1:37:00
Talent. Ambition. That's dead long ago.
That's drowned.
1:37:04
That's drifting around
with a bloated belly on a lake of alcohol.
1:37:07
No it isn't. You still have it.
1:37:09
Quit trying to stall me Helen. It's too late.
1:37:11
There's no more writing left in me,
it's gone. What do you expect, a miracle?
1:37:13
Yes,
1:37:14
Yes, yes! If I could just make you...
1:37:16
- Who is it?
- It's me, Mr. Birnam.
1:37:18
- What is it, Nat?
- I got somethin' for you, Mr. Birnam.
1:37:26
- I hope I ain't intrudin.
- What is it?
1:37:28
You know when you had that accident?
1:37:30
Afterward I found this floatin' around on the Nile.
1:37:32
She writes pretty good. I oiled her up a little.
1:37:35
And I didn't oil her up so you can hock her.
1:37:39
- I'll take it, Nat.
- Hello, Miss.
1:37:43
Thank you, Nat.
1:37:45
How are all them lilacs in Ohio?
1:37:50
Well Don, here it is. What do you say now?
1:37:53
- Say about what?
- This.
1:37:55
Someone, somewhere, sent it back.
Why? Because he means you to stay alive,
1:37:58
because he wants you to write.
I didn't ask for a big miracle.
1:38:01
Write! With these hands?
And a brain that's all out of focus?
1:38:03
It'll clear up again. You'll be well.
1:38:04
And I'll be sitting there staring at that white sheet, scared.
1:38:07
No you won't. You've forgotten what it feels like to be well.
1:38:10
- What am I gonna write about? What?
- What you've always wanted to write.
1:38:14
Where was the page I found?
1:38:16
"The Bottle. A Novel by Don Birnam,"
1:38:19
What was that to be?
1:38:20
About a messed-up life. About a man and a woman and a bottle.
1:38:23
About nightmares, horrors, humiliations,
all the things I want to forget.
1:38:27
Put it all down on paper. Get rid of it that way.
1:38:29
Tell it all, to whom it may concern.
1:38:32
And it concerns so many people, Don.
1:38:34
Yeah.
1:38:36
I'll fix us some breakfast.
1:38:39
We have quite a supply of milk.
1:38:44
You'll notice I didn't even find a first line.
1:38:47
Course you couldn't write the beginning
because you didn't know the ending.
1:38:50
Only now...