Prof, this is amazing, and it's only the tip of the iceberg.
-There's plenty more just waiting for us. -What did you do?
Look, whatever it is, I need you to stop.
Listen, listen, listen. There--
There's a story in here about a father and his two sons.
I'm pretty sure it's the prequel to The Coaster's Daughter
he talked about one time on NPR.
It's fantastic. When-- When people read this--
Where did you get it?
She gave it to me. Easy as pie.
Told you I was good at persuading people.
You didn't do anything to her, did you?
What?
You didn't hurt her?
-No, I never laid a finger on her. -Good.
Good, that's good. Look, I need you to stop.
I changed my mind. Just leave her alone.
Well, I can't do that, prof. This is too important. The world is waiting.
Jim, I need you to--
Hey.
I loved you.
Talk to me.
Where are you?
Talk to me, okay?
Do you wanna come home?
Squeeze my hand.
Help me.
Help me! Help me!
Oh, Scott.
You buried your brother by yourself.
You buried him alone.
I need to know one more thing.
I need to know about your brother.
And then-- And then we're never gonna talk about this ever again.
You think that Daddy murdered Paul?
You know, you think that's how the story of the good brother ends.
Well, they would've called it murder if he'd ever been tried for it.
You know, in the end, after all the… beatings
and the cutting and the crazy, my daddy showed him love.
Mercy.
Because that's what it was. Not murder.
Release.
Paul was in the bad. I don't know if it's from when the long boy hurt him
or just from our fucked up Landon heritage, but he was in the bad too much.
Too much for Daddy to cut and let it out.
And when it happened, it happened fast.
Boys.
Landons.
Get your asses down here.
The devil delights in the sins of the flesh…
-Help me with this shit. -…the way pig delights in the wallow!
-Quit fuckin' around. -Can I get a hallelujah?
-Can I get an amen? -What are you doing?
-Amen! -Thank you.
-What's so important? -Now, heaven is within your grasp,
but hell is waiting to swoop you under.
I like it kind of--
Heaven awaits…
Daddy, help!
Daddy! Daddy, help! Daddy!
Paul's got the bad! Daddy, please!
-Hey! What the hell is going on? -Daddy!
-…3 revivals coming up. -Paul's got the bad! Daddy! Daddy, help!
-Let me go! -Daddy, Daddy!
Infected.
There at the bite.
That's the bad in you now.
It's running through your blood and all along through your anatomy and…
you're fucked.
May I remind you…
Here we go.
Pick his leg up.
Well, he's out right now, but--
Well, not out for long. Goddamn.
And you didn't call anybody?
You didn't call a doctor or an ambulance--
Are you kidding?
Like, doctors, police, social services,
all part of his international Jewish,
fascist, Christian, communist conspiracy.
Daddy said that even the people he worked with in the factory were in on it.
We were alone.
Alone was all we knew.
What did you do?
We trussed him up.
Like a hog in a pen.
"I know what I'm doing."
He didn't.
He was only guessing.
But I understood the truth of it.
What was the truth?
He loved him.
He loved us both.
You know, and he was just doing his duty as a father.
It was ugly love, but it was strong.
True.
You are as dumb as you are ugly.
I swear to God, if you didn't have that fucking birthmark on your ass,
I would say you were the exterminator's kid.
Your mother always liked him.
Your mother was a whore, but I loved her anyway.
She was my whore.
Don't shoot him.
Get with the goddamn program, soldier.
That ain't your brother anymore.
Does it look like him? Look at his goddamn eyes.
Eyes are blazing like a goddamn wild boar.
You know what he's got living inside of him?
You know what's going through his goddamn veins?
You know what it looks like? Looks like this.
Mud. He's got mud and blackness running through his veins.
He--
He don't feel anything.
He got the bad in him. He don't feel a goddamn thing.
Would you try to teach-- teach him something.
I don't want him gone.
You don't listen, you don't--
Scooter, get over here.
No, don't do that.
Scoot. Scoot, don't do that.
Open your eyes! Open them!
Don't you-- Don't do it.
Don't you start crying now. Don't you dare.
Listen, I-- I'm gonna start crying. Just stop.
Listen to me.
Listen-- You know the bad? You know the bad?
The bad and the other place? And the gone and all of that?
It's a curse, okay? It's the Landon curse.
It's a curse, but it's also a blessing.
So those-- those who focus just on the curse,
they get bad and then they're gone and they never come back.
But those who see the blessing, they go on and on and on and on.
They live on even after they're gone.
And then when you're gone, you're-- you're not gone.
You're-- You're remembered.
Which one are you gonna be, huh?
It was enough.
For three weeks, it was enough.
And that's where my brother spent his last fall.
The last weeks of his life.
In that stinking barn.
You can't imagine those three weeks.
Especially when Daddy was at work and it was just me and Paul.
He went to work?
We had to eat.
You know, and pay for the electric.
And we couldn't afford for people to get suspicious about Daddy, be--
People didn't like him.
I'm not surprised.
I told him to cut him.
Let out the bad, like he always did.
But he said it wouldn't do any good because the bad had gone into his brain.
And then one day,
when Daddy was gone…
Scotty.
Hey, Scotty.
Let me loose.
Please.
I'll make you a bool hunt.
A good bool.
The best bool.
Sixty clues, Scotty. Sixty!
It'll be the best, longest bool hunt ever.
A candy bar and an RC.
Come on.
Just let me loose.
He's crazy. You know he is.
It's all in his head.
I'm fine.
I'm good.
Just let me out. Come on!
Please.
What would she think of you?
What would Mom think of you if she knew what you're doing to me right now?
What would she say?
