by Annie Proulx
ENNIS (CONT’D)
I got the girls this weekend…I’m sure as hell sorry. You know I am.
JACK nods…tries to retain some dignity, caught yet again in a wrenching situation with ENNIS, feels totally powerless.
ENNIS (CONT’D)
(torn)
See, I only get ‘em once a month. Missed last month ‘cause of the roundup.
A beat.
ENNIS (CONT’D)
(in agony now)
…jack.…
JACK can barely breathe.
JACK
Yeah…all right.
ENNIS
Jack.…
JACK
…I’ll see you next month, then.…
Turns away, wanders back to his truck, the postcard still in his hand.
Gets in. Drives off.
ENNIS watches him go.
EXT: TEXAS PLAINS: DAY: 1975:
WE SEE JACK blazing along in his pickup truck.
Begins to cry, hard…but something has turned inside him…he looks desolate but determined: knows where he is headed.
EXT: JUAREZ, TEXAS/MEXICAN BORDER: LATE AFTERNOON: 1975:
WE SEE a highway mileage sign: EL PASO 65; JUAREZ-MEXICO BORDER 68.
WE SEE JACK in his pickup truck crossing the border into Mexico.
EXT: JUAREZ MEXICAN BORDER TOWN: NIGHT: STREET: CONTINUOUS: 1975:
Sultry Mexican night. The street swarms with activity.
JACK wanders the streets, solemn, desperate in his loneliness.
TOURIST FAMILIES and LOCALS intermingle on the streets and sidewalks. A FAMILY poses for a picture with a DONKEY wearing a sombrero.
A swarm of LITTLE BEGGAR CHILDREN hit up JACK for change. He gives them each a few coins and moves on.
JACK makes his way through the crowded streets, entering the seedier part of the town. HOOKERS stand in doorways enticing passersby. The sidewalks are crowded with VENDORS. People yelling, Mexican polka music.
JACK turns down an alley. MEN line walls on each side. Direct looks.
A HANDSOME YOUNG MEXICAN, masculine, dressed for a night out, makes eye contact with JACK—gives him a knowing, seductive look.
YOUNG MEXICAN
…Senor.…
Then nods.
They walk off together.
INT: CHILDRESS, TEXAS: JACK & LUREEN’S HOUSE: THANKSGIVING: DAY: 1977:
JACK and LUREEN’S home. Wall-to-wall carpeting, fairly luxurious, particularly in comparison to ENNIS’S life. Many photos of LUREEN winning barrel-racing trophies. One of JACK, the one taken in the arena the day they met.
JACK, LUREEN, BOBBY, age ten, LUREEN’S long-suffering MOTHER and L. D. NEWSOME, JACK’S prick of a father-in-law. The table is set for a full Thanksgiving dinner, huge turkey and all the trimmings. As everyone shuffles into their places at the table, WE HEAR the TV in the background. Football game.
JACK is at the head of the table and has just reached for the carving tools, when L. D., older but no kinder, takes them right out of his hands.
L. D. NEWSOME
Whoa, now, Rodeo…the stud duck does the carving around here.
JACK, having been through this kind of scene many times before, tries nonetheless to be gracious.
JACK
You bet, L.D.…just thought I’d save you the trouble.
BOBBY is riveted to the television set.
LUREEN notices.
LUREEN
Bobby, if you don’t eat your dinner, I’m gonna have to turn off that television.
BOBBY
Why, Mama? I’m gonna be eatin’ this food for the next two weeks.
LUREEN flashes a look at JACK, who then gets up from the table, turns off the television, sits back down.
BOBBY slumps back in his chair, pouts.
JACK
You heard your mama. You can eat your dinner. Then you can watch the game.
L. D. NEWSOME sets down the carving tools. Goes to the TV, turns it back on.
LUREEN
Daddy?
(pause)
Daddy!
L. D. NEWSOME
(picks up the carving tools)
Hell, we don’t eat with our eyes.
(looks at Lureen)
You want your son to grow up to be a man, don’t you, daughter?
(direct look at Jack)
Boys should watch football.
JACK
(stands up—barely maintains his composure)
Not until he finishes the meal his mama spent three hours fixin’.
