Chinga, Page 2
Stephen King
(They get in car. SCULLY watches JANE standing in the window, watching them.)
SCENE 8 SHOODIC LAKE RANGER’S STATION 11:06 PM (MELISSA drives up to the ranger’s station. POLLY is asleep beside her. RANGER comes out to greet them.)
MELISSA: Hi.
RANGER: Where are you headed this time of night?
MELISSA: We were invited up to a place near the lake.
RANGER: Uh-huh.
MELISSA: A friend gave us the key.
RANGER: You got gear? Food and water?
MELISSA: We’ll be all right.
RANGER: I just want to make sure of that, ma’am. Winter’s in full force up there. Power’s iffy. Just you and the little one?
MELISSA: For now.
POLLY: I want to go home, Mommy.
MELISSA: We’re going to go camping, Polly.
POLLY: I want my bed! I want my records!
(Doll’s eyes open.)
DOLL: Let’s have fun.
RANGER: I’ll just take your license number, then.
(RANGER walks around back. MELISSA looks at rear window and sees reflection of JANE FROELICH, throat slit.)
JANE’S IMAGE: Help me …..
(MELISSA accelerates quickly, forcing RANGER to jump out of the way, then she speeds back the way she came.)
SCENE 9 (JANE FROELICH’S house. Hokey Pokey is playing. JANE is dressed in bathrobe. She turns on light and starts down hall toward sound of the music.)
JANE: Hello?
(She enters living room.)
JANE: Who’s there? Is there anyone there?
(Light switch doesn’t work. 45s are spread around the floor next to an old record player. JANE raises plastic covering the record player and lifts needle off the record. Music stops. Shadow moves behind JANE.)
DOLL’S VOICE: I want to play.
(JANE drops needle and music starts again. JANE’S hand begins to shake. She bends down and picks up a broken record that she just stepped on. Hokey Pokey begins skipping - "That’s what it’s all about" over and over. JANE holds broken record in front of her.)
JANE: I’m not afraid of you.
(She tries to resist, but brings the broken record to her neck. Camera pans away just before she cuts herself. We hear her gurgle in pain. Hokey Pokey stops skipping and finishes the song.)
(Commercial 2.)
SCENE 10 (SCULLY’S hotel room. Classical music. SCULLY is in a bubble bath, very relaxed. Hotel phone rings. SCULLY opens one eye, sighs, then reaches a bubbly leg out of the tub to slam the bathroom door. Camera pans across room showing used room service tray and CD boom box playing the classical music. SCULLY comes out of the bathroom wearing a black velour lounging outfit and a towel around her head. She turns down the CD player. Beside the phone is a copy of Affirmations for Women Who Do Too Much. The message light on the phone is blinking. SCULLY sighs, probably thinking "Mulder," and ignores the flashing light. She goes to the window and flings open the curtain obviously expecting sunshine and escapism.. Outside, CAPTAIN JACK BONSAINT gets out of his patrol car and smiles and waves at her. SCULLY smiles tightly, then heads for the door with a resigned expression.)
SCENE 11 (Coroners wheel JANE’S body out of her house. BONSAINT and SCULLY drive up and enter the house.)
BONSAINT: Looks like she died by her own hand. A big slice under the chin opened up the artery.
SCULLY: With what?
BONSAINT: Buddy, show her the thing.
(A cell phone begins ringing.)
(OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS shows her a bloody broken record in an evidence bag.)
BONSAINT: (on phone) Jack Bonsaint…. Ayuh. … Who? … Oh, okay. Put him through. (to SCULLY) It’s for you.
(SCULLY is surprised.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Hello?
MULDER: (on phone, voice) Hey, morning, sunshine.
(There is a repetitive banging sound from MULDER’S end. He speaks loudly to compensate.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder?
MULDER: (on phone, voice) Yeah. I was a little worried about you. I was wondering if you needed my help up there.
SCULLY: (on phone) Needed your help on what?
MULDER: (on phone, voice) I left you a message at the motel. You didn’t get it?
SCULLY: (on phone) I was up and out this morning. Mulder?
MULDER: (on phone, voice) Yeah?
SCULLY: (on phone) What’s that noise? Where are you?
MULDER: (on phone) I’m at home. They’re doing construction right out the window. Hold on a second. (to imaginary construction workers) Hey fellas! Can you just keep it down for a second, maybe? (He bounces his basketball twice more and tosses it away from him. It crashes into some piece of furniture. MULDER pauses then picks up phone again.) Thank you. (to SCULLY) Yeah, hey. I was - I was thinking about this case. You know, maybe it’s not witchcraft after all. Maybe there’s a scientific explanation.
SCULLY: (on phone) A scientific explanation? MULDER: (on phone) Yeah, a medical cause. Something called chorea.
SCULLY: (on phone) Dancing sickness.
MULDER: (on phone) Yeah, St. Vitus’s dance.
(MULDER opens his refrigerator. It contains absolutely nothing besides a jug of orange juice.)
MULDER: (on phone) It affect groups of people causing unexplained outbursts of uncontrollable jerks and spasms.
(MULDER takes a swig of the juice straight from the bottle. )
SCULLY: (on phone) Yeah, and hasn’t been diagnosed since the Middle Ages.
(MULDER makes a face at the taste of the juice and looks at the date on the bottle. OCT. 97)
MULDER: (on phone) Oh. (Spits juice back into bottle.) You’re obviously not a fan of American Bandstand, Scully.
SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder?
MULDER: (on phone) Yeah?
SCULLY: (on phone) Thanks for the help. (Hangs up.)
MULDER: (on phone) Hello?
BONSAINT: That your partner?
SCULLY: Yep.
BONSAINT: I’m sorry for eavesdropping but has he maybe got some insight on this?
SCULLY: (definitive) No.
BONSAINT: I see.
(OFFICER RIGGS plays the record that was on the player - Hokey Pokey. Privately, RIGGS seems to remember it was playing in the background when he last spoke on the phone to MELISSA. He turns it off.)
SCULLY: You know, Chief Bonsaint – Jack – can I call you Jack? I’ve been thinking that maybe … maybe we need to explore other possibilities.
BONSAINT: I’m not sure I understand.
SCULLY: Well, maybe we need to keep our minds open to … extreme possibilities.
BONSAINT: Okay, but aren’t you on vacation?
(SCULLY sort of nods, then looks away.)
SCENE 12 (Turner house. Hokey Pokey is playing. Polly is napping with the doll. As song ends, MELISSA enters and begins to take doll away from POLLY. Doll's eyes open.)
DOLL: Let's have fun.
(MELISSA backs away in horror. Record player starts over on its own. MELISSA goes back down stairs to kitchen and begins crying. She looks up and sees reflection of OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS in her kitchen window holding his bloody nightstick.)
BUDDY’S IMAGE: Melissa … help me.
MELISSA: No!
SCENE 13 (Restaurant. SCULLY and BONSAINT at a table. Waitress places a very large lobster in front of them. BONSAINT sighs with pleasure.)
SCULLY: Oh, my god! That looks like something out of Jules Verne. We’re supposed to eat that?
BONSAINT: (ripping off a piece) A little late for anything else. You said you had some other directions you were looking at?
SCULLY: I’ve been thinking about Melissa Turner. Now, you said that her husband died in a boating accident?
BONSAINT: (eating lobster with much cracking) Ayuh.
SCULLY: Well, was there anything strange about that? About the way that it happened?
BONSAINT: Well… it was never quite explained to anyone’s satisfaction, actually.
SCULLY: How’s that?
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BONSAINT: (rips off more lobster) How the man got a grappling hook poked clean through his skull.
SCULLY: Was Melissa ever questioned about that?
BONSAINT: Melissa? No. I don’t see how she’d be involved. The boat he died on is right over there if you’re at all wondering.
(They look out window and see the OLD MAN on a small fishing boat, named "Working Girl".)
SCULLY: I saw that man at the market.
(Outside, OLD MAN throws a bucket or water over the side of the boat.)
SCENE 14 (Turner house. POLLY, holding her doll, puts a record on her record player.)
POLLY: I want popcorn, Mommy.
(MELISSA looks in the room as POLLY starts her record player. Hokey Pokey.)
MELISSA: Okay.
(MELISSA turns and is started to see OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS.)
BUDDY: What are you doing here?
MELISSA: Buddy!
BUDDY: How come you’re back in town?
MELISSA: You’ve got to get out of here, Buddy.
BUDDY: You know, I called the rangers. They said you tried to kill a man. You almost ran him over. You came back to kill her, too, didn’t you?
