The Sweet Hereafter Page #7

DOLORES (CONT'D)

Abbott and I used to do a lot of

that in the spring.

MITCHELL:

Berry-picking.

DOLORES:

Yes. The old-fashioned way.

MITCHELL:

And what's that?

DOLORES:

With our hands.

MITCHELL nods, stealing a glance ABBOTT, who stares at him

intensely.

CUT TO:

EXT. BIDE-A-WILE MOTEL -- MORNING

The bus pulls up across the road from the Bide-A-Wile Motel.

DOLORES watches as RISA walks her little boy, SEAN, across

the road to the bus.

DOLORES:

(voice over)

Anyhow, my next stop was across from

the Bide-A-Wile, which is owned and

operated by Risa and Wendell Walker.

Risa walked her little boy, Sean,

across the road, which was

customary. Sean had some kind of

learning disability.

DOLORES:

He was behind all the other kids his

age in school and was too fragile

and nervous to play sports.

CUT TO:

INT. DOLORES'S HOUSE -- DAY

DOLORES continues to talk to MITCHELL, who takes notes.

DOLORES:

(smiling)

A strange little fellow, but you

couldn't help liking him. He was

close to ten but seemed more like a

frightened five or six.

MITCHELL:

Were his parents...attentive to him?

DOLORES:

What do you mean?

MITCHELL:

You mentioned that he had a learning

disability.

DOLORES:

That's right.

MITCHELL:

Did his parents attend to that?

DOLORES:

What do you mean?

MITCHELL:

Did they give him special care?

DOLORES:

The Walkers loved Sean. He was

their only child...the object of all

their attention. I mean, Wendell's

a withdrawn sort of man. That's his

nature. But Risa, she's still got

dreams.

CUT TO:

EXT. BIDE-A-WILE MOTEL -- MORNING

DOLORES opens the door for SEAN. RISA is wearing a down

parka over her nightgown and bathrobe and is wearing

slippers.

RISA:

Morning, Dolores.

DOLORES:

Hi, Risa. Aren't your feet

freezing?

RISA looks down at her slippers.

RISA:

I guess they are.

SEAN gets to the landing of the bus, then turns around and

looks at his mother. He extends his hands like a baby

wanting to be hugged.

SEAN:

I want to stay with you.

Pause. RISA stares at her son with great intensity and

feeling.

RISA:

Go on now, Sean. Go on.

SEAN turns away and looks into the bus full of children.

NICOLE:

C'mon, Sean. Sit next to me.

MASON is sitting beside NICOLE. NICOLE whispers something

to him, and he makes his way for SEAN.

MASON goes to the back of the bus and sits beside his

sister, JESSICA. SEAN moves tentatively towards NICOLE.

ANGLE ON:

Back on DOLORES and RISA.

DOLORES:

Is he okay?

RISA:

I don't know.

DOLORES:

Temperature?

RISA:

No. He's not sick or anything.

It's just one of those mornings, I

guess.

CUT TO:

INT. DOLORES'S HOUSE -- DAY

DOLORES continues her conversation with MITCHELL STEPHENS.

DOLORES:

But I never had 'those mornings'

myself. Not so long as I had the

schoolbus to drive. Not so long as

I had my kids.

DOLORES is lost in this memory, realizing she will never

drive the children again. A tear runs down her cheek.

ABBOTT, sensing his wife's mood, activates his electric

wheelchair and maneuvers himself towards DOLORES.

MITCHELL watches as DOLORES grasps ABBOTT'S hand.

CUT TO:

INT. SCHOOL BUS -- MORNING

NICOLE is seated in the bus next to SEAN. She is staring at

the large speedometer on the front panel.

ANGLE ON:

The speedometer reads 51 miles an hour.

CUT TO:

EXT. SCHOOL BUS -- MORNING

JESSICA and MASON, BILLY'S children, wave at their father

from the back of the bus.

CUT TO:

EXT. BILLY'S PICK-UP -- MORNING

BILLY waving back at his children. His expression suddenly

changes as he sees...

