The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Page #4

robbed one last train at Blue Cut...

...and gave up their nightriding for good.

Wait.

Well, how are you gonna

make your living?

Maybe I'll sell shoes.

I can't believe I woke up this morning...

...wondering if my daddy

would loan me his overcoat...

...and here it is just past midnight...

...I've already robbed a railroad train

and I'm sitting in a rocking chair...

...chatting with none other

than Jesse James.

Yeah, it's a wonderful world.

What's this?

Oh, yeah.

I was real agitated this morning, so I was

wondering if I would know you or Frank...

...tell you all apart, and so I had

this clipping that described you both.

Want me to read it?

Go on.

Well... I gotta find it. Hold on.

Here. Here.

"Jesse James, the youngest, has a face

as smooth and innocent as a schoolgirl.

The blue eyes, very clear and penetrating,

are never at rest.

His form is tall and graceful

and capable of great endurance...

...and great effort.

Jesse is lighthearted, reckless,

and devil-may-care.

- There's always a smile on his lips..."

- All right, all right, all right.

Well, yeah, then it just... Frank, Frank,

Frank. That's nothing. And then...

You know what I got

right next to my bed?

Is The Train Robbers, or, A Story

of the James Boys by R.W. Stevens.

I mean, many's the night I stayed up...

...with my eyes open

and my mouth open...

...just reading about your escapades

in the Wide Awake Library.

They're all lies, you know.

Yeah, of course they are.

You don't have to keep smoking that

if it's making you bungey.

Alexander Franklin James

would be in Baltimore...

...when he would read of

the assassination of Jesse James.

He had spurned his younger brother

for being peculiar and temperamental.

But once he perceived

that he would never see Jesse again...

...Frank would be wrought-up,

perplexed, despondent.

My brother and me are hardly

on speaking terms these days.

Well, I wasn't gonna mention it.

Are you scared?

No, I'm just surprised a little.

They ain't as succulent as I like,

the devil to clean...

...but if a man skins them

and fries them in garlic and oil...

...mercy, them's good eating.

Well, I never been that hungry.

I give them names.

Such as?

Such as enemies.

I give them names of enemies.

Go tell Wood and Charley

to get their gatherings together.

All right.

Me too?

You can stay.

All right.

Hey.

- What do you want, peckerwood?

- Nothing.

Except to say Jesse wants

you two to gather your parts...

...get on your horses

and get out of town.

And me to stick around.

Well, whoa, I'm his cousin...

...I'll have you know.

My mama's his daddy's sister.

Is that how they described it to you,

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote