
Drama International - SA xx-xx-xx (x) The Bright September Afternoon
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Excludes Massachusetts Drama International. Sam. Okay, everybody, stand back now. Stand back now. Get out of the way. Back. Back. Come on, will you? Boom. Ghouls. What Was he doing? 80.
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That's what he was doing.
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My shop. My shop. Look at my shop. Look at my windows. I think I'm the best in town. Look at the. My windows.
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Get that guy, me, before I kill him.
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Your shop. Who cares about your shop? I care. I care. 15 years I work. I work hard.
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So help me, I'll kill that guy.
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Poor people. Poor, poor people. Come on, get back. Come on with you. Get out of the way. Hey, you. Get back. Come on. We present the Bright September Afternoon. Written for broadcasting and Produced by Michael McCabe.
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Precinct. Rogers here. Corner 24th and 18th Precinct.
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Hi, Rogers.
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This is Pete. Okay.
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No, not okay. Remember that nice easy mission? Home for ice cream with the kids.
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Four o'.
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Clock.
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So it ain't a nice easy mission. The day's turned upside down like it's some kind of nightmare.
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What's wrong, fella? Guy.
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Guy comes down the wrong way, hits the traffic, just off the light, swerves. Hits the crowd outside the movie theater, goes through them. Honest, Pete, how can such a thing happen? Half of them were kids. Just kids. I mean, I got kids too.
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Casualties?
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20 dead, perhaps more.
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20? What was this guy driving, a tank?
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I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's not so many. There's so many people lying around, you never saw so much blood.
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Ambulance I can hear.
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Yeah, another one. There's four here now. Not enough. Pete. Tell the captain I'm coming in. I can't take it. Jackson's here. Three of the boys from Homicide have just arrived. I'm coming in. I'll check in and then I'm coming home. Going home, you know?
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I'll report.
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See you.
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Yeah, it's a mess. The automobile ended up inside that shop. Shop, guy, Shop. Little jewel shop, you know. Plowed back into the store. I never seen anything go so fast in all my life. I never saw anything go so fast.
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You saw it happen?
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Saw it. Well, I was standing right there. But all the Little guy who kept the shop, kept yelling, was my shop. My shop. And all those poor people. Pete, I. I tell you, I kid you not. Humanity makes me weep. Goodbye, Pete.
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Sorry it had to happen like this for you. Too bad that's being a cop.
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Bad start.
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Yeah. See you.
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Sam.
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If you're gonna stay out all night, stay out all night. But don't creep in around 4 o' clock and expect me to be happy you're alive. I mean, you know Josie. Boy, did she marry something. I tell you, one of these days she's gonna kill him. He ain't wor work for two months and such a job when he had one. 55 a week.
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Please.
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I mean, Josie's got a case nobody can keep anybody else on. 55 bucks a week. The street sweepers get more anyway. Josie says.
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Huh?
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You have a Mr. Ross staying here, Russ?
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Us? Yes.
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Russ, I. I can see.
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Thank you.
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Should be in the book, of course. What should be in the book and what gets put in the books. Between you and me and the President.
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Ross. Ross.
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When he come in.
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Pardon me.
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When did he arrive? If he's here?
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I don't know. I'm afraid.
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You don't know. Well, mister, you can see how many names there are in this book. This ain't the Waldorf Astoria. This is just a crummy little ten dollar a night joint, that's all. But we do have customers. Safe yourself.
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May I. May I look?
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Sure, sure, sure.
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No, I'm telling you, this guy Josie's got landed was no good. No good at all. You remember what a beautiful thing Josie was?
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Beautiful figure.
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Martin Ross, room 29.
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Yeah.
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Good morning, Mr. Ross.
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Yes, right.
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Martin Ross.
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That's my name.
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May I have a word with you, Mr. Ross?
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Okay.
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I wonder, perhaps we could talk inside, public out here.
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What do you want?
