BREAKING THROUGH

by

Stephen Larsen & Robin Larsen and

Kenneth White

adapted from "A Fire in the Mind"

by Stephen and Robin Larsen

Kenneth White 1108 Wellesley Avenue Modesto, CA 95350-5044 (209) 567-0600 Ken1White@aol.com

FADE IN:

EXT. WOODSTOCK, NEW YORK – HUDSON RIVER - DAY

TITLE CARD Woodstock, New York Summer, 1931 JOSEPH CAMPBELL, a tall, strikingly handsome, 27-year-old lopes easily along the river bank. He wears his old Columbia University track outfit. The dark blue shirt, with a large light blue "C" emblazoned on the chest, is faded and threadbare. A white racing bib, with the number "1" stenciled on it, loosely billows around his neck. A PACK OF RUNNERS thunders in his wake.

A LONE RUNNER leads.

Joseph smiles and begins his kick. He sprints away from the pack. He blows past the leader.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

I had been training all my life.

Joseph BREAKS THROUGH the finish line tape. He raises his arms in victory.

EXT./INT. LIBRARY – DAY Joseph has commandeered an entire table. He sits alone, surrounded by books. The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer, Psychology of the Unconscious by B.M. Hinkle, The Interpretation of Dreams, Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud, The Mind of Primitive Man, by Franz Boas, and The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Joseph reads, scribbles notes, scans, contemplates, writes. He's in a fever pitch of knowledge-seeking.

EXT. FOREST – EVENING Joseph creeps through the trees, like Hawkeye stalking a deer. He wears a fringed buckskin tunic, breeches, and moccasins. The scene is surreal, all dappled light and shadow. He seems lost and insignificant among the towering trees.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

For something.

2

In the distance, a FEMALE FIGURE flits Rima-like from tree to tree.

Joseph pursues the alluring, elusive figure.

He stumbles into a swamp camouflaged by undergrowth. He sinks to his waist. He struggles to free himself.

INT. NIGHTCLUB – NIGHT On the bandstand, a SEVEN-PIECE JAZZ BAND has got the joint jumpin'.

Joseph plays a scorching solo on alto sax.

INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH – DAY A stubbled, scruffy-looking Joseph attends mass. Agitated, he suddenly stands and leaves the church.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

None of the old world made sense.

EXT./INT. CAMPBELL HOME – JOSEPH'S ROOM – DAY Joseph sits at his wooden desk, writing furiously.

CLOSE ON the last page of the manuscript as Joseph scrawls, "The End." He stacks all the pages in a neat pile. The title page reads: "Strictly Platonic."

JOSEPH (V.O.)

In my mind's eye, I saw myself living in a little cottage in Carmel writing Mediaeval stories for the Saturday Evening Post.

INT. COFFEE HOUSE – NIGHT Joseph and a YOUNG WOMAN savor an espresso.

Joseph reaches out and grasps the woman's hand. He smiles, his eyes imploring.

She looks down at their hands, then gently withdraws hers.

Joseph frowns, withdraws his hand, and crosses his arms.

JOSEPH (V.O.) I was seeking something to lose myself in.

3

EXT. CAMPBELL HOME – DAY Joseph's FATHER (CHARLES), MOTHER (JOSEPHINE), and SISTER (ALICE) relax on the front porch. Joseph clomps up the stairs. He drops a large manila mailing envelope onto a low table. He stomps into the house.

His mother picks up the envelope, withdraws a stack of manuscripts, and a letter.

CLOSE ON the letter. It is a rejection letter from the Saturday Evening Post.

EXT. NEW YORK CITY – DAY Joseph and Alice drive across the newly completed George Washington Bridge.

A fleet of DIRIGIBLES floats over the Hudson River. Beyond soars the Empire State Building and the New York skyline.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

I needed to experience life.

EXT./INT. MANHATTAN APARTMENT – DAY The Campbell family moves into the empty apartment.

JOSEPH'S ROOM Joseph unpacks and arranges his books and belongings.

EXT./INT. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY – OFFICE – DAY Joseph sits across a massive desk from PROFESSOR W.W. LAWRENCE.

Lawrence lectures. Joseph listens.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

The prodigal had returned. But, he could not stay. The scenery was too much the same.

EXT./INT. GRAND CENTRAL BUILDING – OFFICE - DAY In a splendid office overlooking Central Park, Joseph stands next to WILL WARNER, head of McCall's publications. Warner hands Joseph his manuscript and shakes his head.

4

JOSEPH (V.O.) I was feeling a nostalgia for the future.

EXT./INT. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY – CAFETERIA – DAY Joseph and PROFESSOR RAYMOND WEAVER eat lunch.

Professor Weaver hands Joseph a gift-wrapped package. Joseph excitedly tears it open.

It's a book. Symbols of Transformation by Carl Jung.

Joseph smiles, delighted.

EXT. CENTRAL PARK – NIGHT An elegantly dressed WOMAN (PARMENIA MIGEL) drives a convertible Roadster around the park.

Joseph sits next to her, dressed in a tuxedo. He lights a cigarette, takes a drag, grimaces, smiles a crooked smile, and passes it over to the beautiful, serene woman.

As she talks, he stares at her face. After a while, he turns to gaze at the full moon.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

There was a fire in my mind.

EXT. MANHATTAN APARTMENT – MORNING Flanked by stone gargoyles, Joseph's mother and sister look down and wave goodbye.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

Which only a journey could quench.

Joseph shakes hands with his father. All very manly and unemotional. Joseph looks up and waves at his mother and sister. He bows, steps into his Ford Flivver, and lurches away.

TRANSITION TO:

JOURNEY MONTAGE Joe drives through a shifting kaleidoscope of American landscapes.

5

TITLE CARD

America Fall, 1931 Joe meanders through the Pennsylvania backcountry, on into the mazes of West Virginia's bearded hills, down sprawling avenues lined with moss-covered oaks and ramshackle antebellum mansions in New Orleans, across the monotonous, wooly state of Texas, and through the voluptuous, ruddy deserts of the Southwest.

EXT. FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA – ROUTE 66 – DAY Just outside of town, Joe has pulled the Flivver onto the shoulder. He stands staring at a cross-roads. A sign pointing south reads: "Nogales, Mexico, 320 Miles." A sign pointing east reads: "Los Angeles, 510 Miles." Joe removes a quarter from his pocket. He flips it into the air. He catches it and slaps it down on the back of his left hand. He lifts his right hand. "Heads" it is. Joe climbs back into the Flivver, pulls onto the road, and takes the road to California.

JOE (V.O.)

The least clearly foreseen way, in the end, may be the most important.

Joe rolls across sun-drenched Southern California to Los Angeles. He turns north and travels up the placid, languid coast through Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. When he reaches Salinas, he turns continues northeast toward San Jose.

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE - COTTAGE – DAY The flimsy red house sits on Eleventh Street.

INT. COTTAGE – SAME TIME JOHN STEINBECK stares into a mirror. He's a hulking, solemn 30-year-old. The resemblance to Joe Campbell is remarkable, especially around the eyes, which are a fierce blue.

CAROL STEINBECK paces around a small table on which sits a typewriter. She's a beautiful, long-legged, redheaded 26-year-old, with a kind of sparkle about her.

6

CAROL Of an unknown God?

JOHN That's almost it. To an unknown God?

CAROL What about . . . ?

(inspired) To a God Unknown?

Steinbeck's face brightens.

JOHN That's it.

John stands. They embrace warmly.

JOHN Sweet Carol, I don't know what I'd do without my elfin muse.

CAROL (mock angry)

Don't call me no elephant moose, sir.

She waddles around like an elephant moose.

They both giggle.

JOHN The characters are taking over. This character Joseph . . .

John returns to his writing desk. Carol sits at the table and resumes typing the manuscript.

INT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – LATER THAT NIGHT John sits alone, writing.

JOHN (V.O.)

(reads) "When the crops were under cover on the Wayne farm near Pittsford in Vermont, when the winter wood was cut and the first light snow lay on the ground . . ."

John rubs his eyes. He lays his head on his hands and begins to doze.

7

JOHN (V.O.) ". . . Joseph Wayne went to the wing-back chair by the fireplace late one afternoon and stood before his father. These two men were alike."

JOHN'S DREAM JOSEPH WAYNE moves through a dense forest. Wayne's face is the face of Joe Campbell.

The scene is surreal, all dappled light and shadow.

Ahead of Wayne/Campbell, the alluring, seductive form of an elusive FEMALE FIGURE recedes. We can't see her face.

BACK TO PRESENT

EXT. SAN JOSE – MORNING Joe navigates the Flivver through old San Jose.

EXT. SAN JOSE – BUNGALOW – MORNING Joe knocks at the front door.

IDELL HENNING, an attractive 24-year-old, answers.

JOE

Aloha, Idell.

IDELL As I live and breath. Joe Campbell.

She's pleasantly surprised, yet surprisingly cool.

JOE Long way from Honolulu.

IDELL It is. It is indeed.

They smile and embrace, but it's obvious they are different people than when they last saw each other.

INT. BUNGALOW – LATER Joe and Idell sit in uncomfortable silence, having run out of things to say.

JOE

It's a silly notion, really.

8

IDELL Not at all. Living and writing in Carmel. How bucolic.

Ouch. Not quite the image Joe had in his mind's eye.

IDELL I have an idea.

JOE (ever accommodating)

Wonderful.

IDELL Do you remember my sister, Carol?

JOE Redhead, right?

IDELL Yes.

JOE I do. Absolutely.

IDELL Well, she married a chap who is doing the very thing you want to do. His name is Steinbeck. John Steinbeck. Have you heard of him?

JOE No, can't say that I have. But, I'm not very current.

IDELL Well, neither has anybody else.

(she stands) I'd like to get you two together. Why don't we go down there?

JOE Now?

IDELL Pacific Grove isn't far.

JOE I'm game.

INT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – SAME TIME Different day, same clothes, same work. John is totally absorbed in his writing.

9

Carol types freshly completed pages.

WRITING DESK John naps.

JOHN'S DREAM Wayne/Campbell continues to pursue the elusive woman. She enters a woodland chapel.

CHAPEL Wayne/Campbell and the woman face each other across a rustic altar. Symbolic objects are carefully laid out on the altar.

A surreal ritual unfolds in a dreamy, indistinct way.

BACK TO PRESENT

EXT. HIGHWAY – DAY The Flivver bumps along old State Route 2 near Salinas.

Joe and Idell sit in isolated silence.

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE – AFTERNOON The Flivver cruises along Lighthouse Avenue.

The sky is filled with thousands of MONARCH BUTTERFLIES, fluttering on their annual pilgrimage from Canada to their protective winter habitat amongst the pine forests of Pacific Grove.

EXT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – EVENING The Flivver pulls up and parks. Idell gets out and stretches. Carol rounds the corner of the house, arms filled with flowers. She sees her sister, drops everything, and runs to greet her.

The sisters embrace affectionately and walk back to the cottage, arms entwined around each other's waist.

Joe clambers out of the Flivver and follows.

The girls skip through the front door.

Joe steps up onto the porch and looks around. He peeks into the bay window of the cottage and sees his own reflection.

10

Just then, John's face appears in the window, as he looks out at the ocean beyond Lighthouse Avenue. It's a dreamy expression, as if he's lost deep inside himself.

The two faces align, their images merge.

Joe and John's eyes meet. Each recoils, then smiles. Idell appears in the doorway and beckons for Joe to come in.

INT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – LIVING ROOM Carol walks up to Joe, extending her hand.

CAROL

I remember you.

JOE And I, you.

CAROL Six years ago, yes?

Something passes between the two as they shake hands.

JOE Yes, six years ago.

CAROL That fateful voyage to Hawaii.

John enters and slowly crosses the room to join the group.

IDELL John, this is Joe Campbell.

CAROL (appraising them side-by-side)

You two could be brothers.

The two men do look enough alike to be brothers.

Joe and John shake hands.

JOHN Just call me Cain.

CAROL (to Joe)

How Able are you?

11

KITCHEN Carol and Idell, Joe and John sit at the table in a circle, steaming plates of food before them. Joe extends his hands to Carol and John, encouraging all to join hands.

JOE

I want to thank the animals and plants that have given their lives so my life can continue. Amen.

They all raise their arms and drop them simultaneously.

JOHN/CAROL/IDELL Amen.

KITCHEN - LATER Carol and Idell remove the dinner plates.

Joe and John still sit at the table.

JOHN

Beer?

JOE No, thanks.

JOHN Well, I'll have one anyway.

As the two women wash the dishes, we catch bits of Joe and John's conversation.

JOE

Broceliande, the great unknown forest.

JOHN Origin of the Arthurian legends.

JOE I love those stories.

JOHN Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin.

JOE The hairy anchorite.

JOHN Undone by a woman.

12

Carol enters in time to hear that comment.

CAROL You see what a woman can do to a man.

JOE The eternal feminine.

JOHN The creative soul of the poet.

CAROL The impossible ideal.

Both men look at Carol.

LIVING ROOM Joe and John sit near the fireplace, drinking coffee.

TILLIE, John's Airedale, enters and nuzzles Joe's hand.

JOE Handsome dog.

JOHN We call her Tillie Eulenspiegel.

John snaps his fingers sharply.

JOHN Tillie, sit.

Tillie hurries over and curls up at her master's feet.

JOE

So, a writer?

JOHN Struggling.

JOE A writer, nonetheless.

JOHN (shyly)

Shall I read you something?

JOE (eagerly)

Absolutely.

John goes to his desk, selects some papers, and returns.

13

JOHN The hero, Joseph Wayne, is modeled on Joseph of the Old Testament.

JOE That's who I was named after. The interpreter of dreams and mysteries. The trickster and gift-giver.

John is impressed by Joe's seemingly limitless, wide-ranging knowledge.

VARIOUS SHOTS as John reads.

JOHN (V.O.)

(reads) "He went back to his chair and sat listening to the rush of the waters. He thought of Joseph Wayne, and he saw the pale eyes suffering because of the land's want. 'That man must be very happy now,' Father Angelo said to himself."

John finishes and looks expectantly to Joe.

JOE

Well, you know, I like the idea. But the characters seem, well, lifeless to me.

John looks mildly annoyed, then sighs.

JOHN I've thought the same myself.

The women enter from the kitchen and join them.

JOHN

Would you mind a bit more?

JOE Not at all.

JOHN

This is a short story. A sort of re-telling of Arthur and the Round Table.

VARIOUS SHOTS as John reads.

14

JOHN (V.O.) (reads)

"When Danny came home from the army he learned that he was an heir and an owner of property. The viejo, that is the grandfather, had died, leaving Danny the two small houses on Tortilla Flat."

Everyone is quiet, caught up in John's vision—a modern tale of the genesis of the Round Table set in Monterey.

JOHN (V.O.)

"The people of the Flat melted into the darkness. Danny's friends still stood looking at the smoking ruin. They looked at one another strangely, and then back to the burned house. And after a while they turned and walked slowly away, and not two walked together."

John finishes.

Everyone is very still.

Misty-eyed, Carol kisses John on the cheek.

JOE

I think it is quite immense.

Idell nods in agreement.

JOE There's a fine, deep, living quality about it which ought to ring a bell.

JOHN If it's ever discovered.

Tillie rises, stretches, and ambles over to Joe's feet, where she plops down and falls asleep.

John glances at his dog, then up to Joe. Joe shrugs.

IDELL

Joe, tell John your fantasy.

JOE He wouldn't be interested.

15

IDELL Oh, but he would.

JOE Well, John, I'd like to try my hand at writing short stories. Maybe in Carmel.

JOHN So, you're insane, too.

JOE Guilty as charged, I'm afraid.

