[quote] Snark all you like, but the final image with old Patrick remembering young Tom, with his hand upon the shoulder, damn near broke my heart.
After which, Patrick rises up from his wheelchair, and taking Tom in his arms, exclaims, "Our plan worked! Just like we hoped!
Tom recounts, "Well, your phony stroke and Marion's neverending need to play 'SAVIOR' finally pushed her into confessing what she did to us! And now she can't stand the guilt of you silently staring at her all time! .. Begone bitch!"
Smiling, Patrick lays a long, passionate kiss on Tom's lips, then remarks, "Bloody hell! I thought she'd never leave!
It's your own damn fault," Tom laughs. .. Just how many diaries did you leave in that box for her to read, you little Dickens!?"
"Well, I must confess," Patrick says, "I added about 50 new pages on our trip to Venice alone! I thought she should have ALL the juicy details, thinking that would surely push her over the edge. .. I even wrote a lovely sonnet about the vision I had of you standing nude in front of that sunlit window calling it, 'Ode on a Brightonian Arse.'"
They laugh.
Then, Tom says, "Well, my suitcases are already packed! So where to first? Revisit Venice again for a do-over? .. or maybe take that trip to Mother Russia that you always wanted to go on?"
"Are you saying we can leave right now?" Patrick asks.
"Yes," Tom eagerly replies. "That nice Nurse Nigel you hired and his cute fella have already agreed to take the dog while we're off traveling."
"Fantastic!" Patrick beams. "But why not you and I relax a little first, then decide on our destination later tonight over a Scotch or two," pausing to add, "I don't know about you, but after that performance, I'm in DESPERATE need of a cigarette! .. not to mention a REAL bath for a change!"
Tom gasps, "Dear God! .. I hope Marion didn't run off with all of the fags when she left! .. That would be just like her!"
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