INT. KITCHEN – DAY
We open on the kitchen window. Mist hanging over the
Hollywood Hills, visible in the distance. We hear the sounds
of children playing outside. Cars driving by.
INT. LIVING ROOM – DAY
SCOTTIE sits at the dining table, pensive. An empty glass
sitting next to him.
INT. KITCHEN – DAY
Scottie enters, a sort of excitement about him as he grabs a
bottle of whiskey and fills his empty glass. He takes a large
gulp, waits a moment. Then he finishes off the glass and
takes a breath. He lets out a sad smirk.
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
JANEY lies on the bed. Her eyes tired and heavy. A
vulnerability to her. Scottie sits next to her, running his
hand along her thigh.
SCOTTIE
How long do you think it’ll be?
JANEY
I don’t know…I don’t want to
think about it.
SCOTTIE
Well I think it’ll be a while…
Beat.
JANEY
Hypothetically, what would we do?
SCOTTIE
I got some money comin my way. You
could leave here…I could come
with you.
Janey think this over for a moment. A chance at an escape,
yet she knows it’s hopeless. She sighs, frustrated.
JANEY
Where would we live? In the
country? Some small town?
SCOTTIE
It wouldn’t matter to me…
Beat.
JANEY
Scottie…how did you get like
this? What happened to you that
made you this way?
Scottie stares longingly at her. His eyes welling up.
He starts to laugh.
SCOTTIE
I saw a photograph.
He stands, smiling.
SCOTTIE (CONT’D)
A photograph of you.
INT. BEDROOM – LATER
Scottie leans against the door frame. Staring at the empty,
neatly made bed. No trace of Janey.
He slowly walks over to the bed. Sits down. He runs his hand
over the sheets. She was once here, but is here no longer.
A loud, HUMMING noise pulses in the SOUNDTRACK.
The camera slowly MOVES IN on Scottie’s face, as we hear the
sound of MUFFLED VOICES coming from somewhere in the
apartment. The HUMMING NOISE grows louder and it’s as if
there is nothing else in the world but this moment, and this
moment is coming apart.
CUT TO:
INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT
Silence.
Scottie sits on the couch. The room is pitch black.
Suddenly we see a light bulb turn on, illuminating Scottie’s
face.
2.
Scottie holds a lamp up to his face, flicking it on and off.
Flashes in the dark. Johnny Mathis’s
Chances Are
plays softly
in the background.
FADE TO BLACK.
EXT. FIELD – DAY – DREAM
We follow Scottie as he walks through an open field of green.
Off in the distance we can see a FIGURE, kneeled over as
though in prayer. Dressed in black.
As Scottie gets closer he becomes more disconcerted. The
MUSIC in the soundtrack builds until we —
CUT TO:
INT. KITHCEN – DAY – DREAM
Janey leans against the kitchen window.
JANEY
What is it that you want, Scottie?
Can’t you see my face? Sometimes I
think you want bad things to
happen.
Beat.
JANEY (CONT’D)
He’d kill us if he found out. Do
you want that? You better leave
now, Scottie, because I don’t ever
want to see you again.
CUT TO:
INT. LIVING ROOM – DAY
Scottie opens his eyes. He’s lying on the floor. Still fully
dressed. An overturned glass of whiskey next to his head.
He clutches his temples, hungover.
He slowly sits up.
INT. KITCHEN – CONTINUOUS
CLOSE ON: A VITAMIN TABLET dropping into a glass of WATER.
3.
We hold on this image as the tablet quickly dissolves in the
water, the sound effects exaggerated to suggest some great
spatial event.
INT. LIVING ROOM – DAY
Scottie sits on the couch, freshly showered. Sipping his
vitamin water.
His UNCLE PAUL (50s) stands at the opposite end of the room.
PAUL
So how you been Scottie?
Scottie looks back at his uncle, shrugs.
SCOTTIE
I’m alright uncle Paul.
PAUL
You got the drink under control?
SCOTTIE
It’s being managed.
PAUL
How about the other things?
SCOTTIE
Those too.
Beat.
SCOTTIE (CONT’D)
You want one?
PAUL
What?
SCOTTIE
A drink?
PAUL
A
drink
drink?
SCOTTIE
Yeah.
PAUL
Maybe. Let’s just wait a bit.
Paul walks over to the window, looking the apartment over.
4.
PAUL (CONT’D)
You keep it clean in here. Neat.
But you oughtta add more life to
the place. Make it a home.
SCOTTIE
That you all settled out here, it’s
still a mystery. This place’ll
never feel like home to me.
Paul’s face draws a solemn look.
PAUL
Yeah, me neither.
Beat.
PAUL (CONT’D)
I heard you went out to see the
cousins.
SCOTTIE
Aunt Genevieve was the only one
there.
PAUL
That craggly old bitch? She never
gave a fuck about anyone but
herself.
SCOTTIE
I guess that’s something you two
got in common then.
Paul laughs. Amused by his nephew’s wit.
SCOTTIE (CONT’D)
She’s the only one left out there.
PAUL
Well, your mother’s side of the
family had tragedy in their blood.
That house is where the dead live.
They’re all lost and gone.
A heavy beat.
SCOTTIE
Why’d you come here to see me? Is
it about the money?
PAUL
Son, I don’t give two fucks about
the money.
5.
(MORE)
I’ve left the prime of my life long
ago. What your daddy left you,
that’s yours and yours alone. It’s
the way it’s always been.
SCOTTIE
Then maybe I should get you that
drink.
PAUL
Or maybe we should sit a minute.
Beat.
SCOTTIE
What was she like?
PAUL
Your mother?
Scottie nods.
PAUL (CONT’D)
She was just about the only perfect
thing there was. Just look what she
did to your father. She left him
broken. Now who could do that?
SCOTTIE
She didn’t leave him.
PAUL
Dying is leaving.
Scottie ponders that for a moment.
PAUL (CONT’D)
I think back on him. Back on them
both. Way it was between them. I
don’t know how a man could bear
such a thing.
How could he
?
Beat.
SCOTTIE
I have dreams, uncle Paul. I have
dreams and I don’t know what they
mean. I see people in them. People
I’ve never seen before in my life.
Sometimes I get the sense that
things going on around me aren’t
the way they seem. I think they
might be fake. I think I might have
imagined them.
6.
PAUL (CONT’D)
Beat.
Paul stares back at his nephew.
PAUL
I think it’s about time we get that
drink.
INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT
The room is lit in a reddish glow. As though by red
lightbulbs. Ritchie Valens’s
We Belong Together
plays in the
background
.
Scottie stumbles about the room, in a daze.
He walks over to the hallway, stares into the open bathroom.
Inside Janey stands, her hair wet and matted back. Looking
like something out of a dream.
She applies lipstick.
CLOSE ON: JANEY’S LIPS, pressing up against the mirror. A
kiss.
She glances back at Scottie.
JANEY
Sometimes it can be perfect, can’t
it, Scottie-baby?
Scottie smiles and stumbles back.
CUT TO:
THE LIVING ROOM WALL
Scottie sits on the floor, leaning against the wall. The
music continues to play.
He grins. But behind that grin there is deep tumult.
Something unknowable.
FADE TO BLACK.
7.