Episode 25: Tell Your God To Ready For Blood
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(Scene opens with a brilliant pastel sunrise, camera
panning from the sky down to the thoroughfare. We see Al standing on his
balcony looking over the camp. Dan emerges from the front door of the Gem and
looks up at Al.)
Dan: Fixin’ toward a bloody outcome, boss.
Al: Absenting myself don’t change your fuckin’ instructions.
(Dan looks disappointed, and goes back inside. Cut to a view of hustings being built, apparently for upcoming speeches. It looks a lot like a gallows)
(Cut to a room at the
hotel, we see George Hearst laying on his back on the floor, he is awake.)
(Cut to the Gem Saloon. There are 3 Cornish standing
at the bar, speaking gibberish. Seated at a table is a man in a dirty suit who
looks a bit like a hired gun. He is taunting the Cornish who at first seem to
ignore him. He continues taunting them. Dan is standing to the side looking
nervous and pissed. Johnny is behind the bar with the shotgun trained on all
the men from under the bar. It’s clear that both Dan and Johnny are just waiting
for the fight to start. Finally one of the Cornish has had enough and he turns
to confront the man. Dan motions to Johnny to hold his fire.
After a brief exchange, the seated man shoots the Cornishman
with a concealed gun from under the table.)
Dan: Hey! (The
gunman jumps up and fires again. A
second hired gun-type is now visible and is covering the first man’s back) Hey!
(Cut to Al who turns and heads inside.
(Cut to Hearst who remains on the floor, but seems
to be listening to the gunfire and does not look surprised)
Dan:Get
the fuck out!
Gunman: He come at me with his foreign gibberish.
Dan:
Get the fuck out while I let you get the fuck out!
(To the Cornishmen…) You too,
you get out that way. (He points to the front door. They move to grab the dead man.) Leave
him be or you’ll be riding the Goddamn sled with him. Get out! (The 2 gunmen still have their guns drawn
and seem to be sizing up Dan) Either
of you cocksuckers want to talk funny at me?
Gunman: (Holstering his gun) Good day, Sir.
Gunman2: Good
day. (They leave. Al looks down from
the interior balcony.)
Johnny: Wu’s out of camp.
Al: Store him
in our corner of the icehouse. (He
returns to his office, slamming the door behind him.)
(Cut to
Bullock’s house, Seth approaches Martha as she comes down the stairs.)
Seth:Will
you look this over? (He hands her a paper.)
Martha: Certainly.
Seth:Words that
doing the wrong jobs, piling on too heavy, or at odds over meaning—
Martha: I’ll mark my suggestions.
Seth:Nothing showy
is the main thing.
Martha: I understand.
(Awkward silence.) Shall I
gather my school supplies?
Seth:I’m much
obliged.
(Cut to the
Ellsworth house. Sofia is playing, we hear furniture moving.)
Alma: That’s
better, isn’t it?
Ellsworth: Mmmmmm.
Alma: Over
here? (She points to her left, Ellsworth drags the settee over.) I will apologize, Mr. Ellsworth, for
what I am about to ask.
Ellsworth: (To Sofia) She wants to try it on the ceiling.
Alma: A
coverlet, dark red, is packed with the linens in the gray leather trunk.
Ellsworth: Back at the hotel.
Alma: It’s
near time in any case to take Sofia to school.
Ellsworth:
The settee is best sited with its spread upon it,
would be your mother’s idea.
Alma: Mr.
Ellsworth will help you gather your things, Darling, for school.
Ellsworth: Young lady.
Sofia: Goodbye. (She kisses Alma on the cheek.)
Alma: Bye.
Ellsworth: Will I bring you back a sandwich or a glass of milk?
Alma: Just the
coverlet, thank you.
(Seth and
Martha step outside onto the thoroughfare.)
Seth: I’d
sooner be hanging from those hustings than stand on ‘em giving a speech. Nuttall’s bartender’s no hand at it
either. We both may get pelted with
refuse.
(Alma steps
to the window, looking out. As she
watches Ellsworth and Sofia walk away, we see her fall to the floor passed out.)
(The
Bullocks meet the Ellsworths in the street)
Ellsworth: Morning.
Martha: Good morning, Sofia.
