Thousand moments

Excerpt from the movie screenplay for "COLD MOUNTAIN" Written by Anthony Minghella
Based On The Novel "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier  <Script-Tribute>

Characters in this scene:
Ada ... the main character, a woman hardened by the reality of frontier life during civil war
Inman ... wounded civil war veteran who has walked for months to get back to Ada
Ruby ... Ada's best friend and hired hand; gutsy, practical, and full of wit
Stobrod ... Ruby's father, who was mortally wounded, and is now asleep in a hut

--------------------------------
EXT. ADA AND RUBY HUT, CHEROKEE VILLAGE. NIGHT

Inman is outside his cabin. Only the light escaping from the
cabin, fire lights them, almost silhouettes.

     INMAN
          I'm sorry. I was trying to be quiet.

     ADA
          I couldn't sleep.

     INMAN
          -- I got no appetite left to be in a
          room with wounded men.

     ADA
          I can't see your face.

     INMAN
          It's not a face you recognised.

     ADA
          Did you get my letters?

     INMAN
          I got three letters. Carried them in
          that book you gave me. The Bertram.

     ADA
          I must have sent 100. Did you write
          to me?

     INMAN
          Whenever I could. If you never got
          them I can summarize.

     ADA
          No, it's --

     INMAN
          I pray you're well. I pray I'm in
          your thoughts. You are all that keeps
          me from sliding into some dark place.

     ADA
          But how did I keep you? We barely
          knew each other. A few moments.

     INMAN
          A thousand moments. They're like a
          bag of tiny diamonds glittering in a
          black heart. Don't matter if they're
          real or things I made up. The shape
          of your neck. The way you felt under
          my hands when I pulled you to me.

     ADA
          Your boots, one polished, one not
          yet polished.

     INMAN
          You're playing a piano and I'm
          standing outside.

     ADA
          I'm playing a piano and you're
          standing outside.

     INMAN
          That kiss -- which I've kissed again
          every day of my walking.

     ADA
          Every day of my waiting.

     INMAN
          Maybe you can't see my face, but if
          you could see my inside, my whatever
          you want to name it, my spirit, that's
          the fear I have deeper than any gash
          on my neck. I think I'm ruined. They
          kept trying to put me in the ground,
          but I wasn't ready, no ma'am, no
          more ready than that scoundrel in
          there's not ready to die on us. But
          if I had goodness, I lost it. If I
          had anything tender in me I shot it
          dead.

Ruby stomps out of the hut.

     RUBY
          Number one -- shut this door, it's
          freezing.
(goes over to Stobrod's hut)
          Number two -- shut that door, it's
          freezing.
(turns to them)
          I'm laying on my back, with my fingers
          poked in my ears trying to shut out
          who's got a bag of diamonds and who's
          got boots needs polishing, If you
          want to get three feet up a bull's
          ass listen to what sweethearts whisper
          to each other.

She's at the door to Stobrod's hut. She contemplates them.

     RUBY
          In fact, if you're going to wimble
          all night I'm going to sleep in with
          him.

And with that she enters Stobrod's hut, slamming the door.