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JANE (CONT’D)
There’s something missing, it’s just not - I need to go back to the beginning to figure out
the end. (She flips back to the beginning of the book.) So, the first time we see him, The
Man in a Hat is standing on the edge of those same cliffs overlooking the sea. (Reading.)
“There was something in it akin to flying, the sense of being lifted high above the
crawling earth, of being part of the wildness of air. He’d liked flying at night; he’d
missed it after the war had crashed to a finish. It wasn’t often he could capture any part
of that feeling of power and exhilaration and freedom that came with oneness in the sky…
He didn’t even know why he’d come here tonight. When he got on the bus, he had no
destination. Just the restlessness. And the bus brought him here.” Okay. He’s
wandering, restless. I get that. (She puts down the book and scrolls on her computer and
reads the text there.) “The man swoops his hand through the restless fog.”
Woosh.
JANE (CONT’D)
(Plowing on.)
“He could catch up to her with ease but he doesn’t. It’s too soon. Better to hold back
until she has passed the humped midsection of the walk, then close in. She’ll give a little
scream, perhaps only a gasp, when he comes up beside her.”
The SOUND of a gasp.
JANE stops, looks for the source of the sound,
then continues hesitantly.
JANE (CONT’D)
“And he will say softly, ‘Hello’. Only hello.”
Hello.
JANE (CONT’D)
Hello? Is someone there?
JANE goes to the door frame, peers out.
Nothing. She goes to the bottom of the stairs.
JANE (CONT’D)
(Shouting up.)
Did you pass out up there? On my ass every minute since you arrived, and now when
we’re close to the end? Gone! Someone could sneak in, while I’m all alone, and murder
me in cold blood!
No one would ever know.
JANE
(Muttering.) Keep it together. (Shouting up the stairs.) I’m just going to keep going.
Because that’s all there is!
JANE goes back to the computer and resumes
the screenplay.
JANE (CONT’D)
“His stride is long, his steps are quiet yet she hears / him.”
Open your mouth.
FM
I can’t. It’s like this continuous loop. I was lying down trying to take a little break,
reciting bits of poetry, to-do lists, the periodic table. Hydrogen. Helium. Arsenic -
JANE
You’ve got murder mind.
FM
(Looking at the images.)
I do.
Where’s your murder mind? Jane.
FM
That is what happens when your imagination runs wild,
JANE
You go to an isolated farmhouse,
FM
Just like this.
11.
12.
JANE
Where I grew up /
The middle of nowhere.
JANE
We? You were gone! I was down here! All alone! Then she showed up -
FM
Why?
JANE
To help me.
To die.
FM
Help / you? How?
WIB
Help?
To kill.
WIB
(Overwhelmed by images and sound.)
What is that? What’s happening?
JANE
(Looking at the images.)
That? That is the end. I’m sorry (To FM.) Stop! We’re not there yet. I went back -
FM
We can’t go back again! We’re almost done Jane. All we have to do is -
JANE
I can’t do it.
You can.
FM
What do you mean?
Ahhh, come on.
JANE
(Doing her best to ignore THE MAN’s
voice.)
I can’t let him kill her.
You can do it.
WIB
Let who kill who?
FM
Whom. Let whom kill whom. (WIB is nonplussed. Exasperated, FM pulls JANE aside.)
You’re at the end. She’s the last girl.
Yes, she is.
JANE
A computer! You need to back up a little bit.
WIB
Oh! Sorry.
JANE
Have a seat. (Points to the rocking chair.) Over there.
FM
Sit. Heel.
Roll over. Play dead.
WIB
I don’t understand what’s going on. I’m / sorry.
FM
(To WIB.)
Don’t!
WIB
(To FM, pointedly)
I’m sorry.
FM
Agghhh! She’s lovely, she really is. But she can’t help you. She has to die.
Now.
WIB
What?
JANE
(To WIB.)
It’s alright. Don’t let her scare you. She really isn’t so bad, once you get used to her!
Just sit there for a bit, collect yourself. Catch your breath. It gets a little overwhelming,
doesn’t it, when you’re young and you feel like you always have to do as you’re told.
Be a good girl.
WIB
That’s amazing!
FM
Downright spine chilling.
WIB
It would make a great movie! It’s such a creepy story.
It is.
WIB
The way she takes us into the mind of that man -
JANE
The Man in the Hat.
WIB
Yes! It’s like we’re / inside of him
FM
Inside the mind of the killer.
WIB
The killer?
Dorothy knows me well, as well as you do, Jane.
JANE
Yes.
WIB
He’s got this, this -
Loneness.
JANE
Loneness.
WIB
Loneness.
FM
Loneness.
WIB
Is that a word?
It’s an old word.
JANE
We’re inside his loneness at the beginning of the book, searching with him for something
to fill his emptiness, when he spies the Woman in Brown, getting off the bus. He’s
“drawing her on his mind …
WIB
… as on a piece of paper.”
JANE
“Drawing her on his mind as on a piece of paper.”
Yes. Every bit of her.
FM
And he hides it all with his suave veneer. He’s well-dressed, debonair, even. He dazzles
with his charm.
WIB
He does?
I do. It’s easy.
JANE
That’s how he sees them. But they’re not. Sure, they’re more than pretty, they’re smart,
and they’re full of / full of -
WIB
They’re young, just starting out!
Little Mouse.
JANE
And he’s dangerous! No matter how intelligent any of his victims are, they ignore their
instincts, they tell themselves it’s fine.
FM
He makes them feel like they know him, like they can trust him. He has the uncanny
ability to seem normal, kind even. It’s classic serial killer m.o.
Just being who they want me to be.
FM
It’s too late.
JANE
It’s too late, and they become just another gruesome news item. He thinks getting raped
and strangled is the only exciting thing that will ever happen to them.
Isn’t it?
WIB
That’s horrible! He really says that?
JANE
It’s the only time their picture will be in the paper.
Everyone gets a kick outta being in the paper.
