In this gripping episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, host E.G. Marshall delves into the age-old enigma of death, exploring its mysteries through the story "Dialogue with Death" by Elspeth Eric. Set a hundred years ago, the narrative follows George, a young doctor, as he returns home to find his childhood friend Jenny transformed into a woman he deeply loves. However, Jenny's peculiar connection with the deceased, including her parents and a beloved horse, raises questions about the boundaries between life and death. As George grapples with his feelings and the strange occurrences around him, he is forced to confront the delicate balance of Jenny's mind and the haunting presence of the past.
As the story unfolds, George's determination to marry Jenny is tested by her continued communication with the dead, leading to a series of tragic events. The narrative explores themes of love, loss, and the thin veil between the living and the departed. With a haunting atmosphere and a dramatic climax, "Dialogue with Death" challenges listeners to ponder the nature of existence and the possibility of life beyond the grave. Join us for a tale that intertwines love and mortality in an eternal embrace, leaving us to question what lies beyond our earthly understanding.
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Unknown:
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The CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents Come in. Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. What is always on our minds, but seldom on our lips? What is forever contemplated and never comprehended? The answer is death. Shakespeare would seem to have said it all when he wrote, death, a necessary end, will come when it will come. But is it really a necessary end? That's the question that bedevils us, and in all probability, will continue to bedevil us until, well, I suppose, until we die.
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Do you live in a house? Of course. Do you wear clothes?
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Certainly. So you'll eat food? Yes. Now go away. You're beginning to annoy me.
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Our mystery drama, Dialogue with Death, was written especially for the mystery seer by Elspeth Eric and stars Paul Hector and Fred Gwynn. It is sponsored in part by XLACS and General Electric Citizen Band radios. I'll be back shortly with act one. The story we now bring you took place about a hundred years ago, a time when no one knew anything about death, as no one had known anything a hundred years before that, or a thousand or a million, as no one knows now. Yet, as then, as now, there were fantasies about death. And it's on the basis of one of them that we have fashioned the story that follows.
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I remember it all so well. Every detail, what she was wearing at certain times, what she looked like at certain moments, where we stood or sat, what she said and how she said it, what I responded, place we walked, food we ate. Even the dishes we ate from, glasses we drank from. I'm seeing it all again, hearing it all, feeling it all for the second time. A kind of terrible inevitable deja vu. Strange, isn't it? Strange. I loved her so much. I know. The year I left for Heidelberg to study medicine, she was just a slip of a thing, only 16. And when I came back four years later, she wasn't simply four years older.
She was a new person. No longer a child to tease and play games with, but a grown woman to admire and respect and fall in love with, which I promptly did. Yes. You did. Of course, my father had written to me about her a few times, but nothing nothing had prepared me for the shock, the delirious surprise that morning at the railroad station. My old boy. My old boy. George? George? That's your Lisa. Oh, yes, sir. That's mine. That's my George. George Cuddler. What?
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I thought you'd never get here. You're late. Well, the train
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is it no. Are are you Jenny?
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Don't say you don't recognize me. I'd die if you said that. Rupert, what happened to your pigtails? They're pinned around my head. See? And they're called brains. Come on. I drill down in the trap. Your father's still at the infirmary. What?
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Oh, what? I can't get over how you've changed. And you've grown a mustache. Well, I'm going to teach a class in anatomy. A professor needs a mustache, but you you've changed completely.
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Why do you keep saying that? Because it's true. A little stiff. Well, here we are. You'll observe we have a new horse.
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What happened to Princess? She went lame.
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We had to have her put down. Here, you, want to take the reins? Alright.
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I learned to ride on Princess. Remember? We used to ride her bare back, the two of us. Me in front, you behind. There's those wild gallops across the meadow. Should we get started? Your father may be home by now and Hannah's planned a special supper in your honor. Alright. Come on. Come on. I really love that sweet horse. Oh, Christmas is alright. Pound as a dollar. You said you had her put down. We did.
[00:05:34] Unknown:
But she's fine now. She looks like a two year old. But but she's dead. I see her often. In your dreams, you mean? I mean, I see her. I hear her. Oh, come on, George. Let's get out of this slow walk.
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On the way home, I tried to remember what she'd been like when she first came to live with father and me, a scrawny child of nine or 10. You remember her, Hannah? No. Very well. She didn't seem to brood at all about her parents and the awful way they died. Perhaps she'd been too young to grasp the tragedy of it all. I found myself hoping that father would be home by the time we arrived. I wanted to talk to him about Jenny.
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Hannah says give the roast another ten minutes. Where's Jenny, father? Jenny, she's setting the table. Well, it's good to have you back, son. Sorry I couldn't meet your train. Oh, it's alright, Jenny. Explain. Father, about Jenny how do you think she looks? She's grown up, but there's something else. On the way home, she told me you had to have old Princess put down. Well, Princess was nearly 30, you know. We could've had to put out pasture, but that's no kind of light. Jenny says she sees her running across the meadow, sound as a dollar, looking like a two year old. Oh, yes. Well, that's Has she ever told you then?
Not directly. No. But I've heard her talking to old princess. Talking to a dead horse? That's not healthy. Perhaps not. Well, have you spoken to her about it? George, we have to remember the life Jenny's had, the circumstances under which she came here to live. Having seen her father and her mother burned alive, screaming from their bedroom window, well, that's a terrible thing for a child to go through. But when she came to live with us, she was just a normal little girl. There was never anything morbid about Jenny. There isn't anything morbid about Jenny. Yes. But but seeing a dead horse, talking to a dead horse, being being preoccupied
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with death that way. Jenny isn't preoccupied
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with death. She simply doesn't believe in it. Doesn't believe in it? That's a peculiar thing to say. Nevertheless, it's true. True for Jenny anyway. Well, I'm going to speak to her about it. You'll do nothing of the sort. You leave Jenny alone. But it's morbid, father. It's not healthy. Who are you to say what's morbid or what's healthy? You leave that girl alone, George. I'm warning you. Leave her alone or you'll answer to me.
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I couldn't understand my father. A doctor who faced up to death and fawned any number of times in the course of his practice as I was prepared to do now that I had an MD after my name. Well, Hannah, as you know, I took up my residency at the local hospital and started teaching an evening course in anatomy. My time was heavily occupied, but every minute I could spare was spent with Jenny. You remember how it was, Hannah? I remember. Going to church together, attending vespers, long buggy rides on fine days, local dances, taffy poles, country fairs, long afternoons reading in the summer house as we done when we were children. I felt the moment approaching and I could be certain of my love for her, though I resisted it as long as I could.
But one late afternoon, sitting with her in the summer house, I knew it was no longer any use to pretend to myself or to her. Jenny, I love you. I love you more than I can say, almost more than I can bear. I've always loved you, Jenny. It's taken me all this long time to realize how much I love you. Are you surprised?
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Not very.
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You mean you've known it all along that that I love you? I wanted you to. Does that mean that that you love me? I do love you, George. Oh, Jenny. Jenny, will you you'll marry me, won't you? Of course, you will. I have to ask my mother. What? I'm sure she likes you. Jenny,
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my darling, your mother George, you go in the house, will you? Let me stay here by myself for a little while. Will you do that, my love? Well, if you want me to You don't look so troubled. Mother likes you very much. Jenny Father likes you too.
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A dozen conflicting emotions flooded my mind. Poor George. A girl who talked to the dead, could such a one ever be truly mine? In a frenzy compounded of doubt and desire, I told my father, I've asked Jenny to marry me, father.
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Oh, I thought you might do that. Well, I approve.
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Has she accepted yet? She says she loves me. But has she accepted yet? Father, at this very minute, Jenny is in the summer house asking her mother's permission to marry me
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and her father's. I see. You see.
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Is that all you can say? You see, her father and mother have been dead for ten years, but she is asking their permission to marry me. Doesn't that strike you as a very strange thing for a young girl to do? When when when when she said she talks to a dead horse, sees it running across a meadow, that was bad enough. But now to talk to a dead father and mother, perhaps she thinks she sees them too. I mean, father, if she'll have me, what will I be taking for a wife? The woman you love.
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What more do you want, George? Count yourself very fortunate, my boy. Consider yourself the luckiest man on earth. But I must talk to her about these hallucinations. I must have it out with her before we can be married. You will do nothing of the sort. I forbid it. You forbid it? In god's name, why? Jenny's mind, George, has a delicate balance. It swings perilously between this world and another, never quite settling, never coming to rest, oscillating back and forth, vibrating like a pendulum. George, don't tamper with that balance. Do you understand me? Don't tamper with it.
Or by heaven, I swear I don't yeah. Yeah. Well,
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never mind. You'll what, father? We'll finish what you were going to say.
[00:12:19] Unknown:
Look here. Look at this, George. You see it? It's it's it's a gun. Yes. It's a gun. You say one word, George, that girl about what you call her hallucinations, and I'll kill you. George? That's Jenny. Remember what I said, George.
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Leave her alone, or I'll kill you. It's alright, George. We can be married.
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My father gave us his blessing. In my happiness and my expectancy, I drove away all premonitions, all dreams. But every ticking at the back of my mind was the question, why had my father spoken as he did so passionately, so violently?
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You don't know. Do you? He loved her violently, passionately loved her.
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Death has been written about very little. Love has been written about a great deal. Perhaps because love is the beginning of everything, and death is the end. But what happens when love and death are intermingled, joined the one to the other in an eternal embrace? We'll explore this further in act two. So George and Jenny plighted their trot. And under a dire threat, George's father forbade his son ever to speak to his young fiance about her curious attachment to all those she has loved who have passed out of this life. Then under the spell of his infatuation, George proceeded with the arrangements for his imminent marriage to the girl of his heart.
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We spent long afternoons in the summer house, spinning dreams of the day that would unite us. We wanted an extravagant wedding, at least I did. My father's big white colonial house set among great old oak trees with its center hallway, its winding staircase, its vast reception hall was ideal. You remember it, Hannah.
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All true, Anne.
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After the ceremony, if it was a fine day, we would have the collation served in the great rose garden with a quintet of musicians playing and tables laden with food. And I shall be very dashing in my cutaway and striped trousers and you in what? What will you wear, Jenny? I don't know. You mean you haven't ordered your wedding dress? Not yet. I thought that was what young brides thought about first. What I've been thinking about. You'll have someone come to the house to make it, won't you? I don't know. Sweetheart, the local shops are alright for simple things. I'd like something simple, I think. Well, that's your sure. Look. Why don't you take a trip into the city and see what they have in the big stores? Well, yes. I I could do that. Hannah will go with you and help you pick it up. I don't want Hannah to go with me. But Hannah has very good taste, dear. She could advise you. I don't need Hannah to advise you. Only men. My mother
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will advise me. My mother will pick out my dress.
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I started to speak, then closed my lips firmly against the words. I remembered my father saying, Jenny's mind has a delicate balance. It swings between this world and another, oscillating back and forth. Don't tamper with it. Again, my love drowned my fears, and I reached for Jenny's hand. What are you thinking about, my love? About the wedding. Why do you look so sad?
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Who's to pay for it? All the caviar and champagne and the musicians. Who's to pay for my dress? My dear, do you need money for your dress? For everything.
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Who's to pay for it all? Precious. I'll give you money for the dress and the caviar, the champagne, the musicians.
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My father will pay for all that. Well, that's not right. Of course, it's right, Jenny. He expects to pay for it. He wants to. You're like his own daughter. The father of the bride always pays for those things. Jenny It's always done that way. My darling Father wouldn't have it any other way. I know that. He couldn't.
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My whole body stiffened. I murmured some sort of excuse, told her I needed something from the house, and I fled the summer house leaving her immobile, pensive, troubled. Inside the house, I found my father.
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Father, it's happened again. What happened? Sit down, Joe. I don't know what to do.
[00:17:15] Unknown:
George, what's the matter? Is it Jenny? Yes. She and I were sitting in the summer house. We've been there most of the afternoon making plans for the wedding. Ah, yeah. When we got to the subject of her wedding dress, it seems that she doesn't want it made. She she she wants to buy it. So I suggested that she take the train into the city and maybe Hannah would go with her, help her pick it out. Good idea. Yes. But Jenny would have no part of it. No? She said my mother will help me pick it out.
[00:17:41] Unknown:
My mother will help me pick out my wedding dress. Her mother who burned up in a fire, who's been in her grave George. George. George, I know how you feel. Am I to live with ghosts once we are married? George, I live with ghosts. We all live with ghosts. Well, I don't propose to. Well,
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what do you propose to do? Father, I didn't say anything when Jenny spoke about her mother, her dead mother, helping her to choose her wedding dress. I thought of everything you had said, and I kept quiet. I'm glad you did. But then then she suddenly looked very troubled, very perplexed, and she said, who's to pay for all this? Pay for it? Yes. The dress, the wedding, the music, the the the caterer. Why, I shall pay for it. Yeah. Well, that's what I told her. Well,
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who who else should pay for it? Her father.
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Her father. Well, that's what she said. She said it was only fitting and proper that the bride's father should pay for his daughter's wedding. I think she she expects her dead father to give her away. Oh, she wouldn't? I don't know what she expects. I I thought she'd want me. I know you forbade me to say anything to her about her. Her congress with the dead. I I do forbid you. But now I must
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it's gone too far. No, George. It could be fatal. George?
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Where are you? There she is. I'm in here, dear, with father in the in the library.
[00:19:05] Unknown:
Say nothing, George.
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Oh, I'm so glad you're here. You can help me. What is it you need, Jenny? The second volume of something called Materia Medica.
[00:19:17] Unknown:
Is there such a book? On the bottom shelf. Yes, dear. With the red binding. Oh, oh, yes.
[00:19:23] Unknown:
Now let let's see here. Volume two.
[00:19:28] Unknown:
What are you looking for, dear? Well, I I'm not sure.
[00:19:32] Unknown:
Let me see. Page 300 of yes. Yes. It's here. Here it is. What is? A thousand dollars to pay for my wedding.
[00:19:48] Unknown:
Her face was radiant. She spread the $10,100 dollar bills on the floor and gazed at them delightedly. As for my father and myself, we stared at each other. He told me it would be here. Your father? Of course.
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And here it is. Yes. There it is. Oh, isn't it wonderful, George? Wonderful. You'll pay for everything.
[00:20:09] Unknown:
Jenny, my dear, it's, nearly time for supper. Why don't you gather up the money and take it up to your room? Change for dinner. I wanna talk to George. Alright. That's a good girl. You see, George,
[00:20:22] Unknown:
I told you he wouldn't have it any other way. It wouldn't be proper.
[00:20:29] Unknown:
How did that money get there, father? Did you put it there? Her father put it there. You are worse than she is. You put it there, and then somehow No, George.
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Jenny's father put the money in the book ten years ago. Did did you know it was there? Not until now. You see, it's money he owed me, money I lent him. I never expect him to pay it back. And when he tried to pay it back, I refused to take it. But how did it get in the book? The night he came here to give it to me, the night I refused it, here in this very room, I remember after a long and somewhat stormy argument, I went out to call him a carriage. Left the $1,000 bills lying on the desk, and, when I came back to make my peace with him, the money was no longer there. Of course, I assume he'd put it back in his pocket, but
[00:21:27] Unknown:
instead, he hid it in a book he knew I'd eventually open. Father, it doesn't explain how Jenny came to know it was there.
