August 18, 2025 • 30 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Quiet Please, Quiet Please m M. The American Broadcasting Company
(00:39):
presents Quiet Please, which is written and directed by Willis
Cooper and which features Ernest Chappell. Quiet Please, but the
night is both alone.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
M.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You would think that a man going home after more
than half a year here in a little town in
France would be happy. I came over here in November
on one of those post war jobs. I've been here
in Vignicourt ever since. The house here was built in
thirteen forty one, and the old cemetery out near the
(01:22):
abandoned airfield can tell you how many generations of Rushfort's
have lived and died here. It was, of course, the
oddest kind of coincidence that I, Andrew Pierre H. M. Rochefort,
whose family have been American since the days of Lafayette,
should return to his ancestral home. I am the first
(01:44):
Rochefort who has stepped inside this house since the First
World War, when Colonel pal Marie Rochefort died at commanded.
Dame Madame Simon, who owns the house now, has been
a most satisfactory toy am to me into Achmedali and
the MUSI, my Aulgerian assistant, even if she does have
(02:06):
difficulty comprehending my French, and I hers I have succeeded
in having the ancient piano tuned. There's an American cook
here in town who was a piano tune in Savilian life.
And Achmedali and I have spent some pleasant evenings alternately
at the piano and in long and complicated discussions of
(02:28):
Christian and Mohammedan theology. Akhmed shares with me an inordinate
admiration for the works of Ravel, and in particular the
one called Bavan, the pouring on Fonte deference Bavan for
the dead princess. Do you remember? I remember that this
(03:01):
night we've been talking about the curious quality of fatalism
that colors the whole life of the Mahometans.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
It's all described for us, the prophet said, before we're born.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
We see but us to admit that individuals can alter
the patterns of their own lives and of others. Don't
you up? We only think we all of the landroom.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Whatever we may do is merely bringing to life the
you know, the cosmic.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Play script that is already written for us.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
We're bound by the script as actors are.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
A matter of fact, we are actors playing part in
the drama for a comedy HM, or.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
A comedy that we've never rehearsed but unfolds for us
minutes by a minute, our by all, stay by day.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yeah, it's reducing life to a pretty run interesting formula.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
No by all means no. On the contrary, I find
it provides me at least to it consuming curiosity to
see what's on the next page.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Well, it certainly simplifies things, doesn't occasionally provide a surprise,
such as the fact that I'm not going to play
the prorom again for you tonight. What is written is written?
In that case, I'll just cross up the profits and
(04:36):
play it for you.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Then see who it is. Yeah, it's matter, it seems
(05:27):
the old gentleman who seeing some kind of trouble needs
me again.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Can't you get through one evening without calling for help?
I'm sorry, I really have to go, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
All right, see you in the morning then right night?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Achmed? Was that written to turn out the lights? Will
you walk with?
Speaker 5 (05:53):
Thanks?
Speaker 1 (05:59):
M hif? Who's that? Who are you?
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (06:46):
The princess?
Speaker 7 (06:48):
What I am a princess?
Speaker 1 (06:53):
No?
Speaker 6 (06:53):
Wait a minute, high shack, I had you tied my shirt.
Speaker 8 (07:00):
H I wanted to see you.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
Hm, very very nice.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well thank you? Where are you? I can't see you.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
I'm right here, I think.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
To you, we'll turn on the light. Oh no, why not?
But why not?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
Who could turn on the line.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I'd have to go away, go away, go home? You mean.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
It isn't exactly home.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
It's where I go.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Did you run away from your mother?
Speaker 6 (07:45):
Nice? I don't have anymore.
Speaker 7 (07:50):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
What are you?
Speaker 6 (07:55):
Some work?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Why? What would you like to hear the one I
was playing?
Speaker 7 (08:11):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Why do you call it your songs? You have a name?
Speaker 7 (08:24):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, yeah, I have a very pretty name, m.
Speaker 7 (08:36):
B in the sac and in.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
M yeah they're no' oh it was you?
Speaker 7 (10:06):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Thank you? I my stoner.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Uh wouldn't you like a chocolate.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Bar to take with you?
Speaker 6 (10:15):
I don't know what that eat.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
It's nice to eat, okay, well maybe your folks would
like it.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
I don't have any.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
You never have me? Oh, yes, sir, I have a wife.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Mm.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Don't happen, little ben, No, not yet.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
I do be a little girl.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
If you want me, you could what you wouldn't want?
Speaker 7 (10:53):
Well?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I don't know some 'em. I haven't seen you yet.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
Hum, how do you mean, you can sing if you
really want.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I'd like to very much.
Speaker 6 (11:07):
But now I have to go.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Uh would you like me to go with you? Yeah?
I thought's the dark eyes? Uh? And it's late.
Speaker 6 (11:15):
Oh no, I'm not afraid of the dot.
Speaker 7 (11:22):
I was.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
In the dark. I thought the touch of the child's
lips on my feet, and I was conscious of a
sweetness and the sadness that was almost a physical blow.
And she spoke again in the darkness. Oh why, I
called to her. Joan wait, wait, child, lay.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
My John's awether house there.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
And then the door closed and I was alone. I
sat for a long time in the dark, thinking of
what the war had done, as some of these thousands
of children nameless, homeless, hopeless. And it was a long
(12:15):
time before I began suddenly to wonder. This little girl,
this little princess, spoke English. Where did she learn that?
And where did she learn the name of the song?
Why was she afraid of the light? And I smiled
to myself as I thought vaguely of a little girl ghost.
(12:40):
But my dreams, when I had gone to bed in
the dark, were of a little girl who skipped by
my side and called me father, But who faded into
nothingness when I reached for her hand. The question locment
(13:11):
about her. He knew nearly all the unhappy, skinny children
of Vigna coat. Lot of that was good, your manger.
I'm sure I remember, I asked miss Lewis, the Quaker
girl at the little hospital. No, I'm certain I've never
seen a child of anything.
Speaker 8 (13:32):
To that, do you say, the.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Leader, m John, That's right, I've never seen her. Well,
you children appear almost every game.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I'll watch for her anything.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I watched the children of the town from my office window.
I found myself paying only half parted attention to the
part under his trivialities the town dignitaries brought to my best.
I found myself listening for a certain voice and the
clamor of children playing sombly in the street. You will
(14:12):
pardon me. I am sure. I have always considered myself
a practical, down to worth person, and I wish you
to consider the effect that such an occurrence has upon
such a man. You can't understand. I am sure that
I was first to tune almost inescapable conclusions. The first
(14:38):
that I had seen a ghost I discarded at once,
almost at once. The second that I had had an
extraordinarily vivid dream.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
This conclusion I accepted, but often I am not also
assuring your Daniel, there's a.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Way, you know, to make sure. I had almost forgotten
that it wasn't merely curiosity. Something about this sweet, childish
(15:26):
voice had aroused sentiments to me that I didn't know
I possessed. Margaret and I have been married seven years,
when had resigned ourselves to the fact that we should
probably always be childless. The June, the hornless, fatholess, netherless wife,
who had come to me in the darkness. Might she
(15:48):
not be the child Margaret and I wished we could have?
I determined to try to bring her dyke. Yes, I
admit I felt foolish as I kept down on the
dark as the piano and I posted my flashlight decide
the keyboard. I was to regret that it was very
(16:10):
dark and very quiet as I began, H this is nonsense, will.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Ringer, Joe, So where did you come from? H Where
have you been all this time?
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Child?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Dad?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I I've been looking everywhere for you, but you didn't
play m sir. I was afraid it wouldn't bring you.
Speaker 6 (17:09):
Did you really want?
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I wanted you very much.
Speaker 8 (17:15):
I'm very good.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
How would you pray? Nobody would want.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Joan? Where do you live?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Hm?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I'm not sure? Well what do you mean by that?
Speaker 6 (17:36):
I'm just not sure.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I don't remember ver anybody? Well, but well, Joan, haven't
you any parents? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
No?
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Are they.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
So they're not dad?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Did you? H? I don't understand you, dear?
Speaker 8 (18:07):
Why did you call me the.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Well? Like?
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Is ithype?
Speaker 8 (18:15):
You love me? Why is it?
Speaker 6 (18:19):
Do you like me?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yes? Do you.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Have a little girl if you married?
Speaker 3 (18:31):
No?
Speaker 6 (18:35):
Cause I could be a little girl.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Well, perhaps you could.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
I could call you nay?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Why? Well?
