Blackthorne--Scene 70

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Blackthorne

Cinemagenic Seventy

Parenting

“The child supplies the power, but the parents

have to do the steering.”--Benjamin Spock.

1(sound cue) piano & harmonica

2(overhead crane shot) Blackthorne awakening,

kids & dogs running about. a few citizens on a

stroll, one wagon rolling down the street.

3(dolly shot) moving in to the General Store front.

4(medium wide shot) interior of the store; Henry

Wallace counting out his money for the morning

register.

5(close-up) twenty dollars in silver, ten in paper,

five in change; the same every morning.

6(medium wide shot) early rays of sunshine that

filtered in through the stained glass on his front

door, some emerald sprites of light dancing with

the dust along the plank floor, The words

GENERAL STORE covered the two front

windows, The red paint on the large letters was

peeling. Onions, pickles and bacon, tobacco &

leather, peppermint candy canes, linseed oil

and gunpowder smells chased each other 

around the cramped spaces.

7(sound cue) banjo & violin.

8(tighten the shot) Wallace hummed a song, 

matching the score, as he strolled over by the

front window with STORE painted on it. He tied

his clean linen apron around his thin waist.

9(medium close-up) Wallace staring out the 

widow at the few people outside. He had a

breakfast egg stain on one corner of his frost

mustache. He removed his reading glasses.

10(sound cue) Good morning, Pop--came a

cheerful voice behind him.

11(two-shot) He turned and nodded to his

daughter, Salina--his look thorny.

12(medium close-up) Salina--Is your back

bothering you again?

13(two-shot) over Salina’s shoulder--Wallace:

The only way I’m gonna cure my aches & pains

is to die. You may not realize this, but I’m not

getting younger.

Salina: Could have fooled me.

Wallace: Seriously (she laughed) when are you

going to give me a grandchild to go fishing with

--and when in the hell will you start minding the

store yourself?

14(close-up) Salina: Well, let’s see, if I get 

started today, you could have one in less than a

year. You know that I’m not ready to get married

yet, but for Christ’s sake, if you’re dead set on

having a grandchild to spoil, I’m sure that I can

find a dozen dull dicks around here to assist me 

in making one.

15(medium close-up) Wallace: Why do you always 

have to make a monkey’s ass out of me so early

of a morning?

16(sound cue) clarinet & accordion. 

17(wide two-shot) Salina chuckled, but did not

reply. She walked over to the fabrics table and

started folding & stacking the patterned bolts

of cotton and the colorful bolts of silk. Wallace

opened the front door, chiming the tiny welcome 

bells, and kicked a hand-carved doorstop under it.

Wallace: Thor Bronson was looking for you.

Salina: Damn, alert the society page.

Wallace: This is a small town. Sooner or later, you

are going to have to see him again.

Salina: He’d like that--but the skinny bastard leaves 

me cold--and like his brother, he spends too much

time with the whores.

Wallace: Seems like you didn’t always feel that way.

Salina: He behaved himself at first. I danced with him

a few times, had a picnic, drank moonshine with him

on the Fourth of July. Around here, that’s like being

engaged. I’m sick of it. Do you approve of him?

Wallace: Hell, no. He’s an arrogant asshole--but

hey, he is a Bronson.

Salina: And therein lies the problem.

Wallace: He’d put you up in a fine house, & treat

you like a prairie queen.

Salina: I’d rather marry a ranch hand & live in a tent.

Wallace: Talking to you is like talking to myself--I 

can’t make no headway.

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub OLN