ADAM (V.O.)
Regarding the unraveling of my father’s marriage to Clara Swift, Paul Goode said he and Clara had paid insufficient attention to their son, Toby. Point taken.
EXT. PROSPECTOR GULCH, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. SAME DAY.
The two patrollers who found the drinker’s burnt parka have found the drinkers themselves, on a blue run under the Exhibition lift. The freezing drinker without a parka is huddled under a blanket on the patrollers’ toboggan; the other drinker is acting out the fire on the chairlift. We can’t hear what the drinker is telling the patrollers, but we know the story.
ADAM (V.O.)
It was not the kind of ski day Grace or I had expected.
EXT. LIFT STATION, SILVER QUEEN GONDOLA, TOP OF ASPEN MOUNTAIN. SAME DAY.
Adam and Matthew imitate the hatching or birthing process as they unload from the gondola. REPULSED SKIERS move away from them.
ADAM (V.O.)
It’s hard to pretend to be born without causing offense.
EXT. UPPER STEIN, LOWER STEIN, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. SAME DAY.
Paul and Grace, just skiing. When they pause, they’re talking back and forth like old friends. They’re skiing down two double diamonds, the Upper Stein to the Lower Stein. Adam’s voice-over is all we hear.
ADAM (V.O.)
My dad would not be writing a memoir, he told Grace. Our Matthew and Paul Goode’s son, Toby, would be spared from reading such a story, Grace told me.
EXT. POOL AND HOT TUBS, HOTEL JEROME. LATER THAT AFTERNOON.
Adam and Grace and Matthew are in the hot tubs, where Lex Barker is listening to their conversation.
ADAM
(to Matthew)
We have three chapters to go in My Father’s Dragon—we won’t finish.
GRACE
(to Matthew)
You and I will be back in Vermont tomorrow night, but your dad won’t be home till the night after.
MATTHEW
(to his dad)
What three chapters?
ADAM
The gorilla, the crocodiles, and the dragon.
Tarzan knows apes and crocodiles, but the dragon worries him.
ADAM
I can handle the gorilla tonight. Your mom can deal with the crocodiles on the plane.
GRACE
I can read you the dragon chapter at home, tomorrow night.
ADAM
And when I get home, we can start the story all over again.
MATTHEW
(startling Tarzan)
From the beginning!
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. THAT EVENING.
Adam, Grace, and Matthew are eating dinner. There’s no acrimony between Adam and Grace; they’re talking to each other, and Matthew joins in, but we hear only Adam’s voice-over and a country song. Without Monika and her pals, the ghosts are unthreatening—the two miners at the bar, the Aspen volunteers at their usual table, Jerome B. Wheeler in conversation with the Ute. From the street, the tall hippie girl peers in a window.
ADAM (V.O.)
I knew it was the last time we would go anywhere together as a family, but that night felt as much like the beginning of something as like an ending.
INT. LIVING ROOM, HOTEL JEROME. THAT NIGHT.
Grace is alone in the living room, watching TV.
ONSCREEN: Paige what’s-her-name, on her movie gossip show—Paige is interviewing Juliette Leblanc again. It’s been only five years, but Juliette isn’t aging well. They’re in a hotel somewhere.
PAIGE
Paul Goode is gonna be seventy?
(Juliette shrugs)
He doesn’t look seventy.
(Juliette shrugs)
And Clara Swift—if she were still alive—would be fifty this year.
A YOUNG MAN wearing only a towel walks into the living room of the suite, from the bedroom.
JULIETTE
(to the young man)
I told you, I’m having an interview—I didn’t mean tomorrow.
The young man shrugs; he goes back to the bedroom.
PAIGE
(whispers)
And who is that gorgeous guy?
(Juliette shrugs)
Back to Paul Goode. Do you think it’s a wonder he hasn’t been killed by a woman he slept with?
JULIETTE
(not shrugging this off)
Or a woman he didn’t sleep with.
Paige, at a loss for words, hadn’t thought of this.
PAIGE
(to camera)
I’m with Juliette Leblanc—we’re at an undisclosed location!
BACK ON: Grace, turning off the TV. She can hear Adam reading aloud in the bedroom.
ADAM (O.C.)
“A beautiful lioness paraded past…”
Grace covers her ears with her hands—not her kind of story.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. CONTINUOUS.
Adam is with Matthew on the rollaway, reading the gorilla chapter of My Father’s Dragon. Grace drifts through the bedroom on her way to the bathroom.
ADAM
“… she was much too occupied looking dignified to see anything but the tip of her own nose.”
INT. BATHROOM, HOTEL JEROME. CONTINUOUS.
On Grace, looking at herself in the mirror.
ADAM (O.C.)
“It was the lion’s mother…”
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. A LITTLE LATER THAT NIGHT.
CLOSE-UP: on Matthew, asleep in his rollaway.
ANOTHER ANGLE: on Adam and Grace, asleep—not touching, on their respective sides of the bed.
ADAM (V.O.)
“… there was no dragon anywhere in sight.”
CLOSE-UP: on the night table, on Adam’s side of the bed—nearest the bathroom door and Matthew’s rollaway—is My Father’s Dragon with the cover illustration of the baby dragon on a cloud.
FADE TO BLACK. Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me” PLAYS OVER. FADE IN.
EXT. ASPEN SIDEWALK, S. MILL. EARLY NEXT MORNING.
It snowed overnight. The S. Mill sidewalk has been sporadically shoveled. The small wheels of the baby carriage find the snowy sidewalk slow going. We see the GLOVED HANDS pushing the baby carriage, but not the baby. It’s a cold morning.
We are in the POV of the woman with the baby carriage, but we don’t see her—only the SKIERS, coming toward us on the S. Mill sidewalk. We pass E. Cooper, moving toward E. Hyman, as Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me” CONTINUES OVER.
INT. BREAKFAST ROOM, HOTEL JEROME. THAT SAME MORNING.
Flanked by Otto and Billy, Paul Goode arrives for breakfast—early, as always. “You Send Me” PLAYS OVER.
INT. LIVING ROOM, HOTEL JEROME. SAME TIME, SAME MORNING.
Grace watches one of the cowboy porters load a luggage cart with her stuff and Matthew’s. Adam is writing in the copy of his novel for his father. Matthew watches him.
MATTHEW
What are you writing?
ADAM
It’s what I write when I sign one of my books to someone I don’t know well. I write, “With my appreciation.”
MATTHEW
Oh.
We still hear Sam Cooke singing “You Send Me,” more quietly here.
EXT. ASPEN SIDEWALK, S. MILL. CONTINUOUS.
The baby carriage is passing E. Hyman, on its way to E. Hopkins. TWO SKIERS come toward us, on their way to Aspen Mountain. Sam Cooke keeps singing “You Send Me.”
INT. BREAKFAST ROOM, HOTEL JEROME. CONTINUOUS.
“You Send Me” is the only sound. Adam, Grace, and Matthew are being seated. Grace and Paul wave to each other. Otto stands, leaving his and Billy’s table—again offering to show Matthew the stuffed animal heads in the Antler Bar—but Grace stops him, pointing to her watch. She explains to Otto that it’s travel day.
Adam gives Otto the copy of his novel he signed for his father. Otto brings the signed book to Paul Goode, who reads the “With my appreciation” inscription on the title page. There is a nod of recognition between father and son.
Matthew would rather be in the Antler Bar with Otto.
EXT. ASPEN SIDEWALK, S. MILL. CONTINUOUS.