Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Another journey into the realm of the strain and get
a bid.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I hope you will enjoy the chap, that it will
till you a little and kill you a little.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
So settle back, get a good grip on your nerve.
Where are we going? You'll find out when we get there.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
CBS Radio Mystery Theater Presents, come in.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Welcome, I MEE G.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
Marshall.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
This is a love story, pure and simple. Well, perhaps
not all that simple, I realize I have a reputation
to maintain, so I promise you it will contain at
least one surprise. But it is a love story, and
it reminds me of one of the greatest sonnets ever written.
Elizabeth Barrett brownings, how do I love Thee? The end
(01:21):
of which reads, and if God choose, I shall but
love thee better after death? Climb the north face of
Old Baldy. Why Mike?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Why?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Macter Feller says, because it's there, that it's something I've
always wanted to do, So why not?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
But not alone? Mine? Not alone?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Supposing is slipped and missed the step of supposing I did?
Speaker 4 (01:45):
That, would I be worse off than I am?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Our mystery Dramma Rendezvous with Death was written especially for
the Mystery Theater by Ian Martin and stars Christopher de
Borie and ROBERTA.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Maxwell.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
We are a country that has always needed heroes. They
are tailored, of course, to our changing customs, and we
are a country of change. Daniel Boone, Lincoln, John Paul Jones, Lindbergh,
Babe Ruth, Frank Sinatra at Guada Grata, a reflection of America.
Mike Thurston was one of the chosen in a football
(02:45):
conscious era. He had done all the right things, the
right college, the right team, became a sports glamour boy.
He was blonde, tall, shaped like a witch, and our
quarterback the other side of the coin was different. First
of all, Mike Thurston is a very solid, likable, real
(03:05):
show and second, but that's the story.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
An interesting situation has been developed the Big Ten Conference.
As you all know by now, it's settled and Minnesota
will be traveling to the Rose Bowl on left. And
here's the drama of to day. A less presnel's steak
can pull off the upstet of the year, led by
the doll in arm Mike Thurston. Here is the story
tailor's headline, an unsung hero from a small college. Mike
(03:35):
Thurston is challenging mighty USC. Now score seventeen to twelve
and favorite USC. There are thirty eight seconds left and
Presnell has them all turned down on USC's twenty three
online and seven yards ago. This is the key play
a touchdown is them up? The ball is do hot
versus thready night for passes everyone at fresh the block
(03:57):
in your shirt.
Speaker 7 (03:58):
He has done.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
He foss the man down.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
The way perfectly, all on the fire cut there but
him hands.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
He now goes ahead.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
Jane seventeen, put on a second, sluts on the block.
Speaker 7 (04:12):
That's God, It's gone that.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
This is the finest moment of a young man's correct
Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait a minute. Now, I
don't understand this.
Speaker 7 (04:22):
I thirst in his down.
Speaker 6 (04:23):
Nobody goes through, but obviously he's hurted some way. I
can't treadge you why right now?
Speaker 8 (04:28):
I knew it, Jack, I knew it. He never should
have played.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Take it easy? Done it? Why did you turn off
the TV? Says maybe he's just.
Speaker 9 (04:36):
Hurt, just hurt.
Speaker 10 (04:38):
Isn't that a great mind for a parent to have
to say?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 10 (04:41):
But of course I know we both be happy to hear.
He don't he broken a leg or a collar bone
or or something anything that could be six?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
So what all right? Now?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
No easy done it?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Just just take it easy. I mean the doctors gave
him a clean.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Bill of health.
Speaker 10 (05:00):
Well they said they hope they've gotten all of it,
but you never could tell.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Let's try to think positively. I'm not going to believe
the cancer is back. I am going to turn that
TV back on and find out what happened.
Speaker 10 (05:13):
Do what you want, Jack, It isn't going to change anything.
The cancer is back inside our golden boy, and it's
going to destroy him before he even has a chance
to really live.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I have a doctor, Baxter, missus Thurston, mister Thurston, how
might can we see him?
Speaker 9 (05:34):
Just?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Of course he's fine, he's sitting up and eating like
a horse. What happened to him? Doctor, Well, that's something
we're going to have to talk about, but not right now.
Speaker 8 (05:43):
Maybe right now is just when we should talk about it.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Doctor Dexter, Well, I'm not sure that it is anything new.
That's something all of us have been living with.
Speaker 10 (05:51):
Well, don't hesitate, doctor, I'm embraced for it as my husband.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
All right.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
When night came in, here four months ago, as you know,
the problem seemed simple. He had some molds on his
neck which we recommended should be removed as pre cancerous growth.
And again and at that time, as you remember, we
had a postulate that we were facing a possible melanoma, a.
Speaker 8 (06:20):
Terrible thing that spreads.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yes, missus Houstin, Well, we're facing it now, and.
Speaker 8 (06:29):
There's no way to.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Stop it, not that we know of.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
He's so young.
Speaker 8 (06:36):
It can't be. I mean there must be some treatment, something.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
I wish I could offer it to you.
Speaker 8 (06:42):
But he's only twenty one and full of life. He's
a football player. An ask flee Now.
Speaker 10 (06:48):
There must be some way, and you can I mean
there's something during this time.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Factly there isn't. I mean, it's dirty, it's insidious, and
there's no defense against it. If there is, for Adam's sake,
tell us about that. If I knew, I would.
Speaker 8 (07:00):
My son is going to die.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
He has a disease. We can't defeat.
Speaker 8 (07:07):
How long has he got now I can take it? Doctor?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
How long at the outside? Six months?
Speaker 9 (07:19):
No?
Speaker 8 (07:19):
No, No, I'm all right, Jeff. How about right?
Speaker 9 (07:24):
Doctor?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Does he know he's a pre med student. Knowing we
could keep it from him.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yes, he knows that he has six months or let's
that's right. What happened this afternoon out there on the field.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
We don't know he blacked out suddenly, but they have
stuff is running a wild through his body.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
He could turn up with any kind of symptom.
Speaker 8 (07:45):
It has an effect to his brain.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Oh no, no, no, the boy's magnificent. There isn't anything
I wouldn't do for him, including taking his place, if
that were possible. I have never in my life known
anyone who has more right to it. Oh, I'm sorry
forgive me.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
What stupid thing to say.
Speaker 10 (08:06):
No, of the contrary, it was a lovely thing to say.
Speaker 8 (08:10):
The only thing is it's wrong. Apparently he doesn't have
the right.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Hello, Mom, Dad, Hello, Mike die Hello?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Did you come to spring me? Or I don't know, Mike.
That's really up to the doctor.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
That's strictly up to me.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I want to get out of here.
Speaker 8 (08:33):
Oh, Mike. If doctor Baster thinks that you.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Doc and me have kicked this around, Mom, let's us
not hack around.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
There's any level with you. Yes, Mikey has.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
So our hearts and flowers. That's where it is. I
want to make the most of what I got left. Dad,
Remember that summer I spent with Frank and Robert Herman
in New Mexico.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
In the Sangred Cristal.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yes, I really dug that own horse, showing him taking
care of him in the saddle at least half of
every day, and the mountains all that.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Some ways, it was the best time I've ever spent
in my life. And I come on you too.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
We can't freeze every time any of us think we've
said the wrong word. My dad, please, Oh yes, it's
a raw deal, but crying isn't going to change it.
We just forget what's going to happen. Try to make
the best of what's left before it does. Dad was
(09:36):
the greatest. Somehow, he backtracked and dug up the Hermans,
whom he hadn't seen for years. The ranch dead sold
years ago, but Dad bulldogged it and came up with
the new owners, who fortunately weren't planning to be there
for the summer. The college year ended and I was
still pretty good, just dropping a lot of weight. I
graduated and we took off for Troochus, little town in
(10:00):
New Mexico that was closest to our Ratchas you're sure
it's okay, Paul, Oh, sure course in a damned place.
It's pretty isolated.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
It's twenty five miles down Hairpin Mountain roads to.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Santa Fe and the aarest hospital.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Jack, forgive me, but what difference does it make? The
hospital isn't going to help except to make it easier
on you?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Or what about Mike, to make it easier on him?
You did say there would be pain? No, no, I
said there can be pain. I will already prescribe.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Pills for Mike that will help, not all the way.
Nothing works all the way.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
At the end. And if it gets that, then well
then just called me.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I'll fly in through whatever I can to make it bearable.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
The hell of a thing, isn't it. He hasn't been
in to see me for a couple of weeks. How's
he feeling?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
I suppose that's the most heart freaking thing of all,
except for all the wait he's lost.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
He's just bubbling with enthusiasm.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
And what I'm tempted to call good health.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Paul, do you supply? Jack? What can I tell you?
The biopsies are the same, nothing has changed. It'll go
along from day to day and suddenly out of the blue.
It'll all be downhill. We can only pray that once
the turning point comes, it'll be fast. I'm sorry, I
feel like an executioner. I think we all do.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
I wish to God I knew some way to fill
up the last days, to make some part of it
all seem worthwhile.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I think Mike himself is creating that possibility. Just go
with him, Let him squeeze everything he can out at
the end of his life and find his own meanings.
Just just be sure he has enough pills to dull
the agony if it comes.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Why did I come back here, away from all my
friends and my contacts. Maybe that's the answer. I'm running scared,
but am I I don't want to die. Maybe the
hold trouble is I just can't quite believe I'm going
to that. I'll beat the odds somehow, but I have
(12:11):
to be special.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
And then the pain comes, and I know, no.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Matter how much it hurts me, it just crumples Mom
and Dad.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
So I try to get away where they won't see it.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Oh, that's become easy boy, easy.
Speaker 6 (12:28):
I'll come on, suck in that belly.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Ah, that's better, old fake. I got to get that
saddle thin stone type. You want me to fall off
you on.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
The trail by there you are? Oh you got blue
all saddled up? What are you're headed for?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I'm going to ride up to the snow line, dad,
and maybe I ever go at the north face of
Old Baldy.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Oh all right, I'll come along with you. No, no, no, no, Dad,
I want to make this one on my own. Ohy,
can't I share it?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
I'll face it, Dad, it's too rugged for you.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
You're not in shape? You are?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I think so sorry?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
I could cut my tongue out.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Why like?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Why? What does the fellow say? Because it's there? Dad.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
It's just something I want to.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Do that I've never done.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Maybe I'm trying to prove something, but I feel I
got to do it. Not alone, Mike. I mean, suppose
you slipped and missed the step. For supposing I did that,
would I be any worse off.
Speaker 8 (13:34):
You didn't check? You couldn't have let him go climb
that mountain by himself, Joan.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
There really wasn't any way I could have stopped him.
Speaker 8 (13:40):
Well, at least you could have gone along.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
I wasn't prepared to and he didn't want.
Speaker 8 (13:43):
But that's a sheer rock face. It shouldn't be climbed.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Alone, Joan.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
I suppose almost anything Mike does from here on in
has to.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Be on his own.
Speaker 8 (13:52):
I supposed he fault.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
We covered that eventuality, and you know what he said,
what something that we can't argue with. Would he be
any worse off if he did?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Well?
Speaker 3 (14:03):
That's a terrible thing to say, I know, but it's
a terrible situation that we all have to face.
Speaker 8 (14:08):
As long as he's alive, there's always a chance.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That isn't fair, Joan. We all know that there are
no miracles, but how can.
Speaker 8 (14:14):
We be sure? And you know what Mike's like.
Speaker 10 (14:17):
He doesn't think of himself, only us. Now, it would
be just like him to be quick thotic enough to
think that his death would be better if it was
quick at.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Such might be better for him, Joanes.
Speaker 10 (14:29):
No, no, no, we've got to hold on to the
last minute.
Speaker 8 (14:32):
Hope gets hope.
Speaker 9 (14:34):
Oh Jeff, why did you let him go up that mountain?
Speaker 8 (14:37):
What's going to happen to him?
Speaker 11 (14:38):
Now?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
A depressing subject for a story, no questions. There is
little good to be said off death except that it
is certain and will come to all of us. But
and why and with what dignity and revelation is another
question Entirely, this story has only begun, and as I
suggested in the beginning, its subject is not dead but love.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I shall return.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Shortly with that.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Two.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
The approach to Old Baldy isn't difficult. Above the tree line,
you are still only on the shoulders. And when the
snow begins, there is one frozen esker which can be
traversed on horseback across a deep valley. Once across that
to reach the last fifteen hundreds feet of that twelve
thousand foot feet.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
If you circle it to the.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
South, you can ride all the way to the summit.
But if you decide to climb, there's.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
A whole other story.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
But Mike made no attempt to climb it.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
That broke me up here today.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
But I haven't mind. I wanted to prove something, spit
in somebody's face, except that I realized I hadn't the strength.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Oh, oh lord, Oh the pain.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
The pain is something else, that much more that I
can take. Oh that's gone now, But for how long?
Oh this is magnificent. I can see one hundred miles.
I ought to be a god and immortal, only am
not three steps, Michael, buddy, and you look down a
(16:45):
quarter of a mile, one more step, and you've bought
a ticket to oblivion. Why not the easy answer? And
you protect mom and dad? A climbing accident, a slit?
What a tragedy? Hey hey, hey, hey, you down there?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
You out of your mind? What are you doing there?
Speaker 10 (17:04):
Oh there's not the blast, But I ran out of.
Speaker 7 (17:07):
Tea talk and don't move, stay still. No way you
can get from that ledge up over this show.
Speaker 11 (17:12):
Back Willian subduction last.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
That's why I was just waiting for you to come.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Along extend a helping hand.
Speaker 11 (17:21):
I've let you have something else in mind.
Speaker 7 (17:23):
If I did, it's out of it.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Oh, I'm so brilliant.
Speaker 7 (17:27):
Why didn't I bring some rope?
Speaker 10 (17:28):
Guys, weren't planning to climb, just.
Speaker 7 (17:32):
Maybe to do what There's no time.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
For small talk.
Speaker 7 (17:37):
I've left you all away, So I'm taking off my shirt,
rip it up and make a rope out of it.
You tie off your climbing rope to it, and as.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Soon as I haul up your rope, we'll walk you
over the turtle.
Speaker 7 (17:51):
Back like you were a fly. So I can definite
say your far I'm not much of a spider, even.
Speaker 11 (17:58):
If you were.
Speaker 12 (17:59):
I'm a willing victim, this honor robber than that, I always.
Speaker 7 (18:04):
Say, pah, that's the best offer I've had all summer. Okay,
you're ready here.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Where do you buy your shirt?
Speaker 6 (18:12):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
I just think of birthdays in Christmas.
Speaker 7 (18:15):
I'll get a pair of supply Sorry you blue this one?
Speaker 8 (18:19):
I love this fensom and I bet you are.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Cute in us.
Speaker 7 (18:22):
How do you like to stop being so brave and
get sensible?
Speaker 12 (18:25):
Don't rock the volts, sir, galahad, I'm not afraid.
Speaker 8 (18:29):
I'm scared.
Speaker 7 (18:31):
Can you tie it off?
Speaker 1 (18:31):
All right?
Speaker 8 (18:33):
It's not a hole all the way?
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Okay, Okay, I got it.
Speaker 7 (18:39):
Now you gotta sling around.
Speaker 12 (18:41):
You swing around my shoulders and a sky of blue above.
Speaker 7 (18:46):
Sure it's secure. I's only a good bone to make
it hang tight. Okay, grab anything you can to help.
Let's go all right?
Speaker 12 (19:02):
And she goes heave away just about home, Hi, Kelly.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Why just be sure you touch the plate?
Speaker 10 (19:14):
Hold?
Speaker 9 (19:15):
Oh, you're animal, You're right solid man?
Speaker 1 (19:22):
So who are you anyway?
Speaker 7 (19:25):
My name is Laura as in it. But she's only
a dream, but a hasty dream. Wouldn't they say? Who
are you, Mike thirst I.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Came up in this summer with my parents where we
took the hermit's ranch.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
What about you?
Speaker 13 (19:41):
Oh, we live here other side of the valley.
Speaker 9 (19:44):
The other half of my name is Willow. Ranch is
right on.
Speaker 13 (19:48):
The other side of the valley.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
I can't see it, you're not supposed to.
Speaker 13 (19:52):
It looks down the other side of the ridge. Well,
I guess I ought to thank.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
You for saving your life?
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Nothing of it.
Speaker 13 (20:01):
Oh, I guess it's a standoff.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
What does that mean?
Speaker 13 (20:05):
In a kind of left handed way.
Speaker 8 (20:07):
Wouldn't you say I saved yours?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
That's a funny kind of thing to say.
Speaker 7 (20:14):
Forget it, thanks to the lift.
Speaker 13 (20:16):
I guess it's time for me display no, no hold on, Yeah,
I'll walk you down the mount. We don't follow the
same trail.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Maybe not up until now.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
You don't think I'm gonna let you get away that easy.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
You want to see me again, you know it.
Speaker 9 (20:31):
I'd like to see you again.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
But for what?
Speaker 12 (20:34):
Can we keep it.
Speaker 9 (20:37):
Just between me and you? Will you promise not to
tell anyone else about me?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Well, it's a wild trip for those are the ground rules.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
The only thing is, well, maybe I don't have any right.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
To see you again.
Speaker 13 (20:50):
That tears it.
Speaker 9 (20:51):
You better see me again?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Where.
Speaker 9 (20:54):
Don't take the main trail coming up to Boldy.
Speaker 13 (20:57):
You'll see the stroke doubles last trail that cuts off
by the blue rope.
Speaker 9 (21:00):
Know where I mean?
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yes, yes, you mean the rocking chair. The rock sits
on the two others like it.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Would fall down any minute.
Speaker 9 (21:07):
That's it, only it won't.
Speaker 12 (21:08):
Just follow the trail until you come out in the
snow line.
Speaker 9 (21:11):
I'll be there.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
But how do I let you know when I'm coming?
You won't have to. It's crazy. Why can't you explain
what I have?
Speaker 1 (21:19):
My reasons.
Speaker 9 (21:21):
If you want to see me again.
Speaker 13 (21:23):
Try it my way.
Speaker 8 (21:24):
You'll see.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
It'll turn out all right. Okay, it's just I've got
to see you again.
Speaker 9 (21:31):
You will not do me one more favor.
Speaker 12 (21:35):
You lay first, Just start down the trail and don't
look back.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Okay, you have to keep so secret.
Speaker 12 (21:39):
It won't be very long till you'll find out. But
it's still too soon.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
So I took her at her word, and I walked
down the trail. Only I hadn't gone far before. Like
Lot's wife, I just had to look back. She was gone,
disappeared somewhere in those few seconds, like she'd never been.
And you know what, I didn't turn the soft and
I didn't panic. Somehow, some way I knew I was
(22:12):
going to see Laura again, and I was right. Only
first I had to get on home.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Ye, Mike, it's good to see you. And nearly drove
was crazy being gone till long. I'm sorry that I
didn't mean to. Where have you been? Just up old baldy.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
But you didn't climb the face. We've had the binoculars
on it all day, you have. You were scared all
hell out of me, saying you were going to try
to scale it. I changed my mind. Obviously, you had
the binnaculars on it. You didn't see anyone there?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Well, no, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
It's just an idle question.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
It didn't sound so idle.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Well it was.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Oh hello, mam darling.
Speaker 10 (22:58):
How are you did a long day, but a good one.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
How are you?
Speaker 10 (23:03):
I'm fine, just fine now that you're back.
Speaker 8 (23:05):
How are you feeling?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Never better?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
I could eat a horse or a house, or however
you want to spell it.
Speaker 8 (23:11):
Oh that's wonderful. What did you do today?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I just mos it about bought some deep thoughts. You know,
your mother and I were kicking around a couple of ideas, Mike.
We could get down a Las Vegas for the rodeo,
or maybe make a johnt to Albuquerque. Why don't you
mom do either or both?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Me or Well? I think I'll just stick close to home.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Well, why we're trying to think of you? If this
isn't the place for us to be, you just name it,
no doubt, I think this is just the place for me.
How could I tell my parents anything about that magic summer?
How could I even explain it to myself? I, who
(23:51):
knew I had lost my life, has nothing more than
to continue it with the magic girl I met in
the glow of the Blue mountains.
Speaker 13 (24:00):
Yeah, you're just gonna have to learn to be a believer, Mike.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I never thought i'd see you again. Why, Oh, I
don't know that they were so wild. I guess I
thought i'd dreamed you.
Speaker 12 (24:12):
You don't believe in dreams come true.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
I don't know what I believe in anymore.
Speaker 9 (24:17):
Let's take us as we find us.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
What shall we do today? I couldn't tell us as
long as we do it together.
Speaker 13 (24:23):
Okay, let's blaze the private trail from here to there?
Speaker 3 (24:27):
What do you mean got a hatchet?
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Sure, right right here in the saddle.
Speaker 13 (24:31):
Hoole st Okay, we'll start here, cut a cross virgin
forest and blaze our own trail tree by trade to where.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Wait a minute, if I stand up in the stirrups,
I can see a special little break in the trees
halfway down the mountain. Let's cut it down to there,
and that can be our special place.
Speaker 13 (24:50):
Yeah, our special place. You're on, Mike, Let's find our
way home.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
H Hello, doctor Baxter. Yes, Oh Paul, it's Jack thus.
Oh Jack, Well, what is it? Bad news?
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Oh?
Speaker 14 (25:09):
The very opposite, Paul. Mike is well, he's lost a
little weight. But outside of that.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
I'm afraid to say it, Paul, say what.
Speaker 14 (25:17):
I have never seen him in better health in my life.
I mean, frankly, it scares me a little. That's why
I'm calling you.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I'm glad you did. You say there's no substantial weight loss,
that's right. How about pain? He never complains? Well, that
doesn't necessarily mean anything, but I guess I can tell
you something that does.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Well.
Speaker 14 (25:36):
Tell me he isn't using the medication you gave him, Paul,
he hasn't touched it.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
He doesn't seem to need it.
Speaker 14 (25:42):
I mean, something magic seems to happen.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Paul, do you think don't ask me that, Jack, not
at long distance. I wouldn't dare to raise your hopes
without without what o Jack. Look, it's a busy week
for me, but I'll make time. Can I fly up
there spend the weekend?
Speaker 11 (26:00):
Maybe?
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Sure you could come into Santa Fe.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I'll drive down and pick you up. Wait a minute,
I got a better idea. I'll rent a car in
Santa Fe and drive myself up. Make it seem like
like an offhand kind of thing. I'll fly out tonight.
I ought to be able to join you for lunch tomorrow.
Expect me then my love to Joan.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Hey Mike, Mike, Yeah, backs to what I'll be.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
What are you doing in this negative country? Just passing by?
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Thought i'd check in and see how the other half lives?
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Pretty good for me, looks of you? You can say
that again.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
I couldn't feel better.
Speaker 7 (26:41):
Maybe I ought to chase you down at the.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Nearest hospital, run a couple of tests on you.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I might just go for that.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Oh only not right now? You uh headed somewheres?
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Well, Yes, I got something to do, but I'll be
back right soon. Mom and Dad know you're coming.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Mm hmm. I called and said I might stop in
for an eight or two. Oh, that's great.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
You just go up on to the top of the
hill and turn in by the crowd. You can't miss it.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
I'll be back soon as I can. There's no hurry.
Who's the big heavy date with? Oh?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Not anyone really, really, it's just what's just a special
thing I have to do on my own.
Speaker 7 (27:16):
Gotta get moving, so you let it up.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah, these mountain roads were a little rough, Jerman. Sorry,
I got here late. I met Mike right down the
mountain a bit.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
Doesn't he look fabulous?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Does?
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Indeed?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
I've never seen him look happier or healthier.
Speaker 8 (27:39):
Oh, do you think that there's a chance that's some.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Mirror for rhyme?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Scared even to allow myself to think of it. But
I do have to agree with John. Something's happened, something wonderful,
don't you agree.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I wouldn't want to raise any false hopes. The physical
thing we'll check out thoroughly. But one thing I do know.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
There's something lifting that boy's spirits.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I have waited the sky and I think I know
what it is he's in love, in love with.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Whom a girl? I to expect, Paul, There isn't a
girl his age within fifteen miles of here. The only
other hill on Grass Mountain is our Chalice is hunting
up the slope, and he's not there. No one except
for an abandoned house I looked at on the other
side of the valley when we were planning to come
up here.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
And that's no condition for anyone to live in.
Speaker 10 (28:26):
And yet you know now that Paul mentions it, I
think he's right.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
He's never mentioned anyone to you.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
No.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
When I going down for the mail today, I'll have.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
To ask the skipper at the country store if he
knows about anyone something awfully strange going on here that
I think we'd better look into.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Merol.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
She is a strange girl when you think of it,
isn't she Laura Willow? And it's been a strange relationship
between a boy who knows he has no future and
a girl who seems to live only for the present.
I wonder what this strange will of the wisps passed.
(29:38):
The forest of spruce that sprawls over the Sanguage Crystal
Mountains is thousands of years old. There's a tangle of
fallen trees and undergrowth too thick for passage. Except where
state trails have been cut, cleared and maintained, there are
some private trails, such as the one that Laura and
(29:58):
might have cut for themselves, and which ends in the lush,
grassy glade and may have made their own. At the moment,
they're lying on their backs, side by side, gazing up
at a clear blue sky. Sure you don't want some
of this chow I lugged along. No drink, coffee, cola, water,
(30:19):
no sail. You're a funny one. Don't you ever eat?
Speaker 8 (30:23):
I have eaten in my day.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Boy, I've never seen you.
Speaker 9 (30:26):
Maybe I have that table manner and you.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Couldn't do anything ugly if you try, I hope not. Hey,
come on down.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
What do you live on? Really?
Speaker 9 (30:37):
Cloud nine?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
You're far out, you know it, but not out of sight.
I wish you could never be out of my sight.
Speaker 9 (30:45):
I'm not going anywhere, but I am right. Maybe it's
time for it.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
No, no, no, no, not yet.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
I can't. Let's just keep it the way.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
It is something private, just for nobody else a part
of it, and we're a part.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Of nothing else. But just this, you and me and
just being together.
Speaker 9 (31:09):
That's what I want to talk to you about.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
No, no, no, no, let's let's change the subject. This place,
you know, we ought to give it a name.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
How about you?
Speaker 3 (31:19):
The secret mesa?
Speaker 11 (31:21):
It isn't really a masa?
Speaker 9 (31:23):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Laura's lee? How does I grab you?
Speaker 13 (31:27):
I hope you don't think of me as a siren.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
We've a lot of magic women. I couldn't have passed
you by.
Speaker 9 (31:35):
You're kind of a wizard yourself, ma'am.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Oh why didn't I Why didn't I meet you back
in high school?
Speaker 9 (31:42):
Why couldn't I have been there for you to.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Meet the Diming's all out of whack, too late for me,
too early for me. I'm sorry for what might have been.
Speaker 9 (31:53):
No, it's going to be No, please please, Mike, I
want you to kiss No.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
No, no, Laura, I can't kiss me.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Oh no.
Speaker 15 (32:08):
I love you, Mike, and I love you Laura. God
help us, brother, he will. Where are you going out
of your life?
