Thursday, April 23, 2009

Gone With The Wind - script 05

Melanie's baby was born

(At the Hamilton’s house, Aunt Pitty is packing, preparing for leaving.)
PRISSY: Miss Scarlett! Miss Scarlett! Folks is all going to Macon and folks is running away and running away.
AUNT PITTY: I can't bear it! Those cannon balls right in my ears! I faint every time I hear one! Uncle Peter, look out for that trunk!
SCARLETT: But, Aunt Pitty, you aren't leaving?
AUNT PITTY: I may be a coward, but oh dear! Yankees in Georgia! How did they ever get in?
SCARLETT: I'm going, too. Prissy, go pack my things. Get them, quick! Wait, Aunt Pitty, I won't take a minute.
AUNT PITTY: Scarlett, do you really think you ought to?
(Dr. Meade is coming towards Scarlett…)
DR. MEADE: Scarlett! What is this? You ain’t planning on running away?
SCARLETT: And don’t you dare try to stop me. I’m never going back to that hospital, I’ve had enough of smelling death and rot and death...I’m going home, I want my mother. My mother needs me.
DR. MEADE: You’ve got to listen to me. You must stay here.
AUNT PITTY: Without a chaperone, Dr. Meade, it simply isn’t done.
DR. MEADE: Good Heaven’s woman, this is war, not a garden party. Scarlett, you’ve got to stay, Melanie needs
you.
SCARLETT: Oh, bother Melanie!
DR. MEADE: She’s ill already. She shouldn’t even be having a baby. She may have a difficult time.
SCARLETT: Can’t we take her along?
DR. MEADE: Would you want her to take that chance? Would you want her to be taunted over rough roads and
have the baby ahead of time in the buggy?
SCARLETT: It isn’t my baby, you take care of it.
DR. MEADE: Scarlett, we haven’t enough doctors, much less nurses to look after a sick woman. You’ve got to stay for Melanie.
SCARLETT: What for? I don’t know anything about babies being borne.
PRISSY: I knows! I knows! I knows how to do it. I’ve done it lots and lots. let me doctor, let me. I can do everything.
DR. MEADE: Good. Then I’ll rely on you to help us.
PRISSY: Yes Doctor.
DR. MEADE: Ashley’s fighting on the field. Fighting for the cause. He may never come back. He may die. Scarlett, we owe him a well borne child.
AUNT PITTY: If you’re coming Scarlett, hurry!
SCARLETT: I promised Ashley, something.
DR. MEADE: Then you’ll stay? Good. Go along Miss Pittifett. Scarlett’s staying.
AUNT PITTY: Go on, Uncle Peter. I don't know what to do. It's like the end of the world! Uncle Peter, my smelling salt!
SCARLETT: Melanie, Melanie! It's all your fault! I hate you! I hate you! And I hate your baby! If only I hadn't promised Ashley. If only I hadn't promised him!


