I've somehow made the decision to show "The Exorcist" to my 12 year old boy. I've glossed over the girl-crucifix scene, I can just ffwd it or cover his eyes when we get there.
We, he or I, are in a village on top of a small mountain or large hill. It's a beautiful sunny evening, that warm, sad light of evening. And there's about to be a flood. The kids are just leaving school, and the water comes rising over a lip at the end of the street, rising and everything is being swept away. I'm in the flood, hauling children out to higher ground, feeling around for them with my feet. I find a couple of things of laundry detergent, I was carrying them and lost them, it seems stupid now, unimportant, but I take them out as well and carry them to the banks.
The flood is rising, and I keep going into the water, into the street, to look for people, but I'm not finding anyone. SO I go up the sidestreet, there's a large burgundy SUV, the boys' father is riding around in it through the countryside, telling the boy that he's just gotta sort things out, he's gonna get a jeep, the boy can have the old stationwagon. And I wonder why the mainstreet has flooded when, from here, looking around, we're the highest point in the countryside, nothing else is flooded, the water must have run uphill to the village.... It really is a beautiful evening, golden rays of light through dark and broken cumulus clouds, a perfect moment that fills me with sadness that it can't last forever....
And I think to myself "This is just like the movie, just the way I remembered it....."