Reindeer Games Page #12

Gabriel puts the letter down.

GABRIEL:

You're a good writer, Nick. I give

this writing an A-plus.

RUDY:

I never worked at no casino.

ASHLEY:

(hopeless)

Nick...

Rudy steps out of her hold and stalks forward:

RUDY:

That's the guy I was in with, I did

my last ten months with him. He rode

a two-year bit for manslaughter --

split a guy's skull open at a bar

for harassing his girl. That's Nick

Mason. He worked at that casino.

He's the one who wrote her letters.

Me, I'm a damn mechanic, my last job

was a Quickie Lube, I did five for

lifting cars. I don't know sh*t about

blackjack, I don't know sh*t about

Indians. I'm not him.

Gabriel stares at him. Then crumples the letter.

GABRIEL:

Bury this guy.

Merlin and Jumpy grab Rudy and THROW him from the truck. He

HITS the snowy parking lot on his side, hands bound.

ASHLEY:

Gabriel, you promised!

GABRIEL:

I promised that when he helped us,

we'd be gone! When he helped us!

Loverboy don't want to play!

Merlin and Jumpy drop to the snow, picking Rudy up.

ASHLEY:

You promised me!

GABRIEL:

And you promised me you'd get your

sweetheart to help!

Rudy meets eyes with Ashley. She's caught.

GABRIEL:

He'd rather die than be with you,

he'd make a f***ed-up boyfriend

anyway.

(to Merlin/Jumpy)

Bury him all over the place.

ASHLEY:

NO!

She charges at her brother. Gabriel grabs her, spins her

into control and PUNCHES her in the jaw. She goes flying out

of the truck. HITS the ground hard. In shock.

Merlin and Jumpy march Rudy across the lot. A stand of dark

and snowy woods ahead...

MERLIN:

Beats prison, I guess.

ASHLEY (O.S.)

NICK!!! NICK!!! NOOOOO!!!

Rudy struggles, desperate but held firm. Jumpy loads a

handgun, as he muses for the very first time:

JUMPY:

The problem with prison... is that

it is founded on the fundamentally

flawed perception of rehabilitation

through punishment. A society can't

hope to create a "changed man" by

surrounding him with the worst in

his fellow man; what it

"rehabilitates" is solely a conviction

that if he can survive the inhumanity

of prison, what then, can he not

withstand? He has seen man's darkest

soul and kept his sight: what is

left for such a man? What faith?

What fear?

At the woods' edge, Jumpy gives the gun to Merlin --

JUMPY:

Don't get no blood on my boots --

The gun goes to Rudy's head. A bullet fills the chamber.

Ashley SCREAMS. Rudy shuts his eyes tight and --

RUDY:

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW!

Merlin and Jumpy stop. Ashley stops screaming. Gabriel turns.

RUDY:

About the Tomahawk! What the hell do

you want to know!

His guards look to Gabriel. Rudy nods, sweating.

RUDY:

I spend six months writing poetry

and my goddamn pen pal fucks me over.

Thanks for the stamps, Ash. You want

me, you got me. Whaddya want to know.

Ashley gasps relief. Gabriel smiles.

GABRIEL:

Everything.

Merlin and Jumpy march Rudy back. Still on the ground:

ASHLEY:

I love you... Nick, I love you...

Rudy won't meet her eyes.

GABRIEL:

Hey. She says she loves you, Nick.

RUDY:

She says a lot of things.

GABRIEL:

She's getting you to help us... 'cause

she knows if you don't, you're dead.

You just tell us what we need to

know, you two live happily ever after.

My sister loves you, motherf***er,

and I ain't gonna have you break her

heart.

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