Lone Star Page #8

Mercedes bustles by, snapping her fingers--

MERCEDES:

Off the phone, by we've got people

waiting. Andale!

We FOLLOW Mercedes back into the kitchen, where she moves

through, kibbitzing the operation--

WAITRESS:

Mercedes stops by a young girl prepping a pork loin to be

cooked. She isn't wearing gloves

MERCEDES:

Donde estan sus guantes? Tonta!

Quiere matar a mis clientes?

[Where are your gloves? Stupid!

You want to kill my customers?]

She continues past, shaking her bead, bringing us to Pilar,

who is trying to stay out of the way--

MERCEDES:

These ones coming up are getting

stupider every year.

PILAR:

Maybe you're just getting less

patient.

MERCEDES:

If they're going to survive here,

they have to know how to work,

Elalco! Adelante! Los clientes

esperan!

PILAR:

Well, you hire illegals--

MERCEDES:

(Indignant))

Nobody is illegal in my cafe!

They've got green cards, they've

got relatives who were born here--

if they only had a little common

sense I'd be very happy.

PILAR:

If you spent a little more time

training them--

MERCEDES:

Did you come here to tell me how

to run my business?

PILAR:

No. I was wondering if you'd

like to take a trip down south

with us. Maybe see where you

grew up--

MERCEDES:

Why would I want to go there?

PILAR:

Oh, come on--you must be curious

how it's changed. Amado is into

this big Tejano roots thing and

I've never been further than Ciudad

Leon--

MERCEDES:

You want to see Mexicans, open

your eyes and look around you.

We're up to our ears in them.

Pilar gives up on the trip. She watches her mother poking

at the plates of chips and salsa ready to go out--

PILAR:

Mami, how old were you when my

father--

MERCEDES:

He was killed.

PILAR:

Right. When he was killed.

MERCEDES:

A little older than Paloma is

now.

PILAR:

How come you never got married

again?

Mercedes just glares at her--

PILAR:

There must have been somebody.

MERCEDES:

(Mutters)

I was too busy.

PILAR:

Nobody's too busy.

MERCEDES:

Maybe now. It was different back

then. I had this place, I was

doing all the shopping, all the

cookingwhat do I need some chulo

with grease under his nails to

drink up the profit?

PILAR:

(Pissed off)

Thank you.

MERCEDES:

I don't mean Fernando.

PILAR:

Mami, the first time I brought

him home, those were your exact

words--"some chulo with grease

under his nails"

MERCEDES:

I never said that.

PILAR:

You made it pretty damn clear you

thought he was nobody

MERCEDES:

I felt that you could do better

for yourself--

PILAR:

What? Become a nun? You didn't

want me going out with Anglos--

MERCEDES:

I never said that. It was just

that boy--

PILAR:

"That boy"--Mami, say his name

for chrissakes!

The employees are staring. Mercedes won won't look at her

daughter as she steps out of the kitchen, banging into Enrique

on his way back in--

MERCEDES:

You people are stealing my money--

Entiende? Robandome?

Mercedes is gone. The young girl, pulling plastic gloves

on, looks to Pilar

GIRL:

Su madre? [Your mother?]

PILAR:

Si.

The girl puts her hand on her heart in sympathy--

GIRL:

Lo siento [My condolences.]

INT. COUNTRY AND WESTERN BAR -NIGHT

A crowded room, C&W MUSIC plays on the box. Sam sits behind

a bottle of beer as the bartender, CODY, in his early 50s

philosophizes

CODY:

Now I'm just as liberal as the

next guy--

SAM:

If the next guy's a redneck.

CODY:

--but I gotta say I think there's

something to this cold climate

business. I mean, you go to the

beach-what do you do? Drink a

few beers, wait for a fish to

flop up on the sand. Can't build

no civilization that way. You

got a hard winter coming, though,

you got to plan ahead, and that

gives your cerebral cortex a

workout,

SAM:

Good deal you were born down here,

then,

CODY:

You joke about it, Sam, but we

are in a state of crisis. The

lines of demarcation has gotten

fuzzy--to run a sucessfull

civilization you got to have lines

of demarcation between right and

wrong, between this one and that

one--your Daddy understood that.

