Jack lays down next to Rose, stroking her chin, then gives her a kiss on her cheek.
"How's everything going with your cousin? It looks like you're having quite a bit of fun." Rose says, turning back to Jack, and at the same time, pulling her blanket up close to her chin.
"Everything is going fun. Even Jesse is having a time of his life." Jack says, kissing Rose again.
"Don't you think Marion misses him? I mean, he's been gone for almost a week now. I wonder where he's staying also?"
"She probably misses him. This is just like being in the war, but this one is a very short visit, and he'll be home in no time."
"I hope we're not dragging him into doing something scandalous. This could get out in the papers." Rose says.
"No. He'll be alright. My cousin just wanted to help out Jesse as much as he can, but I know Jesse. He's the kind that declines outside help. Especially since if it involves going to school overseas. My cousin knows Jesse fought in the war too." Soon they heard a car rumble in the dirt drive below the mansion. Jack gets out of bed, then goes to the windew, where he could see two people get out of a cab. Jack leapt from the window, as he could barely recognize the two people below.
"Jack, what's wrong?" Rose says, slowly sitting up on the bed.
"Nothing, nothing. I just don't like people looking me half naked," Jack half lied, but knew he ditched Jesse with an arrogant man at that seedy-looking restaurant, and that he felt bad for doing so. Jack crawled back into bed, as they heard the car leave the dirt drive below. Down below, Gatsby makes his way towards the run-down house.
...
As Nick's taxi groans away, Gatsby appears striding through the illuminated trees toward Nick, while Jesse was completely worn out from the long day.
"Your place looks like the World's Fair... or Coney Island!"
"Ah, does it? I've... I've just been glancing into some rooms... Let's go to Coney Island, old sport, we can take my car-" Gatsby says anxiously.
"It's too late tonight. Even my friend here is tired!" Nick snapped.
"Or we can take a plunge in the swimming pool? I haven't made use of it all summer..."
"I must go to bed..." Gatsby looks crestfallen. Nick puts him out of his misery. "Happy to do it. Jay- I'm going to call Daisy and invite her to tea."
"Oh, that's alright. I don't want to put you to any trouble..." Gatsby began.
"What day would suit you?" Nick asked tiredly.
"What day would suit you...? I don't want to put you, or Jesse, to any trouble..."
"Day after tomorrow alright?"
"Day after tomorrow? Well, I'd... I'd want to get the grass cut." Gatsby says, then they both look at the grass - there is a sharp line where Nick's ragged lawn ends and Gatsby's manicured one begins.
"There's another little thing... I thought- Look here, old sport- You don't make much money, do you?"
"Not really." Nick says uneasily.
"If you'll pardon my... You see, I carry on a little business on the side - a sort of sideline - you understand what I'm saying right? You're selling bonds, aren't you, old sport?"
"Trying to."
"Well, this might interest you... It happens to be a rather confidential sort of thing... But you might pick up a nice bit of money." Gatsby says, trying to be helpful.
"I've got my hands full." Gatsby's face falls. "You wouldn't have to do any business with Wolfsheim. I assure you."
"No, no, no... Its a favor Jay. Just a favor." Nick's sincerity disarms Gatsby; a tiny, embarrassed nod. "Happy to do it." Nick says once more.
"A favor?"
"Yes." As if no one has ever done him a favor before in his life... "Ah, right, right... Goodnight."
"Goodnight." With this, Gatsby turns and strolls back toward his blazing castle. Nick's gaze falls upon the unkempt lawn. He smiles. The next day an enormous mower clatters through frame, carving Nick's unkempt lawn into a fresh, broad, band of green. An army of gardeners giving Nick's lawn and garden a make-over, fresh paint, new flowers, trimmed hedges... Heavy rain now falls. Gatsby, dressed in white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold tie, leads a dozen umbrella-holding servants across the lawn. Herzog holds an umbrella over Gatsby; the other servants shelter extravagant floral arrangements in crystal vases... Both Nick and Jesse watches the parade through the window, with Nick opening his door just as Gatsby arrives; the servants continue inside. On the porch, Gatsby looks around distractedly.
"One of the papers said they thought the rain would stop about four. I think it was the Journal..." Gatsby says, an awkward beat.
"The grass looks fine."
"Grass?" Gatsby looks at Nick without really comprehending, or seeing. "What Grass?" Inside, a mantelpiece clock, ticking in the tense silence, while the room is crowded with absurdly extravagant floral arrangements. Nick sits watching as Gatsby intensely paces. The silence stretches, and stretches... Finally...
"Have you got everything you need?" Gatsby asked.
"Perhaps more flowers?"
