Awakenings Page #14

196C. INT. PHARMACY -NIGHT 196C

Drifting across Leonard's dosage schedules, minute milligram

changes leading to vanishing point of health, across the scale,with

nothing on it, and reaching, finally, Sayer, alone in the

room, surrounded by racks of medicine and no solution.

He glances up. Mrs. Lowe has appeared in the doorway,They

consider each other for a long moment before:

MRS. LOWE

When my son was born healthy,

I never asked why. Why was I sp

lucky, what did I do to deserve

this perfect child, this

perfect life?

Silence. Her face toughens.

MRS. LOWE

But when he got sick, you can bet

I asked why. I demanded to know

why. Why was this happening?

Silence. Then with an almost philosophical shrug:

MRS. LOWE

There was nothing I could do

about it. There was no one I

could go to and say, "Stop this,

please stop this, can't you see

my son is in pain?"

SAYER:

He's fighting, Mrs

MRS. LOWE

He's losing.

o

REV.12/5/89 (BLUE) Pg.

196C.CONT. 196C.

Sayer almost recoils, as if from a slap. Silence. Then: *

MRS. LOWE

The truth is . . . I wouldn't mind

if he lost ...

(long pause)

I know you can't understand how I

couldsay such athing ...

CONTINUED:

€

REV. 10/2/8EV. 10/2/89

PAULA:

(p

(p

.. II wwoorrkkeedd......IIhhaaddffrriieennddss

over . . . I went dancing . . . that's

about it .. .

Leonard, ticcing, nods, smiles through his grimace, imagining

those things.

PAULA:

I know, I should do something with

my life. •

LEONARD:

Like what? Those are great

things. I've never done any of

those things.

PAULA:

You will.

Leonard shakes his nead 'no.'

LEONARD:

They'll never let me out of this

place. They shouldn't.

They consider each other for several moments — the one, young

and healthy; the other, old and ill.

LEONARD:

I'm not well. I feel well inside

when I see you. I wish you could

see what's inside. Instead of

this.

PAULA:

I can see it.

Silence. As much as Leonard wants to say "I love you," he

knows he cannot, that it would be ludicrous. Instead:

LEONARD:

Goodbye. •

He holds out one of his shaking hands to her. She reaches to

it, places her hand on it, holds it, and the shaking slowly,

slowly, slowly begins to subside.

She lifts him gently out of his wheelchair and leads him away *

from the table. She arranges his arms in such a way that he is

sort of holding her and begins to slowly dance with him.

(REV. 10/16/89) Pink p. 10

199. CONT.

. 199.

Some patients glance up from their food. Servers glance up

from their work. All watch with a sort of reverie the couple

CO:

dancing without music. They watch as Leonard's tics gradually

disappear. They watch as he finds a sense of grace and ease,

as he borrows her grace and ease. They watch him become,

simply, a man dancing with a woman.

From somewhere, perhaps imagined, there is music, a quiet

melody played on a piano.

200. INT.* DAYROOM -SAME DAY

200

Rolando's hands on the keys of the piano, playing the melody.

(NOTE:
Hay

want to shoot front end of this scene again without

Rolando to

leave open the option of using the same score Randy

writes for Lucy's walk to the window -SC. 51.)

Leonard, returning from the cafeteria, walks slowly into the *

room. He's bent, his arms at strange angles like the limbs of

a diseased tree, his legs managing each step only with great

concentration.

He nears the center of the room, the area of inconsistent tiles

which Sayer and Miss Costello long ago conformed with shoe

polish. Some of the black has worn off, and as Leonard reaches *

it, he finds himself thrown by the irregularity. He tries to *

step over to "the other side,11 but his feet or legs or mind

will not do it.

Everyone in the room except Rolando becomes acutely aware of

the problem, of the struggle, of Leonard fighting with all his

will, and nothing but it, to "cross over."

He-crosses the "barrier." And, with surer but still difficult

steps, passes -the drinking fountain.

Tight on the window. Leonard rests his gnarled hand on the

frame as he peers down at Paula walking away from the hospital.

She glances back briefly before disappearing around a corner.

Rolando's musdc CONTINUES OVER:

201. INT. EXAMINATION ROOM -NIGHT

201.

The original 8mm film of Leonard, h'is eyes alert, his hands

exploring the microphone. .

• ,, >"•>;> '•• •.'•••':'••."••.

. . LEONARD (FILM) •

NOW? • .••

•v.:
...

•..•' .

• * •..•.

f

. SAYER'S VOICE (FILM) . " ;: ..''.

:

Whenever youfre ready.

. "'•;

My name is Leonard Lowe. It has

LEONARD (FILM) .

been expplained to me that I have

been away for quite some time.

OQ:

Tight on Sayer,-alone in the darkened room, watching the

footage, watching Leonard wrestling with the thought.

I'm back.

LEONARD (FILM)

Light moves across the screen. Someone has entered. Miss

Costello. She exchanges a long glance with Sayer before they

both look back to the screen.

LEONARD (FILM)

I thought it was a dream at first.

Silence except for the sound of the projector. Then SAYER'S

VOICE (FILM)

When did you realize it wasn't?

Leonard thinks back, trying to recall the exact moment he

realized he was "alive.n Finally —

LEONARD (FILM)

When I spoke and you understood

me.

One tear snakes down Saver's cheek. The film cuts to silent

footage of Leonard, soon after his awakening, combing his hair

and delighting in the fact that he cjan comb it.

Quietly, without looking at Miss Costello —

SAYER:

You told him I was a kind man ...

(long pause)

It's kind to give life only to

take it away?

There is self-loathing in his voice. On the screen, Leonard's

trying to operate an electric shaver that seems alive.

MISS COSTELLO:

It's given and taken away from

all of us.

On screen, Leonard buttons buttons on his shirt and glances up

smiling, proud. Tight on sayer in the dark room, the projector

light flickering behind him. More to himself —

SAYER:

Why doesn't that comfort me?

MISS COSTELLO:

(quietly)

Because you are kind.

(pause)

And because he's your friend.

On screen, Leonard is beckoning to someone unseen. No one

appears but he keeps beckoning. Finally Sayer, embarrassed and

camera shy, appears. Though there is no sound, it is clear he

asks, "What?" Leonard turns the doctor so that he is facing

the camera, and points. Sayer again asks, "What?" "There,"

Leonard says. "Where?" Sayer demands. Finally, Sayer

looks directly, curiously, into the camera.

Rolando's music CONTINUES OVER: )

202. INT. DAYROOM -NIGHT 20

Through a window, autumn leaves on trees.

And the school yard beyond the field, quiet, deserted.

Pulling back, panes of glass. Across the walls of the dayroom.

Drawings and water colors, of people and: places.

To the arm of the metronome slapping back and forth.

And a twisted hand, a pen grasped awkwardly in it, writing

excruciatingly slowly, and just barely legibly:

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