Speaker 3 (32:19):
As far and as fast as I can, because this
is where it ends, Laura.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I should never have let it go this far, you see? No, no, no,
don't ask me to explain.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
But there isn't any future in it. I can't go
to meet your parents.
Speaker 7 (32:33):
I can't even take you back to meet mine.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I have no right to get you involved.
Speaker 7 (32:38):
The best thing I can do is cut out.
Speaker 13 (32:39):
That's a nice, brave little speech, Mike.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
You know it. Go ahead, let me have both barrels,
work me all over if you want.
Speaker 12 (32:48):
All I want to do is to decide some things
right now.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
No, no, don't don't ask me to explain. Let's not
drag it out. Let's just grout out. You can go
our separate ways.
Speaker 9 (32:59):
We aren't going separately, Mike. We're going together. We're always going.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
To be together. Laura. You don't understand.
Speaker 9 (33:07):
Of course, I understand you're going to die.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
You know, of.
Speaker 13 (33:14):
Course, I always have since the very beginning.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
But how oh you must have seen something in the paper.
Speaker 9 (33:25):
What is it? The pain?
Speaker 7 (33:28):
Yeah, just give me a moment.
Speaker 9 (33:32):
Where has shown me?
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Here?
Speaker 16 (33:34):
Some pills in my pocket? Oh you don't need any pills.
Just let me put my hand there that there.
Speaker 9 (33:40):
Won't be any more pain now ever.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Oh, oh, you don't know. It's God just like that?
Who who are you?
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Laura?
Speaker 9 (33:57):
Since I know all about you, I think it's time
and you found out all about me.
Speaker 12 (34:02):
Come with me to the other end of our green
valley and I'll show you. For very soon you'll find
our own journey's end.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Oh it's also beautiful. It's so hard to believe you, Flora.
Speaker 9 (34:24):
It won't be darling when we come into our own.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
So this is where you grew up and spent all
those twenty years. If I never known you was a
little skinny, little girl, go budsy, you wouldn't have liked
me there. Oh no, I'd have loved you no matter
when I met you.
Speaker 12 (34:39):
Oh no, I was shy, scared of my own shadows.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
That no, no, that's all past and done it, poor darling,
so long.
Speaker 12 (34:49):
So long I would have waited a hundred years.
Speaker 9 (34:53):
Just knowing you would come.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
I'm sorry it took so long.
Speaker 12 (34:57):
You had to have time to go up to me,
my darling, so we could have our own eternity together.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
I've got to go now. I've got to see Mom
and dad.
Speaker 9 (35:08):
Will you tell him about us?
Speaker 1 (35:09):
I'll can I How could I make them understand?
Speaker 9 (35:12):
I think there will be a way. Lucy, Just hurry
back to me soon. I'll be waiting.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Good Bye, Laura, No, no, not goodbye.
Speaker 16 (35:23):
Never goodbye, just till we meet again.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
I'll count the minutes.
Speaker 8 (35:30):
Mike.
Speaker 9 (35:30):
Yes, you will come back. I'm afraid to be alone again.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Oh, I'll come back. Nothing will keep me away.
Speaker 9 (35:38):
I'll make sure of that.
Speaker 13 (35:40):
If I have to.
Speaker 12 (35:42):
I promise I'll come for you.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Dodor for Heaven, say come with me, help me?
Speaker 3 (35:52):
But what is it?
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Jack?
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Is Mike over this way? When I drove up, he
was just sitting on his horse, hanging out of the
parmel and swaying. I just got out of the car
in time to catch him as he fell fround the
corner of the board. Was he in pain? No, he's
more like a man in a dream. Good Lord, look
at him? Is he did quiet?
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Quite?
Speaker 17 (36:11):
Quiet a moment? No, his heart still beating. He's fee
British and I don't like to look at that.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
What he's in coma?
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Come on, Jack, let's get him into the house before
his mother sees him like this.
Speaker 9 (36:34):
I suppose at the beginning of the end, Jack.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
I don't know what the devil is taking Paul so long.
Speaker 8 (36:43):
Perhaps I should go. Maybe I can help.
Speaker 10 (36:44):
No, no, no, let Paul have some But I want to
be doing something. I can't just sit here, and I'm
scared my boy will slip away?
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Doctor how is he He's he's out of coma and
I have him stabilized. I think I had to get
myself if he got well, sort of delirious. He kept
telling about some girl, a Laura Willow.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
You know, good lord, what is this yet? Nothing? Nothing?
Speaker 9 (37:13):
Don't lie to be pleased?
Speaker 10 (37:15):
Whatever it is, I want to know about it.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Well, did he say anything else about this girl?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Paul?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Well, it was disjointed, of course, just just mumbling to himself.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
But apparently my guess about him was right. He's been
seeing a good deal of this Laura Willow over the summer.
The reason I had to knock him out was because
he insisted on getting out of bed to go to her.
Said she was waiting for him. Well, he's obviously madly in.
Speaker 10 (37:41):
Love with her, love seeing her all summer, and he
never told us why Jack.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Well, he may have been, I don't know, under the circumstances,
since he couldn't have told the girl the truth about himself.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
What am I saying?
Speaker 3 (37:55):
If it was?
Speaker 1 (37:57):
If that was the girl, he couldn't have told her anything.
How do you mean because if you would rather be
alone together? No, no, Paul, it isn't that. It's just.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Look, I didn't pay much attention at the time.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Skipper likes his little jokes. I thought he was pulling
my leg.
Speaker 10 (38:12):
Jack, I wish you would come right out with it.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Well, it was because of Paul's conclusion that Mike hadn't
been off on these joints at his alone.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
When I got to the store, I.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Asked Skipper if there was any young woman about, you know,
any girls about my stage.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Were where did you ask, mister.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Terrist Well, it was something something I had on my mind,
my son Skipper right, I got a sort of notion
that maybe he was squiring some local bell.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
I don't know who.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Would it be unless you wanted to cross the divide
all the way down to pick its luge where they
got some dude ladies.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
It's pretty far now, around to twenty five miles.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
I doubt if it's anyone from there.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I don't suppose they could be anyone. Only house outside
of where we're staying is right here at Skipper's Corners,
and Art's empty one up the hill.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Right it's about beside.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
There isn't something nobody can be living that old abandoned
place across the valley from us.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
That old widow place.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Oh lord, no place has been abandoned here twenty years
ever since jud killed herself after his daughter died.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
It's because she saw in his guard and took up
with the ghost. What do you mean, Well, you know
how folks talk.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
They say moonlight nights, in particular, during the summer folk
meet up with Laura Willow picking columbines up beyond the
snowdie to put on her own grave.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Some say, yeah, she was a very pretty little.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Thing, for she smashed herself all up.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Falling off the north face of old board is hair.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
An accident, that's what some said.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Other things have been said to folks, whisper and all.
Her mother had been had a good wild Judd and
she were. He was there with a lot of juices.
Some said he wouldn't leave herlove, so she stepped off
at high place. He's all kind the shy one. Judge
(40:12):
just cured herself in remorse. Hey, you know how people
talk what they do say? She still wonders maybe maybe
your son made up with her.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
You didn't, No, no, no, no, I don't.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
What did you say?
Speaker 1 (40:27):
The girl's name was?
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Again?
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Here it is if picture she were was a shame?
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Did I so young?
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Her name was Laura Willow.
Speaker 10 (40:36):
The same name as Paul hurt might say, what's happening?
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Yes, Jo, no mistake.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
He kept saying it, and she's been dead?
Speaker 8 (40:44):
How long?
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Twenty is?
Speaker 9 (40:47):
Well? How could Mike.
Speaker 8 (40:50):
Jack?
Speaker 1 (40:50):
What does it mean?
Speaker 3 (40:51):
What does it all mean? I don't know, don Maybe
Mike heard the story from someone and it's stuck in
his mind. Maybe he's awake and we can ask him.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Is it all right for me to look in.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
For of course.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
John, Joe, he's nice.
Speaker 8 (41:09):
He's gone. He's gone.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Couldn't you know I'm not talking about this.
Speaker 9 (41:13):
I mean his body, Jim.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Her Son, he's gone.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
The body of Mike Hurston was never found.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
It was reasoned that, in a delirium, he climbed out
the window and wandered off into the forest to die.
The Virgin forest could bury one hundred lost men without
them ever being found. For myself, I like to think
that Laura came to him as she had promised, and
brought him back to Journey's animal. As I said at
the beginning, For me, this is a love story. I
(41:59):
shall return shortly in the course of the search for
Mike Thurst, his mother and father visited the remains of
(42:19):
the Willow home. There was a path from the back
of the house up the hill to an aspen grove,
where they found a simple grave with a headstone that
read Laura Willow nineteen thirty seven nineteen fifty seven. She
died too soon. I like to think some gentle God
(42:41):
gave her twenty years of grace without growing over, and
that she does not sleep alone for that eternal life
to come Outcast included Christopher to Borie, ROBERTA. Maxwell, mendel Kramer,
Donald Moss, and Anne Patoniac. The entire production was under
(43:03):
the direction of Hymond Brown.
Speaker 17 (43:06):
This is E. G.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for
another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, pleasant dreams.
