Speaker 1: Come in.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome to Mystery Theater. I'm hymen Brown.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for us?
Speaker 2: We trust you are, because we propose to deal with
the most obscure of subjects, that of death.
Speaker 1: Some people never speak of death.
Speaker 2: While others can't stop talking about it. We have chosen,
in the next hour or so, to consider it calmly,
perhaps philosophically, with a minimum of agitation, and naturally, to
arrive finally at the most fascinating question of all, what if.
Speaker 1: Anything comes after? What comes after? Joe?
Speaker 3: After?
Speaker 1: What after? We've you know, packed it in?
Speaker 3: Nobody knows. Harry, I know, I'll have it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go Joe. I am somehow somewhere Harry Canter
is gonna go on our mystery drama.
Speaker 2: Appointment in Uganda was written especially for The Mystery Theater
by Elspeth Eric and stars William Redfield. I'll be back
shortly with that one. Harry Canter lies flat on his
back in a hospital bed, staring at the ceiling.
Speaker 1: Across the room, a.
Speaker 2: Sturdy, middle aged nurse sits in an armchair.
Speaker 1: It's very quiet. The machine next to Harry's bed.
Speaker 2: Makes no noise, though it's dancing lines are carefully recording every.
Speaker 3: Beat of his art. Is it all right? The command nurse?
Are you mister Burrows? Joe? Yeah, it's may Harry.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 4: Doctor Klein said it's okay for five minutes. I'm his
business partner, Joe Burrows.
Speaker 3: Oh, he's been crying for you. Come in. How do
you feel, Harry?
Speaker 1: I almost died, Joe.
Speaker 3: I know your heart.
Speaker 1: I've never been sick a day in my life, and
now this.
Speaker 3: Oh you're going to be fine, mister Canter, long as
you do what the doctor says.
Speaker 1: I lie here and I think, Joe, do you believe
in reincarnation?
Speaker 3: You mean coming back as somebody else?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I've been thinking about that.
Speaker 3: Uh are you two?
Speaker 1: Gentleman?
Speaker 3: Mind if I go out for some coffee?
Speaker 1: Oh no, don't go. Don't you leave me?
Speaker 3: Well, not leave me, Burrows will be here. I'll be here, Harry.
Speaker 1: What does he know about heart attacks?
Speaker 3: But you're off critical, mister Canter. Long as you don't
excite yourself, you'll be okay. I really need a break,
mister Burrows.
Speaker 5: Five minutes.
Speaker 3: What I really need is five weeks.
Speaker 1: Joe, Joe, sit down. I gotta talk to you about
the crypt the crypt.
Speaker 3: But you're gonna get well, Harry. You got to have
it ready, Harry. Lots of guys have had heart attacks
and go on to a ripe ole day.
Speaker 1: I gotta be ready. Now write this down. I want
it marble, marble from Italy, that good kind Carrara.
Speaker 3: That's the best.
Speaker 1: Okay, then that's what I want. Write it down.
Speaker 3: Okay. Now how big a crypt did you plan on?
Speaker 1: Big? Very big?
Speaker 4: But you're gonna be there all alone, Harry, and you're
not going to be moving around exactly.
Speaker 1: You never know. Make it eight by ten the very least.
What about shelves, shelves, shells for what?
Speaker 4: Well, it's by understanding. People do have shelves put in crypts,
you know, for loved ones who you know later on
when the time comes.
Speaker 3: It's a nice idea.
Speaker 1: Who would I put on the shelves?
Speaker 3: Who?
Speaker 1: Oh, unless you want?
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, no, not me.
Speaker 1: You're my friend, you're my partner.
Speaker 3: I was thinking your mother maybe.
Speaker 1: Oh, my mother. She hasn't even been to see me.
Why should I give her a shelf? Welle Bernice hasn't
even sent me a get well taught.
Speaker 3: She's called up every day, Harry. I happened to know that?
Speaker 1: So what's the phone call?
Speaker 3: She's a work ald day.
Speaker 1: You know she's through by five, Harry.
Speaker 4: This is the first day you've been not the critical
is I'm the first.
Speaker 3: Person to be let to see you.
Speaker 1: Well, she could have tried.
Speaker 4: Look when they let you want to hear? Why don't
you take a nice trip? You know you could take
Bernice with you.
Speaker 1: I already did that, Joe, fifteen years ago.
Speaker 3: You could go to Europe.
Speaker 1: That's where I took Bernice. Six countries in six weeks. Terrible.
I no cottage cheese California.
