Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Sessia, and the act of taking something that doesn't belong
(00:40):
to us is marked down simply as fact. But there
can be different ways to view the situation. If we
felt that life owed us the measure of happiness and
we proceeded to get it in spite of what might happen,
this might alter the word. It could also become an
(01:02):
evil and a force that might become an obsession.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
A stranger approaches an.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Old house on the lonely road outside the small town
of Midland.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
In the dark.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
The gaping holes of windows stare dulling out into the night.
Weeds grow deep in the yard. The sagging fence completes
the picture of desolation and neglect. Up the straggling path,
a man walks, his mind surging with dark thoughts. Angry
(01:51):
laughter beats in his mind, the background for his obsession.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Four what a joint? So this is the dump I've
come two thousand miles to get If I ain't even
played for a second, or I'll eat my hat. Wh
Who's there?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Was there? I thought somebody moved?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Stay where you are?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Are you here?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Hello?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Say what? Uh?
Speaker 4 (02:27):
I thought this house was empty. I wouldn't have come
an if I'd known't I only wanted to get out
of the ring.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Ooh, what were you hurt?
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Oh it's my ankle. I turned it there.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Now we can see something, and you were a pretty sight.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
You're what cleaned through?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Weren't you?
Speaker 4 (02:49):
I didn't have any matches, or I'd have made a
fire a lot of old papers?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
What are you doing out in this stout for second place?
A girl like you has no business out like this
and you're wet.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Never mind about me.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Or stay where yard life?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Or to get my bearings around here?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Isn't it your house? Huh?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah? Sure, sure this is my house.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I I guess I got it done.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Over for spring, and I can't find my way around.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
This isn't your house?
Speaker 4 (03:18):
What are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Bust and sister? That's my business?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Stop asking questions and roll up some of those old
papers while I see if there's any would there is
in that room over there?
Speaker 4 (03:28):
I fell over it when I first came in.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Oh yeah, yeah, sure, lots of it out nearly to
the ceiling.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Gosh what that would.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
To stay warm for the rest of my life?
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Imagine being warm the rest of your life. Maybe that's
why I'm going to California.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
California.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Is that where you going?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I mean I got an aunt. Then she doesn't know
I'm coming. I don't know how glad she'll be to
scene either, but I haven't gotten the other place to go.
I'll here's some more paper. Oh, okay, get out ow 'em.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, yeah, they're okay, y.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
See, explained as twelve the.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Boys scattered me. Well it's not bad, is it?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Why? It's wonderful? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:15):
I feel better already.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
What's your name, Mary Evans? Mine's it, Mine's Tod, Tod
wat Todd's good enough.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Well, I don't look we uh, we'd.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Better be thinking of getting some shut eye. I wanna
get on my way early in the morning.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
And I guess if you're going to California, you'll lead
some shut eye too.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
I wonder if they have fireplaces in California.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Huh what four they got some?
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Well, it's a long way to California, especially if you're
hitch hiking.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Say, look, I got some dough enough to get your
bus ticket.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
I know I wouldn't think of it.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, it isn't right.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
For a girl to go hitch hiking around the country,
not a guy like you.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
You haven't got enough for your s who said I
didn't have enough.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I got a car.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I ran it into a ditch down.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
The road, but I'll get it out in the morning.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Where are you bound?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Back where I came from? And I thought I was
coming to sort of a heaven on a a house land,
all mine for the taking.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And what do I get?
Speaker 3 (05:20):
A broken down wood.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Pile with a lot of weeds around it.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
You mean this house is really yours?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I look, we've talked it out. Oh here here, put
my coat over here, and stop worrying about things that
don't concume you.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Well, where are you going to sleep?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
There's a pile of papers in that other room.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I'll be warming up there.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Good night, Good night hard Oh.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Hey, I never heard such a racket. Those aren't birds?
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Sure, it must be thousands of 'em before.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
And I thought the country was supposed to be quiet.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
It sounds like Times Square on New Year's Eve.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
The storm's over and the sun's out.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Tops.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
I want you to see what the place looks like
in the daytime.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Oh, I saw the weeds last night.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Not the weeds, the trees, the fruit trees.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Look say, not bad as that is it?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
It's beautiful?
Speaker 4 (06:29):
All those fields stretching out green beyond the house. They
must all belong to it, cause if that's just the
same as a house, imagine all that ground. I didn't
know there was so much ground left.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
In the world.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah, but the weeds, So.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Why wouldn't the weeds be waisted high? Anything would grow here?
You can tell just by looking out there. I bet
you could have flowers and all the vegetables you wanted
almost no time.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, yeah, I suppose maybe you could.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
And Todd, there's a kitchen too, with a stove, old
fashioned range as big as all outdoors. And there's an
upstairs to the house, and above that an attic. Snow's
funny up there, kind of like a perfume moment.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
You're pretty excited about this joy, don't you.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Your eyes are shining like a kid.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Maybe it's there.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
It can breathe for Oh, he can actually breathe. Yeah,
I just try him.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
No, not me.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I couldn't stand it. Well, I'm going someplace, see if
I can.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Round up some grub. I'm hungry. Oh my, well, there's
bound to be a store around some place. Some bacon
and eggses go pretty good right now, huh.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Oh in coffee don't forget coffee.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yes, sir, I'll be back in a fresh with the maker.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Hello. Yeah, I thought you were never going to find
that breach.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I found it alright, found trouble along with it.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
And what happened?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
We gotta get out here.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
What's happened?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Plenty funny. Look, here's the doe for your best fair
and I'll be seeing you.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
I don't want your money. I've made my own way
all my life. I don't need help from you or
anybody else. Goodbye.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Hey, you're a hot tempered little number, aren't you.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
You're okay?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I like you, and uh, just because I do. I'll
explain about this house.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
It isn't really mine.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Oh, it belonged to a fella named Todd Brandon that
belonged to his family.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
He was the last we Uh, we were both in
the rocket in New York.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
You mean gangs. I never killed anybody, but I was
running along with a gang. They got Brandon, but before
he died, he gave me all the papers and the
deed to the house, told me to take his name
and live out here just like I was a Brandon.
I gathered from him that the Brandons were a special kind.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Of people out here.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Well it was it mean a new chance for you
to put your past behind you. That was wonderful of him.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yes, but there's an uncle, an uncle Caleb Brandon out
from California somewhere. He's sick and can't get about much,
and he hasn't seen Brandon since he was nine.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Oh, then you wouldn't have to worry about him. All
you have to do is fill out the papers he
gave you. Tell everybody you're top Brandon and you're.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, and just like that, I'm a guy of property and.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
All this land would be your, Todd. You've got to say, what,
don't you see? It's your one chance, my.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Chance for what to spend my life picking weeds.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
You said you had a little money, Well all about
three hundred bucks, that's all.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Well, that three hundred'll buy seeds to plutch your lamb,
it'll buy paint to fix your house. It's enough to
buy life, Tod.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You're crazy.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Oh, look out there, the trees and the grass, even
the weeds are green and strong and healthy. Part of
the earth they belong. And where do you belong?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Nowhere?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Uh huh.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Yet you're just as much a part of that earth
as they are.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
That's fine talk for you.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Would uh?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Would you wanna stay on?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
And miss dump?
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Would I? Oh? For all your life you've been shoved around,
nowhere to go, that you belong, no one to care
whether you stayed or went. And if one day someone
said that there was a house to live in land
to make your living office, and it was yours for
as long as you care to stay? Hm? Do you
think i'd stay? Now?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Alright?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Alright, suppose I do like you say, Suppose I do
stick on, Pretend I'm Brandon?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Would you stay with me?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Me? Tout got there in the store, an old fossil
that runs the place, God that it has had, that
I that I really was Todd Brandon, and then I'd
brought back a wife with me.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
You mean you mean you'd marry me?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Well, if I'm going to plow the fields and plant
whatever I fella plants, and a dump like there's, there's
still a house, and the house without a woman isn't
much of a house. And a man's life would be
pretty empty unless there were regular meals to come to
and well somebody could talk things over with him when
his work was done.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
I can't believe what you're saying is true, whether you
whether you stay, Oh sure I will.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
I guess neither of.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Us have gone any past to brag about. And well
maybe that's not important, but Todd remembered it. If things
don't work out, you can go your way. And I'll understand.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
You're a good kid, and I'm not one to pass
up a hunch, So we'll give it a world how.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Baby, Yes, And what's more, I think you'll make the
grade I'm getting on Todd Brandon to win.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
And as Mary said, Todd was.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Shoved around all his life.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
No one cared whether he stayed or not. But now
here was a chance, a long chance. Without discovery, he
could be Todd Brandon. He could forget the old angry thoughts.
