[ back || 'first draft script' main page || next ]
DR. LESH
(smiles at this)
No, I suppose not. Well, I'm off. I'll take
these back to the lab along with the tapes...
(disturbed)
...I'll have to display these, you know.
Steve enters the kitchen.
STEVE
Just please not on "Sixty Minutes."
DIANE
or... "That's Incredible?"
DR. LESH
I'm leaving Ryan with you. Tak won't be coming
back you know?
STEVE
Yeah, he told me he wanted a day job.
DR. LESH
But he's promised not to talk about this
for several weeks. After that we're all on
our own.
The front doorbell RINGS.
STEVE
I'll get it.
ANGLE - FRONT DOOR
Steve opens it arid is immediately uncomfortable. An older MAN, with gray hair and a pleasant smile, is standing there, briefcase in hand.
MR. TEAGUE
We’ve missed you at the office, Steve. The
fellows were worried so I took it upon myself
to...
(closely scrutinizes Steve’s appearance)
Jesus Steve, you look like shit. Aren't you
feeling any better?
Steve just stands there like a schoolboy caught playing hooky.
STEVE
Still a little weak... this particular strain
of flu is not easy to get rid of. The minute
you’re back on your feet... it, uh... it’s
back with you.
TEAGUE’S POV
Teague can see past Steve and into the living room and staircase. Al I sorts of scient ific equipment is strung around. The big console TV is tuned to a static channel, so is the kitchen portable, also visible from Mr. Teague's vantage.
Teague looks over Steve’s shoulder and Steve tries subtly to block his view.
TEAGUE
Looks like your cable is out there.
STEVE
Cable? Yes, the cable. Yes. We’ve had no
TV for several days.
TEAGUE
Well, we should look into that. Is the entire
block dark?
STEVE
Uh, no, no.. .just us. Just us.
Behind Steve the couch moves across the room gently bumping up against the baby grand piano which produces a musical vibration.
Steve immediately steps outside with Mr. Teague and closes the door behind him. The porch light comes on and even in the bright daylight it glows to amazing intensity.
MR. TEAGUE
I see you have some electrical problems as
well. What’s screwed in there, a three hundred
watt bulb? You afraid of prowlers or trying
to attract every insect in Cuesta Verde?
(he laughs)
STEVE
My wife’s not feeling well either. She got
a little of my bug.
MR. TEAGUE
Tell me something, are you happy here? I
hope you don’t resent my leaping out to ask
these things. We wouldn’t want to lose our
best rep to either the flu or..other “opportunities”
All that software set up in your living room
made me wonder whether you've got a little
something going on the side.
STEVE
Just hobbles. Popular Mechanics.
MR. TEAGUE
Are you up to a little ride? I want to show
you something.
Diane hangs desperately onto any tangible reality. She moves carefully through the house, cleaning up. When she she passes Carol Anne and Robbie’s room Diane hesitates. She listens through the door. She knocks softly and prays.
DIANE
(lightly)
Hello. Anyone home?
(she raps softly)
Carol Anne?
Diane slips her hand down to the doorknob. Knowing it is always locked she feels safe in trying it --- the knob turns in her hand. Tak never locked up after his episode. Diane GASPS and jumps back. As much as she wants to, Diane won’t go in. She backs into her own bedroom and shuts the door.
She turns and sees the bed is not made. Diane pulls off the covers and the sheets, making them ready for the washing machine. Dust rises off the bed and Diane SNEEZES. As she tilts her head hack for a second sneeze she freezes looking at the wall over her bed. The sneeze never materializes.
ANGLE - THE WALL
The STAIN HAS GROWN. It is three feet in diameter and shaped like a black rose. Little black, wiggly lines, like veins, scribble away from the black pistil in all directions. Diane flinches and steps away from it. She sees a picture on her other wall and determines to hang it over the stain.
STEVE AND TEAGUE
TEAGUE
I’m so very proud of this place.
Steve and Teague stand on a hill overlooking the entire Cuesta Verde Estates. Teague’s Bronco sits off to one side.
STEVE
I’ve been up here once or twice. Diane calls
it Vanity Point.
TEAGUE
So who’s to say an artist shouldn't step
back from his easel to admire the sum of
his parts.
