Days of Heaven Page #13

CHUCK:

You're smart, too, aren't you?

ABBY:

I know what the Magna Carta is.

CHUCK:

Can I help you brush it out?

ABBY:

Not right now.

She is cold to discourage false expectations in him--and

because she feels that she at least owes Bill this. Chuck,

however, assumes the fault must be his own. His naivete

about women, and the world in general, protects

the conspirators--and protects him, too, for he glimpses

enough of the truth not to want to know any more.

CHUCK:

What makes you so distant with me?

ABBY:

Distant? I don't mean to be.

CHUCK:

You know what I'm talking about, though. You

aren't that way

with your brother.

158INT.ATTIC

Bill, eavesdropping in the attic above them,

surveys Chuck's dusty heirlooms.

CHUCK (o.s.)

It must be something I'm doing. I wish you'd

tell me what, though.

159INT. BEDROOM

These gentle endearments, so rarely heard from

Bill, stir her deeply. She throws herself in his arms.

ABBY:

Oh, Chuck I Please forgive me. Does it mean

anything that I'm

sorry?

CHUCK:

(pleased)

But I don't blame you. Did I make it sound that

way?

ABBY:

You should. You have a right to.

CHUCK:

It's just that sometimes I feel I don't know you

well.

ABBY:

You don't. It's true.

CHUCK:

I think you love me better than before, though.

She rubs her cheek against his hands. Daily she feels warmer

toward him. How much of this is love, how much respect or

devotion, even she cannot say.

160TIGHT ON BILL - LATER - NIGHT

The night throbs with crickets. Bill cracks open

the bedroom door. Chuck lies asleep in a shaft of moonlight

next to Abby. He hesitates a moment, but a strange

compulsion drives him on. He has never done anything

so dangerous, or had so little idea why.

161INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT

Abby wakes up to find him staring her in the

face. He kisses her. Chuck stirs. Abby signals they should

go outside.

162EXT. BELVEDERE - DAY FOR NIGHT

They sneak out of the Belvedere. The night is

warm.

ABBY:

You're no good.

BILL:

Mmmm. But I love you.

ABBY:

I can't stand it any more. This is just so

cruel. We're both no

good. I've got to get drunk with you, Bill. You know what I

mean?

Drunk.

Bill wags a bottle. The dogs, awakened, bay from the kennel.

They wait a moment to see if a light will go on in the

house, then dart off toward the fields. A plaster lawn dwarf

seems to watch them go.

163EXT. FIELDS - DAY FOR NIGHT

They run through the fields, hand in hand,

laughing and flirting. The moon makes Abby's nightgown a

ghostly white.

ABBY:

We can never do this again, though. Okay? It

really is too dangerous.

BILL:

This one night.

He toes a sodden old shoe.

BILL:

Hey, I found a shoe.

164SHOE, COYOTES, SCARECROW - DAY FOR NIGHT

The shoe gleams in the moonlight. Coyotes yelp

from the hilltops. A scarecrow spreads its arms against the

sky. The waving fields of wheat have given way to vast

reaches of cleanly shaven stubble, stained with purple

morning glories. Odd, large stakes are planted among them.

165NEW ANGLE - DAY FOR NIGHT

BILL:

You want me to spin you around?

She nods okay. He takes her by the hands and spins her

around the way he used to--until they go reeling off, too

dizzy to stand.

166EXT. RIVER BANK - DAY FOR NIGHT

They lie by the river looking at the great dome

of stars. Bill wants to believe things are the same between

them as before. So does Abby--but she knows better.

BILL:

Suppose we woke up tomorrow and it was a

thousand years ago. I

mean, with all we know? Electricity, the telephone, radio,

that kind of

stuff. They'd never figure out how we came up with it all.

Maybe

they'd kill us.

She looks at him, and they laugh.

BILL:

You sleepy?

ABBY:

This is the first time we slept together in a

while, Bill.

BILL:

You like it?

ABBY:

Of course.

BILL:

Kiss me, then.

ABBY:

It's so sweet to be able to kiss you when I want

to.

167NEW ANGLE

Before the marriage his lovemaking was gentle

and soft. Now it has a brutal air, as though he were

asserting his right to her for the last time.

168TIGHT ON ABBY - DAWN

Dawn is breaking. Abby jumps to her feet,

alarmed. They have slept too long.

169EXT. BELVEDERE - DAWN

They have run back to the Belvedere. It seems

they are safe until Chuck appears on the porch, yawning and

stretching. Bill drops to the ground while Abby goes ahead.

Abby appears at one side of the house while Bill steals

around the other. Luckily, they have come up from the back.

CHUCK:

Abby! I've been looking all over for you. Where

have you been?

While she distracts Chuck, Bill slips back in the house. It

has been a close call.

ABBY:

Watching the ducks.

CHUCK:

Didn't you sleep well?

ABBY:

No.

170TIGHT ON ABBY (DISSOLVE TO PAGE, THEN TO

URSULA)

Abby looks sympathetically at Chuck. Her face

dissolves into a page of her diary and from there to Ursula,

balancing an egg on her fingertip.

ABBY (o.s.)

Chuck saw Ursula balance an egg. He begged her

to repeat this trick,

but she wouldn't.

171TIGHT ON CHUCK

Chuck tries to reduplicate Ursula's feat. Abby,

amused, reaches out and touches his face.

We wonder if, despite herself, she might be falling in love

with him.

172EXT. BELVEDERE

Bill watches the Doctor walk out the front door

and down the steps to his wagon. Chuck follows, smiling.

ABBY (o.s.)

The Doctor came. Chuck looked pleased for a

change.

173EXT. PRAIRIE - BILL'S POV

The Doctor's wagon rolls off across the prairie.

ABBY (o.s.)

Tomorrow the President passes through. Plans

have changed, and he can't stop.

174EXT. RAILROAD TRACKS - DUSK

They have come down to the railroad tracks to

watch the President pass through.

URSULA:

We should have brought a flag.

ABBY:

Does she have time to ride back and get it?

Abby and Bill hold hands. Chuck by now is accustomed to such

displays. They seem, however, to make Abby increasingly

uncomfortable.

175MOVING TRAIN - THEIR POVS

The train bursts past at twenty yards, its great

light rolling like a lunatic eye. Bill's heart pounds with

excitement. Chuck holds Abby by the waist. Ursula waves a

handkerchief... They cannot make out anything specific in

the windows, but there is the sense of people going more

important places, getting on with the serious business of

their lives - while out here they stagnate.

Dimly visible, on the back platform of the caboose, a MAN in

a frock coat salutes them with his cane.

The train has quickly vanished into the declining sun.

Everything is quiet again. Ursula rushes up the grade to

collect some pennies she laid on the tracks.

ABBY:

Did you see him wave?

CHUCK:

He was shorter than I expected.

BILL:

How do you know it was him?

ABBY:

I saw! He had a hat on.

BILL:

You didn't understand my question.

They walk back to the buggy. Ursula holds up a dead snake

she found on the tracks.

URSULA:

You know what I'm going to do with this? Take it

home and put it in

vinegar.

BILL:

That was the President, shortie. Wake up.

Bill watches Chuck help Abby into the buggy. She is laughing

about something or other. His hand lingers for a moment on

hers. She does not brush it aside, as once she might have,

but to Bill's dismay, presses

it against her breast. Chuck seems to have breathed a hope

into her that he, Bill, was never able to.

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