Speaker 3: How about Californy? You have cottage cheese, Joe.
Speaker 1: While I was lying here, I had an idea for
the business. I want to tell you.
Speaker 4: You just had a heart attack and you're thinking about business,
she wis Harry.
Speaker 1: Well, what else have I got to think about?
Speaker 3: I don't know, think about being reincarnate?
Speaker 1: Nuts to that.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: Look here's what I figured out, Joe. Lots of people
are turning to natural sponges, you know, and I know
where we can get our hands on some very cheap,
very cheap. Labor costs are practically nothing. These peasants, they
die for them. See they die.
Speaker 3: Harry, my time is just about I really gotta get going.
I'll call the nurse. I'll get in touch with him.
Speaker 1: Mother.
Speaker 3: Don't go, Joe, I'll tell Bernice that you're coming along, Joe, Joe.
I just thought of somewhat for the crypt. I want music,
perpetual music. Oh well, what kind of music? Carrying all
the good old songs?
Speaker 1: Stardust, the moon comes over the mountain, DoD Ella carry
Oh are you a my friend? Are you my partner?
I want music?
Speaker 3: Well, i'll look into it, Harry, you'll see to it.
I gotta go, Bonnie Google, Oh there you are.
Speaker 4: Well, everything all right, mister Burrows. Well, I tried to
upset him about anything. He seems to be fine.
Speaker 3: Good. I had a telegram from his mother, but I
didn't show it to him. It wasn't exactly a telegram
for him. She said it to me. He never mentioned
having a mother. Oh, matter of fact, he never mentioned
anybody but you. Yeah. Well see I wired his mother
right after.
Speaker 4: The attack, and well here I've been carrying her reply
around with me in my pocket ever since.
Speaker 3: Here it is.
Speaker 4: I didn't know whether to show it to him, you know,
he might take it. The wrong way.
Speaker 5: You want me to read it?
Speaker 3: You please? Harry is too mean to die, and tell
him I said so. I see his mother's kind of
a joker at time. You ask me. She's one smart
old lady.
Speaker 6: That man in there is too mean to die.
Speaker 4: Missus Kenneth, O, joass, I'll be right.
Speaker 1: It's Joe Borrow's.
Speaker 3: Missus Kennah.
Speaker 7: Oh how are you?
Speaker 5: Joe?
Speaker 7: Takes me a little time to maneuver the old wheelchair.
I got some tea ready for you, So come and
sit down.
Speaker 3: Boy, she'll get around in that thing. Missus Kenna.
Speaker 7: Oh well, practice makes pretty good.
Speaker 3: Come on, sit down. Oh yeah, thanks.
Speaker 4: I saw Harry yesterday, missus Kenneth. They say he as
long as he doesn't excite himself, he's gonna pull through
in great shape.
Speaker 3: I didn't show him your telegram.
Speaker 5: Harry knows what I think of him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, have a cookie? Oh you bake these? No? No,
Bernice did? They're good? You see a lot of Bernice's.
Speaker 7: Oh she stops by three four times a week, does
errands for me.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, nice girl, Bernice, simple minded but very nice.
What did you talk about, Well, we we talked about
the crypt.
Speaker 3: Oh that crypt? Yeah, well, that means a lot to him.
Speaker 7: You know, Harry is never realized that death is just
an incident. But it's the final incident, of course, but
even so, just an incident.
Speaker 3: He's thinking about reincarnation.
Speaker 7: Oh, that's something new.
Speaker 3: Do you believe in reincarnation? Is kind of it's a
pretty idea. But you don't believe in it, right, Joe?
Speaker 5: What's the difference?
Speaker 7: If I believe in it, that doesn't make it true.
On the other hand, if it's true, it'll happen anyway.
Speaker 3: Now, Now, what else did you and Harry talk about?
Besides that that's silly crypt? Oh, not too much. I
did bring up the.
Speaker 4: Question of having shelves built into the crypt shells.
Speaker 3: For what Hancil checks. No, Well, as a rule, you know,
they're for those nearest and dearest. I mean, if that's
what they want. Oh, it's not what I want.
Speaker 7: Shut up in a tomb with Harry for eternity. Oh no, no, no,
I'm going to be placed gently in the ground up
at Fargus Falls.
Speaker 3: That's where I was happy with his father. I still
have the house, you know. Well, I suppose I ought
to go see Harry at the hospital. Oh, I think
he'd like that. He won't like it, but he'll hate it.
If I don't, you will watch it, I tell him. Then,
we'll tell him.
