Open on a snow covered field in Central Park. Desolate, all white. A MAN sits, waiting for someone. We see another figure approach in distance (all same long shot, both people look small.)
BROWN title appears over the snow covered lawn: SARAGOSSA
Cut to closer shot, approaching figure is a WOMAN. She is bundled up for the cold. She reaches the man, stops and unbundles a bit. Her face is red. She seems haltingly friendly. It’s awkward.
MARGARET
Hi...
Cut to TODD: silent, sad face. He is wary, she is apologetic.
MARGARET
Thanks for meeting me.
An awkward moment. He waits for her to speak, she stalls. It’s cold and desolate and windy out here.
MARGARET
Look, I’m...I’m really sorry.
Todd is downcast, sullen. She hems and haws...
MARGARET
I just didn’t...I didn’t think we...I don’t know – I... I mean, you’re really great but...
TODD
It took me 75 minutes to get here on the B train, so if this is all you have to say, then I’ve already heard it and...
MARGARET
No, no, that’s not what I...don’t...the reason I asked you...what I’m trying to tell you is...
TODD
What? What?! What do you want?! What are you trying to tell me?!
She is at a loss for words. She looks confused. He waits. She takes a breath, prepares herself and lays it on him:
MARGARET
Maybe this will help you understand. Do you remember when I told you I had a sister?
TODD
...Yeah...I don’t know...
MARGARET
(pause) Well, my sister Veronica...
CUT TO: INTERIOR OF MUSEUM. Margaret’s sister VERONICA is crossing huge room/display floor, going to her office.
MARGARET (V.O., CONT.)
...worked at this big company - and she was dating a guy she worked with too - and...
Inside office, Veronica finds a big PURPLE NOTE on her chair that says “SEE ME.” Veronica picks up the note, crumples it in her hand.
Suddenly, LEROY comes into the office hastily, as if trying not to be seen. They stare at each other. He is weepy, needy, insecure.
LEROY
Are you mad at me?
VERONICA
No.
LEROY
You threw away my note.
VERONICA
No, I haven’t thrown it away yet, I have it crumpled up in my hand and...
LEROY
I love you.
VERONICA
Leroy.
LEROY
(desperate) But I have to honor the memory of my deceased wife for at least seven more months!
VERONICA
(firm) I don’t want to talk about this.
INTERCOM BUZZES.
INTERCOM
Is Leroy in there?
LEROY
I LOVE YOU.
INTERCOM
Uh...OK, but Fred Barrett is on line three for you.
INTERCOM BUZZES OFF.
LEROY
I LOVE YOU!!!
VERONICA
STOP SAYING THAT!
She knocks over a glass of juice.
VERONICA
It was a mistake. IT WAS A MISTAKE. I was new here, you were - friendly. Your wife was – missing, possibly kidnapped...
LEROY
(teary) She didn’t have any skin left on her body when they found her...
VERONICA
OH JESUS CHRIST! THIS IS RIDICULOUS! YOU ARE NOT READY TO BE IN A RELATIONSHIP LEROY!
LEROY
But I never really loved her! I love YOU!
VERONICA
No! NO! NO!!
SILENT PAUSE. He is teary, upset. She is angry, hurt.
LEROY
Maybe this well help you understand. Did I ever actually tell you about my wife, Sylvia?
VERONICA
No. I don’t know.
LEROY
She was a drunk. She was completely insane. And very violent. She shot a man once.
VERONICA
What?
LEROY
Her first husband. Before me. She found out he was cheating on her. With this airhead from Burbank. Sylvia just went nuts.
Cut to OUTDOOR ROOFTOP in CITY. SHERMAN has his hands up, he is panicked. SYLVIA, HYSTERICAL, DRUNK, confronts him. She has a GUN, LETTERS. There is some gnashing and screaming, then Sylvia SHOOTS him. She staggers away, raving. Sherman has been shot in gut. He falls to the floor. Just as he is coming to grips with this, ALICE reappears, drinks in hand. She is the MISTRESS.
ALICE
Oh my god, Sweetie? What happened?
SHERMAN
I’VE BEEN SHOT!!!
ALICE
Oh, that’s terrible! Oh my god, honey! Who shot you?
SHERMAN
Sylvia! She must’ve found out about us!
ALICE
Sylvia my postal person?
SHERMAN
No, MY – MY WIFE! (lots of pain) Oh God...I....
ALICE
(oddly un-hysterical) Oh my god. This is just awful.
She kneels down to him, she tends to him in a routine, cursory manner. He is weakening.
SHERMAN
Listen, you’ve got to find my daughter and, and my son, and...
ALICE
OK.
SHERMAN
And tell them, tell them, that I, that I love them.
ALICE
You love them. Both of them. The son and the daughter.
SHERMAN
Yes. I love them - and that in the end, I, I tried...I tried very hard to find – to make them, and myself, much more than I ever knew.
Pause, she thinks.
ALICE
That doesn’t really make any sense.
SHERMAN
What?
ALICE
Well, I don’t know. You tried to make them more than you ever knew? What does that mean?
SHERMAN
No, I...I loved them – in my own way - and as a family we really carved out a space for truth in our...in our own hearts and...(rambling)
ALICE
No, it’s too complicated. Your final words should be something simple, and elegant. Like, birds are free...
SHERMAN
What the hell does that mean?!?
ALICE
Look, maybe I should just say you were dead when I found you.
He groans in pain, frustration. She thinks it over, softens.
ALICE
Maybe this will help you understand. My Father, Klaus Denvre, he commit suicide in this hotel but he left this note and...
CUT TO: KLAUS, writing a SUICIDE NOTE in his hotel room. He has the look of a mad professor. He is dressed in his skivvies and his eyes are all blood-shot. He is writing the note on NAPKINS with an INK PEN.
SHERMAN (V.O.)
You’re father was Klaus Denvre?
ALICE (V.O.)
Yeah, whatever. Anyway, he killed himself and these maids found him and...
Klaus takes a bunch of GREEN PILLS. He dies, flat on bed.
SOURINE, a shy gentle MAID, walks in with ABELLE, her callous, bitter co-worker. ABELLE is carrying towels. They speak in FRENCH.
SOURINE
Allo? ‘Ousekeeping? (IN FRENCH) Oh my lord! He is dead!
ABELLE (IN FRENCH)
(angry)Jesus Shit Alive! Why did he call for towels if he was going to be dead?
Sourine drops to knees at bedside and prays, crosses herself. She WEEPS, feels responsible, guilty. Abelle surveys situation calmly.
SOURINE (IN FRENCH)
This is my fault! He didn’t like how I cleaned the room. Maybe...maybe if I had put more mints on his pillow...
ABELLE lights a cigarette.
ABELLE (IN FRENCH)
(world-weary, seen-it-all monologue) No, Sourine. For this – is the life of a hotel cleaner. Always walking in on adultery, copulation, children being molested, pets brought into rooms illegaly, stolen cookies. All of life, all of humanity – splayed out here for you to see.
SOURINE (IN FRENCH)
But I have killed this man! In my heart, it says so.
ABELLE (IN FRENCH)
Don’t be a martyr! This is not your affair!
SOURINE (IN FRENCH)
(pounding chest, gaspy) NO. NO!! I can feel it... I, I...
Sourine breaks down and weeps bitterly. There is a PAUSE.
ABELLE (IN FRENCH)
(sigh, understanding) Maybe, this will help you to understand. Have I ever told you about my mother?
SOURINE (IN FRENCH)
No, I, perhaps...
ABELLE (IN FRENCH)
She was struck by lightning. On an old country road, in America. They had to bring a doctor from the town...
Cut to AN OLD COUNTRY ROAD in the RAIN. WOMAN is lying on road, her head all BLACKENED. She has been hit by cartoon lightning. HER HUSBAND sits there looking on, crying. THE DOCTOR examines her.
DOCTOR
(slowly) Her body is alive, but she is brain dead. Do you understand? Her brain – has died. I’m sorry.
HUSBAND is distraught, begins to cry, sink to ground.
DOCTOR
I will still have to be paid, of course. For coming. Even though her brain is dead.
HUSBAND WAILS, falls to ground.
DOCTOR
Just because a person is brain-dead, that doesn’t mean that they are not a person anymore, who may owe money to doctors, or hospitals. The brain dead are no different than you or me. They still have bank accounts, ATM cards, and pin numbers memorized somewhere inside their dead brains... She probably has a VISA card on her somewhere...
The Husband bats his hands away.
DOCTOR
(gentler) I know this is hard. It’s hard to lose someone. (beat) Maybe this will help you to understand. When I was a boy, I lost my best friend. He was my only friend. And then he was gone.
CUT TO: Doctor as a CHILD named PETEY. He is playing with a HAND PUPPET. Petey is crying.
PETEY
But why, Petey-Two, why do you have to go?
We cut to a close up of the PUPPET. We hear a VERY SCARY VOICE over: the puppet’s voice is deep, booming, slowed-down.
PETEY-TWO
It’s difficult to explain. I just don’t feel the same way about you anymore.
PETEY
But what about all the fun we’ve had! Games, funnin’, secrets!
PETEY-TWO
It’s not like I didn’t love you. I meant everything I said when I said it.