Another journey into the realm of the strain and get
a bid.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I hope you will enjoy the chap, that it will
till you a little and kill you a little.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
So settle back, get a good grip on your nerve.
Where are we going? You'll find out when we get there.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
CBS Radio Mystery Theater Presents, come in.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Welcome, I MEE G.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
Marshall.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
This is a love story, pure and simple. Well, perhaps
not all that simple, I realize I have a reputation
to maintain, so I promise you it will contain at
least one surprise. But it is a love story, and
it reminds me of one of the greatest sonnets ever written.
Elizabeth Barrett brownings, how do I love Thee? The end
(01:21):
of which reads, and if God choose, I shall but
love thee better after death? Climb the north face of
Old Baldy. Why Mike?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Why?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Macter Feller says, because it's there, that it's something I've
always wanted to do, So why not?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
But not alone? Mine? Not alone?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Supposing is slipped and missed the step of supposing I did?
Speaker 4 (01:45):
That, would I be worse off than I am?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Our mystery Dramma Rendezvous with Death was written especially for
the Mystery Theater by Ian Martin and stars Christopher de
Borie and ROBERTA.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Maxwell.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
We are a country that has always needed heroes. They
are tailored, of course, to our changing customs, and we
are a country of change. Daniel Boone, Lincoln, John Paul Jones, Lindbergh,
Babe Ruth, Frank Sinatra at Guada Grata, a reflection of America.
Mike Thurston was one of the chosen in a football
(02:45):
conscious era. He had done all the right things, the
right college, the right team, became a sports glamour boy.
He was blonde, tall, shaped like a witch, and our
quarterback the other side of the coin was different. First
of all, Mike Thurston is a very solid, likable, real
(03:05):
show and second, but that's the story.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
An interesting situation has been developed the Big Ten Conference.
As you all know by now, it's settled and Minnesota
will be traveling to the Rose Bowl on left. And
here's the drama of to day. A less presnel's steak
can pull off the upstet of the year, led by
the doll in arm Mike Thurston. Here is the story
tailor's headline, an unsung hero from a small college. Mike
(03:35):
Thurston is challenging mighty USC. Now score seventeen to twelve
and favorite USC. There are thirty eight seconds left and
Presnell has them all turned down on USC's twenty three
online and seven yards ago. This is the key play
a touchdown is them up? The ball is do hot
versus thready night for passes everyone at fresh the block
(03:57):
in your shirt.
Speaker 7 (03:58):
He has done.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
He foss the man down.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
The way perfectly, all on the fire cut there but
him hands.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
He now goes ahead.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
Jane seventeen, put on a second, sluts on the block.
Speaker 7 (04:12):
That's God, It's gone that.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
This is the finest moment of a young man's correct
Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait a minute. Now, I
don't understand this.
Speaker 7 (04:22):
I thirst in his down.
Speaker 6 (04:23):
Nobody goes through, but obviously he's hurted some way. I
can't treadge you why right now?
Speaker 8 (04:28):
I knew it, Jack, I knew it. He never should
have played.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Take it easy? Done it? Why did you turn off
the TV? Says maybe he's just.
Speaker 9 (04:36):
Hurt, just hurt.
Speaker 10 (04:38):
Isn't that a great mind for a parent to have
to say?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 10 (04:41):
But of course I know we both be happy to hear.
He don't he broken a leg or a collar bone
or or something anything that could be six?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
So what all right? Now?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
No easy done it?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Just just take it easy. I mean the doctors gave
him a clean.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Bill of health.
Speaker 10 (05:00):
Well they said they hope they've gotten all of it,
but you never could tell.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Let's try to think positively. I'm not going to believe
the cancer is back. I am going to turn that
TV back on and find out what happened.
Speaker 10 (05:13):
Do what you want, Jack, It isn't going to change anything.
The cancer is back inside our golden boy, and it's
going to destroy him before he even has a chance
to really live.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I have a doctor, Baxter, missus Thurston, mister Thurston, how
might can we see him?
Speaker 9 (05:34):
Just?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Of course he's fine, he's sitting up and eating like
a horse. What happened to him? Doctor, Well, that's something
we're going to have to talk about, but not right now.
Speaker 8 (05:43):
Maybe right now is just when we should talk about it.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Doctor Dexter, Well, I'm not sure that it is anything new.
That's something all of us have been living with.
Speaker 10 (05:51):
Well, don't hesitate, doctor, I'm embraced for it as my husband.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
All right.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
When night came in, here four months ago, as you know,
the problem seemed simple. He had some molds on his
neck which we recommended should be removed as pre cancerous growth.
And again and at that time, as you remember, we
had a postulate that we were facing a possible melanoma, a.
Speaker 8 (06:20):
Terrible thing that spreads.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yes, missus Houstin, Well, we're facing it now, and.
Speaker 8 (06:29):
There's no way to.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Stop it, not that we know of.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
He's so young.
Speaker 8 (06:36):
It can't be. I mean there must be some treatment, something.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
I wish I could offer it to you.
Speaker 8 (06:42):
But he's only twenty one and full of life. He's
a football player. An ask flee Now.
Speaker 10 (06:48):
There must be some way, and you can I mean
there's something during this time.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Factly there isn't. I mean, it's dirty, it's insidious, and
there's no defense against it. If there is, for Adam's sake,
tell us about that. If I knew, I would.
Speaker 8 (07:00):
My son is going to die.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
He has a disease. We can't defeat.
Speaker 8 (07:07):
How long has he got now I can take it? Doctor?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
How long at the outside? Six months?
Speaker 9 (07:19):
No?
Speaker 8 (07:19):
No, No, I'm all right, Jeff. How about right?
Speaker 9 (07:24):
Doctor?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Does he know he's a pre med student. Knowing we
could keep it from him.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yes, he knows that he has six months or let's
that's right. What happened this afternoon out there on the field.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
We don't know he blacked out suddenly, but they have
stuff is running a wild through his body.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
He could turn up with any kind of symptom.
Speaker 8 (07:45):
It has an effect to his brain.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Oh no, no, no, the boy's magnificent. There isn't anything
I wouldn't do for him, including taking his place, if
that were possible. I have never in my life known
anyone who has more right to it. Oh, I'm sorry
forgive me.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
What stupid thing to say.
Speaker 10 (08:06):
No, of the contrary, it was a lovely thing to say.
Speaker 8 (08:10):
The only thing is it's wrong. Apparently he doesn't have
the right.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Hello, Mom, Dad, Hello, Mike die Hello?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Did you come to spring me? Or I don't know, Mike.
That's really up to the doctor.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
That's strictly up to me.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I want to get out of here.
Speaker 8 (08:33):
Oh, Mike. If doctor Baster thinks that you.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Doc and me have kicked this around, Mom, let's us
not hack around.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
There's any level with you. Yes, Mikey has.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
So our hearts and flowers. That's where it is. I
want to make the most of what I got left. Dad,
Remember that summer I spent with Frank and Robert Herman
in New Mexico.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
In the Sangred Cristal.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yes, I really dug that own horse, showing him taking
care of him in the saddle at least half of
every day, and the mountains all that.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Some ways, it was the best time I've ever spent
in my life. And I come on you too.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
We can't freeze every time any of us think we've
said the wrong word. My dad, please, Oh yes, it's
a raw deal, but crying isn't going to change it.
We just forget what's going to happen. Try to make
the best of what's left before it does. Dad was
(09:36):
the greatest. Somehow, he backtracked and dug up the Hermans,
whom he hadn't seen for years. The ranch dead sold
years ago, but Dad bulldogged it and came up with
the new owners, who fortunately weren't planning to be there
for the summer. The college year ended and I was
still pretty good, just dropping a lot of weight. I
graduated and we took off for Troochus, little town in
(10:00):
New Mexico that was closest to our Ratchas you're sure
it's okay, Paul, Oh, sure course in a damned place.
It's pretty isolated.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
It's twenty five miles down Hairpin Mountain roads to.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Santa Fe and the aarest hospital.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Jack, forgive me, but what difference does it make? The
hospital isn't going to help except to make it easier
on you?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Or what about Mike, to make it easier on him?
You did say there would be pain? No, no, I
said there can be pain. I will already prescribe.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Pills for Mike that will help, not all the way.
Nothing works all the way.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
At the end. And if it gets that, then well
then just called me.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I'll fly in through whatever I can to make it bearable.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
The hell of a thing, isn't it. He hasn't been
in to see me for a couple of weeks. How's
he feeling?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
I suppose that's the most heart freaking thing of all,
except for all the wait he's lost.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
He's just bubbling with enthusiasm.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
And what I'm tempted to call good health.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Paul, do you supply? Jack? What can I tell you?
The biopsies are the same, nothing has changed. It'll go
along from day to day and suddenly out of the blue.
It'll all be downhill. We can only pray that once
the turning point comes, it'll be fast. I'm sorry, I
feel like an executioner. I think we all do.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
I wish to God I knew some way to fill
up the last days, to make some part of it
all seem worthwhile.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I think Mike himself is creating that possibility. Just go
with him, Let him squeeze everything he can out at
the end of his life and find his own meanings.
