DAYS OF HEAVEN"
by Terry Malick
REVISED: 6/2/76
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)
DAYS OF HEAVEN
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 of14, 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±lU
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