The Sin of Nora Moran

Anything else you wish, Mr. Grant?

No, that's all, you may go to bed.

Yes, sir.

See who that is.

Yes, sir.

Well, hello Edith.

What's the matter, is something wrong?

I found these letters in dick's safe.

Read them.

Clever woman, she doesn't sign her name.

Not on any one of them?

Not on any one of them.

But read it, it's most enlightening.

Charming, isn't it?

All the seasons of the year poetically recorded.

"Winter, my fire, my house."

"Spring, spring comes to the love nest.”

The tree outside the living room window

is budding and I win the bet.

"The blossoms are yellow.”

Isn't it beautiful?

Two lovers and their sylvan retreats staring at the trees.

And now summer.

That same summer when I was working so hard for him.

Scheming, planning, doing everything in my power to help him

and he was having a cheap, backstreet affair!

Probably there's some other explanation.

And her counting the hours until she saw him again?

Thanking him for the house he bought her with my money?

He didn't buy the house!

Oh, so you do know about it?

I thought you would.

Edith, I'm probably asking you the impossible,

but my advice to you is to burn those letters.

Forget them.

Forget them?

Forget that you, my own brother,

let me go on living with a man

who was coming to me from the arms

of a common, cheap, little.

If you don't tell me who she is,

I'll find out some other way.

I'll get detectives, I'll show them these letters.

You wouldn't do that!

Oh, wouldn't I?

I'll make her suffer!

Edith.

Come here.

Sit down.

Did you ever hear of the name Nora Moran?

Nora Moran?

This may refresh your memory.

What has she to do with it?

That's the girl.

This woman and dick?

I don't believe it.

It's true, nevertheless.

You said you wanted her to suffer.

Did you ever witness an execution?

Why, of course not!

Did you ever see the preparation for one?

The cold-blooded preparation?

For the disposal of a burned-out, lifeless thing,

that a few moments before the execution was a human being?

They begin in the afternoon.

The electrocution is at eight tonight.

Yes, we'll get it there by six.

She's five foot one.

She's five foot one.

Okay, five foot one.

I've got to shave her head.

She didn't eat a thing.

You wouldn't either.

She's only 21!

I've got a kid that age.

I wonder what she's thinking.

Her suffering had been so mute and pitiful

that they tried to relieve her.

Just lie quiet.

You'll soon be asleep.

Mrs. Watts?

Are you sure they sent the telegram to father Ryan?

Yes.

He'll be praying for you.

There might still be a chance for you,

if you'd only tell why you did it.

No!

Why won't you tell, dearie?

But you could tell me.

Not anyone.

Gradually the opiate quieted her body

but her mind was too disordered and in her confused state,

everything became grotesque and unreal.

We've all experienced it and in our helplessness,

we call on the one who means protection to us.

To Nora, it was father Ryan, now as when she was a child.

Nora's five years old,

she's been with the sisters for two years,

and she's always been a very good child.

Well,

there's only one thing that's holding me back.

Bless you, honey.

I was only sayin', I wanted to see how you'd fit on me lap.

Darlin', come over and try it.

We, we got a car!

All your own?

Sure!

Barring a couple of payments.

Aw, what's a couple of payments

between two good Irishmen like the child and me?

Oh, the child and you?

It's already the child and you.

Well, we'll see.

We'll see.

Happiness for eight years,

but she remembered only the tragedy that ended it.

And the car killed them, father.

I didn't know for hours why they didn't come home!

What do you want to do now, Nora?

Sinful even to think of it now,

but mother Moran wanted me to...

What was that?

Learn to dance.

She always said that when she could afford it,

I could go to a school.

You want to do that?

Yes.

I've paid all the debts and there's $300 left,

would it be wrong to use the money for that?

No, not wrong, Nora, but certainly not the wisest thing.

Oh, but I want so much to do it.

The money would last long enough until I studied

and, by that time, I could get a job in a cafe

or I might even get a job in a show!

Months of practice, long hours,

and hard work until she felt prepared.

And although her money was almost gone,

she started out like thousands of others,

confident of immediate success.

There was the glamor of the theater,

the lights and the crowds.

Intoxicating to her because she now felt herself

to be a part of it.

There were the stage doors

that promised mystery and excitement,

and the daily round of booking offices

then she still felt that each new day

was to Mark the beginning of her success.

And then the refusals, endless days of voices that spoke,

"nothing today,” "no experience”, "nothing today",

"no", "no you won't do", "nothing today."

Signs that haunted her.

Chorus filled, no casting today,

chorus filled, chorus filled.

Until she knew the panic had come with your last dollar

and the desperate necessity for any kind of work,

the failure there until she saw the ad.

I'm afraid you're too young to work in a circus.

Oh no, I'm not.

I'm not too young, I'm old!

Oh please, let me have it, please!

Well, all right.

Report to Paulino at king brothers circus.

Oh, thank you!

Excitement, a job!

The sound of the Calliope,

tumblers, acrobats, thrills, excitement!

Rehearsing what she'd say,

afraid someone would beat her there.

And then his name.

All right!

Look out!

She's just about the same size as your last partner.

All right.

Okay, you'll do very nicely.

Oh, Mr. Paulino?

Hm?

I don't have to go in the cage, do 1?

No, no, all you'll have to do

is to wear that outfit and look pretty.

And, uh, can the mister stuff.

Nora was happy with the excitement of circus life.

The hurry, the bustle, thrill of moving on, a new town.

The whole thing was a glorious adventure, until one night.

Paulino's brutality and her fear of him

were things that she could never forget.

When things happen in our lives,

we're conscious of those events.

But later, subconsciously, we see our lives as a pattern

and it's easy to recall the events that form that pattern.

And so it was with Nora.

She was in a cell waiting to die,

and yet she was in the circus.

She was dreaming, but yet in her subconscious mind

she was reliving the events

that formed the pattern of her life.

Mrs. Watts?

No, I'm Sadie, don't you remember me?

No, I don't.

Things seem strange.