Still Valley At 20,000 Feet by Mike Burns (my reading book .TXT) 📖

into the earth or somethin’! But make it good!

Paradine glances in the lieutenant’s direction, back at book. Opens the book up.

SERGEANT PARADINE
Satan...Satan, I call upon ye, an’ in so doin’, I revoke the name of...(pauses)
(CONTINUED)
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Sergeant Paradine pauses, looks around uneasily, first in the lieutenant’s direction, then back at Doager.

PRIVATE DOAGER
Go on, Joe, read it!

Paradine looks in the lieutenant’s direction again.

SERGEANT PARADINE
It calls upon us to revoke the name of God.

FOCUS ON THE LIEUTENANT, GRIM-FACED.

Private Doager lunges at Paradine, wrestling the book out of his hands. Book falls to ground. Doager goes down to his knees, scrabbling to grab it up. Paradine wrestles it away from him.

SERGEANT PARADINE
Leave it be, Doager!

Doager’s expression is anguished.

PRIVATE DOAGER
You said it yourself, Sergeant, it’s the only thing we got left!

LIEUTENANT
He’s right, Paradine. God help us...it IS all we have left.

Paradine looks up at the lieutenant with a haunted look.

SERGEANT PARADINE
What do we call ‘em...DAMN YANKEES, don’t we, lieutenant? That’s the phrase, isn’t it? DAMN YANKS! If I read aloud from this book, it’ll be the Confederacy that’s damned!

PRIVATE DOAGER
It’s that book, or it’s the end!

SERGEANT PARADINE
Then let it be the end! If it must come, let it come! If this cause is to be buried, let it be put...

Just as Sgt. Paradine is about to reach the decision to consign Teague’s book to the flames of the nearby campfire, he is forcibly distracted.

LOUD SOUND OF HORSE HOOVES FROM LEFT

A Confederate mail courier enters the camp. The courier, exhausted, filthy and minorly wounded (bullet graze on left side of face) rides up to the group where Sgt. Paradine stands with Doager and the lieutenant.

MAIL COURIER
Is this the 9th Virginia Cavalry?

LIEUTENANT
Yes, Corporal, it is. State your business, boy.
(CONTINUED)
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
SERGEANT PARADINE(eyes courier curiously)
Say, don’t I know you, son? Aren’t you Arch Pellington’s boy--Tom? From my hometown?

The mail courier gets down from horse and guides the Sgt. over toward a large, downed tree trunk.

MAIL COURIER
That’s right, Mr.--Sgt. Paradine. I’ve got bad news sir. Please sit down. (They both sit on the tree trunk). I...we... I’m sorry to tell you your wife...and...your... five children...have gone missin’...after the Union shelled Maceyville last weekend. The local militia group drove ‘em off, but one man saw the whole thing from Barrington Peak. He saw your family run to the house--and saw the house disappear under fire from mortars. He said they musta...the Yankees musta thought it was a arms depot or somethin‘ like that.

A long, unhappy pause ensues. Paradine almost falls from his seat, and is helped by Private Doagley (who has dashed over, seeing his sergeant in distress) and Tom Pellington, who help him stay upright .

MAIL COURIER
I’m not really a soldier, Sgt. My older brother Hank came home wounded. When I found out about your family, I didn’t know what to do. I took his uniform and rode up this way after some men from your unit told me you was here. They were comin’ around lookin’ for food, y’ know. I’m sorry, Joe...Sgt. Paradine. I was one of your wife’s students at the school. I thought someone you knew should tell you, sir. I’m sorry.

FOCUS ON PARADINE. CHANGE OF LIGHTING, TO AN UNDERLIT LIGHT PERSPECTIVE--DARKER, MORE SINISTER.

OVERHEAD, A BRIGHT FLASH OF LIGHT, bright as any lightning, followed by a horrifyingly total darkness.

LIEUTENANT
What in God’s name--Paradine, is this your doin’? There’s not a cloud in the sky. Is this magic--from that book?

Paradine doesn’t answer.

After a couple of seconds, THE BLACKNESS SUBSIDES, REPLACED BY THE “NORMAL DARKNESS” of a few moments before.

Paradine’s expression has changed--his eyes have gone wide, and seem to smolder with hate. The corners of his mouth have turned downward into a grim, sad/angry expression.

After a period of blank, incoherent despondency, the Sgt. pulls himself together. His voice assumes a hard, cold edge. He addresses the courier once again, who still stands before him.

SGT. PARADINE
Thank you for informin’ me of this, son. You’ve got a big choice to make here, son. You can skedaddle back home right now, if you want. If not, I’m going to insist you take the induction oath right now. Because this war ain’t over. Not by a damn sight! I can bring victory. After today, I don’t count the cost. Period.

The sergeant has been holding Teague’s book this whole time. He looks at it again, seeing it in a totally new light. A grim smile tugs at the corners of his mouth.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////A SHELL suddenly EXPLODES nearby. SMOKE ENVELOPS THE CAMP SITE. When it clears, we see all rising from sitting or prone positions, dusting themselves off and checking themselves for injury.

CORPORAL PELLINGTON (coughing, waving his arms to dissipate smoke and dust) Sgt. Paradine...sir, are you all right?

Paradine has fallen off the tree trunk, and arises now. He touches his left shirt pocket, which shows a tear--directly above his heart. He reaches in the pocket, and pulls out a small book, much smaller than the black magic book in his other hand.

FOCUS on book with shrapnel-torn hole, in Paradine’s hand.

CORPORAL PELLINGTON
Sir, are you all right?


SGT. PARADINE (speaking dazedly)
Yes...Tom. I think that was a dud shell from an earlier battle here, goin’ off late. There’s been no enemy activity in this whole valley...not today, and not since we come here two days ago.

Other troops are picking themselves up, gazing around with anxiety.

SGT. PARADINE
Yes, I’m all right, Tom (looks at the book in his hand, which Tom leans around to get a look at).

CORPORAL PELLINGTON
It’s a bible, sir. Looks like it just saved your life, sir.

Tom points to the shell fragment embedded in the book.