Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Seventh Daughter contains scenes of realistic violence and graphic sexuality.
It is intended for mature listeners. Oh see before you,
the Virgin robed in white, surrounded in an aureole of light.
(00:23):
Twenty one days ago we welcomed the Seventh Daughter into
our presence. We placed her on a pedal stool and
genuflected at her feet, as if she were the Virgin herself.
We shared the loving cup as if she were one
of us. But at the core, she is not one
(00:46):
of us. She is different. But tonight we shall all
become the same, unified in a ritual of trans substantiation.
Just as the Roman Catholics consume the body and the
blood of Christ as wavers and wine, so shall we
(01:07):
feast on the flesh of our girl, who would be queen,
And thereafter may her powers flow through our veins. Have
you come seeking knowledge? Do you wish to know the truth?
(01:32):
Allow me to show you. Close your eyes and follow
the sound of my voice. Allow it to lead you
further into the past. When I will move my blindfold,
you may look into my eyes. Don't just look at them,
(01:54):
look through them, and you will see what they have seen.
M the Seven Daughter in her right hand, she shall
(02:32):
hold the snake, the symbol of the first deceivered true God. Ok,
don't squeeze it, just let it rest there. It's heavy,
don't be frightened. It's not venomous. In her left brooke,
representing her earthly master and King, who shall unfurl a
(02:53):
blanket of darkness upon the lamb. Hold out your left
arms further out out like that. Yes, for as long
as you have I have it now, thank you. It
is tradition that every wedding be attended by a witness,
and for that role we have found someone quite special
(03:16):
to the girl. Yes, right down here in the front
where she can have a clear view. Rose surprised, my dear,
What have you done to her? Why? Nothing at all.
(03:37):
She's been a guest here. She has been shown every courtesy,
and for her own benefit, we have denied her the
narcotics that have poisoned her body. But it appears that
sobriety does not entirely suit her silence. Is she in
(03:58):
her right mind? You know her better than I, and
perhaps you can tell tell me, Pandora, is she really
your mother? Or is that another of her fabrications? It's
a lie. My mother was called Davina. Oh, but my dear,
that is Davina. Didn't you know, darling, you've you've suddenly
(04:23):
gone pale. You see, I knew her before you knew her.
I didn't recognize her at first. She certainly is a
mistress of deception. But Baron von Shrink, bless his soul,
made the connection. We don't look at her, look at me. Yes,
(04:46):
that's better. You mean to tell me that all this
time she never told you. You never knew psychic powers. Indeed,
allow me to speak to her, will find the truth.
Oh it's a little late for that. We've obtained all
the information we need. Besides, we have a ritual to perform.
(05:10):
Yes we do. Are you not reluctant to proceed? I'm
ready to do what I came here to do. Then
let us commence. Step forward, Pandora, approach the star carved
(05:37):
in the floor, Take your place at its center. Yeah,
the blood is the life, and only through the shedding
of blood can sacrifice be made. Only by bathing in
(05:59):
the blood of the beast of the wild, and the
blood of the fruit of the lamb, and the girl
a woman become hold by the horns, raise its head
back as far as you can. That's it, mysterium buffo
(06:19):
matis revelate to impuri tarts convicted. I never miss stop it.
Blood of the beasts, my dear, Just following the script, Pandora,
(06:41):
I had such high hopes for you. I so wanted
you to be real. I'm more real than you know.
Are you now? Be that as it may. In an
hour's time, it won't matter whether your powers were a
gift from the gods or mere pol tricks. They will
be gone. Try and take them. Is there anything you
(07:08):
wish to say before we begin? Yes, I thank you
for the privilege of being brought before you to carry
out the prophecy of the ancestors. I wish to pay
tribute to Da Vina, my mother, before whose eyes I
shall fulfill the promise of my youth. May I have you?
(07:31):
Is it true? Rose? I have nothing to say. I
want no part of May I have your blessing? It
is true? Neither angel nor devil shall tell my mother
who makes a command? What is it you wish to know,
my child? I wasn't talking to you, go fucker. Let's
(07:56):
say it's the great deceiver. Rose. The great deceiver says
render unto Caesar was a show him for saying and
to all who follow and you killed them all as
you speak. Just do I create? No ho, no, no,
(08:17):
don't release the raven yet, Pandora. Don't put down the serpent.
It isn't time yet. It's time. Get back on your place, Pandora.
That's enough. Would you follow my way? If you don't?
Get you one he has a knife. Oh no, Corbo,
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I've gotten blood on my wedding dress, just as you predicted.
O Holy One, stop her. Tonight I meet my destiny.
Do you hear me? What do I pay you for? Tonight?
We all meet our destinies. One more step, you little
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tease Rose, and I'll put a bullet through both sides
of her head. Kill the blackbird. Drop the knives, Rose,
drop the knives, forget about meat, Drop the knives, Pearl.
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I can't. I'm not as strong as I thought I was. Rosy,
Let me go. M Who am I? You are? My daughter?
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But you are so much more. You may only be
a child, but you shall tear down the walls of
his temple. You cannot correct all the wrongs in the world,
but you can put an end to this one. When
when when I tell you put her Let's just just
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lay her down here, take my jacket. You're sure our
hands are tied tightly? She's not movie fine, Now get out,
find out where the hell backstairs and have her weight outside.
Lock the door, double lock it, and no matter what
you here, no matter how loudly she screams, do not
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open that door. Are sure you don't need me to
stay here? And I have the key. No one else
opens this door. Now begne yes, sir mum. I can
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do this. I can do this if I if I
concentrate and imagine, this is what you wanted corbea all along?
Why bother with all the rest of it, the rituals,
the hair, brain philosophy. Truly, what is the purpose of
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all that? It fortifies me, gives me strength and power,
as you will soon discover. Then I suggest you start
your incantations quickly. Whit will wait? Where are you going?
(12:06):
What harm could a teenage girl with both hands tied?
Possibly due to the earthly lord of darkness? M hmm,
what is that? If I'm not mistaken, it's a g
sharp you little witch, an old Muslim buggie trick right now?
(12:34):
The wires working as a noose. But if I give
it one strong tug, please, it will become a razor.
But right now, listen, if you like, I can loosen
(12:54):
the noose for you to summon the beast from the hit.
Just like that, squeeze and release, squeeze. This is your
last camp Scrabo. If there is a god or a devil,
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now is the time to share itself his hand against
the show me the power of darkness, Corebo. Go on,
make a believer of Satan, strike me dead, the lord
of Satan. There is no god, but there is a
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woman named China Rose. She is the great deceiver. And
for what you did to her, Thus do I and
the name of Davina do until you m hm red.
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He's the blood shed by all men. M h. Don't worry.
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It's not my blood. It's there's mhm. I brought a
trophy for you, just like Salamy. He's even uglier in death.
Oh Rose, I realized I was harsh with you, pearl,
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and for that I am sorry. But I didn't mean
to be cruel. I truly didn't. And if I was cruel,
it was to keep me from loving you. What would
have been so bad about loving me, Rose, Why didn't
you just tell me the truth? The truth was too painful.
(15:29):
I was strong. Not too painful for you, too painful
for me. It was bad enough that I gave up
my child and allowed her to be raised by strangers.
But for a mother to tell her child that she
abandoned her. You can't imagine what that would be like.
To admit that I had betrayed my child, that I
(15:51):
deprived you of a mother's love. I just couldn't. It
was easier for me to be a stranger to you.
That way, I could be close to you without having
to reveal my betrayal. I didn't mind that you hated
me as the great deceiver. I relished your hatred because
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you hated the role I was playing, not the person
I actually was. If you had known I'm your mother
and hated me for leaving you, I could not have
borne it. So I concealed the truth. You'll tell me now,
what do you wish to know? Everything you've hidden? What
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does it matter? Now? You are the princess, the queen.
You have everything you could ever hope to possess. Tell
me now, I haven't much breath. Then speak slowly and
spend it wisely, oh pearl, mm hmm. For a time,
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we were going to be a family. There was only
the two of us, then your father and I. When
I found out I was carrying you, I was ecstatic.
I think in his own way, even your father was
happy about it. But I swear that man had a
(17:26):
demon inside him. Caglios, your father was his own worst enemy.
He had to win every argument, every game of cards,
every fight. He was a talented psychic, he was a
(17:48):
lousy card player and a pitiful fighter. He couldn't stand
to lose. He used to take twenty dollar gold points,
punch holes in them, and sew them like buttons down
the front of his vest. Oh. On more than one occasion,
I saw him having a run of bad luck in
(18:11):
a card game, pulled the last gold button off his
vest and put it in the pot, leaving the club drunk,
his vest hanging open like a tramp. Corbo was everything
Caglios wanted to be and wasn't. Corbo had succeeded where
(18:33):
your father had failed. The more Caglios learned about Corbo,
the arrogant, wealthy Corbo, the more he yearned to take
advantage of him. Somehow. Corbo was always looking for women
to participate in his sex magic. Everyone knew it, and
(18:58):
sometimes I think his whole tem pool was just an
excuse to have sexual relations without any of the obligations
that come with what some people might call love. As
long as it was part of some workings, some ritual,
then he could have other men's wives, teenage girls, women
(19:24):
of all races, and men too. It was silly that
he needed this to justify his puerile hobbies, but that
was Corbo in a nutshell. Beneath all his demonic rituals
and outrageous behavior, he was still a repressed English schoolboy
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at heart. He couldn't just pay a prostitute for sex.
He had to perform a magical working, even if it
was between two garbage cans in ark Alley. It wasn't
the sex that attracted all his followers. There are some
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who seek power and are willing to ally themselves with
the worst possible tyrant upstanding church going folk willing to
excuse his immoral behavior because they stand to gain wealth
and influence at the feet of this man who cares
(20:29):
about no one but himself. Eventually, your father found Corbo's weakness,
the one thing that Gorbo believed in, hoped for, yearned
to possess, and was willing to pay for, but had
(20:50):
been denied him the seventh daughter. Finding a seventh daughter
was an almost impossible task, but Caglios spent years creating
the illusion of one. Of course, we didn't have any children,
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but your father wove an elaborate tapestry of deception. He
found a photographer who specialized in memento morii, photos of
the dead children in caskets surrounded by flowers. Caglios paid
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the photographer for a gallery of images to represent our
dead children and had him etge his name in the
negative plates. Caglios pushed the photographer to go further, provided
him with a sash bearing the family name so he
could drape it across a casket and take a picture
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when the family wasn't watching. Another time, he put a
name on a reef and placed it by the body.
We got the photos. The families of those dead babies
never knew. Death certificates were easy to obtain. For a
(22:15):
county clerk to earn a few dollars by issuing a
death certificate for someone who didn't exist, where was the
harm in that? Once Corbo was reasonably convinced that was
about the time that I became pregnant, and your father
thought the past to resistance, let Corbeo see and feel
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the baby within me. Wait, yes, you have a question. No,
So once it became obvious that how did you know
I'd be a girl? Oh pearl, mhm, do you really
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think that badly of me? It didn't matter whether you
were a girl or a boy. We had no intention
of giving you to Corbel. It only mattered that I
was with child, and yes he had a doctor examined
me to be sure. This was our plan. In those
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days in the tenement district, abandoned children were quite common,
and for a modest amount of money it would be
possible too um adopt a child from the unwed mother
or a family with more mouths than they could afford
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to feed. We'd take her on as an apprentice and
sell her to Corbel. He'd give her a life of luxury.
We'd take the twenty thous and and run like hell.
We would obtain an infant. Girls have less earning potential,
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so this would be simple. I would have my child,
which we would hide, and we would hand over to
Corbo a changeling, the baby we had obtained from some
wretch of the slums. And so, as I said, Caglios
had never been able to beat Corbo in anything, and Corbo,
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being suspicious, wanted to be sure that the child he
had purchased, my child, the one in my belly, was
the one he received. He was suspicious of Caglios, but
in me, in the child, he always believed h For
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a while I was happy, he just needed to warm
in the Then a little longer we were a family
that had a future together. But oh, your father never
told me our little plan had been foiled. But he
(25:18):
didn't have to. I told you he was a terrible
card player. I could read his face as if it
were a newspaper, and the headlines were bad, very bad.
Corbeau has a great many influential friends, many in the
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medical profession, men who know how at the appropriate time
to cut open a woman's belly and extract the child.
He wanted to see it, see you come out of me.
Caglios couldn't even pretend to be happy. All the liquor
(26:04):
in the world could have hide the panic that was
eating away at his guts. He turned hateful towards everyone,
myself included where are you going out out? Where to
earn money? To get food? One of us has to work,
not by yourself. You don't, I'll send someone with you.
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How about you go work and I take care of
the baby. I was nothing to him but an incubator,
a bit heavy with pups, the goose preparing to lay
the golden egg. Me. Don't feel bad. I loved you.
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I suppose in a perverted way. He loved you too.
Your birth represented to him a chance for wealth, a
new beginning. You were worth more to him and anything
else in the world. Maybe not all the gold in
the world, just gold. Mmm. That's right, That's exactly how
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much he loved you, pearl, and not a pennymore. All
the while, I pretended not to notice his trembling hands,
pretended not to notice that he could no longer hold
my gaze, pretended everything in our marriage was fine, bided
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my time. Caglios burned through all the money we'd sucked away,
including the thousand dollar down payment Corbo had given us,
And even if we tried to return his money and
cancel his deal, he wouldn't have allowed it. So what
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did you do? We had to go back to work
to survive. All right, you can relax. I booked an
eight week run with the Sewer Brothers, Suel Brothers, that
lousy ragtop that you swore you'd never work with again.
I'm pulling the corpse routine. You want to take me
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back to the South while I'm carrying a child work
for those Georgia crackers that already swindled. Do you care?
You don't gotta work. I'm the one working. That's what
you wanted, right, I'm pulling the corpse routine. And while
I'm in the ground, you stay in the wagon and
don't go out. What is the corpse routine? Ah, the
(28:37):
amazing hypnotic corps. M hm, it's buried alive routine. Not
many people have the nerve to pull it off, but
Caglios was desperate and decide from biting the heads off
of chickens. It was all he was gonna get. How
it works is on the day you pull into town,
(29:00):
you stage a big berryer. You get the whole troop
out there in their Sunday being closed brass band Paul
Bears a minister invite the newspapers and as many mourners
as you can scare off. So they put him in
a coffin, bury him six feet in the ground, and
(29:23):
onto this window they attach a viewing tube, a long,
narrow box buried in especially designed coff so once he's
in the grounds, people can pay their nickel, walk up
and look down into that tube and see the face
of a dead man. He put a little phosphorus paint
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on his face to make himself look pale and starved.
Most that would happen as if someone dropped a nickel
down the tube, beat open his eyes and snarl at him.
You could hear him scream. You can see him go running,
and his act pretty much mhm. When no one was around.
(30:10):
They dropped food down to him and let him have
a smoke. God forbid another pine of whiskey. Otherwise he'd
just lie there, pockets stuffed with nickels he'd collected, suffocating
in his own filth mhm. For three days and three nights,
(30:30):
just like our Lord and Savior. And on the third
day they'd stage a resurrection. Tickets to that cost of dimes.
Have a fellow claiming to be the county coroner in
small towns you could get the real buccoy. They dig
him up and proclaim it a miracle. Hallelujah, Pack up
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the coffin, move on to the next town, and start
all over again. The following day, about two weeks into
the circuit, we're in Birmingham. We can spot just like
any other. They bury him. The band plays the Minister
praise and everybody mourns on cue. No sooner is he
(31:25):
in the ground than a telegram catches up to us.
Caglios Care of Soul shows general delivery Birmingham, arranged doctor
in Memphis for Operation Wednesday. Blackbird Unroote, Blackbird in Root.
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The bastard had sold me out. That's the only reason
he'd taken us on the circuit, so I'd be stuck
in the hell that is Dixie with no one to trust.
I didn't confront him with it, never asked him. I
simply got up off that bed, rose from the dead,
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grabbed the grip I'd packed two weeks earlier, my traveling
bag and I caught out through the back of the
banner line. Didn't say nothing to nobody. I just ran
as fast as my swelled up leg who carried me
once I was off the fair grounds. An old fellow
and a fruit cop took pity on me and gave
me a ride to the station. What happened to Caglios
(32:36):
once he got out of the grave. Yes, well, I'm
afraid I must say that story for another time. Took
a night train ahead and south open and make it
to New Orleans about. Wasn't used to being on my feet,
being laid up on my back for so long, and
(32:59):
I guess you sort of got jostled blues. Made it
as far as Atlanta. When my water broken, I knew
I couldn't wait no longer. Got off at terminal station.
I went to the Cator street, where people like me
can move about, found a baby doctor and started having
(33:20):
you as soon as I lay down on this table.
Didn't hardly give him time to wash his hands. I
didn't have an easy time of it. You were all
tangled up inside me. Listen to me, my dear, The
birth is not going to be easy. The cord is
(33:42):
wrapped around the child's neck. If if it would bring
you relief, we can leave it as it is for
about five minutes, and then I'll remove what remains. I
(34:03):
reckon the doctor thought he was doing me a kindness.
He saw I was alone, and I wasn't wearing a
wedding band. And this kind of doctor probably loses as
many babies as he delivers. If you get my meaning,
why didn't you go to a hospital? They would have
kept a record of my name and a record of
(34:23):
your birth. And I needed both of us to vanish
without a trace. But a man like that, a man
like that, don't ask questions. If you prefer, I can
try to reposition the fetus. Yeah, do whatever you need
to do doctor to save the baby. It may take
(34:47):
some time, and it may be difficult for it difficult,
don't worry me as you wish. Is there anyone anyone
we notified should things not go according to plan? Very well?
