Chinga Read online

  Chinga

  Stephen King

  #5X10 - Chinga

  THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

  SCENE 1 (Car with Maine license plate # 384M 95 . MELISSA TURNER walks to the passenger side of the car and opens the door for her young daughter POLLY who is holding a large doll.)

  MELISSA: Okay, sweetheart. We’re just going in for a few things. We won’t be long, okay. Polly? Mommy needs some groceries, okay?

  (POLLY does not respond. MELISSA unbuckles the seatbelt and helps her out. As they enter the grocery store, an older woman, JANE FROELICH glares at them. MELISSA ignores her. POLLY looks back at her.)

  (Inside the store, MELISSA wheels the cart quickly and nervously down the aisle. POLLY sits in the child seat of the cart with her doll. People watch them suspiciously. They pass by the butcher’s counter. DAVE, the butcher watches them pass.)

  POLLY: I don’t like this store, Mommy.

  MELISSA: We’re only going to be a minute.

  POLLY: I want to go home.

  (The doll’s eyes open.)

  DOLL: (high-pitched creepy voice) Let’s have fun.

  (As they pass the refrigerated section, MELISSA sees an image of DAVE in the glass. He has a knife through his right eye.)

  DAVE’S IMAGE: Help, Melissa.

  (MELISSA quickly wheels the cart to the front of the store. The cart has a bad wheel.)

  MELISSA: (picking up POLLY) We’re going home, Polly. Please, don’t do this to Mommy.

  (Nearby, there is the sound of breaking glass as a woman drops her basket and begins clawing at her eyes. MELISSA runs out of the store with POLLY as everyone in the store begins clawing at their eyes. DAVE comes out of the back of the store and sees what is happening. He suddenly claws at his eyes, then runs back to his phone and dials 911.)

  DAVE: It’s Dave, down at the Super Saver. Send whoever you got on duty.

  (Dave sees a fuzzy reflection of the doll in the metal door of a meat locker.)

  DOLL’S IMAGE: I want to play.

  (DAVE pulls out a knife as if to attack the doll, but then aims the knife at his own eye. He is struggling against himself, but the knife moves closer to his right eye. The camera cuts away just as we hear him scream. Doll is still reflected on locker, watching.)

  Opening Credits

  SCENE 2 (A convertible drives down a street in the small Maine harbor town. SCULLY pulls the convertible into a gas station, gets out and begins filling the tank . She is wearing a Maine tourist T-shirt and jeans and very cool shades. She hears her cell phone ringing. She gets the keys out of the ignition, opens the trunk of the car and pulls out her phone.)

  SCULLY: (on phone) Scully.

  (MULDER is in the office rocking on the back of a chair, obviously very bored.) MULDER: (on phone) Hey, Scully, it’s me.

  SCULLY: (on phone, voice) Mulder, I thought we had an agreement. We were both going to take the weekend off.

  MULDER: (on phone) Right, right. I know. But I - I just received some information about - about a case. A classic X-files --- classic. I wanted to share it with you.

  SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, I’m on vacation. The weather is clear. I’m looking forward to hitting the road and breathing in some of this fine New England air.

  MULDER: (on phone) You didn’t rent a convertible, did you?

  SCULLY: (on phone) Why?

  MULDER: (on phone) Are you aware of the statistics of decapitation?

  SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, I’m hanging up. I’m turning off my cell phone. I’m back in the office on Monday.

  MULDER: (on phone) You shouldn’t talk and drive at the same time. Are you aware of the statistics ….? Hello?

  (SCULLY has hung up. She drives the car into the grocery store lot, almost hitting MELISSA’S car as MELISSA speeds away. SCULLY looks slightly disgusted. Then she sees an OLD MAN staggering out of the store with bloody eyes. She gets out of the car.)

  SCULLY: Sir … Sir, what happened?

  OLD MAN: (disoriented) I .. I think we need a doctor.

  (SCULLY walks into store. People are moaning and crying and have horribly scratched eyes)

  STORE MANAGER: (in pain) Who are you?

  SCULLY: I’m .. my name is Scully. I’m an FBI agent. What happened to you?

  STORE MANAGER: I don’t know. But Dave, the butcher .. I think he’s dead.

  (SCULLY goes to the back and looks at DAVE’S body, knife sticking out of his eye socket.)

  SCENE 3 (X-Files office. Mulder is eating sunflower seeds and watching television. Lots of groaning and moaning from a male and a female voice. Empty video cassette box on MULDER’S desk reads "Alien Probe." Phone rings.)

