West of Thunder Page #5

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Fixer and I have the

elixir of elixirs!

FEMALE TOWNIE IN CROWD:

Sir you have to have a permit to

sell any wares in our town.

HENRY SEED:

Ma'am I have the correct permits

here. I have all the permits

and I have the backing of a

higher authority every single

step of the way.

DRUNKEN MALE CROWD PERSON:

Sir, what kind of medicine are

you hawking here for us?

HENRY SEED:

That's a great question my brain

addled drunken friend...

DRUNKEN MALE CROWD PERSON:

Well thank you very much.

HENRY SEED:

This medicine is a proprietary

combination created by the

United States

Pharmacology Department.

Its most beneficial, most

important ingredient is

this......This is the canine

tooth of the Bovidae Bison

Bison commonly

known as the buffalo.

We at the USPD extract the

tooth and grind it down to a

fine powder and then we add

pure Wisconsin spring fed

waters and our own

combination of medicinal

herbs, roots,

proteins and vitamins.

MALE CROWD PERSON:

What's it good for?

HENRY SEED:

You sir have

palpitations of the heart.

You ma'am have hot flashes

and pains in your wrists.

You sir have residual back

pain from falling off

your horse exactly 26 days

ago...And you sir have

the bane of modern man.

You were once young and

virile My elixir can put

the Jesse back in your James,

put the Charles in your

Dickens, put the Bat

in your Masterson,

put the Kid in your Billy

and put the Wild Bill in your

Hickok....But first let me

tell you about our extraction

process.We slowly slaughter

the buffalo and then we,

as it is still alive, pull the

tooth.

The carcass is then laid

to waste like carrion,

the rotted flesh for the

crows and critters of the

plains. We let the carcass

go to waste... all of it...

We use no meat for sustenance,

no hide for warmth,

no skin, not a bit, for leather,

no bone for knick knacks or

patty whacks nothing but this.

LITTLE GIRL IN THE CROWD:

His medicine is bad...

it will hurt you!

HENRY SEED:

From the mouths of

babes comes the truth on a

white horse I have lost all

my authority to sell you

this elixir.

BOOKSTORE OWNER:

Ah a wonderful choice.

I think you will

enjoy Oliver Twist.

Are you familiar

with the story at all?

HENRY SEED:

No, a little, not much though.

BOOKSTORE OWNER:

I like to call it the preeminent

rags to riches story.

HENRY SEED:

That's right;

I do remember that he grew up

in an orphanage.

BOOKSTORE OWNER:

Even with that humble

beginning he is able to

exhibit integrity and the

power of choice.

Even when no choice is

given he still chose.

HENRY SEED:

How is that possible?

BOOKSTORE OWNER:

I like to call it the magic and

mastery of volition...

pure undiluted free will.

HENRY SEED:

So I guess you must

be from the school of

thought of John Milton then

huh?...Creating a heaven from

hell and a hell from heaven.

BOOKSTORE OWNER:

Exactly...there are no

inextricable situations.

The situation only takes

meaning in the way that we

perceive it, in the

way that we handle it.

HENRY SEED:

So even if a man were

shackled and bound

he'd still have a choice?

BOOKSTORE OWNER:

Even more so.

SHERIFF CHAPMAN:

Michael lock your doors and meet

me in my office.

SHERIFF CHAPMAN:

Michael did someone put rotting

meat in your store...

did you get a bad a delivery?

MICHAEL:

No I don't get no deliveries

until next Tuesday. You were

in my store this morning it was

fine then wasn't it?

SHERIFF CHAPMAN:

Yes it was.

MICHAEL:

Well it ain't now, everything in

the store has gone bad.

The seeds have meal worms

in them...even the damn hard

candies have gone putrid.

SHERIFF CHAPMAN:

Did someone else enter

your store after I left?

MICHAEL:

Well yeah about 6 or 7 people.

SHERIFF CHAPMAN:

Was one of them a tall

gentleman with dark hair?

MICHAEL:

Yeah he didn't buy nothing,

he just circled his hands

around...I didn't know what

the hell he was doing. I thought

it was some damn European

way of saying hello.... Well,

I gotta go see what I can

salvage from the store.

HENRY SEED:

Michael, your place smells

really bad.

MICHAEL:

What did you do to my

foodstuffs?

HENRY SEED:

Actually the question should

be... what did I do

to my foodstuffs?

MICHAEL:

I'm not getting you...

I did nothing.

HENRY SEED:

You are absolutely correct.

You've done nothing at all...

nothing except lock your front

door. Two winters ago you

hoarded all of your

food for your kinfolk,

for your townsfolk. Any

Indian looking for food

you locked the front door.

MICHAEL:

They were beggars...

I run a business.

HENRY SEED:

They were not beggars...

they had federally issued

vouchers...

just as good as any minted

money.

MICHAEL:

Well I was afraid we were

gonna run out of food.

HENRY SEED:

You didn't run out of food

Michael. You ended up

with a large surplus that

eventually went bad.

MICHAEL:

I think I may have been wrong

in my judgment.

I have thought about that

almost every day for the last

two years.

I know what I did was wrong.

HENRY SEED:

Have you tried to

rectify that wrong?

MICHAEL:

No but...

if ever that happens again,

I will do the right thing.

HENRY SEED:

I actually...I actually believe

you. I appreciate your

heartfelt manner...I do.

Michael are you married?

MICHAEL:

No...

HENRY SEED:

Do you have any children?

MICHAEL:

No...

HENRY SEED:

I will not show you

any mercy...

LITTLE THUNDER:
(in Lakota)

MINOR RUNNING CLOUD: (in Lakota)

RED WOLF:
(in Lakota)

SIMON:

How's Gusty?

ELIZABETH JANE:

Very well. She asked about you.

SIMON:

See you after work.

ELIZABETH JANE:

Have a good day Simon.

HENRY SEED:

Simon, you're Elizabeth

Jane's brother?

SIMON:

Yes sir.

HENRY SEED:

So Elizabeth Jane has

an Indian for a friend?

SIMON:

Yes sir, they've been

friends for 8 years.

HENRY SEED:

I heard that Gusty

kinda likes ya.

SIMON:

I like her too.

WANDA:

Hello Henry........

HENRY SEED:
(voiceover)

........When the drum was

created it was created with a

sole purpose--a heart and

soul purpose to mirror all

mankind's heartbeat and pulse,

a rhythmic connection and a

common percussive thread that

is the backbone and building

block of all of our heart

songs.......

A TRIBAL SONG PLAYS

A TRIBAL SONG PLAYS

HENRY WHISTLES:

RANCH OWNER OTIS:

What the hell...you

got no right to be here,

this is my land.

HENRY SEED:

What's your name?

RANCH OWNER OTIS:

Otis

HENRY SEED:

Otis, do you know that in the

Lakota language there are

no words for ownership of

land... That all land, all

of this, only has One owner.

RANCH OWNER OTIS:

Really? See I got a deed that

says otherwise. I own this

land and I'd really like you to

leave...

HENRY SEED:

Do you know where I was sitting,

like what I was sitting next to?

RANCH OWNER OTIS:

Yeah, you're sitting on my land.

That's my field, those are my

trees.

HENRY SEED:

In this grove of trees is

actually an Indian resting

site. There are 18 souls,

18 bodies that have been

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