The Pit

You're Freddy Phelps.

Yeah, I'm him.

Who are you?

I'm Jamie.

I was wondering if I could join your club and--

I want to talk to you in private.

I have something for you.

Oh, yeah?

It better be good.

Come on.

Freddy, I'm scared.

Come on, Christine, stop whining.

If this is some sort of trick, you little creep, you're dead.

It's no trick.

It's sitting there in a bag, right by a big tree.

I guess somebody left it there, a robber or something.

I can't take it home.

So I figured you can have it for your club If I can join,

and if you promise not to hit me no more.

Jewels and stuff?

Yeah, must be worth millions.

Come on.

Freddy, I can't go any further.

I'm scared of being here.

Something will get me.

Nothing's getting nobody while I'm here.

See, there it is just like I told you.

Right there.

I'll get it.

Mrs. Lynde, I--

Don't talk, write.

But I have--

Jamie, just do as you're told.

What is this?

What?

It's one page with the, uh, cut out.

Did you do this?

No, that's the way it was.

Well, I'll take your word for it.

Presume Miss Livingstone will find some way to repair it.

All right, Jamie, rub it off and go home.

That's fine.

Hello, Mary.

What can I do for you?

I'm returning this.

Jamie, one of my little boys, borrowed it.

There isn't likely to be any record

of it having gone out.

Perhaps you could slip it back for me.

I'll make sure it's put back on the shelves.

There's been a little clipping from one of the pages,

I'm afraid.

One of the figures got out.

Will you fix that?

We'll just take out the whole page.

Thank you.

Bye.

Hey, you!

Get down out of there.

I wasn't doing anything wrong.

Come on down.

All right, I'm coming.

It's so hard to tell when

you're overdoing it with him.

My husband, he tells me I'm too motherly,

you know, always fussing about him.

Does Jamie feel smothered?

Oh, no, nothing that bad.

It is a problem with some children.

And no, I don't anticipate

you'll have any problems with him out of the ordinary,

except communicating with him.

Hi.

Are you Freddy Phelps?

Yeah.

Who are you?

I'm Jamie.

I was wondering if I could join your club and--

I will be frank with you, Miss O'Reilly.

If there may be a crush, he's--

well, he's going through that difficult stage, you know.

Girls.

Yes.

Does he have a girlfriend?

Well, he has really no friends,

boys or girls, his mother, of course.

This is great.

How dare you touch my bike.

No.

Well, I-- I was just gonna--

but I was just gonna--

Why don't you go back where you came from, funny person?

If I see you near my bike again, I'll tell your father

and it'll be too bad for you.

They'll take you away.

He seems to have great trouble in getting

to know anyone who comes in.

I'm sure we can be friends.

As I said in my letter, I'm getting

through college babysitting exceptional children.

Some of them are real terrors.

If you don't mind, young man.

I'm sorry.

Well, then move.

Who is it, Louise?

The Benjamin boy.

Oh, that one.

Just not right, that boy.

I'm glad his poor parents have decided to move elsewhere.

He'll grow up.

Surely my dear, but into what?

One of those hippies.

And he has these imaginary friends,

and that worries us.

I realize it's normal for his age.

Hello, dear.

Darling, this is Sandra O'Reilly.

Pleased to meet you, Mr Benjamin.

How do you do?

My wife tells me you have experience with problem

children, Miss O'Reilly.

Now it isn't that much of a problem.

I am working towards my psychology degree,

so I can work on a one-to-one basis

with exceptional children.

You'll find him exceptional, all right.

Not that I don't love my son, Miss, O'Reilly, I do.

But I've never been able to understand

an otherwise normal boy who lives entirely in his own head.

We're part of his world, but way out on the periphery somewhere.

I see.

And we had an incident

here with some old lady in the community,

seeing him swinging in the trees out back with nothing

on except some Superman Cape or something, playing Tarzan.

The children at school

seem to have picked this up and labeled him a--

A nutcase.

Face it, Andrea.

No, it isn't that bad.

Jamie, time to change for dinner.

Sorry, I gotta go.

It's dinner time.

Bye.

Our problem, you see, is that we cannot just arrive

in Seattle without having a home ,,

and my wife likes.

We'd like to see it first.

This is a pretty little house, isn't it?

Yes, it is.

I dropped my napkin.

It's had its effect on us as a family

no matter how you look at it.

Jamie hardly has time to make any friends

and to get established to the school

and I have to pull up the roots.

None of that, young man!

This is good.

Do you have a boyfriend?

Yeah, why?

I don't know.

You know what happened in school yesterday?

No, what happened in school yesterday?

I had to write something on the board 100 times.

Oh, yeah?

What was it?

Not to-- not to crack my knuckles in class.

Well, did you deserve it?

N I never do.

Mrs Lynde just doesn't understand me.

Do you understand Mrs. Lynde?

How old is your boyfriend?

Well, he isn't really what you'd call a boyfriend, Jamie.

He's just a friend.

Why don't you finish up your drink and go outside and play?

I have work to do in the house.

I don't play.

I spend most of my--

I'll get it.

I said I'd get it.

That's very nice of you, Jamie.

But-- well, women nowadays can do things for themselves.

Why don't you go outside and do whatever you like.

I'm gonna go talk to Teddy.

Is Teddy a friend of yours?

Well, is he?

Sort of.

She's not like the others, Teddy.

She's pretty, really pretty.

And she wants to be nice, but she's got a boyfriend.

Only, he isn't your real boyfriend, he's just a friend.

That's all, just a friend.

Well, then,

she's just what we've been waiting for, isn't she?

Yeah, maybe she is.

Aunt Margaret?

Yes.

What's the matter with boys?

What boys, dear?

Well, like that little Jamie person.