Speaker 7: I'll get over there soon, and Joe tell him, tell
him I'm sorry, sorry for everything.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's probably Joe.
Speaker 3: Hello, mister Burrows, how wiz he? He's coming along? Fine?
Come on, Ian? So how are you harry?
Speaker 1: As well as can be expected? That's what they all
say around here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I saw your mother. She said she'll be
in to see you real soon.
Speaker 1: How soon is real soon?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 1: Today?
Speaker 3: Maybe?
Speaker 1: What about the crypt?
Speaker 3: What are we going to talk about the crib? Well?
Speaker 1: What about the crypt? Joe? How many times have I
got to ask you? What about it?
Speaker 3: Your mother doesn't want to be put in the crypt?
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 4: She doesn't like the idea of the shelf. She wants
to be buried up at fogust.
Speaker 1: Full No, no, no, no, she can't do that.
Speaker 3: She likes it there, Joe.
Speaker 1: That ten acres was made to order for a development,
or it will be in another ten years. Right now
it's a little too far out. But in another ten years,
I mean I got it all work out in my head.
Speaker 4: Shopping center parking lot, the ho shme, Harry. I talked
to the cemetery about the crypt. They said, it's okay
about the song.
Speaker 1: Well, of course it's okay.
Speaker 3: And the Italian marble. I think I know where I
can get.
Speaker 1: That, Joe, what are you holding out on me?
Speaker 4: The cemetery plays music regularly. There's always some kind of
nice soft music.
Speaker 1: Na I want my own music. That's one of the
main reasons for a crypt, so I can have everything
my own way.
Speaker 3: Take it easy, mister candor, Joe.
Speaker 1: You'll go back and tell them I got have it
my way, or the whole deals off.
Speaker 3: You better leave, mister bird, and you.
Speaker 1: Tell them I got the money and I gotta have.
Speaker 3: The go out of my way. Yes, he is. Push
that emergency button, starts a Tinne four oh seven on
the double hard emergency. I better leave, hand me that
trade with the hypodermic needles, Harry. Clear the way, lady.
The emergency heart unit is coming in.
Speaker 2: There is no more satisfying an awesome sight than a
group of people doing what they have been trained to do, what.
Speaker 1: They do best.
Speaker 2: Their faces do not matter, or their shapes, or their
colors or their accents. They are professionals at their work,
and they are working together in harmony.
Speaker 1: And understanding mystery. Theater will be back with Act two.
Speaker 2: At the close of our first act, Harry Candor had
just suffered his second, his most severe heart attack. Actually,
his heart had stopped completely. He had no pulse, he
had no breath, he had no life. Where you may ask,
was the soul of Harry Cantor? Where had it gone?
Where is it?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: A pertinent and awesome question one we shall now attempt
to answer.
Speaker 3: All right, now, calen.
Speaker 8: All right, that's it.
Speaker 3: Good, good, it's your baby, a male. Oh well, at
least he looked healthy.
Speaker 8: Come on, a little bit, up on your feet, Come
on now, up, up, up, up on your feet, on
your feet.
Speaker 1: Are you my mother?
Speaker 3: I'm your mother's sister. I'm Bombean.
Speaker 1: Where's my mother?
Speaker 3: She's cleaning up versus a messy business house. Come on now,
time to stand up.
Speaker 1: You have such beautiful eyelashes, Bombean, And how tall.
Speaker 3: Oh Josh, average for an elephant? Now stand up?
Speaker 1: What are all those others.
Speaker 3: Doing standing around waiting for you to be born?
Speaker 1: Elephants always do that.
Speaker 3: Well, you didn't think they only did it for you?
Now they're getting impatient. We've got to get going, So
get up, Calen, come, get your new child on his feet.
Speaker 7: Little Boo, get up, little Aboo, get up and eat.
That's it, little one, Steel around till.
Speaker 5: You'll find the milk.
Speaker 3: I think you've borne a stupid one. Dail and watch
the murder. Little son, my nose gets that's not your nose.
Speaker 7: Tucket up between your ears.
Speaker 3: He's not stupid, Bamboo.
Speaker 7: All newborns have trouble with their little trunks.
Speaker 3: Well, the herd is getting impatient. The flies and mosquitoes
are very bad today.
Speaker 7: Oh I could stand a good swim myself.
Speaker 3: Are you through?
Speaker 5: Little love Boo?
Speaker 1: You must move on?
Speaker 8: Is that what you're going to call in Aboo?
Speaker 7: It's it's a nice name, don't you think?
Speaker 3: Very nice?
Speaker 8: Yes?
