Last Flag Flying Page #9

---

- Say what?

Uh, you're not gonna get

into heaven after all.

- What the...?

- I'm very displeased with the way you're

- talking about fornicating with whores.

- Who is this?

- I say, who is...

- This is God.

- Wha...

- This is definitely God.

- Hey, hey. Sal. Stop.

- What? This is not Sal. This is God.

- Stop it now.

- This is God...

Burning up my minutes

with that foolishness.

Wait. You should call

John Redman on the train.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Here.

This will be

my second official call.

Uh-huh.

By the way, when you call God,

doesn't cost you any minutes.

He told me.

Hey, John Redman.

Guess who this is.

Yeah. How'd you know?

All right, l-listen,

I am calling you

from my brand-new mobile

cellular cordless telephone.

- That you don't even know how to use.

- Hush up.

Listen, I want to give you

my number, all right?

How do you already have it?

I didn't give it to you.

- It comes up on his.

- Hey, that's just what he said.

The number comes up

on the screen!

Can you believe this?

Wow. Okay, listen up.

Uh, we are on...

Huh?

Ah.

Okay. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. All right.

What's going on?

They are on their way

to Boston, so...

- The train left without us?

- Yeah.

Outstanding.

- Outstanding.

- What?

I warned you, didn't I?

- Didn't I warn you?

- What does it matter?

We miss this train,

we'll take the next one, okay?

There's, like,

a million trains to Boston.

- Mm-hmm.

- You know what? You worry too much.

That's why your hair

went so gray.

You worry too much.

This is a boarding call

for Amtrak Acela Express

train 2171

en route to Washington

with intermediate stops

at Newark,

Philadelphia,

Wilmington, Baltimore...

We are all set.

We're on the express

straight to Boston.

- When?

- 7:
00 a.m.

Oh, geez.

Come on. It's the city

that never sleeps.

Why should we?

Come on.

Let's have some fun.

Now, you take...

the fadeaway jump shot.

Ooh, wow, it's

a beautiful thing of beauty.

Free throws are what win

or lose a game, though.

Oh, f***. That is...

they're so boring.

- It's true.

- But they're boring.

It stops all the action

all the time.

And there's way too many

of those f***in' things.

You're not supposed

to go in there,

banging around with a guy,

banging all the time.

Fouls-- no, I'm serious--

Fouls...

should be...

shameful.

- You know?

- Hmm.

But there's no f***in' shame

anywhere anymore.

Look who's talking.

You ever been ashamed

of anything you've ever done

in your life?

Ever?

Once.

Why are you looking at me

like that?

You know why.

Did you remember

that Boston was where...

he was from?

I remember he was from Boston.

So I've been looking into...

seeing if I could find maybe he

still had some... family there.

Why?

'Cause...

'Cause he's drunk, that's why.

What-what does that

got anything to do with it?

You get like this

every time you drink?

Pretty much.

Then you shouldn't drink.

It's what I got instead of God.

Uh-huh, I see. I understand.

- I got God.

- Yeah.

Doc did his time.

You got drunk.

Yep.

Yeah.

Maybe he got the better

of the deal.

- He was gonna die anyway, Sal.

- No. No.

He didn't have to suffer.

Not like that.

- But he did.

- No.

Jimmy Hightower.

We can't even say his name.

We all feel guilty about how

he suffered when he was dying,

but did it ever occur to you

that maybe nobody

would have been shot

and everybody'd still be alive

if we had just been doing

our jobs, not f***in' around?

Boarding call for Amtrak

Acela Express train 2150

to Boston

with no intermediate stops.

- Passengers should proceed to track 23.

- Sal.

Sal.

Sal, we gotta go.

We gotta go.

We gotta get our train.

Mueller.

Time to go.

Can I ask you

a personal question?

No.

Thank you.

Why is it that you married

a black woman?

Oh, what?

Come on. It's not like you

never had a white woman before.

I know better. And it was

the '70s and all that.

Which, if I remember rightly,

was when you white dudes

admitted to having a thing

for black women.

I'm gaga for the sisters.

They dig me, too.

Couple of 'em.

For a time.

First of all, Sal...

who I married

is none of your business.

And that is why

I'm being so polite about it.

Okay, I'll tell you.

God told me to.

God told you

to marry a black woman?

No.

God told me to marry Ruth.

Hmm.

How come God don't talk to me?

Because you don't listen.

You hear just fine,

but you don't listen.

So you listen,

and that's why He talks to you.

That's not what I said.

- Mm.

- I said that God

told me to marry Ruth,

to be a good man,

and to preach the Word.

So He does talk to you.

He touched my heart.

- Maybe it was Ruth who touched your heart.

- Oh, yes.

It was God through Ruth.

I was a down-and-out,

recovering alcoholic

with a shot-up leg,

and one day... I found Jesus.

Where? Where'd you find Him?

Like, on a street corner

or something?

No, in my heart, Sal.

The only place

you can truly find Him.

I went deep inside my own heart

like it was some scary cave,

some... unexplored place.

Which it was.

Went down alone and afraid,

and came back up fearless,

with Jesus by my side,

and there...

the very next Sunday,

took myself to church.

- And there was Ruth?

- And there was Ruth.

And everything fell

into place for me.

That is a beautiful story.

Sorry the f*** I asked.

So, if God exists...

I mean, would it kill Him

to just tap me

on the shoulder or something,

just shake my hand like a man?

And, while He's at it,

if He could deliver a nice

black girl with a great ass,

so much the better.

Hey, hey, hey.

Let me ask you another question.

When Ruth was a child,

was she a Baby Ruth?

You get... you get it?

- You know what Christmas is for me?

- What?

A Doc Holiday.

That's good, Doc.

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, tha-that's the one.

That's the one we want.

- What do you think he's up to?

- Oh, wheelin' and dealin'.

Mr. Cellular Phone!

All right. All right.

All right, fellas,

- we got an errand to run.

- Do we even have time?

Oh, yeah,

we've got plenty of time.

I was just on with Redman--

He and Washington

are already in New Hampshire,

so we'll see 'em there.

I don't know how I lived

without this thing.

I really don't.

Detail! Forward hut!

Left. Left.

Left.

She's been living with

it all these years, anyway.

What good is it gonna do her?

We are long overdue,

the way I figure.

She ought to know the truth,

and we ought

to be men enough to say it.

How did you even find her?

I got O'Toole to call

his granddaughter,

and she looked it up for us

on the World Wide Web.

What can we possibly say to her?

We say the truth.

- It's a little bitfurther.

- And two...

Couple more on the left there.

Right there. There it is.

- Yeah.

- Uh-huh, this-this red...

- Yeah. That's it.

- ...staircase here.

All right.

Maybe she's not here.

Hey, we didn't come

all this way...

Mrs. Hightower?

Yes?

I'm, uh,

Reverend Richard Mueller.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes