Narrative to Script: Too Soon Till Eternity

Dramatis Personae

Mother Truitt - The oldest native-born resident of Holcomb, Kansas at the age of seventy-five, and the city’s trusty mail messenger, Mother Truitt is an endearing woman full of sympathy and love for others. She is often seen wearing babushka bandannas and cowboy boots—“the most comfortable things you can put on your feet!”—she often claims.

Myrtle Clare - Myrtle Clare is not just the resident Post Office worker—she is a cowboy-boot wearing former dance-hall hostess. The establishment she once owned attracted clientele from a hundred miles around, but had seen been shut down following the death of her husband. She was like her mother, Mother Truitt, but more hard and blunt about everything, roughened up from all the drunken, rowdy customers she’d had to deal with in her days.

Mabel Helm – She is the reliable town gossip—she would know if Tommy had been caught for sneaking into his house late at night and was forced to plough the fields till dusk, she would know if Annie and Bob had had a fight that almost-but-not-really turned into a brawl, and that they had to go to counselling. Mabel just knew.

Act I Scene I

Two ambulances screamed in unison across the railroad tracks on a lifeless Sunday morning in 1955. Mother Truitt was on her usual mail route that Sunday, when the flashing lights and whirring noises caught her attention.

Mother Truitt stops outside her next house, stunned into watching the two ambulances turn onto the Clutter property. She suddenly drops her mail bag haphazardly and races across to the Post Office where her daughter, Myrtle Clare worked.

The doors to the post office are two swinging shutters that send a gust of wind every time they open and shut. Inside the small building, there are two chairs and a long mahogany desk indicative for customers to approach. Myrtle Clare stands behind this desk, pouring a cup of coffee. The floors are covered in thick wooden, shabby planks, creaking along every edge and corner. A peeling coat of grey paint covers all four walls of the small Federal Building. Something seems slightly amiss -- the ceiling fan in the centre of the room rotates lazily above all, in semblance of a disco ball that might’ve once been its predecessor.

Mother Truitt rushes into the building, and immediately to Myrtle’s desk.

Mother Truitt: Myrt! (Pause to catch her breath) Myrt, there’s two ambulances gone to the Clutters’.

Myrtle (pouring herself a cup of freshly-brewed coffee): Where’s the ten-thirty-two train?

Mother Truitt (indignant, waving her arms): Myrt, you listenin’ to me? Ambulances. Gone to the Clutters’—

Low-angle camera shot closes up on Mother Truitt standing on one side of the desk, and Myrtle on the other.

Myrtle (exasperated): Well what about it? It’s only Bonnie. Having one o’ her goshdarned spells. Where’s the ten-thirty-two?

Mother Truitt stamps her foot down, and crosses her arms. The hollow sound of wood reverberates loudly.

Mother Truitt: But Myrt, if it’s only Bonnie, why would there be two ambulances?

Myrtle considers this, as she raises a veiny hand to her chin.

Myrtle: Mabel’ll know.

Myrtle (ringing up Mabel’s number): Hello, Mrs. Helm?

Mother Truitt (losing her patience, and furrowing her brows): Well, Myrt?

Myrtle raises a finger to her lips in a shh! gesture. She tightens her grip on the telephone receiver, using her free hand to shield the number pad, as if afraid it would slip from her hands.

Myrtle: Was just ‘bout to ask you about that. (Pause.) Didya hear, see anything?

Myrtle nods in acknowledgement, her face expression unchanged. The door in the Post Office clangs open, unnoticed by both women.

Myrtle: Uh-huh. (Pause.) No, why? (Pause.) Hmm. (Pause.) Really?

Mother Truitt (looking up in anticipation): Well, Myrt?

Myrtle: You wouldn’t say. Well, I ain’t surprised, I’ll say the least. (Pause.) Alright, take care Mrs. Helm. You haves yourself a nice day.

Myrtle hangs up the phone.

Mother Truitt (grabbing her shoulders): Myrt, for heaven’s sake! What did Mabel say?

Camera pans out, medium shot on Mother Truitt who is still standing by the desk. Myrtle has moved to stage left, over to a pile of letters by the desk.

Myrtle (quietly): I ain’t surprised. When you think how Herb Clutter spent his whole damned life in a hurry, rushin’ in here to get his mail with never a minute to say good-morning-and-thank-you-dog, rushin’ around like a chicken with its head off—joinin’ clubs, runnin’ everything, gettin’ jobs maybe them other people wanted. And now look—s’ all caught up with him. Well, he won’t be rushin’ no more.

Mother Truitt gapes at her daughter in awe.

Mother Truitt (pleadingly): Why, Myrt? Why won’t he?

Camera closes up on Myrtle, who is looking down at her desk with reserve.

Myrtle (shouting): BECAUSE HE’S DEAD! And Bonnie, too. And Nancy. And the boy. (Pause.) Somebody…shot ‘em.

Mother Truitt (eyes widening): Myrt—don’t say things like that. Who shot them?

Myrtle continues to postmark the letters in front of her, not looking at her mother.

Myrtle (quietly): Man in the airplane. The one Herb sued for crashin’ inta his fruit trees. If it wasn’t him, maybe it was you. Or somebody ‘cross the street. It’s the same whole world over. Y’know that.

Mother Truitt pushes her hands over her ears furiously, shaking her head.

Mother Truitt (sobbing): I don’t know any such thing. I’m scared, Myrt.

Camera pans out to full-body shots of Mother Truitt, who walks over to stage right, and sits down on a wooden chair by the reception. Myrtle is still face down, staring at the letters.

In the background, Michael Bublé’s song, “Lost” plays softly.

Myrtle: Of what? When your time comes, it comes. And them tears won’t be savin’ yous. When Homer died, I used up all the fear I had in me, and all the grief, too. If there’s somebody loose ‘round here that wants to slit my throat, I wish him all the bloody luck. What difference it make? It’s all the same in eternity. Just remember: if one bird carried every grain of sand, grain by grain, across the ocean, by the time he got ‘em all on the other side, that’d only be the beginning of eternity. So jus’ blow your nose.

Exeunt.