Beloved Page #15

END OF MEMORY.

C.U. on SETHE as she remembers Baby Suggs words, sitting

alone in the clearing - the images of the past gone.

EXT. WOODS - SAME TIME.

Beloved has found her and watches from a hidden place...

Camera moves beyond her to find;

Denver, having followed Beloved, watches her from a distance.

EXT. A CLEARING IN THE WOODS - EARLY MORNING.

Sethe remembers Baby Suggs advice:

BABY SUGGS (V.O.)

..God lead you home... So now, lay'em

down, child. Sword and shield..Don't

study war no more. Lay all that mess

down. Sword and shield...

SETHE:

Lay'em down...sword and shield.

Sethe weeps...She slides to the ground and holds her head to

weep. She covers her head from God and cries AS SHE LETS THE

MEMORIES COME..memories she can no longer fight from coming;

CUT TO:

SETHE'S MEMORIES;

EXT. SWEET HOME - A NIGHT REMEMBERED.

SETHE IS IN THE SAME BENT OVER POSITION only here, her back

is exposed and she is being beaten by the Schoolteacher's

boys. The BOY BEATING SETHE never stops with the whip for a

second as he rants;

BOY BEATING SETHE

N*GGER TRASH..OPENING YOUR MOUTH...

SECOND BOY:

YOU GONNA KILL HER! YOU BETTER STOP!

BOY BEATING SETHE

I'LL KILL HER ALL RIGHT...NEVER OPEN HER

MOUTH 'BOUT ME AGIN....

They beat her mercilessly.

EXT. FIELD - NIGHT.

Sethe, tear stained, bloody and very pregnant fights her way

through a corn field as she makes her escape..

Her dress hangs torn at the back - her wounds open and

bleeding. Her feet already swollen and blistered. She is in

agonizing pain. She moves like a figure in a nightmare.

CUT TO:

A SERIES OF IMAGES IN WHICH WE SEE SETHE STRUGGLING THROUGH

DAYS AND NIGHTS OF WALKING AND HIDING, IN VARIOUS LOCATIONS

AS SHE MAKES HER WAY ACROSS THE STATE.

THE FINAL IMAGE IS:

EXT. ONION FIELD - DAY.

Sethe falls to the ground unable to move - her contractions

have started and the pain is unbearable.

Her breasts are leaking on her sweat stained body. Her legs

are scratched and bleeding from moving through broken twigs

and rock. On her back, the tree is starting to form.

She lays there waiting for death. Until a VOICE ASKS:

AMY (OS)

WHO THAT BACK THERE!

Sethe can not answer as she hears TWO FEET moving through the

field. She clutches her pregnant stomach as if somehow she

might hide it from whoever might be coming to harm her.

A RAGGEDLY LOOKING WHITE GIRL with arms like cane stalks and

enough hair for five heads steps through into view.

AMY:

Look there. A n*gger. If that don't beat

all...

Sethe can not speak for fear.

AMY:

Man, you 'bout the scariest looking

something I ever seen. What you doing

back up here?

Sethe manages to control her breath and push out the word;

SETHE:

Running.

Amy looks at Sethe's swollen, bloody flesh at the end of her

legs.

AMY:

Them the feet you running on? My Jesus

my...

SETHE:

(semi-delerious)

Am I in Ohio?

AMY:

Ohio! Fool girl - you in Kentucky. You

'bout a thousand miles from Ohio.

SETHE:

(murmurs to herself)

I'm still in Kentucky.

AMY:

You got anything on you, gal, pass for

food?

SETHE:

No, ma'am.

AMY:

I like to die I'm so hungry. Thought

there might be huckleberries. That's why

I come up here. You having a baby?

SETHE:

I expect this baby ma'am is gonna die in

these wild onions.

Amy doesn't know what to do with that information. So..

AMY:

Well, I got to eat something.

Any stands and looks as if she's about to leave when Sethe,

feeling the girl is safe, stops her with a question.

SETHE:

Where you on your way to, miss?

AMY:

(eager to tell)

Boston. Get me some velvet. It's a store

called Wilson. I seen pictures and they

have the prettiest velvet.

SETHE:

Boston - is that far?

AMY:

Farther than Ohio.

SETHE:

Must be velvet closer by.

AMY:

Not like in Boston. Be so pretty on me.

You ever touch velvet? Or even seen it?

SETHE:

If I did, I didn't know it. What's it like?

Sethe desperately wants her to stay - to not be alone. Amy

kneels back down to her, curious now;

AMY:

What they call you?

SETHE:

(lies)

Lu.

AMY:

What you gonna do, just lay there and

foal?

SETHE:

I can't get up.

AMY:

What?

SETHE:

I can't get up.

Amy wipes her nose and looks up beyond Sethe.

AMY:

There's a house back yonder. Well, not a

house with people in it - more like a

lean-to near the river.

SETHE:

How far?

AMY:

Make a difference, does it? You stay

here, snake might get you.

SETHE:

Well, he may come but I can't stand up,

let alone walk...and God help me, I can't

crawl.

AMY:

Sure you can Lu..come on..

Amy helps Sethe turn over onto all fours.

EXT. ONION FIELD - DAY...MINUTES LATER.

Amy walks beside Sethe as the latter painfully crawls, taking

moments to stop and let the pain go through her.

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