Just just be sure he has enough pills to dull
the agony if it comes.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Why did I come back here, away from all my
friends and my contacts. Maybe that's the answer. I'm running scared,
but am I I don't want to die. Maybe the
hold trouble is I just can't quite believe I'm going
to that. I'll beat the odds somehow, but I have
(12:11):
to be special.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
And then the pain comes, and I know, no.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Matter how much it hurts me, it just crumples Mom
and Dad.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
So I try to get away where they won't see it.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Oh, that's become easy boy, easy.
Speaker 6 (12:28):
I'll come on, suck in that belly.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Ah, that's better, old fake. I got to get that
saddle thin stone type. You want me to fall off
you on.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
The trail by there you are? Oh you got blue
all saddled up? What are you're headed for?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I'm going to ride up to the snow line, dad,
and maybe I ever go at the north face of
Old Baldy.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Oh all right, I'll come along with you. No, no, no, no, Dad,
I want to make this one on my own. Ohy,
can't I share it?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
I'll face it, Dad, it's too rugged for you.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
You're not in shape? You are?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I think so sorry?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
I could cut my tongue out.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Why like?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Why? What does the fellow say? Because it's there? Dad.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
It's just something I want to.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Do that I've never done.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Maybe I'm trying to prove something, but I feel I
got to do it. Not alone, Mike. I mean, suppose
you slipped and missed the step. For supposing I did that,
would I be any worse off.
Speaker 8 (13:34):
You didn't check? You couldn't have let him go climb
that mountain by himself, Joan.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
There really wasn't any way I could have stopped him.
Speaker 8 (13:40):
Well, at least you could have gone along.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
I wasn't prepared to and he didn't want.
Speaker 8 (13:43):
But that's a sheer rock face. It shouldn't be climbed.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Alone, Joan.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
I suppose almost anything Mike does from here on in
has to.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Be on his own.
Speaker 8 (13:52):
I supposed he fault.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
We covered that eventuality, and you know what he said,
what something that we can't argue with. Would he be
any worse off if he did?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Well?
Speaker 3 (14:03):
That's a terrible thing to say, I know, but it's
a terrible situation that we all have to face.
Speaker 8 (14:08):
As long as he's alive, there's always a chance.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That isn't fair, Joan. We all know that there are
no miracles, but how can.
Speaker 8 (14:14):
We be sure? And you know what Mike's like.
Speaker 10 (14:17):
He doesn't think of himself, only us. Now, it would
be just like him to be quick thotic enough to
think that his death would be better if it was
quick at.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Such might be better for him, Joanes.
Speaker 10 (14:29):
No, no, no, we've got to hold on to the
last minute.
Speaker 8 (14:32):
Hope gets hope.
Speaker 9 (14:34):
Oh Jeff, why did you let him go up that mountain?
Speaker 8 (14:37):
What's going to happen to him?
Speaker 11 (14:38):
Now?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
A depressing subject for a story, no questions. There is
little good to be said off death except that it
is certain and will come to all of us. But
and why and with what dignity and revelation is another
question Entirely, this story has only begun, and as I
suggested in the beginning, its subject is not dead but love.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I shall return.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Shortly with that.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Two.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
The approach to Old Baldy isn't difficult. Above the tree line,
you are still only on the shoulders. And when the
snow begins, there is one frozen esker which can be
traversed on horseback across a deep valley. Once across that
to reach the last fifteen hundreds feet of that twelve
thousand foot feet.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
If you circle it to the.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
South, you can ride all the way to the summit.
But if you decide to climb, there's.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
A whole other story.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
But Mike made no attempt to climb it.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
That broke me up here today.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
But I haven't mind. I wanted to prove something, spit
in somebody's face, except that I realized I hadn't the strength.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Oh, oh lord, Oh the pain.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
The pain is something else, that much more that I
can take. Oh that's gone now, But for how long?
Oh this is magnificent. I can see one hundred miles.
I ought to be a god and immortal, only am
not three steps, Michael, buddy, and you look down a
(16:45):
quarter of a mile, one more step, and you've bought
a ticket to oblivion. Why not the easy answer? And
you protect mom and dad? A climbing accident, a slit?
What a tragedy? Hey hey, hey, hey, you down there?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
You out of your mind? What are you doing there?
Speaker 10 (17:04):
Oh there's not the blast, But I ran out of.
Speaker 7 (17:07):
Tea talk and don't move, stay still. No way you
can get from that ledge up over this show.
Speaker 11 (17:12):
Back Willian subduction last.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
That's why I was just waiting for you to come.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Along extend a helping hand.
Speaker 11 (17:21):
I've let you have something else in mind.
Speaker 7 (17:23):
If I did, it's out of it.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Oh, I'm so brilliant.
Speaker 7 (17:27):
Why didn't I bring some rope?
Speaker 10 (17:28):
Guys, weren't planning to climb, just.
Speaker 7 (17:32):
Maybe to do what There's no time.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
For small talk.
Speaker 7 (17:37):
I've left you all away, So I'm taking off my shirt,
rip it up and make a rope out of it.
You tie off your climbing rope to it, and as.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Soon as I haul up your rope, we'll walk you
over the turtle.
Speaker 7 (17:51):
Back like you were a fly. So I can definite
say your far I'm not much of a spider, even.
Speaker 11 (17:58):
If you were.
Speaker 12 (17:59):
I'm a willing victim, this honor robber than that, I always.
Speaker 7 (18:04):
Say, pah, that's the best offer I've had all summer. Okay,
you're ready here.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Where do you buy your shirt?
Speaker 6 (18:12):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
I just think of birthdays in Christmas.
Speaker 7 (18:15):
I'll get a pair of supply Sorry you blue this one?
Speaker 8 (18:19):
I love this fensom and I bet you are.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Cute in us.
Speaker 7 (18:22):
How do you like to stop being so brave and
get sensible?
Speaker 12 (18:25):
Don't rock the volts, sir, galahad, I'm not afraid.
Speaker 8 (18:29):
I'm scared.
Speaker 7 (18:31):
Can you tie it off?
Speaker 1 (18:31):
All right?
Speaker 8 (18:33):
It's not a hole all the way?
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Okay, Okay, I got it.
Speaker 7 (18:39):
Now you gotta sling around.
Speaker 12 (18:41):
You swing around my shoulders and a sky of blue above.
Speaker 7 (18:46):
Sure it's secure. I's only a good bone to make
it hang tight. Okay, grab anything you can to help.
Let's go all right?
Speaker 12 (19:02):
And she goes heave away just about home, Hi, Kelly.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Why just be sure you touch the plate?
Speaker 10 (19:14):
Hold?
Speaker 9 (19:15):
Oh, you're animal, You're right solid man?
Speaker 1 (19:22):
So who are you anyway?
Speaker 7 (19:25):
My name is Laura as in it. But she's only
a dream, but a hasty dream. Wouldn't they say? Who
are you, Mike thirst I.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Came up in this summer with my parents where we
took the hermit's ranch.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
What about you?
Speaker 13 (19:41):
Oh, we live here other side of the valley.
Speaker 9 (19:44):
The other half of my name is Willow. Ranch is
right on.
Speaker 13 (19:48):
The other side of the valley.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
I can't see it, you're not supposed to.
Speaker 13 (19:52):
It looks down the other side of the ridge. Well,
I guess I ought to thank.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
You for saving your life?
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Nothing of it.
Speaker 13 (20:01):
Oh, I guess it's a standoff.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
What does that mean?
Speaker 13 (20:05):
In a kind of left handed way.
Speaker 8 (20:07):
Wouldn't you say I saved yours?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
That's a funny kind of thing to say.
Speaker 7 (20:14):
Forget it, thanks to the lift.
Speaker 13 (20:16):
I guess it's time for me display no, no hold on, Yeah,
I'll walk you down the mount. We don't follow the
same trail.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Maybe not up until now.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
You don't think I'm gonna let you get away that easy.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
You want to see me again, you know it.
Speaker 9 (20:31):
I'd like to see you again.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
But for what?
Speaker 12 (20:34):
Can we keep it.
Speaker 9 (20:37):
Just between me and you? Will you promise not to
tell anyone else about me?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Well, it's a wild trip for those are the ground rules.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
The only thing is, well, maybe I don't have any right.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
To see you again.
Speaker 13 (20:50):
That tears it.
Speaker 9 (20:51):
You better see me again?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Where.
Speaker 9 (20:54):
Don't take the main trail coming up to Boldy.
Speaker 13 (20:57):
You'll see the stroke doubles last trail that cuts off
by the blue rope.
Speaker 9 (21:00):
Know where I mean?
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yes, yes, you mean the rocking chair. The rock sits
on the two others like it.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Would fall down any minute.
Speaker 9 (21:07):
That's it, only it won't.
Speaker 12 (21:08):
Just follow the trail until you come out in the
snow line.
Speaker 9 (21:11):
I'll be there.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
But how do I let you know when I'm coming?
You won't have to. It's crazy. Why can't you explain
what I have?
Speaker 1 (21:19):
My reasons.
Speaker 9 (21:21):
If you want to see me again.
Speaker 13 (21:23):
Try it my way.
Speaker 8 (21:24):
You'll see.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
It'll turn out all right. Okay, it's just I've got
to see you again.
