Snake
by Jack Saunders, from a movie screenplay
SAUNDERS and the CREW are taking a break in the snack bar of the New Capitol. They look like a band of vagabonds. Dirty, smelly, layers of rough-ass work clothes, mud on their boots. The men need shaves. The women probably don’t shave their legs, and maybe even don’t shave their armpits. They are laughing and eating huge portions of eggs, grits, sausage biscuits, et cetera. The STATE WORKERS nibble on donuts and sneak nervous looks at the crew.
The crew have left. SAUNDERS has stayed behind to eat an ice cream sundae as big as a mardi gras float. Enter the GOVERNOR and his retinue of SECRET SERVICE persons, who circle him, and look out into the crowd with wires in their ears and tinted (yellow, shooting) aviator glasses on. The governor is working the crowd. STATE WORKERS stand and shake his hand. He turns and faces Saunders, who does not rise, but goes on eating. The Governor stares at him, transfixed. Like a hunting dog nypnotized by a rattlesnake. Finally one of the Secret Service persons bumps into the Governor. Rocks him and breaks the suction. He spins on off shaking other hands as Saunders finishes his sundae, burps.