But maybe the fear of detection might become the foundation
(12:42):
for another obsession. And now back to our stories starring
(13:17):
Brenda Marshall. Time goes its round and the farm begins
to show improvement, and both Merry and Todd find joy
and simple things work and live. Life is measured now
by rows of newly plowder and forgotten not the whips
(13:37):
are obsession?
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Come on, come on, whoa, what's the good?
Speaker 4 (13:54):
I hate to bother you when you're pine. I just
couldn't wait.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
A letter just came for you.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
I hadn't what was in it? Hellarr huh uh from
your uncle Caleb out in California.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Or oh, oh that means trouble.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Let me have a time.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
What does it say? He's coming? Isn't he coming to
see it?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
How'd you guess? Oh?
Speaker 4 (14:13):
I just know that's all I've known all along, that
that was gonna happen someday.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
It's been too perfect, calastic coming for Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Oh, Todd, that's what do we do? Mary?
Speaker 4 (14:25):
We just go on doing what we've been doing. How
is he gonna guess you're not his real nephew. He
never saw the real Todd since he was a kid.
If Ezra and Maddy can be fool and I'm oking
Uncle Caylen.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
They'll be questioned.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
They'll be his eyes looking at us, wondering watching it still.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Watch listen. This place is ours, this earth is ours, yours,
and mine all feels right with the grain that we've planted.
It's our gardens that have feed us. It's all labor
that's fixed up the place and painted the house and
paint a home of it. It's odd to tell you,
and no Uncle Caleb or anyone else is ever gonna
take it from much.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Yeaes, sir, kay, God good, I'd better pick you up.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
You had to help Mary.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
You know that nephew George has made of the real
branding stuff, Yes, sir, reed, really is he? And her
little wife here she's a humdinger too.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
The way they tore.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Into that house, would have thought it was her last.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Chance on earth.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
They last chance, eh.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
They painted the place up, got the hold of some
fancy ideas about irrigation, and five guys start glowing the
best vegetables and fruit in Midland. Does he look like
the family? Well, I don't care about the funny thing.
He's a Brandon, all right, you can tell lad, but
he don't look like him. He's handsome than any Brandon
(15:57):
ever was. No, he cares about the say there's much resemblance.
And see, hey there's the house now, the old house, just.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Like it used to look when I as a kid.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Same fee, tream welcome. Look about it.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
A house that could.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Chef for quite a bit of money nowadays. Couldn't sure
her just off the highway and Midland blowing like anything.
But they'll able to say not Dard and Merry, who've
seem very sure he is. Huh hey, if there's something
in the back of your mind, something worrying you, something
you ain't sure you're right about.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
If it taught, maybe it is.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Ezra and may be danger.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
But I know for long, I'll know for sure.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Most everything. Merry and I've learned about a farm. Uncle Caleb,
we've brought out of books. Well, it looks as if
the books were pretty fair teachers.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Well, we've had luck on our side too. Luck's a
pretty handy thing, especially when you're taking a long chance.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, yeah, especially then.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Ah you well, uncle Cayley, about why don't you come
inside and have something to drink or build a fine
and you can talk and be comfortable too.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
There's a good idea, young lady. Yeah, my old legs
and the surprises.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
They used to be.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Uh yeah, it's didn't that comfortable chance for Caleb. If
you're well one gotten around to drink much about the furniture.
