The Help Page #6

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SKEETER:

Do you have an address for her or

anything?

Aibileen shrugs her shoulders, reeling it all back in.

Just then, Elizabeth walks into the kitchen holding papers

stapled together. She looks between Aibileen and Skeeter.

ELIZABETH:

I'm sorry. Did I interrupt

something?

Skeeter and Aibileen shake their heads.

Elizabeth hands Skeeter the papers. Home Help Sanitation

Initiative is written on the cover.

ELIZABETH (CONT'D)

Hilly wants this put in the League

newsletter.

Skeeter nods.

20.

SKEETER:

Aibileen, I'll drop by at ten

tomorrow to get started on Miss

Myrna.

Elizabeth looks at Aibileen.

ELIZABETH:

Tomorrow is silver polishing day,

so y'all make it quick, okay?

EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - LATER THAT DAY

Skeeter speeds down a country road lined with ancient oak

trees in a white Cadillac.

AIBILEEN (V.O.)

I knew I had said too much to Miss

Skeeter, but Constantine's story

weren't mine to tell. Some things

a girl shouldn't have to know about

her own mother.

Her frizzy hair swirls about as she passes a truck full of

cotton.

INT. CADILLAC (FANTASY SEQUENCE) - SAME TIME

Skeeter looks ahead and sees an OLDER BLACK WOMAN walking

with a LITTLE BLONDE GIRL, 6. They hold hands.

The black woman smiles and waves as Skeeter passes. When

Skeeter looks in her rear view mirror, they're gone.

Skeeter suddenly stops the car just short of an intersecting

gravel road.

Skeeter slowly turns down the old road.

EXT. CONSTANTINE'S HOUSE - DAY

Skeeter's car pulls into the overgrown yard of an old shack

with a rusted-out tin roof.

Two clapboard rooms are separated by an open breezeway. The

front door is cracked opened.

Skeeter gets out and walks toward Constantine's home.

INT. CONSTANTINE'S HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER

Skeeter enters to find only a small bed, dresser, table,

rocking chair and a wood burning stove.

Past intruders have long since taken anything of value.

21.

As Skeeter approaches Constantine's bed, an OPOSSUM scurries

out from underneath.

Skeeter screams as the opossum runs out the door. Her eyes

suddenly catch something.

Lying on the bed is an OLD CORN PIPE.

Skeeter picks it up and brings it to her face. Her eyes

begin to well up.

EXT. PHELAN PLANTATION - MOMENTS LATER

Skeeter pulls in front of a grand antebellum home and parks

to the side of her family's graveyard.

Skeeter carries her black dress up the stairs of a covered

porch.

An old black man with white hair, JAMESO, 70, tightens a

porch swing.

SKEETER:

Hey, Jameso.

JAMESO:

Hello, Miss Eugenia.

INT. PHELAN PLANTATION - ENTRY FOYER - MOMENTS LATER

Skeeter walks through the front door.

SKEETER:

Momma!

If the Smithsonian had wished to assemble the perfect

antebellum home, Skeeter would be standing in it.

INT. PHELAN HOME - PARENTS' BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER

Skeeter enters and looks around curiously at an ARRAY OF WIGS

resting atop a dresser.

SKEETER:

Momma?

Skeeter's mother, CHARLOTTE BOUDREAU CANTELLE PHELAN, 50,

glides into the room wearing a wig. Her floral print dress

has a gazillion perfectly pressed pleats.

Charlotte turns to a mirror and adjusts an auburn-colored,

`pixie' cut.

CHARLOTTE:

Is this a little too young?

SKEETER:

It's a little too everything.

22.

Charlotte removes the wig with a sigh. Only now do we

realize her decision to wear wigs isn't elective. Thinning

hair detracts from her perfectly made up face.

Charlotte puts on a classic bouffant/flip in dark brown.

SKEETER (CONT'D)

Much better.

CHARLOTTE:

Your daddy bought me this dress in

`58.

SKEETER:

Mom, I want to ask you about

CONSTANTINE-

CHARLOTTE:

-Right after Ole Miss won the Sugar

Bowl.

Charlotte unzips the dress and takes it off.

CHARLOTTE (CONT'D)

Come on, you try it on.

SKEETER:

What really happened?

Charlotte winces with pain and grasps her stomach.

CHARLOTTE:

I told you...she went to live with

her people in Chicago...Now,

Skeeter, your mother is dying, and

she wants to see you in this dress.

Charlotte stands in her slip and bra holding the dress.

Skeeter begins taking off her clothes.

SKEETER:

How could she just take off without

telling me?

CHARLOTTE:

I told her not to write you. I

didn't want you upset in the middle

of final exams. Honey, we were

just a job to her. With them it's

all about money...Did I tell you

Fanny Peatrow got engaged? After

she got that teller job, her mother

said she was just swimming in

proposals.

SKEETER:

Good for "Fat Fanny Peatrow."

She lowers the dress over Skeeter's head and zips it.

23.

CHARLOTTE:

This looks precious on you! Four

years ago my daughter went off to

college, and what did she come home

with?

SKEETER CHARLOTTE

A diploma. A pretty piece of paper.

CHARLOTTE (CONT'D)

Hilly and Elizabeth have such

lovely children.

SKEETER:

They dropped out of college to

become housewives, Mother.

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