MATTHEW
(nods)
…a bra.
ADAM
Lots of seashells, under the sea.
(a beat)
How about a hamburger?
Adam pauses the video, holding up My Father’s Dragon.
ADAM
I can read to you in the restaurant, if it’s not too noisy.
MATTHEW
(nods)
Okay!
INT. ELEVATOR, HOTEL JEROME. CONTINUOUS.
Clara uses the cowboy’s saddle as a headrest; the cowboy lies with his head in her lap, face up, his Stetson on his stomach. Clara is humming “Part of Your World” to him when the elevator door opens—Adam and Matthew step inside. Matthew clearly has “Part of Your World” on his mind. He is already humming the tune. Clara hums in unison with him. Adam and the cowboy react as if the spontaneous duet is weird. Clara stops humming. Matthew just hums the tune.
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. CONTINUOUS.
The usual ghosts are in the J-Bar, with a few HOTEL GUESTS and SKIERS. Monika and Nan and Beth are at their usual table.
ANOTHER ANGLE: a WAITER is seating Adam and Matthew. Adam sees how close their table is to those three downhillers.
ADAM (V.O.)
Regarding the rules for ghosts: Jerome B. Wheeler is the guy in charge of the ghosts at the Jerome. Mr. Wheeler has his rules.
Monika is flaunting Grace’s bra. Monika and Nan and Beth pass the bra around, holding it up to their bigger boobs. There is NO SOUND—only Adam’s voice-over and a country song.
CLOSER ON: Monika’s rowdy table, as Jerome B. Wheeler is suddenly standing over the three women downhillers. He holds out his hand. You don’t have to read lips to know what he’s saying: Give me the bra. Beth hands it over. Jerome B. Wheeler is speaking to Monika, who keeps shaking her head.
ADAM (V.O.)
The Hotel Jerome is not a bad place to be a ghost—a good ghost is watching over things.
PULL BACK: the unsmiling Ute is standing there, backing up Wheeler; the Aspen volunteers have surrounded the table. Wheeler is pointing to the door to the street; he’s telling Monika and her friends to leave. Jerome B. Wheeler also points to Matthew—a gesture not lost on Adam. Wheeler makes it clear that children are out of bounds to ghosts. Monika is pissed off, but she does what she’s told—she and Nan and Beth leave.
ADAM (V.O.)
My mom had begged me to get her out of the Jerome if she ended up here as a ghost. My mother wasn’t here, but there must be worse places.
Jerome B. Wheeler considers what to do with Grace’s bra—he looks uncomfortable holding it. The Ute refuses to look at it. The Aspen volunteers want nothing to do with it.
ADAM (V.O.)
I appreciated Jerome B. Wheeler’s rules—children should be out of bounds to ghosts.
INT. LIVING ROOM, HOTEL JEROME. SAME NIGHT, SAME DINNER TIME.
Eating her room-service dinner, Grace is watching The Little Mermaid. She is unresponsive to Ariel’s dilemma. The sound is off and it’s the hundredth time.
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. AFTER DINNER.
Only TWO SKIERS are riding the barstools at the bar. The volume is turned down low on a country song; we can barely hear it. What we hear more clearly is Adam’s voice-over.
ADAM (V.O.)
After dinner, I was reading Chapter Seven of My Father’s Dragon to Matthew—“My Father Meets a Lion.”
A WIDER ANGLE: surrounding Adam and Matthew’s table are the ghosts, who’ve pulled up chairs to listen to the story. Jerome B. Wheeler and the Ute are listening, as are the two miners who were blown to bits setting black-powder charges; the miner with the sledge grips his hammer. The two miners don’t have a good feeling about meeting a lion.
ADAM (V.O.)
I didn’t think the ghosts would be interested in a children’s story, but maybe the ghosts didn’t know it was a story for children.
