英语剧本《天堂之日》

SETTING

The story is set in Texas just before the First World War.


CAST OF CHARACTERS

BILL:  A young man from Chicago following the harvest.

ABBY:  The beautiful young woman he loves.

CHUCK:  The owner of a vast wheat ranch ("bonanza") in the

Texas Panhandle.

URSULA:  Abby's younger sister, a reckless child of14.

BENSON:  The bonanza foreman, an enemy of the newcomers.

MISS CARTER:  Chief domestic at the Belvedere, Chuck's home.

McLEAN:  Chuck's accountant.

GEORGE:  A young pilot who interests Ursula.

A PREACHER, A DOCTOR, AN ORGANIST, VARIOUS HARVEST HANDS,

LAWMEN, VAUDEVILLIANS, etc.


"Troops of nomads swept over the country at harvest time

like a visitation of locusts, reckless young fellows,

handsome, profane, licentious, given to drink, powerful but

inconstant workmen, quarrelsome and difficult to manage at

all times. They came in the season when work was plenty and

wages high. They dressed well, in their own peculiar

fashion, and made much of their freedom to come and go."


"They told of the city, and sinister and poisonous

jungles all cities seemed in their stories. They were

scarred with battles. They came from the far-away and

unknown, and passed on to the north, mysterious as the

flight of locusts, leaving the people of Sun Prairie quite

as ignorant of their real names and characters as upon the

first day of their coming."

		Hamlin Garland, Boy Life on the Prairie (1899)


1	INT. CHICAGO MILL - SERIES OF ANGLES

WORKERS in a dark Chicago mill pound molten iron

out in flaming sheets. The year is 1916.


2	EXT. MILL

BILL, a handsome young man from the slums, and

his brother

STEVE sit outside on their lunch break talking with an

older man named BLACKIE. By the look of his flashy clothes

Blackie is not a worker.


BLACKIE

Listen, if I ever seen a tit, this here's a tit.

You understand? Candy. My kid sister could do this one. Pure

fucking candy'd melt in your hand. Don't take brains. Just a

set of rocks. I told you this already.


STEVE

Blackie, you told me it was going to snow in the

winter, I'd go out and bet against it. You know?

(to Bill)

There is nothing, nothing in the world, dumber

than a dumb guinea.


BLACKIE

Okay, all right, fine. Why should I be doing

favors for a guy that isn't doing me any favors? I must be

losing my grip.

(pause)

I got to give it to you, though. Couple of guys

look like you just rolled in on a wagonload of chickens. You

ever get laid?


STEVE

Sure.


BLACKIE

Without a lot of talk, I mean? 'Cause I'm

beginning to understand these guys, go down the hotel, pick

something up for a couple of bucks. It's clean, and you know

what you're in for.


3	EXT. ALLEY

Sam the Collector's GANG swaggers around in the

alley behind a textile plant. ONE of them has filed his

teeth down to points and stuck diamonds in between them.



ANOTHER wears big suspenders.



Sam and Bill appear to know one another.


SAM

Hey, Billy, you made a mistake. You made

somebody mad. Nothing personal, okay? It's just gotta be

done. You made a mistake. Happens in the best of families.


BILL

I paid you everything I have. Search me. The

rest he gets next week.


SAM

Listen, what happens if I don't do this?

I gotta leave town?


BILL

I could do something, you know. You guys wanta

do something to me, I know who to tell about it. You guys

ought to think about that.


SAM

You maybe already did something. Maybe that's

why you're here, on account of you already done something.


BILL

I haven't done anything.


SAM

Then you're all right, Billy.


RAZOR TEETH

You got nothing to worry about.


SAM

Cut it out, Billy, all right? You know what can

happen to a guy that doesn't wanta do what people tell him?

You know. So don't give us a lot of trouble. You're liable

to get everybody all pissed off.



Sam, a busy man, checks his watch.


4	NEW ANGLE

Bill puts his hand on the ground. Sam drops a

keg of roofing nails on it and, his work done, leaves with

his gang. Bill sobs with pain.


5	EXT. LOT BEYOND MILL

Bill and Steve drag a safe by a rope through a

vacant lot beyond the mill. Blackie walks behind.


BLACKIE

You know what I'm doing with my end? Buy a boat.

Get that? I had a boat. I had a nice apartment, I had a

boat. Margie don't like that. We got to have a house. "I

can't afford no house," I said. She says, "Sell the boat." I

didn't want to sell my boat. I didn't want to buy the house.

I sell the boat, I buy the house. Nine years we had the

house, eight of them she's after me, we should get another

boat. I give up.


STEVE

Same as always, I do all the work, you gripe

about it.



Suddenly FOUR POLICEMEN surprise them from ambush. Bill lets

go of the rope and starts to run. Steve does not give up

immediately, however, and they shoot him down. Bill picks up

Steve's gun and fires back. Three of the Policemen go

chasing after Blackie, whom they soon bring to heel. The

FOURTH stays behind taking potshots at Bill while he attends

to Steve.


6	TIGHT ON STEVE

Steve, badly wounded, is about to die.


STEVE

Run. Get out of here.


BILL

(weeping)

I love you so much. Why didn't you run. Don't die.



Steve dies. Bullets kick up dust around him. He takes off

running. One of the bullets has caught him in the shoulder.


7	INT. SEWER

ABBY, a beautiful woman in her late twenties,

attends to Bill's wounds in a big vaulted sewer. Her sister



URSULA, a reckless girl of 14, stands watch.


BILL

(weeping)

They shot the shit out of him. My brother. I

couldn't believe what I was seeing.


ABBY

Hold still, or I can't do anything.


BILL

I love you, Abby. You're so good to me. Remember

how much fun we had, on the roof...



8	EXT. ROOF - MATTE SHOT

Bill and Abby flirt on the root of a tenement,

happily in love. The city stretches out behind them.



9	INT. BED - QUICK CUT

Abby lies shivering with fever.  Bill spoons hot

soup into her mouth. Ursula rolls paper flowers for extra

change.


BILL (o.s.)

(continuing)

... even when you were sick and I was in the mill.



10	INT. MILL - QUICK CUT (VARIOUS ANGLES OF OTHER WORKERS)

Bill works in the glow of a blast furnace. He

does not seem quite in place with the rest of the workers. A

pencil moustache lends a desired gentlemanliness to his

appearance. He looks fallen on hard times, without ever

having known any better--like Chaplin, an immigrant lost in

the heartless city, with dim hopes for a better way of life.


BILL (o.s.)

I won't let you go back in the mill. People die

in there. I'm a man, and I can look out for you.



11	EXT. SIDING OUTSIDE MILL

Along a railroad spur outside the mill, Abby and

Ursula glean bits of coal that have fallen from the tenders.


BILL (o.s.)

We're going west. Things gotta be better out

there.


12	EXT. TENEMENT

A POLICEMAN, looking for Bill, roughs Abby up

behind the tenement where they live. Suddenly Bill runs out

from a doorway and slams him over the head with a clay

pitcher full of water.


POLICEMAN

What'd you do?



Bill shrugs, then hits him again, knocking him

unconscious, when he reaches for a gun. Abby calls Ursula

and they take off running, Bill stopping only to collect

some of their laundry off a clothesline.


13	EXT. FREIGHT YARDS

They hop a freight train.


14	CREDITS (OVER EXISTING PHOTOS)

The CREDITS run over black and white photos of

the Chicago they are leaving behind. Pigs roam the gutters.

Street urchins smoke cigar butts under a stairway. A blind

man hawks stale bread. Dirty children play around a dripping

hydrant. Laundry hangs out to dry on tenement fire escapes.

Police look for a thief under a bridge. Irish gangs stare at

the camera, curious how they will look. The CREDITS end.


15	EXT. MOVING TRAIN

Abby and Bill sit atop a train racing through

the wheat country of the Texas Panhandle.


BILL

I like the sunshine.


ABBY

Everybody does.

They laugh. She is dressed in men's clothes, her hair tucked

up under a cap. They are sharing a bottle of wine.


BILL

I never wanted to fall in love with you.


ABBY

Nobody asked you to.

He draws her toward him. She pulls away.


BILL

What's the matter? A while ago you said I was

irresistible. I still am.


ABBY

That was then.

She pushes her nose up against his chest and

sniffs around.


BILL

You playing mousie again?


ABBY

I love how nice and hard your shoulders are. And

your hair is light. You're not a soft, greasy guy that puts

bay rum on every night.


BILL

I love it when you've been drinking.


ABBY

You're not greasy, Bill. You have any idea what

that means?


BILL

Kind of.

They share the boxcar with a crowd of other

HARVEST HANDS. Ursula is among them, also dressed like a

man. Bill gestures out at the landscape.


BILL

Look at all that space. Oweee! We should've done

this a long time ago. It's just us and the road now, Abby.


ABBY

We're all still together, though. That's all I

care about.


16	EXT. JERKWATER

The train slows down to take on water. The hands

jump off. Each carries his "bindle"-- a blanket and a few

personal effects wrapped in canvas. TOUGHS with ax handles

are on hand to greet them.

The harvesters speak a Babel of tongues, from German to

Uzbek to Swedish. Only English is rare. Some retain odd bits

of their national costumes, they are pathetic figures,

lonely and dignified and so far from home. Others, in split

shoes and sockless feet, are tramps. Most are honest

workers, though, here to escape the summer heat in the

factories of the East. They dress inappropriately for farm

work, in the latest fashions.


BILL

Elbow room! Oweee! Give me a chance and I'm

going to dance!

Bill struts around with a Napoleonic air, in a

white Panama hat and gaiters, taking in the vista. Under his

arm he carries a sword cane with a pearl handle. It pleases

him, in this small way, to set himself apart from the rest

of toiling humanity. He wants it known that he was born to

greater things.


17	NEW ANGLE

Bill comes upon a BIG MAN whose face is covered

with blood.


BILL

Good, very good. Where you from,  mister?


BIG MAN

Cleveland.


BILL

Like to see the other guy.

Bill helps him to his feet and dusts him off. A

TOUGH walks up.


TOUGH

You doing this shit?

(pause)

Then keep it moving.


BILL

Oh yeah? Who're you?

The Tough hits Bill across the head with his ax handle.


TOUGH

Name is Morrison.

Bill looks around to see whether Abby has seen this. She

hasn't. He walks dizzily off down the tracks.


18	NEW ANGLE

He takes Abby by the arm.


ABBY

What happened to your ear?


BILL

Nothing.

She is a sultry beauty--emancipated, full of bright hopes

and a zest for life. Her costume does not fool the men.

Wherever she goes they ogle her insolently.

EXT. WAGONS

The FOREMEN of the surrounding farms wait by their wagons to

carry the workers off. A flag pole is planted by each wagon.

Those who do not speak English negotiate their wages on a

blackboard.

BENSON, a leathery man of fifty, bellows through a

megaphone. In the background a NEWCOMER to the harvest talks

with a VETERAN.


BENSON

Shockers! Four more and I'm leaving.


BILL

How much you paying?


BENSON

Man can make three dollars a day, he wants to

work.


BILL

Who're you kidding?

Bill mills around. They have no choice but to accept his

offer.


BENSON

Sackers!

Abby steps up. Benson takes her for a young man.


BENSON

You ever sacked before?

She nods.

Transcriber's Note: the following seven lines of

dialogue between the NEWCOMER and the VETERAN runs

concurrent with the previous six lines of dialogue between

Benson and Bill and Abby. In the original script they are

typed in two columns running side-by-side down the page.

*****


NEWCOMER (o.s.)

How's the pussy up there?


VETERAN

Not good. Where you from?


NEWCOMER (o.s.)

Detroit.


VETERAN

How's the pussy up there?


NEWCOMER (o.s.)

Good.

(pause)

The guys tough out here?


VETERAN (o.s.)

Not so tough. How about up there?


NEWCOMER (o.s.)

Tough.

*****


BENSON

When's that?


ABBY

Last year.

He waves her on. Abby nods at Ursula.


ABBY

You're making a mistake, you pass this kid up.


BENSON

Get on.

He snaps his fingers at her. Bill climbs up ahead of the

women. Anger makes him extremely polite.


BILL

You don't need to say it like that.

Benson ignores this remark but dislikes Bill from the first.


20	EXT. PLAINS

Benson's wagons roll across the plains toward

the Razumihin, a "bonanza" or wheat ranch of spectacular

dimensions, its name spelled out in whitewashed rocks on the

side of a hill.


21	EXT. BONANZA GATES (NEAR SIGN)

The wagons pass under a large arch, set in the

middle of nowhere, like the gates to a vanished kingdom.

Goats peer down from on top.

Bill looks at Abby and raises his eyebrows.


22	EXT. BELVEDERE

At the center of the bonanza, amid a tawny sea

of grain, stands a gay Victorian house, three stories tall.

Where most farm houses stand more sensibly on low ground,

protected from the elements, "The Belvedere" occupies the

highest ridge around, commanding the view and esteem of all.

Filigrees of gingerbread adorn the eaves. Cottonwood

saplings, six feet high, have recently been planted in the

front. Peacocks fuss about the yard. There is a lawn swing

and a flagpole, used like a ship's mast for signaling

distant parts of the bonanza. A wind generator supplies

electric power.

A white picket fence surrounds the house, though its purpose

is unclear; where the prairie leaves off and the yard begins

is impossible to tell.

Bison drift over the hills like boats on the ocean. Bill

shouts at the nearest one.


BILL

Yo, Beevo!


23	TIGHT ON CHUCK

CHUCK ARTUNOV, the owner--a man of great reserve

and dignity, still a bachelor--stands on the front porch of

the Belvedere high above, observing the new arrivals.


24	EXT. DORMITORY

Benson drops the hands off at the dormitory, a

hundred yards below, a plain clapboard building with a

ceiling of exposed joists. Ursula sees Chuck watching them.


URSULA

Whose place is that?


BENSON

The owner's. Don't none of you go up around his

place. First one that does is fired. I'm warning you right

now.

