“CHILD OF ROCK AND SUNLIGHT’
Season 1 Episode 24
Directed by: Donald Richardson
Written by: Penrod Smith**
The Script labeled “Final” and Dated January 10, 1969 identifies Ken Trevey as the writer. In this transcript of the show as filmed, changes from the script are noted in italics and parentheses.
Guest stars:
Rex Holman as Luke Sickles Johnnie Whittaker as Andy-Jack
Virginia Christine as Hannah "Ma" Sickles Patty McCormack as Pearl
“CHILD OF ROCK AND SUNLIGHT’
SCENE 1
Opening: ominous music plays as we scan a desolate, barren rocky outcrop. Camera continues to pan underneath the credits, Written by Penrod Smith appears and below the words we can see a figure in the distance, someone walking slowly towards us.
Close up on Scott in silhouette, wearing a hat, carrying his saddle over one shoulder and his saddle bags low in the other hand. As he comes closer, we can see that he looks hot and tired. Music increases in volume as he glances up at the sky, then stops and drops the saddle. He adjusts his hat, squinting in the bright sun. He’s wearing his gloves and a beige shirt. He sits down on the saddle as the credits continue and starts to fish something out of his shirt pocket. Close up of his gloved hands show them holding a compass. Close of his face shows how tired he looks. He sighs, rubs one eye and looks up at the distant outcroppings. He doesn’t seem to have an easy road ahead.
He closes up the compass, pockets it, picks up the saddlebags and the saddle and moves off screen. The saddle is laden with all of the usual: a rifle in a sheath, a coil of rope, etc.
Fade out and then back, Scott in front of a wall of light colored rock. Hatless, he seems to have ditched the saddlebags but for some reason is still carrying the saddle. He’s walking with a great deal of difficulty, then he actually falls to the ground. He gets up very slowly, camera is on his hands as they wrench the canteen off of the pommel of the saddle, then loops the strap of the canteen over his wrist. Shot of his feet as they stagger off screen.
SCENE 2
(according to the script, this is the opening scene. The script also indicates that Johnny is signing the register “John Lancer and Father” and that this would be visible to the viewer.)
Close up of Johnny signing something. Camera pulls away, to show that he is leaning over a counter and there is a older woman standing on the other side watching him. In the background is a staircase and a man in a hat is seen coming down the stairs.
JL: “You know, I was supposed to meet my brother here. Couple days ago. His name’s Scott Lancer.” Johnny finishes writing and looks up at her. “He been in?” He pushes the guest book to her, she turns it, shaking her head.
(script calls for him to turn back a page and search the list of names. The hotel clerk, identified in the script, but not in the show as “Widow Maude Bigelow”, asks him if something is wrong.)
“Lancer? Nobody by that name.”
Johnny is not happy to hear this news. He lowers his head and looks away. “Any other boarding houses?”
Hotel Clerk: “It’s this hotel or nothing.”
Camera shifts to her: “Unless he’d be sleeping on some pool table?”
Close up on Johnny again.
JL:” No, I don’t think so.” He lowers his head all the way, grinning. Reaches for the front of his hat brim with his right hand.
(Johnny’s line in the script: “Not hardly. It’d be contrary to his Boston upbringing.”)
Camera back to the hotel lady, as she seems to be looking at someone or something behind Johnny.
Murdoch: “Scott here?”
He enters the front door of the establishment, carrying his saddlebags. He is wearing his hat, a dark shirt and a leather vest.
JL: “No, not yet.”
Johnny turns around to face him. He has his own saddlebags hanging in his left hand. He’s wearing his rose colored shirt under his black bolero jacket and his usual pants.
Murdoch walks over to the counter. In this shot we can see that the hotel is well outfitted: overhead candle chandelier, tall wrought iron candleholders near the door. Furniture, curtains at the windows, a fireplace off to the side.
Clerk: “Where’s he comin’ from?”
JL: “Tonopah.”
(Johnny’s line in the script: “Up north. Been checking out a mining property near Tonopah.”)
ML, scratching his chin with one thumb: “He’s supposed to have taken a Wednesday stage down, at least that was the understanding.”
Close up on hotel lady. “Oh, that’s it then. They changed the schedule last month. Stage from Tonopah’s not due in til sometime tomorrow.”
Lancers do not look very happy.
ML mutters under his breath: “Well, Johnny, looks like we’re stuck in this bake-oven here.” They both look around unhappily, Johnny flicks at the brim of his hat.
Hotel Lady: “I’ll get your rooms aired out.”
JL: “You mind takin’ care of these?” He puts his saddle bags on top of the counter. Murdoch does likewise. The Hotel lady takes possessions of the saddlebags while the two Lancers turn to exit the hotel.
JL, to Murdoch: “C’mon, I’ll buy you a drink.”
(in the script, Johnny comments that “the saloon’s generally the coolest place in any town.”)
They start walking towards the door, Johnny slightly ahead of Murdoch, walking with bowed head and holding a rifle in his right hand. . They are both back to the camera. ML continues talking. “Johnny, he would have taken the stage down,” he says with a note of uncertainty in his voice. “He wouldn’t have gotten impatient and tried to make it by horseback?”
Johnny pauses near the door, turns to face Murdoch. “Oh, Murdoch. That’s some of the meanest desert I’ve ever seen.”
(Johnny’s line in the script: “Through the desert? It’s forty miles of the meanest, emptiest country this side of Hell.”)
ML: “I know that, and you know that, but would he know that?”