(The skies rained death... For thirty-five days a battered Atlanta hung grimly on, hoping for a miracle ... Then there fell a silence...more terrifying than the pounding of the cannon….)
SCARLETT: Stop! Stop! Please, stop. Are the Yankees coming?
OFFICER: I’m afraid so, Ma’am. The army's pulling out.
SCARLETT: Pulling out of Atlanta and leaving us to the Yankees?
OFFICER: Not leaving, evacuating. We’ve got to before Sherman cuts the McDonough road.
SCARLETT: It can't be true! What'll I do?
OFFICER: Better refugee south, right quick. If you'll excuse me.
SCARLETT: Prissy! Prissy! Come here Prissy! Go pack my things and Miss Melanie’s, too. We’re to Tara right away, the Yankees are coming.
MELANIE: Scarlett! Scarlett!
SCARLETT: Oh, Melanie, we’re going to... Melanie.
MELANIE: I’m sorry to be such a bother, Scarlett. It’ll begin at daybreak.
SCARLETT: But, the Yankees are coming.
MELANIE: Poor Scarlett...you’d be at Tara now with your mother, wouldn’t you? If it weren’t for me...Oh, Scarlett darling, you’ve been so good to me. No sister could have been sweeter. I’ve been lying here thinking, if I should die, will you take my baby?
SCARLETT: Oh, fiddle-dee-dee, Melanie, aren’t things bad enough without you talking about dying? I’ll send for Dr. Meade right away.
MELANIE: Not yet, Scarlett. I couldn’t let Dr. Meade sit here for hours while, while all those poor, badly wounded boys...
SCARLETT: Prissy! Prissy come here quick! Prissy, go get Dr. Meade, run quick! Don’t stand there like a scared
goat. Run! Hurry, Hurry! I’ll sell you South I will, I swear I will! I’ll sell you South!
(hours later, Prissy does come back, Scarlett is very worry and panic)
SCARLETT: Where's that Prissy? This room's like an oven already and it isn't noon yet. Don't worry, Melly. Mother says it always seems like the doctor will never come. If I don't take a strap to that Prissy! Know what I heard about Maybelle Merriwether? You remember her funny-looking beau? The one with the uniform like ladies' red flannels?
MELANIE: You don't have to keep on talking for my sake. I know how worried you are.
PRISSY: (singing and walking slowly toward the house) For to tote the weary load. No matter, 't will never...
SCARLETT: (to Melanie) I'll just go and fetch you some cooler water.
(Scarlett go downstairs and meet Prissy…)
SCARLETT: You're slow as molasses in January. Where's Dr. Meade?
PRISSY: I never seen him, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: What?
PRISSY: He ain't at the hospital. A man told me that the doctor's down at the car shed with the wounded soldiers
SCARLETT: Well, why didn't you go after him?
PRISSY: Miss Scarlett, I'm scared to go down there at the car shed. There's folks dying down there. And I'm scared of dead folks!
SCARLETT: Go sit by Miss Melly. And don't you be upsetting her or I'll whip the hide off you.


(Scarlett go to find the doctor herself…)
SCARLETT: Have you seen...?
MAN: Move aside, lady, please.
SCARLETT: Dr. Meade? Dr. Meade, at last!
Dr, MEADE: Thank heaven you're here. I need every pair of hands. Now, come, child, wake up. We got work to do.
SCARLETT: But Melly's having her baby. You've got to come with me!
Dr, MEADE: Are you crazy? I can't leave these men for a baby. They're dying! Hundreds! Get a woman to help.
SCARLETT: But there isn't anybody. Dr. Meade, she might die.
Dr, MEADE: Die? Look at them, bleeding to death in front of my eyes! No chloroform. No bandages. Nothing! Nothing to ease their pain. Run along and don't bother me. Don't worry, child. There's nothing to bringing a baby. Bring the stretchers in here.
MAN: Dr. Meade?
Dr, MEADE: Yeah, I'm coming.



(Scarlett back to the house, just herself…)
PRISSY: Is the doctor coming?
SCARLETT: No, he can’t come.
PRISSY: Oh, Miss Scarlett, Miss Melanie bad off!
SCARLETT: He can’t come, there’s nobody to come. Prissy, you’ve got to manage without the doctor. I’ll help you.
PRISSY: Oh, Lordy, Miss Scarlett!
SCARLETT: Well, what is it?
PRISSY: Lordy, we’ve got to have a doctor! I don’t know nothing about birthing babies.
SCARLETT: What do you mean? You told me you knew everything about it!
PRISSY: I don’t know how can I tell such a lie. Ma ain’t never let me around when folks was having them.
SCAELETT: Stop it! Go light a fire on the stove. Get boiling water in the kettle. Get me a ball of twine, and all the clean towels you can find, and, the scissors. And don’t come telling me you can’t find them. Go get them and get them quick!
PRISSY: Yes’am
MELANIE: Scarlett! Scarlett!
SCAELETT: Coming, Melly. Coming!


MELANIE: You better go before the Yankees get here.
SCAELETT: You know I won't leave you.
MELANIE: It's no use. I'm gonna die.
SCAELETT: Don't be a goose, Melly. Hold on to me. Hold on to me!
MELANIE: Talk to me, Scarlett. Please, talk to me.
SCAELETT: Don't try to be brave. Yell! There's nobody to hear.
PRISSY: Ma says that if you puts a knife under the bed, it cuts the pain in two.

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