Sofia: Good
morning. Will we bake bread again
today?
Martha: Is it your vote we should?
Sofia: Yes. And Mr. Bullock for Sheriff, and Mr. Star
for Mayor. And I will put the bread in
to bake.
Ellsworth: If I’m to believe what I read, you’re heavily
scheduled today.
Seth: Yes.
Ellsworth:
As to your meetin’ with Hearst, if the chance comes
up natural, stomp on the cocksucker’s foot.
(In front of
the Chez Amie, Mose Manuel is reclining on the porch with coffee. Joanie is leaving the building.)
Joanie: Morning.
Mose: Yes,
Ma’am.
(Jane is reclining
next door, under a set of stairs. She appears to have a sort of a bed set up
there)
Jane: Off to the
Bella Union like the moth to the fucking flame.
Mose: Miss
Stubb’s didn’t name her destination.
Jane: I’m telling you
where she’s going. (She gets up and approaches Mose.) And why don’t you look for
honest work?
Mose: Miss
Stubbs holds what I’m doing for honest.
Jane: She no more
needs a watchman than she does a fucking balloonist. And why should the young of this camp have to scurry past your
man-toad figure to receive an education?
Mose:The
time they come for schoolin’, I’m in back and out of sight.
Jane: Exposin’ them
to being terrified only when they use the privy.
Mose: Go
get your load on, Jane.
Jane: (As she turns around and walks away.) Do
not instruct me how to spend my day…or to itemize for you my private
itinerary…you tub of blubber and guts!
Mose: I’ve got 10 minutes yet to be out front!
(Jane walks
into an alleyway and pulls a bottle out of hiding, takes a drink. Al watches the Bullock party on the street
from his office doorway and steps outside.)
Ellsworth: Might I give over the little one to you here?
Martha: Of course.
Ellsworth: When next we meet, young lady, I will be on the eye
for warm bread. (He hands Sofia her lunch
bucket) Wants a coverlet from storage, Mrs. Ellsworth, to consider atop the
day bed. (He rolls his eyes and heads in another direction. A.W. Merrick is at the “stage” with his
camera, he shouts out to Seth’s back)
Merrick: Framing of a dream.
Martha: (To Seth) He’s saying that to you, Seth. (Seth
waves without looking back, Merrick waves.)
(Grand
Central dining room, Richardson is clearing plates as E.B. watches.)
EB: Mr.
Ellsworth, no doubt on some menial domestic errand. (Richardson sneaks a bite
from the dirty plate, E.B. swings around, Richardson quickly grabs the plates and returns to the
kitchen.
(Back
outside in the thoroughfare…)
Al: Sheriff! (To Martha) Forgive my raucous tone.
Martha: Mr. Swearengen.
Al: (To
Seth) May we have a word?
Seth: Once I’ve see
‘em to school, I meet Hearst.
Al: Very much
what I’d have us speak of. (Seth nods.)
Sofia: Can
we plant beets again today?
Martha: Yes. (Joanie
passes them by and nods, Martha nods to her.)
(Cut to
Charlie Utter, who has part of a speech written on his palm “Thank you for the
intro Sherif”.)
Utter: “Thank
you…Thank you for the introduction, Sheriff.”
(He looks up and sees Seth, jumps
up to meet him.)
Sheriff.
Seth: Morning,
Charlie.
Utter: Morning. Miss Bullock.
Martha: Good morning, Mr. Utter.
Utter: Morning
there, little one, in your lovely go-to-school outfit.
Sofia: Good
morning.
Seth: Did
the evening pass in quiet?
Utter: The morning got
a little busy. Cornishman killed in the
Gem. His buddies come babbling to our
office.
Seth: Dority kill
him?
Utter: The
complainants can’t speak right so I had to have them play act. But I’m guessing no.
Seth: They up in the
office still?
Utter: Down in
Hearst’s shafts. (Martha takes Sofia’s shoulder and turns to the men.)
Martha: We’ll say goodbye.
Seth: Goodbye. Goodbye, Sofia.
Sofia: Goodbye.
Utter: Goodbye there,
little one.
Sofia: Goodbye.
Martha: Thank you.
Sofia: Hi
Dorothy. Good morning, James. (More
children join them, Mose gets up to go to the back of the building.)
