MICHAEL
How did she meet him? Did Dad know? Anything else in that envelope?
CAROLYN
No, I don't think so. I --
She dumps it over and a SMALL KEY FALLS OUT. Pause, as Carolyn and Michael look to each other -- they grab the key
and run out of the kitchen, almost comically falling over each other in their obsession to put this puzzle together.
A SERIES OF JUMP CUT --
From one lock to another as they try to find the keyhole that fits the key -- they try closets, attic doors, jewelry boxes, night tables, vanity drawers... Finally --
INT. BEDROOM - DAY
At the foot of their parents bed sits an WALNUT HOPE CHEST, covered with a tapestry. Michael and Carolyn look to each
other first, before one removes the tapestry and the other tries the key. It fits. They open the chest to find:Camera equipment, a chain with a medallion that reads "FRANCESCA," three leather bound notebooks -- and a sealed envelope with "Carolyn or Michael" written on it.
CAROLYN/MICHAEL
You read it!
Carolyn relents. She takes out the lefter and reads:
CAROLYN
"January, 1987. Dear Carolyn. I hope you're reading this with Michael. I'm sure he wouldn't be able to read it by himself and he'll need some help understanding all this, especially the parts about me having sex..."
Insulted, Michael pulls the lefter out of her hand and defiantly attempts to read it aloud himself to disprove his
mother's claim. But after looking at a few lines, he surrenders and hands the lefter back to his sister.
CAROLYN (cont'd)
"First, and most of all, I love you both very much and although I feel fine, I thought it was time to put my affairs, excuse that word, in order."
MICHAEL
I can't believe she's making jokes.
CAROLYN
Sshhh. "After going through the safety deposit box, I'm sure you'll find you're way to this letter. It's hard to write this to my own children. I could let this die with the rest of me, I suppose.
(cont'd)
But as one gets older, one fears subside. What becomes more and more important is to be known -- known for all that you were during this brief stay. Row said it seems to me to leave this earth without hose you love the most ever really knowing who you were. It's easy for a mother to love her children no matter what -- it's something that just happens. I don't know if it's as simple for children. You're all so busy being angry at us for raising you wrong. But I thought it was important to give you that chance. To give you the opportunity to love me for all that I was..."
Carolyn and Michael look to each other like two school children about to take a difficult exam. They continue.
CAROLYN (cont'd)
"His name was Robert Kincaid. He was a photographer and he was here in 1965 shooting an article for National Geographic on the covered bridges of Madison County. Remember when we got that issue and looked at those bridges we'd seen for ears but never noticed? How we felt like celebrities? Remember when we started getting the subscription?They don't remember.
CAROLYN (cont'd)
I don't want you to be angry with him. I hope after you know the whole story, you might even think well of him. Even grateful.
MICHAEL
Grateful!?
CAROLYN
(reads)
"... It's all there in the three notebooks. Read them in order. If you don't want to, I suppose that's okay too. But in that case I want you to know something -- I never stopped loving your father. He was a very good man. It's just that my love for Robert was different. He brought out something in me no one had ever brought out before, or since. He made me feel like a woman in a way few women, maybe more, ever experience..."
MICHAEL
That's it!
Grabbing the letter, he starts putting everything back in the trunk.
CAROLYN
What are you doing?
MICHAEL
This is crazy. She waits till she's dead to tell us all this. Well, I got news for you. She was my mother. That's enough for me. I don't have to know who she was.
CAROLYN
Well, I'd like to read them.
MICHAEL
No. We're going to lock this up and --
CAROLYN
STOP IT!
(Michael freezes)
I want to read them! If you don't want to, then just leave. But don't you push me around like I'm some mule you paid for -- I already GOT A HUSBAND!
Michael is stymied.
5
INT. KITCHEN - LATER
Carolyn opens the first notebook which is dated AUGUST 1965. Michael sits beside her with a cup of coffee.
CAROLYN
(reads)
"I suppose his coming into my life was, in many ways, prepared for weeks, maybe even months before. There was a restlessness I feeling. Out of the blue and for no apparent reason. There's nothing more frightening to a woman whose been settled down for almost twenty years than to suddenly feel unsettled. I don't know when it started ... I do
remember one night in particular, a little over a week before Robert arrived..."