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If you could perhaps spare me a few minutes, Mr. Ross, I. I won't keep you long. I'm sure you're a busy man.
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Well, I mean, I don't have no facilities for entertainment.
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Inside. It's not as bad as it looks, is it? From the outside.
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Suppose you tell me what it is you what you want. I didn't catch your name.
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I didn't say it in all the bad movies. All the bad books too.
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Look.
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Plays too. I guess. That bit of dialogue, you're forgiven though.
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Oh, look, mister, I. Could you tell me what you want?
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Talk to you. Mind if I sit down?
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Yeah, go ahead. But I'd appreciate it if you'd make it, you know, quick.
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Oh, what was it like in Lengade. Ross.
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What did you say?
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I said what? Oh, but you heard me, didn't you? I asked you what it was like in jail.
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Officer, I'm gonna ask you to leave.
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I'm gonna refuse for the moment.
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Now listen.
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Yes.
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You get out of this room now. For I'll throw you out.
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I've already just come in, Mr. Ross. You invited me to sit down. I've only just sat down.
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Who are you? You from the precinct?
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The precinct?
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Yeah. You're one of these do gooders. I don't need you. I'm making out, okay? I don't need you. I don't need any help. I just want to be left alone. Now will you go?
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I'm not from the precinct. You look different from your pictures.
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Pictures?
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You're fatter in your pictures. Still, I suppose five years in lengthy takes the fat off of. Ma'.
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Am. Mister, you're gonna get out of here.
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Was I or what? He'll call the police.
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You're from the papers, ain't ya? Yeah, you're from the papers. What are you paying? I'm not talking for free, Mister. Who you from? Harold News. Who you from? Mister, I just told you. Either you unbutton your lip or get out.
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I'm not from the papers.
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Then what do you want, Mister? Okay, you had your chance. Now scram.
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Martin Ross. I find your negligence criminal. There was enough alcohol in your blood to put any able bodied man out of action. To render him incapable of driving an automobile. I'm going to send you to prison, Martin Ross, for a long time so that society shall be free and safe from you. When an automobile is in the hands of a man like you, it is no longer a means of transport. It is a weapon. When a man like you drives a vehicle, he's no longer guiding it. He's aiming it. He said something like that, didn't he? The judge? Words like that. Somewhat more flowery, if I recall. But he was an old man. A tired old man. He's died since.
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Listen, you punk. You cheap punk. You get out of here. You hear me? You. You get out of here.
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Five years. In Leng, you were 30. Now you're pushing 36. You're a young man. What's five years? Many men lost five years at war. Others are sick for five years. What's five years in return for what you did?
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You're from one of those smart magazines.
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No, I'm not from any smart magazine, Ross. My name's Calphon.
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Hands.
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Calon.
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Calon.
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Calfarn.
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I never heard of you. Never heard your name before.
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You have, as a matter of fact. But there's no reason why you should have remembered it during the past five years. There's no reason for you to have remembered it. Eight years commuted for good behavior to five.
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Okay. Okay. So you know something of my past? Well, I've been in jail. And now I'm out of jail. And that's the end of it. I don't owe anybody anything.
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Yes, you do, Ross. You owe me plenty. You owe me three lives.
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You say your name was On a.
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Bright September afternoon five and a half years ago, a lady went walking with two little girls down 24th Street. They crossed 15th and they crossed 16th. 16th was one way. On the corner of 17th, they paused for the lights to change. The lady would have instructed the little girls to look right and then left and then right again. Then they would have crossed. At the Gillmont, they were showing a Walt Disney movie about dogs. 101 dogs, Dalmatians. They were looking forward to the show. They never got to see the show. There were perhaps 40 people. Most of them were children waiting for the doors to open. They had their tickets. And then a man called Martin ross, aiming an eight cylinder 3080cc Meridian, turned the corner into 24th, saw the oncoming traffic and mounted the sidewalk and hit the crowd outside the movie house. Inside the movie theater, they were showing the newsreel.
