Local Color Page #7

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Frankly I don't even know

why I agreed to see you.

You still blame me, I

can see it in your eyes.

It was so long ago it

feels like yesterday.

Why do you avoid me, I've

never done you any harm.

I saw your name in the papers,

you're a famous writer.

Well, not quite.

I knew it had to be

you, I was very proud.

Don't you believe that?

Yes.

I'm not that much

older than you anymore,

not like I was then.

Maybe we can be friends now.

Before you were more like

my own child than a sister.

We're not sisters.

You hated me then, didn't you?

[Lil] Hate, not you.

My mother then.

Is that why you never call her?

She's very hurt.

It's just pretense, there

was nothing between us.

Not that I ever disliked her.

But she could never take

the place of my mother.

I resented it when she tried.

And I knew she was

saving her love

for her own children.

Me.

[Lil] Which is the

way it should be.

But you were jealous

all the same, weren't you?

She's your mother, not mine.

And after my father died...

He was my father too.

Yes, I felt I no

longer owed her anything.

And me, what do I owe you?

Why did you come?

You're not still

thinking about the fire?

That's ancient history,

you were just a kid.

16 is not such a kid.

Careless.

Worse than that.

[Lil] Don't tell me.

After all these years.

What do you know?

Do you know how

the fire started?

That I ran away and forgot

and then I didn't have

the courage to turn back

and run into the burning

house to save your child?

Do you think you could

forgive me if I told you?

And what if you did?

Could your forgiveness help me?

The past, let the

dead bury the dead.

Sometimes the past

never goes away.

Sometimes it stays in your

brain like a red hot nail

and never lets you forget.

You shouldn't have come.

You know what

Freud says, Vivian?

If you can't forgive yourself,

you can never get well.

Now that I've broken the

ice, will you call me?

I'll have to talk

about it with my analyst.

[Lil] I need a

friend, don't you?

[Voiceover] That night

Lil dreamt that she was in

a room filled with grandmothers.

When suddenly the

door opened and Viv.

Hi, I've come

to kill the baby.

All the babies are upstairs.

No, take mine,

you'll like her.

You can kill her but

please don't hurt her.

(dramatic music)

[Voiceover] That night

Viv had the same dream

only the roles were reversed.

She dreamt that Lil

wanted to kill her child.

Viv's dream, however,

didn't include the

photograph of the staircase.

She decided it would be

a cold day in hell before

she called up Lil or would

agree to see her again.

I just knew the way

you know those things

that it wasn't going

to be the kind of party

I would invite any

friend of mine to.

How's business?

How are things at

the restaurant?

I read that Congress

wants to grant statehood

to Israel and the Arab nations.

That would simplify

military appropriations.

But they'd all have

to agree to come in

as the 51st state.

Say, what do you think

transcendental meditation

could do for me?

I feel a pull toward the east.

Yeah.

I didn't know or I wouldn't

have been able to tell.

I wouldn't have

recognized you either.

I baked a birthday cake

with a design of the.

Gemini on top.

The space program?

The twins in the zodiac.

Andrew told me you

were into astronomy.

No, no, geology, the earth.

Oh, I thought the

stars and the heavens.

Don't tell him.

What?

About the cake, I want

it to be a surprise.

You were working on

it for such a long time.

It's lying in a drawer.

Maybe in a year or two.

But one of those

characters is based on me.

If it's a success, I

could become famous.

I only do journalism now.

Feature stories, interviews.

Ugh, I never read

that rag anyway.

Remember what I

talked to you about?

I'm going through with it.

What?

Sometimes I feel like I'm

going to start screaming

and I won't be able to stop.

Do you need any

help in the kitchen?

How do you like the city?

Have you ever been

to New York before?

I've been living

here for three years.

Ah.

I didn't think you wanted me to.

Put the blame on me.

I'm turning over a new leaf.

I want to go to law school.

That's not an evasion.

I need a refill.

Why did you take the

gun, I need it back.

What gun, what are

you talking about?

I want to talk to you,

I have a lot of things

on my mind about us.

Which one of you is older?

She is by 10 minutes.

Hope we can be out

of here by 10:
30.

I don't want to miss

that special on TV.

That makes you

her kid brother.

(laughs)

Is it almost ready?

I don't know how

good it's gonna be.

Save yourself for the dessert.

Andy, the ragu is sublime.

You've got to give

me the recipe.

I don't remember

where I read this.

In a 19th century novel.

Everyone is jammed tight

into a small carriage.

One of the men takes the

opportunity to press his

attentions on a woman

in the only way he can

with her husband present.

So she says in a

very loud voice,

Sir, or probably monsieur, I

think it was a French novel,

monsieur, feel free to

tell me that you love me

if that's what's on your mind.

But please take your

feet off my new shoes.

(laughter)

Andy said you analyze dreams.

Oh no, it's just an

idea I had for a book.

[Andrew] One of many.

A collection of

people's dreams.

I collect things.

[Andrew] That's a polite

way of saying she's nosy.

I never dream but

I had one last night.

I know what reminded me of it.

Do you want to hear it?

If you wouldn't

mind telling it.

Do you want to write it down?

Now I'm embarrassed.

I hope you think it's good

enough to put in your book.

I'm in an elevator, only

it's me as a little boy.

I don't know if the

elevator's going up or down.

It's crowded with people,

although I don't know anyone.

Someone in the back yells,

he's so small for his age.

Did you ever see

anyone so small?

Someone else says, oh,

he's probably a dwarf,

a midget in disguise.

The boy, me, says,

but I'm only 25.

Ah, yes, I read of a

similar case in Dear Abby

where someone wrote

a letter saying...

Please continue.

I'm holding my father's hand.

He looks the way he did just

before he died eight years ago.

My mother's on the other side

of me holding my other hand.

They turn towards

each other and smile.

No wait, it wasn't my mother.

It was you.

But I haven't met you before.

What happens next?

What?

[Viv] What happens

next in the dream?

Let me guess, little

men, also dwarves, dressed

in white come and drag you away.

After dinner we

went to the movies.

It seemed like more

fun than anything else

anyone could think of.

This is what we saw.

Why must we go on like this?

Let me go.

Do you enjoy torturing me?

Answer me.

Answer me!

I'm not your jailor,

you're free to go.

Go.

What are you waiting for?

You'd like that, wouldn't you?

To get rid of me.

Then you'd never have

to remember that night.

That's enough.

You've had too much to drink.

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