CAROL

I think you should stay.

JOE The night?

CAROL As long as you like.

Joe looks to Idell. She smiles and nods.

JOE I accept. I'll take Idell home tomorrow. Then, it's on to Carmel and a new beginning.

EXT. CARMEL – PUMPKIN SHELL – DAY Joe moves his things into a small cottage on Lincoln Street.

INT. PUMPKIN SHELL – NIGHT Joe sits at his writing desk. Blood drips from his forehead onto the empty page.

EXT. NEW MONTEREY – CANNERY ROW – DAYBREAK Cannery Row, the Sardine Factory, the Waterfront, the Docks.

New Monterey is an industrial town of Italians, Chinese, Japanese, Slavs, Poles, Mexicans, paisanos, and mulattos who work the canning lines and seine boats.

The day begins for the Free Company of Cannery Row. BUMS sleep in barrels. WINOS snore in derelict industrial piping in a vacant lot. BINDLE STIFFS rummage through garbage cans.

DORA'S GIRLS hang out on the porch of the Bear Flag Restaurant.

WON YEE, proprietor, stands outside the Wing Chong Market.

16

A fishing boat puts out to sea. Followed by another and another, as the SARDINE FLEET begins its day's work.

JOHN (V.O.)

"Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream."

In silhouette, an eccentrically dressed MAN moves through the early morning fog.

We move toward the docks. As SEAGULLS wheel around in the air, we drop below the water line into Monterey Bay.

UNDERWATER – SAME TIME We float amidst a rich, vivid MARINE WORLD. Anemones wave behind the nudibranchs and sponges.

We move deeper into a world of coelenterates and cephalopods.

We move deeper still, into the dark, seeing only plants and fishes with luminous branches and eyes.

The psychedelic experience is brief, but compelling.

Muffled, we hear a LEADBELLY swamp blues tune.

EXT. NEW MONTEREY – OCEAN VIEW AVENUE – MORNING John and Joe walk through the early morning mist.

JOHN

I've never known anyone quite like him.

EXT. CANNERY ROW – MORNING They stop before a small, two-storied, weathered wooden building squeezed between two canneries at 800 Ocean View, on the corner of Ocean View and Irving Avenues.

JOHN He will listen to any kind of nonsense and change it into a kind of wisdom. His mind has no horizon, his sympathy no warp.

It wouldn't be an overstatement to say the building is on the wrong side of the railroad tracks that run parallel to Ocean View, a half block up the hill.

17

Just ask the sunbathers at the posh Del Monte Hotel in Old Monterey whose noses pucker at the grotesque stench. Near the front door hangs a rough-hewn wooden sign. The tentacles of an octopus encircle a broken mast inscribed with the words: "Pacific Biological Laboratories". Leadbelly is replaced with the strains of CHOPIN PIANO MUSIC, wafting out the open door.

JOHN (V.O.)

He loves women—in any way, shape or form—and beer.

Across the street at Dora's, two of the local WORKING GIRLS lounge on the porch, soaking up the sun and the music. A couple of CUSTOMERS sit in their roadsters, doors open, smoking cigarettes, and listening to the heavenly strains.

JOHN (V.O.)

He lives for the moment.

INT. PACIFIC BIOLOGICAL LABORATORIES (DOC'S LAB) – MORNING John and Joe enter. They look around. No one's home.

A large, sturdy-looking, unlocked safe stands alone, piled high with stationery and filing cards.

Joe inspects the library. Goethe, Schiller, Novalis, and anthologies on physics and biology.

John examines the FAUNA, some living in cages, some dead in bottles and jars.

JOHN

He calls himself a "holistic ecologist." For him, all things are interrelated parts of a whole. He sees no difference between a good poem, an interesting piece of music, or a sea spider.

Joe takes a closer look at the Rube Goldberg-ish phonograph player spouting music.

John leans down to inspect an empty cage.

JOHN

He is constantly searching for his ultimate goal. The truth.

18

A RATTLESNAKE lunges at John's face, smashing into the cage bars. John yells and falls back. Joe catches him.

EXT. NEW MONTEREY – DAVID AVENUE – SAME TIME A big Mitchell, an old ragtop roadster, careens down the avenue, its muffler rumbling. The back seat and bulging trunk overflow with sacks, cages, jars of chemicals, boxes of empty gallon jugs, and rubber wading boots. Navigating at the wheel is 34-year-old EDWARD FLANDERS ROBB "ED" RICKETTS, sporting a broad-brimmed hat and goatish smile. He is a small, wiry man; genial and full of life. His eyes radiate with mischief and otherworldliness. His wispy Vandyke beard ripples in the breeze.

JOHN (V.O.) He'll give you the shirt off his back. He's a hard man not to like.

Ed sees a DOG on a street corner, licking itself. Ed waves to it. As he passes another DOG, he tips his hat.

JOHN (V.O.)

Folks around here call him "Doc."

Ricketts turns onto Ocean View Avenue and thunders straight for the lab.

FLASHBACK

INT. PACIFIC GROVE – DENTIST OFFICE – WAITING ROOM - DAY

John sits, nervously waiting his turn to see the dentist. He winces and grabs his swollen jaw.

JOHN

(to himself) Slaughterhouse. I hope the butcher is dead.

The door to the torture chamber slams open.

Ed storms through the door, cursing gently under his breath. He holds a bloody molar with a chunk of jawbone stuck to it. He holds the tooth out to John.

ED Look at that god-damned thing. That came out of me.

19

JOHN Seems to be more jaw than tooth.

ED He got impatient, I guess. I'm Ed Ricketts.

JOHN

I'm John Steinbeck. Does it hurt?

ED Not much. I've heard of you.

JOHN

I've heard of you, too. Let's have a drink.

They both rush out the door like two convicts making a break for it.

BACK TO PRESENT

INT. DOC'S LAB – SAME TIME The music has stopped. We hear the repetitive scratching of the needle as it spins on the inside hub of the record. Joe is trying to figure out how to turn off the contraption.

John is staring at a pickled CHILD'S FETUS floating in a museum jar. Its little legs are crossed in a Buddha pose, as if it were praying.

ED (O.S.)

(plain, Midwestern accent)

Hey there, oh great writer!

Startled, John turns to face Ed. Ed emits a staccato laugh.

JOHN Hail, oh great scientist!

Joe walks up to Ed and extends his hand.

JOE Joe Campbell.

Ed lifts a brown paper bag he's been carrying.

ED Breakfast.

20

Ed takes a quick swig from the quart bottle of beer nestled in the bag. He smacks his lips.

ED There's nothing like that first taste of beer.

Ed takes a deep drink, smiles, and waves two fingers in the air, blessing God for the gift of beer. He shakes Joe's outstretched hand.

ED

Man can't work on an empty stomach.

JOHN Hair of the dog, eh, Ed?

ED Scale of the snapper, John, ink of the squid.

They all laugh.

JOE

"Ein Verkundiger der Natur su sein . . ."

ED (startled)

". . . ist ein schönes und heiliges Amt."

Steinbeck looks confused.

JOE Novalis.

ED Yes, a student of Nature, that is my life and my art. Like Goethe, I want to be a high priest of Nature.

JOHN Well, it's not even Sunday morning yet and here we are in church.

JOE It is like being in church.

Joe looks around the lab, respectfully.

ED Biology is my scripture.

21

JOHN

Sermons in stones and beatitudes in running brooks?

ED (recites)

"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean—roll! Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; Man marks the earth with ruin—his control Stops with the shore."

Ed gestures to the ocean outside his windows.

ED There is an invisible web at work in the ocean, men.

JOE Reminds me of something the great Chief Seattle once said.

(quotes) "What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. This we know. The earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself. One thing we know; our God is also your God. The earth is precious to Him. And to harm earth is to heap contempt on its creator."

ED True, so true. We ecologists understand that the little inter-tidal societies and the great human societies are all part of the same master plan.

JOHN Ed here has spent his life knee-deep in tidal waters trying to chart the universe.

ED Ecology is science's way of atoning for its sins against nature.

22

JOE "Ecology." I like that word, Ed.

A fishing boat WHISTLES.

Ed turns with an angry look toward Monterey Bay.

ED They don't. That pack. They're the most dangerous predators the world has ever seen. Pretty soon, all the sardines will be gone. And then what?

JOHN We're all in this together, aren't we? From the sea slugs to the stars.

ED We really have to learn again how to get back in harmony with nature.

JOE We won't survive unless we take care of our planet.

JOHN Mother Nature bats last.

EXT. COASTAL ROAD – DAY Ed, Joe, Carol, and John careen down the road in Ed's Mitchell.

EXT. POINT PIÑOS LIGHTHOUSE They all wade in the tide pools among the large rocks off the coast. They gather specimens and dump them into gunny sacks.

Joe and John splash Tillie, who dances in the surf, caught between them. Up the beach, Ed tips his hat back, leans down, and pries up a rock. He kneels to inspect some creature closely with the twenty-power Bausch and Lomb magnifying glass, attached to a little roller chain, that's always pinned to his shirt pocket.

JOE He always wear that hat?

JOHN

Hates getting his head wet. Wears an oilskin sou'wester when he showers.

23

JOE

He's an odd duck. John shrugs. Ed straightens up, pulls his hat down, and walks back to stand with Joe and John. Along a path beyond the rocks edging the beach, a LONE MAN walks, profiled against the sun. It is the same silhouette we saw earlier. Ed nods toward the man.

ED Totally mad. Lost everything for love. Now all he has is nature.

BACK TO TIDE POOLS as the group continues to gather specimens.

CAROL

Joe, what would you say to moving into Pacific Grove?

John shoots her a mildly disapproving look.

JOE The Pumpkin Shell is a wee bit cramped.

CAROL There's a quaint little cottage for rent right next door to Ed.

ED Neighbors call it the Canary Cottage.

JOE Sounds lovely.

CAROL It's settled then.

ED We'll move you tomorrow.

INT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – DAY John writes in a frenzy of inspiration.

Carol types almost as fast as he writes and tosses the completed pages to the floor.

24

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE – RICKETTS HOUSE – FRONT YARD - DAY Ed glares at his wife, NAN. She wears her hair in a bun so tight it creases her face. She's a plain, unadorned woman. She glares back. It's an old married couple standoff. Each waits for the other to blink first. Their three small children—ED JUNIOR, NANCY, and CORNELIA—hide behind their mother's skirt.

EXT. CANARY COTTAGE - DAY The tiny house features bright yellow cardboard siding, thus its name.

INT. PACIFIC GROVE – CANARY COTTAGE Joe sits at his writing desk awaiting inspiration.

JOE (V.O.)

At last. A world of my contemporaries. The exact thing I was seeking.

Joe stares out the window above his desk.

JOE (V.O.)

A constellation of mavericks. On a branch brushing against the window, a COCOON transforms into a beautiful Monarch BUTTERFLY.

JOE (V.O.)

I feel on the verge of a great death and rebirth.

INT. DOC'S LAB – NIGHT Dinner at the lab. GERSHWIN on the phonograph. Artichokes boil on the stove, steaks grill in the oven, wine flows. These gatherings are not unlike a modern, California version of the 19th Century Salon. A place where interesting, inquisitive, intellectual people can gather to pursue enlightenment. The participants are varied and colorful, as required. Gregarious Bohemians all. Joe and Ed, Carol and John. Fledgling writer and artist RICHIE (RICH) LOVEJOY and his "roommate," NATALYA ("TAL").

25

JACK CALVIN, adventurer, photographer, writer, and Stanford friend of Steinbeck's and his wife, SASHA. Tal and Sasha are the Sisters Kashevaroff, outgoing and outrageous.

Joining the circle today are writer HENRY MILLER, composer JOHN CAGE, artist JOSEPH JACINTO "JO" MORA, and photographer EDWARD WESTON. Ed and John drink freely. Carol entertains the group with over-the-top charades.

Richie draws a caricature of John dressed as King Arthur. The ears and nose are accentuated. The cartoon John jousts a dragon. Instead of a lance, he holds a fountain pen. Joe has become very much a part of the group. He laughs a lot. From time-to-time, he gazes at Carol.

The cacophony of conversation includes snippets of metaphysics, psychology, art, history, music, and literature. A dash of German, a dab of mythology, a pinch of mysticism.

Making a point to John, Ed gestures to a GRAPH OF HISTORY that runs halfway around the office. Note cards dot the graph, covered with neat, small elite type.

A MAP of WESTERN CANADA and ALASKA is tacked to another wall.

JOHN

Jack and I went to Stanford together.

CAROL Jack's the adventurer of the two.

Jack taps the Inside Passage on the map of Alaska.

JACK Sasha and I explored most of this.

SASHA In a canoe.

JOHN With a dog.

RICHIE National Geographic published his journal.

26

TAL

They're going again.

JOHN And taking the ecologist with them.

ED I'll be collecting a specimen of pink jellyfish, gonionemus vertens.

CAROL That's how our little collective, this salon of New Bohemians, survives. Ed's the bank.

JOHN He makes the money. We spend it.

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE – BEACH – DAY Joe runs, joyously, barefoot on the beach. His athleticism and prowess are obvious and striking. As he approaches the lighthouse, he puts on a final burst of speed. Carol steps onto the beach, with Tillie pulling at the leash. Joe dashes past. Carol is visibly attracted and intrigued.

Joe wheels around and returns.

JOE

(barely winded) Hi there, funny girl.

CAROL What are you running away from? It must be ferocious.

JOE It's toward something, I guess.

CAROL Well, what are you running toward, then?

JOE (half-jesting)

My destiny.

27

CAROL (half-serious)

Me? They both laugh, link arms, and walk up the beach toward town.

Tillie affectionately licks Joe's free hand.

EXT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – DAY A pile of paper burns.

Tillie barks at it.

Joe scans the top sheet of an armful of typed manuscript pages. He hands it to John.

JOE

I liked that one.

John hesitates a moment, scowls, wads the paper up into a ball, and hurls it into the fire.

JOHN

All a waste of time.

INT. CANARY COTTAGE – NIGHT All the usual suspects. After dinner.

Joe plays a SCOTT JOPLIN RAG on piano.

CAROL

Let's do something new.

TAL Ouija?

JOE I don't have a board.

CAROL Table tipping it is then.

JOE (taking charge)

One tap means "yes," two means "no."

MOMENTS LATER They all sit around the table, faces rapt and serious. John seems a little unsettled.

28

Joe appears lighter, almost enjoying John's discomfort.

The table begins to move. They're all mildly amazed, but excited.

JOE

Is someone there? A single, light TAP on the table.

JOE

Do you have a message? Another light TAP.

CAROL

Is it for me?

Two TAPS.

TAL Me?

Two TAPS.

RICHIE Is it for me?

One TAP.

Richie turns suddenly pale.

RICHIE Is it. . . Grandpa?

One TAP.

Richie nearly swoons.

CAROL Ask him something, Richie.

Richie opens his mouth, but nothing comes out.

The table begins to move, pushing Richie further and further toward a small, ash-filled fireplace at his back. Richie is nearly catatonic.

Ed bursts through the front door, takes in the scene, and frowns. Too much the scientist to accept the supernatural.

ED

Here, what's all this nonsense?

29

The table continues to shove Richie toward the fireplace.

Ed strides to the table and leans on it hard, trying to stop the movement. He slips and falls. Richie tumbles backward. The table flips over. They all end up in a heap in the fireplace.

JOE

Well, Richie, your grandpa sure knows how to bust up a party.

EXT. MONTEREY HIGH SCHOOL – AFTERNOON Ed waits in the Mitchell across from the school. A faded, well-worn red blanket lies on the back seat.

The school bell RINGS.

