Devil in a Blue Dress Page #5

24.

24 CONTINUED:
24

CORETTA:

Dupree run through his money, fall

asleep on me. And you just gonna

walk out on me like I was dog

food...

EASY:

You got a man in the other room...

Why don't you tell me 'bout your

friend Daphne?

Coretta strolls up to Easy, pressing her body against his.

CORETTA:

Why you keep askin' 'bout her?

Colored women ain't good enough for

you no more?

She undoes a button on his shirt and kisses his chest, and

unbuttons another working her way down. Easy sweats harder

than when he was lifting Dupree.

EASY:

What if he hears somethin'?

CORETTA (O.S.)

Way he snorin'?

ON THE SOFA - MINUTES LATER

CORETTA:

Oh yeah, daddy. You hittin' my

spot! Oh yeah... yeah!

The top of her dress undone, Coretta is straddling Easy who

is hitting her spot and his too, in a rhythm. Eyes

closed, he bites his lip to hold in the ecstasy so as not to

awaken Dupree, who is sawing logs -- shredding 'em -- in the

bedroom.

Suddenly Coretta tears herself off of him and sits back on

his knees. Easy writhes and shakes like a power line

shorting out.

CORETTA:

(coy, shy)

Oooh, that's just too good, Easy.

Easy tries to pull her back but she twists down to the

floor.

CORETTA:

I can't give up that much love,

daddy, not the way things is.

25.

24 CONTINUED:
(2) 24

EASY:

(out loud)

What things?

She shushes him with a finger and twists her head toward the

bedroom.

CORETTA:

You know, Dupree's right there in

the next room.

EASY:

(full voice)

Forget about him! You got me

goin', Coretta!

Coretta quiets him again and he comes back to his senses.

CORETTA:

But it ain't right, Easy. Here I

am doin' this right in the next

room and all you doin' is nosin'

after my friend Daphne...

EASY:

Daphne?

(and then remembers)

Oh, yeah... I ain't after her,

baby. That's just a job.

CORETTA:

What job?

EASY:

Man wants me to find her.

CORETTA:

What man?

EASY:

Who cares, what man? I don't want

nobody but you...

He pulls her toward him but she pushes him away.

CORETTA:

But Daphne's my friend--

Frustrated, he sits back against the sofa and Coretta,

sensing that he is snapping out of her spell, slides forward

onto him giving him her spot again. And within moments

they are back at it.

26.

24 CONTINUED:
(3) 24

CORETTA:

Oh, baby. Oh, daddy, you hittin'

my spot! Oh, yeah...

EASY (V.O.)

I went on hittin' her spot until

just before sun-up.

DISSOLVE TO:

25 EXT. CORETTA'S HOUSE - DAWN 25

The sky is light purple as Easy stumbles down Coretta's

porch. She waves half-heartedly and closes the door as he

straightens his clothes and looks around for any "witnesses"

on his way to his car.

DISSOLVE TO:

26 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - DAY 26

Easy's Pontiac pulls to a stop in front and he gets out.

EASY (V.O.)

It occurred to me that Coretta had

found out a lot more about what I

was up to than I had wanted her to.

But I had found out that the rich

man's woman had a colored

boyfriend... It had cost me a

sawbuck to get Coretta to give me

that information... Well, let's

just say somethin' had cost me ten

dollars.

27 INT. EASY'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - LATER 27

Golden morning light streams in through the window.

Outside, a dog is barking at a bird on the fence.

Coffee percolates on the stove and Easy walks over and pours

himself a cup. He moves to the breakfast table and sits

down by the window looking out onto the street as he opens

up a blue envelope in a stack of mail.

Gradually he begins to silently mouth the words and sits up,

his eyes getting bigger until he finds himself reading

aloud.

EASY:

"Since Etta Mae has left me and I

am a bachelor I figured I could

come out and visit and we burn down

the town...

(MORE)

27.

