1
00:00:22,865 --> 00:00:25,534
I have heard myself say
2
00:00:27,077 --> 00:00:29,497
that a house with a death in it
3
00:00:29,581 --> 00:00:34,084
can never again be bought
or sold by the living.
4
00:00:39,882 --> 00:00:44,804
It can only be borrowed from the ghosts
that have stayed behind.
5
00:00:53,270 --> 00:00:55,648
To go back and forth,
6
00:00:57,776 --> 00:01:00,820
letting out and gathering back in again.
7
00:01:03,656 --> 00:01:08,077
Worrying over the floors
in confused circles.
8
00:01:10,871 --> 00:01:16,711
Tending to their deaths
like patchy, withered gardens.
9
00:01:19,922 --> 00:01:22,759
They have stayed
to look back for a glimpse
10
00:01:22,842 --> 00:01:26,303
of the very last moments of their lives.
11
00:01:28,764 --> 00:01:32,101
But the memories of their own deaths
12
00:01:32,726 --> 00:01:36,688
are faces on the wrong side
of wet windows,
13
00:01:37,314 --> 00:01:39,233
smeared by rain.
14
00:01:40,317 --> 00:01:43,112
Impossible to properly see.
15
00:01:47,408 --> 00:01:50,661
There is nothing
that chains them to the places
16
00:01:50,744 --> 00:01:52,746
where their bodies have fallen.
17
00:01:54,123 --> 00:01:56,418
They are free to go,
18
00:01:58,502 --> 00:02:02,089
but still they confine themselves,
19
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held in place by their looking.
20
00:02:08,095 --> 00:02:10,264
For those who have stayed,
21
00:02:11,598 --> 00:02:14,768
their prison is their never seeing.
22
00:02:17,897 --> 00:02:20,315
And left all alone,
23
00:02:23,736 --> 00:02:27,322
this is how they rot.
24
00:02:56,185 --> 00:02:59,229
I did not know it at the time,
25
00:02:59,313 --> 00:03:02,774
but the house that stands
at the end of Teacup Road
26
00:03:03,358 --> 00:03:08,238
in the town of Braintree, Massachusetts,
was such a house.
27
00:03:17,122 --> 00:03:21,460
A house that holds a seat
for the memory of a death.
28
00:03:33,263 --> 00:03:38,143
The staying place of a rotted ghost.
29
00:04:14,429 --> 00:04:19,894
At the time of my arrival
in the first part of August,
30
00:04:19,978 --> 00:04:22,814
the house was occupied by Iris Blum,
31
00:04:23,940 --> 00:04:26,525
the author of 13 novels.
32
00:04:28,027 --> 00:04:30,738
The kinds of thick and frightening books
33
00:04:30,822 --> 00:04:34,116
that people buy at airports
and supermarkets.
34
00:04:42,416 --> 00:04:48,380
Of her books, I have read fewer
than nine pages of only a single one...
35
00:04:49,674 --> 00:04:53,886
and all the while
suppressing a very bad taste.
36
00:04:59,684 --> 00:05:02,020
I am not even sure of the title.
37
00:05:07,858 --> 00:05:10,235
From where I am now,
38
00:05:11,153 --> 00:05:14,991
I can be sure of only a very few things.
39
00:05:36,178 --> 00:05:41,391
The pretty thing you are looking at is me.
40
00:05:42,601 --> 00:05:45,395
Of this I am sure.
41
00:05:48,023 --> 00:05:50,484
My name is Lily Saylor.
42
00:05:52,235 --> 00:05:54,196
I am a hospice nurse.
43
00:05:55,781 --> 00:05:59,576
Three days ago, I turned 28 years old.
44
00:06:02,955 --> 00:06:06,125
I will never be 29 years old.
45
00:06:08,543 --> 00:06:10,129
It's, uh...
46
00:06:11,505 --> 00:06:13,173
She's just above,
47
00:06:13,256 --> 00:06:17,469
uh, the bedroom on the right
in the front of the house.
48
00:06:26,812 --> 00:06:28,230
Oh.
49
00:07:33,670 --> 00:07:34,839
Hello, Ms. Blum.
50
00:07:41,887 --> 00:07:43,472
My name is Lily.
51
00:07:44,431 --> 00:07:47,559
I'm going to be staying with you
from now on. I hope that's all right.
52
00:08:29,559 --> 00:08:34,606
♪ You keep coming back... ♪
53
00:08:44,783 --> 00:08:49,663
♪ A song that keeps saying ♪
54
00:08:51,498 --> 00:08:54,334
♪ "Remember" ♪
55
00:08:58,130 --> 00:09:03,385
♪ The sweet used-to-be... ♪
56
00:09:05,220 --> 00:09:07,472
No snooping, you.