Speaker 9 (21:31):
You will not do me one more favor.
Speaker 12 (21:35):
You lay first, Just start down the trail and don't
look back.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Okay, you have to keep so secret.
Speaker 12 (21:39):
It won't be very long till you'll find out. But
it's still too soon.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
So I took her at her word, and I walked
down the trail. Only I hadn't gone far before. Like
Lot's wife, I just had to look back. She was gone,
disappeared somewhere in those few seconds, like she'd never been.
And you know what, I didn't turn the soft and
I didn't panic. Somehow, some way I knew I was
(22:12):
going to see Laura again, and I was right. Only
first I had to get on home.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Ye, Mike, it's good to see you. And nearly drove
was crazy being gone till long. I'm sorry that I
didn't mean to. Where have you been? Just up old baldy.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
But you didn't climb the face. We've had the binoculars
on it all day, you have. You were scared all
hell out of me, saying you were going to try
to scale it. I changed my mind. Obviously, you had
the binnaculars on it. You didn't see anyone there?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Well, no, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
It's just an idle question.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
It didn't sound so idle.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Well it was.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Oh hello, mam darling.
Speaker 10 (22:58):
How are you did a long day, but a good one.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
How are you?
Speaker 10 (23:03):
I'm fine, just fine now that you're back.
Speaker 8 (23:05):
How are you feeling?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Never better?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
I could eat a horse or a house, or however
you want to spell it.
Speaker 8 (23:11):
Oh that's wonderful. What did you do today?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I just mos it about bought some deep thoughts. You know,
your mother and I were kicking around a couple of ideas, Mike.
We could get down a Las Vegas for the rodeo,
or maybe make a johnt to Albuquerque. Why don't you
mom do either or both?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Me or Well? I think I'll just stick close to home.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Well, why we're trying to think of you? If this
isn't the place for us to be, you just name it,
no doubt, I think this is just the place for me.
How could I tell my parents anything about that magic summer?
How could I even explain it to myself? I, who
(23:51):
knew I had lost my life, has nothing more than
to continue it with the magic girl I met in
the glow of the Blue mountains.
Speaker 13 (24:00):
Yeah, you're just gonna have to learn to be a believer, Mike.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I never thought i'd see you again. Why, Oh, I
don't know that they were so wild. I guess I
thought i'd dreamed you.
Speaker 12 (24:12):
You don't believe in dreams come true.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
I don't know what I believe in anymore.
Speaker 9 (24:17):
Let's take us as we find us.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
What shall we do today? I couldn't tell us as
long as we do it together.
Speaker 13 (24:23):
Okay, let's blaze the private trail from here to there?
Speaker 3 (24:27):
What do you mean got a hatchet?
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Sure, right right here in the saddle.
Speaker 13 (24:31):
Hoole st Okay, we'll start here, cut a cross virgin
forest and blaze our own trail tree by trade to where.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Wait a minute, if I stand up in the stirrups,
I can see a special little break in the trees
halfway down the mountain. Let's cut it down to there,
and that can be our special place.
Speaker 13 (24:50):
Yeah, our special place. You're on, Mike, Let's find our
way home.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
H Hello, doctor Baxter. Yes, Oh Paul, it's Jack thus.
Oh Jack, Well, what is it? Bad news?
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Oh?
Speaker 14 (25:09):
The very opposite, Paul. Mike is well, he's lost a
little weight. But outside of that.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
I'm afraid to say it, Paul, say what.
Speaker 14 (25:17):
I have never seen him in better health in my life.
I mean, frankly, it scares me a little. That's why
I'm calling you.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I'm glad you did. You say there's no substantial weight loss,
that's right. How about pain? He never complains? Well, that
doesn't necessarily mean anything, but I guess I can tell
you something that does.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Well.
Speaker 14 (25:36):
Tell me he isn't using the medication you gave him, Paul,
he hasn't touched it.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
He doesn't seem to need it.
Speaker 14 (25:42):
I mean, something magic seems to happen.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Paul, do you think don't ask me that, Jack, not
at long distance. I wouldn't dare to raise your hopes
without without what o Jack. Look, it's a busy week
for me, but I'll make time. Can I fly up
there spend the weekend?
Speaker 11 (26:00):
Maybe?
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Sure you could come into Santa Fe.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I'll drive down and pick you up. Wait a minute,
I got a better idea. I'll rent a car in
Santa Fe and drive myself up. Make it seem like
like an offhand kind of thing. I'll fly out tonight.
I ought to be able to join you for lunch tomorrow.
Expect me then my love to Joan.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Hey Mike, Mike, Yeah, backs to what I'll be.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
What are you doing in this negative country? Just passing by?
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Thought i'd check in and see how the other half lives?
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Pretty good for me, looks of you? You can say
that again.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
I couldn't feel better.
Speaker 7 (26:41):
Maybe I ought to chase you down at the.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Nearest hospital, run a couple of tests on you.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I might just go for that.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Oh only not right now? You uh headed somewheres?
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Well, Yes, I got something to do, but I'll be
back right soon. Mom and Dad know you're coming.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Mm hmm. I called and said I might stop in
for an eight or two. Oh, that's great.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
You just go up on to the top of the
hill and turn in by the crowd. You can't miss it.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
I'll be back soon as I can. There's no hurry.
Who's the big heavy date with? Oh?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Not anyone really, really, it's just what's just a special
thing I have to do on my own.
Speaker 7 (27:16):
Gotta get moving, so you let it up.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah, these mountain roads were a little rough, Jerman. Sorry,
I got here late. I met Mike right down the
mountain a bit.
Speaker 8 (27:33):
Doesn't he look fabulous?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Does?
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Indeed?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
I've never seen him look happier or healthier.
Speaker 8 (27:39):
Oh, do you think that there's a chance that's some.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Mirror for rhyme?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Scared even to allow myself to think of it. But
I do have to agree with John. Something's happened, something wonderful,
don't you agree.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I wouldn't want to raise any false hopes. The physical
thing we'll check out thoroughly. But one thing I do know.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
There's something lifting that boy's spirits.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I have waited the sky and I think I know
what it is he's in love, in love with.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Whom a girl? I to expect, Paul, There isn't a
girl his age within fifteen miles of here. The only
other hill on Grass Mountain is our Chalice is hunting
up the slope, and he's not there. No one except
for an abandoned house I looked at on the other
side of the valley when we were planning to come
up here.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
And that's no condition for anyone to live in.
Speaker 10 (28:26):
And yet you know now that Paul mentions it, I
think he's right.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
He's never mentioned anyone to you.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
No.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
When I going down for the mail today, I'll have.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
To ask the skipper at the country store if he
knows about anyone something awfully strange going on here that
I think we'd better look into.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Merol.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
She is a strange girl when you think of it,
isn't she Laura Willow? And it's been a strange relationship
between a boy who knows he has no future and
a girl who seems to live only for the present.
I wonder what this strange will of the wisps passed.
(29:38):
The forest of spruce that sprawls over the Sanguage Crystal
Mountains is thousands of years old. There's a tangle of
fallen trees and undergrowth too thick for passage. Except where
state trails have been cut, cleared and maintained, there are
some private trails, such as the one that Laura and
(29:58):
might have cut for themselves, and which ends in the lush,
grassy glade and may have made their own. At the moment,
they're lying on their backs, side by side, gazing up
at a clear blue sky. Sure you don't want some
of this chow I lugged along. No drink, coffee, cola, water,
(30:19):
no sail. You're a funny one. Don't you ever eat?
Speaker 8 (30:23):
I have eaten in my day.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Boy, I've never seen you.
Speaker 9 (30:26):
Maybe I have that table manner and you.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Couldn't do anything ugly if you try, I hope not. Hey,
come on down.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
What do you live on? Really?
Speaker 9 (30:37):
Cloud nine?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
You're far out, you know it, but not out of sight.
I wish you could never be out of my sight.
Speaker 9 (30:45):
I'm not going anywhere, but I am right. Maybe it's
time for it.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
No, no, no, no, not yet.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
I can't. Let's just keep it the way.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
It is something private, just for nobody else a part
of it, and we're a part.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Of nothing else. But just this, you and me and
just being together.
Speaker 9 (31:09):
That's what I want to talk to you about.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
No, no, no, no, let's let's change the subject. This place,
you know, we ought to give it a name.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
How about you?
Speaker 3 (31:19):
The secret mesa?
Speaker 11 (31:21):
It isn't really a masa?
Speaker 9 (31:23):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Laura's lee? How does I grab you?
Speaker 13 (31:27):
I hope you don't think of me as a siren.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
We've a lot of magic women. I couldn't have passed
you by.
Speaker 9 (31:35):
You're kind of a wizard yourself, ma'am.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Oh why didn't I Why didn't I meet you back
in high school?
Speaker 9 (31:42):
Why couldn't I have been there for you to.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Meet the Diming's all out of whack, too late for me,
too early for me. I'm sorry for what might have been.
Speaker 9 (31:53):
No, it's going to be No, please please, Mike, I
want you to kiss No.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
No, no, Laura, I can't kiss me.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Oh no.
Speaker 15 (32:08):
I love you, Mike, and I love you Laura. God
help us, brother, he will. Where are you going out
of your life?
