Screenplay in it's entirety: Hobo Chang Ba
Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 11:02 pm
HOBO CHANG BA
Characters:
Hobo Chang Ba, a mystical hobo
Wilbur Scarsdale, a wealthy opium addict
a bartender
Reverend James Cuttons, a catholic priest
Bhahram Sri Bahi Guru, a guru, AKA “Ella Guru"
Lester Hicks, a toady
A prostitute
A pimp
Bill’s Corpse, a fighter
The Ghost of Wrath
Tilly Scarsdale, Wilbur’s brother
The Ghost of Lust
Sandra Murphy, Wilbur’s lover
The Ghost of Pride
Monique Scarsdale, Wilbur’s wife
The Ghost of Sloth
Gentry Scarsdale, Wilbur’s father
Lana Scarsdale, Wilbur’s mother
RAILROAD SCENE I: (location-- rr truss, Cloudcroft)
roll credits. shot of truss
Hobo Chang Ba walking up truss towards camera. End credits.
HCB pauses.
HCB:
The rails I ride... are rusting.
HCB begins to walk, but pauses. Looks at the sky.
HCB:
the new Sunrise I’m trusting.
Shot from behind HCB as he walks down the tracks. Camera zooms over his shoulder at Wilbur Scarsdale.
Close up, WS
WS:
Mr. Chang, I presume.
end close up
HCB:
You may call me Hobo Chang Ba, or simply “hobo.”
WS:
Never mind that. My name is Wilbur Scarsdale. I offer you a ride into town, an open bar, and a proposition.
HCB:
I can not accept your offer, Willy. I can not leave this place...
WS:
(interupting) Yes I know, you’ve been placed here. I’ll have you returned by sunset. The cosmic forces will be balanced.
HCB:
Into town and returned by sunset? With such powers, I fail to see why you do not simply take what you want.
WS:
This particular power is in everyone’s hands these days, Mr. Chang. Since your time on this mountain, man has invented, perfected, and mass marketed the automobile. They go fast. Hobo Chang Ba, and they come in all colors.
HCB:
I’d like to see this wonder. I’d like to taste bourbon again.
WS: Come along then, it’ll at least make for the most amusement that you’ve had in fifty years.
close up, HCB
HCB:
sixty years, Willy. Sixty.
end close up. shot of WS and HCB walking off.
BAR SCENE I: (location, club gas)
shot of WS and HCB drinking.
Close up of HBC half wincing, savoring the taste.
WS:
Of course, you know. I’m exactly the kind of man you were placed in that poppy field to fight against.
HCB smiles beatifically
HCB:
An opium monger, caught up in the legend of the straw-wood claw. Greedy, petty, perhaps a little hungry himself, for the poppy’s kiss.
end close up.
WS:
Petty, Mr. Chang? I think you threw that in to hurt me!
HCB:
Tell me what you know about Straw-wood claw.
WS:
Chinese railroad workers used to seed the railroad tracks with poppies in these parts. That’s no secret. But this particular poppy. Every time, just like the first time ever. Easier to kick, but not too easy. And the dreams that come.
HCB:
The dreams that come, guarded from the likes of you, so that sages and mystics can use this plant to gain vision and to learn. There is no stronger poppy on earth, nothing like it compares. You come to me like some devil, eager to buy my soul. Cunning, powerful, and with many tricks.
WS:
By God, that’s more like it! Petty! Hmmff!
HCB:
I will not fight you. Make me an offer. Include in it an assurance that I will always have bourbon.
close up WS, surprised.
WS:
That easy?
close up HCB
HCB:
That easy.
end close ups.
WS:
Name your price.
HCB:
I’d like to be with my parents again.
WS:
(laughing facetiously ) Now who’s playing tricks. You must be eighty or ninety years old by now... gift of eternal youth, and all that. Your parents, Hobo?
HCB:
Not a gift, nor much of a curse. Don’t worry, my parents aren’t dead-- the ocean is my mother. The freight train is my pa.
WS:
Let’s talk plainly. You want to be free again, don’t you? How can I give you that? The powers that placed you are not so easy to thwart.
HCB:
Never mind, Mr. Scarsdale, sir... (laughs to himself sarcastically) I have already accepted your offer, and you will make good on it. Take me back where you found me and I will tell you the path to take.
WS:
Splendid.
HCB:
Watch out for ghosts. (stands)
WS:
(still seated) Ghosts?
HCB returning to seat with impish grin.
close up, HCB:
HCB:
Ghosts. Ghosts such as raise the dead or kill a mortal man. Seven ghosts will await you. Each armed to smite you, Wilbur Scarsdale, with your greatest sins!
end close up
WS:
Now just a minute...
HCB:
I can not alter this, Willy-boy. Take it or leave it.
close up, WS. Fade.
CHURCH SCENE:
external shot of a church.
next shot: Reverend James Cuttons sits behind his desk. WS is seated before him.
RJC:
You’re looking for an outdoorsman, Mr. Scarsdale?
WS:
and a man of the cloth, who might send on an unusual errand.
RJC:
(reading something) ...for which I will pay handsome composition. I need your most virtuous, rugged outdoorsman... plant and seed samples... (stops reading) all very strange, you say. Explain strange-- and I mean use your most vivid descriptions. The Holy Roman Catholic church is not easy to impress when it comes to strange.
WS:
What about ghosts, Father Cuttons?
RJC:
Ghosts, demons, whatever you’ve got. I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe.
WS:
I’ve heard that there are things in the vatican kept secret from mankind. A camera, for example, that can take pictures of the past...
RJC:
Rumors. I’ll not confirm them, but yes, I’ve been to the Vatican, and I’ve seen plenty. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?
WS:
Very well, father, I’ve been promised ghosts. I need someone better qualified than I to make the journey.
RJC:
Qualified with what, Scarsdale? What’s your game? Why virtuous? Can you explain? What does that even mean?
WS:
These ghosts aren’t just apparitions. They can hurt you. There are seven of them. They face you with your greatest sins.
RJC:
You want someone free of sin? He hasn’t returned to us yet, Mr. Scarsdale...
WS:
Well that’s why I say virtuous-- I mean relatively free of sin.
RJC:
Relatively, you say. Relative to you? A wealthy man?
WS:
Please, Father Cuttons, you’ve no need to mock me. There’s a depression on. Think of the good you could do with the money...
RJC:
Someone said that to Judas, once I think. Mr. Scarsdale, where do you think you are? Half of the people in this church are guided here by a need to do penance. You think you got them beat?
WS:
What about the other half?
RJC:
My filing cabinet is brimming with dirt on the other half. Confessions, accusations, things any other organization would turn into the authorities. Men like me keep them buried. That, in itself disqualifies me.
WS:
Come now, are there so many rogue priests?
RJC:
Be on your way, Mr. Scarsdale. Find your sin free errand boy someplace else.
WS begins to leave.
Close up, RJC
RJC:
Here’s a little help for you, Scarsdale.
close up, WS, perplexed.
WS:
Help?
end close up.
RJC:
Yes, did you say seven ghosts? Seven sins?
WS:
Yes.
RJC:
Well, in that case, Mr. Scarsdale, I can warn you what you’re up against. The seven cardinal sins. Wrath, Greed, Sloth, Pride...
WS:
Lust, Envy, Gluttony. I get it. Thank you, Reverend Father.
WS leaves. Zoom in on RJC, sagging his head into his hands.
“ASHRAM” SCENE:
external: Ella Guru’s bare feet walking down path, zoom out . EG walks to door of small cottage. Pan camera to sign:
Hindoo Worship Center
Advise columnist office
Bahram Shri Bahi
cut to WS walking down the path.
cut to EG washing his feet in a basin. Knock on door.
EG:
One minute please.
cut to WS pacing in front of the door. Door opens.
cut to inside view. EG answers door.
WS:
Bahram Shri Bahi Guru?
EG:
Yes, How can I help you sir?
WS:
My name is Wilbur, may I come in?
EG:
Yes come.
Cut to office. EG sits, WS follows. Zoom in on pin up girl on wall.
WS:
So you’re Ella Guru.
close up of pin up girl, EG’s hand touches the image.
EG:
How did you know my true name?
Cut to WS, close up
WS:
I know it. It’s your mantra, isn’t it? The image of your present incarnation doesn’t suit you. I’ve studied the mysteries. I have ways of finding things out.
cut to shot of EG, his hand lingering on pin-up girl.
EG:
This man you see before you is maya, Wilbur. Only in this incarnation have I known what it is like to be male.
WS:
Is your character pure, Mother? Can I count on it?
cut to long shot
EG:
I follow my dharma, it is a path not a destination.
WS:
I’ll tell you about a path... the straw-wood claw! Have you heard of it? (EG gestures) I see you have! Then you know that it’s guarded! I need someone virtuous!
EG:
You are seeking this plant, why?
close-up, WS
WS:
That’s not important. The journey is too risky for me to make... I’ll have to face things that maybe you can face better...
end close up
EG:
Sins? You aren’t the first to face such ghosts.
WS:
Well do you think you’re clean enough to do it? I’ll pay well.
EG:
Clean? Do you mean holy?
WS:
Call it what you will, I need someone pure to do this job...
close up EG
EG:
I can not say if I am pure or holy or virtuous. Such knowledge is the task of seventy years. But I can guess why you want one such I to perform it. Ask yourself, Wilbur. If I were such a man, would I not refuse your task at any price? Were I to accept your task, would I not be too corrupt to undertake it?
end close up.
WS:
I’m sorry I wasted your time, Ella Guru.
EG:
Time is neither yours or mine, Wilbur.
zoom to pin up and fade.
BAR SCENE II:
WS drinking, Lester Hicks lopes in, magazine in hand.
cut to LH sitting on stool, waving at bartender.
LH:
Gimmie a Geronimo, bar monkey!
Bartender:
cram it, ugly... (WS straightens up, glares at bartender) oh, he’s with you. Sorry Mr. Scarsdale.
WS:
Find anyone yet, Lester?
LH:
(ignoring WS)
Step it up, bar monkey, prohibition’s over!
bartender loudly plops drink in front of Lester, pausing to glower.