"I think they did a fine job, don't you?" With that, Jesse walked in, with a flower stuck to his hair from a servant.
"Beautiful." Nick says.
"You think it's too much?" Gatsby asked, with some concern.
"I think it's what you want."
"I think so too... She'll be impressed, won't she old sport?"
"I am." Nick says. With this, Gatsby straightens his suit, sits, and hurriedly checks his watch. Another long silence... Gatsby suddenly leaps to his feet!
"I can't wait all day. I'm leaving!" Gatsby says impatiently.
"Don't be silly. It's just two minutes to four..." But Gatsby heads for the door...
"Nobody's coming to tea. It's too late!" BEEEEEP! Gatsby glimpses Daisy's Rolls Royce arriving out front, and turns to Nick, flushed with fresh panic.
"It's her." Nick says, while Gatsby's mind was racing... Daisy's chauffeur-driven Rolls pulls up in the muddy drive. As Nick assists Daisy from the car...
"Is this absolutely where you live, my dearest one?" Daisy asked, while she looks at him with a mysterious smile. "Why did I have to come alone? Are you in love with me? Or are you setting me up with that tall guy?"
"That's the secret of Carraway Castle. Tell your chauffeur to go far away."
"Come back in an hour, Ferdie!" Daisy tells her chauffeur, then continues ahead into the living room. Nick hangs back and listens hopefully to Daisy's reaction at discovering Gatsby. He smiles as he hears a delighted...
"Oh-! Oh, my goodness. I... I can't believe it. You- Did you ransack a greenhouse?"
"He is in love with me..." Daisy squeals, while Nick enters, but is shocked to discover that Gatsby is not there. Daisy's merely been admiring the flower display...
"That's funny." Nick says.
"What's funny?" Before they could continue, a knock is heard at the door.
"One moment..." Nick says, then grabbed Jesse from his hiding place. Both Nick and Jesse opens the door. Gatsby, pale as death and soaked, glares miserably at both men.
"What are you doing?" Nick asked. Without a word, Gatsby stalks past both men, into... Daisy, her back to the door, is still marvelling at the flowers. Then she turns. She sees Gatsby. A sharp intake of breath... The reunited lovers stand, staring at each other for a long, surreal, moment of disbelief. Gatsby, eyes locked to Daisy's, is drowning in emotion. Daisy finally manages an artificial, choking murmur.
"I'm certainly glad to see you again." Daisy says, making Gatsby's face flushed; the veins stand out on his neck as his lips spasm in a hopeless attempt to speak. Finally, he finds words...
"I'm... certainly glad to see you as well." Gatsby finally manages. Their hearts pound - the tension excruciating. The scream of a boiling kettle breaks the tension- Gatsby reclines uncomfortably against the mantelpiece. His elbow rests near the mantelpiece clock. Daisy sits opposite; frozen on the edge of a chair. The rattle of the tea tray as both Jesse and Nick enters only contributes to the already unbearable tension. Gatsby manages to murmur.
"We've met before..." Suddenly the clock tilts at the pressure of Gatsby's elbow...and it falls! And breaks! "Ah... sorry..." Gatsby clumsily tries to repair the clock; but drops it again!
"It's an old... clock." Nick says idiotically.
"Lovely though. A lovely... clock." Daisy says, desperate for small talk. Gatsby finally manages to set the clock back on the mantle, then takes a seat. A long silent beat. "We haven't met for many years." Daisy says, trying to find ways to break the ice, the Jesse's father had always said.
"Five years next November." The precision of Gatsby's answer is acutely embarrassing.
"Tea?" Nick says, abruptly.
"Thank you old sport." Gatsby says, finally getting what he wanted to break the desperately awkward situation.
"Darling thank you." Daisy says, trying her best to look at Jesse, and the flower that was stuck to his hair. Nick pours; and they all sit stiffly, sipping their tea. A long, terrible silence... Suddenly Nick stands.
"I just need to... pop into town." he says, grabbing Jesse by his shirt sleeves.
"Town...?" Gatsby says, horrified.
"The village; We'll be right back." As Nick leaves, dragging Jesse along, Gatsby follows.
"I've got to speak to you both...!" Wildly following Nick and a helpless Jesse, Gatsby whispers miserably.
"Oh, God! This is a mistake, a terrible, terrible mistake..."
"You're just embarrassed, that's all... Daisy's embarrassed too. Jesse, help me out here! Say something! You've been quiet lately...I'll bet you're really fun at parties!"
She's embarrassed?"
"Just as much as you are." Jesse says finally, running his hand through his hair, then taking out the flower from his hair. Nick tries to put it back, but Jesse fights Nick.
"Don't talk so loud! You're being noisy, both of you! Stop it!"
"You're acting like a little boy! You're rude. Daisy's in there all alone and..." Gatsby raises his hand, looks at both Nick and Jesse reproachfully, and heads back into the living room. Like two little children Nick and Jesse runs for a tree whose leaves shield against the rain. Nick looks at Jesse, crouched beneath the tree who looks tiny, and very alone. Nick re-enters, bedraggled, rain-soaked, while Jesse sat outside under the tree. He tries to get Gatsby and Daisy's attention, to no avail... The lovers are completely and totally absorbed in each other. Nick bangs pots in the sink - still nothing. He clears his throat. Daisy turns; a radiant smile. Every vestige of embarrassment between Daisy and Gatsby is gone. Gatsby literally glows. Jesse soon meets everyone in the living room, himself dripping with rain water from being under the tree for so long.
"Yes, it has...Hasn't it?" Gatsby stands, walks to the window and looks out across the bay. "What do you think of that, Daisy? Come look." Daisy joins Gatsby and they step out onto the porch together.
"Look. Its my house. Just there across the bay..." Daisy says excitedly. Gatsby and Daisy's eyes meet.
"I know. I have the same view from my place."
"Where's your place?" Daisy asked. Gatsby turns back to both Nick and Jesse. "Nick, Jesse. I want you both and Daisy to see my house. I'd like to show her around."
"Are you sure you want us to come?" Nick asked.
"Absolutely, old sport. Absolutely." At Gatsby's mansion, servants swing open ivy-covered gates...
"I had the gates brought in from a castle in Normandy." Gatsby says proudly. His castle glistening in the sunlight. A delighted cry from Daisy.
"Oh, Jay...!? Its so grand!"
"Do you like it?"
"I love it...! But how do you live here all alone?" Daisy wondered how a man could live in a large mansion like this all by himself.
"I don't. I keep it always full of interesting, celebrated people...like my cousin." As Daisy runs ahead, Gatsby murmurs to Jesse and Nick. "My house looks well doesn't it? See how the whole front catches the light like that?" Soon Daisy yells back...
"Come on you two! I want the royal tour!" Gatsby has transformed into a good-natured show-off, hurrying Nick, Jesse and Daisy through a maze of fantastical gardens, past magnificent fountains and into his castle... Gatsby shows off his brand new orange-juicer, where Jack and Rose meet them there.
"You must understand, I like all things that are modern." Gatsby says, showing the group the juicer machine. Daisy readies a cocktail shaker beneath the spout of the giant silver orange juice machine.
"If you press this button here, the oranges shoot through here, are crushed there... The juice of 200 oranges extracted in one hour...!" Gatsby presses, the machine groans and juice splashes out! Later on, in the beach in front of Gatsby's house, Daisy, Nick, Jack and Gatsby drunkenly drive golf balls out toward the bay, while Jesse has his hands on the world's first home-camcorder...and Rose had her arms wrapped tightly around Jesse.
"Its a remarkable little camera- latest design." Gatsby says, while, nearby, a butler in a boat stands watch over a spinning gramophone and bottles of champagne...
"You do know, I'm a champion golfer, don't you? Here, I'll show you how its done." CRACK! Daisy cuts a marvelous swing, snapping a club in two! She falls into Gatsby arms... Jesse continues filming...
"She looks like she could be on the cover of Vogue, don't you think...?" Gatsby says, nudging Jesse on his ribs. Later that evening, Jack, Rose and Jesse trail behind Gatsby, Nick and Daisy, as they crossed the opulent ballroom. Daisy, champagne in hand, spots the soaring ballroom organ.
"Oh...! Its beautiful."
"Its a custom Wurlitzer." Gatsby says proudly.
"Can anyone play it?" Daisy asked, with curiousity. Jack could see his cousin was at his happiest in a long time.
"Klipspringer can. Someone wake Ewing!" Gatsby yelled, while Daisy twirls round, overjoyed...
"Music! And we can dance all night!" Rose and Jack did an impromptu dance, copying the couple in front of them.
"Ewing's a symphonic genius, he can play anything...!" Daisy and Rose runs up the stairs together and calls down... "Then we demand a Charleston!" Both Gatsby and Jack gazes up after the two women, and confides in Nick, and Jesse, as well as his cousin...
"They makes it look so splendid, don't you think?" Gatsby asked his cousin.
"Sure does. Even Rose is at her happiest." Jack jams his hands in his pockets, then smiles at his wife. Later, Nick, Jack, Jesse, Rose, and Daisy follow Gatsby into the bedroom...where Gatsby bounds ahead, starting up a spiral stair... He throws open a massive cabinet, revealing a prism of suits, dressing-gowns, watches and ties.