We thought we'd wait till winter when it wasn't too
much work to be done outside. Uh, you poke up
the fire that taught 'em.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I'll get to drink, all right, I mean good. Yeah, eh,
you know what, tud, it's it's good to.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Sit here in this old room again. I guess when
you get as old as I am, you get sentimental
about the places you've known when you.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Were young, you see, tired.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
We Brandons belonged to the real America, the America that
drench sh had been dared and built in the days
when life wasn't so easy as it is now, and
the land was the thing, the great thing. That's why
I've left this house stand empty all these years, just
(18:31):
waiting for a Brandon to come back, because we Brandons
have always felt that it would never be right for
anybody but the Brandon to live in it.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I think I understand how you.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Feel here you are.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Here's a drink, Uncle tayleab eh oh, well, thank you,
thank you, thanks honey. Eh Well, here's to the brands.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
Yes, here's to the Brandons.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
They Brandon's.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Todd, Todd.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
We've got to tell on the truth.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
There's only tonight. He'll be gone. After tonight.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
I couldn't stay on topping him, not no it It'd
be like living with a lie. Everywhere I'd turn in
the house, everywhere I'd go in the field and be
there haunting me. I can't do it, Todd, neither can you.
I've seen it in your eyes since he's been here.
I've heard it in your voice the night he told
us about the family. You can't go on any more
(19:49):
than I can, even if it means giving up everything.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Okay, you're right, Honey. We'll tell him tonight.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I'm so glad.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
God, I knew you had to say that.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Well, good night Mary, Good night Tad.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
This has been a wonderful week. The guy that he
gets in sleep. I am leaving early tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Oh just a minute, Uncle Caleb, before you leave. Todd
has something to tell you.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
It couldn't it wait til morning.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Oh no, we've got to say it now because m
maybe it'll change your plans about leaving tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Tell him, Tod, we hadn't planned to tell you.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
At least I hadn't.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Tomorrow would have come and you would have gone, and
things for us would have been just the same. We
could have gone on living here, making our making our
living off your farm, becoming a part of a town,
carrying your name, because it really isn't. God, I'm not
Todd Brandon.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Oh oh, I see my name, My real name is Conway.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
When Todd died, the real Todd, he gave me the
deed to this place. I filed it like it was
my own.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
But believe me, it wasn't stealing. We didn't mean to
steal it, Uncle Caleb.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
It was.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
It was just that it was our only chance to
make a life for ourselves. We made vegetables and crops
and fruit grow. Well, only weeds were growing.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Before we built her home out of a broken down
wood pile.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
It for just a little while, this earth was ours.
We were Brandon's too.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I've got to tell you something else, Uncle Kennt, something
I've never told Mary before. It's her doing, really, without
or I wouldn't be here now.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
She taught me what it means to live. She taught
me what it means to love.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
That's why I stayed on because of her.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
It isn't exactly what he said. He taught me the
meaning of living too. He taught me about loving. And
then when you came me so I s where you were.
We talked it over it. We knew we couldn't go
on living alone, not any longer.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I'm glad you decided the way you did, though I
wouldn't have said anything in any case, You mean you
knew I wasn't Toad Brandon.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I knew when he died.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I'd been hunting him for some time.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I just learned about.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Him, what he.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Was, and what he did, and how he died. I
was planning to come back here. Then I got your
letter saying you'd come back to the farm to live.
I thought i'd wait and see what happened.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
That's why I came back. I'm so glad we.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Told you well after all, being the Brandon, there's a
quality that's in a man, whether it's Tom Dicker, Harry
or Todd Brandon. This earth is yours because you've made
it so you belong here, both of yours.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
You belong in this house.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Gosh, I don't know what to say.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
It's as if I were suddenly may hold again.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Only one thing I got to say. It was mostly
Mary's doings.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Without her, I couldn't have even pretended to be a Brandon. Well,
it took both of.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
You to do it.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Shun.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
Oh, believe me, Uncle Caleb.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
I promise you this that as long as time and
I live, you'll.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Never be ashamed of our bearing your name.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
We've learned what this earth of our means.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
We've learned what it means to be a Brandon, what
it means to be an American Ah.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
You have been listening to Obsession
Speaker 3 (24:00):
M.
