FADE IN:

EXT.  FOREST CLEARING – DAWN  

A DEAD TREE

Trunk slashed with 37 TALLY MARKS organized in seven groups of five, plus two, dominates one end of the clearing, near the forest border.

A MAN

Perhaps 40, harrowed, careless of his appearance, studies the tree - like a newborn ghost might study its own inert corpse.  The forest is quiet, waiting.

A BOWIE KNIFE

Is gripped, tight, at his side.

THE MAN

Musters his will, advances, cuts the tree violently, adding the 38th tally mark.  Steps back.  Hold on his violent handiwork.

The man now turns and struggles away, mastering an unseen pain, towards a tiny careworn COTTAGE. 
Dead leaves fall and swirl about him.

EXT.  FOREST CLEARING – DUSK – ESTABLISHING

The cottage centers in the clearing, a tiny island of civilization surrounded by the wild.

Shadow builds, engulfing the island in… 

EXT.  FOREST CLEARING – NIGHT  

…darkness.  The man emerges painfully from the cottage. 

A strong wind rises out of nothingness.  A WINDMILL beside the cottage creaks.  The surrounding

TREETOPS

Shake with violent strength.   Then stop.

THE DEAD TREE

Skeletal, white as bone, haunts the clearing’s edge. 

THE MAN

Coughing and shuddering, struggles  towards it.   

A small stream runs below it. He falls to the ground, desperately he drinks, moves back, reclines back against its lower trunk, pain etching his features.

HIS POV:  Looking up the trunk at the moon shining down.

Pain slowly clears from the man’s face.  His eyes widen as they find an unexpected focus.

HIS POV: Something on the tree MOVES.  Becomes a separate object.

A WOMAN

Embraces the tree trunk.  Looks down on him.  She is young, 20’s, an apparition both ethereal and wild. Hair like flowing branch or vine, body painted/tattooed with mystic/tribal camouflage.

THE MAN

Is rooted, spellbound.
 
He breaks the spell.  Starts to rise.

The SOUND of

THE WOMAN

Landing on earth.  Swift as a dear, she vanishes into the night.

THE MAN

Strong at first, begins to run, pursuing towards the clearing’s edge.

Infirmity overtakes him. He stumbles, falls, rises again, hacking, coughing.

She is gone.

A cloud of doubt passes over the man’s face. 

EXT.  FOREST CLEARING – DAWN

Small animals and birds - busy with the daily urgency of survival.

THE MAN

Is by the dead tree. He cuts it again. Adding a tally mark to make 39. He returns to the cottage,  knife in hand.

SERIES OF SHOTS

The day passes.  The man performs routine tasks, masking some inner pain that seeks to overwhelm him.

• Chopping wood.   REVEAL an enormous store of wood already cut.
• Digging roots and herbs.  
• A rustic lunch.  Bread.  Water.  A salad of the root and herbs he has dug. Sounds of softly ringing CHIMES.
• He builds a rope swing.  Carves: “I Love you Evan” on the bottom of it.

INT.  THE COTTAGE – NIGHT

A one room kitchen and living room. Rustic and simple.  The man prepares his simple evening meal.  Water, more bread, roots and herbs.

He eats, seated in front of a fireplace, reading “ON DEATH AND DYING” by Elisabeth Kubler Ross.
 
Near him on the wall is an old PICTURE.  It shows him smiling beside a small boy.  Longer hair, peak health.

He washes dishes at the sink.  
A window looks into the dark of night outside.
Pain.  Sudden and sharp.  He doubles over.
Hacks and spits into the dishwater.  Bloody PHLEGM.

He pushes himself upright from the counter.
Sweat beads his face as the spasm subsides. 

Her white-lit face is pressed against the window.  A side of her face masked in a leaf design.
She watches him with wide eyed, intense curiosity.
Shock.  He grabs a flashlight, winces for the door.

