Always Another Mountain:

Living With Cystic Fibrosis

On behalf of David Foster and the AAM project, THANK YOU.

$1 from the sale of this purchase goes to CYSTIC FIBROSIS the remainder is for the development of the Motion Picture Production.

Always Another Mountain:

Living With Cystic Fibrosis

Randy Jon Morgan, Rick Tuber,

Sharidan Williams-Sotelo, David Foster

Adapted to book by

Benjamin Easterday

April 2018

Copyright © 2018 by Benjamin Easterday

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2018

ISBN #: 978-1-387-71722-4

EV Productions INC

West Hollywood CA 90069

www.alwaysanothermountain.com

Dedication

There is never enough attention available for the debilitating situations our friends and family’s struggle with every day.  Cystic Fibrosis is one of those diseases.   Davids “last wish” was to share his story.  My pledge is taking this, the Original Script and publishing it as a readable experience.  CF found its way into my own family as well and November 29, 1991 we lost Eric Turner; he was 16 ½.

This publication side of the production is our pledge to Davids wishes as well Eric and too all that are afflicted with CF.  Along with the writers, we hope this story gives you strength to challenge yourself.  Through the good and the bad days; like any challenge, there will Always be Another Mountain.

Benjamin Easterday

EV PRODUCTIONS INC

Foreword      viii

KEY CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS      ix

Introduction      1

CHAPTER 1 “none of us gets out of here alive”      2

CHAPTER 2 “thinking of you”

CHAPTER 3 “Let him go”

CHAPTER 4 “Merry Christmas… again”

CHAPTER 5 “I'm waiting for my present”

CHAPTER 6 “who wants to be the FIRST?”

CHAPTER 7 “For whom we love”

CHAPTER 8 “the good and the bad”

CHAPTER 9 “family”

CHAPTER 10 “it’s not fair”

CHAPTER 11 “live free or die trying!”

CHAPTER 12 “utterly useless”

CHAPTER 13 “it all seems like a dream “

Foreword

Shortly before his deteriorating condition forced him to leave the film industry and move to Tucson, Arizona, Foster invited Randy Jon Morgan to collaborate with him on a bio-script. At the same time, fellow editor Rick Tuber also thought that David’s mountain-climbing triumphs and battle with this crippling disease would make an inspirational film that would both be entertaining and enlightening. Rick, Randy then brought in master storyteller Sharidan Williams-Sotelo to add a beautiful female perspective within the story; together Always Another Mountain found its way to a script format, first copy written in 2012. The film part of the project began and was later moved to a new production house and optioned by Benjamin Easterday in 2016.  The story is so moving that it needs to be presented in print as well as the moving picture format.  This decision was based on David wish to share his story and now is being presented across various media in one form or another in an effort to get the story out so others may enjoy and feel the motivation David expresses and enjoyed.

KEY CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS

DAVID AND FAMILY

DAVID FOSTER Male, 20’s, 30’s, though there are elements from various stages of his life.  Scraggly, long blond hair, scruffy beard.  Kinda Jesus, kinda Zonker, with a gentel, yet intense look in his blue eyes.  He is based on the real-life person of the same name, saddled with the debilitating disease of the lungs, Cystic Fibrosis.  A skilled guitar player, he is a hopeless romantic, a rock and roller, a practical joker, and demonstratively chivalrous with the ladies.  Light-hearted and optimistic, despite his illness.   His main passion is climbing mountains and experiencing nature in all its majestic grandeur, despite the severe strain on his devastated body.  Determined to not allow his physical limitations keep him from living life to the fullest.  His other great interest is photography, and he loves taking nature photos, posing for self-photos, and poking his lens into the faces of friends and family.  He will be the third successful double lung transplant recipient in the history of the state of Arizona.

UNCLE JACK Male, 50’s, 60’s.  Friendly round face, a full head of silver hair.  Slightly paunchy, but strong and hardy.  David’s best friend and most avid supporter.  He is the one who introduced young David to the wilderness and photography.  He is David’s main hiking partner, and is as determined as    David to help him make the most of whatever time David has in this world.

LESA FOSTER Female, 50’s-60’s.  David’s mother.  Blond, though graying, yet still reflecting the striking natural beauty of her younger years.  Nervous and careworn from the heavy burden of raising two sons with the terrible affliction of Cystic Fibrosis, despite have serious health problems of her own with bipolar disorder, giving vent to broad and sudden mood swings, from near euphoric highs to the deepest depths of depression.

GENE FOSTER Male, 50’s.  David’s father.  An accomplished flamenco and classical guitarist, as well as a talented film editor.  Driven to an early death from alcoholism, brought on by a deep sense of personal guilt and depression over the terrible illness he has bequeathed to his sons.

KEVIN FOSTER Male, a few years younger than David, though he looks considerably older -- emaciated, unkempt and tattooed.  A free spirit in his own right, he has found his refuge from the ravages of his illness in the world of hard living, drug abuse and alcohol.

UNIVERSITY OF TUCSON CYSTIC FIBROSIS WARD

DOCTOR DOUG MANNERS Male, 30’s.  Good looking; serious about his chosen career working with cystic fibrosis patients.  Loves and even admires David, though David’s stubborn nature and wild activities in defiance of his illness are a thorn in Manners’ side.

DOCTOR STEPHEN COPELAND Male, 50’s, silver hair.  Dignified and highly intelligent.  Chief surgeon at University of Tucson Medical Center, takes a fatherly interest in the patients under his care.

IRENE NICHOLSON Female, mid-20’s.  CF patient, and David’s main love interest.  Attractive Pat Benatar type; sexy, in spite of her terrible illness.  Though she is too weak to be an active participant in David’s wild adventures, they share a spiritual bond and hope that transcends their illness.  Like David, she is also a dreamer.  Irene is also an artist, expressing herself in elaborate collages that serve as an inspiration and comfort to her fellow patients.  With a bit of a mischievous bent of her own, she engages in ‘practical joke wars’ with David up in the Tucson Medical Center CF Ward.

KAYLA SALUDABLE Female, late 20’s.  Pretty, though pale and sickly.  David has a deep attraction to her -- if she weren’t already married with children.

NURSE GLENDA Female, 40’s.  Sort of the CF Ward ‘mom’, she keeps a close eye on her patients, taking care of them with a firm, but loving, gentle hand.

NURSE-AID CINDY Female, 20’s.  Sexy young Nurses Aid, with whom David likes to playfully flirt, though she is more than his match in their battle of wits.

PEDRO AYUDANTE Male, 30’s.  An orderly on the CF Ward, he is a friend to all the patients under his care.

UNIVERSITY OF TUCSON CYSTIC FIBROSIS WARD

RUSTY MACDONALD Male, 20’s.  A big, jovial, red-headed Irishman.  One of David’s fellow CF patients, he is the first double-lung transplant recipient in the history of Arizona.

CHRIS CONZIONE Male, early 20’s.  Handsome Italian-American with wavy black hair, charming personality.

TOM POLAND Male, late teens.  Canadian.  Tall, blond, blue eyes, with boy-next-door good looks and boyish charm.  He will be the second successful double-lung transplant patient in Arizona.

JOSPEH RIGARD Male, 7 years old.  Intelligent, introspective

‘old soul’, African American CF patient.

THE AARON SPELLING COMPANY, HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA

MARK Male, 30’s.  A kindly, Neil Young look-alike.  Frenzied department head of Spelling Post Production where David works in his years in Hollywood, California.

TIM Male, 20’s.  An apprentice editor in the Spelling operation, with a David Schwimmer from “Friends” haircut and an attitude.

SUE Female, 20’s.  Attractive blond assistant in the Spelling company.  Has an eye for David, and defends and genuinely cares for him.

WENDY Female, 30’s.  Cute, friendly and vivacious and impish film librarian for Spelling.

RICK Male, 30’s.  Assistant editor at Spelling.  Flirty, generally quiet observer.  Baseball player and fan.  Ambitious, would like to write a book about David and his inspirational life and fight to overcome cystic fibrosis.

Introduction

David has since departed from this world, leaving behind the memories and joy he shared. His story is full of ambition and will of life. David was born in Los Angeles in 1967 and raised there by his parents till just before his teenage years; his mother having lived with the stress of the disease and constant guilt sought medical help and turned her children over to her parents to help care for them while she found herself.  David’s father had a stroke early on in Davids life.  His grandfather would often take David out on short hikes and short trips to Arizona to see his Uncle Jack, also an avid climber.  Together Uncle Jack and his grandfather took on the challenge of an eager young man who had no fears in life.  The story to told here takes place primarily in Tucson Arizona between the years 1985-2000

CHAPTER 1 “none of us gets out of here alive”

THE HIGH SIERRAS, CALIFORNIA (AERIAL) - DAY (1980’s)

Soaring high over majestic mountains, forested valleys; meadows carpeted with flowers; granite slopes studded with remote alpine lakes. Finally, towering above all MT. WHITNEY, stark and imposing, piercing the crystal skies at 14,495 feet; half way up we  easily see a worn TRAIL, a brownish thread winding through the forest, up the side of the mountain.

TWO HIKERS make their way up the steep, barren trail: DAVID FOSTER, a slender and spry 30 years young with scraggly blond hair hanging to his shoulders, scruffy beard: kind of Christ, kind of Zonker but with an intense, kind of wild look in his blue eyes.  He wears a light blue backpack, a beat-up black NIKON CAMERA, its leather casing worn from the years slung over his shoulder.  A few steps ahead is UNCLE JACK, a spirited man in his 50's with a friendly round face, full head of silver hair, slightly paunchy, but strong and hardy. David trudges along the steep trail, determined to keep up with Uncle Jack.

