Lesson 16

[Kenneth Johnson]

Kenneth Johnson – Has Completed Act 2 Draft 1

What I learned this time out is how it is still satisfying to see my characters interact and care about each other even in this high speed writing atmosphere where we are only going for 20% quality. The sensation is actually kind of weird.

INT. MICHAEL’S HOUSE – KITCHEN – DAY

Michael bustles in flinging his backpack on the kitchen counter in frustration and he all but rips off his jacket. All of this much to the surprise of his daughter, ANNETTE, who has books and handwritten notes surrounding her laptop on the kitchen table. Annette is 16 years old and just as perky and attractive as her mother just younger and more angst-ridden.

ANNETTE
Easy Daddy! You’ll break something like that.

Michael sees her and calms himself.

MICHAEL
Sorry baby-dumplin’. I just don’t know what I’m doing at the moment.

ANNETTE
Can you not know some place else? I’ve got to finish my history report.

Michael pulls a bottle of fruit smoothie out of the refrigerator and cracks it open.

MICHAEL
Do you have to do your homework in the kitchen?

ANNETTE
Well SOMEBODY took over a bedroom and turned it into a private study so the room I’m sharing with my sisters is kind of busy right now and this is the quietest place for me to work.

Cheryl comes into the kitchen.

CHERYL
How’d it go with your dad?

MICHAEL
He shut me down. He refused to say anything about his time in the Korean War.

CHERYL
Well I hope you’ve got a plan “B”.

MICHAEL
I need to figure out a different approach. Maybe start with some research

CHERYL
I heard somewhere that writers do research as an excuse not to write.

MICHAEL
Very funny.

Annette looks at them both and sighs in disgust. She grabs a pair of headphones out of her schoolbag, cranks the music and buries her nose in a book.

Michael notices the books that Annette is studying are on the Vietnam War. He pulls an earphone away from her ear.

MICHAEL
Annette, what would it take to get you to change the topic of your report?

She recoils and takes off the headphones.

ANNETTE
Why would I do that.

CHERYL
Yes, why would she do that? The thing’s do on Monday.

To Annette.

MICHAEL
I’ll make it worth your while.

Michael’s cellphone rings and he answers.

MICHAEL
Oh, hi Kevin… meet you at the Post? What’s up?… OK, about ten minutes. Bye.

Michael ends the call.

To Cheryl.

MICHAEL
Cheryl, would you please invite Dad over for dinner?

CHERYL
Dinner? I don’t think I want to be a part of trying to deceive your father. And I don’t think you should be dragging your daughter into this.

MICHAEL
You want me to write this thing and get paid, right?

ANNETTE
It’s OK, Mom. I’m actually kind of intrigued.

MICHAEL
That’s my girl! He loves pot roast. I’ll be right back.

___________________________

EXT. AMERICAN LEGION POST – ESTABLISHING – DAY

Michael’s car pulls into the driveway of the post.

INT. AMERICAN LEGION POST – BAR – DAY

Kevin is sitting at the bar wearing his Sons of the American Legion cover (a light blue hat).

Michael enters and sits down at the bar.

KEVIN
Hey, Michael. I wasn’t sure if Cheryl would let you get away.

MICAHEL
She let me off the leash while she gets thing ready for my dad.

The bartender sets two martinis in front of them.

MICHAEL
You know I really was not planning on having a drink. Things are a little tight.

KEVIN
I know. I got it.

Kevin throws some cash on the bar for the bartender. He takes off his cover and sips his martini.

KEVIN
You really should become a member here.

MICHAEL
I’m not a veteran.

KEVIN
But your father is. You can join the Sons of the American Legion. Lots of folks are in the film business. Plenty of networking opportunities. We just need to see his DD-214 and we will be happy to induct you into the Sons.

MICHAEL
DD-214, those are his discharge papers, right? I’ve never seen his discharge papers. That’s another thing to ask him about.

Then Kevin leans in and speaks quietly.

KEVIN
Listen. I did a little research on your father’s unit. They got some pretty bad press during the Korean War.

MICHAEL
What sort of bad press?

KEVIN
You name it. Drugs, gambling, prostitutes, but the biggest one was…

A group of Legionnaires walk by. One claps Kevin on the should.

LEGIONNAIRE #1
Come on, Kevin. The business meeting is about to start and we need you for a quorum. Kevin is swept up in a tide of people adjusting their covers while trying not to spill their drinks.

KEVIN
We’ll talk later. I’ll fill you in.

INT. MICHAEL’S HOUSE – DINING ROOM – NIGHT

Michael arrives to find Lee sitting at the dining tables with Cheryl, Annette, and two more of Michael’s daughters. CHRIS and LIZ, both older than Annette.

Cheryl is dishing the plates and Lee is smiling and laughing with his granddaughters.

LEE
When I was in school we didn’t have computers and such. In our little schoolhouse we barely had books. So, what are you girls studying right now?

Michael locks eyes with Annette for a moment.

ANNETTE
We’re studying a section on modern warfare.

LEE
Modern warfare, huh?

ANNETTE
I’m doing my report on the Korean War.

LEE
That’s not very modern. That was 70 years ago.

Michael sits down at the table and starts to dish his plate.

CHERYL
I was wondering when you might be joining us , especially seeing as this was your idea.

Lee stops and looks over at Michael, a little wary.

MICHAEL
I brought some chocolate cake for dessert.

LEE
I’ll make sure to eat some.

ANNETTE
So, Grandfather, Dad said your regiment was special. Why was it special?

LEE
My regiment was all-Black.

LIZ
Wait a minute. We learned that president Truman desegregated the U.S. armed forces in 1948. The Korean War didn’t start until 1950.

LEE
The 24th Infantry Regiment was created by Congress after the Civil War as an all-Black regiment. They did that so former slaves could feel like contributing members of society. It would take an act of Congress and a whole bunch of hateful white people to make it go away.

The room goes quiet. Lee is clearly irritated.

MICHAEL
Dad, I don’t want you to feel like (we’re putting you on the spot)…

Lee heatedly cuts him off.

LEE
I know what I feel like. I feel like my family is ganging up on me to tell a story that just doesn’t need to be told. I feel like you don’t know me. And the worst part is I feel like you don’t even care.

ANNETTE
Grandfather, can you give me anything for my report?

LEE
Like I told your father this morning, nothing good can come from talking about what went on in that war. Just getting there was hard. And getting ready for it was even harder.

FLASHBACK

EXT. POCATELLO TRAIN STATION – DAY

LEE
(VO Narration)
All my friends and relatives saw me off at the Pocatello train station. There were a bunch of other boys who got drafted, too. We all got on the train.

EXT./INT. PASSENGER TRAIN – DAY

Lee and other Black men excitedly watch the countryside roll by outside the window.
LEE
(VO Narration)
The train trip to Fort Benning, Georgia was almost three days but we had our own train car just for coloreds. We all were pretty stirred up seeing as none of us had been much out of Pocatello before. Let alone going halfway across the country.

EXT. FORT BENNING – TRAINING GROUND – DAY

The Black recruits go through all of their training with white recruits in the distance doing the same thing.

LEE
(VO Narration)
When we got to Fort Benning we did our training apart from the rest of the recruits. We trained hard. Calisthenics, running, obstacle courses, weapons training, and lots of marching.

INT. FORT BENNING – BARRACKS – DAY

Lee and other recruits clean their weapons. Shine their shoes. Play cards. Shoot the breeze and do a lot of laughing. White MPs walk by outside, looking sternly into the barracks.

LEE
(VO Narration)
When we had leave we were not allowed to go into town, we had to stay on the base, in our little area. They must have figured we’d just get directly into trouble if we set foot off the base.

INT./EXT. PASSENGER TRAIN – DAY

Lee holds a shelf of yellow pages that are his ORDERS which he folds and puts in the breast pocket of his crisply pressed brown Army uniform. He looks out the window with young Black soldiers.

LEE
(VO Narration)
The day came when we finished our training and got our orders to ship out to Japan from San Francisco.

EXT. POCATELLO BAPTIST CHURCH – DAY

Lee and two other uniformed soldiers proudly pose with their families in front of the local church.

LEE
(VO Narration)
A few of us made a side trip back to Pocatello to say good-bye.

END FLASHBACK

INT. MICHAEL’S HOUSE – DINING ROOM – NIGHT

Everyone around the table is utterly rapt by Lee’s story.

LEE
And that was the easy part. It all goes to hell after that. Cheryl, I’d appreciate it if you save me a piece of that cake.

Lee throws Michael a dark look and leaves.

