The Keeping Room Page #9

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throw long and tall across the house.

INT. FARMHOUSE / BEDROOM - THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Augusta shakes Mad AWAKE.

MAD:

What --

AUGUSTA:

Shhhhhh.

MAD:

Why wake me just to be quiet?

AUGUSTA:

-- listen --

They listen together.

NOTHING.

MAD:

Probably a ghost.

AUGUSTA:

Come have a look with me?

INT. FARMHOUSE / STAIRCASE - MOMENTS LATER

Augusta, RIFLE in hand. Mad right behind her. Quietly,

they make their way down the stairs.

They hear a STRANGE NOISE. Like a tearing or ripping.

It’s coming from outside.

EXT. FARMHOUSE - NIGHT

Augusta and Mad move in the darkness.

The sounds of a struggle --

RIP!

(CONTINUED)

55.

A SNARL as flesh and muscle TEAR.

EXT. FIELD - SAME

Augusta and Mad approach the pen to see:

A CREATURE is tearing Hatty apart.

It’s dark, but she’s sure as sure it’s the RACCOON.

Augusta AIMS, SHOOTS and HITS.

The creature WHIMPERS and COLLAPSES.

Augusta moves towards it. Mad stays back. When she gets

close enough she goes to cry out, but stifles it well and

BACKS AWAY in FEAR...

And then, we see it too:

The dying creature is not a raccoon. It’s BATTLE.

AUGUSTA:

Get back inside.

MAD:

What was that?

A WHISTLE. It’s familiar.

AUGUSTA:

Inside. Now -HENRY

(O.C.)

Who’s firing? Show yourself!

At the sound of a man’s voice Mad and Augusta exchange a

look and run inside.

MOSES (O.C.)

Battle! PHFT! PHFT! Battle!

INT. FARMHOUSE - MOMENTS LATER

Mad BOLTS the BACK DOOR. And they run up the stairs.

INT. FARMHOUSE / BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER

The breathless women clamber into the bedroom.

They wake Louise.

(CONTINUED)

56.

AUGUSTA:

Wake up.

Louise wakes, slowly.

LOUISE:

What’s goin’ on?

MAD:

We got men here --

AUGUSTA:

Soldiers. Yankees.

MAD:

How you know that?

MOSES (O.C.)

You shot the dog!

Augusta motions to Mad and Louise to be quiet. As the men

continue singing and talking, she moves to the window and

looks down, trying to see where exactly they are. But she

can’t find them.

HENRY (O.C.)

(singing)

He was just a dog.

Same as you and me.

Quickly, she RELOADS her rifle.

HENRY (CONT’D)

(singing)

You went and shot him down.

Couldn’t let him be.

MOSES (O.S.)

Who else you got in there? Any men-

cowards? Or negros?

Augusta moves back to the others. Henry keeps singing

under their dialogue:

HENRY:

And now there’s no more drink.

And there’s no more dog.

I only have this gun.

And I’m through my song.

The women whisper, and FAST:

AUGUSTA:

We got any other guns?

(CONTINUED)

57.

MAD:

Downstairs. In one of the drawers.

AUGUSTA:

I’ll get it and come back.

MAD:

Let’s get to the Keepin’ Room.

AUGUSTA:

We ain’t leavin’ this house.

MAD:

Too many doors and windows and rooms -AUGUSTA

We goin’ to fight.

LOUISE:

I don’t wanna fight --

MAD:

We can hide. They don’t know we here.

AUGUSTA:

They know someone shot their dog and they

gonna come lookin’.

MAD:

How you know what dog belong to what

Yankees?

AUGUSTA:

‘Cause they followed me.

Mad doesn’t know what to say when --

SUDDENLY --

BANG BANG BANG!

Someone POUNDS on the SIDE OF THE HOUSE.

Louise goes to SCREAM. Mad covers her mouth.

BANG BANG BANG!

Once she’s sure Mad has Louise under control, Augusta

moves to the door.

LOUISE:

Don’t go --

(CONTINUED)

58.

AUGUSTA:

You want them up here?

