Bed of Ashes
By
R. Earle Harris All rights reserved (c) 2015 (r dot earle dot harris at gmx dot com)
FADE IN:
EXT. ASHES - NIGHT
Blackened page in dying fire. Running red lines of embers turn it to
white ash.
EXT. BURNED TRAILER - CONTINUOUS
JOE LON Trueno, fit, sixties, Chicano- or Indian-looking, watches the
fire. Water hose, from well-pump, is in his hand. Old pickup with
camper is nearby.
EXT. ASHES - CONTINUOUS
As black ashes turn white, they reveal Joe Lon's and Magdalena's
marriage certificate.
EXT. BURNED TRAILER - CONTINUOUS
Joe Lon on dark South Texas hillside. Down by gate, old Buick sedan
with a woman beside it. Joe Lon notices the woman.
JOE LON
EXT. GATE - ALMOST DAYBREAK
Joe Lon joins IMELDA, his dead wife's sister.
IMELDA
I was worried about you, Joe Lon
Trueno.
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JOE LON
IMELDA
Oh, yes. you are fine. You just
burned your Magdalena's house
down.
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JOE LON
I couldn't live in it without her,
Imelda.
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IMELDA
JOE LON
IMELDA
You never need much of anything, qué
no? Who you going to live with now,
Joe Lon? With your son, Miguel?
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JOE LON
Can't live with him. I'll live in
the truck.
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IMELDA
JOE LON
You drove out here in the dark to
tell me that?
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IMELDA
I came to tell you your nephew needs
your help.
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Joe Lon is silent.
IMELDA (CONT'D)
Salvador, my son, is in trouble.
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JOE LON
IMELDA
In jail, Joe Lon, in Secaro. They
say it is murder.
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EXT. COUNTY JAIL - DAWN
Arroyo County's sorry facilities in Secaro, a dried-up town of 12,000
on I-10, east of San Antonio.
INT. COUNTY JAIL - CONTINUOUS
Joe Lon and DEPUTY walk back to cellblock.
DEPUTY
So you used to be a Texas Ranger?
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JOE LON
DEPUTY
Boy's still eating breakfast. Cook
got here late this morning.
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JOE LON
What time you usually feed them?
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DEPUTY
Three. They got to sleep in this
morning.
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They come to black-mirrored bullet-proof entry to jail.
DEPUTY (CONT'D)
We ain't dressed him out yet. He's
still in holding.
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Deputy waves into dark mirror. They pass through opened access gate.
INT. HOLDING TANK - CONTINUOUS
TATTOOED MAN sleeps on long bench, set in wall. BILLY Dillon, black,
sits on open toilet. SALVADOR, in 'Brown Pride' T-shirt and too-baggy
pants, sits on floor eating reconstituted eggs, pale toast, powdered
milk. All are beltless, no shoes.
EXT. HOLDING TANK - CONTINUOUS
Sound of bowels evacuating loudly.
BILLY
JOE LON
Two-hundred-pound barred door of cell jumps open. Tattooed Man turns
in his sleep.
INT. HOLDING TANK - CONTINUOUS
Joe Lon enters.
DEPUTY
Holler when you're ready, Ranger.
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Door bangs shut. Joe Lon squats beside Salvador.
SALVADOR
JOE LON
Silence.
JOE LON (CONT'D)
So who'd you kill, Salvador?
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SALVADOR
JOE LON
About what I figured. You're not the
type.
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TATTOOED MAN
Tattooed Man raises himself onto one elbow.
TATTOOED MAN (CONT'D)
Did I hear somebody here say
'Ranger'?
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SALVADOR
My uncle used to be a Texas
Ranger.
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TATTOOED MAN
INT. HOLDING TANK - CONTINUOUS
Tattooed Man comes up off bench at Joe Lon. Joe Lon meets him halfway,
catches Tattooed Man's right fist, locks it down. Pivoting, Joe Lon
pushes against Tattooed Man's elbow so he pivots too -- face impacting
steel bench. Joe Lon eases unconscious body to floor.
EXT. HOLDING TANK - CONTINUOUS
Applause from Deputy outside bars.
DEPUTY
Been wanting to put a nightstick
up that boy's head ever since he
got here. Take care, Ranger.
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Exit Deputy.
INT. HOLDING TANK - CONTINUOUS
Joe Lon squats back down beside nephew.
SALVADOR
You can't bail me out yet. I just
got here.
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JOE LON
I didn't come to bail you out.
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SALVADOR
JOE LON
Last person bailed you out, lost
her taquería. And that was only
for delinquent child support.
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SALVADOR
I never have the money for that
shit, Tío Joe. But I didn't kill
nobody. I won't run off on you.
|
JOE LON
No, you won't. You'll stay here.
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SALVADOR
Chingao! I didn't ask you to come
here anyway.
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JOE LON
Your mother asked me to help you.
I'm helping your mother because
she's my Magdalena's sister.
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Salvador looks at his uncle.
JOE LON (CONT'D)
You going to help her tambíen?
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Tattooed Man groans but doesn't wake up. Salvador nods.
JOE LON (CONT'D)
Who're you supposed to have killed?
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SALVADOR
Huevo Jim. They found him dead in
the furnace -- in the brick kiln
where I work.
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JOE LON
And who is this Huevo Jim?
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SALVADOR
That's what all us Mexicans called
him -- Huevo -- 'cause he was
round and white on the outside and
yellow on the inside.
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JOE LON
So why are you the one gets arrested?
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SALVADOR
'Cause I was the only one on
second shift, late last night,
with Huevo Jim. And 'cause I
already split his lip for him,
tambíen.
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JOE LON
They didn't fire you for that?
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SALVADOR
I hit him for being a racist
pendejo and had six or seven
Mexican brothers there for
witnesses.
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BILLY
I thought the brothers were black.
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Salvador holds up the two words on his T-shirt.
JOE LON
SALVADOR
Huevo Jim always talked to the other
Anglos 'bout the day when black and
brown people would walk down the streets
throwing white people out of their
houses and taking whatever they wanted.
|
BILLY
I ain't heard about this.
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JOE LON
SALVADOR
Hey. Since when did Mexicans ever
get together with blacks and march
around doing anything.
|
BILLY
Only one place I ever heard of. And
they wasn't marching together.
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Joe Lon waits. Billy is silent.
JOE LON
BILLY
In prison. Mexican gangs, black ones
too, take what they want from whoever
standing alone.
|
SALVADOR
And when Huevo Jim wasn't talking
his racist shit, he was putting
his hands on you and telling you
he wasn't a racist.
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JOE LON
What do you know about this man's
death?
|
SALVADOR
Somebody stuffed him in the kiln --
is all they told me.
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Joe Lon stands. Billy, patient look on his face, still on toilet.
JOE LON
BILLY
I'm just waiting for you to go.
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EXT. BRICK PLANT - DAY
The Southern Brick plant is bustling.
INT. BRICK PLANT - DAY
Joe Lon just inside huge corrugated-iron-covered area. MAN IN HARDHAT
comes over.
MAN IN HARDHAT
JOE LON
MAN IN HARDHAT
You have to have a hardhat, sir.
|
JOE LON
Joe Lon looks around. Man in Hardhat comes back with safety glasses
and bump-cap.
MAN IN HARDHAT
You have to put these on, sir. Does
the super know you're here?
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JOE LON
EXT. KILN - CONTINUOUS
Joe Lon follows Man in Hardhat to firing kiln where plant supervisor
WHITMORE and a black state trooper are standing. All shout to be
heard.
JOE LON
Joe Lon Trueno. Ranger. This where
the body was found?
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INT. KILN - CONTINUOUS
Sweltering kiln. Air coming out so hot it hurts to look inside. Far doors, two hundred
feet away, are open. Air in between dances so violently as to be almost opaque.
EXT. KILN - CONTINUOUS
Same.
WHITMORE
The body was in there. Sheriff and
the DPS have taken everything they
could away.
|
JOE LON
How did the Sheriff go in there?
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WHITMORE
He didn't. When the kiln broke down,
the operator pulled the last few cars
back out to see what was the matter.
The body, or most of it, came out
Screenplay truncated at 500 lines.
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