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Ethan Burns
of
Movie Length Tales featuring:
Action and Adventure
Comedy
Drama
Horror
Kids and Family
Romantic Comedy
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Thriller and Suspense
Ask for them in any bookstore, or see them all at:
www.AisleSeatBooks.com
James Balestrieri
A Movie Length
Contemporary Western
Romantic Comedy Tale
For Readers
13 and up
Lyme, New Hampshire
The Ballad
Ethan Burns
of
Copyright 2013 James Balestrieri
All rights reserved.
Cover illustration by Jeff Mueller, based on a painting by
Nick Eggenhofer
ISBN-13: 978-1-935655-71-8
ISBN-10: 1-935655-71-X
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013935350
Published by Aisle Seat Books, an imprint of
GrayBooks LLC
1 Main Street
Lyme, New Hampshire 03768
www.Tales2Film.com
www.AisleSeatBooks.com
Softcover Edition
Printed in the Unites States of America on acid-free paper.
DEDICATION:
For my excellent wife, Dancy, and my three excellent
children, Ian, Lucia and Vivian
About Tales2Film and
Aisle Seat Books:
Read a good movie lately?
Every good movie starts with a script, and every
good script tells a riveting story. Long before the actors
are chosen and the filming starts, a writer sits down,
crafts that story, and submits it for consideration by
the producers, directors, and other creative talents in
the film industry. It can take a long time. A script may
spend years making the rounds before getting the elu-
sive Hollywood green light. If it ever does. Some of
the greatest movies ever written are ones that none of
us will ever see on the screen.
Tales2Film finds the best of those not-yet-produced
tales and brings them to you as Movie Length Tales
just as the writer envisaged them. Each of the tales in
this series has been converted by the scripts writer
from the technical shorthand of screenplay format into
the familiar prose format you see here, a process called
novelization.
These little books are not novels, or even novellas.
Think of them as written movies. Like the screenplays
they come from, each is presented in real time, written
in the present tense to allow you to see the movies
scenes in your minds eye as if they were unfolding on
a theaters screen before you.
So. Heres a movie. Take your favorite aisle seat
and enjoy it.
And when its over, take a look at out Featured Pre-
views in the back of this book. Your next Movie Length
Tale is already here...
Now Showing:
Contemporary Western
Romantic Comedy
Ages 13 and up
The Ballad
Ethan Burns
of
Theater lights dim.
Fade in:
9
One sunshaft through unlit neon and the slats of an
inner set of saloon doors is the only indication its mid-
afternoon at Hegartys, a dump of a bar in L.A.
Nine mailmen line the barstools.
A planetoid barkeep serves them as they swill beers,
wolf down greasy tacos and bellow at an old television
that sits high in a corner behind the bar.
Standing in the shadows at a small round table, Oc-
tavio Tavi Rivera makes notes on a screenplay. He
glances at the mailmen and the TV.
One mountain of a mailman points at the TV, rant-
ing, Ethan Burns! I tell you, his old man must be roll-
ing in his grave!
You think he gives a rats rump? the barkeep ob-
jects. Hes rolling in his old mans dough.
Tavi shoves the script in a backpack, drinks up,
squeezes between the mailmen, puts money on the bar.
The barkeep nods.
Tavi leaves.
The mountainous mailman watches Tavi leave,
makes sure hes gone. That kid gives me the jitters.
Always scrutinizing us. Then, whispering, Hes not
Postal Police, is he Clyde?
Not that I know of, Clyde the barkeep replies. At
least he doesnt have to blow cobwebs out of his wallet
10
when it comes time to pay the bill. Unlike some who
shall not be namedDanaher
The other mailmen roar. Danaher tries to swing
their mockery back to the TV, gesturing again and
thundering, Look at him grinning. The sad spectacle!
Framed by imitation wood grain and worn knobs
on the battered TV cabinet, relics of a bygone era in
home entertainment, the face of Ethan Burns smiles a
forced smile.
Teetering on the knife-edge of 50, Ethan is a fit fel-
low looking a bit yellow in this lurid light. Then the
ancient console disappears, and
THROUGH THE TV:
The set of a daytime cable TV show. Low-budget
glitter. A large chintzy sign reading WHO CAN
TELL? spelled out in light bulbs, hangs above the set.
Ethan stands next to a woman whose name tag reads
BABS. Her brow furrows, suggests cogitation. A tinny
clock bongs. Ill repeat the question, Ethan says.
Who can tell you about living in hives and making
honey?
Babs squints. Ah Umm A bumblebee?
Thats it! Ethan cries. Bumblebee is correct! Ten
thousand dollars is yours, Babs!
Music, in unmelodic triumph, kicks in. Babs hugs
Ethan and howls in his ear.
Ethan smiles heroically into the camera, signing off.
Join us tomorrow, becauseWho Can Tell?
Canned applause instantly halts. Feet pound for the
exit.
11
Over a speaker, someone yawns and says, Thats a
wrap, people. Last one to the bar believes in the saving
power of art.
With one voice, the entire crew shout, Art who?
They swarm and swirl around Ethan, wrapping cable,
carrying lights, moving set pieces.
Babs hasnt loosened her grip on Ethan.
I am such a fan of your fathers films, she says.
Why dont they make westerns like that anymore?
And you were so cute in the ones you were in.
Maybe the morality is too simple. Maybe were too
cynical. The worlds moved on
But its Babs whos moved on. Ten grand! Wow!
Maybe Ill look you up after I have my makeover. Who
can tell, right? And with a twinkle in her eye, she
settles into her bear hug and squeezes Ethans buns.
