THE MATH TUTOR
A Novel
Based on the novel by Robert Laurence
© 2014 Robert Laurence
Contact: James Clois Smith, Jr., Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico, (505) 988-4418
LOG LINE: Sam Butler, a retired widower living in the present-day Ozarks, looks after a small herd of ex-racehorses and helps Ellen Quincy, a home-schooled ‘tweener, with her math. Lynda Stratford, a brilliant young physics professor at the nearby university, enters both of their lives, and in the course of the next six months, Sam’s settled and contented life is rearranged, with sad and tragic results.
Introduction
“The Math Tutor” is a story set in the modern-day Ozarks about a non-romantic triangle consisting of SAM BUTLER (70-ish), a retired law professor and widower, ELLEN QUINCY (10, turning 11) who is a home-schooled Christian, and LYNDA STRATFORD (early 30s), a brilliant physics professor at the nearby university. The action takes place during six months beginning in November of 2012, with Ellie’s backstory given in flashback, and with a short coda, set in November of 2013, a year after it all began.
ACT I
NOVEMBER 2012
The Second Tuesday. Sam Butler awakes at his farm and goes about his chores. A horse is injured, tangled up in a gate. JOHNSON REYNOLDS (mid-50s), a younger former colleague, arrives with the dean’s proposal that Sam help a young professor with his tenure application. Sam is reluctant, but Ellie arrives for her math lesson, and, full of concern over the injured horse, she encourages Sam to help. Interspersed with these events, is Ellie’s backstory: MELISSA (late 50s in real time; mid-20s in the flashback) and STUART (the same) WYCOFF, her maternal grandparents, are hippies who find their way to the Ozarks during the back-to-the-Earth movement of the ‘70s. At the commune, and in a tipi, Melissa (who is then going by the name BLUE DRIFT) gives birth to CARDINAL (early 30s in real time), who will become Ellie’s mother. Cardinal is raised as a wild child – bright but incorrigible, and later promiscuous. Her first teenage pregnancy is terminated, and the second produces Ellie. Melissa and Stuart leave the commune, convert to Christianity and establish a radio/TV/internet ministry. Cardinal converts, which causes her husband to leave and eventually to die. Cardinal marries DAVID QUINCY (early 40s), a chicken farmer and part-time “Young Earth” evangelical preacher. Ellie is to be home-schooled and Sam is hired to teach the math lessons.
The Following Thursday. Sam has decided to help JONATHAN WHEELER (mid-30s). They meet at Jonathan’s office and Sam invites him to the house for dinner and talk.
The Same Day, Minutes Later. Jonathan texts his wife, Lynda Stratford, about having met Sam, his designated mentor.
The Same Day, More Minutes Later. Back at the farm, Sam and Ellie minister to Dreadnaught, the horse injured a few days before.
The Next Sunday Night. Sam and Jonathan get to know each other over Thai food. Sam gives his advice about how Jonathan should begin writing the article.
DECEMBER 2012
The First Thursday. Lynda shows up, unannounced and uninvited, at Sam’s house. She is very forward, and makes herself at home, playing his piano without asking permission. “Do I seem like someone who asks permission?” she wonders. She is a very accomplished musician, as, in fact, she is very accomplished at everything she does. (She can’t be bothered trying to explain the physics that she does to Sam.) She asks him how his wife SALLY (who doesn’t appear in real time) died, and he tells her that it was a one-car drunk-driving accident. She is sympathetic, and they part warmly.
Later That Night. Lynda is at home. After waking Jonathan for energetic sex, she Googles Sally, finds the date of the accident, and discovers that there was a child in the car with her when she was killed.
The Following Tuesday. Sam takes Ellie to visit the university and to have lunch with his ex-colleagues.
Christmas Eve. Sam is home alone. Cardinal and Ellie have previously set up a Christmas tree for him, and a Nativity scene, one without a horse. He opens Ellie’s present to him and discovers the missing horse, which Ellie has painted to match her favorite mare, Daisy.
The Wednesday between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Sam and Lynda meet and she asks about the child in the car with Sally. Sam tells the story of Sally’s alcoholism, her final 256 days of sobriety, and the circumstances of the accident. Lynda is sympathetic, but thinks that Sam should get over his grief and suggests that one step in that direction would be for him to start having sex. Sam dismisses the idea. “I need a friend a good deal more than I need a lover.”
Two Days Later. Sam and Jonathan talk on the phone about the article Jonathan is writing. Lynda joins in and the madness of a three-way phone call ensues. Jonathan tells him that he has shared Part Two with three of his tenured colleagues.
The Final Sunday in January. All of our characters are simultaneously silent. Jonathan and Lynda are in bed between bouts of lovemaking; Ellie and her family are in church, she daydreaming of being with Sam’s horses; Sam is at home, brushing Daisy, the horse that Ellie is daydreaming about. He recalls the mare’s acquisition, years ago, when he and SALLY (mid-50s in the flashback) were at the track in Claremore, the afternoon when Sally quit drinking for the last time.