Speaker 8 (18:48):
Yes, and I would have a mama.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
J Oh, yes, I wouldn't like you.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
Oh, I would like it very much.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Shall I turn on the lights now so we can
see each other?
Speaker 8 (19:03):
Yes, you couldn't see if you turn down the.
Speaker 6 (19:11):
Are you.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Say I'm not pretty? I'm sure you're pretty.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
You'd have blue eyes and dark hair. Yes, and you'd
have a pretty little snub nose with freck with freckles
the way you are exactly? Would then love me too
as much as I do?
Speaker 6 (19:38):
Darling might not love me he knew all about Oh,
yes I would.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I would love you and my mom's ally.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
All my life.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I would love you.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Then it's settled. No, let's have a look at you,
shall me. I picked up my.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Flashlight and pressed the switch. I called John.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
JOm, but there was no answer. I sprang up and
flicked the wall switch. The bare browl hanging from the
ceiling through every object in the room into bright relief.
I was alone, and as I stood there, dazed in
a sudden brightness, I heard a small sound. I need
(20:48):
not tell you of the bitterness in my heart when
I realized what I had done. I need not tell
you of the agony.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
That something racing into the night outside, calling frantically for
the child.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
I needn't tell you of the doubt and wonder, the
wild thoughts that clutched at me. Was it a dream?
It couldn't have been a dream. Was it a ghost?
I'd sane. I couldn't bring myself to believe that, And
yet I took leave of absence. Acman and I and
(21:26):
Miss Lewis searched every corner of the town. We took
wrong trips into the country, delved into acient, deserted houses,
questioned hundreds of people. There is a single place to
look carew.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
It was a dream, Andrew, But I knew it couldn't
have been a dream, and all.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
My friends tried their best to dissuade me. I could
not give up my search. Night after night, I said
it to the piano. Was never the sound of a
softly opening door, never anything but silence and solitude and
an overpowering sense of guilt. And I fell ill. Alknet
(22:08):
and Miss Lewis were with me a great deal. John
had this sand watching me, nursing me, stilling my delirium.
At last, the fever passed, and I opened my eyes
to the same dingy, ancient room in the hearts of
my forefathers. Then, lying alone in my bed at night,
(22:35):
I came to the final, inescapable conclusion. Joan did not exist.
Joan had lived in this house in some other time.
Joan did not exist. This was a haunted house. And
I remember how I.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Wept alone in the dark one night, thinking, now I
I banished her from me forever.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
I whispered her name in the darkness. H h m hmmm.
I am alone, and that's room. There can be nobody
(23:29):
that I'm listening again. M hm, that's the song.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
It sounds as if a child is playing it?
Speaker 8 (23:46):
John had come John, I was afraid you didn't want
you did come back?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Do you want me? I don't know how we can
do without you, darling.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I know.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I heard you crying in the night. I did cry, Joan,
I know.
Speaker 8 (24:17):
I cry too.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
You know what I thought? You know why I cried?
Speaker 8 (24:25):
Yeah, you thought I would just go.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
But you're not no fry and you are going to
be our little girl.
Speaker 8 (24:41):
You're sure you wantn't.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
More than anything else in the world.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
Would you swear yes, no matter what happens, No matter
what happens, Hm, you're always not always?
Speaker 8 (24:59):
And is this mind?
Speaker 2 (25:03):
If you test see me for a little while, whatever
you say, Joe not, I can't lose you again.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
H If I'm different when you see me? How old
are you? John?
Speaker 6 (25:21):
Why I'm.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Not old at all?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Why I don't understand you? Of course you're not old.
Speaker 6 (25:33):
No, I I don't mean.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
My darling, I don't understand. What is she?
Speaker 7 (25:44):
You have to take me the way I am if
you really want.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Of course, Yep, you sound like a grown up when
you said that.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
I know what it's written, Joe.
Speaker 8 (26:02):
Thank you take me for your very own no matter
what happens.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
And I smoke with all the deep sincerity of a
man entering into a solemn compact involving the lives of
three people.
Speaker 8 (26:18):
I do, Joe, I will love you as long as
I live.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Now, turn on the lights and let me see my
little girl. No, why not, darning.
