Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
A journey and the rail of the strange and terrify.
I hope you will enjoy the chap that it will
till you a little and kill you a little. So
settle back, get a good grip on your nerve.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Where are we going? You'll find out when we get there.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Suspense Radio's outstanding theater of thrills, starring Tonight Ms. Martha
Scott in Anton Leader's production of Crisis a tail well
calculated to keep you in suspense.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Missus Norris, Missus nor Chris. It's the doctor, Missus Norcas.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
Oh, oh coming, I'm sorry, doctor, I fell asleep.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I told you not to.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
I warned you.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
I couldn't help it.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
Let me see the baby.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Huh how is he? Is he better? Well?
Speaker 7 (02:16):
Pneumonia's tricky, about one hundred and.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Six day long. It's been one hundred and six. If
you don't only move, if you do only cry, Oh,
don't you got to do so?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Hold yourself.
Speaker 7 (02:29):
Fasten that sheet down.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
It's important that you don't let any of that steam escape.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
All right. It says that I'm so tired. What will
the nurse be here?
Speaker 8 (02:37):
Won't be a nurse said, I've tried everywhere.
Speaker 7 (02:41):
It's the worst epidemic since nineteen eighteen.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
The hospitals are full, but I can't go on without
a nurse.
Speaker 7 (02:46):
Well, isn't there someone who can help you, some neighbor.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
There's no one.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
What about your husband?
Speaker 5 (02:51):
When's he do back two or three days?
Speaker 8 (02:54):
Maybe you better send for him.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
You don't mean the well, you can't keep this up.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
You need help.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Oh, I didn't want to worry Paul. This business trip's
so important to him. Besides, I expected to get a nurse.
Why he doesn't even know the baby's sick.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
You'll have to do it alone.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Then, how's the sofa holding out?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Good?
Speaker 7 (03:12):
Now, don't neglect the steam for an instant. Keep up
the warm alcohol sponge bath. Don't leave his side. I'll
try to get back in the morning. And don't sleep,
no matter how tired you get, no matter how you
scream for it, you must not sleep.
Speaker 8 (03:26):
Here here, take these pills.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
They'll help you.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Thank you. Doctor. Doctor is a little kurt going to make.
Speaker 7 (03:34):
It well that you'll know one way or the other
before morning. Oh, crack that temperature tonight and he'll pull through.
Speaker 9 (03:44):
It's the crisis, poor baby, little thin legs kick the covers, darling,
kick them.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
That's what legs do for. You. Don't want to give
up now, Kurt, You're just beginning. You haven't seen half
the areas. You've never thrown a snowball, or hit a
home run, or gone fishing with your tent. Oh, Kurt, Kurt,
you should be in the hospital, not an all made
croup tent with a kettle of steam under your bed,
(04:20):
in a hospital with nurses and white starched uniforms. Nurses
who are awake, whose hearts don't break when they look
at you. I mustn't think about it. Steam kettle under
the bed, steam to breathe, another kettle on the stove,
(04:41):
sponge baths every few minutes, every few minutes, temperature one
hundred and six, temperature one hundred and six, temperature one
hundred and six. Many times I took it. I don't know.
(05:02):
Nothing in the room seemed real and tangible anymore, nothing
but the steam. Steam. I watched it hypnotized. Now it
was an eraser on a blackboard, removing today's problems. Now
it was a windshield wiper, pushing aside the rain so
(05:23):
I could see ahead of me. The vision slowly cleared,
and then I saw it a light No six nights,
bright flames. Birthday candles, six birthday candles on top of
a white cake. Happy birthday do you?
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Happy birthday?
Speaker 7 (05:42):
Do you?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Happy birthday?
Speaker 6 (05:44):
Little bird?
Speaker 8 (05:46):
Happy birthday to you six years old.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
You're a big boy now, son, I want.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
My presence, Oh mercenary, little creature, isn't you Paul?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Okay? I get here it is.
Speaker 8 (06:00):
And help you leave it alone?
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Don't you dare touch it?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Now? Look here, Kurt?
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Please, Paul.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
It's his birthday, all right, go ahead and rap it?
Speaker 5 (06:15):
Well, Kurt, don't you like it?
Speaker 6 (06:18):
No?
Speaker 5 (06:19):
Oh white curtain? Nor Chris? How can you say such
a thing after your daddy bought you a wonderful fire engine?
Why don't you get me one with one sheet?
Speaker 4 (06:27):
What's wrong with two seats?
Speaker 5 (06:29):
It's got two sheets. You gotta let your mother kid
ride with you. But don't you want to share your
fun with your little friends? I don't like nobody to.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Have fun but me, Kurt. You'll come back here.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
Let him go, Paul, But just a little boy, you'll
get over it?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Well, I hope.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
So there were more birthdays, but as Kurt grew, a
mounting fear began to grow and meet too. He looked
like a choir boy, but there was some anything else
hiding back of those innocent eyes. At eight, he forged
his report card. At ten he stole some things from
(07:07):
the dying store. But the time he showed promise of
being taller than his father. His personality, in spite of
everything we tried to do, was really beginning to frighten us.
You wanted to see me, father.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Ah, yes, I did.
Speaker 8 (07:23):
Your mother and I are very concerned about you.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Again.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Why weren't you in school all week? It bores me?
Speaker 8 (07:29):
Where were you?
Speaker 4 (07:30):
What have you been doing?
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Thinking?
Speaker 7 (07:33):
Just thinking?
Speaker 5 (07:33):
What about Kurt? What is it you think about? Is
there something bothering you? Yes?
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Or what is it?
Speaker 8 (07:39):
Son?
Speaker 5 (07:40):
School? I hate it? But you like to read? That's different.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I read what I like.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
I don't like to be told what to do, But.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Don't you understand everybody has to be guided and told
what to do.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Sure, I understand, but I don't have to like it.
And I don't like it.
Speaker 10 (07:55):
Kurt.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
I'm surprised at you. Is that all? Father?
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Yes? Yes, that's that's all.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
I'm disappointed. I thought you were going to beat me.
Why you instle hall?
Speaker 8 (08:08):
Kurt?
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Yes? Please? Is that one at the door? What where
mister Johnson cart home? Well, yes he is, Hello.
Speaker 8 (08:19):
Paul, Oh Fred, Well what is it this time?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Are you going to tell him, Kurt? Or do you
want me to?
Speaker 5 (08:28):
I don't mind. I stole a watch from Evans's jewelry store,
a swell wrist watch, a watch, Kurt. We were going
to buy you one for your birthday. You didn't have
to steal it. It was more fun stealing, lots more fun.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
This time.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I'll have to take him to juvenile court, missus Norcott.
Speaker 8 (08:46):
No, Fred, Fred, let let me bring him down. You
go on, I want to talk to him.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
Paul's face was gray with hurt. His cheeks sagged, and
his eyes were bleak as he turned to.
Speaker 8 (09:00):
I didn't want it this way, son, but maybe it's
the only solution. Maybe it'll help straighten me out.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
You're not going to put me in a reform school, Kurt.
Speaker 11 (09:09):
Kurt.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Paul was savage as he ran up the stairs after him.
Kurt slammed the bedroom door in his face, and Miss
Paul flung it open.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
You've had this coming to you for a long time.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Oh no, you don't keep away from me, Curt. Wild
lust was on Kurt's face and the gun was in
his hand, his father's revolver. I knew he'd do it
even before it happened. Kurt Paul went to limp as
he turned to me with a look of short surprise.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Mary Paul.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
For suspense.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Auto Light is bringing you, Miss Martha Scott in radio's
outstanding theater of thrills, suspense and now Auto Light brings
(10:11):
back to our Hollywood soundstage. Miss Martha Scott is merry
in crisis, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspend.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
The visions continued to rise out of the steam clouds.
I found myself sitting beside Paul's bed. He was out
of danger. Accidental shooting while cleaning a gun. That's what
Paul told the doctor. I wanted to tell the truth
that I wouldn't hurt him any further. No, Kurt didn't
go to the reform school. We hushed that up to lies,
(10:58):
lies suffocating us. We shrank, Paul and I crawled into
our shells, confused, disillusioned, afraid of our only son. But
Kirk grew, and so did his misdemeanors, until he was
a handsome giant with the face of a Viking saint
and no soul at all. The incident with Elaine McGregor
(11:20):
proved that I was transplanting geraniums on the other side
of the hedge. I didn't mean to eats drop. What's
going to happen to us?
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I wouldn't know.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Doesn't that make any difference to you?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Should it?
Speaker 5 (11:35):
It's easy for you, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
What did you expect?
Speaker 5 (11:39):
Nothing?
Speaker 10 (11:40):
Really, you're in a class by yourself, Kurt. You've got
the heart of a tape form, but you're not going
to eat into me.
Speaker 11 (11:47):
Very pretty speech. I didn't know you were so valuable.
But uh, what does it mean?
Speaker 5 (11:52):
It means I'm lucky. I can walk out of your life.
You can't.
Speaker 10 (11:57):
You've got to live with yourself. You're Kurt rotten all
the way through. You warp everything you touch. You're destroy
all the decent things around you.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Decent.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
I despise you.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I thought you loved me madly.
Speaker 10 (12:13):
You can't love a snake, you can only be charmed
by it.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Goodbye, darling, mother, you can come out from behind there, Kurt.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
How could you?
