TAME THE WILD
A Novel
TAME THE WILD
Based on the Novel by Lynn Eldridge
Copyright 2019 by Lynn Eldridge
Contact: James Clois Smith, Jr. Sunstone Press (505) 988-4418
Log Line: On New Year’s Eve 1905, innocent Genevieve “Genny” Morgan attends a ball at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. Desperate to escape her bordello she hopes to marry the host and newest bachelor in town, Seth Comstock. Luke Harper, a savvy riverboat gambler, waltzes into her life and changes her tune. But someone is killing people surrounding Genny. Luke is wild and Genny is far from tame and falling in love they team up with the Monkey’s Fist who rules Chinatown, to find the murderer. No sooner do they catch the villain and his female accomplice than the 1906 earthquake annihilates the city by the Bay.
ACT I
“Here’s my invitation.” New Year’s Eve 1905, beautiful Genevieve Morgan stands at the edge of a dance floor in a Palace Hotel ballroom. Fit in with the who’s whos of San Francisco? She can’t even waltz. “May I announce the scavenger hunt?” the stringed ensemble leader asks the host. “Yes. I thought the New Year would arrive before she did,” Seth Comstock says. Instructions are made as to switching partners and the prizes to be won. Seth warns twin sister, Selma, to distract Harriett Peak, a San Francisco Chronicle journalist so that Genevieve is his partner. Desperate to escape her bordello, Genny hopes to marry Comstock. In the Chronicle, his hair looked blond not gray. His smile doesn’t reach his faded eyes. Maybe his personality is warm and winning.
Fade to:
“Who’s the late arrival?” Luke Harper, a riverboat gambler here to unload a ranch he won, asks the blonde clutching him. The moment Luke saw the raven-haired beauty in the sea green gown he was on his own hunt. Music stops, partners switch. Luke and Comstock dance toward Genny. Winding up in Luke’s arms, Genny compares the gorgeous, muscular man to the host. “Day and night,” she says. Luke asks, “Am I the day or the night?” The day. Lucas means bringer of light. Genevieve was named after a French saint who defended Paris against Attila the Hun. She says her beloved grandfather called her Genny. Luke doesn’t care if the music stops again or not, he has his partner. Comstock watches them leave the hotel and seethes, blaming Selma.
Cut to:
“You’re probably wearing stockings and I have a knife. Let’s get the seaweed,” Luke says. Their hunt takes them to Pier 7. Genny wades into the ocean but the seaweed is elusive. He teases her about sharks to get her back on the beach. Stepping on the hem of her gown to keep her on shore, the dress rips. Luke chuckles at this sideshow until two men stagger their way. Luke squares off with them and Genny stands her ground beside him. Luke conquers both men and following him to his 1905 Runabout, Genny wonders if a man who can waltz and fight knows how to swim.
Fade to:
Back on Market Street, Luke asks Genny to spend the night. No, she’ll walk home. He’ll get her a room. It’s New Year’s Eve and the hotel is full. Comstock looms and Luke senses he’s trouble. Fireworks overhead, Luke and Genny kiss at midnight. In Luke’s room, champagne in hand, he explains what a toast is and suggests Genny needs lessons. Yes! Lessons. She offers to pay him to teach her to dance, fight, kiss, and drink so she can seduce Comstock. Luke says Comstock is a bad guy. When seagulls wake Luke at dawn, the only thing left of Genny is her torn gown.
ACT II
“When I was with Luke, I felt safe.” Three weeks later, Genny is in the country at her grandpa’s grave. She will learn to swim, so she doesn’t drown as he did. But she’ll still be a nobody fish in a disgraceful pond. Cowboy hat, overalls and boots on, she heads to the bordello. Halfway across the road a vehicle a lot like Luke’s barrels toward her. Her mother, Garnet, was hit in this blind curve and Genny narrowly misses the same fate. Comstock denies his reckless driving to Selma.
Cut to:
“Thanks for taking care of the place,” Luke says to Ying Wu for feeding ten horses and a collie. Ying is happy to stay until the ranch sells and asks what Luke does in Biloxi, Mississippi. Luke manages three riverboats. He doesn’t admit he owns the riverboats along with shrimp, oyster and fishing boats which supply the Harper family’s resort and restaurants. Luke’s older brother owns cattle and horses and their parents live on a sugarcane plantation. They are wealthy, old money. The conversation turns and Luke realizes his property borders a brothel. Once run by a madam named Garnet her daughter, Genny, inherited the infamous Cat’s Eye Ranch. Will Luke find an innocent or a prostitute there? “Want to meet my friend, Tricky, who works there?” Ying asks.
Cut to:
“If only you could have met him, Tricky,” Genny says to her new roommate who works with her at the ranch. Tricky’s real name is Tung-Mei Li, but her brother, Huan Li couldn’t pronounce it and his nickname stuck. A threat was made on Tricky’s life and Huan sent her to the country. Huan, known as the Monkey King, fiercely rules Chinatown with his soldiers known as the Monkey’s Fist. Tricky urges Genny to find Luke and forget Seth Comstock. Luke is a riverboat gambler and is surely long gone from San Francisco. “Huan can find anyone,” Tricky says.