PETEY
(cries) Oh, Petey-two...
Petey DROPS the PUPPET into a CARDBOARD BOX marked GOODWILL and walks away crying. Petey-two falls in with a bunch of other toys. PETEY’S MOM picks up the box and walks away with it. She’s unusual.
BETH
Now you all get into bed GODDAMNIT! I am not a POLICE OFFICER but I will ENFORCE THE LAW if I HAVE TO!!!
Mom carries box through the house, and puts in on the FRONT PORCH. It is night, RAINING. We are now INSIDE THE BOX. We can hear thunder and lightning. We focus on another STRANGE PUPPET, and a STUFFED DOLL near Petey-Two.
TIMMY-OINTMENT
Jesus Christ - I can’t spend all night in a box oustide! I have puppet-herpes!
ALEXANDRA
That cunt mother of his is behind this.
PETEY-TWO
Confrontation is so painful. The boy – my feelings of inadequacy...
ALEXANDRA
(to Petey-two) Don’t blame yourself, Petey-Two. Listen, Maybe this will help you to understand. Have I ever told you about my sisters? Doll 11,000AB2 and Doll 11,037DH4? They lived with this madman, he was a complete lunatic, and it just tore them apart...
Cut to INSANE man standing next to the WEST-SIDE HIGHWAY. He is a TOTAL lunatic with plastic in his hair and tinfoil on his clothing. He is speaking in his made up SPACE LANGUAGE and SCREAMING at traffic. He has various TUBES and ODD OBJECTS he is swinging around in the air.
Cut to TWO MANGLED DOLLS, BARBIE AND KEN. They have been melted, drawn on, rearranged, really messed up. They are stuck in the sand, their position approximating the position of MARGARET and TODD from the opening of the film.
Doll 11,000AB2 (GIRL)
This situation is SO FUCKED UP.
Doll 11,037DH4 (BOY)
Wait, what were you just saying about needing some time?
Doll 11,000AB2
I don’t know, I just don’t feel like this is working. I mean, look around! Christ!
Madman begins to spray them with LIGHTER FLUID. We see it SOAK their doll clothes.
Doll 11,000AB2
Do you mind? We are trying to have a serious conversation!!!
Doll 11,037DH4
Oh God, what is that? Yuck!
Madman lights them on fire and begins to dance some more. The girl doll begins to BURN and then she FALLS OFF BOX.
Doll 11,037DH4
Look, I’m sorry, but I’m outta here.
Doll 11,000AB2
No! Don’t go! I love you! It took me 75 minutes to get here on the B train! NOOO!!!!
We hear the ALEXANDRA doll’s voice fade back in:
ALEXANDRA (O.S.)
It was just too much. Those kind of intense situations. It never works out...
We FLASH back to the TOYS IN THE BOX. The box is nearly destroyed now by the RAIN.
TIMMY-OINTMENT
We’re sinking! HOLY FUCK! We’re sinking!
ALEXANDRA
Now do you understand?
PETEY-TWO
I don’t know...
The DOCTOR’S VOICE FADES IN:
DOCTOR
And when I woke up those toys were gone but the pain never goes away...
We FLASH back to HUSBAND and the DOCTOR.
DOCTOR
Now do you understand?
Husband looks very confused. He opens his mouth to speak but says nothing, lost in confused thought. We hear the gibberish FRENCH of the maid, ABELLE.
ABELLE (IN FRENCH)
And when they buried her he made me sell myself on the street. I will never forgive her for dying on me.
We FLASH BACK to the TWO MAIDS. Sourine has stopped crying – she looks confused.
ABELLE (IN FRENCH)
Now do you understand?
Sourine tries to understand, her head turns. We hear Alice’s voice fade in:
ALICE
I mean, I miss him but it was beautiful, in a way. And that note, what he said – it’s so true!
WE FLASH back to Sherman and Alice. He is near death on her lap.
ALICE
Now do you understand?
Sherman can barely respond. He stares at her. We hear Leroy in the office:
LEROY
...to be married to someone capable of that kind of violence – I’m glad she’s dead. I AM!
WE FLASH back to Veronica and Leroy. He is DRENCHED in TEARS.
LEROY
Now do you understand?
Veronica looks at him like “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING?” We hear Margaret’s voice fade in:
MARGARET
Because he just took advantage of her, and I’m not gonna let that happen to me. I’m not!
WE FLASH back to the CENTRAL PARK FIELD, and the snow.
Margaret and Todd stare at each other. After a pause...
MARGARET
Now do you – understand?
Todd is mystified. Long pause.
TODD
No.
END.
Copyright 2004, Scott Prendergast, EMERGENCY.