INT. VIDEO STUDIO -SAME SET-UP - A LITTLE LATER
JESSOP: Did you think to tell anyone about this marvel - your father's resurrection from the dead?
LANE: No.
JESSOP: The priest? Surely a priest would have been interested in this miracle.
LANE: No. I didn't tell Uncle Mitch.
JESSOP: Why?
LANE: What I was seeing, what I was living, was impossible. I thought...I thought I was crazy.
JESSOP: But there was a funeral to arrange! How to bury your father when there was no corpse!
LANE: We had the funeral.
EXT. A CEMETERY - DAY - ESTABLISHING SHOT OF THE SLAUGHTER CRYPT
The facade of the crypt is a monument to Rushton's former ego. The name SLAUGHTER is engraved above the doorway and flanked by high granite pillars. A small group of MOURNERS waits outside the gated entry. The flower-draped casket is carried from a hearse into the crypt by PALLBEARERS.
Father Mitch, dressed in priestly vestments, reads from a bible and sprinkles holy water over the casket as it passes.
LANE (V.O.) It was a closed casket. Nobody questioned that because he died in a car wreck. I put bags of sand in the box and screwed down the lid. I felt bad that Uncle Mitch eulogized an empty container, but it was better he didn't know.
JESSOP (V.O.) Didn't know that his brother was one of the Walking Dead?
LANE (V.O.) If what you say is true - there wasn't a heaven or hell to receive him - I didn't know.
The funeral wraps up and Mitch leads Lane away from the crypt. Lane provides an over-the-top weepy-daughter performance. Rushton, wearing a wide sombrero, moustache and Mexican peasant robes, watches from under the shade of a tree. He gives his daughter a thumbs-up as she passes by.
INT. FUNERAL HOME - RUSHTON'S APARTMENT - DAY
Rushton, looking very spry and healthy for a dead guy, rolls paint onto a wall. Lane hangs new curtains on the window.
LANE (V.O.) I shut down the business and laid off our staff for the summer. They thought I was too grief-stricken to go on. In fact, it was just the opposite.
Rushton clumsily kicks over a can of paint. Lane waits for him to explode with anger but he laughs and shrugs.
LANE (V.O.) Dad and I were making up for lost time. He had become the father I never had and always needed.
MUSIC - MONGO JERRY singing - In the Summertime over:
EXT. A THOROUGHBRED RACETRACK - FINISH LINE - DAY
Lane and Rushton cheer on horses galloping to the finish line. Their horse wins. Rushton pulls a winning ticket from his pocket.
Lane is thrilled as she and her father have their picture taken with the winning horse and jockey.
EXT. FRONT OF A GLITZY THEATRE - NIGHT
Rushton and Lane are dressed in formal wear. Rushton hands money to a FLOWER SELLER for a single rose which he hands to his daughter. He holds the door open as Lane acknowledges his gallantry and walks through it.
INT. AN ART GALLERY - DAY
Lane and Rushton stroll in front of a wall of artwork. They each wear audio-tour headphones. Lane stops, noticing that Rushton's headset is lop-sided. Lane fusses over her dad's headset, then sees that one of his ears has detached, lodging in the headset cup. No matter. She nonchalantly dabs super glue on the ear and re-attaches it to his head.
EXT. A STREET - DAY
Lane and Rushton walk along the sidewalk carrying grocery bags, but they stop when FUNERAL CARS following a hearse approach them.
LANE (V.O.) I forgot what he was in life and embraced what he'd become, well, you know, after.
ON THE FUNERAL CAVALCADE -A GRIM REAPER, scythe in hand, stands upright through a moon roof in the lead funeral car. He points at Rushton. Lane and Rushton burst out laughing then drop their bags. They turn, bend over and MOON the Reaper as his funeral car slowly passes.
LANE (V.O.) Maybe we had both died and gone to heaven. As the funeral cars drive away, the Reaper's pointed finger turns into a one-finger salute.
INT. A BOWLING ALLEY - DAY
Lane sits at the scoring table as Rushton picks up a ball, and winks at his daughter. She gives him an enthusiastic thumbs up.
LANE (V.O.) Every day was a gift. Just daddy-daughter stuff. And when little issues developed....
Rushton tiptoes to the throw line and lets the ball fly. The ball rolls down the lane. STRIKE. Rushton high-fives Lane, and they suddenly notice that his hand is missing. CLOSE ON THE BALL rolling into the ball return channel with Rushton's hand still wrapped around it, fingers in the holes.
LANE (V.O.) We dealt with it.
They both kind of giggle. Lane hurriedly wraps a towel around her father's handless wrist. He surreptitiously pries his missing hand off the bowling ball.
EXT. A PARK - DAY
Rushton and Lane sit on a blanket beside a lake. She dabs sunblock on her face. He wears a tank top and is propped up against a tree reading a book - "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus" by Mary Shelley.
LANE (V.O.) But as summer wore on, the hot temperatures began to affect him.
Lane sniffs the air. She detects something foul and she grimaces. She moves closer to her dad and lifts his arm. Maggots are crawling over and into his armpit.
INT. THE FUNERAL HOME MORTUARY - NIGHT - SOFT MUSIC PLAYS
Rushton lies on the embalming table bare-chested. Lane injects fluids into his chest and abdomen.
LANE (V.O.) It got so dad needed a tune-up every few days. The embalming solutions got stronger and stronger.
She douses antiseptic under his armpits and swabs him.
LANE (V.O.)Two weeks passed, then a month. Dad regained most of his motor skills, muscle control, that sort of thing. But his skin...
Lane peers at her father's rotting skin using a magnifier.
LANE (V.O.) He was still decomposing at a cellular level.
INT. MORTUARY - ANOTHER TIME
Rushton sits on the embalming table wearing the coonskin hat that his brother gave Lane for the burial. Lane uses a "super soaker" gun to inject preservatives into her father.
LANE (V.O.) I tried a form of plastination, a polymer infusion like they use for those travelling corpse exhibits.
Rushton holds a flame to his finger and lights it like a candle.
LANE (V.O.) ...but dad didn't like the idea of being a human candle.
Lane pretends to make a wish then "blows him out".
LANE (V.O.) The only solution was skin grafts.
THE MORTUARY - THE NEXT DAY
Lane stands over her father stitching new skin onto his chest
LANE (V.O.) I used pig skin and plenty of it - from the butcher shop down the street. In fact, hardly a day went by when dad didn't put my surgical skills to the test.
EXT. RESIDENTIAL STREET/SIDEWALK - DAY
Rushton is dressed in running sweats, jogging on the quiet street. From nowhere, a rambunctious DOG pounces playfully on Rushton. Rushton laughs - happy to play with the pooch, even when the animal sniffs aggressively around Rushton's crotch. Rushton seems to like that - too much.
LANE (V.O.) Dad was like a little kid, full of life and always getting into jackpots.
The dog encounter ends as quickly as it began and the dog runs off. Rushton is all smiles until he looks down the front of his pants at his crotch. Something is missing! He runs after the dog. Down the street, the dog has Rushton's penis in his mouth and stops to bury it in a hole. Rushton appears at the dog's side just in time. He wrestles his member from the dog's mouth.
LANE (V.O.) Of course, I was always there to pick up the pieces.
THE MORTUARY - LATER THAT DAY
Lane cleans up a suture tray having just completed stitching on her father's new "manhood".
LANE (V.O.) I even made things better for dad when I could.
Rushton stands in front of a mirror, admiring his new supersized member.
LANE (V.O.) I know now, that was wrong.
INT. FITNESS CLUB - DAY
Lane is in the middle of a small EXERCISE GROUP, wearing sweat togs, taking an aerobics class in a studio off the main exercise area.
LANE (V.O.) Dad was living each day as if it was his last. He wanted to stay active and stay close to me. He had more energy than he knew what to do with. So I got him a membership at my club.
Rushton finishes a jog on a treadmill. He wears sweats and sunglasses and thoughtfully wipes down the machine's display panel with a towel.
LANE (V.O.) I figured, you know, healthy body, healthy mind.
AT A ROW OF EXERCISE BIKES - MOMENTS LATER
Rushton peddles an exercise bike with a digital display -clock, miles peddled, etc.
LANE (V.O.) Keeping his muscles toned could only help him.
TWO HOT GIRLS in skimpy workout clothes take their positions on "Stairmaster" equipment in front of Rushton. They start to pump the stationary stairs, providing a sexy jiggle show. Rushton likes what he sees and leers at them.
One girl winks at him coyly. Rushton licks his lips.
LANE (V.O.) He enjoyed his workouts. But there were prying eyes everywhere.
A SWEATY FAT GUY in too-tight shorts and a tank top takes a seat on a bike next to Rushton. The Fat Guy peddles lazily and sucks on a supersized bottle of soda, watching the girls too. He winks his approval and nudges Rushton with his elbow. As the Fat Guy is about to take another drink, he glances at the heart rate readout on Rushton's machine, then does a double-take.
CLOSE ON the heart rate monitor reading: 00.
The guy reaches over and taps the read-out on Rushton's machine. It remains 00. Puzzled, the Fat Guy dismounts his bike for a closer look and stares at Rushton's perfect waxy face. No sweat?Rushton continues to peddle but bumps the bottle from the Fat Guy's hand. It rolls under another piece of equipment and the Fat Guy goes to retrieve it. When the Fat Guy turns to go back to Rushton, he's gone.
Lane stands in front of the aerobics class door as the others exit, mopping their sweating faces. She has seen her dad's encounter with the Fat Guy and appears concerned.
LANE (V.O.) After the dog incident and that near miss at the club, dad ventured out less and less. Then things took a turn for the worse.