  MULDER: (on phone) Mulder.

  SCULLY: (on phone, voice) Mulder, it’s me.

  MULDER: (on phone) I thought you said you were on vacation.

  SCULLY: (on phone, voice) I am. I’m up in Maine.

  MULDER: (on phone) I thought you said you didn’t want to be disturbed. You wanted to get out of your head for a few days.

  SCULLY: (on phone, voice) I don’t … I mean, I do. I …. (moaning from TV is loud) What are you watching, Mulder?

  MULDER: (on phone) It’s the World’s Deadliest Swarms. (Fumbles with remote to stop the tape.) Um .. you said you were going to be unreachable. What’s going on?

  SCULLY: (on phone) I, uh … I’m at a market here. I’m just trying to give the local PD a handle here.

  MULDER: (on phone, voice) A handle on what?

  (SCULLY is in store office watching security tape footage of people clawing at their eyes.)

  SCULLY: (on phone) Well, I’m not quite sure how to describe it, Mulder. I didn’t witness it myself but there seems to be some kind of an outbreak of people acting in a violent, involuntary way.

  MULDER: (on phone) Towards who?

  (MULDER switches off TV, which now shows man being attacked by bugs. Remember, tape has already been stopped.)

  SCULLY: (on phone, voice) Toward themselves.

  MULDER: (on phone) Themselves?

  SCULLY: (on phone) Yeah. Beating at their faces, clawing at their eyes. One man is dead.

  MULDER: (on phone, voice) Dead? How?

  SCULLY: (on phone) Self-inflicted, it appears.

  MULDER: (on phone) Huh … it sounds to me like that’s witchcraft or maybe some sorcery that you’re looking for there.

  (Local PD Captain, JACK BONSAINT watches SCULLY strangely throughout conversation with MULDER.)

  SCULLY: (on phone) No, I don’t think it’s witchcraft, Mulder, or sorcery. I’ve had a look around and I don’t see any evidence that warrants that kind of suspicion.

  MULDER: (on phone) Maybe you don’t know what you’re looking for.

  SCULLY: (on phone) Like evidence of conjury or the black arts or shamanism, divination, Wicca or any kind of pagan or neo-Pagan practice. Charms, cards ….

  (MULDER is listening, spellbound.)

  SCULLY: (on phone) … familiars, bloodstones, or hex signs or any of the ritual tableaux associated with the occult, Santeria, Voudoun, Macumba, or any high or low magic?

  MULDER: (on phone) Scully …

  SCULLY: (on phone) Yes?

  MULDER: (on phone) Marry me.

  SCULLY: (on phone) I was hoping for something a little more helpful.

  MULDER: (on phone) Well, you know, short of looking for a lady wearing a pointy hat riding a broomstick, I think you pretty much got it covered there.

  SCULLY: (on phone) Thanks anyway. (hangs up, looks at tape again) (to OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS) Who’s that woman right there?

  BUDDY: Melissa Turner.

  SCULLY: She’s the only one I’ve seen who looks unaffected.

  BUDDY: What’s your point?

  SCULLY: You might want to talk to her.<
br />
  (SCULLY leaves the store office. Captain JACK BONSAINT follows her.)

  BONSAINT: (smiling, very friendly) Ms. Scully … you staying in town?

  SCULLY: Yes. I’m on vacation. Why?

  BONSAINT: Well, what you said back there about Melissa Turner kind of put a spin on this whole business here today.

  SCULLY: How’s that?

  BONSAINT: Well, Melissa’s caused some stir. People here say she’s a witch.

  SCULLY: Well, that’s not the first time for that accusation in these parts.

  BONSAINT: Ayuh.

  SCULLY: Look, to be honest with you, Captain Bonsaint, um, I’m not much of a believer in witchcraft.

  BONSAINT: Well, you know, I’m not either. I used to just think it’s ‘cause Melissa was pretty and single. Threatening, you know?

  SCULLY: But now you’re not convinced?

  BONSAINT: Well, you know, I appreciate the trouble you went to, and I sure do hope there’s a reasonable explanation like you said – just this one thing going to make it hard to persuade folks to your thinking.

  SCULLY: What one thing is that?

  BONSAINT: Who she’s been carrying on with.

  SCULLY: Who she’s been carrying on with?

  BONSAINT: Ayuh. With Dave, the butcher.

  SCENE 4 (Back in store office, OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS calls MELISSA.)