In the warm July weather most of the hands

forsake the dorm to spread their bedrolls around a strawpile

or in the hayloft of the nearby barn.

Abby and Bill slip off to share a cigarette.

Ursula tags behind.


25	EXT. ROCK

Bill lifts a big rock. Abby applauds. Ursula

kneels down behind

him. Abby pushes him over backwards.


26	EXT. BARN

Ursula gasps as Abby tumbles off the roof of the

barn and falls through the air screaming:


ABBY

Urs!

She lands in a straw pile.


27	TIGHT ON ABBY AND BILL

Bill takes Abby by the hands, spins her around

until she is thoroughly dizzy, then grasps her across the

chest.


BILL

Ready?

She giggles her consent. He crushes her in a bear hug until

she is just on the verge of passing out, then lets her go.

She sinks to the grass, in a daze of sweet intoxication.


28	EXT. LANTERN - NIGHT

Bill looks deeply into Abby's eyes by the light

of a lantern that night. They have made a shallow cut on

their thumbs and press them together mixing their blood like

children.


BILL

You're all I've got, Abby. No, really,

everything I ever had is a complete piece of garbage except

you.


ABBY

I know.

They laugh. He bends to kiss her. She pulls away.


BILL

Sometimes I think you don't like men.


ABBY

As individuals? Very seldom.

She kisses him lovingly.


29	EXT. WHEAT FIELDS - DAWN

The sun peers over the horizon. The wheat makes

a sound like a waterfall. It stretches for as far as the eye

can see. A PREACHER has come out, in a cassock and surplice,

to offer prayers of thanksgiving.


PREACHER

"... that your days may be multiplied, and the

days of your children, in the land which the Lord swore unto

your fathers to give them, as the days of' heaven upon the

earth."

The harvesters spit and rub their hands as they wait for the

dew to burn off. They have slept in their coats. The dawn

has a raw edge, even in summer.


30	TIGHT ON WHEAT

Chuck looks to see if the wheat is ready to

harvest. He shakes the heads; they make a sound like paper.

He snaps off a handful, rolls them between his palms, blows

away the chaff and pinches the kernels that remain to make

sure they have grown properly hard.

Tiny sounds are magnified in the early morning stillness:

grasshoppers snapping through the air, a cough, a distant

hawk.

He pops the kernels into his mouth, chews them up, and rolls

the wad around in his mouth. Satisfied, he spits it out and

gives a nod. The Preacher begins a prayer of thanksgiving.

Two ACOLYTES flank him, one with a smoking censer, the other

with a crucifix.

All repeat the "Amen." Benson makes a tugging signal with

his arm. A Case tractor--forty tons of iron, steam-driven,

as big and as powerful as a locomotive--blasts its whistle.

This is the moment they have been waiting all year for.


31	OTHER FIELDS - SERIES OF ANGLES

A SIGNALMAN with two hand flags passes the

message on from the crest of a nearby hill. In the far-flung

fields of the bonanza other tractors answer as other crews

set to work.

Abby and Bill join in, Bill reaping the wheat with a mowing

machine called a binder, Abby propping the bound sheaves

together to make bunches or "shocks."

A cloud of chaff rises over the field, melting the sun down

to a cold red bulb.

Abby is well turned out, in a boater and string tie, as

though she were planning any moment to leave for a picnic.

Bill, too, dresses with an eye to flashy fashion: Tight dark

trousers, a silk handkerchief stuck in the back pocket with

a copy of the Police Gazette, low-top calfskin boots with

high heels and pointed toes, a shirt with ruffled cuffs, and

a big signet ring. While at work he wears a white smock over

all this to keep the chaff off. It gives him the air more of

a researcher than a worker.

The harvesters itch madly as the chaff gets into their

clothes. The shocks, full of briars, cut their hands; smut

and rust make the cuts sting like fire. Nobody talks. From

time to time they raise a chant.

Ursula, plucking chickens by the cookhouse--a shack on

wheels-- steals a key chain from an unwatched coat.

Benson follows the reapers around the field in a buggy. He

keeps their hours, chides loafers, checks the horses, etc.

The harvesters are city people. Few of them are trained to

farming. Most--Abby and Bill are no exception--have contempt

for it and anybody dull enough to practice it. Tight control

is therefore exercised to see that the machines are not

damaged.

Where the others loaf whenever Benson's back is turned, Bill

works like a demon, as a point of pride.


32	CHUCK AND BENSON

Lightning shivers through the clouds along the

horizon. Chuck looks concerned. Benson consults a windsock.


BENSON

Should miss us.


CHUCK

They must be having trouble over there, though.

Abby, passing by, lifts her hat to wipe her face. As she

does her hair falls out of the crown. Women are rare in the

harvest fields. One so beautiful is unprecedented.


CHUCK

I didn't know we had any women on.


BENSON

(surprised)

I thought she was a boy. Should I get rid of

her?


CHUCK

No.


33	MONTAGE

A COOK stands on the horizon waving a white flag

at the end of a fishing pole. Ursula bounds through the

wheat blowing a horn.

Benson consults the large clock strapped to the back of his

buggy, then fires a smoke pistol in the air.

Their faces black with chaff, the hands fall out in silence.

They shuffle across the field toward the cookhouse, keeping

their feet close to the ground to avoid being spiked by the

stubble.


34	EXT. COOKHOUSE - STUBBLE FIELD IN B.G.

The COOKS, Orientals in homburgs, serve from

planks thrown across sawhorses. The hands cuff and push each

other around as they wash up. The water, brought up fresh in

wagons from the wells, makes them gasp. An ice wagon and a

fire truck are parked nearby.

Most sit on the ground to eat, under awnings or beach

umbrellas dotted around the field like toadstools. The

Belvedere is visible miles away on the horizon.

Bill is carrying Abby's lunch to her when a loutish DUTCH

MAN makes a crack.


DUTCHMAN

Your sister keep you warm at night?

Bill throws a plate of stew at him and they are quickly in a

fight. No fists are used, just food. The others pull them

apart. Bill storms away, flicking mashed potatoes off his

shirt.


35	EXT. GRAIN WAGON - STUBBLE FIELD IN B.G.

Bill and Abby sit by themselves in the shade of

a grain wagon. Demoralized, Abby soaks her hands in a pail

of bran water. Bill inspects them anxiously. They are

swollen and cracked from the morning's work.


ABBY

I ran a stubble under my nail.


BILL

Didn't you ever learn how to take care of

yourself? I told you to keep the gloves on. What can I do if

you don't listen?

Bill presses her wrists against his cheek, ashamed that he

can do nothing to shield her from such indignities. In the

b.g. a MAN with a fungo bat hits flies to SOME MEN with

baseball gloves.


BILL

You can't keep on like this.


ABBY

What else can we do?

She nods at the others.


ABBY

Anyway, if they can, I can too.


BILL

That bunch? Don't compare yourself to them.

She flexes her fingers. They seem lame.


BILL

You drop off this weak. I can make enough for us

both. It was a crime to bring you out here. Somebody like

you.

(pause)

Right now, what I'm doing, I'm just dragging you

down.

(pause)

Maybe you should go back to Chicago. We've got

enough for a ticket, and I can send you what I make.

He seems a little surprised when she does not reject this

idea out of hand. Perhaps he fears that if she ever did go

back, he might never see her again.


BILL

What's the matter?

She begins to cry. He takes her in his arms.


BILL

I know how you feel, honey. Things won't always

be this way. I promise.


36	ABBY AND BILL - CHUCK'S POV

The men knock out their pipes as Benson's

whistle summons them back to their stations.


BENSON

Tick tockl Tick tock! Nothing moving but the

clock!

Bill pulls Abby to her feet. He sees the Dutchman he fought

with and shoots him the finger.


ABBY

You better be careful.


BILL

Of him? He's just a. sack of shit.


ABBY

Stop it! He's liable to see you.


BILL

I want him to. He's the one better be careful.


37	TIGHT ON CHUCK

Chuck looks on. Something about her captivates

hint, not so much her beauty--which only makes her seem

beyond his reach--as the way she takes it utterly for

granted.


38	MONTAGE (DISSOLVES)

The work goes on through the afternoon. The pace

is stern and incessant, and for a reason: a storm could rise

at any moment and sweep the crops flat, or a dry wind

shrivel them up. A series of dissolves gives the sense of

many days passing.

Iany moment and sweep the crops flat, or a dry wind shrivel

them up.Animals--snakes and gophers, rabbits and foxes--dart

through the field into the deep of the wheat, not realizing

their sanctuary is growing ever smaller as the reapers make

their rounds. The moment will come when they will every one

be killed with rakes and flails.

The wheat changes colors in the wind, like velvet. As the

sun drops toward the horizon a dew sets, making the straw

hard to cut. Benson fires his pistol. A vine of smoke sinks

lazily through the sky. As the workers move off, the fields

grow vast and inhospitable.

Oil wells can be seen here and there amid the grain.


39	EXT. ABBY'S ROW

Bill helps Abby finish up a row. Thousands of

shocks stretch out in the distance. Benson comes up behind

her, making a spray of the stalks that she missed.


BENSON

You must've passed over a dozen bushels here.

I'm docking you three dollars.


BILL

What're you talking about? That's not fair.


BENSON

Then leave. You're fired.

Abby is speechless. Bill squeezes the small rubber ball

which he carries around to improve his grip and swallows his

pride.


BILL


BILL

Wait a minute.


BENSON

You want to stay?

(pause)

Then shut up and get back to work.

Benson leaves. Abby covers Bill's embarrassment.


BILL

I guess he meant it.

She turns her back to him and goes about picking up the

sheaf Benson threw down.


BILL

He did. Ask him. If you can't sing or dance,

what do you do in this world? You might as well forget it.

Ising or dance, what do you do this world? You might as

wellu

rorget it.


40	EXT. STOCK POND - DUSK

Their day's work done, the men swim naked in a

stock pond.

Their faces are black, their bodies white as a baby's.

A retriever plunges through the water fetching sticks.


41	EXT. ROAD - DUSK

Some bowl with their hats on in a dusty road and

argue in Italian.


42	EXT. BELVEDERE - DOCTOR'S WAGON - DUSK

A physician's wagon stands in front of the

Belvedere.

Bill hunts nervously through it for medicine to soothe

Abby's

hands. Not knowing quite what to look for, he sniffs

whatever

catches his eye.

Suddenly the front door opens and Chuck steps out with a

DOCTOR, a stooped old man in a black frock coat. Bill,

surprised, crouches behind the wheel. As they draw closer

their conversation becomes faintly audible.


CHUCK (o.s.)

How long you give it?

DOCTOR (o.s.)

Could be next month. Could be a year. Hard to say. Anyway,

I'm sorry.


CHUCK (o.s.)

Got to happen sometime.

They shake hands


43	NEW ANGLE - DUSKI

The Doctor snaps his whip at the horses. Bill

grabs holdI

The Doctor snaps his whip at the horses. Bill grabs hold of

the back of the wagon and lets it drag him away from the

Belvedere.the Belvedere. -


44	EXT. BARN - DUSK

Ursula and Abby case the barn for dinner. Abby

points at a pair of peacocks strutting by, nods to Ursula

and puts a finger over her lips. Ursula, with a giggle,

followsone while Abby stalks the other.


45	EXT. RAPESEED FIELD - SERIES OF ANGLES -

DUSK

The peacock, a resplendent white, leads Abby

through a bright yellow rapeseed field. It keeps just out of

reach, as though it were enticing her on.

as though it were enticing her on.'U

All at once she looks up with a start. Chuck is standing in

front of her,

dressed in his habitual black. The Belvedere rises behind

him like a

castle in a fairy tale. She remembers Benson's warning that

this is forbidden ground.


ABBY

(afraid)

I forgot where I was.


CHUCK

Don't worry. Where you from?


ABBY

Chicago.


CHUCK

We hardly ever see a woman on the harvest.

There is a small rip in the side of her shirt, which the

camera observes with Chuck. She pulls her sweater over it.


CHUCK

You like the work?

(she shrugs)

Where do you go from here?


ABBY

Wyoming and places. I've never been up that way.

You think I'll like it?

He shrugs. Shy at first, she begins to open up.


ABBY

That dog belongs to you that was running around

here? That little pointer?

(he nods)

What's his name


CHUCK

Buster.


ABBY

He seems like a good dog.


CHUCK

I think so.


ABBY

He came over and tried to eat my bread from

lunch.


CHUCK

Maybe I should keep him penned up.


ABBY

(smiling)

You asking me?


46	EXT. SPIT - DUSK

Bill finds Ursula roasting a peacock on a spit.

She has arranged some of its tail feathers in her hair.


BILL

You're getting prettier every day.


URSULA

Aren't you sweet!


BILL

Depends how people are with me. Where's Abby? I

found her something.

He holds out a jar of salve. Ursula shrugs.


BILL

She mention anything to you about going back?

(pause)

What?

Ursula has no idea what he is talking about.


47	EXT. STRAW STACK - MAGIC HOURMost of the

workers are fast asleep around the strawp眑U

Most of the workers are fast asleep around the

strawpile, their bodies radiating out like the spokes of a

wheel.  A few stay up late to shoot dice in the back of a

wagon.


48	EXT. SEPARATE STACK - MAGIC HOUR

Abby and Bill have laid their bedrolls out by a

stack away from the others. A fire burns  nearby. Abby look

at the stars. Bill shines his shoes. The straw is fragrant

as thyme.


ABBY

I've had it.


BILL

You're tired, that's all. I'm going to find you

another blanket.


ABBY

No, it's not that. I'm not tired. I just can't.


BILL

Don't you want to be with me?


ABBY

You know I do. It's just that, well, I'm not a

bum, Bill.


BILL

I know. I told you though, this is only for a

while. Then we're going to New York.Then we're New York.


ABBY

And after that?


BILL

Then we're there. Then we get fixed up.


ABBY

You mean spend one night in a flophouse and

start looking for work.

They are silent for a moment.


BILL

You should go back.


ABBY

And leave you? I couldn't do that.

(pause)

Someday, when I'm dying, I'd like somebody to

ask me if I

still see life the same way as before--and I'd like them to

write down what I say. It might be interesting.I

Suddenly they look around. The chief domestic at the

Belvedere, a churlish lady named MISS CARTER, stands above

them with a salver of fruit and roast fowl.


BILL

(suspicious)

What's going on? Who sent it?

She nods up toward the Belvedere and sets it down.I


BILL

What for?

She withdraws with a shrug. She does not appear to relish

this duty. Bill watches her walk back to the buggy she

came down in. Benson waits beside it.U


BILL

(to Abby)

She's the kind wouldn't tell you if your coat

was on fire.U


49	NEW ANGLE - MAGIC HOURI

Abby, with the look of a child that has wandered

into aI

magic world, digs in. Bill looks on, suspicious of the_

motives behind this generosity.


50	EXT. FIELD WITH OIL WELL - URSULA'S THEME

- MAGIC HOUR

A bank of clouds moves across the moon. Ursula

roams the fields, keen with unsatisfied intelligence. The

stubble hisses as a hot wind blows up from the South,

driving bits of grain into her face like sleet. From time to

time she does a cartwheel.

Equipment cools in the fields. Little jets of steam escape

the

boilers of the tractors.Ursula stops in front of a donkey

well. It nods up and down in ceaseless agreement, pumping up

riches from deep

in the earth.


51	EXT. BEDROOM WINDOW  -  MAGIC HOUR

The camera moves through the bedroom window to

find Chuck

asleep on his pillow. The wind taps the curtain into the

room.


52	EXT. FATHER IN CHAIR - QUICK CUT

Chuck dreams of a Biblical figure with a long

plaited room.U52EXT.  Chuck dreams of a Biblical figure with

a long plaited

beard, in a frock coat and Astrakhan hat, sitting in a_

chair on the open prairie, guarding his land with a brace

of guns. This man will later be identified as his FATHER.


53	EXT. FIELDS - DAY

The next day Benson yells through a megaphone

from atop a stool.


BENSON

Hold your horses!I

The huge tractors start up with a bang. Despite Benson's

warning a team of Percherons breaks free. Threshing, the

separating of the wheat from the chaff, has begun.


54	EXT. SEPARATOR - SERIES OF ANGLESI

Sixty foot belts connect the tractors to the

separating machines, huge rattletrap devices that shell the

wheat out at deafening volume. Benson tosses bundles down

the hissing maw, squirts oil into the gears, tightens belts,

chews out a MAN who's sliced a hand on the driveshaft, etc.

Bill works on the straw pile at the back of the machine, in

a soft rain of chaff, spreading it out with a pitchfork.

Ursula helps stoke the tractor with coal and water. When

nothing is required of her she sneaks off to burrow in the

straw.

Gingerbread on the eaves of the tractors gives them a

Victorian appearance. Tall flags mark their position in the

field.

Abby moves quickly, without a moment's rest, sewing up the

sacks of grain as they are measured out at the bottom of

the separator. A clowning WORKER comes up and smells herU

like a flower.


55	EXT. GRAIN ELEVATORSU

Fully laden wagons set off toward distant grain

elevators.U


56	EXT. COUCH ON RIDGE

Chuck and McLEAN, his accountant, sit on a ridge

away from the chaff, in the shade of a beach umbrella.

Chuck keeps track of operations through a telescope. Our

last view of Abby, we realize, was from his POV. A plush

Empire couch has been drawn up for his to rest in. At a

table beside it, McLean computes the yield.


McLEAN

This must be wrong. No, dammit, nineteen bushels

an acre.

Chuck sails his hat out in the stubble with a whoop.

McLean leans over his adding machine, cackling like a thief.


McLEAN

Say it goes at fifty-five cents a bushel, that

means a profit of

four dollars and seventy-five cents per acre. Multiply by

twenty

thousand and you're talking over six figures.I


CHUCK

Big year.


McLEAN

Your biggest ever. This could make you the

richest man in thePanhandle.

(pause)

You ought to get out while you're this far

ahead. You'll never do

better. I mean it. You have nothing to gain by staying.U

nothing to gain by staying. I


CHUCK

I want to expand. I want to run this land clear

to the Oklahoma border. Next spring I will.


McLEAN

And gamble everything?U

(he nods)I

You're crazy.


CHUCK

I been out here all my life. Selling this place

would be like

cutting my heart out. This is the only home I ever had.

ThisI

is where I belong.  Besides, I don't want to live in town.

I couldn't take my dogs.I


57	CHUCK'S POV - TELESCOPE MATTE

Chuck takes another look at Abby through the

telescope.

25


58	EXT. BUGGY

Bill drinks from the water barrel at the back of

Benson'sU

buggy, his eyes fixed on Chuck's distan


BILL

Big place here.


BENSON

The President's going to pay a visit next time

he comes West.U


BILL

Got a smoke?


BENSON

No.I

Bill puts his hat back on. He keeps wet cottonwood leaves in

the crown to cool himself off.


BILL

Why's that guy dragging an expensive piece of

furniture out here? Reason

I ask is he's going to ruin thefinish and have to strip it.I

Benson hesitates, uncertain whether he might be divulging

a confidence.


BENSON

He's not well.


BILL

What's the matter with him?I

Benson immediately regrets having spoken so freely. He

checks his watch to suggest Bill should get back to work.

This uneasiness confirms Bill's sense that Chuck is gravely

ill.


59	EXT. SEPARATOR - DUSKI

Abby is sewing up her last sacks by the

separator that evening when Chuck walks up, still in the

flush of McLean's good news.

The others have finished and left to wash up. He sits down

and helps her. Shy and upright, he does not know quite how

to behave with a woman.


CHUCK

Probably be all done tomorrow.

(pause)

You still plan on going North?

She nods and draws her last stitch. Chuck musters his

courage. It must be now or never.


CHUCK

Reason I ask is maybe you'd like to stay on. Be

easier than now. There's hardly any work after harvest. The

pay is just as good, though. Better in fact.


ABBY

Why're you offering me this?  My honest face?

Chuck takes a moment to compose his reply.


CHUCK

I've watched you work. Think about it.


ABBY

Maybe I will.

She backs off toward Bill, who is waiting in the distance.


CHUCK

Who's that?


ABBY

(hesitant)

My brother.

Chuck nods.


60	NEW ANGLE - DUSK

She joins Bill. He gives her a melon, wanting to

pick up her spirits.


BILL

This is all I could find. You feeling better?

(she shrugs)

What'd he want?

They look at each other.


61	EXT. RIVER - DUSK

As Bill and Abby bathe in the river that

evening, he tells her what he seems to have learned about

Chuck's state of health. Down the way Ursula sits under a

tree playing a guitar. Otherwise they are alone. They all

wear bathing suits, Bill a shirt as well.


BILLU

It must be something wrong with his lungs.

(pause)

He doesn't have any family, either.his lungs.I

(pause)I


ABBY

So what?

Bill shrugs. Does he have to draw her a picture? A shy,

virginal light has descended over the world. Cranes peer at

them from the tamarack.


BILL

Tell him you'll stay.


ABBY

What for?

Bill is wondering what might happen if Chuck got interested

enough to marry her. Isn't he soon to die, leaving a vast

inheritance that will otherwise go to waste?


BILL

You know I love you, don't  you?

ABBY Yes.

Abby guesses what is going through his mind, and it shocks

her.


ABBY

Oh, Bill!

He takes her into his arms, full of emotion.I


BILL

What else can we really do?  I know how you

feel, but we keepon this way, in five years we'll be washed

up.

He catches a stick drifting by and throws it further down

stream.


BILL

You ever think about all those ladies parading

up and downU

Michigan Avenue? Bunch of whores! You're better than anyI

of them. You ever think how they got where they are?

He wants to breathe hope into her. He thinks of himself as

responding

to what she needs and secretly wants. When she does not

answer he gives up with a sigh.


BILL

Let's forget it.


ABBY

I know what you mean, though.

He takes her hand, with fresh hope of convincing her.


BILL

We weren't meant to end up like this. At least

you weren't.

You could be something. I've heard you sing. You have a lot

of fine qualities that need to come out. Ursula, too. What.U

kind of people is she meeting

up with, riding the rods? The girl's never had a clean

shot--

never will. She oughta be in school.


ABBY

(nodding)

You wouldn't say this if you really loved me.


BILL

But I do. You know I do. This just shows how

much. We're shitI

out of luck, Abby. People need luck. What're you crying

about? Oh,

don't tell me. I already know. All on account of your

unhappy life and all

that stuff. Well, we gotta do something about it, honey. We

can't expect

anybody else to.

Abby runs into the woods.U


BILL

Always the lady! Well, you don't know how things

work in this country. This is why every hunkie I ever met is

going nowhere.

(pause)

Why do you want to make me feel worse than I

already do?


BILL (CONT'D)

(pause)

You people get hold of the guy that's passing

out dough, giveI

him my name, would you? I'd appreciate it.


62	TIGHT ON BILL

Bill skims rocks off the water to calm himself

down. HeI

feels that somehow he did not get to say what he wanted to.U


63	EXT. WOODS BY RIVER

Abby is dressing in the cool woven shade of the

woods when

Ursula, her face caked with a mask of river mud, jumps from

the bushes with a shriek, scaring the wits out of her

sister.


64	EXT. BELVEDERE - DUSKU

On their way home they pass the Belvedere. A

single light

burns on the second floor. Abby picks cornflowers to put

in her hair. Bill runs his hand down her back.


ABBY

Why're you touching me that way?

He shrugs. Muffled by the walls of the house, above the

cries of the peafowl, they can faintly hear Chuck singing to

himself.


BILL

He's singing.


ABBY

He can't be too sick if he's singing to himself.


BILL

He might be singing to God.

They look at each other and smile. It does not appear that

she has held what he said by the river against him. Bill

stands for a moment and looks up at the Belvedere before

passing on.


65	EXT. SEPARATOR, LAST SHEAVES, RATS

Work goes on the next day. As they near the last

sheaves of unthreshed grain, hundreds of rats burst out of

hiding. The harvesters go after them with shovels and

stones. The dogs chase down the ones that escape.


66	BENSON AND CHUCK

Benson and Chuck smile at each other.


BENSON

We should be done around four.

They improvise a chat about past harvests. Years of  shared

hardship have drawn them close. Chuck trails off in the

middle of a reminiscence. Something else weighing on his

mind.


CHUCK

(shyly)

You put her on the slowest machine?

Benson nods.U


67	NEW ANGLE

The threshing is done. A bundle is pitched into

the separator backwards, snapping it abruptly to a stop. The

drive belt whips along the ground like a mad snake.


68	EXT. PAYROLL TABLEI

All hands line up at the payroll table. McLean

gives out their wages in twists of newspaper. Chuck and

Benson shake their hands.


69	TIGHT ON BILL AND SORROWFUL MAN

A SORROWFUL MAN shows Bill a picture of a woman.


SORROWFUL MAN

And I let somebody like that get away from me.

Redhead. Lost her to a guy named Ed. Just let it happen.

Should've gone out there outside the city

limits and shot him. I just about did, too.

(pause)

If you're knocking yourself out like this, I

hope it's for a woman. And I hope she's good looking. You

understand?


70	TIGHT ON ABBY AND URSULAI

Abby snatches a cigarette out of Ursula's mouth,

takes a drag and throws it away. When Ursula goes to pick it

up, she stamps it out.


ABBY

Don't spend a cent of that.


URSULA

Why don't you leave me alone?U


ABBY

I'm not going to sit around and watch you throw

your life away.

Nobody's going to look at you twice if you've got nothing to

your name.

Ursula dislikes meddlesome adults. She takes out a pouch  of

tobacco to roll another cigarette. Abby swats it out of her

hand and chases her off.


ABBY

You want me to cut a switch?


71	SERIES OF ANGLES - FESTIVITIES - DUSKU

There are feats of strength and prowess as

workers from the many fields of the bonanza join to

celebrate the harvest home: boxing, wrestling, barrel

jumping, rooster bouts, bear hugs, "Crack the Whip" and nut

fights. Two tractors, joined by a heavy chain, vie to see

which can outpull the other. Chuck lifts the back wheel of

the separator off the ground; Benson replies by holding an

anvil at arm's length; they tease each other about showing

off. A GYMNAST does flips. They all seem happy as kids on

holiday.


72	NEW ANGLE

Bill and Ursula share a cigarette. Ursula tries

on his sunglasses.


URSULA

We going to stay?


BILL

If she wants to.


URSULA

You'd rather go?_

Bill, after a moment's thought, shrugs.


BILL

She's the one has to say. You put aspirin in

this?


URSULA

No.

She hands back his sunglasses.


BILL

Keep them.


73	EXT. MUD PIT - DUSK

Two TEAMS of harvesters have a tug of war. The

losers are dragged through a pit of mud. Cradling handfuls

of slime, they chase the winners off into the dusk.


74	BILL AND ABBY - DUSKI

Bill finds Abby sitting off by herself, wanting

no part of the festivities. This is the first time since

their arrival in Texas we have seen her wearing a dress.


BILL

Sunny Jim, look at this. My first ice cream in

six months. And the lady even asks do I want sprinkles on

top, thank you. Big, deep dish of ice cream. You couldn't

pay me to leave this place, Got you one, too. You should've

heard the line I had to give her, though. Oowee!


ABBY

Good, huh?


BILL

Great.


ABBY

Now you're trying to coax me. You never used to

act like this.

Bill throws down the bowls of ice cream. In the distance,

some MEN compete at throwing a sledge hammer.


BILL

For as long as I can remember, people been

giving me a hard time about one thing or another. Don't you

start in, too!


ABBY

You want to turn me into a whore?


