Big Fish Page #17

Go back to the start. Right hand only.

The piano starts again. FOOTSTEPS.

The door opens to reveal a blonde woman in her 50’s -- the

woman from the grocery store. Her name is Jenny Hill.

She and Will are startled to see each other.

JENNY:

Oh. Oh.

WILL:

Hello.

92.

JENNY:

I wasn’t expecting you.

Confused, Will checks the name on the form.

WILL:

Are you Jenny Hill?

JENNY:

I am. And you’re Will. I’ve seen yourpicture, that’s how I recognize you. I

almost said something at the store, butit would have been awkward.

(a beat)

Like this.

The PIANO STUDENT, a black boy of eight, has stopped. He’s

watching the conversation at the door. Speaking ofawkward...

JENNY (cont’d)

(to the student)

Listen, Kenny. Why don’t we skip thelesson today? We can go again nextweek.

She hands him five dollars out of her pocket.

STUDENT:

Do I have to give it back to my Mom?

JENNY:

I won’t tell her if you won’t.

You don’t have to tell him twice. He’s out the door in a

flash.

INT. JENNY’S KITCHEN - DAY

While Will sips his iced tea, Jenny flips through a form shenever expected to see again. She hands it back to Will.

WILL:

How did you know my father?

JENNY:

This was on his sales route, so he wasthrough here all the time. Everyone intown knew him.

A beat. Not flinching...

93.

WILL:

Were you and my father having anaffair?

JENNY:

(taken aback)

Wow. Wow, you just said it. I was

expecting to dance around this foranother half hour.

WILL:

I’ve seen him with women. He flirts.

He always has. On some level, Ipresumed he was cheating on my mother.

I just never had proof.

She moves, trying to get out of the corner he’s boxed herinto. Once she’s finally free...

JENNY:

Can I ask you a question? Why did youcome here today? If you found thisdeed, why didn’t you just ask Eddie?

WILL:

Because he’s dying.

A long beat. Jenny is taken back by the suddenness of it.

She’s a tangle of conflicting emotions.

JENNY:

Look, I don’t know how much you want toknow about any of this. You have one

image of your father and it would bewrong for me to go and change it.

Especially this late in the game.

WILL:

My father talked about a lot of thingshe never did, and I’m sure he did a lotof things he never talked about. I’m

just trying to reconcile the two.

Fair enough. Jenny takes a seat across from him at thetable.

JENNY:

The first thing you have to understand,

is that your father never meant to endup here. And yet he did, twice. The

first time, he was early. The second

time, he was late.

94.

INT. EDWARD’S CAR / DRIVING - NIGHT

It’s late, and Edward is pensive.

JENNY (V.O.)

Those days, your father was working forhimself. If there was one thing youcould say about Edward Bloom, it’s thathe was a social person, and people tooka liking to him. One night he wasreturning from three weeks on the road,

when he hit a thunderstorm unlike anyin his life.

The first raindrops hit the windshield. Edward turns on the

wipers.

INT. EDWARD’S CAR - NIGHT - [THE STORM]

Suddenly, a deluge descends. It’s not even rain anymore --

there’s no space between the drops. It’s like being caughtin a waterfall. It’s that loud.

No choice, Edward stops the car. Puts on the handbrake.

Just as suddenly, the sound changes -- no longer pounding,

but softly SPLASHING. The world is close and echoing,

because -

EXT. EDWARD’S CAR - NIGHT

-- the car is underwater. The tires are still on the road,

but where there used to be air is water.

Three catfish swim in front of his headlights.

INT. THE CAR - NIGHT

Realizing his plight, Edward tries to remain calm. Water is

trickling in through the crack between the window and thedoor, but very slowly. For now, he’s fine.

That’s when he sees her -- The Girl in the River.

She’s swimming outside the car. While we never see her face

exactly, she remains just as beautiful, just as mysterious,

as the first time we saw her.

She puts her hand to the windshield. He puts his up to meethers. And smiles.

FLASH CUT TO:

95.

EXT. FIELD BY DIRT ROAD - DAY

It’s morning, and the sun shines brightly. Birds CHIRP.

Trees drip and the grass shines, still wet from last night’srain.

Edward gathers the clothes that have spilled out of hissuitcase, which broke open when he dropped it from

HIS CAR,

which balances precariously ten feet up in an elm tree. As

Edward gathers his last pair of socks, he notices a shinypiece of metal sticking out of the dirt. He pulls it out,

rubs it off.

It’s a key. It’s the Key to the City he lost years ago.

JENNY (V.O.)

Fate has a way of circling back on aman, and taking him by surprise.

EXT. ROAD - DAY

Carrying his busted suitcase, a tired Edward walks toward aone-street town in the distance. We pass a rusty sign...

“Welcome to Spectre.”

EXT. MAIN STREET - DAY

Amazed and disbelieving, Edward walks down the center of theroad, no cars coming from either direction. He looks up tofind his faded shoes still dangling from the power line,

along with the rest of the town’s.

JENNY (V.O.)

A man sees things differently atdifferent times in his life. This town

didn’t seem the same now that he was

older.

EXT. TOWN OF SPECTRE - VARIOUS SHOTS

We look around the town, on and off Main Street. There are

“FOR SALE” signs in many of the windows

JENNY (V.O.)

A new road had brought the outsideworld to Spectre, and with it, banks,

liens and debt. Almost everywhere youlooked, people were bankrupt.

96.

EXT. SPECTRE - DAY

We slowly MOVE THROUGH a foreclosure auction to find Edwardwatching. Two very corporate MEN IN SUITS, stick out amongthe bidders.

JENNY (V.O.)

Two different corporations were lookingat buying the town, if they could getthe price low enough. One wanted to

open a chicken processing plant. The

other, a municipal dump. Either way,

Spectre would be destroyed.

Edward raises his hand.

EDWARD:

Fifty-thousand!

Everyone turns to look at this new bidder.

JENNY (V.O.)

And so Edward Bloom decided to buy thetown, in order to save it.

INT. NORTHER WINSLOW’S MANHATTAN - DAY

Edward pitches his plan to Norther.

JENNY (V.O.)

He was never a wealthy man, but he hadmade other men rich, and now he askedfor their favors.

INT./EXT. VARIOUS LOCATIONS - DAY

VARIOUS SHOTS:
Expressive and passionate as always, Edwardtalks to Ping, Jing and Amos Calloway.

JENNY (V.O.)

Most of them had never seen Spectre --

they only had Edward’s words todescribe it. That’s all they needed.

He sold them on the dream.

JING:

You can structure it as a historical

trust. But you’ll need everycontiguous piece of property. It’s all

or nothing.

As Edward takes notes...

97.

JENNY (V.O.)

So first he bought the farms. Then he

bought the houses. Then he bought thestores.

INT. AL’S COUNTRY - DAY

Finishing up with AL, Edward shakes hands.

JENNY (V.O.)

Whatever he bought, the people were notasked to leave or pay rent or anything.

They were just asked to keep doing asthey were doing. In that way, he couldmake sure the town would never die.

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