Blackthorne Episode 120

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Blackthorne

Cinemagenic 120

Crescendo

“Death has always been the crescendo

of life,”--Rajneesh.

1(sound cue) soft harmonica.

2(medium wide shot) Everyone standing, except

for the dead.

3(medium close-up) Sheriff Hop: Damn...under the

circumstances, Buck, I’m going to have to lock you

and the Indian up.

4(two-shot) Buck’s expression stoic, but the edges of

panic in the Indian’s gaze.

5(close up) Joe Hop: This is for your own protection as

much as anything else. This will be cleared up in a

flick, couple of days at most. If anybody changes their

story, we’ll see what they say in court. We have at 

least four impartial witnesses, and more that I don’t 

know about yet . The circuit judge comes through

next week. If anybody lies under oath, they’ll be

state prison bound.

6(sound cue) piano over shuffling feet and coughing

7(medium close up) Cash Bronson, his voice tight:

That seems fair to me, Joe--but what about the 

damage to my place?

8(two-shot) Buck, through clenched teeth: What

about the damage to my place! eye to eye with

Bronson. Cash’s mouth turned mean, and he started

to reply, when
9(cut to new two-shot) Paulie, standing behind Thor

said: Goddamn rights--you lock those lunatics up. It’s

not safe on the streets with their kind on the loose.

10(another new two-shot) Buck: How’s Johnny?

Henry Wallace: He’s still alive.

11(close-up) Hop: We will establish who will pay for

what damages after we determine fault in court.

12(two-shot) Indian: I am not going to jail.

Hop: It isn’t prison--it’s just my pokey across the

street. We’re talking two or three days, and hell,

you’ll eat better than you have in years.

13(sound cue) Native American seed rattle and

castanets.

14(tight close up) Indian: I am not going to jail.

I have done nothing wrong.

15(two-shot) Buck: I am the one who has done

something wrong, compadre. He handed his 

gunbelt to Joe Hop. I was the one who didn’t wait

for the Sheriff. The blame belongs to me. We will

go with Joe together, And soon you will be free,

because we are innocent of starting this ruckus.

16(sound cue) loud seed rattle.

Indian: Ramos shot Mateo. We killed Ramos. It

had to be done. It was the honorable thing to do.

17(close-up) His eyes were frightened, a deer

discovered at night in your vegetable garden.

18(flashback) the Indian had been a scout for the

Army. He got drunk and tomahawked a Cavalry

sergeant. They put him in the stockade for four

months. If the sergeant had not survived, they would

have hanged him. The fear of those black steel bars

was still in him.

Sheriff: Give me your carbine

19(medium wide shot) The Indian tossed the rifle into

Hop’s face, swiftly drew his boning knife and leaped

forward. Hop stumbled back against Wallace. The

deputy drew his pistol, but couldn’t fire, because his 

gun arm was slashed open as the Indian bolted for the 

door. Cash Bronson pulled his nickel-plated Smith and

Wesson and shot the Indian twice in the back. The

savage drew his old Navy Colt as he toppled forward,

and the gun discharged as he hit the boards. A hot

Spencer and pump shotgun opened up on him. Buck,

Hop, Wallace, Billy and Bronson all hit the deck. The

Indian’s shot went wild, and broke fresh glass from the

saloon windows.
20(slow motion one-shot) He was on his knees in the

doorway, the swinging doors half open, swaying in his

death dance, silently humming his death song. As the

big rifles from the back of the room roared, his chest

exploded from the hail of lead. Buck reached for the

Thunderer, but Hop kept it out of his reach. The Indian’s

body rose up from the bullet’s onslaught, and settled

slowly, lightly, an empty vessel lying in a pool of blood,

his life shot away.

   The terrible clatter of thunderous gun fire faded, and

the five men on the floor looked at each other.

 Cash: He wasn’t very smart

21(sound cue) Indian branch flute.

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at d'Verse Poets Pub OLN