BILL

We don't have to decide anything final now. Just

if we're going to

stay. You never have to touch him if you don't feel like it.

Minute

you get fed up, we take off. Worst that can happen is we had

it soft

for a while.


ABBY

Something's made you mean.

She walks off, uncertain what Bill really wants.


BILL

Or else we can forget it. I'm not going to spend

the whole

afternoon on this, though. That I'm not going to do.


75	ISOLATED ON CHUCK

Chuck watches from a distance, fearful that

tonight may

be the last he will ever see of her.U


76	TGHT ON ABBY, EFFIGY, MARS, ETC.I

The harvesters shape and dress the final sheaf

as a woman.

The LAST of them to finish that day carries the effigy at

the end of the pole to the Belvedere. His mates follow

behind, jeering and throwing dirt clods at him.U

Aby watches. We sense that anything she sees mightI

figure in her decision.U

Mars hangs low and red in the western sky._


77	URSULA AND DRUNK

Ursula is looking at her figure in a pocket

mirror whenU

a DRUNK appears behind her.I


DRUNK

See what happens to you? Little shit. Get out

there and make that

big money and don't spend time dicking around.


78	EXT. PIT OF COALS - DUSKU

A feast is laid on. ONE PERSON rolls a flaming

wheel down a hill. ANOTHER sets off a string of

firecrackers. GERMANS pelt each other with spareribs. Ursula

spears hogsheads out of a pit of hot coals. The YOUNGER MEN

tease her. She is too much of a tomboy to interest any of

thm seriously. The effigy sits off in a chair by itself.?

1


79	TIGHT ON ABBY AND CHUCK - DUSKChuck awaits

Abby's answer.I


ABBY

There's a problem. I have to keep my baby sister

with me. Someday_ my baby sister with me. Someday

I'm going to save up enough, see, and send her to school.

(pause)

My brother, too. I can't leave him.I

Abby fears she has asked too much. Chuck hesitates, but only

to suggest he still has the prudence he long since has

abandoned.


CHUCK

There's work for them, too.


ABBY

Really?


80	EXT. BONFIRE - DUSK.

A bonfire burns like a huge eye in the vat of

the prairie night. The band strikes up a reel.

Chuck and Abby lead the dancing off, as though to celebrate

their agreement. Their giant shadows dance with them. Soon

the other harvesters join in.


81	TIGHT ON BILL - DUSKU

Bill watches Abby dance--it almost seems in

farewell to their innocence. After a moment he turns off

into the night.I


82	MONTAGE - NIGHT_

The effigy is held over the flame at the end of

a pole until it catches fire. The harvesters prance around

in the dark, trading it from hand to hand.

The MUSICIANS, drunk and happy, bow their hearts out.


83	TIGHT ON BILL - DAWN

While the others pursue their merriment, Bill

walks the fields by himself, trembling with grief and

indecision. Dawn is breaking. The eastern sky glows like a

forge. Suddenly he comes upon a wolf. He catches his breath.

The wolf stares back at him for a moment, then turns and

pads off into the stubble.


84	EXT. RAILROAD TRACKS - DAWNEEXT. RAILROAD

TRACKS - DAWNU

Early the next morning the HARVESTERS wander by

the hundreds down to the railroad tracks to catch a train

for the North, where the crops are just now coming into

maturity. A subtle feeling of sadness pervades the group.

Bill gives his sword cane away to a MAN who seems to have

admired it. The MAN offers him money, but he declines it.


85	EXT. TRAIN - URSULA AND JOHN - LATER

Ursula says goodbye to her favorite, a redhead

named JOHN. She is hoarse, as always.


JOHN

Why don't you come with us?


URSULA

They won't let me. So when am I going to see you

again?


JOHN

Maybe in Cheyenne.

She nods okay. They both know they will never see each other

again. On a sudden impulse she gives him a love note.


JOHN

What's this?

She takes it back immediately, but he snatches it away from

her and, after a brief, giggling scuffle, hops aboard the

train, now picking up speed. Ursula runs along behind,

cursing and throwing rocks at him.


86	TIGHT ON BILL AND ABBY

Bill and Abby look on.


BILL

I told her, "none of my business Urs, I just

hope you're not rolling

around with some redhead is all." She looks me over. "Why?"

she says,

"What've you guys got that redheads don't?" I pity that kid.

Ursula runs up and throws herself tearfully into Abby's

arms.


BILL

What's the matter? What'd he do?

Bill starts off after the train.


87	EXT.-"SHEEP POWER"

Abby tends a washing machine driven by a sheep

on a treadmill. Chuck

watches from the front steps of the Belvedere.


ABBY

I'm just about done with this.


CHUCK

Good.


ABBY

So what's next?


CHUCK

Next?


ABBY

There's nothing else you want done?


CHUCK

Not that I can think of. Not right now.

Miss Carter, the housekeeper, steps out on the porch and

pours a bucket of milk into a cream separator.


ABBY

How about the cream?


CHUCK

She takes care of that.

He nods at Miss Carter, who conspicuously lets the screen

door clap shut as she goes back inside. She misses no

opportunity to express her disdain for these newcomers.

She and Benson are the only employees seen at the Belvedere.

Several dozen others have stayed on after the harvest but

they keep to their quarters down at the dorm.


ABBY

You mean I'm done for today?


CHUCK

(uncomfortably)

Something else might come up.

In truth, Chuck does not want to see Abby degraded by menial

labor, considering her more a guest than an employee. They

look at each other. Abby does not know quite what to make of

him


ABBY

Well, I'm going back to the dorm.


CHUCKU

Is everything okay down there? In the way of

accommodations, I mean.U

She nods and waves goodbye.I


88	EXT. BARN

Down by the barn Bill teaches Chuck how to shoot

dice.  Chuck feigns interest.


BILL

I like to gamble, and I like to win. I make no

bones about it.

Got to where the guys on Throop Street wouldn't even lag

pennies

with me on account of I was such a winner. I'm starting out

level

with you, you understand.


CHUCK

Have you ever been in trouble with the law?

Bill looks around. Abby would think it impolitic of him to

speak so openly with Chuck.


BILLI

Nothing they could make stick.

My problem has always been not having the education. I

bullshitted

my way into school. They gave me a test. It was ridiculous.

I got in fights. Ended up paying for a window. They threw me

out. Don't blame them either. Still, I wanted to make

something of myself. I mean, guys look at

you across a desk, you know what they're thinking. So I went

in

the mill. Couldn't wait to get in there. Begin at seven, got

to have a smile on your face. Didn't work out, though. No

matter what you do, sometimes

things just don't go right. It gets to you after a while. It

gives you that feeling,  "Oh hell, what's the use?"

(pause)

My dad told me, forget what the people around

you are doing. You got enough to worry about without

considering what somebody else does. Otherwise you get

fouled up. He used to say (tapping his temple)

"All you got is this." Only one day you wake up, find you're

not the smartest guy in the world, never going to come up

with the big score. I really believed when I was growing up

that somehow I would. I worked like a bastard in that mill.

I felt all right about it, though. I felt that somewhere

along the line somebody would see I had that special gleam.

"Hey, you, come over here." So then I'd go.

They are silent for a moment.


CHUCKI

You seem close to your sister._


BILL

Yeah. We've been together since we were kids.

You like her, don't you?

(pause)

She likes you, too.

Chuck looks down, feeling transparent in the pleasure he

takes at this news.


89	TIGHT ON ABBY

The camera moves back to reveal Abby listening

in from the other side of the barn. Her eyes are full of

tears. How can Bill prize her so lightly?


BILL (o.s.)

Don't get the wrong idea, though.


90	ISOLATED ON BILL - LATERI

Bill sits on the ground reading his Police

Gazette. Abby walks up and without a word of explanation,

slaps him. He jumps up and protests but quickly tapers off.

She turns on her heel and leaves.U

Bill sits down feeling misunderstood and abused. Does she

think all this pleases him?

1


91	EXT. FAIRY RINGS (PRAIRIE)

Chuck, out for a stroll with Abby and Ursula,

shows them a fairy ring--a colony of mushrooms growing in a

circle thirty feet across.


URSULA

I heard you farmers were big and dumb. You

aren't so big. Where do they learn how to?


ABBY

They're so darling! Can you eat them?

Chuck nods. Abby snaps the mushrooms off flush at the

ground. The music underscores this moment. She smiles at

Chuck as she eats the dark earthy flesh.


92	EXT. POST

They pitch rocks at a post and exchange

intimacies. Abby has grown more lively.


ABBY

You know sometimes I think there might have been

a mixup at the

hospital where I. was born and that I could actually be the

interesting

daughter of some big financier. Nobody would actually know.I

(pause)

Are you in love with me, Chuck, or why are you

always so nervous?


CHUCK

(Stumbling)

Maybe I am. I must be.


ABBY

Why? On account of something I've done?


CHUCK

Because you're so beautiful.


ABBY

What a nice thing to say. Look, I hit it. Did

you see?

She goes right on with their game, as though she attached no

great importance to his momentous declaration.


93	TIGHT ON CHUCK AND ABBY - LATERI

Chuck takes Abby's hand for the first time.

Abby, startled, gives him a gentle smile, then lets go.


ABBY

What about my shoes? Aren't they pretty?U94EXT.

SWING


94	EXT. SWING

Bill sits in a swing and plays a clarinet. The

music flows out across the fields like a night breeze from

the city.  Abby, passing by, glowers at him, as though to

ask if things are going along to his satisfaction.


95	ASTRONOMICAL SIGHTS (STOCK)

Jupiter, the Crab Nebula, the canals of Mars,

etc.


CHUCK (o.s.)

It turns out that people might have built them.

Does that surprise you?


ABBY (o.s.)U

No.


96	EXT. RIDGE - DAWN

They are on a ridge opposite the Belvedere

looking at the heavens through Chuck's telescope. Abby

tingles with a sense of wonder. Chuck has opened a whole new

world to her.


ABBY

You know so much! Would you bring my sister up

here and tell

her some of this stuff?


97	EXT. FATHER'S GRAVE - NIGHT

Nearby the grave of Chuck's father stands in

helpless witness to Abby's deception. A cottonwood tree

rises against the cold blue sky, still as a statue.


98	TIGHT ON BOOK - FLASHBACK

A hand turns the pages of a book from Chuck's

childhood. The text and VOICE reading it are in Russian, the

picture of Russian wood folk and animals.


99	EXT. VIRGIN PRAIRIE - FLASHBACK

Chuck's father rushes around marking off his

property with stakes.


100	EXT. UNFINISHED SOD HOUSE - FLASHBACK

Chuck, ten years old, scours up the blade of a

scythe. Family effects -- a big green stove, a bird cage, a

table stacked with melons and a mirror--stand waiting in

front of their half-finished sod house. We see no sign of

Chuck's mother.


101	EXT. PLOWED FIELD - FLASHBACK

A plow folds back the earth. The roots of the

prairie grass twang like harp strings.

The plowing done, his father sows the seed. Poverty requires

that for a harrow he drag a tree branch in back of his ox.

Over his shoulder he carries a rifle.

Chuck blows a horn to chase the blackbirds off the seed.

A scarecrow is rigged to his back, to make him more

intimidating.


102	CHUCK AND FATHER - FLASHBACK

Chuck's father has caught smallpox. His face is

covered

with sores. Chuck wants to embrace him, but the father

wards him off with a long stick as he passes on some last

instructions in Russian.


103	EXT. RIVER - FLASHBACK

The father stands on a ledge above the river,

filling his pockets with rocks to weight him down.


CHUCK (V.0.)

My father caught smallpox when I was eleven. I

fished him out of the river and buried him myself.


104	EXT. SAND BAR - FLASHBACK

Chuck drags his father's drowned body across a

sand bar with a rope.


105	EXT. FATHER'S GRAVE - FLASHBACK

Chuck heaps the last bit of earth on his

father's grave. The stove stands as a marker.


ABBY (o.s.)

So who raised you?


CHUCK (o.s.)

Nobody. Did it myself.


106	CHUCK AS BOY - WITH COYOTE, INDIANS -

FLASHBACK

Famished, Chuck eats from the carcass of a

coyote. Some INDIANS watch him from a ridge.


ABBY (o.s.)

From the time you were a kid? How?


CHUCK

Worked hard, didn't fool around. I never saw a

city. Never had

time. All I ever did is work.

He digs a post hole with a shovel twice his size.


107	PAN OVER HILLS-DAWN

The camera pans across Chuck's vast domain.


CHUCK (o.s.)

I gave my life to that land.

But what do I really have now? It'll still be here when I'm

gone. It won't remember me.

(pause)

I'd give it all up for you. I could make you

happy, too, I think-if only you'd trust me.

The camera settles on Ursula, playing with a dog on a seesaw

Chuck

has built her, then begins to move again, to a long shot of

Chuck and

Abby on the ridge by the telescope. Chuck is proposing.


108	EXT. DORM

Abby has told him of the proposal. Bill broods

over an unlit cigarette. Is this a great blessing or a great

misfortune which has befallen them?


ABBY

He's asked me to marry him.


BILL

I never really thought he would.


ABBY

I thought you wanted me to.


BILL

Before I did. You cold?

Abby is shivering. Bill takes off his jacket and slips it

over her shoulders.


BILL

What're you thinking?


ABBY

We've never done anything like this.


BILL

Who'd know but you and me?


ABBY

Nobody.


BILL

That's it, Ab. That's all that matters, isn't

it?


ABBY

You talk like it was all right. It would be a

crime.


BILL

But to give him what he wants more than

anything? Two, threeI

months of sunshine? He'll never get to enjoy his money

anyway.

What're you talking about? We'd be showing him the first

good

times of his life.


ABBY

Maybe you're right.

At each hint of consent from Abby, Bill feels he must press

on.


BILL

You know what they're going to stick on his

tombstone? "Born

like a fool, worked like a mule." Two lines.

Abby cannot say the proposal is devoid of principle. The

idea of easing Chuck's imminent death gives them just the

shade of a good motive. This would be a trade.


ABBY

What makes you think we're just talking about a

couple of months?U


BILL

Listen, the man's got one foot on a banana peel

and the other

on a roller skate. What can I say? We'll be gone before theI

President shows up.

He straightens his coat and smooths back his hair, to make

her smile, without success.

BILL Hey, I know how you feel. II

Hey, I know how you feel. I feel just as bad. Like I was

sticking an icepick in my heart. Makes me sick just to think

about it!

heart. Makes me sick just to


ABBY

I held out a long time. I could've taken the

first guy with a gold watch, but I held out.

(pause)

I told myself that when I found somebody, I'd

stick by him.


BILL

I know. We're in quicksand, though. We stand

around, it's

going to suck us down like everybody else.

(pause)

Somewhere along the line you have to make a

sacrifice. Lots of people want to sit back and take a piece

without doing nothing.

He waits to see how she will respond. Half of him wants her

to turn him down flat. Abby is bewildered.


ABBY

Have I ever complained? Have I said anything

that would make

you think...


BILL

You don't have to. I hate it when I see you

stooped over and

them looking at your ass like you were a whore. I personally

feel ashamed! I want to take a .45 and let somebody have it.

(pause)

We got to look on the bright side of this, Ab.

Year from

today we got a Chinese butler and no shit from anybody.

(pause)

Some people need more'n they have, some have

more'n they need. It's

just a matter of getting us all together.

(pause)

I don't even know if I believe what I'm saying,

though. I

feel like we're on the edge of a big cliff.

Abby looks at the ground for a moment, then nods.


109	TIGHT ON CHUCK

Chuck lies in bed, daydreaning.


110	TIGHT ON ABBY AND URSULA

Ursula decorates Abby's hair with flowers and

tells her how pretty she looks.


111	EXT. RIVER BANK

The wedding takes place along the river. The

Preacher has come back with his ACOLYTES. A chest of drawers

serves as the altar. Benson is the best man--a joyless one.

Ursula bounces around in a beautiful gown, looking for the

first time like a young woman. The BAND practically

outnumbers the guests: ELDERS from the local Mennonites, the

MAYORS of a few surrounding towns decked out in sashes and

medals, etc.


112	TIGHT ON ABBY AND BILL

Bill kisses the bride on the cheek. Each

believes she is going through with this for the other's

sake. They whisper back and forth.


ABBY

You know what this means, don't you?

(he nods)

We won't ever let each other down, will we?


BILL

I love you more than ever. I always will. I

couldn't do this unless I loved you.


113	SERIES OF ANGLES

The Acolytes ring an angelus bell. Chuck slips a

sapphire on her finger. The Preacher, with outstretched

arms, reminds them all that they are witness to a great

event.


114	SKY - ABBY'S POV

Abby, frightened, looks off at the rolling sky,

wondering how all thislooks in the sight of heaven.


115	INT. BEDROOM - DUSK

From her pillow, Abby watches Chuck shyly enter

the bedroom

He comes over and sits down beside her


CHUCK

You're wonderful.

She is silent for a moment. The wind moans in the rafter


ABBY

No. But I wish I were.

(pause)

Listen. It sounds like the ocean.

They smile at each other.


116	EXT. BELVEDERE - DUSKI

Bill watches the lights go out in the Belvedere.

A lump rises to his throat. How exactly did this happen? He

sets his jaw, vowing not to give way to weakness or

jealousy. This is the price they have to pay for a lasting

happiness.


117	TIGHT ON ABBY, CHUCK, ETC.

The next morning the newlyweds set off on their

honeymoon.

Chuck tells Bill to move his things from the dorm into the

Belvedere.

Abby, a basket of cucumbers under her arm, waves goodbye,

angling her wrist so that Bill and Ursula can see the

diamond bracelet Chuck has given her.


118	EXT. PRAIRIEI

They steer out across the prairie in a1912

Overland auto. Ursula runs after them, slaps the back fender

and hops around on one foot, pretending the other was run

over. Abby laughs. She knows this stunt.

When they are gone Ursula turns fiercely on Bill.U


URSULA

I hate you.


BILL

What for? Don't be any more of a pain in the

neck than you gotta

be, okay?

She swings at him with her fist. He pushes her away._


BILL

You think I like this? I'm doing it for her!


URSULA

You scum.

Bill slaps her.


BILL

Still think so?

She throws a rock at him and runs off. He catches her,

repenting of his meanness.


BILL

I know you can't understand this, but there's

nothing I want except good things for Abby and you. Go ahead

and hit me back.

She hesitates a second, then slaps him as hard as she can.

Blood glistens on his lip. He does not say a word in

protest. She looks at the wound, horrified, then throws her

arms tight around him.


119	EXT. PIERI

Abby and Chuck disembark from a paddleboat

steamer at a

pier along the river. Chuck looks excited.


120	EXT. YELLOWSTONE POOL

Chuck and Abby have gone to Yellowstone Park for

their honeymoon. Abby wades in a pool, wreathed by mists

from the underworld. She carries a parasol to protect her

from the sun. The trees in the vicinity are bare of leaves.


121	EXT. ANTLERS - FREEZE FRAME

Chuck kneels with a box camera to photograph a

large pair of antlers lying on the ground.


122	SERIES OF STILLS (STOCK)

This photo becomes the first in a series from

their Yellowstone trip: fishermen displaying sensational

catches by a river, buggies vying with early autos on rutted

roads, the giant Beaupre who stood eight feet tall, etc.

Each of the pictures bears a caption. Together they make a

little story.


ABBY (o.s.)

We saw grizzly bears and a boar. The bears

scared me the most.

They eat garbage.

(whispering)

I was so lonesome. I missed you.


123	TIGHT ON BILL AND ABBY

Bill and Abby kiss, renewing old ties.U


ABBY

There was a mountain partly made of glass, too,

but we didn't get to see it. And a petrified tree.


BILL

We'll go back.


ABBY

Can we? Because there's a whole lot I didn't get

to see.

Bill straightens up. Chuck sits down on Abby's other side.


124	EXT. DINNER TABLE UNDER NETI

They are having dinner on the lawn in front of

the Belvedere. A fine mesh net is spread above them like a

tent to keep the insects out. Ursula sits on Bill's lap. He

puts a hand up the back of her shirt and they play as though

she were a ventriloquist's dummy.


125	TIGHT ON RABBIT

Bill displays a rabbit which he trained in their

absence to perform a card trick.


BILL (o.s.)

I have you now, Ed. Only thing that can beat me

is the ace of spades. (His name's Ed..) Her name's Abigail.

Hungarian name.

(mumbling)

Andrew drew Ann. Ann drew Andrew.

From the whole of a spread deck it picks the ace of spades.


126	NEW ANGLE

Abby and Chuck applaud. Ursula cranks up the

victrola and puts on a record. Bill strokes the rabbit.


BILL

You know why I like him? He minds his business

and isn't full of baloney.

Chuck turns to Abby and, for nearly the first time, smiles.


CHUCK

He's funny.

Bill holds a plate up for Abby to see. Limoges china. Abby

rolls her eyes and spits out a cherry pit. They eat like

pigs, with no respect for bourgeois manners.


URSULA

You have any talents, Chuck?


CHUCK

No, but I admire people who do.


ABBY

That's not so. He can do a duck. Show them.


BILL

Stand back. Get the women and children someplace

safe.

Chuck, feeling it would be wrong not to enter the spirit of

the occasion, does his imitation. The likeness is

astonishing. Abby wipes a bit of food off his chin with her

napkin. Bill drums on the table with his spoon.


ABBY

You saw how modest he was?


BILL

How'd you get along so long without a woman?

Chuck shrugs. Ursula makes a gesture as though to say by

masturbating. Chuck does not see it. Billy laughs. Abby

slaps her. The rabbit jumps out of the way.


ABBY

Don't you ever behave that way at table!

(to Chuck)

She's adopted. I had nothing to do with her

upbringing. I'd trade her off for a yellow dog.

(to Ursula)

Now eat. You want to starve to death?


URSULA

That's what you'd like.

Abby, overcome with impatience, throws her food to the dogs.

Ursula catches a grasshopper and holds it out to Chuck.


URSULA

You give me a quarter to eat this hopper?

Chuck does not reply. She pops it into her mouth anyway,

enjoying his look of shock. Bill throws down his fork.


BILL

All right, okay, nobody's hungry anymore. What's

the worst thing you ever did, Chuck? Besides missing church

and that kind of stuff.

Chuck thinks about this.


CHUCK

Once I turned a man out in the middle of winter,

without a cent of pay. For  all I know he froze.


BILL

If you went that far, he must've deserved it.

What else?


CHUCK

He didn't. I fired him out of resentment.


BILL

Well, you're the boss, right? That's how it

works. Got to make decisions on the spot. Anyway, this

guy-what's his name?--if I know his kind, which I do, he's

probably doing okay for himself, got a hand in

somebody else's pocket for a change. Is that all?


CHUCK

All I can think of right now. How about

yourself?


BILL

(to Abby)

He wants to know. I'm not going to count setting

Blackie's

on fire either. He had it coming.


BILL (con't)

(pause)

Once I punched a guy while he was asleep.

Chuck looks surprised. Bill glances at Abby, worried that he

might have said too much.


BILL

I was just kidding. Actually a guy I know did,

though.


ABBY

Maybe he did it to you.


BILL

Yeah. I think so.

Chuck gets up to ring for Miss Carter. Bill looks him up and

down. Chuck, though older, is physically more imposing.


URSULA

Can I have the rabbit?


BILL

Get serious. I can win money with him.

She licks his ear. He laughs.


URSULA

I want that bunny.


BILL

You still believe in Santa Claus.

Bill closes his eyes as he feels the soft fur of the rabbit.

Ursula looks around to make sure Chuck is gone, then wings a

roll at Bill. It bounces off his forehead. He retaliates

with a pat of butter.


127	BENSON

Benson watches from another hill. He finds his

displacement by these newcomers a humiliating injustice.


128	NEW ANGLE

Chuck returns to the table and draws Bill aside.


CHUCK

Almost forgot. Here's your pay. Bill takes the

envelope Chuck holds out. Then, in a spasm of conscience, he

gives it back.


CHUCK

hat's the matter?


BILL

I got no right to.


CHUCK

Why?

Bill is momentarily at a loss for words.


BILL

I haven't worked hard enough to deserve it. I

been goofing off.I


CHUCK

Don't be silly.


BILL

Give it to charity or something.

(pause)

Don't worry. I always know to look out for

myself, because ifI

I don't, who will? See what I'm driving at?

Chuck sees a sense of honor at work in Bill here, and

though he considers the gesture misguided and a little

grand, admires him for it.


129	EXT. BASESU

They play a game with big lace pillows for

bases. The

rules are unintelligible.


130	NEW ANGLE

Bill is expert at throwing knives. As the others

watch, he goes into a big windup and pins a playing card to

the side of the house.U

Everyone seems happy and congenial. They have reached some

kind of plateau. Chuck's ignorance of the ruse does not

cause the others to treat him with less respect. They seem

themselves almost to have forgotten it.


131	BILL AND ABBY'S POV - LATERU

Benson collects the bases, a job he doubtless

feels is beneath him.

The Doctor's wagon, unmistakable even at such a great

distance, thunders away from the Belvedere.


132	TIGHT ON BILL AND ABBYU

Bill and Abby, waiting for Chuck to join them

for a swim,U

look questioningly at each other.S


133	EXT. RIVER

Ursula, in her bathing suit, jumps from a ledge

above the river. She holds a big umbrella over her to see if

it will act as a parachute.

Bill and Chuck have a water fight. Abby wades in the

shallows with a parasol.


134	TIGHT ON ABBY AND URSULA - LATER

Abby is teaching Ursula how to kiss.


ABBY

Too like a mule.


URSULA

(trying again)

What about that?


ABBY

It's got to be--how should I say?-- more

relaxed.

They laugh and kiss again.


135	NEW ANGLE

Farther up the slope Bill and Chuck wring out

their bathing suits. Bill, thinking of the Doctor's visit,

puts a hand on Chuck's shoulder. This time Chuck does not

stiffen or ease it off.


BILL

You okay?


CHUCK

Sure. Why?

Bill shrugs, beaming with admiration for this man who does

not burden others with his secrets.


BILL

I appreciate everything you've done for Abby. I

really do. You've given her all the things she always

deserved. I got to admit you have.

Chuck looks off, embarrassed but oddly pleased. Bill

snatches up a handful of weeds and smells them.

.


136	CRANE SHOT

Returning home they portray the movements of the

sun, earth and moon

relative to each other. Abby is the sun and keeps up a

steady pace across

the prairie.

Chuck, the earth, circles her at a trot, giving

instructions. Bill, with the

most strenuous role of all--the moon-- runs around Chuck

while he circles Abby.


137	EXT. PRAIRIE - SERIES OF ANGLES

They play golf on the infinite fairway of the

prairie. Bill and Abby make a team against Chuck and Ursula.

Nightingales call out like mermaids from the sea.


BILL

You liking it here?

(she nods)

Feel good?

(she nods)

Feels good to feel good.

He smiles, satisfied that he has done well by her, and lets

a new ball slip down his pant leg to replace the one he

played.


138	NEW ANGLE

Ursula, meanwhile, grinds Abby's ball into the

dirt with the heel of her boot. She winks at Chuck. Chuck

smiles back.


CHUCK

What's your mother like?


URSULA

Her? Like somebody that just got hit on the

head. She used to pray for me. Rosary, the stations,

everything. "Hey, Ma," I tell her, "I ain't crippled." They

don't know, though. They say you're in trouble. They don't

know.

(pause)

My dad, the same way. Thought the world owed him

a living. He drowned in Lake Michigan.


139	EXT. BELVEDERE

They walk home. Bill stays behind to work on his

strokes. Ursula sends the dogs after the balls.


BILL

You shag them, not those dogs. They might choke

or run off with them.


URSULA

Who made you the boss? Shag them yourself.


BILL

Listen, some day all this is going to be mine.

Or half is. Somebody like that, you want to get on his good

side, not give him a lot of gas. You want to do what he

says.

He steps off a few paces of his future kingdom and draws a

deep breath.


BILL

This reminds me of where I came from. I left

when I was six. That's when I met your sister.

He looks at the land with a new sense of reverence. He

snatches up a handful of grass and rolls it between his

palms.


BILL

I can't wait to go back to Chicago, bring them

down for a visit. Blackie and them. There's a lot of

satisfaction in showing up people who thought you'd never

amount to anything.

(pause)

I'd really like to see this place run right. I

got a lot of ideas I'd like to try out.


140	BILL'S POV AND TIGHT ON BILL

In the distance he sees Chuck put his arm on

Abby's waist and whisper something in her ear. This intimacy

rubs him the wrong way. He gives his clubs to Ursula and

starts after them.


141	INT. KITCHEN

Bill finds them in the kitchen. Chuck goes into

the other room to look for something. Abby lifts the

cigarette out of Bill's mouth, takes a drag and does a

French inhale. Bill kisses her.


ABBY

Nobody's all bad, are they?


BILL

I met a few I was wrong on, then.

Suddenly they hear Chuck's footsteps. They pull back just in

time, Abby returning the cigarette to him behind her back.

They chat as though nothing had happened.


BILL

I have a headache. I probably should've worn a

hat.

Abby rolls her eyes at this improvisation. No sooner does

Chuck turn his back than Bill's hand darts out to touch her

breast. He snatches it away a moment before Chuck turns

back.

Together they walk into the living room.


BILL

You ever see anybody out here?


CHUCK

Not after harvest.


BILL

How often do you get into town?


CHUCK

Once or twice a year.


BILL

You're kidding. He must be kidding.


CHUCK

Why do I need to?

Bill catches Abby's eyes. He frowns at the idea of being

cooped up with this Mormon all winter.


BILL

Relaxation. Look at the girls. Opportunity to

see how other folks live.

Chuck looks at him blankly. None of these reasons seems to

carry

much weight for him. Bill turns to Abby.


BILL

Somebody is nuts. I don't know whether it's him

or me, but somebody is definitely nuts.


ABBY

Why don't I fix tea?


BILL

Maybe I should help you.

He follows her back into the kitchen, where he starts to

kiss her. She pushes him away and turns to making the tea.


ABBY

You're worse than an Airedale.

(raising her voice)

You want jasmine or mint?


CHUCK (o.s.)

Mint.

Bill lifts up the back of her dress and looks under it,

testing the breadth of his license. She slaps it back down.

He lifts it again, standing on his right to. She glowers at

him.


ABBY

Don't do that.

(calling to Chuck)

How much sugar?


BILL

Why not? I'm just seeing what kind of material

it's made of.


CHUCK (o.s.)

One spoonful.

Bill walks around absentmindedly, inspecting Chuck's things,

stealing whatever catches his fancy. A book, a paperweight,

a bell--things he does not really want and has no use for.

His conscience is clear, however; the sacrifices they are

making excuse these little sins.

As Chuck walks in, Bill has pocketed a candlestick.


ABBY

Where's the candlestick?

Chuck shrugs. Bill gives Abby a cold look and goes outside.


CHUCK

He's a strange one.


ABBY

(nodding)

Once he named his shoes like they were pets. It

was a joke, I guess.


142	EXT. WELL

Bill drops the candlestick down the well, stands

for a moment, then punches the bucket with his fist. He

looks up. Benson has seen him.


143	EXT. SAPLINGS AGAINST WINDOW - NIGHT

Outside the saplings thrash in the wind.


144	INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT

Abby wakes up with a gasp.


CHUCK

What's the matter?


ABBY

I had a dream.


CHUCK

What about?

(pause)

Was something after you?


ABBY

I forgot it already.


145	AERIAL SHOT (STOCK)

The camera falls through the clouds as though in

a lost fragment of Abby's dreams.


146	EXT. BARN

Benson sulks by the barn. Chuck approaches him.


CHUCK

You come down here a lot, don't you? Always when

you're mad. You never change.


BENSON

It might not be my place to say this, sir, but I

don't think they're honest people.


CHUCK

He gets on your nerves, doesn't he? He always

has.

(cutting in)

Now don't say something you're going to regret.

.


BENSON

Why should I regret it? I think they're a pair

of scam artists,

sir. Let me tell you what I've seen, and you judge for

yourself.

Chuck, who of course has seen the same things and more,

raises a hand to silence him.


CHUCK

Maybe you'd be happier taking over the north end

till spring. I don't say this in anger. We've been together

a long time, and I've always felt about you like, well,

close. It just might work out better is all. Less friction.


BENSON

Don't believe me, then. You shouldn't. But why

not check it out, sir? Hire a detective in Chicago. It won't

cost much. What's there to lose?

Chuck's brow darkens as Benson goes on. For a moment we

glimpse the anger that would be unleashed if ever he woke

up. Somewhere he already knows the truth but refuses to

acknowledge it.


CHUCK

You're talking about my wife.

And so Chuck, too, becomes an accomplice in the scheme.


BENSON

Maybe I better pack my things.

Benson turns and walks off. Chuck watches him go, ashamed at

himself. What has this man done but a friend's duty?


147	INT. MASTER BEDROOM

Abby sits at the dresser in the master bedroom.

Bill walks in through the door and tries Chuck's hat on for

size.


ABBY

What're you doing in here?


BILL

Just walked in through the door, like any other

white man.

On the bureau he finds a pistol. He aims it out the window.

All this will soon be theirs!


BILL

Smith and Wesson. You ought to see one of these

plow into a watermelon.

She holds a hairbrush out for him to see. He looks it over

and  gives it back without comment. He finds a stain on the

tabletop.


BILL

Somebody's been staining this fake inlay with a

water glass. Actually I don't blame them.

He walks around trying out more of Chuck's appurtenances.

Abby, caught up, models a shawl before an imaginary mirror.

She blows a kiss at herself.


ABBY

Don't say I did that.


BILL

The bed should be over next to the window. Where

the view is.

Bill is already making plans for life after Chuck's demise.


BILL

Maybe we build on a balcony.

(pause)

First the birds go.

The peacocks are crowing outside. They burst out laughing.

Bill checks the mussed bedsheets.


ABBY

That doesn't concern you.


BILL

Why not?

(no reply)

Look, I know you've got urges. It wouldn't be

right if you didn't.

Abby stands up, angry.


ABBY

You think I enjoy it?


BILL

Lower your voice.


ABBY

You act like it's harder on you than me! I never

want to talk

about this again.

Bill, consoled, holds an eyelet blouse against the light.


BILL

I bet he enjoys looking at you in this.


ABBY

I thought you liked it.


BILL

He likes it, too, is what I'm saying.


ABBY

Well, it's the style.


BILL

I see.


ABBY

What do you want me to wear in this heat? A

blanket?


BILL

That's your problem.

Abby puts on her wedding bracelet and admires it. Bill

softens at the sight of her beauty, properly adorned.


BILL

I told you someday we'd be living in style. When

this whole thing is over I'm going to buy you a necklace

with diamonds as big as that.

He holds out the tip of his little finger. They laugh, as

though they suddenly felt the absurdity of all this

make-believe.


BILL

You're cute. Maybe a shade too cute.

She touches his face sympathetically, as though to say that

she knows the pain this was causing him.


ABBY

This is terrible for us both.


CHUCK (o.s.)

Abby?

They jump as Chuck calls up from downstairs.


ABBY

Down in a minute.

She kisses Bill.


148	EXT. BACK DOOR OF BELVEDERE

Bill sneaks out the back door of' the Belvedere,

only to find Benson drinking at the well. They look at each

other in silence for a moment. Benson's horse stands beside

him, a suitcase fixed to the saddle.


BENSON

I know what you're doing.


BILL

What're you talking about?


BENSON

That boy's like a son to me. Don't you forget

it. I know what you're doing.

Benson gets on his horse, turns and rides off. Miss Carter

waves goodbye from the side of the house. She and Bill

exchange a look.


149	EXT. FRONT PORCH

Bill finds the others around front. Abby lolls

in the hammock writing in her diary and eating a peach.

Ursula plays the guitar.

Little by little the newcomers have done the house over from

the austere structure that it was. Living room furniture has

been moved out onto the front lawn and there arranged as

though by a child. Goats sleep on the divan. Archery targets

hang from the side of the house. The porch is covered with a

striped awning, bird cages and twirls of bunting. Everywhere

an atmosphere of drunken ease prevails.


BILL

Nice fall day.


URSULA

Wish I'd said that.


BILL

(to Abby)

Watcha doing?


ABBY

Eating a green peach. 'Spect to die any minute.


BILL

Listen, I had a great idea. Let's spend

Christmas in Chicago. Break

up the old routine. Rhino's never been to a baseball game or

a horse

race. I know guys one month off the boat that have. Don't

even

speak the English language, but they eat it right up.

(pause)

You're just a young guy, Rhino; you oughta be

running around

raising hell. No offense to the little woman.

He bows apologetically to Abby. She pinches a dead leaf off

a plant.


CHUCK

Abby says that in the poor section people eat

cats.


BILL

Did you, sis? Well, there's always something

doing. I can't

begin to tell you. State and Madison? Mmmm. Lights

everywhere.

You'd love it.


CHUCK

It can be rough, though.


BILL

Rough? Listen, you can't walk down the street

without somebody

reaching in your pocket! You've got to keep your coat like

this

and poke them away.


ABBY

Bill got shot once. The bullet's still in him.


CHUCK

Really?


BILL

Doctor said he took it out, but I never saw it.

Hurt like a bastard.

You got no idea how it hurt.

Suddenly he worries this might discourage Chuck from going.


BILL

They won't mess with you, though. Big fella like

you. I can see it

now.

He offers a taste of the talk Chuck is like to provoke on

the street corners.


BILL

"Hey, hey, hey. Who's this here, fresh out of

the African Jungle,

moving down the sidewalk with a whowhowho, taking ten feet

at a step

and making all the virgins run for cover? Why, it's Big

Rhino, the

King of Beasts. He walks, he talks, he sucks up chalk."

Bill steps back and sees, as though for the first time, how

imposing Chuck really is.


BILL

You are big, aren't you? Sunny Jim! You must've

had a real moose

for an old lady.


ABBY

Take it easy.

But Chuck holds none of this against him. He knows it comes

from respect.


BILL

So what do you say?

(pause)

What a sorry outfit! Bunch of old ladies. You

better stay behind.

Your mammas'd probably get upset.

But when the time comes, I'm out of here. Hit the road,

Toad!

Ursula passes the sandwiches around until there is just

one left, Miss Carter's. While the others are talking,

she scoops up a handful of dirt and pours it into the

middle.

Bill, lighting a cigarette, notices Chuck's hand on Abby's.


BILL

Ever seen a match burn twice?


CHUCK

No.

Bill blows out the match and touches Chuck's hand with

the hot ember, causing him to yank it away.


BILL

That's old.

Chuck starts to cough. Bill looks at Abby, then whips the

handkerchief out of his pocket and puts it over his nose, as

though to keep from getting Chuck's germs.

Miss Carter's face goes blank as she bites into her

sandwich.

She jumps up and rushes back into the house. Chuck frowns.

Bill glares at Ursula, then turns to Chuck and, referring to

the dead prairie grass which runs through the front yard

right up to the house, continues:


BILL

You ever thought of putting in some fescue here?

Some fescue grass?

Of course, it might not take in this soil.

Chuck stands up and winds a stole, a long religious scarf,

around his neck.


CHUCK

You ready?


BILL

I still have a little of this sore throat. Where

you going, though?


CHUCK

To kill a hog.


BILL

What's the necktie for?

(pause)

Or does it just come in handy?


CHUCK

Keeps the stain of guilt off.

Chuck nods goodbye and walks off, taking a stool with him.

Bill sighs with admiration.


BILL

I try and try.


ABBY

What a splendid person! I've never met anybody

like him!


BILL

Splendid people make you nervous.


ABBY

They do! I breathe a sigh of relief when they

step outside the room.

Bill puts on his boater and opens a copy of the Police

Gazette.

They are silent for a moment.


BILL

A guy ate a brick on a bet. Must of busted it up

first with a hammer. Guy in New York City. Where else?

(Jumping up)

Anybody want to bet me I can't stick this knife

in that post?

Nobody takes him up on this. Abby leafs through the

Sears catalogue, her mind dancing with visions of splendor.


150	TIGHT ON CATALOGUE

Pictured. in the catalogue are bath oils and

corsets and feathered hats. A grasshopper is perched on the

page among them, its eyes blank and dumb.


151	TIGHT ON ROSE

Bill watches her run her finger slowly around

the closed heart of a rose. Suddenly they both look at each

other. They have heard the squeals, faint but unmistakable,

of a hog being led to slaughter.


152	TIGHT ON STOOL - QUICK CUT

Chuck has tied the hog's feet to the inverted

legs of  the stool.


153	OTHER QUICK CUTS

Ursula, off by herself, skips rope.

A flag on the pole by the front gate snaps in the breeze.

From the branch of a lone tree the hog dangles by its hocks

into the mouth of a barrel.


154	EXT. BELVEDERE - ABBY'S POV FROM SECOND

FLOOR WINDOW

Miss Carter storms down the hill with her bags.

Fed up, she is leaving the bonanza. Chuck tries in vain to

appease her. She keeps walking, out the front gate and into

the prairie on a straight course for the railroad tracks.

Chuck will now be alone at the Belvedere with the newcomers

and no other point of reference.


155	EXT. CLOTHES LINE

Later that afternoon, Bill catches sight of

Abby's underthings rustling on the clothes line.


156	INT. STAIRS

That evening he watches her from behind as she

climbs the stairs to join Chuck at their bedroom door. She

nods goodnight, sensing the jealousy that is growing in him.


157	INT. MASTER BEDROOM

Chuck looks impatiently through a drawer.


CHUCK

I can't find anything around here. Last week it

was my gloves; this

week my talc. What's going on?

He stands and watches Abby get ready for bed. She fills him

with a deep adoration. He feels that in the tulip of her

mouth at last he has found heaven.


CHUCK

You're beautiful.


ABBY

You don't think my skin's too fair?

He comes up behind her and touches her long hair.


CHUCK

You're smart, too, aren't you?


ABBY

I know what the Magna Carta is.


CHUCK

Can I help you brush it out?


ABBY

Not right now.

She is cold to discourage false expectations in him--and

because she feels that she at least owes Bill this. Chuck,

however, assumes the fault must be his own. His naivete

about women, and the world in general, protects

the conspirators--and protects him, too, for he glimpses

enough of the truth not to want to know any more.


CHUCK

What makes you so distant with me?


ABBY

Distant? I don't mean to be.


CHUCK

You know what I'm talking about,  though. You

aren't that way

with your brother.


158	INT.ATTIC

Bill, eavesdropping in the attic above them,

surveys Chuck's dusty heirlooms.


CHUCK (o.s.)

It must be something I'm doing. I wish you'd

tell me what, though.


159	INT. BEDROOM

These gentle endearments, so rarely heard from

Bill, stir her deeply. She throws herself in his arms.


ABBY

Oh, Chuck I Please forgive me. Does it mean

anything that I'm

sorry?


CHUCK

(pleased)

But I don't blame you. Did I make it sound that

way?


ABBY

You should. You have a right to.


CHUCK

It's just that sometimes I feel I don't know you

well.


ABBY

You don't. It's true.


CHUCK

I think you love me better than before, though.

She rubs her cheek against his hands. Daily she feels warmer

toward him. How much of this is love, how much respect or

devotion, even she cannot say.


160	TIGHT ON BILL - LATER - NIGHT

The night throbs with crickets. Bill cracks open

the bedroom door. Chuck lies asleep in a shaft of moonlight

next to Abby. He hesitates a moment, but a strange

compulsion drives him on. He has never done anything

so dangerous, or had so little idea why.


161	INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT

Abby wakes up to find him staring her in the

face. He kisses her. Chuck stirs. Abby signals they should

go outside.


162	EXT. BELVEDERE - DAY FOR NIGHT

They sneak out of the Belvedere. The night is

warm.


ABBY

You're no good.


BILL

Mmmm. But I love you.


ABBY

I can't stand it any more. This is just so

cruel. We're both no

good. I've got to get drunk with you, Bill. You know what I

mean?

Drunk.

Bill wags a bottle. The dogs, awakened, bay from the kennel.

They wait a moment to see if a light will go on in the

house, then dart off toward the fields. A plaster lawn dwarf

seems to watch them go.


163	EXT. FIELDS - DAY FOR NIGHT

They run through the fields, hand in hand,

laughing and flirting. The moon makes Abby's nightgown a

ghostly white.


ABBY

We can never do this again, though. Okay? It

really is too dangerous.


BILL

This one night.

He toes a sodden old shoe.


BILL

Hey, I found a shoe.


164	SHOE, COYOTES, SCARECROW - DAY FOR NIGHT

The shoe gleams in the moonlight. Coyotes yelp

from the hilltops. A scarecrow spreads its arms against the

sky. The waving fields of wheat have given way to vast

reaches of cleanly shaven stubble, stained with purple

morning glories. Odd, large stakes are planted among them.


165	NEW ANGLE - DAY FOR NIGHT


BILL

You want me to spin you around?

She nods okay. He takes her by the hands and spins her

around the way he used to--until they go reeling off, too

dizzy to stand.


166	EXT. RIVER BANK - DAY FOR NIGHT

They lie by the river looking at the great dome

of stars. Bill wants to believe things are the same between

them as before. So does Abby--but she knows better.


BILL

Suppose we woke up tomorrow and it was a

thousand years ago. I

mean, with all we know? Electricity, the telephone, radio,

that kind of

stuff. They'd never figure out how we came up with it all.

Maybe

they'd kill us.

She looks at him, and they laugh.


BILL

You sleepy?


ABBY

This is the first time we slept together in a

while, Bill.


BILL

You like it?


ABBY

Of course.


BILL

Kiss me, then.


ABBY

It's so sweet to be able to kiss you when I want

to.


167	NEW ANGLE

Before the marriage his lovemaking was gentle

and soft. Now it has a brutal air, as though he were

asserting his right to her for the last time.


168	TIGHT ON ABBY - DAWN

Dawn is breaking. Abby jumps to her feet,

alarmed. They have slept too long.


169	EXT. BELVEDERE - DAWN

They have run back to the Belvedere. It seems

they are safe until Chuck appears on the porch, yawning and

stretching. Bill drops to the ground while Abby goes ahead.

Abby appears at one side of the house while Bill steals

around the other. Luckily, they have come up from the back.


CHUCK

Abby! I've been looking all over for you. Where

have you been?

While she distracts Chuck, Bill slips back in the house. It

has been a close call.


ABBY

Watching the ducks.


CHUCK

Didn't you sleep well?


ABBY

No.


170	TIGHT ON ABBY (DISSOLVE TO PAGE, THEN TO

URSULA)

Abby looks sympathetically at Chuck. Her face

dissolves into a page of her diary and from there to Ursula,

balancing an egg on her fingertip.


ABBY (o.s.)

Chuck saw Ursula balance an egg. He begged her

to repeat this trick,

but she wouldn't.


171	TIGHT ON CHUCK

Chuck tries to reduplicate Ursula's feat. Abby,

amused, reaches out and touches his face.

We wonder if, despite herself, she might be falling in love

with him.


172	EXT. BELVEDERE

Bill watches the Doctor walk out the front door

and down the steps to his wagon. Chuck follows, smiling.


ABBY (o.s.)

The Doctor came. Chuck looked pleased for a

change.


173	EXT. PRAIRIE - BILL'S POV

The Doctor's wagon rolls off across the prairie.


ABBY (o.s.)

Tomorrow the President passes through. Plans

have changed, and he can't stop.


174	EXT. RAILROAD TRACKS - DUSK

They have come down to the railroad tracks to

watch the President pass through.


URSULA

We should have brought a flag.


ABBY

Does she have time to ride back and get it?

Abby and Bill hold hands. Chuck by now is accustomed to such

displays. They seem, however, to make Abby increasingly

uncomfortable.


175	MOVING TRAIN - THEIR POVS

The train bursts past at twenty yards, its great

light rolling like a lunatic eye. Bill's heart pounds with

excitement. Chuck holds Abby by the waist. Ursula waves a

handkerchief... They cannot make out anything specific in

the windows, but there is the sense of people going more

important places, getting on with the serious business of

their lives - while out here they stagnate.

Dimly visible, on the back platform of the caboose, a MAN in

a frock coat salutes them with his cane.

The train has quickly vanished into the declining sun.

Everything is quiet again. Ursula rushes up the grade to

collect some pennies she laid on the tracks.


ABBY

Did you see him wave?


CHUCK

He was shorter than I expected.


BILL

How do you know it was him?


ABBY

I saw!  He had a hat on.


BILL

You didn't understand my question.

They walk back to the buggy. Ursula holds up a dead snake

she found on the tracks.


URSULA

You know what I'm going to do with this? Take it

home and put it in

vinegar.


BILL

That was the President, shortie. Wake up.

Bill watches Chuck help Abby into the buggy. She is laughing

about something or other. His hand lingers for a moment on

hers. She does not brush it aside, as once she might have,

but to Bill's dismay, presses

it against her breast. Chuck seems to have breathed a hope

into her that he, Bill, was never able to.


176	EXT. FIELDS

Abby and Ursula race across the fields trying to

fly a kite. Ursula rides a tiny Shetland pony. Just as the

wind lifts the kite away, they run into Bill. He sits by

himself observing a spear of grass. Abby drops off. Ursula

rides off over the hill with the kite, leaving her alone

with Bill.


ABBY

You look deep in thought.

She touches his cheek. He brushes her hand away.


ABBY

What's the matter?


BILL

Nothing.


ABBY

There's nothing wrong?


BILL

No.


ABBY

What're you so mad about then?


BILL

Who said I was mad?


BILL

Can't I be alone once in a while without

everybody getting all

worked up?


ABBY

You're the only person getting worked up.

Some buffalo appear on the crest of the next hill. Abby

looks at them. They do not seem quite part of this world but

mythical, like minotaurs.


ABBY

Chuck says they're good for the grass.

(pause)

Stop giving me that look.


BILL

You can't keep your hands off him these days.


ABBY

What're you talking about?


BILL

You know.


ABBY

I haven't touched him.


BILL

How about the other night? I saw you, Abby. The

other night

by the tracks? If only you wouldn't lie! Really, there's

some things about you I'm never going to understand.


ABBY

I forgot. Anyway it doesn't matter. What are you

doing, always trying

to trap me?

Bill paces around, disgusted with himself and the whole

situation.


BILL

I can't stand it any more. It's just too

degrading.

(pause)

You and him. Why do I have to spell it out? I

thought it would be all

over in a month or two. Guy might go another five years.

We've got to

clear out, Abby.

They stare at each other in silence for a moment.


ABBY

Why stop now?

(pause)

We've come this far.


BILL

What?


ABBY

You heard me.


BILL

Why stay? Go ahead and tell me! I'm standing

here.

Bill trembles with shock and anger. The buffalo cast aware

glances at them.


ABBY

You want us to lose everything?


BILL

I'm telling you I can't stand it.


ABBY

You're weak then. What about all I've been

through?

(pause)

And what about him? It would be the worst thing

we could do. Worse

than anything so far. It would break his heart.

Bill is silent for a moment.


BILL

You're getting to like him, aren't you?


ABBY

It would kill him. Leaving now would be just

cruel.


BILL

Would it? So what's it matter to somebody in his

shape?

(pause)

In fact you're just leaving us one way out.


ABBY

What're you talking about? Murdering him? Ursula

comes riding over the hill, without the kite.


BILL

You watch and see.


URSULA

I had to let it go. One of them started

following me, and I threw

a rock at him. I had a bunch stored in my pocket.

They take off running after her.


177	EXT. BELVEDERE

As they approach the Belvedere, Bill sees Chuck

standing on the front steps. Suddenly angry, he draws Abby

to him and in plain view kisses her on the lips.


ABBY

He can see you!

Bill nods; he knows. Abby runs ahead, angry and alarmed.


BILL

Don't you believe in being honest?


178	NEW ANGLE

Abby bounds up the steps. Chuck has bent his

mind to understand all this as mere sibling love, but here

is the greatest test so far.


ABBY

Aren't you going to kiss me?


CHUCK

Why?


ABBY

Today's my birthday.

Chuck gives her a kiss, glad to put aside his suspicions.


179	TIGHT ON POINTERS, QUAIL AND PHEASANTS

Tails level, their noses thrust high in the air,

a pair of pointers prance through the high uplands grass,

following a scent like sailors taking in a rope. Pheasants

and quail tremble in their coveys, their eyes big with fear.


180	EXT. UPLANDS

Chuck has taken Bill out bird-hunting. They wear

heavy canvas leggings and carry shotguns.


BILL

Did you ever tell Abby the buffalo help keep up

the grass?


CHUCK

I think so. Why?

Bill shrugs. Chuck welcomes this opportunity to speak of his

wife. He considers Bill a good friend, in fact the only

person with whom he can talk about delicate matters.


CHUCK

I want to get her something nice for Christmas.

Bill, who means to kill Chuck the first chance he gets,

forgets this intention for a moment to give him advice.


BILL

(thoughtfully)

She likes to draw. Maybe some paints. Nothing

too expensive--

she might want to exchange it. Maybe a coat. She likes to

show

off sometimes. She's sweet that way.


CHUCK

I wish I knew how to make her happy. Nothing I

do really seems to.


BILL

That's how they are. They like to make you work

for it. I couldn't

ever figure out why.

(pause)

Sometimes you can't go wrong, though. You know

that one Abby showed you a picture of? Elizabeth? I took her

cherry.


CHUCK

I know. You told me.


BILL

Actually, I didn't, but I could have. The point

I'm making is you've got

to understand how they operate. Get them thinking you can

take it or

leave it, you're usually okay.

Suddenly the dogs stop rigid, on point. At Chuck's hiss they

sink into the  grass.

Bill looks at Chuck's exposed back. Nobody would know. It

could be made to seem like a hunting accident. He cocks the

hammer of his shotgun. His heart pounds wildly. Chuck talks

in a low voice to the dogs.


CHUCK (o.s.)

All right, put them up, girl.

The dogs rise and inch toward the birds, as slowly as the

minute hand of a clock. All at once the quail explode out of

hiding. Bill jumps at the noise. Chuck fires twice. Two

birds fall. The retriever notes where. Chuck turns around.


CHUCK

Why aren't you shooting? I left you those two on

the left.


BILL

They caught me off guard.


CHUCK

You have to keep your gun up.

Chuck walks ahead. The music builds a mood of tension. Bill

takes a practice shot into the ground. Bill looks around.

There is nobody in sight. He turns the sights on Chuck's

back. It would be simple enough.

Though only twenty feet away, he closes the gap, to make

sure he does not miss.

Chuck whistles the scattered birds back to their covey.

"Pheo! Pheo!" Soon, faint and far away, comes a reply-the

sweet, pathetic whistle of the quail lost in a forest of

grass. The mother bird utters a low "all is well."

One by one, near and far, the note is taken up, and they

begin to return.

Bill holds his breath. His finger moves inside the trigger

guard. He only has to squeeze a fraction of an inch. Three

more birds shoot out of the grass. Chuck fires. At first we

think Bill has, but he cannot stoop this low. He does not

have the heart. Disgusted, he throws his gun on the ground.