James: Good morning.
Utter: Nice thing,
ain’t it? The children?
(He looks up
and spies Jane, who is standing in an alleyway, she sees him and makes a big
show of giving him the finger.
(Back at
Grand Centralt.)
EB: Will
you attend the evening speeches, Richardson?
Richardson: If
you let me.
EB: Of course I
will. How else are you to vote with intelligence? (chuckles)
I intend no lengthy remarks. My
tenure as Mayor speaks for me. Will
they have the Jew merchant instead?
Well, let them then and welcome.
(He smacks Richardson’s hand) I caught you, Richardson. Stuffin’ spitbacks in your vile maw. Let tomorrow’s omelets go empty, is that your fuckin’ attitude?
Richardson: You
hurted me.
EB: Shhh!
Wash
and stack, shit monkey. Or ready
yourself for worse. (He tosses the scraps from the plates into a
pan, to be used in the next meal.)
(The
cashier’s cage at the Bella Union)
Leon: Congratulations,
Sir.
Con: Congratulations. (Joanie
enters and heads upstairs.) Florence
Nightingale.
Leon: Florence
Nightingale is a nurse.
Con: I know that,
ya ignorant cocksucker.
Leon: Joanie Stubbs
is a cocksucker.
Con: I know that,
you ignorant fuck. (clears throat) Don’t be
sweatin’ all over the gentleman’s money.
(chuckles)
Leon: 1500. (He
hands the man at the cage his money, turns to Con.) And thank you for that ration of shit.
(Inside the
Schoolhouse/ Chez Amie. Heads are bowed as they recite the Lord’s prayer
together.)
All:
Give
us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those
who trespass against us. And lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory, forever and ever.
Amen.
(Cut to the
whore’s room at the Bella Union. The
whores are lounging about in general disarray.
Joanie enters the room, and after closing the door she seems to have
smelled something rotten.)
Joanie: (sighs) Morning, Tess.
Tess: Morning,
Joanie.
Joanie: Git. (She shoes off a whore from the vanity.)
Tess: I can take him
that.
Joanie: I got it. (pours water.)
Tess: How’s
Cy?
Joanie: I don’t know yet, Tess. It’s none of your business anyway. Your only business is how you start the fucking day.
Tess: I’m clean.
Joanie: Before you go to sleep, how are you supposed to
start?
Tess: I said I’m
clean.
Joanie: You answer my Goddamn question.
Tess: My snatch is
clean.
Joanie: Is the rest of your body clean?
Tess; Yes.
Joanie: What’s next?
Tess: The room where
I receive, and that’s fucking clean.
Joanie: Well what’s next after that?
Tess: God damn you,
Joanie.
(Joanie moves to
Lila who is clearly on dope and looks very bad)
Joanie: What’s next, Lila, if you ain’t too fucking
high? (snaps her fingers in Lila’s face.)
Lila: Our room where we rest.
Joanie: Which don’t it fuckin’ stink in here? It does, Lila, like a hogwhore’s cunt. And I ain’t loaded not to smell it. Why don’t you go, girl? Why don’t you get to the muck where you’re
fuckin’ headed anyway? Go on. Git. (She shoves Lila into the hallway and starts
to turn around. Lila sits on a bench,
curling up. Joanie turns back to
her.) What are you doin’ sittin’
back there?
Lila: Oh, please
let me stay. (Joanie slams the door and turns back to the girls.)
Joanie: When I come back tonight, you better all be sweet
for me to fuck. Or have your damn bags
packed, ‘cause I’ll throw every one of you out. Move, Tess, move. (She
takes the pitcher and leaves.)
Tess: (To the whores) You know she’s going to let her stay.
(Con and
Leon watch Joanie come down the stairs, she scowls at them. Con growls at her
as she walks away. She knocks and
opens Cy’s door.)
Cy: Come
on in, Honey. How are you?
Joanie: I’m all right.
Was the Doc by?
Cy: Brightened
my early mornin’. Another day on the
right side of the ledger far as puss. How’s
the action outside?
Joanie: It’s quiet.
Cy: Either
clown upright to tell you what the action was?
Joanie: I didn’t ask.
Cy: I guess
you’d stopped in on the whores. (Joanie sits down, her back to Cy.)
