Everybody Knows Your Name (28 page)

SHIPS IN THE NIGHT SHOOTING SCRIPT EP 1.8

INT. AN OLD HOTEL ROOM IN ARGENTINA—NIGHT

Warren Gettysburg picks up the phone on the desk. Calmly, he dials, watching the snow fall outside. Despite the weather, he's still only wearing the rumpled undershirt and flannel pants he was taken in.

INTERCUT—INT. HOTEL ROOM/BART GETTYSBURG'S STUDY—CONTINUOUS

Bart, sitting at his desk, looks at newspaper clippings about Warren's kidnapping. He answers the phone.

BART

Bart Gettysburg here.

WARREN

(casually)

Hey, Dad. Happy birthday to me.

Bart instantly sits up straighter, his mind racing.

BART

But how are you—

(catches himself)

Where are you? Thank God you're all right.

WARREN

Not as good at acting as you were at gymnastics, huh, dad?

Bart eyes his collegiate gymnastics trophies on the shelf, one of which still bears the cigarette burn that Warren gave it.

BART

I was so distraught about—

WARREN

Well, your acting is bad, but turns out what you're really bad at is staging your own kid's abduction.

Bart has gone white.

WARREN (CONT'D)

Just wanted to call to say I'll be seeing you soon. And don't worry about the million dollars you paid those goons—I took that off their hands too.

Warren presses down the switch hook on the cradle. Then he dials again.

INTERCUT—INT. HOTEL ROOM/WICKHAM BOARDING ACADEMY FOR GIRLS—CONTINUOUS

The phone rings at the lobby desk of the Wickham Boarding Academy for Girls.

Mrs. Cale answers.

MRS. CALE

Wickham Boarding Academy for Girls.

WARREN

I need to speak to Jacinta Yarmouth.

Mrs. Cale's face ices over. She knows who it is.

MRS. CALE

You are not able to do that.

She glances over at Jacinta, who has been reading a book in an armchair by the fire. But now Jacinta watches Mrs. Cale speak on the phone. It's as if she knows who's on the phone too. Her face has a quiet hope.

WARREN

Is she reading in that chair she likes right across the room?

Now Mrs. Cale looks alarmed, as if Warren is somewhere close.

MRS. CALE

What game are you—

WARREN

Good. Then you can tell her that I'm on my way to come see her.

He hangs up the phone.

INT. WICKHAM BOARDING ACADEMY FOR GIRLS—VERY LATE NIGHT

Mrs. Cale sits at the lobby desk after bedtime, by herself now. The academy is dark except for her small lamp.

She gets up and checks that the front doors are locked. She's wary. On edge. Then she sits again, returning to her watch.

INT. WICKHAM DORMITORY—SIMULTANEOUS

Jacinta, coat over her nightgown, picks a lock on the dormitory sill with a bobby pin and swings the window open. She climbs out.

EXT. WICKHAM ACADEMY GROUNDS—MOMENTS LATER

As Jacinta sneaks across the lawn, we can see the tiny light of Mrs. Cale's lamp through the glass of the front doors in the distance.

EXT. JUDY'S PIZZA—LATE NIGHT

Jacinta has made it to town. She walks up to Judy's Pizza, which is a divey parlor with a neon sign. She opens the root beer colored front door.

INT. JUDY'S PIZZA—MOMENTS LATER

There's a small arcade inside, and Jacinta approaches. She stops in front of an old machine with a plastic chicken sitting above a bunch of bright eggs.

Pulling a quarter from her coat pocket, she puts it in the machine. The chicken spins around CLUCKING, then drops a half-red, half-blue egg.

Jacinta bends to retrieve her prize from the small door. She opens the egg, and inside is a cheap but simple chain necklace. A gold-tone robot charm hangs from it.

Pleased, Jacinta puts the necklace on. Then the root beer colored door opens behind her, and she turns.

Warren Gettysburg, in his pajamas too, is standing there, the wind blowing outside behind him.

Jacinta smiles without smiling.

We'd like to thank both our families for standing behind us as we avoided normal jobs. Doug Stewart for believing in this book from the beginning. Leila Sales for making it so much better. Nicolle and Rob for a certain crazy-eyed Easter dinner years ago. Trish Reda for letting us use her great photo. David Hernandez for not getting super annoyed with Andrea for never learning Photoshop. Pie'n Burger for having the counter where we first thought up this idea. Maria Felix for watching our daughter in the afternoons so we could write. And thank you to Winona, of course, because Winona is the best, forever.

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