"I've got a man in England who buys me clothes...!" He playfully tosses Daisy a boater-hat...
"Something for the lady..." Then he begins yanking down shirts and tossing them over the rail to Daisy..."I've never seen anything like it!"
"He sends over a selection at the beginning of each season..."
"Jay!" Daisy says, with ever-increasing enthusiasm, while Jack and Rose also peeked into the cabinet. Jesse was also as curious. Never had he seen so many clothes in his life.
"These are silk! Linen! Indian flannel! Egyptian cotton! Here, try this out." Gatsby says, handing Jesse an expensive-looking watch, and it felt heavy just by holding it. Daisy, intoxicated, leaps on the bed, arms outstretched...
"No, Jay... you'll ruin them!" she turns to both Nick and Jesse. "Nicky! Jesse! He's a madman!" More and more and more shirts float down... The rumble of distant thunder. Time slows as shirts flutter, like giant snowflakes, down toward her. Slowly, quietly, her mirth transforms to sobs... She hides her face in shirts... Gatsby eases down the stairs and nestles beside Daisy, taking her tear-streaked face in his hands...
"What is it?" Gatsby asked, with concern.
"It's just... It makes me sad, because..." Daisy glances in Jesse's direction...
"Why?"
"...because..." A suspended moment; Daisy is incapable of speaking her heart. "It's just... Because I've never seen such beautiful shirts before..."
"If it wasn't for the mist we could see the green light... "
"What green light?" Daisy sniffed.
"The one that burns all night at the end of your dock." As Gatsby and Daisy stare out across the bay... Nick leans to Jesse, then whispered; "Possibly, it had occurred to Gatsby that the colossal significance of that light had vanished forever. Now, it was once again just a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one." Nick, impelled to remind Daisy and Gatsby of his presence, emerges from the shadows and descends the spiral staircase. He holds a photo of an elderly man in yachting costume...
"Who's this? Your father?" Nick asked.
"No, no.. That's Mr. Dan Cody, old sport... He's dead now. He used to be my best friend years ago." Daisy joins Nick at the bottom of the steps. In the photo with Cody, also in yachting costume, is a young Gatsby...
"You never told me you had a pompadour... or a yacht." Daisy says, teasingly. Gatsby hastily plucks a scrapbook from a row on his desk...
"I want to show you something... Look, here's a lot of clippings, about you." They admire a scrapbook together.
"You saved my letters..." Daisy says, touched.
"This was my first photo of you." As Daisy flips through and pulls out an old letter of hers, she reads the letter: "We cant lose each other and let all this glorious love end in nothing. Come home, I'll be here waiting and hoping, for every long dream of you to come true... Come home Jay..." BBBRRRNNNGGG! The phone shrills.
"Excuse me. I'll be right back everyone." Gatsby crosses the room, snatches up the receiver, and turns away... He lowers his voice.
"Well I can't talk now old sport... I said a small town!" Gatsby's eyes narrow. "He must know what a small town is!" BOOOOMMM! A storming wind bangs open the French windows! As Nick moves to shut them, he takes a glimpse of Gatsby... "Well, he's no use to us if Detroit is his idea of a small town..." Gatsby rings off abruptly, and catches Nick's eye - a tense moment - which Gatsby banishes with that electrifying smile. Somewhere in the distant, a jaunty sounds of a pipe organ...
"Ah, Klipspringer! He must be awake! Shall we?"
Daisy, wearing a flowing robe and heels, dances a Charleston with Jesse. An elaborate picnic, complete with candelabras and a mountain of cushions, is laid out on the floor. There, Gatsby sits, looking on, flush with joy, while Jack and Rose watch. Slowly though, Gatsby's expression turns introspective as he watches Daisy dance, memories flood back to him...Jack could see Gatsby becoming trance-like...
...
Gatsby and Daisy, five years ago, about to kiss; a handwritten letter; a gathering storm; the green light... Hundreds of candles flicker in patterns. As a slow, melancholic waltz plays, Gatsby and Daisy dance, enraptured... "I wish I had done everything on earth with you. All my life." Daisy whispers. Gatsby holds her closer. "I wish that it could always be like this..."
"It will be..." Across the room, Nick, exhausted and drunk and unnoticed, stands to leave, while Jesse looked up at Nick. At the ballroom doors he turns back and glimpses Gatsby and Daisy, in a universe all their own... Nick leans close to Jesse once more, then whispered; "If only it had been enough for Gatsby, just to hold Daisy..." The towering doors close. Gatsby stands at his window, staring into the night. Nick whispers to Jesse once more; "But he had a grand vision for his life, and Daisy's part in it."