Cut to:
“Why didn’t you give her a ride home on New Year’s Eve?” Vernon Rucker asks Luke in the bordello yard. After meeting Tricky, Luke gets an eyeful of two hard-looking prostitutes known as Opal and Onyx. Vern and his wife, Patty, have worked at the ranch since Genny was a baby. Luke has just missed her as Genny already left for the small house she shared with her grandpa. So she doesn’t live at the bordello, but does she works there? Luke wants to hear it from her.
Fade to:
“Streaks and sockdolagers!” Genny sees an automobile barreling toward her. Twice in one day. From her overalls she whips out a slingshot, fires off a rock and something shatters. “Hey, kid, you broke a headlamp!” That unforgettable Southern drawl. Mortified that Luke will connect her to the brothel, Genny runs. Luke hauls her up short but doesn’t recognize her until she speaks. “Genny?” He asks questions. She doesn’t answer. Reminding her that she took his rented tuxedo on New Year’s morning, he gives her twenty-four hours to return it before he comes after her.
Cut to:
“Ten minutes.” On the porch of his log home, Luke shuts his pocket watch and eyes. A mermaid dances into his arms, a sea nymph stands beside him and they kiss until a real life scarecrow hangs in the shadows. “You asleep?” Luke opens his eyes. “Cat got your tongue?” is Genny’s second question. “Come here and find out,” he challenges. Luke discovers she wants to marry for money and move to Nob Hill. Damn, she’s a gold digger. Genny regrets Luke is a gambler. He gets no answer as to her role at the bordello and she can’t get him to agree to her lessons. He can come to the Cat’s Eye Ranch and see for himself. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Cut to:
“Maybe tonight’s the night,” Tricky says, dealing cards at the blackjack table. Genny takes her post at the door, collecting $5.00 per customer. Garnet named the women after jewels. Sapphire, Emerald and Ruby are hateful as are Opal and Onyx. Sapphire has cheated her again with a rough customer. Genny confronts them and the man rears back his hand to hit her. Suddenly he pulls money out of his pocket. Luke is at her back with a big gun. Chaos settles into calm. Genny says Luke could tame the place. He declines and she apologizes. She wouldn’t wish her bordello on anyone. A jolt the size of Jupiter jack-slaps Genny when Luke asks her to sail away with him.
Fade to:
“Hey, Luke. We’re dealing you in,” Joe Sanchez, the attorney handling any property sale, calls from the parlor. As Tricky tells Genny that Luke already turned down three of the prostitutes, Joe introduces Luke to the Johnson brothers/firemen; Mike and Jimmy. Genny gets Luke to agree to a lesson. Not for money he says as he’s not for sale. Is she? No, she’s not. He smiles and she asks what their first their lesson will be. “Fighting,” Luke says and disappears into the night.
Cut to:
“It’s just Moby-Dick,” Genny tells Roscoe, the collie Luke sent to fetch her. A rustling in the woods made Roscoe growl. Moby-Dick, the resident bullfrog, hops into the pond where Genny hopes Luke will teach her to swim. “There went your chance,” Selma says as to drowning Genny or Roscoe or both. Chewing on his pinky nail, Seth knows he must marry her before he kills her.
Cut to:
“I’d prefer a seduction lesson. Time is limited with a rich bachelor like Seth Comstock,” Genny says. “You wouldn’t know a rich man if you saw one,” Luke replies. Why hasn’t she learned seduction at the bordello? That isn’t what’s done there. A drinking lesson using Vern’s flip follows the fighting lesson, landing Genny in Luke’s hammock. At her house they’re confronted with soaplocks, Curt and Billy Skidmore, who want Genny. Luke bans them from the bordello, backed up by Joe and the Johnson brothers. Luke spends a restless night guarding tipsy Genny.
Cut to:
“Genny!” Luke yells out his first floor, bedroom window. Her hair and a horse’s black mane flying, Genny steers the mare he’s given toward him. Luke pulls her inside and they fall across his bed. She is terrified and explains someone threw a piece of meat tied to a rock through her front room window. Though the Skidmore brothers are likely culprits, Luke suspects Comstock.
Cut to:
“Hey!” Reginald Moore, a big shot from Sacramento, bellows at Genny across the parlor full of men playing cards while waiting for a mattress dance. “Hey what?” Luke tugs Genny onto his lap. A game of Five Card Stud includes an hour with Genny. Luke outplays Reginald and wins $2,000.00. Reginald suspects Luke wouldn’t have let Genny out of the parlor. Correct. Reginald and buddy George take up with Sapphire, Emerald and Ruby. Genny realizes it doesn’t matter if Luke is a drifter, she is in love with him. But she still needs a platonic marriage to Comstock.
Cut to:
“That chair and ottoman will suit me fine,” Genny tells Luke who has convinced her to spend the night at his house because of the poisoned meat, the woods, Skidmores, and Comstock. Genny suits him fine, too. Too bad she’s out to catch a rich man. When Genny has a nightmare, Luke carries her to bed. But he wants her to love him and rolls away. In the morning he orders her out of bed. Genny complies so fast she flips onto the floor. “That might have been the funniest damn thing I’ve ever seen.” Luke laughs. “Thanks for the seduction lesson!” Genny fires back. “That was a lesson in saying no, babydoll.” She says, “I’ve said no to every man but you, loverboy.”