Joanie: Well, you might have mistook, Cy, pickin’ Tess over
Lila to see to ‘em.
Cy: Lila’s on
the needle.
Joanie: Well, Tess ain’t pickin’ up the bit.
Cy: Maybe she’s
unsure of her place, you in and out of our lives.
Joanie: Well, fresh water. (She moves the pitcher next to the bed)
Cy: You’re not
leaving yet, are you?
Joanie: Right here, Cy, on the side table.
Cy: Act like a
fucking baby, don’t I? (pretend whining) “Oh, don’t go.” Where’s my Good Book, honey?
Joanie: It’s just next to you, in the bedfold. (He
grabs and clutches it close to his chest.
Joanie slams the door behind her and he throws it down.)
(Al’s office
at the Gem, Silas is picking at his nails.)
Silas: I’ve
been scooping out rain gutters for a month.
My fingers are bloody with sandin’.
Al: You do
recall you’re only the transactions beard?
(He gets up and they head
downstairs where Jewel is scrubbing the bloodstain.) You return to Star. A sorry run at the tables, you can’t support the loan he made
you.
Silas: Well, what if
he don’t foreclose?
Al: Oh, you
beg him to buy you out. You may harm
yourself. You’re up all hours, “What
have I fucking done?” Or the like.
“Maybe I should fucking end it.” Star
ends owning that house is the necessary fucking conclusion. Coffee!
Jewel: Ready. (She
gets up to pour him coffee.)
Al: That
croaker seen to?
Johnny: At Wu’s icehouse, under a tarp, in our corner.
Al: (To
Jewel) Will you pour it without scalding me, huh?
Jewel: Breakfast? (Al
pauses for a moment, Jewel gets back down on her knees to scrub.)
Al: Bacon and
eggs.
Jewel: (She throws the brush in the bucket and
struggles to her feet.) You know you could have said that before I went
down.
Al: You
get in the kitchen. (Jewel leaves and Al takes off his jacket
and starts to scrub the floor.)
Silas: I liked living
in that place.
Al: Why do I
give a fuck? (Al growls and scrubs, Silas leaves.)
So why not force this morning’s murder outside?
Johnny: You told us not to.
Al: As he
stank of a put-up job, I wanted to find out if we were meant for the venue.
Johnny: Well, whoever put the job up can’t be any too smart,
‘cause them Cornish work for Hearst.
Murder a Cornish and you buy Hearst for an enemy.
Al: You’re a
fucking miracle, Johnny. It’s close to
a mortal certainty he ordered the murder himself.
Johnny: Hearst?
Al: Shut
up! (scrubbing) He stages a murder in my fucking
joint. Wants Bullock to show his ass
before he’ll bless his fucking candidacy. What does he require of the weather? Jesus Christ. (Gets
up) That’s how you clean a fuckin’ bloodstain, hey.
(Silas paces
at the hardware store/bank, distraught.)
Sol: What
if we stretched out the payments?
Silas: I
cannot fucking make it. What the fuck
was in my head to sign that note?
Sol: Take it
easy.
Trixie: (sarcastic)
Take it easy, Mr. Adams.
Silas: (groans) Take it off me. Can’t you?
Ain’t there some way to take it off?!
Oh God! (He leaves upset. Sol watches
him go, confused.)
Trixie: (Leaving behind Silas)
I’m in crisis too, needing awfully to piss. (Catches
up with Silas in the street.) Why
not cork up and go on stage with that tragic fuckin’ minstrel turn?
Silas: Are
you alone?
Trixie: Yes,
Miss Bernhardt, I am.
Silas: Al wants Star
to take over that house.
Trixie: Why?
Silas: Keep my ruddy
color not askin’ Al his reasons.
(Joanie is
at a rooming house, renting a room. There are bible quotes posted all around
the outside of the building and a variety of crude signs. She surveys the
signs, pausing on “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free. John VIII:32 She grabs the ledger and pen and sits on a
chair nearby.)
Shaunessy: Disarray…in your room. Your last day when you left, disarray.
Joanie: I sat on the bed.
Shaunessy: I won’t have it.
Joanie: Did you hear me, Shaunessy? My last day I sat on the bed for three
hours. I had a glass of water.