LUREEN, BOBBY and LUREEN’S MOTHER are all startled: JACK has never stood up to L. D. like this before. They watch, silent.
Now L. D. NEWSOME stands again, goes to the TV again, but before he can turn it back on, WE HEAR:
JACK (CONT’D)
Sit down, you old son of a bitch!
L. D. NEWSOME stops dead in his tracks, his hand poised above the TV dial. Doesn’t move.
JACK (CONT’D)
This is my house! This is my child! And you’re my guest! So sit the hell down, or I’ll knock your ignorant ass into next week.…
L.D. is so startled, he automatically obeys.
LUREEN, though trying to keep a blank demeanor, is secretly pleased.
BOBBY goes on eating his drumstick.
JACK slices the turkey.
INT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: MONROE HOUSEHOLD: THANKSGIVING NIGHT: DINING ROOM: 1977:
ENNIS sits next to JENNY. MONROE sits at the head of the table. ALMA across from MONROE. ALMA JR. sits across from her daddy. The girls are about 13 and 11, respectively. ENNIS dressed in a clean Levi’s jacket and a bolo tie, his shirt collar threadbare.
MONROE, at the head of the table, carves a large turkey.
ALMA is visibly pregnant.
ENNIS tries to be cheerful for his girls, not wanting to be a sad daddy.
ALMA JR.
Daddy, tell about when you rode broncs in the rodeo.
ENNIS
Short story, honey. Only ‘bout three seconds I was on that bronc, an’ the next thing I knew I was flyin’ through the air. Only I wasn’t no angel like you and Jenny, and didn’t have no wings.
(smiles at her)
And that’s the story of my saddle bronc career.
His girls love him, their faces rapt when their daddy speaks.
MONROE is cheerful, and a bit smug: despite his unromantic appearance, he has ALMA.
INT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: MONROE HOUSEHOLD: THANKSGIVING NIGHT: KITCHEN: 1977:
ENNIS has gallantly brought a dinner plate or two into the kitchen, sets them on the counter.
Leans against the counter. ALMA is scraping food off the dinner plates.
ALMA
(trying to start conversation)
You ought to get married again, Ennis.
(pause)
Me and the girls worry ‘bout you bein’ alone so much.
ENNIS
(feeling too big for the room)
Once burned.…
ALMA
(scraping)
You still go fishin’ with Jack Twist?
ENNIS
Not often.
A beat.
ALMA
You know, I used to wonder how come you never brought any trouts home.
From her tone, ENNIS knows something is coming.
ALMA (CONT’D)
(trembling, but controlled)
…Always said you caught plenty, and you know how me and the girls like fish.
(pause)
So one night I got your creel case open the night before you went on one a your little trips—price tag still on it after five years—and I tied a note on the end of the line. It said, ‘Hello, Ennis, bring some fish home, love, Alma’…
(pause)
…And then you come back lookin’ all perky and said you’d caught a bunch a browns and ate them up. Do you remember?
Looks over at ENNIS, stiff.
ALMA is scraping harder and faster, as if she means to ta
ke the pattern off the plates.
ALMA (CONT’D)
I looked in the case first chance I got and there was my note still tied there.
ALMA turns on the water in the sink, sluices the plates.
ENNIS
That don’t mean nothin’, Alma.
ALMA
(turns on him)
Don’t try to fool me no more, Ennis, I know what it means. Jack Twist?
ENNIS
Alma…
ALMA
Jack Nasty. You didn’t go up there to fish. You and him.…
ENNIS grabs her wrist and twists it.
ENNIS
Now you listen to me, you don’t know nothin’ about it.
Tears spring to her eyes, she drops a dish.
ALMA
I’m goin’ to yell for Monroe.
ENNIS
Go on and fuckin’ yell. I’ll make him eat the fuckin’ floor and you, too.
Lets go.
ALMA
(crying)
Get out, get out, get out!
(between sobs)
Get out of my house, Ennis Del Mar! You hear me? You get out!
ALMA is crying hard now, years of pain and anger welling up and spilling over.
INT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: MONROE HOUSEHOLD: LIVING ROOM: THANKSGIVING NIGHT: CONTINUOUS: 1977:
ENNIS takes the living room in about two strides, ignoring the startled MONROE, who is smoking a cheap after-dinner cigar.