Ominous music plays. No answer from Johnny. They exit and the camera shifts to the skull of a steer hanging on the wall.
(Script calls for Murdoch to be staring at a mountain sheep’s skull hanging on the wall behind the clerks desk while he asks the question about whether or not Scott would wait for the stage.)
SCENE 3
Shot of a rock edge and hands reaching up over. Scott appears, hatless and squinting badly now. He wipes at his mouth with one now bare hand and then tries to look up into the sky.
Shot of clear sky—no clouds—and then we are looking up a very steep and high rock wall.
(according to the script, we don’t see Scott until after the scene with Johnny and Murdoch. Our first glimpse was written to be his canteen abandoned on the ground, with footprints leading away. Hatless, Scott’s clothing is scuffed and “his face is tortured by pain and thirst”. He kneels in a path of shade and pulls out a compass and a map—shots of compass in his hand, blurs, comes into focus, then blurs again. Close up of Scott: “For a moment, he lets his features reflect his knowledge of just how precarious his situation is. He’s slow to react to a pair of sounds: the soft clanking of a bell and the low “baaa” of some goats.”)
Camera back to Scott who looks as if he is in pain. Camera pulls back to show us some goats in the foreground. One large ram has a chain around its neck and a bell. With a determined expression, Scott struggles to his feet. He moves after the goats, swinging the canteen that is still strapped to one wrist.
SL, to goats: “Go home . . . lead me.”
He falls to the ground, gets back up and continues after them. “Go home . . . lead me.” Shot of goats crossing a bare rocky outcropping. They start moving downwards, Scott struggling to clamber after them. Even the goats are having difficulty in some spots, sliding, hesitating, jumping.
Camera angle looking up at Scott who is still attempting to follow them. Shot of goats leaping and then we are looking down and see a young boy climbing up, carrying a canteen. He looks up and we see Scott high up the bare slope. Scott loses his footing and starts to fall, losing his canteen. He rolls over and over and over all the way down the slope. (the stunt man does a good job here; the same falling sequence will be used in the episode “Splinter Group”)
The boy hurries up over the rocks and arrives just as SL comes to rest on his back on the ground at the bottom of the slope he’s just descended.
The little boy tosses off his hat, and places one ear to Scott’s chest.
“Your heart’s loud enough.”
(Notations in the script indicate that Andy-Jack shows a “strangely detached curiosity” rather than compassion. And that he is fascinated by the compass “to the point of shutting everything else out.”)
He reaches across Scott’s chest to pull the compass out of his shirt pocket. He sits back to examine it. “What’s this? What does it do?”
Scott’s head moves slightly. Close up on his face as he tries to figure out what’s going on.
Camera shifts to the little boy we will learn is Andy-Jack, who is still studying the compass. “It ain’t a clock! I had one of those once.” Shift to Scott. Who tries to raise his hand. He’s trying to speak, but no words come out. Finally the boy turns to look at Scott. “What’s it called?”
Scott: “Water. . . .water.” He’s struggling, his lips look convincingly parched.
AJ: “I’ll give ya some, but you’d better close your eyes, or they’ll hurt more.”
Scott reaches to accept the canteen that AJ pushes to him, opening it and drinking it with his eyes closed. He takes a good long gulp, grasping the canteen with two hands. Andy-Jack looks on. Scott finally lowers the canteen, only to begin coughing.
AJ: “Did you ever go to school?” Scott keeps coughing. The camera shifts back and forth between them.
Andy-Jack repeats the question, a bit more insistently. Scott keeps his eyes closed, he can be heard breathing heavily. Finally the question registers and he shakes his head “yes”.
AJ: “A long time?”
Camera to Scott again, who nods in the affirmative once more.
AJ: “Years and years?”
Scott fails to respond this time, his head slips to the side.
Andy-Jack puts his hand on Scott’s chest and shakes him, sounding a bit frantic: “Please don’t die, I wanna ask ya things!”
Scott seems to hear this, but isn’t able to respond. Andy-Jack reaches for Scott’s hand: “C’mon, I’ll take ya home.” The boy puts his hat on and tries to help Scott up. Placing his left hand over his eyes to shade them, Scott starts to move into a sitting position.
Abrupt shift of scene: we see a small shack with the goats in the foreground. Close up of a doorway, then we are inside. It’s dark and Andy-Jack is seen walking along carrying a kerosene lantern. He is wearing his hat. The boy is dressed in denim overalls and a denim long sleeved shirt. He’s carrying something we can’t immediately identify in his other hand.
He sets the lantern down on the ground beside Scott. He also seems to be carrying a plate of food, which he also sets down. Camera close up on Scott’s rather dusty looking holster. Andy-Jack slips Scott’s gun out of the holster. Camera moves up to show Scott’s profile, eyes closed, apparently asleep. Andy-Jack walks carefully and quietly away, crouches and considers one hiding place before standing and lifting up the cover of some sort of box and placing Scott’s gun inside.
A voice calls out “Andy-Jack!”
Outside, we see a close up of an older woman wearing a shawl and striking a large iron triangle, calling the boy’s name. Camera pulls back to show the shack-like house and the yard around it, including a few outbuildings and some laundry hanging on the clothesline. Back to the woman once more. This is Hannah "Ma" Sickles, Andy-jack's grandmother. She is wearing a skirt, long sleeved blouse with a cameo pin at the neckline and is standing on the front stoop of the house. She puts down the stick and places her hands on either side of her mouth: “Andy-Jack, I’m callin’ you!” We can hear the goats in the distance. A man walks on screen towards her, his back to the camera. She calls out once more: “Andy-Jack!”