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But 14 people would never see another newsreel. Nine kids and five women would never see anything ever again. Catherine Calphon and her daughters would never see anything ever again. Because they were dead.
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Catherine.
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I've waited for five years. Five and a half long years. Once I heard you got pneumonia. Heard you were bad. Very bad. I held my breath. I was afraid you would die. If you died, my life would have been over. I'd have nothing left to live for. Stay away from there. Stay in the middle of the room. Don't go near the furniture.
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They. They was your. Your family.
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My wife. My children.
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I'm sorry.
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You're sorry?
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What else can I say? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That was five years ago. I was jailed for it. I spent five stinking years in winters and summers. I got sick. Every day was like the day before. And every day that was gonna come was gonna be like the 365 that I just been five years. What do you want? Why you come here?
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I've come here to kill you.
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You're crazy.
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Perhaps I am.
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You can't mean that.
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I mean all six words of it most sincerely.
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But that's murder.
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Not in my book.
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Your book's wrong. I. Five years.
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I warned you, Ross. Middle of the room.
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I went to jail.
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I know. I counted every day you were in jail. I have a five year calendar with a cross over each and every day.
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You can't kill me.
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I can kill you very easily. I'm going to kill you very easily. Don't shout, Ross. Shout and I'll kill you at once.
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There.
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The means whereby I kill you. The most used weapon of the century. The gun.
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What do you expect me to say?
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I don't expect you to say anything.
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I said I was sorry. So there's nothing else I can do.
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You're wrong.
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What?
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There's one more thing.
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What's that?
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Die.
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You're mad. Perhaps I'll listen. Look, I don't have much stone.
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The grave's closed. It won't open again for business. I can't buy what I want. Not even if you pay me all the money there is in the whole of the United States.
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I said I was sorry. Didn't write nothing else. I. This falcon Listen to Calfon, huh?
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Kalphon. My name's K A L F O N. Calphon.
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Don't think what happened ain't ruined my life. I had no life. No life at all. I was married. I had kids, too. I had three kids. Boring youth. Three. A little girl, two boys. We had a fast, you see. Diane. Diane, she was my wife. She said, have them bang, bang, bang. You see? Fast be over kids. That. I mean, have them when you're young. She said those words. All that messy stuff, finished with, sewed all over. Then the world was there. It wasn't nothing we couldn't do. I was a rigger up North Dakota. Big money. We planned a lot of things. Then it happened. She waited for a year. She came to see me one day and she said it was no good. She said she couldn't make do. She said the kids needed things and she couldn't give them what they needed. And there was another man, and he wanted to marry her. And I never seen her since that day. Papers, lawyers, nothing else. They went to live in California. I loved her. I want her. I want her. I want my kids. Just. Just like you. But I mean, they're as good as dead. I paid for what I'd done. What? I have to play again.
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Don't shout.
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You come coming here with a gun. You sit there. Sit there and act like you got no right. No right at all, said I. Oh, mister, please. Please don't kill me. You don't mean it, do you? You want to give me. You want to scare me, don't you? I know what you're trying to do, mister. I know how it's been with you. Believe me. I know a lot of what you felt. I suffered too. You've been able to walk about. You've been able to buy a paper and go to the movie. Please, mister. I paid for what I did. I paid.
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But you never received a receipt.
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What does that mean?
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Forget it.
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No, I mean. What do you mean? I mean, I'm only too glad to hear anything you say. I mean, I'm listening to you, every word. I'm deeply and humbly sorry, and I mean to the end of my days, but please think again. You ain't gonna shoot me with that gun, are you? I mean, think of yourself. Think what I went through. But at least I didn't say to myself. I didn't say to myself, there's a guy sitting in front of me now, and I got a gun in my hand. I'm gonna kill him right now. I mean, that's another thing again. You see?
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No.
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Huh?
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I don't see.
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But you gotta.
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I don't.
