: No, no.
Not everybody goes to Heaven.
But I don't think you'll have to worry, David.
-Yeah, but what if we just die, and there's nothing after?
-Your grandfather is right here, right now.
This is his farm.
ELSIE: I'm sure there's something for us, David.
-Everybody talks about the soul and what happens when we die,
but nobody makes it clear.
I just want to understand it, that's all.
-Well, just keep asking questions.
That's the only way you'll get the answers.
-I do, but I haven't found any.
I'm going to sleep.
[slamming book closed]
[door closing]
[wind howling]
[dog barking]
[laughing]
[whispering]
[door closing]
CHILDREN: Bye, David.
GRANMOM: It's from me, David, but it's really from Granpop.
You should have it now.
This way, he'll be closer to you.
-Thanks, Granmom.
GRANMOM: You can read it to me sometime.
-Now that one, uh, is for the hillbilly in you.
Now that you're a country boy, you have to learn a few things.
-It's heavy.
-Go ahead and open it.
-We thought it was something that
might help you pass the time this summer.
-Now you be careful with that.
It's not a toy.
-It sure surprised me.
ELSIE: Good surprise or bad surprise?
-Good, I guess.
-David.
At least you're honest.
[gunshot]
[dog whimpering]
-Hey, what's the matter?
I thought you were supposed to be a brave hunter.
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[bell ringing]
REVEREND DOBSON: From Paul's letter to the Corinthians,
but some man will say, how are the dead raised up?
And with what body do they come?
Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all
be changed in a moment-- in the twinkling
of an eye-- at the last trump.
But the trumpet shall sound, and the dead
shall be raised incorruptible.
And we shall be changed.
We're in the presence of a mystery-- a mystery
and a puzzle.
What does that mystery mean to us, the modern man?
-(QUIETLY) Look at those faces, David.
Week after week, this guy's wasted on them.
Are you sure you don't mind walking home?
I can certainly wait until catechism class is over.
-No, thanks.
-There's nothing along that road but fields and signs
for chewing tobacco.
-Oh, I don't mind.
I know a short cut.
-I talked this morning about the resurrection of the body.
Now Saint Paul talked in mysterious terms.
What does that mean to you?
I'm-- I'm really interested in your true feeling.
David, good.
I can always count on you.
-I've been wondering about something.
REVEREND DOBSON: Yes, what is it?
-About the resurrection and the body.
Are we conscious between the time when we die
and the day of judgment?
-Uh, conscious-- you mean, aware?
Noticing things?
Um, no, I suppose not.
-Well, where's the soul, then, in this gap?
-I suppose you could say our souls are asleep.
-And on Judgment Day when they wake up?
And there's the Earth like it always is and--
[laughing]
--all the people who've-- all the people who've ever lived.
Where will Heaven be?
[laughing]
-David is asking a serious question.
David, think of Heaven this way-- as the way the goodness
that Abraham Lincoln did lives on after him.
-But is Lincoln conscious of it living on?
-You mean, conscious now?
I'd have to say no, but I don't think that that matters.
-But it's got to matter.
How do we know that we have a soul?
-Being conscious of it-- that doesn't
matter in the eyes of God.
-Then what matters?
-Faith is what matters, David.
-But what you're really saying is
that the soul's nothing but other people's memories,
like-- like an old photograph or something,
and that's as good as saying that there
isn't any soul at all!
-I think I've answered your questions, David.
-David!
Do you want a ride to your place?
-No.
I feel like walking.
Thanks, though.
-Why do you ask so many questions?
-Because.
Don't you want to know what it's like to be dead?
[laughing]
It's not funny.
Don't you wish you had a soul and could live forever?
-I'll see you tomorrow, David.
REVEREND DOBSON: (VOICEOVER) Faith is what matters, David.
-It's late.
I was getting worried.
-I'm not a kid anymore!
I can take care of myself.
-There's no need to be rude.
I wish you'd talk to me.
-What do you mean?
We talk all the time.
-I mean, about what's troubling you.
You've been moping around here for days.
David, your dad and I know what a difficult time this
is for you.
It was difficult for us, too, when we were your age.
We love you.
We want to help.
Please, don't close us out.
-I asked Reverend Dobson about Heaven,
and he said that it was like Abraham Lincoln's goodness
living after him.
-Why does that bother you?
-Because.
Don't you see?
It's the same thing as saying there isn't any Heaven at all.
-I don't think it's saying that.
What do you want Heaven to be?
-I want it to be something.
I thought he'd tell me what it was.