Come on, Scott.
I'm not your brother?
Just an animal.
What did I tell you he'll do if he started talking to you?
Unzip my guts.
Unzip your guts, that's right. That's right.
You know that snake's trying to hypnotize you right now, you little stupid bird!
What else did I say?
I said, "Put your fingers in your ears." Now do it.
Come on, Scotty, let me out. Get over here right now.
And you say, "You gone-bad fuck, I can't hear you. I can't hear--"
-I can't hear you. -Do it again.
I can't hear you.
You understand what I'm saying?
I didn't mean it. I love you, Scotty.
You know I do. You know I love you.
I guess it's feeding time, huh? For the monster.
Pioneer drumstick, can we?
You know the price of meat right now?
What do you think, I'm just made of money?
No, Daddy.
I knew we couldn't save him at home.
I said I-I-I have to.
Holding on to Paul. That's the only way I could take him to the pool.
Booya Moon.
The way you took me.
Not too much, Daddy.
Really gonna sleep with that one.
You know, we got to keep control of the situation, Scoot.
Yeah.
You cannot lose control.
Got your favorite here, Paulie,
pioneer drumstick, just how Daddy used to make them.
You don't need too much. You know the price of meat right now?
Everything's going up.
It's part of the apocalypse, you know.
Rest in peace.
Come on now. You'll sleep like a baby.
Mother--
Give me that.
First you need to turn on the water.
-Why the hell do you have to do-- -It makes it easier.
I don't wanna know.
Paul showed me like you showed me the tea cure.
Even if he'd go, he had to look at the water.
Doing that made him think about the pool.
The one in Booya Moon, where all the broken people--
Listen. I said I don't wanna know.
All that matters is if he gets too close, I want you to stick him, like this.
Right into his neck. Okay?
I love you, Daddy.
I love you too, kiddo. I'm sorry.
And he said if…
If he didn't rip off my head in the barn,
then he definitely would on the other side.
That's what he-- he called it.
And I said, "Well, what if,
you know, Daddy just made enough of that horse tranquilizer to make him woozy."
Oh, my God.
"Playing with fire there, Scoot," he said.
I said, "I know.
But we have to do something. Before he breaks his chains."
And so we tried it.
Scoot!
Come on, we're against time.
Come on!
Come on! What are you waiting for?
I can't, Daddy.
It's not working.
Come on, Scooter!
Scooter! Fuck, will you lie down? I can't see anything!
Will you get your hands off my goddamn boy!
Don't do it!
You gone-bad son of--
Daddy, come look.
What do you want?
Come look.
Why does he not look like he did before?
'Cause he's dead, Scooter, that's why.
The bad's out of him now. It left with that goddamn bullet.
He's my firstborn. And goddamn, he looks like your mother.
They're gonna put me away if they find him like this.
Or in a state prison or nutbarn.
I mean, that's if they don't lynch me first.
I can take him, Daddy.
How can you take him?
You gonna take him dead but you couldn't take him alive?
It's different now.
He can't fight against it now. Can't be an anchor. I know I can.
Back up, Daddy.
What'd you say to me?
Back up.
Scooter, have you lost your fucking mind?
Back up!
I dare you to say that one more time. I triple-dog dare you.
Say that to me again, I swear to God.
Back up, Daddy!
I took him over as easy as ever.
When he was dead.
You know, the dirt is soft around…
sweetheart trees.
So that's where I laid him.
That's where I buried my brother.
Why would you make me remember all that?
It's the silver shovel that you saved him with.
And he said that you would see it even before you saw it.
Did you?
Yes.
It's Am-- It's Amanda.
It's not Dooley, it's Amanda.
It's Am--
So, when we talk about this trip,
we can talk about how beautiful it was, and the snow…
how we had the place to ourselves.
But the-- the other stuff,
the stuff about your brother and where we went, that never happened.
Because I-- I can't deal with it.
I mean, maybe that's how your father felt too.
Look, there's something you have to understand about the pool.
Every poet, artist, storyteller, they go to the pool.
It's dangerous, but it also heals and renews.
Like the human imagination.
Great. I'll never have to ask you where you get your ideas. Now can we drop it?
-Sure. -Forever?
But if you ever need to go, remember, water is best.
Okay.
It's very close, honey.
I don't understand you.
You know.
It makes a sound.
Scott.
We're dancing.
Remember?
Squeeze my hand.
Squeeze my hand if you wanna go home.
You have to be quiet, lady.
Or it might come.
You have to help me.
We need to go back home.
Be quiet. You'll bring it.
What happened to you?
Fight.
How do you know?
You need to go back.
I don't think you belong here.
I'm…
thinking.
No, you're not. You don't need to be here.
I don't think you wanna be here. That's why you're a double.
That's why you brought Good Ma's afghan.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to find you with all these people.
You're a natural.
Just close your eyes and go.
Without you?
I don't wanna be quiet.
You need to go.
I'm going back.
Taking this with me.
'Cause it's mine.
What is that?
I don't know.
I don't wanna be here.
It's okay.
Paul!
Scott!
-Scott! -Must be quiet. Let's go.
It's your fault!
Concentrate. Bring us home.
You think you're famous.
But you're not!
It's the afghan. It's an anchor.
You may think that there's a place.
I know that I did because Scott made me believe in it,
but Booya Moon is not real.
It's a place where Scott and his brother pretended to go.
Go, Paul. Go to Boolie Moon, or whatever it is the hell you two call it.
I-I could take him, Daddy.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah.
I don't wanna be here. Lisey, Lisey.
But if you ever need to go, remember,
water is best.
Oh, Lisey. Be careful.