Days of Heaven Page #10

ABBY:

You saw how modest he was?

BILL:

How'd you get along so long without a woman?

Chuck shrugs. Ursula makes a gesture as though to say by

masturbating. Chuck does not see it. Billy laughs. Abby

slaps her. The rabbit jumps out of the way.

ABBY:

Don't you ever behave that way at table!

(to Chuck)

She's adopted. I had nothing to do with her

upbringing. I'd trade her off for a yellow dog.

(to Ursula)

Now eat. You want to starve to death?

URSULA:

That's what you'd like.

Abby, overcome with impatience, throws her food to the dogs.

Ursula catches a grasshopper and holds it out to Chuck.

URSULA:

You give me a quarter to eat this hopper?

Chuck does not reply. She pops it into her mouth anyway,

enjoying his look of shock. Bill throws down his fork.

BILL:

All right, okay, nobody's hungry anymore. What's

the worst thing you ever did, Chuck? Besides missing church

and that kind of stuff.

Chuck thinks about this.

CHUCK:

Once I turned a man out in the middle of winter,

without a cent of pay. For all I know he froze.

BILL:

If you went that far, he must've deserved it.

What else?

CHUCK:

He didn't. I fired him out of resentment.

BILL:

Well, you're the boss, right? That's how it

works. Got to make decisions on the spot. Anyway, this

guy-what's his name?--if I know his kind, which I do, he's

probably doing okay for himself, got a hand in

somebody else's pocket for a change. Is that all?

CHUCK:

All I can think of right now. How about

yourself?

BILL:

(to Abby)

He wants to know. I'm not going to count setting

Blackie's

on fire either. He had it coming.

BILL (con't)

(pause)

Once I punched a guy while he was asleep.

Chuck looks surprised. Bill glances at Abby, worried that he

might have said too much.

BILL:

I was just kidding. Actually a guy I know did,

though.

ABBY:

Maybe he did it to you.

BILL:

Yeah. I think so.

Chuck gets up to ring for Miss Carter. Bill looks him up and

down. Chuck, though older, is physically more imposing.

URSULA:

Can I have the rabbit?

BILL:

Get serious. I can win money with him.

She licks his ear. He laughs.

URSULA:

I want that bunny.

BILL:

You still believe in Santa Claus.

Bill closes his eyes as he feels the soft fur of the rabbit.

Ursula looks around to make sure Chuck is gone, then wings a

roll at Bill. It bounces off his forehead. He retaliates

with a pat of butter.

127BENSON

Benson watches from another hill. He finds his

displacement by these newcomers a humiliating injustice.

128NEW ANGLE

Chuck returns to the table and draws Bill aside.

CHUCK:

Almost forgot. Here's your pay. Bill takes the

envelope Chuck holds out. Then, in a spasm of conscience, he

gives it back.

CHUCK:

hat's the matter?

BILL:

I got no right to.

CHUCK:

Why?

Bill is momentarily at a loss for words.

BILL:

I haven't worked hard enough to deserve it. I

been goofing off.I

CHUCK:

Don't be silly.

BILL:

Give it to charity or something.

(pause)

Don't worry. I always know to look out for

myself, because ifI

I don't, who will? See what I'm driving at?

Chuck sees a sense of honor at work in Bill here, and

though he considers the gesture misguided and a little

grand, admires him for it.

129EXT. BASESU

They play a game with big lace pillows for

bases. The

rules are unintelligible.

130NEW ANGLE

Bill is expert at throwing knives. As the others

watch, he goes into a big windup and pins a playing card to

the side of the house.U

Everyone seems happy and congenial. They have reached some

kind of plateau. Chuck's ignorance of the ruse does not

cause the others to treat him with less respect. They seem

themselves almost to have forgotten it.

131BILL AND ABBY'S POV - LATERU

Benson collects the bases, a job he doubtless

feels is beneath him.

The Doctor's wagon, unmistakable even at such a great

distance, thunders away from the Belvedere.

132TIGHT ON BILL AND ABBYU

Bill and Abby, waiting for Chuck to join them

for a swim,U

look questioningly at each other.S

133EXT. RIVER

Ursula, in her bathing suit, jumps from a ledge

above the river. She holds a big umbrella over her to see if

it will act as a parachute.

Bill and Chuck have a water fight. Abby wades in the

shallows with a parasol.

134TIGHT ON ABBY AND URSULA - LATER

Abby is teaching Ursula how to kiss.

ABBY:

Too like a mule.

URSULA:

(trying again)

What about that?

ABBY:

It's got to be--how should I say?-- more

relaxed.

They laugh and kiss again.

135NEW ANGLE

Farther up the slope Bill and Chuck wring out

their bathing suits. Bill, thinking of the Doctor's visit,

puts a hand on Chuck's shoulder. This time Chuck does not

stiffen or ease it off.

BILL:

You okay?

CHUCK:

Sure. Why?

Bill shrugs, beaming with admiration for this man who does

not burden others with his secrets.

BILL:

I appreciate everything you've done for Abby. I

really do. You've given her all the things she always

deserved. I got to admit you have.

Chuck looks off, embarrassed but oddly pleased. Bill

snatches up a handful of weeds and smells them.

.

136CRANE SHOT

Returning home they portray the movements of the

sun, earth and moon

relative to each other. Abby is the sun and keeps up a

steady pace across

the prairie.

Chuck, the earth, circles her at a trot, giving

instructions. Bill, with the

most strenuous role of all--the moon-- runs around Chuck

while he circles Abby.

137EXT. PRAIRIE - SERIES OF ANGLES

They play golf on the infinite fairway of the

prairie. Bill and Abby make a team against Chuck and Ursula.

Nightingales call out like mermaids from the sea.

BILL:

You liking it here?

(she nods)

Feel good?

(she nods)

Feels good to feel good.

He smiles, satisfied that he has done well by her, and lets

a new ball slip down his pant leg to replace the one he

played.

138NEW ANGLE

Ursula, meanwhile, grinds Abby's ball into the

dirt with the heel of her boot. She winks at Chuck. Chuck

smiles back.

CHUCK:

What's your mother like?

URSULA:

Her? Like somebody that just got hit on the

head. She used to pray for me. Rosary, the stations,

everything. "Hey, Ma," I tell her, "I ain't crippled." They

don't know, though. They say you're in trouble. They don't

know.

(pause)

My dad, the same way. Thought the world owed him

a living. He drowned in Lake Michigan.

139EXT. BELVEDERE

They walk home. Bill stays behind to work on his

strokes. Ursula sends the dogs after the balls.

BILL:

You shag them, not those dogs. They might choke

or run off with them.

URSULA:

Who made you the boss? Shag them yourself.

BILL:

Listen, some day all this is going to be mine.

Or half is. Somebody like that, you want to get on his good

side, not give him a lot of gas. You want to do what he

says.

He steps off a few paces of his future kingdom and draws a

deep breath.

BILL:

This reminds me of where I came from. I left

when I was six. That's when I met your sister.

He looks at the land with a new sense of reverence. He

snatches up a handful of grass and rolls it between his

palms.

BILL:

I can't wait to go back to Chicago, bring them

down for a visit. Blackie and them. There's a lot of

satisfaction in showing up people who thought you'd never

amount to anything.

(pause)

I'd really like to see this place run right. I

got a lot of ideas I'd like to try out.

Rate this script:3.0 / 3 votes