Dreamsongs - Volume II Read Online Free PDF Page B

Megan
looks uncertain about the whole thing; she sure doesn’t want to left alone.
     
    JEFF
     
    Can you keep a
secret?
     
    Megan nods solemnly.
     
    JEFF
     
    (conspiratorially)
    When I was a kid, I
had lots of bad dreams. And monsters.
     
    MEGAN
     
    (wide-eyed)
    Monsters?
     
    JEFF
     
    In
the closet, under the bed, everywhere. Then my dad told me the secret. After
that I wasn’t scared any more,
    (whispers in her ear)
    Monsters can’t get
you if you hide under the blankets!
     
    MEGAN
     
    They can’t?
     
    JEFF
     
    (solemn, definite)
    Those are the
rules. Even monsters have to obey the rules.
     
    Megan pulls up her blankets and ducks
underneath, giggling.
     
    JEFF
     
    That’s my girl.
    (lifts blankets, tickles her)
    But blankets can’t
hide you from daddies.
     
    They tussle playfully for a moment. Then
Jeff kisses her, tucks her back in.
     
    JEFF
     
    Now go to sleep,
you hear?
     
    Megan nods, ducks under the blanket. Jeff
smiles, goes to the door, and pauses to look back before turning out the light.
     
    JEFFS POINT OF VIEW
     
    Of the room, the bed, Megan’s small form
huddled under the blankets, the scattered toys. He flicks the switch.
     
    SMASH CUT TO
    INT. - HUT IN VIETNAM - NIGHT
     
    Everything is the same; everything is
grotesquely different. The walls and roof are thatched, the floor is dirt. The
arrangement of objects is a distorted echo of Megan’s room. Outside the window
a nearby fire illuminates the scene (instead of a streetlamp). In a dark
corner, where the stuffed animal lay in Megan’s room, a body slumps instead.
Every toy, block, and object from Megan’s room has a counterpart placed
identically, pots and pans, a rag doll, a gun, etc. The bed is a pile of straw,
and the blanket is ragged, but there’s still a child’s body beneath. Only now
there’s a dark stain spreading on the cloth. We hear Jeff’s shocked gasp. The Vietnam shot should be held
very briefly, almost a subliminal. Then Jeff turns the light back on and we
     
    SMASH CUT TO
    MEGAN’S ROOM
     
    As before. Everything is normal.
     
    CLOSE ON JEFF
     
    Disoriented, confused, he stares for a
beat, shakes his head.
     
    BACK TO THE SCENE
     
    Jeff turns off the light again. This time
nothing happens. He closes the door softly, and we follow him downstairs.
     
    LIVING ROOM
     
    Denise is glancing over some legal briefs,
oversized glasses on the end of her nose. She glances up at Jeff, and notices
something in his expression that makes her put away the papers.
     
    DENISE
     
    What’s wrong? You
look like death warmed over.
     
    JEFF
     
    (still shaken)
    It’s nothing ... I
thought... ah, it’s absurd. Like daughter like father, I guess,
    (forced laugh)
    The ‘man’ was a
chair full of clothes.
     
    DENISE
     
    She’s got your
imagination.
     
    JEFF
     
    I wondered who took it.
     
    DENISE
     
    She’s okay, though?
     
    Jeff seats himself, picks up the remote
control, turns the movie back on just in time for the ‘Keep watching the skies’
speech.
     
    JEFF
     
    Sure.
     
    CUT TO
    MEGAN’S ROOM
     
    The girl is huddled under the blankets in
the soft glow of her nightlight. We HEAR her soft, steady breathing. The camera
MOVES in slowly, with the faint SOUND of a wheelchair moving across a hardwood
floor.
     
    CLOSE ON MEGAN
     
    As a shadow falls across her. She does not
stir, not even when a man’s hand moves in from off camera, grasps the corner of
her blanket, and pulls it back with ominous slowness.
     
    FADE OUT
    FADE BACK IN
    INT. - CLASSROOM - THE NEXT DAY
     
    A college lecture hall. Twenty-odd students
are watching and taking notes while Jeff paces in front of the class, tossing a
stub of chalk idly as he lectures. On the blackboard is WRITTEN NY JOURNAL - HEARST
and NY WORLD - PULITZER.
     
    JEFF
     
    —when
Remington complained that he couldn’t find a war, Hearst supposedly cabled him
back and said, ‘You provide the pictures. I’ll provide the war.’ Now, that
anecdote is probably