O Brother, Where Art Thou? Page #12

He stares up, haunted, at the phantom noose.

PETE:

I could not gaze upon that far

shore...

He reacts quizically to a whispered:

VOICE:

Pete!

A moment later Everett rises over the lip of his bed. His

face is blacked and he sways as if standing on a boat.

EVERETT:

Hold still.

He is raising a large, long-armed, short-nosed pincering

tool. He locks the nose onto Pete's chain and levers the

arms. As his hand chinks free, Pete does not react to his

newfound liberty.

We hear an agonized voice from off as Everett continues to

sway:

DELMAR:

...Cain't stand much longer.

Pete's eyes burn into Everett's.

PETE:

It was a moment a weakness!

EVERETT:

Quitcha babblin' Pete - time to

skedaddle.

THE THREE MEN:

We track with them as they walk through the moonlit woods.

Delmar's and Everett's faces are thoroughly blacked; Pete is

just finishing blacking his, and he hands the shoe polish

back to Everett.

PETE:

They lured me out for a bathe, then

they dunked me'n trussed me up like

a hog and turned me in for the bounty.

EVERETT:

I shoulda guessed it - typical womanly

behavior. Just lucky we left before

they came for us.

DELMAR:

We didn't abandon you, Pete, we just

thought you was a toad.

PETE:

No, they never did turn me into a

toad.

DELMAR:

Well that was our mistake then. And

then we was beat up by a bible

salesman and banished from

Woolworth's. I don't know if it's

the one branch or all of 'em.

PETE:

Well I - I ain't had it easy either,

boys. Uh, frankly, I - well I spilled

my guts about the treasure.

DELMAR:

Huh?!

PETE:

Awful sorry I betrayed you fellas;

must be my Hogwallop blood.

EVERETT:

Aw, that's all right, Pete.

Pete is shaking his head, miserable.

PETE:

It's awful white of ya to take it

like that, Everett. I feel wretched,

spoilin' yer play for a million

dollars'n point two. It's been eatin'

at my guts.

EVERETT:

Aw, that's all right.

Pete starts weeping.

PETE:

You boys're true friends!

He hugs a stunned Delmar.

PETE:

You're m'boon companions!

He hugs Everett, who looks profoundly uncomfortable.

EVERETT:

Pete, uh, I don't want ya to beat

yourself up about this thing...

PETE:

I cain't help it, but that's a

wonderful thing to say!

EVERETT:

Well, but Pete...

He clears his throat.

EVERETT:

Uh, the fact of the matter is - well,

damnit, there ain't no treasure!

Now it is Pete's turn to be stunned. He and Delmar stare at

Everett.

EVERETT:

Fact of the matter - there never

was!

PETE:

But... but...

DELMAR:

So - where's all the money from your

armored-car job?

EVERETT:

I never knocked over any armored-

car. I was sent up for practicing

law without a license.

PETE:

But...

EVERETT:

Damnit, I just hadda bust out! My

wife wrote me she was gettin' married!

I gotta stop it!

Pete stares vacantly off.

PETE:

...No treasure... I had two weeks

left on my sentence...

EVERETT:

I couldn't wait two weeks! She's

gettin' married tomorra!

PETE:

...With my added time for the escape,

I don't get out now 'til 1987...

I'll be eighty-four years old.

Delmar, not angry himself, is trying to work it out.

DELMAR:

Huh. I guess they'll tack on fifty

years for me too.

EVERETT:

Boys, we was chained together. I

hadda tell ya somethin'. Bustin' out

alone was not a option!

PETE:

...Eighty-four years old.

Delmar brightens.

DELMAR:

I'll only be eighty-two.

Pete lunges at Everett.

PETE:

YOU RUINED MY LIFE!

He tackles him and, with his hands wrapped round Everett's

throat, the two roll over.

EVERETT:

(strangled)

Pete... I do apologize.

PETE:

Eighty-four years old! I'll be gummin'

pab-you-lum!

They have rolled through some brush and their bodies are now

halfway into a clearing. They abruptly stop.

Pete, lying on top of Everett, looks up, startled by loud

chanting. Everett, lying on his back, tries to see as well,

his eyes rolling back in his head.

Their point-of-view shows a great open field where men in

bedsheets parade in formation before a huge fiery cross.

Pete and Everett hastily crabwalk back into the bushes and

then push through with Delmar.

The ranks of hooded men, chanting in a high hillbilly wail,

intersect and shuffle like a marching band at halftime. At

length they stop in perfect formation, still chanting, to

face the Imperial Wizard, who stands in front of the burning

cross dressed in a red satin robe and hood trimmed with gold.

An aisle leads through the middle of the formation to the

burning cross, before which a gibbet has been erected. The

backmost row has stopped, facing away, only a few yards from

the bushes that hide Delmar, Pete and Everett.

As the chanting continues, two Klansmen lead a black man,

whom they grasp by either arm, up the aisle toward the gibbet.

BLACK MAN:

I ain't never harmed any you

gentlemen!

Everett hisses:

EVERETT:

It's Tommy! They got Tommy!

DELMAR:

Oh my God!

It is indeed Tommy Johnson.

TOMMY:

I ain't never harmed nobody!

Pete is staring aghast at the makeshift gibbet.

PETE:

The noose. Sweet Jesus! We gotta

save 'im!

A broad-shouldered man in the middle of the ranks of Klansmen,

sensing something, slowly turns to look back over his

shoulder. He thus reveals that his hood has only one eye-

hole.

He slowly draws off his hood. It is, of course, Big Dan

Teague. His one good eye looks about; his other eye, now

revealed, is hideously clouded and stares up and off in fixed

sightlessness.

Everett, still crouched behind the bushes, notices something.

He hisses and points.

EVERETT:

The color guard.

Off to one side is a robed and hooded three-man color guard

displaying a Confederate flag.

In front of the crowd the Imperial Wizard raises one satin-

draped arm, and the chanting stops.

WIZARD:

Brothers! We are foregathered here

to preserve our hallowed culture'n

heritage! From intrusions, inclusions

and dilutions! Of culluh! Of creed!

Of our ol'-time religion!

Over in the bushes Everett, Delmar and Pete are straightening

up and adjusting their appropriated robes and hoods, having

disposed of the color guard.

WIZARD:

We aim to pull evil up by the root!

Before it chokes out the flower of

our culture'n heritage! And our women!

Let's not forget those ladies, y'all,

lookin' to us for p'tection! From

darkies! From Jews! From Papists!

And from all those smart-ass folk

say we come descended from the

monkeys! That's not my culture'n

heritage!

A roar from the crowd.

WIZARD:

Izzat your culture'n heritage?

Another roar.

WIZARD:

And so... we gonna hang us a neegra!

A huge roar - and now the ranks resume their chanting.

The color guard hustles up the aisle to draw up behind the

two men leading Tommy to the gibbet. Everett hisses:

EVERETT:

Hey Tommy! It's us!

Behind Everett in the deep background someone emerges from

the ranks into the middle aisle. He approaches with a strong,

purposeful stride - Big Dan Teague, bareheaded, holding his

hood under his arm.

Everett hisses again:

EVERETT:

Hey Tommy!

Tommy looks back over his shoulder.

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