Sessia, and the act of taking something that doesn't belong
(00:40):
to us is marked down simply as fact. But there
can be different ways to view the situation. If we
felt that life owed us the measure of happiness and
we proceeded to get it in spite of what might happen,
this might alter the word. It could also become an
(01:02):
evil and a force that might become an obsession.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
A stranger approaches an.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Old house on the lonely road outside the small town
of Midland.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
In the dark.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
The gaping holes of windows stare dulling out into the night.
Weeds grow deep in the yard. The sagging fence completes
the picture of desolation and neglect. Up the straggling path,
a man walks, his mind surging with dark thoughts. Angry
(01:51):
laughter beats in his mind, the background for his obsession.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Four what a joint? So this is the dump I've
come two thousand miles to get If I ain't even
played for a second, or I'll eat my hat. Wh
Who's there?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Was there? I thought somebody moved?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Stay where you are?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Are you here?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Hello?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Say what? Uh?
Speaker 4 (02:27):
I thought this house was empty. I wouldn't have come
an if I'd known't I only wanted to get out
of the ring.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Ooh, what were you hurt?
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Oh it's my ankle. I turned it there.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Now we can see something, and you were a pretty sight.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
You're what cleaned through?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Weren't you?
Speaker 4 (02:49):
I didn't have any matches, or I'd have made a
fire a lot of old papers?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
What are you doing out in this stout for second place?
A girl like you has no business out like this
and you're wet.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Never mind about me.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Or stay where yard life?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Or to get my bearings around here?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Isn't it your house? Huh?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah? Sure, sure this is my house.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I I guess I got it done.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Over for spring, and I can't find my way around.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
This isn't your house?
Speaker 4 (03:18):
What are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Bust and sister? That's my business?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Stop asking questions and roll up some of those old
papers while I see if there's any would there is
in that room over there?
Speaker 4 (03:28):
I fell over it when I first came in.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Oh yeah, yeah, sure, lots of it out nearly to
the ceiling.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Gosh what that would.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
To stay warm for the rest of my life?
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Imagine being warm the rest of your life. Maybe that's
why I'm going to California.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
California.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Is that where you going?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I mean I got an aunt. Then she doesn't know
I'm coming. I don't know how glad she'll be to
scene either, but I haven't gotten the other place to go.
I'll here's some more paper. Oh, okay, get out ow 'em.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, yeah, they're okay, y.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
See, explained as twelve the.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Boys scattered me. Well it's not bad, is it?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Why? It's wonderful? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:15):
I feel better already.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
What's your name, Mary Evans? Mine's it, Mine's Tod, Tod
wat Todd's good enough.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Well, I don't look we uh, we'd.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Better be thinking of getting some shut eye. I wanna
get on my way early in the morning.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
And I guess if you're going to California, you'll lead
some shut eye too.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
I wonder if they have fireplaces in California.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Huh what four they got some?
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Well, it's a long way to California, especially if you're
hitch hiking.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Say, look, I got some dough enough to get your
bus ticket.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
I know I wouldn't think of it.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, it isn't right.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
For a girl to go hitch hiking around the country,
not a guy like you.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
You haven't got enough for your s who said I
didn't have enough.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I got a car.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I ran it into a ditch down.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
The road, but I'll get it out in the morning.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Where are you bound?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Back where I came from? And I thought I was
coming to sort of a heaven on a a house land,
all mine for the taking.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And what do I get?
Speaker 3 (05:20):
A broken down wood.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Pile with a lot of weeds around it.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
You mean this house is really yours?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I look, we've talked it out. Oh here here, put
my coat over here, and stop worrying about things that
don't concume you.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Well, where are you going to sleep?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
There's a pile of papers in that other room.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I'll be warming up there.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Good night, Good night hard Oh.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Hey, I never heard such a racket. Those aren't birds?
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Sure, it must be thousands of 'em before.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
And I thought the country was supposed to be quiet.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
It sounds like Times Square on New Year's Eve.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
The storm's over and the sun's out.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Tops.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
I want you to see what the place looks like
in the daytime.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Oh, I saw the weeds last night.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Not the weeds, the trees, the fruit trees.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Look say, not bad as that is it?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
It's beautiful?
Speaker 4 (06:29):
All those fields stretching out green beyond the house. They
must all belong to it, cause if that's just the
same as a house, imagine all that ground. I didn't
know there was so much ground left.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
In the world.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah, but the weeds, So.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Why wouldn't the weeds be waisted high? Anything would grow here?
You can tell just by looking out there. I bet
you could have flowers and all the vegetables you wanted
almost no time.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, yeah, I suppose maybe you could.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
And Todd, there's a kitchen too, with a stove, old
fashioned range as big as all outdoors. And there's an
upstairs to the house, and above that an attic. Snow's
funny up there, kind of like a perfume moment.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
You're pretty excited about this joy, don't you.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Your eyes are shining like a kid.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Maybe it's there.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
It can breathe for Oh, he can actually breathe. Yeah,
I just try him.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
No, not me.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I couldn't stand it. Well, I'm going someplace, see if
I can.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Round up some grub. I'm hungry. Oh my, well, there's
bound to be a store around some place. Some bacon
and eggses go pretty good right now, huh.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Oh in coffee don't forget coffee.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yes, sir, I'll be back in a fresh with the maker.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Hello. Yeah, I thought you were never going to find
that breach.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I found it alright, found trouble along with it.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
And what happened?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
We gotta get out here.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
What's happened?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Plenty funny. Look, here's the doe for your best fair
and I'll be seeing you.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
I don't want your money. I've made my own way
all my life. I don't need help from you or
anybody else. Goodbye.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Hey, you're a hot tempered little number, aren't you.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
You're okay?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I like you, and uh, just because I do. I'll
explain about this house.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
It isn't really mine.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Oh, it belonged to a fella named Todd Brandon that
belonged to his family.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
He was the last we Uh, we were both in
the rocket in New York.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
You mean gangs. I never killed anybody, but I was
running along with a gang. They got Brandon, but before
he died, he gave me all the papers and the
deed to the house, told me to take his name
and live out here just like I was a Brandon.
I gathered from him that the Brandons were a special kind.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Of people out here.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Well it was it mean a new chance for you
to put your past behind you. That was wonderful of him.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yes, but there's an uncle, an uncle Caleb Brandon out
from California somewhere. He's sick and can't get about much,
and he hasn't seen Brandon since he was nine.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Oh, then you wouldn't have to worry about him. All
you have to do is fill out the papers he
gave you. Tell everybody you're top Brandon and you're.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, and just like that, I'm a guy of property and.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
All this land would be your, Todd. You've got to say, what,
don't you see? It's your one chance, my.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Chance for what to spend my life picking weeds.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
You said you had a little money, Well all about
three hundred bucks, that's all.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Well, that three hundred'll buy seeds to plutch your lamb,
it'll buy paint to fix your house. It's enough to
buy life, Tod.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You're crazy.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Oh, look out there, the trees and the grass, even
the weeds are green and strong and healthy. Part of
the earth they belong. And where do you belong?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Nowhere?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Uh huh.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Yet you're just as much a part of that earth
as they are.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
That's fine talk for you.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Would uh?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Would you wanna stay on?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
And miss dump?
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Would I? Oh? For all your life you've been shoved around,
nowhere to go, that you belong, no one to care
whether you stayed or went. And if one day someone
said that there was a house to live in land
to make your living office, and it was yours for
as long as you care to stay? Hm? Do you
think i'd stay? Now?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Alright?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Alright, suppose I do like you say, Suppose I do
stick on, Pretend I'm Brandon?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Would you stay with me?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Me? Tout got there in the store, an old fossil
that runs the place, God that it has had, that
I that I really was Todd Brandon, and then I'd
brought back a wife with me.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
You mean you mean you'd marry me?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Well, if I'm going to plow the fields and plant
whatever I fella plants, and a dump like there's, there's
still a house, and the house without a woman isn't
much of a house. And a man's life would be
pretty empty unless there were regular meals to come to
and well somebody could talk things over with him when
his work was done.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
I can't believe what you're saying is true, whether you
whether you stay, Oh sure I will.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
I guess neither of.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Us have gone any past to brag about. And well
maybe that's not important, but Todd remembered it. If things
don't work out, you can go your way. And I'll understand.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
You're a good kid, and I'm not one to pass
up a hunch, So we'll give it a world how.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Baby, Yes, And what's more, I think you'll make the
grade I'm getting on Todd Brandon to win.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
And as Mary said, Todd was.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Shoved around all his life.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
No one cared whether he stayed or not. But now
here was a chance, a long chance. Without discovery, he
could be Todd Brandon. He could forget the old angry thoughts.