CUT TO:

EXT. ROAD. -- MORNING

From BILLY'S point of view, the schoolbus smashes through

the guardrail and the snowbank. It plummets down the

embankment to the frozen-over pond.

Still upright, the bus slides across the ice to the far

side. The ice lets go and the rear half of the yellow bus

is swallowed at once by the freezing water. The sound of

the ice breaking is terrifying.

DOLORES:

(voice over)

It emerged from the blowing snow on

the right side of the road. It

might have been a dog or a small

deer or maybe even a lost child. It

might have been an optical illusion

or a mirage. Whatever it was, for

the rest of my life I will remember

that red-brown blur...

An eerie silence as the camera stares at the scene of the

accident.

CUT TO:

INT. SUMMER COTTAGE -- MORNING

The camera is high above the bed, looking down on a sleeping

family.

This is the same image as from the beginning of the film.

A FATHER, a MOTHER, and a THREE YEAR OLD GIRL, naked in bed.

MITCHELL:

(voice over)

Every time I get on one of these

flights to rescue Zoe, I remember

the summer we almost lost her. She

was three years old. It happened in

the morning, at this cottage we used

to rent. We were all sleeping

together in bed. It was a wonderful

time in our lives. We still thought

we had a future together, the three

of us. Did you ever visit the

cottage?

CUT TO:

INT. AIRPLANE. FIRST CLASS CABIN -- NIGHT

MITCHELL is telling the story to ALISON.

ALISON:

I...don't think so.

MITCHELL:

I woke to the sound of Zoe's

breathing. It was laboured. I

looked over and noticed she was

sweating and all swollen. I grabbed

her, rushed to the kitchen, and

splashed water on her face.

ALISON:

What happened?

MITCHELL:

I didn't know. I was in a panic. I

guessed she'd been bitten by an

insect, but there was no doctor.

The nearest hospital was forty miles

away, and Zoe was continuing to

swell. Klara took her in her arms

and tried to breast-feed her, while

I dialed the hospital. I finally

got a doctor on the line. He

sounded young, but cool. He was

confident, but there was a

nervousness. He have been an

intern. This was the first time he

ever had to deal with anything like

this. He wanted to seem like he

knew what he was doing, but he was

just as scared as I was.

ALISON stares at MITCHELL, taken by his need to chronicle

and detail this irrelevant stranger.

CUT TO:

INT. SUMMER COTTAGE -- MORNING

FATHER (YOUNG MITCHELL) is on the phone. The camera is

behind his head.

In front of him, MOTHER (KLARA) is breast-feeding the THREE

YEAR OLD GIRL (ZOE).

MITCHELL:

(voice over)

He surmised that there was a nest of

baby black widow spiders in the

mattress. He told me they had to be

babies, or else with Zoe's body

weight she'd be dead. He told me I

had to rush her to the hospital. He

was alone. There was no ambulance

available. 'Now you listen', he

said, 'There's a good chance you can

get her to me before her throat

closes, but the important thing is

to keep her calm.' He asked if

there was one of us she was more

relaxed with than the other. I

said, 'Yes, with me.'

CUT TO:

INT. AIRPLANE. FIRST CLASS CABIN -- NIGHT

MITCHELL continues telling the story to ALISON.

MITCHELL:

Which was true enough, especially at

that moment. Klara was wild-eyed

with fear, and her fear was

contagious. I was a better actor

than she was, that's all. Zoe loved

us equally then. Just like she

hates us both equally now.

(beat)

The doctor told me that I should

hold her in my lap, and let Klara

drive to the hospital. He asked me

to bring a small, sharp knife. It

had to be clean. There was no time

to sterilize properly. He explained

how to perform an emergency

tracheotomy. How to cut into my

daughter's throat and windpipe

without causing her to bleed to

death. He told me there'd be a lot

of blood. I said I didn't think I

could do it. 'If her throat closes

up and stops her breathing, you'll

have to, Mr. Stephens. You'll have

a minute and a half, two minutes

maybe, and she'll probably be

unconscious when you do it. But if

you can keep her calm and relaxed,

if you don't let her little heart

beat too fast and spread the poison

around, then you might just make it

over here first. You get going

now', and he hung up.

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