Cut to:
“Kill Harper. That’s what you did to the other five,” Selma says. Seth reminds her after killing the first three he was locked up for decades. He berates the Skidmores for failing to kill Roscoe with the poisoned meat. Their next job is to grab Luke Harper to be shanghaied in a shady saloon in the red light district of the infamous Barbary Coast. “I don’t know ‘bout trying to shanghai Harper, Billy. He’s big, he don’t scare and he’s smart,” Curt says. Billy replies, “He bleeds.”
Fade to:
“Come teach me to swim.” Genny is freezing in a camisole and panties. Luke says in Biloxi, her lesson would be in the warm waters of Mississippi Sound. Despite the cold March water, teach her, he does. “What’s my payment?” She will dance for him. He’s all in. At movement in the woods, Luke fires a warning shot. Luke informs Genny he’s going into the city for answers. Genny isn’t convinced that Seth Comstock is involved, but Luke is sure he is the mastermind.
Cut to:
“Thanks for your time, Chief Dinan.” Luke shakes hands with Jeremiah Dinan, top man at the San Francisco Police Department. Luke suspects Comstock is an alias and heads to the Chronicle building but Harriett Peak is in Los Angeles. He sends two telegrams one is to his brother-in-law, a senator in Washington, DC. After making a reservation at the Palace Hotel and at Fisherman’s Wharf, Luke meets Ying near Chinatown. “Huan Li wants to meet you,” Ying says. “Good.”
Cut to:
“We’re taking your three best jewels to Sacramento,” Reginald Moore says at the bordello and sends the prostitutes to wait in the vehicle with George. Reginald points to Genny and asks Luke, “Mistress or marriage?” Luke says, “The right wife is a man’s mistress.” Luke is in love with Genny and wants to propose. In Biloxi, she’d see his wealth and say she loved him. Here if she says she loves him, she’d mean it. Luke and Genny have supper with Patty, Vern, Tricky, Ying, the Johnson brothers and cousins; Turquoise and Topaz who Genny thinks of as Ruth and Grace. Genny’s birthday is the next day and Patty serves cake. Genny owes Luke a dance for teaching her how to swim. They leave Roscoe at the Cat’s Eye Ranch and head to Luke’s log home.
Cut to:
“Genevieve Moonstone Morgan, you beautiful goddess, please dance for me,” Luke says, sitting in his front room. The siren with lilac cat eyes raises slender arms and undulates her supple body. Chime! Finger cymbals hasten her movements. Red satin clings to her breasts. Hips shimmy, fluttering red satin around pretty legs. Luke wonders if he can make it through her dance without touching her. He’ll try. Without stripping her? No promises. After the dance, he carries her to bed. This time Genny declines. Sex leads to an illegitimate baby, poverty and being trapped in the bordello just like her mother. Luke says moonstones encourage one’s truest life’s journey. They call a truce. For her birthday, he takes her to the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
ACT III
“Why are we going to Nob Hill?” Genny is seated beside Luke in the Runabout. Handing her a pamphlet written by Harriett Peak, they pass the mansions of the Big Four Railroad tycoons; Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker, and Colis P. Huntington. Cloaked in early deaths, poisoning, lawsuits, scandals, and a spite fence wealth didn’t ensure happiness. Genny concedes Luke’s point as they glimpse the Skidmores at the bottom of the hill. Huan Li sends two of his men to check in with Luke. Luke gives them the address where they saw the brothers.
Cut to:
“The big gun,” is Huan Li’s greeting to Luke in his Chinatown restaurant. “The big fist,” Luke replies. Tricky and Ying are present. Luke gave Genny a moonstone pendant in their hotel suite. Huan’s men, Wong and Chen, arrive. They discovered a woman, burned and buried in a shallow grave in Harriett Peak’s backyard. She’s Harriett’s housekeeper, Fan Zhou. “Egyptian mythology has an evil god of war. This malevolent god creates chaos and catastrophes. His name is Seth,” Genny says. They have turned a corner where Comstock is concerned. “If the scarecrow and soaplocks have created this evil they will die,” Huan declares. On that, he and Luke shake hands.
Cut to:
“C’mon, you can do it, babydoll,” Luke coaxes at the hotel. “Do it for me, loverboy.” But Luke replies, “If you want me, you’ll do it.” Genny lets her nightgown flutter to the floor. Desire slams into Luke. He kisses her lips, neck and breasts. Genny wants all of this until Luke enters her and pain stabs like a knife. He stops. “If you want me, you’ll do it.” She has echoed his words and he takes her virginity. “I’ve been lost, but you shattered the darkness. I’m in love with you, Lucas bringer-of-light Harper.” There it is. In San Francisco. Genny adds, “You cross all borders of tame and you’ll vanish into the wild, but as long as you’re here I’d rather be your mistress in your log home than a harlot on Nob Hill.” Luke whispers, “I’m in love with you, too.”
Cut to:
“Not a pot to piss in thanks to Harper,” Seth complains in the Black-Eyed Susan, a seedy joint along the Barbary Coast. Picking a weevil out of his oatmeal, he says, “Those idiot Skidmores didn’t bury that Chinese bitch deep enough.” Selma hisses, “Stop fearing Harper.” Burl, the saloon owner suggests they do their routine on stage and he’ll tout them as The Dopplegangers. Selma snaps no and Comstock reminds Burl to have his money ready for the midnight shanghai.