Shaunessy: Yes yes yes.
Very likely. (She stands
up and throws the book to the ground and starts to leave, he stops
her.) Uh, 1-F, $2. (She
turns back and steps up to him and hands him $2. He hands her a key.) The
book, please. (She picks up the book and pen and returns it to him. She walks to her room and opens the
door.) Ink on the floor. Pen near blunted, possibly broke. Binding’s damaged. I won’t stand for it.
(At the Gem,
Al tosses the scrub brush into the pail.)
Al: Give
that back to the gimp.
(Trixie
enters, gives Dan a “look” Dan, he
looks back at her, questioning what she means.
She looks at Al, back at Dan, he turns and walks away to lean on the
bar, nearly falling asleep.)
Trixie: What
the fuck you trying to pull with Adam’s fuckin’ house?
Al: Star
needs to move into that. He’s a
candidate for office. He can’t
whore-fuck no longer with impunity.
Trixie: Who
says I want to live in that house?
Al: You
ain’t. You’re installing at fucking
Shaunessey’s.
Trixie: The
fuck if I’ll live in that shithole.
Al: Shaunessy
being richer by 50 for his common wall with Star’s home-to-be and the passage
he cut through it, so you and the Jew can fall upon each other away from prying
eyes.
Trixie: Fuck
you, Al. Fuck Shaunessey’s. And fuck
the passage into Adam’s fuckin’ house.
Al: (Al looks at Dan and turns back to Trixie as
she leaves, holding the paper up as if nothing happened.) Loopy cunt! (He
puts his glasses on to read, shaking his head at Trixie as she leaves.)
(At Joanie’s room, Joanie is crying quietly, rocking back and forth on the corner of the bed.)
( Ellsworth
enters the house, finding Alma on the floor, unconscious. He rushes back outside to find the Doc.)
( Trixie
storms back into the hardware store, Sol perks up as she walks back toward him,
the note in her hand.)
Trixie: (Trixie is pissed off)
The wrist business on Adam’s house loan, Adams being
nothing but his fucking stalking horse from the gambit’s fucking
beginning. You sign to take those over,
we’ll move in your 12 possessions. You
will be free to come and go by your own front fucking door. And as you lay in
your beddy-bye, I’ll pop from the wall like Grandma Groundhog in a storybook
and attend to your Johnson. As he’d not see you jeopardize your Mayor’s
campaign, whore fucking in your place of business. And I’ll have installed
in room 3-fucking-C or the like of Shaunessey’s adjacent shitbox, that
he’s paid Shaunessey to cut a hole through to ease my fuckin’ fucking you.
Sol: Swearengen
has?
Trixie: (screaming
now) Who the fuck was I just talking to?
Sol: I don’t
know. You said you’d just gone to piss.
(Seth enters
the Gem. Al looks up from his paper.)
Al: Man
of the hour. Quick prick-suck,
Bullock? Sally forth to meet the great
man with unencumbered thoughts?
Seth: What happened
in here this morning? Charlie Utter
says a man was murdered, one of
Hearst’s workers.
Al: I’d spare
you the particulars till after your meeting concludes.
Seth: Why?
Al: Why ask
why? Why not honor the meeting’s
purpose? Speak as a candidate of your
hopes for the camp and its future, confine yourself to generalities. Suppose Hearst…was this murder’s
architect? Suppose the workers were
thieves or organizers?
Seth: Why kill ‘em
in camp before witnesses?
Al: Maybe as
message to me his domain includes my fucking joint, and to test your
willingness to bend to his fucking will before he backs your candidacy. What we know, fucking Bullock, is if when
you two meet, Hearst does ask you to go easy, and you, for love of his type,
say “Fuck yourself,” no more illumination can come to us, because you will have
muddied the fuckin’ waters. Is why I’d
hoped you’d skirt the topic.
Seth: Has the body
been eaten?
Al: The
Cornish croaker? Wu’s out of fucking
camp.
Seth: Don’t let it
get eaten.
Al: Oh,
absolutely, till your further full investigation. (Seth turns, leaving) As
for your meeting with Hearst, may I offer a fervent Godspeed and hopes for your
fucking self-control?
