"SEVEN CURSES"
Ext. COUNTRY ROAD - Day - weeks ago
The sky is a bit higher than usual on this sunny Montana day. MARCUS, a eighteen year-old Native
American man, furiously pedals a bicycle towards the horizon. He wears an old red sweat shirt, jeans,
and a Conoco trucker cap.
Int. RANCH HOUSE - DAY - MINUTES BEFORE
The hazy high afternoon sky creeps in the bedroom window of a
western ranch house.
JENNY and Marcus lay with each other in bed,
making love like you did in your parents car when you were in high school.
Jenny is a woman in her thirties, classically
beautiful, with strong features.
The phone rings. They ignore it. The answering machine picks it up.
Voice on machine
(O.S.)
You better get down here, Jenny. Your husband's been arrested.
EXT. OLD GAS STATION - DAY - Weeks ago
Jenny, quietly beautiful, stands beside her jeep that is parked
in front of an old looking gas station.
Marcus, wearing his old red sweat shirt and cap, walks out of the
office area.
MARCUS
Can I help you, Miss?
JENNY
It's making a terrible noise?
MARCUS
Yeah?
Jenny nods.
JENNY
Can you fix it?
MARCUS
My Pop's the guy for that stuff, but he's not here.
JENNY
Can you take a look at it?
MaRCUS
I don't even have a car.
Jenny laughs.
Marcus manages a wry smile.
Int. RANCH HOUSE - DAY - PresENT
Jenny, lays naked on her bed. Marcus dresses in front of her. Pulling his pants, retrieving his
T-shirt from the edge of the bed.
His clothes are typical of the average nineteen year old.
There is loud CRASHING NOISE.
Marcus puts his T-shirt on over his head.
Marcus
(muffled)
I love you.
Jenny
What?
MARCUS
I love you.
JENNY
We shouldn't see each other any more.
MARCUS
Seriously?
Jenny turns onto her back and sighs.
JENNY
Just go.
Marcus stands and looks at Jenny, waiting for her say
something. Jenny stares at the
ceiling.
Int. Ranch house - DAY
Jenny dresses in the bedroom. She puts on a smart business suit. She has put on makeup, however
subtly. She fiddles with the fit of
the clothes while studying herself in her full length mirror.
She stops suddenly and grabs a key and a chair from her
vanity. She takes the chair over to
the closet and stands on it searching in the upper reaches of the closet. Finally she pulls out a strong box and
sets it on the bed.
Pulling out the key, she unlocks the strong box and searches
through several pieces of priceless antique jewelry. She puts a bracelet on and closes the
box, locking it tight.
Int. visitor's room at the county jail - day
Jenny sits across from CLAYTON O'RILEY. They are seated at an old wooden table
in a stark empty room. Clayton
immediately starts speaking.
Clayton
OK. I was having an
affair. We were together twice,
tops. I didn't kill her,
Jenny. I didn't kill her.
JENNY
Hello, Clayton.
CLAYTON
You really shouldn't be wearing that stuff around town.
(sarcastically)
They might think we're rich or something.
Jenny rubs her hand on the antique bracelet.
He leans towards her.
CLAYTON
Did he get the envelope?
Did he?
Jenny nods.
Clayton leans back in his chair.
JENNY
Clayton, the judge wouldn't take it.
CLAYTON
Good one. You've got
every right to screw with me, but I'm asking you now for a tiny bit fucking
compassion since I happen to be incarcerated.
Jenny lights up a cigarette.
JENNY
He wants me instead.
CLAYTON
What's that supposed to mean?
Jenny looks at him like he's an idiot.
ClAYTON
Oh, shit. You don't
have to do it. We'll think of
something else.
JENNY
You're a jerk, Clayton.
You are. But I'm not gonna
let my only family hang.
He looks at her and sighs.
CLAYTON
We'll give him more money.
JENNY
We don't have any more.
CLAYTON
(loudly)
He always wants more, more than a person has.
Jenny silently acknowledges him.
JENNY
Not so loud.
CLAYTON
You've got to sell the jewelry then.
JENNY
It was my mother's.
CLAYTON
It's the only way.
Jenny nods.
JENNY
I know.
CLAYTON
I love you, baby.
JENNY
I know.
Ext. OLD GAS STATION - DAY
Marcus pulls up on his bike.
POP, Marcus' father, stands beside a gas pump and watches him pedal
in. Pop is an older Native-American
man with the traditional long hair.
He wears old overalls.
Marcus heads straight for the office.
POp
Hey.
Marcus stops in his tracks.
MARCUS
What's up Pop?
POP
You've been to that white woman's house.
Marcus walks up to Pop.
MARCUS
So what if I was?
POP
If we continue to marry outside our own, we're gonna die
out. We'll just quietly go away,
just like they want us to.
Marcus shakes his head.
Ext. Town street - day
Jenny walks down a street near the center of the small western
town.
Marcus approaches her from out of nowhere on his bicycle. He gets off the bike and walks it beside
her.
MARCUS
Hey you.
Jenny picks up her pace.
MARCUS
I just wanna talk.
