Elle Page #15

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80.

They briefly exchange looks but there is otherwise noacknowledgement of what’s passed between them as he gets inhis car and drives away.

100 INT. MICHELLE’S HOUSE -- NIGHT 100

The light of a TV flickers in the den. Michelle blanklywatches the news, still in her party dress.

Michelle blankly watches the news, still in her party dress.

Michelle sits up a little straighter as a still photo of herfather appears behind the TV Anchor’s shoulder.

TV ANCHOR:

Parole was again denied for mass

murderer George Leblanc...

MICHELLE:

F*** you.

Michelle mutes the sound. The image cuts to a close-up of herfather sitting sullenly, alone at his parole hearing.

MICHELLE (CONT’D)

(trying differentintonations)

F*** you. F*** you. F*** you.

She turns off the TV. Gets up, moves to window. Looks acrossat Patrick’s house. The light of a TV flickers there too.

101 INT. MICHELLE’S HOUSE - STUDY - MOMENTS LATER 101

Michelle is on the phone. Her laptop open to the website ofthe GRATERFORD STATE PENITENTIARY.

MICHELLE (INTO PHONE)

Your website mentions visitors

allowing two hours for admittance

...is it better late in the day?

PRISON OFFICIAL:

No, ma’am. All visitors for the day

have to check in by 8:30 AM.

MICHELLE:

So, it’s a mob scene?

PRISON OFFICIAL:

It gets pretty crowded.

81.

MICHELLE:

Are there any days of the week thatare better than others?

102 EXT. PRISON -- DAY 102

It’s snowing as Michelle drives up to the GRATERFORD STATEPENITENTIARY. Leftover Xmas decoration on the gate look oddagainst this grim institutional backdrop.

103 INT. PRISON -- DAY 103

More odd bits of Xmas kitsch “liven up” the visitor-

processing area too. Michelle signs in. Before she even findsan empty orange plastic chair to sit in, a very solicitousAsst. Warden comes out to meet her.

ASST. WARDEN

Miss Leblanc? I’m Brent Jaffries,

the assistant Warden. Can I get youanything? A cup of coffee?

MICHELLE:

No. Thank you.

ASST. WARDEN

We can talk in my office, if youdon’t mind? It’s just here...

He gestures the way. Michelle nods, follows.

MICHELLE:

You should know I’m here just tospit in my father’s face. And Ican’t promise I’m only speakingmetaphorically.

ASST. WARDEN

People have all kinds of reasons.

MICHELLE:

I’m here because I’ve given thatbastard too much power over me.

Shunning him, fearing him. All thatwasted energy...

ASST. WARDEN

Miss Leblanc, your father is dead.

Michelle stops walking. She can’t believe it.

82.

ASST. WARDEN (CONT’D)

Shortly before eight AM thismorning, your father was founddeceased in his cell.

MICHELLE:

How...?

ASST. WARDEN

The incident is in the earliest

stages of being investigated but itseems he was able to fashion a

noose from his bedding and hangedhimself.

MICHELLE:

When...? When did this happen?

ASST. WARDEN

We only know it must have beenbetween 10 PM and the early morninghours.

MICHELLE:

Do you happen to know what time myfather was notified that I was

coming to see him?

ASST. WARDEN

(hesitant)

That would have been just before ten.

Michelle nods again, slowly.

104 INT. PRISON - MORGUE -- DAY 104

Michelle is led through a chilly storage room by the Asst.

Warden and an ATTENDENT in blue surgical cover-alls.

ASST. WARDEN

Your mother made arrangements foryour father to be cremated andinstalled in a vault next to one

she’d selected for herself.

MICHELLE:

She’s not there. She’s on mykitchen counter.

The Asst. Warden has no response. They arrive at a gurneywith a human-shaped lump under a sheet.

83.

MICHELLE (CONT’D)

I had a list of things I was goingto say. Nine bullet points.

The Attendant looks to her. She nods she’s ready. He pullsback the sheet. Her father looks like a peaceful old manexcept for the lurid laceration around his throat. Shestudies him.

MICHELLE (CONT’D)

He’d rather die than face me... I

killed him by coming here.

105 INT. PRISON - MORGUE -- MOMENTS LATER 105

Michelle stands in the same place as the Attendant ferriesthe coffin away on a forklift. She signs a form the Asst.

Warden hands her on a clipboard. The forklift has troublemaking a turn. The cavernous space is filled with the BEEPBEEP-

BEEP of the lift backing up.

106 EXT. ROAD -- DAY 106

Driving back home in a blizzard, Michelle fiddles with theradio. Michelle’s phone RINGS. She doesn’t recognize thenumber displayed on the dash. She answers, hands-free.

MICHELLE:

Yes?

REPORTER (O.S.)

Ms. Leblanc?

Michelle immediately regrets answering.

MICHELLE:

Who is this?

REPORTER (O.S.)

My name’s Emilie Fontaine. I’m withthe Parisien. I just wanted to askif you had anything you wanted tosay about your father’s passing...

MICHELLE:

How did you get this number?

REPORTER (O.S.)

I realize this is an awkward time

but I just wanted to give you theopportunity to go on record withyour thoughts, feelings...?

84.

MICHELLE:

My thoughts and feelings...?

Michelle is distracted as, obscured by falling snow, a DEERdarts across the highway. She cranks the wheel. The car goesinto a SKID...

107 EXT. ROAD -- DAY 107

Michelle’s car CRASHES into a ditch. Winds up on its side.

108 INT. CAR -- DAY 108

Michelle sits stock-still, in shock, held into her seat

against gravity by her seat belt. She only distantlyregisters that the reporter on the phone is still talking...

REPORTER (O.S.)

Anger, grief... relief, perhaps?

Michelle presses a button on the steering wheel to hang up.

She reaches over with a trembling hand and turns off theradio. She’s distantly alarmed to see blood. She investigatesand sees her leg is banged up pretty nicely by the buckleddashboard. She shakily presses a number on her phone.

ANNA (O.S.)

This is Anna. Please leave a...

Voice-mail. Michelle hangs up. She scrolls down to the nextname on her phone’s contacts list. Richard. It rings. Ringssome more. She hangs up. Looking around, something catchesher eye. A yellow scrap of paper in the well of the passengerseat. The flyer regarding the new trash can policy on herblock. She painfully stretches to pick it up.

There’s a black shoe-print on the flyer but Patrick’s phonenumber is still legible.

109 EXT. ROAD -- LATER 109

Rebecca’s car, a Honda Station wagon with a “St. Jude Pray &

Protect Us” bumper sticker pulls up next to the wreck.

Dutiful neighbor, Patrick gets out, bundled up, and goes tothe frosted driver’s side window. Michelle rolls it down.

PATRICK:

How are you feeling?

MICHELLE:

How am I feeling?

85.

PATRICK:

Any symptoms? Dizziness...?

MICHELLE:

(realizing what he meant)

Oh, no, I’m fine. I think... Exceptmy leg.

Patrick leans in, evaluates the situation. He reaches in. She

tenses a little as he puts his arm around her shoulder.

PATRICK:

You can take off the seat belt now.

She does. He holds her. Starts to laboriously lift her outthe window, ginger with his bandaged hand.

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