Game 6 Page #6

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NICKY:

What was it like?

ELLIOT:

I said, `I'm dead'. He killed me.

INT. RESTAURANT -LATER

Elliot standing near the front window, in a shaft of

sunlight, examining a white after-dinner candy. He puts it in

his pocket for later.

Paisley eating lunch at the end of the long table, looking up

to see Nicky approach with liqueur and a glass on wine. He

sits opposite her, placing the wineglass in front of her.

NICKY:

You've worked with Elliot?

PAISLEY:

I was in the fish-market play. What

happened to him?

NICKY:

There was a review.

PAISLEY:

I think I remember.

NICKY:

So does Elliot.

PAISLEY:

Not one of Steven's finer moments.

NICKY:

Oh. You know him.

PAISLEY:

A little.

NICKY:

And he has finer moments now and

then.

PAISLEY:

He has -- something. A funny little

quality I find --

NICKY:

Endearing.

PAISLEY:

Engaging.

NICKY:

Elliot wants to kill him with a

railroad spike.

PAISLEY:

A little drastic maybe?

NICKY:

Say it again.

PAISLEY:

What?

NICKY:

You know what.

PAISLEY:

Alla puttanesca.

NICKY:

One more time.

INT. THE ENTRANCE WAY - A LITTLE LATER

Elliot watches Nicky embrace Giorgio. Nicky carries the

tabloid he'd been reading -- the "Daily News". Elliot and

Nicky stand at the door and watch the whitish mist that

continues to linger.

ELLIOT:

Is it safe?

NICKY:

Do we care?

ELLIOT:

I think we Nought to wait.

NICKY:

I say we go.

ELLIOT:

You say we go?

NICKY:

Do not inhale.

ELLIOT:

I'm not ready.

NICKY:

Here we go.

They pull up their collars and run outside.

EXT. STREET - DAY

The street is deserted. Nicky holds the newspaper over his

face for protection. Each man has an arm in the air, trying

to hail a taxi. They are standing near a trash receptacle

that carries an advertisement for "New York Magazine". It is

a reproduction of the cover that we'd glimpsed earlier in

Joanna's apartment when her maid was reading the magazine. A

furtive man shielding his face with the newspaper -- and a

headline about a Phantom. Nicky and Elliot do not see the

receptacle.

A bus comes down the street with a large horizontal ad

covering its right side. It is the same ad -- five of them

actually, five "New York Magazine" covers side by side.

Elliot is trying to hail a cab and doesn't notice the ad. As

the bus bears down, Nicky steps out of the way, removing the

newspaper from his face and getting a clear look at the five

photos on the side of the bus -- a man concealing his face

with a newspaper.

Nicky reads the text under the logo of "New York Magazine".

THE PHANTOM WHO HAUNTS BROADWAY

Learning to hate Steven Schwimmer

Nicky stares after the bus. Another bus comes along, carrying

the same ad.

Nicky watches darkly.

EXT. STREET - LATER

This is the diamond district. Store signs reading:

Antique JewelryWe Buy DiamondsGold Emporium

Wholesale JewelryAll Brand-Name Watches Reduced

INT. THE TAXI - NICKY AND ELLIOT

Nicky is reading the newspaper. The driver is speaking

Chinese into his two-way radio. Squawky replies from the

dispatcher in machine gun Chinese.

ELLIOT:

The man has taken over my mind.

He's not only out there. He's in my

head and I can't get rid of him. I

can't write a word without

imagining his response. I'm

paralyzed as an artist.

NICKY:

I don't have the problems that

artists have.

LLIOT:

You've been saying that for years.

NICKY:

What?

ELLIOT:

(mockingly)

`I'm just a professional. A dues-

playing member of a guild.' Because

you're afraid, Nicky. That's the

darkest part of you. You don't

think you're good enough.

Nicky lowers the newspaper.

Driver's nameplate:

WU LI:

EXT. THE STREET

About a dozen people gathered together including several

diamond merchants in their beards, black suits and fur hats.

They are watching the man in the cutaway dancing with his

cloth doll. Someone places a donation in the cigar box. From

the tape player:
"Dancing in the Dark."

Elliot ends up near the Gotham Book Mart, on the north side

of the street. Nicky looks right past him into the bookstore

window. He sees something that interests him.

ELLIOT:

Where are you going?

NICKY:

Don't wait Efor me.

ELLIOT:

What about the haircut?

INT. GOTHAM BOOK MART

Nicky walks along the main aisle, looking at a woman standing

in the poetry nook.

Only a few people in the shop.

He enters the back room and gets a glimpse of a woman walking

through the opposite doorway back into the main room.

He squeezes past a browser and looks through the doorway.

Someone is just leaving the shop.

He walks to the rear of the store, where the office is

located. The door is open, the room is empty.

He re-enters the main room and sees a woman seated on the top

step of the stairway that leads to the basement stacks. Her

back is to Nicky and she is reading a book. He approaches

slowly and then squats by the doorway to get a closer look at

her.

She turns. It is Paisley Porter.

INT. GOTHAM BOOK MART - A MOMENT LATER

Nicky and Paisley in a corner of the back room.

NICKY:

You keep slipping away. How do you

do that?

PAISLEY:

I was one of those silent,

listening children. Glued to the

shadows.

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