THE STUDENT'S WIFE written by Desmond Liang Based on the short story The Student's Wife by Raymond Carver. This first draft is finished on Jan 30, 2019.
1. FADE IN EXT. LAKESIDE - AFTERNOON A sonorous male voice is reading aloud and firmly. Dreamy shots of Nan and Mike having a good time by a lake are shown. (Reading a poem) You need not understand life, then it becomes a grand affair. And let every day happen to you as a child, in passing, from every breeze, accept a gift of many blossoms. To collect and the blossoms spare, that never enters the child's mind. She gently unties them from her hair, where they were kept captive with such delight. The hands of the loving, youthful girl reach out to embrace the new. INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT It is a rich voice that spilled Nan into a dream of caravans just setting out from walled cities and bearded men in robes. She has listened to him for a few minutes, then she has closed her eyes and drifted off. Mike goes on reading aloud. Outside a car rubbers by now and then on the pavement. After a while he put down the book and turned in the bed to reach for the lamp. Nan suddenly opens her eyes, as if frightened, and blinked two or three times. Her eyelids looks oddly dark and fleshy to him as they flicked up and down over her fixed glassy eyes. Mike stares at her. (Gently) Are you dreaming? She nods and brings her hand up and scratches her eyebrows. He keeps looking at her, leaning on his elbow, at the same time trying to straighten the spread with his free hand.
2. (Dragged out) Make me a little sandwich of something, Mike. With butter and lettuce and salt on the bread. Mike does nothing and says nothing because he wants to go to sleep. After a beat, he opens his eyes and she is still awake, watching him. (Solemnly) Can't you go to sleep, Nan? It's late. I'd like something to eat first... And my legs and arms hurt for some reason, and I'm hungry. Mike groans extravagantly as he rolls out of bed. He fixes her the sandwich and puts it on a saucer. She sits up in bed and smiled when he comes into the bedroom. She takes over the saucer, and he thinks that she looks like a hospital patient in her white nightgown. What a funny little dream I had. What were you dreaming? Mike gets into bed and turns over onto his side away from her. He stares at the nightstand waiting, then closes his eyes slowly. Do you really want to hear it? Sure. She settles back comfortably on the pillow and picks a crumb from her lip. Well, it seemed like a real long drawn-out kind of dream, you know, with all kinds of relationships going on, but I can't remember everything now. It was all very clear when I woke up, but it's beginning to fade now. (MORE) 2.
3. But it was just the two of use at some little hotel or something. It was on some lake that wasn't familiar.(laughs) The next thing I recall is we were riding in a motorboat. It was a very narrow boat, and we were arguing who was going to sacrifice and sit all cooped up in the back. It was so narrow it hurt my legs, and I was afraid the water was going to come in over the sides. Then I woke up. That's some dream. He manages to say that and feels drowsily. You about to finished with that sandwich, Nan? Nan nods and gives him the saucer. I'll turn off the light. If you want. Then he hits the light switch, pulls down into the bed again and extends his foot until it touches against hers. He lays still for a minute and then tries to relax. Mike, you're not asleep, are you? No... Nothing like that. Well, don't go to sleep before me. I don't want to be awake by myself. Mike doesn't answer, but he inches a little closer to her on his side. When she puts her arm over him and plants her hand flat against his chest, he takes her fingers and squeezes them lightly. But in moments his hand drops away to the bed, and he sighs.
4. Mike? Honey? I wish you'd rub my legs, my legs hurt. (softly) God, I was sound asleep. Well, I wish you'd rub my legs and talk to me. My shoulders hurt, too. But my legs especially. He turns over and began rubbing her legs, then falls asleep again with his hand on her hip. Mike? What is it, Nan? Tell me what it is. I wish you'd rub me all over. My legs and arms both hurt tonight. Nan turns onto her back and raises her knees to make a tower with the covers. Mike opens his eyes briefly in the dark and shuts them. Growing pains, huh? O God, yes. When I was ten or eleven years old, I was as big then as I am now. You should've seen me! I get so fast in those days my legs and arms hurt me all the time. Didn't you? Didn't I what? Didn't you ever feel yourself growing? Not that I remember.