EXT.  THE COTTAGE - NIGHT

Limping out into the night.  Around to the window.
She is gone.  He looks: “was she ever even there?”

Wait. There. Under the sill, a small FOOTPRINT.
He kneels to touch it.
Rises.

She is real.

EXT.  FOREST CLEARING – DAWN

BIRDSONG.  The sky clears slowly from dark to light.

BEGIN TITLE THEME: (Yes: Close to the Edge. “I get Up.  I get Down.” Track 1. Min. 10:23)

INT.  BEDROOM - MORNING

DISSOLVE from image to image as growing yellow light filters in to wake the man, he arises, washes himself with a sponge from a basin. Dresses himself like a death-row convict on execution day.

EXT. FOREST CLEARING - DAY

THE MAN’S BACK: Nearly fills FRAME, limned in growing light. He trudges slowly, like a man to his judgment, towards the dead tree.  

He stops.

THE KNIFE

Slips from his hand, suddenly slack.  BOOM UP and CIRCLE.  (MUSIC CUE: 12:12)

THE DEAD TREE

Is renewed.  Alive.  Green leaves rustle in a gentle breeze and golden sunlight.

THE MAN

Trembles. 
Disbelief.
Hope.

The sunlight brightens as he is drawn forward - as if to resurrection. 

THE LIVING TREE

is now dazzling.  Sun, almost too bright to bear, blazes through its leaves.

THE MAN

Touches the tree.  Where the hash marks used to be.  They are gone. Overcome, crying, he clings to the tree as if it were the Holy Cross.  He steps back. 

HIS FOOT

Sinks slightly into soft dark soil.

THE MAN

Bends to examine a patch of newly turned earth at the base of the tree.  He finds another small FOOTPRINT.
The same shape as last night’s.  Her footprint.

He rises and looks out into the waiting forest. 

Desire.  Becomes resolve.

A sense of purpose takes its hold on his face.

END TITLE THEME.

EXT.  FOREST - DAY

He enters the wood.  Searching for her.

SERIES OF SHOTS

• Walking and looking through trees.  Several different parts of the wood.   

• A distant echo of her playful LAUGHTER.  He turns, quickly, towards the sound.  Nothing.

• A RUSTLE of leaves.  The SNAP of a twig.

• A glimpse of her sidestepping behind a FAIRY TREE. Hobbling up to look behind the tree where he saw her.  Her giggle - but not a trace of her person.

• Stumbling down a bank, walking along a streambed.

Searching for her footprints along the bank.

His strength is failing.

Exhausted, at his end, he bends to study reflection in the water of a ROCK POOL.  

A last angry surge.  He HITS the water. 

Ripples clear. He sees her behind, reflected in the water. Her painted designs are now in earthy daylight tones.  He spins to look.

She is RIGHT THERE. Inches from his face. 

WHOOSH! She BLOWS. Big BREATH into his face. 

EXT. DEEPER WOODS - DAY

BEGIN VISION SEQUENCE

The man walks, dazed, wonder filled.

Like an LSD trip.  Intensity of detail. 

A leaf. 

A drop of dew, forms and falls in SLOW MOTION.

ECU - a bug caught in the web of a spider.

TILTING UP – clouds pass slowly over the tree canopy.

The man breathes in.  A SOUND unnaturally loud.

Breath out.  Breath in.

The Trunk of a TREE, expands, and contracts, breathing with him.

Man and tree breath out together.

He comes to the stream. 

ECU – patterns of light on the surface of the water. 

The SOUND of the water rises, LOUDER AND LOUDER.

And fades away.

A dreamy humming sing-song voice.  Her voice.

Dream song leads him. 

The song grow louder.

A THICKET

Sharpening focus.  The woman is there, squatting in front of it. The patterns on her body make her nearly invisible in the shadows and growth.  

She rises.

Calm, revealed, she watches him intent and knowing.

END VISION SEQUENCE.