Speaker 8 (26:38):
Because if you turn on the light, you can't tell
me what?
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Why can't I Why?
Speaker 8 (26:49):
Because I'm not born.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yet, you see, JOm.
Speaker 8 (26:57):
But I will be.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
I'll be you really cruelly own little girl?
Speaker 1 (27:03):
But is this true? Child?
Speaker 5 (27:09):
Yes, it's true.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
No, I can tell you the rest of it. The right.
Speaker 8 (27:19):
Got You said I would be your little girl, no
matter what happened.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Yes, I meant it.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
You have to be, you said.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
I.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I couldn't tell you before? Tell me what.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Gone got?
Speaker 6 (27:52):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
God, I loved you so much?
Speaker 8 (27:56):
Can I do see you? I wanted to see my father?
Speaker 1 (28:02):
What is it? Child? What is it?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Hoppy?
Speaker 6 (28:09):
Your little girls?
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Not for so very long?
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Well? What do you mean by that? It is written for.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
I have to die?
Speaker 1 (28:26):
And I'm eight years old?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
And it was the next morning the document brought me
the cablegram from Margaret. He wrote it to me our
daughter born this morning, seven o'clock seven pounds, dark haired,
blue eyed loveliness.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
How do you like Joan for a name?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Love Margaret, you repink and I'm going home after eight
No seen a little town in France would be a
happy man coming hand to see a newborn daughter.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Didn't I so couldn't Joe?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Would you? M m m m mm hmmm, m.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
M m m m m.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
M. The title of Nice Chriet Fly Story is a band.
It was written and directed by Willis.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
The man who spoke to you was Ernest Chappell, and
Joe Laser played Jordan.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Donald Briggs was up Medali, and Nann Seymour was Miss Morris.
Robert Berman played the musical quiet piece. Now for to
worry about next week, here's all, writed director Willis Cooper.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Next week, after more than two years, this series of
Quiet Please coming to an end, and for our show
next week, number one hundred and seven, I'm giving.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
You a play based on the title of the series
Quiet Please, and so until next week at the same time,
I'm quietly yours, Ernest Chapel. This is ABC, the American
Broadcasting Company
Quiet Please, Quiet Please m M. The American Broadcasting Company
(00:39):
presents Quiet Please, which is written and directed by Willis
Cooper and which features Ernest Chappell. Quiet Please, but the
night is both alone.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
M.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You would think that a man going home after more
than half a year here in a little town in
France would be happy. I came over here in November
on one of those post war jobs. I've been here
in Vignicourt ever since. The house here was built in
thirteen forty one, and the old cemetery out near the
(01:22):
abandoned airfield can tell you how many generations of Rushfort's
have lived and died here. It was, of course, the
oddest kind of coincidence that I, Andrew Pierre H. M. Rochefort,
whose family have been American since the days of Lafayette,
should return to his ancestral home. I am the first
(01:44):
Rochefort who has stepped inside this house since the First
World War, when Colonel pal Marie Rochefort died at commanded.
Dame Madame Simon, who owns the house now, has been
a most satisfactory toy am to me into Achmedali and
the MUSI, my Aulgerian assistant, even if she does have
(02:06):
difficulty comprehending my French, and I hers I have succeeded
in having the ancient piano tuned. There's an American cook
here in town who was a piano tune in Savilian life.
And Achmedali and I have spent some pleasant evenings alternately
at the piano and in long and complicated discussions of
(02:28):
Christian and Mohammedan theology. Akhmed shares with me an inordinate
admiration for the works of Ravel, and in particular the
one called Bavan, the pouring on Fonte deference Bavan for
the dead princess. Do you remember? I remember that this
(03:01):
night we've been talking about the curious quality of fatalism
that colors the whole life of the Mahometans.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
It's all described for us, the prophet said, before we're born.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
We see but us to admit that individuals can alter
the patterns of their own lives and of others. Don't
you up? We only think we all of the landroom.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Whatever we may do is merely bringing to life the
you know, the cosmic.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Play script that is already written for us.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
We're bound by the script as actors are.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
A matter of fact, we are actors playing part in
the drama for a comedy HM, or.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
A comedy that we've never rehearsed but unfolds for us
minutes by a minute, our by all, stay by day.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yeah, it's reducing life to a pretty run interesting formula.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
No by all means no. On the contrary, I find
it provides me at least to it consuming curiosity to
see what's on the next page.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Well, it certainly simplifies things, doesn't occasionally provide a surprise,
such as the fact that I'm not going to play
the prorom again for you tonight. What is written is written?
In that case, I'll just cross up the profits and
(04:36):
play it for you.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Then see who it is. Yeah, it's matter, it seems
(05:27):
the old gentleman who seeing some kind of trouble needs
me again.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Can't you get through one evening without calling for help?
I'm sorry, I really have to go, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
All right, see you in the morning then right night?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Achmed? Was that written to turn out the lights? Will
you walk with?
Speaker 5 (05:53):
Thanks?
Speaker 1 (05:59):
M hif? Who's that? Who are you?
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (06:46):
The princess?
Speaker 7 (06:48):
What I am a princess?
Speaker 1 (06:53):
No?
Speaker 6 (06:53):
Wait a minute, high shack, I had you tied my shirt.
Speaker 8 (07:00):
H I wanted to see you.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
Hm, very very nice.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well thank you? Where are you? I can't see you.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
I'm right here, I think.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
To you, we'll turn on the light. Oh no, why not?
But why not?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
Who could turn on the line.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I'd have to go away, go away, go home? You mean.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
It isn't exactly home.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
It's where I go.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Did you run away from your mother?
Speaker 6 (07:45):
Nice? I don't have anymore.
Speaker 7 (07:50):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
What are you?
Speaker 6 (07:55):
Some work?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Why? What would you like to hear the one I
was playing?
Speaker 7 (08:11):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Why do you call it your songs? You have a name?
Speaker 7 (08:24):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, yeah, I have a very pretty name, m.
Speaker 7 (08:36):
B in the sac and in.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
M yeah they're no' oh it was you?
Speaker 7 (10:06):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Thank you? I my stoner.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Uh wouldn't you like a chocolate.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Bar to take with you?
Speaker 6 (10:15):
I don't know what that eat.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
It's nice to eat, okay, well maybe your folks would
like it.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
I don't have any.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
You never have me? Oh, yes, sir, I have a wife.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Mm.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Don't happen, little ben, No, not yet.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
I do be a little girl.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
If you want me, you could what you wouldn't want?
Speaker 7 (10:53):
Well?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I don't know some 'em. I haven't seen you yet.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
Hum, how do you mean, you can sing if you
really want.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I'd like to very much.
Speaker 6 (11:07):
But now I have to go.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Uh would you like me to go with you? Yeah?
I thought's the dark eyes? Uh? And it's late.
Speaker 6 (11:15):
Oh no, I'm not afraid of the dot.
Speaker 7 (11:22):
I was.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
In the dark. I thought the touch of the child's
lips on my feet, and I was conscious of a
sweetness and the sadness that was almost a physical blow.
And she spoke again in the darkness. Oh why, I
called to her. Joan wait, wait, child, lay.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
My John's awether house there.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
And then the door closed and I was alone. I
sat for a long time in the dark, thinking of
what the war had done, as some of these thousands
of children nameless, homeless, hopeless. And it was a long
(12:15):
time before I began suddenly to wonder. This little girl,
this little princess, spoke English. Where did she learn that?
And where did she learn the name of the song?
Why was she afraid of the light? And I smiled
to myself as I thought vaguely of a little girl ghost.
(12:40):
But my dreams, when I had gone to bed in
the dark, were of a little girl who skipped by
my side and called me father, But who faded into
nothingness when I reached for her hand. The question locment
(13:11):
about her. He knew nearly all the unhappy, skinny children
of Vigna coat. Lot of that was good, your manger.
I'm sure I remember, I asked miss Lewis, the Quaker
girl at the little hospital. No, I'm certain I've never
seen a child of anything.
Speaker 8 (13:32):
To that, do you say, the.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Leader, m John, That's right, I've never seen her. Well,
you children appear almost every game.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I'll watch for her anything.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I watched the children of the town from my office window.
I found myself paying only half parted attention to the
part under his trivialities the town dignitaries brought to my best.
I found myself listening for a certain voice and the
clamor of children playing sombly in the street. You will
(14:12):
pardon me. I am sure. I have always considered myself
a practical, down to worth person, and I wish you
to consider the effect that such an occurrence has upon
such a man. You can't understand. I am sure that
I was first to tune almost inescapable conclusions. The first
(14:38):
that I had seen a ghost I discarded at once,
almost at once. The second that I had had an
extraordinarily vivid dream.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
This conclusion I accepted, but often I am not also
assuring your Daniel, there's a.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Way, you know, to make sure. I had almost forgotten
that it wasn't merely curiosity. Something about this sweet, childish
(15:26):
voice had aroused sentiments to me that I didn't know
I possessed. Margaret and I have been married seven years,
when had resigned ourselves to the fact that we should
probably always be childless. The June, the hornless, fatholess, netherless wife,
who had come to me in the darkness. Might she
(15:48):
not be the child Margaret and I wished we could have?
I determined to try to bring her dyke. Yes, I
admit I felt foolish as I kept down on the
dark as the piano and I posted my flashlight decide
the keyboard. I was to regret that it was very
(16:10):
dark and very quiet as I began, H this is nonsense, will.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Ringer, Joe, So where did you come from? H Where
have you been all this time?
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Child?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Dad?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I I've been looking everywhere for you, but you didn't
play m sir. I was afraid it wouldn't bring you.
Speaker 6 (17:09):
Did you really want?
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I wanted you very much.
Speaker 8 (17:15):
I'm very good.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
How would you pray? Nobody would want.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Joan? Where do you live?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Hm?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I'm not sure? Well what do you mean by that?
Speaker 6 (17:36):
I'm just not sure.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I don't remember ver anybody? Well, but well, Joan, haven't
you any parents? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
No?
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Are they.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
So they're not dad?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Did you? H? I don't understand you, dear?
Speaker 8 (18:07):
Why did you call me the.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Well? Like?
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Is ithype?
Speaker 8 (18:15):
You love me? Why is it?
Speaker 6 (18:19):
Do you like me?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yes? Do you.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Have a little girl if you married?
Speaker 3 (18:31):
No?
Speaker 6 (18:35):
Cause I could be a little girl.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Well, perhaps you could.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
I could call you nay?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Why? Well?
Speaker 8 (18:48):
Yes, and I would have a mama.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
J Oh, yes, I wouldn't like you.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
Oh, I would like it very much.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Shall I turn on the lights now so we can
see each other?
Speaker 8 (19:03):
Yes, you couldn't see if you turn down the.
Speaker 6 (19:11):
Are you.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Say I'm not pretty? I'm sure you're pretty.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
You'd have blue eyes and dark hair. Yes, and you'd
have a pretty little snub nose with freck with freckles
the way you are exactly? Would then love me too
as much as I do?
Speaker 6 (19:38):
Darling might not love me he knew all about Oh,
yes I would.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I would love you and my mom's ally.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
All my life.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I would love you.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Then it's settled. No, let's have a look at you,
shall me. I picked up my.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Flashlight and pressed the switch. I called John.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
JOm, but there was no answer. I sprang up and
flicked the wall switch. The bare browl hanging from the
ceiling through every object in the room into bright relief.
I was alone, and as I stood there, dazed in
a sudden brightness, I heard a small sound. I need
(20:48):
not tell you of the bitterness in my heart when
I realized what I had done. I need not tell
you of the agony.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
That something racing into the night outside, calling frantically for
the child.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
I needn't tell you of the doubt and wonder, the
wild thoughts that clutched at me. Was it a dream?
It couldn't have been a dream. Was it a ghost?
I'd sane. I couldn't bring myself to believe that, And
yet I took leave of absence. Acman and I and
(21:26):
Miss Lewis searched every corner of the town. We took
wrong trips into the country, delved into acient, deserted houses,
questioned hundreds of people. There is a single place to
look carew.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
It was a dream, Andrew, But I knew it couldn't
have been a dream, and all.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
My friends tried their best to dissuade me. I could
not give up my search. Night after night, I said
it to the piano. Was never the sound of a
softly opening door, never anything but silence and solitude and
an overpowering sense of guilt. And I fell ill. Alknet
(22:08):
and Miss Lewis were with me a great deal. John
had this sand watching me, nursing me, stilling my delirium.
At last, the fever passed, and I opened my eyes
to the same dingy, ancient room in the hearts of
my forefathers. Then, lying alone in my bed at night,
(22:35):
I came to the final, inescapable conclusion. Joan did not exist.
Joan had lived in this house in some other time.
Joan did not exist. This was a haunted house. And
I remember how I.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Wept alone in the dark one night, thinking, now I
I banished her from me forever.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
I whispered her name in the darkness. H h m hmmm.
I am alone, and that's room. There can be nobody
(23:29):
that I'm listening again. M hm, that's the song.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
It sounds as if a child is playing it?
Speaker 8 (23:46):
John had come John, I was afraid you didn't want
you did come back?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Do you want me? I don't know how we can
do without you, darling.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I know.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I heard you crying in the night. I did cry, Joan,
I know.
Speaker 8 (24:17):
I cry too.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
You know what I thought? You know why I cried?
Speaker 8 (24:25):
Yeah, you thought I would just go.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
But you're not no fry and you are going to
be our little girl.
Speaker 8 (24:41):
You're sure you wantn't.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
More than anything else in the world.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
Would you swear yes, no matter what happens, No matter
what happens, Hm, you're always not always?
Speaker 8 (24:59):
And is this mind?
Speaker 2 (25:03):
If you test see me for a little while, whatever
you say, Joe not, I can't lose you again.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
H If I'm different when you see me? How old
are you? John?
Speaker 6 (25:21):
Why I'm.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Not old at all?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Why I don't understand you? Of course you're not old.
Speaker 6 (25:33):
No, I I don't mean.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
My darling, I don't understand. What is she?
Speaker 7 (25:44):
You have to take me the way I am if
you really want.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Of course, Yep, you sound like a grown up when
you said that.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
I know what it's written, Joe.
Speaker 8 (26:02):
Thank you take me for your very own no matter
what happens.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
And I smoke with all the deep sincerity of a
man entering into a solemn compact involving the lives of
three people.
Speaker 8 (26:18):
I do, Joe, I will love you as long as
I live.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Now, turn on the lights and let me see my
little girl. No, why not, darning.
Speaker 8 (26:38):
Because if you turn on the light, you can't tell
me what?
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Why can't I Why?
Speaker 8 (26:49):
Because I'm not born.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yet, you see, JOm.
Speaker 8 (26:57):
But I will be.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
I'll be you really cruelly own little girl?
Speaker 1 (27:03):
But is this true? Child?
Speaker 5 (27:09):
Yes, it's true.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
No, I can tell you the rest of it. The right.
Speaker 8 (27:19):
Got You said I would be your little girl, no
matter what happened.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Yes, I meant it.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
You have to be, you said.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
I.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I couldn't tell you before? Tell me what.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Gone got?
Speaker 6 (27:52):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
God, I loved you so much?
Speaker 8 (27:56):
Can I do see you? I wanted to see my father?
Speaker 1 (28:02):
What is it? Child? What is it?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Hoppy?
Speaker 6 (28:09):
Your little girls?
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Not for so very long?
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Well? What do you mean by that? It is written for.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
I have to die?
Speaker 1 (28:26):
And I'm eight years old?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
And it was the next morning the document brought me
the cablegram from Margaret. He wrote it to me our
daughter born this morning, seven o'clock seven pounds, dark haired,
blue eyed loveliness.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
How do you like Joan for a name?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Love Margaret, you repink and I'm going home after eight
No seen a little town in France would be a
happy man coming hand to see a newborn daughter.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Didn't I so couldn't Joe?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Would you? M m m m mm hmmm, m.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
M m m m m.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
M. The title of Nice Chriet Fly Story is a band.
It was written and directed by Willis.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
The man who spoke to you was Ernest Chappell, and
Joe Laser played Jordan.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Donald Briggs was up Medali, and Nann Seymour was Miss Morris.
Robert Berman played the musical quiet piece. Now for to
worry about next week, here's all, writed director Willis Cooper.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Next week, after more than two years, this series of
Quiet Please coming to an end, and for our show
next week, number one hundred and seven, I'm giving.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
You a play based on the title of the series
Quiet Please, and so until next week at the same time,
I'm quietly yours, Ernest Chapel. This is ABC, the American
Broadcasting Company
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