Between Us Page #3

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All right? Now will you stop?

[BEEPS]

[GRACE]

What a little boy.

I cannot believe that you guys

are here right now.

- It's tripping me out. - Can you imagine

what these two must think they're in for?

- The next apocalypse.

- Well, to be honest...

No, I'm mean,

we're no saints.

We said we would never

see you again.

[LAUGHS]

Well, didn't we?

[CARLO] That's my Gracie.

We came here tonight...

[SIGHS] to apologize. Yeah.

We... We behaved...

Horribly.

Yeah, you did.

We never planned

for it to...

for that to happen.

Look...

Please let me finish. We didn't want or plan

for it to go the way it did that night.

- Stop, stop. You guys are our oldest

friends. - We're just really sorry.

Really sorry.

We're really sorry.

Yeah.

The shakes are delicious. Yeah.

They're good. Yeah, yeah.

[CARLO] Yeah. Yeah.

- We like 'em.

- We order them a lot.

[CARLO]

We do.

We heard from Lucy and Mark

that you had a little baby.

- [CARLO] Yes. Yeah.

- Yes. We just put him down.

[CARLO]

How's your little boy?

- Forgive me. Li-Linus?

- Lucien.

- Lucien. Lucien.

- Yeah. He's good. He's good. He's, uh...

He's gettin' to be less and

less of a baby though.

- He's getting big, huh?

- Yes. He's ginormous.

He, uh... He's with his

grandparents this week.

We're very happy, mind you.

We finally had him baptized.

You did?

Yep.

We broke down. We felt

he needed to be, uh...

I don't know. What was the

word that we... Anchored.

"Anchored" is the word that we used.

[CHUCKLES]

Um... But, you know,

grandparents were in tears.

It was flowers and photos and happiness.

It was really quite moving.

[CARLO] Right. Yeah.

And now you're, uh...

you're anchored?

Yeah, we even go to church

periodically. Don't we?

[LAUGHS]

No, you don't.

You do?

About a month after

we saw you guys,

I was working in

that guest room upstairs,

and I was finishing up

the drywall.

[SNAPS]

[GASPS, GROANS]

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

Sharyl!

[SHOUTS]

Sharyl!

I wound up in the living room for

about six months on that pullout bed,

because I couldn't make it

up and down the stairs.

I was living in filth

and I was drinking all the time.

I was angry,

and Sharyl and I were fighting.

And I...

Just one day I just, uh...

I was so angry.

And I just took off.

[GRUNTS]

[PANTING]

[SHOUTS]

[GASPING, GRUNTING]

[SHARYL]

Joel!

Joel!

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

Joel!

[MOUTHS WORD]

Well, I'm sorry.

[GRUNTS SOFTLY]

I'm f***ing sorry.

[CRIES]

- [PRIEST] It's okay.

- No. [SHOUTS]

[SOBS]

It's okay.

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

It's okay.

"It's okay." And he kept repeating

it over and over again.

"It's okay. It's okay."

And then he didn't say anything else. And

that was it. [CARLO CLEARS THROAT] Wow.

You guys aren't trying to proselytize

us right now, are you? [CHUCKLES]

- You? It would be a waste of time.

- Okay, good.

'Cause that's the... that's the

last thing we need right now.

That was

the turning point.

I went cold turkey. We both went

cold turkey with fighting, booze.

And then

things changed for us.

[WHISPERS]

Yeah.

[CARLO]

Oh, yeah, that's great.

Never went back to that church. Never even

saw the priest. Some days I think I dreamt it.

[CARLO] Huh. Dreamt it?

Well, it doesn't really matter,

because it wasn't what he said.

It was the way he said what he said.

It was his voice.

It was like I heard

this voice from somewhere.

- A voice?

- Huh.

I'll always owe that man

something.

[CARLO] Well, maybe it wasn't

about a man. But it was.

Maybe you just needed

somebody to... to listen.

Yes, okay. Who in the end did listen?

Some voice in a dark confessional.

Right. Who was probably

masturbating. [CHUCKLES]

- That was inappropriate.

- Inappropriate? It was a joke.

- Yeah, well, it's not very funny.

- [CARLO] Whoa.

You used to think jokes

like that were funny.

[CHUCKLES] Really? Did I?

Okay, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. What-What are you

telling me though, Joel?

That you had some kind of,

like, a supernatural

experience or some cosmic...

[JOEL] It was just a guy on the

other end of a confessional.

He helped me. His voi...

His voice helped me.

- [GRACE] His voice?

- I was about to kill myself.

- Oh, come on, Joel. Don't be so dramatic.

- What?

- Seriously.

- You saw me then.

I know.

We all go through bad times.

Yes, and some of us kill

ourselves as a result of them.

I realize that,

but not you.

What's going on here?

I was about to overdose,

and Sharyl hid my pills.

- Okay, can we change the subject now,

please? - Jesus Christ.

Gracie... Was it really that bad?

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

I- I, uh...

I didn't realize.

Suicide is

so removed from me.

- You never thought about it?

- [SIGHS] Actually, no.

Okay.

Dreamt about it?

Mm-mmm.

Everyone dreams about it, Carlo.

Not everybody. Not me.

I've had dreams about it.

- What?

- Just dreams, you know... That...

A nightmare.

I had one once.

Really?

[GRACE] I was in Buenos Aires.

- You've never been to Buenos Aires.

- I know.

But... I was there.

I remember the light. It was not

gold, but just lighter than gold.

Full but not heavy.

Like... good music.

Light and still full.

And I walked all over the city,

and I mingled with the whores.

[WOMEN CHATTERING] I told

them I was from New York,

and they thought

that was wonderful.

I thought it was more wonderful

to be from Argentina.

Being from that light,

from that music,

from those smells,

and the whores

with braids in their hair.

They... fed me,

and they told me stories.

And they asked me to take

them with me to New York.

But I wanted them to keep

me here in Argentina.

[WOMEN SPEAKING SPANISH,

INDISTINCT]

And they spoke of

their dreams.

And when they spoke

of their dreams, the...

word itself...

stung me.

[WOMAN]

Sueo, sueo, sueo.

And then suddenly I was...

I was home.

[SIGHS]

And the...

grief inside me.

I don't know

what it was about, but...

it was unbearable.

[CRYING]

And so,

I jumped.

You jumped.

It was just a dream. Don't you

ever have dreams like that?

No, I don't.

I'm sorry.

[JOEL] Come on.

Carlo. I don't.

- You don't have nightmares?

- I-I don't tell people about them.

- Why not, Carlo?

- Because they're private.

[JOEL]

We're friends.

[SIGHS] Well, that's... Look.

[CLEARS THROAT]

Please don't take this

the wrong way,

but I don't want to know about

your attempted suicide.

I don't want to know about you and

the church and the f***ing snow,

or your sob story

in the confessional.

I definitely don't want to know about you

gallivanting with Argentinean whores.

I don't want to know any of that sh*t.

All that stuff is private.

Okay? There's such a thing

as privacy.

We can't all go running

around dangling our ids.

It was an important moment in my life.

I felt I should share it with you.

Oh, my God.

[LAUGHS]

Do you hear yourself? You

felt that you should sh...

Since when have you used

a phrase like that?

What is that, Joel? Share it with me?

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