STEVE
(almost forgetting his ordeal for a few seconds
of mental freedom)
When they bui1t our model home, there was
nothing down there. Just freshly turned earth
and a lotta wooden stakes and miles and miles
of string.
TEAGUE
One of your children was born in your house.
STEVE
(not smiling now)
Carol Anne.
TEAGUE
I understand she’s missed a lot of school
lately. Trask’s daughter’s in the same nursery
class. She have the flu as well?
STEVE
Yeah, we’ve all got the same thing.
TEAGUE
I’m sorry. I didn’t see her.
STEVE
Oh, she’s around.
TEAGUE
Are you?
STEVE
(his mind in the valley, snaps out of it)
Am I what?
TEAGUE
Are you thinking of leaving Cuesta Verde?
STEVE
(dazed)
I can’t believe how a day can be so beautiful.
You wonder how anyone can have a problem
in the the world on a day like this.
TEAGUE
(kicking up some sod with his heel)
Nice spot for a bay window, wouldn’t you
agree?
STEVE
If you’re living up here, great. Wouldn’t
be so terrific from the valley, looking up
at a lotta houses cutting into these hills.
TEAGUE
You don’t have to live in the valley any
more.
STEVE
What are you getting at?
TEAGUE
Phase five is going up right where we’re
standing. This could be your master bedroom
suite. That could be your view. You interested?
STEVE
Mr. Teague, that’s a very generous offer
but I’m not a developer.
TEAGUE
You’re responsible for 42% of sales, almost
half of what we’re looking at down there.
Almost seventy million dollars of dwellings
& property. Maybe a generation of security
that no one can put a price tag on. We should
have made you a full partner three years
ago. .I don’t want to lose you now.
Steve doesn’t know what to think. So much is piling up so suddenly. It’s a golden opportunity that two weeks ago would have meant a Hawaiian vacation and days of happiness and celebration. Steve turns around to take in the View.
CAMERA PANS AROUND 180 DEGREES
This whole conversation has taken place just inches outside a quiet little cemetery with white picket fences and both ancient and recent headstones.
Steve scratches and gestures to the three-acre memorial park.
STEVE
Not much room for a pool.
TEAGUE
We own the land. We’ve already made arrangements
to relocate the cemetery.
STEVE
Can you do that? I mean, isn’t it rather...I
don’t know. . sacrilegious?
TEAGUE
Don’t worry about it. It’s not an ancient
tribal buria1 ground. It’s Just...people.
besides, we’ve done it before.
STEVE
When?
TEAGUE
In ‘76. Right down there.
STEVE
(struck)
Cuesta Verde?
TEAGUE
All three hundred acres. It was quite a job,
let me tell you.
STEVE
(to himself, his mind racing)
I never heard anything about it.
TEAGUE
Well, it’s not something you go around advertising
on billboards and the sides of buses.
Steve is speechless. He looks back and forth between the existing cemetary and Cuesta Verde Estates below.
What are you worried about? Relatives and friends can visit their loved ones at Broxton Memorial Park. It’s only five minutes further out for Christ sake.
STEVE
(quietly, to himself)
Five minutes. I guess that’s no great hardship.
I suppose that would be okay.
TEAGUE
Okay with whom?
STEVE
Whomever might complain.
TEAGUE
Nobody’s complained up till now.
Students mill about between classes. It’s a beautiful day in Irvine.
DR. LESH AND A SENIOR ADVISOR, ANTHONY FARROW
They are sitting in an empty lecture hall. Monitors are everywhere. Several people are filing out. Lesh is exhausted. Apparently she’s been through quite an ordeal. Anthony Farrow is twenty years older than Dr. Lesh, which puts him into his early eighties.
He puts a comforting arm around her and sits on the desk, smiling like the wizened sage he is.
FARROW
In a word?
He hands her back her video tapes.
LESH
In a word.
FARROW
Too graphic!
LES
It was the episode as it occurred.
FARROW
Perhaps.
LESH
Oh, Tony...you too?
FARROW
I so wish to accept what I saw. I’m only
steps away from the old wooden bridge myself.
To believe that something exists on the other
side would be like a warm light in the window.
LESH
Perhaps if tendrils of ectoplasm were all
that showed up?
FARROW
Better.
LESH
A smoky shape lasting merely an instant.
FARROW
Even better.
LESH
Nothing on tape at all... only sounds, rappings,
a sigh.