His breath comes in short, wheezing GASPS, his HEARTBEATS resounding in his head, like ominous drumming; a thin WHITE RESIDUE OF SALT left behind like sediment as the perspiration streams down his face. David stumbles to a stop; cannot take another step.  He doubles over, clutches his chest, his face contorted in an agonized grimace.  A distressing RATTLE rising from deep within his lungs as he gasps for air. Uncle Jack comes back down the trail, huffing and puffing, ever faithful, supportive, but also pragmatic when it counts.

UNCLE JACK

David!  (continuing)

Come on, David.  You've got to give it up now.  You've already done more than any other person in your condition would've even tried.  Don't worry.  There will always be another mountain.

David looks at his uncle, knows Jack is right.  He turns his gaze upward into the blinding sun, towards -- THE SUMMIT -- only a scant thousand feet or so away.  He raises his camera, SNAPS A PICTURE.  So near, and yet...

He pulls a dark green metal SIERRA CUP showing the roughened signs of many uses from his backpack. He SCOOPS OUT A HOLE in the sandy earth at the base of a LARGE BOULDER overhanging the cliff.

DAVID

The next time I come up here, I'll be needing a drink. When I do, this will come in handy. This is the place where I had to give it up, this time the mountain has won but this isn't over. Not yet.  Not by a long shot.

He places the Sierra cup into the hole and covers it up.  He SNAPS A PICTURE of the spot, with Uncle Jack standing beside the boulder, and the magnificent vista beyond. He takes one more longing gaze up at the peak.

David suddenly COUGHS again.  Then harder.  Until his entire body is convulsed with the tortuous coughing and retching, as...

UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER (UMC), TUCSON, ARIZONA Cystic Fibrosis Ward - THERAPY ROOM – DAYTIME.

The room is barren and void of any color, the feeling of a cell, stark and brightly lit. DAVID'S FACE abruptly DROPS INTO FRAME, UPSIDE DOWN. David GRUNTS with the force of the jolt.  He is strapped to an INCLINING THERAPY BED, his head slanted downward.  He looks the very picture of misery. A young male RESPIRATORY THERAPIST begins to pound on David's bare chest with cupped hands, the rhythm like a down turned Latin dub step beat yet essential in clearing the lungs during postural drainage.

RESPIRATORY THERAPIST

I want you to cough for me, David.

David COUGHS deep and heavy with the sound of mucus freeing up and moving.  The Therapist again picks up the percussing with his continuous rhythm.

RESPIRATORY THERAPIST (CONTINUING)

Good work David, Harder! (David coughs) Harder! That's it.  More!

DOCTOR DOUG MANNERS (30's), good-looking Christian Grey type young doctor, he is serious about his chosen career and his patients -- enters the room, shakes his head.  David is one of the thorns in Manners' side. The RT stops pounding.  He levels the bed and helps David sit up, then EXITS. Manners puts his stethoscope up to David's chest, listens a moment.

MANNERS

Are you out of your mind, David?

DAVID

(Smirks)

You'll have to be more specific.

MANNERS

You've got barely fifty percent lung capacity.  Less than a month ago you were at death's door with pneumonia.  What on earth possessed you to try to climb Mount Whitney?

DAVID

Let's see.  Because it's there --?

MANNERS gives a pained, guttural laugh; he isn't amused

DAVID

C'mon, Doug, lighten up.  None of us gets out of here alive.  I might as well go out doing something I love.

MANNERS

You're only fooling yourself.

DAVID

So what, if it keeps me going! (buttoning up his shirt)

We've got this thing, the mountains and me.  Like being in love with a married woman. I'm drawn to her, even if it kills me.

(then pointedly)

And some day, I'll get her!

MANNERS

Cystic fibrosis can kill you.

DAVID

Cystic fibrosis will kill me.  It's only a question of when.  And I don't intend to sit around here, waiting for it to come get me.

(but --) Of course, if I can get a new set of lungs --

Manners

If is a big word.  It could never happen.

DAVID

(slides off the bed)

Then I guess I'll just have to make the best of whatever time I've got.  I'd rather die doing what I love, than live forever in a damn hospital bed, with an oxygen mask clamped over my face.

MANNERS

Sometimes, that's all that keeps you alive.

DAVID

That's not living, Doug.  That's only surviving!

He is overtaken by a severe FIT OF COUGHING.  He collapses to the floor, clutching his chest, GASPING FOR BREATH. Manners quickly clasps an OXYGEN MASK to David's face. David deeply inhales the life-saving oxygen, gradually coming around.  He grins at Manners, through the pain –

DAVID

Whew.  I hope that was as good for you as it was for me.

Nobody gets out alive.

Table of Contents

Foreword

KEY CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS

Introduction