  MELISSA: (on phone) Hello?

  (At MELISSA’S house, the HOKEY POKEY song is playing on POLLY’S record player. POLLY, holding her doll, watches MELISSA.)

  BUDDY: (on phone) Hey. It’s Buddy.

  MELISSA: Oh, hi.

  BUDDY: (on phone) Are you okay, Melissa?

  MELISSA: (on phone) I’m fine. Why do you ask?

  POLLY: Who’s that, Mommy?

  BUDDY: (on phone) I know you were here, Melissa. Down at the Super Saver.

  MELISSA: (on phone) I don’t know what you’re talking about, Buddy.

  POLLY: Hang up. Mommy.

  BUDDY: (on phone) Melissa, turn the music down. There’s some talk that you’re involved in what happened here today.

  MELISSA: (on phone, going downstairs and outside) I’m not involved in anything.

  BUDDY: (on phone) I know that. Would you listen to me? I’m not saying that you are.

  MELISSA: (on phone) What are you saying?

  POLLY: (from inside) Mommy!

  BUDDY: (on phone) I want to help you, but you’ve got to keep it a secret or we’re both going to be answering questions. Now, I’ve got something to tell you.

  MELISSA: (on phone) What?

  BUDDY: (on phone) Something bad.

  MELISSA: (on phone) What is it, Buddy?

  BUDDY: (on phone) Dave’s dead.

  MELISSA: (on phone) Oh, my God!

  BUDDY: (on phone) I’ve got to see you right away, Melissa.

  MELISSA: (on phone) I can’t.

  BUDDY: (on phone) You need a friend more than ever.

  (Upstairs, POLLY sits with the doll, listening to the Hokey Pokey. Doll’s eyes open.)

  DOLL: Let’s have fun.

  MELISSA: (on phone) You can’t come here, Buddy.

  BUDDY: (on phone) Why? Tell me why?

  MELISSA: (on phone) I can’t explain it to you now.

  BUDDY: (on phone) I’m coming over there, Melissa. You shouldn’t be alone.

  (Behind MELISSA outside, we see the shadow of the doll on a sheet hanging to dry on a clothesline. Its eyes blink.)

  (Commercial 1.)

  SCENE 5 MELISSA TURNER RESIDENCE 2:08 PM

  (BONSAINT and SCULLY drive up in a patrol car and get out. BONSAINT knocks on front door. No answer. SCULLY looks in a window.)

  SCULLY: Back door’s wide open.

  (They go around to back.)

  BONSAINT: Melissa! (to SCULLY) Sheets are still wet.

  (SCULLY enters house, goes up to POLLY’S room and looks at windows which are nailed shut.)

  SCULLY: Chief? Take a look at this.

  BONSAINT: What the devil’s this for?

  SCULLY: It looks like she was afraid of something.

  BONSAINT: Whatever it is, she’s run off in a hurry. Laundry’s out. Door’s unlocked. Beats me.

  SCULLY: You know her?

  BONSAINT: Melissy Turner?

  SCULLY: Mm-hmm.

  BONSAINT: About as local as you can get. Born and raised here. Married a fisherman. Widowed last year after a boating accident. Don’t know if the little girl, Polly ever really understood. Toys in the attic.

  SCULLY: The daughter’s autistic?

  BONSAINT: That’s what they say. There was the incident last year over at the daycare center? Proprietor slapped Polly across the face.

  SCULLY: Slapped her? What for?

  BONSAINT: Well, she said Polly threw a tantrum so fierce there was nothing else she could do. Next thing she knew, she’s on the ground. Little girl knocked her silly.

  SCULLY: The little girl did?

  BONSAINT: Well, that’s her story. Polly never touched her, far as I could figure. Oh, it was a real drama, though. The lady who ran the school lost her license. People calling the kid all manner of names saying Melissa’s a witch. Polly never went back to school a day since.

  SCULLY: This ah, this affair that the mother was having with the butcher …?

  BONSAINT: Dave. Oh, I might have given you the wrong impression. That wasn’t really an affair. Although Dave did make quite a fool of himself and his wife.

  SCULLY: So, it was unrequited.

  BONSAINT: You could say that.

  SCULLY: To the extent that she’d have to nail her windows shut?

  BONSAINT: Oh, he wasn’t that big a fool. You know, maybe she wasn’t afraid of something getting in. Maybe she’s afraid of something getting out.

  SCULLY: Like what?

  BONSAINT: Just a thought.

  SCENE 6 (Fast food restaurant. OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS sets a chocolate sundae in front of POLLY who is holding her doll.)

  BUDDY: What do you think of that, huh?

  (POLLY does not answer. She eats the cherry, then begins eating the sundae. OFFICER BRIGGS pats her on the head and goes to sit with MELISSA. They talk quietly.)

  BUDDY: Why don’t you leave town?

  MELISSA: I’ve got nowhere to go, Buddy. I live on a shoestring as it is.

  BUDDY: Listen to me. I’ve got some money put away.

  MELISSA: Buddy, I can’t!

  BUDDY: I’ve had my eye on you, Melissa, for more years than I care to remember. You know, I missed my chance the first time around. I’ve been waiting in the wings. Now, I’m sorry about things, truly I am, but you need somebody who can provide.

  MELISSA: Don’t, Buddy, please!

  BUDDY: "Don’t" because you don’t want to, or just because you’re too proud?

  MELISSA: You don’t understand!

  (They watch POLLY take her sundae up to the counter.)

  BUDDY: What don’t I understand?

  MELISSA: What happened in the Super Saver, what happened to Dave … I couldn’t stop it.

  BUDDY: What do you mean?

  MELISSA: I’ve seen things.

  (POLLY has gone up to the counter.)

  POLLY: I want more cherries.

  (WAITRESS with really long ponytail answers her.)

  WAITRESS: What’s that, sweetie?

  POLLY: (not sweet) I want more cherries!

  (MELISSA and OFFICER BRIGGS still talking at table.)

  MELISSA: I saw Dave dead. Before he was dead. I saw him in frozen foods all cut and bloody and it’s not the first time. My husband … I saw him in a window dead before it happened. You know, with a hook?

  (At counter)

  POLLY: I want more cherries, now!

  WAITRESS: You’ll have to go ask your Mommy for some more money, hon. I just can’t give them away.

  WAITER: Window order.

  (Doll’s eyes open.)

  DOLL: Let’s have fun.

  POLLY: Mommy, I want more cherries.

  MELI
SSA: We got to go now, Polly.

  OFFICER BRIGGS: (holding up a key) Take this, Melissa. It’s a place we use for hunting up near Schoodic Lake …

  POLLY: Mommy!

  OFFICER BRIGGS: …or else there’s going to be trouble. More than you need.

  POLLY: Mommy! Mommy!

  (WAITRESS’ long hair gets caught in the milkshake mixing machine. She begins screaming as blood appears at her hairline. OFFICER BRIGGS rushes to help her. MELISSA and POLLY run out the door.)

  SCENE 7 (JANE FROELICH’S house. JANE looks through door window.)

  JANE: Is that you, Jack?

  BONSAINT: Uh, yeah, it’s me, Jane. Come in?

  JANE: (opens door, hostile) Who’ve you got with you?

  SCULLY: Miss Froelich, my name’s Dana Scully. I’m with the FBI. I just happen to be here on vacation , and uh …

  JANE: So?

  SCULLY: So, I just am helping out the chief here.

  JANE: You talked to her?

  SCULLY: Who?

  JANE: Oh, please. Melissa Turner. That whore’s a witch sure as I’m standing here. She’s descended from the Hawthornes in Salem and the Englishes, too. She comes from a cursed lineage and now she’s passing it on to the whelp. God save that little girl if somebody don’t do something. Lord knows I tried.

  BONSAINT: Jane, if we could just come in for a few minutes and talk.

  JANE: I found out last year how much good talking to you does, Jack Bonsaint. I explained everything and the city closed me down anyway. Our great-great-grandfathers knew how to treat witches. They would have driven the demon out of that little girl and given that slattern of a mother just what she’s got coming! (slams door)

  SCULLY: New England hospitality. Heard about it my whole life. Finally got a chance to experience it for myself.

  (JANE watches them walk to the car.)

  BONSAINT: Well, you see what I’m up against here, public sentiment and all.

  SCULLY: This family tree of Melissa Turner’s...

  BONSAINT: Ayuh..

  SCULLY: It’s all talk, isn’t it?

  BONSAINT: Oh, I never really asked. Why?

  SCULLY: Well, I think you need to bring her in to straighten this out.

  BONSAINT: Under what pretext?

  SCULLY: That she might know something.

  BONSAINT: About what?

  SCULLY: Well, about what I’m sure is a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this.

  BONSAINT: Ayuh.

  SCULLY: Well, I wish I could help you out. You know, I’m just … on vacation.