Blackthorne Episode 111

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Blackthorne

Cinemagenic 111

Lead Hunt

“I want to paint a picture some day that is so

realistic it will creep into people and mushroom

like a soft-nosed bullet.”--O. Henry.

1(sound cue) snare drum brushing and harmonica.

2(medium wide shot, overhead crane) Twenty hands

reached out from the crowd to help. Buck carried him

under his shoulders. Johnny’s head rested against

Buck’s chest. Three other large men helped to carry

Johnny up the steep stairs to the doctor’s office. Doc

Sweeney unlocked the door And swung it open.

3(cut to interior) of the doctor’s office. Sweeney 

stepped in and held the door. The four men carried

Johnny into the room.

4(medium close-up) Doc Sweeney: Put him right

there, pointing at a linen-covered operating table

in a small inner room.

5(sound cue) rough boots on the stairs, and men

talking low over violins and piano.

6(medium wide shot, overhead crane) The men 

placed Johnny on the sparkling white linen as they

would a child. The Eagle’s eyes were closed, but

there’s a REM movement in the lids, as Johnny

was on a dreamscape spirit quest. Salina stood

next to Buck.

The place was full of bystanders, but for the

moment, all were silent. Doc Sweeney made his

way through the throng, his leather satchel open

under his arm. He had taken off his jacket, and his

sleeves were rolled up.

7(close-up) Sweeney: Salina, there’s a big stove 

out there, will you start a fire and heat up a big

basin of hot water?

8(medium close-up) Salina: Sure, and I’ll assist

you if you wish.

Sweeney: Excellent, you be my nurse tonight. I

don’t have enough hands for this job.

9(two-shot) Mr. Buck, you look very handsome

with that dried blood on your temple, but why don’t

you go clean up at my sideboard. There’s soap

and water there.

10(sound cue) harmonica and guitar.

11(cut back to medium overhead wide shot) 

Buck gently pushed his way through the clot

of anxious faces, and began to wash up.

12(medium close-up) He looked at his

reflection in the swivel-mirror attached to the

oaken sideboard. He was surprised to see the

exhaustion in his face.

13( cut to the operating anteroom) the Doc had

finished putting out his instruments, on a sterile

silver standing tray. He picked up a pair of shiny

nickel-plated scissors, that had a diagonal head on

them. He began cutting Johnny’s shirt off. It was

so caked in dried blood that it sliced like burlap.

Without looking up, he said: Would you mind

clearing the area for me; I’m feeling a little

claustrophobic. There’s a lot of space in the 

waiting room.

Buck and Wallace herded the crowd into the 

waiting area. Salina was busy building a fire

in the tall pot-bellied stove at the west corner

of the room. Buck approached her. The chairs

filled up fast. Many had to stand, shifting from one

foot to the other, making hushed small talk, 

swearing and praying.

14(sound cue) soft piano and banjo.

15(wide two-shot) Three hours later Buck sat in

an overstuffed chair, staring into a large painting

on the wall. A seascape, with angry waves crashing

onto a black beach, with the tiny white specks of

flocks of sea gulls dotting a cerulean sky, a stark

beach without rocks, one pair of footprints in the

black sand, and the faint visage of an island in the

mist on the horizon.

Henry Wallace sat across from him in a large white 

chair, his hoary head in his hands, his eyes closed.

But for them the room was empty.

16(shot over Buck’s shoulder) He could see into the

operating room. Sweeney was working on Johnny’s

knee, scraping the bone, searching for more lead

fragments. Buck could hear the scalpel scraping

on the live leg bone, like evil fingernails on a

schoolhouse blackboard.

17(sound cue) Indian branch flute.

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at d'Verse Poets Pub OLN