(Joanie
rocks back and forth on her bed, crying in the darkened room of Shaunessey’s
Shit-box.)
Joanie: What am I, Lord, that I’m so helpless?
(She swings
a purse gun up to her temple. We see
her change her mind several time then look resigned.)
( Seth
enters the Grand Central, heading upstairs to meet with Hearst.)
Hearst: Much anticipated, Mr. Bullock, some good solid talk
between us. What do you drink?
Seth: No thanks.
Hearst: I believe I won’t either. I’m told that you operate a hardware concern.
Seth: I’m partnered
with Sol Star.
Hearst: Ah, candidate for Mayor, as you are for
Sheriff. (Seth itches his nose) And
an officer of the Deadwood bank.
Seth: Sol’s chief
officer, yes.
Hearst: And you are an officer too.
Seth: Yes.
Hearst: The bank capitalized, as I understand, by Mrs. Alma
Garret Ellsworth…(Seth itches his nose) Formerly
quartered in this hotel and who has struck so rich in these hills.
Seth: Way back
second to you.
Hearst: Extraordinary, the story of that woman’s
adventures. Do you suppose that its
future chapters might be written…elsewhere than the hills? (Seth
turns)
Seth: What
are your intentions?
Hearst: As to Mrs. Ellsworth’s holdings, I would shape those
to the lady’s preferences, and be pleased and grateful if you told her. (Seth
nods, sniffs and itches his nose.) Do you need a handkerchief, Mr. Bullock? (Seth takes his hand away from
the nose)
Seth: No.
Hearst: Unfortunate incident this morning at Swearengen’s
saloon. Do you know about it?
Seth: No.
Hearst: One of my
workmen was killed in a drunken shootout.
Seth: Hmm.
Hearst: How will you deal with that, Sheriff?
Seth: Depends, what
it was about, who makes complaints…
Hearst: Mmm. My
worker was Cornish. They are a clannish
people. I suppose another Cornish might
complain.
Seth: I’d need to
hear what he said then.
Hearst: He may also indict the sunrise. For men of that sort, events such as these
are as natural.
Seth: Anyways.
Hearst: May we speak of your ambitions?
Seth: Another time.
Hearst: I would want to support them, you see? I would want to back you…to thank you for
taking her my message.
Seth: I never said
I’d take her your message.
Hearst: Are you saying now that you won’t?
Seth: You stay out
of our fuckin’ affairs.
Hearst: (smirking) Oh…affairs
of that sort are not my interest, Mr. Bullock.
My only passion is the color.
Seth: Excuse
me.
(Seth leaves
and descends the staircase, E.B. at the front desk, looking over the mail.)
EB: Bullock,
how did you like Mr. Hearst? (Seth turns and heads straight for E.B.,
grabbing him by the lapels and jerking him over the desk, throwing him to the
floor.) What are you doin’?!
Seth: You piece of
shit.
EB: How have I
given offense?
Seth: (punches E.B.) You told him. (Seth begins to administer a beating meant
to kill EB. Richardson appears with his antlers)
EB: Call
the law.
(Seth
continues beating E.B. viciously, as
Richardson goes running across the thoroughfare to the Gem and stands in front
of Al.)
Richardson: The Sheriff’s killing the mayor.
(Al takes off his glasses and
quickly heads for the door.)
Al: (Dan
and Johnny follow) In the thoroughfare, if I fucking need you. Hearst
is looking over the landing rail at the scene below.) Bullock?
Bulloick…Bullock! (Seth
pauses) Why are you beating Farnum in Mr. Hearst’s hotel? (To Hearst) How are you , Sir? (Seth
turns and looks up at Hearst)
Hearst: I am well, Mr. Swearengen, and how are you? (Seth
turns back to E.B. and punches him again.)
Al: Bullock! (Seth
stands up and backs away from E.B.) Shall I have him seen to, Sir?
Hearst: He seems to need that.
Al: My place,
Sheriff? Boys! E.B.’s had an accident. Under your supervision, and then inform us
on his further transport.
Seth: Yes.
Al: Give the
poor fuck your shoulders, boys, huh? (Seth take a step forward to kick E.B.) Sheriff!
(Seth backs off) Much experienced at
the enterprise, Sir.
Hearst: I haven’t a doubt.
