Sound inside

The Sound Inside 9/20/19 41
CHRISTOPHER …Corbit.
BELLA
Christopher Corbit Dunn. That’s a good name.
CHRISTOPHER I have an Uncle Corbit.
BELLA
Your mother’s brother?
CHRISTOPHER Father’s. He lives in Elmira, New York.
BELLA
Do you have a relationship with him?
CHRISTOPHER No. When I was ten I went to go stay with him for a weekend and I walked in
on him having sex with a taxidermy pheasant.
BELLA
Okay.
CHRISTOPHER Yeah, he’s a hunter, so...
Beat.
BELLA
What’s your favorite book?
CHRISTOPHER Old Yeller. And Franny and Zooey. And Faulkner’s The Wild Palms.
BELLA
That’s three books.
CHRISTOPHER They’re interchangeably superlative.
BELLA
Fair enough.
CHRISTOPHER Old Yeller probably has a slight edge over the other two. When Travis has to
shoot Old Yeller it’s more heartbreaking than fucking “Bambi.” I’m even cool
with the puppy being born at the end – it’s that good. And Carl Burger’s
illustrations are individual masterpieces that should be hung in museums…
And the last paragraph… “When finally I couldn’t laugh and cry another bit, I
rode on up to the lot and turned my horse in. Tomorrow, I thought, I’ll take
Arliss and that pup out for a squirrel hunt. The pup was still mighty little. But
the way I figured it, if he was big enough to act like Old Yeller, he was big
enough to start learning to earn his keep.” People talk about the end of Moby
Dick, but Old Yeller…
BELLA
And do you have any phobias?
CHRISTOPHER I’m terrified that if I’m left alone in a room with a baby I might throw it out
the window.