Original subtitles

- Bank up. - Yup.

David?

Come on.

Whoo!

Tie that up for Daddy, okay?

Good and tight. Remember how I showed you?

Fit as a fiddle.

Gotcha!

Come on, let's go.

There's Mum.

- You two, be careful! - What?!

I said, "Be careful!"

Walk when I tell you.

Get in!

Lunch?

Can I have a radish, please?

You want to tell Mummy what you did? On the weir?

- What did you do, darling? - Running along the top.

Did you take any chances?

Mmm?

- No, he was very good. - Was he good?

Very good. Just what the doctor ordered.

Can you drink all that?

This to eat, or to look at?

Now, I want you to be very careful.

I can't see him anywhere.

Who, David?

Damn!

David? David!

David!

Where could he be? Where's he gone?

David!

David!

David!

David!

David!

David? David? David?

David!

David!

David!

David!

David!

David?

David!

Oh, God.

David? David?

Da...

David!

Robert!

Robert, I can't find him!

David!

David!

Où sont les brouillards d'antan?

They're here, that's where they are.

The fogs of yesteryear are having a bloody reunion.

Anyway, it's good to be together again, after all this time.

Oh, look, this is ridiculous.

We'll never make it through this, even if we knew

- we were on the right road. - No, come on. We're almost there.

I'm sure we are.

If you say so.

Did you ever meet her? Your Aunt Rachel.

Mmm. Just once.

When I first came to England. It was years ago.

Were you bitchy with her?

Or did she leave you the place because she hated your father?

It's a very nice house, Robert.

Sorry, I didn't mean that.

Traffic conditions throughout England

have become extremely hazardous, with dense fog...

Yeah, thanks a million.

All drivers should exercise caution...

I think this may have been a very foolish idea.

No, it was a brilliant idea.

Really, though, I mean it. We'll be fine.

Whoops!

Jesus!

If we ever get there!

We're almost there, I'm sure.

It'd be safer to get out and walk.

Claire?

Yes.

- Claire? You coming? - I'm coming.

- Come on, come on. - I can't find the key.

Terrific.

Wow.

It's fabulous.

Absolutely fabulous.

Claire?

What are you doing? Tasting madeleines?

Is it all coming back to you?

I don't know.

I feel strange.

What you feel is the first symptoms of pneumonia.

Come on. Let's get out of these things.

- How old were you? - Nine. No, ten.

It was only for a weekend.

There was a lovely fireplace.

Any let-up?

I've never seen fog like that before.

I can't understand it. The weatherman actually predicted fog.

- We could have died out there. - Oh, Claire, come on.

We could have. People do die in the fog.

People die in the fog, they die in the rain,

they die in their bathtubs.

They also die of starvation.

I lost half the groceries when I slipped back there.

The potatoes are gone, and the bread.

Claire?

Claire, look.

At what? Potatoes that aren't there?

All right.

Robert, you've lost the potatoes.

And the bread.

Is that what you wanted?

I want you.

And I want you here.

In our country home.

Your country home.

- Robert, my luggage. - What about it?

I'll tell you, we may really starve,

if we don't freeze to death first.

My night things are in my other case. And my sleeping pills.

Oh.

I'm sorry.

Are you gonna miss them?

They haven't done you much good.

We're stranded. We're completely cut off.

No-one knows we're here.

Not even Mother. You made sure of that.

Now, what is that supposed to mean?

Nothing. I'm sorry.

It's getting very cold.

Now, there's our problem. Galloping frigidity.

We could freeze to death in this house.

Oh, absolutely. Could be stuck here till the spring.

They'd carry out the corpses, perfectly preserved,

but stiff as a board, like frozen food.

The British Museum would pay a fortune for us.

Claire, will you come and help me with this mess?

Oh, there's a crack in the wine bottle.

Thank God it's not the Scotch.

Have to be careful of the glass.

Swallow just one tiny sliver,

and it'll cut your inside to pieces.

I knew a girl once who swallowed a piece of glass.

It travelled with her blood

until it reached her medulla oblongata.

Her medulla oblongata.

What is it?

I told you we should have turned back.

If we had turned back when you said we should turn back,

we would still be stuck out there in the fog now, wouldn't we?

We have no heating,

no electricity, no telephone,

nothing.

And it's all ours, thanks to you.

It was left to me.

- Could have sold it. - How?

How was I going to sell it, where I was?

Yes. I'm sorry.

Forgive me.

Anyway, who'd buy it? The local coven?

Come on, it's all right. We're stuck.

Let's make the most of it.

We've got each other,

and the best bottle of Scotch money can buy.

So let's forget about the fog,

about being stranded, about everything but us. Okay?

Robert, I'm sorry,

for being so frightened.

I still lose myself so quickly.

Well, that's because you keep forgetting the golden rule,

which is, "Be what you are."

You must deal in things, in reality.

Don't drift.

Even on a day like this, don't wander off,

not even for a moment.

And forget about the past.

David!

Yes, it's over.

I am trying, Robert.

I know. I know you are.

Go on. All the way, the first one.

Oh.

It's been such a long time.

Claire?

Claire, your cup.

Do you want me drunk?

I want you any way I can get you.

- I want you. - No.

- I want you. - No, Robert, please don't.

- I want you. - No, no, really, don't. I'm a mess.

You promise me you'll get my suitcase?

- No pills. Not tonight. - No, I don't want...

I don't want my pills. I want my nightgown.

That's where I was.

When you thought I was with my, er... lover, I suppose.

And where were you when I was with him?

Was she anybody I know?

- Oh, come on, Claire, for God's sake. - Doesn't matter.

What's done is done.

Anyway, I was buying a nightgown.

After all, this is a special occasion.

A reunion.

You wait till you see it.

It's called a Granny, but your granny

wouldn't have been caught dead in this one.

It's completely transparent.

Would you mind that?

Sleeping with someone that reminds you of your grandmother?

Right now,

I wouldn't mind sleeping with someone

who reminded me of my grand father.

Robert, please.

Not now.

I need another drink.

I'm sorry.

There's no need to be.

I'm just impatient, that's all.

You have every right to be.

It has been a long time.

It's not that. It's not just that.

Well, what is it, then? I don't understand.

This house.

Well, I remember once

- a little room in Soho... - No.

- ...that was big enough for just a bed. - No, I just don't belong here.

Well, no-one belongs here.

All right, we've got no electricity, no heat.

But we are alone. Your mother's not here.

No nurse. It is a reunion.

Claire, you're well,

and I want you.

I want my wife.

After what I've put you through,

why do you want me?

I just don't know any better.

It's so cold. Can we have a fire?

I'm chilled right through.

All right.

I'll light a fire.

I'm sorry, I...

I must do it unconsciously.

Well, that's a help. Here's a log.

I suppose I can break up the furniture.

It must be very unpleasant for you, but I do do it unconsciously.

I only do it when I'm upset about...

I read once that scars take a long time...

- That scar tissue... - All right. Enough.

Just try not to do it.

Ah, look at this.

A pair, no less.

And with fuel.

I shall light them for you.

Dispel the gloom, you know.

There.

That's better.

The Ritz, it is not.

Now what?

Nothing.

- Nothing. - Darling, no more.

We're fine.

Really, we are.

It's quite cosy, really,

when I get a fire going.

We've got some food.

Enough for a week, if we're careful.

A week? I can't stay here a week.

Well, a day.

Two days.

We'll manage.

The wind's coming up. Could blow the fog away.

Hello, up there! Hello!

Ah, the money.

You people with money certainly know how to spend it.

Ah, there's no end to the treasures.

Look at that beauty!

See if it still sings time's endless song.

Grease of eternity, how slick you are.

It's a palace, Claire.

Full of wonders.

And it's all yours.

Now, that staircase.

So how that would have warmed the old Queen's heart.

Ah, look. How sweet.

The house's guardian angels, no doubt.

Should make you feel a lot safer.

They're neuter gender, I see.

Must have solved a lot of celestial problems.

Who were the last tenants?

- What? - Who lived here last?

- Who lived here? - Before Auntie.

Some family, cousins, on my father's side.

It was over sixty years ago.

Where are you going?

I hope, to the basement.

I'll need some kindling for your fire.

