A Pair of Aces
Page 8
And it spins and spins and as it does, Stone appears, just melts into the scene, and he's moving toward her.
And now we see Clyde moving toward her, and he's unfastening his belt, and we know what this is about, and we go CLOSE ON BECKY'S TERRIFIED face and we see her against the bed, her mouth wide open in a silent scream and THE CAMERA seems to fall from a great height, like a space craft captured by her gravity, and WE CRASH right into her open mouth, and–
–the images are gone.
Becky is sitting on the floor, sweating, dazed, hair soaking wet, hanging in her eyes, the blouse half off, tangled in her arms.
MONTY
He stands at the bedroom door, stares.
MONTY
Becky. You all right?
BECKY
(Weak)
Peachy.
Monty moves to her, helps her sit on the bed. She's limp. She pulls off her blouse with difficulty. Monty tries to help, but he's a moment late and a hand short.
Monty still doesn't get it.
MONTY
It's those damn, dreams, right? Hon, I know it's real hard right now, but they're just dreams, Beck. The result of drastic emotional and psychological trauma. The dreams will go away. You know what the psychiatrist said, he–
BECKY
(The lid comes off; Becky explodes)
FUCK THE PSYCHIATRIST, MONTY! They're not dreams, and they are not–going–AWAY!
MONTY
Christ, Becky…
Becky jerks, stands, forcing Monty to back away. She has totally lost it now.
BECKY
You weren't there, Monty. it didn't happen to you, it happened to me! He stuck his–his–rammed it in me in front, then rammed it in me in back. Then he let his buddies take turns and they found all kinds of fun things to do!
Monty tries to hold her.
MONTY
Oh, baby–
Becky violently shoves him off with both fists.
BECKY
Can't you ever have a thought someone else didn't put there, something you didn't read in a book? Can't you be a man for once in your goddamn life, Monty? Can't you listen to what I'm saying and be for me?
MONTY
Now that is simply not being fair, Beck. I am for you, I try to do what's best and–
FAVOR BECKY
Anger twists her features.
BECKY
Oh, God, I want to be fair. Don't want to hurt your delicate feelings. I–Fuck you, Monty! Fuck you. And if you ask me if I'm okay or all right again, I will scream until my goddamn head explodes!
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. OFF DESERTED ROAD–NIGHT
The black Chevy has pulled off by a wet, clay road in front of a barbed wire cattle gate. Cows are dark shadows in the background. A wooded area is nearby. A hint of lighting in the distance, bits of rain and wind.
Loony and Stone hang around the car. Angela and Jimmy are off in a distance, by an old oak tree, standing together.
Loony takes a drink from a bottle, offers it to Stone, who shakes his head. Loony leans over and speaks to Stone, slaps him on the chest and laughs. Keeps laughing, long after anything could possibly be that funny.
JIMMY AND ANGELA
standing by the oak, and we can hear Loony's laugh cackling on. Angela turns her head, reacts, shudders, holds her arms tight below her breasts.
ANGELA
I'm scared, Jimmy. I want to be with you, not a bunch of crazies.
Jesus, that cop. They just–
JIMMY
It's something happened, babe. It's over, it isn't going to happen no more.
ANGELA
No? How do you know it's not, huh? You love me, Jimmy? Me, or your asshole friends.
What Jimmy says doesn't go along with how nervous he looks.
JIMMY
Come on, lighten up.
ANGELA
You want me to lighten up? Get me out of this crazy place! Shit, Jimmy, you don't look all that light yourself. Know what I'm saying?
JIMMY
He just wants to hole up here, let things cool down.
ANGELA
(sarcastic)
Really? You think someone will be pissed off, just 'cause we killed a cop?
JIMMY
(not so confident now)
We didn't do nothing, Angie. You and me had nothing to do with that.
ANGELA
(rolls her eyes)
Oh, well that's all right, then…
LOONY AND STONE
Loony grins, makes a motion poking one finger through the closed thumb and forefinger on the other hand. He winks at Stone, looks in the direction of Jimmy and Angela.
LOONY
Hoooooooo–eee. Some of that, I want, man. Put me down for a piece, maybe two.
(jabs Stone in the ribs)
You don't want any, I take three, okay?
As usual, Stone is true to his name. He doesn't speak at all.
LOONY
What I want to do, is get on with it, know what I'm saying?
We ought to be doing something, not stepping in cow shit, man.
