Requiem for a Nun

REQUIEM FOR A NUN 255

nor. Unnoticed by her, Stevens makes a faint movement. The

Governor stops him with a slight motion of one hand which also

Temple does not notice)

Now that you have come this far, now that, as you said, you have got to

tell it, say it aloud, not to save Nan-this woman, but because you decided

before you left home tonight that there is nothing else to do but tell it.

TEMPLE

How do I know whether I would or not?

GOVERNOR

Suppose he was here-sitting in that chair where Gav

-your uncle is-

TEMPLE

-or behind the door or in one of your desk drawers, maybe? He's not. He's

at home. I gave him a sleeping pill.

GOVERNOR

But suppose he was, now that you have got to say it. Would you still say

it?

TEMPLE

All right. Yes. Now will you please shut up too and let me tell it? How

can 1, if you and Gavin wont hush and let me? I cant even remember where

I was.-Oh yes. So I saw the murder, or anyway the shadow of it, and the

man took me to Memphis, and I know that too, I had two legs and I could

see, and I could have simply screamed up the main street of any of the

little towns we passed, just as I could have walked away from the car

after Gow-we ran it into the tree, and stopped a wagon or a car which

would have carried me to the nearest town or railroad station or even back

to school or, for that matter, right on back home into my father's or

brothers' hands. But not me, not Temple. I chose the murderer-

STEVENS

(to Governor)

He was a psychopath, though that didn't come out in the trial, and when

it did come out, or could have come out, it was too late. I was there; I

saw that too: a little black thing with an Italian