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Mother?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
I knew you were there all the time.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
I didn't mean that. I mean the way you treated Elaine. Oh, Kurt,
maybe marriage would be good for you.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Come, mother, First, you want me to get a job,
any job.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
You wouldn't want me to get married at my age,
would you.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
I'm just a child, No, Kurt, not you. You've never
been a child. Everything he did seemed to be aimed
at hurting someone, and always it pleased him. And then
one day, as suddenly as you turn over a page,
Kurt was different. He slammed the front door and he
(13:02):
was whistling. He was gayer than I'd ever seen him. Whie, Well,
what are you so gay about?
Speaker 11 (13:10):
The proverbial leave has been turned, and you see before
you're a hard working young man.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
Kurt. You've got a job, that's right, mother, a job
I had the lumberyard.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Don't be silly. I'm a banker.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
A banker, what bank?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
First National?
Speaker 11 (13:24):
Mister Cox was very nice about the whole thing, your
father's bank.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Then Paul got to the job.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
You talked like the old man owns the place. He's
just a teller.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
Then how did you get the job? I talked to
mister Cox, Kurt, what did you tell mister Cox?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
You should have been there? Mother. I melted the old
boy's heart. He swallowed the whole thing.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Swallowed. What what did you tell, mister Cox?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Don't get melodramatic, mother.
Speaker 11 (13:51):
I merely told him that I had to go to
work because we needed the money. That I liked the
idea of working in a bank, you know, like father likes.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Something o the money. Oh, Kurt, you didn't. You didn't
humiliate your father that way.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
But you wanted me to get a job.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Kurt. Ever since you've been old enough to think you've
been bad, you caused your father nothing but heartache. You're
aging and draining all the joy out of his life,
and now this crowning humiliation. But I'm warning you could
if you cause your father any more sorrow, if you
hurt him just once more, I.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I'll kill me. Brobo. Mother. Now, now let's have the
second act.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
You your feet. It was the first time I ever
slept him, but I knew then there would never be
any peace for us, that he would go on and
on until there was nothing left, no honor, no decency, nothing.
But even I didn't suspect the depth of his malignancy
(14:52):
until Paul was coming up the walk alone. His step
was low, his back was stooped, and his face was
lined and tortured. I opened the door for him. Paul, Paul,
what's wrong?
Speaker 8 (15:12):
I've been fired fire after twenty two years. There was
a shortage this morning, a thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
Oh, surely they don't think you took it. You've handled
millions of dollars down there and never touched a penny
of it. How could Kurt took it? Didn't they? Yes,
and you took the blame.
Speaker 8 (15:35):
Not exactly. It's very clever, Mary, He's deviloushly clever. He
worked hard, he did his work well.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
I thought.
Speaker 8 (15:46):
I tried to kid myself anyway, that he was outgrowing
his badness. It was all part of a warp scheme.
He won the respect of everyone in the bank and
very simply stole the money and planted the evidence that
led straight to me.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Why didn't you, mister Cox, what we've been through. What
a bad boy he is. There are records at juvenile Hall.
We could prove it.
Speaker 8 (16:05):
You know what mister Cox said to me. He said
he wouldn't prosecute because of my wonderful son. My wonderful son.
I never had a son. I couldn't look at him, Mary,
when I walked out of the bank. Garvey in Cage
one didn't even say goodbye or good luck, or too
bad or anything. Just got suddenly too busy to look up.
(16:32):
Forgot all about the months we lay in the mud
together at Taro and the Navy crosses. We went him
the same day. Garby was too busy to look up.
I couldn't tell him the truth. I'm not strong like you, Mary.
I can't take it anymore.
Speaker 12 (16:54):
He was looking at me, but he didn't see me.
His eyes were covered with a film tears. Then he
turned and staggered out of the house. He walked like
he was drunk. Yes, that's what he was, drunk with despair.
He got in the car.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
I wanted to go to him, to hold him in
my arms, but I couldn't. I was a frozener. Car
lurched away from the curb, skidded around the corner. It
was like a mad man. I wasn't surprised when they
called me from the hospital reckless driving. They said accidental death,
(17:40):
but I called it something else. I called it murder.
At that moment, I died too. Oh. I went through
the motions of living the cemetery, and after I kept on,
not count the day's coming or going. And one day
(18:03):
I realized Kurt was twenty five, a man, a handsome,
ruthless man. We lived in the same house, but we
had nothing to do with each other until one November afternoon.
I was in the kitchen making an apple pie. It
had always been Paul's favorite. Suddenly the room was throbbing
(18:24):
with Paul's presence. Paul. I dropped the knife on the
floor and ran up the stairs into my bedroom, mine
and Paul's. I was wild, out of my mind. I
turned about the room, everywhere, searching. I needed him terribly.
I could feel his presence, and yet it wasn't enough.
It had to be something tangible, something I could touch.