Use this carton.

It's wet.

Would you rather not be left alone?

Come along, then.

I can't go down there.

Jesus. Some reunion.

Claire, why don't we wait until we're settled?

Till I've started the fire and we've had something to eat.

Then you can drag out all your bag of tricks.

All the instruments of torture,

- all those marvellous devices... - Stop it!

- ...that drive me to distraction. - Stop it! Stop it!

Claire.

Claire!

- Claire, for God's sake! - Stop it!

- You bloody idiot! - Stop it! Let me go!

Get back in the house. Come on.

Go on, get in.

You'll get bloody pneumonia out there, you idiot.

I'm sorry.

And I'm tired of saying, "I'm sorry."

Now, let's enjoy ourselves the way we planned.

Let's pretend, if only for the sheer novelty of it,

that we are two simple, ordinary human beings

who can derive pleasure from ordinary things.

This house, such as it is. The fog.

Fixing food. Keeping warm.

Making love.

Claire...

Claire?

You fool.

You want to play house.

Curl up like a pair of newlyweds. How sweet.

Don't you think I want that, too?

Isn't that why I came? I wanted to come here, Robert.

This was gonna be a beginning for us.

A beginning.

Not an ending.

What are you talking about?

This house.

There's something wrong with it.

Wrong.

I'm crawling all over.

Claire, are you gonna go on and start a whole...

I feel it!

I felt it the moment we walked in the door.

Well, I don't feel anything.

No.

No, you never have felt anything.

- Oh, that's right. - Not once.

That's right. You're the sensitive one.

I'm the clod, and you're Christina Rossetti.

You quiver if a hummingbird flies by.

An earthquake, and I grunt in my sleep.

How horrible it must have been for you all these years.

And you.

You've had your women, Robert.

- Why do you... - Oh, Jesus wept!

Why do you want me?

I don't want you. I just want your money.

That's what your mother's always saying, isn't it?

"He married her for her money, so he could finish the novel!"

Well, that hasn't happened, has it?

You've still got your money,

and I've got...

Go on, get dressed.

We'll get back to the road somehow.

Robert,

I'm sorry.

Please, help me.

Help you? I'm the one that needs the help!

Do you know what you're doing? Because I don't have a clue!

So, let's go.

You coming?

Well, I'll be right back.

Who is it?

Who are you?

Who is it?!

Claire?

- You all right? - Yes. I'm fine.

You've found the kindling. Come on. I'll help you.

It's going to be beautiful.

It's what we needed, Robert. A fire.

- Feeling better? - Mmm.

- Another drink? - Mmm.

What is it now?

Nothing.

Nothing.

It is beautiful.

What the hell was that?

Something up there.

Oh, it's a chandelier. Look, for candles.

Wonder if there's some way of getting it down.

This should do it.

There's a whole battery of pulleys up there.

Now, that is magnificent.

I mean, what trouble.

They could have only used it for parties.

Looks like a birthday cake.

Now...

for the pièce de résistance.

It's lovely.

Somebody blew out your birthday cake.

Never mind, we can still have a party.

Yes. Yes, a party.

Can't have a party without games.

Let's play games.

I'm sorry.

So you've been telling me.

I...

I do love you, Robert. I swear I do.

I love you.

I do.

If I didn't,

would I think about killing you?

Holding you dead in my arms. Would I dream about that?

Yes...

Yes, why don't you kill me?

Nn-nnn. Not tonight.

Tomorrow, perhaps.

I know.

Hold me tight.

Tighter.

I want you to kill me.

Stop it.

Stop it!

- What the hell are you playing at? - Just don't.

Don't touch me.

I don't make love in dirty corners of empty houses.

- Where are you going? - Does it matter?

Robert...

Look, the house is bothering you.

All right. Now, I'm gonna look around

and I'm gonna find out what's wrong with it. Okay?

- Robert, let's leave. - Look, are you ou...

Where do we go, and how?

We passed a house when we turned off the main road.

- There was a light on. - Make sense, will you?

In this fog?

We would last for ten minutes once we got outside the door.

Well, then, we could...

We could...

Well, do you want me to go and find out

what's wrong with the house or not?

You've been hearing things.

Don't deny it. I've been watching your face.

You've been listening since we got here.

No.

No, I haven't.

Look, let's go together.

Together, we will dispel, dissipate, eradicate,

cast from every cubicle mind's created phantoms.

Take my hand.

Darling.

Look, share and share alike.

If you're hearing things, at least have the courtesy

- just to tell me exactly what it is... - Stop laughing at me!

You're always laughing at me!

I hate you!

♪ It's raining, it's pouring

♪ The old man is snoring

♪ He went to bed and bumped his head

♪ And couldn't get up in the morning ♪

♪ It's raining, it's pouring

♪ The old man is... ♪

♪ It's raining, it's pouring

♪ The old man is... ♪

How can you be so silly, Mother?

Look, you've made a green moon.

It's yellow.

Still doesn't know his colours.

Isn't he stupid?

And what's that? In the corner.

I can't tell you. It's a secret.

A secret? Everything's a secret.

Stupid child. What a bore. Isn't he, Mother?

♪ It's raining, it's pouring ♪

"Once, a lonely wizard...

"Once, a lonely wizard,

"While walking by the shore

"Happened on a princess

"All dressed in velour.

"At first, he thought of fleeing,

"But took her hand instead.

"'Dear Princess, dressed in velour,

"'It's you I'd like to wed.'"

"'How kind, dear sir.

"'That would be nice, '

"the princess promptly said.

"'Alas, my lord, I must decline.

"'Because, you see, I'm dead.'"

Jessica!

Jessica!

"'Alas, my lord, I must decline.'"

Jessica!

Yes, I'm coming!

In a minute.

"'Because, you see,

"'I'm dead.'"

Do you think Daddy will know we're there?

Oh, I'm sure he will.

Do you think he'll like the flowers I picked for his grave?

He'll like mine. But he'll hate yours.

Jessica!

It's a lovely day. Don't spoil it.

Daddy loved me.

I remember, he told me he loved me.

You don't remember anything about him.

Robert.

Robert, I saw her.

I saw her.

A little girl, with a ball, and she was reciting a...

Robert, please. She came in here.

Did you talk? Was she pleasant?

Please.

They're in there. Now.

Yeah, they've probably gone out to play in the fog.

But they'll be back.

Won't they?

But I heard her.

A little girl, her mother, her brother.

They were... They were going to church.

That church we saw by the road. They were going to cut flowers

to put on their father's grave.

How fascinating. Even the dead bury the dead.

And I suppose your ghosts have found a way

of cutting and picking flowers in the dead of winter.

It's not winter. It's...

Claire, is this some kind of macabre way

of telling me that our honeymoon is over?

I would like to kill you.

Yes, you did say that before,

but then you had something else in mind.

This do?

A nice, rusty letter-opener.

One quick thrust between the ribs,

and it's done. One dead husband.

Oh, no, two. He's dead, right?

Maybe they did it, with this.

Oh, Claire.

Again?

Robert, please.

- I didn't want to tell you... - What sort of ghosts were they?

Were they eighteenth century?

Twenty-first century?

Yes, future ghosts. Why not?

"Time present and time past

"are both, perhaps, present in time future,

"and time future contained in time past."

- Please. - TS Eliot. Four Quartets.

I saw her. I swear.

Before, you only heard them.

Do we call this "progress", or what?

At first, I did only hear them.

I was talking about the other voices.

You remember them?

That night before you went into the hospital?

I was ill.

Yes.

I'm sorry.

It's not... It's not the same, Robert.

Before I knew that those voices were unreal,

I knew that I was mad. But these are different.

They're clear. They're plain.

You think I'm still mad.

Well, I'm not.

I'm not!

- I am not mad. - Claire.

- I am not mad! - Claire!

You put me in that place. You told them all those things about me.

I had to. You'd have killed yourself,

or you'd have killed me.

Do you have any idea of what they did to me?

The way they treated me?

I am not mad.

Of course you're not mad.

You're cold, and you're frightened.

I saw her, Robert.

Okay, I believe it.

There are ghosts.

If I sound sceptical, it's just because I've never seen one.

But then, I'm not sensitive. At least we're agreed on that.

It's all right. I don't mean that maliciously. Really.

You are sensitive. You're probably picking up...

Oh, I don't know, emanations.

If ever a house had gho...

Well, if this one doesn't, it certainly should have.

I could be psychic.

Clairvoyant.

Your ectoplasm?

I never told you about that.

No, the doctor at the hospital did.

There was something I never told him, Robert.

About David.

Please, let me tell you. I've never told anyone this.

Let me say it.

After...

After he died,

I w... I went to a séance.

Mummy?

Mummy?

Where are you?

Mummy!

Mummy!

Help me!

I heard him.

I heard his voice.

I know, I know, but listen to me. It...

It was David. He spoke to me.

Claire, for God's sake.

Do you think I wouldn't know my own son?

Do you think I wouldn't know his voice

from ten thousand others?

It was faint, at first, and it was far away,

and he was calling me.

I heard the river,

and David,

calling,

- and calling... - That's enough, Claire.

All right.

Look, are we going to have to live with him forever?

Claire, he is dead! He's gone!

Help!

No.

Never.

- He isn't gone. - No, you can't accept that, can you?

I love my son. Is that so extraordinary?

Loved him? You were in love with him!

Yes.

I mean, to describe your feelings for him

would be to do incest an injustice.

"In love"? Oh, please.

What you had going was not only a conspiracy,

it was a full-blown mystique!

Of course, you had to endow it with some other-world kind of bullshit.

That's just too tiresome, Robert, even to deny.

Stop trying to be Noël Coward. It doesn't come off.

"Conspiracy."

That's such an odd word.

Against whom? You?

Yes. Who else?

I mean, you've spent enough time with psychiatrists

to know the meaning of the word "incest".

With a six-year-old boy?

Your kind of incest is the most damaging.

Because you were never able to consummate it,

except in dreams and in fantasies, and...

You're doing it again.

They're here, right?

Yes.

- Yes, they're back. - Back from Daddy's grave?

They are here.

Yes, they're here.

They're here because you want them here.

You hear voices? I believe that.

In your head!

The woman that you hear, for example,

I suggest is yourself, an imagined self, a lost self.

The children are family, a normal life, a perfect life.

A dead father. God, how much better than a dead son!

Claire,

David is dead.

You have to accept that. He is dead.

No, he isn't dead.

So, this is how you're keeping him alive?

By hearing voices, and ghosts, and all that psychic crap.

Poor Robert.

Just like one of the characters in your book.

So tough.

So impervious to genuine feeling.

Oh, Robert!

Help!

I'm being invaded.

Things are passing in me, and through me. Help me!

Look...

Stay with me. With me. All right?

Don't listen. Don't think.

There's nothing in the house, Claire. It's empty. It is empty.

I've looked. It's just an old, tired, worn-out house.

No, you don't understand.

It is real, and it is in this house.

It's another life, from another time.

It's something quite...

How can I explain it to you? I feel so...

foolish, as if I were trying to make up some monstrous lie to hurt you.

Just to hurt you and make you suffer, b...

because of David.

Because you are to blame, Robert.

You. Not just me.

Because you were making love to me, while your son was...

Your son.

The water.

The river.

David?

David? David?

Where are you, David?

Robert,

did you ever think...

We... We never found his body.

Perhaps he did...

Claire, he is dead.

He is dead, and he's gone.

And no-one is to blame.

Now, for God's sake, can't you understand that?

His death was not your crime.

Your love for him was, yes.

You...

bastard! You bastard! You...

Claire, for God's sake! Damn you!

I'm not sorry.

It's what I believe. I am trying to help you.

I'm trying to save you.

Claire, please.

I've been alone for such a long time.

Alone!

- With all those women... - With people, with people, yes.

But alone.

Well, I'm alone.

Now.

How can you be alone? You've got them.

What's the answer, Robert?

I'm so tired.

They're back.

Not here.

Not yet...

but they're somewhere.

Somewhere in this hideous house.

And they'll get here before it's over.

And then, you'll see them, and you'll hear them,

just as I do.

I promise you, you will be just as mad as I am.

Won't you help me? Please, my baby!

David!

You're awake!

Come on, let me get rid of these things.

