Sounder Page #12

DAVID LEE:

Thank you, Miss Johnson.

CAMILLE:

I don't live far from here. You and your dog

can come home with me and have yourself a hot

meal and then we'll talk about how to get you

back home.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. CAMILLE'S PLACE - DAY

DAVID walks about CAMILLE'S quaint, neat little home with his eyes lit up as

he looks around and about --

DAVID LEE:

You got a pretty house, Miss Johnson!

CAMILLE:

I try...

INT. CAMILLE'S - DAY

They enter. DAVID spots the many books she has on a shelf -- he moves to the

shelf as she stands next to him --

DAVID LEE:

You got a lotta books, too.

(scanning the books)

You got any books with people in 'em like

Huckleberry Finn?

She turns in a quick, reflex motion, directly to the boy --

CAMILLE:

Hell, no!

DAVID breaks out in a big smile because he is glad to know that she has no

books like Huckleberry Finn. She returns his smile, and puts her finger on

one of the books --

CAMILLE:

Here, let me tell you something about the books

on this shelf:
This one's about a man whose

name was Crispus Attucks. He fought in a war to

help this country to become the United States.

And this one is about a woman who helped to

free slaves. Her name was Harriet Tubman,

and...

INT. CAMILLE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT

CAMILLE finishes washing the dishes -- moves for the sitting room as DAVID

trails her --

DAVID LEE:

And you say all them people is dead now?

CAMILLE:

That's right--

INT. CAMILLE'S SITTING ROOM - NIGHT

She moves into the room with DAVID following her --

CAMILLE:

They lived a long time ago -- before you and I

were born.

DAVID LEE:

Where is Africa, Miss Johnson?

She moves to her desk and pulls out a drawer --

CAMILLE:

Come here and I'll show you.

She opens the desk drawer -- gets down on the floor and spreads the map out.

DAVID sits down next to her as she goes over the map.

CAMILLE:

Here it is, right here.

DAVID LEE:

That's where we come from first?

CAMILLE:

That's where we came from first.

She rises from the floor and puts the map back into the desk drawer as DAVID

moves to the book shelf --

DAVID LEE:

And the other people you told me 'bout, they is

all colored folk?

CAMILLE:

Colored.

DAVID LEE:

Don't you teach in your school 'bout folk who

ain't dead?

CAMILLE:

Sure--

She moves to the shelf next to him and takes a book from it --

CAMILLE:

Here's one by a man that's very much alive.

DAVID LEE:

What's his name?

CAMILLE:

Dr. William E. B. Dubois.

(fingers through the book)

DAVID LEE:

What he talk 'bout?

CAMILLE:

Why don't you sit and I'll read you something

he said.

She sits in a chair at the desk and he takes a place on the floor just

beneath her, waiting anxiously for her to begin the reading --

CAMILLE:

(reads from the book)

THE LONGING OF BLACK MEN MUST HAVE RESPECT --

(she diverts)

Which means that a man and a woman are human

and must be treated that way--

(she returns to the text)

THE RICH AND BITTER DEPTH OF THEIR EXPERIENCE,

THE UNKNOWN TREASURES OF THEIR INNER LIFE--

As she reads, DAVID'S mind and imagination take to drawing pictures and

images of what he can apply to his intuitive understanding of what she is

reading to him --

CAMILLE'S VOICE OVER:

--THE STRANGE ENDINGS OF NATURE THEY HAVE SEEN, MAY GIVE THE WORLD NEW POINTS

OF VIEW AND MAKE THEIR LOVING, LIVING, AND DOING PRECIOUS TO ALL HUMAN...

DAVID'S IMAGES:

The night in the woods with his father and SOUNDER. The shouting and laughter

after the baseball game --

CAMILLE'S VOICE OVER:

...HEARTS. AND TO THEMSELVES IN THESE DAYS THAT TRY THEIR SOULS...

DAVID'S IMAGES:

HE, JOSIE and EARL, running and playing in the field.

CAMILLE'S VOICE OVER:

...THE CHANCE TO SOAR IN THE DIM BLUE AIR ABOVE SMOKE IS TO THEIR...

DAVID'S IMAGES:

His visit with his father at the County Jail house --

CAMILLE'S VOICE OVER:

...FINER SPIRITS BOON AND GUERDON FOR WHAT THEY LOSE ON EARTH BY BEING BLACK.

DAVID'S IMAGES:

His mother, with her head thrown back, her eyes aglitter and laughing.

CAMILLE has finished reading -- she places the book down on the desk as he

looks on her from the poor with tenderness --

DAVID LEE:

You're a friendly lady, Miss Johnson.

CAMILLE:

And you're a tired little boy. I'll make up the

cot and you must get some sleep.

She moves into the corner to prepare a place for him in the sitting room.

DAVID LEE:

What about Sounder?

CAMILLE:

He'll get his place too -- now off with your

clothes and into bed.

DAVID unclothes himself and crawls into the bed as CAMILLE stands over him --

CAMILLE:

Now don't you think it's time you told me all

about yourself?

DAVID LEE:

I have a mother and her name is Rebecca -- My

father's name is Nathan Lee Morgan, and...

INT. SCHOOL ROOM CLASS - FULL ANGLE - DAY

CAMILLE is standing in front of her desk before an overfilled class room.

DAVID LEE is seated in a chair against a wall on one side of the room.

CAMILLE:

Anyone here know what chapter that story was

from?

A boy rises with abrupt and fast confidence --

BOY #1

Chapter twenty-six!

CAMILLE:

Twenty-six? The text has but six chapters!

BOY #l

That's what I meant, Miss Johnson. Take away

the two in front and all you got left is a six!

The class room breaks out in a gusto of laughter.

CAMILLE:

Now you know I'm not going to have the

laughing!

The laughing dies sharply and quickly -- CAMILLE smiles to herself --

CAMILLE:

I'll get back to you later, Mr. Twenty-six.

Let's not stop now, we have to keep this mood

moving. The story has to come from one of the

text books we've already read in class, or it

has to be a true story of your own. Let's get

it going now -- we don't have that much time

left...

She moves around and sits at her desk -- after some indecision on the part of

all of the Children, one boy finally rises from his chair --

CLARENCE:

I got a story, Miss Johnson -- It's a true

story that happened to me.

CLARENCE is a soft-eyed boy about eleven or twelve years of age. He behaves

as if he's not too sure he wants to tell his story --

CAMILLE:

You know that the class is going to challenge

your story, don't you, Clarence?

CLARENCE:

Yes, Miss Johnson...

CAMILLE:

Go on...

CLARENCE:

(hesitates)

Me and my little sister, went down to the water

hole, last Saturday--

A GIRL rises and interrupts him --

GIRL #1

You're doin' somethin' wrong already -- You

didn't tell us the name of your sister...

CLARENCE:

(pause)

My sister's name is...

(pause)

Me and my sister, Laura, went down to the water

hole last Saturday and we was playin' 'long the

edge of the water and Laura slipped and fell in

the water. I started to run back home, but I

turned around, ran back, dove into the water

and got her out before she could drown...

No one says anything -- CLARENCE just stands there, looking around the room,

waiting for someone to utter something -

CAMILLE:

How was your sister after you pulled her out of

the water?

CLARENCE:

She was dirty and wet...

SWING TO:

CLOSE ANGLE - GIRL #1

GIRL #1

What were you doin', runnin' away from the

water?!

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