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EXT. GALLERY—VERY EARLY MORNING
1899. The gallery of “Waverly,” the Trowell family sugar cane plantation in South Louisiana .
We see old black hands sewing a patch onto a quilt—then the old black NURSE’s face. She is humming a spiritual.
Behind her, August Greenhan, a handsome, awkward young DOCTOR, 29, slumps in a chair, asleep. The old black NURSE stands, walks to DOCTOR’s chair, removes the liquor bottle from the floor beside the doctor, then goes into the house through a side door.
INT. DARK CORRIDOR—CONTINUOUS
An old lady, MAMERE, carrying a candle, walks towards us from the dark, looking like a “ghost” in her white nightgown and long uncombed hair.
EXT. GALLERY—CONTINUOUS
The front door opens, then an imperious-but-forgetful matron, MAMERE, walks out onto the gallery, using a cane to steady herself, holding a candle . . . talking to the air.
MAMERE
Where’s Rosalie, Bertha, Ella?
DOCTOR
(wakes)
Careful with that candle.
MAMERE
I got to come from way in back of my house.
(calls out)
James! Andrew! Clifford!
DOCTOR
They’re gone, Mrs. Mallory.
MAMERE
(paces)
Nobody gets the door at my house.
DOCTOR
For God’s sake, sit.
MAMERE
Bertha! Verma! Rosalie!
DOCTOR
I’m Dr. Greenan. Augie Greenan.
MAMERE
I can’t remember.
DOCTOR
You sent me to medical school . . .
MAMERE
Nobody sweeps the gallery?
DOCTOR
(yawning)
. . . from spare change in your kitchen tin!
MAMERE
Dust all over the woodwork. Grass overgrown.
DOCTOR
Here, let me help you.
MAMERE
All my lovely statues crushed . . . There’s the head of one over there.
DOCTOR
Sit, Mrs. Mallory.
MAMERE
Gates shattered . . . A sundial just disappeared overnight.
DOCTOR
Shouldn’t you be asleep?
MAMERE
I can’t rest when Waverly is falling apart. Shutters flap. I don’t want to tell Mama because . . . I’m not sure if she’s alive or dead.
(calls out)
Mama.
DOCTOR
She’s dead.
MAMERE
I thought so. How long?
DOCTOR
Few years after . . .
(starts to drink from his glass)
MAMERE
The war. I remember! But where’s my daughter?
DOCTOR
Miss Rachelle? She passed.
MAMERE
Her too? You’re lying.
DOCTOR
Why would I do that? I’m a doctor . . . I’m too tired.
MAMERE
Because you think I can’t take it, but I’m strong as a warrior, you see. I’m a Mallory, and I’ll stand tall by Waverly . . . like the front gate.
NURSE comes back onto the gallery.
NURSE
I’ve such a backache. God. Five-thirty in the morning.
DOCTOR
Hello, nurse.
NURSE
Good morning.
(nods to MAMERE)
What you doing up?
MAMERE
Watching. There’s prowlers . . . like termites . . . waiting to eat us.
(laughs)
Good you don’t have a wooden leg.
NURSE
I ain’t got time for jokes. I’m tired. You know I can’t sleep when I hear you poking about. Come on back to bed.
MAMERE
I’m not sleepy.
NURSE
Not after you got me up.
(takes her arm)
Look at you. Clothes a mess. Hair in your face. That ain’t no way to come outside. My back’s so stiff.
MAMERE
Quiet.
Nurse leads Mamere back into the house. Alone, the DOCTOR drinks. NURSE returns and tries to get the drink from the Doctor.
NURSE
Why you got to come here at dawn? . . . wake the old folks. It’s a crying shame. You can’t start doctoring with a drink in your hand. How old are you? Twenty something. When you start drinking at twenty, at thirty, you’re gone.
DOCTOR
Life stinks!
NURSE
I know you want me to go on to bed, that’s what you want. But you ain’t going to get that. No sir. No drinking here in the dark. I knew your Mama and Papa before they died, and I sure ain’t going to let you sleep with no bottle. I ain’t tired now, so I’ll set out here and watch you some.
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