Dennis Lehane - Coronado

DOCTOR So your name’s Gina.

PATIENT According to the birth certificate, yes, sir.

DOCTOR You killed your husband with a train.

[ Beat. ]

He scream? He cry? Beg?

PATIENT Not so much.

[ GINA, WILL, and HAL enter. HAL’s arm is swung around WILL and all three have been drinking. HAL’s carrying a bottle. ]

HAL It’s fucked-up. I mean, I have kids from Number One. Now Number Two had no interest. She was nutritionally imbalanced anyway, so what the fuck. But Gina? Shit, boy, I never dared dream.

WILL Well, boss, dreams have a way of coming true.

GINA At a price, of course.

HAL Ain’t that the Bible truth? But, baby, trust me, ain’t no price on this. You could leave my ass and take half my money and the beach house in Corpus, and I wouldn’t care. Ha! Long as I had me a little shit kicker to kick shit with?

[ HAL sits suddenly. He laughs and hoots at the moon. GINA and WILL can’t stop staring at him and then each other. ]

HAL Yeah, a little tyke! A little tyke! Yee-hee. Got-damn!

DOCTOR So…?

PATIENT I know. Right?

DOCTOR But, you could have—

PATIENT Oh, Doctor. Please. We are all — all of us — about the children.

Headlights cut across the fairgrounds. BOBBY and BOBBY’S FATHER exit their car offstage and enter the fairgrounds.

BOBBY’S FATHER So we getting warm?

BOBBY I’m feeling all tingly.

BOBBY’S FATHER I always liked this place off-season, the tarps flapping in the wind, faint smell of elephant shit.

BOBBY Ain’t no elephants at a fair.

BOBBY’S FATHER No?

BOBBY You’re thinking of the circus.

BOBBY’S FATHER The circus. I hate trapeze artists. Women all look like men and the men all look like cock smokers. And don’t even get me started on fucking clowns.

[ BOBBY stops at a freshly turned mound of dirt. He kicks it lightly with his foot. ]

BOBBY Mandy?

BOBBY’S FATHER Who the fuck’s Mandy?

BOBBY The hooker.

BOBBY’S FATHER That was her name? Huh.

[ BOBBY kicks the mound again. ]

BOBBY Oh, no, right, you drove her home. Which was where again?

[ BOBBY’S FATHER chuckles softly .]

BOBBY’S FATHER This has been nice, reconnecting and shit.

BOBBY A time to treasure.

BOBBY’S FATHER You think I’m shitting you, but I missed you, boy. I’m the only daddy you’ve ever known and you’re the only son I’ve ever known and we had ourselves some times over the years.

BOBBY Name one.

BOBBY’S FATHER I could name a hundred.

BOBBY Try one.

BOBBY’S FATHER Why you gotta be cold?

BOBBY I’m not being cold. I’m asking—

BOBBY’S FATHER

You’d a preferred going to some same-as-every-other-fucking-kid grade school? Playing video games in some stink-ass suburban basement? Some stink-ass suburban town with a mall looks like every other mall? You get through high school and go to college, study business or poli-sci? And then get you a job, a 401(k), marry the receptionist because she smiles at you right and gives okay head? And then you’re thirty-five and she ain’t giving any head anymore and you’ve got two kids crying for fucking video games and sneakers and your soul feels like a tomato left on a warm porch, but, wait, you got a couple pornos in the closet and a new fucking car and the supermarket’s right down the street! So — hey — living large! And there’s only fifty-five years to go if you live right, don’t smoke or drink or eat food that tastes good, all so you can die in Florida in a nice white house while Guatemalans water your lawn. Hey, have at it.

BOBBY You do like to spew, don’t you?

BOBBY’S FATHER You were born off the grid, raised off the grid, and lived off the grid. Shit, you don’t even have a social.

BOBBY They had to create it in county. Take my name on faith. Intake guard said he’d never seen anything like it. I didn’t exist.

