Even Cowgirls Get The Blues Page #21

The crowd cheers.

UNDERSECRETARY VOICE

....The cranes have built brooding

nests around the whole circumference

of the small lake, and have...

EXT. FIELD DAY

Cowgirls are watching a small television.

UNDERSECRETARY:

....hatched chicks there. Counting

the young birds, there are now

approximately sixty cranes in the

flock. While this is good news, it

is also quite bewildering...

EXT. RUBBER ROSE RANCH DAY

A vehicle know as "the peyote wagon" pulls out of the Rubber

Rose. Delores del Ruby is at the wheel. And over her truck

radio we hear:

UNDERSECRETARY (V.O.)

...Whooping cranes are territorially

minded and have never been known to

nest as close as a mile to one

another, yet here they are virtually

side by side.

EXT. HILL DAY

A lone FBI man sees the peyote wagon leaving the ranch through

his binoculars.

INT. CAR NIGHT

Sissy hears a broadcast over a moving car radio.

NEWS REPORTER:

The Rubber Rose Ranch has issued a

communiqué that was sent to the

federal judge and copies of a

recording to the press, today.

We can hear the voice of Bonanza Jellybean:

JELLY:

(over the radio)

THE WHOOPING CRANE HAS BEEN DRIVEN

TO THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION BY AN

AGGRESSIVE, BRUTAL PATERNALISTIC

SYSTEM INTENT ON SUBDUING THE EARTH

AND ESTABLISHING ITS DOMINION OVER

ALL THINGS -- IN THE NAME OF GOD THE

FATHER, LAW, ORDER AND ECONOMIC

PROGRESS.

Sissy recognizes the voice.

SISSY:

That's Jellybean!

JELLY (V.O.)

FROM MEN, THE WHOOPING CRANE HAS

RECEIVED NEITHER LOVE NOR RESPECT.

MEN HAVE DRAINED THE CRANE'S MARSHES,

STOLEN ITS EGGS, INVADED ITS PRIVACY,

POLLUTED ITS FOOD, FOULED ITS AIR,

BLOWN IT APART WITH BUCKSHOT.

INT. RANCH OFFICE

Jelly is on the telephone.

JELLY:

OBVIOUSLY, A PATERNALISTIC SOCIETY

DOES NOT DESERVE ANYTHING AS GRAND

AND BEAUTIFUL AND WILD AND FREE AS

THE WHOOPING CRANE. YOU MEN HAVE

FAILED IN YOUR DUTY TO THE CRANE.

NOW IT IS WOMEN'S TURN. THE CRANES

ARE IN OUR CHARGE NOW. WE WILL PROTECT

THEM AS LONG AS THEY STILL REQUIRE

PROTECTION --

INT. HOSPITAL RECOVERY ROOM DAY

Sissy listens to the radio.

JELLY'S VOICE

WHILE WORKING TOWARD A DAY WHEN THE

CREATURES OF THE WORLD NO LONGER

HAVE TO SUFFER MAN'S EGOISM,

INSENSITIVITY AND GREED. WE REFUSE

YOUR ORDER. WE SAY TAKE YOUR ORDER

AND SHOVE IT. THIS FLOCK OF BIRDS IS

STAYING WITH US. GET LOST, MAC.

EXT. ROAD DAY

Sissy is hitchhiking with her new thumb. But cars pass one

after another without stopping. Until Sissy finally tries

her left thumb, which has been spared the knife.

With this thumb there are new maneuvers to try out. And as

soon as the does, a car stops.

MOSAIC of hitchhiking brilliance with Sissy's use of her

left thumb. A CLOCK IS TICKING past twelve then on to six

and past eight.... she dances wildly around traffic, stopping

the hardest of drivers, THE CLOCK TICKS AWAY and within thirty

hours she is approaching Mottburg again.

EXT. RUBBER ROSE DAY

The Ranch is now surrounded by two hundred federal marshalls

reinforced by a dozen FBI agents with loaded guns taking

position outside the ranch.

Sissy gets out of her car and walks past the posse and through

the gates.

Kym carries a radio which is playing "The Day-Old Apple

Strudel Polka" across the corral. She carries the radio as

if it is a suitcase full of skunk lice.

KYM:

Man, this is the stupidest music

I've ever heard. This radio should

have stayed in the privy where it

belongs.

Kym ropes the radio to her saddle horn and prepares to give

it a ride across the Dakota hills. She gets on her horse and

rides by the Ranch bungalows and spies Sissy sitting in the

outhouse.

SISSY:

Howdy.

Kym gets off her horse and hugs Sissy.

KYM:

You know what you're getting into if

you come over to the lake...

SISSY:

Yes, but I want to be there. I want

to see Jellybean. I want to see the

cranes.

THEY RIDE ACROSS THE HILLS. Then they stop at an outlook and

Sissy sees the circular barricade in the field below.

KYM:

We heard on the radio that the judge

has set Delores's bail at fifty

thousand dollars. Now she won't be

here when we really need her.

EXT. CAMP DAY

A few cowgirls in the camp huddle around a radio:

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