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You don't understand. No, please, mister, don't kill me. There's no priest.
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What?
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I said, there's no priest. So you're not a Catholic? No, I am. And Catholics, before they die, you see, they. They have to put things right. You see?
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No.
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No what? Huh?
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No, I don't see.
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Well, I said it plain enough.
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Said what?
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Listen, I'm a Catholic. You can't kill me because. Because there's no priest here. I have to see a priest. Why? I just told you why. I gotta put things right. I can't just die without. I'm in mortal sin. You know what happens when you die in mortal sin?
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No, what happens?
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You must know. Everybody knows that. You're damned.
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Damned.
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Oh, please, stop torturing me. I've had enough.
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Okay, I'll stop.
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What are you gonna do?
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I'm gonna kill you. Put you out of your misery.
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Please. I mean, let me have my rights. Everybody deserves that before they die. Everybody has a right to a request.
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I mean, my wife and children didn't enjoy that right.
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I knew as soon as I said that.
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I knew you were.
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You were gonna say that I knew.
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What can I say?
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No priest was at the corner of 24th and 17th that day.
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Your wife wasn't a Catholic? No, but that's all right. Please listen. Please. I'll stay here if you go get a priest. I'll stay here. I promise. I'll go to confession and come back here to this room. You wait.
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Poor, stupid little man. You think I'd fall for that?
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It's murder.
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Goodbye, Ross. I want you to die knowing that I hate you and that your life has been utterly worthless.
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No, please, wait. I beg of you. I must have a priest. Anyone would do this. There's a Catholic church on the corner of Maine and 28th. Take three minutes. Let me phone, please. The number will be in the book.
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Sit down.
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Please, mister. He could be here. I wouldn't say anything, I promise. He could hear my confession and then go. Afterwards, you could do what you like. I don't care anymore. My life's useless. It's finished. It finished the day I hit that crowd outside that theater. You know. You know, you. You really be doing me a favor, you know that? I don't want to live. I really want to die. I do.
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Shut up.
A
I can't.
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Shut up.
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Can't stop now. I have to tell you, you see. I want to die in a Way. I really been waiting for you to come here, you see? Really waiting for you to come here.
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Shut up.
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Shouting for you now through prison and afterwards. These few days since I've been out. I, I, I didn't know any at the time. I never knew it.
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But.
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But what I've really been waiting for is for you to come and kill me. Ain't that ridiculous? It's okay. I don't mind anymore. Go ahead. He even with a priest. I don't care. I hate my life. Go on. What are you waiting for?
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It wasn't supposed to be like that.
A
Well, I guess it is.
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You're scared.
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I'm scared. Sure I'm scared. But don't you go changing your mind now. Not now. I just found out that all I want to do is die. What are you doing?
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Okay, Jay.
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Patty all over, huh?
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Mister, you were great. Great. Wasn't he great, fellas?
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Sure. Wasn't he great? Terrific. Hey, you two. He's gonna kill me. He's got a gun. Come on, Mr. Melloway, tell him. You better. What's going on? This man's gonna kill me.
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Here, catch. Yeah. Nobody could kill anybody with that. No bullets.
A
Empty.
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Mr. Ross, you, a man who's paid your debt to society by a five year sergeant in prison, have just had the honor of appearing live in person on the coast to coast TV spectacular. Where are they now? Mr. Ross, forgive the intrusion. Hans Kalphong died four years ago in Chicago. I'm Chris Melloway of KBS. Mr. Ross, you'll be paid 500 for your trouble. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you anything till now. I hope it wasn't too bad. Hope he didn't bring back too many painful memories for you. Jay, how about some whiskey?
A
Sure.
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Sure thing.
A
You. You. I mean, you took down what I've been saying? Yep.
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Recorded and televised for posterity. The genuine agony of a man confronted with his past. After five years, no actor could have done it. Make it a double for Mr. Ross, Jay.
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Sure thing.