Stone doesn't answer, and as the babble of Loony's tirade fades away
WE TAKE THE CAMERA UP
so that it sails over the woods like a hawk, and then we come to a clearing, and in the clearing someone is walking, and we swoop down to the clearing, and we can see it's–
BRIAN
who is walking, and when he comes to the center of the small clearing he stops and looks up and there's the moon, showing through patches of clouds. There's rain on his face. He reaches in his pocket and takes out a razor big enough to shave the balls off a bull elephant. It's blade is long and very silver even in the muted moonlight, and it's got a white bone handle, and we–
INSERT BRIAN'S HAND AND RAZOR and we can see a bit of the symbols carved on the razor, and we note there's a similar symbol carved on the back of Brian's hand. It's just a strange-looking doodle.
BACK TO SCENE
Behind Brian the wind moves through the trees and the leaves and dead pine needles twist and the shadows move and come together slowly and the wind keeps blowing and the leaves and needles and shadows keep twisting, flowing out of the woods, low to the ground until they are nipping at his ankles. We hear that animal voice again. Saying something we can't quite discern.
Then the mass of leaves, needles, and shadows whisper and rattle and rise up, and the leaves and needles form a face, and THE THEME RISES UP, and we go–
CLOSER ON THAT LEAFY FACE
looking over Brian's shoulder, and it's not a perfect face, but it's recognizable. It's Clyde.
But that ain't all, folks, because the shadows that lay behind the leaf-shaped Clyde rise up higher and begin to form a hazy shape of their own. It is more a PRESENCE than a shape, a mere shadow of a dark man-thing wearing a top hat.
It is the same silhouette we saw earlier in the jail cell, carved into Brian's dashboard, and the shape on Becky's wall.
Slowly, Brian turns, faces the Leafy-Clyde and the shadow shape.
Leafy-Clyde leans forward and puts his face close to Brian's face, opens its mouth, and there is a noise that comes from it like dried leaves being crushed between fingers, a blast of wind, a crackle of crunched pine needles. Somehow, it's reminiscent of a voice. Not an understandable voice to us, but Brian, he hears, and he's delighted, and he responds with–
BRIAN
Hey, you're here. It's you and me again, man.
Rattle voice the shadow shape quivers, leans forward. The Leafy-Clyde crumbles and rumbles, crackles and moans.
Brian, less delighted, fearful of the presence of the shape behind Clyde.
BRIAN
No problem, Clyde-man, I got it nailed…This waiting gets to me too. When I cut her, she's going to know it's you. That's a promise. That's a blood promise!
And we go CLOSE ON BRIAN'S FACE, and we–
FLASHBACK TO:
INT. HALL OF HIGH SCHOOL–DAY
POV BRIAN
He can't take his eyes off Clyde. He finds himself attracted to this guy, like metal shavings to a magnet. Can't do a thing about it, just got to go and cling.
Clyde stops. Turns his eyes on Brian.
CLYDE
You looking at something?
BRIAN
You.
CLYDE
That right?
BRIAN
Uh-huh.
CLYDE
Staring at me?
BRIAN
I guess.
CLYDE
I see…
In a blur of motion, Clyde grabs Brian by the hair, jerks Brian's head down, drives a knee into Brian's face. Clyde kicks Brian in the ribs, hits him in the eye.
Brian, dazed and breathing hard, aims a nose shot at Clyde. The blow connects. There's a look of pain and pleasure on Clyde's face as he receives it. This is his ball park, baby, and he loves it here.
CLYDE
Hey, hurts good, man!
Bleeding and happy, Clyde slams his forehead against Brian's nose. Brian falls back, gets his feet under him, rushes Clyde and slams him into a row of lockers.
CLYDE
Motherfucker!
THE PRINCIPAL
cutting through the crowd. He dives in between the two.
PRINCIPAL
Stop it, stop it right now!
Clyde lets go of Brian, grins, hits the principal in the gut with an uppercut.
Brian joins in, and they both shove him down, and then they're kicking him savagely. They go on and go, happily, as if they never want to stop, and the kicking–
DISSOLVES TO:
COURTROOM
Judge. Brian in a good suit is seated next to his lawyer, and there's a woman just behind the railing, watching him. His mother. She's in tears.
Clyde is there to. At a table. A lawyer. No mother.
Without moving his head, Brian rolls his eyes in Clyde's direction. Clyde looks bored. Sleazy. Arrogant.