57
00:09:15,689 --> 00:09:18,316
♪ Keeps coming back ♪
58
00:09:19,651 --> 00:09:25,116
♪ Like an old melody... ♪
59
00:09:28,493 --> 00:09:30,121
Polly!
60
00:09:30,204 --> 00:09:36,127
♪ ...of roses in May... ♪
61
00:09:42,257 --> 00:09:46,595
♪ Returns to my room ♪
62
00:09:48,471 --> 00:09:54,227
♪ In December ♪
63
00:09:57,480 --> 00:10:01,986
♪ From out of the past ♪
64
00:10:03,070 --> 00:10:09,327
♪ Where forgotten things belong ♪
65
00:10:11,411 --> 00:10:17,000
♪ You keep coming back ♪
66
00:10:18,501 --> 00:10:23,548
♪ Like a song ♪
67
00:11:08,593 --> 00:11:13,807
I am very seldom required
to wear white by my employers.
68
00:11:16,185 --> 00:11:19,063
But, anyway, I always do.
69
00:11:20,939 --> 00:11:25,194
It has always been that wearing white
reassures the sick
70
00:11:25,277 --> 00:11:29,156
that I can never be touched.
71
00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:35,578
Even as darkness folds in on them
from every side...
72
00:11:38,790 --> 00:11:41,876
closing like a claw.
73
00:14:38,803 --> 00:14:40,805
Wake up, spaz.
74
00:14:42,224 --> 00:14:45,768
Then go to sleep. I don't know what.
75
00:14:50,106 --> 00:14:51,858
Is Bart in there with you?
76
00:14:54,777 --> 00:14:56,779
You slut.
77
00:14:57,864 --> 00:14:59,241
Is he awake?
78
00:15:02,453 --> 00:15:03,870
Tell him hi.
79
00:15:03,953 --> 00:15:06,498
No, no, no!
Don't tell him who it is, just--
80
00:15:09,834 --> 00:15:11,753
Uh, what are you guys doing?
81
00:15:12,462 --> 00:15:15,006
Oh, you guys are lame.
82
00:15:16,758 --> 00:15:17,967
Nothing.
83
00:15:18,426 --> 00:15:19,886
Couldn't sleep.
84
00:15:20,471 --> 00:15:23,848
The first night in a place
always weirds me out, you know.
85
00:15:25,141 --> 00:15:27,101
Kitchen.
86
00:15:28,019 --> 00:15:30,104
The phone is in the kitchen.
What do you want?
87
00:15:33,359 --> 00:15:35,860
It's got one of those
ridiculously long cords
88
00:15:35,944 --> 00:15:38,905
that your mom used to have. Remember that?
89
00:15:40,865 --> 00:15:44,953
Oh, well, it's a real old house, so...
90
00:15:45,870 --> 00:15:47,163
I don't know.
91
00:15:49,207 --> 00:15:50,458
They're thicker?
92
00:15:50,959 --> 00:15:53,586
Oh, the walls are thicker.
93
00:15:55,464 --> 00:15:58,216
"Creepy"?
Why would you say that to me right now,
94
00:15:58,300 --> 00:16:01,177
in the middle of the night
when I'm here all alone?
95
00:16:07,976 --> 00:16:10,812
I'm okay.
96
00:16:12,230 --> 00:16:14,441
No, he hasn't called.
97
00:16:15,984 --> 00:16:18,236
And he doesn't have this number.
98
00:16:18,903 --> 00:16:21,656
I can't imagine what I'd say if he did.
99
00:16:22,782 --> 00:16:24,909
I mean, what does a person say?
100
00:16:24,993 --> 00:16:30,248
"Oh. Remember that time we almost
but then didn't get married?
101
00:16:31,417 --> 00:16:32,501
'Cause I do."
102
00:16:36,463 --> 00:16:38,465
No, I don't think he will, either.
103
00:16:40,133 --> 00:16:43,011
Can we not talk
about Scott right now, please?
104
00:16:49,310 --> 00:16:51,437
Yeah. It'll be good to be here.
105
00:16:52,563 --> 00:16:55,064
Good to be away.
Just good to kinda put myself away for...
106
00:17:24,927 --> 00:17:26,304
What are you guys doing?
107
00:17:27,598 --> 00:17:28,599
Oh?
108
00:17:31,142 --> 00:17:33,562
Well, that sounds pretty yummy
right about now.
109
00:17:35,188 --> 00:17:36,189
Yeah. I know.
110
00:17:37,190 --> 00:17:40,151
I'm sure I'll end up
cooking a bunch for Ms. Blum.
111
00:17:41,027 --> 00:17:43,905
No. It's Blum, stupid. Not Ms. Plum.
112
00:17:44,365 --> 00:17:46,617
This isn't Clue.
113
00:17:47,158 --> 00:17:50,286
Well, maybe I'll bake a pie.
I think I saw some blackberry--
114
00:17:51,663 --> 00:17:53,081
Jesus!
115
00:18:21,652 --> 00:18:22,820
Hello?
116
00:18:26,114 --> 00:18:27,449
Hello?
117
00:18:30,411 --> 00:18:33,079
Oh, the phone just flew out of my hand.
118
00:18:37,083 --> 00:18:39,127
The cord not as long as it seems, huh?
119
00:18:40,546 --> 00:18:43,047
Or I dropped it, like a stupid idiot.
120
00:18:44,966 --> 00:18:46,718
I'm gonna give myself a heart attack.
121
00:19:03,694 --> 00:19:04,778
Anyhoo...
122
00:19:06,070 --> 00:19:07,405
what's new with you?
123
00:19:33,097 --> 00:19:34,265
There.
124
00:19:35,141 --> 00:19:36,768
It was just there,
125
00:19:37,769 --> 00:19:39,187
even then.
126
00:19:40,606 --> 00:19:43,817
On my very first night in the house.
127
00:19:45,611 --> 00:19:46,778
A death.
128
00:19:51,199 --> 00:19:52,867
But I cannot see it.
129
00:19:53,494 --> 00:19:54,703
Not yet.
130
00:19:57,121 --> 00:20:02,210
But I can feel it shifting its weight
from bare foot to bare foot.
131
00:20:04,170 --> 00:20:08,299
Stepping around softly
behind a curtain of dark.
132
00:20:09,801 --> 00:20:14,556
Pacing back and forth
in the cage of my chest.
133
00:21:52,821 --> 00:21:54,238
"Dark Moon Flower."
134
00:21:56,449 --> 00:21:59,870
"Underwater Housewife."
135
00:22:12,298 --> 00:22:15,343
So that's where you're hiding.
136
00:22:22,016 --> 00:22:24,477
They told me there wasn't one of you,
137
00:22:24,978 --> 00:22:29,357
and I don't mind telling you,
I was a little worried.
138
00:22:34,988 --> 00:22:36,031
Come on.
139
00:22:42,370 --> 00:22:43,746
Oh.
140
00:22:55,633 --> 00:22:58,594
Well, no need to be rude.
141
00:23:04,017 --> 00:23:05,977
Oh, Ms. Blum.
142
00:23:07,603 --> 00:23:09,230
You scared me.
143
00:23:10,314 --> 00:23:12,400
Well, let's get you back.
144
00:23:17,488 --> 00:23:19,407
Now, I'm thinking
it's not the best idea for you
145
00:23:19,490 --> 00:23:22,035
to be getting up without me from now on.
146
00:23:23,954 --> 00:23:25,621
Can we agree to that?
147
00:23:27,874 --> 00:23:29,000
Polly?
148
00:23:32,712 --> 00:23:34,046
Oh, um...
149
00:23:34,798 --> 00:23:37,050
No, uh...
150
00:23:37,134 --> 00:23:40,762
My name is Lily, Ms. Blum.
151
00:23:41,971 --> 00:23:43,472
We met a few hours ago.
152
00:23:45,141 --> 00:23:47,643
I'm going to be staying here with you
from now on.
153
00:23:51,147 --> 00:23:56,527
My Polly, tell me you missed me
just a little bit too.
154
00:24:00,907 --> 00:24:03,701
You'll give me as much as that, won't you?
155
00:24:31,228 --> 00:24:34,106
It can't be too much longer now.
156
00:24:36,108 --> 00:24:39,487
Because time spent in a house
with a death in it
157
00:24:40,030 --> 00:24:42,406
passes more quickly, you know.
158
00:24:48,120 --> 00:24:49,413
Eleven months.
159
00:24:50,623 --> 00:24:52,793
Passing like the night.
160
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:29,245
Susie.
161
00:25:32,873 --> 00:25:33,958
Sally.
162
00:25:36,127 --> 00:25:37,711
Candice and Jane.
163
00:25:54,728 --> 00:25:55,897
Scary.
164
00:25:57,064 --> 00:25:59,441
This is how you rot.
165
00:26:21,172 --> 00:26:22,257
France.
166
00:26:43,278 --> 00:26:45,071
Uh, was the drive all right?
167
00:26:45,154 --> 00:26:47,990
Uh, yes. The summer season finally done
168
00:26:48,073 --> 00:26:51,035
and everyone going the other way
over bridges.
169
00:26:59,085 --> 00:27:03,672
- And how is the lady of the house today?
- Oh, she's comfortable.
170
00:27:04,340 --> 00:27:06,842
Taking a nap,
as she usually does at this time.
171
00:27:08,385 --> 00:27:09,887
And the wall, you say?
172
00:27:10,220 --> 00:27:11,472
Yes.
173
00:27:12,765 --> 00:27:14,142
It was fine when I first moved in,
174
00:27:14,225 --> 00:27:17,770
but now I think it's gotten much worse
in the past few weeks.
