The English Patient Page #3

12INT. RED CROSS TRUCK. CONTINUOUS.

Hana sees all this as she sits blankly inside the truck, the Patient

swaying alongside her. She puts out her hand to steady him.

13*.EXT. CONVOY SITE, ITALY. DUSK.

THE CONVOY is making a PITSTOP. The trucks are silhouetted in a line.

Hana helps lift the Patient's stretcher onto the ground. She bends to

him.

HANA:

Do you need something?

The Patient nods. Hana gets up to prepare MORPHINE INJECTION from a

small kit. Mary arrives. Touches Hana gently, conscious of her grief

for Jan's death.

MARY:

Are you okay? Oh God, Hana, you were

like sisters.

HANA:

(sighs angrily)

We keep moving him - in and out of the

truck. Why? He's dying. What's the point?

MARY:

Well, we can't hardly leave him. Do

you mean leave him? We can't.

Hana has settled down beside the Patient's stretcher. She draws

herself up against the night. On the hill above, she can see the

outline of A SMALL MONASTERY in the moonlight. She's crying, her face

a frozen mask.

HANA:

I must be a curse. Anybody who loves me,

anybody who gets close to me -

or I must be cursed. Which is it?

The Patient laces her fingers into his crabbed hand.

14EXT. THE MONASTERY. DAY.

Hana is investigating the MONASTERY OF ST. ANNA, wandering through its

overgrown gardens, past a pond. What sanctuary it seems to offer.

15*.INT. THE MONASTERY LIBRARY. DAY.

Hana explores via a gaping hole in a LIBRARY where the walls have

collapsed from shelling. The garden intrudes, ivy curls around the

shelves. Bloated books lie abandoned, and there's a PIANO tiled up on

one side. Hana presses the keys through the filthy tarpaulin which

covers it. Everywhere there are signs of a brief German occupation.

15a*.INT. MONASTERY CLOISTERS. DAY.

Past the Library is a CLOISTERS, drenched with silver light.

15b*.INT. THE MONASTERY STAIRS. DAY.

Hana goes upstairs, negotiating a huge VOID in the stone treads two

thirds of the way up.

15c*.INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.

She comes across a small CHAPEL, with the remains of murals and an

altar pressed into service by the Germans as a table. Hana finds an

old bed, and a mattress.

16EXT. THE MONASTERY GARDEN. DAY.

Hana comes out, passes a DRY WATER TROUGH. She hears a rustling on the

gravel and turns to see A TORTOISE ambling towards the trough. On cue

there's A GURGLING SOUND. THE HANDLELESS PUMP IS SUDDENLY GUSHING,

splashing water everywhere. The Tortoise, clearly arriving for this,

enjoys a welcome shower. Hana goes to the trough, dips her hands into

the water. Looks around her, and makes a decision.

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