A production assistant in a miniskirt arrives and
pries Babs off Ethan.
Ethan turns and nods to his cameraman, an African-
American whose turtleneck and beret ooze cool in the
Shaft, John Shaft way.
Ethan asks, Who was I today, J.B.?
Janet Leigh in Psycho. Lit you hot. Came in tight
every time you smiled that grimace-y smile of yours.
Mans got to flex his artistic muscle once in awhile. Use
it or lose it. Otherwiseatrophy death.
The assistant in the miniskirt passes.
Thanks, Ethan says.
They always follow the money, the assistant re-
plies, not pausing to chat.
12
Whereas I always follow the skirt J.B. croons in
cool hot pursuit.
Lights snap off, leaving Ethan in shadow. The
WHO CAN TELL? sign snaps off.
A voice booms through the darkened set. Another
day, another erotic death grip from a woman named
Babs. Accept your doom, Ethan Burns.
Ah, the voice of fate, Ethan muses, played by my
own agent Lets a man know where he stands.
LATER:
In a dressing room, Ethan removes his pancake
makeup. His visage is green in the mirror. Ethans
agent, a polished older gent, stands behind him. Break-
ing a thick silence, he says, Daytime talk show time.
Ethan eyes meet his in the mirror. Again? Ratings
down? We getting the axe?
You sound like you wish they would. He looks at
his watch. Tanning sesh in twenty.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, whos a wallet?
When you look like a wallet, well charge em for a
lift Uh, Ethan, that surgeon?
You go.
Ive been. Its just a consultation.
What do I need surgery for? To look younger for
Who Can Tell?
Exactly. For who can tell?
Why, Bobby Hightower, are you trying to be phil-
osophical, or are we about to break into an Abbott and
Costello routine?
Whats the difference?
13
Sometimes Id like to lift your face. Clean off your
venerable old head.
Chip off the old block.
I aint the milkmans boy So, the cheerful morn-
ing drivellers. To what do I owe the honor?
Your fathers hundredth anniversary.
That crept up. One hundred years ago my fa-
ther, Matt Burns, King of the Celluloid Old Westan
American iconwas born. Dot, dot, dot, fill-in-the-
blank, blah.
The retrospective has, and I quote, sparked re-
newed interest in the archetypal westerns of Matt
Burns. Five Matt Burns classics directed by Henry
Hyde are coming out in HD. Theres a festival at the
university. Starts tonight. You said youd show, take a
few questions
Which film?
West of the Law.
Long time since I saw it on the big screen. Paint-
brush Valley Small screen never does do justice to
that slice of Arizona.
ON A MOVIE SCREEN:
West of the Law plays. Matt Burns walks a dusty
street filmed in the morally austere pastel palette of a
John Ford film. Ethan and Bobby sit in the audience;
the backs of their heads jut into the film.
Ethan narrates, whispering, Stetson wide, guns
low, he glares at the fearful burghers through thick si-
lence He leans into Bobby. I loved being on that
set with Dad.
14
Its coming, Bobby says. The shot of you listen-
ing to your fathers big speech.
Ethan smiles, younger in the projected light of the
film. He lip syncs his fathers words at first, then his
voice seems to rises above his fathers. Its a power-
ful growling drawl, even in a whisper: When choices
shake your teeth until they rattle in your head, the
measure of a man is in the next thing he doeswhether
he fights back, and why, and how. Thats the measure
of a man. The only measure.
On screen, young Ethan, in West of the Law, beams
with pride.
Bobby breaks in: That shot of you made Matt
prouder than anything else in the whole picture.
Corny stuff, these days, Ethan says.
Credits of West of the Law roll. Buttes and stone fin-
gers rise. The score swells as the film ends.
LATER:
Ethan stands at a podium in the university audito-
rium. Bobby and several faculty members sit behind
him. Ethan scans the audience for signs of life. A stu-
dent in John Lennon glasses raises her hand.
Yes, Ethan acknowledges.
What do you think of the bill in Congress that
would reopen Paintbrush Valley to development and
resource exploitation, particularly the uranium mines
that were abandoned after the Cold War?
Frankly, this is the first Ive heard of it, but Id sup-
port any effort to prevent the passage of such a short-
sighted bill.
15
Even if it meant going up against some of your Re-
publican oilmen friends?
My father had friends in the energy business. But
Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican. And a trust buster
and an environmentalist. As for oil, how did you get
here tonight?
Respectfully, sir, Teddy Roosevelt might be a
Democrat today. She starts to sit, then jumps up again
and adds, And I walked.
A light giggle runs through the audience.
Ethan waits for it to die down, and counters, Old
Teddy might say Bully, Bully! But, to answer your
questionwould I go up against my friends? When
we were on location with West of the Law, one night
Dad and I were sitting near a fire, looking up at that big
sky, and he said, Ethan, plenty of things in this world
need changing, but some things should be left as God
made them. Like Paintbrush Valley. So I would go up
against anybody. Republican, Democrat. Anybody. Ev-
erybody.
Light applause rises from the audience.
A student in a torn army jacket raises his hand.
Ethan points.
Yes, sir.
How does it feel to know that screen magic isnt
hereditary?
I dont know about screen magic, Ethan says.
But rudeness, whether hereditary or not, needs its ass
whipped.
Is that cornpone from a Matt Burns movie?
Nope, Ethan says, leaping from the stage.
16
Cellphones, tablets and video cameras roll.
In flight, over his shoulder, Army Jacket taunts, I
thought this was supposed to be a critical appraisal, not
Me and Pa anecdotes from some wannabe!
Ethan chases Army Jacket out a door.