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So there it is, Mr. Ross. In a month from now, 18 million people all over.
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There weren't any bullets in it at all.
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Not one single itsy bitsy bullet. No. Hurry up with that whiskey.
A
J. You come here.
B
How?
A
I never saw any cameras of modern technology.
E
Martin. I may call you Martin, may I? Good. From my entrance into the hotel, my words to the desk clerk, my progress up the stairs, and our interview here, every word on every gesture is recorded in sound and picture. We heard you'd come out and arrange the whole thing with the manager. We didn't tell him the extent of. Hey, what are you doing?
A
Fellow, for all these years I've tried to forget that terrible day. And now you come here. And now I'll never forget it as long as I live.
E
Hey, come on, fella. Jay, give the guy some whiskey, for Pete's sake.
A
Your gun was empty. The gun you scared me with said you were gonna kill me with. But this one ain't. You two punks, scram. Get out. Not you. Dirty.
E
I can fix it. So you get a lot of money, Ross. My sponsors are insured.
A
You see the little TV show coming here?
E
Put my gun down. Listen to me. We can work something out. Don't. Don't be crazy. I'll see your.
A
Let's try. Sa.
E
You have been listening to Drama International.
A
Join us again next week at the.
E
Same time for more Drama International.
A
Sam.
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Episode: Drama International - "The Bright September Afternoon"
Air Date: September 12, 2025
Main Theme:
A tense and emotionally charged drama that explores guilt, retribution, grief, and the ethics of public sensationalism through the aftermath of a tragic accident, set in the intimate, personal style of Golden Age radio theater.
“The Bright September Afternoon,” written for broadcasting and produced by Michael McCabe, is a harrowing radio drama that unfolds the psychological and moral consequences following a devastating vehicular tragedy. The episode blends elements of crime, justice, and media sensationalism to create a tightly wound narrative about the struggles of moving forward after irreversible harm—both for the perpetrator and the victims.
“Guy comes down the wrong way... swerves... hits the crowd outside the movie theater... Honest, Pete, how can such a thing happen? Half of them were kids.”
(D, 03:06)
“Martin Ross. I find your negligence criminal... I’m going to send you to prison, Martin Ross, for a long time so that society shall be free and safe from you.”
(E, 10:16)
E: “I’ve come here to kill you.”
A: “You’re crazy.”
E: “Perhaps I am.”
(16:13–16:33)
A: “Listen, I’m a Catholic. You can’t kill me because... there’s no priest here. I have to see a priest.”
E: “No priest was at the corner of 24th and 17th that day.”
(21:02–22:05)
“Mr. Ross, you... have just had the honor of appearing live and in person on the coast to coast TV spectacular Where Are They Now?... The genuine agony of a man confronted with his past... No actor could have done it.”
(E, 24:46–25:40)
On the impossibility of atonement:
“You owe me plenty. You owe me three lives.”
(E, 12:02)
Despair and remorse:
“Don’t think what happened ain’t ruined my life... I paid for what I’d done. What, I have to pay again?”
(A, 18:44–19:00)
On the contrivance of forgiveness:
“But you never received a receipt.”
(E, 19:44)
Sensation over substance:
“Recorded and televised for posterity. The genuine agony of a man confronted with his past. After five years, no actor could have done it.”
(E, 25:29–25:40)
The episode employs terse, emotionally raw dialogue and a noir-influenced structure. The performances evoke desperation, regret, and bitter irony. The twist ending is delivered with a cold, journalistic detachment, leaning into the cynical exploitation typical of media satires.
The Bright September Afternoon challenges the listener to consider the nature of justice and the cost of turning real tragedy into spectacle. It refuses easy answers, leaving its central characters (and audience) haunted by what is irretrievably lost.
If you missed the broadcast, this summary provides the complete arc—from the shattering impact of one man's negligence to the exploitation of grief on the public stage—capturing the emotional and moral complexity that defines Golden Age radio drama at its best.