MELISSA: I didn’t try to kill anybody.
BUDDY: Jane Froelich.
MELISSA: It isn’t me, Buddy.
BUDDY: Well, we’re going to see about that. You’re coming in with me. You and your little brat.
(POLLY turns the doll to face BUDDY. Doll’s eyes open.)
DOLL: I want to play.
SCENE 15 (Night. On the boat, SCULLY and BONSAINT interviewing the OLD MAN. OLD MAN still has scratches around his eyes.)
OLD MAN: What happened? You ask that question around here, you get as many stories as … as fishermen.
SCULLY: You were on board the night that he died. What do you think?
OLD MAN: I told my story to the Chief.
SCULLY: People’s stories change.
OLD MAN: Folks blame the widow.
SCULLY: Who do you blame?
OLD MAN: He was wild for her.
CUT TO: (Flashback, before the father died. As OLD MAN tells the story, FATHER pulls up a trap and finds the doll.)
OLD MAN: (voiceover) He worked very hard to build that little house for her and when that daughter came, you’d need a mop to wipe that smile off his face. We’d set out to sea on the girl’s last birthday. He was counting the hours before he’d be home again.
FATHER: Hey, look what Davy Jones sent my little Polly. Catch of the day.
OLD MAN: Ayuh.
CUT TO: (Present.)
OLD MAN: Three days later, he was dead.
SCULLY: And you know what killed him.
OLD MAN: The eyes play tricks at night, water up against the hull making noises.
CUT TO: (Night FATHER died. FATHER is alone on deck.)
OLD MAN: (voiceover) Sometimes you hear things.
DOLL’S VOICE: Let’s have fun.
FATHER: What the hell was that?
(FATHER picks up a long curved grappling hook. He opens cabin door, waking the OLD MAN.)
OLD MAN: What is it?
(FATHER doesn’t answer, just goes back outside. OLD MAN hears the voice.)
DOLL’S VOICE: I want to play.
(OLD MAN gets up and goes outside. He sees the FATHER with the hook through his head.)
OLD MAN: Oh, my God.
CUT TO: (Present.)
OLD MAN: Like I said, the eyes play tricks.
SCULLY: But you saw something in that grocery store. That little girl and her dolly.
OLD MAN: Moment I saw them, I knew.
SCENE 16 (SCULLY and BONSAINT are getting back in the car. SCULLY’S phone rings.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Scully.
MULDER: (on phone) Hey. I thought you weren’t answering your cell phone.
(MULDER, tie undone, is sitting at a desk
SCULLY: (on phone) Then why’d you call?
MULDER: (on phone) I, uh, I had a new thought about this case you’re on. There’s a viral infection that’s spread by simple touch …
SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, are there any references in occult literature to objects that have the power to direct human behavior?
(BONSAINT gives SCULLY an odd look.)
MULDER: (on phone) What types of objects?
SCULLY: (on phone) Um, like a doll, for instance.
MULDER: (on phone) You mean like Chuckie?
SCULLY: (on phone) Yeah, kind of like that. (MULDER gets up and crosses to his desk)
MULDER: (on phone) Yeah, the talking doll myth is well established in literature, especially in New England. The-the fetish or Juju is believed to pass on magical powers onto its possessor. Some of the early witches were condemned for little more than proclaiming that these objects existed. The supposed witch having premonitory visions and things …. Why do you ask?
SCULLY: (on phone) I was just curious.
MULDER: (on phone) You didn’t find a talking doll, did you, Scully?
SCULLY: (on phone) No, no. Of course not.
MULDER: (on phone) I would suggest that you check the back of the doll for a - a plastic ring with a string on it.
(SCULLY shakes her head and hangs up.)
MULDER: (on phone) That would be my first …. Hello?
SCULLY: Let’s go talk to Melissa Turner.
SCENE 17 (Turner house. Sound of metal scraping.)
POLLY: (in her room, yelling) Where’s my popcorn?!
(MELISSA is in the kitchen making popcorn on the stove. She is very upset.)
MELISSA: It’s coming, Polly.
(Camera shows that OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS is dead. In his hand is his bloody nightstick.)
POLLY: Where’s my popcorn?!
MELISSA: (crying) It’s coming.
(Commercial 3.)
SCENE 18 (POLLY is in bed sleeping with the doll. MELISSA looks in the room, then goes to a cabinet and gets a hammer and a handful of nails. Later, MELISSA is frantically hammering nails into all the door frames and windows.)
POLLY: (calling from upstairs) Mommy … I can’t sleep.
MELISSA: You go back to bed, Polly. It’s way past your bedtime.
POLLY: No more pounding.
MELISSA: Go back to bed, sweetheart.
(Doll’s eyes pop open.)
DOLL: Let’s have fun.
(MELISSA sees her own image in the window, a hammer stuck in her bloody forehead.)
MELISSA’S IMAGE: Help me …
MELISSA: Everything’s going to be all right, Sweetie. Just go back to bed.
(Outside, BONSAINT and SCULLY drive up. They see a car parked close by.)
BONSAINT: That’s Buddy’s car.
(Inside, MELISSA closes the door to POLLY’S bedroom. She puts the hammer back in the cabinet and padlocks it. Then she goes to the kitchen and tips a portable heater over, spilling kerosene on the floor next to the dead body of BUDDY RIGGS. She gets a box of matches then hears BONSAINT and SCULLY outside knocking.)
BONSAINT: Melissa!
(SCULLY looks in a window.)
BONSAINT: You see anything?
SCULLY: Unh-uh.
BONSAINT: (knocking) Melissa.
(Inside, Melissa tries to strike a match. She is shaking. Finally, the third match lights)
BONSAINT: (outside) Melissa!
POLLY: (watching MELISSA, frightened) Mommy?!
(Doll’s eyes open. Match goes out.)
DOLL: Don’t play with matches.
MELISSA: (crying, and trying to strike another match) You go back to bed, Polly!
(MELISSA strikes more matches. They each get blown out.)
BONSAINT: (outside knocking) Melissa?!
MELISSA: Go on now.
(Outside, SCULLY sees the nails holding the door closed. As BONSAINT continues to knock on the door, SCULLY looks in the window again and sees MELISSA striking matches. SCULLY
begins knocking on the window.)
SCULLY: Melissa? Melissa? Bonsaint!
(MELISSA gives up on the matches and begins trying to open drawers. They snap back closed.)
DOLL: Don’t play with knives.
POLLY: Mommy!
SCULLY: (outside) She’s got the door nailed shut. She’s trying to kill herself.
(BONSAINT begins breaking down the door. SCULLY keeps knocking on the window.)
SCULLY: Melissa! Melissa!
POLLY: Mommy! Mommy, no more pounding!
(Hardware cabinet bursts open on its own.)
DOLL: Let’s play with the hammer.
(SCULLY and BONSAINT take turns hitting the door.)
SCULLY: Melissa!
(Door finally crashes open. BONSAINT and SCULLY enter. MELISSA is holding the hammer in front of her face.)
MELISSA: Get away from me!
SCULLY: Put it down, Melissa.
DOLL: I don’t like you anymore.
(MELISSA hits herself on the forehead with the hammer.)
SCULLY: (kneels next to POLLY.) Give me the doll, Polly.
DOLL: I want to play.
(POLLY shakes her head and holds onto the doll. MELISSA hits herself again. Her head is now bloody.)
SCULLY: Polly, give me the doll.
DOLL: I want to play.
(MELISSA hits herself again. POLLY watches in horror. SCULLY takes the doll which keeps repeating "I want to play." She takes it down to the kitchen and stuffs the doll into the microwave and turns it on. Doll catches fire. Must be one of those oxygenated microwaves. POLLY walks over to MELISSA who is bloody and crying. SCULLY and BONSAINT watch the doll burn.)
SCENE 19 (X-Files office. Mulder finishes sharpening a pencil in an electric sharpener, and delicately blows the dust off the tip. He places it on the desk and carefully lines it up with about 20 more sharpened pencils. Door opens and SCULLY enters.)
MULDER: Oh, hey, Scully. How you doing? (Laces his fingers together smoothly to hide the row of pencils.) How are you feeling? Rested?
SCULLY: I feel fine.
(SCULLY is focused on the I Want to Believe Poster behind MULDER.)
MULDER: What?
SCULLY: That poster … Where’d you get it?
MULDER: Oh, I got it down on "M" Street at some head shop about five years ago.
SCULLY: Hmm.
MULDER: Why?
SCULLY: No. I just … wanted to send one to somebody.
MULDER: You do?
SCULLY: Mm-hmm.
MULDER: Who?