As the man steps up alongside her, she speaks to him, “Where’d you get that?” causing him to turn so that we can see his face. He has sharp features and a mustache, with dark hair showing under a black hat. He wears a buckskin jacket and has a gun in a holster. He is holding a strange–looking contraption. This is Luke Sickles, Andy-Jack’s uncle and Hannah is his mother.
Ma Sickles, to Luke: “That belongs to Andy-Jack, you take it back.” She gestures towards the direction from which he has come.
Luke: “What if I don’t?”
He starts to enter the house. The camera moves inside, showing us the closed front door and a few furnishings--- a pie-safe and a table with a pitcher and washbasin. The door opens and Luke enters, still holding Andy-Jack’s contraption, with his mother tight behind him, trying to reach around him to grab the object. “Give it here, give it here!” He turns towards her and she slaps his face.
He looks at her, hands her the item in question and says “Thanks, Ma.” Looking angry, he removes his hat and moves over to place it on a peg beside the door. He moves off camera for a moment. Hannah puts the object down and then follows Luke, speaking in a quiet, but intense tone: “How many times have I warned you against going outside in the daytime?” Luke is about to sit in a chair drawn up to the table, while she stands with her hands on the back of another chair, back to us, looking down at him. There is a kerosene lamp on the table and a bed in the background.
Luke looks at her, but does not answer, instead he sits down and places one foot up on the table. He loops something around his boot, apparently a strop which is using to sharpen a rather large knife. Close up on Hannah's face; she is not happy.
Luke: “I went out to kill a goat for supper. I want a little red meat in my belly.” He looks up at her challengingly. Behind him, another woman enters the room.
The other woman, young, with very dark hair, comes up behind Luke. (the script identifies her as his girlfriend, Pearl, but later we will see that she is wearing a wedding ring.) “Can’t expect him to stay cooped up here forever.” She puts her arms around Luke, leans down and kisses him full on the lips.
While they kiss, Hannah’s voice is heard off screen: “And what if some lawman was snooping around outside hereabouts?”
Shift to show her face: “You’d have lead in your belly!” She pushes his foot off of the table to punctuate her statement.
(in the script, she pokes him in the midsection)
Luke wrenches away from Pearl’s kiss; Pearl straightens up, keeping her hands on Luke’s shoulders.
LS: “No body’s gonna track me way out here.”
HS: “You ever think of bounty hunters?”
Pearl, with a concerned expression, to Luke: “She’s right about that, Honey. You’ll never be safe anywhere, not as long as there’s a price on your head.” Pearl wears her dark hair in a low ponytail. She has on a short sleeved, scoop necked print blouse and a blue skirt.
Luke considers this, looking from one woman to the other. Ma Sickles pulls her shawl more tightly about her shoulders as she stares down at him grimly. He stands up and gestures defiantly towards the door with his knife. “I’m gonna go kill me a goat. And nobody’s stopping me.”
As he walks towards the door, Hannah Sickles turns abruptly and follows him. She’s angry. “If you don’t take caution, you’re gonna end up just like your Pa and your brothers---in prison or in a graveyard!”
While she is speaking, Luke is concentrating on putting his knife into the sheath at his waist. The camera shifts to Pearl, who is listening with a worried look on her face, then back to the Sickles. As his mother finishes, Luke looks up at her.
LS: “You don’t give two pins for me. The only one you care about . . . is that precious (he picks up Andy-Jack’s contraption). . . grandchild of yours.” Luke tosses the object to the floor. Ma Sickles cries out “No!” away after the object, while Luke reaches up for his hat and then opens the door and walks out. Pearl follows him out, and closes the door behind her.
(The scene in the mine where Andy-Jack hides Scott's gun is not in the script, instead, the first time we see the boy after he finds Scott is here, after Luke and Pearl exit the shack and Andy-Jack enters. Hs grandmother’s face lights up. The follwoing exchange was not include dint eh episode as filmed. Here is a “missing scene” as described in the script:
HS: “Andy-Jack? Where’ve you been?”
AJ: “No place.” He turns away and spots the pieces of his “sun-thing”. This gets a reaction, a cry of shock and outrage.
AJ: “Who did it?” He drops to his knees and collects the pieces of the “sun-thing”, his body shaking with impotent fury to the point where he is virtually weeping. Ma Sickles comes into the picture behind him, towering and Spartan-of-face.
HS: “You mustn’t blame your Uncle Luke. . he wasn’t watching where he was going.”
AJ, flatly: “He done it on purpose.”
HS: “You crying?”
Andy-Jack shakes his head in response.
HS: “Show me.” He turns his face up so she can see.
Ma: “Good. This world’s got no place for them that whimper and whine.”
AJ starts trying to fit together the broken pieces of his machine. “What makes him like that? Always stomping things.”
Hannah, after a pause: “It’s Luke’s way, that’s all.”
AJ: “He’s ignorant! He don’t know nothing and don’t want to.”
His grandmother sighs: “Luke can’t help his faults. . not any more than you can help building things, and asking questions and feeling empty for want of the answers.” She cups his chin in her hand. “Have patience, Child! We’re gonna move to town before long. Then you’ll go to school with other children, and learn every word in every book---
AJ: “Yeah.” Apparently he’s heard this before.
