by bob chartain
good Sarah, really good. Anyway what's before later?
SARAH
Tombstone.
BRANDT
Why tombstone?
SARAH
Ice cream. I go shopping on Sunday. I'm going to let you buy me two scoops of chocolate and maybe dinner.
(beat)
Did you find your horse?
DISSOLVE TO:
TOMBSTONE - AT TWILIGHT
The CAMERA PANS down a typical tourist filled street. Brandt and Sarah, laden down with packages, walk into view. Sarah juggles her ice cream cone.
BRANDT
How did you know about my horse.
SARAH
I saw your horse trailer.
In the crowd Brandt spots Joe Starwind dressed in street clothes.
BRANDT
Hey Joe. Joe.
But Joe turns and then hurries away.
SARAH
Do you know that kid?
BRANDT
Nice guy. I met him the other night.
SARAH
Oh yeah. That kid was one of my patients, a real schizoid. He says he's an Indian medicine man... He lives like a beggar in the caves above the town.
BRANDT
He did say, everybody in town was crazy.
A you must be joking look then she licks the cone seductively and the scoop falls before it can get to her mouth. Muck catches it in midair and downs it in one gulp.
BRANDT (CONT'D)
Haven't you got any manners?
Muck takes off after something on a darkened side street.
BRANDT (cont'd)
Sorry about that. I'll get another one.
SARAH
It's Okay. Actually I'm really hungry.
Under a sign reading: JEZEBEL, DIVINATIONS, PALM READING AND TAROT a velvet curtain opens slowly. Jezebel watches for an instant then lets the curtain fall.
BRANDT
You know something's strange about Ophir. It has a strange antiseptic, sterile, almost too perfect feeling... and Dr. Stanley smells like a gold plated phony to me. I think it has something to do with the mine.
SARAH
Get off it, Brandt... Your imagining things. Just feed me...I'll be yours forever.
BRANDT
Muck come here. Where did he go? Wait, I'll be right back.
CUT TO:
A DARK SIDE STREET - NIGHT
where the dog has something cornered behind a pile of refuse.
BRANDT -
moves around the corner, then slowly towards Muck.
BRANDT
What is it, fellah.
Unseen to Brandt a slimy, pulsating tentacle retracts rapidly into the trash. Muck BARKS repeatedly and the sucking gurgling SOUND grows louder as Brandt edges closer.
DOWN THE ALLEY - BRANDT'S POV - NIGHT
PUTRID, PALPITATING FLESH -
slips through the garbage. At the end of the alley, an ancient and dilapidated store has a sign which reads:
CURIOSITIES AND RELICS -
JEZEBEL O.S.
Shoggi - may un tah.
Sarah enters the alley.
SARAH
I want to go over there.
Unknowingly, Brandt steps out of the way, barely missing a groping tentacle in the shadows. Around the corner and -
ACROSS THE STREET, A NEON SIGN FLASHES ON -
like a bolt of lightning, first red, then white, illuminating a giant eagle on a sign that reads:
BRIGHT EAGLE CAFE.
Sarah throws her arm around him and moves him toward -
SARAH
Come on Brandt.
CUT TO:
THE BRIGHT EAGLE CAFE - Dusk
A crowded, plantsy, homey place. Over dinner -
BRANDT
Did you see that thing?
SARAH
What thing?
BRANDT
In the trash.
SARAH
The rat? There's a lot of them around here. Oh, they make my skin crawl. Argh.
BRANDT
Well it wasn't a rat.
SARAH
I know. I know. An alien being.
Not you too? Brandt... you've decided to stay and commit yourself to me for observation... right? You know your imagination's got the best of you. First the train, now monsters in the trash. What kind of child-hood did you have?
BRANDT
I don't really remember... Sarah, don't frog me.
SARAH
What do you mean by that?
BRANDT
You're trying to cut me up in little pieces that you can dissect and study.
SARAH
You poor baby. You have a penchant for the absurd.
BRANDT
No! I've just got a newspaperman's eye.
SARAH
That explains it... Wipe out the ink spots... will yeah.
Muck sneaks in the restaurant through an open window and waits by the kitchen door.
BRANDT
I was an investigative reporter for the National Star.
SARAH
I bet you wrote the one about punks having a strain of mutant genes from outer space. Did you say was?
(Brandt's sad expression)
Oh... did I touch a sore point. Did you get fired?
BRANDT
I... I quit. Don't negate it entirely - at least it made people think - besides I see what I see.
SARAH
Yeah, sugar you're here to unravel the mysteries of the desert so the world will come and laugh at us.
BRANDT
NO...
SARAH
Why not? The Star would love it. Monsters in the Tombstone trash.
BRANDT
I'm writing a book on strange and mysterious phenomena. I know this place is full of it.
The kitchen door flies open. A WAITER with a full platter trips on Muck who catches some of the morsels in mid air, then flies through the dining room with a mouthful.
WAITER
(chases Muck)
Come back here you mangy, no good -
SARAH
Isn't that your dog, Brandt?
The waiter trips and slides to a stop under Brandt's chair.
BRANDT
(covers his face)
Not today -
SARAH
I want to know about your book.
BRANDT
You can read the first four pages.
WAITER
(lifts head from the floor)
I'm sorry sir, your dinner will be delayed a few minutes.
BRANDT
That's all right. Can I change my order?
The waiter pulls himself up.
WAITER
Yes sir.
BRANDT
I'll eat crow.
WAITER
That was your dog?
DISSOLVE TO:
Stay tuned for part II
