We hear Anna Marie in the background saying, Don’t let him in.
Adrienne, I want you to know there’s nothing to be frightened of, he says.
Whenever someone says something like that to her, Adrienne says, she wants to run for her life.
Carroway tries to charm his way by her, promises that he will only stay a few minutes.
Do you have any idea what time it is? Adrienne asks and starts to close the door. Carroway forces his way in.
Adrienne blocks his way, says that ifhe tries to go by her, she’ll call the police. Carroway clamps his hand over mouth. I thought you liked me, he says. He presses her up against the wall and tries to kiss her. She kicks him in the leg.
I want you to leave, she says. I mean it.
Your husband’s not here, is he? he says in an insinuating voice. Do you know why he’s not here? I think you know without my spelling it out.
He decides to leave and does.
When Adrienne returns inside, Anna Marie is no longer there. Adrienne goes down the steps to her office. The outside entrance to the office is unlocked and it seems evident that Anna Marie has gone. Adrienne bolts the door and curls up on the therapeutic couch. She hears footsteps and jumps to her feet. Go away, she says. Rebecca comes into the room. She is crying. Where is everyone? she says. Mother and daughter cuddle together on the couch, arms around each other.
We cut to Yuri who wakes with a start. He is on a couch in the Cohen’s living room. It takes him awhile to determine where he is. He climbs over Barbara, who is asleep on the rug, buttons his shirt, searches the living room floor for his shoes. We next see him riding down alone in the elevator, combing his hair with his hand.
Yuri is crossing a street when a red sports car appears from nowhere and almost runs him down.
We see Yuri letting himself into the office entrance of his brownstone. He is just in time for his appointment with Margo Goldhart. We see the therapy session in brief, Yuri dozing during one of the patient’s monologues. You don’t think I’m attractive, do you? she says. He asks her if there’s some way he can prove to her he finds her attractive. When Margo leaves, Yuri falls asleep in his chair. Adrienne comes in and stands by the door, waiting for him to notice her.
I’m a bit vague this morning, he says. Is it your turn to use the office? She shakes her head. We should have separate offices, he says.
Adrienne sits down in the patient’s chair, facing Yuri. What are your plans? she asks.
We cut to the front of the building where we see Carroway studying the entrance, undecided as to what to do. When we cut back to Adrienne and Yuri, she is sitting on his lap.
This doesn’t mean I forgive you, she says. It represents a failure of imagination on my part. I can’t imagine the rest of my life without you around. When she kisses him the chair goes over backwards. At that moment, Carroway comes in the door, a look of outrage on his face.
So this is how you behave when I’m not around to watch you, he says.
This man’s my husband, says Adrienne.
Don’t make a fool out of me, he says. It’s a mistake to make an enemy out of me.
Go away, Carroway, says Yuri.
I won’t forget this, Carroway says. I’m the figure hiding in the closet in your worst dreams. We see him leave and get into his red sports car which is double-parked in front of the house. We cut back to Yuri and Adrienne sitting on the floor, back to back. They are laughing so hard tears come to their eyes.
It is the next day. We see Yuri parking his car around the corner from his house. He gets out — he has his suitcase in hand — is whistling to himself. Going up the steps, he has a premonition and turns abruptly as if he expected someone to be coming up behind him.
Yuri double locks the door when he gets inside the house, calls to Adrienne. He gets no answer and calls her name again. He calls his daughter’s name.
He goes through his mail, checks for messages, then takes his suitcase up to the bedroom, somewhat surprised to find the door shut. He hesitates, listens at the door for sounds, before throwing the door open.
This is what he sees: his wife and daughter in bed next to each other, lying motionless. At first he thinks they’re asleep and he lets out a sigh of relief or pleasure (who knows what else he might have imagined). He smiles at the spectacle. When he gets closer he sees that there is blood on the cover of the bed, that they have been shot, that they are both dead.
Yuri is too shocked to respond. There is a hiatus of perhaps a second between his mouth opening and the scream that breaks loose. The camera freezes at this moment of his grief and horror, the scream fading then returning from a distance like an echo. When the camera releases Yuri he collapses against the wall. There is no sound, though Yuri continues to scream.
The End.
(Alternative Ending)
Adrienne is kissing Yuri when Carroway comes in the door, a look of outrage on his face.
So this is how you behave when I’m not around to watch you, he says to Adrienne.
This man’s my husband, she says.
It doesn’t matter. I take everything as a personal betrayal. Get out of here, Carroway, says Yuri.
I’m giving notice, says Carroway. I see this as the conclusion of my therapy. We see him leave and get into his red sports car, which is double-parked in front of the house. Anna Marie is waiting for him in the passenger seat.
It is the next day. We see Yuri emerging from his car, suitcase in hand. Going up the steps of his house, whistling to himself, he has a premonition and turns abruptly as if he expected someone to be coming up behind him. We follow his glance to a red sports car that resembles Carroway’s; the car is parked across the street (in a No Parking zone) and toward the far corner. Yuri double locks the door when he gets inside, calls to his wife and daughter.
Yuri checks the therapy schedule on the bulletin board and discovers that Adrienne is downstairs with a patient. She has left a note for him.
Yuri,
Rebecca is at Dora’s house. We need coffee.
Love you.
A.
Yuri carries his suitcase up to the bedroom and is surprised to find the door shut. He hesitates before opening the door, then thrusts it open. What he sees is this: in his marital bed, Carroway and Anna Marie are in the throes of the sexual act. Yuri watches in fascination, unable to avert his eyes. Carroway and Anna Marie. Anna Marie and Carroway. The image freezes.
Ten
Marital Therapy: Pro & Con
A
The phone is ringing. I am not in. (Adrienne is busy giving birth to herself.) I let the answering device represent me in my absence.
The call is from Carroway. It is the third this month. (I have an instinct for avoiding him.) I get up with excessive care and go to the bathroom for a valium. I feel invaded. I put the valium on my tongue. It slips out of my mouth before I can fill the cup with water.
A brief meeting with Carroway yesterday. He was seductive and childish. This man has nothing for me, I told myself. His presence is a kind of compelling absence. One needs to fill the space he has left vacated. That is his attraction. He is a living black hole. He is beautiful (like some poisonous flower) and he is not really there. Therefore he is dangerous. Such knowledge as I had was no real protection from him. I went with him on empty pretext (we had met for drinks at a noisy bar, could not hear ourselves talk) to his studio, which was four blocks away. I went to his studio to look at his latest painting. That was another pretext. He needed to have my critique. The painting required my acknowledgement to exist. In his space, he had me. He asked (as if he needed to ask), if I wanted to go to bed. I said absolutely not It was a straight-faced lie. We shook hands instead. It was not prelude to the main event. It was the event itself. I went home empty.