FARROW
You’d still be answering questions. They’d
all want to go back to the house tonight.
You gave then too much, Martha. Too much
too soon. Nothing was left to the imagination.
This isn’t a science yet. It’s still a sideshow
and your troubadours were not in their make-up.
LESH
And these? What do you make of these?
She gestures to the dozens of jewelry pieces on the desk. Farrow picks up a beautiful brooch. He holds it up to the light.
FARROW
It’s the real McCoy, that's one thing for
certain.
Farrow pins the brooch on Lesh’s sweater and takes an antique ring, placing it on her finger.
FARROW
Dear Martha. May we cross that bridge together
someday? May all we believe be true. May
we picnic in the clouds.
Lesh starts to laugh and punches Farrow on his leg.
LESH
You old con artist. If only you were fifty
years younger.
FARROW
Let me give you some advice. Secret a few
of those gems. Come out of this with something
in your pocket. The National Enquirer pays
more for inventing what we must bust our
rumps investigating and for what?
LESH
Okay, pops! I'm making you the accessory
in this crime.
She picks out a set of earrings and stuffs then into her change purse. Farrow laughs as Dr. Lesh starts to fold up the napkin containing the stones and jewelry. Suddenly Farrow stops her, reaching for something in the pile.
FARROW
This is interesting.
He picks up a thin, wiry clip that looks like it could he a dog muzzle for a miniature poodle.
FARROW
Did this teleport with everything else?
LESH
Yes, I picked it up myself. Why?
He turns it over in his hand.
FARROW
It’s a staple, a clamp for the jaw.
LESH
Not something you'd wear to the masquerade
ball.
FARROW
No, but you would wear it to your own funeral.
It’s a mortician's trick. It prevents the
mouth from suddenly dropping open when the
body is in repose. It discourages a great
deal of embarrassment and...fainting.
LESH
(with a shiver she looks at her watch)
Oh darn, 1 promised I’d be back before dark.
FARROW
Martha, my dear. Why don’t you let Tangina
have a go?
LESH
(sourly)
I was afraid you’d suggest that Tangina ‘s
so...melodramatic.
FARROW
Yes. But she‘s a house-cleaner and right
now with what you tell me about that little
girl, I think it’s high time you brought
out your big guns.
This time we are framing the first row of headstones, PUSHING PAST them to the warm suburban glow that reaches for miles into the hills, joined by a sprinkling of stars on this moonlit night.
MOVING SHOT
We are following Steve and Diane. They seem to be gazing down as they walk through their horne. CAMERA WIDENS to reveal Ryan and Lesh ahead of the Freelings. They appear to be following something, also Iooking down at their feet. CAMERA PANS DOWN, expecting to find E. Buzz at the head of this train. Instead...
We meet TANGINA BARRONS, astrologist, clairvoyant, midget.
She is dressed in a California Hawaiian print dress, wears her hair in a beehive, dons aviator sunglasses and casually sips coffee from a mug as she explores the Freeling home.
Tangina stops and looks at her followers. She speaks with a very polite Southern accent.
TANGINA
Would you all mind hangin' back. You’re jamming
my frequencies.
They oblige and Tangina waddles her way down the hail and up the stairs unaccompanied.
DR. LESH
I know what you’re thinking. You’ll have
to take my word on this. She’s cleaned many
houses. Her gifts are well documented at
the parapsychology laboratory at Duke University,
University of Virginia, the...
Diane is becoming more and more distraught over something.
DIANE
We haven’t heard a word from Carol Anne since
last night.
TANGINA (O.C.)
Why is this door locked, Mr. Freeling?
Steve looks up the stairs, he’s about to answer but instead decides to concentrate. A pause.
DIANE
Answer her.
STEVE
(softly)
I am.
ANGLE - TANGINA
Tangian no appears at the upper rail and looks down between the banister posts.
TANGINA
I am addressing the 1iving?
STEVE
(giving up)
I’m sorry. That’s the room my son and daughter
occupy.
LESH
We believe it’s the heart of the house.
TANGINA
This house has many hearts.
Tangina turns away and continues her search.
ANGLE - LIVING ROOM
Steve turns to Diane and Lesh and Ryan, pulling them into a circle of whispers.
[ back || 'first draft script' main page || next ]