XENIA KASHEVAROFF, the saucy 16-year-old sister of Tal and Sasha, bounces down the stairs of the high school and skips across the street. She jumps into the passenger side of the Mitchell. She gives Ed a passionate, not very daughter-like, kiss.

As they kiss, she opens her eyes and glances back at the school. TEACHERS glare disapprovingly. STUDENTS stare jealously.

Xenia disengages.

XENIA

Proprietary pusses.

Ed looks to where she's looking.

ED This town has a long history of prudism.

XENIA Really. After all, you're only twice my age.

ED Not at all, my dear, not in my heart of hearts. I'm actually younger than you in attitude years.

30

XENIA They bore me. Let's go somewhere.

EXT. ASILOMAR – LATER Sheltered by a stand of trees near the beach, Ed and Xenia neck in the back of the car, obscured by the faded red blanket.

EXT./INT. PACIFIC GROVE – RICKETTS HOUSE – NIGHT It's late. Ed stumbles into the house, slightly disheveled.

Nan mends baby clothes. She eyes him suspiciously.

ED

I was down at the tide pools.

NAN What did you get?

ED Oh, not very much. The pickings were a little slim.

He kicks off his worn Bass moccasins, shucks off his old brown coat, and untucks his wool shirt.

ED

I'm all in. I'm going to bed.

EXT. SAN FRANCISCO – STREET CORNER – DAY John and Carol stand toe-to-toe in heated argument.

JOHN

This is not a good time, Carol.

CAROL Will there ever be a good time, John?

JOHN A baby wasn't in my plans.

CAROL You'd better change your plans.

JOHN I've already made the appointment.

CAROL I won't kill this child, John. I won't. Not for you, not for anybody. It's my body, after all.

31

JOHN

It's my career.

CAROL I've made up my mind.

JOHN You're so damned stubborn.

CAROL And you're not?

JOHN You frustrate the hell out of me sometimes.

CAROL And you, me.

John clenches and unclenches his right fist.

JOHN I can't hit a woman in a public place.

CAROL I have no public place.

Carol turns abruptly on her heel and storms away.

JOHN (V.O.) (mutters to himself)

Some women have an almost pure genius for deflating a person.

INT. DOC'S LAB – DAY Ed, Richie and Tal, Jack and Sasha listen to RACHMANINOFF, drink wine, and talk. Joe drinks water.

Richie draws a caricature of Ed as a randy goat chasing a flock of sheep. The goat sports a hat, goatee, and waders. His trousers can't mask a noticeable bulge. He carries a quart bottle of beer and a book with the bold title: "TRUTH."

There's a knock at the door.

JOE

Must be them.

ED Not like them to knock.

32

Ed opens the door. A WESTERN UNION DELIVERY BOY hands him a telegram. Ed returns to the room, opening the telegram.

ED It's from Carol.

(reads) "The Steinbecks will be unobtainably devoid."

JOE What an inspired mistake by some telegraph operator.

ED You don't know Carol.

TAL I bet that's exactly what she meant to say.

JOE She's too much.

Joe's eyes sparkle. Everyone in the room notices.

EXT./INT. CARMEL – COFFEE HOUSE - NIGHT The gang sits at tables near a low, dark stage.

Carol moves around the tables. Beautiful, vivacious, filling the room with her life and light.

CAROL

He is such a wonderful poet. So honest. So California.

Joe stares at her, drawn like a moth to a flame.

CAROL

This is my special gift to all of you.

Their eyes meet. Each flushes momentarily. They look away, nervously.

CAROL

I hope he touches you as he's touched me.

STAGE A single spotlight flicks on, illuminating a solitary microphone and stand.

33

A TALL, RAW-BONED MAN enters from the wings and steps to the mike.

JEFFERS

Good evening. Thank you all for coming. My name is Robinson Jeffers. I would like to read a poem I call, "Roan Stallion."

(reads) "Humanity is the start of the race; I say Humanity is the mould to break away from, the crust to break through, the coal to break into fire, The atom to be split."

Joe and Ed, Carol and John are transfixed. Enraptured by the power of the images, the majesty of the language, the strength and conviction of the delivery.

JEFFERS "Tragedy that breaks man's face and a white fire flies out of it; vision that fools him."

Joe and Carol meet eyes again. And quickly shift away again.

John notices.

JEFFERS "The heart of the atom with electrons: what is humanity in this cosmos? For him, the last Least taint of a trace in the dregs of the solution; for itself, the mould to break away from, the coal to break into fire, the atom to be split."

Jeffers finishes reading, backs away from the microphone, and waits. The room erupts in THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE. Jeffers bows and walks off the stage.

COFFEE HOUSE – LATER Jeffers sits with the group.

34

ED That's it. I've been trying to get a handle on this idea my whole life. And you capture it in a few words.

Jeffers smiles, slightly embarrassed.

JOHN "Breaking through." That's it, isn't it? "Breaking through."

JOE From the transparent to the transcendent.

CAROL The greater the struggle is, the greater the possibility for breaking through.

ED The more you suffer, the deeper your character. The deeper your character, the more deeply you can read into the secrets of life.

JEFFERS People are mostly caught up in their egos and making a living and in social games. Until something really big happens that snaps you into a whole different relationship with the universe. That's when you really determine your priorities.

JOE It's a lot like Joyce's epiphany. Something we experience suddenly changes everything.

ED It can be a death, a fight, an opera.

JOHN Or Proust's tea-dipped Madeleines. A taste, an aroma, a piece of music triggers the breakthrough.

CAROL Yes. The epiphany, the insight, is the breakthrough. To a more thorough understanding of the real world.

35

ED It's those moments when we break through the barriers of custom, tradition, and our own ignorance that we experience the true reality.

JOE Something opens our eyes and we break through into the light.

FLASHBACK – ED'S CHILDHOOD

EXT. RURAL MINNESOTA TOWN – NIGHT A fire engulfs a house. TOWNSPEOPLE struggle to extinguish it. A forlorn FAMILY huddles together, dazed. A YOUNG ED, eyes blazing empathetic, looks on. He looks up at his FATHER.

YOUNG ED

Can I invite Stefan and his family to stay with us, Dad? Can I?

Ed's father is suddenly emotional, impressed by his son's compassion.

ED'S FATHER

Yes, Ed, yes we can.

FLASHBACK – JOE'S CHILDHOOD

EXT. UPSTATE NEW YORK – NIGHT Another house burns. Joe is thirteen. It's his house. He and his family watch. Joe's father stumbles toward them from the direction of the house. His face is burned and defeated.

JOE'S FATHER

I couldn't find mom.

YOUNG JOE Grandy, Grandy . . .

BACK TO PRESENT Joe is still lost in the memory.

36

Carol gazes intensely at each of the faces around the table.

CAROL (recites in a hushed voice)

"Tragedy that breaks man's face and a white fire flies out of it."

Jeffers smiles, mildly embarrassed at hearing his words.

INT. PACIFIC GROVE – RICKETTS HOUSE – BEDROOM - NIGHT Ed sits on the edge of the bed. Nan looms over him, white with anger.

NAN

You're more interested in your friends than your family.

Ed stares at the floor.

NAN And having an affair with that child. You're old enough to know better.

Ed looks up at his wife.

ED (calmly, in control)

Don't try to change me, Nan.

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE - RICKETTS HOUSE – MORNING The car is loaded down with suitcases, furniture, and other belongings.

Nan briefly hugs Ed, then goes to stand beside the open door of the Mitchell.

Ed shakes hands with Ed, Junior. He hugs Nancy. He scoops Cornelia up in his arms and squeezes her.

ED

Goodbye, Bideawee.

He passes the baby over to its mother. As he does, his stoic face breaks into wracking sobs.

INT. DOC'S LAB – EVENING A BACH MASS plays softly in the background.

Ed and Joe sit together.

37

Ed holds his head in his hands. He is visibly intoxicated, but still in control.

ED

Sometimes I can hear their little voices calling out in the middle of the night.

Joe is silent, solemn.

ED Isn't it uncanny what the mind of man can do?

Joe touches Ed's shoulder.

JOE

"Tragedy that breaks man's face," isn't it?

ED Yes, that's it, I suppose.

JOE It's almost like after having the insight, life has to show you what it's really like. Spooky.

The pain is etched into Ed's face. He takes a long swig of beer. He cocks his ear to listen to the music. He opens his mouth as if to taste the music.

ED

Bach nearly made it. Hear now how close he comes, and hear his anger when he cannot. Every time I hear it I believe that this time he will come crashing through into the light. And he never does—not quite.

Ed mercifully passes out in the chair.

EXT./INT. CARMEL – LIBRARY – DAY Joe prowls through the book stacks. In the NEW BOOK SECTION, he's startled to see his hand, as if it has a mind of its own, reach down to a bottom shelf. It yanks one heavy volume from the shelf, then a second.

It is Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West.

Joe opens the book and begins reading.

38

JOE (V.O.)

The book was thunder to me. The words jumped off the page and hit me like a ton of bricks.

Joe slumps at a table and begins reading voraciously.

JOE (V.O.) (reads)

"Young man, if you really want to be in the wind of what's coming, put your paintbrush and poet's pen on the shelf, pick up the monkey wrench and law book."

LIBRARY – HOURS LATER The LIBRARIAN turns out lights.

Joe finishes the last page and slams the book shut. Exhausted, but exhilarated.

EXT. CARMEL – NIGHT Joe strides through the damp streets.

JOE (V.O.)

In other words, get involved. Go to work. It was telling me I was out of touch with the world.

INT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – DAY Joe hands John the Spengler volumes.

JOE

John, you must read this. It will change everything.

John takes them, impressed with their weight.

JOHN

Must be important. They're heavy enough.

EXT./INT. MONTEREY – ORPHANAGE – DINING ROOM - DAY The room is filled to overflowing with CHILDREN, contorted into question marks by their hunger. Carol spoons Pablum into the mouth of a BABY GIRL.

39

INT. CANARY COTTAGE – DAY John drops the Spengler volumes on Joe's desk.

JOHN

I can't read this, Joe. It's too dense for me. It'll kill my art.

JOE How far did you get?

JOHN Chapter one.

(off Joe's look) Okay, the introduction.

JOE John, this is great stuff. It's the key to Western Civilization.

JOHN No, no, it's not. Not for me.

INERTIA MONTAGE Steinbeck mopes around. Plays with Tillie. Works in the garden. Gathers specimens with Ed. Walks the streets of his home town, Salinas. He does everything but write.

JOE (V.O.)

For John, it inspired inertia. For me, it inspired action. It was time to stop talking and start doing.

INT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – DAY John sips soup. Carol opens the mail. She passes an envelope over to John. The bold return address reads: "Robert O. Ballou, Cape and Smith, Publishers".

John stares at the envelope for a moment. He rubs his hands on his pant's legs. He slowly opens the letter, fearing and savoring the moment. He reads the letter. A broad smile creases his face.

JOHN

Good God! They've offered me a contract.

CAROL Yippee!

40

Carol dances wildly around the room.

INT. CANARY COTTAGE – DAY Joe reads the letter. He hands it back to Carol and smiles an unconvincing smile.

JOE (V.O.)

I guess it was a message. If John could do it, I could do it.

INT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – EVENING Joe and Carol drink tea. John comes down the stairs. He's rubbing his sides.

JOHN

I finally have all that rubbish out of my system. I feel like I've taken a magnificent shit. I'm beginning to feel creative again.

John passes into the study without actually acknowledging them. Tillie scampers after him. Joe and Carol smile, look at each other, and sip their tea.

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE – NIGHT Joe walks through the night fog. A lonely figure. A silhouette. A specter.

INT. DOC'S LAB - NIGHT Joe and Ed sit on the back stoop.

JOE

I'm in a swamp, Ed. I've just been saying "No" to life. All my life, I've been in training for a race or a test. Always training, for something. And now, somehow, I feel I've missed out on everything.

ED Well, Joe, there's only one way to start saying "Yes" to life.

JOE Really, how's that?

41

ED Get drunk.

JOE I don't drink.

ED All the more reason.

JOE That doesn't make sense.

ED If you can drink and still function in that altered state of consciousness, it's enlightening because it re-arranges all your usual circuits. The world becomes a different kind of place.

JOE I don't get it.

ED Take the guy who's flagpole dancing down at Holman's department store. After sleep deprivation gets to him, he won't be in his right mind. But everything will be clear as day.

JOE I still don't get it.

ED It's sort of like a vision quest.

There's a glimmer of light in Joe's eyes.

ED We'll try it. Then you'll see what I'm talking about.

EXT./INT. ASILOMAR – MERRILL HALL - DAY The auditorium is built in the Arts and Crafts style. A water color class is being taught. The INSTRUCTOR walks from easel to easel, inspecting the work of each STUDENT. Carol is focused on her work. A coastal landscape. The instructor stops at Carol's easel. She watches for a moment. She pats Carol's shoulder encouragingly and moves on.

42

EXT. RICKETTS HOUSE – BACK YARD - NIGHT A full moonrise over Monterey.

Ed pours 100 proof laboratory alcohol into a bowl. He adds fruit juice. He places that bowl inside a larger bowl. He fills the larger bowl with chunks of ice and rock salt.

Ed dips a cup in the concoction, sips, and gives a "thumbs up."

PARTY - LATER

Everyone drinks as if it were their last day on earth.

Joe keeps up with them, drink for drink. As everyone gets more drunk, Joe—the athlete—stays on a pretty even keel.

OUT FRONT

A rickety-looking, backfiring, smoke-belching truck pulls up in front of the house. CRAZY MONTE sits at the wheel. A group of rumpled, intoxicated MEXICANS sits in the back on top of a stack of freshly chopped firewood.

Ed stumbles out front to check out the commotion. Monte steps out of the cab and falls face-first on the front lawn.

ED

Looks like you've been working, Monte.

MONTE That tree was already dead.

ED Don't know that the city fathers would agree.

Ed helps Monte to his feet.

ED How 'bout a drink?

MONTE I think I earned one.

Monte and his paisanos follow Ed around to the back yard.

THE PARTY CONTINUES

Revelers keep knocking into the punch bowls, sloshing melted ice and salt water into the punch.

43

As people dip their cups into the slop and take a sip, they grimace, but continue drinking.

OUT FRONT A police car rolls up. Two uniformed OFFICERS get out, listen, then head out back.

OFFICER LARSEN

Hey, what's going on here?

John, passed out in a lawn chair, suddenly wakes up and bolts to his feet. He staggers to meet the two officers.

JOHN

(shakes hands) Bill, Tom, good to see you boys.

OFFICER WHITE Neighbors are complaining, John.

JOHN Oh, we're just having a little party, Tom. Come on, have a drink.

They each take the empty cup offered by John. They fill their cups, toast, drink, and immediately spew the brew all over John.

OFFICER LARSEN

What are you fools drinking?

JOHN 100 per cent pure alcohol. Ed got it.

OFFICER WHITE Make sure it doesn't kill you.

They toss their cups on the ground and leave.

PARTY – MUCH LATER The party rages on into the middle of the night.

ED

Any chance that fool's dancing right now?

JOE What fool?

44

ED The guy down at Holman's I was telling you about.

CAROL He calls himself "The Mysterious Mr. X."

JOHN

He's trying to break his own world record.

JOE For what?

ED Dancing on roller skates on a little platform on top of a flagpole.

JOHN Let's go.

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE – HOLMAN'S DEPARTMENT STORE The MYSTERIOUS MR. X snoozes on the platform perched at the tip of the flagpole. A thin, barely visible strap tethers him to the pole. He hears the approach of Monte's truck. He jumps up and starts skating wildly around the platform.

