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176 INT -- LIBRARY -- DAY (1965) 176
Poker game in progress. Tommy, Andy, Red and the boys.
HEYWOOD
You did a stretch in Cashman too?
TOMMY
Yeah. That was an easy ride, let me tell you. Work programs, eekend
furloughs. Not like here.
SNOOZE
Sounds like you done time all over New England.
TOMNY
Been in and out since I was 13. Name the place, chances are I
been there.
ANDY
Perhaps it's time you considered a new profession.
(the game stalls)
What I mean is, you don't seem to be a very good thief. Maybe
you
should try something else.
TOMMY
What the hell you know about it, Capone? What are you in for?
ANDY
(wry glance to Red)
Everyone's innocent in here. Don't you know that?
The tension breaks. Everyone laughs.
177 INT -- VISITOR'S ROOM -- DAY (1965) 177
CAMERA TRAVELS the room. Chaotic. CONS are waiting their turn
or talking to visitors through a thick plexi shield.
RED (V.O.)
As it turns out, Tommy had himself a young wife and new baby girl...
Tommy's at the end of the row, phone to his ear. Other side of
the glass is BETH, near tears, fussing with a BABY on her lap.
BETH
...said we can stay with them, but Joey's gettin' out of the service
next month, and they barely got enough room as it is. Plus they
got Poppa workin' double shifts and the baby cries half the night.
I just don't know where we're gonna go...
PUSH IN on Tommy's face as he listens.
RED (V.O.)
Maybe it was the thought of them on the streets...or his child
growing
up not knowing her daddy...
178 INT -- LIBRARY -- DAY (1965) 178
Tommy enters, the strut gone from his step. A little scared.
He finds Andy filing library cards.
RED (V.O.)
Whatever it was, something lit a fire under that boy's ass.
TOMMY
I'm thinkin' maybe I should try for high school equivalency. Hear
you
helped some fellas with that.
ANDY
I don't waste time on losers, Tommy.
TOMNY
(tight)
I ain't no goddamn loser.
ANDY
That's a good start. If we do this, we do it all the way. One
hundred
percent. Nothing half-assed.
Tommy thinks about it, nods.
TOMMY
Thing is, see...
(leans in, mutters)
...I don't read all that good.
ANDY
(smiles)
Well. You've come to the right place then.
179 INT -- LIBRARY -- DAY (1965) 179
We find Andy giving an impassioned reading:
ANDY
"...and the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow
on the
floor...and my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on
the
floor, shall be lifted nevermore!"
Andy slaps the book shut, immensely pleased with himself.
TOMMY
So this raven just sits there and won't go away?
ANDY
That's right.
TOMMY
(beat)
Why don't that fella get hisself a 12-gauge and dust the fucker?
180 INT -- LIBRARY -- DAY (1965) 180
Tommy tries to read as Andy looks on:
TOMMY
"The cat sh--The cat shh..."
(glances up)
The cat shat on the welcome mat?
Andy shakes his head. Not exactly.
181 INT -- LIBRARY -- DAY (1965) 181
Andy chalks the alphabet on a blackboard.
RED (V.O.)
So Andy took Tommy under his wing. Started walking him through
his ABCs...
182 INT -- MESS HALL -- DAY (1965) 182
TRACK the table to Tommy and Andy. Discussing a book.
RED (V.O.)
Tommy took to it pretty well, too. Boy found brains he never knew
he
had.
183 EXT -- EXERCISE YARD BLEACHERS -- DAY (1965) 183
TOMNY
The cat sh--shh--shimmied up the tree and crept st--stel--stealthily
out on the limb...
184 INT -- WOOD SHOP -- DAY (1965) 184
Tommy intent on a paperback, mouthing the words. Behind him,
wood is piling up on the conveyor belt.
RED (V.O.)
After a while, you couldn't pry those books out of hands.
RED
Ass in gear, son! You're putting us behind!
Tommy shoves the book in his back pocket and hurries over.
185 INT -- LIBRARY -- DAY (1965) 185
Tommy writes a sentence on the blackboard. Andy steps in, shows
him how to reconstruct it.
RED (V.O.)
Before long, Andy started him on his course requirements. He really
liked the kid, that was part of it. Gave him a thrill to help
a youngster crawl off the shitheap. But that wasn't the only reason...
