It All Began With Wally - Part 5

“People are not born interesting,” I tell Wally. “They become interesting as a product of life experiences.”

“Huh?” said Wally.

I explain that starting out Sacajawea’s life as a twinkle in her father’s eye is all well and good except that if his epic is going to be about her travels with Lewis and Clark and he’s telling it in real time, we’re looking at a script that’s roughly 175,200 hours long.

Wally is totally stymied at this point. He likes the notion of telling the story through the woman’s POV but has no clue where, exactly, that POV should commence. I decide to help him out with a freebie idea – a bookend approach that would hook the audience, get to the heart of the journey, and fade to black with the mystique that still endures regarding Sacajawea’s ultimate fate. It would also weave into the tableau the reality that Clark subsequently became the legal guardian of her little boy, a situation that prompts us to wonder what influences compel a loving mother to give up her own child. Did she know she was dying? Did she see in Clark a more positive role model than her husband? Would a mixed-blood toddler have encumbered the return to her tribe?

“The film begins,” I say, “with a dark and stormy night in St. Louis.”

A cloaked figure carrying a bundle is hurrying through the rain soaked streets looking for a house, the home of the territorial governor. His housekeeper is reluctant to let her in and goes upstairs to tell her employer that a young ‘savage’ woman with a little boy claims that she knows him. Clark realizes who it is and hastily admits her. Absent Charbonneau, Sacajawea has come to see if he would be willing to raise her son. There’s an underscore of attraction between them. Now widowed, Clark realizes he has an opportunity to make a home for both of them. Sacajawea is disinclined to acquiesce to his request but agrees to give him her answer in the morning.

“The bulk of the script,” I then tell Wally, “is the flashback of the journey where we see how their chemistry slowly evolved into a love story that could not be consummated because of their respective obligations.”

Wally was now bouncing off the walls with excitement and promised “the best ever” version within the week.

INT. – CLARK’S LIBRARY – MOMENTS LATER

There is a light tap on his open door. He looks up and is astonished by the transformation of his guest. Helga the housekeeper had done well when she went next door to borrow clothes from the neighbor to replace Sacajawea’s wet ones. Standing before him now with a radiant smile meant only for him was his true love – her black hair swept atop her head and displaying the emerald earrings that perfectly matched the low cut Parisian gown Helga had procured. She carries two glasses of his best wine from the cellar.

SACAJAWEA: Shall we toast to the past and talk about our epic journey, William?

“And I’ve got this great idea for casting,” Wally announced in a margin note. “Catherine Zeta-Jones as Sacajawea and Michael Douglas as Clark. What do you think?”

What I think is that I’m not paid nearly enough to read any more Wally-isms.