679 - January 29, 1969

[bunniefuu]

[Maggie narrating] - The night which has just ended

at the great estate of Collinwood

will be remembered by many who live there.

A little girl has awakened from a frightening dream

and she suddenly knows that the dream will come true

unless she can stop it.

- What do you want?

- You sound just like Quentin.

- I don't mean to.

I don't want to!

- David, I know why Quentin

wouldn't let me play the game anymore.

- You do?

- Why did you let him hurt Chris?

- I don't know what you're talking about.

- Oh, yes, you do!

He tells you everything he's going to do.

- But Amy, I didn't know that he was going to do that.

- Why don't you admit it?

You even tried to talk him out of it!

I know that.

Why are you lying to me, David?

- Amy, does - does Quentin ever scare you?

Oh, Amy, what are we going to do?

- Then, you're afraid of him, too?

- Where are you going?

- Downstairs.

- Why?

- To tell Mrs. Stoddard.

- Tell her what?

- About the game.

- Amy, you can't.

- It's the only way to stop it, David.

- You don't know what Quentin will do to us!

You don't know him as well as I do now!

- David, you can't stop me.

No one can.

- Amy!

Amy!

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪

Amy!

You mustn't tell.

- I have to.

- No. You don't know what Quentin will do to us.

He told me. He will make us sick.

- They won't let him.

- They won't believe us. I know.

- Yes, they will.

- They'll just punish us for going into the west wing.

- I don't care.

David, we've got to finish this.

- No. Not this way.

- Come back upstairs. - No!

- Oh, Amy.

We'll figure something else out.

- No!

- You know we have to do what Quentin tells us to do.

We agreed to that.

- But we didn't know what he was like!

- Well, we do now! And don't you forget it!

- Ouch! David --

- Amy!

- David!

Let go of Amy!

- We were just playing a game, Aunt Elizabeth. - David.

Are you all right?

- Tell her, Amy. We were just playing a game.

Jail! And she escaped.

And I had to catch her again.

- No! No!

- Amy, everything is going to be all right.

- We were just playing a game, Aunt Elizabeth.

Honest!

- David, you are too old for this kind of behavior.

- Amy is younger than you are

and I expect you to protect her.

Now, go to your room and stay there until I come up.

- Why should I be punished?

She was playing the game, too.

- I wasn't playing.

- You were, too!

She lies all the time, Aunt Elizabeth.

- That's not true. - It is.

You can't believe a word she says.

She makes things up.

- I know why you're saying that.

- Children, enough of this.

Now, David, you heard me. Up those stairs, right now.

- You believe a stranger

before you believe your own nephew!

- Don't cry anymore.

Well, sit down.

I want you to tell me what happened.

Does David treat you like this very often?

- No.

- He didn't when you first came here.

- Oh, he was very nice then.

- But this isn't the first time he has behaved badly.

Carolyn told me about the other day.

- It's just since we started --

we started -- - Started what?

- It's just since we started playing the game.

- What game?

- I mean, the game isn't really bad.

Except, last night, well, after my dream.

I knew why David wouldn't let me play the game anymore.

It was because of Chris.

What does Chris have to do with it?

- Oh, a lot. He was in the dream.

I never knew he would be.

- Amy, please try to tell me a little more clearly.

- I am trying.

But I keep remembering my dream.

And Chris!

And then, I get so scared! - Oh, darling.

- But you'll take care of it.

You will make sure nothing else happens.

- Well, I don't know what has, but I'll certainly try my best.

- Well David, he - he took me to this room upstairs.

- What room?

- I don't know what to call it.

And we found the telephone, a very old one.

And that was the beginning.

- The beginning of what?

- Of the game.

Because when I picked up the telephone,

the receiver - oh.

- Well, what is it? What's the matter, Amy?

- No! No! - What?

- He's here!

He's in this room now!

- Amy, there's no one here.

- He was! He was!

He was going to hurt me. I know he was!

- Amy!

What happened? - I don't know.

She was trying to tell me something about a game

and then she thought she saw someone.