LOUISE:

No.

AUGUSTA:

Then I gotta go.

INT. FARMHOUSE / STAIRS - NIGHT

Augusta creeps down the stairs. The BANGING continues.

HENRY (O.C.)

Shine’s all gone. I could use a drink!

MOSES:

We been knocking, but nobody come down to

invite us in.

And just as she reaches the bottom...

It STOPS.

She waits a few moments...

AND THEN -

A bullet RIPS through a wall across the house. The sound

of Henry LAUGHING WILDLY.

Augusta stays low, until --

ALL OF A SUDDEN --

BULLET after BULLET after BULLET comes ripping through

the walls. She can’t believe it’s only two men, how they

keep coming.

She has to get on the ground to keep safe.

The BULLETS RIP through the walls of the house, one after

the other.

And then as suddenly as it started...

It’s OVER.

She waits.

And then --

CRASH!

(CONTINUED)

59.

The sound of BREAKING GLASS from the FRONT RIGHT window.

She darts to --

INT. FARMHOUSE / FRONT RIGHT ROOM - SAME

Henry has stuffed a RAG ON FIRE into the remains of the

JUG OF MOONSHINE and thrown it through the window.

A FIRE now blazes on the floor just inside the window.

Augusta puts down her rifle and looks around for

something to put out the fire. There’s nothing. Thinking

fast, she pulls off her nightgown and puts out the fire

with it.

Once it’s out she picks up her gun.

She moves through the house NAKED, rifle at the ready.

Another window BREAKS on the other side of the house.

She runs to -

INT. FARMHOUSE / FRONT LEFT ROOM - SAME

In the WINDOW:

A HAND creeps through the broken glass and goes to open

the window from the inside.

Augusta takes aims at the hand. She steadies herself as

best she can and when she’s ready, she takes a step

towards the window, takes a long deep breath...

And SHOOTS.

The hand RECOILS as the bullet passes through the tender

area between thumb and forefinger.

She can hear Henry SCREAMING in the night.

And she makes a break for it.

INT. FARMHOUSE / FRONT ROOM - SAME

Augusta finds the SMALL BOX by the door on the one TABLE

that’s left. It’s filled with mostly trinkets and odds

and ends, things that may have belonged to her mother, a

long time ago...

(CONTINUED)

60.

But the gun isn’t there.

Quickly, quietly she moves to a LARGER BOX by the door.

And then she finds it: a small SINGLE-SHOT REVOLVER.

With a SINGLE BALL and BLACK POWDER.

EXT. FARMHOUSE - NIGHT

Henry holds his arm to his chest. He is moving quickly,

but comes to rest on an exterior wall of the house.

Moses is right behind him.

HENRY:

(under his breath)

Sh*t sh*t sh*t!

Beat.

HENRY (CONT’D)

Sh*t, Mose --

He shows his hand. All bloody and mangled. Moses winces

at the sight of it.

HENRY (CONT’D)

Women taking all kinds of parts of me

today.

INT. FARMHOUSE / BEDROOM - SAME

Augusta BURSTS into the room.

This conversation happens VERY QUICKLY:

LOUISE:

What’s happenin’?

AUGUSTA:

(to Mad)

This your gun.

Mad takes it in her hands. Frightened.

LOUISE:

Why you naked?

AUGUSTA:

Fire. Had to put it out.

(CONTINUED)

61.

LOUISE:

What?

Augusta opens the wardrobe and pulls on a pair of

bloomers and a blouse as she talks. She also takes a

POUCH of GUN POWDER that was tied to her dress and ties

it to the blouse she now wears.

AUGUSTA:

I gotta reload. Do as I do.

Augusta hands her the ball and the powder.

AUGUSTA (CONT’D)

Powder goes in.

They both do it. Mad watches her so closely --

AUGUSTA (CONT’D)

Then the ball.

Augusta does it. Mad copies her motion.

AUGUSTA (CONT’D)

Push down like this.

Augusta drops the ball in. So does Mad.

AUGUSTA (CONT’D)

Pull this back -

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