175
00:27:21,523 --> 00:27:22,441
Ah.
176
00:27:31,575 --> 00:27:32,451
Hmm.
177
00:27:32,953 --> 00:27:34,745
Possibly a mold of some kind.
178
00:27:34,828 --> 00:27:38,041
Likely there is some plumbing
behind the wall,
179
00:27:38,124 --> 00:27:42,170
-a pipe that runs up to the bathroom.
-Oh, the laundry room is just above, I--
180
00:27:42,253 --> 00:27:45,464
I sometimes hear the water going up
and a kind of knocking sound.
181
00:27:46,048 --> 00:27:48,467
You say you haven't seen it anywhere else?
182
00:27:50,095 --> 00:27:53,931
No. Only right here.
183
00:27:55,933 --> 00:28:00,479
Well... As to whether or not
the estate will approve the cost
184
00:28:00,562 --> 00:28:03,607
for cosmetic repairs,
that is another thing altogether.
185
00:28:04,191 --> 00:28:07,152
Oh, I'm not sure I'd agree it's cosmetic.
186
00:28:07,237 --> 00:28:09,488
Well, cosmetic as opposed to structural.
187
00:28:11,782 --> 00:28:13,325
The flesh and not the bones.
188
00:28:16,204 --> 00:28:20,125
Well, I just thought
that for Ms. Blum's respiratory--
189
00:28:20,916 --> 00:28:26,588
For my respiratory to be...
breathing mold.
190
00:28:27,172 --> 00:28:28,090
Mm-hm.
191
00:28:28,174 --> 00:28:30,759
Well, as you know,
it is Ms. Blum's stated desire
192
00:28:30,843 --> 00:28:33,762
to remain in this house
until the occasion of her death
193
00:28:33,846 --> 00:28:38,684
and that all medical care be provided
194
00:28:38,767 --> 00:28:42,855
here on the premises regardless
of financial burden to the estate.
195
00:28:44,189 --> 00:28:46,608
And you've been here
nearly a year already.
196
00:28:46,692 --> 00:28:47,609
Oh...
197
00:28:47,693 --> 00:28:50,487
Well, given her advanced age
and present condition,
198
00:28:50,571 --> 00:28:53,074
it seems fair to assume
that your arrangement
199
00:28:53,157 --> 00:28:57,703
would not extend beyond
another year or two at maximum,
200
00:28:57,786 --> 00:28:58,996
wouldn't you say?
201
00:28:59,997 --> 00:29:04,085
Overall, I'd say her physical health
is rather good.
202
00:29:05,586 --> 00:29:08,505
Um, so, I'm sure I couldn't say.
203
00:29:08,589 --> 00:29:12,593
No, no. Of course. Of course.
That's... good.
204
00:29:15,763 --> 00:29:20,185
Uh, but, um...
Isn't she all there is to the estate?
205
00:29:20,268 --> 00:29:25,065
She doesn't have any children, no family.
206
00:29:25,939 --> 00:29:28,650
Not a single visitor
in all the time I've been here.
207
00:29:29,402 --> 00:29:32,197
True, but Ms. Blum
has designated the property
208
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:34,698
as the centerpiece for a grant foundation
209
00:29:34,782 --> 00:29:39,204
to be awarded after her death
to a worthy woman author
210
00:29:39,286 --> 00:29:43,165
as a home and work space at no cost.
211
00:29:44,166 --> 00:29:47,169
"House of Stories," she calls it.
212
00:29:48,629 --> 00:29:51,632
Well, it'll have to be fixed up then,
for whoever.
213
00:29:51,715 --> 00:29:54,885
Well, it will be, when the time comes.
214
00:29:55,552 --> 00:29:59,348
But the estate can't pay for everything.
215
00:29:59,431 --> 00:30:01,016
Oh, here we are.
216
00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:04,686
They've been out in the past
and will give us a better idea.
217
00:30:07,606 --> 00:30:09,817
-Was there anything else?
-No.
218
00:30:10,818 --> 00:30:11,693
Oh...
219
00:30:12,362 --> 00:30:13,321
yes.
220
00:30:13,862 --> 00:30:15,614
Hmm...
221
00:30:15,697 --> 00:30:18,409
Uh, do you know anything
about anyone named Polly?
222
00:30:19,326 --> 00:30:20,994
Polly? Polly who?
223
00:30:23,997 --> 00:30:26,917
Ms. Blum insists on calling me Polly.
224
00:30:27,418 --> 00:30:29,086
She never calls me anything else.
225
00:30:30,879 --> 00:30:34,007
Uh, of course, it's a natural thing
for someone with her condition.
226
00:30:34,091 --> 00:30:36,927
It's just that a confusion like that
227
00:30:37,010 --> 00:30:39,847
is usually with the memory
of someone significant.
228
00:30:40,848 --> 00:30:42,308
Not just a no one.