Cut to:
“Where to?” Genny asks. In the hotel lobby Luke accepts two telegrams from a Western Union messenger before they board a trolley to Fisherman’s Wharf. Genny is astonished when Luke says he sent a telegram about Comstock to his brother-in-law, Steven. She is ashamed she never asked if he had family. Genny asks Luke to tell her about the relatives she didn’t know he had.
Fade to:
“Grandfather taught my older brother, Rob, and me to sail.” Luke guides a sailboat away from the dock. No longer hiding his wealth, he speaks of his parents; John and Phoebe, Rob, Chloe and children; Charles and Megan. Sister Mattie is married to a senator and they have a little girl named Audrey. They live part-time in Washington, DC and own a mansion near Luke’s French Provincial mansion along the beach. He reads a telegram and frowns. Rob warns of a woman finding out he is in San Francisco. She and Luke had sex once. The second telegram is from the woman, Mara Sinclair; Darling, please pick me up at the railroad station on Wednesday.
Cut to:
“Fire!” A fellow passenger on the trolley shouts, pointing toward the Palace. Luke’s vehicle is engulfed in flames. He talks to firemen, Mike and Jimmy. Genny finds a vase of black-eyed Susans and suspects they’re from Mara. She opens the door to bellboy, Patrick, who has a spectacular arrangement of roses with a card, “Genny, I love you, Luke.” She dares to hope.
Fade to:
“I hope you’re happy, Selma,” Seth seethes, peeking around the corner at the end of the hotel hallway. “Harper’s roses made my flowers look a hundred times worse.” Selma says it’s more like a thousand and wants to know where he learned to pick a lock. “In that hellhole in West Virginia.” Comstock is about to meet up with the Skidmores in an underground opium den in Chinatown called the Devil’s Needle when he spies Genny leaving her room. Alone.
Fade to:
“Miss Morgan, what a surprise,” Seth Comstock says closing the rising room door. Genny notes his disheveled appearance and a burned hand. He claims he was fishing at his favorite pier. But he skipped out on his New Year’s Eve bill, so it’s unlikely the hotel would allow him back. He blocks the gate-like door and takes them to the basement. He asks Genny to dinner and bluffing like Luke, she agrees. He catches on and she hits him also as Luke taught her. Comsock stumbles out of the rising room and she narrowly escapes. A familiar maniacal laugh follows her.
Cut to:
“Dammit to hell, Genny!” Luke barks as to the danger she escaped. “He could have killed you.” Genny calms him and he examines the card and vase of black-eyed Susans. Huan has put up a $1,000.00 reward to catch Comstock, which Luke has matched. “If Comstock is the mastermind and the Skidmores helped…” Genny begins. “Huan will kill all three killers,” Luke finishes.
Cut to:
“Come home with me to Biloxi,” Luke says in the Palace Hotel’s dining room that evening. Genny hesitates, his family won’t accept a madam. But when she runs a foot up his leg under the table, he grabs it and playfully squeezes the answer he wants from her. Yes, she will go home with him. Waiting on the rising room, a shrill voice strikes like a nightmare. “Luke, darling!”
ACT IV
“Why are you here?” Luke asks Mara Sinclair whose stomach is protruding. “I’ve come to take you home with us,” Mara replies, claiming Luke fathered her unborn baby. Whining that she has no place to stay and knows no one in town, Harriett Peak hurries their way. Harriett tells Mara, whom she met on the train, that she can’t offer her home as planned due to a police investigation into a murder, but has secured a room with two beds. Mara is quite the liar. But Harriett is genuine and will exchange information with Luke and Genny at lunch the next day.
Fade to:
“There, From Miss Sinclair.” Back in their suite, Genny points to the vase of black-eyed Susans. Luke says Mara would have taken credit for them and thinks they’re from Comstock. He tells Genny that Senator Winsted told him the United States Department of Justice has formed the Bureau of Criminal Identification. Luke will take the card, with a sooty fingerprint, to the police.
Cut to:
“You didn’t have to burn and bury them, Seth.” Selma says in the Barbary Coast. “Shanghaiing the Skidmores to pirates was brilliant.” Seth spies two Chinese men and is petrified Burl will point them his way. Selma asks since when is he petrified of everybody. “Since those Chinamen had the Monkey King tattoo on their fists,” Seth replies. “We have to find a place to hide.”
Cut to:
“The fire that burned my Runabout wasn’t your fault, Mr. Jeffrey. But thanks for the replacement vehicle,” Luke says to the hotel manager and is stopped by Huan’s men. Wong says, “Scarecrow shanghai soaplocks.” Chen adds, “Fist take soaplocks.” Luke asks, “Where are the Skidmores now?” Their dead bodies were dumped in the Bay. “Are the pirates alive to talk?” No.
Cut to: “Housekeeping.” Genny opens the door to Mara Sinclair who screams, “Bitch,” and slaps her. Genny sees a feather poking through the material across Mara’s stomach. With protecting Luke in mind, Genny punches Mara in the eye. Teeth bared, Mara charges Genny and a feather pillow births itself. “Stop!” Luke yells. He informs Mara she has slapped the woman he wants to marry. Mara hurls the pillow over a balcony. Luke takes Genny into their room and kicks the door shut.
