What the Deaf Man Heard

Tallasse Tynan:
[at the bonfire, trying to get the reporters to stop bothering Sammy] Hi!

TV Reporter:
Well! Someone who can talk. What's your name?

Tallasse Tynan:
Uh, Joan of Arc. I love bonfires!

TV Reporter:
I see you have some Dickie Devil records, for the blaze no doubt.

Tallasse Tynan:
Oh, no. These are some Frank Sinatra albums of my mother's that I've been longing to incinerate for a while.

Sammy Ayers:
[narrating] To my knowledge it is the only trial in the history of American jurisprudence that was over in just two spoken words.

Sammy Ayers:
[speaking out loud] I... I do.

Mrs. Tynan:
Take Sammy with you. Tolliver has some work for him at the church.

Tallasse Tynan:
Yes, ma'am.

Mrs. Tynan:
And make sure he rides in the back. I don't want people to see him riding up front with you.

Tallasse Tynan:
Maybe I can just tie a rope around him and make him run along behind.

Archibald Thacker:
[to Sammy] I figure we're the two biggest frauds in Barrington: you with your selective senses, and me with my lawyer front man.

Reverend Perry Ray Pruitt:
Burn 'em I say.

Mrs. Tynan:
Oh, he's good.

Tallasse Tynan:
Don't you think cremation is a little harsh?

TV Reporter:
Reverend, you must be proud of this event you've inspired.

Reverend Perry Ray Pruitt:
They're gonna ruin the lawn!

Percy:
This isn't gonna be a highway interchange. This is the nothin'est nothin' I ever saw.

Tolliver Tynan:
Maybe there's oil under here. Maybe we're floating on a gusher and don't even know it.

Percy:
There's no oil under here! What we are floating on is the parking lot repaving fund, the parish renovation fund, the organ fund...

Norm Jenkins:
I'm just repeatin' what Finis said...

Lucille:
Finis is full of exhaust!

Lucille:
[about Sammy] You'd better find a decent place for him, Norm, and fast, because this is the world's poorest excuse for an orphanage!

[the church is on fire]

Reverend Perry Ray Pruitt:
Some of my people may still be in there!

[runs inside]

Norm Jenkins:
All this time, and he never spoke...

[Sammy leaves the town by bus]

Sammy Ayers:
[narrating] I gave a lot of the money away. Norm and Lucille would never have to live in a bus shelter again. Tallassee would go around the world taking pictures to her heart's content. The Tynan home would become an estate for lost boys. As for Tolliver, I felt I had lost an enemy but gained a brother, so I felt an obligation to take care of his pocket money while he served his prison term...

[last lines]

Tallasse Tynan:
[sits next to Sammy] So... what are your plans?

Sammy Ayers:
I... I guess I don't have any at the moment.

Tallasse Tynan:
Then I guess I got on the right bus.

Sammy Ayers:
I have something to show you. [takes out his mother's music box]

Sammy Ayers:
It was then that I was struck by a revelation: if people thought you were deaf and not able to talk, they blurt out their true feelings without holding back.

Sammy Ayers:
[to Norm Jenkins] From time to time... I thought if ever I could pick out a father, it might be somebody pretty close to being like you. Not exactly. Close.