scene 54

scene 53

edit 9/1 ADD honda knot re Chloe’s float rope.

EXT. RUNABOUT BOAT IN LAKE COVE - DAY

John, Jan and Barbara under shade of bimini top. Chloe on float rope-tethered to boat, twenty feet away.

John in deck shoes, khaki shorts, Hawaiian shirt. Jan in sandals, knee-length shorts, unbuttoned long-sleeve blouse over tee, sunglasses hang from collar. Barbara barefoot, unbuttoned short-sleeve over one-piece swimsuit. Chloe in bikini, lying on her back.

Cove surrounded by hills opens to lake and distant SAILBOAT. Water skis, slalom ski, rescue buoy onboard. Scrabble box on ice chest.

JAN: What if anything do we know about Ruth? 

BARBARA: We know she was a high school English teacher in Johnson City when she me married a petroleum engineer named Dan, moved to Tulsa, had a son named Charles who died at fourteen with Dan when the Cessna they were in crashed on the runway of the ranch they were going to for a deer hunt. After that she traveled Europe for a year before returning and buying a house in Maine. Lived there for a few years until their mother got sick, sold Maine, moved back to Bandera and the house they grew up in to take care of her, sold when she died, bought a place in a town called Comfort for herself and their father, sold that when he died from a heart attack a year and day after their mother, moved to Anchorage, lived there for a couple years, moved back to Bandera into the house she's in now, that she was planning to sell to buy in Kerrville with Tom and Wanda.

Chloe turns over, sits up, uses rope to reel herself to the boat.

JOHN/JAN: Have you talked to Hunter?

BARBARA: He facetimed us this morning before he left. Sad eyes. I'm going to call when he gets home.

They watch Chloe near and board. Jan hands her a towel she drapes over her shoulders.

JOHN: Get enough sun. 

Chloe nods, picks up phone from console when it RINGTONES WIND CHIMES.

CHLOE: Dad.

She looks at screen, smiles, hands phone to Jan.

CHLOE (CONT.) East of the Pecos.

Barbara and John get close to see the selfie Hunter has taken where he stands, sunglasses on, calm stretch of narrow river behind him, West Texas desert on the other side of the rugged bank.

BARBARA: Great picture.

JAN: Yes it is.

Jan hands phone back, Chloe stares at the picture, puts phone back in console. 

CHLOE: Ski time?

Jan, John and Barbara nod. 

JOHN: You mind driving?

Chloe shakes head, John hands off the captain's hat, she puts it on, gets in driver's seat, Barbara and Jan in back, John brings in and secures anchor, sits in front passenger seat, Chloe starts engine, steers the boat out of cove to lake, turns out of view.