ENNIS grabs his hat, shoves it on, when little JENNY yells
JENNY
Daddy!
ENNIS slams out.
EXT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: MONROE HOUSE: THANKSGIVING NIGHT: CONTINUOUS: 1977:
Snowing. JENNY and ALMA JR., confused, a little frantic now, wanting it to be all right again, follow their daddy out on to the front stoop of the little frame house.
JENNY AND ALMA JR.
‘Bye, Daddy.…
Gets to his old battered pickup—gets in, bales of hay collecting snow in the truck bed.
They watch as his truck rumbles away.
EXT: DOWNTOWN RIVERTON, WYOMING: BLACK AND BLUE EAGLE BAR: NIGHT: 1977:
ENNIS parks across the street from the BLACK AND BLUE EAGLE BAR.
Gets out and without looking or bothering about the thin traffic, walks across the street towards the bar.
A pickup with a roughneck in it has to brake sharply to keep from hitting him.
FIRST ROUGHNECK
(driving, size of a bear)
Hey, asshole, watch where you’re goin’!
Without hesitation, ENNIS runs around the pickup, punches right inside the open driver window four or five times. Then yanks open the driver door, drags the huge man out in the slushy street, pummelling him and kicking him.
Knees him in the nuts.
But the roughneck throws him to the ground. Punches him in the face, stomach. Doesn’t let up.
EXT: WYOMING MOUNTAINS: DAY: 1978:
JACK and ENNIS ride through the mountains, like Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea in “Ride The High Country,” only more life-worn, more weather-beaten.
Cross a river on their horses.
EXT: WYOMING MOUNTAINS: DAY: 1978:
Washing tin plates.
JACK is a little thicker around the haunch.
JACK
All I’m sayin’ is, what’s the point to makin’ it? If the taxes don’t get it, the inflation eats it all up. You should see Lureen, punchin’ numbers into her adding machine, huntin’ for extra zeros, her eyes gettin’ smaller and smaller, it’s like watchin’ a rabbit tryin’ to squeeze into a snakehole with a coyote on its tail.
ENNIS
High-class entertainment.
JACK
For what it’s worth.
ENNIS
Lureen. You and her, it’s normal and all?
JACK
Sure.
ENNIS
And she don’t ever suspect?
JACK shakes his head no.
ENNIS (CONT’D)
You ever get the feelin’, I don’t know, when you’re in town, and someone looks at you, suspicious…like he knows. And then you get out on the pavement, and everyone, lookin’ at you, and maybe they all know too?
JACK
Maybe it’s time you moved outta there. You know, set yourself up somewhere different. Maybe Texas.
ENNIS
Texas? Sure, and maybe you’ll convince Alma to let you and Lureen adopt my girls, and then we could all live together, herding sheep, and it’ll just rain money from L. D. Newsome, and whiskey’11 flow in the streams.…
JACK
Aw, go to hell, Ennis del Mar. You want to live your miserable fuckin’ life, go right ahead. I was just thinkin’ out loud.
He marches off.
ENNIS
You’re a real thinker, ain’t you!
(to himself)
Yeah, that Jack Twist, he’s got it all figured out, ain’t you?
INT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: WOLF EARS BAR: NIGHT: 1978:
The bar is moderately crowded with COWBOYS and their WOMEN. Not a wild scene.
A few COUPLES dance on the small floor near the jukebox. The TV above the bar is on.
ENNIS sits at a table by himself, a few empties in front of him.
The song ends.
The waitress, CASSIE, mid-twenties, livelier than ALMA, very appealing, curvy in jeans and T-shirt, struts past ENNIS’S booth to the jukebox, a glass of white wine in her hand.
CASSIE has her eye on ENNIS, who is oblivious, looking up at the TV.
CASSIE pops a quarter in the jukebox.
ENNIS gets up from his booth and starts towards the men’s room.
Steve Earle’s “DEVIL’S RIGHT HAND” begins to play on the jukebox.
CASSIE seizes the opportunity, steps in front of ENNIS.
CASSIE
(appealing, direct)
Just finished my shift. Wanna dance?
ENNIS looks past CASSIE to the men’s room door.
