ANDY

(softly)

Like Brooks did?

FADE TO BLACK

AN IRON-BARRED DOOR

slides open with an enormous CLANG. A stark room beyond. CAMERA PUSHES through. SEVEN HUMORLESS MEN sit at a long table. An empty chair faces them. We are again in:

INT -- SHAWSHANK HEARINGS ROOM -- DAY (1957)

Red enters, ten years older than when we first saw him at a parole hearing. He removes his cap and sits.

MAN #1

It says here you've served thirty years of a life sentence.

MAN #2

You feel you've been rehabilitated?

RED

Yes sir, without a doubt. I can say I'm a changed man. No danger to society, that's the God's honest truth. Absolutely rehabilitated.

CLOSEUP -- PAROLE FORM

A big rubber stamp slams down: "REJECTED."

EXT -- PRISON YARD -- DUSK (1957)

Red emerges into fading daylight. Andy's waiting for him.

RED

Same old, same old. Thirty years. Jesus. When you say it like that…

ANDY

You wonder where it went. I wonder where ten years went.

Red nods, solemn. They settle in on the bleachers. Andy pulls a small box from his sweater, hands it to Red.

ANDY

Anniversary gift. Open it.

Red does. Inside the box, on a thin layer of cotton, is a shiny new harmonica, bright aluminum and circus-red.

ANDY

Had to go through one of your competitors. Hope you don't mind. Wanted it to be a surprise.

RED

It's very pretty, Andy. Thank you.

ANDY

You gonna play something?

Red considers it, shakes his head. Softly:

RED

Not today.

INT -- CELLBLOCK FIVE/ANDY'S CELL -- NIGHT (1957)

Men line the tiers as the evening count is completed. The convicts step into their cells. The master switch is thrown and all the doors slam shut -- KA-THUMP! Andy finds a cardboard tube on his bunk. The note reads: "A new girl for your 10 year anniversary. From your pal. Red."

INT -- ANDY'S CELL -- LATER (1957)

Marilyn Monroe's face fills the screen. SLOW PULL BACK reveals the new poster: the famous shot from "The Seven Year Itch", on the subway grate with skirt billowing up. Andy sits gazing at her as lights-out commences…

INT -- RED'S CELL -- NIGHT (1957)

…and we find Red gazing blankly as darkness takes the cellblock. Adding up the months, weeks, days…

He regards the harmonica like a man confronted with a Martian artifact. He considers trying it out -- even holds it briefly to his lips, almost embarrassed -- but puts it back in its box untested. And there the harmonica will stay…

FADE TO BLACK

WE HOLD IN BLACKNESS as THUMPING SOUNDS grow louder…

RED (V.O.)

Andy was as good as his word. He kept writing to the State Senate. Two letters a week instead of one.

…and the BLACKNESS disintegrates as a wall tumbles before our eyes, revealing a WORK CREW with picks and sledgehammers, faces obscured outlaw-style with kerchiefs against the dust. Behind them are GUARDS overseeing the work.

Andy yanks his kerchief down, grinning in exhilaration. Red and the others follow suit. They step through the hole in the wall, exploring what used to be a sealed-off storage room.