229
00:30:43,725 --> 00:30:46,645
Well, there is Polly
from Ms. Blum's novel,
230
00:30:46,728 --> 00:30:48,272
The Lady in the Walls.
231
00:30:49,231 --> 00:30:50,190
Oh.
232
00:30:50,691 --> 00:30:53,360
Easily her best known.
You haven't read it.
233
00:30:53,443 --> 00:30:55,654
Oh, heavens to Betsy, no, I haven't.
234
00:30:56,989 --> 00:30:59,825
No, um, I scare too easily. I...
235
00:31:00,409 --> 00:31:01,743
Oh, yes, that's right.
236
00:31:02,287 --> 00:31:04,997
Well, there is a not-very-good movie,
if you prefer.
237
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:08,917
No. Uh, no.
That would be much, much worse.
238
00:31:10,127 --> 00:31:12,754
I'd likely run down to the road screaming.
239
00:31:12,838 --> 00:31:14,631
And who'd look after Miss Blum?
240
00:31:17,384 --> 00:31:22,848
That particular novel was most notable
for Ms. Blum's deliberate choice...
241
00:31:23,765 --> 00:31:26,643
to leave off
the presumably horrific ending.
242
00:31:26,727 --> 00:31:30,022
Though she always insisted
it wasn't a choice at all,
243
00:31:30,105 --> 00:31:32,858
but rather an obligation.
244
00:31:36,069 --> 00:31:38,364
An obligation to be true to the subject.
245
00:31:41,366 --> 00:31:42,576
To Polly.
246
00:31:45,954 --> 00:31:47,664
I don't understand.
247
00:31:47,748 --> 00:31:49,249
Well, I don't want to give it away.
248
00:31:50,083 --> 00:31:51,627
But, Mr. Waxcap, I--
249
00:31:52,169 --> 00:31:54,214
I'll never read it.
250
00:31:55,005 --> 00:31:57,007
I'd hate to keep you.
251
00:32:19,239 --> 00:32:22,367
The house was built in 1812
252
00:32:22,449 --> 00:32:27,371
by the two bare hands of a local man,
as a gift to his new bride.
253
00:32:28,997 --> 00:32:32,502
The couple was last seen
taking their marriage vows
254
00:32:32,585 --> 00:32:34,211
in the center of town.
255
00:32:35,672 --> 00:32:39,091
And the very next day, they were gone...
256
00:32:40,260 --> 00:32:44,137
disappearing before placing
a single piece of furniture.
257
00:32:45,931 --> 00:32:50,811
The townspeople shook their heads
and clucked their tongues.
258
00:32:52,437 --> 00:32:57,276
"Some people," they'd say,
"just get spooked."
259
00:32:59,403 --> 00:33:00,237
Well, well.
260
00:33:01,488 --> 00:33:03,282
You're not so big and tough.
261
00:33:10,373 --> 00:33:14,294
♪ Keeps coming back ♪
262
00:33:15,252 --> 00:33:20,466
♪ Like an old melody ♪
263
00:33:23,344 --> 00:33:26,013
♪ The perfume ♪
264
00:33:26,096 --> 00:33:31,935
♪ Of roses in May... ♪
265
00:33:37,983 --> 00:33:40,653
♪ Returns... ♪
266
00:33:44,031 --> 00:33:46,908
The pretty thing
you are looking at now is me.
267
00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:50,120
My name is Polly Parsons
268
00:33:50,203 --> 00:33:52,998
and I came into the world
just as I left it.
269
00:33:57,794 --> 00:33:59,921
I'm not more than a few minutes old
270
00:34:00,005 --> 00:34:02,174
and my mother is already dead,
271
00:34:02,257 --> 00:34:04,552
her forehead slick with sweat,
272
00:34:04,802 --> 00:34:07,304
and cool with the pallor of icebox butter.
273
00:34:10,558 --> 00:34:13,852
I am tied to my mother's body
by a terrible rope
274
00:34:13,935 --> 00:34:17,398
that is a shiny, twisted
midnight blue-black.
275
00:34:19,359 --> 00:34:21,860
The doctor is holding me up to the light.
276
00:34:25,906 --> 00:34:27,408
But now I am dead.
277
00:34:29,159 --> 00:34:33,955
And yes, I left the world
just as I came into it.
278
00:34:36,124 --> 00:34:38,378
I am wearing nothing but blood.
279
00:35:02,984 --> 00:35:07,865
♪ You keep coming back ♪
280
00:35:09,867 --> 00:35:12,703
♪ Like a song ♪
281
00:35:40,648 --> 00:35:44,067
Oh, no.
282
00:35:46,153 --> 00:35:47,572
Oh...
283
00:35:50,783 --> 00:35:51,950
Nuts.
284
00:36:38,539 --> 00:36:39,540
Polly!
285
00:37:03,606 --> 00:37:07,359
I am as white as a sail.