WS:
(laughing, amused)
That’s my Lester Hicks. Won’t talk until he gets his Geronimo.
close up, LH drinking
LH:
Geronimo!
end close up.
close up, WS wincing
WS:
My God, your breath would knock a buzzard off a shit wagon!
end close up
LH:
Get off the shit wagon then, ya old buzzard!
WS:
Lester, please, be civilized!
LH:
You don’t need from civilized, boss. What you need’s a barbarian!
close up, Lester’s hands slapping the 1934 issue of “weird tales” on the bar.
WS:
Do I pay you to read penny dreadfuls?
end close up
close up, LH
LH:
God where’d you get that language, grandpa? In this century they’re called pulps!
end close up
WS:
Whatever, trash is trash. You got anything to say, “sonny boy,” or should grandpa get you bounced out of here?
cut to bartender, looking pleased, popping his knuckles.
end shot
LH:
I maybe got something you could use. How about my goofballs?
WS:
You’ll get your goofballs when I’m quite sure you’re not on them.
LH:
You know that never happens.
WS:
(putting a bag in LH’s hands)
Alright here. This better be good.
LH:
Good as good can get, ya goofy chimp!
close up of LH’s hands waving over magazine
LH:
I been reading about this guy, this barbarian connor.
end close up.
WS:
You want me to find a sword wielding, shirtless freak?
LH:
shut up and listen, will ya? This connor, he’s a mercenary, right? Fights for money.
close up, WS leaning in to inspect magazine.
WS:
It says “Conan,” you dunderhead!
end close up
LH:
Yeah, Conan, whatever. Point is, underneath it, he’s got a heart of gold. He’s ruthless, big, and ugly, but he’s got heart, he’s a hero. You find someone like that, boss, and that’s when you’ll get what you want.
WS:
Someone like a character in a penny dreadful?
LH:
(reaching into pocket, retrieving another magazine)
Here’s another rag for you, boss. This one you might not think is so cute. It’s got names in it.
I’ve circled about six names-- out of work wrestlers and boxers. Googan the Living Gut! Iron Horse Washington! Even Sherry Cherry bomb!
WS:
A woman wrestler, Lester?
LH:
Get with the times, ya missing link, ya! Sufferage!
WS:
And how am I supposed to test them for “heart,” Lester? How am I to screen this menagerie of gorillas?
LH:
Boxing comission cuts them a check to help out in hard times. Only they don’t want the general public to know about it, so they keep their office open after dark. Its quiet and every person on this list goes there on one night. Stake out a piece of sidewalk and set a trap.
WS:
You’ve got something there, Lester. A little damsel in distress on a dark night.
Close up of magazine, LH pounding his finger on it.
LH:
Now you’re beginin to think like these guys, baby! Now you’re there!
STREET SCENE:
Bill’s Corpse walking down the sidewalk
cut to WS in dark alley, whispering intensely.
WS:
Here comes another one, start working!
cut to prostitute and pimp. Both nod and take places.
WS:
(still whispering) Go on, he can see you!
cut to close shot of pimp pinning prostitute’s shoulder against the wall.
Pimp:
What’s the idea holding out on me, ya want me to get rough?
Prostitute:
Get yer mits off me, you no good low life!
Pimp:
(drawing knife)
I told ya I’d kill ya and I meant it, ya whore! But first I’m gonna rough ya up a little!
Cut to Bill’s corpse. Prostitute screams, slaps are heard. Bill’s Corpse pulls out a knife and ducks into the shadows, begins padding forward.
cut to WS, stepping out of the alley.
WS:
Hold it everyone!
cut to pimp and prostitute stepping aside and waiting for orders.
close up, WS
WS:
Come on out, Bill’s Corpse. This was just a little test. These are actors.
end close up, cut to Bill’s Corpse walking into frame.
B’C:
Actors? Who are you? What’s the big idea?
WS:
Are you Bill’s Corpse, professional fighting man?
B’C:
That’s me. Now what’s this all about. I’m still armed.
WS:
Just a little test of character, before deciding to hire you. You know two of your colleagues just whizzed past this nasty little act of mine. You, Bill’s Corpse, have heart!
B’C:
You got some kind of job for me? I’m not a hit man, I’ll tell you that up front.
WS:
Relax Mr. Corpse, if I wanted a hit man I wouldn’t have needed this little morality play to test you. No I need someone who can face the ghosts of their own past-- quite literally.
B’C:
What ghosts? You think I’m a chump? Hey, I’ll live up to anything I did or didn’t do in the past, see that don’t concern me.
WS:
That’s exactly why I’ll pay you a thousand dollars to take a little hike in my place. Pick a few flowers for me, face a few ghosts-- a few very real ghosts. That’s all.
B’C:
Ghosts? You think I can’t stand up to some kind of phantom?
WS:
Do you want the Job or not, Mr. Corpse?
Close up, B’C smiling broadly.
RAILROAD SCENE II
HCB throwing coins for hexagram. cut to Bill’s corpse, stalking in the brush. cut back. HCB stands, pleased.
HCB:
“Sung!” Supreme Heaven over yawning hell!
Endless chasm where none dwell!
Even though his confidence is founded, superior person anticipates opposition!
Carefully he prepares!
cut to Bill’s corpse, close up.
HCB:
Come out, worthy opponent! Face me, fighting man!
end close up
Bill’s Corpse steps out with fists bunched up.
B’C:
What’s it gonna be, Chinaman? You or your ghosts?
HCB:
(bowing slightly)
We fight honorably, of course.
B’C:
You don’t look like you can stomach it, hobo.
Cut to HCB, smiling, amuzed, pulling out a white feather.
HCB:
Indeed, can you stomach this?
Cut to B’C, rolling his head back in laughter.
B’C:
You’re gonna fight me with a feather?
cut to HCB, still smiling, taking out another white feather. He crosses them.
HCB:
Feather times a feather!
Morning times the thaw!
Hobo Chang Ba!
Cut to fight scene. B’C acts as though some force is hindering his blows. Special effects in edit.
Cut to B’C lying panting on the ground.
B’C:
Alright, you licked me! Now let me go!
Cut to close up HCB
HCB:
Of course I will let you go! How better to send the monkey to his keeper? Tell your owner this, little pet! Tell him until he comes himself to serve the purpose which he alone can serve, all he sends to me will be met with my power!
MONTAGE:
cuts of WS putting on button down short sleeve shirt, shorts, hiking boots, getting a canteen, knife, etc.,
WS admires himself in the mirror.
WS:
Lets see some goony ghost try to get one up on you, Wilbur Scarsdale!
end montage
RAILROAD SCENE III / FOREST SCENE I:
shot from behind, as WS walks down tracks.
cut to, WS walking down a forest trail
cut to WS hacking brush with a machete.
cut to WS emerging from thick woods.
Ghost of Wrath Appears.
GW:
Wilbur Scarsdale! Do you know me? I am your wrath! Look at me! You dare not go a step further, sir!
WS:
Why the hell not? Who’s going to stop me, you?
GW strutting angrily forward. cut to GW drawing a line in the dirt with his club.
close up GW
GW:
I dare you to cross that line.
close up of WS’ foot crossing line.
Rage sequence, WS having a fit
Cut to Tilly Scarsdale catching WS’s fist, zoom out to shot.
TS:
Hello, brother.
WS:
Tilly! Tilly no!
TS:
Remember when we had to get out of the bar and we cut across the junkyard?
WS:
Yeah, I remember, alright. I was so close to getting Amber into my car. You behaved like an ass and got us thrown out. I was fuming. You ruined my first pick up in my first bar.
TS:
(grinning)
Didn’t really give me much an idea of how angry you were did you? You kept your mug to yourself. What were we, halfway when the dogs attacked?
Begin dog audio, gradually increasing in volume.
close up TS’ face:
TS:
You kept shouting, get’im boy! Get him! Kill!
They never touched you.
end close up
TS:
You killed me!
(louder, angrier)
You killed me!
(struggle, ad lib anger)
TS:
You hear that? The dogs are getting closer! They’ll get you! They’ll get you!
close up, WS angry face. Gradually calming.
WS:
No.
No, if I get mad you win.
No.
end close up, cut to WS’s foot, halfway across the line, withdrawing.
WS:
That was easy.
GW:
Of course it was easy! I meant it to be easy! Keep walking, Scarsdale! You’ll see how easy they get!
(laughing)
shot of mountains
fade
FOREST SCENE II:
shot of WS walking down path
cut to
Ghost of Lust
GL:
Expecting me?
WS:
Rather, yes
shot of GL’s body, touching herself slightly.
WS:
I thought you’d be the toughest. If they get tougher I’m already done for.
close up GL
GL:
If you know you’re done for, why not give up now? I can already offer you anything more than wealth or drugs can give you.
end close up
WS:
I’m tempted. Let’s see more.
cut to Sandra Murphy.
SM:
I’m back, lover. I can be yours.
WS:
You were a fling. I cheated on Monique. At the time, it was an overwhelming temptation.
Close up: SM
SM:
I can be only more overwhelming now. You can end this. Go back. Take me with you. You can have me anytime.
end close up
WS:
I presume, as a ghost, you’ve learned some new tricks.
SM:
Tricks? Yes, I suppose that’s all I was to you. People invariably fall in love when they least expect it, at the most foolish times.
WS:
With regrettable results. I’m truly sorry. Was it painless?
SM:
There is no pain. Only pleasure. Turn back. I can be anyone you want me to be. You can live out any fantasy.
WS:
I won’t turn back. I’m here to the finish.
SM:
Well I’m not giving you a choice. You’re going to turn back unless you can think of a single thing I can’t do for you.
Cut to GL:
GL:
She’s right. I can force you back. But all the money in the world can’t offer you the pleasure she can.
Cut to WS:
WS:
I can think of a lot.
SM:
Try me.
WS:
Change gender? Age?
SM:
Easy.
WS:
That was just to whet my whistle. Can you make me forget it’s a fantasy? Make me live it out with no idea it’s happening?
SM:
Easy. What else do you want? Multiple orgasms? Make your orgasm last as long as you want? Make me have one any time you please?
WS:
I can see you’re going to be tough.
SM:
We haven’t scratched the surface.