5. Mike turns his pillow over to the cooler side and lays down again. You're asleep, Mike. I wish you'd want to talk. (Whispers) All right. Just hold me and get me off to sleep. I can't go to sleep. He turns over the puts his arm over her shoulder as she turns onto her side to face the wall. Mike? He taps his toes against her foot. Why don't you tell me all the things you like and the things you don't like. Don't know any right now. Tell me if you want. If you promise to tell me. Is that a promise? He taps her foot again. Well... I like good foods, steaks and hashbrown potatoes, things like that. I like good books and magazines, riding on trains at night, and those times I flew in an airplane. (Stops for a second) Of course none of this is in order of preference. I'd have to think about it if it was in order of preference. But I like that, flying in airplanes. There's a moment as you leave the ground you feel whatever happens is all right.
6. She puts her leg across his ankle. I like staying up late at night and then staying in bed the next morning. I wish we could do that all the time, not just once in a while. And I like sex. I like to be touched now and then when I'm not expecting it. I like going to movies and drinking beer with friends afterwards. I like to have friends. I'd like to go dancing at least once a week. I'd like to have nice clothes all the time. Ohh, I'd like you to have a new suit too. And I'd like use to have a place of our own. I'd like to stop moving around every year, or every other year. Most of all, (takes a beat) I'd like use both just to live a good honest life without having to worry about money and bills and things like that... You're asleep....i'm not. I can't think of anything else. You go now. Tell me what you'd like. (Mumbles) I don't know... Lots of things. Well, tell me. We're just talking, aren't we? I wish you'd leave me alone, Nan. He turns over to his side of the bed again and lets his arm rest of the edge. She turns to and presses against him. Mike?
7. Jesus, all right. Let me stretch my legs a minute, then I'll wake up. He moves a little bit, and then gradually falls asleep. Mike? Are you asleep? Nan gently shakes his shoulder, but there is no response. She lays there for a time huddled against his body, trying to sleep. She lays quietly at first, without moving, crowded against him and taking only very small, very even breaths. But she can't sleep. She tries not to listen to his breathing, but it begins to make her uncomfortable. There is a sound coming from inside his nose when he breathed. She tries to regulate her breathing so that she could breathe in and out at the same rhythm he does. But there is no use. She hears two people coming up the stairs to the apartment next door. She hears cars passing down her window. Someone gives a throaty laugh before opening the door. Then a chair drag upstairs. She raises a finger and lowers it to the sheet. She touches the wedding band on her ring finger with her thumb. And then she began to feel afraid, and in one unreasoning moment of longing she prayed to go to sleep. (Whispers) Please, God, let me go to sleep. She tries to sleep. Mike. She turns onto her stomach to begin to cry, her head off the pillow, her mouth against the sheet. She cry, and then she climbs out over the foot of the bed. She washes her hands and face in the bathroom. She brushes her teeth. She watches her face in the mirror. She turns up the heat in the living room. She sits down at the kitchen table, drawing her feet up underneath the nightgown. She cries again.
She pages through a magazine and tries to read. But she can't. She pages through a stack of magazines. She lights up a cigaret. When it began to be light outside, she got up. She walks to the window. The cloudless sky over the hills was beginning to turn white. She begins to step out onto the porch. 8.
9. EXT. LAKESIDE - AFTERNOON A match-on-action connects Nan on the porch to Nan by the lake. She sees another Nan and Mike are sitting by the lake having fun, talking a lot, worry-free. She is standing at a distance. Her smile gradually freezes as she stops looking at them. She seems to be pondering. She falls down on her knees. INT. PORCH - NIGHT We are now back to their house. A match-on-action connects Nan falling down onto her knees on the porch. God... God, will you help us, God? INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Nan suddenly opens her eyes. Mike is putting down the book and turning in the bed to reach for the lamp. Mike looks at her. (Gently) Are you dreaming? (Turns away from Mike) I'm a bit tired. Can you hold me and get me off to sleep? The camera gradually draws away from her as Mike puts his one of his arm around her. She keeps her eyes open for a moment. She seems to be thinking about something. But she gives up, and closes her eyes. THE END