The Grapes of Wrath Page #3

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CASY:

Ain't you seen your folks since then?

TOM:

(putting on his coat)

No, but I aim to before sundown.

Gettin' kind of excited about it,

too. Which way you going?

CASY:

(putting on his sneaker)

It don't matter. Ever since I lost

the sperit it looks like I just as

soon go one way as the other.

(Rising)

I'll go your way.

They pause at the edge of the shade, squint up at the sky,

and then move off.

The scene dissolves to the SURFACE OF A DIRT ROAD by daylight.

Leaves are scuttling across it. The top soil begins to fly

up. It is not a hard wind as yet, but it is steady and

persistent. Tom's and Casy's feet walk into sight.

TOM:

Maybe Ma'll have pork for supper. I

ain't had pork but four times in

four years--every Christmas.

CASY:

I'll be glad to see you pa. Last

time I seen him was at a baptizin',

an' he had one a the bigges' doses

of the Holy Sperit I ever seen. He

go to jumpin' over bushes, howlin'

like a dog-wolf in moon-time. Fin'ly

he picks hisself out a bush big as a

piana an' he let out a squawk an'

took a run at that bush. Well, sir,

he cleared her but he bust his leg

snap in two. They was a travellin'

dentist there and he set her, an' I

give her a prayin' over, but they

wasn't no more Holy Sperit in your

pa after that.

TOM:

(worriedly)

Lissen. This wind's fixin't to *do*

somepin'!

CASY:

Shore it is. It always is, this time

a year.

Tom, holding his cap on his head with his hand, looks up...

The TOPS OF THE TREES are bending before the wind. TOM AND

CASY continue walking.

CASY:

Is it fur?

TOM:

(still looking back)

Just around that next bend.

TOM AND CASY are almost being blown along and dust is rising

from the road.

CASY:

(lifting his voice

above the wind)

Your granma was a great one, too.

The third time she got religion she

go it so powerful she knocked down a

full-growed deacon with her fist.

TOM:

(pointing ahead)

That's our place.

The JOAD CABIN is an ancient, bleak, sway-backed building.

There is neither sign of life or habitation about it.

CASY:

(looking back)

And it ain't any too close, either!

We better run!

A DUST STORM, like a black wall, rises into the sky, moving

forward. TOM AND CASY are running, but looking back over

their shoulders as the DUST STORM nears. Dust rises from the

ground to join and thicken the black wall.

TOM AND CASY are seen racing down the road to the cabin, the

wind whipping up the dust. The two men smack open the door

and slam it shut after them. The screen begins to grow dark

as the storm sweeps over the land. It becomes black.

In THE CABIN, it is black too, but the sound is different.

In addition to the sound of the wind there is the soft hissing

of sand against the house.

TOM'S VOICE

Ma?... Pa?... Ain't nobody here?

(After a long silence)

Somepin's happened.

CASY'S VOICE

You got a match?

TOM'S VOICE

There was some pieces of candle always

on a shelf.

Presently, after shuffling about, he has found them and lights

one. He holds it up, lighting the room. A couple of wooden

boxes are on the floor, a few miserable discarded things,

and that's all. Tom's eyes are bewildered.

TOM:

They're all gone--or dead.

CASY:

They never wrote you nothing?

TOM:

No. They wasn't people to write.

From the floor he picks up a woman's high button shoe, curled

up at the toe and broken over the instep.

TOM:

This was Ma's. Had 'em for years.

Dropping the shoe, he picks up a battered felt hat.

TOM:

This used to be mine. I give it to

Grampa when I went away.

(To Casy)

You reckon they could be dead?

CASY:

I never heard nothin' about it.

Dropping the hat, he moves with the candle toward the door

to the back, the only other room of the cabin. He stands in

the doorway, holding the candle high.

In the BACK ROOM the scene moves from Tom at the door across

the room to the shadows, where a skinny little man sits

motionless, wide-eyed, staring at Tom. His name is Muley.

MULEY:

Tommy?

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