286
00:37:12,573 --> 00:37:14,742
I tell this often to myself.
287
00:37:18,245 --> 00:37:21,498
I tell myself that nothing gets on me.
288
00:37:26,378 --> 00:37:28,673
But it does me little good.
289
00:37:31,759 --> 00:37:34,344
The words pour right through.
290
00:37:37,138 --> 00:37:40,433
I am too full of holes.
291
00:37:55,575 --> 00:37:58,285
Grow up, you dumb old scaredy-cat.
292
00:38:00,495 --> 00:38:04,584
It's just a bunch of silly old
make-believe typed words on paper.
293
00:38:28,982 --> 00:38:30,483
"Dear Reader,
294
00:38:32,485 --> 00:38:36,406
You should know that the true account
that follows in this book
295
00:38:36,489 --> 00:38:39,744
was told to me directly by Polly Parsons,
296
00:38:42,830 --> 00:38:47,960
the young woman who lived it
but, alas, did not survive it.
297
00:38:51,379 --> 00:38:55,175
True to our heroine, my heroine,
298
00:38:55,258 --> 00:38:58,804
I have written down
all that she cared to reveal.
299
00:38:59,722 --> 00:39:01,766
All but the very ending,
300
00:39:01,849 --> 00:39:06,394
which she was either unable
or unwilling to tell me herself.
301
00:39:14,611 --> 00:39:17,489
Or maybe
she just couldn't see it anymore."
302
00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:51,606
"And even if I was fiendishly tempted,
303
00:39:51,691 --> 00:39:55,568
I have refrained
from pressing the subject with her.
304
00:39:55,652 --> 00:39:59,447
Though it seems safe to assume
that, as endings go,
305
00:39:59,531 --> 00:40:03,994
Polly's was not an especially pretty one.
306
00:40:13,378 --> 00:40:16,297
But Polly wouldn't tell me herself,
307
00:40:16,381 --> 00:40:19,384
and I couldn't have gone
and simply made something up.
308
00:40:20,510 --> 00:40:22,888
So I have left it off altogether.
309
00:40:23,806 --> 00:40:26,349
Out of respect for the dead,
you understand.
310
00:40:32,772 --> 00:40:34,983
Because yes, dear reader,
311
00:40:35,901 --> 00:40:41,073
Polly Parsons, the subject of this book,
is quite dead indeed.
312
00:40:49,372 --> 00:40:53,919
Quite dead but not quite buried.
313
00:40:56,797 --> 00:40:59,175
Carelessly concealed in a grave
314
00:40:59,257 --> 00:41:03,012
too shallow to be rightly called
a grave at all.
315
00:41:07,808 --> 00:41:11,854
Better to call it a... hiding place.
316
00:41:22,864 --> 00:41:24,783
But I've said too much already,
317
00:41:25,283 --> 00:41:27,952
and now will leave the rest
to Polly herself,
318
00:41:28,037 --> 00:41:30,455
as was my intention in the first place.
319
00:41:37,337 --> 00:41:42,383
Iris Blum,
Braintree, Massachusetts, 1960."
320
00:41:50,810 --> 00:41:52,519
Oh, you silly Billy.
321
00:41:54,939 --> 00:41:57,524
Oh, you silly Billy.
322
00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:52,662
The walls and windows
are as thin as bones.
323
00:42:54,539 --> 00:42:57,001
A person could walk right through them.
324
00:42:59,044 --> 00:43:01,588
Just up and leave this old house.
325
00:43:46,507 --> 00:43:49,260
No whammies, no whammies,
no whammies. Stop.
326
00:43:53,222 --> 00:43:55,224
No whammies, no whammies,
no whammies. Stop.
327
00:44:01,105 --> 00:44:03,524
No whammies, no whammies,
no whammies. Stop.
328
00:44:08,738 --> 00:44:11,282
No whammies, no whammies,
no whammies. Stop.
329
00:44:47,944 --> 00:44:49,989
This is how you rot.
330
00:45:04,711 --> 00:45:10,883
♪ You keep coming back ♪
331
00:45:11,926 --> 00:45:13,095
♪ Like a song-- ♪
332
00:47:41,117 --> 00:47:42,869
It's safe, though?
333
00:47:42,952 --> 00:47:45,830
I mean, nothing is gonna fall down?
334
00:47:51,961 --> 00:47:55,047
Uh, and when do you think
you can come to do that?
335
00:47:55,131 --> 00:47:56,132
To open it up? To...
336
00:47:57,384 --> 00:47:59,219
open up the wall, I mean.
337
00:48:01,513 --> 00:48:05,642
Yeah, Monday is okay.
Any day is okay. I'm not going anywhere.
338
00:48:11,022 --> 00:48:14,483
Oh, I haven't really looked. I...
339
00:48:16,861 --> 00:48:18,529
I kind of hate the sight of it.
340
00:48:19,489 --> 00:48:21,325
But okay.
341
00:48:22,409 --> 00:48:24,203
I can.
342
00:48:26,455 --> 00:48:27,456
I will.
343
00:48:31,834 --> 00:48:34,879
Okay. Thanks.
344
00:53:39,391 --> 00:53:42,311
"I now believe Polly entirely
345
00:53:42,394 --> 00:53:44,522
when she insists
that she does not remember
346
00:53:44,605 --> 00:53:46,440
what happened to her in the end.
347
00:53:47,066 --> 00:53:50,319
I can sometimes see her struggle
with the shape of it,
348
00:53:51,904 --> 00:53:55,324
more as if trying to remember
a song she once heard,
349
00:53:55,908 --> 00:53:58,410
and not as she might remember an event.
350
00:54:01,413 --> 00:54:05,292
How does one forget
something as essential as that?
351
00:54:12,466 --> 00:54:14,718
How does one forget a death?
352
00:54:30,109 --> 00:54:33,153
Maybe it is the body that remembers.
353
00:54:35,072 --> 00:54:39,076
And without the body,
there is nothing to hold to."
354
00:54:44,415 --> 00:54:49,378
"We make our own ghosts by looking,
355
00:54:49,461 --> 00:54:51,673
but pretending not to see...
356
00:55:07,938 --> 00:55:11,066
and then forgetting ourselves altogether.
357
00:55:15,362 --> 00:55:18,324
It is a terrible thing to look at oneself
358
00:55:18,991 --> 00:55:21,744
and to all the while see nothing.
359
00:55:27,541 --> 00:55:30,712
Surely this is how we make our own ghosts.
360
00:55:32,881 --> 00:55:35,634
We make them out of ourselves."
361
00:56:55,796 --> 00:56:58,590
I took one of your books
off the shelf in your study.
362
00:57:02,178 --> 00:57:03,679
I hope that's all right.
363
00:57:10,811 --> 00:57:12,187
The Lady in the Walls.
364
00:57:14,815 --> 00:57:16,567
Had to put it down, though.
365
00:57:19,570 --> 00:57:21,030
Too scary for me.
366
00:57:31,415 --> 00:57:34,460
You know that one, don't you?
367
00:57:36,170 --> 00:57:38,422
Where did you go, Polly?
368
00:57:41,383 --> 00:57:43,427
I didn't go anywhere, Ms. Blum.
369
00:57:45,512 --> 00:57:49,516
I'm here with you,
same as I have always been.
370
00:57:50,642 --> 00:57:55,982
The same Lily Saylor
of 43 Hoover Road, Altoona...
371
00:58:04,949 --> 00:58:06,325
Pennsylvania.
372
00:58:09,536 --> 00:58:10,830
At your service.
373
00:58:27,554 --> 00:58:31,642
You had so much to say
in those first years.
374
00:58:36,480 --> 00:58:38,900
When you lived here with me.
375
00:58:45,572 --> 00:58:47,909
Enough to fill a book.
376
00:58:57,417 --> 00:58:58,585
And then...
377
00:59:02,298 --> 00:59:03,799
nothing.
378
00:59:10,056 --> 00:59:11,933
You turned your back.
379
00:59:16,019 --> 00:59:19,606
You turned your back,
380
00:59:20,691 --> 00:59:23,402
and you turned your back
381
00:59:23,902 --> 00:59:25,904
so many times...
382
00:59:29,533 --> 00:59:34,454
that soon your feet
were facing the wrong way altogether.
383
00:59:39,710 --> 00:59:44,173
And I had to watch you come into a room...
384
00:59:46,383 --> 00:59:47,384
back to front.
385
00:59:53,557 --> 00:59:57,061
I did nothing but sit and listen.
386
00:59:58,562 --> 01:00:00,647
I made no noises.
387
01:00:01,857 --> 01:00:04,110
I welcomed no visitors.
388
01:00:06,653 --> 01:00:10,073
And here, now, you've come back.
389
01:00:11,533 --> 01:00:15,662
But only to hurt me,
only to show yourself,
390
01:00:15,746 --> 01:00:17,414
-but not to let me see.
-No.
391
01:00:20,792 --> 01:00:23,670
You hardly resemble yourself.
392
01:00:23,754 --> 01:00:26,924
Ms. Blum... please.
393
01:00:30,010 --> 01:00:33,513
You poor, pretty things
394
01:00:34,223 --> 01:00:39,020
whose prettiness holds only one guarantee.
395
01:00:42,564 --> 01:00:48,070
Learn to see yourself as the rest
of the world does, and you'll keep.
396
01:00:53,450 --> 01:00:54,993
But left alone,
397
01:00:58,413 --> 01:01:01,583
with only your own eyes
looking back at you,
398
01:01:04,337 --> 01:01:07,298
and even the prettiest things rot.