And then I remembered the navy cross and the purple heart.
(18:46):
They were his, they were part of him. I pulled
out the shirt drawer and threw his shirts on the bed.
The purple heart was there and its satin line box,
but the Navy cross was gone. Paul, Paul. The room
(19:16):
was dark. I lay there for quite a while. I
had no reason to get up. Kurt was home. I
tidied the bed and spread it up, ran a comb
through my hair. I walked along the hallway to his room.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yes, you want something I'm going to hurry.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Yes, I do want something. Your father's navy cross? Where
is it?
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Oh?
Speaker 11 (19:45):
That I was holding three aces when I ran into
a street. Jack carn said he'd take the cross and
low of five bucks.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
How do you don't like a guy like that?
Speaker 5 (19:55):
I looked at Kurt for a long time. Then I
walked away. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered, not that day
or any other day, not even later when the policeman
came to the door.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
I have a warrant for the arrest of Kurt Norkwist.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
On what charge? Murder? It was a colorful trial, murder
in the first degree. The front pages were blushed with it.
Little shop girls hurried to buy the evening editions of
(20:33):
the sordid testimony to read on their way home to work.
I went to the trial every day and listened with
this strange sense of unreality.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Sure, I killed him.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
All I could think was that flashing, handsome young man
up there admitting to murder, and worse is my son.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
No, I didn't hate him.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I didn't even know him very well.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
And why didn't I feel anything?
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I just wanted to see, But it was like, that's all.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Why don't I shudder with disgrace. Why don't I crawl
off into a corner and die?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Sorry?
Speaker 4 (21:06):
What for? He's dead, isn't he.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
The trial went on for days, and Kurt was unmoved, insolent, triumphant,
almost even as his wretched soul made ready for the
lethal chamber. He was untouched.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
In there, madam, five minutes.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
Thank you? Well? Hello mother, mother? Oh yes I am
your mother.
Speaker 11 (21:33):
Huh oh you brought me some cigarettes. Thanks well. I
wonder what it's going to be like? What you know
that last mile. I'm a queer guy, all right. I
(21:55):
don't feel sorry about anything. As a matter of fact,
I don't feel anything at all, never did, except that
maybe this is a good smoke.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
I looked deeply into his face, beyond the pale blue eyes,
into the black soul. I gave him life, but I
couldn't give him honor yet. Hailed smoke came out of
his mouth and nose and spun around him, enveloping his face,
framing it in a circle of fog. Then he smiled,
(22:32):
not the smile of a murderer, more the slow, wistful
smile of a small boy, And abruptly his face was changed.
I've been here before. I watched the smoke rings as
they billowed upward. I couldn't take my eyes off them.
And each smoke ring was a face, Kurt's face, and
(22:55):
the faces kept changing, getting smaller and small, as eyes
were round full of wonder, changing, and slowly the vision faded.
They all converged into one face, and Kurt was a
baby again, in a crouped hant, fighting for the right
(23:16):
to live a useless life. I've seen ahead, That's what
it was. I know what's in store for him, and
it's all bad steam, not much left in a moment.
(23:38):
That won't be any Let him go. He'll turn up bad,
no good, not worth my tears. It won't be wrong.
Let him go, Steve, it's gone. I won't get the kettle.
(24:00):
It isn't wrong. Let him go.
Speaker 10 (24:06):
Oh no, no, wait, don't go.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Can I take him on? Please, don't take him. He's
just a little baby. He doesn't know steam. I'm just
taking his temperature. Oh I'm afraid crisis temperature one hundred
and seriously, one hundred and seven. Oh no, no, hap,
(24:41):
he's gone, he's going. You're lie, Hold on, baby, hold on,
(25:07):
got my ways. I held a thermometer to the light,
brushed them both and then I looked the mercury stood
one hundred and six, one hundred and five, one hundred
and three. You're going to get well, Kurt, gah, but
you're one hundred and one, grow strong and handsome, but
(25:28):
you're a hundred and good Curt. You're going to be good, Scott.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Thank you, Martha Scott for a splendid performance. Miss Scott
will be back in just a moment, and now here
again is Miss Martha Scott.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
It's been a real pleasure to appear on Suspense Tonight.
You know I never miss hearing the program whenever possible,
and I'm going to make a special effort to be
at my radio next Thursday night, when Van Heflin stars
in a story called Song of the Heart, a gripping
study in suspense.
Speaker 13 (26:22):
Miss Martha Scott is currently appearing in the RKAO productions
So Well Remembered.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Tonight's suspense play.
Speaker 13 (26:27):
Was written by Gwen and John Bagney, with music composed
by Lucian Marwick and conducted by Lud Gluskin. The entire
production was under the direction of Antonym Leader. Next Thursday,
same time, you will hear Van heflin in the Song
of the Hearts.