Cut to:
“Doors are shutting on us because of Harper,” Seth tells Selma near the railroad station. “As long as he’s alive, Genevieve is lost to us. We can’t hide at Harriett’s nor the Skidmores’ farm since the Chinese are on to us. We have to leave town while we figure a way to kill Harper and take my woman back.” Selma says, “We will kill Harper, but Genevieve was always his woman.”
Cut to:
“Damn that woman,” Luke growls as Genny pats powder over the red handprint on her cheek. When he tells her to close her eyes, she opens them to find a ring box in her hands and Luke on one knee. Taking a two carat diamond out of the box, he proposes and she accepts. It’s a perfect fit. Next time she does her belly dance, he’ll tell her where he sees them getting married.
Cut to:
“Your train tickets are one way. No refund,” the clerk says. “Damn that Luke Harper!” Mara shouts and whirls on a stranger who bumped her. “Stop it!” Mara’s purse is missing. “Help me find my money,” she orders the stranger. They don’t find it. Mara claims Luke blacked her eye, told her to leave town and will marry Genevieve. The stranger lies, “My servants care for my house along the Pacific when I travel, but I miss my soirées on my private beach.” Mara extends her hand, “Mara Sinclair.” To which he says, “Seth Comstock of the Comstock Lode fame.”
Cut to:
“You may have provided the information we need to catch him,” Luke tells Harriett after she says Seth referred to sister, Selma, as the worst spendthrift of all the Evilsizers. So, Comstock is an alias. Outside police headquarters they meet up with Joe, Tricky and Ying. Tricky wants to hear about the engagement. Luke and Genny will separate until supper later at Huan’s. Genny tells Luke he’s in more danger than she because Comstock needs to murder him to get to her.
Cut to:
“Streaks and sockdolagers!” Genny is stunned to see Seth Comstock and Mara Sinclair sitting beside each other in the front row of a stopped trolley. How can this be? Ying and Tricky are chatting with friends near Old St. Mary’s Church in Chinatown as Genny sneaks onto the trolley to find out where Comstock is holed up. Because Comstock will kill Luke over her dead body.
Cut to:
“Luke,” Huan Li says at his restaurant. Ying and Tricky take blame for Genny’s disappearance. The Monkey’s Fist is searching. In Huan’s private bar Luke says Comstock is Seth Evilsizer who police found is a psychopath who burned his parents alive and was locked up in a West Virginia Hospital for the Insane. A pyromaniac, he spent three decades drugged. Seth thinks the jewels at Genny’s ranch are actual gems. Evilsizer killed Genny’s mother and grandfather to get to her.
Cut to:
“Thank you,” Genny says to the Monkey’s Fist. Luke embraces her. Following Seth and Mara, Genny heard Seth yell for Selma. Luke says Selma swayed an asylum doctor to stop drugging him. But Selma spent the family fortune and Seth burned her alive. “Evilsizer is crazy?” Yes. Mara’s purse was found at the train station. Huan gives Genny a dragon knife for her birthday. “It brings good luck to those who are worthy.” They meet Jia, Huan’s wife, who’s expecting.
Cut to:
“Hard to believe we left our ranches for the Palace Hotel five weeks ago, “Genny says taking a breath of country air. “It’s April eleventh.” The Palace represents Luke’s life in Biloxi and he wants her to be comfortable there. New dresses, shoes and accessories will accompany her. Huan bought Luke’s ranch and is renovating it for he, Jia and twins. At the road to the Skidmore farm is a sign; Opal and Onyx. The bordello will close. Genny will give her ranch house to Patty and Vern and smaller one to Ruth and Grace, who date the firemen brothers. Genny and Luke tell of a Biloxi wedding. Except for Evilsizer and Sinclair’s malevolent presence, all is working out.
Cut to:
“Oh hush up, Harper.” Genny is in disbelief when he says the name of his riverboat, on which he suggests they marry, is Moonstone. At her house, she’s just performed a belly dance for him. On the porch, Roscoe barks. It’s one of Luke’s hired men, Andy, delivering a gift Luke bought for Genny; a Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless pistol. “Finger off the trigger,” Luke says. The pistol’s recoil would have knocked Genny to the ground if not for Luke having her back. She can’t hit the scarecrow target and says there are no bullets in the gun. Luke blasts a hole in the scarecrow’s forehead. She misses again and quits. Would Saint Genevieve have given up against Attila the Hun? Genny suggests a deal. If she hits the target, he will he take her to the opera to see Enrico Caruso sing the part of Don Jose in Carmen. The deal is struck and she hits the target.
Fade to:
“Yes, Selma, I heard the shots!” Seth says near Luke and Genny’s ranches. He’s insane enough to hide out at the Skidmores’. At Opal and Onyx’s sign, Seth decides they are gems, linked to the Cat’s Eye Ranch. “You’re crazy to think any of Genevieve’s property will be yours. Luke Harper is a master businessman. He owns half of Biloxi and what he says goes. He’ll sell everything here and take Genevieve home to his empire.” Seth will question whoever is in the farmhouse. “Why would they tell you anything?” Mara asks. “Because I’ll light a fire under them.”