Where were you?

Getting our coffee. Can't make coffee without water.

There's our water.

I staggered down to the foggy stream.

Where did you think I was?

Damn, this fire is almost out.

Where did that come from?

The cellar.

Oh, don't do that, Claire. The oil is half gone.

Please, just for a little while.

Did the rest do you any good?

Hmm. I don't know.

I feel so warm.

You feel warm?

- What time is it? - It's...

Three o'clock.

- The fog lifted? - Nn-nnn. You got a fever.

I'm parched.

Well, don't worry, the coffee'll be ready in a minute.

Robert, that water's filthy.

- Well, have some wine, then. - From a broken bottle?

You're not drinking it?

I have strained it twice through a pair of old wool socks.

Adds a certain je ne sais quoi.

Did you dream?

No.

I do have a fever.

My throat's sore.

Maybe there's some fresh, clean water in the kitchen.

The water is shut off.

It's a thing they do in winter.

I mean, I know it's very scientific,

but do try and understand.

You see, water freezes.

And when it does, it expands.

So if you leave it in the pipes, they burst.

You see?

Why are you doing this to me?

Oh, Claire, come on!

I wish...

I wish we'd never come.

I wish we were home.

With Mama and Nursie?

I want to be clean. I feel grubby.

Don't even have a compact or a mirror.

- Well, there's a mirror upstairs. - I won't go upstairs.

You look fine.

No.

No, perhaps I will go upstairs. Later.

If this house ever becomes quiet.

Still.

Do you hear them?

I think I shall hate fog

as long as I live.

- Claire... - Oh! Leave me alone!

If you were half the man you pretended to be,

we'd be out of this house by now.

All you can do is boil that filthy water over the fire.

You're absolutely right.

I mean, that's all I've ever been able to do,

isn't it, when you think about it.

Robert, if I feel better later...

I will feel better later, if I can wash.

I'll use that water and a dust sheet.

Would you go upstairs and bring me down a mirror?

- You really won't go up? - Please.

- It's worse up there. - What's worse?

Please bring me a mirror.

I think it's screwed to the wall.

Well, unscrew it.

You can use that letter-opener.

All right, I'll try.

- But you look fine. - Don't touch me.

I feel hideous, and I'm dirty.

Please bring me the mirror.

All right. I will try.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who is the most beautiful of all?

It is you, fair Queen, of that I'm sure.

You're full of glamour and allure.

Of all the ladies in the land,

even though you've filthy hand.

You are, by far, the best, most rare.

My lovely, lovely...

Lady Claire.

How can you be so silly? Look, Mother, he's made a green moon.

It's yellow!

He still doesn't know his colours. Isn't he stupid!

And what's that? In the corner?

Do I have to wear braids? They're so stupid.

They feel like snakes.

I'm always afraid one of them will bite me.

They're cooler in the summer.

You're hurting me.

Jessie, please!

How can I do this?

There, now. Let me look at you.

Oh! Oh, dear, my fingers are all thumbs today.

Are they? Let me see.

What a stupid child. What a bore. Isn't he, Mother?

Do you know what he did? He had a funeral.

For his turtle, when it died.

John was fond of his turtle.

Turn around. No, the other way.

It was a matchbox. Painted. A silly old matchbox.

John! John, come here.

Well, what have you drawn?

Show us.

Listen. Listen!

You've done nothing but argue all day. I'm tired of it.

- John said it would... - Claire.

Ssh! Listen!

I think I see a frog. Jessie, here, have a look.

It's probably his turtle.

He's come back from his grave.

Has he, Mother? Has he, Mother?

Don't joke like that, Jessie.

Claire, stop it.

Stop it.

Oh, John! Don't cry.

Draw me another picture.

- You do hear. - I'm sure you're going to be an artist.

You do!

God, tell me you hear them, Robert.

I'm going to be a singer.

I learned a new song the other day.

Did you? Sing it, darling.

- A song. - I'm saving it.

For John's birthday party.

John's birthday party!

I can't wait for tomorrow. It's much too long.

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow! Don't you hear it, Robert?

Tomorrow!

- Don't you hear that... - I hear nothing!

God...

