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.
MELISSA: 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.