WS:
How about taking me with you, out of the world?
SM:
Into a private sexual torrent, we never have to leave.
WS:
Endless?
SM:
(laughing) Yes. And I get to keep you. You have to do for me only one thing.
WS:
Anything.
SM:
You have to fall in love with me.
WS:
I can’t do that.
SM:
Then you’re in limbo. You’ll never have anything you want unless you can guess what I can not do for you!
WS:
(features showing distress)
Each orgasm will exceed the other in magnitude?
SM:
Magnitude is a word you’ll be learning new definitions for.
(advances on him, begins to touch and kiss him)
Oh, Wilbur, can’t you fall in love with me like I fell in love with you? I paid for it with my life, Wilbur!
WS:
And you’re asking me to forfeit mine.
Cut to GL
GL:
She’s not asking you anything, Wilbur Scarsdale! I set the rules! I have you conquered.
Close up WS, panicked.
WS:
Unless I can think of something this whore can’t do!
end close up
SM:
You don’t need to be cruel... but you can be, if it turns you on. I will take anything... I will give everything. We will be together.
(it gets hotter and heavier with the touching and kissing now)
Close up WS:
WS:
I have one more guess.
end close up
SM:
(continuing petting)
One is all you have left! I didn’t tell you that! Last chance, Wilbur! What can’t I ever do for you?
Close up WS:
WS:
Turn me down.
You never could turn me down.
end close up.
SM lowers her head and backs off.
Cut to GL: laughing
SM:
Was it really so hard for you to give in? Fall in love with me? Take the pleasures no wealth could ever buy and no drug could ever give?
WS:
I have no heart. It almost seems easy now.
I should have never panicked.
SM dissolves.
GL:
Don’t you care for what happens to her now, Wilbur?
WS:
It was not ever easy. I became the cynical creature I am over time.
GL:
by passing this point, you have given her what she needed. She can turn you down now, Wilbur. She is free. You are free. Goodbye.
Fade
FOREST SCENE III
HBC sits by a fork in the road playing his flute. Enter WS
Close up WS
WS:
I didn’t expect to see you here. You aren’t a ghost too, are you Hobo?
end close up
HCB:
There are ghosts that never were and ghosts that will be. You’ll become one yourself if you’re not careful.
WS:
Cut the crap. You didn’t expect me to get this far. Why are you here?
close up HCB:
(smiles)
The new sunrise I’m trusting.
End close up.
WS turns his back in disgust.
WS:
I tell you to cut the crap and you just give me more riddles.
HCB:
Everyone is an enigma if you look deep enough. Each of us contains the universe within us.
WS:
And ghosts. Ghosts I suppose. Well what’s it to be then? Envy? Greed? Gluttony?
HCB:
Relax Willy. You’ve done well. I’m offering you a shortcut. Choose your path. One path will spare you three of my ghosts.
WS:
(Faces HCB again)
Come now that isn’t very sporting.
HCB:
Would you like a preview then? Should I tell you about pride, Mr. Scarsdale? Your pride that kept you and Monique from getting the help you needed? Your wife and your lover both the victims of Sandra's suicide. But this was pride. You could have asked for a hand out. You could have told your wife that you were ashamed of what you did with Sandra.
Any of these things could have saved her.
WS:
Pride? I will never understand for the life of me what the sin is in respecting yourself.
HCB:
The modest, Mr. Scarsdale, have more self respect than anyone. They know they are weak.
WS:
Next it will be greed, I suppose. Oh don’t bother to tell me that old story. Me and Dennis Kipling, the great war, am I right?
HCB:
A gift of prophecy for you, Scarsdale. The time will come when they no longer call it the great war. It will be known as world war one.
WS:
Two young, resourceful soldiers in a foreign land find a vast treasure. All we had to do was take it. Split it. Go home. Be happy.
HCB:
Instead you murdered Kipling. Took it all for yourself.
WS:
By that time the poppy had taken me. I wanted everything. Can you blame me? I was up to my neck in human butchery. One more life didn’t seem so big a price.
HCB:
The price was very great for Dennis Kipling and the loved ones he left behind.
WS:
As I said. the poppy.
HCB:
It must be very convenient to have opium to blame for everything, Mr. Scarsdale.
WS:
A weed to curse a weed to bless. A weed to make a fortune on. You know my motives. This is a deal with the devil.
HCB:
But which one of us is the devil, I wonder. Do you remember Mason Tweed?
WS:
Richer than me. Had everything better...
HCB:
You saw to it that he was ruined. Him and his heirs. Completely vicious. gratuitous. You did this out of envy. Envy, Willy, when you had so much.
And Gluttony! Your own cook murdered while waiting in a soup line in some shanty town.
WS:
I am aware that I am a monster. Really, when I lost Monique, when I’d been so bad to her. And what is it they call opium?
HCB:
The killer of grief.
WS:
So what about sloth, Hobo Chang Ba? You surely can’t accuse me of that. I’ve been driven my whole life...
close up HCB, grim expression
HCB:
Choose your path, Willy old boy, old chum. That’s all the help you’re getting from me. Mother fucker.
end close up
Close up WS pained expression
WS:
That was uncalled for. I don’t have to take that from a shiftless chink hobo!
end close up
dust blows. HCB has vanished.
cue music... captain beefheart “the dust blows forward and the dust blows back”
FOREST SCENE III:
WS is walking along a path strewn with old junk.
the Ghost of Pride appears:
close up: gp
GP:
You must be very proud of yourself to have made it this far, Wilbur Scarsdale. You’ve picked the shortcut, but you may turn back now. You won’t get any farther.
end close up
WS:
Proud? I can guess who you are. The ghost of pride. You seem very certain of yourself.
GP bows slightly feigning modesty
GP:
Certain of myself? I pride myself on certainty-- you always did.
WS:
Get on with your tricks then. Let me speak to Monique.
GP:
You assume I will present her? You assume I’ll give you a chance to pass? You must have a very high opinion of yourself, sir.
WS:
Isn’t that why you’re here?
GP:
(draws knife)
Perhaps I’m just here to kill you.
WS:
(not taking the threat seriously)
Come now! Monique! Monique where are you?
GP:
Who’s Monique? A token wife to a bored fool? A pregnant woman you would not allow any charity? All your bravado about serving your country when the war broke out. Public service. Service you denied her. This is from her!
close shot: GP stabs WS in the gut.
WS screams, fall to the ground, bleeding.
WS:
Damn you, that wasn’t fair.
GP:
Go to hell with your pride! Go to hell!
close up, WS’s screaming face, zoom in, dissolve.
BLACK ROOM SCENE I:
WS is sitting at a table in a black room. He has no idea where he is or how he got there.
Door opens, enter Monique Scarsdale.
MS:
You are bleeding to death, lying in forgotten litter. Calling out my name. Calling out to me. You are nearly dead, Wilbur. Nearly dead, poor thing.
WS:
Why would I call to you, who are you?
MS takes seat opposite of him, quietly folds her hands.
close up MS
MS:
Going to somewhere Wilbur? Going without your wife?
end close up
WS:
I can’t think. So much pain. This isn’t funny. I can’t remember my life!
MS:
You’re too egotistical, husband. Try to stop remembering your accomplishments and your wealth. There’s plenty to be ashamed of, if you can face it. It’ll all come back to you.
WS:
Shame? I don’t regret a moment of my life. Where is Satan? Let me spit in his face!
MS:
(quietly)
Your pride consumes you, big man. Big, stupid useless man!
close up WS’s hands, held out before him, dripping blood.
WS:
Monique. I remember. I remember!
end close up
MS:
Soon you will remember nothing. Do you know what hell is like, Wilbur Scarsdale?
WS:
I wouldn’t allow you charity. You were having my child. Word had come out about Sandra, after her ugly death...
MS:
(reaching out, mopping his sweaty forehead)
Poor thing, let me help you. You were going to war. You said you could take care of me, send me money. You thought you’d come back wealthy. And you did. Proud of yourself?
WS:
No! No! Don’t make me think of my wealth.
voiceover: GP laughing
It was our child. you were secretly trying to get help. I refused to let the church pay for your doctor’s visits. I let the bills pile up. I wouldn’t take you to the charity ward, not my wife, not my wife! Damn it, everything’s becoming cloudy.
MS:
Rest here quietly while you die. I died in childbirth. You were gone. So many schemes in your head. You were going to come back a hero and wealthy. You knew secret knowledge. How proud I am of you, Wilbur, self made man.
WS:
I’m a betrayer! A liar! A cheat!
MS:
That won’t help you now.
WS:
I was a drug addict. I sold drugs. I killed people for drugs.
MS:
Still trying to remember. See, it can’t help. You’re too far gone. No matter how much you humble yourself, you will vanish. Everything about you gone now. The pride and the shame both!
WS slumps over on the table.
WS:
Oh, God this can’t be the end!
MS:
Who am I Wilbur?
WS:
Can’t remember.
MS:
What name were we going to give our son or daughter?
WS:
Clifton. Clifton or Charisse.
MS:
(strokes his hair)
How did you remember that, I wonder? Was that your hope? Your hope for the future? Are you calling your hope to rescue you?
WS:
Let them live. Let my daughter live. Let my son live...
MS:
Delirious. Poor thing. Almost dead now. Couldn’t we give him one chance?
(lifts her head, clenches her fists)
Not one chance?
voiceover: GP
GP:
You want him to have a chance? Look how peaceful he is, watching his ego die. How wondrous when he learns to move on without it. He’s clinging to it. The only reason he’s alive. His pride won’t let him die. You really would give him a chance?
MS:
It isn’t up to me.
GP:
You may kiss him, if you want. Kiss him before he goes to hell.
WS suddenly stands. He has no face, and no mouth.
MS:
I can’t kiss that.
GP:
He won’t let you. He has passed.
WS:
This is all a lie. This whole thing is a lie.
GP:
What makes you think it is, Wilbur, tell me that?
WS:
Because...
GP:
Yes?
WS:
Because none of this is worth it. I’m not... I’m not that important.
WS drops to the ground, lifeless, BLACK ROOM dissolves to forest.
FOREST SCENE IV:
WS still lies crumpled on the ground. GP stands above him laughing.
GP:
Of course it was a lie. It takes great pride to lie well.
WS slowly gets up, all the blood is gone.
WS:
I remembered the name of my child.
GP:
Don’t try to remember why you’re still living, Mr. Scarsdale. You said it, but you won’t remember it. You have your ego back. Keep believing that, if you want. It does lend you some humility.
WS:
(wandering out of frame)
My child! My child!
close up, GP’s face
GP laughs, pleased with himself.
fade
FOREST SCENE V:
Night. WS is in a moonlit grove, shivering in a bedroll, facing away from the camera.
WS:
I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep, damn it! Hobo Chang Ba! You didn’t tell me it would be so far!
voice of the Ghost of Sloth calls from a distance.
GS:
Will you stop that? I’m trying to sleep too!
WS gets up, startled. zoom in to close up, WS now sports a long beard.
WS:
Who’s there?
end close up
GS:
I told you to pipe down! I want sleep!
WS:
(touching his face)
How long have I been here? How long have I been here trying to sleep?
GS:
Three years. You just wouldn’t shut up and now you’ve woken me up!
WS:
Three years? It can’t be!
GS:
Well not exactly, you spent the first year wandering in circles. That’s what everyone does when they come near me.
WS:
wandering in circles? I was lost, I lay down to rest... I don’t remember nights and days passing... you said three years?
close up WS with a panicked expression, touching his beard.
GS:
Nobody remembers much when they are in my sleep. You did sleep much of it away. Every time you were awake, you kept on and on with your complaining! Now you’ve woken me up!
end close up
WS:
It can’t be! You... you’re the ghost of sloth!
GS:
I’m the ghost of sloth and I can’t be hurried. Did you think I was going to just pop up like all the others? I’ve been asleep many years longer than you, and now you’ve wakened me!
WS:
(angrily)
Well then get on with it! Show yourself!
(WS tests his flexability, to himself:)
My God, I’m so stiff... it must be true!
enter, ghost of sloth
GS:
Of course it’s true. Let me get back to sleep, damn you, or I shall be very angry!
WS:
You’re angry? I’ve lost three years! My business... who’s been running my business... they must think I’m dead.
GS:
That doesn’t matter, let me go back to bed. I’ll let you sleep as long as you want, if you do.
WS:
I don’t want to sleep! I want to get out of here.
GS:
Get out of here, then. no one’s stopping you.
WS:
(remembering)
No. No, I won’t. I came here for something...
GS:
Straw-wood claw? What’s the matter? Is it rattling your jaw?
WS:
I am Wilbur Scarsdale! I’m a businessman! I’m wealthy and determined! I’ve come this far, and I’m not quitting now! Go on! Go on! Test me! guard the poppies! Give me an obstacle to pass.
GS:
I can’t be bothered with that, I’m too sleepy. How about you just tell mommy and daddy all about it and let me get back to bed!
WS:
Mommy and Daddy?
sudden close up of Lana Scarsdale’s face.
LS:
We’re here, son.
WS:
Mother!
end close up. GTS and LS are standing in the grove
Father!
GS:
There, can I go to bed now?
WS:
Don’t you dare. You have a duty to see me through after all I’ve been through. I’ve beaten all of you ghosts, I’ll beat you too!
LS:
That’s my boy. My confident, stubborn boy.
WS:
Mother! Why are you here... Father?
close up of GTS hard, scowling face
Father? Father, why don’t you speak to me?
end close up
LS:
He’s not speaking to you, son. He’s very upset. The last words he’s ever spoken to me were, “Lazy good for nothing.”
WS:
That’s not fair! How was I lazy?
close up LS
LS:
Have you forgotten so soon? Forgotten your elderly parents? Living in squalor while you lay in bed in your estate, full of morphine and heroine and every other drug made?
Have you forgotten the cold winter when we needed food and heat and water, and we sent for you time and time again? Sent for you as the winds grew bolder and we grew more and more helpless? Have you forgotten how your own parents died?
end close up
WS:
No. No, I haven’t forgotten. It was the drugs. I wanted to come, I wanted to help.
LS:
But you couldn’t get out of bed, not even to save your poor dying parents.
WS:
Let me speak to father, let me make things right.
LS:
Sorry, Wilbur, you can do neither.
WS:
Yes I can, yes I can! Let me speak to him!
GS:
(yawning)
Is this going to take long? I really want to get back to sleep.
WS:
Shut up, ghost! Shut up, damn you!
LS:
Poor Wilbur. It really is hopeless. I wonder how long it’s taken you to remember us. to care? How long, Wilbur? Did you even part from your drug addled stupor long enough to visit our graves?
WS:
(screaming)
Mother, no! Father! Father, speak to her!
Speak to ME!
GTS turns but does not speak. His look is still steely and grave.
LS:
My god, we were old! Death came easily for us. But you, what was your excuse, lying in bed all the time intoxicated and out of your numb little skull? What was it like to forget your mother and father? To forget us until we died?
WS:
(suddenly drops to the ground, weeping)
Oh no, God! No! Please, God! Please let my father speak to me. Father, I’ll do anything! Speak to me!
LS:
Sure you have that kind of passion. Sure you have it, now. And what’s it all for? This straw-wood something? Is that what you want now, Wilbur?
close up of all faces, in sequence: GS: irritated and grumpy from lack of sleep, Mother, dour and pouting, father, stern, cold and silent. Wilbur, tearful and desperate.
WS:
No! No! No! I don’t want it! I don’t want it! I don’t want it ever again! No!
end close up
GTS turns and softens a little.
WS:
I don’t want it. I don’t want it anymore, father, mother. Not now and not ever again. I’ll turn back. I’ll turn back now, even if father never says a word, only forgive me (choking back tears) will you forgive me?
close up GTS, begins to smile, end close up.
GTS:
Son. I forgive you.
WS:
Oh father, you speak! You do? You forgive me?
LS:
We love you, son. And we see how your heart as changed.
WS:
(rushing to hug his father)
Oh yes, I’vw changed! I’ve changed I don’t want it! I don’t want it ever again! If I could go back and spit all that foul, horrible stuff out of my body I would do that now!
GTS:
Son! Son!
WS:
You can go back to sleep now ghost. I’ll go back. From this moment I’ll swear never to take another step forward, I won’t go on! I don’t want it! I’ll never, ever want it again!
GS:
Well I can’t get to sleep now, and you can’t go back.
WS:
What?
GS:
This forest, it isn’t in your world. Not anymore. You wandered from your world many years ago. I only needed to wait for this moment to send you on your way. Say goodbye to your parents. The poppy field is just ahead. (points) that way.
WS:
(stepping out of father’s embrace)
No! No! Didn’t you hear me, I don’t want it! I renounce it!
I was asleep on a couch of heedlessness! I was as one dead! I will not go there.
close up: GS
GS:
But you must. You must, for you’ve won, you see! You’ve won, Mr. Scarsdale! You’ve won! (laughs)
WS:
Don’t toy with me, Ghost! I’m Wilbur Scarsdale! Mogul, princeling, king, by thunder! I do not want to go forward! Let me return to my own world! Let me go back!
wide shot. GTS and LS vanish slowly
Stop that! Stop that at once! Mother, father! Don’t go! Bring them back, ghost, bring them back, I say!
GS:
I think I can get to sleep again now, if you let me. Take the path I’ve shown you, or you’ll soon be sleeping too. There is no way out. You have your prize, Mr. Scarsdale. All the ghosts are gone!
WS:
No, damn it! This isn’t fair! I don’t want it! I don’t want it! I’ve changed! Let me go! Great God in Heaven, let me go.
close up, GS yawns.
GS:
If you’d rather sleep forever, go right ahead.
end close up, ghost begins to leave
WS:
No! No! Ghost don’t sleep! Ghost don’t sleep! I’ve changed! Let me go!
GS:
What makes you think I have the power to do that? Didn’t you want to come here?
WS:
I’ve learned, I’ve learned, dear God. how I’ve learned. Have mercy, let me go back.
GS:
It is entirely too late.
WS:
I don’t want it! What am I going to do with it? I don’t want it!
GS:
Your choice. I’m going to lie down now. Not another peep from you.
GS steps out of frame. WS begins to panic, reluctantly resumes his journey.
WS:
The hell with all of you ghosts, I won’t sleep forever! I’ll make that devil hobo send me home! I swear it!
walks out of frame
POPPYFIELD SCENE I:
Sunrise, several shots of field, finally a shot of HCB as he packs his backpack.
WS:
(voice off screen)
Stop! Stop you devil!
pan slowly away from HCB, WS is standing in the field, looking worn and haggard.
I’ve been following the path all night, never daring to rest for fear I’d never wake up. Now I’ve found you and you’ve got to send me back!
HCB:
Send you where, exactly?
WS:
back to my world!
HCB:
This is your world. Isn’t this what you wanted?
WS:
I’ve changed my mind. I want out. You never told me I’d wander for three years! My God, man! You owe me! Send me back!
HCB:
I didn’t have to tell you anything, Mr. Scarsdale. I only needed to promise you what you wanted. Now you have it. All of this is yours.
WS:
You tricked me! I didn’t want this, you devil!
HCB:
Did I promise you you’d get what you wanted if you came out here? But I have what I wanted. I’m free at last. I’m free to go back to the ocean and the freight train.
WS:
What’s to become of me?
HCB:
Mr. Scarsdale, you studied ancient secrets to find me, didn’t you? You’ve tasted forbidden knowledge, you’re a capable man. I’m sure you’ll figure it out. You, Mr. Scarsdale, are the new sunrise. I trust you. You’ve been tested.
(begins to fade away)
WS:
But what’ll I do here? What’ll I do?
HCB:
You’re the guardian, now, Mr. Scarsdale. You’ll wait. You’ll wait and learn until you’re crafty enough to find your own new sunrise.
(vanishes, voiceover continues)
Don’t worry, Mr. Scarsdale, it won’t take forever. Someone will always be chasing that dragon. The road to drugs only gets wider with time, and the temptation will only snare more and more people.
People like you. People like you!
Goodbye!
slowly zoom to close up of WS, looking like a lost soul.