Monte screeches to a halt, catapulting the compadres, who were sitting on the top of the cab, over the hood and onto the ground. Everyone piles drunkenly out of the cab and the truck bed.

They assemble in a ragged semi-circle in the street at the foot of the department store. They see Mr. X silhouetted dark against the moon. They applaud the dancer. He dances more vigorously.

JOE (V.O.)

That was my party. To start me off in life.

BACK AT THE RICKETTS HOUSE John pours some more of the lab alcohol into a glass and adds some fruit juice. He hands the drink to Joe.

JOHN

A little fuel. To send you on your way.

45

John pours more alcohol into a tumbler and splashes a little Grenadine in it. He sprinkles a couple drops of codeine from an unlabeled medicine bottle.

JOHN

An extra stick of dynamite for Ed. To help him forget his troubles.

PARTY – MUCH, MUCH LATER The celebration has moved inside Ed's house. Ed and Richie sprawl on the floor facing one another. They take turns slapping each other in the face and laughing and rolling around.

Joe sits cross-legged and begins disclaiming in slightly slurred German.

Tal sits facing him, also cross-legged. They gaze into each other's eyes, forlornly, hopelessly. She looks tragic and exotic, he is splendid and serene.

On the radio, "TOO MANY TEARS" plays.

Ed listens to the music with his mouth open, as he always does, as if he's swallowing it whole. He starts to sing along. He can't carry a tune in a bucket.

The alcohol has finally lowered Joe's resistance. Sparks are jumping the gap.

Joe stands, looks around, walks unsteadily out the back door, drink in hand.

BACKYARD Joe's eyes adjust to the moonlight and the alcohol.

Carol sits in the crotch of an oak tree. She sings to the moon. She looks sweet with her glass in her hand, sitting and cooing. She notices Joe. She continues singing.

They toast each other tipsily, shyly, but emboldened by the liquor.

Joe climbs into a smaller oak tree within arm's reach of hers. She finishes her song. They look at each other.

CAROL

Oh Joe, you beautiful thing.

46

JOE Oh Carol, you wonderful creature. Where were my eyes six years ago?

CAROL That's what I want to know.

JOE Too late now.

CAROL Oh God. Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!

Carol reaches out and strains to grab Joe's foot. She catches it, sighs, and lets go.

JOE

You know what I think of you, dear heart.

CAROL I know, Joe, I know.

The back door opens and John steps out. He reaches to unzip his fly, prepared to urinate off the back porch. He sees Joe and Carol perched in the tree.

JOE Hello there, John.

CAROL Hello, dear.

Surprised and flustered, like he's intruding on something, John spins around and goes back inside. Carol shuts her eyes. Her chin quivers. She grips her stomach.

CAROL

Oh, Joe. If I could only touch you.

As she reaches for him, the glass falls from her hand and thumps to the ground.

JOE

I'm going to get down, Carol. I'm going to get out of this tree now.

Joe eases out of the tree. He walks up to Carol. He kisses her ankle. And kisses it again. He gets down on his knees to find the glass.

47

JOE Where is that blasted thing?

Joe finds the glass, stands, and holds it out to Carol.

The back door slams open. John stands there, thunder in his eyes.

JOHN

Shut up! Quit shouting! I could hear every word in the house.

Joe drops the glass and straightens up, suddenly very sober.

JOE Getting a lady down out of a tree, John. That's all.

John storms back inside, slamming the door behind.

Joe helps Carol out of the tree. She slips and scrapes her leg. He helps her to the ground and into his arms. They stagger into the house.

INSIDE THE HOUSE – KITCHEN Carol flings herself into a chair at the kitchen table, covers her face with her arms, and cries. Joe stands off to the side. John enters.

JOE

God, John, I'm drunk. There really was dynamite in that liquor. How's yourself?

JOHN Oh, I'm all right. I'm too jumpy to get drunk. There's something nerves do to a man. When he's about to be hanged or shot, they can give him all the liquor he wants and it won't affect him a bit.

JOE Adrenaline, then.

JOHN (shaky, but friendly)

You want to come down to the house? We had a veal loaf for dinner. There's some left. It'll do you good.

48

JOE All right. That's fine.

JOHN Carol, we'll be at the house.

Carol doesn't stir. John turns to go. Joe strokes Carol's hair and follows.

INT. STEINBECK COTTAGE Joe and John sip coffee.

Tillie sleeps under the table.

JOHN

She's a very bright woman.

Joe nods.

JOHN She was part of a group of gifted children, all bordering on genius. They were studied by Stanford psychologist Louis Terman. They called themselves "Terman's Termites."

JOE It's obvious she's special.

JOHN We met in San Francisco.

JOE A romantic city.

JOHN She's the one who convinced me to give up the idea of writing novels of adventure to write novels that found adventure in the ordinary.

JOE All for the best, I'm sure.

JOHN She's a very perceptive reader and editor. She diligently types everything I write.

49

JOE She's dedicated to your success, John.

JOHN There's always been something missing with her, though. Like a bird with a broken wing. You feel compelled to mend it.

JOE She seems strong enough.

JOHN She's not.

JOE I don't see it.

JOHN Stick around long enough. You will.

EXT. RICKETTS HOUSE – JUST BEFORE DAWN Joe wanders back to the party alone. Alternating between being visible and a silhouette as the mist he moves through eddies around him.

INT. RICKETTS HOUSE – VARIOUS ROOMS The exhausted partiers are scattered, sleeping, throughout the house. Joe enters and looks around for Carol. He peeks into a small bedroom.

BEDROOM A dark shape lies on the bed. Joe enters.

Carol curls there covered with a blanket, facing the wall, hugging her knees.

Joe sits on the bed beside her. He kisses her temple, her cheek. He pulls the blanket down and kisses her mouth. He begins to tremble. He gets up to leave. Carol puts a hand on his arm.

CAROL

Joe, you're cold.

JOE I'm all right. It's nothing.

50

CAROL Lie down. Put the blanket over you. Warm up.

JOE That's not necessary.

CAROL Please, Joe. I won't seduce you.

Joe lies down. Carol covers them both with the blanket.

CAROL Was it wrong for you to kiss me?

JOE No. It feels right.

CAROL John never kisses me.

Joe kisses her gently again and again.

CAROL This will probably be the last time we'll be alone together.

JOE I couldn't bear that.

CAROL Kiss me just once, Joe. Crucify me with a kiss.

Joe kisses her for a very long time.

CAROL Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ.

JOE We only felt it before. Now it's done.

CAROL I hope this is hurting you as much as it's hurting me.

JOE It is. It is, by God.

EXT./INT. RICKETTS HOUSE – BEDROOM - SUNRISE Weak light streaks through the windows.

51

Joe and Carol lie under the blanket, still fully clothed.

Joe wakes first. He sees Carol and flushes a guilty look. He kisses her gently and gets up.

Ed hustles in, much too chipper.

ED

How about some coffee?

JOE (grabs his head)

Only if it's poison.

INT. RICKETTS HOUSE – VARIOUS ROOMS – SAME TIME The rest of the revelers begin to move around, in varying states of shell shock.

John enters. Through the open door of the small bedroom he sees Joe standing beside the bed and Carol lying on the bed half-draped in the blanket.

Seeing John, Ed steps quickly back into the living room.

ED

I've got a capital idea.

Everyone GROANS.

ED It's time to replenish the bank. Let's go down to Big Sur and gather some specimens. How's that sound?

More GROANS.

Carol finally crawls out of bed.

CAROL Give me a little time to get in shape for the excruciation.

JOE I think I'll just wait here until the room stops spinning.

Joe lays on the floor.

JOHN (sulking)

I'll pass. I have a blank page waiting.

52

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE – MORNING It's a bright blue morning. They all ride in a Packard, which has replaced the old Mitchell. Ed drives zanily, tipping his hat to DOGS and CATS, DEER and METHODISTS as they pass. Richie and Tal sit up front. Joe and Carol sit very closely in back surrounded by buckets, rakes, burlap bags, and waders. The faded red blanket covers their legs. They look around, but somehow always end up staring in each other's eyes.

EXT. COAST ROAD – MORNING The Packard passes other TRAVELERS as they drive along the rugged Pacific Coast south toward Big Sur.

EXT. BIG SUR – PFEIFFER'S BEACH – LATER Ed wades through the water.

Richie pries starfish loose from a rock with an iron tool.

Tal drops sand crabs into specimen jars.

Carol lays on the rocks and sleeps.

Joe stands facing the ocean, arms outstretched.

JOE

(recites) "This is the prow and plunging cutwater, This rock shore here, bound to strike first, and the world will watch us endure prophetical things And learn its fate from our ends."

Ed comes up behind Joe.

ED Jeffers again.

JOE He embodies this place. It's his world. We're just visiting.

53

ED Once upon a time, the local Indians—the Ohlones—called this shoreline the brink of the world. The Coastanoans would dance on the shore, singing out that they were dancing on the brink of the world.

JOE Things had better work out here, Ed. Because this is where it ends.

PFEIFFER'S BEACH – LATER Everyone sits on flat rock stranded on the beach. They're all ready to go. Except one. Ed disappears between two columns of rock, scampering through the opening as the tide rushes out. Suddenly, a wave, larger than the previous ones, rolls up and crashes along the beach and into the rocks. Ed's hat appears, floating on the tip of the receding wave. Ed washes into view, arms waving wildly. His head slips beneath the water momentarily. He re-surfaces, flailing his arms. Joe is the first to notice. He leaps off the rock and runs to the edge of the ocean. He stops, making sure he's not hallucinating. Ed disappears beneath the surface again. Without hesitating, Joe strides into the surf and dives into the water. He swims quickly out to where Ed is being dragged out to sea by the current. He flips a limp Ed over on his back, crooks his elbow around Ed's neck, and swims for shore. By now, everyone has noticed. They've all gathered on the beach. Joe and Ed wash ashore. They crawl out of the breakwater on their hands and knees, exhausted. Ed coughs sea water. Joe and Ed collapse on the dry sand. Carol throws a blanket around Joe's shoulders. Tal does the same for Ed. Everyone looks at Ed, waiting.

ED I can't swim.

54

Stunned looks all around.

ED Never could. I never learned.

They all break into hysterical laughter.

EXT. COAST ROAD – RETURN TRIP – EVENING Everyone is quiet and comfortably exhausted. Except Carol. She's a little moody and cranky. She makes faces at the TRAVELERS, moving in splendid isolation in their passing cars. She begins pulling the hair on the back of Tal's neck.

Carol suddenly turns frisky. She and Joe hold hands and stare dreamily into each other's eyes, acting like a pair of love-struck teenagers.

TAL

What's with you two?

CAROL We're members of a mutual admiration society.

Joe laughs diffidently.

JOE Yes, we've agreed to admire each other for at least a week. You see, we didn't get enough approval as children.

Ed cackles.

INT. DOC'S LAB – LATER Soothing MOZART plays on the phonograph. The tired party enjoys oyster stew.

Ed pours cold water into his stew. He dips his spoon in, sniffs it, then swallows.

JOE (V.O.)

We were all more or less in love with each other, I guess.

Richie draws a caricature of Joe dressed as Buffalo Bill Cody riding a buffalo. The cartoon Joe lassoes the image of a goddess trapped inside the moon. In the background looms a totem pole etched with the faces of animals.

55

Carol, as always, is the center of the room, lighting it up.

Joe strums along on guitar, playing counterpoint to the music.

JOE (V.O.)

But the most surprising was the deep, mysterious love that has suddenly welded Carol and I together.

John sits in a corner by himself—observing, not participating.

JOE (V.O.)

Before, when I had visited John and Carol, I felt like a guest in their little home. Now, it's John who seems the outsider. Like someone who simply captured the girl I was meant to have married.

LATER THAT NIGHT

Joe reads to the group.

As he reads, he and Carol glance at one another

JOE "We were far apart in the past. We shall be far apart in the future. We are together in the Here-Now."

INT. CANARY COTTAGE – DAY Joe lies in bed staring at the ceiling, unseeing.

JOE (V.O.)

They say be careful what you wish for. Indeed. All this pain had materialized because I decided to taste life.

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE – BEACH – DAY Joe walks alone on the beach.

JOE (V.O.)

The drinking was the first taste. This being in love the second.

INT. CARMEL - LIBRARY – DAY Joe sits in the reading room, Spengler and Edward Curtis open on his lap.

56

JOE (V.O.) What if I had seen her six years ago as I see her now? What if she hadn't gotten married? What if? Ay, there's the question.

INT. CARMEL – COFFEE HOUSE – EVENING Joe absently stirs a cup of coffee.

JOE (V.O.)

It's sadly ironic. Their happiness changed my dislike for marriage. And now I'm threatening that very marriage.

EXT./INT. CARMEL MISSION – NIGHT A STRING QUARTET plays BEETHOVEN. Joe and Carol sit together, savoring the heavenly music.

EXT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – BACK YARD - EVENING A dinner party. John's MOTHER (OLIVE) and FATHER (JOHN), Tal and Richie, Jack and Sasha are all there. And another couple we will come to know as Robinson Jeffers' MOTHER (ANNIE) and FATHER (REVEREND DR. WILLIAM HAMILTON JEFFERS), who just happen to be old friends of the Steinbecks.

The bounty from sea and land is plentiful. Creatures from the sea contributed by Ed, vegetables from the gardens of the Steinbecks and Lovejoys. Joe enters with a jug of home-made, Dego red wine.

Tal shells peas, Richie makes a salad, Carol prepares the abalone, Joe cleans strawberries, and Ed pours the wine.

The communal spirit has returned. Momentarily. Everyone cooks, eats, and drinks together.

As the wine flows, so do the emotions. Carol gets a little drunk. And the truce is broken. An angry John grabs her by the wrist and whispers something in her ear. Carol yanks her wrist away and stumbles out of the yard. Joe looks uneasy, almost guilty.

57

EXT. CARMEL - SEVENTEEN MILE DRIVE - SUNSET The Lone Cypress clings to a rocky promontory above the Pacific. Joe and Carol stand side-by-side at an observation point just off the road. As the sun dissolves into the ocean, Joe reaches out and takes Carol's hand.

CAROL Beautiful.

JOE

Sublime.

INT. CANARY COTTAGE – EVENING (MAY) It's a chilly, drizzly, miserable coastal day.

Joe writes furiously in his journal.

A KNOCK on the door.

JOE The door's open.

John enters. He carries a small brown paper bag in his right hand.

JOHN

You got any coffee?

JOE Sure.

John sets the bag on the table.

Joe looks quizzically from the bag to John's eyes and back to the bag.

JOE

(uncertainly) For me?

JOHN No, for Tillie. I'm leaving her over with Richie. I want to talk.

Joe looks nervous.

John sits and draws a couple of deep breaths.

58

Joe prepares the pot to make coffee.

JOHN I'm not afraid of words. I'm not afraid of emotion.

JOE Good boy, that's fine. By God, I'm glad you came.

Joe measures out the coffee into the percolator. As he pours the water in, he can hear John breathing deeply, laboring.

JOHN

(taut with emotion) How . . . much . . . are you in love . . . with Carol?

JOE Wait a sec, John, till I fix this thing and then we'll talk.

Joe finishes with the coffee pot, turns on the gas, and sets the pot on the burner. John sits with his right side to the table, his legs crossed, his back straight. Joe sits at the table. Trembling slightly, he absently rubs his forehead.

JOE

You know how I feel about Carol, John.

JOHN No, no, I don't.

Joe is at a loss for words for once, which throws him off.

The sit in silence for an eternity.

The coffee boils. Relieved, Joe gets up to get the coffee. Joe pours a cup for John and then himself.

