The Cider House Rules Page #2

EXT. COUPLE #3'S HOME - DAY

The door opens to a THIRD COUPLE smiling at us, welcoming

and embracing a sixteen-year-old Homer. Behind them waits

the would-be STEPSISTER--an attractive girl, a little older

then Homer.

LARCH (V.O.)

I told the third family to take good

care--this was a special boy.

INT. STEPSISTER'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

Homer and the stepsister are in bed together. The parents

burst in on them--the father chasing Homer around and around

the bed, the mother beating her daughter, who covers herself

with a pillow.

LARCH (V.O.)

It was Homer who took too much good

care of himself.

EXT. COUPLE #3'S HOME - NIGHT

From her window, the stepsister watches Homer leave the house

carrying his suitcase. Homer looks up at her as he walks to

the street.

EXT. ORPHANAGE - EARLY MORNING

It's after dawn, but still a little dark, as Homer walks to

the orphanage door, suitcase in hand. A HUGELY PREGNANT WOMAN

arrives at the same time. They stand awkwardly next to each

other, waiting for someone to answer the door. The woman is

crying. Homer reaches out and takes her hand.

HOMER:

Don't be frightened. Everyone is

nice here.

PREGNANT WOMAN:

Do you live here?

HOMER:

I just belong here.

The woman sniffles; she nods vaguely. The door opens. Nurse

Edna lets the woman in and embraces Homer.

LARCH (V.O.)

What could I do with him? He kept

coming back!

INT. LARCH'S OFFICE - DAY

Larch instructs an older Homer from "Gray's Anatomy." Homer

is bored and looks out the window.

LARCH:

Homer, if you're going to stay at

St. Cloud's, I expect you to be of

use.

INT. DELIVERY ROOM - DAY

Homer looks adoringly at Dr. Larch as Larch examines ANOTHER

PREGNANT WOMAN. Larch waves Homer over; he places the boy's

hand on the woman's abdomen, to feel the fetus kicking.

LARCH (V.O.)

But, in failing to withhold love,

had I created a true and everlasting

orphan? I had been too successful

with Homer Wells. I had managed to

make the orphanage his *home*.

INT. OPERATING ROOM - DAY

Larch closes a door quickly behind him (so that Homer doesn't

see the ABORTION PATIENT in the O.R.)

INT. DELIVERY ROOM - DAY

Homer assists Larch in delivering a BABY.

EXT. INCINERATOR - DAY

Homer carries a white enamel pail to the incinerator. He

looks inside the pail; he stops.

LARCH (V.O.)

God forgive me. I have *made* an

orphan by loving him too much. Homer

Wells will belong to St. Cloud's,

forever.

Hold on Homer's disgusted expression as he stares at the

contents of the pail.

END TITLE SEQUENCE. FADE OUT. We hear a song playing on an

old phonograph.

INT. DISPENSARY - DAY

We see the song playing on the old phonograph. Dr. Larch is

taking ether. He holds the bottle in one hand, the cone over

his mouth and nose with the other.

SUPER:
ST. CLOUD'S, MAINE, MARCH 1943.

When Larch dozes off, his hand loosens its grip on the cone;

the cone falls off his face, and he wakes up. Then he puts

the cone back in place, dripping more ether from the bottle

to the gauze covering the cone.

Pan the dispensary, which also serves as Larch's photo gallery

and bedroom apartment. The ether-bed is separated from the

room by a hospital curtain (the kind on casters). We see the

recording revolving, the glass-encased cabinets of medical

supplies, the old photographs of St. Cloud's.

Homer enters, he stands uncomfortably, watching Larch for a

moment. Then he turns around and walks back into the corridor.

INT. CORRIDOR - DAY

Homer calls out as though he's just coming down the corridor.

HOMER:

Dr. Larch! Dr. Larch!

INT. DISPENSARY - DAY

Larch wakes up; he shakes off the ether haze. Homer reenters.

HOMER:

We've got two new patients, one to

deliver.

Dr. Larch and Homer leave together.

INT. CORRIDOR - DAY

The *two* doctors walk briskly down the hall, a couple of

professionals.

LARCH:

First pregnancy?

HOMER:

Yes, for both.

LARCH:

(sarcastically)

I presume you'd prefer handling the

delivery.

HOMER:

(tiredly; an old topic)

All I said was, I don't want to

perform abortions. I have no argument

with *you* performing them.

LARCH:

You know *how* to help these women--

how can you not feel *obligated* to

help them when they can't get help

anywhere else?

HOMER:

One:
it's illegal. Two: I didn't ask

how to do it--you just showed me.

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