The Cider House Rules Page #7

LARCH:

You were! You *are*! It was fantastic.

ANGELA:

It was just the ether, Wilbur...

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHT

Homer wheels a tray with glasses of water between the beds.

A DISTRAUGHT PREGNANT WOMAN stops him by her bed.

HOMER:

Are you okay? Can I get you anything?

DISTRAUGHT WOMAN

No one but me ever put a hand on me,

to feel that baby. Don't you want to

touch it or put your ear down to it?

HOMER:

Okay.

Homer touches the woman's belly.

DISTRAUGHT WOMAN

Put your ear there. Go on.

Homer cautiously lays his ear against her belly.

DISTRAUGHT WOMAN

You shouldn't have a baby if there's

no one who wants to put his face

right there!

She holds Homer's head against her belly; she presses his

face into her. She shuts her eyes. Homer's eyes stare widely.

Dr. Larch stops in the doorway; he watches with concern.

DISTRAUGHT WOMAN

Stay right there. Right where you

are. Stay right here. Right here.

EXT. ST. CLOUD'S - TRAIN STATION - DAY

Homer at the train station, staring down the empty tracks.

Buster is hanging around with him, kicking a rock.

BUSTER:

Do you ever think about leaving this

place to go find them?

Homer makes no response. As the train approaches, Homer and

Buster go sit on a loading cart. They see the distraught

woman (no longer pregnant) from Homer's experience of a few

nights ago; she is leaving St. Cloud's without her baby,

waiting for the approaching train. Her face is a mask. The

DISAPPROVING STATIONMASTER gives her a hard look.

BUSTER:

I mean your parents.

HOMER:

I know who you mean. I think about

leaving here, but not to find *them*.

BUSTER:

Why not?

HOMER:

Whoever they were, they didn't *do*

any of the things parents are supposed

to do. Dr. Larch did those things,

and Nurse Edna, and Nurse Angela.

BUSTER:

Yeah. But sometimes I wish I could

meet mine, anyway.

HOMER:

What for, Buster? What would you do

if you met them?

BUSTER:

Uh... I'd like to show them that I

can cook, a little.

HOMER:

You cook very well!

BUSTER:

And that I can drive a truck!

HOMER:

(laughing)

Better than I can!

BUSTER:

Sometimes I want to meet them so I

can kill them. Just sometimes.

Buster is ashamed; he knows he's said the wrong thing.

BUSTER:

Homer, you know I would never kill

anyone--you know I wouldn't.

HOMER:

I know.

The slowly moving train has stopped. There are SOLDIERS

leaning out the windows. Buster turns to see Mary Agnes

walking past the train--she's doing her best to look grown-

up, sophisticated. One of the soldiers reaches out and gently

tugs on her hair. Mary Agnes is enraged; she spits at the

soldier.

BUSTER:

I think Mary Agnes could kill someone.

HOMER:

I doubt it. She's just an...

Mary Agnes spits at *all* the soldiers.

HOMER:

...emotional girl.

The soldiers roll up the windows as Mary Agnes improvises

some verbal abuse.

BUSTER:

What's she so emotional about?

HOMER:

(shrugs)

I don't know. She got left here,

like the rest of us, didn't she?

Camera closes on Homer.

INT. DINING HALL - NIGHT

The orphans are watching King Kong, the part when the giant

ape first captures the screaming Fay Wray. Intercut Kong

with the orphans' rapt faces. Homer sits near the front,

mesmerized by the film. Dr. Larch and Angela sit by the

projector; Larch is reading a letter. Fuzzy points to the

screen.

FUZZY:

(coughing)

He thinks she's his *mother*!

King Kong is undressing Fay Wray in the cave.

COPPERFIELD:

He doesn't think she's his mother,

Fuzzy.

FUZZY:

He does so! He *loves* her!

CARLA:

How could she be his *mother*?

Larch shakes the letter in front of Angela.

LARCH:

(a harsh whisper)

They want to replace me! The Board

of Trustees wants to *replace* me!

ANGELA:

(whispering back)

They just want you to hire some new

help.

LARCH:

Some new *things* would be useful. I

don't need any "new help."

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