Next in the script is a version of the following scene between Scott and Andy-Jack in the mine, where Scott reacts in pain to the light of the lantern the boy is carrying. In the script, Scott is conscious, draws his pistol at the boy’s approach, and then allows him to take it from his hand.
Scott realizes that he is in an old mine, and asks if the boy dragged him in here alone.
AJ: “Not this far. You shouldn’t have tried to crawl out. You went the wrong way.”
SL: “I waited for somebody to come, Seemed like hours. . ..”
AJ: “Are you afraid of the dark?”
SL: “No more than most. Now, look, where’s your father? You must have told him?”
AJ: “He’s dead. If you’re not scared, I’m gonna wrap this around your head so’s the light won’t hurt your eyes.”
While he does this, Scott continues to ask questions: “Your mother then, Get her!”
AJ: “She’s dead too.”
SL: “Well, who? You can’t live out here all by yourself?”
AJ says no and then tries to change the subject by offering some goat’s milk. Scott insists on leaving, gets up and is hit over the head by Luke Sickles. )
As filmed, this is what happens after Luke and Pearl leave the shack::
Scene shifts back to Andy-Jack and Scott. Andy-Jack is holding the lanterns, and has his other hand on Scott, saying “Hey, Mister. Hey, Mister.”
Scott reacts, holding his arm up in front of his face: “Get the light away from my eyes.”
Andy-Jack obediently sets the lantern down some distance away. Scott reaches out with one hand, but apparently he can’t see exactly where the boy is standing. “Who are you? Answer me, who are you?”
Andy-Jack picks up the tray he was carrying earlier: “I brought you some food.” His voice echoes.
Scott reaches out to touch the tray, then reaches up the boy’s arm to place his hand on Andy-Jack’s shoulder.
Close up on Scott, with his eyes closed: “Now listen to me, Son. I need your help. I want you to take me out of here right now, to wherever you live. Do you understand that?”
Close up on Andy-Jack. He blinks, but doesn’t speak. Back to Scott: “Right now.”
Andy-Jack: “But it’s safe in here. And I’ll hide you until you get better.” Scott shakes his head slightly.
AJ: “And you can tell me about going to school. And answer questions.”
SL, emphatically, gesturing with one hand: “No, I want you to take me out of here, right now. Now, let’s go.” He starts to rise. “Let’s go, c’mon.”
Andy-Jack sets down the tray of food. Scott stumbles forward.
AJ: “Watch out, you’ll hurt yourself!” Scott walks into a wall, there is a very low ceiling here and he has to hunch over. Andy-Jack reaches for Scott’s arm and urges him to come back and sit down.
Scott starts to say “no”, then grunts as he is struck on the head by Luke Sickles. As Scott slumps to the ground, Andy-Jack stands silently looking up at his uncle.
Luke shoves Andy-Jack aside: “Get outta here, Kid.”
Pearl comes in behind Luke and Ma Sickles is following along as well.
(in the script, Luke points the pistol at Scott and cocks it, but Andy-Jack throws himself in between.)
LS, to Pearl: “Go through his pockets. See if he’s carrying a badge—or a wanted poster on me.” Pearl picks up Andy-Jack’s lantern and moves it closer to Scott as she crouches down beside him. Luke keeps his gun on Scott—apparently it is what he used to strike SL on the head.
Hannah Sickles, to Andy-Jack: “Shame on you child. I should punish you for havin’ secrets.” Luke looks over his shoulder at them, but doesn’t say anything.
Hannah, to AJ: “Did he tell you who he was?”
AJ: “No, but he went to school.”
HS: “Did he have a horse, or a gun?”
AJ: “No, just an empty canteen. (shot of Luke, looking skeptical) He doesn’t mean us any harm. Please, Gran, don’t let Uncle Luke kill im.”
Camera shifts to close up of Luke, shaking his head as he listens to the conversation between his mother and nephew.
HS: “Now, don’t you worry about that, you just go on up to the house.”
AJ: “He’ll kill him, just like he did the last stranger!” Angry reaction shot of Luke. His grandmother puts her hand to Andy-Jack’s face, shushing him and physically closing his mouth. She sends Andy-Jack on his way. “Go on, now.”
Ma Sickles crouches down next to Luke.
LS: “Kid’s got no stomach--- in addition to bein’ simple in the head.”
Pearl handing a few items to Luke: “All he’s got’s a little money and some papers with writing on it. No badge or nothin’.” She passes the lantern to Luke.
Luke hands the papers to his mother: “Here, read it.” He holds the lantern in position for her.
Hannah Sickles studies the papers. “Looks like a a rancher. . .there’s a shippin’ order here for cattle.” Shot of Pearl listening. Apparently Ma Sickles is the only one of the three who can read. She continues, hesitatingly. "Some . . . three thousand. . . I can’t make out no more.”
(in the script, Ma Sickles reads the name “Scott Lancer”, and at the end of this scene, Luke refers to him as “Mr. Lancer”)
Luke looks down. “He’s gotta be rich.”
HS: “He didn’t see nothin’. So you take a horse, and drop him off at the edge of town tonight. “
LS: “Wait a minute, Ma. Now, we kinda saved his life. So he owes us something.”
HS: “Yeah. Here’s eleven dollars, that what ya want?”
Luke, accepts the money, but shakes his head: “He’s worth a lot more’n that . . . . to his family All we gotta do is keep him here under wraps, til they pay up.”
His mother shakes her head in disagreement.
Close up of Pearl: “How you gonna find out who he is?”
LS, shifts his eyes towards his mother: “Ma will talk nice to him and he’ll tell us.”