BOBBY’S FATHER And ain’t that fucking hot?

BOBBY What if I wanted to be part of the grid?

BOBBY’S FATHER Who wants that?

BOBBY What if I wanted the choice?

BOBBY’S FATHER Dang. I’m tearing up. Look.

[ BOBBY walks around, looking at the earth, cocking his head every now and then. ]

BOBBY Yeah…

BOBBY’S FATHER Yeah?

BOBBY Sure. This could be the area.

BOBBY’S FATHER It’s really coming back now, huh?

BOBBY Little bit.

BOBBY’S FATHER ’Cause I’m ’bout spent on patience.

BOBBY I ’spect you would be.

BOBBY’S FATHER Never my strong suit.

[ BOBBY’S FATHER produces a gun, taps it against his leg. ]

BOBBY That supposed to help my recall?

BOBBY’S FATHER Figured it might could hurry it up some.

BOBBY Oh, you did?

GINA, WILL, and HAL in the positions we last saw them.

HAL You don’t think I know, boy? Shit. My job is bullshit. I sit in a room every day just waiting to smell its lack. Its presence? I can smell that ’fore you even open the door.

WILL Boss, I’m being friendly here.

HAL I seen your friendly before. You think you’re good because you grew up not wanting. Not wanting ain’t good. It’s just not poor. You ain’t rich, but poor? That’s evidentiary, son. That’s experience. You ain’t never had experience, so you only imagine you have a soul.

WILL I have a soul, boss.

HAL So you claim. Where the missus at?

GINA We’re all drunk. Whyn’t we just—

HAL Whyn’t you just sit the fuck down?

[ HAL pulls out a pistol. GINA sits. WILL doesn’t. ]

HAL Said, “Sit.”

WILL Not going to do that, Hal.

HAL Sit.

WILL No.

GINA Sit, Will.

WILL Speak your piece, Hal.

HAL Yeah. I’s right about you, boy.

GINA Jesus! You want me to measure them for you?

HAL Will knows.

GINA Knows fucking what?

HAL Knows you never stop pedaling.

GINA I’m drunk, but what’d you smoke?

HAL You never stop pedaling. It’s the law. Even if there’s no one around to see, you never stop. ’Cause the moment you do? You ain’t worth shit. No smiles from the salesmen, no “How do?’s” from the waitresses, no welcome woof from the dog. You stop pedaling? Hand that dick over, pick you out a satin pillow.

GINA I don’t know what you’re talking about.

[ Lights up on the DOCTOR and the PATIENT, watching. ]

HAL He does.

PATIENT They never stop. They never fucking stop.

DOCTOR Who?

WILL Just making sure you don’t drink too much, boss. Hope you’ll be making that Coronado trip with me come Monday.

PATIENT You. You. You. You fucking…

BOBBY and GWEN, exactly as they were.

BOBBY If. I. Don’t. Make. It. Gwen.

GWEN It’s ours, baby. Ours. Not yours. Not mine. Ours. And definitely not fucking his. I’m not just going to—

BOBBY Yes, you are. He will never stop looking. Even when you’re positive you’ve left no tracks. Even when all logic says he wouldn’t, he couldn’t? He’ll still be looking.

GWEN You’ve already told me this.

BOBBY Did you fucking listen? You do not fuck around with this man. If anything happens to me, you get that diamond to him — by FedEx, by private courier, by Pony Express. I don’t care, but you get it to him, and you don’t deliver it in person, and still you run. You run till you’re out of earth.

GWEN He’s a man, Bobby.

BOBBY He’s a lot less than that.

[ Puts his arm around her. ]

You take naps, watch TV, read magazines. You daydream and make love and wonder what you’re gonna wear and where you might be in ten years and if you’ll ever have children. He doesn’t. He lives to get. Robs to get. Wakes up to get. It’s all he does. That makes him better at it than we’ll ever be.