Klondike Page #32

BILL (QUIET, CONFIDENT)

Who says it’s me that’s trying to

get somewhere.

Belinda sits back. Eyes Bill. Big moment.

BELINDA MULRONEY

I didn't kill your friend.

BILL (CALM SMILE)

Why the need to defend yourself?

BELINDA MULRONEY

'Cause I see that look in your eye.

Torn between something you wanna

like and something you don't trust.

She’s radiant in the light. And knows it. Bill finally shakes

his head.

BILL:

No, you didn't kill him. Otherwise

you wouldn't be up here alone with

me. Then again, maybe it's your

twisted way of making amends. Or

maybe, because you're sitting on

the entirety of that claim now, you

brought the wood to make sure your

investment doesn't collapse on

itself.

BELINDA MULRONEY (BEMUSED)

You've worked all the angles,

haven't you?

BILL:

Man sits alone in the wilderness

long enough...he covers all the

bases.

BELINDA MULRONEY(SHAKES HEAD)

You are different, Haskell. I’ll

give you that. What makes you so

different?

BILL (SHRUG)

Try to bathe at least once a week.

47.

She considers his damp body beside hers.

BELINDA MULRONEY

Ain’t doing you any favors.

He smiles. She surveys him as he does.

BELINDA MULRONEY (CONT’D)

But you do still got some white in

your mouth.

He looks at her. She continues to consider his teeth:

BELINDA MULRONEY (CONT’D)

Still got the teeth of

civilization.

(beat)

First thing that goes. Hygiene.

Man’s insides start showing up in

his mouth. The malnourishment. The

corruption. All the things he think

he’s hiding from the world, but

ain’t-

Bill takes the bottle. Drinks with a dismissive smile:

BILL:

Ah, civilization ain’t gone up

here. Not if you don’t want-

BELINDA MULRONEY

It ain’t what you want. It’s what

Nature wants. She’ll pull the

animal out of you, even if you

don’t know it’s there. Just takes

time.

BILL:

Nah. She can rage and piss and turn

the world to mud all She

wants...but way I see it, the world

can only kill you once. Thing it

can’t do is take away what you

don’t want it to.

BELINDA MULRONEY

And that’s...

BILL:

Sense that tomorrow’s got things in

it that today don’t. And they’re

better.

She rolls her eye. You goddamn, insufferable greenhorn.

They both smile. She surveys him as he returns his focus to

the campfire. She eyes those relatively healthy teeth again.

48.

The bottle letting loose her deeply-buried yearning.

Wistfully, re teeth:

BELINDA MULRONEY

But damn if Civilization ain’t a

beautiful thing.

He looks to her. She leans in. Kisses him. Nothing serious.

It just sort of happens. They regard each other. She shakes

her head, knows she’s a damn fool.

BELINDA MULRONEY (CONT’D)

You pass any of this on to town,

I’ll deny it.

She kisses him again.

BELINDA MULRONEY (CONT’D)

I’m just drunk and cold...and in

need of a little bit of

civilization.

As they kiss--moving on to something possibly more--camera

drifts outside, into that ominous autumn storm...

END ACT FOUR:

49.

ACT FIVE:

EXT. BILL’S CLAIM - MORNING

Next morning. A window in the weather. No rain. Belinda preps

to leave. At her horses, tethered under the eave of the shed:

BELINDA MULRONEY

Hangover, I’m used to. Two

hangovers, that’s a whole ‘nother

thing.

BILL (CURIOUS)

Two.

BELINDA MULRONEY

Lot of intoxication in the air last

night. More ways than one. It’ll

wear off. It always does.

Bill’s surprised. She’s getting ahead of it. Nipping any type

of emotion in the bud before it can develop between them. She

eyes him apologetically:

BELINDA MULRONEY (CONT’D)

I’m too far gone, Haskell. Too many

closed up places in me that need to

be open for something like this to

work. Woman’s got to be like that

up here.

Bill nods gamely. Knows she’s lying as much to herself as to

him. She regards him one last time, appreciative.

BELINDA MULRONEY (CONT’D)

Keep that civilization burning

bright, will you?

BILL:

You do the same.

As she preps her steed:

BELINDA MULRONEY

Oh it’s been beat outta me. Think I

made dunthat pretty clear, with all

that pontificating last night.

Bill subtly disagrees--nods to the wood she brought-

BILL:

And yet that wood’s here and not at

the mill.

(off her look)

It doesn’t show up last night, I’m

out there in the mud, dead. And I

think you knew that.

50.

He offers her a small grin.

BILL (CONT’D)

So don’t talk to me about

civilization.

She smiles inwardly, mounts up. Splits without looking back.

EXT. DAWSON STREETS - DAY

Belinda. Returning to Dawson. Her face telling us she’s still

got the evening before on her mind. How to deal with it? Then

she notices--visible in the saloon--Sabine, dancing-

Off Belinda, shaking her head--goddamn wench-

INT. SALOON - MOMENTS LATER

Belinda enters. Perturbed to see Sabine, apparently right

back at it. Drinking. Laughing. Dancing.

Belinda’s about to lay in to her-

BELINDA MULRONEY

Halfwit’s supposed to be on the

straight and narrow-

BARTENDER:

Calm it, Belinda. She is.

(off Belinda’s confused

look)

She’s just celebrating.

BELINDA MULRONEY (SUSPICIOUS)

Celebrating what?

BARTENDER:

If I’m not mistaken...woman’s in

love.

He nods up the bar, where Judge enjoys a drink. Watching over

Sabine. All innocence. At least from his end.

BARTENDER (CONT’D)

With the Divine, Holy light.

Belinda shakes her head.

BELINDA MULRONEY

Something happen and I didn’t

notice last night? World flip on

its head? I’m out there

whoring...and she’s found God.

51.

EXT. DAWSON CITY STREETS - LATER

Belinda, headed toward the mill--her accountant Dan Condon

falling into line with a sheaf of paperwork-

DAN CONDON:

There you are. Just need some

signatures.

(off her curious look)

Liquidation papers. For all the

claims on your books.

BELINDA MULRONEY

Who's our buyer--

Condon shows her on the paperwork. She looks half-amused,

half-about-to-wretch.

DAN CONDON:

I know. But he's got cash on hand,

and that's what we need right now.

Belinda stops at the sight of Bill’s claim.

BELINDA MULRONEY (SUBTLE UNEASE)

152.

DAN CONDON:

We talked about it. Haskell's claim

is crown jewel to the buyers in

terms of speculative value.

(beat)

You want hard cash, to compete with

that man...this is the way to do

it.

Said with a nod up the block. Where the COUNT is visible,

overseeing new construction on his newly acquired block.

BELINDA MULRONEY

He’s building already? Where’s he

getting the wood?

DAN CONDON:

Bringing it in from upriver. And...

(solemn)

...this last boat, he had milling

equipment brought up as well.

BELINDA MULRONEY (SHOCKED)

Milling equipment? Uh-uh. That is

crossing the line. There is only

one mill in Dawson, and that is

mine.

52.

DAN CONDON:

If he has his way, there will only

be one. And it won’t be yours.

Condon returns his attention to the paperwork. The claims.

DAN CONDON (CONT’D)

Sign it. We’ve got to start turning

some of these assets into cash. Now

is the wrong time to be having a

heart, Belinda.

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