JOHN

Carol knew when she married me, she was getting only half a man. My writing is my true love and mistress. It's what I do. It's a straight line. Each day, I sink more and more into my

(MORE)

59

JOHN (CONT'D) subconscious. It's only a question of time before I'll be submerged altogether. And Carol will be left on the outside. But, she insists on being the center of things. That's the way she is. You know that.

JOE Yes, I do.

John lightly touches his lips.

JOHN I don't like to kiss. I have no nerves in my lips. It bothers me. It angers her.

JOE I didn't know.

John turns to face Joe.

JOHN The question is, Joe, can you give her more than me? Five years from now, you may stink as much of the classroom as I stink of the subconscious.

JOE I know how you feel, John. I was following that straight line, too. Headed toward teaching at Columbia. Until Spengler knocked me over. Now, I have no solid ground to stand on.

JOHN Have you ever been in love?

JOE Yes, but I smothered it out. It didn't fit in my plans, so I killed it.

JOHN Do you want to smother this?

JOE I don't know. That's the question I've been asking myself for two days now. But, I know I could kill it if I had to.

60

JOHN It's lucky for you you're as good a man as me. If my pride had been hit, if Carol had fallen for a lesser man, I wouldn't have thought twice about killing you.

JOE (startled)

I'm glad for that, then.

JOHN Don't let pity affect your decision. I don't need, or want, anyone's pity. A thing like this can't touch me. It's outside me.

JOE I know that, John. Pity is too petty for people like you. You're bigger than that.

They each sip their coffee, pleased with their manly flattery and the momentary resolution.

EXT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – SAME TIME Carol and Idell sit on the front porch. Carol is clearly in pain, alternately clutching her stomach and holding her head in her hands.

IDELL

I wish I'd never brought him down here.

CAROL But, I don't. As painful as it is, I don't regret one moment.

BACK TO CANARY COTTAGE Joe and John stare into the constellations of their coffee cups.

JOE

I'm glad you pulled this into the light. I don't like wondering what you're thinking every time you look at me. I've been bothered by your talking to me in parables about Carol, you, and me.

JOHN You're wrong. I never suspected.

61

JOE

(surprised) Even the night of the trees.

JOHN I knew nothing. Until tonight. Carol told me everything.

JOE I told her it might be better if I just went away. She said that was the worst thing to do. Better to not stop it at climax. Just let it cool.

JOHN I agree. You break it short now and you'll be leaving with my wife's heart. I don't want half a wife. I want all of her or nothing.

They both take a sip of coffee.

JOHN How much longer do you think you'll stay?

JOE Another couple months or so.

JOHN Will that be enough time to figure out where we stand? You and Carol should have all the time you need together. If it cools off, that's fine. If it grows, it should be allowed to.

Joe gets up to make more coffee.

John takes another deep, laboring breath.

JOHN Do you desire Carol physically?

JOE (mildly stunned)

No, that has nothing to do with it at all.

JOHN It's worse than I thought, then.

62

JOE Yes, it's pretty bad. There are plenty of beautiful women. It isn't so much the physical beauty that I'm in love with.

JOHN Maybe you're in love with an idea that isn't Carol at all.

JOE

Everyone is in love with an idea, rather than the person behind it. You never can get at the real person.

The coffee pot makes a painful noise.

JOHN The water's boiled away. You'd better take it off.

Joe removes the pot.

JOHN We probably should go down to the house. The girls are waiting.

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE – CITY STREETS – MOMENTS LATER John drives up the hill toward his house. Joe drives down, around, and up the hill, faster.

EXT. STEINBECK COTTAGE Joe pulls up. He bolts from the car and runs to the front door. He knocks. No answer. He goes in.

INT. STEINBECK COTTAGE Carol lies on the couch, her head buried under pillows.

We can hear Idell busy in the kitchen. Joe sighs.

Carol holds out her hand. Joe takes it, then pulls the pillows away. She smiles, though she looks tired.

JOE Well, I'm certainly glad you told him.

63

CAROL

I thought it best. They hear John pull up outside. They separate. John enters, looking solemn.

JOE/CAROL Hello!

John is slightly surprised Joe beat him.

JOHN Hello.

John goes through and into the kitchen. We vaguely hear he and Idell exchange pleasantries. He returns with a sheepskin coat.

JOHN I'm going with Tillie for a drive.

Joe and Carol watch him button on the coat.

CAROL It's a relief to know I'm not the only one who's ever gotten into a mess like this.

JOE

It's a classic. And I wrong about John. He wasn't talking in parables at all.

John grunts and stoops to adjust the fire. He whistles for Tillie. She bounds into the room. They both leave. Carol looks at Joe.

CAROL What did he say?

JOE

He said we should let it run its course. What did he say when you told him?

CAROL

He didn't say very much. It all started at the lab. I broke down and told Ed everything. Ed said he and Nan had gone through the same thing. I came back and asked John what I was going to do about

(MORE)

64

CAROL (CONT'D) this emotional tangle, assuming he suspected. "What emotional tangle?" he asked.

Carol makes big eyes and a goofy face to show how John had looked at her, rather slow and clueless.

CAROL So I explained it to him. He didn't act very surprised.

Carol gets up and paces around the room.

CAROL I'm beginning to suspect someone may have been playing a game with me.

JOE

What kind of game? Carol thoughtfully wrinkles her brows.

CAROL Well, the strange way John keeps talking about you and he being the same person. It gives me the creeps.

JOE

Are we really so alike? Carol frowns, thinking some more.

CAROL So far as I can see, you're like two faces of the same coin.

JOE

And both of the faces are looking at you.

She smiles and sits. Joe sits. He kisses her, in spite of himself.

JOE Why aren't you twins?

Joe lays his head in her lap.

INT. DOC'S LAB – NIGHT The gang sips wine and listens to ROBERT JOHNSON.

65

Joe and Carol sit on opposite sides of the room.

When the others aren't looking, Carol clutches her stomach and makes a woeful grimace.

Joe mimics her, returning the signal between them to communicate their mutual pain.

EXT. ASILOMAR – DAY Joe and Carol walk hand-in-hand through the sand dunes. Everything is intimate and affectionate, but not sexual. Their glances mingle and separate.

JOE (V.O.) Carol scared me one day with a vision akin to the Liebestod, with which I was all too familiar. Love eternally locked in death.

Joe and Carol sit side-by-side on a decaying driftwood log.

CAROL (nonchalantly)

That bottle of cyanide down at the lab is certainly a temptation. It would be so easy.

INT. CANARY COTTAGE - DAY Joe sits at the desk, scribbling in his journal.

JOE (V.O.) Carol is a flower of her environment. Around her here in California are the people and places and things she loves. She has told me she could never live for long away from the redwoods and these hills.

INT. CARMEL - LIBRARY – NIGHT Joe wanders the stacks.

JOE (V.O.)

What can I offer her that John can't? I'm broke, jobless. Carol wouldn't last in the east, married to a broken-down professor who gives her no more of himself than John. The west is her home.

66

INT. CARMEL - COFFEE HOUSE - NIGHT Joe listens to a POET.

JOE (V.O.) Carol loves John. What she sees in me is simply John, with a few novel decorations. Back east, the man she thinks she loves would become someone else.

EXT. CARMEL POINT – TOR HOUSE - DAY The windswept, barren headland meets the sea like the bow of a ship. The house made of granite boulders sits on the craggy knoll. Tor House and Hawk Tower are refuge for Robinson Jeffers and his wife UNA. His twin sons, GARTH and DONNAN stand atop the tower. They peer out at the sea through twin telescopes. The Jeffers have been joined today by Joe and Ed, Carol, Jeffers' parents, Richie and Tal, Steinbeck's parents. John is noticeably absent.

JOE You built this alone.

Jeffers rubs his calloused hands.

UNA He gathered the granite from Carmel Bay.

JOE

Amazing.

JEFFERS My fingers had the art to make stone love stone.

Carol points to the romantic, gothic Hawk Tower.

CAROL Hawk Tower has its own history.

JEFFERS

A mysterious hawk appeared the day I started and disappeared the day I finished.

67

WHITE GULLS weave a dance over the blue water.

JOE So this is the prow and plunging cutwater.

JEFFERS

It is.

JOE I see where you get your inspiration. This enduring, timeless place.

ED

Standing here, there's no mistaking that man and nature are welded together.

JEFFERS

We are the earth. And it is us.

JOE Gaia, Mother Earth, nurtures us all.

JEFFERS

(recites) "A little too abstract, a little too wise, It is time for us to kiss the earth again, It is time to let the leaves rain from the skies, Let the rich life run to the roots again. I will go to the lovely Sur Rivers And dip my arms in them up to the shoulders. I will find my accounting where the alder leaf quivers In the ocean wind over the river boulders."

RESOLUTION MONTAGE Joe sits on a rock staring at the waves. Joe gathers mussels and starfish and drops the specimens into gunny sacks. Joe and Tillie run along the beach. Joe scrambles up in the rocks, chased by Tillie. Joe pats Tillie. Tillie licks his mouth and nose.

Joe swims in the Carmel River.

68

JOE (V.O.)

The truth of the matter is clear. I must do every thing I can to restore the harmony I found here in this Earthly Paradise.

INT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – DAY John sits at his writing desk, pain etched on his face.

BEDROOM – LATER THAT NIGHT John sleeps restlessly beside Carol. Each is turned away from the other, drawn up in the fetal position.

JOHN'S DREAM It is now a winter landscape near Lake Tahoe. Images of icicles, frozen waterfalls, snow falling.

John cradles a gun. He pursues the elusive Man (Wayne/Campbell) and Woman (Eternal Feminine/Carol) as they flee through the snowy woods. John is dogged and determined, but he can never seem to catch them as they flee.

BACK TO PRESENT

INT. CANARY COTTAGE – DAY (JUNE) Joe lies in bed reading, The Brothers Karamazov. He hears his garden gate open and close. Joe gets up and opens the door.

It's John, looking like death warmed over.

JOHN

Do you have the key to Ed's house? John can't quite look Joe in the eyes. His arms hang awkwardly, fists clenched. He rubs his forehead with the back of his hand.

JOHN I have to get some things from Ed's. I'm leaving for Los Angeles. To stay with a friend. Right away.

69

JOE Please come in, John. I'd like to talk a little. I was just coming to see you.

John enters and sits down heavily. In the exact same chair as before. In the exact same posture. He looks shot, completely at a loss, unhinged.

JOE It's ridiculous to worry about my marrying Carol. The real problem is figuring out how to end this mess without hurting her.

JOHN

What about you?

JOE To hell with me. I guess I ought to be able to tell my emotions what to do.

And just like that, the male turf battle has been transformed into a male conspiracy.

JOHN

I hate this rivalry. Like two dogs marking their territory.

JOE Me, too. I prefer a conspiracy, if you will. A conspiracy against Venus.

JOHN

I haven't been able to sleep. I've been distracted. I nearly wrecked the car, with Carol and Ed in it.

John rubs his hands together. He still can't look Joe directly in the eye.

JOHN I talked with Ed. We confronted the issue coldly. He decided that since Carol and I had already made a beautiful go of marriage, it was not only possible, but probable, that you and Carol could manage the same thing. It was reasonable, he concluded, that a change wouldn't be wise.

JOE

Good! That's perfect. That's exactly the conclusion I've come to.

70

JOHN While there might be something of a shadow that Carol and I might have to live with, it would be nothing compared to the ghost Carol would bring with her into your bed.

JOE

This all might have worked if Carol and I had gotten together before she ever met you.

JOHN

Now that I've taken stock, I realize how attached to her I've become. I feel like I'll go crazy if we break up.

JOE

All of us would.

JOHN I propose propinquity. You and Carol should see as much of each other as possible. And do whatever you need to do.

JOE

But John, I have no more desire to be with Carol sexually than I have to be with my sister.

Now that it's been said, it stings.

JOHN (brightens)

I think if you could tell her that, it would do a lot of good.

JOE

All right, I'll go tell her.

JOHN Do you think you could do it gently, without hurting her?

JOE

Sure, I guess so. They nod sagely, like true enlightened gentlemen.

JOHN It's the attention she craves.

71

JOE Then let's give it to her. From all quarters. To ease the pain of a love we know won't work.

JOHN

I agree. But, I'm still going away. She's got some work to finish at Ed's lab. I'll drop her off before heading to L.A.

John leaves. Joe remains at the table, musing on what's just happened.

INT. CANARY COTTAGE – A LITTLE LATER

Joe tidies up.

Suddenly, John bursts back through the door. He sits in the same spot at the table.

JOHN

You have any more coffee?

JOE I can make some.

JOHN When she saw me drive away, she didn't think I was coming back. She said the whole thing suddenly broke for her. For a moment, she hated you. Then she sat down on the steps and laughed. And the whole thing cleared.

JOE

John, that's fine. I'm glad. I can't tell you how happy I am.

In a much better mood, John leaves.

JOE (V.O.)

I was relieved. But, I felt a dead spot inside.

EXT. DOC'S LAB – NEXT DAY Joe knocks on Ed's front door. Ed opens in his shirt tails and his wool socks. He laughs his nervous, high, staccato goat laugh.

72

ED Come in, oh great scholar!

Joe follows Ed inside.

SHOSTAKOVICH plays in the background.

ED

Sit down while I find my trousers.

JOE You living here these days?

ED Pretty much. Really can't stand being alone in that house.

Ed returns, trousers in hand. Up close, Joe notices he looks a little battered and bruised.

JOE

My God, you look like I feel inside. Ed snorts, then grimaces.

JOE

What happened?

ED I tried talking to those people down at the sardine factory about saving a few fish for the future.

JOE What'd they say?

ED Nothing. They pushed me down a flight of stairs.

Joe looks shocked and angry.

JOE Is there anything we can do?

ED Nothing I can think of, I guess. They rule the town. They're just good men doing a bad thing.

Ed pulls on his trousers and buttons them up.

73

JOE I understand you've been a confidante in this business of Carol and myself.

Ed laughs his laugh and his eyes twinkle.

ED Yes, why yes, I have. How bright she looked when she came to work yesterday.

JOE

Is she cured, do you think?

ED Oh yes, I think so.

JOE I'm relieved.

Ed goes to the refrigerator, grabs a quart of beer from inside, comes back, and sits.

ED

It's satisfying to see that, at least this once anyhow, reason could deal with emotion.

JOE

It wasn't reason that won, Ed. It was that dramatic going-away gesture of John's. I'm sure he did it to make Carol realize what she would be losing.

Ed nods and smiles.

ED I have to tell you, having John and Carol's little problem to worry about has been a relief. It's taken my mind off my own.

JOE And mine.

ED It's strange how we've never considered your rights in all this.

JOE

I have no rights. I shouldn't be in the mix at all.

74

ED We all have rights, Joe. If you're with anyone for any length of time, you invest something. Look at me. My family's not here, but I feel them. Like an amputee feels his phantom leg.

Ed is suddenly calm. There's a knock at the door.

Ed answers. TWO LITTLE BOYS stand there. One clutches a FROG that resembles a miniature dinosaur. The other holds out a bedraggled CAT.

LITTLE BOY

Hey, Doc, look what we got.

ED Is that my aunt's cat again?

INT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – THAT EVENING Carol sits reading.

John and Joe come through the door.

JOHN

I invited Joe to eat with us.

JOE Hello there, funny girl!

CAROL

A fine pain.

JOE A fine pain, indeed.

Joe and Carol laugh, looking at each other, trying to see if there is anything lurking behind the other's eyes. John just looks uncomfortable.

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE – BEACH - DAY John sits on the sun-splashed rocks, staring out to sea. He lays back and closes his eyes.

75

JOHN'S WAKING DREAM In the snowy woods, John follows the Man (Wayne/Campbell) and Woman (Eternal Feminine/Carol). He takes aim at the Man. The WOMAN runs to put herself between the bullet and her beloved.