27 CONTINUED:
27

EASY (CONT'D)

Write me and tell me when's a good

time."

(looks up)

Aw sh*t.

28 EXT. EASY'S HOUSE - DAY 28

Easy waters his lawn in deep thought.

EASY (V.O.)

The letter from Mouse was worrying

me in more ways than one... All I

had to do was call Albright to earn

the hundred dollars I already had

in my pocket... But the last time I

got money that easy I got it from

Mouse -- fifty dollars -- And the

next day I had to join the Army to

leave town.

FLASHBACK:

29 INT. STOLEN CAR - NIGHT 29

A younger Easy is driving, his hair greased up high in a

pompadour with a pencil line moustache framing his top lip.

A man in a wide brim Homburg hat looks away out the

passenger window.

MAN:

Drive to the trainyard, Easy!

Let's dump this damn thing.

EASY:

(suddenly alarmed)

This ain't your friend's car?

What'd you do Mouse?

MOUSE:

(still looking away)

Just drive this sumbitch!

The drone of the engine takes us

30 BACK TO SCENE 30

A TRUCK with a whole family's belongings tied down onto a

flatbed rolls up. A WOMAN and a bunch of KIDS fill up the

cab.

Bye, Easy!

WOMAN:

28.

30 CONTINUED:
30

EASY:

Where you goin', Sophie?

WOMAN:

Back to Texas... It's too fast for

me out here.

She waves and keeps on trucking.

He watches her wistfully and then catches sight of

THE WOODCUTTER across the street in a neighbor's front yard,

axe in hand, about to swing on a lemon tree.

EASY:

Get away from there!

He picks up a rock and throws it, and then chucks another

sending the scruffy vagabond wheeling his barrow off down

the street.

Easy shuts off the water and walks back up on his porch.

picks up a glass of lemonade that sits at the foot of a

chair on top of

He

A NEWSPAPER:

A front page heading reads "CARTER'S WITHDRAWAL LEAVES TERAN

ON TOP." Below it

A PHOTOGRAPH of a smiling Matthew Teran, with lips too thick

for a white man, getting out of a limousine.

31 O.S. THE PHONE IS RINGING. It's 31

LATER - NIGHT

Easy is asleep on the porch. Finally, he wakes up to the

ringing and heads into the house.

32 INT. EASY'S HOUSE - BEDROOM 32

Easy flops on the bed and lifts the phone off a cherry wood

nightstand.

Hello?

EASY:

O.S. VOICE

Mr. Rawlins, I've been expecting

your call.

What?

EASY:

29.

32 CONTINUED:
32

O.S. VOICE

I hope you have good news for me.

EASY:

Mr. Albright, is that you?

ALBRIGHT:

Sure is, Easy. What's shakin'?

Easy clears his head. He has slept away the day.

EASY:

I got what you want. She's with--

ALBRIGHT:

Hold on to that, Easy. I like to

look a man in the face when we do

business. Meet me at the

Fisherman's Pier in Malibu at the

hamburger stand in an hour.

EASY:

Uh... I don't know about that Mr.

Albright -- Mr. Albright?

He realizes that Albright has hung up, and swears under his

breath.

33 EXT. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - NIGHT 33

The headlights from Easy's car illuminate the cliffs that

fall alongside the winding two-lane highway.

34 INT. EASY'S CAR - NIGHT 34

Easy is cautious, checking the rearview mirror more often

than usual.

EASY (V.O.)

I wasn't used to going to white

communities, like Malibu, to

conduct business. Champion

Aircraft was in Santa Monica but I

drove out there in the daytime, did

my work and came home. I never

loitered nowhere except among my

own people, in my own neighborhood.

A35 EXT. MALIBU PIER - PARKING LOT - NIGHT A35

The lights from the pier can be seen in the distance as Easy

parks his car. And the voices of teenagers in raucous

conversation can be heard above Glenn Miller's big band

playing "Silhouette In The Moonlight" on the jukebox.

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