Jenny continues to speed up.
She doesn't look at him.
JENNY
I can't be seen with you.
Marcus struggle to keep up with the pace.
MARCUS
When can I see you?
Jenny shakes her head.
Jenny continues to walk without looking at him.
MARCUS
I've been sleeping up in the mountains because of you. Dad doesn't believe in our races mixing.
They come upon an intersection and Jenny turns left. Marcus stops.
MARCUS
I'm not giving up.
He bangs his head on the handle bars.
Int. Judge's office - night
The JUDGE's office is decorated in what can only be describe as
western rustic. Wild game trophies,
1800's style fixtures, and wooden floors.
A chess board sits on his large ancient desk. The pieces are placed on the board in
mid game.
The Judge, a man in his late forties with curiously long hair for
a man in his position. He studies
the chess board. He begins to move
a piece, then thinks better of it.
Jenny walks into his office causing the Judge to crack a slight
smile. She carries the strong box
in one hand.
Jenny pulls a wad of cash out of her jacket and tosses it on the
Judge's desk, obliterating the game.
Judge
That's OK. I know
where all the pieces were.
JENNY
Take the money.
JuDGE
You know I can't do that.
JENNY
It's all we've got.
Just take it.
The Judge shakes his head.
She sets the box on the desk next to the money and opens it so
the judge can see the diamond studded jewelry inside.
JENNY
This is what you want.
You've ruined us. Take it
and let him go.
The judge closes the box slides it towards him.
He gets up and walks towards her.
Jenny begins to shake slightly.
The Judge, standing behind her, caresses her face
with his hand, rubbing his finger across her lips. She faintly kisses the finger and closes
her eyes.
Ext. JuDGE'S OFFICE - night
Marcus stands next to his bicycle peering into the office
window. Through the diffused glass,
he can see Jenny and the Judge embrace.
Ext. Wilderness - night
Marcus sits by an extinguished fire in the wilderness.
He holds a bowl of soup in both hands. His face is painted with several colored
stripes.
He picks up a bottle of whisky and pours a healthy shot into the
bowl.
MaRCUS
Within my bowl there lies
Shining dizziness,
Bubbling drunkenness.
There Are great whirlwinds
Standing upside down above us.
They lie within my bowl.
A great bear heart,
A great eagle heart,
A great twisting wind-
All these have gathered here
And lie within my bowl.
Now You will drink it.*
He takes a sip from the bowl and throws the rest into the fire.
Int. JudGE'S OFFICE - dAY
Several policemen and a police photographer surround the dead
body of the Judge. Killed, with his
robe on, on the floor of his office.
Ext. outside the ranch house - day
Jenny walks along the side of the house as she carries several
logs of wood in her hands. She
speeds around the corner of the house to find Marcus standing there, looking
all the worse for wear.
Jenny drops the wood.
MARCUS
I need you, Jen.
Jenny sighs.
MaRCUS
I took care of everything.
Just let me stay with you.
JENNY
No, you don't.
MARCUS
I love you.
JENNY
I don't love you.
Marcus appears surprised.
JENNY
Just go.
Jenny starts to walk away.
MARCUS
I killed him.
She stops.
Jenny, with tears in her eyes, her voice cracking.
JENNY
You what? Marcus,
you've ruined everything.
MARCUS
I took care of it.
Now we can be together.
Jenny grabs Marcus and hugs him, crying.
JENNY
Run. Run far away.
Jenny let's go of him and pushes him.
JENNY
Go!
Jenny bends down to pick up the wood. Marcus helps her. She walks towards the front door.
Marcus starts to follow her.
Jenny turns around.
JENNY
Go before you end up like me.
She walks into the house.
Marcus watches her enter the house.
He turns and walks towards his bike.
InT. rANCH HOUSE - mORNING - days later
Jenny sits in an empty house, no furniture or decorations as repo
men move her stuff out of the house into a moving truck.
EXT. firing squad - MORNING
A new morning and the last day for Clayton. Four or five people watch on as Clayton
is lead by a man in uniform towards a wall stacked with sandbags. He scans the crowd for his wife, she is
nowhere to be found.
He faces six men with rifles.
They raise their guns.
A bag is put over his head.
Ext. wILDERNESS - MORNING
Marcus, at his campsite, wakes up from a deep sleep. His face paint faded.
Ext. Field - DAY
Jenny walks through a large field.
The sound of six rifles
fired concurrently echoes through the air.
She lays down and falls gently asleep.
A Song plays: "These be seven curses only judge so cruel,
that one doctor cannot save him, that two healers cannot heal him, and that
three eyes cannot see him. That
four ears cannot hear him, that five walls cannot hide him, that six beggars
cannot buy him, and that seven deaths shall never kill him." **
The end.
*
"On Presenting an Enemy - Flayer With a Cup of Water"
translated by Ruth Murray Underhill.
From Earth Always Endures, poems selected by Neil Philip, Viking
Press: 1996.
** Lyrics from the Bob Dylan song "Seven Curses",
Bootleg Series Vol. 2 Columbia Records.
No comments:
Post a Comment