When Munch was a boy, freedom was a potato. It was you didn't get killed today. Freedom from hunger, from the rusty blade. But to free himself, the man ate first so others could not. He killed before he was killed. He wanted nothing more because only kings had the freedom to want. But now everywhere you look, you see kings. Everything they want, they call their own, and if they cannot have it, they say that they are not free. They even pretend their freedom should be free, that it has no cost, but the cost is always death. Life for life. Me or you.
IIrma
Please. I don't understand. Why are you here? What do you want?
My great-grandfather's name was Roy. Indian killer. Fought in the Battle of Big Mound, Dead Buffalo Lake. Lost an ear in the Battle of the Badlands. He's the only American to earn four Medals of Honor. Now he was one of the good ones. Me, I try to be. You...not so much, I think. You're what we call a waste of skin. Defective. Eating our food, breathing our air, wasting precious resources.
The tiger, spelled T-I-G-E-R, is one of the fiercest hunters on Earth. Known for its cunning and strategic mind, the tiger is most dangerous when cornered. Though it may look like the tiger has given up, this is, in fact, a ruse. Look closer. Even now, she plans an escape. The female, or lady tiger, can outsmart even the most skilled hunters. She is a literal genius when it comes to saving her young and protecting her mate. The tiger has been known to set traps to ensnare her pursuers, thus the popular colloquialism: "Do not hunt the tiger unless you want the tiger catching you." Only the tiger shark is a more dangerous foe, though the tiger shark - or any kind of shark, really - would suffocate in a hospital setting.
Let me guess, the last time you negotiated with a woman was over the price of a Tijuana blowjob. How much to stick it in your asshole, that kind of thing.
They never hit you when it's going their way, y'know? It's when they're weak and just pretending to be strong. When they need something small to climb on to feel big.
Plus interest 'cause we got sideways. Now I didn't make your deal, but if I had, I would've been clear: that woman's like a tick. Can't crush her, can't pull her out clean. Suffocation is the key, or fire. If I had a nickel for every time she found the daylight or when I thought I had her buried. Never had a problem before or since breaking a woman, but that one, she's...What'd you call her?
Mrs. Lyon, have you ever in your life ever heard your daughter-in-law say she was a victim of anything? You may not like it, but sometimes crimes are committed against people. They're victimized and it's not their fault.
You're saying if a woman is abused and she manages to escape, she should move to the woods, live in a tree, free from the burdens of basic human contact? God forbid she gets a fresh start, a good man to wash out the taste of the bad.
Tough shit! Some of us work for a living and go home to empty houses, or houses that should be empty but are instead filled with the dirty underpants of our man-child spouses. Your problem is you think that you're rich 'cause you're better than me.
Dorothy. Yeah. I know you don't want to see it, but let me tell you what I see. I see a woman who outsmarted two kidnappers, killed one and nearly killed the other, and who probably saved your son and granddaughter's lives when they came at her again at the house. I see a woman who doesn't quit no matter what. Who won't be silenced. And, unlike you, who never complains. Even when her mother-in-law has her committed to a mental hospital. So I brought you her file so at least you could be an educated asshole.
Are your balls in your belly, looking for a safe place to hide? Good. Listen to me, I'm pulling the offer. That $100 million is going to Mesa Prudential out in Flagstaff. What you get instead is the full might of the federal government reading the shit stains in your underwear like tea leaves.
Quiet. A grown-up is talking. I called the SEC chairman personally, and as we speak, two dozen federal agents are in your office, seizing your books. They've also frozen every personal and business bank account you've got, so I hope you didn't give all your walking around money to that stripper. Oh, plus I hear your son is starting his freshman year at, uh, Notre Dame, except, whoops, you're late on tuition. So, hmm... [Vivian's other line rings] Oh, that ring you hear? That's your son on the other line, calling to tell you he's been expelled.
Oh, "please". That's your secret weapon? You want to know what your mistake was? It was thinking death was the worst thing that can happen to you. So congratulations, the sheriff's not gonna kill you. Instead you're going to live the rest of your days in squalor, surrounded by the dead-eyed stares of your futureless children.
Look, I think it's wonderful what you're doing here, this place you've made for suffering. But I don't need a a doll to say what's on my mind. Maybe I could have used one before Wayne and this new life, but I am in control now. I know who I am and what's important. So if there's any way that we can skip-
SLSaint Linda
It's not gonna work, dear. You came here to confront me, the things you think I did, what happened after I was gone. This is the process. You wouldn't be here if you didn't need to be here.
Chapter One: The Hero. Once upon a time there was a girl named Dot. Dorothy. She was the sun's favorite. Y'know, the, uh, the sun? And everywhere she went there were rainbows.
Mmhmm. And she could do anything, our Dorothy. Y'know, she could, uh, climb a tree. She could, uh, wrestle an alligator. And everyone she met, she put a smile on their face. But the darkness hates the light and the ugly things come out at night. And so she, our Dot, in order to save the rainbows, she had to go fight against the darkness. And leave the, uh, the flowers and the birds at home. Her family, I'm saying. Because until you go someplace, you can't come home.
