and he might slip on a banana skin and fall and people who saw him would laugh their heads off. So, he went into this room, and locked the door, and got into his bed, and stayed there. Derry: Forever? Mr.
Lamb: For a while. Derry: Then what? Mr. Lamb: A picture fell off the wall on to his head and killed him.
[Derry laughs a lot.] Mr. Lamb: You see, boy, you’ve got two arms, two legs and eyes and ears, you’ve got a tongue and a brain. You’ll get on the way you want, like all the rest. And if you chose, and set your mind to it, you could get on better than all the rest.
Derry: How? Mr. Lamb: Same way as I do. Derry: Do you have any friends?
Mr. Lamb: Hundreds. Derry: But you live by yourself in that house. It’s a big house, too.
Mr. Lamb: Friends everywhere. People come in.... everybody knows me.
The gate’s always open. Derry: But I’m not a friend. Mr. Lamb: Certainly, you are.
What have you done to make me think you’re not? Derry: You don’t know me. You don’t know where I come from or even what my name is. Mr.
Lamb: What terrible complex does Derry suffer from? Was the man successful in safeguarding himself from death? Unit- - THE CHALLENGE - - - You could tell me your name. If you chose.
And not, if you didn’t. Derry: Derry. Only it’s Derek....but I hate that. Derry.
If I’m your friend, you don’t have to be mine. I choose that. Mr. Lamb: Certainly.
Derry: I might never come here again, you might never see me again and then I couldn’t still be a friend. Mr. Lamb: Why not? Derry: How could I?
You pass people in the street and you might even speak to them, but you never see them again. It doesn’t mean they’re friends. Mr. Lamb: Doesn’t mean they’re enemies, either, does it?
Derry: No, they’re just.... nothing. People. That’s all.
Mr. Lamb: People are never just nothing. Never.