ENNIS
(pointing over CASSIE’S shoulder to the men’s room)
Was on my way to the…
CASSIE
(grabs ENNIS’S pointing finger)
I’m Cassie…Cassie Cartwright.
CASSIE takes a reluctant ENNIS by the finger and leads him to the little dance floor, setting her wineglass down on the way.
ENNIS
(being pulled) Ennis del Mar.
CASSIE and ENNIS are the only people on the dance floor.
It is immediately clear that ENNIS cannot dance. But CASSIE doesn’t mind, makes the most of the moment, enjoys herself, shaking the funk out of her ass, letting her hair fly.
During the chorus, CASSIE’S and ENNIS’S eyes meet.
It is obvious ENNIS appeals to her.
INT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: WOLF EARS BAR: NIGHT: CONTINUOUS: 1978:
The dance ends; they return to ENNIS’S table. He lights a cigarette.
CASSIE sits down across from ENNIS. Drinks her white wine. The WAITRESS comes over, refills her glass from a cheap bottle with a screw lid. CASSIE motions to her to leave the bottle.
ENNIS
No more dancin’ for me.
(a beat)
I hope.
CASSIE
You’re safe. My feet hurt.
CASSIE takes her shoes off, starts rubbing her feet.
ENNIS looks on, amused.
ENNIS
Hard work, is it?
CASSIE
(playful)
Yeah, drunks like you demanding beer after beer, smoking. Gets tiresome.
(beat)
What do you do, Ennis del Mar?
ENNIS
Well, earlier today I was castratin’ calves.
CASSIE wrinkles up her nose, shivers, then thrusts her stocking feet into ENNIS’S lap.
ENNIS is startled.
ENNIS
(CONT’D) What are you doin’?
CASSIE
(smiles)
> Tryin’ to get a foot rub, dummy.
ENNIS smiles back.
INT: CHILDRESS, TEXAS: DANCE HALL: NIGHT: 1978:
Big banner over the stage: “1978 BENEFIT FOR THE CHILDRESS COUNTY CHILDREN’S HOME.” The band fiddles away, lots of couples on the dance floor.
The TWISTS and the MALONES are at a table near the dance floor. LUREEN is smoking, bored. LASHAWN has on a flashy cocktail dress, a lot of makeup and jewelry, but much prettier than LUREEN, skinnier, perky, about thirty. Restless, impatient.
LASHAWN
(chatters like a squirrel) Pledged Tri Delt at SMU and I sure never thought I’d end up in a pokey little place like Childress, but then I met Randall at an Aggie game, and he was an animal husbandry major, and we been here a month, he got the foreman job over at Roy Taylor’s ranch. Like it or not, here I am!
LUREEN
(briefly stirs)
Oh, you was Tri Delt? I was Kappa Phi myself.
LASHAWN
(impatient)
Well, even though we ain’t quite sorority sisters, we may have to dance with ourselves, Lureen. Our husbands ain’t the least bit interested in dancin’, they don’t seem to have a smidgin of rhythm between ’em.
LUREEN
It’s funny, ain’t it? Husbands don’t never seem to dance with their wives.
(sarcastic)
Why do you think that is, Jack?
JACK wants to have a good time—doesn’t take her bait.
JACK
Ain’t never give it a thought.
(to Lashawn)
Wanna dance?
They get up, go to the dance floor, begin to dance.
JACK nods politely, but is looking over her shoulder at LUREEN and RANDALL. LUREEN smokes. RANDALL studies JACK and LASHAWN on the dance floor.
EXT: CHILDRESS, TEXAS: DANCE HALL: NIGHT (LATER): 1978:
JACK and RANDALL sit together outside the dance hall, waiting for their wives to return from the ladies’ room. Both smoke.
Before JACK can respond, the WOMEN come out, hurrying, LASHAWN talking a blue streak, just like RANDALL said.
EXT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: MONROE HOUSE: MID MORNING: 1979:
ALMA JR., fifteen now, waits, sits on the stoop.
Rises as ENNIS’S truck pulls up, excited.
Sees CASSIE in the passenger seat. Her face falls a bit, but she puts on a good show as her father emerges from the truck and walks towards her.