[00:21:33] Unknown:
Don't don't shrug and turn away. We have to talk about this. I don't have to, and I don't intend to. Alright. Then I'll talk to Jenny about it. No. You won't. Come back here, George. Father, I cannot marry a girl who's living half with me and half with the dead. If you love her, you'll let her be. I can't, father. That girl has some sort of communication with the dead that you can't understand. But it's wrong. Right or wrong, it's hers. It's part of her, and you must not interfere. I have to, father. You must not. And I have to do it now. Don't make me kill you, George. Give me the gun, father. No. Give it to me. George. I don't care. Hurt you. Give me the gun. Give it to her.
[00:22:14] Unknown:
I'm sorry, father. I'm terribly sorry. Forgive me. I put the gun in my pocket. I looked down at my father on his knees on the floor where I'd forced him. His eyes were filled with tears. For whom? For himself? For Jenny? For me? For what she had done to him? For what he had almost done to me? Or for what I was about to do to her? I could not tell. I went upstairs and lifted my hand to knock on Jenny's door and then I heard her voice.
[00:22:57] Unknown:
Thank you. Oh, thank you, my darling. I knew I could count on you. I've always counted on you, and you've never failed me. Mother, should I have my dress made, or shall we go to the city and buy it? Oh, I want it to be just right. When I walk down the big staircase, I want to look just right. Because you, father, will be waiting at the foot of the stairs. You'll cook your arm just so, and I'll put mine through yours. And together, we'll walk to where the minister will be standing. Who's there? It's George. Let me in. I'm not quite this George. It
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doesn't matter.
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Please, George. Look at me.
[00:23:50] Unknown:
Jenny, look at me. Let me go, George. Who was that you were talking to just now?
[00:23:55] Unknown:
That was your father, wasn't it? You're hurting me, George. And your mother?
[00:23:59] Unknown:
You were planning your wedding with them. Not with me, not with them. Please, George. You were planning your wedding dress with your mother, not with Hannah who adores you. Hannah who helped raise you. George, please. I heard you. You were telling your father he would give you to me in marriage. Your father is dead, Jenny. He's been dead a long time and your mother too. Dead and dead. And Princess is dead too. Princess is not running across any meadow looking like a two year old. Princess got to be an old horse. She was 30 years old and lame and someone came and put a bullet between her eyes and she died. And your mother died too and your father. They were burned in a fire, Jenny, a long time ago. But you are alive, Jenny. You are here and you are alive.
You know that. Yes. And I am alive, and we are here. We are now, and we are alive here and now. Do you understand, my darling? Yes. And Hannah will help you with your wedding dress, and my father will pay for the wedding. And when you come down the staircase, he will be waiting for you, and you will put your arm through his, and you will walk together to the place where I will be waiting for you. And we will be married. Do you understand, my dearest girl? Do you understand? I was holding her arms and staring down into her wide frightened eyes and flinging my words into her face. Her eyes grew wider and wider.
Their expression began to change. But what the change was, I could not tell. Was she beginning to understand what I was saying? Or was she leaving me forever? Hannah, I could not tell. All I could do was hold her close. Oh, George.
[00:26:03] Unknown:
You poor, poor man.
[00:26:11] Unknown:
What does one say to someone who will not let go? What does one do with such a person? It's all very well to counsel them. Let the dead pass, bury its dead. But what if they scorn our advice and cling tenaciously to what they have lost? Or do the lost ones cling to them? As much as the living hold on to the dead, do the dead not also hold on to the living? I'll be back shortly with the concluding act. Jenny and George are about to be married, but it troubles George that his fiance still appears to commune with the spirits of her parents, who met their death in a fire many years before.
Indeed, Jenny appears to have contact, both visual and auditory, even with a horse named Princess, an aged mare they both rode as children. It is George's conviction that this morbidity must be erased from his beloved's personality before she can become his wife.
[00:27:30] Unknown:
Oh, Hannah. Hannah, I loved her so. I know. It was for her own sake that I did what I did. Of course. For our sake, I should say. For the health of our marriage, our life together. Perhaps my father had been right when he said we all live with our own ghosts, and Jenny should be allowed to live with hers. I was left in a torment of doubt as I held her close.
[00:27:56] Unknown:
Oh, George. What am I to do? Let them go, Jenny.
[00:28:01] Unknown:
Let them lie in their graves. They're dead, my darling, but you and I are living. We we're going to be married, aren't we? You know we are very soon now. Leave them, Jenny. Be with me. Oh, there'll be loneliness? My dear girl, they have died. Such things as loneliness, as grief, yes, joy too, and love, they are for the living, for us not for them.
[00:28:25] Unknown:
You really believe that don't you? It's true my dearest.
[00:28:29] Unknown:
You must believe it too. I'll try. No sweetheart. You must do more than that. I can. Yes you can. Now I'm going to be your husband and you must rely on me to tell you what is right. I only want you to be happy. You know that. Oh, yes? Well then, together we will exorcise these ghosts that haunt you. I shall try to be very patient, my dear love. Very patient and very loving. Because I do love you more than pen can write or tongue can tell. And you must trust in that love, Jenny. And believe with all your heart that I know what's best.
I held her in my arms for a long time. Then Hannah, I think that you've called from downstairs that supper would be on the table presently, and I released her to bathe and put on fresh clothes while I went down to confront my father. He looked very gray and haggard. It's done, father. Oh. Oh, George. It was necessary.
[00:29:33] Unknown:
I know you think so. I am convinced of it. I know you are. If we are ever to be happy together I I know. I know. I know. George, I feel very badly that I that I threatened you before the way I did. We best forget that, father. To threaten you with a gun? I I I must have been mad. We'll just forget all about it. Here's your gun, father. No. No. No. No. Take it. Take it. No. No. No. No. I I don't want it. I want you to take it. It'll help us to forget what happened. It'll be as though it never took place. No. You keep the gun, George. I don't want it. I I never want to touch it again. I'm I'm afraid. There's nothing to be afraid of. Well, all the same, I'm I'm afraid. Alright.
[00:30:21] Unknown:
I'll keep it until you say you want it back. So I put the gun in my pocket. It seemed to make him feel a little better as though simply getting it out of his sight would a step toward erasing the memory of that frantic night. Then I think that you, Hannah, announced that supper was served and the three of us sat down to eat together. None of us ate very much, which was understandable enough. Oh, yes. Still, we did manage to get through the meal. I had done the right and proper thing. I was sure of that. Oh, sure. I know. I know. Nevertheless, that is what I thought.
The next morning, Jenny did not come down for breakfast. My father and I left for the hospital together, worked assiduously all day, and left for home together late that afternoon.
[00:31:17] Unknown:
Hannah said this morning that Jenny was going in the city today to buy her wedding dress. Oh, that's splendid.
[00:31:23] Unknown:
Hannah want to go with her. Jenny Jenny went alone?
[00:31:28] Unknown:
I don't like that, father. Oh, it doesn't necessarily mean anything. No. But still You're afraid that Jenny still believes her mother will help her choose a dress? Well
[00:31:38] Unknown:
Oh, I'm sure everything will come out right sooner or later. I told her she must have faith in my love and my knowledge of what's best for her. I hope she can do that. Okay.