A journey and the rail of the strange and terrify.
I hope you will enjoy the chap that it will
till you a little and kill you a little. So
settle back, get a good grip on your nerve.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Where are we going? You'll find out when we get there.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Suspense Radio's outstanding theater of thrills, starring Tonight Ms. Martha
Scott in Anton Leader's production of Crisis a tail well
calculated to keep you in suspense.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Missus Norris, Missus nor Chris. It's the doctor, Missus Norcas.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
Oh, oh coming, I'm sorry, doctor, I fell asleep.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I told you not to.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
I warned you.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
I couldn't help it.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
Let me see the baby.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Huh how is he? Is he better? Well?
Speaker 7 (02:16):
Pneumonia's tricky, about one hundred and.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Six day long. It's been one hundred and six. If
you don't only move, if you do only cry, Oh,
don't you got to do so?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Hold yourself.
Speaker 7 (02:29):
Fasten that sheet down.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
It's important that you don't let any of that steam escape.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
All right. It says that I'm so tired. What will
the nurse be here?
Speaker 8 (02:37):
Won't be a nurse said, I've tried everywhere.
Speaker 7 (02:41):
It's the worst epidemic since nineteen eighteen.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
The hospitals are full, but I can't go on without
a nurse.
Speaker 7 (02:46):
Well, isn't there someone who can help you, some neighbor.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
There's no one.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
What about your husband?
Speaker 5 (02:51):
When's he do back two or three days?
Speaker 8 (02:54):
Maybe you better send for him.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
You don't mean the well, you can't keep this up.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
You need help.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Oh, I didn't want to worry Paul. This business trip's
so important to him. Besides, I expected to get a nurse.
Why he doesn't even know the baby's sick.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
You'll have to do it alone.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Then, how's the sofa holding out?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Good?
Speaker 7 (03:12):
Now, don't neglect the steam for an instant. Keep up
the warm alcohol sponge bath. Don't leave his side. I'll
try to get back in the morning. And don't sleep,
no matter how tired you get, no matter how you
scream for it, you must not sleep.
Speaker 8 (03:26):
Here here, take these pills.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
They'll help you.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Thank you. Doctor. Doctor is a little kurt going to make.
Speaker 7 (03:34):
It well that you'll know one way or the other
before morning. Oh, crack that temperature tonight and he'll pull through.
Speaker 9 (03:44):
It's the crisis, poor baby, little thin legs kick the covers, darling,
kick them.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
That's what legs do for. You. Don't want to give
up now, Kurt, You're just beginning. You haven't seen half
the areas. You've never thrown a snowball, or hit a
home run, or gone fishing with your tent. Oh, Kurt, Kurt,
you should be in the hospital, not an all made
croup tent with a kettle of steam under your bed,
(04:20):
in a hospital with nurses and white starched uniforms. Nurses
who are awake, whose hearts don't break when they look
at you. I mustn't think about it. Steam kettle under
the bed, steam to breathe, another kettle on the stove,
(04:41):
sponge baths every few minutes, every few minutes, temperature one
hundred and six, temperature one hundred and six, temperature one
hundred and six. Many times I took it. I don't know.
(05:02):
Nothing in the room seemed real and tangible anymore, nothing
but the steam. Steam. I watched it hypnotized. Now it
was an eraser on a blackboard, removing today's problems. Now
it was a windshield wiper, pushing aside the rain so
(05:23):
I could see ahead of me. The vision slowly cleared,
and then I saw it a light No six nights,
bright flames. Birthday candles, six birthday candles on top of
a white cake. Happy birthday do you?
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Happy birthday?
Speaker 7 (05:42):
Do you?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Happy birthday?
Speaker 6 (05:44):
Little bird?
Speaker 8 (05:46):
Happy birthday to you six years old.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
You're a big boy now, son, I want.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
My presence, Oh mercenary, little creature, isn't you Paul?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Okay? I get here it is.
Speaker 8 (06:00):
And help you leave it alone?
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Don't you dare touch it?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Now? Look here, Kurt?
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Please, Paul.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
It's his birthday, all right, go ahead and rap it?
Speaker 5 (06:15):
Well, Kurt, don't you like it?
Speaker 6 (06:18):
No?
Speaker 5 (06:19):
Oh white curtain? Nor Chris? How can you say such
a thing after your daddy bought you a wonderful fire engine?
Why don't you get me one with one sheet?
Speaker 4 (06:27):
What's wrong with two seats?
Speaker 5 (06:29):
It's got two sheets. You gotta let your mother kid
ride with you. But don't you want to share your
fun with your little friends? I don't like nobody to.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Have fun but me, Kurt. You'll come back here.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
Let him go, Paul, But just a little boy, you'll
get over it?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Well, I hope.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
So there were more birthdays, but as Kurt grew, a
mounting fear began to grow and meet too. He looked
like a choir boy, but there was some anything else
hiding back of those innocent eyes. At eight, he forged
his report card. At ten he stole some things from
(07:07):
the dying store. But the time he showed promise of
being taller than his father. His personality, in spite of
everything we tried to do, was really beginning to frighten us.
You wanted to see me, father.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Ah, yes, I did.
Speaker 8 (07:23):
Your mother and I are very concerned about you.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Again.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Why weren't you in school all week? It bores me?
Speaker 8 (07:29):
Where were you?
Speaker 4 (07:30):
What have you been doing?
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Thinking?
Speaker 7 (07:33):
Just thinking?
Speaker 5 (07:33):
What about Kurt? What is it you think about? Is
there something bothering you? Yes?
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Or what is it?
Speaker 8 (07:39):
Son?
Speaker 5 (07:40):
School? I hate it? But you like to read? That's different.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I read what I like.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
I don't like to be told what to do, But.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Don't you understand everybody has to be guided and told
what to do.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Sure, I understand, but I don't have to like it.
And I don't like it.
Speaker 10 (07:55):
Kurt.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
I'm surprised at you. Is that all? Father?
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Yes? Yes, that's that's all.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
I'm disappointed. I thought you were going to beat me.
Why you instle hall?
Speaker 8 (08:08):
Kurt?
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Yes? Please? Is that one at the door? What where
mister Johnson cart home? Well, yes he is, Hello.
Speaker 8 (08:19):
Paul, Oh Fred, Well what is it this time?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Are you going to tell him, Kurt? Or do you
want me to?
Speaker 5 (08:28):
I don't mind. I stole a watch from Evans's jewelry store,
a swell wrist watch, a watch, Kurt. We were going
to buy you one for your birthday. You didn't have
to steal it. It was more fun stealing, lots more fun.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
This time.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I'll have to take him to juvenile court, missus Norcott.
Speaker 8 (08:46):
No, Fred, Fred, let let me bring him down. You
go on, I want to talk to him.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
Paul's face was gray with hurt. His cheeks sagged, and
his eyes were bleak as he turned to.
Speaker 8 (09:00):
I didn't want it this way, son, but maybe it's
the only solution. Maybe it'll help straighten me out.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
You're not going to put me in a reform school, Kurt.
Speaker 11 (09:09):
Kurt.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Paul was savage as he ran up the stairs after him.
Kurt slammed the bedroom door in his face, and Miss
Paul flung it open.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
You've had this coming to you for a long time.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Oh no, you don't keep away from me, Curt. Wild
lust was on Kurt's face and the gun was in
his hand, his father's revolver. I knew he'd do it
even before it happened. Kurt Paul went to limp as
he turned to me with a look of short surprise.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Mary Paul.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
For suspense.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Auto Light is bringing you, Miss Martha Scott in radio's
outstanding theater of thrills, suspense and now Auto Light brings
(10:11):
back to our Hollywood soundstage. Miss Martha Scott is merry
in crisis, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspend.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
The visions continued to rise out of the steam clouds.
I found myself sitting beside Paul's bed. He was out
of danger. Accidental shooting while cleaning a gun. That's what
Paul told the doctor. I wanted to tell the truth
that I wouldn't hurt him any further. No, Kurt didn't
go to the reform school. We hushed that up to lies,
(10:58):
lies suffocating us. We shrank, Paul and I crawled into
our shells, confused, disillusioned, afraid of our only son. But
Kirk grew, and so did his misdemeanors, until he was
a handsome giant with the face of a Viking saint
and no soul at all. The incident with Elaine McGregor
(11:20):
proved that I was transplanting geraniums on the other side
of the hedge. I didn't mean to eats drop. What's
going to happen to us?
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I wouldn't know.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Doesn't that make any difference to you?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Should it?
Speaker 5 (11:35):
It's easy for you, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
What did you expect?
Speaker 5 (11:39):
Nothing?
Speaker 10 (11:40):
Really, you're in a class by yourself, Kurt. You've got
the heart of a tape form, but you're not going
to eat into me.
Speaker 11 (11:47):
Very pretty speech. I didn't know you were so valuable.
But uh, what does it mean?
Speaker 5 (11:52):
It means I'm lucky. I can walk out of your life.
You can't.
Speaker 10 (11:57):
You've got to live with yourself. You're Kurt rotten all
the way through. You warp everything you touch. You're destroy
all the decent things around you.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Decent.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
I despise you.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I thought you loved me madly.
Speaker 10 (12:13):
You can't love a snake, you can only be charmed
by it.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Goodbye, darling, mother, you can come out from behind there, Kurt.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
How could you?
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Mother?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
I knew you were there all the time.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
I didn't mean that. I mean the way you treated Elaine. Oh, Kurt,
maybe marriage would be good for you.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Come, mother, First, you want me to get a job,
any job.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Now.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
You wouldn't want me to get married at my age,
would you.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
I'm just a child, No, Kurt, not you. You've never
been a child. Everything he did seemed to be aimed
at hurting someone, and always it pleased him. And then
one day, as suddenly as you turn over a page,
Kurt was different. He slammed the front door and he
(13:02):
was whistling. He was gayer than I'd ever seen him. Whie, Well,
what are you so gay about?
Speaker 11 (13:10):
The proverbial leave has been turned, and you see before
you're a hard working young man.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
Kurt. You've got a job, that's right, mother, a job
I had the lumberyard.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Don't be silly. I'm a banker.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
A banker, what bank?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
First National?
Speaker 11 (13:24):
Mister Cox was very nice about the whole thing, your
father's bank.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Then Paul got to the job.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
You talked like the old man owns the place. He's
just a teller.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
Then how did you get the job? I talked to
mister Cox, Kurt, what did you tell mister Cox?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
You should have been there? Mother. I melted the old
boy's heart. He swallowed the whole thing.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Swallowed. What what did you tell, mister Cox?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Don't get melodramatic, mother.
Speaker 11 (13:51):
I merely told him that I had to go to
work because we needed the money. That I liked the
idea of working in a bank, you know, like father likes.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Something o the money. Oh, Kurt, you didn't. You didn't
humiliate your father that way.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
But you wanted me to get a job.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Kurt. Ever since you've been old enough to think you've
been bad, you caused your father nothing but heartache. You're
aging and draining all the joy out of his life,
and now this crowning humiliation. But I'm warning you could
if you cause your father any more sorrow, if you
hurt him just once more, I.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
I'll kill me. Brobo. Mother. Now, now let's have the
second act.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
You your feet. It was the first time I ever
slept him, but I knew then there would never be
any peace for us, that he would go on and
on until there was nothing left, no honor, no decency, nothing.
But even I didn't suspect the depth of his malignancy
(14:52):
until Paul was coming up the walk alone. His step
was low, his back was stooped, and his face was
lined and tortured. I opened the door for him. Paul, Paul,
what's wrong?
Speaker 8 (15:12):
I've been fired fire after twenty two years. There was
a shortage this morning, a thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
Oh, surely they don't think you took it. You've handled
millions of dollars down there and never touched a penny
of it. How could Kurt took it? Didn't they? Yes,
and you took the blame.
Speaker 8 (15:35):
Not exactly. It's very clever, Mary, He's deviloushly clever. He
worked hard, he did his work well.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
I thought.
Speaker 8 (15:46):
I tried to kid myself anyway, that he was outgrowing
his badness. It was all part of a warp scheme.
He won the respect of everyone in the bank and
very simply stole the money and planted the evidence that
led straight to me.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Why didn't you, mister Cox, what we've been through. What
a bad boy he is. There are records at juvenile Hall.
We could prove it.
Speaker 8 (16:05):
You know what mister Cox said to me. He said
he wouldn't prosecute because of my wonderful son. My wonderful son.
I never had a son. I couldn't look at him, Mary,
when I walked out of the bank. Garvey in Cage
one didn't even say goodbye or good luck, or too
bad or anything. Just got suddenly too busy to look up.
(16:32):
Forgot all about the months we lay in the mud
together at Taro and the Navy crosses. We went him
the same day. Garby was too busy to look up.
I couldn't tell him the truth. I'm not strong like you, Mary.
I can't take it anymore.
Speaker 12 (16:54):
He was looking at me, but he didn't see me.
His eyes were covered with a film tears. Then he
turned and staggered out of the house. He walked like
he was drunk. Yes, that's what he was, drunk with despair.
He got in the car.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
I wanted to go to him, to hold him in
my arms, but I couldn't. I was a frozener. Car
lurched away from the curb, skidded around the corner. It
was like a mad man. I wasn't surprised when they
called me from the hospital reckless driving. They said accidental death,
(17:40):
but I called it something else. I called it murder.
At that moment, I died too. Oh. I went through
the motions of living the cemetery, and after I kept on,
not count the day's coming or going. And one day
(18:03):
I realized Kurt was twenty five, a man, a handsome,
ruthless man. We lived in the same house, but we
had nothing to do with each other until one November afternoon.
I was in the kitchen making an apple pie. It
had always been Paul's favorite. Suddenly the room was throbbing
(18:24):
with Paul's presence. Paul. I dropped the knife on the
floor and ran up the stairs into my bedroom, mine
and Paul's. I was wild, out of my mind. I
turned about the room, everywhere, searching. I needed him terribly.
I could feel his presence, and yet it wasn't enough.
It had to be something tangible, something I could touch.