Both barrels go off. Chuck snaps around, startled and

concerned. Bill is

shaking like a leaf.


CHUCK

What's the matter? What are you so upset about?


BILL

They surprised me again. Chuck sends a retriever

after the fallen birds, then--in an unprecedented gesture-he

puts his arm over Bill's shoulder to comfort him, like an

older brother.


181	NEW ANGLE

They return home, the day's kill slung over the

back of a Shetland pony.


182	EXT. BACK YARD

They sit on stools in the back yard plucking the

birds.


BILL

You like to box?


CHUCK

I never have.


BILL

Just wondering. I got a pair of gloves I brought

with me.

Bill feels oddly better, as though Chuck had backed down.


CHUCK

Abby bought me this at Yellowstone.

Chuck shows Bill his knife. Bill reads a name off the

handle.


BILL

That's what she calls you? 'Chickie?'

He gets up, his nostrils flaring with anger. Chuck thinks

this indignance is on his behalf.


CHUCK

Doesn't bother me. Should it?

Bill throws down the pheasant he was plucking.


CHUCK

What's the matter?


BILL

Don't let her fool you, too. She warms up to

whoever says please and thank you.


CHUCK

What's the matter?

Bill, still angry at himself, considers telling him.


BILL

You really want to know?

He would like Chuck to know the truth but does not want

theresponsibility for revealing it. He must find out by

accident.

Luckily they are interrupted as Ursula runs up, pointing

over her shoulder. A pair of three-wing airplanes sputters

into view low overhead. One seems to be having engine

trouble.


183	EXT. FIELD NEAR BELVEDERE

The planes set down in a nearby field. "Toto's

Flying Circus" is emblazoned on the wings.


184	NEW ANGLE

Five PEOPLE clamber out, members of a seedy

vaudeville troupe. They swagger around, filthy with oil from

the backwash of the props, looking more like convicts than

entertainers. Their LEADER is an excitable Levantine.

LEADER

How long it take to fix? Very mooch time! Now look where you

hab stuck us. Salaupe! You forget who I aim!

Bill, Abby and Ursula approach the aircraft with the

greatest caution, like the Indians at Cortez's ships.


185	EXT. SCREEN - NIGHT

A JUGGLER and a SNAKE CHARMER perform first

separately,

then jointly as a slap act. A DOUBLE TALKER weaves sentences

of absolute nonsense. After a moment a black and white image

appears over his face and he drops out of sight.

The troupe is putting on a show to earn its supper. ONE of

them stands behind the viewers -- Abby and Bill, Chuck and

Ursula -- cranking a carbide projector by hand. A silent

movie appears on the screen, full of extraordinary

pratfalls, disappearances and other tricks of the early

cinema. Chuck has never seen anything remotely like this.


CHUCK (o.s.)

How'd they do that? Where'd he go? There must be

a wire. Etc.

He steps forward to inspect the screen, actually just a

sheet hung along a clothesline, to see whether the image is

coming from behind. Bill and Abby sit rapt as children,

nostalgic for Chicago.


186	EXT. DINNER TABLE - NIGHT

Ursula serves dinner. She is excited by the

visitors'

city ways. They are bored with her, all except the

youngest, GEORGE, a young pilot in a white scarf.


URSULA

We never hear a thing out here. It's like being

on a boat in the

middle of a lake. You see things going on, but way far away,

with no voices.

GEORGE

Maybe time to clear out.

George puts his hand on hers. She snatches it away.

GEORGE

What's the matter? Aren't I your

type or something?

The Doubletalker pokes his fork into a pudding. A balloon,

concealed beneath the surface, explodes to general delight.

Down the table Abby and Bill chat with the Leader.

LEADER

You do not understand, sir. I am saddled with asses, yaays?

I, who

once played the Albert Hall


BILL

You. hear that? He called me 'sir.'

In their gaiety he carelessly puts a hand on Abby's leg.


187	TIGHT ON CHUCK - NIGHT

Chuck looks on from the shadows, no longer just

puzzled but angry. He has watched them behave this way a

dozen times before, but tonight, with other people around,

he must see it more directly.


188	EXT. STRAW STACK - NIGHT

George tells Ursula a joke. She dissolves in

giggles before he can finish, as though amazed at his power

to dispense illusion.


189	INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

Chuck, alone in the darkened living room, calms

himself down by breathing through a rubber mask into a

respirator. Joyful noises reach him from outside.


190	CHUCK'S POV - NEXT MORNING

The next morning Chuck looks down out his

bedroom window.

The troupe is packing to leave. Still troubled, he walks to

the bed and and stands over Abby.


CHUCK

What's going on, Abby?

She does not respond. He yanks the sheet off. She is wearing

a nightgown. She looks up and frowns. This is the first time

she has ever seen him this way.


CHUCK

You know what I mean. Between you and Bill.


ABBY

I have no idea.....


CHUCK

(interrupting)

Something's not right, and I want to know what.

Abby jumps out of bed and assumes the offensive. She has no

other choice.


ABBY

Say it out loud. What're you worried about?

(pause)

Incest?


CHUCK

It just doesn't look right. I don't know how

brothers and

sisters carry on where you come from, but...


ABBY

(interrupting)

Did you ever have a brother. Then who are you to

judge? Maybe if

you had, you'd understand. Anyway, times have changed while

you've been stuck out in this weed patch. We're

************************line missing****************

She puts on a robe and walks out. Her last argument has

worked best. Chuck never imagined he was in step with the

times.


191	EXT. BELVEDERE

Abby slips out the front door. She looks around

to make sure that Chuck is not watching her, then heads off

to find Bill. The vaudevillians gorge themselves on last

night's leftovers, steal flowers from the flower beds,

etc. ONE sits off by himself, playing a French horn.


192	EXT. DORM

She finds Bill by the dorm throwing a

switchblade in the ground, a toothbrush in his mouth.


ABBY

I have to talk to you.


BILL

Look what I traded off those clowns. For a

bushel of corn!

She draws him by the arm behind a wall. She is trembling

with fear.


ABBY

Chuck is suspicious.


BILL

Chickie you mean? So what?


ABBY

Really. This is the first time he's ever been

like this. I'm scared.

All this flatters Chuck in a way Bill does not like.


BILL

What for? Why're you so worried what he thinks?


ABBY

He could kill us. I want to live a long time,

okay? I just got

started and I like it.

Bill shrugs, as though to say he can handle whatever Chuck

can dish out and a little more.


ABBY

You might take a little responsibility here. You

got us into all this.


BILL

Did I? Well, it never would've come up if you

hadn't led him on.

Led Chickie on!


ABBY

Is that the best you can do? Knowing you it

probably is.

You've made a mess of our lives, okay. Don't pretend it was

my

fault.

Bill combs his hair to calm himself down.


BILL

Why's this guy still hanging on like a goddamn

snapping turtle?

Because of you. Boy, this was a great idea. Right up there

with Lincoln going down to the theater, see what's on!


ABBY

Keep your voice down.


BILL

Don't give me that. When a guy's getting

screwed, he's got a right

to holler.


ABBY

You're such a fool!


BILL

What?


ABBY

Nothing.


BILL

I heard what you said.


ABBY

Then why'd you ask? Oh, how did I ever get mixed

up with you?

Abby, in terror of Chuck's finding out, cannot understand

why Bill seems to care so little.


BILL

You've gone sweet on him. You have, haven't you?

Abby hesitates. Bill throws his knife away.


ABBY

I admire him. He's a good man.


BILL

Broad shoulders. I know. Very high morals. Why

can't he talk

faster? It's like waiting for a hen to lay an egg.


ABBY

You wouldn't understand, though. He's not like

you. You don't

know how people feel. You only think of yourself.


BILL

What's going on between us, Abby? Think about

that. If you figure it

out, tell me, will you? I'd appreciate it.

(pause)

Lord, but you do come on! You talking like this,

used to play

around right under his nose. Somebody I met in a bar,

remember?

Or maybe you walked in, thought it was a church. Well, I've

had

it.I'm clearing out. You understand?

They look at each other for a moment.


ABBY

Go ahead.

This is not what he expected to hear. But now his pride

requires that he face the truth and not back down.


BILL

Okay.

He looks at her for a moment. He cannot be dealt with this

way. He turns and walks off.


193	NEW ANGLE

Ursula flirts with George. He slips a hand

inside her blouse. She bats it away.


194	EXT. BEDROOM WINDOW

Bill stands on the ground below the master

bedroom. Chuck leans out the window above him. Peacocks

roost on the balcony, beneath the telescope. The

vaudevillians are loading up their planes. Abby watches from

the porch.


BILL

I'm going away for a while. They're giving me a

lift.


CHUCK

What for?

He shrugs.


BILL

I'm wearing one of your shirts. Let me take it

off for you.


CHUCK

Never mind.


BILL

I got my own. Just wasn't any clean today.

Bill takes off the shirt, drapes it over a post and walks

off, hurt and angry, but with a sad dignity.

Chuck is not entirely sorry to see him go, nor is Abby; she

knows that he is getting out just in time. One more episode

like last night's and the fuse would hit the powder.


195	NEW ANGLE

Bill gives Ursula his money.


BILL

We get split up for any reason, you spend that

on school.


196	EXT. PRAIRIE

The vaudevillians are ready to take off. Bill

boards the plane which George is piloting, wondering if

today's break with Abby is real or just in anger, a

necessary gesture. With him he carries his only possessions,

a bindle and his trick rabbit. Abby, Chuck and Ursula look

on.


CHUCK

What's eating him?

Abby shrugs and walks down to Ursula.


URSULA

Why aren't we going with him?


ABBY

What for? To sleep in boxcars?


197	AIRPLANES

The planes set their wheels in the furrows, rev

their engines and wobble off into the sky. Ursula waves

goodbye to George.


198	EXT. PLAINS UNDER SNOW - SERIES OF ANGLES

Winter has come. Snow falls across the breadth

of the plains, on the river and the dark sleeping fields.


199	EXT. SLEIGH (OR ICE BOAT) - SNOW

Chuck and Abby skim over the snow in a gaily

painted sleigh (or ice boat). She is wrapped up snug in a

buffalo robe, her feet on a hot brick. Pigs forage along the

fences.


200	INT. CAVE

They inspect a cave with a kerosene lantern.

Blocks of ice, covered with burlap and sawdust, cool shelves

of preserves.

Abby drops a stone into a dark pit. Two seconds pass before

it hits the bottom.


ABBY

Probably that's the first noise down there for

thousands of years.

She speaks as though she had done it a favor. He puts his

hand on hers. She presses it against her chest.


ABBY

You ever wish you could turn your heart off for

a second and

see what happened?


201	OTHER ANGLES

Views of backlit gems, stalactites, salamanders

in their cold dark pools, hidden springs and other mysteries

of nature.


ABBY (o.s.)

Maybe nothing would.

They round a corner and come upon an underground waterfall.

It flows out of darkness back into darkness.


202	INT. FORGE

Bill, meanwhile, stands in a line of panting,

sweating IMMIGRANTS.

On their shoulders they carry the huge barrel of a cannon.

With a grunt they drive it into the fiery mouth of a forge.


203	EXT. CITY STREET

Bill stands on the corner of a big city street,

stamping his feet against the cold. He tries to catch a

pigeon with some bread crumbs under a box propped up by a

stick, but just as he pulls the string to drop the trap it

darts

out of the way.


204	BILL AND YOUNG GIRL

Bill has an improvised conversation with a YOUNG

GIRL who has run away from home. He asks her where she comes

from, whom she belongs to, etc. She tells him of her hopes,

then passes on. Bill gives her all the money in his pocket.


205	MONTAGE

Enthralled, Abby surveys the wonders of Babylon

and

Nineveh in a book about the Near East.

Ursula sits with a world globe, taking a geography lesson

from a traveling TUTOR. No doubt this was Abby's idea.

Abby copies from a small plaster model of a Roman bust. She

wants painfully to improve herself.


206	EXT. FROZEN LAKE -NIGHT

Abby and Chuck skate around a bonfire on a

frozen prairie lake, carrying torches to guide them through

the dark.


207	INT. CHICAGO FLOPHOUSE

Bill sits in a cold flophouse trying to write a

letter. After a moment he wads it up and throws it away.


208	EXT. BELVEDERE

Abby, Ursula and Chuck are on a walk outside the

Belvedere. The snow is gone. Abby's hands are stuffed in a

chinchilla muff.

All at once they hear a distant noise like the whoops of an

Indian war party. It seems mysteriously to come from every

hilltop. Abby turns to Chuck with a puzzled look.


CHUCK

Prairie chickens. That means winter's broken.


ABBY

Really? Where are they?


CHUCK

You hardly ever see them.

They stand and listen to the birds. There is a sense of the

earth stirring back to life. Abby breathes in with a wild

joy and hugs Chuck tightly by the waist.


209	EXT. TENEMENT HALLWAY

Bill is talking with a FRIEND in the hallway of

a tenement.


BILL

I can't seem to get my mind on anything. I

thought, when I came

off that place, boy, they'd better get all the women out of

town that day, you know? Somewhere safe. But you know what I

do? I sleep, nothing but

sleep.

A PANHANDLER approaches them with a hard-luck story.


FRIEND

Okay, here's a quarter, but give me some

entertainment, okay?

Not this old song and dance.

While the Panhandler performs, Bill looks around.

Two POLICEMEN have appeared in the entryway talking with the

LANDLADY. Bill edges out the back door and down the steps,

as though they might be after him.

He walks briskly down the alley without looking back.


210	TIGHT ON CHUCK (DISSOLVE TO DIARY)

Chuck holds a handful of seed under his nose.

His heart stirs at the dark, mellow smell.

Into this dissolves an image of Abby writing in her diary.


211	EXT. FIELD

Chuck swings a barometer round and round,

checking the weather. Two Case tractors pitch across a field

like boats on a rolling sea. Long plumes of smoke wind off

behind them. Each tows a fourteen