[00:31:48] Unknown:
Have, have you appointed a date for the wedding, George? Oh, the end of the month. We haven't decided on the precise day. Where will you live once you're married? No. We haven't talked about that. Could you, would you, consider staying on with me? I'll be lonely without either of you. Now that's selfish, I know. But, George, I'm so used to Jenny about the house. I'd I'd miss her terribly. But I mustn't be selfish. It's alright, father.
[00:32:23] Unknown:
I don't see why we shouldn't live in the house with you, at least for the time being. It is a nice house. It's a beautiful house and quite large enough for three. The trees are beginning to budge.
[00:32:37] Unknown:
Yes. Yeah. They'll be out full by the time of the wedding. What's that? Sounds like a local fire engine. Yeah. I'm glad Jenny isn't home to hear that.
[00:32:47] Unknown:
George. What? It's the summerhouse. Oh, look at the smoke. The summerhouse is burning. It's on fire. Jenny. You tried to save her, Hannah. I know that. I tried.
[00:33:08] Unknown:
It was no use. Your father tried, but the fire had gone too far.
[00:33:15] Unknown:
Hannah, who started the fire? I don't know. Did Jenny start it? If she did, it was my fault. I had made her life unendurable when I drove away her ghosts. I killed my own sweet darling. Oh, it's your fault. Yet the summer house was quite old. The wood was very dry. Could have burst into flame by itself, the nearest spark. Will I ever know, Anna?
[00:33:45] Unknown:
One day. You will.
[00:33:48] Unknown:
When? Soon,
[00:33:51] Unknown:
I think.
[00:33:56] Unknown:
We must decide
[00:33:59] Unknown:
where she should be buried, George. Well, there's the cemetery. Of course,
[00:34:04] Unknown:
Hannah thinks that would be best. Her father and mother are buried there. I I suppose she'd want to be near them. Yes. Well, whatever you say. Perhaps I could get permission to bury her here. On the property?
[00:34:18] Unknown:
Yes.
[00:34:20] Unknown:
Such things can be arranged, I believe. Whatever you say.
[00:34:25] Unknown:
No. George, whatever you say, it's, it's your privilege and your right to decide. Well, all I can think is that she's gone, that I shall never see her again.
[00:34:37] Unknown:
Never hear her voice. We'll talk about it tomorrow. Yes. Tomorrow. I'm, I'm very tired, George. I
[00:34:49] Unknown:
I think I'll go up to bed. Alright, father.
[00:34:51] Unknown:
I'll sit up a while longer. I I don't think I can sleep. Yeah. Well, tomorrow we'll make arrangements.
[00:35:00] Unknown:
Good night, son. Good night, father. I'll I'll look in on you when I come upstairs. Oh, you don't need to. I want to. He pressed my shoulder, and I put my hand over his for an instant. I felt very close to him. I truly loved him, Hannah. I know you did. Later, when I'd grown drowsy, I went upstairs, stopped at the door of his room, and went in without knocking in case he was asleep. I saw him lying fully clothed on his bed, but his shirt sleeve was pushed up above his elbow. I think I knew he was dead even before I touched him, and I knew how he had died. I found the minuscule puncture of the needle on his arm almost immediately, and later I found the slender needle where it had rolled under the bed.
I've never told you this before, Hannah, but now I feel I must
[00:36:00] Unknown:
Tell me. I
[00:36:03] Unknown:
I knelt by the side of his bed. But the tears would not come. I told myself, my father is dead. I even repeated the word over and over to myself, and then said it aloud. Dead. Dead, dead, I kept saying. I had lost her. And now, I had lost him, all within the space of a few hours. I could not comprehend how such a monstrous thing could have befallen me. Do you understand, Hannah?
[00:36:36] Unknown:
I understand.
[00:36:38] Unknown:
But I could not weep. I could not weep. And do you know why? Tell me. Because I hated him. I hated the man I had felt so close to such a short time before. And do you know why I hated him, Anna? Tell me. Because he wanted to be ahead of me even there. Even where, George? There. There. Wherever she was, he wanted to be there with her. Joe told me he loved her. He must be right. He left me and went to join her there. Where, Joe? There. There. I don't know where. Wherever she was, I don't know. So don't ask me where. Tell me the rest of it. I know.
By his bedside for, I don't know how long. Silent, frozen, angry. Angry. Yes. No one had cared enough for me. No one had thought of me. My life. My lonely life that I had now to face. Both of them had left me without a thought. Do you understand what I'm telling you, Hannah? Yes. Yes. I was living in a pit of hell I never knew existed, filled with fury, rage, and desperation. And then then
[00:38:14] Unknown:
Go on.
[00:38:15] Unknown:
And I Go on. I I got to my feet and I Go on. I reached in my pocket.
[00:38:25] Unknown:
Go on. I felt
[00:38:27] Unknown:
something. Yes. I took it out of my pocket. I put it to my head.
[00:38:35] Unknown:
What was that?
[00:38:36] Unknown:
Go on. I I I I just heard something. I didn't hear anything. Sounded like a gun going off. Oh. I I I don't remember anything like that. You will. When?
[00:38:53] Unknown:
When you realize that you are dead.
[00:38:59] Unknown:
Dead? I
[00:39:01] Unknown:
I dead? How how can that be? You took your father's gun from your pocket and you put it through your head, George, and you fired.
[00:39:10] Unknown:
But I'm here talking to you, Hannah. Can you see me? Of course. I can see you. I can't see you. But I'm I'm right next to you. You must see me. I don't have such gifts, George. Jenny had them. But why can't you see me? I I'm right here. The dead vibrate at a much faster pace than the living. Can it be true that I am dead, that I killed myself? It's true, George. Why did I do it?
[00:39:41] Unknown:
To join the others, perhaps.
[00:39:44] Unknown:
Jenny? My father? Or the others. Where where will I live now that I'm here? In a house, I think. A large white house? Perhaps. Will I be fed here?
[00:40:00] Unknown:
They say you will eat of the essence. Here, we eat of the substance, but you will eat of the essence.
[00:40:12] Unknown:
Hannah. Yes, George.
[00:40:15] Unknown:
Will I visit you now and then? Talk to you. I hope you will. You won't turn me away. Never. That's
[00:40:25] Unknown:
good.
[00:40:28] Unknown:
Listen, Hannah. Listen to that. What do you hear? Don't you hear it, Hannah? Don't you hear it? You must. It's Princess. It's old Princess galloping across the meadow, looking like a two year old.
[00:40:56] Unknown:
And that is how some people envision death and what comes after. I cannot promise you that they are right. On On the other hand, I cannot tell you they're wrong. I'm as ignorant and as undecided as you or anyone. But if they are right, should we keep our ears, perhaps our eyes, open for the sight and sound of those who have left us? I don't know. Perhaps it is better simply to get on with the only business that we know, the business of living. I shall return shortly. Someone said that the dead are not truly dead so long as they are remembered here on earth. And that may be true. I'm not prepared to say.
But assuming that it is true, the flaw lies in the fact that remembering can be so painful. Remembering hurts. Our cast included Paul Hecht, Fred Gwyn, and E. V. Juster. Entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown. Radio Mystery Theatre was sponsored in part by True Value Hardware stores, Buick Motor Division, and Signoff, the sign of medicine. This is E. G. Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery theatre for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time. Pleasant dreams.
What you're hearing is Hardie fiber cement siding living up to its reputation as the siding that handles hail impact with ease. James Hardie knows how important a reputation is, especially when you're a contractor. That's why Hardie's siding withstands severe weather better than vinyl siding, with styles to match its strength, so you can be sure you're providing your clients with the best. Protect your reputation with exterior products by James Hardie.
[00:00:31] Unknown:
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents Come in. Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. What is always on our minds, but seldom on our lips? What is forever contemplated and never comprehended? The answer is death. Shakespeare would seem to have said it all when he wrote, death, a necessary end, will come when it will come. But is it really a necessary end? That's the question that bedevils us, and in all probability, will continue to bedevil us until, well, I suppose, until we die.
[00:01:34] Unknown:
Do you live in a house? Of course. Do you wear clothes?
[00:01:38] Unknown:
Certainly. So you'll eat food? Yes. Now go away. You're beginning to annoy me.
[00:01:54] Unknown:
Our mystery drama, Dialogue with Death, was written especially for the mystery seer by Elspeth Eric and stars Paul Hector and Fred Gwynn. It is sponsored in part by XLACS and General Electric Citizen Band radios. I'll be back shortly with act one. The story we now bring you took place about a hundred years ago, a time when no one knew anything about death, as no one had known anything a hundred years before that, or a thousand or a million, as no one knows now. Yet, as then, as now, there were fantasies about death. And it's on the basis of one of them that we have fashioned the story that follows.
[00:02:48] Unknown:
I remember it all so well. Every detail, what she was wearing at certain times, what she looked like at certain moments, where we stood or sat, what she said and how she said it, what I responded, place we walked, food we ate. Even the dishes we ate from, glasses we drank from. I'm seeing it all again, hearing it all, feeling it all for the second time. A kind of terrible inevitable deja vu. Strange, isn't it? Strange. I loved her so much. I know. The year I left for Heidelberg to study medicine, she was just a slip of a thing, only 16. And when I came back four years later, she wasn't simply four years older.
She was a new person. No longer a child to tease and play games with, but a grown woman to admire and respect and fall in love with, which I promptly did. Yes. You did. Of course, my father had written to me about her a few times, but nothing nothing had prepared me for the shock, the delirious surprise that morning at the railroad station. My old boy. My old boy. George? George? That's your Lisa. Oh, yes, sir. That's mine. That's my George. George Cuddler. What?
[00:04:15] Unknown:
I thought you'd never get here. You're late. Well, the train
[00:04:19] Unknown:
is it no. Are are you Jenny?
[00:04:23] Unknown:
Don't say you don't recognize me. I'd die if you said that. Rupert, what happened to your pigtails? They're pinned around my head. See? And they're called brains. Come on. I drill down in the trap. Your father's still at the infirmary. What?
[00:04:38] Unknown:
Oh, what? I can't get over how you've changed. And you've grown a mustache. Well, I'm going to teach a class in anatomy. A professor needs a mustache, but you you've changed completely.
[00:04:52] Unknown:
Why do you keep saying that? Because it's true. A little stiff. Well, here we are. You'll observe we have a new horse.
[00:05:02] Unknown:
What happened to Princess? She went lame.
[00:05:05] Unknown:
We had to have her put down. Here, you, want to take the reins? Alright.
[00:05:11] Unknown:
I learned to ride on Princess. Remember? We used to ride her bare back, the two of us. Me in front, you behind. There's those wild gallops across the meadow. Should we get started? Your father may be home by now and Hannah's planned a special supper in your honor. Alright. Come on. Come on. I really love that sweet horse. Oh, Christmas is alright. Pound as a dollar. You said you had her put down. We did.
[00:05:34] Unknown:
But she's fine now. She looks like a two year old. But but she's dead. I see her often. In your dreams, you mean? I mean, I see her. I hear her. Oh, come on, George. Let's get out of this slow walk.
[00:05:51] Unknown:
On the way home, I tried to remember what she'd been like when she first came to live with father and me, a scrawny child of nine or 10. You remember her, Hannah? No. Very well. She didn't seem to brood at all about her parents and the awful way they died. Perhaps she'd been too young to grasp the tragedy of it all. I found myself hoping that father would be home by the time we arrived. I wanted to talk to him about Jenny.
[00:06:19] Unknown:
Hannah says give the roast another ten minutes. Where's Jenny, father? Jenny, she's setting the table. Well, it's good to have you back, son. Sorry I couldn't meet your train. Oh, it's alright, Jenny. Explain. Father, about Jenny how do you think she looks? She's grown up, but there's something else. On the way home, she told me you had to have old Princess put down. Well, Princess was nearly 30, you know. We could've had to put out pasture, but that's no kind of light. Jenny says she sees her running across the meadow, sound as a dollar, looking like a two year old. Oh, yes. Well, that's Has she ever told you then?
Not directly. No. But I've heard her talking to old princess. Talking to a dead horse? That's not healthy. Perhaps not. Well, have you spoken to her about it? George, we have to remember the life Jenny's had, the circumstances under which she came here to live. Having seen her father and her mother burned alive, screaming from their bedroom window, well, that's a terrible thing for a child to go through. But when she came to live with us, she was just a normal little girl. There was never anything morbid about Jenny. There isn't anything morbid about Jenny. Yes. But but seeing a dead horse, talking to a dead horse, being being preoccupied
[00:07:42] Unknown:
with death that way. Jenny isn't preoccupied
[00:07:45] Unknown:
with death. She simply doesn't believe in it. Doesn't believe in it? That's a peculiar thing to say. Nevertheless, it's true. True for Jenny anyway. Well, I'm going to speak to her about it. You'll do nothing of the sort. You leave Jenny alone. But it's morbid, father. It's not healthy. Who are you to say what's morbid or what's healthy? You leave that girl alone, George. I'm warning you. Leave her alone or you'll answer to me.
[00:08:16] Unknown:
I couldn't understand my father. A doctor who faced up to death and fawned any number of times in the course of his practice as I was prepared to do now that I had an MD after my name. Well, Hannah, as you know, I took up my residency at the local hospital and started teaching an evening course in anatomy. My time was heavily occupied, but every minute I could spare was spent with Jenny. You remember how it was, Hannah? I remember. Going to church together, attending vespers, long buggy rides on fine days, local dances, taffy poles, country fairs, long afternoons reading in the summer house as we done when we were children. I felt the moment approaching and I could be certain of my love for her, though I resisted it as long as I could.
But one late afternoon, sitting with her in the summer house, I knew it was no longer any use to pretend to myself or to her. Jenny, I love you. I love you more than I can say, almost more than I can bear. I've always loved you, Jenny. It's taken me all this long time to realize how much I love you. Are you surprised?
[00:09:33] Unknown:
Not very.
[00:09:34] Unknown:
You mean you've known it all along that that I love you? I wanted you to. Does that mean that that you love me? I do love you, George. Oh, Jenny. Jenny, will you you'll marry me, won't you? Of course, you will. I have to ask my mother. What? I'm sure she likes you. Jenny,
[00:09:54] Unknown:
my darling, your mother George, you go in the house, will you? Let me stay here by myself for a little while. Will you do that, my love? Well, if you want me to You don't look so troubled. Mother likes you very much. Jenny Father likes you too.
[00:10:13] Unknown:
A dozen conflicting emotions flooded my mind. Poor George. A girl who talked to the dead, could such a one ever be truly mine? In a frenzy compounded of doubt and desire, I told my father, I've asked Jenny to marry me, father.
[00:10:33] Unknown:
Oh, I thought you might do that. Well, I approve.
[00:10:41] Unknown:
Has she accepted yet? She says she loves me. But has she accepted yet? Father, at this very minute, Jenny is in the summer house asking her mother's permission to marry me
[00:10:53] Unknown:
and her father's. I see. You see.
[00:10:57] Unknown:
Is that all you can say? You see, her father and mother have been dead for ten years, but she is asking their permission to marry me. Doesn't that strike you as a very strange thing for a young girl to do? When when when when she said she talks to a dead horse, sees it running across a meadow, that was bad enough. But now to talk to a dead father and mother, perhaps she thinks she sees them too. I mean, father, if she'll have me, what will I be taking for a wife? The woman you love.
[00:11:26] Unknown:
What more do you want, George? Count yourself very fortunate, my boy. Consider yourself the luckiest man on earth. But I must talk to her about these hallucinations. I must have it out with her before we can be married. You will do nothing of the sort. I forbid it. You forbid it? In god's name, why? Jenny's mind, George, has a delicate balance. It swings perilously between this world and another, never quite settling, never coming to rest, oscillating back and forth, vibrating like a pendulum. George, don't tamper with that balance. Do you understand me? Don't tamper with it.
Or by heaven, I swear I don't yeah. Yeah. Well,
[00:12:13] Unknown:
never mind. You'll what, father? We'll finish what you were going to say.
[00:12:19] Unknown:
Look here. Look at this, George. You see it? It's it's it's a gun. Yes. It's a gun. You say one word, George, that girl about what you call her hallucinations, and I'll kill you. George? That's Jenny. Remember what I said, George.
[00:12:39] Unknown:
Leave her alone, or I'll kill you. It's alright, George. We can be married.
[00:12:48] Unknown:
My father gave us his blessing. In my happiness and my expectancy, I drove away all premonitions, all dreams. But every ticking at the back of my mind was the question, why had my father spoken as he did so passionately, so violently?
[00:13:05] Unknown:
You don't know. Do you? He loved her violently, passionately loved her.
[00:13:20] Unknown:
Death has been written about very little. Love has been written about a great deal. Perhaps because love is the beginning of everything, and death is the end. But what happens when love and death are intermingled, joined the one to the other in an eternal embrace? We'll explore this further in act two. So George and Jenny plighted their trot. And under a dire threat, George's father forbade his son ever to speak to his young fiance about her curious attachment to all those she has loved who have passed out of this life. Then under the spell of his infatuation, George proceeded with the arrangements for his imminent marriage to the girl of his heart.
[00:14:19] Unknown:
We spent long afternoons in the summer house, spinning dreams of the day that would unite us. We wanted an extravagant wedding, at least I did. My father's big white colonial house set among great old oak trees with its center hallway, its winding staircase, its vast reception hall was ideal. You remember it, Hannah.
[00:14:40] Unknown:
All true, Anne.
[00:14:42] Unknown:
After the ceremony, if it was a fine day, we would have the collation served in the great rose garden with a quintet of musicians playing and tables laden with food. And I shall be very dashing in my cutaway and striped trousers and you in what? What will you wear, Jenny? I don't know. You mean you haven't ordered your wedding dress? Not yet. I thought that was what young brides thought about first. What I've been thinking about. You'll have someone come to the house to make it, won't you? I don't know. Sweetheart, the local shops are alright for simple things. I'd like something simple, I think. Well, that's your sure. Look. Why don't you take a trip into the city and see what they have in the big stores? Well, yes. I I could do that. Hannah will go with you and help you pick it up. I don't want Hannah to go with me. But Hannah has very good taste, dear. She could advise you. I don't need Hannah to advise you. Only men. My mother
[00:15:38] Unknown:
will advise me. My mother will pick out my dress.
[00:15:47] Unknown:
I started to speak, then closed my lips firmly against the words. I remembered my father saying, Jenny's mind has a delicate balance. It swings between this world and another, oscillating back and forth. Don't tamper with it. Again, my love drowned my fears, and I reached for Jenny's hand. What are you thinking about, my love? About the wedding. Why do you look so sad?
[00:16:16] Unknown:
Who's to pay for it? All the caviar and champagne and the musicians. Who's to pay for my dress? My dear, do you need money for your dress? For everything.
[00:16:25] Unknown:
Who's to pay for it all? Precious. I'll give you money for the dress and the caviar, the champagne, the musicians.
[00:16:30] Unknown:
My father will pay for all that. Well, that's not right. Of course, it's right, Jenny. He expects to pay for it. He wants to. You're like his own daughter. The father of the bride always pays for those things. Jenny It's always done that way. My darling Father wouldn't have it any other way. I know that. He couldn't.
[00:16:49] Unknown:
My whole body stiffened. I murmured some sort of excuse, told her I needed something from the house, and I fled the summer house leaving her immobile, pensive, troubled. Inside the house, I found my father.
[00:17:05] Unknown:
Father, it's happened again. What happened? Sit down, Joe. I don't know what to do.
[00:17:15] Unknown:
George, what's the matter? Is it Jenny? Yes. She and I were sitting in the summer house. We've been there most of the afternoon making plans for the wedding. Ah, yeah. When we got to the subject of her wedding dress, it seems that she doesn't want it made. She she she wants to buy it. So I suggested that she take the train into the city and maybe Hannah would go with her, help her pick it out. Good idea. Yes. But Jenny would have no part of it. No? She said my mother will help me pick it out.
[00:17:41] Unknown:
My mother will help me pick out my wedding dress. Her mother who burned up in a fire, who's been in her grave George. George. George, I know how you feel. Am I to live with ghosts once we are married? George, I live with ghosts. We all live with ghosts. Well, I don't propose to. Well,
[00:17:58] Unknown:
what do you propose to do? Father, I didn't say anything when Jenny spoke about her mother, her dead mother, helping her to choose her wedding dress. I thought of everything you had said, and I kept quiet. I'm glad you did. But then then she suddenly looked very troubled, very perplexed, and she said, who's to pay for all this? Pay for it? Yes. The dress, the wedding, the music, the the the caterer. Why, I shall pay for it. Yeah. Well, that's what I told her. Well,
[00:18:23] Unknown:
who who else should pay for it? Her father.
[00:18:28] Unknown:
Her father. Well, that's what she said. She said it was only fitting and proper that the bride's father should pay for his daughter's wedding. I think she she expects her dead father to give her away. Oh, she wouldn't? I don't know what she expects. I I thought she'd want me. I know you forbade me to say anything to her about her. Her congress with the dead. I I do forbid you. But now I must
[00:18:55] Unknown:
it's gone too far. No, George. It could be fatal. George?
[00:19:00] Unknown:
Where are you? There she is. I'm in here, dear, with father in the in the library.
[00:19:05] Unknown:
Say nothing, George.
[00:19:06] Unknown:
Oh, I'm so glad you're here. You can help me. What is it you need, Jenny? The second volume of something called Materia Medica.
[00:19:17] Unknown:
Is there such a book? On the bottom shelf. Yes, dear. With the red binding. Oh, oh, yes.
[00:19:23] Unknown:
Now let let's see here. Volume two.
[00:19:28] Unknown:
What are you looking for, dear? Well, I I'm not sure.
[00:19:32] Unknown:
Let me see. Page 300 of yes. Yes. It's here. Here it is. What is? A thousand dollars to pay for my wedding.
[00:19:48] Unknown:
Her face was radiant. She spread the $10,100 dollar bills on the floor and gazed at them delightedly. As for my father and myself, we stared at each other. He told me it would be here. Your father? Of course.
[00:20:02] Unknown:
And here it is. Yes. There it is. Oh, isn't it wonderful, George? Wonderful. You'll pay for everything.
[00:20:09] Unknown:
Jenny, my dear, it's, nearly time for supper. Why don't you gather up the money and take it up to your room? Change for dinner. I wanna talk to George. Alright. That's a good girl. You see, George,
[00:20:22] Unknown:
I told you he wouldn't have it any other way. It wouldn't be proper.
[00:20:29] Unknown:
How did that money get there, father? Did you put it there? Her father put it there. You are worse than she is. You put it there, and then somehow No, George.