But it's so clear. So plain.

Damn it!

I can't bear it!

Get off! God damn you!

Stop it!

God damn you, Claire!

Sit there!

Try and behave like a woman, not a simpering, mindless child.

"So clear, so plain."

Who the bloody hell do you think you are? Joan of Arc?

What's next? Another razor?

The house is empty!

It is empty!

No...

No, I can't.

Yes, you can.

It's really very simple.

♪ It's raining, it's pouring

♪ The old man is snoring

♪ He went to bed and bumped his head

♪ And couldn't get up in the morning ♪

♪ It's raining, it's pouring

♪ The old man is snoring

♪ He went to bed...

♪ It's raining, it's pouring ♪

- What was that? - ♪ The old man is snoring

♪ He went to bed and bumped his head

- ♪ And couldn't get up in the morning ♪ - What was that?

You hear?

♪ The old man is snoring

♪ He went to bed and bumped his head... ♪

It's a little girl singing.

Now?

It's nothing.

No. It's stopped.

Oh, thank you, Robert.

Robert?

The queen, silly. The woman is the queen.

Can't you tell she's a woman?

Oh, he's so stupid!

I wish you'd stop using that word.

You didn't know the cards yourself at John's age.

Yes, I did!

I'll be a whole year older tomorrow.

Are we going to talk about that again?

You'll be exactly one day older tomorrow.

It's my birthday, so there.

And "there" to you, Mr One-Day-Older.

I think I'll go out,

to play with the grasshoppers and toads.

It's stopped raining. Truly, it has.

You'll stay in the house until it dries off.

But, Mother, I want to go out. And, besides...

Jessica, that's enough.

I hope... I hope it's a fine party.

- What game shall we play? - It's your party, John.

What games would you like?

No.

Well, let me think.

- Blind Man's Buff? - All right.

Only I don't want to be "it". It's too scary.

Robert!

Mother?

What's the matter?

- Mama? - Hush, now, both of you.

But what is it?

I don't know.

Suddenly, I feel...

What?

Oh, we've been alone too long.

This house is beginning to talk to me.

- What does it say? - Oh, stupid child.

There.

There!

- Did you hear it? - I didn't hear anything.

I did. It was like...

- a moan. - Yes.

Do you suppose an animal is trapped somewhere?

Or somehow got into the house?

Mama. Mama?

Oh, it's so silly.

A silly old house making noises.

Come.

We'll get ready for the party.

Yes, I saw them.

I saw them.

Can we leave?

We must leave, Robert.

Yes, we can go. The... The fog's lifted.

Oh, thank God! That horrible fog...

It's all right. It's easier in the daytime. Come on.

Yes, I'll get my coat.

Robert...

Robert, the room...

Claire, you are burning up.

You can't go out there. You'll freeze to death.

Yes, but we can't stay here with them.

Just let me get the car started.

No. Don't leave me.

It's just for a little while.

All right.

- All right, but hurry. - I'll hurry.

Robert...

Before you go, if anything should happen...

Nothing is going to happen.

Nothing is going to happen.

I want you to know this has...

has been a beginning.

It has been a new start for us.

Yes, darling.

- I won't ever... - Don't say it.

I know.

I know.

Now, look, you just sit there,

and don't move.

Not for anything. Will you promise me that?

- Promise? - Hurry.

I'll hurry.

No!

No! No! No!

No!

Robert!

Robert, no!

Robert!

Damn!

- ... and after you. - And the other's a surprise.

Open it! Open it!

Not a penny more.

You have to. Birthday.

Oh, that boy!

John's the first. He's "it".

No, I don't want to be "it".

You have to be first. It's your birthday.

Tie it on. Tighter.

Ssh!

Around and around and around and around and around!

Robert...

Robert!

Let him go. Ssh-ssh!

My little boy!

See? There's nothing here.

Nothing!

You see, my darling, it was your imagination.

But there was something. I saw it.

- You saw a shadow. - It was a lady.

She talked to me.

- She broke the... - Broke what?

Nothing's broken.

Now, come back. You're missing all the fun.

It's your birthday!

Robert!

Robert! We have to go!

Whoops!

Jesus!

If we ever get there.

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