_________________________________

INT. MICHAEL’S HOUSE – STUDY – NIGHT

Michael sits a bit dejectedly at his computer. He does searches on the 24th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Division. Lots of black and white photos come up. The photos show Black soldiers firing weapons, manning machine-gun nests, and loading artillery. Michael also finds battlefield reports with words like ILL-EQUIPPED, INEPT, AND DEFICIENT. Then he sees the word STRAGGLING in almost every document.

In his search, Michael comes across a recently published book about the 24th. In the bio he finds that the author is a veteran of the 24th from the same time that Lee was there. Michael dashes off an email asking to talk.

Cheryl slips into the room and from behind she wraps her arms around Michael’s shoulders and gives him a squeeze.

MICHAEL
I had no idea there was so much negative stuff written about Dad’s regiment. I mean official reports that are just full of stereotypical, bigoted descriptions of these Black soldiers in combat.

CHERYL
Maybe that’s why your dinner idea tanked so hard.

MICHAEL
Maybe Dad’s right. Maybe I don’t really know him. At least not as well as I think.

CHERYL
So, you’re still trying to write this thing?

MICHAEL
I don’t have a choice.

Cheryl leans back hands Michael a BROCHURE with and attached APPLICATION. It is for a senior transportation company.

CHERYL
I know you said you flat out did not want to do the ride hailing thing. But this is a reputable company with set hours and a regular salary.

MICHAEL
Look Cheryl, I need time to get this done.

CHERYL
And I need another paycheck coming in here. We’re already doing triage on what gets paid and what doesn’t. It looks like your father has no plans to even talk to you anymore, let alone tell you his war stories!

There is the PING of a new incoming email. It’s from MELVIN JAKES, the author of the book about the 24th. It says he’s happy to talk and there is a phone number.

MICHAEL
I’ll look it over.

Michael gets up and hustles out the door.

CHERYL
You better do more than look it over!

EXT. MELVIN JAKES’ HOUSE – DAY

Michael walks up the steps and knocks on the door of a classic 1940s Spanish style bungalow with a red tile roof.

The door opens behind a security screen and a tiny, hunched-over, white-hair Black man answers the door.

MICHAEL
Mr. Jakes?

MELVIN
You must be Jones. Come in.

INT. MELVIN JAKES’ HOUSE – LIVING ROOM – DAY

Lightly touching the carpet with his cane, Melvin picks his way carefully to an overstuffed chair with a depression that is perfectly fitted to his small frame.

MELVIN
Take a load off. The wife made a pitcher of Tom Collins. I will admit to a bit of a sweet tooth.

Michael sits on the nearby couch as Melvin hands him a drink from a platter on the end table between them.

MICHAEL
Thank you Mr. Jakes.

MELVIN
Melvin’s good. So, you want to talk to me about the war?

MICHAEL
Well sir, I’m working on a screenplay about my father’s experience during the Korean. The problem is he doesn’t want to talk about it.

MELVIN
He was with the 24th was he?

MICHAEL
Yes, sir.

MELVIN
Well I can understand the man’s reluctance. The 24th had a bad reputation. You have not read my book?

MICHAEL
No, I haven’t. Can you tell me what straggling is?

Melvin pulls out a copy of his book, produces a black sharpie and begins to write on the fly page as he speaks.

MELVIN
The Uniform Code of Military Justice describes it as “A service member who becomes separated from his organizational unit during a march, a training exercise, or military maneuver,” that man is straggling. But for us, it was a nice way of saying you deserted your post, or never showed up to that post. It went from catches some extra sack time when you’re supposed to be doing calisthenics with your squad, all the way to having drinks with your buddies when you’re supposed to be walkin’ guard duty. There was some of that going on, but it got magnified in the reports. Made it sound like every last one of us was doin’ it.

MICHAEL
What was the problem with the 24th?

MELVIN
We were Black. They put white officers in charge of us. Those officers consider the assignment to be a punishment. Hell, when we were set to ship out of Okinawa to the Korean theater of war, our Executive Officer faked a heart attack just to avoid leading a bunch of colored boys into battle. So, what everybody heard back in the States was we were a bunch of brainless baboons, not knowin’ which end of the gun the bullets came out of.

MICHAEL
But you saw combat. The 24th saw combat, right?

MELVIN
We saw combat. Actually, we were under fire most of the time we were in country. We did our part. But that’s not what the reports said.

MICHAEL
What did the reports say?

MELVIN
They said we were cowards.

The two men sit in silence for moment, considering Melvin’s last words. Melvin closes the book he just signed and hands it to Michael.

MELVIN
I know of someone who can maybe help you.