Speaker 3: Well, Abbo, let's get going.
Speaker 1: Well, where are we going into the forest, abo, where
there's food for all?
Speaker 7: Now I should walk on one side of you, and
Bombing will walk on the other, and we will.
Speaker 3: Go with the herd into the forest.
Speaker 1: I am Aboo and I am an elephant. What are
we looking for? Mother?
Speaker 7: Food?
Speaker 1: Silly?
Speaker 3: And well?
Speaker 1: Why are we all going in the same direction? Why
don't you and I and bombean go off on our own.
Speaker 7: Now, what would be the point of that.
Speaker 1: Well, we might find something, something good, and we could
keep it for ourselves.
Speaker 7: What would be the point of that?
Speaker 1: Why? Why then we'd have it?
Speaker 3: I repeat, I told you he was stupid, Kayleen.
Speaker 7: Maybe he's just on bomby No, I mean mother.
Speaker 1: If say we found water, if we didn't tell the others,
then they would have to come to us to find
out where it is, and we wouldn't tell them unless
unless what, well, unless they did something for us like
what oh, worked for us, or gave us something, or well,
at the very least they'd respect us. They think we
were very superior and wonderful.
Speaker 3: We are all very superior and wonderful, aboo, but the
three of us would be more superior and more wonderful.
Speaker 1: Don't you see?
Speaker 7: What I see is that you have a lot to learn, aboo,
and a lot to unlearn.
Speaker 3: Where do you get these peculiar ideas, aboo?
Speaker 1: May you sort of pop into my mind?
Speaker 3: Aboo?
Speaker 7: You must understand that elephants have the marvelous gift of
finding water, and we find it not just for ourselves,
but for all the other animals.
Speaker 3: Too, All of them all. It is our responsibility.
Speaker 1: Why is it our responsibility?
Speaker 7: Because we are so good at it?
Speaker 3: I don't follow that at all. A bombing.
Speaker 7: I'm going to bring down this tree now I can't
quite reach the leaves at the top, and they look
so delicious bombing.
Speaker 3: Are we friends with all all the animals? What do
you mean by friends? Well, it's not possible, is it
to love them all? Oh? You talk very strangely for
an elephant. We have due and proper respect for all
the animals as they have for us. Does that answer
your question? Oh? Are they afraid of us? Well? I
don't think so.
Speaker 1: Are we afraid of them? Of course not, not any
of them.
Speaker 3: Well, there's one you should look out for until you
have grown larger, the one with the stripes, the tiger.
When the tiger is very hungry, he sometimes attacks a
very young elephant for fool. Oh that's terrible. Just you
stay close to your mother and be WHOA What will
you do if a tiger tries to hurt me? Your
mother will pick the tiger up and dash him against
a tree. Then I shall sit on him. Understand what
a good arrangement there? Now your mother has knocked down
the big dream. Come, but all the little.
Speaker 1: Animals are eating too, the elands and the dictates everybody.
Why not?
Speaker 7: Well, got up our dream, said, it's our dream.
Speaker 3: It's part of the forest. Come on now, I'm hungry, mother.
Where is my father boo around somewhere?
Speaker 1: How did I know where he is? I know he's
at the head of the line. He's the leader.
Speaker 7: Oh, Bomban, did you hear that?
Speaker 5: Abu says his father is leading the herds?
Speaker 3: I told you he's a strange child. Well, why shouldn't
he be leading the herd?
Speaker 1: I'll bet my father is the strongest, the wisest, the cleverest,
the most handsome.
Speaker 3: Hello, shut up, Abu.
Speaker 1: I won't shut up. Mother. Bombean hit me with her trunk.
Speaker 3: She had every right, and it won't be the last time.
Speaker 7: Every elephant in the herd has the right and the
duty to punish you when you get too impudent and
talk of things you know nothing about.
Speaker 1: All I said was my father is probably our leader,
our leader.
Speaker 3: My dear little stupid is a female.
Speaker 1: Is a female, the oldest, the wisest female of us all.
Speaker 3: But that's wrong, wrong, mother, I have been cursed with
a stupid male child. By being pardon me if I
say I.
Speaker 1: Told you so?
Speaker 3: Good?
Speaker 1: Wait wait, if the male elephants don't lead, what do
they do?
Speaker 7: Oh, let's see, they sort of hang around.
Speaker 3: They are very agreeable, very companionable.
Speaker 7: And then there's something else, every man, I remember your.
Speaker 3: Father, at least I think I do it.
Speaker 5: It was quite a long time ago.