EXT.  THE COTTAGE – LATE MORNING

POV: Outside the cottage. BIRDSONG.  HOLD on the cottage.  Longer than comfortable.  

A retching cough.  SOUNDS of Anger.  Sobs of pain, frustration.

The SOUND of distant…

EXT.  THE COTTAGE – DUSK

Thunder.  It’s raining.

EXT.  THE RENEWED TREE - EVENING

The man stands beside the tree, soaked in the rain, coughing, holding himself in obvious great pain.    Looking out to the forest.

THE KNIFE

Gripped in his hand. 

THE MAN

Cries out.  Suddenly, violently, he slashes the tree.

Again.
And again.
Hacking - faster and faster.

THE WOMAN

Lies flat in the mud and tall grass.  Perfectly still.  Perfectly camouflaged.

We watch her troubled eyes as we listen to the sounds of the rain, the man, hacking at the tree, raging.

Now she rises.  Takes a step forward…

AT THE TREE

He reaches the end of his strength

HER HAND

Enters frame.  Staying his.

THE WOMAN AND THE MAN

Her sorrow is evident.  Both for him and for the tree he has mutilated.

Without warning he snatches her violently.

Throws her down. 

He has her in his power.

A long pause. 

He pulls her up again.

MAN
(re: tree)
Can you do that… for me?

She shakes her head.

He steps closer. 

She watches the knife in his hand.

They are very close now.

Her eyes become momentarily fearful.

Then accepting.

The man brings the knife up.

Slowly.  Very close to her body.

She holds very still.

His face bends close to her. 

Close to her youth and vitality.

They both know it.  He could take her now. 
Like an animal, in the rain and the dirt.

Her body.  Her lips.
Desire transcends its earthy roots, becomes limitless, all consuming, universal.

Then ends.  

He knows a truth.
She is not in his hands.  But he is in hers.

He releases her.

She looks at her hands. 

At him.

She decides.  And nods.  Yes.

EXT.  THE FOREST – DAWN

The storm is over.  The last droplets fall from tree limbs as warm morning light soaks into the forest.

She rises from applying day paint mixed in the hollow of a tree root.  Her hair is still wet from the rain.

She smiles and starts to lead the man by his hand.

He is smiling too.  And can walk without pain.
He removes his soaked shirt.  Throws it away.

She laughs, covering her mouth to hide a secret.

EXT.  DEEPER FOREST – DAY

They follow a spiral path of rain glistened leaf signs.

Like children they sport.  He plays hopscotch with the magic symbols on the ground.

She doubles over, clutching in silent shudders of mirth at his antics.

He pretends to chase her.
She pretends to run away.

He catches up with her and they run together, hand in hand.

Suddenly he has to slow.  Wincing.  The journey is taking its toll on his strength.

EXT. FOREST CENTER

Here the canopy brings shadow.

HIS HAND

finds a flower.  He tucks in into her hair. Into a garland of leaves he has already made for her.
She smiles up at him in love.

He feels a sudden pain.  Surprise.

Her looks turns pensive.

She takes his hand.  Leads him the short remaining distance to a

SMALL GLADE

with a circle of trees.  In the center

A LARGE DEAD TREE

rules, a mighty king of wood, now a corpse.

THE WOMAN

Releases her grip.

She takes a step back.

THE MAN

Does not understand.  His look moves from her face to the dead tree.  Then back again.

An unpleasant realization. 

He looks behind him.  The forest has grown suddenly thick and looming.  He turns back to see

THE WOMAN

Reaching down to take up a clutch of dirt and leaves in both hands.

She holds out her hands.

The soil and leaves begins to run out her fingers.  Trickling, floating down to the ground.

THE MAN

Watches her in growing fear. The final pain now comes upon him, spreading up from his chest, filling all the universe. 

IN HIS EYES

The woman reflected.

THE WOMAN

Reaches to take him as the last spark of life fades away.

She embraces him, slowly taking him to the ground.

A pieta.

FADE OUT.

THE END