wonderful. what's she like, brother? what is your impression of her?
your impression is very reassuring, brother. of course she's had troubles, poor thing, but i sensed that was that the girl was like and i'm glad to have it reconfirmed.
all right, all right. doll and waski are upstairs taking their nap, you go get them and bring them down to the living room. where is the girl?
walked, in all that heat? it's a wonder she hasn't got sunstroke. i'll phone daddy and you go get doll baby and waski.
rose, this is waski. his real name is warren but we call him waski. he doesn't like it much and i suppose someday we'll have to stop calling him that.
when he was baby we called him "wa wa," a baby name, you know. you will find him a very good boy. his brother can be bad and so can his sister, but waski is a very good boy. and as you can see he's beautiful.
there are plenty of girls who would give thousands of dollars to have your auburn hair. beauty is beauty and that's all there is to it. beauty is there and we have to recognize it. now rose, the little girl sitting across from you with the blue eyes is doll baby. she looks like an angel and she is an angel, but she can be a naughty angel sometimes, although her father won't believe it. her real name is frances, but we call her dolly or doll.
daddy wouldn't hear that. now the redhaired boy you see sitting there, of course you have met him, he is my oldest son and my most brilliant child. all children have great creative powers, but i don't want to rattle on about my children, they say i brag too much about them, especially about brother. am i boring you, rose?
well, it's rather interesting about brother, actually. i realized the remarkable thing he had when he was six weeks old. he looked at me and understood me, he knew exactly who i was. i know it sounds crazy but it's true. he's very remarkable, he was born for the ministry and could move millions, but he doesn't know that yet. i have to warn you about him, he can be very dangerous, there is an evil streak in him, a streak of pure sheer meanness. but at heart brother is saintly and that is why he was born for the ministry even if he doesn't know it.
it isn't the fourth dimension. to you it's the fourth dimension, maybe, to me it's simply the truth.
more history, rose.
well, i am working on my thesis.
rose, you work too hard. why don't you go sit down somewhere and drink a co-cola?
really, why don't you go sit down somewhere?
well, you run on now.
yes, it's so nice i thought i'd work outside.
slow, hon. but at least i can concentrate now that rose is here.
what?
oh. did you say something?
honey, she's perfect. she works all the time and she's wonderful with the children. and they love her, even brother likes her though he won't admit it. i think she's just perfect.
and she's such a good-hearted thing, there isn't an ounce of harm or malice in her.
there are no flies on rose, i don't know what you're talking about.
hope for the best? i don't understand all this skepticism. i thought you liked rose.
hotcha character. if i had to live with your cynicism, i wouldn't want to live at all. what you can't understand is that the creative forces of the universe are positive, not negative.
i'm not in the fourth dimension -- -- you are in the fourth dimension, when you allow skepticism and doubt to take control. as blake said, if god had doubt the sun would go out.
be nice to rose. she's never had a real home.
rose does have a gift for cooking. she learns so fast, but mainly i think it's that she tries so hard.
rose, you're in an awful dither tonight. what's the matter with you, honey, are you sick or something?
you look sick if you ask me. i hate to leave you with the dishes and all, but i'm supposed to go to a meeting of the garden club this evening. i'll need the car keys.
i think about what i'm doing all the time, and i've got as much business behind the wheel of an automobile as anybody. besides, i want you to stay and help rose with the dishes, the poor girl isn't feeling well.
what's the matter, hon? is anything wrong?
yes, dear, what is it?
brother, when i have to wake you up at eleven o'clock in the morning you're either sick or you were up very late last night. and you weren't reading huckleberry finn. i looked and its not in your room. now what were you doing?
oh, brother, i am so disappointed in you. you mustn't look at those horrible things, they degrade the human image.
sex isn't ugly, sex is one of the most beautiful things in life, the creative power of the universe is behind it.
but we must respect that power, we must be in awe of it.
i don't think you are sufficiently in awe of it. get the castor oil.
this isn't punishment, i don't believe in punishment. it's for your health. obviously you're sick if you can act like that.
this is for your own good. when you look at negative, destructive things like those little filthy comic books, you are sick. here, take this.
stop gagging like that and putting on a show, and swallow it.
what did you say, brother?
no, you didn't say that, brother.
children, children! be quiet, all of you! the vibrations in this house are strange today. where's rose, anyhow?
what'd you say, brother?
oh, yes, it's thursday. hello, rose, dear.  .  my, you're.  looking pretty.
well, it's.  very gay.
well, i think it's charming, rose. but don't you think.  ah, the skirt is a little tight?
why, they won't either. she looks pretty. and i wish you wouldn't pick on the poor girl all the time. don't listen to him, rose, you look pretty, even beautiful.
you mustn't be a tattletale, dear. you mustn't be delilah-ish and jezebel-ish toward your brother, dear.
i do wish you'd speak to brother. it's true he's been looking at those horrible little books again.
i'm serious. we forget he's just a child. i wish you'd speak to him.
well, it is a little tight. but it isn't as bad as all that. no one will notice unless they have such thoughts in the first place.
you're not having lunch?
rose, you and brother wait in the car. i want to speak for a moment lo mr. hillyer.
doll, you and waski run on, too.
i wish you wouldn't pick on rose and tease her like that. of course her clothes are silly, but she's ignorant, naive, she doesn't know any better.
well, i admit that outfit isn't very modest. but she doesn't mean any harm, she just wants to attract, attention.
i don't think you understand her. it isn't sex she wants, it's love she wants and this is the only way she knows how to get it.
he and his wife both said she had a fine moral character and was wonderful with children.
but that's a wonderful quality, not a bad quality. have a little patience with her. she's such a good-hearted little thing and tries so hard.
be kind to her. she loves you so much. in a perfectly proper way, of course.
what time is it?
is she all right?
bruises and broken bones, what kind of thing is that to say?
why shouldn't she go out and have boyfriends?
well, i wish you'd stop criticizing and picking on her.
well, time will tell, won't it?
rose, that scruffy-looking man is out in the yard again.
i had better call daddy.
hello, honey? that scruffy-looking man is out in the yard again.
yes?
she must have gone out for a walk with the children.
she isn't here. and i'm sorry, but mr. hillyer doesn't want her to have callers during working hours.
i said she isn't here. now you go home. be a nice boy and go home.
that sulky boy was here again this afternoon. i was almost scared, he wouldn't go away.
well, it isn't rose's fault boys and men like her. you cant blame her for that, hon.
i don't think we ought to discuss this in front of the children.
i will not sit here and listen to you be brutal to this poor girl.
you certainly are! she has an awful toothache, look at her jaw, it's all swollen.
scoundrels? they weren't scoundrels, they were just boys.
yes! yes, i say that to you, they were boys! boy friends of rose, chat's what they were, and why shouldn't she have boy friends? do you want her to be unnatural? don't you think she's human the same way you are yourself? it's the south, that's what it is, the south with its horrible traditions, of slavery and crime and the oppression of women, who are just as good as men and just as human!
and when i try to talk to you seriously, when i try to explain to you the unlimited creative power of life, how beautiful it would be if we gave up this hopeless struggle and simply loved each other from our hearts, what do you do -- you mock me!
just a moment! you are not going to fire this girl for an innocent thing like having boy friends, not while there is breath in my body!
it isn't her fault if she's popular.  what?
well, that's very reasonable. howe i hate to bring it up, but she's got an awful toothache, we've got to carry her to the dentist.
be quiet, rose.
poor thing. does the ice help, rose?
no, rose, he'll help you.
now, come on, rose. stop being so childish, come on.
rose, sit down in that chair and be quiet! we're trying to help you, you silly creature, sit in that chair!
she was raised on a poor dirt farm. i'm sure she's never seen a dentist or hardly even a doctor.
but the wisdom tooth will have to be pulled?
that would scare her to death. she's terrified of hospitals. to her, a hospital is where you go to die.
i know it was bad, honey. i'm sorry.
it'll get better now.
rose has learned her lesson, haven't you, rose?
well, she does seem to cause a lot of trouble, i admit. but she doesn't mean any harm and it'll break the children's hearts, they all love her.
who is to say our morals are better than hers? but maybe you're right. she could.  influence dolly.
but morals come from the heart, not from rigid rules and empty laws. and in her heart rose has never hurt anyone and she never would. therefore, she's not immoral. not really.
but what i said is the simple truth. and now i see something else, i see more deeply into it.
how could rose really be a bad influence on dolly? she has a loving nature, you ought to want someone like that around your children. why do you think those boys and men like her?
if you mean sex, you couldn't be more wrong. rose likes those boys and men, she has love in her heart, and that is what they want. it's the most rare and beautiful thing in life and that is why they follow her.
what she doesn't understand is that her behavior is disturbing to other people. she's young, she's got to learn to restrain the life force that's in her. its creative, but in her case it's too creative.
i'll talk to her, i'll reason with her.
rose, you're very sick. you're burning up. rose, can you hear me? rose?
she looks terrible, just awful.
she hid it from us, doctor. she's afraid of the hospital.
deathly afraid of it. her people were poor tenant farmers and she doesn't know anything about doctors or medicine or hospitals.
well, her people were very poor. she says she was often hungry as a child, and i'm sure the food she ate was pretty awful, not a balanced diet at all.
honey, please.
it is kind of amazing. the dentist says she has perfect teeth, there isn't a cavity in her mouth.
yes, thank you, doctor.
you don't like him because he's a yankee. he's a brilliant doctor.
i don't see how you can even think of it now.
oh, good evening, doctor. rose is a lot better, i just gave her her supper. she's almost all well now.
yes. well. she's upstairs.
the doctor is here. and brother, supper is ready.
honey, dr. martinson isn't a rascal, he's one of the finest physicians in glenville. he studied at johns hopkins university.
sometimes the negativism and cynicism in you makes me want to vomit. your real trouble is that you're anti-intellectual. the irony is women are supposed to be emotional, but i never saw anybody who depended more on emotion and prejudice than you do.
now i have a plan about rose, an educational plan. she's getting better and we don't want any more trouble -- brother, you ought to hear this.
first, those clothes she wears. they're too provocative. i've talked to her a lot about it and i think she understands.
you see, rose? now that's the kind of dress you ought to wear.
you look very pretty in it, rose. really, you do.
well, there's no reason you shouldn't go out, rose.  in moderation.
she's like a different person. being so sick made a big impression on her. i really think she's learned a lesson.
she hasn't actually done anything.
she can't get a job, it's a depression. and we can't just throw her out on the street.
rose, you don't look well and you haven't eaten a bit of breakfast.
she does look a little peaky.
she's just nervous and worried. and you would be, too, if you had no job and no place to go.
honey, rose was born on a farm and has terrible memories of farm life. now i don't think --
i don't know how you can call it ideal -- don't you know what the word "farm" means to her?
it sounds like a farm to me. calling it a dairy establishment, that's just trickery and flummery.
brother, get out of that window!
poor thing, don't cry, rose. i know you feel awful, but don't cry, honey, nobody's perfect. who's the father, dear?
i know it's embarrassing.  but who were you exposed to, dear?
that's why i'm asking her who the father is. it's the most vital question of all. who's the father, dear?
but she must know.  unless.  unless.  rose, was there more than one person?
rose, really, you shouldn't act like that.
what did you forget?
honey!
rose, you don't have to.
i'd say about three months. are you satisfied?
gonorrhea?
well, that's pathetic. poor rose, what a life she has had.
no, you shouldn't have, it was needlessly cruel. she thinks she has cancer and is going to die.
this conversation is making me a little sick.
what do you mean, what kind of gobbledygook talk is that?
yes, go on.
what are you talking about? i don't understand all this mumbo jumbo and the funny looks on your faces.
over.  my.  dead.  body!
are you human beings or are you some kind of male monsters? is there no limit to which you won't go to keep your illusions about yourselves?
you'd go so far as to mutilate a helpless girl who has no means to defend herself, you'd go that far? don't you think i know what you've just said and don't you think i understand the dreadful and revolting crime you've just conspired to commit?
i thought i knew you. i thought i knew you better, i thought in your heart you were a good and kind man. well, i can't believe what i've just heard in this room. a defenseless girl depending on you for protection, and you propose to mutilate and destroy her. how could you listen even for a moment to that sadistic man?
i can't believe you really meant it, if i did i'd want to die. you aren't a male monster, that man is but you aren't. look me in the eye and tell me, do you really want to take rose's womanhood away from her when it's all she has got?
rose isn't oversexed, that's ridiculous. if you're going to talk nonsense, i don't want to talk to you at all. rose is exactly the same as the rest of us, except more so.
better off? how could she ever find love and happiness, if you did what you're talking about? are you insane?
i will not cry like a woman. if i'm upset it's because of what my husband said, not because of you. you can't make me cry like a woman, a woman has got just as much intelligence and self-control as a man. and you get this in your head. if you hurt that girl, i'll hire lawyers and sue you for malpractice for every penny you have got, i'll do my level best to ruin you. do you understand me?
i understand you perfectly. you leave that girl alone, you wretched man, or you will be sorry.
let him be guided not by my wishes and not by rose's wishes, although i am sure they are identical. let him be guided by the wishes of the creative power of life itself, because that is what has spoken through me tonight.
no, waski, she won't die, because we are praying for her.
how is she?
don't worry about it, honey.
don't worry, honey, you'll find something.
forget about it, i don't want you working in one of those honky tonks.
i don't understand it. even in the wild days she was never as late as this.
who?
well.  well, that's wonderful, rose.
well, yes, she's happy. of course dave doesn't have her life force, not at all. there isn't much furniture in his house, just a table and one or two chairs, whereas rose has furniture coming out of the windows.
yes, i think so. he adores her, it's almost pitiful the way he worships her. i just hope she isn't too much for him.
what do you think, brother?
what's the matter with him?
maybe brother is right. maybe so.