ACT II
JANUARY 2013
The Second Saturday. Sam and Cardinal watch Ellie ride Sam’s newest Thoroughbred acquisition. Cardinal finds the life she led as a young girl, and in particular the day of Ellie’s conception, to be unforgivably sinful. Cardinal asks about the lunch that Sam and Ellie had with Sam’s former colleagues, which Cardinal finds to be a rather heavy-handed attempt by Sam to make Ellie into a feminist.
The Following Wednesday Night. Lynda visits Sam at his house. She proposes that they become intimate, but he declines, preferring that they be friends. She mocks his house as The Sally Shrine.
The Next Morning. Spurred by Lynda’s naming his house The Sally Shrine, Sam decides, at long last, to go through Sally’s things. In her desk drawer he finds a post office box key. He visits the post office to return it, but it isn’t for their box in Hindsville. Back home, Ellie arrives for her lesson, but doesn’t have her homework finished. Perhaps trying to distract him from that task, she asks him a question about the Bible, but he equivocates and defers to her step-father, David. Sam then sends her home to finish the problems, while he drives to the Fayetteville post office, to return the key there. DANIELSON (40s), the postmaster, tells him that it’s not his key, either. Sam is puzzled, but decides to let the matter lie.
The Last Tuesday of the Month. A storm moves in during the night and Sam has to arise early to get the horses under shelter. He begins to thin Sally’s books off of the shelves. Cardinal, Ellie and the baby come to lunch, and Cardinal tells a story of growing up on the commune. Ellie is embarrassed both by Cardinal’s breast-feeding the baby in front of Sam, and by the story of her grandmother’s nudity (and perhaps her promiscuity) as a commune-dweller.
The Following Thursday. Sam reads Jonathan’s draft of Part Three in Jonathan’s office, and Lynda stops by. They chat about this and that and Lynda gives a hint that Jonathan has hacked into the university’s confidential files to discover who has voted against him for tenure.
FEBRUARY 2013
The First Monday. Sam is hurt in a horse accident. Ellie arrives for her math lesson and discovers him lying in the paddock. She bandages him up, helps him to his pickup, and then insists on riding along as he drives himself to the hospital. Lynda and Ellie meet for the first time in the ER. Lynda drives Sam and Ellie back to Sam’s house. Lynda, Cardinal, Ellie, David, Melissa and Jonathan all end up in the kitchen, planning Sam’s care. Sparks immediately fly between Lynda and David. David insists that Lynda join in a thanks-giving prayer circle, but she refuses. Lynda spends the night watching Sam.
The Next Morning. Lynda and Melissa drive together back to Fayetteville. Melissa holds her own in a conversation about home-schooling.
Two Weeks Hence. Lynda appears without notice at Sam’s farm, and he teaches her how to rub a mare’s belly. Over lunch, they argue about the cover of Horse Heaven, and Lynda gives a surprisingly convincing argument for her practice of judging books by their covers.
Later That Day. Sam discovers an unopened envelope in Sally’s files, addressed to a post office box in Fayetteville. He opens the envelope and it contains a newspaper clipping and nothing else. The clipping is a New York Times correction, which shows that Sally’s correspondent knew her well, as she was an inveterate reader of the correction column.
The Following Weekend. Sam and Ellie attend the Indoor Nationals track meet. Ellie meets two new friends, girls her own age. Sam remembers attending track meets with Sally.
ACT III
MARCH 2013
The First Saturday. Sam and Ellie vaccinate the horses, and Sam has to calm her nervousness about sticking her equine friends. Melissa stops by. Ellie leaves, and Melissa and Sam have a long chat about horses and religion and Ellie up at the pond. Melissa makes Sam promise to stay in Ellie’s life.
The Next Thursday. Sam talks to postmaster Danielson in Fayetteville and discovers the key still works. The box is empty, but the post office has saved one item, a notice of attempt to deliver a certified letter, dated shortly after Sally’s death.
That Evening. Sam studies the receipt, comparing the signature to the lettering on the unopened envelope he found.
The Following Wednesday. Sam visits with Johnson Reynolds, who is in charge of Jonathan’s tenure application, and manages to confirm, very indirectly, that Jonathan has information he ought not to have.
The Following Thursday. The Quincy family is at prayer. Ellie asks if Sam will be going to heaven, and when she objects to David’s teaching, he slaps her across the face. She flees to Sam’s.
A Few Minutes Later. Ellie brushes one of the horses at Sam’s, clearly upset. He sees that she’s been struck, but doesn’t know what to do. She tells him that she must go home to apologize to David, and to take the rest of her punishment. Sam feels helpless as she leaves.
Simultaneously with the Foregoing. Cardinal and David talk, she telling him that Ellie’s father used to hit her in the face and that she doesn’t want David to do it again. David says that he, not Cardinal, is in charge of discipline in their home, and that he doesn’t want to see the girl. He leaves to attend to his chores. Ellie comes home, where Cardinal is both stern and understanding. She sends Ellie out to the chicken house to apologize to David, and step-father and step-daughter pray together in the dust and ammonia of the chicken house.
That Night. David and Cardinal discuss the situation. David wants to replace Sam and find another math tutor, but Cardinal disagrees.