Ma Sickles pulls her shawl more tightly about her shoulders and says “no.”
Camera back to Luke: “Just think what that money could buy. What you want most in the whole world--(camera on Hannah’s face as Luke finishes his statement) --school, for Andy-Jack.”
She considers this as he continues speaking off camera: “This could be his chance, the only one he’ll ever get.” Close up on Luke again. “And you could give it to him.”
Camera shifts from Hannah to Pearl to Luke and back to Ma again as they all wait to hear her response.
HS: “Ransom money.”
Luke, off screen: “What difference does it make? It’s money that’ll get Andy-Jack to school.”
Close up on Luke and he closes the deal. “Now you go fix up a bed. And Pearl and me we’ll get him to the shack. Go on. Well, go on.”
Despite still looking doubtful, Hannah leaves the mine. Pearl gets up and moves beside Luke.
Luke lowers the lantern. “You think he looks like me?”
Pearl: “Not really.”
LS: “But he’ll do. He’ll do fine.”
Pearl: “How much ransom you figure we’ll get?”
LS, shaking his head, speaks very softly: “Ransom, I ain’t planning to get any ransom. I got a better idea for him.”
Ominous music builds and Luke sets the lantern down to illuminate Scott who is still lying there unconscious.
End of ACT ONE
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
ACT TWO
Scene 4
Opens with the same shot of the shack and surroundings, it’s daylight. Then we move inside to see Scott lying on a bed, fully clothed and wearing a blue printed bandanna as a blindfold. He has a couple of pillows under his head, but is still fully clothed. His shirt is very dirty. He seems to be just waking up/regaining consciousness. He reaches up to feel the blindfold, then starts to sit up. He reaches out with his right hand and comes in contact with the bedpost. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he tentatively touches the blindfold again. Just as he brings both hands up to try to unfasten it, the door behind him opens and Ma Sickles enters.
(in the script, he is still fully clothed but covered with a ragged blanket. He gropes around and knocks over something that crashes to the floor. In the script, Hannah Sickles pushes aside blankets that are hanging up to form a sleeping alcove, but in the show, Scott is in a separate bedroom behind a closed door.)
HS: “Uh ah, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” She approaches the bed carrying a bowl, Pearl enters the room behind her. “Your eyes were good and scorched by the sun yesterday. Give ‘em time ta heal up.”
She moves a chair into position so that she can sit in it facing Scott. He slowly lowers his hands from his face.
SL: “I suppose you’re right. May I ask where I am?”
HS: “In good hands. Here, let me give you a little hot broth.” She dips a spoon into the bowl. Behind them, Pearl is standing and watching while brushing her hair.
SL: “Thanks, maybe it’ll help put things together.” He reaches out and touches the napkin she is holding beneath the bowl that she extends towards him to catch any drips from the spoon. He opens his mouth to accept the first spoonful.
(in the script, when Scott asks where he is, Ma Sickles is directed to “force a smile just as if Scott could see it, but the effort only makes her appear more menacing.” Instead of feeding him, this conversation takes place as she gets up and fills a bowl of soup, then hands it to him, telling him it “ain’t too hot to pick up,” and asking if he thinks he can manage. Sl says that he can, but when he starts to pick up the bowl, just as Andy-Jack enters, his hands are too shaky and he all but spills it, prompting the boy to offer to feed him.)
HS: “I take it . . you don’t ah remember much about what happened to ya.” She’s fishing for information. She still has a pin on her blouse, but is no longer wearing her shawl.
SL: “Well, I was riding down to meet my family, and my horse stumbled, and broke his leg. (camera shifts to Pearl, holding the hairbrush and listening to Scott) I just kept walking.”
Close up on Ma Sickles. “Then it was just by . . . chance, you found your way here.” Shot of Scott taking another spoonful of broth.
Scott shakes his head, swallows the broth. “Pure luck.”
Shot of Pearl, brushing her hair. A ring is visible on her left hand. Scott’s voice continues off screen. “I saw some goats and I followed them. And I met a little boy, strange little boy.”
HS: “That’s my grandson.” She feeds Scott another spoonful of broth. He swallows it and looks down then gestures with his hand, smiling awkwardly as he tries to recover. “Well, uh, the strangeness was, uh, more than likely it was in my own head, I uh . . .”
Hannah interrupts him. “No, no, no, no, you seen ‘im right.” Shot of Pearl brushing her hair, Scott being fed another spoonful of broth.
HS: “See, Andy-Jack’s spent his whole life up here, with nothing for company ‘cept the rocks and the sunlight, and it’s turned ‘im in on himself. Made ‘im solitary.” (Scott on camera again, opening his mouth for another spoonful of broth as she continues speaking) But all that’ll change, once he’s in school.”
Scott swallows quickly. “I remember him saying something about, uh, school . . . had I been there, something like that.”
Close up on Ma Sickles. “That’s his dream. (pause) And mine.”
SL: “Well, nobody’s asked me my name—it’s Scott Lancer. And I want you to know, I’m very grateful for your kindness.”
Andy Jack appears at the foot of the bed.
HS: “We’re all God’s children. Where abouts you from?”
SL: “Near Morro Coyo, we have a ranch there.”
AJ: “Can I help feed ‘im?”
HS: “No, no, that’s a woman’s work.”
SL: “Well, I’d be much obliged for the boy’s help. I think we should get to know each other.”
