Scene 3.06 - The Well
EST: EXT. Ranch Treeline - Night.
RUSTY
See? Just like I told you. Thems tracks come out and go right back into the well.
TEX RANGER
What’s all that scraping on the insides?
(Takes picture, looking down the well.)
MARSHALL LAW
(Nudges DOC BONEBRAKE, nods in RUSTY’S direction.) Must be the markings from the tools they used to get themselves in and out. We’d need a long stretch of rope to get a man down there.
DOC BONEBRAKE
(Nudges MARSHALL LAW back, more subtly.) They must be some crafty men indeed. Where does this well go?
RUSTY
My pappy said it spills on out to the other caves that run under the town until it hits the Little Arkansas. (OUR-Kansas!) To Ackerman Island, I think.
MARSHALL LAW
You don’t know fer sure?
RUSTY
I’ve never had no reason to check it out be fo’. Think somebody went down there?
(MARSHALL LAW and DOC BONEBRAKE step away to discuss options. Doc makes plaster casts of the paw-print tracks.)
TEX RANGER
Hey, there’s a light down there! Someone with a... green lantern!
RUSTY
Nah, that aint no light, just the glow from the tailings from the moon cave. The well water used to flow from the lake there, but the water level musta changed, cuz the well dried up four summers ago. Back in the Summer of ‘65. Woo-ee, a hot one. Then again, every summer’s a hot one ‘round here in these here parts.
TEX RANGER
O- 'Scuse me, Mam... Moon cave?
RUSTY
(Puts arm around him.) Well, the Injuns ‘round here live over yonder on Luna Hill, see it gainst the night skyline? Now that’s the only hill ‘round here in these here parts, and most Kansans who know even a little bit o’ cipherin’ and got an extra pair of feet to count wif can count every hill there is in the entire state. Hills, not too many. But caves? We got lotsa caves, and many more we prob’ly dunno ‘bout yet. But under that yonder hill there, there is a big, domed, glowing cave unlike all the others. One with a large lake under the ground with bright green sand that is warm to the touch. It’s called the moon cave by the white man because that’s what the Injuns call the hill. Now them same Injuns livin’ up on the top o’ that hill got an even more special name for that cave in there.
TEX RANGER
(Loading camera, continues to snap a few off. Curious:) Really? Do you know what it is?
RUSTY
Yes, I shore do. Theys call it In-a-gadda-da-vi-da. It’s the local Injun word for Paradise Of The Creator. Now, people have told stories about what other people who have seen it have said, and boy, they say plenty.
TEX RANGER
Really? What do they say?
RUSTY
Well, they say that the waters are warm and crystal clear, and you can see clean to the bottom of the lake. There isn’t a toadstool, minnow or fish to be found, looking all the way down to the bottom, which doesn’t get darker, it gets brighter. The shores of the long lake sparkle like yellow and green diamonds. The sand beneath your feet is so heavy, a person could lie down and sleep forever in it, look up at the cave ceiling for hours, and still, it just feels just like lying down on a warm, soft, goose-feather mattress forever. (Pause.) Now, that’s just what I hear they say, tho I ain’t one to gossip.
TEX RANGER
That’s quite a bit to take in.
RUSTY
Well, you axed me what they say, and I toldja what they say.
TEX RANGER
Does anyone else know about this well and the moon cave?
RUSTY
Shoot, everybody 'round these parts knows about the cave, and well, the well-
MS: GROUP IN GROVE NEAR WELL, SHADOWY FIGURE IN BUSHES NEAR US
(A dark figure in the shadows eavesdrops on the group.)
MARSHALL LAW
We might have to seal it up. The Madman's Mine entrance too. Seal it all up real good so nuthin' kin git in or out.
TEX RANGER
Could some... one git from the bottom of this here well to that there cave under that there hill over there yonder?
RUSTY
Yep, well, nah. Nobody goes up in there no more.
TEX RANGER
How bizarre! That there well leads to a cave?
(Again, takes pictures throughout -- like B-movie cops that never run out of ammo, he never runs out of film. He reloads the camera and flash-pot.)
RUSTY
Uh, dunno. But I’d sure stay away from them glowing rocks down there. Nobody never got sick from drinkin' the water in the well, but then agin I never did drink from it none. Back when it did have water, shucks, I’d pull-out more two-headed tadpoles than that I had never seen before in all my whole entire life. Them fellas that dug this well with my granpappy are long dead and gone, otherwise I’d’ve axed ‘em all ‘bout it. All I know is the Injuns say the moon cave is bad news. You think that’s where them men are hidin’ out at?
MARSHALL LAW
Thanks for showin’ us ‘round, Rusty, we’ll take it from here. Police business and all, and the county is entirely grateful for your cooperation with the authorities, and we thank you, but we gotta figger in your safety, too. We'll get to tying some flags on yonder branches. We’re gonna have to mark this off as a crime-scene, you understand.
RUSTY
No problemo, Marsh. Be seein’ ya ‘round Sheriff, you too, Tex.
(She exits.)
TEX RANGER
See ya later.
CUT TO: The shadowy figure listening in. He’s a man. Now we can see that much of him.
MARSHALL LAW
(To DOC BONEBRAKE:) So you think it’s definitely a creature. Good thing you lied to the women, don't need them to get all riled up. Plus none o' them could keep a secret if'n it was hitched to the back o' their lips. If'n it's a monster of some kind, well hafta seal it all up, alright. Both them entrances. I wonder, what could it really be? A wild dog, coyote?
POCACHICALOT
It’s a Smokey-on-anabolix, Marshall Law.
TEX RANGER
Wha? Who are you? (Flashes photo.) Howja sneak up on us all like that?
POCACHICALOT
Easy to do, white man. You still have ears of pale-face city.
TEX RANGER
Who is this guy, Marshall?
CUT TO: