Awakenings Page #10

Sayer disappears into the kitchen again. And a moment later .

glances back in around the door frame at Leonard who has moved .

over to an old sideboard on which several pairs of glasses are

neatly arranged. •/•

SAYER:

Each has a specific purpose.

REV. 10/13/89 p.59

As Leonard considers each pair of glasses ...

SAYER:

Those are my normal interior

glasses. And spare pair. Those,

I wear outside. Two pairs, in

case I los.e one. Those, those are

my daytime reading glasses. And

spare. Those are for close work.

For fine print. Those are my

nighttime reading glasses -.

Leonard's examining the frames of this last pair closely.

SAYER:

That's heavy-gauge metal so when I

fall asleep and roll over on them

I don't wreck them. They're

indestructible.

Leonard returns the indestructible ones to their proper place

and considers them all together.

SAYER:

As long as I pretty much know

ahead of time what I'll be looking '

at, it works out, I don't have to

carry all five pairs around.

LEONARD:

What if you just want to go for a

walk?

SAYER:

(pause)

Walks are a problem. Walks are

the hardest thing. You just never

know.

He's absolutely serious, like a man plagued for years by an

imponderable dilemma. He retreats back into his kitchen before

reappearing again with the pot of tea, two mismatched cups and

some saltine% on a tray.

SAYER:

I hope you'll forgive the

inelegant presentation. I don't

entertain much. •/• .

113. INT. SAYER'S LIVING ROOM -DAY 113.

They've cleared places on the sofa and chair and sit there

Q sipping their tea. *

REV. 10/13/89 p.60

SAYER:

I can date my interest in science

ppreciselyy, actuallyy. I'd been

sent offff to bboarddiing schhooll -a

place perhaps not quite as

Dickensian as I remember it -when

*

I happened to come across the

periodic table of elements.

(smiles at the

thought)

I memorized it. Which I admit was

a rather precocious thing for a

seven year old to do. And I

rememberfeeling ... notsomucha

senseofaccomplishment ... as

comfort. The halogens were what

they were. The alkali metals were

what tyheywere. Each element had

its place, and nothing could *

change that. They were secure, no *

matter what. *

Leonard nods, perhaps more out of politeness than *

understanding. Sayer nods too, feeling, perhaps, a little *

exposed.

LEONARD:

You're not married. :

* It seems to Sayer a non sequitor. *

SAYER:

No.

He smiles. Sips his tea. Silence except for the ticking of a *

clock somewhere. Then, very matter of factly

SAYER:

I'm not terribly good with people.

I like them. I wish I could say I

had more than a rudimentary

understanding of them.

(pause)

Maybe if they were less

unpredictable ...

He shrugs. Silence again.

LEONARD:

Eleanor would disagree with you. *

Sayer stares at him blankly. He doesn't seem to know who

Eleanor11 is.

".*

REV.10/13/89 p.61

SAYER:

-~

^r*

/til**)

z^

Eleanor?

LEONARD:

Miss Costello.

SAYER:

Oh, yes, of course.

(uneasy)

She's spoken to you about me?

Leonard nods. Sayer can't imagine why, nor what she might have

said. Fearing the worst —

SAYER:

What'd she say?

LEONARD '

That you're a kind man. That you

care very much for people.

Sayer shifts in his chair uncomfortably.

a.

LEONARD:

But you meant normal people.

Sayer seems at a loss as to how to respond. The accompanying

silence grows awkward. 7

SAYER:

We should be getting back.

Sayer crosses over to the sideboard, to the pairs of glasses,

stares at them for several moments, and picks up two pairs.

114. OMITTED 114

114A. EXT. PARKING LOT -BAINBRIDGE -DAY 114A.

Climbing out of his car, Kaufman sees Sayer striding toward

him. He glances to the sky, Kaufman, to God, and silently

complains to Him.

'4

115. INT. STAFF CAFETERIA, BAINBRIDGE -LATER -DAY 115

Cafeteria workers carting serving trays back to the kitchen.

Nurses and orderlies and office workers at tables with finished'

meals and cups of coffee. They seem unaware of Drs. Sayer and

Kaufman at a table near the door.

KAUFMAN:

When yyou sayyexppensive, what are

we talking about?

SAYER:

made out in her name. Kaufman turns it over. She has endorsed

it back to Bainbridge Hospital.

Fernando walks by and out, leaving his salary check on the

table. Then Ray, the pharmacist, leaving his. Then the nurse

who reluctantly read "Moby Dick" to the patients. Then a

cafeteria worker. A secretary. A clerk. A janitor.

The cafeteria is soon empty, except for Sayer and Kaufman.

Long silence.

116. INT. BOARD ROOM -NIGHT 116

8mm film of Leonard before L-Dopa — a wide shot of him

absolutely motionless in his wheelchair.

SAYER O.S.

There was extreme rigidity of the

axialmusculature. .. onlyvague

available motion intheneck . ..

no voluntary movement in the

limbs...

A tight shot of Leonard's entranced face appears on the screen.

SAYER O.S.

Perhaps most striking was the

profound facial masking --which

we now know should not have been

confused with apathy. *

Tight on Sayer, the light from the projector flickering on his

face.

SAYER:

Virtually aphonic, Mr. Lowe could

articulate no words, but rather

only, with considerable effort, an

occasional noise, a kind of,

"Ah..." •

In the darkness sit Kaufman, the rest of the Board of

Directors, some elderly patrons of the hospital, and, near

Sayer, Miss Costello. She hands him a scribbled note.

"Less scientific" it reads.

SAYER:

Isolated circumstances — the

mention of his name, notes of

particular pieces of music, the

touch of another human being —

managed on occasion to briefly

summon him, but these awakenings

were rare and transient, lasting

only a moment or two.

Sayer glances to Miss Costello. She nods, "Good, that's

better."

SAYER:

The rest of the time he remained

in a profoundly eventless place ~

deprived of all sense of history

and happening and self —

encysted, cocooned, enveloped in

this metaphorical if not

physiological equivalent of sleep

... or death.

Tight on the screen, on Leonard, as he was. Looking more like

a photograph of a man than a motion picture of one.

SAYER:

This was his condition when first

seen by me in a remote bay of this

hospital. And the quality of his

life for the last 30 years.

The "before picture" of Leonard on the screen is replaced with

the "after" — his eyes alert, his hands exploring a desk

microphone. He glances up and off at something.

LEONARD (FILM)

Now?

SAYER'S VOICE

Whenever you're ready.

LEONARD (FILM)

My name is Leonard Lowe. It has

been explained to me that I have

beenawayfor. .. quitesome

time...

He seems to withdraw, to wrestle with the thought, to try to

somehow come to terms with it, to somehow resolve it. He nods

as he finds within himself some source of strength and looks

directly at the camera.

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