Days of Heaven Page #12

ABBY:

This is terrible for us both.

CHUCK (o.s.)

Abby?

They jump as Chuck calls up from downstairs.

ABBY:

Down in a minute.

She kisses Bill.

148EXT. BACK DOOR OF BELVEDERE

Bill sneaks out the back door of' the Belvedere,

only to find Benson drinking at the well. They look at each

other in silence for a moment. Benson's horse stands beside

him, a suitcase fixed to the saddle.

BENSON:

I know what you're doing.

BILL:

What're you talking about?

BENSON:

That boy's like a son to me. Don't you forget

it. I know what you're doing.

Benson gets on his horse, turns and rides off. Miss Carter

waves goodbye from the side of the house. She and Bill

exchange a look.

149EXT. FRONT PORCH

Bill finds the others around front. Abby lolls

in the hammock writing in her diary and eating a peach.

Ursula plays the guitar.

Little by little the newcomers have done the house over from

the austere structure that it was. Living room furniture has

been moved out onto the front lawn and there arranged as

though by a child. Goats sleep on the divan. Archery targets

hang from the side of the house. The porch is covered with a

striped awning, bird cages and twirls of bunting. Everywhere

an atmosphere of drunken ease prevails.

BILL:

Nice fall day.

URSULA:

Wish I'd said that.

BILL:

(to Abby)

Watcha doing?

ABBY:

Eating a green peach. 'Spect to die any minute.

BILL:

Listen, I had a great idea. Let's spend

Christmas in Chicago. Break

up the old routine. Rhino's never been to a baseball game or

a horse

race. I know guys one month off the boat that have. Don't

even

speak the English language, but they eat it right up.

(pause)

You're just a young guy, Rhino; you oughta be

running around

raising hell. No offense to the little woman.

He bows apologetically to Abby. She pinches a dead leaf off

a plant.

CHUCK:

Abby says that in the poor section people eat

cats.

BILL:

Did you, sis? Well, there's always something

doing. I can't

begin to tell you. State and Madison? Mmmm. Lights

everywhere.

You'd love it.

CHUCK:

It can be rough, though.

BILL:

Rough? Listen, you can't walk down the street

without somebody

reaching in your pocket! You've got to keep your coat like

this

and poke them away.

ABBY:

Bill got shot once. The bullet's still in him.

CHUCK:

Really?

BILL:

Doctor said he took it out, but I never saw it.

Hurt like a bastard.

You got no idea how it hurt.

Suddenly he worries this might discourage Chuck from going.

BILL:

They won't mess with you, though. Big fella like

you. I can see it

now.

He offers a taste of the talk Chuck is like to provoke on

the street corners.

BILL:

"Hey, hey, hey. Who's this here, fresh out of

the African Jungle,

moving down the sidewalk with a whowhowho, taking ten feet

at a step

and making all the virgins run for cover? Why, it's Big

Rhino, the

King of Beasts. He walks, he talks, he sucks up chalk."

Bill steps back and sees, as though for the first time, how

imposing Chuck really is.

BILL:

You are big, aren't you? Sunny Jim! You must've

had a real moose

for an old lady.

ABBY:

Take it easy.

But Chuck holds none of this against him. He knows it comes

from respect.

BILL:

So what do you say?

(pause)

What a sorry outfit! Bunch of old ladies. You

better stay behind.

Your mammas'd probably get upset.

But when the time comes, I'm out of here. Hit the road,

Toad!

Ursula passes the sandwiches around until there is just

one left, Miss Carter's. While the others are talking,

she scoops up a handful of dirt and pours it into the

middle.

Bill, lighting a cigarette, notices Chuck's hand on Abby's.

BILL:

Ever seen a match burn twice?

CHUCK:

No.

Bill blows out the match and touches Chuck's hand with

the hot ember, causing him to yank it away.

BILL:

That's old.

Chuck starts to cough. Bill looks at Abby, then whips the

handkerchief out of his pocket and puts it over his nose, as

though to keep from getting Chuck's germs.

Miss Carter's face goes blank as she bites into her

sandwich.

She jumps up and rushes back into the house. Chuck frowns.

Bill glares at Ursula, then turns to Chuck and, referring to

the dead prairie grass which runs through the front yard

right up to the house, continues:

BILL:

You ever thought of putting in some fescue here?

Some fescue grass?

Of course, it might not take in this soil.

Chuck stands up and winds a stole, a long religious scarf,

around his neck.

CHUCK:

You ready?

BILL:

I still have a little of this sore throat. Where

you going, though?

CHUCK:

To kill a hog.

BILL:

What's the necktie for?

(pause)

Or does it just come in handy?

CHUCK:

Keeps the stain of guilt off.

Chuck nods goodbye and walks off, taking a stool with him.

Bill sighs with admiration.

BILL:

I try and try.

ABBY:

What a splendid person! I've never met anybody

like him!

BILL:

Splendid people make you nervous.

ABBY:

They do! I breathe a sigh of relief when they

step outside the room.

Bill puts on his boater and opens a copy of the Police

Gazette.

They are silent for a moment.

BILL:

A guy ate a brick on a bet. Must of busted it up

first with a hammer. Guy in New York City. Where else?

(Jumping up)

Anybody want to bet me I can't stick this knife

in that post?

Nobody takes him up on this. Abby leafs through the

Sears catalogue, her mind dancing with visions of splendor.

150TIGHT ON CATALOGUE

Pictured. in the catalogue are bath oils and

corsets and feathered hats. A grasshopper is perched on the

page among them, its eyes blank and dumb.

151TIGHT ON ROSE

Bill watches her run her finger slowly around

the closed heart of a rose. Suddenly they both look at each

other. They have heard the squeals, faint but unmistakable,

of a hog being led to slaughter.

152TIGHT ON STOOL - QUICK CUT

Chuck has tied the hog's feet to the inverted

legs of the stool.

153OTHER QUICK CUTS

Ursula, off by herself, skips rope.

A flag on the pole by the front gate snaps in the breeze.

From the branch of a lone tree the hog dangles by its hocks

into the mouth of a barrel.

154EXT. BELVEDERE - ABBY'S POV FROM SECOND

FLOOR WINDOW:

Miss Carter storms down the hill with her bags.

Fed up, she is leaving the bonanza. Chuck tries in vain to

appease her. She keeps walking, out the front gate and into

the prairie on a straight course for the railroad tracks.

Chuck will now be alone at the Belvedere with the newcomers

and no other point of reference.

155EXT. CLOTHES LINE

Later that afternoon, Bill catches sight of

Abby's underthings rustling on the clothes line.

156INT. STAIRS

That evening he watches her from behind as she

climbs the stairs to join Chuck at their bedroom door. She

nods goodnight, sensing the jealousy that is growing in him.

157INT. MASTER BEDROOM

Chuck looks impatiently through a drawer.

CHUCK:

I can't find anything around here. Last week it

was my gloves; this

week my talc. What's going on?

He stands and watches Abby get ready for bed. She fills him

with a deep adoration. He feels that in the tulip of her

mouth at last he has found heaven.

CHUCK:

You're beautiful.

ABBY:

You don't think my skin's too fair?

He comes up behind her and touches her long hair.

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