I thought that was his job.
I don't see why you don't understand.
-I do understand.
See when you get older, all this seems
a lot less important to you.
-Not to Granpop.
Granmom says he used to read the Bible every day.
-I never understood your grandfather.
-Well, I don't understand ministers
who say that Heaven is like Lincoln's goodness going
on and on.
Suppose you're not Lincoln.
-I think Reverend Dobson made a mistake.
You should try to forgive him.
-It's not a question of his making a mistake!
It's a question of dying and never
moving or hearing or seeing anything ever again!
-David, you've got your whole life in front of you.
God's give you this beautiful day, this farm,
people who love you.
It's so greedy of you to want more.
-So you think there is a God?
-Of course, I do.
-He made everything?
You feel that?
ELSIE: Yes.
-Then who made Him?
-Man.
Man made him.
-That's the same as saying that there isn't any God at all.
-No, it isn't.
You don't say a house doesn't exist just because man made it.
-God's got to be different!
-You've got your evidence.
Just look around you.
Look at the field.
Look at the sun.
-Don't you see?
If when we die, there's nothing, it's-- everything and all of us
are like some dark hole!
Like we never even existed!
-I'm worried about him.
He keeps going on about so many complicated things.
GEORGE: What things?
-Life, death.
He pokes around it like it's an aching tooth.
He's so upset lately.
-You know, you're a lot like him-- never
really spilling things.
He was a very somber, old guy.
I'd find him standing somewhere, listening, he's say.
Listening to what?
Don't give death another-- another thought, David.
I may not live until tomorrow.
I'm not worried.
-Why can't you take me seriously?
-Come on.
Change your clothes.
I need your help with something.
All right.
Now let's finish it off.
[birds chirping]
DAVID: "Lord, we know not whither thou goest,
and how can we know the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father, also."
[knocking]
-David?
-Yeah?
-What are you doing?
-It's Granpop's old Bible.
-Can't you let it rest?
Some questions just don't have answers.
Come on.
I'll fix you a good breakfast.
Get dressed.
-He's got to be wrong.
-Jesus?
[sighing]
-Dobson.
There's just gotta be something after we die.
-Do you plan to argue with him about it at church tomorrow?
-No.
That wouldn't solve anything.
I thought he'd give me some answers,
but I don't think even he knows.
Just going to have to figure it out myself.
-All right.
Just don't dwell on it.
-OK.
I'll try.
[video game noises]
[honking]
[honking]
DAVID: What took you so long, Dad?
I waited for over an hour.
-Well, frankly, I prefer to grade my papers
over a cup of coffee in town rather than at the farm.
At least it's a reminder of civilization.
[railroad crossing ringing]
DAVID: I should have taken the bus.
"For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we
believe that we shall also live with Him,
knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead,
dieth no more.
Death hath no more dominion over him."
Granmom?
-He'll come for me at the end, David.
-You mean Christ?
-My husband.
That's when I'll know.
He'll stand there with his hands out, just the way
it used to be.
[gunshots]
-David, I have a job for you to do.
-What is it?
-Your grandmother thinks there are too
many pigeons in the barn.
-Why?
ELSIE: They dirty the furniture.
She's been after me for a month.
She wants you to shoot them.
-But I don't want to kill anything.
-The kid's like you, Elsie.
He's too good for this world.
ELSIE: Mother, he doesn't want to shoot the pigeons.
-Why not?
Your father always said pigeons are dirty.
They carry disease.
ELSIE: [inaudible].
-Come on, David.
Face your demons.
Show what you're made of.
[door creaking]
[wings flapping]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
-Sounds like you got a little carried away in there.
What in the world was going on?
-I did what you asked me to do.
-I didn't expect it to sound like a war.
-Don't blame me!
I didn't want to shoot them.
-How many did you get?
-Seven.
Maybe more.
-Their cooing was such a comforting noises.
I don't know why I let Mother talk me into this.
We can't just leave them here.
-Mom, they're beautiful.
ELSIE: Yes, they are.
-Each one's different.
ELSIE: Yep.
All Earth's creatures are.
DAVID: God's.
God's creatures.
-We have to bury them, or the dog is going to go wild.
-They are God's creatures.
[birds chirping]
Maybe we don't die.
[music playing]
[birds chirping]
DAVID: Roscoe eyes Jackson at third.
He winds up.
The pitch.
Parrish, it's a ground ball that Santana scoops it up
beautifully, but throws wild to Carter.
Jackson scores!
Parrish rounds first.
He's going for two.