(35:08):
Then I paid him twenty five dollars. Part of that
money was paying him to forget I had ever been there,
for allowing me to walk out of there the next morning,
no birth certificates, no questions, mm hm oh oh she
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she okay. I rented a room the boarding house until
I was strong enough to travel. Then I headed east.
Had a typist draw up a letter committing you to
the convent school, gave you the name Lilia Pearl Parkhurst,
(36:11):
daughter of William A. Parkhurst, the third wife deceased. Sent
the school a wire saying a colored servant would deliver
you to the school and that they would be provided
one hundred dollars a year to provide for your education
and care. So you see, they never saw your father.
(36:36):
They just knew your father's name and had his signature,
your signature, which is why it was so easy for
me to sign it again eleven years later, and I
left them the tarot card the high priestess, So you
(36:57):
took me to the Continent school. That's right. They didn't
give me a second glance. I was the delivery girl.
They only had eyes for you, and maybe that hundred
dollars a year that I sent them for ten years.
You see, all the time Corbo knew me, and Cagleos
(37:20):
he knew me as a white woman, which I wasn't technically,
everybody thought I was white and believed me. Life was
easier that way. I used to go to painful length
to bleach my skin and marcel my hair. Well, I
needed to change my identity. I gave that up, went
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back to my natural color and spoke in a tongue
that it ain't gonna be spoken, my old white woman.
That's why people didn't recognize me as rose Aw And
after that I disappeared. During the eleven years I was
(38:06):
at the convent school, What were you doing? What much
I could do? I knew court Bo had his Pinkerton's
looking for me and you, but only I knew where
you were. And if they found me, they would have
made me tell. So I couldn't let them find me.
(38:29):
I couldn't perform anymore out of the question, so I
found other ways to make money. I became a normal person,
less than normal, took on anonymous work. No one would
recognize me because it's the kind of work where no
one looks you in the eye. Moved from one city
to another. In every city, a different name, a different
(38:53):
story to my life, always changing, always being someone different,
never being me. No, I won't lie to you. There
were times when I thought about ending it all. Life
is just that bad, that lonely. But if anything happened
(39:15):
to me, who would pay the hundred dollars a year
to the school, And what would become of you when
the bill couldn't be paid. That's what kept me alive.
An obligation to you. I wanted to write to you,
wanted to see you, but I didn't dare. I just
(39:38):
kept washing dishes, cleaning floors. Mother. Don't call me mother,
not now, not ever. You'll slip and say it when
someone's listening. Mother, mother, mother, girl. You're gonna ruin everything. Mother.
It is finished. There's no more hiding who I um
(40:00):
and who you are. No, I suppose not before we
opened the door. Will you do something for me, anything,
Give me your blessing, a mother's blessing. Oh I don't deserve. Please.
(40:23):
I betrayed your trust, I disobeyed, and now I humble
myself before you stop that. Get up from there. I
hated you for making me like this, making me obsessed
with fakery and revenge, the years of punishment and training.
But when I descended from the throne that first time,
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I realized that even though I hated you, you had
brought me to this point. You had prepared me, You
had given me the confidence and strength to to stand
up to you. So I owe you an enorm stet
of gratitude for that. I do love you, per you
(41:08):
have to believe that you want my blessing. Been heaven.
You are my daughter, but you are so much more.
You are yourself. You are Samson, SALOMEI, the Gollum, the Goddess,
(41:36):
all rolled into one. You are fire and brimstone made flesh.
May you live to conquer all who stand in your path,
or else die? Try amen, Amen, I must now replace
(42:02):
my blind pot. As my vision begins to fade, your
own senses will gradually return, Return to the warmth and
the light of your own reality. The Seventh Daughter is
a production of I Heart Radio, written and directed by
(42:24):
Brett Wood, recorded and mixed by Rob Gau, featuring Minca
Wilts as Rose, Elizabeth Hunter as Pearl, and Kevin Godley
as Corbo. Also starring Andrew Benaeder, Keith Brooks, Alexandra Ficken,
Rachel Frawley, Sarah bath Hester, Shelby Hoffer, Tim McDonough, Kelly O'Neil,
(42:51):
Lisa Paulson, and Troy Willis. Original music by Rob Gaal,
Additional music by Floornoy Holmes. Special thanks to Tamika Campbell,
Paul Decant, Sherry Larson, Adam K. Thompson, and executive producer
Ben Bolan. You may now open your eyes