Kafka Page #11

KAFKA:

My assistants! You might as well

have fallen from the sky for all

the thought that was spent in

choosing you!

The Assistants look at each other sheepishly. Then smile at

Kafka, submissively or mockingly, it's hard to tell.

OSKAR:

It's not our fault. We're

naturally nervous.

LUDWIG:

And we're upset too.

KAFKA:

What's the matter with you?

OSKAR:

I can't make a simple statement

without him taking issue with it

KAFKA:

-- You should meet my father.

LUDWIG:

We've been together too long. His

personality is overflowing into

mine and vice versa.

OSKAR:

-- How would you like to be in a

horrible situation like that?

KAFKA:

He wouldn't. It's the nightmare of his life.

But now he's distracted again -- noticing Burgel walking away

from the Chief Clerk's office (without ever having seem him

actually enter it). And Burgel is carrying a parcel under

his arm.

KAFKA:

(to Assistants again)

All right, you might as well go

home -- go on.

The Assistants do as they're told, Oskar returning to his

desk to clear up, turning his back on Ludwig -- at which

Ludwig immediately rushes up very close behind him and shakes

his fist strenuously at him, turning away quickly when Oskar

turns around again to try and catch Ludwig at it.

Kafka isn't paying them any attention anymore. He

efficiently cleans up his own space, keeping an eye on the

Chief Clerk's office.

When the office bell RINGS the Chief Clerk immediately turns

off his desk lamp, puts on his overcoat, and shuts his office

light on his way out.

Kafka doesn't think twice. He forces himself to start

walking to the Chief Clerk's office. Other departing office

employees crisscross past him, but he walks in a straight

line, businesslike, toward the Chief Clerk's office. He has

a piece of paper in his hand. He enters the Chief Clerk's

office, holds the paper out to drop on the Chief Clerk's desk

-- but lets it slip off onto the floor. When he bends to

retrieve it he quickly opens that bottom drawer where

Eduard's file was -- but it's now empty.

CUT:

DARK STREET - EVENING

Burgel walks along, adjusting the parcel under his arm.

KAFKA:

Following him.

CUT:

ACROSS THE RIVER

Burgel heads into the Old Town.

KAFKA:

Pauses in some shadows. He glances up at the distance, the

way Burgel is going, up at --

THE CASTLE:

Almost glowing as it's outlined against the blue of the

darkening night.

CUT:

WHORES:

Giving Kafka the eye as he goes past doorway after doorway

filled with their frightening/tempting forms. But he tries

never to lose focus on the small form of Burgel further up

the street.

Men milling about, up and down the street, prostitutes

roaming amongst them, Kafka negotiating his way through. An

urgent moment when he almost loses Burgel -- then sees him

turning down an alley. Kafka hurries after him, avoiding a

pair of drunken louts in the way.

FURTHER ON:

The Castle visible, but still a little in the distance.

Kafka comes into view. He sees Burgel entering a building.

CUT:

UPSTAIRS HALLWAY

Very dingy. Burgel leaves the top of the stairs and walks

down to a room at the end.

DOWNSTAIRS:

Kafka waits momentarily at the bottom, then goes up.

HALLWAY:

Peeking around the corner, he sees a YOUNG GIRL embracing

Burgel in her doorway before letting him in.

CUT:

OUTSIDE:

Kafka comes out of the building. He hears a noise, turns

around, sees Burgel and the girl on the tiny baroque balcony

outside her room. Kafka retreats into the shadows. He

watches the girl unwrap the parcel Burgel's given her. She

smiles as a box of chocolates is revealed.

KAFKA:

Watches -- with an expression of guilt, sadness?

Until a door suddenly opens at his back. A MAN shuffles out

past him. A rather ugly WOMAN in a dressing gown holds the

door open, giving Kafka a cursory look. Beyond her inside, a

quick glimpse of MASOCHIST yelping as he's whipped.

WOMAN:

Well, what're you waiting for?

She's nodding him inside. Kafka backs away from her and her

invitation.

CUT:

DIRTY YARD - NIGHT

Kafka heads for the dilapidated building or the anarchists.

DINGY DOORWAY:

He goes through. A MOUSE scurries past him across the

threshold.

THE LOPSIDED STAIRWAY

Leads him up to the attic.

THE BEARDED ANARCHIST

Watches Kafka's approach. But sees nothing. His eyes are

wide open, but lifeless.

Kafka stops at the anarchists' table. They're all lying

around it on the floor except for the Pockmarked Anarchist

who's slumped over it, her face sunk in a pool of her own

blood.

The Youthful Anarchist lies on his back, mouth open, still

dribbling red. The Solemn Anarchist seems less than solemn

due to the almost comic, convoluted, broken-backed position

he's in. And the neck of the Bearded Anarchist is all

twisted.

Kafka just stares in disbelief -- then SCRATCH! -- a noise

from a spiral staircase close by, leading to the roof. Kafka

looks around in panic -- the attic entrance is too far to run

to and there's nowhere else to hide.

THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE

A man appears from above (MR. PICK). Legs draped in

expensive trousers, the skirt of his high-buttoned coat

flowing around them due to the breeze from the roof.

MR. PICK'S VOICE

-- Come on -- there's no one up

there. We're going now.

He raises his arm up to help down whoever it is he's talking

to. We hear a strange GROAN. Followed by the appearance --

unclear, from the back, face hidden, or otherwise blocked by

Mr. Pick -- of A STRANGE hunched figure. He moves in a

halting, cowering way. Mr. Pick helps him down the steps.

MR. PICK

That's it -- it's all right --

you've done very well.

Mr. Pick's voice is reassuring, though he has a dark,

diabolic face. They're at the bottom of the staircase now,

Mr. Pick leading his odd companion toward the exit. The odd

companion lurches towards the dead anarchists, but Mr. Pick

restrains him.

MR. PICK

Never mind them -- they'll be

attended to.

KAFKA:

Pretending to be one of the dead anarchists. Hiding under

the large body of the Bearded Anarchist. Trying hard to

emulate his lack of movement. Blood from the Bearded

Anarchist's ear drips onto Kafka's face. He tries to blink

it away while his other eye remains fixed on the two figures

walking away to the doorway until they're through it and

gone.

After a moment, he unloads the Bearded Anarchist and softly

hurries over to the attic doorway.

STAIRS:

The Strange Man utters another low moan as Mr. Pick leads him

like a dog down the creaking old steps.

KAFKA:

Comes cautiously out onto the landing. He leans over the

bannister, watching the two figures slowly going down the

long stairs, vanishing from sight at a certain turn of the

staircase on every floor and coming into view after a moment

or so.

CUT:

STREET OUTSIDE:

Mr. Pick and the Strange One walk away.

KAFKA:

Follows at a respectable distance. He pauses when he hears a

WAGON -- looking back at the anarchists' building to see it

pulling up outside. The DRIVER jumps to the ground.

Kafka looks from the wagon to the two men walking away in the

distance and makes his choice -- continuing after the two

men.

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