and that works?
you said it to me in cherokee.
anyway, there won't be any war. and if there is, they say it won't last a week.
i saw.
you heard him.
do you have news, sir, on my application for transfer?
sir. it was my understanding the medical corps was desperate for volunteers.
i'm inman.
w. p. inman.
repeating a thing doesn't improve it. people call me inman.
they're not my friends.
thank you.
i work wood. got a piece of land. mostly work wood.
i can clear a field.
not that comes to me. i'll say thank you for the lemonade.
i'm wetter than a fish.
i'm all right.
if there's a war we'll all fight.
call a thing a war makes it a challenge to some men.
say again.
you're laughing at me.
you're always carrying a tray.
i'll do that. i can't get much wetter.
reverend.
i have some sheet music. belonged to my father. no use to me.
i should probably get along.
i think so.
are you the law all of a sudden?
you might be safer back in charleston.
i'm going to walk back inside the chapel.
just some quiet.
ada.
i'm not dying.
pigeon river. little east fork.
seems that way.
where'd you take your wound?
what would you give for that? to have your eyeballs back for ten minutes?
that's sure what seeing's done to me.
then we don't agree. there's not much i wouldn't give for ten minutes of someplace.
same difference.
hey! i'd pay a dollar for an egg. a piece of cheese.
don't let go. just back up, nice and steady, do this all in reverse, you're going to end up with her draped back over your animal.
i've killed several of them.
what part of god's business is throwing a woman down a gorge.
is she dead?
where does she live?
shut your mouth. i don't want a sermon every time i ask a question.
this your place?
you're going to put her back where she sleeps.
so you reckoned to kill her.
you find me some paper and a pen.
sign says ferry, five dollars.
what's the name of this thing?
i can give you thirty dollars script.
no. get out.
i should have shot you when i had the chance.
you're nothing like me and the last thing i want right now is a conversation.
jesus, god!
there's nowhere i'm going with you except to hellfire!
it's not yours. you take it, you make us another enemy. you're a christian -- don' t you know your commandments?
then what?
i don't know where he's heading. i'm going down the road. and i got a good way to go before nightfall.
give me that saw. come on.
let's do this in chapters.
you might want to leave off that water for a day or two.
he's got a shit coming on. it's overdue.
like a christian.
he doesn't know what i am. thanks.
what?
like to wash their hands and pray.
dolly, lila, shyla and mae.
i'll say my goodbyes, got miles and miles to go before sunset. i'll just quickly lie down.
he's dead.
this man's dead!
you run, we're all running with you, the lame and the stupid, of which we number both.
just give me some warning so i can tell the guard -- i'm not getting shot again for some cause i don't believe in.
no!
fighting.
different fighting.
mister -- you could fix me i'd be in your everlasting debt.
how long have i been sleeping?
i can't stop here. i'm a deserter. they find me here things could be bad for you.
how long you been up here?
last time i checked it was '64.
twenty six years!
i could be at killing for days sometimes, in the hand to hand, my feet against the feet of my enemy and i always killed him and he never killed me.
i guess he did.
it's true.
what you remember.
ada. -- sometimes i think i'm crazy when i'm just hungry -- ada monroe.
she was. i don't know. or if she'd know me. i'm like the boy who goes out in winter for firewood comes back in the spring with a whistle.
i've had to put myself in the way of people's kindness.
the passenger pigeons fly south, the berries ripen. whether i see them or not, whether a man dies, or a war is won.
she gave me a book. ada monroe. man by the name of bartram. wrote about his travels. i carried that book through every battle. i left it someplace, got to get it back. sometimes just reading the name of a place near home -- sorell cove, fire scale ridge -- was enough to bring me to tears. thing is i've been thinking -- those places belonged to people before us, to the indian -- and he had a different name. what did he call sorell cove? how can a name not even the real name break your heart? it's her, she's the place i'm heading. and i hardly know her. so how can a person who's maybe not even a real person -- i don't know what i'm talking about -- i have to close my eyes.
i have a deal to thank you for.
i'm one man alone. i'm a confederate soldier on furlough. i have no bad intention. i need shelter and food.
can i at least sleep in the corn crib -- just for some shelter? i'll be on my way come morning.
fair enough.
thank you.
no, i mean to give it to you.
is your baby sick?
i'm sorry.
there's no hunting on the road, just cress and --
i could do that for you in the morning.
it's what i'd gladly do for you for what you're gladly doing for me. i'm inman by the way. that's my name.
glad to know you both.
i got a blanket.
pretty much. these boots are good boots.
good night.
i don't know. i'll try.
i'll go. i'll go, shall i?
i can try and fight them.
move away from the baby.
take off your boots. take off your pants, and your shirt.
you'd better get running before you catch your death of cold.
ada? ada monroe?
then i believe i made a mistake.
if i knew where to go i'd go there.
i may need to.
not lately.
i'm sorry. i was trying to be quiet.
-- i got no appetite left to be in a room with wounded men.
it's not a face you recognised.
i got three letters. carried them in that book you gave me. the bertram.
whenever i could. if you never got them i can summarize.
i pray you're well. i pray i'm in your thoughts. you are all that keeps me from sliding into some dark place.
a thousand moments. they're like a bag of tiny diamonds glittering in a black heart. don't matter if they're real or things i made up. the shape of your neck. the way you felt under my hands when i pulled you to me.
you're playing a piano and i'm standing outside.
that kiss -- which i've kissed again every day of my walking.
maybe you can't see my face, but if you could see my inside, my whatever you want to name it, my spirit, that's the fear i have deeper than any gash on my neck. i think i'm ruined. they kept trying to put me in the ground, but i wasn't ready, no ma'am, no more ready than that scoundrel in there's not ready to die on us. but if i had goodness, i lost it. if i had anything tender in me i shot it dead.
i'll say goodnight.
right.
more a question could she put up with me.
sure.
ada, i want to marry you. if you'll have me.
i marry you. i marry you. i marry you.
why's that funny?
i can wait for you.
not for all the gold dollars in the federal bank.
you go ahead. i'll follow with the horse at a pace your daddy can tolerate.
it's safer this way. no one has quarrel with you.
i gather i need permission if i reckon on living at black cove.
we'll get to you by nightfall.
your mr. bartram speaks about some category of fly born on the hide of a cow. it flies up into a tree and waits and waits until it smells cow. it can wait a year, two years, i don't know, maybe longer. then a cow comes along and it wakes up, flies down, lays its eggs on the cow. there's purpose for you.
don't look round.
how many men does he have?
i got a conversation stopper. closer we get to that broken ground the better.
you hold on tight, do you hear? when i say three, look round, nice and slow.
one, two, three.
come out of there.
i just have to shoot the horse from under you.
i am.
i hope so. look, how old are you? give me your gun and ride home, i'm done fighting. i'm sick of it.
i will not shoot you, but nor am i walking down that mountain looking over my shoulder for you.
what have you got on your side?