SCENE 3:       HOUSE IN THE DESERT

Cut to ranch house in the desert.  Small, two room, with corrugated metal on outside walls, one door.  Tiny hen house, a mule, and three dogs on the steps leading up to the single door covered with plywood.

Interior, old couple in stuffed chairs, radio, oil lamps. Shotgun mounted on the wall.  Bookcase with a few books, shelves with canned food, coffee pot, and card table littered with newspaper, letters.

The old couple is reading.  The man wears dungarees, the woman a long dress and a shawl.  They are reading in the lamplight while the old cathedral radio plays, with bad reception.

The old man looks up, of a sudden.

Old Man: “Dy’a hear that?”

Wife: looks up from her reading.  “No.  I didn’t hear anything.”

We hear the dogs begin to whine from the steps.

Old Man: “Better go take a look.  Probably those dayam coyotes again (he pronounces it `ki-yotes’).”

Wife: “They have been a bother this year.  I wonder what’s been provoking them?”

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