CAROLYN'S VOICE BECOMES FRANCESCA'S VOICE AS WE:
DISSOLVE TO:
1965
INT. JOHNSON'S BEDROOM - NIGHT
Richard is fast asleep while Francesca sits up in bed reading.
FRANCESCA (V.O.)
"It was late at night after a long day. Your father was tired -- fighting all afternoon with that new equipment Robert Harrison convinced him to buy. But I wasn't tired. Lately, I could hardly sleep more than two hours a night. I was reading some John O'Hara novel, skimming the words, turning the pages without absorbing what I was reading. My mind
was far away. And no matter how I tried, I couldn't call it back."
Francesca closes the book and turns off the light. She nestles into the bed and tries to sleep. After a beat, she
opens her eyes and turns on the light. As she gets out of bed she awakens Richard.
RICHARD
What time is it?
FRANCESCA
Later. Go back to sleep.
RICHARD
Where you going?
FRANCESCA
I'm not tired. I thought I might finish Carolyn's skirt.
RICHARD
Now?!
(checks clock)
It's after eleven.
FRANCESCA
I can't sleep.
RICHARD
Again? Maybe you should see a doctor.
FRANCESCA
I'm not sick, Richard. I'm just not tired, now go back to sleep before you're up for the whole night too!
Francesca exits. Richard nestles under the covers, mumbling:
RICHARD
If you're not sick, how can it be
contagious?
INT. ATTIC - NIGHT
Francesca sits at her sewing machine, working on Carolyn's skirt. When the thread runs out, she checks her sewing box
for another spool of that color. Not finding it, she raises and walks to an opened closet. She pulls on a light cord and
checks her supplies.
There are shelves of boxes, crates, old clothes and shoes all crammed together. She pulls out one shoe box and an entire
stack of items tumble off the shelf onto her head.
FRANCESCA
Damn it! Shit!
She looks at the mess and decides it's time to re-organize.
LATER:
The clock reads 2:30 AM. The closet has been emptied.
Francesca rummages through box after box.
Two huge piles have been created -- one for items to be thrown away, another for items to be kept. Francesca is wiping the bare shelves down with a rag and some cleanser. Looking up to the bottom of the next shelf, she notices A SHOULDER STRAP hanging, wedged between the wall and the shelf. Pulling over a stool, she steps up to be eye level with the shelf.
It is an OLD HANDBAG -- of a style not seen since the forties when she was a young girl. She pulls it down to examine. It is very dusty and worn, but the snaps still work. She places it against her side to see if it would still be fashionable. She opens it and finds an old lipstick -- reading the bottom where the name of the shade is located.
FRANCESCA (cont'd)
Ha, they don't even made this color
anymore.
She exits the closet and moves to an old mirror, trying the lipstick on. As she decides whether or not she likes it, a
thought occurs to her... she remembers something.She crosses back to the handbag and feels the inside for a compartment hidden by a flap of material and a snap. She unsnaps it and an old BACK & WHITE PHOTO slips out. She looks at its image -- two young people against an Italian background. Francesca is twenty years younger with her arms around a handsome, black-haired charmer named --
FRANCESCA (V.O.)
"Niccolo. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen that face. And then the memories wouldn't stop. Like an avalanche..."
CUT TO:
FLASHBACK -
EXT. NAPLES COUNTRYSIDE, 20 YEARS EARLIER - DAY
A hot, breezy summer day. A young vibrant Francesca is storming through an open field, angry, while Niccolo calls after her in pursuit.
The following scene is played in Italian with subtitles.
NICCOLO
Francesca! Francesca! Where the hell are you going?
FRANCESCA
Leave me alone!
NICCOLO
You play these games and I'm supposed to follow -- run after you like a schoolboy. Well, I'm not! I'm fed up!
Niccolo stops. Several yards ahead of him, Francesca stops and turns. Suddenly, she storms back towards him until they
are face to face.
FRANCESCA
So that's it! You just give up!
NICCOLO
What "give up"? You agreed with them! Mommy and Daddy said stay away from me and you said all right. What am I supposed to do?
FRANCESCA
Fight for me!
Niccolo grabs her violently.
NICCOLO
ENOUGH! You don't know what you want! Stop looking for me to tell you! STOP IT!