186 INT -- ANDY'S CELL -- NIGHT (1966) 186
TIGHT ANGLE on chessboard. Most of the pieces complete. PAN TO
Andy lying in his bunk, carefully polishing...
RED (V.O.)
Prison time is slow time. Sometimes it feels like stop-time. So
you do
what you can to keep going...
...and we keep going past Andy in a SLOW PAN of the cell. Sink.
Toilet. Books. Outside the window bars, we hear another TRAIN
passing in the night...
RED (V.O.)
Some fellas collect stamps. Others build matchstick houses. Andy
built a library. Now he needed a new project. Tommy was it. It
was the same reason he spent years shaping and polishing those
rocks. The same reason he hung his fantasy girlies on the wall...
...STILL PANNING, past a chair, a sweater on a hook...and finally
to the place of honor on the wall...
RED (V.O.)
In prison, a man'll do most anything to keep his mind occupied.
...where the latest poster turns out to be Racquel Welch ins
fur bikini. Gorgeous. "One Million Years, B. C. " SLOW
PUSH IN,
RED (V.O.)
By 1966...right about the time Tommy was getting ready to take
his
exams...it was lovely Racquel.
187 INT -- LIBRARY -- DAY (1966) 187
Tommy's taking the big test. Andy's monitoring the time. Deep
silence, save for Tommy's pencil-scribbling. A few old-timers
are browsing the shelves, sneaking looks their way. Tommy tries
to ignore them. Concentrate.
Andy clears his throat. Time's up. Tommy puts his pencil down,
ANDY
Well?
TOMMY
Well. It's for shit.
(gets up in disgust)
Wasted a whole fuckin' year of my time with this bullshit!
ANDY
May not be as bad as you think.
TOMMY
It's worse! I didn't get a fuckin' thing right! Might as well
be in Chinese!
ANDY
We'll see how the score comes out.
TOMMY
I'll tell you how the goddamn score comes out...
Tommy grabs the test, wads it, slam-dunks it into the trash.
TOMMY
Two points! Right there! There's your goddamn score!
(storms out)
Goddamn cats crawlin' up trees, 5 times 5 is 25, fuck this place,
fuck it!
Tommy is gone. Red and others stare. Andy gets up, pulls the
test from the trash, smoothes it out on the desk.
188 INT -- WOOD SHOP -- DAY (1966) 188
Rest break. Tommy and Red sipping Cokes.
TOMMY
I feel bad. I let him down.
RED
That's crap, son. He's proud of you. Proud as a hen.
(off Tommy's look)
We been friends a long time. I know him as good as anybody.
TOMMY
Smart fella, ain't he?
RED
Smart as they come. Used to be a banker on the outside.
TOMMY
What's he in for anyway?
RED
Murder.
TOMMY
The hell you say.
RED
You wouldn't think, lookin' at him. Caught his wife in bed with
some
golf pro. Greased 'em both. C'mon, boy, back to work...
SMASH! Red turns back. Tommy's Coke has slipped from his hand
and shattered on the floor. The kid's gone white as a sheet.
TOMMY
(bare whisper)
Oh my God...
189 INT -- LIBRARY -- DAY (1966) 189
Tommy sits before Andy and Red:
TOMMY
'Bout four years ago, I was in Thomaston on a 2 to 3 stretch.
Stole a car. Dumbfuck thing to do.
(beat)
Few months left to go, I get a new cellmate in. Elmo Blatch. Big
twitchy fucker. Crazy eyes. Kind of roomie you pray you don't
get, know what I'm sayin'? 6 to 12 for armed burglary. Said he
done hundreds of jobs. Hard to believe, high-strung as he was.
Cut a loud fart, he'd go three feet in the air. Talked all the
time, too, that's the other thing. Never shut up. Places he'd
been, jobs he pulled, women he fucked. Even people he killed.
People that gave him shit, that's
how he put it. One night, like a joke, I say: "Yeah? Who'd
you kill?" So he says...
BLATCH
...I got me this job one time bussin' tables at a country club.
So I could case all the big rich pricks that come in. I pick out
this guy, go in one night and do his place. He wakes up and gives
me shit. So I killed him. Him and the tasty bitch he was with.
(starts laughing)
That's the best part! She's fuckin' this prick, see, this golf
pro, but she's married to some other guy! Some hotshot banker.
He's the one
they pinned it on! They got him down-Maine somewhere doin' time
for the crime! Ain't that choice?
He throws his head back and ROARS with laughter.
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