BACK TO PRESENT

INT. CANARY COTTAGE – DAY Joe writes in his journal.

JOE (V.O.)

All this drama had triggered one of those experiences of "breaking through." I realized that little else mattered right now so long as I kept alive to live for the love of Carol.

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE - GOLF LINKS – DAY Carol and Idell walk the fairway. They carry their golf bags.

IDELL But, you've always wanted children.

CAROL

I have.

IDELL How could you let him do that to you?

CAROL

He can be very persuasive.

IDELL It better be worth it.

EXT. MONTEREY-SALINAS HIGHWAY – EVENING Ed drives the Packard. Joe rides shotgun. Richie and Tal sit in the back.

Ed slows to make a sharp turn.

A strange, ugly TOAD hops into the road and freezes in the headlights.

Ed screeches to a halt, yanks on the parking brake, and hops out. He deftly catches the toad and slips it into his pocket.

76

They all laugh at the whimsy of his inspired performance. Ed climbs back into the car and pulls the big gray toad, all warts and dark bumps, from his pocket. Joe shines a penlight on the creature.

RICHIE What an ugly beast.

ED Bufo borealis.

Ed turns it upside down and strokes its chin. It moves its bloated throat.

ED It has such a beautiful song. Listen. I think it's going to sing for us.

The toad makes a slight cooing noise. Everyone smiles.

EXT. CORRAL DE TIERRA - LATER They park the car and walk. A young moon hangs overhead. The stars are myriad and clear. They stand and marvel at the wonders of nature. A deep, magical sense mingles with the moonlight, the black shadows, and the silence of these mountains. Far below them twinkle the lights of Monterey.

TAL Look.

They all turn to where she's pointing. A field stretches away below a great bulge in the hill. A white, one storey, wooden house clings to the edge of the bulge, like a lighthouse on a promontory. It has one window to the left of the door, and two windows to the right. There are no lights on. As they draw near the house, they sense something sinister about it. The black windows are as empty as the orbits of a skull. And the chalky color of the house resembles the deathly whiteness of a skull. In the ghostly moonlight, it appears they are looking into a sepulcher, or even into a skull itself.

77

They approach, clearly feeling something other-worldly.

JOE My God, this is eerie.

RICHIE

I feel it, too.

TAL And me.

They continue their steady walking. They approach the house. They move to the right of it. The gaunt windows and door resemble the desolate lineaments of death itself.

ED

I hate this stuff.

JOE Isn't this the darndest thing? Have you ever felt anything like it?

TAL

(laughing nervously) It's simply awful.

Richie plods on without a word.

RICHIE I'm glad there are four of us.

They cautiously move around the house and up a path to the top of the hill.

EXT. MOUNT TORO They climb to the summit of Mount Toro.

They sit on top of the knoll, gazing at the moon and the spangle of stars. A dog YOWLS in the distance.

TAL There's something unreal about this.

JOE

There's something unreal about this whole thing.

ED

Like a piece of a dream. They all drink in the wonder, the magic of the moment.

78

Richie stands like a sentinel behind them. He looks out over the hills.

RICHIE We're dead. We all died at once and now this is heaven.

REFLECTION MONTAGE of Joe at home, in Pacific Grove, in Carmel, running along the beach, gathering specimens with Ed.

JOE (V.O.) I don't know exactly what happened that night. But, we had experienced a mystical union with that deep thing. It was another of those moments of "breaking through" that we'd all been wrestling with.

EXT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – AFTERNOON Everyone has gathered for another barbecue, including John's parents, Robinson Jeffers and his parents.

John is feeling so good, he actually joins his dignified, white-haired father in a story. Then, astonishingly, he SINGS a song. Carol is a little drunk again. She sits in a tight circle with Idell, Tal, Sasha, and John's mother.

CAROL

There is a passage in the Bible that has been the guide for my life.

(recites) "When you set your hand to the plough, turn not to look backward."

Carol glances at John.

John, looking suddenly panicked, laughs nervously.

INT. DOC'S LAB – MORNING Everything is smashed up. Windows broken, specimens scattered, papers shredded, phonograph demolished.

Ed shakes his head in disbelief.

A roughly lettered sign reads: "We don't want your kind around here."

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Joe, John, Carol, Richie, and Tal help pick up the pieces.

EXT. STEINBECK COTTAGE – DAY Joe approaches the front door. He hears John and Carol arguing loudly. He listens, with a guilty look. He turns and walks away.

JOE (V.O.)

Things were still not right. They had to change.

INT. CANARY COTTAGE – EVENING Joe, Ed, Richie, and Tal enjoy cocktails and conversation as the sun sets.

ED

It's a thirty-three foot boat called the Grampus.

TAL

Sasha and Jack are waiting for Ed in Puget Sound. They're bound for Juneau.

ED More specimens for the bank.

JOE Sounds like a nice escape.

TAL I have a great idea.

RICHIE Usually spells trouble for me.

TAL Not this time, sweet pea. Joe, why don't you go with them? You don't mind do you, Ed?

ED No, not really. It would give us another hand. And give me someone to talk with.

JOE I'd like that, Ed. I'd like to go with you.

Ed looks thoughtful.

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ED It's remarkable how we all, in one way or another—wild minds each—want to stay with the conservative solution, the status quo.

JOE I just can't stand the pain I'm in, or the pain I've caused.

ED I'll send a wire tomorrow.

INT. DOC'S LAB – MORNING Ed, Joe, Tal, and Richie share a farewell Bloody Mary.

JOE

I miss the music.

ED So do the neighbors.

John knocks and enters. He greets everyone. He and Joe strain to be amiable. John carries a case of phonograph records.

JOHN

These are for Jack.

ED I'll make sure he gets them.

Ed takes the case.

JOHN I'm glad you're going to Alaska, Ed. I wish I were going along.

ED My best to Carol.

JOHN She's left for Sausalito. I leave for L.A. tomorrow. Finally.

JOE Seems we're all going our separate ways.

Joe and John finally acknowledge the other and shake hands, all noble and manly.

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JOE (V.O.) It took heartbreak to break through.

EXT. STATE ROUTE 2 – DAY John drives south, eyes unseeing.

JOHN'S WAKING DREAM The figure of the Man (Wayne/Campbell) sits alone in the forest. A calm is upon him.

He slits his wrists.

JOE/JOHN (V.O.)

"I am the land and I am the rain. The grass will grow out of me in a little while."

He slumps face-first into the earth.

BACK TO PRESENT

EXT. CANARY COTTAGE – DAY Ed's Packard is loaded down with scientific paraphernalia, baggage, and books. Richie and Tal wave good-bye.

The Packard pulls away.

EXT. TACOMA, WASHINGTON – DOCK – DAY (JUNE) Joe, Ed, Jack and Sasha Calvin load equipment and supplies onto the Grampus. Stowed on the roof is a seventeen-foot canoe, the Nakwasina.

JOE (V.O.)

It was an epochal voyage. Metamorphosis was in the air.

INT. GRAMPUS – MAIN CABIN - THAT NIGHT Jack talks to his crew.

JACK

(authoritarian) Although the waterways are sheltered from the open ocean, it can be a dangerous crossing. There are tricky

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JACK (CONT'D) currents and hidden shoals. We need to run a tight ship to ensure a safe and successful voyage.

Joe, Ed, and Sasha nod in mildly amused agreement.

VOYAGE – FIRST DAY The Grampus sails to Friday Harbor on the San Juan Islands. It continues on to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

The Grampus heads north up Johnstone Strait.

JACK (V.O.)

Ed, you're #1 Cabin Boy. Joe, #2. You two will bunk in the aft cabin. Ed on the bench, Joe on the floor.

The Grampus makes a run across Queen Charlotte Strait at the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

FITZ HUGH SOUND is the entryway to a maze of inlets, channels, fjords, and narrows.

JACK (V.O.)

The charts can't be trusted, so keep a sharp eye out.

SAFETY COVE The Grampus anchors for the night.

VOYAGE – NEXT DAY The Grampus journeys through twisting channels and into hidden bays and inlets. They travel along the sacred coves and shores of the Salish, Bella Coola, Bella Bella, Kwakiutl, Nootka, Haida, Tlingit.

GRENVILLE CHANNEL is a narrow, forty-five-mile-long fissure in the earth's crust.

The rugged, glacier-carved Coast Mountains thrust skyward out of the sea.

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JOE (V.O.) During those weeks on deck, we were directly in touch with the Mother Zone between the tides.

NORTHWARD MONTAGE The Grampus continues up the coast. They stop to collect specimens, do boat maintenance, or call into port for water and fuel.

JOE (V.O.)

Languid and lazy, calm and carefree, drinking beer and chewing the fat.

EXT. VILLAGE – DAY Jack barters with VILLAGERS for fish.

Joe, Ed, and Sasha walk through the village.

It is dirty, poor, bleak.

The eyes of the CHILDREN are inquisitive. The eyes of the ADULTS are vacant, as if they had been stripped of their souls.

EXT. COASTLINE - DAY

At low tide, Ed and Joe float in the Nakwasina, small sail unfurled.

Ed blankly stares into the tide pools.

ED

I miss my kids, Joe. I miss my wife. This breakup is killing me.

JEFFERS (V.O.) "Tragedy that breaks man's face and a white fire flies out of it . . ."

JOE I know now what you meant when you said you hear your kids calling you. I've dreamt of Carol every night. She and I are in a woods. She's running. I'm chasing her, but I can never catch her. Sometimes I can hear her voice, her laugh, like it's right next to me.

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ED Is it Carol, Joe, or the eternal feminine, you're pursuing?

JOE I don't know. All I know is it's tearing me apart inside. And my hatred for John makes me shake.

Ed listens patiently.

ED

John is my friend. Carol is my friend. You are my friend. I can't take sides.

JOE John's manipulation makes me sick.

ED When you're caught by the tide, don't fight it. Drift with it and see where it takes you.

EXT. WRANGELL, ALASKA – MORNING The Grampus is tethered to the wooden dock. Joe sits on the fantail, reading. A stack of books nearby. Goethe, Spengler, Jung, Jeffers.

Ed emerges from the water in his rubber waders and hat, carrying two buckets full of starfish, hermit crabs, and other creatures. Ed lays the specimens out in trays on the dock. He begins sorting and cataloguing.

Some LOCAL CHILDREN gather to watch.

EXT. PETERSBURG, ALASKA – NEXT DAY A Norwegian-settled fishing village.

The Grampus rides at anchor.

EXT. GRAMPUS – DECK

Joe writes in his journal.

JOE (V.O.) Carol is getting the dirty end of the stick. John is giving her nothing. I've gone back to my old aversion to the

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JOE (V.O.) (CONT'D) institution of marriage. Marriage without children is a farce. Either a constant wrangle, or else a smug garden for complacency!

He tears the page making the exclamation point.

SPECIMEN COLLECTING MONTAGE Ed and Joe travel up fjords in the Nakwasina, collecting.

Hands and nets plunge under the ocean's surface.

Ed collects specimens alone.

Joe paddles up to the Grampus in the Nakwasina. The canoe is so loaded with mollusks it nearly swamps. Ed laughs his goat laugh at Joe's good intentions.

EXT. GRAMPUS – DECK - DAY

Ed and Joe drink beer and chew the fat, surrounded by open books.

JOE

It seems to me there is a marvelously constant story in all myths of the world. One underlying thread. There are a thousand faces of the one hero.

ED Like a monomyth.

JOE Exactly. Its pattern of separation, initiation, and return is the story of man's universal struggle.

ED A hero's journey.

JOE This quest is the most real and primitive in the world. And, I really believe, we need to resurrect it to survive.

TRANSITION TO:

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ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. SHORELINE FOREST – DAY A forest spreads inland from the shoreline of the Pacific Ocean. A TLINGIT BOY sits at the edge of a polluted spring. Everything around him is dry and dying. In the distance, a TLINGIT GIRL materializes. She SINGS a sad song. As she sings, water flows from her lips. Once she sees that the boy sees her, she turns and walks away.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

EXT. SHORELINE FOREST – DAY Joe skips stones across the glassy surface of a pond. He hears the CRUNCHING of dead branches. He looks up.

At a distance, he sees a FEMALE FIGURE that closely resembles the Woman (Eternal Feminine/Carol) in John's dreams.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. FOREST – LATER The boy watches the receding figure of the girl. Just then, several OLDER TLINGIT BOYS appear. They have sticks and a ball and begin playing a game. They challenge the boy to join them. He hesitates, looking again at where the girl was. Finally, he joins the game.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

EXT. KAKE – HARBOR - DAY The Grampus glides into the safe haven.

MENTORING MONTAGE I

JOE AND ED canoe the inlets.

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listen to music and read. pose and take photographs. eat quiet dinners aboard the Grampus. have long discussions into the night.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. FOREST The boy stands beside the polluted pool. He puts on the mask of a wolf. He carries a bow. A knife at his leather girdle. A quiver of arrows across his back. A slingshot and pouch of stones at his waist. He runs to the spot where the girl disappeared. He finds a trail and follows it through the trees. In the distance, white smoke rises. He moves in that direction. When he reaches the plume of smoke, it resolves into a SHAMAN. The Shaman places a necklace of Eagle feathers around the boy's neck. He anoints the tips of the arrow and the knife and the pouch of stones with a potion. He gives the boy a small, clay pot of red dirt, which the boy hangs from his girdle.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

EXT. GRAMPUS – DECK - DAY Ed hands a letter to Joe.

ED

It's from John.

Joe reads the letter.

JOE (V.O.) I suddenly felt sick again. There was that old ripped-open feeling in my gut.

Joe returns the letter to Ed.

JOE Running off to the Sierras won't solve the problem.

ED He's a prime damn fool.

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JOE He's just trying to show Carol how violently unhappy his sensitive soul is over her little indiscretion. He just wants her to know the trouble she's in if she breaks his rules.

ED He's just fool enough to stop publication of Pastures of Heaven.

JOE Yes, that'll certainly show her.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. FOREST The boy continues along the trail. It ends at the bank of a turbulent river. Across the river, through a narrow chasm of granite rock, he can see the trail snaking away. A FERRYMAN appears. The boy hops aboard the man's plank boat. The ferryman poles them out into the river toward the mouth of the chasm. The river rages around them, bucking and churning and trying to smash them to pieces. The ferryman safely navigates his way through the chasm and reaches the other bank.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

MENTORING MONTAGE II

JOE AND ED collect specimens. drink beer. stay up all night debating Spengler. read Jeffers poetry aloud. sing songs.

INT. GRAMPUS – AFT CABIN - EVENING

Joe reads the first draft of Between Pacific Tides and notes some suggested changes.

Ed types up his collecting reports.

INT. GRAMPUS – MAIN CABIN – EVENING Ed, Joe, Jack, and Sasha clear the table after dinner.

Ed spreads out a map of Baja, California.

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ED

My next mountain. I want to do the same thing we're doing here in the Gulf of California. Maybe do another book or something. The second of a trilogy on intertidal ecology of the Pacific Coast. If I don't get crucified first.

JOE Between Pacific Tides will be a great book.

SASHA Those stuffy old academics will come around.

JACK

You writing it?

ED I'm not a writer. That's for the Carmel long-hairs. I've asked John to help out.

(off everyone's look) I know, I know. He's difficult, but the fool can write.

JOE I'll give you that.

ED It's all about that underlying web of life. And it's up to me to map it.

JOE

From the tide pool to the stars and back again.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. FOREST The trail leads to the opening of a large cave. The boy enters.

INT. CAVE The boy travels deep into the cave. He turns a corner and sees a fire. Beyond it, a wooden pole ladder climbs to an opening. Standing just beyond the ladder is a ONE-EYED BEAR.

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The boy throws a stone to distract the bear. The bear shuffles off to investigate. The boy takes a flaming stick from the fire. When the bear returns, he hurls the stick at the bear. The stick pierces the bear's good eye. The bear collapses in pain. The boy scampers across the cave and up the ladder.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

EXT. PORT ALEXANDER – DAY Joe, Ed, Jack, and Sasha walk through a forest of old totem poles. Joe is growing a beard. There is something eerie about these looming towers of animals, some real, some mythical: bears, wolves, eagles, thunderbirds. All stacked atop each other, as if along the axis of the universe.

SASHA

The animals represent clans, don't they?

JOE

They're also creatures from pagan stories. The native Haida culture created these myths to make sense of their world.

JACK Why do we tell stories? Why myths?

JOE To harmonize our lives with reality and nature. Myths are stories of our search through the ages for truth, for meaning, for significance. Mythology is our collective memory.

Sasha strokes one of the totems.

SASHA They're in bad shape.

JOE We've been tearing down their belief system for centuries.

JACK We?

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JOE Civilization, the church, progress.

ED Science.

JOE Unfortunately, yes.

They continue walking through the totem park.

ED We're in bad shape, too.

JOE With the old stories gone and the old rituals rejected, we've lost our way.

JACK Lost people fall apart.

JOE The evidence is everywhere. Suicide, anger, broken homes, barbaric children, violence, despair, greed.

SASHA It's a little depressing.

JOE Pragmatism, rational thought, science have all conspired to slay the Gods and conquer nature. Technology became mankind's ultimate weapon.

ED Don't blame the messenger.

JOE The old beliefs, the rituals, the myths. They're timeless. They're valuable. They're critical. But, we've lost them. Buried them beneath a veneer of cultured civilization.

SASHA We've killed the song.

JOE We need to resurrect the old symbols and stories so modern society can rediscover the Gods and get back in tune with nature.

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ED Someone needs to breathe life back into those myths. Someone needs to tell those stories. Someone needs to resurrect them. Lest we forget.

They stop in front of twin totem poles. The two towering totems look vaguely, sadly, disturbingly familiar.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. CAVE The boy scrambles out the hole in the roof of the cave and onto the top of a granite mountain. The trail continues. The trail leads to the entrance of a massive labyrinth. The boy enters.

INT. LABYRINTH The boy scurries through the maze, seeking an exit. A MAMMOTH SPIDER attacks. He kills it with an arrow. A WERE-HYENA rises up before him. He fits the sling with a stone and strikes down the beast. A DRAGON appears. He throws his knife and slays it. A MINOTAUR charges. He touches the necklace of feathers and disappears. He re-appears on the far side of the labyrinth. He exits into a broad desert.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

EXT. GRAMPUS – NIGHT Joe sleeps alone on deck.

JOE'S DREAM It is the same dream as John's.

Joe (Wayne/Campbell) pursues the elusive Woman (Eternal Feminine/Carol) through the woods.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

EXT. TIDAL ESTUARY – DAY Joe and Ed wade among the tide pools.

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JOE

Maybe I'll join you in Mexico.

ED Really?

JOE I'm envious. You and John on an adventure without me.

ED He wouldn't be a problem?

JOE It's a big ocean.

ED The new job will work out.

JOE I don't want to get to the top of the ladder only to find it's leaning against the wrong wall.

ED You'll be a great teacher, Joe. It's what you were meant to be.

JOE I don't know what I was meant to be.

ED Be what makes you happy. Go where your body and soul want to go.

JOE How will I know?

ED There'll be a deep sense of being in it. A pushing out from within. Invisible hands will guide you. And the way will open.

Ed places the flat of his hand against Joe's chest.

ED Find your burning point.

JOE You make it all sound so do-able.

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ED Someday, Joe, you'll understand that the life you think you ought to be living is actually the life you are living.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. DESERT The boy trudges across the desert. Nearly dead from thirst, he stumbles to the edge of an oasis.

EXT. OASIS The boy drinks long and deep. He looks up. On the far side of the oasis, he sees a TORTOISE. Riding on its back is the young girl of the mournful song. The tortoise and girl enter a turquoise pyramid. The boy follows.

INT. PYRAMID The boy can't see the tortoise or the girl. He walks down a long hallway. He hears a CHORUS of FEMALE VOICES. He moves toward the sound. He turns into a chamber.

INT. CHAMBER Arrayed on either side are LOVELY TLINGIT MAIDENS, each singing a seductive song. The boy is tempted to stay. At the far end of the chamber, he sees the tortoise and the girl. He stuffs his ears with small stones from the pouch. He runs through the gauntlet of maidens toward the tortoise. The boy exits the chamber and finds himself in a magnificent throne room.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

EXT. SITKA – DAY The green cupola of St. Michael's Russian Orthodox Cathedral glows in the distance.

EXT. SMALL COVE NEAR SITKA - DAY The Grampus anchors.

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A rustic cabin sits near the shore.

SHORELINE

Ed, Joe, Jack, and Sasha clamber out of the Nakwasina onto the pebbly beach.

Joe and Ed are surprised to see Xenia amble down from the cabin to greet them. She holds the hand of her seven-year-old niece, LARA.

Sasha shoots Ed some cautionary looks.

Ed tries to look innocent, disinterested.

Xenia hugs her sister and brother-in-law. She nonchalantly shakes Ed's hand, then Joe's. She holds onto Joe's hand, lingering momentarily.

INT. CABIN – NIGHT Ed, Joe, Jack, Sasha, and Lara all sit around a rough-hewn kitchen table. Xenia cranks her little windup phonograph. STRAVINSKY's Le Sacre du Printemps begins to play.

Joe smiles.

EXT. INLET – DAY Xenia sunbathes topless on a flat rock.

Stroking elegantly, Joe cuts through the water of the inlet.

Xenia turns toward the sound of the splashing. Joe emerges from the water. Naked. He glistens with cold, icy water. He climbs up on the rock next to Xenia.

Both seem very comfortable in their natural state.

EXT. COVE - DAY Joe and Xenia sit on a massive fallen tree. Joe plays SATIE on guitar. He finishes and sets the guitar aside. Down the shoreline, Sasha and Lara collect shells. Sasha glances over at Joe and Xenia from time-to-time.

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JOE Your sister likes playing mother hen.

XENIA She and Jack are a little patronizing.

JOE Ed still loves you.

XENIA A brief infatuation.

JOE He lost his family over you.

XENIA I feel sorry for him, but it wasn't my fault.

JOE Sasha says you're shooting the same rapids she shot many years ago. She's in the calm pool beneath, waiting.

XENIA I prefer the rapids.

JOE Me, too.

INT. CABIN – LIVING ROOM - EVENING Sitting around the fire, Ed reads the letter first. He hands it to Joe. Joe reads it and hands it to Sasha.

KITCHEN

Joe throws himself on the day-bed in the corner.

Sasha returns to the stove to finish cooking dinner.

SASHA Isn't it your turn to do something?

JOE No. My job is to disappear.

EXT. ROCKY SHORE – DAY Joe and Ed fish for supper.

JOE

Are we copasetic?

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ED Ah, Joe, there are so many fish in the sea.

Joe dips his fingers in the ocean and flicks the water at Ed.

Ed scoops a handful of water and shovels it at Joe.

Joe grabs two hands full of water and heaves them at Ed.

Ed kicks water at Joe.

And a full-on, blow-off-steam, good-natured, boys-will-be-boys water fight erupts.

EXT. FOREST – EVENING Joe and Xenia walk in a light mist. They stop beside a little stream and sit on the rocks.

XENIA

Sasha warned me about unattached men like you. She said it was dangerous.

JOE Is it?

XENIA I'm not afraid.

JOE It might be less complicated if we kept it Platonic.

XENIA Time will tell.

As they walk back to the cabin, they see a flashlight flickering in the distance along the seashore. As they get closer, they see Ed hard at work collecting still more specimens.

EXT. SMALL COVE NEAR SITKA – DAY The Grampus pulls out into open water. Xenia sits on the fantail. Very close to Joe.

JUNEAU-BOUND MONTAGE The Grampus moves through more fjords, channels, and coves.

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The coastline is dotted with villages, bearded cliffs, and leaning totem poles.

Xenia sunbathes on top of the Grampus. She doesn't wear much. Joe sits beside her. He stares at the scenery in the distance, then at the scenery close at hand.

Joe and Xenia sleep in separate sleeping bags, side-by-side on the roof of the Grampus.

INT. GRAMPUS – MAIN CABIN – NIGHT Joe talks story.

JOE

From Haida myth, we learn that the earth was once covered with water. Life crawled up from the sea to land and man evolved from the lowly sea creature. The clam and the chiton are metaphors for mankind's common progenitor.

Joe seems to be talking only to Xenia. He points to each creature in one of Ed's books.

JOE The chiton with its fleshy, labial underside and the clam with its phallic siphon represent the female and male, and their union represents the act of procreation.

Sasha gives Ed a sympathetic look, then turns to Joe, shooting him a scolding look.

EXT. ELFIN COVE – DAY Joe and Xenia walk through the village.

A PACK OF CHILDREN and DOGS trail in their wake. Joe is in his teacher mode. Xenia is the eager student.

JOE

All mythology has a trickster-hero of some kind. It's their job to make life more interesting. They defy authority and shake up the status quo. They're always changing shapes and getting into things.

XENIA

Like coyote.

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JOE Like coyote. Trickster is always testing us so we can discover what we're really made of.

XENIA Have you ever noticed that none of the major western religions have a trickster? Their world is all good and evil, black and white. There's no humor, no fun. Without that, it's easy to do bad things in the name of good.

Joe is impressed with the knowledge of his student.

JOE For native people around here, it was Raven. He stole fire from the Gods and gave it to man. He put fish in the sea, salmon in the rivers, and the sun in the sky.

XENIA My father tells this story well.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE illustrating the story.

XENIA (V.O.)

Long ago, by the mouth of a great river, lived an old chief and his only daughter. It was said the old man kept the sun hidden away in a box. Raven wanted to have this sun and had tried to get it many times without success. One day, he devised a plan. He noticed that the daughter went to the well every day for a supply of water. So, he transformed himself into a pine needle, dropped into her drinking water, and was swallowed. She became pregnant and, in due time, Raven was reborn as the chief's grandson.

ANIMATION CONTINUES

XENIA (V.O.) Raven became a great favorite with the old chief, who let him have anything he asked for. One day, he asked to play with the sun box. The old man refused to grant this wish. Raven gave him no

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XENIA (V.O.) (CONT'D) peace. Finally, weary of his whining, his grandfather let him play with it. The Raven quickly took the box and rolled it outside. He dashed the box to pieces. He took the sun in his beak and placed it in the sky, where it has been giving light to the world ever since.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

Joe and Xenia hear the familiar GOAT LAUGH. They both turn.

Ed holds his hand up to the sky. At a distance, it looks like he's holding the sun up in the sky.

EXT. GUSTAVUS – DAY Ed, Joe, Jack, and Sasha finish loading supplies aboard the Grampus.

Ed hands Joe a letter.

ED

From Carol.

Joe reads the letter.

JOE (V.O.) Carol was still in Sausalito, waiting. She was seeking a sign. From someone.

EXT. GRAMPUS – DAY The Grampus continues on its way to Juneau.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

INT. THRONE ROOM A KING sits on an ivory throne at the far end of the room. The boy approaches. Two SERPENTS rise up, hissing, to block his way. He sprinkles red dirt out of the clay pot into his palm. He tosses the red dirt at each one and they melt. The king offers the boy a pipe. The boy smokes it and passes it back. The king gives the boy a large golden platter. The boy bows and takes his leave.

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BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

EXT. JUNEAU – DAY (AUGUST 20TH) The Grampus slowly motors down a long fjord.

EXT. JUNEAU – HARBOR – DAY A picturesque FAMILY in traditional Russian dress has gathered on the dock.

FATHER KASHEVAROFF waits, wearing his Orthodox priest costume and a joyful smile. Standing beside him is his fourth daughter, LEGIA, mother of Lara.

Arrayed in ceremonial splendor behind them are the ELDERS of the local Tlingit tribe and behind them the VILLAGERS.

INT. ST. NICHOLAS RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH – SUNDAY MORNING Ed, Joe, Xenia, Jack, and Sasha sit among the congregation.

Several native INDIANS attend the service.

Father Kashevaroff SINGS the Mass in Russian. He gives the creed in the native tongue of the Tlingit.

There is a tremendous feeling of the Russian and the indigenous.

INT. CHURCH SOCIAL HALL – LATER THAT DAY

Joe and Ed host a dinner for the Kashevaroff family and GUESTS.

Tables are heaped with Russian and native food and drink. Father Kashevaroff SINGS Russian folk songs. He accompanies himself alternately on piano, guitar, violin, and his native Russian balalaika.

As the Father plays, Joe studies the instrument, strings and finger patterns.

While everyone eats, Joe huddles alone, learning the balalaika.

After dinner, Father Kashevaroff launches into another round of RUSSIAN FOLK SONGS. To his surprise, Joe steps up and begins playing along on the balalaika. Everyone is impressed.

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ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. PYRAMID The boy exits the pyramid. He flings the golden platter into the sky and it metamorphoses into the sun. Two JACKALS materialize from the sand. They adorn the boy with angel wings and a halo. The boy flies toward the sun.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

JUNEAU MONTAGE The Kashevaroffs and the Voyagers pick berries. enjoy fine dinners. visit the local museum. hike the Mendenhall glacier.

EXT. GRAMPUS – DECK - DAY Joe sits alone on the fantail. His beard is getting thicker, his hair longer.

The sun sits in the sky behind Joe's head, creating the illusion of a golden halo about his head. He writes a farewell letter to Carol.

JOE (V.O.)

I think it's best for all. I hope to see you again some day, funny girl.

EXT. FOREST – DAY A SILHOUETTE moves through the deep fog. The form emerges from the mist into a shaft of bright light.

It's Joe.

He stops beside a huge stump of an ancient evergreen that was cut down ages ago.

The surface of the stump is dotted with bright green shoots stretching toward the sky.

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ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. MOUNTAIN The boy spreads his wings, banks, glides down, and lands at the summit of the tallest mountain in a mountain range. He shrugs off his wings. He sees a sweat lodge. He enters.

INT. SWEAT LODGE The boy drinks a cup of blood. He eats a root. He falls into a fever dream. The boy awakens. The girl kneels at his side. She hands him a scrimshaw TOTEM POLE carved with animals.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

INT. KASHEVAROFF HOME – NIGHT Everyone eats, drinks, and talks into the wee hours of the morning.

EXT. KASHEVAROFF HOME – SUNRISE (AUGUST 26TH) Ed, Joe, Jack, and Sasha load a pair of taxis with bags and specimens. There are endless rounds of heartfelt goodbyes.

Joe looks around. Xenia is nowhere in sight.

Father Kashevaroff presents Joe with a miniature scrimshaw TOTEM POLE carved with images of animals.

FATHER KASHEVAROFF The bear represents strength. Deer, the power of gentleness. Turtle, longevity. Coyote, humor. Beaver, builder of home and family. Buffalo, endurance to overcome one's weaknesses. Eagle, courage and wisdom. Wolf, teacher and pathfinder on the never-ending journey.

Joe and Father Kashevaroff embrace.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. MEADOW The boy and girl eat, drink, and talk. He is content.

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The totem lies abandoned on the ground between them. The girl threads the totem with string and tries to put it around his neck. He holds up his hands and shakes his head. She disappears. Reluctantly, he ties the totem around his neck.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

EXT. JUNEAU - STEAMSHIP TERMINAL – LATER Xenia waits at the dock. The taxis pull up.

