Signs Page #23

Morgan's face is hard, but tears start to fall anyway. Graham

watches as both his children cry at the table.

GRAHAM:

Fine, if you all don't want to eat,

then I'm going to have some of

everything.

Graham takes big scoops of every dish and piles it on his

plate. He digs his fork into the pile and starts to shove it

in his mouth. He swallows.

GRAHAM:

This tastes so great.

Bo, Morgan and Merrill watch in stunned silence as Graham

stuffs more in his mouth. He chews and chews and swallows

hard. He digs his fork into the pile again.

Graham starts crying as he eats. He keeps taking more bites.

More tears fall.

Morgan gets up from his seat. He goes to Graham's chair. He

leans against his dad's arm and cries with him. Graham's

fork stops moving. He watches as Bo moves from her seat to

his other side. She holds her dad's arm and cries.

Beat. Graham pulls them both up onto the chair with him and

hugs them tight. Merrill leans forward and comes to the pile

on Graham's chair. Merrill buries his head in Graham's

shoulder. The Hess family huddles together at one end of the

table. Beat.

THE BABY MONITOR EXPLODES WITH STATIC AND NOISE.

Everyone slowly turns and looks over to Morgan's place setting

where the baby monitor sits on the table. THE RED LIGHTS ON

THE FRONT ARE ALL LIT UP.

Merrill sits up. Graham puts down the children from his lap.

He gets up from his seat and moves around the table and out

of the dinning room. He moves through the family room and

into the hall.

Graham opens the closet door and looks in at the television.

He turns it ON.

Beat. THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYMBOL IS ON THE SCREEN. A LOW

TONE EMITS FROM THE TV. Beat. Graham changes stations.

THE SYMBOL AND TONE APPEAR ON EVERY CHANNEL. THE MONOTONE

SOUND FILLS THE CLOSET. Beat.

Graham steps out into the hall. Merrill and the two children

are standing there waiting. Graham looks at them.

GRAHAM:

(soft)

It's happening.

CUT TO:

INT. UPSTAIRS HALL - EVENING

Merrill pounds furiously with his hammer as he nails boards

to the children's bedroom door. The master bedroom door is

open with a board leaning next to it. Graham is inside his

bedroom

CUT TO:

INT. GRAHAM'S BEDROOM - EVENING

Graham walks to the window next to his bed. It's the same

one we've looked out twice before.

Graham looks out onto his backyard. The FLOOD LIGHT FROM THE

HOUSE THROWS LONG SHADOWS OVER THE YARD. There is a light

breeze. Nothing seems wrong.

Graham's eyes stay locked on the crops which go on and on

into darkness. He moves closer to the glass. Watches the top

of the corn stalks swaying slightly with the wind.

SOMETHING MOVES IN THE DARKNESS.

Graham's eyes moves to where the corn crops fade into black

forty feet away. Graham goes very still.

LINES EMERGE IN THE CROPS; THE KIND OF LINES MADE BY SOMEONE

TRAMPLING THROUGH A FIELD. WE CAN'T SEE WHO'S MAKING THEM.

ALL WE SEE ARE THE COUNTLESS LINES BEING FORMED. THE LINES

MOVE FROM THE DARKNESS TOWARDS THE HOUSE. GRAHAM WATCHES

THEM CLOSE IN ON HIS BACKYARD. THIRTY FEET... TWENTY FEET...

TEN...

Graham backs away from the window towards the middle of his

bedroom.

MERRILL:

Graham hurry.

Graham turns to see Merrill standing with the last board in

the hall. Graham moves out into the hall and shuts the bedroom

door behind him.

CUT TO:

INT. UPSTAIRS HALL - EVENING

Merrill immediately puts the wooden board up and starts

hammering nails into the frame. Graham picks up his hammer

and quietly begins to hammer nails into the wood.

Graham glances to his right as he works. Bo and Morgan are

standing together at the top of the stairs. Bo holds Morgan's

hand.

Graham keeps hammering as he speaks.

GRAHAM:

Did I ever tell you what everyone

said when you were born, Bo?

Bo nods "no" lightly.

GRAHAM:

You came out of your momma and you

didn't even cry. You just opened

your eyes and looked around at

everybody. Your eyes were so big and

gorgeous, the ladies in the room

gasped.

Graham stops hammering. Merrill keeps going.

GRAHAM:

They literally gasped.

(Graham gasps like

them)

Then they go, "She's like an angel."

They said, "We've never seen a baby

so beautiful."

Graham smiles to himself as he remembers the moment. Merrill

finishes hammering.

Graham goes over and picks up Bo.

GRAHAM:

(soft)

And you know what else happened?

Bo nods, "no."

GRAHAM:

(soft)

When they put you on the table to

clean you up, you looked at me and

smiled. They say babies that young

can't smile... You smiled.

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