But maybe the fear of detection might become the foundation
(12:42):
for another obsession. And now back to our stories starring
(13:17):
Brenda Marshall. Time goes its round and the farm begins
to show improvement, and both Merry and Todd find joy
and simple things work and live. Life is measured now
by rows of newly plowder and forgotten not the whips
(13:37):
are obsession?
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Come on, come on, whoa, what's the good?
Speaker 4 (13:54):
I hate to bother you when you're pine. I just
couldn't wait.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
A letter just came for you.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
I hadn't what was in it? Hellarr huh uh from
your uncle Caleb out in California.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Or oh, oh that means trouble.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Let me have a time.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
What does it say? He's coming? Isn't he coming to
see it?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
How'd you guess? Oh?
Speaker 4 (14:13):
I just know that's all I've known all along, that
that was gonna happen someday.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
It's been too perfect, calastic coming for Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Oh, Todd, that's what do we do? Mary?
Speaker 4 (14:25):
We just go on doing what we've been doing. How
is he gonna guess you're not his real nephew. He
never saw the real Todd since he was a kid.
If Ezra and Maddy can be fool and I'm oking
Uncle Caylen.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
They'll be questioned.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
They'll be his eyes looking at us, wondering watching it still.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Watch listen. This place is ours, this earth is ours, yours,
and mine all feels right with the grain that we've planted.
It's our gardens that have feed us. It's all labor
that's fixed up the place and painted the house and
paint a home of it. It's odd to tell you,
and no Uncle Caleb or anyone else is ever gonna
take it from much.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Yeaes, sir, kay, God good, I'd better pick you up.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
You had to help Mary.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
You know that nephew George has made of the real
branding stuff, Yes, sir, reed, really is he? And her
little wife here she's a humdinger too.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
The way they tore.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Into that house, would have thought it was her last.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Chance on earth.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
They last chance, eh.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
They painted the place up, got the hold of some
fancy ideas about irrigation, and five guys start glowing the
best vegetables and fruit in Midland. Does he look like
the family? Well, I don't care about the funny thing.
He's a Brandon, all right, you can tell lad, but
he don't look like him. He's handsome than any Brandon
(15:57):
ever was. No, he cares about the say there's much resemblance.
And see, hey there's the house now, the old house, just.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Like it used to look when I as a kid.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Same fee, tream welcome. Look about it.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
A house that could.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Chef for quite a bit of money nowadays. Couldn't sure
her just off the highway and Midland blowing like anything.
But they'll able to say not Dard and Merry, who've
seem very sure he is. Huh hey, if there's something
in the back of your mind, something worrying you, something
you ain't sure you're right about.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
If it taught, maybe it is.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Ezra and may be danger.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
But I know for long, I'll know for sure.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Most everything. Merry and I've learned about a farm. Uncle Caleb,
we've brought out of books. Well, it looks as if
the books were pretty fair teachers.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Well, we've had luck on our side too. Luck's a
pretty handy thing, especially when you're taking a long chance.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, yeah, especially then.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Ah you well, uncle Cayley, about why don't you come
inside and have something to drink or build a fine
and you can talk and be comfortable too.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
There's a good idea, young lady. Yeah, my old legs
and the surprises.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
They used to be.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Uh yeah, it's didn't that comfortable chance for Caleb. If
you're well one gotten around to drink much about the furniture.