They unload.

Another round of goodbyes.

Jack and Sasha board.

Ed waits at the bottom of the gangway.

Joe lingers with Xenia.

JOE

This seems like a good life.

XENIA It's not your life.

JOE It could be.

XENIA Your journey is far from over.

JOE Come with me.

XENIA I will see you again. Some day.

JOE I'm not ready.

XENIA Yes, you are. Tell the world what you've learned.

JOE No regrets?

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XENIA

No tears goodbye.

Xenia kisses Joe. They embrace.

Joe and Ed slowly climb the gangway onto the S.S. PRINCESS LOUISE, a large Canadian Pacific passenger liner.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. LAKE The boy canoes across a vast lake. He is attacked by GRIFFINS from the sky. He fires an arrow into the air and it turns into lightning, striking down the griffins. A MULTI-HEADED WATER MONSTER erupts from the lake and attacks the boy. The boy tosses the clay pot of red dirt into the water. The lake parts behind him, blocking the monster from pursuing him.

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

INT. S.S. PRINCESS LOUISE – DAY The luxury liner is all fine linen and polished silver, ornate fixtures and elegant appointments.

Scruff-bearded, lank-haired, and sunburned, Joe and Ed look incongruous and wild among the more civilized and sophisticated passengers.

ED

It just doesn't feel right.

JOE Stiff shoes instead of the naked earth, tight clothes instead of the sun. It's unnatural.

PROMENADE DECK

Joe and Ed sit in deck chairs, watching the PASSENGERS parade by.

ED Modern man has lost touch with the elemental forces that shaped him.

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JOE The secret is to break through the crust of urban life to reach the life breathing beneath.

ED (quotes)

"Humanity is the mold to break away from, the crust to break through, the coal to break into fire, the atom to be split."

JOE Ecologists and mythologists, you and I, are harmonizers, integrators. It's up to us to bring nature and man together.

ED This tension between the primitive and the civilized, man and machine is tearing us apart.

JOE Will the machine crush humanity or serve it?

ED Humanity never comes from the machine. It always comes from the heart.

INT. STATEROOM - NIGHT

Joe writes in his journal

JOE (V.O.) Someday, somebody will tell that story.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. LAKE A giant CATFISH leaps out of the water. It opens its mouth and swallows the boy, canoe and all.

INT. CATFISH BELLY The boy sloshes around the flotsam and jetsam of everything the giant fish has ingested. A BLIND CRONE floats alongside. She lights a torch and holds it up to the backbone of the fish. The fish coughs and expels the boy.

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BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

EXT. TACOMA – DOCK – DAY Joe and Ed load the huge crates of preserved specimens into the Packard.

HOMEWARD-BOUND MONTAGE Joe and Ed drive south to Monterey.

DEPRESSION MONTAGE Hard times have hit California.

The roads are filled with FAMILIES "Grapes-of-Wrathing" it to the Golden State.

Businesses are boarded up.

MEN and BOYS stand idly around street corners.

MAKESHIFT CAMPS have sprung up like so many shabby mushrooms.

JOE (V.O.)

As we drove south, I learned my father's business had failed, a casualty of the deepening depression.

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE – CANARY COTTAGE - EVENING

Joe stands beside his dusty Ford Flivver.

Ed sits at the wheel of the Packard.

ED What about Carol?

JOE We have our memories. It's better left that way.

ED What will be will be.

They shake hands.

ED God speed and good luck on the road ahead.

JOE And you.

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Ed drives away. He tips his hat to a DOG. We hear his GOAT LAUGH echoing in the night.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. SHORELINE FOREST – DAY The boy awakens from a deep sleep. He's back where he started. Beside the pool. But, there are no friends, no girl. He sits up and rubs his eyes. He feels something around his neck. He touches the stringed totem. He removes the totem from around his neck and stands it on the ground. The land blossoms. He stares at his reflection in the spring. He is older. Almost a man.

TRANSITION TO:

BACK TO PRESENT – LIVE ACTION

RETURN MONTAGE Joseph drives East, retracing his original journey in reverse. The tiny totem pole sits on the dash board.

We see more scenes of Depression-era America.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

Return trip in Flivver. $300 in debt, mostly to Ed Ricketts, but with a view ahead.

EXT. NEW YORK CITY – DAY The Depression has hit the metropolis hard.

FAMILIES live in tents and shacks in parks and open lots. MEN beg for food on the streets.

CHILDREN tear wooden slats from fences for firewood. BREAD LINES snake for blocks. YOUNG MEN dressed in dusty suits and scuffed shoes sleep on park benches.

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EXT. MANHATTAN APARTMENT – DAY Joseph's father answers the door. He sees a strange, bearded man on his doorstep.

JOSEPH'S FATHER

I'm sorry, we don't want any.

He starts to close the door.

JOSEPH Dad, it's me. Joseph. I've returned home.

His father is dumbstruck for a few moments. He begins to sob. Joseph takes his father into his arms.

EXT. MANHATTAN APARTMENT – SOME TIME LATER A clean-shaven, clear-eyed Joseph stands in the front doorway.

The mirrored glass of the door and the adjacent windows create the illusion of Joseph with two faces, standing in two doorways.

Janus contemplating the road ahead and the road behind.

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. FOREST The boy stands beside a waterfall near the entrance to a cave. In the water's reflection, we see an image of the boy with two faces standing in two doors. One face looking back, one looking forward. Nearby, a WHITE HORSE paws the ground. The boy leaps on his back and rides away.

TRANSITION TO:

BACK TO LIVE ACTION

INT. DOC'S LAB – DAY – SOME YEARS HAVE PASSED Ed edits the neatly typed manuscript for The Log from the Sea of Cortez.

INT. MANHATTAN APARTMENT – STUDY - DAY

Joseph writes The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

110

JOSEPH (V.O.)

After all these years, I discover we have been walking parallel paths.

EXT. PACIFIC GROVE - BOOKSTORE – DAY Copies of The Log from the Sea of Cortez sit in the display window.

EXT. NEW YORK – BOOKSTORE – DAY Copies of The Hero with a Thousand Faces sit in the display window.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

You were writing the guide to the tide pools. I the guide to the Gods.

EXT. MONTEREY – BOOKSTORE – DAY Copies of Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday sit in the display window.

EXT. MONTEREY – DAY John and Carol, looking very well-to-do, sit in an idling Stutz-Bearcat at the curb in front of the bookstore. There is a chasm between them.

CAROL

Just think. You have become a rumor in your own time.

JOSEPH (V.O.) I never saw Carol again.

JOHN A successful rumor, nonetheless.

JOSEPH (V.O.) I've known a few men in my life who stay with a wife during the tough years and then, when things get better, they move on to someone else.

INT. DOC'S LAB – DAY John and Carol share a beer with Ed. In the background, DEBUSSY's La Mer plays on a brand new, more traditional phonograph.

111

ED Doesn't sound quite the same.

CAROL Inspiring nonetheless.

ED

This is the price of fame, I guess. There are one or two visitors every day who want to behold "Doc" in the flesh. I usually send them away.

JOHN I'm sorry.

CAROL No, you're not.

EXT. BRONXVILLE, NEW YORK - SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE – DAY Joseph teaches a class on "Comparative Mythology" to an attentive class of YOUNG WOMEN.

JOSEPH

Schopenhauer once wrote that just as dreams are composed by our unconscious, our entire life is also composed by the will within us.

In the front row, hanging on his every word, sits 20-year-old JEAN ERDMAN.

JOSEPH

We're the writer of our own life story. Nothing is accidental, nothing incidental. We're all dreamers and our dreams are all part of the one great dream of a single dreamer.

JOSEPH'S DREAM The snowy landscape of John's dream has transformed into a tropical paradise.

Joseph pursues the Elusive Woman.

Suddenly, she stops and turns. The Woman's face is no longer the face of the Eternal Feminine/Carol. It is now the face of Jean.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

I continued the quest for the eternal feminine. Until I met Jean, my partner for the rest of my life.

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INT. LOS GATOS – STEINBECK HOUSE – DAY John writes The Grapes of Wrath.

EXT. POINT PIÑOS LIGHTHOUSE – DAY Ed gathers specimens in the great tide pool.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

Protean Ed, the man of the sea. Every time I see a rocky coast, I think of Ed in his boots.

INT. DOC'S LAB – DUSK Ed is in the last stages of preparation for another expedition. A large map of British Columbia is tacked to one wall. A piece of paper is pinned below it. The neatly typewritten words read: "The Outer Shores."

Beside it is pinned a larger piece of paper. Scrawled on it in Ed's handwriting are the words: "3rd & Final." Ed drains his quart of beer. He opens the refrigerator to get another. It's empty.

He covers his instruments and puts away his papers. He rolls down the sleeves of his wool shirt and puts on his old brown coat. He grabs an armful of empty quart bottles and heads out the door.

EXT. MONTEREY – DEL MONTE AVENUE – DUSK Ed drives an old Buick. He waves at Flora's GIRLS and some BUMS. He tips his hat to DOGS and KIDS. He squints to see in the gathering mist and darkness.

He nearly hits a ghostly SILHOUETTE shrouded in the fog. It's the beachcomber; the eccentric man who lost everything for love.

Ed shifts to a lower gear and climbs the hill toward New Monterey. The motor and noisy gears of the old car fill the air with white noise. To his left, just before the railroad tracks, sits a corrugated iron warehouse, which blocks his view of the tracks. As Ed slowly crosses the tracks, his Buick stalls. He can't get it to re-start. He tries and tries.

113

The DEL MONTE EXPRESS materializes out of the fog and . . . SMASHES the car broadside, scooping it up in its cow-catcher, and dragging it for a quarter mile before it can stop.

TRAIN TRACKS – LATER Sirens, ambulances, POLICE, ONLOOKERS. Ed lies dying in the wreckage.

John and Carol appear at his side. Tears stream down their cheeks. When Ed sees them, a light flickers in his eyes.

John sits cross-legged on the ground and cradles Ed's head in his lap.

ED

Hey there, oh great writer!

JOHN Hail, oh great scientist!

Ed coughs blood.

ED The final breakthrough, eh John.

Ed dies in John's arms.

JOSEPH (V.O.) As a scientist, Ed didn't know how to lie. As a novelist, John didn't know how to tell the truth. It was a mythic combination.

INT. MANHATTAN APARTMENT – STUDY - DAY Joseph sits at his writing desk. FRAMED PHOTOGRAPHS dot the wall above the desk.

Joseph and Jean on their wedding day. Jean dancing with the Martha Graham Dance Troupe. Joseph and Jean in Honolulu. Joseph and his family. Joseph and his sister, Alice. A caricature drawn by Richie of Joseph, Ed, and John in Pacific Grove.

114

Joseph sifts through his mail. One envelope catches his attention. The top line of the return address reads: "Steinbeck."

Excited, Joseph tears opens the letter. His excitement turns to sadness as he reads. Tears well up in his eyes. He breaks down, head in hands.

ED (V.O.)

Don't get caught up in the how and why of things, Joe. Just remember, "Is things are." All things work together. All things work out.

REPRISE MONTAGE of days on the Monterey Peninsula.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

I will always have a deep nostalgia for those wonderful days, when everything that has happened since was taking shape. For me, the Monterey Peninsula was the Earthly Paradise.

TRANSITION TO:

ANIMATION SEQUENCE

EXT. COASTAL VILLAGE – EVENING The village sits beside the ocean. The VILLAGERS hold a feast in honor of the boy's triumphant return. Everyone sits in a circle around the campfire. The boy wears fine new clothes. At the edge of the campfire light, we see the girl, the shaman, the ferryman, the tortoise, the king, the blind crone, the white horse.

MATCHED DISSOLVE TO:

LIVE ACTION Joseph now sits in the circle beside the boy. They both wear their stringed totems around their necks.

At the edge of the campfire light, we also now see Ed and Xenia, John and Carol, Tal and Richie, Jack and Sasha, and Father Kashevaroff.

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SHORELINE Everyone joins hands and dances on the edge of the ocean.

FROM HIGH ABOVE we see the ring of fire and the dancers.

TRANSITION TO:

EXT./INT. NEW YORK – FUNERAL HOME – SEVERAL YEARS LATER

TITLE CARD New York City, New York 1960 The NOTABLES OF NEW YORK have gathered to attend the memorial service for PASCAL "PAT" COVICI who, by a strange coincidence, turned out to be the editor for both Joseph Campbell and John Steinbeck.

An OLDER JOSEPH sits in the front row. Jean sits beside him, cradling his hands. Joseph kisses her as he gets up to present his eulogy.

JOSEPH

(to the gathering) There is a chapter in e.e. Cummings' allegorical novel "The Enormous Room" in which he describes a number of majestic personalities. The chapter is named "The Delectable Mountains."

An OLDER JOHN enters with ELAINE SCOTT STEINBECK, his third wife. They sit in a row at the rear.

Joseph sees him. They acknowledge one another.

JOSEPH

And I recall the sense of truth that I felt when the force of this image struck me. Of the personality of the realized human being that is the revelation of that Form of Forms that is the ultimate objective of all thought, all desire, and the pattern of all wonder and beauty. That was Pat.

Joseph finishes and leaves the podium.

John rises and walks up the aisle.

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As they pass, they lightly touch each other's sleeve.

John steps behind the podium

JOHN (to the gathering)

For thirty years, Pat was my collaborator and my conscience. He demanded of me more than I had and thereby caused me to be more than I should have been without him.

Joseph and John could both have easily said the same things about Ed.

EXT. FUNERAL HOME – LATER The MOURNERS mingle outside.

Joseph and John gravitate to one another.

JOHN

(with a slight smile) It took a funeral to bring us together.

JOSEPH So many funerals, now. Ed gone, Pat gone. Too many gone.

JOHN I almost died myself. I was this close.

John holds up his two fingers and closes them to within a hair's breadth.

JOHN

One who has lived in the mind as much as I have does have a choice he can make. There you are, and there is this door. You can open it, and walk through. Or close it, and stay here awhile.

Joseph smiles and takes John by both arms.

JOSEPH Yes, and stay here awhile.

The two men look at each other with mingled pain and love. They embrace silently.

Around them, the MOURNERS depart.

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JOSEPH (V.O.) It was an extraordinary matrix of destiny I had stumbled into back in 1932.

MONTAGE – HERO SHOTS of Ed. of John. of Joseph.

JOSEPH (V.O.)

We were all seeking the key to living a meaningful life. We each found it in our own way.

EXT. GRENVILLE CHANNEL – SUNSET The Grampus chases the setting sun.

JOHN (V.O.)

To finish is a sadness to a writer—a little death. He puts the last word down and it is done. But it isn't really done. The story goes on and leaves the writer behind, for no story is ever done.

TRANSITION TO:

NEWSREEL FOOTAGE John Steinbeck accepts his Nobel Peace Prize.

TITLE CARD John Steinbeck won the Nobel Peace Prize two years later. He died in New York eight years later at the age of 66.

NEWSREEL FOOTAGE Joseph Campbell teaches at Sarah Lawrence.

TITLE CARD Joseph Campbell lived until 1987. His work inspired countless numbers of storytellers. He died in Honolulu at the age of 83.

NEWSREEL FOOTAGE The Monterey Bay Aquarium is re-named in memory of Ed Ricketts, marine biologist and ecology pioneer.

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TITLE CARD The Monterey Bay Aquarium, perhaps the finest collection of undersea exhibits demonstrating the principle of ecology in the world, was later dedicated to the memory of Ed "Doc" Ricketts.

FADE OUT.

THE END