At First Sight Page #21

SOPHIE bounding across the floor towards them - tail wagging -

tongue hanging out.

VIRGIL:

Sophie!?

And he bends down to hug her. Sophie laps at his face. Virgil holds

her back to get a good look at her.

VIRGIL:

Let me look at you.

You're so beautiful.. yes.

Jennie watches her brother - happy to have him home. Hoping to get

him back to 'normal'.

INT. VIRGIL'S HOME - LATER

Virgil walks around, touching things, seeing the simplicity of his

life. Nothing on the walls - no decorations - no plants. Everything

functional. He realizes this is a home designed by his sister.

He moves over to the photo of the family. He on his dad's shoulders.

Stares at it - at his father and mother for the first time.

JENNIE:

Mom and dad.

Virgil just stares.

JENNIE:

Everything's as you left it.

Nothing's changed.

VIRGIL:

Jen - I'm pretty tired -

I'd like to be alone.

The PHONE rings. Rings again. Virgil doesn't move - his apprehension

is clear - he knows who it is. Jennie sees this and moves toward the

phone.

Virgil turns and walks out onto the front porch - followed by

Sophie, as his sister picks up the phone in the background.

EXT. VIRGIL'S PORCH - NIGHT

He sits down - looks into the night as we hear Jennie faintly on the

phone. A beat and she hangs up. We hold on Virgil:

EXT. PINECREST STREET - DAY

Virgil walks down Main street. Seeing his town - a town he grew up

in but now seems so foreign. Virgil seems oddly disturbed by what he

sees.

The yellow bus drives by - full of kids - Carl at the helm. Somehow

it's not what he expected.

INT. ROSWELL-TRRMONT DESIGN FIRM - DAY

Amy organizing all her work on the Atlanta project - - the original

designs - the new design with the trees - then she sees:

The sketch she made of the "dancing trees". Her eyes hold - and she

slowly shuts them - and with them tightly closed - her hand reaches

out and runs along the drawings.

EXT. PINECREST - END OF MAIN STREET - DAY

We find Virgil standing - looking out at the end of the street where

he stood with Amy. In front of him he sees:

The "dancing trees".

VIRGIL'S POV - a retinal spark - a quick glimpse of the intertwined

trees - one lover choosing between two others.

INT. FIREHOUSE - LATE DAY

Virgil - stands in the middle of the room. Looks about at what was

at one time so special to him. Now it just seems old and dingy - the

magic is gone.

He closes his eyes for a moment - listens - c*cks his head to the

left - the right - but there is nothing there.

EXT. TOWN LIBRARY - LATE DAY

Virgil standing outside - staring at a building he's never seen -

never been inside.

HIS POV:
flickering a moment.

INT. LIBRARY - SUNSET

Virgil now sits at a table. Stacks and stacks of LIFE magazine

splayed out in front of him. He is flipping through them at a rapid

rate - like a drowning man searching for air.

IMAGES - cars, JFK, the pyramids, Martin Luther King, houses,

flowers, Marilyn Monroe, that Napalm burned little girl in Viet Nam,

African masks, Dachau prisoners, Nixon, Warhol paintings, the Mona

Lisa, that vulture watching over the little baby, the Eiffel tower,

First Man on the moon, the Venus De Milo, that guy in front of the

tank in Tianaman square .. and the Pyramids.

The pictures go by fast and furious - Virgil soaking them up like a

sponge - life, beauty, horror, great people, great events...

And we move in on his face - absorbing these images for the last

time - a face filled with anguish at a world disappearing. And we

cut to:

EXT. AMY'S ROOF - SUNSET

Golden rays of the late afternoon sun. Amy on the roof - leaning on

the parapet - watching the horizon.

Then a thought comes to her. And mimicking what Virgil had done -

she walks back to the other end of the roof, turns and looks out

towards the skyline again ... then starts slowly walking towards the

parapet till she reaches the wall again.

The reaction on her face - she doesn't "see" it - not like Virgil

did.

INT. VIRGIL'S HOME - DAY

Virgil is shifting furniture in his house. A table - moves it to the

window - moves a chair to join it - stands back to have a look at

it.

HIS POV - a moment of clear - then haze - then dark - then haze.

Virgil rubs his head - these last days of sight have been painful

and exhausting for him.

JENNIE (O.S.)

Hello!

She's at the door. Virgil c*cks his head in her direction.

JENNIE:

I picked up some things at the store -

T-shirts, I'm sure you're out, some socks...

VIRGIL:

Jennie, what's at the

end of Main Street?

JENNIE:

Well - I think it's Vivian's little stationery...

VIRGIL:

Beyond all the stores - past firehouse.

What happens when this is no more Main Street?

JENNIE:

Well - there's nothing really - you know that. ~

VIRGIL:

No! You told me that's all there was.

That's wrong. There's a helluva lot out there.

Jennie surprised at where this is going.

JENNIE:

I told you what you needed to know.

VIRGIL:

What was within my reach.

JENNIE:

What more do vou want?

VIRGIL:

Isn't there anything more that vou want?

JENNIE:

Is this about our father -

he called told me...

VIRGIL:

No. This isn't about him. Jennie -

you've spent your whole life as

blind as I was. The world doesn't

stop within our reach.

JENNIE:

Virgil, please. This is your home.

Stop thinking about what's out there

- things that will never matter to you.

You're safe here where everyone...

VIRGIL:

Where everyone what!?

JENNIE:

Knows you.

VIRGIL:

Can protect me?! (beat)

Jennie, this place was a wonderful safe

haven for me growing up. I know that.

(looking around)

And I can only imagine what you gave up

to keep this world for me. I thank you

and love you from the bottom of my soul.

But now I want to give you your life back.

JENNIE:

Virgil, I - I can't...

VIRGIL:

You can

Virgil reaches out his arms for her to join him.

VIRGIL:

I'm reaching out, Jennie.

This gets Jennie and she goes to him, really hugging him for the

first time as tears flow from her eyes.

INT. AMY'S LOFT - LATE DAY

Amy, dressed in sweat pants and tee shirt sitting on the ground,

trying to piece the sculpture back together. It's a difficult fix.

KNOCK KNOCK:

DUNCAN:

Amy - you in there.

AMY:

Go away.

She scrapes some plaster into a dust pan. We hear enters a key in

the door - and the door opens. Duncan

DUNCAN:

I knew keeping this key would come in

handy one day. What a mess - what happened?

AMY:

It broke - I'm trying to fix it.

DUNCAN:

So - guess what?

AMY:

I'm not in the mood for games.

DUNCAN:

We got it. The goddamned Atlanta mall -

we got it!! Now - pull yourself out of this

slump - I want you to fly down this week to...

Continuing to work on the sculpture.

AMY:

I'm not going.

DUNCAN:

What are you ta1king about?

What's the problem here?

AMY:

The problem?! Everything.

Nothing is right thank-you very much.

DUNCAN:

You know what the problem is - you're

the problem - you met a blind guy you

thought was cool and spent the first

two months trying to change him.

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