Speaker 7: He and I were companions for a while, a long
wild Suddenly one day he seemed different to me, more
than a companion. We stroked each other with our trunks,
something we'd never done before, and gave each other little
pinches with our mouths.
Speaker 5: We thought we were only playing.
Speaker 3: And then and then, well, then I noticed.
Speaker 7: That his ears were flapping, flapping wildly, and his tail
was whisking back and forth.
Speaker 5: I was surprised.
Speaker 7: And then I felt that my ears were flapping and
my tail was whisking crazily.
Speaker 3: Oh my, I was so excited.
Speaker 7: I felt that he was the only elephant of the
forest for me, and that I was.
Speaker 5: The only elephant for him.
Speaker 3: Hunt.
Speaker 5: It was a wonderful day, I remember it rightly.
Speaker 3: But you must remember.
Speaker 7: Oh it was seasons and seasons agouble a long time,
and now you are here.
Speaker 1: I want to meet him. Which one is he?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 5: Heavens, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I'm going to find him.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask around.
Speaker 3: If you have any sense, Taboo, you'll stay here.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to join the males and.
Speaker 3: Talk to them. He hasn't any sense, Kaylen.
Speaker 7: The males don't care too much for young elephants.
Speaker 1: Saboo just the same. I want to try Aboo.
Speaker 3: Let him learn Bombin.
Speaker 5: Let him learn the hard way, sir?
Speaker 1: Do you think you might be my father?
Speaker 8: Yo?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 1: Kaylen? Is my mother?
Speaker 3: She's over there with Bombin Jo.
Speaker 1: Do you remember being married to my mother? Being?
Speaker 3: What? Well?
Speaker 1: I mean, did you sort of keep company with us
for a long time and then one day did you
start whisking her tail and flapping her ears and fall
in love? Well?
Speaker 9: Seems to me I remember something like that.
Speaker 3: Was it my mother?
Speaker 1: You fell in love?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 9: How would I know? It's happened to me so many times?
Speaker 3: Many times?
Speaker 9: Many many times? Oh many, many many times?
Speaker 1: How many? No you hurt me?
Speaker 9: You asked too many questions?
Speaker 3: Wow, I'm curious?
Speaker 1: Are you very old? I think I am?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 9: How should I know? The flies bother me more than
they once did? Sometimes I shiver.
Speaker 3: I never used to shiver. Oh you're sick.
Speaker 9: I don't feel well. That's certain.
Speaker 3: I'll go away.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you why is I go away?
Speaker 9: I don't want any children around me.
Speaker 3: I don't want anyone around me.
Speaker 4: I want to be myself, mother bombing, who are you
talking to?
Speaker 5: Back there?
Speaker 3: Ooh, a very old one.
Speaker 1: He didn't know how old, but he said he'd lived
through many things, many many.
Speaker 3: Times, and now he doesn't feel very well. He shivers.
He said, that's old Lore.
Speaker 5: Yes, that's Lure.
Speaker 3: Very soon, yes, very soon, very soon?
Speaker 1: What very soon?
Speaker 7: What?
Speaker 1: Mother?
Speaker 7: Very soon, old Lure will wander off into the deepest
part of the forest by himself, all by himself.
Speaker 3: Well then what then?
Speaker 7: We shall never see him again, nor will anyone at
all ever see him again, nor any trace of him,
not skin.
Speaker 1: Or tusk or bone? Or how can that be? Mother
bomb beem, how can that be? Surely a tusk, surely
a bone will be left behind?
Speaker 3: Nothing? Nothing. It's the secret of the elephant's aboo. When
you have grown, you will learn the secret.
Speaker 1: When when will I?
Speaker 3: Perhaps not till the very end. Come now it's time
to bathe?
Speaker 1: Oh good, raise some more water? On me.
Speaker 3: Mother, you had your vath for today sky is getting dark. Oh?
Speaker 5: Oh, yes, well I am bathed. The day is ending.
Speaker 3: Abo, Come, but I like the water. No attention when
I speak to you.
Speaker 1: What are we going to do?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 5: You'll see?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 5: Where are we going?
Speaker 3: We are not going anywhere. We are going to stand
right here? Do you see the other elephants. They've all
stopped bathing?
Speaker 1: Why haven't they?
Speaker 5: The good red star circle of fire is leaving us.
Speaker 3: And the darkness is coming on. Why is it leaving?
Because it is time for it to leave? Will the
good red fire circle come back when it is time
for it to come back?
Speaker 7: Come now, aboo, stand in line with us and all
the others.
