CLARICE
All right, then tell me how -
DR. QUINN
No. It's your turn to tell me, Clarice.
You don't have any more vacations to sell,
on Anthrax Island. Why did you run away
from that ranch?
CLARICE
Dr. Quinn, when there's time I'll -
DR. QUINN
We don't reckon time the same way, Clarice.
This is all the time you'll ever have.
CLARICE
Later, listen, I'll -
DR. QUINN
I'll listen now. After your father's
murder, you were orphaned. You were
ten years old. You went to live with
cousins, on a sheep and horse ranch in
Montana. And - ?
CLARICE
And - one morning I just - ran away...
She turns from him. He presses closer, gripping the bars.
DR. QUINN
Not "just," Clarice. What set you off?
You started what time?
CLARICE
Early. Still dark.
DR. QUINN
Then something woke you. What? Did you
dream...? What was it?
IN FLASHBACK -
The 10-year old Clarice sits up abruptly in her bed, fright-
ened. She is in a Montana ranch house; it al almost dawn.
Strange, fearful shadows on her ceiling and walls... a win-
dow, partly fogged by the cold; eerie brightness outside.
CLARICE (V.O.)
I heard a strange sound...
DR. QUINN (V.O.)
What was it?
THE CHILD RISES -
crosses to the window in her nightgown, rubs the glass.
CLARICE (V.O.)
I didn't know. I went to look...
HIGH ANGLES (2nd STORY) - THE CHILD'S POV -
Shadowy men, ranch hands, are moving in and out of a nearby
barn, carrying mysterious bundles. The mens' breath is
steaming... A refrigerated truck idles nearby, its engine
adding more steam. A strange, almost surrealistic scene...
CLARICE (contd., V.O.)
Screaming! Some kind of - screaming.
Like a child's voice...
THE LITTLE GIRL
is terrified; she covers her ears.
DR. QUINN (V.O.)
What did you do?
CLARICE (V.O.)
Got dressed without turning on the
light. I went downstairs... outside...
THE LITTLE GIRL
in her winter coat, slips noiselessly towards the open barn
door. She ducks into the shadows to avoid a ranch hand, who
passes her with a squirming bundle of some kind. He goes into
the barn, and she edges after him reluctantly.
CLARICE (contd., V.O.)
I crept up to the barn... I was so
scared to look inside - but I had to...
THE LITTLE GIRL'S POV -
as the open doorway LOOMS CLOSER... Bright lights inside, straw
bales, the edges of stalls, then moving figures...
DR. QUINN (V.O.)
And what did you see, Clarice?
A SQUIRMING LAMB -
is held down on a table by two ranch hands.
CLARICE (V.O.)
Lambs. The lambs were screaming...
A third cowboy stretches out the lamb's neck, raises a bloody
knife. Just as he's about to slice its throat -
BACK TO THE ADULT CLARICE -
staring into the distance, shaken, still trembling from the
child's shock. We see Dr. Quinn, over her shoulder, studying
her intently.
DR. QUINN
They were slaughtering the spring lambs?
CLARICE
Yes...! They were screaming.
DR. QUINN
So you ran away...
CLARICE
No. First I tried to free them... I
opened the gate of their pen - but
they wouldn't run. They just stood
there, confused. They wouldn't run...
DR. QUINN
But you could. You did.
CLARICE
I took one lamb. And I ran away, as
fast as I could...
IN FLASHBACK -
a vast Montana plain, and crossing this, a tiny figure - the
little Clarice, holding a lamb in her arms.
DR. QUINN (V.O.)
Where were you going?
CLARICE (V.O.)
I don't know. I had no food or water.
It was very cold. I thought - if I can
even save just one... but he got so
heavy. So heavy...
The tiny figure stops, and after a few moments sinks to the
ground, hunched over in dispair.
CLARICE (contd., V.O.)
I didn't get more than a few miles
before the sheriff's car found me.
The rancher was so angry he sent me to
live at the Lutheran orphanage in
Bozeman. I never saw the ranch again...
DR. QUINN (V.O.)
But what became of your lamb?
(no response)
Clarice...?
BACK TO SCENE -
as the adult Clarice turns, staring into his feverish eyes.
She shakes her head, unwilling - or unable - to say more.
DR. QUINN (contd.)
You still wake up sometimes, don't you?
Wake up in the dark, with the lambs
screaming?
CLARICE
Yes...
DR. QUINN
Do you think if you saved Catherine, you
could make them stop...? Do you think,
if Catherine lives, you won't wake up
in the dark, ever again, to the scream-
ing of the lambs? Do you...?
CLARICE
Yes! I don't know...! I don't know.
DR. QUINN
(a pause; then, oddly at peace)
Thank you, Clarice.
