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The Gardener's Son(11)

By:Cormac McCarthy


Exterior. Dawn, sound of the mill bell. People shuffling through the semi-darkness toward the mill. The mill coming to life.

Dawn, light coming in an old abandoned shed. McEvoy waking. Sound of the second mill bell. McEvoy standing disheveled in the light from the window while the bell tolls. When it is done he puts his cap on and takes up his crutch.

Exterior. Mill. The stockholders arriving at the mill.

Interior. Mill. Patrick McEvoy comes down the aisle and takes his place at his machine. The other workers watch him. He looks haggard and somewhat grim. The overseer comes to him and puts his hand on his shoulder.

OVERSEER Pat, we didnt need for you to come in today. McEvoy is doggedly setting up his machine.

OVERSEER Did you know your boy was back?

OVERSEER He was up at the cemetery yesterday where they was preparin your missus’ restin place and he come up there and run the ... run the niggers off with a pistol. Told em not to dig no more that she wasnt to be buried there.

Patrick looks up at the man and goes back to his work.

OVERSEER I just wanted to tell ye. I wish you could see him and talk to him fore he gets hisself in trouble.

MR MCEVOY I dont know where to hunt him at. He went to the house they said and he run everbody off up there. I dont know what to tell ye.

Robert McEvoy on the road toward the mill. The mill against the sky in the background. McEvoy pauses, then he goes on again.

Interior. Mill office boardroom. The boardroom is laid out for a banquet with long tables and china. James Gregg looks over the boardroom. He checks the watch in his waistcoat and he takes a cigar from his pocket and bites off the end and lights it.

Interior. Mill. Bobby clumping down the aisle past the machinery and the workers. They watch him but he doesnt watch back.

Interior. Mill office. James Gregg entering his office and looking through papers at his desk. The sound of the mill machinery is muted in these office scenes and very loud in the mill scenes.

Robert McEvoy enters the mill office. There is no one about. He goes across the office and enters the boardroom. The room is empty, the long tables set for a ghost banquet. There is a keg of beer tapped and he takes a glass from the sideboard and fills it and wanders on into James Gregg's office and sits at the desk and sips the beer. A door opens in an outer room and there are voices. McEvoy rises from the desk and James Gregg enters the room. McEvoy is standing in front of the desk. Gregg goes past him to his place behind the desk. The grips of the revolver in McEvoy's belt are visible.

GREGG Did you want to see me?

MCEVOY I was huntin my father.

GREGG Your father.

MCEVOY He was the gardener.

GREGG I know who he was.

MCEVOY No you dont.

GREGG What do you mean I dont?

MCEVOY You might know his name is all.

GREGG You didnt come in here looking for him.

MCEVOY Where’ve you got him workin at?

GREGG He works in the mill. This company is in the textile business. We have stockholders to answer to. We’re not in the flower business.

MCEVOY Shit.

GREGG What did you say?

MCEVOY You heard me.

GREGG What do you want, McEvoy?

MCEVOY I dont want a damn thing from you.

GREGG You better clear out. We dont need your kind here.

MCEVOY What do you mean my kind?

GREGG You better leave.

MCEVOY What do you mean my kind?

GREGG People who dont want to work. You had your chance here.

MCEVOY Chance’s ass.

GREG Why did Mr Giles let you go?

MCEVOY Mr Giles didnt let me go. I left my own damn self. He says different he’s a liar.

GREGG My recollection is that you were turned off for stealing.

MCEVOY That’s a damned lie.

Interior. Mill. Patrick McEvoy standing in the aisle watching the side of spindles he is doffing. Another worker comes by and they stop to talk.

WORKER I thought that boy of yourn swore he’d never set foot in this mill again.

MR MCEVOY He did.

WORKER Well he just now went down through there.

Patrick looks toward where the man is pointing. The blank look on his face is gradually replaced by a dawning sense of impending doom. He turns and goes down the aisle.

Interior. Mill office.

GREGG You better get out McEvoy.

MCEVOY I aint done yet. You think you can say anything you want about people and they just have to put up with it.

GREGG I think you’re crazy is what I think. What did you come here for? What were you doing in my office?

MCEVOY You think people dont know what you are?

GREGG By god I believe you were in here looking for something to steal.

GREGG You call me a liar?

MCEVOY I didnt stutter.

Gregg pushes back his chair and rises from it. He looks at McEvoy standing there, disheveled and ragged, on crutches, and he gives him a cynical smile.

GREGG What do you want? Money?

MCEVOY I dont want a damned thing from you.

Gregg reaches into his coat pocket and brings forth some coins. He selects a ten dollar gold piece and flips it onto the desk in front of McEvoy.