Sleepy Hollow Page #6

ICHABOD:

What is the common thread between

these victims?

YOUNG MASBATH:

I'm sure I don't know.

ICHABOD:

We must discover it. The reason the

murderer chose these persons.

Ichabod goes to look at the widow's corpse, pondering.

ICHABOD:

The wounds are the same. Cauterized.

No chopping or half-measures either.

One stroke took the head. Have you

seen, doctor... ?

(pointing to it)

Even the spinal bone... sliced as

smooth as butter.

DOCTOR LANCASTER

I do not care. You are welcome to

use my work area, but I beg you...

return her to her resting place.

ICHABOD:

In time, doctor. Soon as I finish.

Ichabod picks up an iron knife. He looks to Young Masbath.

ICHABOD:

You should step outside.

EXT. CHURCHYARD CEMETERY -- EARLY EVENING

Ichabod and others restore graves. Ichabod looks to the

church, where Clergyman Steenwyck stands in the door.

FATHER STEENWYCK

The devil sent you, Ichabod Crane.

The Lord will not forgive your sins.

Steenwyck shuts the creaky doors.

INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, ICHABOD'S ROOM -- NIGHT

Ichabod sleeps, dreaming...

ICHABOD'S DREAM -- FARMLAND -- DAY

A young BOY, 10, stands in a wheat field with his back to us.

A FEMALE VOICE is HEARD FAINTLY, getting LOUDER.

FEMALE VOICE (O.S.)

Ichabod! Ichabod... come along.

The boy, YOUNG ICHABOD, turns, smiling. He runs. We FOLLOW

to a clearing behind a frontier home. MOTHER waits. Lovely

woman. She kisses him.

ICHABOD'S DREAM -- YOUNG ICHABOD'S BEDROOM -- NIGHT

Dark. Young Ichabod, in bed, has one eye open. Across the

room, Mother has her back to him. She's WHISPERING something

to no one. She turns...

Young Ichabod pretends he is asleep.

A DRAWER is HEARD SHUTTING. Mother exits. Ichabod gets up,

curious, opens a drawer... finds something behind clothing.

It's a piece of reed grass, woven into an elaborate pattern

with shafts of wheat twisted into the center. Young Ichabod

replaces it, closes the drawer.

ICHABOD'S DREAM -- MARKET SQUARE -- DAY

A busy, muddy street lined by wares and produce. Young

Ichabod walks with FATHER, an emotionless man. Father stops

to examine tools. Young Ichabod stays by him, but something

captures his attention...

Across the way, Mother is involved in a argument with a

FREAKISH-LOOKING WOMAN. They shout. People stop to watch.

Can't make out words, but Freakish Woman is furious.

ICHABOD'S DREAM -- STORM SKY -- NIGHT

LIGHTNING flashes over tree tops. THUNDER BOOMS.

INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, ICHABOD'S ROOM -- NIGHT

Ichabod jerks awake in his bed.

INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, KITCHEN -- NIGHT

Ichabod enters with a lantern and his ledger. He sits,

studies notes, then notices there's a light down the hall.

INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, SEWING ROOM -- NIGHT

Opposite an elaborate loom, Katrina reads by candlelight.

She looks up, seeing Ichabod enter.

ICHABOD:

Sorry for disturbing you. I thought

a forgotten candle was burning.

Katrina self-consciously closes her shabby book, puts it with

another on her lap and covers them.

KATRINA:

You do not disturb me. Please stay.

Having trouble sleeping?

ICHABOD:

May I ask... why do you cover your

book that way?

KATRINA:

You pay great attention to small

things. I hide these as I hide all

my books. Father would not approve,

lest it were the Bible.

ICHABOD:

I, um... I have something to show you,

if you have a moment.

Ichabod sits, looking through his ledger.

KATRINA:

These are strange... may I?

She takes his hand, spreads the fingers to the palm. She

touches the many evenly spaced scars.

KATRINA:

These scars. How did you get them?

ICHABOD:

I have had them since childhood. I

cannot remember what from.

KATRINA:

It would be interesting to find out.

Their eyes meet. Ichabod gets back to the ledger. Katrina

seems to relish the effect she has. Ichabod finds a paper

disk on string, illustrated thusly:

ICHABOD:

Here it is. A bird on one side.

His cage on the other. Now,

stare at it.

(spinning it)

The bird seems to be in his cage.

KATRINA:

Yes, he does. May I try?

Ichabod gives it. She spins it, smiling.

ICHABOD:

He only appears to be inside the

cage. The point being...

KATRINA:

You made this, and the drawings?

ICHABOD:

Yes, but listen. The illusion is

easily explained. The eye retains

each image, till they combine. And

yet, some would call this toy magic.

KATRINA:

Don't you see why? Look closely a

moment. Put your intellect aside.

(spinning it)

Can't you see what is inexplicable?

Ichabod watches it spin. He shakes his head, unimpressed.

KATRINA:

Oh, you are hopeless. May I keep

it at least?

ICHABOD:

If you want. But...

KATRINA:

Then, I also have a gift for you.

True magic which even you will not

be able to deny.

She hands him a book. "ROMEO AND JULIET." Ichabod stands,

offering it back, but she will not take it.

ICHABOD:

Thank you. No. Here...

KATRINA:

I insist that you have it.

ICHABOD:

(resigned, leaving)

Very well. But, it will only sit

gathering dust.

KATRINA:

That would be a pity. Those words

might show you something you've never

seen before.

Ichabod stops at the door, looks back. He exits.

EXT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE -- NIGHT

A light glows in Ichabod's window. LOOKING IN: Ichabod's in

bed, fully dressed. He sits up. Pause. He crosses to pick

up "Romeo and Juliet." He begins to read.

EXT. PHILIPSE'S FARM -- DUSK

Ichabod walks with Philipse. Young Masbath follows with the

horses. CICADAS CHATTER from a vast corn field.

PHILIPSE:

Not more than a year ago, a mob hung

a man for stealing a horse. For

stealing a horse! And, you dig up

our dead.

ICHABOD:

Are you saying I should be frightened?

Is this a message passed on from

Clergyman Steenwyck?

The CICADAS SUDDENLY go SILENT. Young Masbath notices.

PHILIPSE:

We are farmers here, not lawyers or

bankers, or even constables. Every

penny we earn comes from what we

send down the Hudson.

ICHABOD:

I know it.

YOUNG MASBATH:

Um.... excuse me, sirs...

PHILIPSE:

(still to Ichabod)

Because of the Horseman, our migrant

workers flee for their lives. There

is a danger that our crops will rot.

So, if you are going to help us, you

stop the Horseman. That is your

task... to kill an undead thing.

Young Masbath looks to a fenced grazing area, worried. The

sheep there are agitated, all running one direction away.

ICHABOD:

Listen to what you say....

PHILIPSE:

No, you listen! You may think we are

a pack of superstitious dullards...

ICHABOD:

At times I do.

YOUNG MASBATH:

Sirs... please!

PHILIPSE:

What will it take for you to realize

this is no laughing matter?

The horses go crazy, braying and rearing. The reins yank

Young Masbath off his feet as the horses flee.

Ichabod and Philipse look to Masbath. A SOUND is HEARD,

distant:
THUNDERING HOOFBEATS. Wind kicks up. HOOFBEATS

seem to come FROM ALL DIRECTIONS.

Philipse looks to the corn field. A flock of birds alights;

a great sheet of black against the sky.

PHILIPSE:

Oh my... oh my oh my oh my...

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