399
01:01:16,432 --> 01:01:19,185
You fall apart like flowers.
400
01:03:53,046 --> 01:03:58,511
The pretty thing you are looking at is me.
401
01:04:01,930 --> 01:04:07,186
But it is me that still cannot see
any of what is coming.
402
01:04:10,397 --> 01:04:14,276
Me that doesn't even know where to look.
403
01:04:18,947 --> 01:04:23,618
Me that can see only the drawer that opens
404
01:04:24,786 --> 01:04:27,372
and the claw that closes.
405
01:04:29,124 --> 01:04:31,459
The bell that rings
406
01:04:32,253 --> 01:04:34,297
and the spots that spread.
407
01:04:36,673 --> 01:04:38,758
The holes that pour through
408
01:04:40,302 --> 01:04:42,387
and the cord that stretches.
409
01:04:43,638 --> 01:04:45,974
The hammer and the pliers.
410
01:04:46,057 --> 01:04:48,310
And the terrible book.
411
01:04:49,644 --> 01:04:54,274
And the face of the woman
who wrote it all down.
412
01:04:55,525 --> 01:04:59,988
The me that can see only the name.
413
01:05:00,071 --> 01:05:01,865
Only her name.
414
01:05:04,117 --> 01:05:07,580
But the rest of what is coming
cannot be seen
415
01:05:10,416 --> 01:05:12,959
even as I look right at it.
416
01:05:20,175 --> 01:05:23,970
It is a terrible thing to look at oneself
417
01:05:24,971 --> 01:05:29,851
and all the while see nothing.
418
01:05:42,323 --> 01:05:46,244
♪ Returns to my room... ♪
419
01:05:48,161 --> 01:05:53,792
♪ In December ♪
420
01:05:58,004 --> 01:06:01,841
♪ From out of the past ♪
421
01:06:02,926 --> 01:06:08,974
♪ Where forgotten things belong ♪
422
01:06:11,310 --> 01:06:17,483
♪ You keep coming back ♪
423
01:06:18,566 --> 01:06:24,114
♪ Like a song ♪
424
01:07:32,932 --> 01:07:34,476
Hello?
425
01:11:42,098 --> 01:11:46,436
I had arrived
in the first few days of August,
426
01:11:46,604 --> 01:11:48,897
hired to care for Ms. Blum.
427
01:11:51,441 --> 01:11:56,696
The winter of that year
proved to be unseasonably warm,
428
01:11:59,657 --> 01:12:02,994
and by February,
all that was left of the snow
429
01:12:03,078 --> 01:12:08,541
on the sides of the highways
had turned mostly black.
430
01:12:11,919 --> 01:12:14,839
It rained too much in the spring,
431
01:12:15,256 --> 01:12:17,967
and the fruit in the trees hung heavy
432
01:12:18,551 --> 01:12:20,928
at the ends of bent branches.
433
01:12:23,389 --> 01:12:28,353
The sun in the summer months
was unreasonably hot
434
01:12:29,897 --> 01:12:33,524
and stung my bare shoulders
whenever I let it.
435
01:12:38,780 --> 01:12:40,698
I remember thinking
436
01:12:40,949 --> 01:12:45,746
that it felt like fall would never come.
437
01:12:48,666 --> 01:12:52,418
And then it never did.
438
01:14:06,868 --> 01:14:08,077
Hello?
439
01:15:43,714 --> 01:15:45,508
Polly!
440
01:17:46,004 --> 01:17:47,172
Polly?
441
01:20:28,416 --> 01:20:31,001
I have heard myself say
442
01:20:32,212 --> 01:20:34,922
that a house with a death in it
443
01:20:35,005 --> 01:20:39,302
can never again be bought
or sold by the living.
444
01:20:43,431 --> 01:20:47,893
It can only be borrowed from its ghosts.
445
01:21:03,160 --> 01:21:05,495
And so it is.
446
01:21:18,716 --> 01:21:22,304
The house that stands
at the end of Teacup Road
447
01:21:22,387 --> 01:21:25,848
near the town of Braintree, Massachusetts.
448
01:21:29,477 --> 01:21:31,937
You may borrow it from me.
449
01:22:01,759 --> 01:22:07,432
Because the memory of a death
is a thing that stays,
450
01:22:07,515 --> 01:22:11,436
pressed deeply in place
like type on paper.
451
01:22:14,939 --> 01:22:19,151
Even after it has been covered up
with nothing left to see.
452
01:22:23,615 --> 01:22:27,535
And still I think I'll stay
453
01:22:27,619 --> 01:22:29,954
for one more look at her.
454
01:22:43,968 --> 01:22:48,973
This is how I let myself rot.
455
01:22:59,858 --> 01:23:03,946
The pretty thing you are looking at...
456
01:23:06,741 --> 01:23:08,158
is me.