Red Planet Page #10

JUD:

Your cairn.

EXT. THE MICMAC BURYING GROUND, LOUIS'S POV

Those tumbled piles of rock are very obvious.

EXT. LOUIS AND JUD, BY CHURCH'S GRAVE

LOUIS:

Doesn't look like they last long.

JUD:

Don't worry about that.

LOUIS:

Jud, why am I doing all this?

JUD:

Because it's right.

He walks off again.

LOUIS looks after him for a moment, then kneels down.

EXT. LOUIS, BY THE GARBAGE BAG

He opens it and looks in at CHURCH'S stiffening corpse.

LOUIS:

Pax vobiscum, Church old buddy. You

were a hell of a god cat. I doubt if

you were worth all this aggravation,

but you were a hell of a good cat.

He tumbles the bag containing the body into the grave, and then

begins pushing the stony soil over it with the spade.

EXT. THE CAIRN, CU NIGHT

LOUIS'S hands come into the frame and add a final two or three

stones.

EXT. LOUIS, BY THE CAIRN

He looks at it for a moment and stands up. JUD is right there.

JUD:

That's fine. You did real good.

LOUIS looks at him.

EXT. THE CREED HOUSE NIGHT

There's a light on in the kitchen, but that's all. There's silence

at first, and then the PHONE STARTS RINGING.

EXT. LOUIS'S FIELD NIGHT

LOUIS and JUD are coming down the path with their tools and their

lights. They are both clearly fagged out.

SOUND, FAINT:
The telephone.

LOUIS:

Oh, sh*t! Rachel!

He drops the tools and sprints.

EXT. THE CREED'S SIDE YARD, BY THE TIRE SWING

LOUIS runs into the side yard. SOUND of the phone is louder.

EXT. THE KITCHEN DOOR OF THE CREED HOUSE, WITH LOUIS

He runs to the door and inside.

EXT. THE END OF THE PATH, WITH JUD

He stands there, eyes inscrutable.

INT. THE LIVING ROOM, WITH THE PHONE

It stops. A beat later LOUIS enters the room. He picks it up,

although he already knows it's too late. He listens to the SOUND

of the dial tone and then drops it back into the cradle,

disgusted.

He starts to dial a number from memory.

JUD (voice)

Louis.

INT. THE KITCHEN/LIVING ROOM DOORWAY, WITH JUD

JUD:

When you talk to 'em, not one word

about what we done tonight. 'S'far's

you know, the cat's still fine.

INT. LOUIS, BY THE PHONE

After a moment he lowers it into the cradle.

INT. JUD

JUD:

You'll understand. In the meantime,

keep your peace. What we did, Louis,

was a secret thing. Women are supposed

to be the ones who are good at

keeping secrets, but any woman who

knows anything at all would tell you

she's never seen into a man's heart.

The soil of a man's heart is stonier,

Louis--like the soil up there in the

old Micmac burying ground. A man

grows what he can...and tends it.

During this, he's come across the room to LOUIS and dropped his

hand on LOUIS'S shoulder.

LOUIS:

But--

JUD:

No buts! Accept what's done, Louis.

What we done was right. Another time

it might not be, but tonight it was...

at least I hope to Christ it was. Now

you make your call...but not a word

about tonight.

EXT. THE ROAD, WITH JUD

SOUNDS:
Boops and beeps of a touch-tone telephone. Ringing. Then:

DORY GOLDMAN (voice)

Goldman residence.

LOUIS:

Hi, Dory...it's Louis--

During this, another SOUND has been growing: an approaching truck.

As JUD gains his side of the road, he looks back, and we read fear

on his face--no matter what he said to LOUIS, he's sorry for

tonight's piece of work.

A moment later a highballing Orinco truck cuts between THE CAMERA

and JUD.

INT. LOUIS, IN THE LIVING ROOM NIGHT

He's on the phone, smiling and happy.

RACHEL (voice)

You want to talk to the birthday girl?

LOUIS:

That'd be real fine.

ELLIE (voice)

Hi...daddy?

LOUIS (sings)

Happy birthday to you/Happy birthday

to you/Happy birthday, dear Ellie/Happy

birthday to you!

ELLIE (voice)

That was awful, daddy.

LOUIS:

Yeah, I know...how are things out

there in Chicagoland?

ELLIE:

Fine...except when Mom was airing

Gage's diaper rash, he walked away and

got into Grampa's study and pooped in

Grampa's favorite chair.

LOUIS (grinning broadly)

Way to go, Gage!

ELLIE (voice)

What?

LOUIS:

I said that's too bad. What did you

get for presents from Gramma and Grampa?

ELLIE (voice)

Lots of stuff! I got two dresses...and

a Chatty Cathy doll...

INT. THE GOLDMAN LIVING ROOM, WITH ELLIE

She's dressed for bed, in fuzzy pink pajamas. Her Chatty Cathy is

crooked in one arm. In her lap is a Garfield transistor radio.

ELLIE:

...and a Garfield radio! How's Church,

dad? Does he miss me?

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM, WITH LOUIS

The smile fades off his face. It's replaced with a look of

combined guilt and unhappiness. He's looking at his hands, which

are still dark with the dirt from CHURCH'S grave.

LOUIS:

Well...I guess he's just fine, Ellie.

I haven't seen him this evening, but--

INT. THE GOLDMAN LIVING ROOM, WITH ELLIE

RACHEL, holding GAGE, sits on the arm of ELLIE'S chair.

ELLIE:

Well, make sure you put him down

cellar before you go to bed so he

can't run out in the road and get

greased. And kiss him goodnight for me.

LOUIS (voice)

Yuck! Kiss your own cat!

ELLIE:

Want to talk to Gage?

Before he can answer, she puts the phone in GAGE'S hand. ELLIE and

RACHEL watch, amused, as GAGE gobbles into it. Perhaps RACHEL

encourages him to say a few words.

INT. THE CREED LVING ROOM, WITH LOUIS

From the telephone comes the sound of GAGE talking and chortling.

LOUIS is not listening. His eyes--and his mind--are far away.

EXT. THE CREED HOUSE MORNING

LOUIS is raking leaves on the side lawn, near the tree with the

tire swing. After a moment or two of this he props the rake

against the tree and starts toward the garage. He goes in.

EXT. THE GARAGE, WITH LOUIS

It's dim in here. LOUIS is crossing to the door which communicates

to the kitchen. As he passes the station wagon, he hears a cat

HISS. He turns.

INT. CHURCH, ECU

He's on top of the car, but at this point we probably don't

notice; THE CAMERA is so close that CHURCH looks like he's coming

right down our throats. He's hissing angrily.

INT. LOUIS

He recoils and stumbles backward with a cry. He hits a tool-rack

on the wall and a lot of them fall down with a LOUD JANGLING

NOISE.

INT. ON TOP OF THE STATION WAGON, WITH CHURCH

He jumps down, frightened by the noise, and the CAMERA TRACKS as

he goes flying out the garage door into the sunlight.

INT. LOUIS

He gets slowly to his feet again. He's getting over his fright but

we can see he's totally freaked out by what gave him that fright.

He goes to the garage door and looks out.

LOUIS (calls)

Church?

EXT. THE SIDE YARD, LOUIS'S POV

Grass and fallen leaves. No sign of CHURCH.

EXT. LOUIS'S STUNNED FACE, CU

INT. THE KITCHEN, WITH LOUIS

He's spooning cat-food into a dish. He goes to the door--there

should be a total of three doors in the kitchen: one to the living

room, one to the shed/garage, and one which leads directly

outside. LOUIS uses this latter door now.

EXT. THE KITCHEN STOOP, WITH LOUIS

He puts the dish of food down and sits beside it.

LOUIS:

Food, Church...food!

SOUND:
Miaow.

EXT. THE SIDE OF THE HOUSE, LOUIS'S POV

CHURCH comes slinking out of the bushes and comes slowly toward

THE CAMERA. He stops, looking mistrustful.

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