- I did! I did!

- Amy, there's no one here in this room.

- Amy, it is going to be all right.

- She had a frightening dream.

- Amy, did you see this figure in your dream?

- No.

I never saw him in the dream.

But he was there! I know it was him!

And David told me --

- What did David tell you?

- Amy, are you afraid of David, too?

- I don't know. Sometimes.

- Well, I'm certainly going to take care of David

so you won't be any more!

Now, Amy,

I want you to finish telling me about this game.

- No! - But Amy?

- There is nothing much to tell.

- But I don't even know what kind of game it is.

- It is a make-believe game.

- What kind of make-believe?

- Oh, we just pretend things, that's all.

- So, you dreamed that what you've been pretending

became real, is that it?

- I guess that's what happened.

- And that man you saw up here,

was he one of your make-believe people?

- Yes. I guess so.

- Amy, you still seem to be afraid.

I'm going up to talk to David.

Stay with her, will you, Maggie?

- All right, Mrs. Stoddard.

Amy, is it David who's been frightening you?

- Yes.

But no, too.

Oh, I can't explain it, Maggie.

I can't!

- Quentin!

I tried to stop her, Quentin.

Honest, I did.

Except, Aunt Elizabeth came out

and there was nothing I could do.

I told her not to tell. I swear I did.

You're mad at me.

I can tell.

Why are you smiling, Quentin?

Did you take care of her?

Did you stop her?

Oh, Quentin!

You're never going to let us go, are you?

You're just going to keep on

and on and on and never stop.

There's nothing we can do about it, is there, Quentin?

Is there?

- David!

Who were you talking to?

♪♪

David, tell me who you were talking to.

- You don't see anyone, do you?

- No, but I heard you.

- Well, then, I must have been talking to myself, right?

- Was it something about that game

that you and Amy have been playing?

- Which one?

- You tell me.

- Well, I'm not sure which one she was talking about.

- Well, it had something to do with this phone.

- Oh, that one.

Did I ever tell you about my friend, Lars?

- Lars? - Yes.

He's a giant who lives in the house by the sea.

- No, you didn't and you're too old to believe in giants.

- He calls me on this phone.

He is being held c*ptive by a wicked old witch.

- David, I am surprised that a boy of your age

would depend on imaginary people to keep amused.

When - when Amy came here, I thought she would be good for

you to have someone near your own age to talk to.

- She is a dumb girl. - She is a nice girl.

- She lies a lot.

- How does Amy lie?

I'm waiting David?

- Well, maybe, she - maybe, she doesn't lie,

but she gets all scared over nothing.

- I think you scare her and I won't have it!

If this game you're playing with her frightens Amy,

then you are going to stop it.

- Well, I did stop it. I won't let her play it anymore.

That's what she's mad about!

- She was crying.

Those tears weren't because you wouldn't let her play.

You've been behaving very badly, David.

I'm afraid you'll have to stay in your room

until you can learn how to treat people.

- How long will that be? - The rest of the day at least.

You've been behaving very badly

and you need time alone to think about it

and how to treat people.

Obviously, you're not aware of it now!

[door closes]

- Amy, I'll tell you what.

Since you're so worried about your brother,

how about if you and I take a walk down to the cottage

and see him?

- I can't right now.

- Why not?

- There is something else I have to do.

- What?

- Oh, just something.

- Don't you want to tell me?

- Oh, yes, I do.

- But I can't.

- Why not, Amy?

- Because it's up to me.

- Amy, nothing should be up to you alone.

That's why I'm here.

To help you and David.

And if you're not going to allow me to do that,

then I'm not going to be able to do what I should.

- Oh, I'd like you to help me about anything else.

Only - only this.

Well, I've got it all figured out now.

- Are you feeling any better, Amy?

- Oh, yes, Mrs. Stoddard.

- Now, don't disturb David.

He is to stay in his room alone.

- Oh, I won't disturb him.

- It's too bad we can't forget our troubles

as easily as they do.

- If she has forgotten.