ANOTHER ANGLE: the Aspen volunteers have their doubts about the story; they look at one another in disbelief. You need weapons to deal with a lion, they’re thinking.
ADAM (V.O.)
I could tell the Aspen volunteers were getting restless with the story—My Father’s Dragon isn’t for heavily armed white men.
NO SOUND, as Adam keeps reading to Matthew.
CLOSE-UP: on Jerome B. Wheeler, holding Grace’s bra in his lap.
PULL BACK: Jerome passes the bra to the grim-faced Ute. Without looking at it, the Ute passes it to one of the miners—the one not holding the sledge. The miner stares at the bra, then nudges the miner gripping the sledge. The miner with the sledge is the closest to Adam. There’s an awkward exchange of the bra between the miners. The miner with the sledge passes the bra under the table to Adam.
CLOSE-UP: on Adam, still reading, glancing at the bra in his lap.
INT. ELEVATOR, HOTEL JEROME. SOON AFTER THE J-BAR READING.
Clara Swift is asleep, her head on the cowboy’s saddle; the cowboy sleeps with his head in Clara’s lap, his Stetson on his stomach. The ghost of Paulina Juárez, the Mexican maid who is Paul Goode’s mother, stands protectively over Clara. When the elevator door opens, admitting Adam and Matthew, Paulina holds an index finger to her lips, cautioning Adam to be quiet.
ADAM
(whispers to Matthew)
Only whispering on the elevator.
MATTHEW
(whispers)
Why?
ADAM
(whispers)
To practice being quiet—your mom might be asleep when we get back.
MATTHEW
(whispers)
Okay.
Paulina whispers to Adam. Matthew doesn’t see or hear her.
PAULINA
(one hand on her heart)
Lo siento. Tu madre.
(repeats, in English)
I’m sorry. Your mother.
Adam nods to her. Paulina is smiling at Matthew.
PAULINA
(whispers to Adam)
¿Tu hijo? Your son?
ADAM
(whispers back, nodding)
Matthew.
MATTHEW
(whispers to his dad)
What?
ADAM
(whispers)
Just remember to whisper.
MATTHEW
(whispers)
You just told me!
Paulina is beaming at her great-grandson.
ADAM (V.O.)
Who knows the rules for ghosts—why was my grandmother’s ghost a younger woman, in her early thirties? She’d been forty-eight when she died.
The elevator door opens. Adam and Matthew step out.
PAULINA
(whispers to Adam)
Tu abuela. Your grandmother.
ADAM
(whispers back, nodding)
Sí.
MATTHEW
(whispers to his dad)
See what?
The elevator door closes. Clara Swift and the cowboy go on sleeping. Paulina sees Grace’s bra on the floor of the elevator; she hides it in the apron of her uniform.
ADAM (V.O.)
When the lies of omission unravel, so does the story.
INT. LIVING ROOM, HOTEL JEROME. CONTINUOUS.
Adam and Matthew enter their suite. The TV in the living room is on—a close-up of Ursula, the sea witch in The Little Mermaid, is paused on the screen. Ursula is grotesque and purple; the living room has a purple hue. Adam is wearing a flannel shirt; he is unbuttoning the shirt and feeling around inside it, searching for Grace’s bra. Matthew is disquieted by Ursula.
ADAM (V.O.)
The missing bra didn’t matter—the bra was just the beginning.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. CONTINUOUS.
Grace is asleep in bed. There’s a light on in the bathroom; the door is open. Matthew and Adam undress for bed. Adam takes off his flannel shirt. He’s searching the sleeves—no bra.
MATTHEW
(whispers)
What are you looking for?
ADAM
(whispers)
Good boy—keep whispering.
MATTHEW
(whispers)
I know!
Matthew goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth.
INT. HALL, HOTEL JEROME. CONTINUOUS.
Adam peers down the hall from the open door to his suite. No bra. He closes the door. The bra is looped over the doorknob on the exterior of the suite door. Paulina must have put it there.