Fort Park

EXT. FORT PARK - DAY

Describe.   

The SOUND OF ATV ENGINES before The Boys arrive in theirs and park at the treehouse, followed by Gil and Hunter in theirs. Gil drives to the bench and view to the Texas Hill Country. The boys get to work. Gil pops the top of his Victoria beer, Hunter does the same. They take occasional sips.

HUNTER: How long have you been here

?GIL: My entire life. My dad built the house. 

HUNTER: What did he do for a living?

GIL: He used his G-I Bill to start a construction company in San Antonio. Bought the land a couple years later, started building. 

HUNTER: World War Two.

GIL: Marine in the Pacific.

HUNTER: My grandfather was on the U-S-S Helena.

GIL: Did he come home? 

HUNTER: He did. Survived Kula Gulf. Never swam in the ocean again. Dale?

GIL: First Cavalry. Wounded at the Battle of Manila.

HUNTER: Wounded how?

GIL: Shot in the foot. 

HUNTER: How did that affect him. 

GIL: Ended his football career. Had a limp. 

HUNTER: Tom was First Cav.

GIL: He was. Did he talk about it.

HUNTER: Not a word. I saw the tattoo when I found him that morning. 

GIL: I was with him the night he got it?

HUNTER: When and where?

GIL: R and R in Bangkok. I have pictures.

HUNTER: I'd love to see them.

GIL: Maybe when you're back.

HUNTER: Thank you. You were Army?

GIL: I'm a Marine. Whitetail at your three o'clock.

Hunter turns to his right to see the handsomely antlered buck seeming to stare back from where it stands in the woods fifty yards away. 

HUNTER: Did Tom hunt?

GIL: Got his first here. 

HUNTER: Shooting what? 

GIL: Dale's Mauser Ninety-eight. Me and dad and Dale and Tom on a cold January morning. I have pictures of that, too.

HUNTER: Did you hunt together regularly?

GIL: Yes. Back then. But as far as I know Tom never pulled a trigger after he got back except to put down a horse that a mountain lion had got to. Have you ever hunted, Hunter?

HUNTER: No. Hunter was my grandmother's maiden name.

DISTANT THUNDER sends the buck bounding into the woods out of view.

GIL: Ever fish?

HUNTER: Trout pond when I was a kid. Hooked myself in the ear. I saw Tom's Wyoming and Texas licenses in the glove compartment.

GIL: We were going to take the boat out tomorrow.

HUNTER: Where to?

GIL: Medina Lake, a reservoir southeast of Bandera.

NEARER THUNDER, HARDER RAIN, DISTANT LIGHTNING. Gil turns to the boys just as they leave the treehouse for the ATV. Gil starts the engine. 

GIL (cont.)  We can do that when you're back.

HUNTER: Thank you.

GIL: We're going to put some of Tom's ashes in.

Gil makes the U-turn back to the woods, drives the ATV into them, out of view, engine fading to silence before NEARER THUNDER and HARDER RAIN.