Cut to:
“Evilsizer was locked up in the West Virginia asylum before fingerprinting was used to identify people,” Luke tells Harriett Peak. A friend with the Biloxi Police Department found information on Mara Sinclair. “Do tell,” Harriett says. Mara was the suspect in the death of her first husband in Florida, but there wasn’t enough evidence to charge her. She was convicted of manslaughter in the death of her second husband in Alabama and served time. There’s a warrant for her arrest in connection with the death of the third husband in New Orleans. “Like the spider that kills her mate, Mara is a black widow,” Harriett says. She remarks on Genny’s style and asks if she’s ever thought of writing a fashion and society column. Genny says it’s been a long time dream.
Fade to:
“Come in,” Joe Sanchez says. They hire Joe to handle the legalities of Genny’s gift of houses and acreage to her friends. They invite him to the opera. Joe wonders who he might take as a date. Knowing he fancies Suki Li who works for Huan at Li’s, Genny suggests Suki. Joe admits he’s afraid of Huan. They go to Li’s where they invite Huan, Jia, Tricky, and Ying to the opera.
Cut to:
“The buggy is dilapidated and you’re a horrible driver!” Mara says at the Skidmore farm. Seth orders her to hold tight to a can of gasoline. The mare, pulling the buggy, slips into a ditch. Seth beats the horse, a wheel breaks and they leave the helpless mare to struggle. Seth asks Onxy and Opal about the Cat’s Eye Ranch. For a price they know all and bring the ‘kerosene’ so they can start a fire in their potbelly stove. Seth snickers, “Well now, isn’t this serendipitous?”
Fade to:
“There’s smoke.” Luke points. At the Skidmore farm, Mike is hauling up well water as Jimmy, Grace and Ruth toss bucketfuls on the burning house. Vern and Patty are trying to rescue a mare. Luke frees the horse as the well runs dry. Mike and Jimmy say if San Francisco ever catches on fire it will become a conflagration; a fire so large it causes catastrophic, widespread damage. The city’s current hydrant system is antiquated and inadequate. “Mike, we got a body by the potbelly stove, Jimmy says. “Make that two bodies,” Luke says. “And an empty can of gasoline.”
Cut to:
“The opera?” Seth snaps at Old St. Mary’s church. “Now that we know where they’ll be we can take our revenge,” Mara says. Seth replies, “We’ll kidnap Genevieve and make Harper pay a hundred thousand dollar ransom.” He strikes a match and watches it flicker. Mara sneers, “A million.” Her eyes on the cross straight ahead, she says, “Burning Genevieve will crucify Luke.”
Cut to:
“Four trunks ought to do it,” Luke says, surveying Genny’s packing. She is bent over a trunk in her bedroom and upon standing, she gets dizzy. When she loses her balance a second time they realize she could be pregnant. She fumes that she doesn’t know how it happened. “And yet I’ve given you so many lessons,” Luke teases. They are happy and make love. When Luke leaves, she’s naked except for his chaps. Her ruffled panties are hanging out of his back pocket.
Cut to:
“Tonight’s the night,” Genny says on April 17th. When Luke suggests she leave for Biloxi the day after the opera, she agrees until she realizes he isn’t going until Evilsizer and Sinclair are caught. No, she won’t go. Is it because of her possible pregnancy. Yes. She senses something else driving Luke’s urgency. “It happens out of the blue. You don’t see it coming,” Luke says.
Fade to:
Later, at the Palace Hotel, Luke and Genny host a supper before the opera. Andy says Wong and Chen have arrived. Wong says Huan has news. Luke and Genny will meet them in the hotel’s Tapestry Dining Room. “What do you think the news is?” Genny asks Luke. “Huan’s got ‘em.”
ACT V
“Welcome,” Luke greets their guests. “It’s a pleasure to have you with us.” Genny says to Huan and Jia, whose arms lay clasped over her rounded stomach. Tricky, Ying, Joe, Suki, Patty, Vern, Mike, Ruth, Jimmy, and Grace arrive in their opera finest. Mike won a fireman’s raffle and thus that foursome has tickets to see Babes in Toyland. Luke and Genny congratulate Tricky and Ying on their recent engagement. Luke smiles. Ying will have a ranch like he always wanted.
Fade to:
Huan informs Luke his men captured the scarecrow and spider near the Grand Opera House. Seth and Mara had dragged a couple into an alley, beaten them and were stealing their fancy clothes. The Monkey’s Fist transported the injured couple to the hospital and dropped the murderers into an empty opium den. Luke tells Genny he’s going to see them. “Will Huan kill them after you see them?” Genny asks. “While I’m there.” Supper brings everyone to the table.
Cut to:
“I can’t get my hands loose.” Blood oozes down Seth’s neck as the Monkey’s Fist relieved him of his left ear. “My head’s on fire,” he wails. “Good,” Mara hisses. “You pushed me into those bastard Chinamen to shield yourself, scarecrow.” Seth asks, “Isn’t pushing what the black widow does, spider?” Mara vows to push Luke to his death just like the others. Lost in his insanity, the falsetto voice of Selma assures Mara, “Seth plans to burn you alive just like he did me, bitch.”