We thought we'd wait till winter when it wasn't too
much work to be done outside. Uh, you poke up
the fire that taught 'em.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I'll get to drink, all right, I mean good. Yeah, eh,
you know what, tud, it's it's good to.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Sit here in this old room again. I guess when
you get as old as I am, you get sentimental
about the places you've known when you.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Were young, you see, tired.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
We Brandons belonged to the real America, the America that
drench sh had been dared and built in the days
when life wasn't so easy as it is now, and
the land was the thing, the great thing. That's why
I've left this house stand empty all these years, just
(18:31):
waiting for a Brandon to come back, because we Brandons
have always felt that it would never be right for
anybody but the Brandon to live in it.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I think I understand how you.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Feel here you are.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Here's a drink, Uncle tayleab eh oh, well, thank you,
thank you, thanks honey. Eh Well, here's to the brands.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
Yes, here's to the Brandons.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
They Brandon's.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Todd, Todd.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
We've got to tell on the truth.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
There's only tonight. He'll be gone. After tonight.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
I couldn't stay on topping him, not no it It'd
be like living with a lie. Everywhere I'd turn in
the house, everywhere I'd go in the field and be
there haunting me. I can't do it, Todd, neither can you.
I've seen it in your eyes since he's been here.
I've heard it in your voice the night he told
us about the family. You can't go on any more
(19:49):
than I can, even if it means giving up everything.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Okay, you're right, Honey. We'll tell him tonight.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I'm so glad.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
God, I knew you had to say that.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Well, good night Mary, Good night Tad.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
This has been a wonderful week. The guy that he
gets in sleep. I am leaving early tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Oh just a minute, Uncle Caleb, before you leave. Todd
has something to tell you.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
It couldn't it wait til morning.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Oh no, we've got to say it now because m
maybe it'll change your plans about leaving tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Tell him, Tod, we hadn't planned to tell you.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
At least I hadn't.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Tomorrow would have come and you would have gone, and
things for us would have been just the same. We
could have gone on living here, making our making our
living off your farm, becoming a part of a town,
carrying your name, because it really isn't. God, I'm not
Todd Brandon.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Oh oh, I see my name, My real name is Conway.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
When Todd died, the real Todd, he gave me the
deed to this place. I filed it like it was
my own.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
But believe me, it wasn't stealing. We didn't mean to
steal it, Uncle Caleb.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
It was.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
It was just that it was our only chance to
make a life for ourselves. We made vegetables and crops
and fruit grow. Well, only weeds were growing.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Before we built her home out of a broken down
wood pile.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
It for just a little while, this earth was ours.
We were Brandon's too.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I've got to tell you something else, Uncle Kennt, something
I've never told Mary before. It's her doing, really, without
or I wouldn't be here now.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
She taught me what it means to live. She taught
me what it means to love.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
That's why I stayed on because of her.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
It isn't exactly what he said. He taught me the
meaning of living too. He taught me about loving. And
then when you came me so I s where you were.
We talked it over it. We knew we couldn't go
on living alone, not any longer.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I'm glad you decided the way you did, though I
wouldn't have said anything in any case, You mean you
knew I wasn't Toad Brandon.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I knew when he died.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I'd been hunting him for some time.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I just learned about.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Him, what he.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Was, and what he did, and how he died. I
was planning to come back here. Then I got your
letter saying you'd come back to the farm to live.
I thought i'd wait and see what happened.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
That's why I came back. I'm so glad we.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Told you well after all, being the Brandon, there's a
quality that's in a man, whether it's Tom Dicker, Harry
or Todd Brandon. This earth is yours because you've made
it so you belong here, both of yours.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
You belong in this house.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Gosh, I don't know what to say.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
It's as if I were suddenly may hold again.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Only one thing I got to say. It was mostly
Mary's doings.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Without her, I couldn't have even pretended to be a Brandon. Well,
it took both of.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
You to do it.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Shun.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
Oh, believe me, Uncle Caleb.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
I promise you this that as long as time and
I live, you'll.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Never be ashamed of our bearing your name.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
We've learned what this earth of our means.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
We've learned what it means to be a Brandon, what
it means to be an American Ah.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
You have been listening to Obsession
Speaker 3 (24:00):
M.
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