HS: “Well, all right, Andy-Jack. (she gets up from the chair) You sit up here.” The boy sits on the bed beside Scott. She tells him “Don’t you spill it,” and hands him the bowl and napkin. Hannah Sickles leaves the room, gesturing for Pearl to exit ahead of her.
Scott shifts on the bed so that he is facing Andy-Jack. “Andy-Jack, my name’s Scott Lancer.”
AJ: “What was that machine, like, kinda like a watch, in your pocket?”
SL: “You must mean the compass.”
AJ: “What makes the black thing point the same way?”
SL: “Magnetism.”
AJ: “What’s that?’
SL: “Now, wait a minute, are you going to starve me, or are you gonna give me some of that broth?”
AJ, with devilish grin that Scott can’t see: “But I wanna know everything you know.”
SL, smiles: “All right, we’ll make a deal. One spoonful of broth, one answer. Fair enough?”
AJ nods: “All right.” He looks down at the bowl and takes up the spoon. “Here we go.”
Shift outside to Pearl and Luke walking away from the shack towards a saddled horse.
Pearl: “How you figure on getting away with all this?”
LS, checking the cinch: “This time, when the Sheriff’s posse comes looking for Luke Sickles, they’re gonna find him.”
Pearl: “They ain’t never gonna believe he’s you.”
LS: “By the time I leave the right trail they will. Just remember, all we gotta do is fool some lawman with a faded old “wanted” poster.”
Pearl: “But Lancer don’t even look like you.”
LS: “Honey, he ain’t gonna look like much of anything by the time I get finished with ‘im.” Ominous music plays as Luke mounts his horse and rides away. Shot of Pearl watching him go.
Scene 5
In town. Stage pulled by four horses pulls up.
Inside, Murdoch hurries down the stairs, carrying his saddle bags. Hotel Lady approaches him “Oh, I was just comin’ up to tell you the stage pulled in.”
ML: “I know. I saw it from the window. We’re leaving now, thank you ma’am.” As he speaks, he reaches into a pants pocket, pulls out a coin that he holds up and then hands to her. She says “You’re welcome,” and he hastily exits,, or tries to, only to be met by Johnny coming through the door following a man in a suit with a bowler hat.
(according to the script, this man is a salesman named Arthur L. Sloane)
JL: “Murdoch. . . (to the man in the suit) Tell ‘im what ya told me.” Johnny removes his hat. The man in the suit stands in between the two Lancers.
ML: “Wasn’t Scott on that stage?”
JL, holding his hat: “Nope.”
Sloane: “Well, no, he changed his plan.” Shot of Murdoch, looking concerned.
JL, to the man in the suit: “Tell ‘im.”
Sloane pauses, then suddenly brightens, setting down his suitcase. Meanwhile, Johnny is wiping out the inside of his hat with a bandanna, then lifts it to his face to wipe his chin. “You’re Scott’s father?” Murdoch is speechless. “Well, Sir, this is a pleasure.” He reaches out with both hands to shake ML’s hand. “You can sure be proud of that young man . . got real democratic ways.” He brings both hands to his waist, spreading his jacket apart to show his vest and watch chain, slipping his thumbs into the pockets of the vest. Meanwhile, Johnny has put his hat back on his head and is tucking his bandanna into a pocket.
ML: “You say that he changed his plan, what way did he change his plan?”
Sloane: “Well, heh,, he was in a hurry to meet you, so he bought himself a horse.” He chuckles.
(in the script, Murdoch is directed to exchange a glance of foreboding with Johnny, then his eyes continue to the sheep’s skull hanging on the wall. )
ML: “When did he leave Tonopah?”
Suit: Long pause. . . well, umm two days ago. But I cautioned him, I said ‘Boy, that desert ain’t Boston Common’. . . .”
ML, to JL: “Let’s go. “ They exit, leaving the man still talking. “Yeah, well, he had a compass with ‘im for directions. And a world of grit!” He picks up his suitcase and heads towards the counter.
Scene 6
back at the shack
Same long shot showing the goats in the foreground.
Close up on the front door, with Pearl exiting.
Scott’s voice: “Well Andy-Jack, I’ll be ready to go tomorrow.” Camera stays with Pearl as she steps into position to see Scott and Andy-Jack in front of the entrance of the mine, talking. Scott is sitting on a rock and AJ is standing facing him. Pearl stops, clearly listening.
SL: “Do you think your grandmother will lend me one of your horses?”
Close up on the two of them.
AJ: “No, Gran won’t trust ya.”
SL: “Now, it’s very important that I get to town.”
Camera shifts to close up of Pearl standing in front of Ma Sickles’ triangle.
Scott’s voice: “I’ve got people there that will be worried about me.”
Shot of the two of them again.
AJ: “But I don’t want ya ta go.”
Scott glances downward, then up at the sky, before looking into the little boy’s eyes.
“Well . . . I won’t be leaving til morning.” He looks down again, before looking back up and continuing.
SL: “So, ah . . why don’t we find ourselves a little spot and you can fire some questions at me.”
Scott smiles at the boy and he smiles back.
AJ: “Okay, come on.”
Andy-Jack leads the way into the mine, Scott follows him and Pearl moves in that direction as well. When she pauses in front of the mine entrance, the scene shifts to a close up of the boy’s “contraption”, the object that Luke Sickles and his mother were arguing over earlier. Andy-Jack is making it move up and down. Camera pulls away to show Scott sitting and studying another one of AJ’s creations, and spinning the cross pieces that form sort of a windmill.
AJ: “You wait til the sun catches this shiny part here, and then you go like that.” He lifts up the arm of the instrument.
SL: “Who helped you make this?”
AJ: “Nobody. I thought it up all by myself.”
SL: “The idea just came to you?”
Close up on Andy-Jack, who nods his head yes.
SL: “How?”
AJ: “By blinking my eyes.”
Close up on SL, who raises his own eyebrows: “Oh?”
Back to AJ: “You don’t believe me.” Camera shifts to Scott, who looks away, while AJ explains: “You see, I saw how the mirror thing catches the sun and makes it brighter.” Scott is picking up another invention to examine. But he’s clearly listening.
AJ: “Except when you blink. So I thought of building an eyelid, to make the machine blink too.”
Scott is starting to nod in response to this, when we see Pearl enter in the background. Scott notices her too, and starts to get up from his seat.
(in the script, she lets out a derisive snicker and asks “You ever hear such a thing?”)
AJ, to Pearl: “This is my place. Now you stay out.”
SL: “Now, wait a minute, where’s your manners? I’d like to meet the lady.” He sets down the object he was holding.
Pearl approaches, while AJ turns away from them: “Name’s Pearl.”
SL, to Pearl: “Andy-Jack’s sister?”
Pearl: “No, we ain’t related.” (she glances at the boy, who is standing back to them) “Thanks be.”
Scott stares down at her as she continues. “I think he has pack rat in his blood. Have you ever in your life seen such a junk pile?”
Close up on the boy. AJ, to Pearl: “That’s all you know.”
SL: “Well, you know what they say, one man’s junk’s another man’s treasure.”
Camera returns to AJ, showing him with downcast eyes and a smile. He looks up as we hear Scott’s voice continue. “Take for instance, this machine right here.” Camera returns to show Pearl and Scott.
SL: It’s pretty much like a heliograph that the uh soldiers use to send messages.” He nods at Andy-Jack with approval.
Close up on AJ again: “How do they do that?”
SL’s voice: “They have a special code.”
AJ: “Will you teach me?”
Back to Pearl and Scott; Scott starts to answer, but before he can say anything, Pearl interjects: “Who’re you gonna send messages to, the snakes and the lizards?”
Quick shot of Andy-Jack, looking downcast. Then Scott intervenes: “Well, it might be nice to know the distress signal, the SOS. In case you ever needed help.”
AJ looks up, brightens: “How does it go?”
Scott reaches over to the machine and pauses after each phrase to demonstrate: “Three short. Three long. And three short.”
Pearl: “Now what are ya wasting your time teaching him things for? Well, can’t ya tell he’s. . .well, to put it kindly, he’s simple?”
Scott looks at her with disbelief, exchanges a glance with the boy. “Well, I’d say it’s just the opposite.”
Off screen, AJ is heard making “Baaing” sounds. Pearl turns to look at him.
Close up on the boy. AJ, to Pearl: “You’re dumb enough to eat grass. “
Pearl, to Scott: “There, see?”
To AJ: “If you ever go to school, Andy-Jack, the other kids’ll know you for an idiot. And throw rocks at you.” She gives Scott a meaningful look, then departs.
AJ, to Scott: “I hate her.” He tosses something to the floor. “I hate living out here where it’s all empty.”
Scott picks up the item, then moves across to lean against the wall and face the boy. “Well now, Andy-Jack. What’s the sense of that, huh?”
AJ: “I can’t help it. There’s never anybody around here to talk to. And tomorrow, you’ll go away. And everything will be just like always.”
Scott has had his head bowed, studying the object in his hand while the boy has been speaking.
SL: “Now, your aunt didn’t mean what she said.”
AJ: “Yes, she did. And I ain’t cryin’, I never cry.” He turns away, snatching up his hat and putting it on as he departs, leaving Scott with his head bowed once more.
(direction in the script: Camera tightens on Scott’s expressive face, showing his affection for the boy and his awareness of the tremendous frustration within him.)
Scene 7
Ma Sickles enters the shack, carrying a bucket of firewood. She shuts the door behind her and crosses to deposit her load in front of the fireplace. In the foreground we see Pearl standing over a large basin. Steam is rising from it. She has a wooden spoon in her hand and an odd expression on her face.
Ma: “Now, what’re ya doin’ there?”
Pearl: “Nothin’.”
Ma Sickles comes over to stand next to Pearl, adjusting her apron at her waist. “Why’re ya dyin’ that shirt?”
(in the script, Pearl is dying both a shirt and a pair of pants)
Pearl, without looking at her: “Luke told me to.”
Hannah, smiling in disbelief: “Well, Luke hates that green shirt, why’d he want another one just exactly like it?” She starts to remove her shawl, then suddenly places her hand on Pearl’s shoulder: “What are you and Luke cookin’ up?”
Pearl: “It ain’t me. Right from the start, it was Luke’s idea.” She is looking down at the basin, rather than up at her mother-in-law.
Hannah pushes at Pearl’s shoulder: “What idea?” When Pearl doesn’t respond or even look up, she reaches over and grasps her chin, forcibly turning her face towards her. “What idea?”
Pearl delivers her next lines looking right at Ma Sickles, with the older woman’s hand still holding her face.
Pearl: “Luke’s gonna have a posse follow him here, and drop the stranger in a place--they’ll think it’s him.”
Hannah lets go of Pearl, sighing as she reaches across her chest to the shawl across her opposite shoulder. ”Plain stupid.” HS walks away, then continues speaking as she shakes out her shawl behind Pearl. “All Lancer’d have to do is identify himself.”