Al: And once
he’s situated, may you and me speak?
Hearst: Of course.
Al: (turns, and speaks softly to Richardson as
he leaves) You saw fuckin’ nothing.
(Walks with Seth along the
thoroughfare, following Johnny and Dan as they carry E.B. back to the Gem.) Jesus, Joseph and Mary.
(At the
Ellsworth house, Doc is holding a glass of liquid as he kneels next to Alma.)
Doc: Mrs.
Ellsworth? (Holds out the glass)
Alma: No.
Doc: You must
drink this.
Alma: I will not
awaken that demon, Doctor.
Doc: This
has nothing to do with demons, Mrs. Ellsworth. This has to do with allaying the
pain to get you through. Leave the
demons to God and trust the pain to me.
(Alma hesitates, nods and takes the glass and drinks it all
down.)
(Chez Amie
/Schoolhouse, Martha is reciting phrases for the children to write on their
chalkboards.)
Martha: “A lady should not choose a man who chews
tobacco.” A lady should not choose a
man…who chews tobacco. (Mose peeks in a back window) “It robs
his pocket, soils his clothes…and makes a chimney of his nose.”
Jane: (sneaking up behind Mose) Good,
peek. So if one of ‘em sees you, they
give up attendance forever.
Mose: (whispering) I suppose you didn’t come to peek in.
Jane: I
came to shit in the privy, which is where you’re supposed to be during school
hours.
Mose: How
does it feel to take one sitting up? (Jane eyes Mose as he stalks off, then takes
his place peeking into the classroom)
Martha: “The Jews burn sacrifices upon an altar of stone.”
The Jews burn sacrifices upon an alter of stone. (Mary raises her hand. Martha bends down to her.) Altars of the kind in the sentence are
spelled “T-A-R,” It’s not so important
always to be right, Mary, or to be first.
(Martha stands, and reads the next
verse, hesitating.) “Indians are sometimes very cruel.”
(The Gem, Al
and Seth speak.)
Seth: I’m
pulling out as a candidate.
Al: No, you
aren’t.
Seth: He’ll use
knowing to try to control me, have his way in the camp’s affairs. He asked me to get her to sell.
Al: Oh, best
leave the camp entirely as penance for having a prick.
Seth: You were right
about the killing. He didn’t want it
pursued. (A door closes upstairs, Johnny steps out.)
Al: Bleeding?
Johnny: He stopped.
Al:
Put him
up on the fucking bed then. No grand
gestures, fucking Bullock, till I’ve had my talk with Hearst. Do no fucking withdraw. And no more beating up on Farnum that has to
run against Star. (Seth grabs his hat and
leaves. Dan approaches Al.) It’s no certainty Hearst knew one Goddamn
thing about Bullock putting it to the widow.
Dan: Hell of a
beating for E.B. to take if he’s innocent.
Al: Oh, he’s
still way ahead of the game. Nonetheless, we must now assume that Hearst does
fucking know. As going mad in front of
him, Bullock might have tipped him as to the state of things.
Dan: How are you
gonna go at Hearst?
Al: Don’t I
yearn for the days, a draw across the throat made fucking resolution? (Takes
a long swig of the bottle) Why, Dan, by composing my thoughts, tropes and
gambits for the talk between us that is yet to come. Will you excuse me?
Dan: (Shrugs) Sure.
(Doc steps
out onto the porch of the Ellsworth house and approaches Ellsworth.)
Ellsworth: Is she dying?
Doc: (Putting his hand on Ellsworth’s shoulder’s
to comfort him,) She’s not in
imminent danger.
Ellsworth: The baby?
Doc: Your wife is
still with child.
Ellsworth: I saw the blood on the floor.
Doc: There wasn’t
as much blood as I’m sure it seemed to you.
Mrs. Ellsworth must remain
abed, And she must take the medicine
I’ve given her, her fear of it notwithstanding. And you must remain strong at her side. (Pats Ellsworth on the
shoulder.)
Ellsworth: I have to collect the child. May I ask you to st—
Doc: I’ll stay
here till you come back, and then I’ll go collect Trixie to help you.
Ellsworth: Thank you, Doctor.
(Seth enters Utter freight. There’s a new holding cell sitting