Birthday Girl Page #21

John thinks. It looks as if he's going to tell the whole

story. In the end he shrugs.

JOHN:

I don't know.

NADIA:

What was her name?

JOHN:

What's your name?

The fox cries out again.

NADIA:

Listen. It's definitely a fox. Now

I'm scared.

They listen to the fox crying in the night.

NADIA:

You know you can come under the

blanket.

JOHN:

It's alright.

The scene from bird's eye view. John lies back and stares at

the stars. Nadia curls up on the other side of the fire, and

hugs herself.

We push down closer and closer until we are on John's face.

The theme returns.

The cricket boys from John's Close stand in a line in the

middle of the street, bathed in flashing blue light. We pan

round and end on John's house.

It is surrounded with Police.

Police cars, Police Vans, plastic police tape "POLICE LINE.

DO NOT CROSS."

John's neighbours press against the tape as officers come

and go.

Inside the house is full of police, ransacking his possessions

and dusting fingerprints. A policeman is standing reading

The English-Russian Dictionary.

We push on upstairs and along the landing to the spare room.

An officer dumps a pile of porno magazines and videos on the

bed. He then spots the belts tied to the bedstead and points

them out to a detective. They exchange a knowing grin. A

photographer steps up and snaps the paraphernalia in a

blinding flash.

The birthday cake is there, half eaten. A Policewoman puts

it in a baggy.

We pan across the bed, across the magazines and underwear in

plastic bags, down below the bed, where we find the photograph

of Nadia with the binoculars.

The young girl smiles hopefully out at us from the past.

Early dawn. A woodpigeon coos. John wakes up next to the

dead fire. Nadia is gone.

EXT. FOREST SLOPE / STREAM - DAY

John slides down a rocky slope. He scans the forest, but

there's no-one around. He hurries through high bracken then

stops suddenly by a large oak.

EXT. STREAM - DAY

In a pool in a stream below, Nadia is washing herself. She

has her back to us.

John watches her for a moment, before his eyes avert, and

his head bows.

EXT. FIELD - DAY

A shimmering sun. A giant combine harvester cuts a wide swathe

through a field of high corn. As it passes we find John and

Nadia coming towards us through the heat haze.

They aren't speaking and both look tired. As they pass we

crane up out of the corn to catch an enormous 757 Jumbo Jet

just above us, coming into land. We pan round to see, half a

mile away, the massive airport beyond.

They walk towards it, two tiny figures.

CUT TO:

Aeroflot 1311. Boarding Gate 12.

INT. AIRPORT - NIGHT

An attendant pushes a train of trolleys past. Businessmen

talk into mobile phones.

NADIA:

I've got an hour. Can I buy you a

coffee?

JOHN:

No. I think I better just go.

NADIA:

Okay. Thank you.

JOHN:

Whatever.

Nadia hesitates. There's just a touch of regret in this

goodbye.

NADIA:

John. These are for you.

She hands him the binoculars case.

JOHN:

Yeah. No thanks.

NADIA:

Please. Why not?

JOHN:

Because it was a lie.

She smiles.

NADIA:

No it wasn't.

John shrugs. He takes them.

NADIA:

Goodbye.

John nods and turns. Nadia watches him walk away.

INT. / EXT. AIRPORT EXIT - NIGHT

On the other side of the airport, John stands in front of

the exit to the taxi ranks. He's got nowhere to go. Passengers

swirl around him.

He looks at the binocular in his hands. He removes the

binoculars and looks at them. Suddenly he stops. In the case

is a folded note marked John. John holds it in his hands --

Slowly, deliberately, he screws it up, and drops it in the

case like a bin.

P.O.V. OF JOHN

Through the binoculars. Passengers criss-cross, but we find

Nadia sitting alone, waiting for her call.

John lowers the binoculars and gazes across the airport. He

raises them for one last look.

Nadia, glimpsed through the crowd. We spy someone standing

about twenty feet behind her. It is Alexei.

We watch Alexei approach her. She looks up and is completely

thrown.

Yuri stands about ten feet away, in shades.

John lowers the binoculars, horrified. He looks again.

Nadia pulls her arm away. Alexei crouches down in front of

her and puts a hand on her knee, coaxing her.

Alexei takes her by the arm and leads her away.

EXT. AIRPORT - NIGHT

John hurries out of the exit to catch the trio leaving a

different exit fifty yards away, where they get into a taxi.

EXT. AIRPORT - NIGHT

John runs across a car park and over a low fence.

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