Carter makes a beautiful throw to second, but not in time.
So Phillies score another run in the fifth-- one
out, man on second, and Hayes steps up to the plate.
[music playing]
-He knows we're back.
-Granmom, you think he knows who I am?
-He's been waiting for me.
[dog barking]
ELSIE: David!
Mother!
Come on in.
They're here.
I need your help.
These boxes go to the bedroom right at the top of the stairs.
-Why can't we have that in the house?
-No room.
-My room.
-The bed takes all the space.
-But, Mom, I like to read on that.
-Sorry.
GRANMOM: And I'd follow along with him.
In those days, you did everything for yourself.
-When the time comes, we'll hire somebody to cut the hay.
-Your father and I never hired anyone.
ELSIE: Mother, George is a schoolteacher.
He works very hard at that.
And I want to start up the herb garden again.
-We can only do so many things at once!
-What are you so absorbed in, huh?
-Dad, you can't believe this.
Look at this.
-Oh, HG Wells, "The Outline of History."
This book belonged to my father.
Yeah, I read that when I was in high school.
It's not exactly "War of the Worlds," but it's interesting.
-Look where I was reading.
-"About Jesus, we have to write not theology, but history.
We shall treat him as being what he appeared to be-- a man.
Jesus was a penniless teacher."
Well, it's fair.
-That stuff can't be true.
There are churches everywhere, and millions and millions
of people wouldn't believe in him
if he wasn't the Son of God.
-Some people believe he's the Son of God.
Others don't.
Wells was free to make his own interpretation.
-Come on.
Jesus is the Son of God.
That's why we all go to church.
-No, you and I go to church.
Your mother is a more rational creature.
-But what about things like Heaven and Hell?
I mean, if Jesus isn't the Son of God, well,
then how can we even be sure about life after death?
-Look, David, don't worry about all this, all right?
Where's your mother?
[footsteps]
You know, Elise, I hate to disappoint you,
but it all comes down to a matter of simple chemistry.
Earth is nothing but chemicals.
You talk about it as though it had a soul.
ELSIE: But it does.
If you cared at all about this farm--
if you would just walk out on the land,
you would know it has a soul.
GEORGE: Soil has no soul.
ELSIE: Well, this soil has no soul,
because the last owners killed it with superphosphates!
It had a soul when you and Pop farmed it, didn't it, Mother?
GEORGE: Only human individuals have souls.
GRANMOM: He said he could hear it talk to him.
He'd stand out there at night in the middle of the field,
listening.
ELSIE: How can you be so stubborn?
GRANMOM: Almost where he's lying now.
ELSIE: Don't you read the papers?
Between bug sprays and chemical fertilizers,
we're all going to be dead in 10 years.
Heart attacks are killing every man in this country over 45.
-Well, I don't have long to wait then.
That's a comforting thought, isn't it?
GRANMOM: He said, in winter, the earth creaked,
just like floorboards.
ELSIE: Go ahead.
Make your little jokes, George.
But I promise, you, in the end, science
is not going to improve on nature.
You know, when I was a girl, you could
eat a peach without washing it.
-Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash-- that's
what the soil needs.
The human animal after thousands and thousands of years
has finally learned how to maintain
the balance of the soil.
Don't you send us back into the Dark Ages.
-What do you know about the Dark Ages?
-Oh, I just know I don't want to be sent back to them.
ELSIE: Have you fed the dog?
-No.
I'll go do it.
Copper!
Copper!
Copper!
-I know you didn't want to buy back this farm.
But now that we're here, just help me make the best of it,
would you?
-Copper!
Copper!
Copper?
Copper?
Hey, Copper--
[growling]
[footsteps]
-Now what's the matter, David?
-Granmom, Copper's eaten a rabbit.
-I thought he'd be a good hunter.
-But it's a rabbit.
-Now, David, that's nature's way.
-Granmom, do you think animals have souls?
-I don't know.
Yes, I suppose they might.
-But you believe people have souls?
-Yes, of course, they do.
Why, David?
-Then what is it?
-What is what?
-A soul.
What is the soul?
Now where-- where did we put his dictionary?
He was always looking up words.
[george talking in background]
-So what precious piece of knowledge
are you two seeking, huh?
-David wants to know what a soul is.
-Oh, you mean what the soil has.
-George, you wouldn't recognize a soul
if it took shape and chased you.
-Wait a minute.
I'm the churchgoer here-- the sincere visible believer.
ELSIE: Sincere isn't true, is it?
-Listen.
