Original subtitles

People ask, where do you get your ideas?

Right here.

Oh, this is my magician's toy shop.

I'm Ray Bradbury, and this is...

You ain't never decent, Thaddeus.

Popcorn, popcorn, get your popcorn, popcorn right here, folks, popcorn.

What are you guys doing here?

Sure is something, eh?

Yeah.

Everybody likes that.

In a peculiar kind of way, I mean.

You ever consider selling it?

Nah.

Customers eat it up.

Oh. But if a guy had money, maybe.

How much?

Oh, maybe $30, $50.

Say a guy had $40.

$40? How'd you guess?

It told me.

Well, I'll be.

Hey, you couldn't buy one of them things in a store, could you?

Folks would sure look up to me back home, I bet. And you won the bet.

Hey, thanks.

No, no, don't thank me.

I was tired of seeing that damn thing around anyway.

Lately I've been thinking things about it.

Funny things.

But hell, I'm a big mouth jerk.

So long, farmer.

So long.

be a good boy.

Come on. I want to pretty myself up.

You don't need to pretty.

What is your hurry?

Now you go away.

Hi, Clem. Hi, Gramps.

Hello, Charlie.

Howdy, Charlie.

Hey, I got something here.

Something you might want to see.

You ain't got nothing we want to see, Charlie.

It's something in a jar.

It looks kind of like a brain or kind of like a jellyfish. Kind of like... What?

Come see yourself.

What the hell is that?

Hey, you want to see some more? Drop around my house. He'll be there. Let me

take another look at that thing.

Hey, isn't it octopus?

Come on around.

Y 'all are welcome.

What would your wife say?

She hates company.

Depend.

Now, what you got there?

Well, what is it?

Well, what's it look like to you, Thede?

Look like you, Charlie.

I work the bottom land of the butt

bone every year.

She grabs the money and...

Runs off down home, visiting her folks or something, I don't know, for weeks at

a stretch.

I can't keep a hold on her.

Her and the men from the store, they make fun of me.

You ain't staying in?

You got company, Charlie.

I want to come up and take another look at that... That, uh, stuff?

You got in that there jar?

There she was in this sideshow.

The man didn't want to sell, but... There she is.

I wonder what it is.

I wonder if it...

He is a she.

Or a he.

Or a plain old it in that there swamp water.

Just as peaceful and pale as an oyster.

The swamp?

Dreaming?

Hell, did I, staring out.

Dead?

What do you figure?

Joke of Marmer?

When I was a runnel nose kid, I had a cat.

All the time made kittens.

Everyone in walking distance had our cats by gift.

When this one litter busted out, Ma fills this.

Big two -gallon glass jar and it says, Juke, drown them

kittens.

Kittens. Mute around.

Blind.

Helpless. I said, not me, Ma. You do it.

Ma said I was the only one handy.

I picked up one.

Kitten.

It was warm.

Made a mewing sound.

I felt like running away.

I dropped the kitten in the water.

He opened his mouth, trying for air.

A little white fang showed.

Pink tongue.

When it was all over.

Kidding. Floated.

Looking out.

Not hating me for what I'd done.

Not liking me neither.

Kind of makes your stomach jump.

Because...

You can't believe what you see.

What's the story for next week?

Because I need my freedom, Tom.

Boys in town said they was gonna visit him.

Something he brought from the car.

Yeah.

Why, for all we can tell, this might be someone we know.

Out in the swamp there, I made a bamboo sump. All sorts of things crawl and

spawn. It's a soup brewed by the Lord.

Something human slobbered out of that soup ten million years ago.

Ten million years?

Perfect. Human.

Mind that has no worry, eyes that see no evil, mouth that speaks no slander.

My baby.

My baby, my Polly.

Is that you?

I lost my little boy, Polly, in the swamp.

You don't suppose.

It moved.

No, no, no.

It's just your eyes playing tricks on you again.

No.

Honest to God, I saw it shift slow like a dead kitten.

Hush up now.

It's been dead a long, long time.

Maybe since before you was born.

That's my foley.

That's my baby you got there.

Now, Mrs. Tritton.

There now.

Stop shaking.

It ain't no more your baby than mine.

There, there.

Like as not we'll never know what it is.

It's like magic tricks magicians do.

Once you know the trick, ain't no more fun and rabbit innards.

Stands to reason.

Well, damn it to hell.

That's nothing right now.

There's nothing in that jar but a bunch of old jellyfish from Sea Cove.

Rotten, stinking, fit to whelp.

Could be you're just jealous, Tom Comedy.

Me?

Jealous?

Uh -huh. Where are you coming from, Charlie?

See y 'all.

Bye, Charlie.

My door's always open.

Charlie.

I'm awake.

What?

I bet you don't know where I've been.

I bet you don't know where I've been.

I've been to the carnival over in Cape City.

Tom Carmody drove me.

Carnival was just closing up, but...

We talked to the carny boss, Charlie.

We did.

We did.

We sure did.

We found out what it is in your jar, Charlie.

I don't want to hear it. Oh, but you got to hear it, Charlie. It's so funny.

It's a joke.

Get away.

Uh -uh -uh. No, sir, Charlie. Not until I tell.

Get!

We talked to that carny boss.

And he liked to die laughing.

Well, he said that he sold that jar and what was in it to some hick

for 40 bucks.

And it ain't worth more than 75 cents at most.

It's junk, Charlie.

Dead rat bones.

Uh -uh. Yeah, paper mache.

Cotton rubber bands.

Hog traps.

Mildewed pig's eyes.

Uh -uh. My God, it's got a metal frame inside.

Salters, Charlie.

Hogs, traps, and pig brains.

I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to. Oh, well,

everybody finds out how fake it is.

Won't they laugh?

Won't they slap their knees?

You ain't gonna tell.

dirty, dirty, jealous, mean, everything I do.

Oh, well, then I won't tell nobody.

You spoiled my fun.

That's all that counts.

I know you and that Tom Carmody.

He's been laughing at me for years.

Well, you go ahead and you tell all them...

I did.

You're lying.

No, I ain't.

This jar has to have something in it besides the junk you said.

Too many people believe there's something in here, Thede.

Can't change that.

Carney, boss, if you talked with him, he lied.

Come here, Thede.

Why, what you want?

Come here.

Now, Charlie, you keep away from me.

I just want to show you something.

Kitty.

Kitty, kitty, kitty.

Kitty.

Your wife gone off to visit her folks?

Yeah. She run for Tennessee.

Be back in a couple of weeks, I think.

You know, Thede... Well, I never noticed.

It's got brown eyes.

It always had brown eyes.

Oh, no.

It was blue last time we was here.

And another thing, it's got brown hair.

It didn't have brown hair before. Yes, it did. Oh, no, it didn't. My baby.

My little baby.

You men.

Jellyfish. Kitten.

Hair kitty, kitty, kitty.

Hair kitten.

Everything and anything.

Night. The swamp.

Death.

The pale thing.

Dead things from the sea.

I wonder if it really is a she or a he or a

plain old it.

I reckon we'll never know.

Yeah.

We'll

never

know.