The Power of One Page #20

BOY:

There a Mr. P.K. here?

MORRIE:

It's your scholarship.

Morrie grabs the telegram.

BOY:

Sign here. Odd name -- P.K.

MORRIE:

What's your name?

BOY:

Waldo.

MORRIE:

You're not one to talk about

names.

Morrie scribbles his signature and proceeds to open

the telegram.

PK snatches it away from him. He pulls the telegram

out. His face falls to worry.

MORRIE:

What's it say?

PK:

Doc's missing.

CUT TO:

162 INT. DOC'S HOUSE 162

121.

PK walks through the small house followed by Commandant

Von Zyl. Nothing is out of place.

VON ZYL:

Since his pneumonia last year

I've had one of the men drop

by once a week to see if he

needed anything. Of course

you know the professor. He

never did.

PK looks out at the cactus garden, watered now by drip

irrigation.

VON ZYL:

At the beginning of the week he

wasn't home so I decided to drop

by myself. Waited a whole day

here. When he didn't come back

I sent search parties. After

three days I sent the telegram.

Seven days is a long time for

him to be gone. Do you have

any ideas where he went?

PK looks at the pegs where the rucksacks hang. There

is only one hanging.

CUT TO:

163 EXT. JUNGLE FLOOR 163

PK hikes along, watching the trail. His eyes spot

something. He kneels over the remains of a small

campsite. PK touches the ashes. His eyes rise to the

escarpment soaring above the jungle floor.

CUT TO:

164 EXT. ESCARPMENT CLIFF FACE 164

PK climbs along the cliff face. He drops down into the

entrance to the crystal cave.

CUT TO:

165 INT. CRYSTAL CAVE 165

PK stands at the bottom of the crystal slab almost

dreading what he will find. He resolutely climbs the

stalagmites to reach the top. PK's eye level shifts

from below the slab to even with it, then to above it.

As his sight rises Doc's corpse comes INTO VIEW -

122.

laid out, serene hands clasped on his chest. From

above the stalactites drip onto his body ever so

slowly, turning him, molecule by molecule, into

crystal.

PK stands off to one side.

166 HIS POV 166

a small metal box by Doc's feet.

167 BACK TO SCENE 167

PK picks it up and opens it. Inside is a letter. PK

unfolds it, and with trembling hands reads:

DOC (V.O.)

So Mr. Schmartypants. It did not

take you so long to figure out

what happened. I hope you

forgive me for not saying goodbye,

but I did not think it would be

necessary between us. What could

I say you don't already know.

(MORE)

DOC (V.O.) (CONT'D)

That I love you with all my heart?

That you have given me more in our

ten years of friendship than three

lifetimes could fill? That the

last thoughts I have before

becoming something else will be

of music, cactus, and you? You

know all this.

PK turns the sheet to page two which is a whole side of

music.

DOC (V.O.)

Last night this music came into

my head. It is my music for

Africa. My music for you. So

go. Be welterweight champion of

the world. Be a writer. A great

writer. Remember -- the only

thing between a dream and a

reality is you. Until we meet

again, your friend, Doc.

PK looks down at Doc as a PIANO CONCERTO, beautiful,

haunting, BEGINS TO PLAY.

123.

FADE TO:

168

INT. DOC'S HOUSE - NIGHT 168

PK plays the music Doc wrote with only the moonlight

illuminating the page. The music is soul-stirring,

rich, evocative. Tears run down PK's cheeks.

PAN FROM PK THROUGH the CACTUS GARDEN to the FULL MOON

illuminating the African veldt as the MUSIC dominates

and then FADES into the night.

CUT TO:

169

EXT. JOHANNESBURG TRAIN STATION - DAWN 169

The overnight train pulls in. PK disembarks.

170

HIS POV - STATION CLOCK 170

reads 6:
30.

PK exits the station.

CUT TO:

171

EXT. GOLDMAN'S GYM 171

PK comes down the street. A police car sits in front

of the gym. The two cops inside eye PK. He eyes

them back and enters the building.

CUT TO:

172

INT. GYM 172

The gym is empty. PK enters and is stopped by the

uncustomary silence.

PK:

Hello? Mr. G? Anyone here?

SOLLY (O.S.)

In here.

PK heads for the office. He finds Solly packing up

his mementos from the cluttered office.

PK:

Mr. Goldman, why isn't anybody

124.

training? What's going on?

SOLLY:

A repeat performance of history,

my boy. Solly Goldman's being

deported. Of course last time I

didn't have the luxury of being

able to pack.

PK:

For what reason?

SOLLY:

Their reason is that I'm here

illegal. I didn't enter the

country with a passport. Like

the Czar was issuing passports

to Russian Jews in 1910.

PK:

This is because of me, isn't it?

SOLLY:

No, boychick. This is because

of them. They are the problem,

not you. Don't ever think

different. You look tired.

Want a glass tea?

PK:

No, no. I have to get back to

school.

Solly opens his arms. PK hugs him.

SOLLY:

You got your head screwed on

right. Don't let these

meshuganahs screw it on wrong.

Now go on. You want to find

me, look at Benny Rosen's gym

in East End, London.

PK:

Thank you for everything.

SOLLY:

We're not finished yet.

PK smiles and exits.

Solly waits for a moment, then goes back to packing.

CUT TO:

125.

173 EXT. PRINCE OF WALES SCHOOL - MORNING 173

PK comes up to the school gates. He notices two plainclothes

police cars just across the road. PK enters

with a growing sense of uneasiness.

CUT TO:

174 INT. PK'S DORM 174

PK hurries down the hall to his room. He opens the

door to Daniel Marais, sitting at his desk, reading

from his fiction-filled notebook.

MARAIS:

You're a very good writer. The

subject matter is a little

inflammatory but the style is

interesting.

PK:

What are you doing here?

MARAIS:

I came to inform you that you

will not be receiving aid from

the National Scholarship Fund.

Neither will you be admitted to

any of the South African

universities. Here are your

applications back.

He hands PK the applications as he rises.

MARAIS:

I told you when you came to my

house. I am first a member of

my tribe and I will defend it

any way I know how.

He and PK glare at each other, implacable enemies.

Marais exits.

PK looks out his window, thinking.

175 HIS POV - MARAIS 175

walking off across the campus.

MORRIE (O.S.)

They don't want you here any more

than they want me.

126.

176 BACK TO SCENE 176

PK turns.

MORRIE:

Take the hint. Screw the

scholarship. Come on. Let's

leave.

PK:

If I leave or if I stay in SouthAfrica it's because I choose to,

not because they choose for me.

He takes a small handbag, throws a few books into itand Doc's picture. He picks up his notebook andpacks that too. He goes to exit.

MORRIE:

Where are you going?

PK:

Save my place at Oxford.

PK exits the room.

Morrie chases after him.

MORRIE:

P.K., goddammit!

He grabs PK, stopping him.

PK:

Save my place.

Morrie's grip releases.

PK walks out.

FADE TO:

177 EXT. COPPER MINE - DAY 177

Hundreds upon hundreds of black laborers and whitemine workers descend into the mines. A milling mass ofdisenfranchised humanity come to work the undergroundhell of the copper mines.

PK exits the management shack and walks through thecrowd.

Dear Morrie.

PK (V.O.)

Here is how it works.

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