Soul-- "an entity conceived as the essence, substance,
or actuating cause of life, separate in nature
from the body and usually held to be separable in existence."
-I think that's going to require a little thought.
-A soul is something to feel, not understand.
-Christ said our souls go to Heaven when we die.
GEORGE: No, no.
Not everybody goes to Heaven.
But I don't think you'll have to worry, David.
-Yeah, but what if we just die, and there's nothing after?
-Your grandfather is right here, right now.
This is his farm.
ELSIE: I'm sure there's something for us, David.
-Everybody talks about the soul and what happens when we die,
but nobody makes it clear.
I just want to understand it, that's all.
-Well, just keep asking questions.
That's the only way you'll get the answers.
-I do, but I haven't found any.
I'm going to sleep.
[slamming book closed]
[door closing]
[wind howling]
[dog barking]
[laughing]
[whispering]
[door closing]
CHILDREN: Bye, David.
GRANMOM: It's from me, David, but it's really from Granpop.
You should have it now.
This way, he'll be closer to you.
-Thanks, Granmom.
GRANMOM: You can read it to me sometime.
-Now that one, uh, is for the hillbilly in you.
Now that you're a country boy, you have to learn a few things.
-It's heavy.
-Go ahead and open it.
-We thought it was something that
might help you pass the time this summer.
-Now you be careful with that.
It's not a toy.
-It sure surprised me.
ELSIE: Good surprise or bad surprise?
-Good, I guess.
-David.
At least you're honest.
[gunshot]
[dog whimpering]
-Hey, what's the matter?
I thought you were supposed to be a brave hunter.
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[bell ringing]
REVEREND DOBSON: From Paul's letter to the Corinthians,
but some man will say, how are the dead raised up?
And with what body do they come?
Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all
be changed in a moment-- in the twinkling
of an eye-- at the last trump.
But the trumpet shall sound, and the dead
shall be raised incorruptible.
And we shall be changed.
We're in the presence of a mystery-- a mystery
and a puzzle.
What does that mystery mean to us, the modern man?
-(QUIETLY) Look at those faces, David.
Week after week, this guy's wasted on them.
Are you sure you don't mind walking home?
I can certainly wait until catechism class is over.
-No, thanks.
-There's nothing along that road but fields and signs
for chewing tobacco.
-Oh, I don't mind.
I know a short cut.
-I talked this morning about the resurrection of the body.
Now Saint Paul talked in mysterious terms.
What does that mean to you?
I'm-- I'm really interested in your true feeling.
David, good.
I can always count on you.
-I've been wondering about something.
REVEREND DOBSON: Yes, what is it?
-About the resurrection and the body.
Are we conscious between the time when we die
and the day of judgment?
-Uh, conscious-- you mean, aware?
Noticing things?
Um, no, I suppose not.
-Well, where's the soul, then, in this gap?
-I suppose you could say our souls are asleep.
-And on Judgment Day when they wake up?
And there's the Earth like it always is and--
[laughing]
--all the people who've-- all the people who've ever lived.
Where will Heaven be?
[laughing]
-David is asking a serious question.
David, think of Heaven this way-- as the way the goodness
that Abraham Lincoln did lives on after him.
-But is Lincoln conscious of it living on?
-You mean, conscious now?
I'd have to say no, but I don't think that that matters.
-But it's got to matter.
How do we know that we have a soul?
-Being conscious of it-- that doesn't
matter in the eyes of God.
-Then what matters?
-Faith is what matters, David.
-But what you're really saying is
that the soul's nothing but other people's memories,
like-- like an old photograph or something,
and that's as good as saying that there
isn't any soul at all!
-I think I've answered your questions, David.
-David!
Do you want a ride to your place?
-No.
I feel like walking.
Thanks, though.
-Why do you ask so many questions?
-Because.
Don't you want to know what it's like to be dead?
[laughing]
It's not funny.
Don't you wish you had a soul and could live forever?
-I'll see you tomorrow, David.
REVEREND DOBSON: (VOICEOVER) Faith is what matters, David.
-It's late.
I was getting worried.
-I'm not a kid anymore!
I can take care of myself.
-There's no need to be rude.
I wish you'd talk to me.
-What do you mean?
We talk all the time.
-I mean, about what's troubling you.
You've been moping around here for days.
David, your dad and I know what a difficult time this
is for you.
It was difficult for us, too, when we were your age.
We love you.
We want to help.
Please, don't close us out.
-I asked Reverend Dobson about Heaven,
and he said that it was like Abraham Lincoln's goodness
living after him.
-Why does that bother you?
-Because.
Don't you see?
It's the same thing as saying there isn't any Heaven at all.
-I don't think it's saying that.
What do you want Heaven to be?
-I want it to be something.
I thought he'd tell me what it was.
I thought that was his job.
I don't see why you don't understand.
-I do understand.
See when you get older, all this seems
a lot less important to you.
-Not to Granpop.
Granmom says he used to read the Bible every day.
-I never understood your grandfather.
-Well, I don't understand ministers
who say that Heaven is like Lincoln's goodness going
on and on.
Suppose you're not Lincoln.
-I think Reverend Dobson made a mistake.
You should try to forgive him.
-It's not a question of his making a mistake!
It's a question of dying and never
moving or hearing or seeing anything ever again!
-David, you've got your whole life in front of you.
God's give you this beautiful day, this farm,
people who love you.
It's so greedy of you to want more.
-So you think there is a God?
-Of course, I do.
-He made everything?
You feel that?
ELSIE: Yes.
-Then who made Him?
-Man.
Man made him.
-That's the same as saying that there isn't any God at all.
-No, it isn't.
You don't say a house doesn't exist just because man made it.
-God's got to be different!
-You've got your evidence.
Just look around you.
Look at the field.
Look at the sun.
-Don't you see?
If when we die, there's nothing, it's-- everything and all of us
are like some dark hole!
Like we never even existed!
-I'm worried about him.
He keeps going on about so many complicated things.
GEORGE: What things?
-Life, death.
He pokes around it like it's an aching tooth.
He's so upset lately.
-You know, you're a lot like him-- never
really spilling things.
He was a very somber, old guy.
I'd find him standing somewhere, listening, he's say.
Listening to what?
Don't give death another-- another thought, David.
I may not live until tomorrow.
I'm not worried.
-Why can't you take me seriously?
-Come on.
Change your clothes.
I need your help with something.
All right.
Now let's finish it off.
[birds chirping]
DAVID: "Lord, we know not whither thou goest,
and how can we know the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father, also."
[knocking]
-David?
-Yeah?
-What are you doing?
-It's Granpop's old Bible.
-Can't you let it rest?
Some questions just don't have answers.
Come on.
I'll fix you a good breakfast.
Get dressed.
-He's got to be wrong.
-Jesus?
[sighing]
-Dobson.
There's just gotta be something after we die.
-Do you plan to argue with him about it at church tomorrow?
-No.
That wouldn't solve anything.
I thought he'd give me some answers,
but I don't think even he knows.
Just going to have to figure it out myself.
-All right.
Just don't dwell on it.
-OK.
I'll try.
[video game noises]
[honking]
[honking]
DAVID: What took you so long, Dad?
I waited for over an hour.
-Well, frankly, I prefer to grade my papers
over a cup of coffee in town rather than at the farm.
At least it's a reminder of civilization.
[railroad crossing ringing]
DAVID: I should have taken the bus.
"For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we
believe that we shall also live with Him,
knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead,
dieth no more.
Death hath no more dominion over him."
Granmom?
-He'll come for me at the end, David.
-You mean Christ?
-My husband.
That's when I'll know.
He'll stand there with his hands out, just the way
it used to be.
[gunshots]
-David, I have a job for you to do.
-What is it?
-Your grandmother thinks there are too
many pigeons in the barn.
-Why?
ELSIE: They dirty the furniture.
She's been after me for a month.
She wants you to shoot them.
-But I don't want to kill anything.
-The kid's like you, Elsie.
He's too good for this world.
ELSIE: Mother, he doesn't want to shoot the pigeons.
-Why not?
Your father always said pigeons are dirty.
They carry disease.
ELSIE: [inaudible].
-Come on, David.
Face your demons.
Show what you're made of.
[door creaking]
[wings flapping]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
-Sounds like you got a little carried away in there.
What in the world was going on?
-I did what you asked me to do.
-I didn't expect it to sound like a war.
-Don't blame me!
I didn't want to shoot them.
-How many did you get?
-Seven.
Maybe more.
-Their cooing was such a comforting noises.
I don't know why I let Mother talk me into this.
We can't just leave them here.
-Mom, they're beautiful.
ELSIE: Yes, they are.
-Each one's different.
ELSIE: Yep.
All Earth's creatures are.
DAVID: God's.
God's creatures.
-We have to bury them, or the dog is going to go wild.
-They are God's creatures.
[birds chirping]
Maybe we don't die.
[music playing]