Beloved Page #3

DENVER:

(nods)

I saw a white dress kneeling next to you

when you was praying.

SETHE:

White? Maybe it was my bedding dress.

Describe it to me.

DENVER:

Had a high neck. Whole mess of buttons

coming down the back.

SETHE:

Buttons. Well, that's not my bedding

dress. I never had a button on nothing.

What else?

DENVER:

A bunch at the back. On the sit down

part.

SETHE:

A bustle?

DENVER:

I don't know what it's called.

SETHE:

You say it was holding on to me. How?

DENVER:

Kneeling next to you while you were

praying. I mean, talking. It looked just

like you.

SETHE:

Well, I'll be.

DENVER:

I think it was a sign. I think maybe

baby's got plans.

SETHE:

What plans?

DENVER:

I don't know, but that dress holding onto

you got to mean something.

SETHE:

Maybe. Maybe it does.

Sethe smiles sympathetically for her lonely child. They hear

a sound in the house - floor boards creaking.

DENVER:

She's crawling again.

Sethe nods and holds her daughter's hand as they listen.

FADE OUT;

SUPER:
1873.

FADE IN;

EXT. 124 BLUESTONE ROAD - DAY.

C.U. - PAUL D. GARNER.

Paul stands on the road, gazing up at the house. Grateful

he's arrived, cautious about what he'll find, he steps

towards the porch. His clothes are ragged. His feet sore and

blistering in his shoes.

EXT. THE PUMP - DAY.

Off to the side of the house, Sethe washes her feet and legs

at the pump. She looks up and sees Paul's figure walking

towards the house. The sun blazes in her eyes. She can't make

out who it is, or whether or not he's even real. As he

reaches the porch, Paul disappears from view.

Sethe walks towards the front of the house. When she is

little more than forty feet away, she stops - still not

certain Paul is a real man or an hallucination of the past.

SETHE:

Paul? Paul D.? Is that you?

PAUL:

(smiles)

What's left.

(He rises)

How you been girl, besides barefoot?

Sethe jams her balled up stockings into her pocket. She

smiles like a little girl, not able to believe her eyes.

SETHE:

You looking good.

PAUL:

Devil's confusion. He lets me look good

long as I feel bad.

SETHE:

How long has it been?

PAUL:

'Bout eighteen years, I figure.

SETHE:

Eighteen years.

PAUL:

And I swear I been walking every one of

them. Mind if I join you?

He begins taking off his shoes.

SETHE:

You want to soak them? Let me get you

some water.

PAUL:

No, uh, uh. Can't baby feet. A whole more

tramping they got to do yet.

SETHE:

You're not leaving right away, are you?

You stay awhile.

PAUL:

Well, long enough to see Baby Suggs,

you..Where is she?

SETHE:

Dead.

PAUL:

Aw no. When?

SETHE:

Eight years now. Almost nine.

PAUL:

Was it hard? I hope she didn't die hard.

SETHE:

Soft as cream. Being alive was the hard

part. Sorry you missed her though. Is

that what you came by for?

PAUL:

That's some of what I came for. The rest

is you.

Sethe doesn't know what to do with her eyes when he says

this..she looks away instinctively. Paul realizes that may

have sounded too intimate so he leans back and sighs:

PAUL:

The truth be known, I go anywhere these

days. Anywhere they let me sit down.

SETHE:

Come on inside.

PAUL:

Porch is fine. Cool out here. Sit with

me.

Like a nervous little girl, Sethe takes a sit beside a man

for the first time in years, folding her sweat stained skirt

beneath her.

PAUL:

So Baby Suggs is gone. Somehow never

thought death would find her.

SETHE:

It finds everyone.

PAUL:

We managed well enough without meeting

it.

SETHE:

I suppose.

Awkward pause. Sethe tries to find the words to a difficult

question - but one that is foremost in her mind;

SETHE:

I wouldn't have to ask about him, would

I?...You'd tell me if there was anything

to tell, wouldn't you?

Paul knows instantly she is asking about Halle.

PAUL:

You know I would. But I don't know any

more about what happened to Halle now

than I did then.

Something about Paul's expression might suggest he's keeping

something from her. He turns his gaze outward as he says;

PAUL:

You must think he's still alive.

SETHE:

No. I think he's dead. It's just not

being sure that keeps him alive.

PAUL:

What did Baby Suggs think?

SETHE:

Same. Ha, listen to her, all her children

dead and she felt each one go the very

day and hour it happened.

PAUL:

When she say Halle went?

SETHE:

1855. Same day my baby was born.

PAUL:

You had that baby, did you? Damn, never

thought you'd make it. Running off

pregnant.

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