Pearl is staring at the basin again, but she looks up at that statement, biting her lip.
Pearl: Luke didn’t figure he’d be able to do that.”
Ma Sickles freezes, staring at Pearl’s back for a long moment before speaking. Ominous music plays. “You mean. . .kill ‘im?”
Pearl shakes her head slowly up and down.
Hannah sinks into a chair next to the table. She is stunned.
Pearl had been looking uncertain, but now she turns around to bend down and address the older woman.
Pearl: “You don’t understand, Ma Sickles, it’s the only way we’ll get out of here.”
Camera shifts to a position behind Ma, facing Pearl, who stands with her hands on the tabletop: “With the Law off Luke’s back, we could start all over again. Wh. . . Luke can settle down, and get a job and support all of us!”
Camera shifts to behind Pearl once more, showing Ma Sickles’ unhappy expression.
Pearl: “Well, Andy-Jack will even be able to go to school! That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”
Ma Sickles shakes her head. “Not at that price.”
Pearl is near tears, she crosses over to lean against the mantle: “It’s the only way we’ll be able to live decent and free like other people!” She sobs.
Close up of Hannah Sickles looking troubled.
(script has Pearl add the following lines: “It’s him or us. If we don’t do it, Andy-Jack’ll just dry up and rot away like everything else out here. . .”)
Scene 8
Shot of the back of Scott’s head as he sits on a bed in the other room, playing a game of solitaire. There is a knock on the door, he says “Come in,” and Andy-Jack enters, closing the door behind him.
AJ: “You promised to teach me how ta read.” He picks up a very large book from the top of a dresser near the door. “Here.”
SL, gets up off of the bed and moves to sit in a chair in front of the dresser. “Whoa, now. I promised to give you your first lesson. And that means ten words.”
He accepts the book from the boy.
AJ: “I already know those two on the front: ‘Holy Bible’.”
SL: “Well, we won’t count those two.” He sets the large volume on his lap and unfastens the straps binding it closed.
As he starts to flip through the pages, Andy-Jack has a question: “Have you read it all?”
Close up on Scott as he looks over his shoulder at the boy: “Well, I’ve read some of it. But I know a part you’d like. Cause it happened to us. The Parable of the Good Samaritan.”
Close up on Andy-Jack, who wears a very puzzled expression: “What’s a . . .?”
“What’s a parable?” Scott’s voice asks, and the boy smiles. SL’s voice: “A parable is a story.”
Close up on Scott: “But it’s more than just a story, because it tells. . . how man ought to behave to each other.”
Shot of Andy-Jack reacting with understanding. Scott smiles at him and then turns his attention to the Bible. He turns a few pages and comes across some papers that he picks up. One attracts his attention, and he unfolds it.
Camera shows a clipping of a news story from the Tonopah Sentinel. The headline reads: “Sickles Brothers Captured” with the sub title “Desperadoes Apprehended in Daring Daylight Raid.” Ominous music plays. Shot of Scott’s profile—he doesn’t react to what he’s reading. Then camera shifts to Andy-Jack:
AJ: “Better put those back. Gran will be mad if they get lost.”
(in the scrip, instead of a newspaper article, there are three wanted posters- AJ identifies the first one as his Uncle Joseph, the second one as his father and the last one as Uncle Luke.)
Scott’s hands fold up the article and then unfold a second sheet of paper. “There’s Uncle Luke,” Andy-Jack’s voice announces.
There is a photo of Luke Sickles. Above the image, the words “$500 REWARD DEAD OR ALIVE.” Below the picture, his name and “Wanted for Bank Robbery and Murder”, his age, weight and height are also listed.
Scott looks concerned now, but trying not to show it. “The same Uncle Luke who went to fetch the wagon?” he asks without taking his eyes off of the poster.
AJ: “Scott. . . you’re my only friend. So will you teach me how to read?”
SL: “Well Andy-Jack, my eyes are a little tired right now, so why don’t we begin in the morning?” (he starts to close up the Bible while he’s speaking) “Now, I’ll teach you all I can, but I can only teach you so much. After that, you’re gonna have to go some place. . to a school, where you can learn more. Fair enough?” Scott hands the Bible to Andy-Jack, who replaces it on the dresser.
(The part about his eyes being tired is an addition. In the script: Scott also says: “Some people can’t exist without learning. I think you’re one of them.”)
AJ, in a discouraged tone: “Sometimes I figure like we’re never gonna leave here.”
SL: “You will, because you have to.”
AJ walks back over to Scott, who is still sitting in the chair: “That’s my only hope.”
Scott reaches out to stroke the boy’s hair, saying “Then you’re going to have to, no matter what it costs.”
Camera shifts to Hannah, who has entered the room in time to hear the last of this conversation. She is carrying something.
HS: “Mr. Lancer, I. . I thought ya might want a . . a fresh shirt for tomorrow mornin’.”
SL: “Thank you very much, ma’am. That’s very kind.”
SL, to Andy-Jack: “C’mere, you!” He lifts the boy up and sits him on his lap. “Aaah, you’re gonna be all right, Andy-Jack, you’re gonna be fine!” He musses up the boy’s hair, and they are both smiling.
Camera shifts to Ma Sickles, still holding the newly dyed shirt and looking pained. She looks at the shirt, then lays it down across the Bible as ominous music plays and the scene fades.
(the script does not include this scene of Ma Sickles giving Scott the shirt.)
END of ACT TWO
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