ABE steps farther out upon the rocks, tries to talk him down, begging him... ABE: (pleads) For the love of Heaven, old man! Resist it! I promised her! Promised Manya! I promised I would look after you! SWEDEN pauses as the current rages around him. The water is nearly to his chest. When he speaks his voice is echoed and distorted, more so even than before. SWEDEN-THING: Is she so important to him? Is he so important to you? These bundles of sensory organs; wrap- ped in... skeins of decaying matter? Are their temporary little individual husks that important? ABE: Yes! Oh, yes! SWEDEN-THING: (beat) Do you have any idea how limited and temporal their little individual husks are? ABE: (nods, tears welling in his eyes, streaming down his cheeks) Yes. SWEDEN-THING: And the