[00:20:42] Unknown:
Jenny's father put the money in the book ten years ago. Did did you know it was there? Not until now. You see, it's money he owed me, money I lent him. I never expect him to pay it back. And when he tried to pay it back, I refused to take it. But how did it get in the book? The night he came here to give it to me, the night I refused it, here in this very room, I remember after a long and somewhat stormy argument, I went out to call him a carriage. Left the $1,000 bills lying on the desk, and, when I came back to make my peace with him, the money was no longer there. Of course, I assume he'd put it back in his pocket, but
[00:21:27] Unknown:
instead, he hid it in a book he knew I'd eventually open. Father, it doesn't explain how Jenny came to know it was there.
[00:21:33] Unknown:
Don't don't shrug and turn away. We have to talk about this. I don't have to, and I don't intend to. Alright. Then I'll talk to Jenny about it. No. You won't. Come back here, George. Father, I cannot marry a girl who's living half with me and half with the dead. If you love her, you'll let her be. I can't, father. That girl has some sort of communication with the dead that you can't understand. But it's wrong. Right or wrong, it's hers. It's part of her, and you must not interfere. I have to, father. You must not. And I have to do it now. Don't make me kill you, George. Give me the gun, father. No. Give it to me. George. I don't care. Hurt you. Give me the gun. Give it to her.
[00:22:14] Unknown:
I'm sorry, father. I'm terribly sorry. Forgive me. I put the gun in my pocket. I looked down at my father on his knees on the floor where I'd forced him. His eyes were filled with tears. For whom? For himself? For Jenny? For me? For what she had done to him? For what he had almost done to me? Or for what I was about to do to her? I could not tell. I went upstairs and lifted my hand to knock on Jenny's door and then I heard her voice.
[00:22:57] Unknown:
Thank you. Oh, thank you, my darling. I knew I could count on you. I've always counted on you, and you've never failed me. Mother, should I have my dress made, or shall we go to the city and buy it? Oh, I want it to be just right. When I walk down the big staircase, I want to look just right. Because you, father, will be waiting at the foot of the stairs. You'll cook your arm just so, and I'll put mine through yours. And together, we'll walk to where the minister will be standing. Who's there? It's George. Let me in. I'm not quite this George. It
[00:23:46] Unknown:
doesn't matter.
[00:23:48] Unknown:
Please, George. Look at me.
[00:23:50] Unknown:
Jenny, look at me. Let me go, George. Who was that you were talking to just now?
[00:23:55] Unknown:
That was your father, wasn't it? You're hurting me, George. And your mother?
[00:23:59] Unknown:
You were planning your wedding with them. Not with me, not with them. Please, George. You were planning your wedding dress with your mother, not with Hannah who adores you. Hannah who helped raise you. George, please. I heard you. You were telling your father he would give you to me in marriage. Your father is dead, Jenny. He's been dead a long time and your mother too. Dead and dead. And Princess is dead too. Princess is not running across any meadow looking like a two year old. Princess got to be an old horse. She was 30 years old and lame and someone came and put a bullet between her eyes and she died. And your mother died too and your father. They were burned in a fire, Jenny, a long time ago. But you are alive, Jenny. You are here and you are alive.
You know that. Yes. And I am alive, and we are here. We are now, and we are alive here and now. Do you understand, my darling? Yes. And Hannah will help you with your wedding dress, and my father will pay for the wedding. And when you come down the staircase, he will be waiting for you, and you will put your arm through his, and you will walk together to the place where I will be waiting for you. And we will be married. Do you understand, my dearest girl? Do you understand? I was holding her arms and staring down into her wide frightened eyes and flinging my words into her face. Her eyes grew wider and wider.
Their expression began to change. But what the change was, I could not tell. Was she beginning to understand what I was saying? Or was she leaving me forever? Hannah, I could not tell. All I could do was hold her close. Oh, George.
[00:26:03] Unknown:
You poor, poor man.
[00:26:11] Unknown:
What does one say to someone who will not let go? What does one do with such a person? It's all very well to counsel them. Let the dead pass, bury its dead. But what if they scorn our advice and cling tenaciously to what they have lost? Or do the lost ones cling to them? As much as the living hold on to the dead, do the dead not also hold on to the living? I'll be back shortly with the concluding act. Jenny and George are about to be married, but it troubles George that his fiance still appears to commune with the spirits of her parents, who met their death in a fire many years before.
Indeed, Jenny appears to have contact, both visual and auditory, even with a horse named Princess, an aged mare they both rode as children. It is George's conviction that this morbidity must be erased from his beloved's personality before she can become his wife.
[00:27:30] Unknown:
Oh, Hannah. Hannah, I loved her so. I know. It was for her own sake that I did what I did. Of course. For our sake, I should say. For the health of our marriage, our life together. Perhaps my father had been right when he said we all live with our own ghosts, and Jenny should be allowed to live with hers. I was left in a torment of doubt as I held her close.
[00:27:56] Unknown:
Oh, George. What am I to do? Let them go, Jenny.
[00:28:01] Unknown:
Let them lie in their graves. They're dead, my darling, but you and I are living. We we're going to be married, aren't we? You know we are very soon now. Leave them, Jenny. Be with me. Oh, there'll be loneliness? My dear girl, they have died. Such things as loneliness, as grief, yes, joy too, and love, they are for the living, for us not for them.
[00:28:25] Unknown:
You really believe that don't you? It's true my dearest.
[00:28:29] Unknown:
You must believe it too. I'll try. No sweetheart. You must do more than that. I can. Yes you can. Now I'm going to be your husband and you must rely on me to tell you what is right. I only want you to be happy. You know that. Oh, yes? Well then, together we will exorcise these ghosts that haunt you. I shall try to be very patient, my dear love. Very patient and very loving. Because I do love you more than pen can write or tongue can tell. And you must trust in that love, Jenny. And believe with all your heart that I know what's best.
I held her in my arms for a long time. Then Hannah, I think that you've called from downstairs that supper would be on the table presently, and I released her to bathe and put on fresh clothes while I went down to confront my father. He looked very gray and haggard. It's done, father. Oh. Oh, George. It was necessary.
[00:29:33] Unknown:
I know you think so. I am convinced of it. I know you are. If we are ever to be happy together I I know. I know. I know. George, I feel very badly that I that I threatened you before the way I did. We best forget that, father. To threaten you with a gun? I I I must have been mad. We'll just forget all about it. Here's your gun, father. No. No. No. No. Take it. Take it. No. No. No. No. I I don't want it. I want you to take it. It'll help us to forget what happened. It'll be as though it never took place. No. You keep the gun, George. I don't want it. I I never want to touch it again. I'm I'm afraid. There's nothing to be afraid of. Well, all the same, I'm I'm afraid. Alright.
[00:30:21] Unknown:
I'll keep it until you say you want it back. So I put the gun in my pocket. It seemed to make him feel a little better as though simply getting it out of his sight would a step toward erasing the memory of that frantic night. Then I think that you, Hannah, announced that supper was served and the three of us sat down to eat together. None of us ate very much, which was understandable enough. Oh, yes. Still, we did manage to get through the meal. I had done the right and proper thing. I was sure of that. Oh, sure. I know. I know. Nevertheless, that is what I thought.
The next morning, Jenny did not come down for breakfast. My father and I left for the hospital together, worked assiduously all day, and left for home together late that afternoon.
[00:31:17] Unknown:
Hannah said this morning that Jenny was going in the city today to buy her wedding dress. Oh, that's splendid.
[00:31:23] Unknown:
Hannah want to go with her. Jenny Jenny went alone?