Speaker 3: Hurry, aboo, don't dawdle. What what now?
Speaker 1: Mother?
Speaker 7: Be silent, stand still, watch the great fire circle as
it goes.
Speaker 3: Where is it going? Be quiet?
Speaker 1: But where?
Speaker 5: Hush and watch?
Speaker 1: Mother?
Speaker 3: Please mother?
Speaker 1: What are we doing? Mother?
Speaker 3: Mother? Are we praying?
Speaker 2: It's quite true, according to those who have watched and
studied the great elephant herds, that they stand silent and motionless,
facing the sun, not only in the evening when it sets,
but again each morning.
Speaker 1: When it rises. We're too ignorant.
Speaker 2: Or too far removed from our natural heritage to know
just why it is that they do this. There's no
obvious reason, no apparent advantage, no material gain. So perhaps
the answer to Abu's question is yes, the elephants are praying.
Mystery theater will be back shortly with Act three of
our Strange Tale. We left the great herd of elephants
facing the setting sun in silence, except for little Abo,
who asked, what are we doing?
Speaker 3: Mother?
Speaker 1: Are we praying? It may very well have been.
Speaker 2: How do we know that it wasn't that the elephants
were praying for the return to life of one Harry
Cantor at least it looks that way.
Speaker 1: As we return to Act.
Speaker 3: Three, Back in your own little Betty Boom, mister Keller
doesn't feel good, Ah, Bombean, I'm your nurse, mister Catner,
you remember me?
Speaker 1: Ah?
Speaker 3: Where's mother outside? You can see her when you're stronger.
How's nor? How's nor? Did he die? You're the one
almost died. Oh it was a near thing. There your
heart stopped for six whole seconds. Oh, it must have
been more than six seconds. Well, you were in intensive
care for two weeks. Am I alive, alive. You are alive,
and you're going to go on living. Only this time
you'll do as you're told, no excitement like before. You've
been very sick. Are you warm enough? I'm going to
put this extra blanket over you. What happened to your eyelashes?
My eyelashes?
Speaker 1: You used to have such beautiful long eyelashes with a
false mister Canter.
Speaker 3: I have never worn false eyelashes in my life, or
false anything else. I'm sorry, bombein my name is well,
never mind, you just rest.
Speaker 1: Are we going to take a bath?
Speaker 3: You want a bath? Well, I'll ask doctor Clyne.
Speaker 1: You don't have to ask anybody. We'll just wander down
to the river when it.
Speaker 3: Gets cool, mister Canters, before the sun goes down. That's
the beautiful time. I yeah. And then the big good
red circle goes away for a while. It does, and
we pray, you pray.
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly what we pray for, maybe for
it to come back, or maybe we just say thank you.
Speaker 3: Well, I never knew you were religious, mister Canter.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I never have been.
Speaker 3: I don't know anything about religion. Well, now do you
think you could go to sleep now, I think so,
And you want me to pull the blind? Oh, I
want to watch the sun go down. Then I'll go
to sleep. Mister Burrows, is your right nurse? Yes, can
we see him? Well, he's sleeping right now. When he
wakes up. Yes, But I think I ought to tell
you he may seem a little strange, strange. What do
you mean by strange?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 3: Different?
Speaker 7: He talks sort of funny. His speech is a brain dad, No, no, no,
nothing like that. Then what well he asked me what
happened to my eyelashes?
Speaker 3: Anything happened to your eyelashes? Of course not. Then he
called me bomb bean and talked about going down to
the river to take a bath and praying to the
big red circle. Joe. You think maybe maybe we should
call him a psychiatrist? Well, not yet anyway, he's not
strong enough. But later, missus Catter, Remember your son did
have cardiac arrest for six eight seconds. His heart was
not beating at all. He was dead. Well, yes, but
he's very much alive now.
Speaker 7: When I walked into that room, my son was dead.
Speaker 3: Now, missus, I'll never forgive my soul makes up when
you call me? Maybe I better go in and see
him first. Stay, and I think maybe you had. Then
you can sort of, you know, prepare his mother for
for what to expect. Who is it? It's me, Harry.
How are you feeling why?
Speaker 1: It's no. Oh, No, you're alive.
Speaker 3: I'm just fine, Harry. I'm fine. Oh. I was so worried.
Your mother's outside. She wants to see you too.
Speaker 1: Oh how is she?
Speaker 3: Oh she's fine, Harry. She's wonderful. My mother, very strict,
but very wonderful, and a wonderful swimmer. Oh I never
knew that.
