The Power of One Page #5

JAAPIE:

You will pay for the deaths of

our grandfathers and grandmothers,

our aunts and uncles. All

Rooineks will pay and you will be

first. Pull!

The boys who tied the rope now yank it over the rafter.

The six-year-old is hoisted up until he is eye-level with

the chicken.

JAAPIE:

In the name of Adolf Hitler and

the fatherland, I sentence you to

die, Verdomde Rooinek.

12.

BOYS:

Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!

Jaapie swings the sling overhead, faster and faster.

19 ANGLE ON SIX-YEAR-OLD 19

He watches as Jaapie bears down. As Jaapie is about to

let the rock fly the door to the room opens and two STAFF

MEMBERS burst in, surprising in.

STAFF MEMBER:

What's this?

The rock flies from the sling, but Jaapie's attention is

diverted. His aim is off. The rock grazes the boy above

the eye. He loses consciousness. The scene FADES TO

BLACK.

FADE IN:

20 INT. ST. JOHN'S STUDY - DAY 20

Prince of Wales School, 1950. PK, 17 going on 18, well-

built, intense, clear-eyed, handsome, stands in front of

a seminar and continues reading to 10 students, honor

students, Headmaster St. John's chosen few. St. John,

with the demeanor of an Oxford don and a mane of snowy

white hair that reaches his shoulders, sits off to the

side, listening.

PK:

I came to after being unconscious

for two days, the rock missing my

eye by half an inch. After a week

in hospital it was decided I'd be

sent to my grandfather's house in

the English town of Barberton,

at least until passions at school

cooled. Jaapie Botha was expelled;

sent home to his family's farm in

disgrace.

PK (CONT'D)

(beat)

And so the first recorded South

African casualty of Hitler's

insanity was not a Boer, nor a

Rooinek, but a tatter-feathered,

half-bald kaffir chicken.

PK finishes. The end of class BELL RINGS. Offstage,

other classrooms are exiting into the common hall, but

no one in St. John's study moves. St. John takes his

13.

glasses off and wipes the lenses deliberately. After a

long moment he turns to face the class.

ST. JOHN

Very evocative, yes. Particularly

the image of the chicken. Good

choice there.

St. John rises, lecturing.

ST. JOHN

Any ideology that needs to attack

the thing that least threatens it

is an ideology that will not

outlive its own generation.

Inclusion, gentlemen, not

exclusion, is the key to survival.

(beat)

Something our new government

should take heed of, eh?

His eyes roam from face to face, fixing his point.

ST. JOHN

Next week we have Mr. Levy who

will enlighten us on...

MORRIE, a bright-eyed kinetic, speaks up.

MORRIE:

Sport and wager in Imperial Rome,

sir.

ST. JOHN

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