And then I remembered the navy cross and the purple heart.
(18:46):
They were his, they were part of him. I pulled
out the shirt drawer and threw his shirts on the bed.
The purple heart was there and its satin line box,
but the Navy cross was gone. Paul, Paul. The room
(19:16):
was dark. I lay there for quite a while. I
had no reason to get up. Kurt was home. I
tidied the bed and spread it up, ran a comb
through my hair. I walked along the hallway to his room.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yes, you want something I'm going to hurry.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Yes, I do want something. Your father's navy cross? Where
is it?
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Oh?
Speaker 11 (19:45):
That I was holding three aces when I ran into
a street. Jack carn said he'd take the cross and
low of five bucks.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
How do you don't like a guy like that?
Speaker 5 (19:55):
I looked at Kurt for a long time. Then I
walked away. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered, not that day
or any other day, not even later when the policeman
came to the door.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
I have a warrant for the arrest of Kurt Norkwist.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
On what charge? Murder? It was a colorful trial, murder
in the first degree. The front pages were blushed with it.
Little shop girls hurried to buy the evening editions of
(20:33):
the sordid testimony to read on their way home to work.
I went to the trial every day and listened with
this strange sense of unreality.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Sure, I killed him.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
All I could think was that flashing, handsome young man
up there admitting to murder, and worse is my son.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
No, I didn't hate him.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I didn't even know him very well.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
And why didn't I feel anything?
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I just wanted to see, But it was like, that's all.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Why don't I shudder with disgrace. Why don't I crawl
off into a corner and die?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Sorry?
Speaker 4 (21:06):
What for? He's dead, isn't he.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
The trial went on for days, and Kurt was unmoved, insolent, triumphant,
almost even as his wretched soul made ready for the
lethal chamber. He was untouched.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
In there, madam, five minutes.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
Thank you? Well? Hello mother, mother? Oh yes I am
your mother.
Speaker 11 (21:33):
Huh oh you brought me some cigarettes. Thanks well. I
wonder what it's going to be like? What you know
that last mile. I'm a queer guy, all right. I
(21:55):
don't feel sorry about anything. As a matter of fact,
I don't feel anything at all, never did, except that
maybe this is a good smoke.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
I looked deeply into his face, beyond the pale blue eyes,
into the black soul. I gave him life, but I
couldn't give him honor yet. Hailed smoke came out of
his mouth and nose and spun around him, enveloping his face,
framing it in a circle of fog. Then he smiled,
(22:32):
not the smile of a murderer, more the slow, wistful
smile of a small boy, And abruptly his face was changed.
I've been here before. I watched the smoke rings as
they billowed upward. I couldn't take my eyes off them.
And each smoke ring was a face, Kurt's face, and
(22:55):
the faces kept changing, getting smaller and small, as eyes
were round full of wonder, changing, and slowly the vision faded.
They all converged into one face, and Kurt was a
baby again, in a crouped hant, fighting for the right
(23:16):
to live a useless life. I've seen ahead, That's what
it was. I know what's in store for him, and
it's all bad steam, not much left in a moment.
(23:38):
That won't be any Let him go. He'll turn up bad,
no good, not worth my tears. It won't be wrong.
Let him go, Steve, it's gone. I won't get the kettle.
(24:00):
It isn't wrong. Let him go.
Speaker 10 (24:06):
Oh no, no, wait, don't go.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Can I take him on? Please, don't take him. He's
just a little baby. He doesn't know steam. I'm just
taking his temperature. Oh I'm afraid crisis temperature one hundred
and seriously, one hundred and seven. Oh no, no, hap,
(24:41):
he's gone, he's going. You're lie, Hold on, baby, hold on,
(25:07):
got my ways. I held a thermometer to the light,
brushed them both and then I looked the mercury stood
one hundred and six, one hundred and five, one hundred
and three. You're going to get well, Kurt, gah, but
you're one hundred and one, grow strong and handsome, but
(25:28):
you're a hundred and good Curt. You're going to be good, Scott.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Thank you, Martha Scott for a splendid performance. Miss Scott
will be back in just a moment, and now here
again is Miss Martha Scott.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
It's been a real pleasure to appear on Suspense Tonight.
You know I never miss hearing the program whenever possible,
and I'm going to make a special effort to be
at my radio next Thursday night, when Van Heflin stars
in a story called Song of the Heart, a gripping
study in suspense.
Speaker 13 (26:22):
Miss Martha Scott is currently appearing in the RKAO productions
So Well Remembered.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Tonight's suspense play.
Speaker 13 (26:27):
Was written by Gwen and John Bagney, with music composed
by Lucian Marwick and conducted by Lud Gluskin. The entire
production was under the direction of Antonym Leader. Next Thursday,
same time, you will hear Van heflin in the Song
of the Hearts.
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