Speaker 3 (32:19):
As far and as fast as I can, because this
is where it ends, Laura.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I should never have let it go this far, you see? No, no, no,
don't ask me to explain.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
But there isn't any future in it. I can't go
to meet your parents.
Speaker 7 (32:33):
I can't even take you back to meet mine.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I have no right to get you involved.
Speaker 7 (32:38):
The best thing I can do is cut out.
Speaker 13 (32:39):
That's a nice, brave little speech, Mike.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
You know it. Go ahead, let me have both barrels,
work me all over if you want.
Speaker 12 (32:48):
All I want to do is to decide some things
right now.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
No, no, don't don't ask me to explain. Let's not
drag it out. Let's just grout out. You can go
our separate ways.
Speaker 9 (32:59):
We aren't going separately, Mike. We're going together. We're always going.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
To be together. Laura. You don't understand.
Speaker 9 (33:07):
Of course, I understand you're going to die.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
You know, of.
Speaker 13 (33:14):
Course, I always have since the very beginning.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
But how oh you must have seen something in the paper.
Speaker 9 (33:25):
What is it? The pain?
Speaker 7 (33:28):
Yeah, just give me a moment.
Speaker 9 (33:32):
Where has shown me?
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Here?
Speaker 16 (33:34):
Some pills in my pocket? Oh you don't need any pills.
Just let me put my hand there that there.
Speaker 9 (33:40):
Won't be any more pain now ever.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Oh, oh, you don't know. It's God just like that?
Who who are you?
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Laura?
Speaker 9 (33:57):
Since I know all about you, I think it's time
and you found out all about me.
Speaker 12 (34:02):
Come with me to the other end of our green
valley and I'll show you. For very soon you'll find
our own journey's end.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Oh it's also beautiful. It's so hard to believe you, Flora.
Speaker 9 (34:24):
It won't be darling when we come into our own.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
So this is where you grew up and spent all
those twenty years. If I never known you was a
little skinny, little girl, go budsy, you wouldn't have liked
me there. Oh no, I'd have loved you no matter
when I met you.
Speaker 12 (34:39):
Oh no, I was shy, scared of my own shadows.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
That no, no, that's all past and done it, poor darling,
so long.
Speaker 12 (34:49):
So long I would have waited a hundred years.
Speaker 9 (34:53):
Just knowing you would come.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
I'm sorry it took so long.
Speaker 12 (34:57):
You had to have time to go up to me,
my darling, so we could have our own eternity together.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
I've got to go now. I've got to see Mom
and dad.
Speaker 9 (35:08):
Will you tell him about us?
Speaker 1 (35:09):
I'll can I How could I make them understand?
Speaker 9 (35:12):
I think there will be a way. Lucy, Just hurry
back to me soon. I'll be waiting.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Good Bye, Laura, No, no, not goodbye.
Speaker 16 (35:23):
Never goodbye, just till we meet again.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
I'll count the minutes.
Speaker 8 (35:30):
Mike.
Speaker 9 (35:30):
Yes, you will come back. I'm afraid to be alone again.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Oh, I'll come back. Nothing will keep me away.
Speaker 9 (35:38):
I'll make sure of that.
Speaker 13 (35:40):
If I have to.
Speaker 12 (35:42):
I promise I'll come for you.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Dodor for Heaven, say come with me, help me?
Speaker 3 (35:52):
But what is it?
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Jack?
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Is Mike over this way? When I drove up, he
was just sitting on his horse, hanging out of the
parmel and swaying. I just got out of the car
in time to catch him as he fell fround the
corner of the board. Was he in pain? No, he's
more like a man in a dream. Good Lord, look
at him? Is he did quiet?
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Quite?
Speaker 17 (36:11):
Quiet a moment? No, his heart still beating. He's fee
British and I don't like to look at that.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
What he's in coma?
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Come on, Jack, let's get him into the house before
his mother sees him like this.
Speaker 9 (36:34):
I suppose at the beginning of the end, Jack.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
I don't know what the devil is taking Paul so long.
Speaker 8 (36:43):
Perhaps I should go. Maybe I can help.
Speaker 10 (36:44):
No, no, no, let Paul have some But I want to
be doing something. I can't just sit here, and I'm
scared my boy will slip away?
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Doctor how is he He's he's out of coma and
I have him stabilized. I think I had to get
myself if he got well, sort of delirious. He kept
telling about some girl, a Laura Willow.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
You know, good lord, what is this yet? Nothing? Nothing?
Speaker 9 (37:13):
Don't lie to be pleased?
Speaker 10 (37:15):
Whatever it is, I want to know about it.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Well, did he say anything else about this girl?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Paul?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Well, it was disjointed, of course, just just mumbling to himself.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
But apparently my guess about him was right. He's been
seeing a good deal of this Laura Willow over the summer.
The reason I had to knock him out was because
he insisted on getting out of bed to go to her.
Said she was waiting for him. Well, he's obviously madly in.
Speaker 10 (37:41):
Love with her, love seeing her all summer, and he
never told us why Jack.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Well, he may have been, I don't know, under the circumstances,
since he couldn't have told the girl the truth about himself.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
What am I saying?
Speaker 3 (37:55):
If it was?
Speaker 1 (37:57):
If that was the girl, he couldn't have told her anything.
How do you mean because if you would rather be
alone together? No, no, Paul, it isn't that. It's just.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Look, I didn't pay much attention at the time.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Skipper likes his little jokes. I thought he was pulling
my leg.
Speaker 10 (38:12):
Jack, I wish you would come right out with it.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Well, it was because of Paul's conclusion that Mike hadn't
been off on these joints at his alone.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
When I got to the store, I.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Asked Skipper if there was any young woman about, you know,
any girls about my stage.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Were where did you ask, mister.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Terrist Well, it was something something I had on my mind,
my son Skipper right, I got a sort of notion
that maybe he was squiring some local bell.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
I don't know who.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Would it be unless you wanted to cross the divide
all the way down to pick its luge where they
got some dude ladies.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
It's pretty far now, around to twenty five miles.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
I doubt if it's anyone from there.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I don't suppose they could be anyone. Only house outside
of where we're staying is right here at Skipper's Corners,
and Art's empty one up the hill.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Right it's about beside.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
There isn't something nobody can be living that old abandoned
place across the valley from us.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
That old widow place.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Oh lord, no place has been abandoned here twenty years
ever since jud killed herself after his daughter died.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
It's because she saw in his guard and took up
with the ghost. What do you mean, Well, you know
how folks talk.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
They say moonlight nights, in particular, during the summer folk
meet up with Laura Willow picking columbines up beyond the
snowdie to put on her own grave.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Some say, yeah, she was a very pretty little.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Thing, for she smashed herself all up.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Falling off the north face of old board is hair.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
An accident, that's what some said.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Other things have been said to folks, whisper and all.
Her mother had been had a good wild Judd and
she were. He was there with a lot of juices.
Some said he wouldn't leave herlove, so she stepped off
at high place. He's all kind the shy one. Judge
(40:12):
just cured herself in remorse. Hey, you know how people
talk what they do say? She still wonders maybe maybe
your son made up with her.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
You didn't, No, no, no, no, I don't.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
What did you say?
Speaker 1 (40:27):
The girl's name was?
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Again?
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Here it is if picture she were was a shame?
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Did I so young?
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Her name was Laura Willow.
Speaker 10 (40:36):
The same name as Paul hurt might say, what's happening?
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Yes, Jo, no mistake.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
He kept saying it, and she's been dead?
Speaker 8 (40:44):
How long?
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Twenty is?
Speaker 9 (40:47):
Well? How could Mike.
Speaker 8 (40:50):
Jack?
Speaker 1 (40:50):
What does it mean?
Speaker 3 (40:51):
What does it all mean? I don't know, don Maybe
Mike heard the story from someone and it's stuck in
his mind. Maybe he's awake and we can ask him.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Is it all right for me to look in.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
For of course.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
John, Joe, he's nice.
Speaker 8 (41:09):
He's gone. He's gone.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Couldn't you know I'm not talking about this.
Speaker 9 (41:13):
I mean his body, Jim.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Her Son, he's gone.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
The body of Mike Hurston was never found.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
It was reasoned that, in a delirium, he climbed out
the window and wandered off into the forest to die.
The Virgin forest could bury one hundred lost men without
them ever being found. For myself, I like to think
that Laura came to him as she had promised, and
brought him back to Journey's animal. As I said at
the beginning, For me, this is a love story. I
(41:59):
shall return shortly in the course of the search for
Mike Thurst, his mother and father visited the remains of
(42:19):
the Willow home. There was a path from the back
of the house up the hill to an aspen grove,
where they found a simple grave with a headstone that
read Laura Willow nineteen thirty seven nineteen fifty seven. She
died too soon. I like to think some gentle God
(42:41):
gave her twenty years of grace without growing over, and
that she does not sleep alone for that eternal life
to come Outcast included Christopher to Borie, ROBERTA. Maxwell, mendel Kramer,
Donald Moss, and Anne Patoniac. The entire production was under
(43:03):
the direction of Hymond Brown.
Speaker 17 (43:06):
This is E. G.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for
another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, pleasant dreams.
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