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, and a wonderful mother.
Speaker 4: Very strict though, Harry. Maybe I'd better not stay too long.
Speaker 1: No, no, stay. I know you don't care too much
for children, but I want you to stay.
Speaker 3: Harry.
Speaker 4: I'm Joe, you know, Joe Burrows. I'm your partner. I'm
your friend.
Speaker 3: You're not ner. No, No, you don't look like nor
I'm Joe Burrows. Your mother is waiting to see you.
Your girl her nicee. She'll be around later.
Speaker 1: Joe Burrows, my partner, my friend.
Speaker 3: Right, we're in the import export business. Harry.
Speaker 4: You remember you were talking about some kind of deal
to have to do with the sponges.
Speaker 1: You remember me for sponges. What he what do we
want with sponges?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Well, well nothing, you've just thought if you could
buy up all with sponges?
Speaker 1: What for?
Speaker 3: For nothing? For nothing happen? Absolutely nothing. You see, we
are very wonderful superior beings, Joe.
Speaker 1: We are therefore we must be responsible, act responsibly. I
mean you understand, well.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure I do. That's because you're not an elephant.
I'm not I'm an elephant, Joe. I mean I was
an elephant and my name was Abu. When were you
an elephant, Harry for a little while? Oh, just for
a little while. How was this being an elephant?
Speaker 1: Beautiful?
Speaker 3: You're not an elephant anymore, are you, Harry?
Speaker 1: No? No, I'm just Harry Katy. But I'll never forget
being Aboo and the sun going down and all of
us standing.
Speaker 3: In a line. Harry, Harry, I.
Speaker 4: Think I know what happened when your heart stopped. You
do know your heart stopped there for a minute, don't
you everything? Harry, you died for a minute, and Harry,
you were reincarnated.
Speaker 3: You were reincarnated into an elephant.
Speaker 1: Is that possible?
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know if it's possible, but it happened.
Speaker 4: That has to be what happened. Maybe, Oh, positively, I
hope you're right.
Speaker 1: Only Joe, Yeah, Harry, what the next time my heart stopped?
Speaker 3: Oh, there isn't going to be any next time.
Speaker 1: Well, there has to be sometime. And what if I'm
not reincarnated into an elephant Joe? But you would be no,
what if I was reincarnated into a tiger Joe and
my own mother sat.
Speaker 4: On me, Missus Kenna. Sit down here, Missus Kendall. I'll
try to explain if I can. I'm sitting explain, Missus Kenner.
When Harry's heart stopped, he was what you might call deceased,
did well in a way, Yes, he was departed. But
the emergency unitsy, they came rushing in.
Speaker 3: Oh they knocked me down almost. I have a sausage
of heart.
Speaker 4: Yet well, with all that, they brought Harry back to life.
So he's all right again, He's all right.
Speaker 3: But so what's all the worry, Missus Kenner?
Speaker 4: During no seconds, while Harry was not of this world,
if I may put.
Speaker 1: It, that put it anyway, but get on with it.
Speaker 3: He was not Harry Canter.
Speaker 7: He was for Heaven's sake, Joe, what was he was?
Speaker 3: He was an elephant, Missus Kenner.
Speaker 7: Harry an elephant, My boy, an elephant.
Speaker 3: That's what he says. How could that be, Missus Kenner.
Speaker 4: It is my belief that Harry was reincarnated. See when
his heart stopped that before they started it up again,
Harry's soul left his body and entered into the body.
Speaker 3: Of an elephant. Can such things be, well, you said yourself,
Missus Cantor we just don't know.
Speaker 7: No, no, no, no, I don't believe it. Harry couldn't
be an elephant. I don't know if he even likes elephants.
Speaker 3: Well he does, now, do you know what I think? Joe?
Speaker 7: But he dreamed he was an elephant. It was all
a dream went through his head.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know if you dream when your heart
isn't beating, asked doctor Klein.
Speaker 3: Well, if it was a dream, it was a very
beautiful dream.
Speaker 1: So you see, Ma, I love you to call me Ma.
Speaker 5: It's been so long.
Speaker 1: Well, you see, elephants are really the kings of the jungle,
not just because they're so big, but because they have
a sense of responsibility. They find water for all the
other animals, and you know who's the leader of the elephant.
Heard a woman, the oldest and the wisest woman elephant?
Would you believe it?
Speaker 7: Oh, that's the best thing of a home.
Speaker 1: And the men elephants, you know, they sort of hang
around together, except every so often they get excited and
flap their ears and whip their tails around. And the
female elephants do too, and that means they're in love.
