Literature Discussion - Lit-Talk.com

Priest

Screenplay By Phillip Ghee (USA)

Chapter Six

Storyline

The next day we find that the usually grumpy D'Baptise has a soft side. He works with at-risk inner city youths. The same youths he sometimes despairingly refers to as savages. He mentors the kids and he takes them to different venues. On Sundays he takes them to the College. He watches over them like a mother hen. He hopes the academic atmosphere will subconsciously rub off on the kids while they avail themselves to the wealth of available athletic equipment. It is for this reason that he prefers to take them to the college rather than just to a park or a recreation center.
 
He wholeheartedly believes that if he can win them over at this early age and change the direction of their lives then, he will not have to deal with them later in life, in either the halls of justice or in the morgue. He likes to take them up to the college on week-ends. At the college they can avail themselves of the abundance of sport equipment and venues rarely seen in their neighborhoods. The college has an outreach that caters to such community enhancing programs.

We discover that DeBaptise had been at the college to reserve certain areas of the gym and athletic field the day of the near miss driving accident.

Scene: College Gym – Following Week

DeBaptise is with the kids up at the college gym. While the kids take advantage of the various sport and gymnastic equipment under the grumpy gaze of DeBaptise, the camera pans over to the far side of the gym and zooms into a glass enclosed rec-room.

INTERIOR REC-ROOM

We are treated to gracefulness in a well-executed fencing match. The athleticism of the match also happens to catch the eye of a patrolling DeBaptise. Assured that one of the center’s assistants has the situation well under control, DeBaptise ventures over to aptly view the match. At the conclusion of the match both men remove their headgear. The winner of the set is the elder and distinguished Professor Easton. The loser of the set is the tan and former star quarterback Braxton. There is something eerily familiar about Braxton but DeBaptise can’t put his finger on it. Maybe it just his Hollywood-type looks, he surmises. Nevertheless he seeks out one of the gym assistants and an old friend. He makes inquiry as to the identity of the two men. Talent that good deserves to be acknowledged into memory. The man informs him of the Professor’s status and gives a non bias opinion of the boy’s athletic skills. Yet the towel man harbors a bad feeling about the boy. He views him as arrogant and cocky. He expects that sooner or later he will have a run-in with him.

Continued next week...