Francesca knows he's right. He releases her.
NICCOLO (cont'd)
We can go back now and end it or we can go back and you tell them off. This is your choice! Not mine. But I won't do this anymore. This is for children!
Frustrated and sad, Francesca sits upon the ground. Niccolo knows she cannot face her parents yet he looks sympathetic.
EXT. JOHNSON HOUSE - DAWN 1965
Francesca sits on the back porch in her bathrobe, looking out over the pasture as if she were watching the previous scene happen right before her eyes.
In the pasture stands NICCOLO as he was twenty years ago. Memories have overlapped. A field in Naples is now a pasture
in Iowa and Niccolo is as real to her as the grass. He is staring at her seated on the porch of her Iowa home, a woman
twenty yards older than when he knew her. He smiles.
FRANCESCA (V.O.)
"I had forgotten this. I had somehow remembered it being more his fault, his decision. Then I remembered we made love in that field before we left for home. And I remembered it was my idea. I remembered tearing his shirt and biting his body, hoping he would kidnap me. I had forgotten that too. And I wondered, as I sat there... how many other things I'd forgotten."
RICHARD (O.S.)
Frannie.
Startled, Francesca turns as if she were caught in the act. Richard is fully dressed, prepared to start the day. Francesca turns back to the pasture -- Niccolo is gone.
CUT TO:
6
INT. JOHNSON HOUSE - EVENING
It is a week later. Francesca is making dinner. A COUNTRY STATION is tuned in on the radio.
FRANCESCA (V.O.)
"The following week was the Illinos State Fair. The two of you were going with dad to exhibit Carolyn's prize steer. It was the Sunday night you left. I know it sounds awful but I couldn't wait for you all to leave. You were going to be gone until Friday. Four days...(beat) Just four days..."
Francesca's expression looks as if she needs a break from her family for more like four years.
FRANCESCA (cont'd)
Michael! Carolyn! Richard! Dinner!
She sets down a bowl of potatoes, a plate of sausages, coffee and corn as one by one her family enters and sits down.
Michael enters through a screen door from the back, letting the DOOR SLAM SHUT.
FRANCESCA
Michael, what did I tell you about
that door?
Richard enters after Michael, letting the door SLAM THE same way. Francesca is about to say something, but gives up.
Everyone begins eating -- in complete silence.
When Michel can't open the ketchup bottle, Francesca grabs it, palms the top skillfully and twists it off. She hands it
back to Michael who makes no comment.
When Richard scans the table for something that obviously isn't there, Francesca is up out of her seat before he can
ask, at the fridge, grabbing the sour cream, closing the fridge and back at the table with incredible swiftness.
When Michel moves his big arm to reach for the salt, he knows over his cup and saucer, which Francesca catches with
both hands before they hit the floor. Her reflexes are like a trained athlete.
Finally, Francesca is able to sit and sip her coffee. She watches her teenage daughter fill her plate with a blank
expression that lets nothing slip through -- no indication of all the tempests of emotions that go through a teenage girl.
FRANCESCA
You excited about going, Carolyn?
Without looking up, Carolyn fakes a smile. Looking at her, Francesca remembers Carolyn as a three-year-old girl:
FLASHBACK.
In the same kitchen, THREE-YEAR-OLD CAROLYN runs around her mother's feet completely naked, squealing with delight as
Francesca flicks her water from the tap.
FLASHBACK ENDS.
Francesca watches as Carolyn eats in silence, distant, locked in her own secret teenage thoughts and dreams.
Francesca then looks to her son, shoveling food into his mouth at an alarming rate. She attempts a conversation.
FRANCESCA (cont'd)
How was your date last night?
MICHAEL
(w/o looking at her)
Okay.
FRANCESCA
What's her name?
MICHAEL
Betty.
FRANCESCA
What's she like?
MICHAEL
Okay.
Silence. Frustrated, Francesca has a fantasy -
FANTASY:
Francesca picks up a blunt butter knife, rises out of her seat, grabs her son and shoves the knife at his throat:
FRANCESCA
Do you like her?
Michael finally reacts with more than one word -- frightened for his life.
MICHAEL
Uh... Yeah. Yeah. She's real nice.
FRANCESCA
Well, what's nice about her? Tell us!