Speaker 7: You know, you learned a lot near dream, didn't.
Speaker 1: She wasn't dream. Mother wasn't a dream. I was there.
I was one of them. If you say so, I
was Aboo the elephant it you say, Harry, I mean
I don't mean to contradiction you mine.
Speaker 3: Oh that's all right.
Speaker 1: Well you see you don't understand because you've never been
an elephant.
Speaker 7: Well, I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Mah. I just thought of something. What happened to Abou?
Did he die? Oh? I hope he didn't die. But
if I was Aboo and now I'm Harry, what happened
to Abou?
Speaker 3: Now? Son?
Speaker 7: I think Let me see, I think that in a
dream a person can be all kinds of things.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, ma, that isn't it. No, because
you see it wasn't a dream. I was Aboo my soul.
Harry Cantor's soul entered into Aboo the second he was born,
and it stayed there a little while, and now it's
come back into me, Harry canter.
Speaker 3: But it's still a boo's soul too, And as long
as I live, I'll have the soul of Aboo inside me.
Speaker 5: Not a bad thing.
Speaker 1: Mother. The big red fire circle is leaving now, you
mean the sun is going down?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so.
Speaker 1: Let's be very quiet, mother, very quiet.
Speaker 3: Let's not talk at all.
Speaker 1: As Fargar's falls changed much, Ma, not much. It's been
I don't know years since I saw the old place.
Speaker 5: It's pretty run down.
Speaker 1: Oh, we can fix it up if you want to, Harry.
Maybe not. Maybe we'll leave it the way it is.
Speaker 4: The trees all there, everyone, and the brook still running.
Speaker 1: That's nice. That's nice.
Speaker 7: Oh, Harry, I'm glad you're taking an interest in the
old place.
Speaker 1: Interest. I'm going to live there, you are.
Speaker 3: What about the business, Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Joe can run that. I'll sell it to him. Maybe
I'll give it to it.
Speaker 7: Oh, it won't do so well without you. Joe's a
very nice fellow.
Speaker 5: But you were always the brains.
Speaker 1: I got different brains now. Ma, Once you're an elephant,
you never forget it. Oh did I tell you I
asked Bernice to marry her?
Speaker 3: You did? What did she say?
Speaker 1: Well, she sort of whisked her tail and flapped her ears. No,
I mean she said yes. She said yes. Do you
think she'll like living in Fargust Fall?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 5: I think she'll love it.
Speaker 1: We want you to live there with usm you mean that. Well,
you're the oldest and the wisest time.
Speaker 3: You if you say so. May.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're almost there, aren't We.
Speaker 3: Turn left up ahead down that little road.
Speaker 1: Oh. I can smell the woods, Ma, I can smell
the water. Turn here, I remember, I remember. Look, Look
there's a chipmunk. Yeah, look, and a raccoon. Hey, a raccoon.
And there's birds. That's a cardinal. I know a card
I remember cardinals from way back. Right. Oh, Ma, Look
there's the woods.
Speaker 7: That's right, and the house is just beyond.
Speaker 3: Let's stop right here for a minute.
Speaker 1: Ah beautiful, isn't it?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 1: Quiet, yes, peaceful.
Speaker 7: I always thought i'd like to be buried here.
Speaker 3: Who in the time comes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, i'd like that too. When my time comes.
Speaker 7: I thought you wanted a crypt in the cemetery, would shell.
Speaker 1: No, that was a crazy idea. I'd like to be
buried here. Or maybe, just maybe I won't be buried
at all.
Speaker 3: What did you have in mind? Exactly?
Speaker 1: Maybe, ma, I'll just wander off into the woods by myself,
and no one will ever find any trace of me,
not skin or bones, or hair or anything.
Speaker 7: How can that be possible?
Speaker 3: Something like that? It's the secret of the elephants, mar.
Speaker 1: And only the elephants know.
Speaker 2: I'll be back shortly with a final thought. Our story
has ended. Story, I can hear you ask. All right,
then call it what you please. Call it a fantasy
or a fable, call it a parable, call it a
myths or and it might be the most apt description
of all a morality play. And as with audiences of
all time, you must find the moral for yourself. Our
cast included William Redfield, Arnold stang Ryana Raeburn, and Joan Shay.
Speaker 1: Associate director Marlon Swing.
Speaker 2: This is Hyman Brown, producer director, inviting you to return
to our Mystery theater for another adventure in the Macawbery.
Speaker 1: Until next time, then pleasant Dreen