- What do you mean?

- Well, I think something is still upsetting her.

She wouldn't tell me but I think it's very serious.

It must be.

- I think David can be a serious,

I mean, David can be a very serious problem, Maggie.

He is too imaginative. He always has been.

He seems to delight in living in a world that isn't real.

- I have noticed that.

- We have got to face the problem.

And you can help us.

- Mrs. Stoddard, I'll do anything I can to help.

- Perhaps, we didn't discipline him enough.

Originally, his flights of fancy were very amusing,

but now, they're not.

Now, he's hurting that -

now, they're hurting that little girl.

Now, I want you to discipline him

in whatever way you feel is necessary.

Do you understand?

- Yes, I think so.

- Disciplining is obviously the only way to make David realize

that he is living in a real world.

Inhabited by real people and he has to deal with them,

not with witches, ghosts, and giants.

♪♪

- I didn't tell her, David.

- I know.

- Quentin told you?

- Oh, David, you were right.

I'm sure he was going to do something really terrible to me.

- Yes.

- But David, we just can't let him do the things he does.

- How can we stop him?

- If we are friends again, you and I,

if we stay together -- - What good will that do?

- I don't know, but it might help.

David, we have to stop him from hurting my brother.

I don't want him to do that.

- Quentin doesn't care what you want or even what I do.

- He's going to keep on hurting Chris, isn't he?

He just won't stop and you know that.

David, do you know what I think?

If we got your Aunt Elizabeth to take us into town,

we could tell her there.

And Quentin would never know

and we wouldn't have to come back to this house.

- No, he'd find us.

- Then, let's go to him, David.

- And do what?

- And tell him --

and tell him that that we'll play the game

just as he wants as long as he doesn't hurt Chris.

He doesn't want anyone to know about him,

you know that.

And I'll promise never ever to tell

if he'll just leave Chris alone.

- You better go, Amy.

- Aren't you going to try?

- If I told him that that you'd tell everything about him,

if he didn't agree, he just might do it.

- Go see him now, David.

- I can't.

I have to stay in my room.

- I'll go then.

- No!

You know he doesn't want you in the game anymore!

- I'll try. I will.

Just go downstairs and wait for me.

Quentin?

Quentin?

I have to talk to you.

Please answer me. Please!

Oh Quentin, where are you?

♪♪

Quentin, please, answer me, please!

What do you want?

- Well, I simply came in to see how you were getting along.

- I'm getting along fine.

I like being alone.

- So much so that you had to talk to an imaginary friend

on that old telephone?

David, I want to be your friend.

- But we are friends, Maggie.

- No, David, we're not.

Even smiling like that at me doesn't make it so.

- Vicki never said things like that.

- Well, Vicki had one way of dealing with you

and I have another.

- I don't like it when people deal with me.

- David, I'm sorry I hurt your feelings,

but people do deal with each other.

And you don't seem to care about anyone's feelings.

- You don't know.

- David, if you did,

you wouldn't have to spend the day in your room

when it's so nice outside.

- I'd rather be here anyway.

- With your telephone?

- Yes.

- Where did you get it?

- I found it.

- Where? - In the cellar.

It is a magic telephone.

- David.

- It is. Grownups just don't believe in magic.

They are wrong. They just don't know.

- David, I think it's about time you got some sense

of what's real and what isn't.

- Where are you taking that?

- I'm going to take this telephone.

- Where? You can't!

- To my room. - No!

It's mine! I won't let you take it.

- David, you have no choice in the matter.

- It's mine, Maggie.

- So many things are yours, David.

More things than you realize.

When you come to know that,

then I'll be glad to give this back to you.

- Quentin, you've got to come now.

[clock chiming]

Why haven't you come?

Quentin, it's important that I see you.

You wanted me to go to Chris's house tonight

after everyone was asleep and play the game with him.

But I have to tell you what Amy has offered.

Oh, Quentin, please.

He's not coming.

- David!

David!

I know you're here.

Don't hide from me.

David, where did you go?

David?

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