The Harrow

Time don't march, or walk,

or even move in a straight line.

It skips around like a pinball.

Last year, ten years ago,

yesterday...

...it's all now.

Listen, that all was ten years ago.

I don't know what I can tell you now.

Just anything at all would be real helpful.

Well that sort of thing never happened around here.

Uriah and the Misses, them bodies,

hell, it was a God damn mess.

I didn't know the, the wife too well.

I knew Uriah though, he was a decent man far as I knew.

What did he do it for if he was so decent?

I heard he had a sister?

Next county over, still there as far as I know.

What about the farmhands?

Migrants mostly, they move on after

the harvest is done, except for one, and he lives downtown.

How do I find him?

Well, I could get you an address,

but I think you might be wasting your time.

The man's become some kind of recluse,

from what I hear, completely shut himself up.

People bring him things to fix.

Things to fix?

Hello, Misses Taylor.

Uh, my name is Ruth Young.

I'd really like to talk to you

about your brother, um, if you don't mind.

I'm sorry, it's a little hard to explain over the phone.

Can you call me, please?

I'm lookin' for Miller Lee.

Am I at the right address?

What do you want?

Well I was wonderin' if I could talk to you.

Well, ain't you?

Well, it's a little involved.

Um, there somewhere we could sit down?

I, I tried callin', you got no phone apparently.

I, I think you mighta know someone.

Her name was Gale.

You work on the Taylor farm some years back?

I talked to the sheriff this mornin'.

Then you heard all there is to know.

All right, but I thought since you work there, and all...

It was um, some time ago.

Yes, sir.

See, I just wanted to...

Wanted to know what she was like.

No, I can't help you.

Well, I coul--, I could leave you my number in case...

All right. All right.

Quiet.

Mister Taylor?

What do you want?

I heard you're hirin' for the season.

You know, a month or two is fine

for me if you got somethin'.

You ever worked tobacco before?

No sir, but I got no problem with hard work.

Besides that, I can fix most any

mechanical thing you got around here.

That so?

Think you can get that thing runnin'?

I can take a look at it.

Why don't you... and come on back here,

tell me what's wrong with it.

Yes, sir.

Hey, put it in your pocket.

Take the damn thing off, and put it in your pocket.

I told you guys, nothing that can catch in the machine.

Go home.

Needs a new starter.

Mm-hm.

You'll need 'em for the oil on the leaves.

You can return 'em when you get your own.

Be here at five tomorrow mornin',

fix the tractor, put you out in the fields.

Pay's at the end of the week.

At least I'll get a few days outta you

before you run off and drink it all.

I ain't like that.

Huh?

I said I ain't like that, sir.

You drop that sir bullshit, you know my name.

Mine's, Miller.

I guess you know what I'm here for.

Owner' got himself pretty worked up at this point.

Says I bring it to him today, or he'll come get it himself.

Well hell, let me see it at least,

I got to tell him somethin'.

Mm-hm.

Well, it's comin' along.

Fine work, like always.

Well, God damn it, how long do I tell him?

A week. I think a week.

You're killin' me here.

You do the work, you keep on livin' here.

You don't, you can get the hell out.

I ain't runnin' a charity.

I paid 100 for materials.

Can you cover me?

Christ All Mighty, I come for the furniture,

I leave empty handed and $100 lighter?

Huh, ain't that just wonderful?

You keep the place this neat,

gotta have a girl around somewhere.

I just like things a certain way, is all.

Huh, well, Becky says you bein' all by yourself

is the worst thing that can happen for a man.

I'm all right.

Says in prison they put a man

in solitary just to torture him.

I mean, go figure that.

A man would rather spend his days

with killers and psychopaths than be by himself.

I guess that explains marriage too, don't it?

You got that cash on ya?

All right, yeah.

100, I shouldn't be givin' you this.

Well, you're in luck.

There it is, $100, don't say I never did nothin' for ya.

This thing, there's no reason that...

You've got to pull through for me, you understand?

I'm a man of my word, I've given this guy my word.

He's given us a lot of business, you know he has.

I've already gone back to him twice.

I'm goin' back one more time and see

if I can buy you two or three days, but that's it.

After that, you have got to...

Dance with me.

Don't you know how to dance?

I was in the neighborhood.

There ain't but one neighborhood in this town.

Right.

Sir, I'm just asking you...

Look I told you--

because I seen it, on your face.

When I said her name you knew her.

I know what that man did to her.

I just, I wanna know why.

You worked on that farm, you gotta have some idea.

What's it matter to you?

I'm her daughter.

It's an interesting place.

What was it, a factory?

Abattoir.

Uh, a slaughter house--

I know what an abattoir is.

No, don't touch it.

Is it valuable?

How'd you come by it?

A rich family bought a plantation outside of town.

I'm restoring every piece of it.

I heard you don't get out much.

How come you don't talk to no one?

What for?

It's just one.

Ain't he lonely?

No, he's all right.

They say fish got no memory, anyhow.

Now how'd anyone know if that's true?

What you starin' for?

I seen that smile before.

My grandma died a month back.

She raised me like I was her daughter.

I thought I was 'til now.

I found these letters.

It's my real mama tryin' to explain

to me why she ran off after I was born.

I ain't lookin' to stir nothing' up.

I just wanna know, is all.

Where you come from?

Out near Asheville.

Gale never said nothin' about us?

She sent this in one of her letters.

She's real beautiful.

Can you just tell me somethin' about her?

Just any old thing?

We harvest from the bottom up.

We passed through this field twice, already.

Every pass we pick from the lowest level.

It's been empty since I bought it.

Thought I'd convert it into apartments,

but the Historical Commission got word.

Told me I wasn't changin' a damn thing.

Place sits abandoned for 40 years,

and suddenly it's a landmark.

The water work?

Yup, just gotta turn it on for ya?

How long ya thinkin'?

Well, a few months, I guess.

Where's that go?

Downstairs.

Back in the day, they brought the cows down there,

kept them all in the big room just below us,

killed them in another room on the other side.

Look, like I said, I can't do nothin'