Cut to:
“We’re about to see and hear Enrico Caruso sing Don Jose along with soprano Olive Fremstad in the title role,” Genny says to Luke at the opera. April 17th is a Tuesday night and by the time she and Luke return to the hotel the city is quiet. Most of the three thousand people who attended the opera are will be in bed by midnight. Luke and Genny certainly are and her dance card is filled.
Fade to:
“Luke, what time it is?” Genny asks. “Four thirty. I’m going to meet Huan.” Genny wishes he wouldn’t as the ordeal of seeing Evilsizer and Sinclair put to death sounds horrific. He’ll make sure they’re not tortured. Since she’s awake, she’ll pack. When he gets back, he’ll take her to breakfast before they buy their train tickets to Biloxi. With that, Luke opens the door and is gone.
Cut to:
Amidst the majesty of San Francisco, the bell tower of Old St. Mary’s on California Street in Chinatown, chimes five. The morning air hints of a spectacular day. Except for faint music from Pacific Street’s dance halls and boisterous voices in the beer joints of the Barbary Coast, the city sleeps. “My men are bringing them up,” Huan tells Luke and Andy. “I can take Genny home and not look over my shoulder. Thank you, Huan,” Luke says. Huan replies, “With a country ranch my family will be safe and you have broadened my horizons, Luke.” The friends shake on that.
Fade to:
“The scarecrow and the spider,” Huan says as Evilsizer and Sinclair stand blindfolded against a wall of the shack. Monsters unmasked. “Luke Harper, we finally meet,” comes a falsetto voice. “On the day you die,” Luke replies. “But I’m leaving with you, Luke. Right, darling?” Mara asks. “Hell, no,” Luke says. “You’re both murderers.” Seth’s voice drops and his thin lips pull back over yellow teeth as he sneers, “You said you wanted to kill him, Mara. Do it!”
Street lights suddenly dim and go out.
Horses on the street whinny.
Rats in the underground opium den scurry.
“Fall and die!” Mara shrills. Hands drawn up like a witch’s talons she lunges at Luke. He merely steps back letting her fall face first across the opening to the den. Her chin catches on the edge of the hole, Mara’s jaw slams shut and her teeth cut off her acid tongue. Her knees hit the opposite edge and the breaking of her neck is deafening. Desperate, Evilsizer claims he has trophies from the bodies of Garnet and Samuel Morgan and Fan Zhou. If he returns the property, they must let him live. Huan suggests they shanghai Evilsizer like the soaplocks. Not knowing the Monkey’s Fist killed the Skidmores, Evilsizer begs to be shanghaied. Luke agrees. “Meet us in Dead Man’s Alley.” Huan says to his men who gag Evilsizer and drag him out to an orange wagon.
Fade to:
Luke emerges from the shack with Andy, Huan, Wong, and Chen. It’s ten minutes after five. The men speak under a sunrise brightening the sky to a pale blue. Trolleys can be heard leaving the car barns as surely as sacks of potatoes, onions and turnips are unloaded in the produce district. With no sign of a storm on the horizon the abrupt and terrible roar doesn’t make sense.
Luke feels the tremors under his feet.
For forty seconds an earthquake intensifies.
Luke’s first and only thought is of Genny.
Bricks in the street part like the Red Sea, tearing open long trenches. The sky falls as buildings, shops and houses collapse crushing men, women, children, horses, dogs, and cats. Shifting its jagged path the quake barrels toward Luke and Huan forcing them to opposite sides of the street. Luke yells he going back for Genny and Huan takes off toward Chinatown. A telephone pole falls on Andy and the Runabout, crushing both. “Dammit!” Luke yells in disbelief to no one. To everyone. Is Evilsizer dead or alive? Or free? Like a Great White in the ocean, the earthquake opens it jaws and swallows Luke. In the next second, a collapsing brick trench swims his way.
Cut to:
“Dear God, please let Luke be alive,” Genny prays. The second phase of the quake lasts thirty seconds. Flames burst across the sky. She rushes down six flights to the lobby. In his nightshirt, with a photograph of Teddy Roosevelt under his arm, and covered in plaster, Enrico Caruso yells, “Give me Vesuvius! San Francisco is one ‘ell of a place!” Outside in the once magnificent city by the Bay dead lay in the street, people run in terror, bewildered children cling to confused parents. “Two fires on Market Street alone!” a policeman yells. Aftershocks toss Genny against the hotel’s pillared entrance as bricks smash onto the sidewalk. “Miss Morgan, please come inside,” Patrick, their favorite bellboy urges, holding open a door. “Have you seen Mr. Harper?”
Fade to:
“I have your fiancé, but he’s all tied up,” Evilsizer snickers, slithering from behind a palm tree in the lobby. His face a mask of evil, he tells Genny, “If we don’t reach Mara in the next fifteen minutes she will slit Harper’s throat and shove him off my favorite pier.” Genny knows that under the extreme circumstances there is no one available to help her. She must find Luke on her own. “Patrick, if by some miracle, Mr. Harper comes looking for me, I’ll be at Pier Seven.”
Cut to:
“Patrick, did she have a green purse?” Luke races across Palm Court with the bellboy on his heels. “I don’t know. At the waterfront turn left. Pier Seven will be dead ahead,” Patrick says. After climbing out of the sinkhole, Luke freed a horse tied to a corpse. Back on the horse now Luke dodges scurrying people, wandering animals, cracked streets, and mounds of debris. Towers topple, chimneys crumble, houses lean. Explosions erupt into flames. A conflagration. Because these fires could not be stopped. Through a blazing path of chaos, Luke hears lapping waters of the Bay on his right and feels the fires of hell on his left. Pier 7 burns dead ahead.
Cut to:
“Where is Luke?” Genny asks. Before she can pull the gun Luke gave her from her green purse, she’s dragged out of the orange wagon. She’s shocked to hear Mara is dead and they never had Luke. Evilsizer snaps a rope as she backs under a burning pier into the water. Aim dead center, squeeze the trigger and always shoot to kill. She fires and blood spreads across Evilsizer’s shoulder. She pulls the trigger again but the wet gun doesn’t fire. She swims away and when he catches her she stabs him with the knife from Huan. Turning the blade on her, Seth slices his hand and hurls the knife. Fearing never to see the love of her life again, Genny screams, “Luke!”
Fade to:
“Turn around.” Evilsizer swivels, torch in hand. At the water’s edge murderous rage glints in Luke’s green eyes. “Burning her and crucifying you, Harper,” Evilsizer chokes out. The second gunshot that day drills a hole in Evilsizer’s forehead. Luke wades in after Genny and carries her out from under the burning pier. Genny rests her head on Luke’s shoulder and closes her eyes. Luke watches Seth Evilsizer burn. Sunlight glints off the white dragon knife lying on the shore.
Cut to:
July 20, 1906, the sun shines on Moonstone as guests board the riverboat at its dock on the Mississippi Sound. Genny, in her wedding gown, reminisces. Rob and Chloe picked them up at the train station in New Orleans. At Luke’s beachfront mansion she met Jasper and Justine, who will work for and reside there with them. The family soon gathered around the supper table at the sugarcane plantation. John and Phoebe, older sister, Mattie, her husband, Steven and Audrey along with Rob, Chloe and their children, Charles and Megan, were told there would be an addition to the family around Christmas. Genny now knew what was pushing Luke to get her to safety. Mattie and Steven had twin girls, Audrey and Alice, who were kidnapped at the age of three. Only Audrey was returned alive. It happens out of the blue. You don’t see it coming. When Moonstone’s horn blows again it brings Genny back to the present. She reads a cheerful letter from Joe Sanchez with the latest news as to their friends all of whom are thriving and of the progress being made in San Francisco. Genny wipes away a happy tear. “Aunt Genny, are you all right?” seven year old Audrey asks at her side. “Yes,” Genny says. “I’m just so happy.”
Cut to:
“Best bet you’ve ever won, little brother.” Rob nudges Luke as their father walks Genny down the aisle. “Goddess of the heart and moon, big brother.” Luke places a hand over his heart. At his gesture, Genny’s lips part in the smile which had captured him on New Year’s Eve. Luke slips a band on Genny’s finger. “As the bringer of light, I will always protect you from darkness.” She places Luke’s ring on his finger. “As the moonstone, I will always protect you on water and on land.” They receive heartfelt congratulations from two hundred guests. The wedding supper is delicious and after their first dance as husband and wife, they invite Audrey to dance with them. Luke can’t wait for their first night in their new home and carries Genny across the dance floor. Hoots, hollers and sighs follow them. Genny tosses her bouquet and Harriett Peak catches it.
Epilogue
Washington, DC
July 20, 1908
“One more kiss, Mrs. Harper, and then we have to go,” Luke says holding their nineteen month old son at the Winsteds’ home two miles from the United States Capitol. “Samuel Lucas Harper, with your green eyes and brown hair, you look just like your papa,” Genny says. John and Phoebe will babysit the grandchildren as their parents are heading to the White House for dinner. Luke told Genny his first meeting with the president was during the kidnapping. Steven was a new senator in 1902, and the president’s heart along with his wife, Edith’s went out to Seven and Mattie. The fact little Alice didn’t survive was painful for the president. Having two daughters and four sons, he empathized perhaps particularly so as his eldest child is also named Alice.
Fade to:
“Luke, my boy, when this term is over I’m coming to Biloxi to enjoy your resort and riverboats,” President Roosevelt says. Genny knows she’d not be meeting these who’s whos if not for Luke. Mrs. Roosevelt is glad they survived the earthquake, married and have a son. Genny says Sam is a handful. “My step-daughter, Alice, is a handful, too. She smokes, chews gum and plays with guns. When she’s not dabbling in voodoo or maybe even when she is, Alice can be seen with her pet snake.” Mrs. Roosevelt waves that away. “Genny, please sign a copy of your syndicated newspaper column for me. I never miss Genevieve’s Ladies and Gents.” The president’s favorite dinner is served and dessert consists of fat rascals; a scone of nuts with glazed cherries on top. The Roosevelts are the first to leave. The Harpers are escorted to their State bedrooms. There, Steven tells Luke and Rob not to waste their fat rascals. Genny has entered their inner circle.
Fade to:
“Wanna make a baby in the White House?” Luke asks in the privacy of their bedroom. “Promise me your kisses will always be wilder than the West, Harper.” He replies, “Promise you’ll never be too tame to let me kiss you from head to toe. She whispers, “We’ll never tame the wild.”