WS:
People like me...
FADE
roll credits
Characters:
Hobo Chang Ba, a mystical hobo
Wilbur Scarsdale, a wealthy opium addict
a bartender
Reverend James Cuttons, a catholic priest
Bhahram Sri Bahi Guru, a guru, AKA “Ella Guru"
Lester Hicks, a toady
A prostitute
A pimp
Bill’s Corpse, a fighter
The Ghost of Wrath
Tilly Scarsdale, Wilbur’s brother
The Ghost of Lust
Sandra Murphy, Wilbur’s lover
The Ghost of Pride
Monique Scarsdale, Wilbur’s wife
The Ghost of Sloth
Gentry Scarsdale, Wilbur’s father
Lana Scarsdale, Wilbur’s mother
RAILROAD SCENE I: (location-- rr truss, Cloudcroft)
roll credits. shot of truss
Hobo Chang Ba walking up truss towards camera. End credits.
HCB pauses.
HCB:
The rails I ride... are rusting.
HCB begins to walk, but pauses. Looks at the sky.
HCB:
the new Sunrise I’m trusting.
Shot from behind HCB as he walks down the tracks. Camera zooms over his shoulder at Wilbur Scarsdale.
Close up, WS
WS:
Mr. Chang, I presume.
end close up
HCB:
You may call me Hobo Chang Ba, or simply “hobo.”
WS:
Never mind that. My name is Wilbur Scarsdale. I offer you a ride into town, an open bar, and a proposition.
HCB:
I can not accept your offer, Willy. I can not leave this place...
WS:
(interupting) Yes I know, you’ve been placed here. I’ll have you returned by sunset. The cosmic forces will be balanced.
HCB:
Into town and returned by sunset? With such powers, I fail to see why you do not simply take what you want.
WS:
This particular power is in everyone’s hands these days, Mr. Chang. Since your time on this mountain, man has invented, perfected, and mass marketed the automobile. They go fast. Hobo Chang Ba, and they come in all colors.
HCB:
I’d like to see this wonder. I’d like to taste bourbon again.
WS: Come along then, it’ll at least make for the most amusement that you’ve had in fifty years.
close up, HCB
HCB:
sixty years, Willy. Sixty.
end close up. shot of WS and HCB walking off.
BAR SCENE I: (location, club gas)
shot of WS and HCB drinking.
Close up of HBC half wincing, savoring the taste.
WS:
Of course, you know. I’m exactly the kind of man you were placed in that poppy field to fight against.
HCB smiles beatifically
HCB:
An opium monger, caught up in the legend of the straw-wood claw. Greedy, petty, perhaps a little hungry himself, for the poppy’s kiss.
end close up.
WS:
Petty, Mr. Chang? I think you threw that in to hurt me!
HCB:
Tell me what you know about Straw-wood claw.
WS:
Chinese railroad workers used to seed the railroad tracks with poppies in these parts. That’s no secret. But this particular poppy. Every time, just like the first time ever. Easier to kick, but not too easy. And the dreams that come.
HCB:
The dreams that come, guarded from the likes of you, so that sages and mystics can use this plant to gain vision and to learn. There is no stronger poppy on earth, nothing like it compares. You come to me like some devil, eager to buy my soul. Cunning, powerful, and with many tricks.
WS:
By God, that’s more like it! Petty! Hmmff!
HCB:
I will not fight you. Make me an offer. Include in it an assurance that I will always have bourbon.
close up WS, surprised.
WS:
That easy?
close up HCB
HCB:
That easy.
end close ups.
WS:
Name your price.
HCB:
I’d like to be with my parents again.
WS:
(laughing facetiously ) Now who’s playing tricks. You must be eighty or ninety years old by now... gift of eternal youth, and all that. Your parents, Hobo?
HCB:
Not a gift, nor much of a curse. Don’t worry, my parents aren’t dead-- the ocean is my mother. The freight train is my pa.
WS:
Let’s talk plainly. You want to be free again, don’t you? How can I give you that? The powers that placed you are not so easy to thwart.
HCB:
Never mind, Mr. Scarsdale, sir... (laughs to himself sarcastically) I have already accepted your offer, and you will make good on it. Take me back where you found me and I will tell you the path to take.
WS:
Splendid.
HCB:
Watch out for ghosts. (stands)
WS:
(still seated) Ghosts?
HCB returning to seat with impish grin.
close up, HCB:
HCB:
Ghosts. Ghosts such as raise the dead or kill a mortal man. Seven ghosts will await you. Each armed to smite you, Wilbur Scarsdale, with your greatest sins!
end close up
WS:
Now just a minute...
HCB:
I can not alter this, Willy-boy. Take it or leave it.
close up, WS. Fade.
CHURCH SCENE:
external shot of a church.
next shot: Reverend James Cuttons sits behind his desk. WS is seated before him.
RJC:
You’re looking for an outdoorsman, Mr. Scarsdale?
WS:
and a man of the cloth, who might send on an unusual errand.
RJC:
(reading something) ...for which I will pay handsome composition. I need your most virtuous, rugged outdoorsman... plant and seed samples... (stops reading) all very strange, you say. Explain strange-- and I mean use your most vivid descriptions. The Holy Roman Catholic church is not easy to impress when it comes to strange.
WS:
What about ghosts, Father Cuttons?
RJC:
Ghosts, demons, whatever you’ve got. I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe.
WS:
I’ve heard that there are things in the vatican kept secret from mankind. A camera, for example, that can take pictures of the past...
RJC:
Rumors. I’ll not confirm them, but yes, I’ve been to the Vatican, and I’ve seen plenty. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?
WS:
Very well, father, I’ve been promised ghosts. I need someone better qualified than I to make the journey.
RJC:
Qualified with what, Scarsdale? What’s your game? Why virtuous? Can you explain? What does that even mean?
WS:
These ghosts aren’t just apparitions. They can hurt you. There are seven of them. They face you with your greatest sins.
RJC:
You want someone free of sin? He hasn’t returned to us yet, Mr. Scarsdale...
WS:
Well that’s why I say virtuous-- I mean relatively free of sin.
RJC:
Relatively, you say. Relative to you? A wealthy man?
WS:
Please, Father Cuttons, you’ve no need to mock me. There’s a depression on. Think of the good you could do with the money...
RJC:
Someone said that to Judas, once I think. Mr. Scarsdale, where do you think you are? Half of the people in this church are guided here by a need to do penance. You think you got them beat?
WS:
What about the other half?
RJC:
My filing cabinet is brimming with dirt on the other half. Confessions, accusations, things any other organization would turn into the authorities. Men like me keep them buried. That, in itself disqualifies me.
WS:
Come now, are there so many rogue priests?
RJC:
Be on your way, Mr. Scarsdale. Find your sin free errand boy someplace else.
WS begins to leave.
Close up, RJC
RJC:
Here’s a little help for you, Scarsdale.
close up, WS, perplexed.
WS:
Help?
end close up.
RJC:
Yes, did you say seven ghosts? Seven sins?
WS:
Yes.
RJC:
Well, in that case, Mr. Scarsdale, I can warn you what you’re up against. The seven cardinal sins. Wrath, Greed, Sloth, Pride...
WS:
Lust, Envy, Gluttony. I get it. Thank you, Reverend Father.
WS leaves. Zoom in on RJC, sagging his head into his hands.
“ASHRAM” SCENE:
external: Ella Guru’s bare feet walking down path, zoom out . EG walks to door of small cottage. Pan camera to sign:
Hindoo Worship Center
Advise columnist office
Bahram Shri Bahi
cut to WS walking down the path.
cut to EG washing his feet in a basin. Knock on door.
EG:
One minute please.
cut to WS pacing in front of the door. Door opens.
cut to inside view. EG answers door.
WS:
Bahram Shri Bahi Guru?
EG:
Yes, How can I help you sir?
WS:
My name is Wilbur, may I come in?
EG:
Yes come.
Cut to office. EG sits, WS follows. Zoom in on pin up girl on wall.
WS:
So you’re Ella Guru.
close up of pin up girl, EG’s hand touches the image.
EG:
How did you know my true name?
Cut to WS, close up
WS:
I know it. It’s your mantra, isn’t it? The image of your present incarnation doesn’t suit you. I’ve studied the mysteries. I have ways of finding things out.
cut to shot of EG, his hand lingering on pin-up girl.
EG:
This man you see before you is maya, Wilbur. Only in this incarnation have I known what it is like to be male.
WS:
Is your character pure, Mother? Can I count on it?
cut to long shot
EG:
I follow my dharma, it is a path not a destination.
WS:
I’ll tell you about a path... the straw-wood claw! Have you heard of it? (EG gestures) I see you have! Then you know that it’s guarded! I need someone virtuous!
EG:
You are seeking this plant, why?
close-up, WS
WS:
That’s not important. The journey is too risky for me to make... I’ll have to face things that maybe you can face better...
end close up
EG:
Sins? You aren’t the first to face such ghosts.
WS:
Well do you think you’re clean enough to do it? I’ll pay well.
EG:
Clean? Do you mean holy?
WS:
Call it what you will, I need someone pure to do this job...
close up EG
EG:
I can not say if I am pure or holy or virtuous. Such knowledge is the task of seventy years. But I can guess why you want one such I to perform it. Ask yourself, Wilbur. If I were such a man, would I not refuse your task at any price? Were I to accept your task, would I not be too corrupt to undertake it?
end close up.
WS:
I’m sorry I wasted your time, Ella Guru.
EG:
Time is neither yours or mine, Wilbur.
zoom to pin up and fade.
BAR SCENE II:
WS drinking, Lester Hicks lopes in, magazine in hand.
cut to LH sitting on stool, waving at bartender.
LH:
Gimmie a Geronimo, bar monkey!
Bartender:
cram it, ugly... (WS straightens up, glares at bartender) oh, he’s with you. Sorry Mr. Scarsdale.
WS:
Find anyone yet, Lester?
LH:
(ignoring WS)
Step it up, bar monkey, prohibition’s over!
bartender loudly plops drink in front of Lester, pausing to glower.