THE JUDGE
and he's in mid-sentence.
JUDGE
…and it is the judgment of the juvenile court that the defendants shall serve one year of probation, and at the end of that period, the court shall–(fade off sound)
EXT. COURTHOUSE STEPS
Clyde and his lawyer pass Brian and his mother.
BRIAN AND HIS MOTHER
She pauses and takes hold of Brian, stops him from waling.
MOTHER
Son. What has happened to you? You brought your grades up. You were doing good. And now this. You're falling apart, Brian. What are you going to do with yourself?
ANOTHER ANGLE ON SCENE
Brian's face, and we can see he's considering.
He turns his head slightly, sees Clyde and his lawyer standing on the courthouse steps. Clyde is lighting a cigarette. Clyde turns his head, catches Brian's eye.
And they hold each other's attention for a long moment, and we–
DISSOLVE TO:
BRIAN'S ROOM–EVENING
Brian is sitting in the half dark, writing in his journal. We can hear the SCRATCH of his pen.
BRIAN V.O.
I've never kept a journal before, but the stuff that's going on inside me is boiling up something awful, and if I don't get it out there isn't going to be anything left of me but shit and blood stains on the goddamn wall…
FADE TO:
EXT. CLYDE'S HOUSE–EVENING
BRIAN AND CLYDE
walking up to the house. It is big, old, gray and ugly. Gothic, like something out of Poe or Hawthorne. Upstairs, two windows show yellow light through faded shades– cold, rectangular eyes considering their prey. This house might have been something before electricity.
They go up the steps.
INT. HOUSE
SOUND–PEN SCRATCHES
BRIAN V.O.
This guy, Clyde Edson, he's really different. He's changed my life and I can feel it down in my guts, squirming around like some kind of cancer, eating at me from the inside out…
FOYER
A hallway before a set of stairs which winds up a dangerous-looking landing. Brain gazes up the stairs, while Clyde kicks at some trash around the door, and snaps a latch.
BRIAN V.O.
Clyde, he's got the pure power, you know? The raw stuff. He gets what he wants because he don't let nothing stand in his way…nothing.
Brian opens a doorway at the side of foyer.
BRIAN V.O
Got no conscience 'cause a conscience isn't anything but a bullshit tool to make you a goddamned wuss.
BRIAN'S POV
as he looks through the open door and sees stairs, and down farther. Darkness.
BRIAN
I sorta expect old Count Dracula to come creeping up here any minute.
CLYDE
He's down there, buddy. Likes it real dark.
THE CELLAR
Brian and Clyde stand near the bottom of the stairs. A couple of rats squeal by. Cobwebs everywhere. Water standing at the bottom of the steps. Something floating in it.
BRIAN AND CLYDE
BRIAN
Didn't tell me you had a pool.
CLYDE
You don't want to try it.
BRIAN
How in hell you come by all this?
CLYDE
Scared the shit out of the gimp caretaker…told him me and the bitch I was hanging out with were moving in. Fucker knew I meant what I said. People that own this house. They don't even live in town. Don't care happens to it. And now, neither does the caretaker.
The pair start back up the stairs. Clyde pauses.
CLYDE
About the bitch. Just so you know I play hardball. She isn't around anymore. She and the brat she was going to have are taking an extended swimming lesson.
BRIAN
You threw her in the bay?
CLYDE
(grins and nods "down.")
Down there.
BRIAN
Wow, man…
BRIAN AND CLYDE
They are climbing stairs. Clyde pauses. Brian stops.
CLYDE
Want to show you something.
BRIAN
Lay it on me.
Clyde reaches into his pants pocket where there's a considerable bulge.
BRIAN
Man, you ain't gonna…
Clyde smiles. Pulls out a razor with a white bone handle. It's got designs on it. It's the one Brian will soon possess. But right now–
Clyde holds it out.
BRIAN
Yeah…Okay man.
CLYDE
It's important you know about it.
BRIAN
Sure. You must like it, huh?
CLYDE
Liking and not liking's got nothing to do with it.
Brian looks at Clyde in a confused manner.
Clyde slips the razor away, starts back up the stairs.
CLYDE
Come on. Got some people I want you to meet. A girl I want you to fuck.
BRIAN
Yeah? Well, I like fucking just fine.
CLYDE
Only the dead don't like fucking, pal.