Rushmore Page #14

MAX:

(sadly) Maybe so. Maybe so.

MR. BLUME

She's still in love with the dead guy, anyway.

MAX:

You mean Edward Appleby.

MR. BLUME

Oh, yeah. She's f***ed up.

Mr. Blume lights a new cigarette. Max points to Mr. Blume's

first cigarette, balanced on the handrail.

MAX:

You've already got one going, Mr. Blume.

Mr. Blume picks up his first cigarette and puts it in the

opposite corner of his mouth from the second. He smiles at

Max through the smoke. They get off to the 14th floor and

the doors open.

MR. BLUME

Adios, amigo.

Max waves good-bye. But Mr. Blume does not get off the

elevator. He bends over and puts his hands on his knees and

takes a series of deep breaths. The door starts to close. He

reaches out and holds them open. Max looks concerned.

MAX:

Are you OK?

Mr. Blume looks up at Max. He laughs and shakes his head.

MR. BLUME

I'm kind of lonely these days.

Mr. Blume sighs. He gets off the elevator. The doors close

behind him as Max watches him walk down the hall.

CUT TO DIRK'S BINOCULARS:

Max comes out of the hospital and stands quietly in the cold

for a minute. He gets on his mother's old bicycle. He rides

off down the street.

EXT. THE FISCHERS' HOUSE. DAY

Max opens the Fischer's garage door. His smashed-up

ten-speed hangs from a peg on the wall. He takes is down and

carries it out off the garage.

INT. MISS CROSS' HOUSE. NIGHT

Miss Cross is sitting up in her bed reading Treasure Island

and listening to the radio. She is wearing pale blue

pajamas. There is a knock on her windowpane. She looks up.

She hears someone trying to open the window. She gets up and

pulls open the blinds. Max is outside on the roof wearing

his parka and ski cap in the falling snow. He waves.

MISS CROSS:

Max!

Miss Cross opens the window.

MISS CROSS:

What are you doing here?

MAX:

(dazed)

I don't know. Jesus. They came at me out of no where. It was

-

MISS CROSS:

What?

MAX:

So sudden. I just -

(pause)

I'm sorry. Can I use your phone? I just got hit by a car.

Max points down at his destroyed ten-speed in the street

under a street lamp. Parts are scattered all around it.

MISS CROSS:

Oh, my God. Are you OK?

MAX:

(disoriented) What?

Miss Cross notices a little cut over Max's eye. She lifts up

the front of Max's ski cap. There is blood all over his

forehead. She looks shocked.

MISS CROSS:

Come inside.

MAX:

(climbing in) Thank you.

Max goes to Miss Cross' bed. He lies down and stares at the

ceiling.

Miss Cross goes into the bathroom. She puts on a white

bathrobe and gets some cotton balls and hydrogen peroxide

out of the medicine cabinet.

Max looks around the room.

MAX:

So this is where it all happens?

MISS CROSS:

(from the bathroom)

All what happens?

MAX:

I wouldn't know.

Miss Cross comes back into the bedroom.

MAX:

Why'd you dump Blume?

Miss Cross stops. Pause.

MISS CROSS:

That's none of your business.

MAX:

I know it's not. But I'm a little confused right now. I

mean. I thought you dumped me for Blume. Then I hear -

MISS CROSS:

I never dumped you because we were never going out.

MAX:

But it doesn't make any sense. I -

MISS CROSS:

Well, I am confused, too. But why don't we just deal with

getting you -

MAX:

Because it would help me if you would talk to me for a

minute. And tell me what happened.

Silence.

MISS CROSS:

OK.

(pause)

Well. A. He's a married man.

And B. He hates himself.

I mean. He smashed your bicycle, didn't he?

MAX:

(pause) My previous bicycle. Yes.

MISS CROSS:

Well, what kind of person does something like that?

MAX:

I don't know.

(pause)

War does funny things to men.

Silence. Miss Cross sits down in a rocking chair beside the

bed. She opens the bottle of hydrogen peroxide.

MAX:

He thinks you dumped him because of Edward Appleby.

MISS CROSS:

What does that mean?

MAX:

I don't know. I mean. You live in this room.

Max looks around the room. There are trophies and ribbons, a

chemistry set, a poster from the Olympics, three large fish

tanks, a picture of Jacques Cousteau, and some model planes

in dogfights hanging from the ceiling.

MAX:

With all his stuff. It's kind of --

MISS CROSS:

I was married to him.

MAX:

(pause) I know you were.

Silence.

MISS CROSS:

Although I will say Edward has more spark and character and

imagination in one fingernail than Herman Blume has in his

entire body.

MAX:

One dead fingernail.

Miss Cross fixes Max with a hard stare.

MISS CROSS:

Right. One dead fingernail.

Silence.

MAX:

How'd he die?

MISS CROSS:

He drowned.

(pause)

How'd your mother die?

MAX:

She got cancer.

Miss Cross nods. She sighs.

MISS CROSS:

Lie still for a minute, OK?

MAX:

OK.

Miss Cross pushes Max's hair back with her hand. She looks

at him for a minute. She touches the blood on his forehead

with a cotton ball. She stops.

MISS CROSS:

Is this fake blood?

MAX:

(pause)

Yes, it is.

MISS CROSS:

You know, you and Herman deserve each other. You're little

children. Let me show you to the door.

Max gets up and goes over to the window. He climbs out onto

the roof. He looks back to Miss Cross.

MAX:

That wasn't a very satisfying conversation.

Miss Cross shrugs. Silence.

MAX:

All right. Goodbye, Miss Cross.

MISS CROSS:

Goodbye, Max.

Max disappears into the darkness.

EXT. FROZEN POND. DAY

A few ICE SKATERS race around and do figure-8's on the

little frozen pond at the edge of town. Dirk is sitting on

his tackle box, fishing from a hole in the ice. He stomps

his feet, and even with his mittens on he has to blow into

his hands to keep warm.

Max sits with his bare hands resting on the ice.

MAX:

People hate me.

DIRK:

That's not true.

MAX:

Guggenheim tried to spit on me.

Poor old guy couldn't even spit.

And Blume and Cross?

(shakes his head)

They can't stand me.

I ruined their whole relationship.

Dirk looks down at Max's red hands.

DIRK:

You should put your mittens on.

MAX:

(absently)

Oh. They're already numb. I'm surprised you don't spit on

me, Dirk.

DIRK:

You're my friend, Max.

Tear's starts streaming down Max's face. Dirk looks worried.

MAX:

I'm sorry about what I said about your mother giving me a

hand job. I just --

DIRK:

I know, Max. Listen. I'm sorry I didn't take your hand when

Buchan kicked your ass.

MAX:

(pause)

I got a few licks in. At the very least, he'll think twice

about spreading that kind of garbage.

DIRK:

You should stand up.

MAX:

I'm awfully comfortable.

Silence. One of the skaters begins to circle around Max and

Dirk closer and closer. She suddenly scratches to a halt

right in front of them.

The skater is a girl in white skates and grey tights and a

short camel's hair coat. She has a scarf over the lower half

of her face. She says to Max:

SKATER:

Is this your handwriting?

She holds out a little piece of paper torn out from a spiral

notebook. Max stands up and takes it. There is a note

written on it in blue crayon.

INSERT PIECE OF PAPER:

Please come to the frozen pond at 3:30 PM this afternoon.

Thank you very much.

Max looks to Dirk. Dirk is putting a new worm on his hook.

MAX:

No. But it looks familiar.

Max gives the piece of paper back to the girl. She lowers

her scarf and we see she is Margaret Yang.

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