WS:
(laughing, amused)
That’s my Lester Hicks. Won’t talk until he gets his Geronimo.
close up, LH drinking
LH:
Geronimo!
end close up.
close up, WS wincing
WS:
My God, your breath would knock a buzzard off a shit wagon!
end close up
LH:
Get off the shit wagon then, ya old buzzard!
WS:
Lester, please, be civilized!
LH:
You don’t need from civilized, boss. What you need’s a barbarian!
close up, Lester’s hands slapping the 1934 issue of “weird tales” on the bar.
WS:
Do I pay you to read penny dreadfuls?
end close up
close up, LH
LH:
God where’d you get that language, grandpa? In this century they’re called pulps!
end close up
WS:
Whatever, trash is trash. You got anything to say, “sonny boy,” or should grandpa get you bounced out of here?
cut to bartender, looking pleased, popping his knuckles.
end shot
LH:
I maybe got something you could use. How about my goofballs?
WS:
You’ll get your goofballs when I’m quite sure you’re not on them.
LH:
You know that never happens.
WS:
(putting a bag in LH’s hands)
Alright here. This better be good.
LH:
Good as good can get, ya goofy chimp!
close up of LH’s hands waving over magazine
LH:
I been reading about this guy, this barbarian connor.
end close up.
WS:
You want me to find a sword wielding, shirtless freak?
LH:
shut up and listen, will ya? This connor, he’s a mercenary, right? Fights for money.
close up, WS leaning in to inspect magazine.
WS:
It says “Conan,” you dunderhead!
end close up
LH:
Yeah, Conan, whatever. Point is, underneath it, he’s got a heart of gold. He’s ruthless, big, and ugly, but he’s got heart, he’s a hero. You find someone like that, boss, and that’s when you’ll get what you want.
WS:
Someone like a character in a penny dreadful?
LH:
(reaching into pocket, retrieving another magazine)
Here’s another rag for you, boss. This one you might not think is so cute. It’s got names in it.
I’ve circled about six names-- out of work wrestlers and boxers. Googan the Living Gut! Iron Horse Washington! Even Sherry Cherry bomb!
WS:
A woman wrestler, Lester?
LH:
Get with the times, ya missing link, ya! Sufferage!
WS:
And how am I supposed to test them for “heart,” Lester? How am I to screen this menagerie of gorillas?
LH:
Boxing comission cuts them a check to help out in hard times. Only they don’t want the general public to know about it, so they keep their office open after dark. Its quiet and every person on this list goes there on one night. Stake out a piece of sidewalk and set a trap.
WS:
You’ve got something there, Lester. A little damsel in distress on a dark night.
Close up of magazine, LH pounding his finger on it.
LH:
Now you’re beginin to think like these guys, baby! Now you’re there!
STREET SCENE:
Bill’s Corpse walking down the sidewalk
cut to WS in dark alley, whispering intensely.
WS:
Here comes another one, start working!
cut to prostitute and pimp. Both nod and take places.
WS:
(still whispering) Go on, he can see you!
cut to close shot of pimp pinning prostitute’s shoulder against the wall.
Pimp:
What’s the idea holding out on me, ya want me to get rough?
Prostitute:
Get yer mits off me, you no good low life!
Pimp:
(drawing knife)
I told ya I’d kill ya and I meant it, ya whore! But first I’m gonna rough ya up a little!
Cut to Bill’s corpse. Prostitute screams, slaps are heard. Bill’s Corpse pulls out a knife and ducks into the shadows, begins padding forward.
cut to WS, stepping out of the alley.
WS:
Hold it everyone!
cut to pimp and prostitute stepping aside and waiting for orders.
close up, WS
WS:
Come on out, Bill’s Corpse. This was just a little test. These are actors.
end close up, cut to Bill’s Corpse walking into frame.
B’C:
Actors? Who are you? What’s the big idea?
WS:
Are you Bill’s Corpse, professional fighting man?
B’C:
That’s me. Now what’s this all about. I’m still armed.
WS:
Just a little test of character, before deciding to hire you. You know two of your colleagues just whizzed past this nasty little act of mine. You, Bill’s Corpse, have heart!
B’C:
You got some kind of job for me? I’m not a hit man, I’ll tell you that up front.
WS:
Relax Mr. Corpse, if I wanted a hit man I wouldn’t have needed this little morality play to test you. No I need someone who can face the ghosts of their own past-- quite literally.
B’C:
What ghosts? You think I’m a chump? Hey, I’ll live up to anything I did or didn’t do in the past, see that don’t concern me.
WS:
That’s exactly why I’ll pay you a thousand dollars to take a little hike in my place. Pick a few flowers for me, face a few ghosts-- a few very real ghosts. That’s all.
B’C:
Ghosts? You think I can’t stand up to some kind of phantom?
WS:
Do you want the Job or not, Mr. Corpse?
Close up, B’C smiling broadly.
RAILROAD SCENE II
HCB throwing coins for hexagram. cut to Bill’s corpse, stalking in the brush. cut back. HCB stands, pleased.
HCB:
“Sung!” Supreme Heaven over yawning hell!
Endless chasm where none dwell!
Even though his confidence is founded, superior person anticipates opposition!
Carefully he prepares!
cut to Bill’s corpse, close up.
HCB:
Come out, worthy opponent! Face me, fighting man!
end close up
Bill’s Corpse steps out with fists bunched up.
B’C:
What’s it gonna be, Chinaman? You or your ghosts?
HCB:
(bowing slightly)
We fight honorably, of course.
B’C:
You don’t look like you can stomach it, hobo.
Cut to HCB, smiling, amuzed, pulling out a white feather.
HCB:
Indeed, can you stomach this?
Cut to B’C, rolling his head back in laughter.
B’C:
You’re gonna fight me with a feather?
cut to HCB, still smiling, taking out another white feather. He crosses them.
HCB:
Feather times a feather!
Morning times the thaw!
Hobo Chang Ba!
Cut to fight scene. B’C acts as though some force is hindering his blows. Special effects in edit.
Cut to B’C lying panting on the ground.
B’C:
Alright, you licked me! Now let me go!
Cut to close up HCB
HCB:
Of course I will let you go! How better to send the monkey to his keeper? Tell your owner this, little pet! Tell him until he comes himself to serve the purpose which he alone can serve, all he sends to me will be met with my power!
MONTAGE:
cuts of WS putting on button down short sleeve shirt, shorts, hiking boots, getting a canteen, knife, etc.,
WS admires himself in the mirror.
WS:
Lets see some goony ghost try to get one up on you, Wilbur Scarsdale!
end montage
RAILROAD SCENE III / FOREST SCENE I:
shot from behind, as WS walks down tracks.
cut to, WS walking down a forest trail
cut to WS hacking brush with a machete.
cut to WS emerging from thick woods.
Ghost of Wrath Appears.
GW:
Wilbur Scarsdale! Do you know me? I am your wrath! Look at me! You dare not go a step further, sir!
WS:
Why the hell not? Who’s going to stop me, you?
GW strutting angrily forward. cut to GW drawing a line in the dirt with his club.
close up GW
GW:
I dare you to cross that line.
close up of WS’ foot crossing line.
Rage sequence, WS having a fit
Cut to Tilly Scarsdale catching WS’s fist, zoom out to shot.
TS:
Hello, brother.
WS:
Tilly! Tilly no!
TS:
Remember when we had to get out of the bar and we cut across the junkyard?
WS:
Yeah, I remember, alright. I was so close to getting Amber into my car. You behaved like an ass and got us thrown out. I was fuming. You ruined my first pick up in my first bar.
TS:
(grinning)
Didn’t really give me much an idea of how angry you were did you? You kept your mug to yourself. What were we, halfway when the dogs attacked?
Begin dog audio, gradually increasing in volume.
close up TS’ face:
TS:
You kept shouting, get’im boy! Get him! Kill!
They never touched you.
end close up
TS:
You killed me!
(louder, angrier)
You killed me!
(struggle, ad lib anger)
TS:
You hear that? The dogs are getting closer! They’ll get you! They’ll get you!
close up, WS angry face. Gradually calming.
WS:
No.
No, if I get mad you win.
No.
end close up, cut to WS’s foot, halfway across the line, withdrawing.
WS:
That was easy.
GW:
Of course it was easy! I meant it to be easy! Keep walking, Scarsdale! You’ll see how easy they get!
(laughing)
shot of mountains
fade
FOREST SCENE II:
shot of WS walking down path
cut to
Ghost of Lust
GL:
Expecting me?
WS:
Rather, yes
shot of GL’s body, touching herself slightly.
WS:
I thought you’d be the toughest. If they get tougher I’m already done for.
close up GL
GL:
If you know you’re done for, why not give up now? I can already offer you anything more than wealth or drugs can give you.
end close up
WS:
I’m tempted. Let’s see more.
cut to Sandra Murphy.
SM:
I’m back, lover. I can be yours.
WS:
You were a fling. I cheated on Monique. At the time, it was an overwhelming temptation.
Close up: SM
SM:
I can be only more overwhelming now. You can end this. Go back. Take me with you. You can have me anytime.
end close up
WS:
I presume, as a ghost, you’ve learned some new tricks.
SM:
Tricks? Yes, I suppose that’s all I was to you. People invariably fall in love when they least expect it, at the most foolish times.
WS:
With regrettable results. I’m truly sorry. Was it painless?
SM:
There is no pain. Only pleasure. Turn back. I can be anyone you want me to be. You can live out any fantasy.
WS:
I won’t turn back. I’m here to the finish.
SM:
Well I’m not giving you a choice. You’re going to turn back unless you can think of a single thing I can’t do for you.
Cut to GL:
GL:
She’s right. I can force you back. But all the money in the world can’t offer you the pleasure she can.
Cut to WS:
WS:
I can think of a lot.
SM:
Try me.
WS:
Change gender? Age?
SM:
Easy.
WS:
That was just to whet my whistle. Can you make me forget it’s a fantasy? Make me live it out with no idea it’s happening?
SM:
Easy. What else do you want? Multiple orgasms? Make your orgasm last as long as you want? Make me have one any time you please?
WS:
I can see you’re going to be tough.
SM:
We haven’t scratched the surface.
WS:
How about taking me with you, out of the world?
SM:
Into a private sexual torrent, we never have to leave.
WS:
Endless?
SM:
(laughing) Yes. And I get to keep you. You have to do for me only one thing.
WS:
Anything.
SM:
You have to fall in love with me.
WS:
I can’t do that.
SM:
Then you’re in limbo. You’ll never have anything you want unless you can guess what I can not do for you!
WS:
(features showing distress)
Each orgasm will exceed the other in magnitude?
SM:
Magnitude is a word you’ll be learning new definitions for.
(advances on him, begins to touch and kiss him)
Oh, Wilbur, can’t you fall in love with me like I fell in love with you? I paid for it with my life, Wilbur!
WS:
And you’re asking me to forfeit mine.
Cut to GL
GL:
She’s not asking you anything, Wilbur Scarsdale! I set the rules! I have you conquered.
Close up WS, panicked.
WS:
Unless I can think of something this whore can’t do!
end close up
SM:
You don’t need to be cruel... but you can be, if it turns you on. I will take anything... I will give everything. We will be together.
(it gets hotter and heavier with the touching and kissing now)
Close up WS:
WS:
I have one more guess.
end close up
SM:
(continuing petting)
One is all you have left! I didn’t tell you that! Last chance, Wilbur! What can’t I ever do for you?
Close up WS:
WS:
Turn me down.
You never could turn me down.
end close up.
SM lowers her head and backs off.
Cut to GL: laughing
SM:
Was it really so hard for you to give in? Fall in love with me? Take the pleasures no wealth could ever buy and no drug could ever give?
WS:
I have no heart. It almost seems easy now.
I should have never panicked.
SM dissolves.
GL:
Don’t you care for what happens to her now, Wilbur?
WS:
It was not ever easy. I became the cynical creature I am over time.
GL:
by passing this point, you have given her what she needed. She can turn you down now, Wilbur. She is free. You are free. Goodbye.
Fade
FOREST SCENE III
HBC sits by a fork in the road playing his flute. Enter WS
Close up WS
WS:
I didn’t expect to see you here. You aren’t a ghost too, are you Hobo?
end close up
HCB:
There are ghosts that never were and ghosts that will be. You’ll become one yourself if you’re not careful.
WS:
Cut the crap. You didn’t expect me to get this far. Why are you here?
close up HCB:
(smiles)
The new sunrise I’m trusting.
End close up.
WS turns his back in disgust.
WS:
I tell you to cut the crap and you just give me more riddles.
HCB:
Everyone is an enigma if you look deep enough. Each of us contains the universe within us.
WS:
And ghosts. Ghosts I suppose. Well what’s it to be then? Envy? Greed? Gluttony?
HCB:
Relax Willy. You’ve done well. I’m offering you a shortcut. Choose your path. One path will spare you three of my ghosts.
WS:
(Faces HCB again)
Come now that isn’t very sporting.
HCB:
Would you like a preview then? Should I tell you about pride, Mr. Scarsdale? Your pride that kept you and Monique from getting the help you needed? Your wife and your lover both the victims of Sandra's suicide. But this was pride. You could have asked for a hand out. You could have told your wife that you were ashamed of what you did with Sandra.
Any of these things could have saved her.
WS:
Pride? I will never understand for the life of me what the sin is in respecting yourself.
HCB:
The modest, Mr. Scarsdale, have more self respect than anyone. They know they are weak.
WS:
Next it will be greed, I suppose. Oh don’t bother to tell me that old story. Me and Dennis Kipling, the great war, am I right?
HCB:
A gift of prophecy for you, Scarsdale. The time will come when they no longer call it the great war. It will be known as world war one.
WS:
Two young, resourceful soldiers in a foreign land find a vast treasure. All we had to do was take it. Split it. Go home. Be happy.
HCB:
Instead you murdered Kipling. Took it all for yourself.
WS:
By that time the poppy had taken me. I wanted everything. Can you blame me? I was up to my neck in human butchery. One more life didn’t seem so big a price.
HCB:
The price was very great for Dennis Kipling and the loved ones he left behind.
WS:
As I said. the poppy.
HCB:
It must be very convenient to have opium to blame for everything, Mr. Scarsdale.
WS:
A weed to curse a weed to bless. A weed to make a fortune on. You know my motives. This is a deal with the devil.
HCB:
But which one of us is the devil, I wonder. Do you remember Mason Tweed?
WS:
Richer than me. Had everything better...
HCB:
You saw to it that he was ruined. Him and his heirs. Completely vicious. gratuitous. You did this out of envy. Envy, Willy, when you had so much.
And Gluttony! Your own cook murdered while waiting in a soup line in some shanty town.
WS:
I am aware that I am a monster. Really, when I lost Monique, when I’d been so bad to her. And what is it they call opium?
HCB:
The killer of grief.
WS:
So what about sloth, Hobo Chang Ba? You surely can’t accuse me of that. I’ve been driven my whole life...
close up HCB, grim expression
HCB:
Choose your path, Willy old boy, old chum. That’s all the help you’re getting from me. Mother fucker.
end close up
Close up WS pained expression
WS:
That was uncalled for. I don’t have to take that from a shiftless chink hobo!
end close up
dust blows. HCB has vanished.
cue music... captain beefheart “the dust blows forward and the dust blows back”
FOREST SCENE III:
WS is walking along a path strewn with old junk.
the Ghost of Pride appears:
close up: gp
GP:
You must be very proud of yourself to have made it this far, Wilbur Scarsdale. You’ve picked the shortcut, but you may turn back now. You won’t get any farther.
end close up
WS:
Proud? I can guess who you are. The ghost of pride. You seem very certain of yourself.
GP bows slightly feigning modesty
GP:
Certain of myself? I pride myself on certainty-- you always did.
WS:
Get on with your tricks then. Let me speak to Monique.
GP:
You assume I will present her? You assume I’ll give you a chance to pass? You must have a very high opinion of yourself, sir.
WS:
Isn’t that why you’re here?
GP:
(draws knife)
Perhaps I’m just here to kill you.
WS:
(not taking the threat seriously)
Come now! Monique! Monique where are you?
GP:
Who’s Monique? A token wife to a bored fool? A pregnant woman you would not allow any charity? All your bravado about serving your country when the war broke out. Public service. Service you denied her. This is from her!
close shot: GP stabs WS in the gut.
WS screams, fall to the ground, bleeding.
WS:
Damn you, that wasn’t fair.
GP:
Go to hell with your pride! Go to hell!
close up, WS’s screaming face, zoom in, dissolve.
BLACK ROOM SCENE I:
WS is sitting at a table in a black room. He has no idea where he is or how he got there.
Door opens, enter Monique Scarsdale.
MS:
You are bleeding to death, lying in forgotten litter. Calling out my name. Calling out to me. You are nearly dead, Wilbur. Nearly dead, poor thing.
WS:
Why would I call to you, who are you?
MS takes seat opposite of him, quietly folds her hands.
close up MS
MS:
Going to somewhere Wilbur? Going without your wife?
end close up
WS:
I can’t think. So much pain. This isn’t funny. I can’t remember my life!
MS:
You’re too egotistical, husband. Try to stop remembering your accomplishments and your wealth. There’s plenty to be ashamed of, if you can face it. It’ll all come back to you.
WS:
Shame? I don’t regret a moment of my life. Where is Satan? Let me spit in his face!
MS:
(quietly)
Your pride consumes you, big man. Big, stupid useless man!
close up WS’s hands, held out before him, dripping blood.
WS:
Monique. I remember. I remember!
end close up
MS:
Soon you will remember nothing. Do you know what hell is like, Wilbur Scarsdale?
WS:
I wouldn’t allow you charity. You were having my child. Word had come out about Sandra, after her ugly death...
MS:
(reaching out, mopping his sweaty forehead)
Poor thing, let me help you. You were going to war. You said you could take care of me, send me money. You thought you’d come back wealthy. And you did. Proud of yourself?
WS:
No! No! Don’t make me think of my wealth.
voiceover: GP laughing
It was our child. you were secretly trying to get help. I refused to let the church pay for your doctor’s visits. I let the bills pile up. I wouldn’t take you to the charity ward, not my wife, not my wife! Damn it, everything’s becoming cloudy.
MS:
Rest here quietly while you die. I died in childbirth. You were gone. So many schemes in your head. You were going to come back a hero and wealthy. You knew secret knowledge. How proud I am of you, Wilbur, self made man.
WS:
I’m a betrayer! A liar! A cheat!
MS:
That won’t help you now.
WS:
I was a drug addict. I sold drugs. I killed people for drugs.
MS:
Still trying to remember. See, it can’t help. You’re too far gone. No matter how much you humble yourself, you will vanish. Everything about you gone now. The pride and the shame both!
WS slumps over on the table.
WS:
Oh, God this can’t be the end!
MS:
Who am I Wilbur?
WS:
Can’t remember.
MS:
What name were we going to give our son or daughter?
WS:
Clifton. Clifton or Charisse.
MS:
(strokes his hair)
How did you remember that, I wonder? Was that your hope? Your hope for the future? Are you calling your hope to rescue you?
WS:
Let them live. Let my daughter live. Let my son live...
MS:
Delirious. Poor thing. Almost dead now. Couldn’t we give him one chance?
(lifts her head, clenches her fists)
Not one chance?
voiceover: GP
GP:
You want him to have a chance? Look how peaceful he is, watching his ego die. How wondrous when he learns to move on without it. He’s clinging to it. The only reason he’s alive. His pride won’t let him die. You really would give him a chance?
MS:
It isn’t up to me.
GP:
You may kiss him, if you want. Kiss him before he goes to hell.
WS suddenly stands. He has no face, and no mouth.
MS:
I can’t kiss that.
GP:
He won’t let you. He has passed.
WS:
This is all a lie. This whole thing is a lie.
GP:
What makes you think it is, Wilbur, tell me that?
WS:
Because...
GP:
Yes?
WS:
Because none of this is worth it. I’m not... I’m not that important.
WS drops to the ground, lifeless, BLACK ROOM dissolves to forest.
FOREST SCENE IV:
WS still lies crumpled on the ground. GP stands above him laughing.
GP:
Of course it was a lie. It takes great pride to lie well.
WS slowly gets up, all the blood is gone.
WS:
I remembered the name of my child.
GP:
Don’t try to remember why you’re still living, Mr. Scarsdale. You said it, but you won’t remember it. You have your ego back. Keep believing that, if you want. It does lend you some humility.
WS:
(wandering out of frame)
My child! My child!
close up, GP’s face
GP laughs, pleased with himself.
fade
FOREST SCENE V:
Night. WS is in a moonlit grove, shivering in a bedroll, facing away from the camera.
WS:
I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep, damn it! Hobo Chang Ba! You didn’t tell me it would be so far!
voice of the Ghost of Sloth calls from a distance.
GS:
Will you stop that? I’m trying to sleep too!
WS gets up, startled. zoom in to close up, WS now sports a long beard.
WS:
Who’s there?
end close up
GS:
I told you to pipe down! I want sleep!
WS:
(touching his face)
How long have I been here? How long have I been here trying to sleep?
GS:
Three years. You just wouldn’t shut up and now you’ve woken me up!
WS:
Three years? It can’t be!
GS:
Well not exactly, you spent the first year wandering in circles. That’s what everyone does when they come near me.
WS:
wandering in circles? I was lost, I lay down to rest... I don’t remember nights and days passing... you said three years?
close up WS with a panicked expression, touching his beard.
GS:
Nobody remembers much when they are in my sleep. You did sleep much of it away. Every time you were awake, you kept on and on with your complaining! Now you’ve woken me up!
end close up
WS:
It can’t be! You... you’re the ghost of sloth!
GS:
I’m the ghost of sloth and I can’t be hurried. Did you think I was going to just pop up like all the others? I’ve been asleep many years longer than you, and now you’ve wakened me!
WS:
(angrily)
Well then get on with it! Show yourself!
(WS tests his flexability, to himself:)
My God, I’m so stiff... it must be true!
enter, ghost of sloth
GS:
Of course it’s true. Let me get back to sleep, damn you, or I shall be very angry!
WS:
You’re angry? I’ve lost three years! My business... who’s been running my business... they must think I’m dead.
GS:
That doesn’t matter, let me go back to bed. I’ll let you sleep as long as you want, if you do.
WS:
I don’t want to sleep! I want to get out of here.
GS:
Get out of here, then. no one’s stopping you.
WS:
(remembering)
No. No, I won’t. I came here for something...
GS:
Straw-wood claw? What’s the matter? Is it rattling your jaw?
WS:
I am Wilbur Scarsdale! I’m a businessman! I’m wealthy and determined! I’ve come this far, and I’m not quitting now! Go on! Go on! Test me! guard the poppies! Give me an obstacle to pass.
GS:
I can’t be bothered with that, I’m too sleepy. How about you just tell mommy and daddy all about it and let me get back to bed!
WS:
Mommy and Daddy?
sudden close up of Lana Scarsdale’s face.
LS:
We’re here, son.
WS:
Mother!
end close up. GTS and LS are standing in the grove
Father!
GS:
There, can I go to bed now?
WS:
Don’t you dare. You have a duty to see me through after all I’ve been through. I’ve beaten all of you ghosts, I’ll beat you too!
LS:
That’s my boy. My confident, stubborn boy.
WS:
Mother! Why are you here... Father?
close up of GTS hard, scowling face
Father? Father, why don’t you speak to me?
end close up
LS:
He’s not speaking to you, son. He’s very upset. The last words he’s ever spoken to me were, “Lazy good for nothing.”
WS:
That’s not fair! How was I lazy?
close up LS
LS:
Have you forgotten so soon? Forgotten your elderly parents? Living in squalor while you lay in bed in your estate, full of morphine and heroine and every other drug made?
Have you forgotten the cold winter when we needed food and heat and water, and we sent for you time and time again? Sent for you as the winds grew bolder and we grew more and more helpless? Have you forgotten how your own parents died?
end close up
WS:
No. No, I haven’t forgotten. It was the drugs. I wanted to come, I wanted to help.
LS:
But you couldn’t get out of bed, not even to save your poor dying parents.
WS:
Let me speak to father, let me make things right.
LS:
Sorry, Wilbur, you can do neither.
WS:
Yes I can, yes I can! Let me speak to him!
GS:
(yawning)
Is this going to take long? I really want to get back to sleep.
WS:
Shut up, ghost! Shut up, damn you!
LS:
Poor Wilbur. It really is hopeless. I wonder how long it’s taken you to remember us. to care? How long, Wilbur? Did you even part from your drug addled stupor long enough to visit our graves?
WS:
(screaming)
Mother, no! Father! Father, speak to her!
Speak to ME!
GTS turns but does not speak. His look is still steely and grave.
LS:
My god, we were old! Death came easily for us. But you, what was your excuse, lying in bed all the time intoxicated and out of your numb little skull? What was it like to forget your mother and father? To forget us until we died?
WS:
(suddenly drops to the ground, weeping)
Oh no, God! No! Please, God! Please let my father speak to me. Father, I’ll do anything! Speak to me!
LS:
Sure you have that kind of passion. Sure you have it, now. And what’s it all for? This straw-wood something? Is that what you want now, Wilbur?
close up of all faces, in sequence: GS: irritated and grumpy from lack of sleep, Mother, dour and pouting, father, stern, cold and silent. Wilbur, tearful and desperate.
WS:
No! No! No! I don’t want it! I don’t want it! I don’t want it ever again! No!
end close up
GTS turns and softens a little.
WS:
I don’t want it. I don’t want it anymore, father, mother. Not now and not ever again. I’ll turn back. I’ll turn back now, even if father never says a word, only forgive me (choking back tears) will you forgive me?
close up GTS, begins to smile, end close up.
GTS:
Son. I forgive you.
WS:
Oh father, you speak! You do? You forgive me?
LS:
We love you, son. And we see how your heart as changed.
WS:
(rushing to hug his father)
Oh yes, I’vw changed! I’ve changed I don’t want it! I don’t want it ever again! If I could go back and spit all that foul, horrible stuff out of my body I would do that now!
GTS:
Son! Son!
WS:
You can go back to sleep now ghost. I’ll go back. From this moment I’ll swear never to take another step forward, I won’t go on! I don’t want it! I’ll never, ever want it again!
GS:
Well I can’t get to sleep now, and you can’t go back.
WS:
What?
GS:
This forest, it isn’t in your world. Not anymore. You wandered from your world many years ago. I only needed to wait for this moment to send you on your way. Say goodbye to your parents. The poppy field is just ahead. (points) that way.
WS:
(stepping out of father’s embrace)
No! No! Didn’t you hear me, I don’t want it! I renounce it!
I was asleep on a couch of heedlessness! I was as one dead! I will not go there.
close up: GS
GS:
But you must. You must, for you’ve won, you see! You’ve won, Mr. Scarsdale! You’ve won! (laughs)
WS:
Don’t toy with me, Ghost! I’m Wilbur Scarsdale! Mogul, princeling, king, by thunder! I do not want to go forward! Let me return to my own world! Let me go back!
wide shot. GTS and LS vanish slowly
Stop that! Stop that at once! Mother, father! Don’t go! Bring them back, ghost, bring them back, I say!
GS:
I think I can get to sleep again now, if you let me. Take the path I’ve shown you, or you’ll soon be sleeping too. There is no way out. You have your prize, Mr. Scarsdale. All the ghosts are gone!
WS:
No, damn it! This isn’t fair! I don’t want it! I don’t want it! I’ve changed! Let me go! Great God in Heaven, let me go.
close up, GS yawns.
GS:
If you’d rather sleep forever, go right ahead.
end close up, ghost begins to leave
WS:
No! No! Ghost don’t sleep! Ghost don’t sleep! I’ve changed! Let me go!
GS:
What makes you think I have the power to do that? Didn’t you want to come here?
WS:
I’ve learned, I’ve learned, dear God. how I’ve learned. Have mercy, let me go back.
GS:
It is entirely too late.
WS:
I don’t want it! What am I going to do with it? I don’t want it!
GS:
Your choice. I’m going to lie down now. Not another peep from you.
GS steps out of frame. WS begins to panic, reluctantly resumes his journey.
WS:
The hell with all of you ghosts, I won’t sleep forever! I’ll make that devil hobo send me home! I swear it!
walks out of frame
POPPYFIELD SCENE I:
Sunrise, several shots of field, finally a shot of HCB as he packs his backpack.
WS:
(voice off screen)
Stop! Stop you devil!
pan slowly away from HCB, WS is standing in the field, looking worn and haggard.
I’ve been following the path all night, never daring to rest for fear I’d never wake up. Now I’ve found you and you’ve got to send me back!
HCB:
Send you where, exactly?
WS:
back to my world!
HCB:
This is your world. Isn’t this what you wanted?
WS:
I’ve changed my mind. I want out. You never told me I’d wander for three years! My God, man! You owe me! Send me back!
HCB:
I didn’t have to tell you anything, Mr. Scarsdale. I only needed to promise you what you wanted. Now you have it. All of this is yours.
WS:
You tricked me! I didn’t want this, you devil!
HCB:
Did I promise you you’d get what you wanted if you came out here? But I have what I wanted. I’m free at last. I’m free to go back to the ocean and the freight train.
WS:
What’s to become of me?
HCB:
Mr. Scarsdale, you studied ancient secrets to find me, didn’t you? You’ve tasted forbidden knowledge, you’re a capable man. I’m sure you’ll figure it out. You, Mr. Scarsdale, are the new sunrise. I trust you. You’ve been tested.
(begins to fade away)
WS:
But what’ll I do here? What’ll I do?
HCB:
You’re the guardian, now, Mr. Scarsdale. You’ll wait. You’ll wait and learn until you’re crafty enough to find your own new sunrise.
(vanishes, voiceover continues)
Don’t worry, Mr. Scarsdale, it won’t take forever. Someone will always be chasing that dragon. The road to drugs only gets wider with time, and the temptation will only snare more and more people.
People like you. People like you!
Goodbye!
slowly zoom to close up of WS, looking like a lost soul.
WS:
People like me...
FADE
roll credits
But I love much of its content in spite of myself.