Mud Page #4

He send you?

You know this man?

Look at it! Do you know this man?

Fish! Fish! We're just sellin' fish!

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

Fish...

(WHIMPERS)

I know you know where he is.

And I swear to God,

I'll cut a hole through every

one of you to find him.

We know you came here for him,

and we know he's too stupid

to leave here without you.

So whenever he sticks his head up

out of whatever shithole he's hidin' in,

I'm gonna be there.

You tell him that.

You need to mind your business, boy.

You okay?

Yeah.

Man, he popped your eye.

Let me see your face.

Oh, God, I'm so sorry.

Here, hold this on there.

Thank you.

I'll buy your fish, okay?

How much do you want

for the whole cooler?

Mud sent us to give you this.

You know Mud?

Yeah, we know him.

(SNIFFLES)

Says, "Hold tight."

We know, we read it.

Well, do you know how long hold tight is?

ELLIS:
I think

it's just a couple days.

He wants to get a boat for y'all.

God...

Tell him I'll wait.

But I don't want y'all gettin' involved.

So you tell him what I said

and let that be it.

I don't want you gettin' in any trouble.

We'll be all right.

Just keep your door locked.

We'll be in touch.

JUNIPER:
Wait.

What's your name?

I'm Ellis, he's Neckbone.

Thank you, Ellis.

NECKBONE:
We gotta go.

Let's go, hard on.

Hello? Is May Pearl there?

Hey, it's Ellis.

In the phone book.

Tomorrow?

Yeah, I can meet you.

Okay. Bye.

(COUNTRY MUSIC PLAYING)

We got more, but no motor.

This will work for now.

Ellis, you get her my note?

ELLIS:
Yeah.

Where'd you get that shiner from?

When we came up on Juniper's room,

there was this guy in there,

he was beatin' up on her.

Ellis rushed him.

Got smacked for it.

What'd he look like?

I don't know,

he was tall.

Looked like a cowboy.

Light hair slicked back?

Yeah.

(YELLING)

(GRUNTING)

Thank you for looking after her.

(PANTING)

His name's Carver,

he's the brother of the man I killed.

If he's here, there's plenty more comin'.

More what?

Bounty hunters. Carver's rotten,

but his old man,

that's the one to be scared of.

He'll spend every dime

he's got to make sure I'm dead.

If it was up to me,

I'd lay the whole family down,

same as the other.

Ain't a decent man between them.

Now, look here.

Listen to me,

if you see that old man,

don't you go near him.

He's the triple six real deal scratch.

What's a scratch?

It's the devil himself.

Let's unload the rest of this, get it up top.

(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING FAINTLY

ON RADIO)

Now, what are you waitin' for?

Shut up.

(MOTOR STARTING)

All right, Ellis.

Can you climb that trunk,

- choke this off that limb?

- Yeah.

Tie it in a bowline knot, you know it?

I'm not stupid.

Neck, I need you to start cuttin' line

in 15 two-foot pieces.

Count two foot as long as your arm.

Be careful.

What's so special about that shirt

you'd lose your pistol for it?

It's got a wolf's eye sewn into the sleeve.

More protection than a bullet ever gave.

Tom swears by it.

Tom said he wasn't your daddy.

He's the closest thing to

a father I've ever had.

I never met my parents.

It's hard,

not knowin' those you came from.

My Uncle Galen tells me things about 'em.

He's the one that takes care of me.

Yeah. Tom did that for me.

What'd you mean when

you called Tom an assassin?

Tom's had lives you'd

never even know about.

Grew up, up North. Went to Yale.

For a long time,

he was a paid assassin for the CIA.

Lived in Cuba in '63. Shoot, he's killed more

people than you all probably ever met.

Neck, how's that line comin'?

If you're gonna do it, do it!

(CHAINSAW BUZZING)

(GRUNTS)

(MUD WHOOPING)

(GRUNTS)

(WHOOPS)

This sh*t's crazy.

(MUD LAUGHING)

One down.

(PEOPLE TALKING

INDISTINCTLY)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

Come on.

Wanna sit down?

Hey, you must really like to fight.

Not really.

You got a lot of friends.

They're all right.

I don't know all of them.

I bet you're pretty popular.

Why do you say that?

Because you're nice to people.

How do you know that?

You're nice to me.

But I like you.

I got you something.

A bracelet?

Yeah.

Neckbone's uncle finds them in the river

and collects the pearls, and

I thought with your name and everything...

Thank you.

You wanna be my girlfriend?

(WHISTLING)

TOM:
You've been seeing Mud?

No.

You don't have to lie to me, boy.

I've seen you running around, taking things.

He all right?

He's okay.

He called you an assassin.

(CHUCKLES)

How long have you known Mud?

A few days.

That's long enough to know he's full of sh*t.

So, it's not true?

I was a sharpshooter for awhile

in the Marines. In Mud's world, that's an

assassin. But it's not exactly true, right?

Yeah, I guess.

Assassin.

You think he's a badass, don't you?

I don't know.

You know why he's stuck off on that island?

Yeah.

He shot somebody.

You know why he shot that man?

'Cause he hurt Juniper?

Right.

The real reason Mud's in all

the trouble he's got is because of her.

He's been in love with that girl

since he was your age.

Trouble is she don't care about nobody

but herself. I've told him as much.

She'd bed down with the meanest snake

she could find,

and then when things got bad,

she'd go runnin' back to Mud.

He'd take her back.

Then he'd go find whatever unlucky

son of a b*tch laid a hand on her

and beat him so bad

he'd know never to touch her again.

Only this time, I guess

he figured beatin' wasn't good enough,

he had to go shoot that feller.

I'm not for sure, but I'd put money on it

that she knew he'd do it.

She might even put him up to it.

Either way, those two are set for failure.

The only chance he's got is to cut her loose.

That'll never happen.

But I tell you what, Mud's no badass.

He's runnin' scared right now...

I've got to go.

You're wrong about Juniper.

They love each other

and they're going to make it.

If you weren't such a worn out

old man, you'd know it was true.

MUD:
What do you say, Ellis?

I got more stuff.

Yeah? Did you find a motor?

- Not yet.

- Oh.

What's that?

Bonfire's my all-purpose cure all

for bad luck.

I don't know where this boat's been

or what kind of person

the owner was before me.

For all I know, there could be some

serious bad business left on it.

We got too much ridin' on this thing

to leave to chance.

Tom called me over

to his place this morning.

What did he say?

He was runnin' down Juniper.

Told him he was a worn out old man.

And he couldn't know

how much you love her.

You don't know his story.

I don't care.

You should.

Tom loved a woman more than

most men can in two lifetimes.

They had a good life started together.

She was pregnant with a little boy,

birth got the best of them.

Tom's been alone ever since.

Lone wolf.

Thanks for the tin.

(BELL RINGING)

(GRUNTS)

This sh*t never gets easy.

That's a good haul.

I've had worse.

You doin' all right?

Yeah.

Do you need to tell me anything?

Tell you what?

I know I'm just your uncle, not a parent.

But you can tell me things if you need to.

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