The Keeping Room Page #3

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And they can sense each other doing and feeling

everything together.

It’s almost holy.

INT. KEEPING ROOM - LATER

Mad holds an OLD BANJO and SINGS. Louise and Augusta sing

along. Augusta BANGS on the table to the rhythm.

Louise DANCES.

Augusta gets up and joins her sister. Arms linked, they

move about the room as one.

The song ends and Louise claps.

Augusta falls into her chair.

And then Mad starts to play another SONG, but this one is

different. It is very quiet, and very sad.

LOUISE:

But we don’t know this --

AUGUSTA:

(gently)

Shhhh --

LOUISE:

I want her to play --

AUGUSTA:

(still gentle)

Mad’s singin’ what she wants to.

Louise slowly concedes, sitting and listening, arms

crossed.

It’s a work song. It’s about loss and suffering. But also

it’s love song. A song about hope. And Mad knows it well.

(CONTINUED)

14.

The song ends. It’s followed by a long silence that

somehow feels like it’s part of the song.

And over this -The

sound of RAIN lightly tapping on the windows of the

Keeping Room. The WIND gently rattling the old glass.

The rain gets louder and louder, UNTIL -CUT

TO:

INT. FARMHOUSE / BEDROOM - NIGHT

Louise WAKES in a sweat. She GASPS. Wakes Augusta.

They WHISPER, so as not to wake Mad.

AUGUSTA:

What is it?

LOUISE:

I saw ‘em.

AUGUSTA:

Saw who?

Augusta touches her face, trying to calm her.

LOUISE:

Daddy and Nathaniel.

Beat.

AUGUSTA:

Was only a dream --

LOUISE:

But I was there --

AUGUSTA:

(gently)

Go back to sleep.

Augusta lies back down. Louise does too.

There’s a moment of silence.

LOUISE:

Can’t stop hopin’ they might come back -

(CONTINUED)

15.

AUGUSTA:

Our father and brother ain’t desertin’ no

duty.

LOUISE:

It was like it was really happenin’, they

needed me --

AUGUSTA:

What happens when you sleep ain’t real.

Louise gives in. Augusta closes her eyes and puts her arm

around her sister.

Rain TAPS the windows. Wind RATTLES the glass.

EXT. FARMHOUSE - MORNING

WATER from the night’s rain hangs on the GREEN LEAVES of

trees. The sun casts SHADOWS of their trunks and branches

on the side of the house.

INT. FARMHOUSE / BEDROOM - SAME

Augusta wakes to see Louise is no longer in bed.

In her own bed, Mad sleeps.

INT. FARMHOUSE / HALLWAY - SAME

Augusta slips along the upstairs hallways of the house.

The old wood PALE and PURPLE in the morning light.

A door is slightly ajar at the end of the hall. Augusta

moves towards it.

THROUGH THE CRACK IN THE DOOR

We see the BACK of a WOMAN inside the room looking at

herself in a mirror. The woman wears a fine LAVENDER

DRESS. Her hair is so long and so dark. We can’t see her

face.

Augusta pushes forward, the door CREAKS -The

woman TURNS -And

as she turns she becomes...

LOUISE.

(CONTINUED)

16.

Augusta shakes her head back into the moment.

AUGUSTA:

Thought you was a ghost.

LOUISE:

I look like her.

It’s not easy for Augusta.

AUGUSTA:

You do.

She tries to push through it -LOUISE

Almost fits me now.

But she can’t.

AUGUSTA:

You should take it off -LOUISE

But I just put it on --

AUGUSTA:

I best not see that dress movin’ again.

Augusta leaves. Louise turns and looks at herself over

her shoulder, to see the back.

EXT. FIELDS - LATER

Mad and Augusta work the land.

Louise approaches, carrying a bucket of water, still

wearing their MOTHER’S DRESS.

Louise puts down the bucket.

Mad looks at Louise and then at Augusta.

AUGUSTA:

Thought I told you to take that off.

Mad hands Louise a hoe.

LOUISE:

Didn’t feel like it.

Louise goes to work.

(CONTINUED)

17.

AUGUSTA:

Louise, I’m asking you, please.

Mad reaches into the bucket, drinks a ladle-full of water

and then dips it back in and hands the ladle to Augusta.

LOUISE:

Why you care so much?

Augusta drinks, throws the ladle back into the bucket.

AUGUSTA:

You gonna ruin it.

Mad and Augusta go back to work.

After a moment, Louise deliberately drops her hoe.

LOUISE:

Don’t feel like hoein’.

Mad gives Louise a LOOK. Louise meets her gaze.

LOUISE (CONT’D)

Don’t like her lookin’ at me that way.

AUGUSTA:

Get back to work.

LOUISE:

She’s the n*gger, she should do it.

Mad just shakes her head and keeps on working.

AUGUSTA:

Like I told you, Louise: we all n*ggers

now.

Augusta resumes her work with Mad.

Louise hesitates, then makes a decision and walks away.

Mad looks up at Augusta. Augusta doesn’t return the gaze.

INT. KEEPING ROOM - NIGHT

The three women sit in SILENCE around the table.

Louise still wears the dress. She pushes TURNIPS around

the edges of her plate.

Mad and Augusta have just about finished their dinner.

(CONTINUED)

18.

Augusta looks at her sister, and then at Mad. Mad and

Augusta share a look, and Augusta makes eyes at her.

Mad doesn’t know what the eyes mean.

Augusta gets up, goes over to the cupboard and pulls out

a LONG, THIN SCRAP of fabric.

Now Mad knows...

Augusta comes up behind Louise and wraps the fabric

around her eyes, BLINDFOLDING her.

LOUISE:

No! I don’t want to --

Louise goes to pull it off but before she can, Augusta

slips an ONION into her hands. She just holds it there

for a moment until...

She moves the onion from one hand to the other, and then

smells it.

Mad and Augusta look on intently.

LOUISE (CONT’D)

It’s an onion.

Augusta and Mad CLAP and HOLLER. Louise pulls off the

blindfold and puts down the onion.

Augusta grabs the blindfold and ties it around Mad’s

face. She looks around the room for something. She

gestures quietly for Louise to join her. Louise can’t

help but SMILE.

They dart around the room, rejecting each other’s choices

in silence so as not to give themselves away.

And then Augusta has an IDEA and she pulls off her

BLOOMERS. Louise STIFLES a GIANT LAUGH and hands the

bloomers to Mad. Mad inspects them, moves them through

her hands.

Suddenly realizing what they are, she drops them.

MAD:

(removing the blindfold)

Good lord I know you know better.

Mad shakes her head.

Louise and Augusta LAUGH. Mad concedes, LAUGHING too.

(CONTINUED)

19.

Augusta puts her bloomers back on.

LOUISE:

It’s your turn Augusta.

Louise grabs the blindfold and wraps it around Augusta’s

face. Mad and Louise move around the room and before Mad

can say anything, Louise pulls the MAN’S HAT down from

above the fire and hands it to Augusta.

Augusta holds it in her hands. She feels it, slowly. She

suddenly stops smiling and gets real QUIET.

She takes off the blindfold and puts the hat back above

the fire.

LOUISE (CONT’D)

What? What’s wrong?

AUGUSTA:

I’m done playin’.

EXT. WOODS - NIGHT

Even in the darkness the sky and land are so very big.

Our Rider sits on the ground next to a small fire, his

HORSE nearby.

It’s quiet. He warms his hands.

And then we see his face. It’s warm and tired and dark.

BLACK RIDER:

Cold tonight.

He waits.

BLACK RIDER (CONT’D)

You don’t talk much, do ya?

He looks at his HORSE. Waits for a response.

BLACK RIDER (CONT’D)

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