[00:31:28] Unknown:
I don't like that, father. Oh, it doesn't necessarily mean anything. No. But still You're afraid that Jenny still believes her mother will help her choose a dress? Well
[00:31:38] Unknown:
Oh, I'm sure everything will come out right sooner or later. I told her she must have faith in my love and my knowledge of what's best for her. I hope she can do that. Okay.
[00:31:48] Unknown:
Have, have you appointed a date for the wedding, George? Oh, the end of the month. We haven't decided on the precise day. Where will you live once you're married? No. We haven't talked about that. Could you, would you, consider staying on with me? I'll be lonely without either of you. Now that's selfish, I know. But, George, I'm so used to Jenny about the house. I'd I'd miss her terribly. But I mustn't be selfish. It's alright, father.
[00:32:23] Unknown:
I don't see why we shouldn't live in the house with you, at least for the time being. It is a nice house. It's a beautiful house and quite large enough for three. The trees are beginning to budge.
[00:32:37] Unknown:
Yes. Yeah. They'll be out full by the time of the wedding. What's that? Sounds like a local fire engine. Yeah. I'm glad Jenny isn't home to hear that.
[00:32:47] Unknown:
George. What? It's the summerhouse. Oh, look at the smoke. The summerhouse is burning. It's on fire. Jenny. You tried to save her, Hannah. I know that. I tried.
[00:33:08] Unknown:
It was no use. Your father tried, but the fire had gone too far.
[00:33:15] Unknown:
Hannah, who started the fire? I don't know. Did Jenny start it? If she did, it was my fault. I had made her life unendurable when I drove away her ghosts. I killed my own sweet darling. Oh, it's your fault. Yet the summer house was quite old. The wood was very dry. Could have burst into flame by itself, the nearest spark. Will I ever know, Anna?
[00:33:45] Unknown:
One day. You will.
[00:33:48] Unknown:
When? Soon,
[00:33:51] Unknown:
I think.
[00:33:56] Unknown:
We must decide
[00:33:59] Unknown:
where she should be buried, George. Well, there's the cemetery. Of course,
[00:34:04] Unknown:
Hannah thinks that would be best. Her father and mother are buried there. I I suppose she'd want to be near them. Yes. Well, whatever you say. Perhaps I could get permission to bury her here. On the property?
[00:34:18] Unknown:
Yes.
[00:34:20] Unknown:
Such things can be arranged, I believe. Whatever you say.
[00:34:25] Unknown:
No. George, whatever you say, it's, it's your privilege and your right to decide. Well, all I can think is that she's gone, that I shall never see her again.
[00:34:37] Unknown:
Never hear her voice. We'll talk about it tomorrow. Yes. Tomorrow. I'm, I'm very tired, George. I
[00:34:49] Unknown:
I think I'll go up to bed. Alright, father.
[00:34:51] Unknown:
I'll sit up a while longer. I I don't think I can sleep. Yeah. Well, tomorrow we'll make arrangements.
[00:35:00] Unknown:
Good night, son. Good night, father. I'll I'll look in on you when I come upstairs. Oh, you don't need to. I want to. He pressed my shoulder, and I put my hand over his for an instant. I felt very close to him. I truly loved him, Hannah. I know you did. Later, when I'd grown drowsy, I went upstairs, stopped at the door of his room, and went in without knocking in case he was asleep. I saw him lying fully clothed on his bed, but his shirt sleeve was pushed up above his elbow. I think I knew he was dead even before I touched him, and I knew how he had died. I found the minuscule puncture of the needle on his arm almost immediately, and later I found the slender needle where it had rolled under the bed.
I've never told you this before, Hannah, but now I feel I must
[00:36:00] Unknown:
Tell me. I
[00:36:03] Unknown:
I knelt by the side of his bed. But the tears would not come. I told myself, my father is dead. I even repeated the word over and over to myself, and then said it aloud. Dead. Dead, dead, I kept saying. I had lost her. And now, I had lost him, all within the space of a few hours. I could not comprehend how such a monstrous thing could have befallen me. Do you understand, Hannah?
[00:36:36] Unknown:
I understand.
[00:36:38] Unknown:
But I could not weep. I could not weep. And do you know why? Tell me. Because I hated him. I hated the man I had felt so close to such a short time before. And do you know why I hated him, Anna? Tell me. Because he wanted to be ahead of me even there. Even where, George? There. There. Wherever she was, he wanted to be there with her. Joe told me he loved her. He must be right. He left me and went to join her there. Where, Joe? There. There. I don't know where. Wherever she was, I don't know. So don't ask me where. Tell me the rest of it. I know.
By his bedside for, I don't know how long. Silent, frozen, angry. Angry. Yes. No one had cared enough for me. No one had thought of me. My life. My lonely life that I had now to face. Both of them had left me without a thought. Do you understand what I'm telling you, Hannah? Yes. Yes. I was living in a pit of hell I never knew existed, filled with fury, rage, and desperation. And then then
[00:38:14] Unknown:
Go on.
[00:38:15] Unknown:
And I Go on. I I got to my feet and I Go on. I reached in my pocket.
[00:38:25] Unknown:
Go on. I felt
[00:38:27] Unknown:
something. Yes. I took it out of my pocket. I put it to my head.
[00:38:35] Unknown:
What was that?
[00:38:36] Unknown:
Go on. I I I I just heard something. I didn't hear anything. Sounded like a gun going off. Oh. I I I don't remember anything like that. You will. When?
[00:38:53] Unknown:
When you realize that you are dead.
[00:38:59] Unknown:
Dead? I
[00:39:01] Unknown:
I dead? How how can that be? You took your father's gun from your pocket and you put it through your head, George, and you fired.
[00:39:10] Unknown:
But I'm here talking to you, Hannah. Can you see me? Of course. I can see you. I can't see you. But I'm I'm right next to you. You must see me. I don't have such gifts, George. Jenny had them. But why can't you see me? I I'm right here. The dead vibrate at a much faster pace than the living. Can it be true that I am dead, that I killed myself? It's true, George. Why did I do it?
[00:39:41] Unknown:
To join the others, perhaps.
[00:39:44] Unknown:
Jenny? My father? Or the others. Where where will I live now that I'm here? In a house, I think. A large white house? Perhaps. Will I be fed here?
[00:40:00] Unknown:
They say you will eat of the essence. Here, we eat of the substance, but you will eat of the essence.
[00:40:12] Unknown:
Hannah. Yes, George.
[00:40:15] Unknown:
Will I visit you now and then? Talk to you. I hope you will. You won't turn me away. Never. That's
[00:40:25] Unknown:
good.
[00:40:28] Unknown:
Listen, Hannah. Listen to that. What do you hear? Don't you hear it, Hannah? Don't you hear it? You must. It's Princess. It's old Princess galloping across the meadow, looking like a two year old.
[00:40:56] Unknown:
And that is how some people envision death and what comes after. I cannot promise you that they are right. On On the other hand, I cannot tell you they're wrong. I'm as ignorant and as undecided as you or anyone. But if they are right, should we keep our ears, perhaps our eyes, open for the sight and sound of those who have left us? I don't know. Perhaps it is better simply to get on with the only business that we know, the business of living. I shall return shortly. Someone said that the dead are not truly dead so long as they are remembered here on earth. And that may be true. I'm not prepared to say.
But assuming that it is true, the flaw lies in the fact that remembering can be so painful. Remembering hurts. Our cast included Paul Hecht, Fred Gwyn, and E. V. Juster. Entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown. Radio Mystery Theatre was sponsored in part by True Value Hardware stores, Buick Motor Division, and Signoff, the sign of medicine. This is E. G. Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery theatre for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time. Pleasant dreams.