He was like the whatchacallit--

the referee for this damn menudo

we got down here. He understood

how most people don't want their

sugar and salt in the Same jar.

SAM:

You mixed drinks bad as you mix

metaphors, you be out of a job.

CODY:

Take that pair over in the corner--

Sam swivels to look where Cody points--

CODY:

Place like this, twenty years

ago, Buddy woulda been, on them

two--

SAM'S POV -- CORNER BOOTH

Cliff and Priscilla talk across a table --

CODY (O.S.)

--warning. Not 'cause he had it

in for the colored

SAM AND CODY:

CODY:

--but just as a kind of safety

tip.

SAM:

Yeah. I bet he would.

CODY:

Old Sam stood for somethin', you

know? The day that man died they

broke the goddam mold.

BOOTH -- CLIFF AND PRISCILLA

Things are obviously more than professional between these

two--

PRISCILLA:

So where does that put us?

CLIFF:

Well--I don't see what's changed.

No PDA:
s, no necking on the

obstacle course

PRISCILLA:

Seriously.

CLIFF:

Seriously, I think we should get

married.

PRISCILLA:

We been through this before--

CLIFF:

We should just do it.

PRISCILLA:

And if I get a shot at a promotion

somewhere--

CLIFF:

You could take it--

PRISCILLA:

It's up or out these days, Cliff.

Say I get transferred to a

different post--

CLIFF:

I'd quit the Army for you, if it

came to that.

PRISCILLA:

(Grins))

Man's gonna retire in two years

and he offer to quit, Big goddam

deal.

SAM (O.S.)

Excuse me--

They look up to see Sam standing over them--

CLIFF:

Sheriff--hi--this is Sergeant-

this is Priscilla Worth

SAM:

Pleased to meet you.

CLIFF:

Sheriff Deeds was in on our

archeological find yesterday.

PRISCILLA:

It true they gonna build a shopping

mall out there?

SAM:

If certain people have their way,

it's going to be a new jail.

PRISCILLA:

Damn. Maybe we got in the wrong

business. They closin' down

military left and right, puttin'

up jails like 7-11 stores.

SAM:

Do either of you have any idea

when they stopped using that site

as a rifle range?

CLIFF:

They stopped training infantry

there in the late '50s. It was

just a playground for the

jackrabbits till they gave it to

the county last year.

PRISCILLA:

You know who it was they dug up?

SAM:

Not for sure yet. But I kind of

wish they hadn't.

EXT. CAFE -- NIGHT

Enrique steps out of the darkened cafe, followed by Mercedes,

who locks up. Mercedes steps over to an expensive-looking

car--

ENRIQUE:

Es muy lindo, su coche--

MERCEDES:

En ingles Enrique. This is the

United States. We speak English.

ENRIQUE:

Is very beautiful, your car.

MERCEDES:

Good night, Enrique.

She slides into the car--

ENRIQUE:

Buenas noches, Senora Cruz.

Enrique walks in the opposite direction--

FADE OUT:

EXT. BIG O'S ROADHOUSE -- DAY -- CU DEL

Del, in uniform, approaches the front door of Big O's, not

open for business yet. We TIGHTEN as he stops to read a

handlettered sign next to it: "BLACK SEMINOLE EXHIBIT REAR

ENTRANCE." He steps in--

INT. ROADHOUSE

Late-50s R&B plays on the JUKEBOX. Otis stands behind the

counter hooking the beer taps up. Del steps in and sits on

a stool at the far end of the bar, tense, looking around the

place. When Otis sees him, he stops dead. They lock eyes

for a moment, then Otis turns to call

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