Two Days Later. A postcard arrives in Sam’s post office box from Lynda, noting how easy it is to hack into a listserve of which one is a member.
ACT VI
APRIL 2013
The First Friday. Sam is teaching Ellie how to clean a hoof, but Ellie wants to know what Sam thinks heaven is like. He, as always, equivocates.
The Following Day, a Saturday. Lynda arrives at Sam’s house to grade exams. Over burgers, she suggests that Jonathan is hacking into, not just the tenure proceedings, but the university’s secret exam numbers. Sam tells her this is both unethical and impossible to do.
Three Days Later. Sam runs into Melissa in town and they go out for coffee. Melissa confesses that she has begun to read novels during what should be her Bible-study time. Melissa reveals to him that David is looking for an excuse to hire a new math tutor for Ellie.
The Following Saturday. Sam and Ellie ride together, and Melissa looks after the dog. The affection that Sam and Melissa share becomes more obvious. On the way home, they stop at the post office, and Sam receives from Lynda a list of names and numbers, plainly secret exam numbers.
The Last Wednesday in April. Lynda chairs an early morning meeting of her lab team, missing a call from Sam. She drives out to Sam’s farm and discovers him sitting on the porch with a bottle of whisky and a headless snake, killed by the dog. He’s been there all night. Thinking that he has decided to agree finally to her proposal of intimacy, she offers to help him upstairs to bed. Instead, Sam tells her that he wants her to teach Ellie’s math lesson.
Four Hours Later. Sam, sleeping it off, is awakened by two phones ringing. Something has happened to Ellie, and he’s too groggy to make sense of it. Cardinal tells him that David is driving over, mad and threatening to shoot Sam. The two men confront each other and it appears that Lynda has said something to challenge Ellie’s faith. David tells Sam that if Ellie ever comes over again, he will beat her bloody. The threat, plus Sam’s long sleepless night, leaves him shaken, and he can see vividly the picture that David has painted, the picture of Ellie, bleeding, begging David to stop.
Two Hours Later. Sam, running from the image of Ellie being beaten, drives almost without intention to the track at Claremore. He decides that David probably won’t do it, but that probably isn’t good enough, and that nothing that anyone could do after such a beating would make Ellie whole. He also decides that David will be true to his word and not harm the child if Sam sends her away. He calls Cardinal and leaves a message saying that Ellie is not to come over anymore.
That Night. Sam calls Lynda and learns what she said to Ellie. They have sharp words, and Sam hangs up.
The Next Morning. Ellie comes over to find out what’s going on, and Sam sends her away.
EPILOGUE
NOVEMBER 2013
The Second Tuesday. Sam looks back on the past year, recalling an afternoon watching horses graze with Sally. He has seen Ellie only twice. He’s spoken once to Cardinal, who said she won’t forgive him, but he’s not sure for what. Lynda and Jonathan have now left for greener academic pastures, making the evidence of the hack moot. Sam and Melissa see each other occasionally, but they know there’s no future in it, as Melissa will do nothing that would cause her to lose Ellie, too. Sam knows nothing more about Sally’s secret correspondence. The deprivation of Ellie’s friendship is deep and constant, and he looks to the future with no particular enthusiasm.
THE END.
Afterword.
The author of a novel is probably not the best person to write the film treatment. Surely the novel will have to be shortened and things left out, but to the author such extractions feel like the removal of vital organs. “What goes today, Mr. Laurence? Your pancreas or your liver?” I have, though, a couple of thoughts along those lines:
1. Ellie’s backstory. In the novel, this backstory, starting with Ellie’s maternal grandparents, is told in flashback. I’m told that some film-makers, though, think flashbacks are lazy. So, the backstory could be omitted, but the Cardinal’s religious conversion is at the heart of the story and the conflict at the end. Or, the characters could relate the backstory to each other in real time, as in fact happens a few times in the novel. Or, the story could be told chronologically, but then it becomes almost the Wycoff-Quincy family saga, with Sam, the title character, arriving quite late in the film. I, of course, prefer the flashbacks, but the screenwriter gets to decide.
2. The side plots. In order to keep the novel from becoming too linear and predictable, I added two story lines – Jonathan’s supposed hacking of the university’s data bases and Sally’s secret correspondence. Neither of these plot lines is resolved, and the screenwriter will have to decide which, if either of them, should stay in the story. John Sayles would leave them hanging.
3. The internalization of the ending. Both at the very end of the story, and in the Epilogue, Sam is thinking to himself. About whether David would follow through on his threat if Sam doesn’t send Ellie away; if he wouldn’t beat her if Sam does send her away; whether Sam could take the risk involved in calling David’s bluff. Then he’s again alone as, in retrospect, he tries to figure out what has happened in the past year. But in a film? Sam talking to someone about these things? Sam in voice-over? Here’s an idea that would also make the ending a bit less gloomy, without “The Natural”-izing it: A final sequence in which Ellie comes back to the farm to groom the horses and learn some math. Is it true, or is it a dream? Like in “The Russia House.” Did Katya really get out and join Barley in Portugal, or is he just wishing it?