NURSE: She called already and asked me to tell you that she's leaving and to remind you that you're a lousy husband slash father.
DR. BROWN: Thanks, Barbara.
[Nurse exits and Dr. Brown continues his phone conversation.]
DR. BROWN: I don't care. Look, Larry. Listen to me. Listen to me, the fact remains that...
[We cut to a clock which reads 7:30.]
[Time lapse. Dr. Brown's still in his office and now it's 9:12. Dr. Brown puts his coat on to leave.]
NARRATOR: In his usual fashion, Dr. Brown worked late again. So late he was still at the hospital when he received the news.
[Cut to lobby. Two police officers walk as Dr. Brown comes down a flight of stairs.]
POLICE OFFICER: Excuse me, ma'am?
RECEPTIONIST: Yes?
POLICE OFFICER: I'm looking for Dr. Andrew Brown.
RECEPTIONIST: Dr. Brown. That would...
[Dr. Brown overhears this little exchange and stops going toward the door. He walks to the police officer.]
DR. BROWN: I'm Andrew Brown.
[The police officer takes off his hat, looking sad.]
[Cut to several shots of them talking from far away but I can't hear a thing. After a while Dr. Brown walks down the hall alone, feeling sad.]
NARRATOR: At then, it had seemed to be an accident. Sadly, Andy's wife never made it from home to their son's recital that night. Instead, a life was taken tragically on the icy highway inbetween.
[Cut to the outdoors. Snow is all around. Everyone is wearing black and it obviously seems like it is Julia's burial. Dr. Brown takes a shovel and puts some of Julia's ashes in a coffin. Ephram is wiping away tears. Delia stands by her father and then they walk off together.]
[Cut to a hallway in the Brown home. Directly down the hall is a room. Time flies by quickly as we see Delia sitting at a desk, Ephram lying down to listen to some music with his headphones, and many other quick shots.]
NARRATOR: Oh, sure the Browns did the best they could to get by after that. Pretending as though nothing had changed, knowing that everything had.
[Cut to Dr. Brown walking down a hall at his work.]
NARRATOR: As expected, Dr. Brown wasted no time in going back to work. What wasn't expected was what happened once he got there.
[Cut to Mr. Saddlebrook's room where he is in bed and very tired. Dr. Brown walks by and enters.]
MR. SADDLEBROOK: Morning, Doc.
[Dr. Brown looks at Mr. Saddlebrook's chart.]
DR. BROWN: Good morning, Mr. Saddlebrook. Ready for the big day tomorrow?
MR. SADDLEBROOK: Well, I hope so. Say, listen, Doc. I heard about the tragedy you suffered. I'm sorry.
[Dr. Brown looks sad again. He then puts Mr. Saddlebrook's chart back.]
DR. BROWN: If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would it be?
MR. SADDLEBROOK: Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was where I was brought up. I kept my parents' farm there.
DR. BROWN: Go there. Now.
[Mr. Saddlebrook looks at Dr. Brown like he's crazy.]
DR. BROWN: Today. I can't save your life. At best, I could prolong it 8 months. Maybe a year. But for most of that time, you'd be barely coherent, recovering from surgery. But that's so this hospital can brag about its statistics for terminal illnesses. But statistics don't measure quality of life. And if you have the slightest hope about preserving of your own, you'd get up out of that bed and leave this place as fast as your legs will carry you.
NARRATOR: And those were Andy Brown's final words as a big-city doctor.
[Cut to the Brown home. Camera is on Ephram.]
EPHRAM: We're moving where?
DR. BROWN: To Everwood, Colorado.
DELIA: Where's that?
EPHRAM: Colorado, moron. Wh-why, are we moving there?
DR. BROWN: Someone told me about it once. They said it was the most beautiful place they had ever seen. It's on this hill. Or is it a mountain? Or maybe it's on a hill by a mountain. Anyway, I was thinking last night that we should move there. What do you say?
EPHRAM: I say that's not even a reason.
DR. BROWN: I know. How great is that? We'll be moving to some place for no reason at all.
EPHRAM: That's not great. That's crazy. That's Harrison Ford in Mosquito Coast crazy.
DR. BROWN: You say crazy. I say it might be the sanest thing I've ever done. Now, I want this to be a democratic decision so we're going to put it to vote. Everyone who wants to move...and get their own horse, raise your hand.
[Dr. Brown has his hand raised and at the horse comment, Delia does too.]
DR. BROWN: Well, that decides it.
EPHRAM: Democratic? You bought her vote.
DR. BROWN: Yeah. That's the American version.
[Dr. Brown walks off.]
EPHRAM: [to Delia] I want you to remember this moment. All right? This is the moment when you conspired with the psycho to ruin whatever was left of our pathetic little lives.
[Ephram walks off and Delia looks back.]
[Cut to Delia looking at an article in Time magazine about Dr. Brown's leaving. She closes it and she carries some stuff out of the house. Dr. Brown carries a box and stands there a bit, pondering, and then he walks out.]
NARRATOR: As it turns out, Andy's leaving caused quite a stir in the medical community. Time magazine even wrote an article about it, calling Andrew Brown's departure from neurosurgery, "one of the great losses of modern medicine." Like a lot of people, you might think they were exaggerating but then...you probably don't know Dr. Brown.
