R Rob
Say, you were at Hiroshima, weren't you Dad?..Well, did you happen to notice any of the effects of radioactivity on the people who survived the blast?
No, I didn't. Should I have?
R Rob
We've been having lectures in atomic energy at school, and Mr. McLaughlin, he's our physics teacher, he says that we've reached a point where the whole human race has either got to find a way to live together, or else uhm...
R Rob
That's right. Or else. Because when you combine atomic energy with jet propulsion and radar and guided missiles, just think of the...
I've seen nothing. I should have stayed home and found out what was really going on. What's happened to this family? All this atomic energy and scientific efficiency.
Peggy Nice to have you around, dad. You'll get us back to normal.
Peggy What d'ya do before the war, Fred?
I was a fountain attendant...soda jerk...Surprised?
Peggy Yes, a little. I betcha you mixed up a fine ice cream soda.
You're darn right. I was an expert behind that fountain. I used to toss a scoop of ice cream in the air, adjust for wind drift, velocity, altitude. Then wham, in the cone every time. I figured that's where I really learned to drop bombs.
Peggy What do you think you'll do now?
I'm not going back to that drugstore. Somehow or other, I can't figure myself getting excited about a root beer float. I don't know just what I will do. I'm gonna take plenty of time looking around.
Peggy I guess after all the places you've been, Boone City looks pretty dreary to you.
Not from where I'm sitting right now. That's not just a line. I really meant it.
Peggy I didn't really come in to buy anything. Dad told me you were working here and I just dropped in to say hello.
[as he shows her a perfume]
Oh just a minute. I have - I have an hour off at one o'clock. Are you doing anything for lunch?
Peggy Why no.
Thank you madam. [softly] I'll meet you outside in twenty minutes.
I knew I'd never go back to that drugstore...I dreamed I was going to have my own home. Just a nice little house with my wife out in the country, in the suburbs anyway. That's the ****-eyed kind of dream you have when you're overseas.
Peggy You don't have to be overseas to have dreams like that.
Yeah. You can get crazy ideas right here at home.
[They kiss]
That shouldn't have happened, but I guess it had to.
Peggy I know what you both think.
Peggy You're afraid I may be in love with Fred.
Why I never had any such idea?
Shut up, Al. Are you in love with him?
Peggy Yes. But I don't want to be. That's why I asked him and his wife to go out with us this evening. I think it ought to have a very healthy effect on me. Once I get to know her, well, I'm sure I'll stop being silly about the whole thing.
Peggy [explaining why she invited Fred and his wife]
I did it deliberately...to prove to myself that what happened this afternoon didn't really happen.
But it did happen. It had to happen. And if we go on seeing each other, Peggy, it will happen again.
Peggy I've made up my mind...I'm going to break that marriage up. I can't stand it seeing Fred tied to a woman he doesn't love and who doesn't love him. Oh it's horrible for him. It's humiliating and it's killing his spirit. Somebody's got to help him...He doesn't love her, he hates her. I know it. I know it.
Who are you, God? How did you get this power to interfere in other people's lives?
Is Fred in love with you?
Peggy Yes.
Peggy Only once, today. Oh, it was all perfectly respectable. But when we were saying goodbye, he took me in his arms and kissed me and I knew.
And you think a kiss from a smooth operator like Fred - you think that means anything?
Peggy You don't know him. You don't know anything about what's inside him. And neither does she, his wife. That's probably what she thought when she married him. A smooth operator with money in his pockets. But now he isn't smooth any longer and she's lost interest in him.
Whereas you're possessed of all the wisdom of the ages. You can see into the secret recesses of his innermost soul.
Peggy I can see because I love him.
So you're gonna break this marriage up. Have you decided yet how you're gonna do it? Are you gonna do it with an axe?
Peggy It's none of your business how I'm gonna do it. You've forgotten what it's like to be in love.
You hear that, Milly? I'm so old and decrepit I've forgotten how it feels to want somebody desperately.
Peggy didn't mean that, did you darling?
Peggy Oh, no. I don't know what I do mean. It's just that, everything has always been so perfect for you. You loved each other and you got married in a big church, and you had a honeymoon in the south of France. And you never had any trouble of any kind. So how can you possibly understand how it is with Fred and me?
We never had any trouble. [To Al] How many times have I told you I hated you, and believed it in my heart. How many times have you said you were sick and tired of me, that we were all washed up? How many times have we had to fall in love all over again?
Peggy Well, what have you been doing with yourself lately?
Peggy Yes, uh, Dad told me he heard you were in some kind of building work.
Well, that's a hopeful way of putting it. I'm really in the junk business - an occupation for which many people feel I'm well-qualified by temperament and training. It's fascinating work.
