Dennis Lehane - Coronado

WILL We’ve had this discussion. You know how I feel about—

GINA It’s Hal’s, you dumbshit.

[ The WAITRESS appears. ]

WAITRESS It’s on the way, guys. It’s on the way. Hold on.

WILL [ Nods. ] Kind of a private moment, V.

WAITRESS Oh. We’re all pulling for you all.

[ She runs off. WILL takes GINA’s hand. ]

WILL It ain’t Hal’s.

GINA Your trip to Hartow and Rangely and Coronado, remember? Our vacation after you got back? Do the math.

WILL Ain’t Hal’s. Know how I know? Because it’s mine. It’s mine.

GINA Have fun proving that, you shit. God! Get me to a fucking hospital!

WILL [ Yanks her hand toward him. ] Suck that pain up. Suck it up. You want to eat Cheetos on the couch watching Donahue the rest of your days and getting pig-fat, that’s your prerogative. But don’t you think — not for one fucking second — that you’re taking my child.

GINA I will cut your throat.

WILL You wish.

GINA I will.

WILL That’d be great. Two dead lovers within a year. You get out of prison, the kid’ll be — what — thirty-five?

GINA Let me go.

WAITRESS [ Offstage. ] Three minutes on the cab!

WILL You’ll drag your tired ass to some fucking trailer park and knock on the door and tell this adult that you’re its momma. And it’ll spit in your face. Killed both its daddies? Damn. What a piece of shit you are.

[ He lets go of her hand. ]

GINA I will kill you.

WILL Kill you first, bitch. You try and run. Just try.

GINA I’ll kill you, Will.

WAITRESS [ Offstage. ] Dispatcher says “Two minutes!”

WILL Make a deal?

GINA [ Screaming from the contractions. ] Fucking deal? I’ll—

WILL Yeah, yeah. Kill me. I got that. Baby, look in my eyes. You wouldn’t make the county line. Come on. Look in these baby blues. Look.

GINA [ Teeth clenched. ] Your fucking deal?

WILL Girl, it’s yours.

GINA I don’t…

WILL Girl, it’s yours. Simple as that. You pop out an “X,” go with god.

GINA This is my child.

WILL If it’s a girl, it is. Can’t mold no girl, that’s for sure. But if it’s a boy? Baby, I can show that child a world within the world that no one ever imagined. A true world.

WAITRESS [ Offstage. ] We’re down to seconds now, Will!

GINA There’s laws.

WILL Not for me. You high? I will hunt you down. You know that. Ends of the earth, baby.

[ WILL proffers his hand. GINA clenches her fists, screams through gritted teeth. ]

GINA You’ll never touch her?

WILL You have my word.

GINA Never see her.

WILL Never.

GINA Write? Nothing?

WILL I never existed.

GINA I would empty the gun.

WILL And hit a barn. But whatever. If it’s a boy, though?

GINA I despise your breath. Your sweat. Your—

WILL Shake my fucking hand, Gina.

WAITRESS [ Offstage. ] Taxi, Will!

GINA I can’t. I—

WILL I don’t know how to stop anymore. You know that. I don’t know how.

WAITRESS [ Offstage. ] They’re right over there!

GINA If it’s a girl you—

WILL Disappear. Come on. Cab’s here.

[ He grabs her hand. Shakes it. GINA looks at the hand. ]

The fairgrounds. Night. BOBBY strolls with GWEN. In the background, the sounds of a carny in full summer swing.

GWEN So tell me about her.

BOBBY I can’t remember her.

GWEN Baby, everyone remembers their mama.

BOBBY I can, a bit. Here and there. But there aren’t any pictures.

GWEN There’s gotta be pictures.

BOBBY If the old man ever took any, he burned ’em after she died.

GWEN That’s crazy. How could he not have taken one single picture?

BOBBY He said, “You think it’d bring her back? No really, that’d be cool. Maybe if we had a whole stack of pictures, she’d pop up from time to time, make us breakfast.”

GWEN Your father did not say that.

BOBBY He did.

GWEN Even he can’t be that cruel.

BOBBY He can.

GWEN Well, you’re not cruel.

BOBBY Never been tested. Hell, everyone’s nice until some kind of hard choice is put in front of them.

GWEN Bobby, I hate to break it to you, but you’re good. You just are.

BOBBY You’re good. Jury’s out on me. I mean, Christ, Gwen, I’m nineteen years old and I’ve been on the short con since I was six.

GWEN You never conned me. You tried…

BOBBY It worked.

GWEN Only because I let it.

BOBBY You say.

[ They kiss, a peck that turns into something longer. ]

GWEN Owned your ass then. Own it now. Say it, bitch.

BOBBY Never, never.

[ He lifts her and she slides her legs over his hips. ]

BOBBY You own me.

GWEN You own me too.

BOBBY Shit’s about to get real serious.

GWEN I know. I—

BOBBY This is my old man we’re talking about. My old man and money.

GWEN Baby, how many times are we going to go over this?

BOBBY As many times as we have to. Look, he thinks we’re going to burn him. Because we’ll be the first ones to touch that diamond. Shit, because on general principle he thinks everyone’s out to burn him. Because he’d burn us if he had the chance.

GWEN But we’re not. We’re—

BOBBY That won’t save us if anything goes wrong. If everything doesn’t go exactly according to plan, he’ll get it in his head that there was a double cross. He will. It’s how he thinks. It’s all he thinks. If this thing goes south, Gwen? Jesus.

GWEN It won’t.

BOBBY So walk me through it.

GWEN Bobby!

BOBBY Come on. One more time. Baby, please. I got to know you can do it in your sleep.

GWEN [ Sits. By rote. ] Our best assumption is that poor, lonely George hid the diamond in his mother’s room at the assisted-living place. But he still has to get out of town with it and his mother’s been stuck in the home. But — lucky us — transportation date out of state set for…?

BOBBY Gwen.

GWEN For…?

BOBBY Day after tomorrow.

GWEN So we go in tomorrow in our spanking new nurse and orderly uniforms and find where he hid it.

BOBBY Which entrance we use?

GWEN Southeast rear.

BOBBY That’s the exit.

GWEN Sorry, sorry. Northwest entrance, key code one-six-four-three. Up the north staircase to the third floor. Her room is first on the right through the door. Three-ten.

BOBBY Nurses’ station?

GWEN Twenty-two yards to the left.

BOBBY Janitor’s closet?

GWEN Directly across from Three-ten.

BOBBY Security rounds?

GWEN Ten-ten, ten-forty, eleven-ten.

BOBBY Fire escape?

GWEN To the right, end of the hall.

BOBBY We run into a security guard?

GWEN I rip my blouse, scream rape, and point at the guard.

BOBBY Run into a nurse and a guard?

GWEN Point at the nurse.

BOBBY I’m laughing all the way to prison here. Laughing hard.

GWEN Okay, okay. You take the security guard, I take the nurse, it’s every robber for herself.

BOBBY In the event we’re split up?

GWEN Rendezvous right here.

BOBBY If I don’t make it?

GWEN Bobby.

BOBBY If I don’t make it, Gwen?

[ GWEN stares at him. ]

The fairgrounds. Night. The DOCTOR and the PATIENT.

PATIENT Used to be a train ran past here. Route dried up, so they killed the service. Still see the tracks, though.

DOCTOR It’s too dark.

PATIENT They’re there. Dated a cop once. He drank so much I always figured he became a cop for the drinking. He told me once, swear to god, “Ever want to kill someone, Gina? Do it with water or a train. Fucks the evidence all to hell.” Irony, right?