Lone Star Page #12

SAM:

I thought he busted you a couple

times.

PETE:

Different charge. I had a still.

Made my own mescal.

Sam looks up at him.

PETE:

That's how I ruined my stomach.

SAM:

(Smiles)

I'm surprised he bothered with

it.

PETE:

He was afraid I was going to poison

somebody. Your father tried to

do good for people--

SAM:

So I've heard--

PETE:

And your mother was a saint.

That summer I built the patio at

your house? She made me lunch

every day.

SAM:

Well, you were working there--

PETE:

It could have just been a box

lunch from the jail.

Sam looks up again, troubled.

SAM:

You built our patio while you

were on the county?

PETE:

Out in the fresh air, nice gringo

lady making you pies---who's gonna

sit back in a little jail cell

all day? Sheriff Buddy, man.

Como el no hay dos. And after

that cabron Charley Wade--

SAM:

I've heard Wade was a bit tough

on the Mexicans--

PETE:

He murdered Eladio Cruz. That

tough enough for you?

SAM:

Murdered him?

PETE:

Chucho Montoya saw it with his

own eyes. Shot him in cold blood.

EXT. SAN JACINTO STREET -- MORNING

Ray Hernandez, heading in to work, comes upon Sam getting

into his car--

RAY:

You're out early.

SAM:

Yeah.

RAY:

Haven't seen much of you at the

jail lately.

SAM:

I been working on a few things.

RAY:

Uh-huh.

SAM:

I'm going over to the other side.

RAY:

(Concerned)

The Republicans?

SAM:

No--to Mexico. I've got to talk

to somebody.

RAY:

They got telephones.

SAM:

Gotta be in person.

RAY:

Oh.

An awkward silence. Sam sits into the driver's seal and Ray

leans down to talk--

RAY:

Sam? I--the Committee--you know

Jorge and H.L. and all--they

asked me--

SAM:

They want you to stand for Sheriff

next election.

RAY:

Yeah.

SAM:

You'd do a good job.

RAY:

How 'bout you?

SAM:

Don't know if I'll still want it.

RAY:

I didn't want to be going around

your back.

SAM:

I appreciate you telling me.

Sam looks at his Chief Deputy--

SAM:

You think we need a new jail?

RAY:

Well, it's a complicated issue--

Sam smiles, turns the engine on--

SAM:

Yeah, Ray, you'd be a hell of a

Sheriff.

EXT. SCHOOL -- MORNING

Pilar sits with Amado on the football field bleachers before

school starts--

PILAR:

I'm only going to have you for

two more years. If you decide

not to go on to college--

AMADO:

I can't take any more school.

PILAR:

--you're going to be on your own.

AMADO:

So?

PILAR:

So I'm worried about you. I don't

want you to end up in jail like

your friends.

AMADO:

They're not going to jail.

PILAR:

Don't try to con me, Amado You

knew how they got all those things.

AMADO:

Just some rich Anglo out on the

lake. Don't even live here all

year.

PILAR:

That makes it okay?

AMADO:

They stole our land--

PILAR:

Save your breath. That line

doesn't cut it with me.

A silence. Amado sulks.

PILAR:

How do you think you're going to

make a living?

AMADO:

I can fix cars.

PILAR:

You can fix old cars. Mr. Washburn

told me that the cars they're

making now are all computerized--

AMADO:

You think I can't learn that?

PILAR:

I think you can learn whatever

you want to. I just don't see

you doing it. If you want to

settle for--

AMADO:

I'm not settling for anything. I

like cars, It's just not a move

up the ladder to you, so you think

it's a waste.

PILAR:

That isn't true.

AMADO:

Oh, come on--you and Grandma think

anybody who works with their hands

is a peasant. When Dad--

PILAR:

If you grew up to he anywhere

near as good a man as your father

was, I would be happy! I would

be thrilled.

They look, at each other for a long moment.

AMADO:

It's my life. if I want to f***

it up, that's my business.

PILAR:

(Nods)

I said pretty much the same thing

to my mother when I was your age,

AMADO:

And what did she do?

PILAR:

Two years at hard labor, Our Lady

of Perpetual Help.

AMADO:

Catholic school, Nasty.

Pilar is nearly in tears.

PILAR:

Honey, I think you're smart and

you're good and I love you. So

don't act like an idiot, all right?

EXT. BORDER CROSSING -- DAY

We see Sam's car roll through the "express lane" as other

cars in both directions stop by the inspection booths.

Sam drives across the bridge over the Rio--

EXT. STREETS -- CIUDAD LEON -- VARIOUS SHOTS

Sam drives slowly through the sprawling, more populous town

on the other side. Lots of the streets are unpaved. We PAN

with the car till we HOLD on ANSELMA, a country girl of 15,

aimlessly walking the streets--

EXT. LLANTERIA (TIRE REPAIR SHOP) -- DAY

We watch a KID about Amado's age pulling a tire off its rim

to put a patch on it--

CHUCHO (O.S.)

Over here we don't throw everything

away like you gringos do.

CHUCHO AND SAM:

CHUCHO MONTOYA, in his mid-50s, stands by Sam drinking a

Coke as they watch the kid work

CHUCHO:

Recycling, right? We invented

that. The government doesn't

have to tell people to do it.

SAM:

You own this place?

CHUCHO:

This place, the one across the

street, four other ones around

Ciudad Leon--soy el Rey de las

Llantas. King of the Tires.

Lots of your people rollin' back

over that bridge on my rubber.

SAM:

(Nods)

You lived in the States for a

while?

CHUCHO:

Fifteen years in El Paso.

SAM:

Made some money, came back here--

CHUCHO:

Something like that.

SAM:

You ever know a fella named Eladio

Cruz?

CHUCHO smiles, draws a line in the dirt with his heel--

CHUCHO:

You the sheriff of Rio County,

right? Un jefe muy respetado.

Step over this line

Sam obliges--

CHUCHO:

Ay, que milagro! You're not the

Sheriff of nothing anymore-just

some tejano with a lot of questions

I don't have to answer.

Sam smiles, plays with the line with his toe--

CHUCHO:

Bird flying south-you think he

sees that line? Rattlesnake,

javelina--whatever you got--halfway

across that line they don't start

thinking different. So why should

a man?

SAM:

Your government always been pretty

happy to have that line. The

question's just been where to

draw it

CU CHUCHO:

CHUCHO:

My government can go f*** itself,

and so can yours. I'm talking

about people here--men. Mi amigo

Eladio Cruz is giving some friends

of his a lift in his camion one

day--

We PAN from CHUCHO to the FLAT TIRE on a battered old pickup

truck--

CHUCHO (V.O.)

--but because he's on one side of

this invisible line and not the

other, they got to hide in the

back like criminals--

Eladio CRUZ, young and good-looking, squats into the shot to

examine the tire, jack in hand.

It Is 1956 --

CHUCHO (V.O.)

And because over there he's just

another Mex bracero, any man with

a badge is his jefe--

CONJUNTO MUSIC comes from the truck RADIO.

YOUNG CHUCHO steps past Eladio--

ELADIO:

Donde vas, Chucho, Tienes que

quedar escondido! [Sh*t, CHUCHO

you got to stay hidden!]

YOUNG CHUCHO:

Voy a romper las rinones si no

hago pipi-- [I'm gonna bust my

kidneys if I don't pee-]

We TRACK back with Young CHUCHO to see we are at the side of

a dirt road on the scrubby flatland near the border.

Eladio's battered pickup truck has wood-slat sides and a

canvas top. Eladio begins to undo the nuts on the flat tire

as Young CHUCHO climbs down into a dry creek bed to relieve

himself--

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