Lost in America Page #5

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NANCY:

Stop it. You like Phil. You don't

mean that.

DAVID:

Of course I like him, the under-

qualified son-of-a-b*tch. Okay,

I was harsh. He'll crash the boat.

He'll have a serious injury but

he'll recover. But forget about

Phil! Forget about the vice

presidency! That's the past.

Nancy, it's time to do it. We're

still young. We can change courses.

We can do what we should've done

years ago, what our smart friends

did. We can get out there. We

can get out and see this country.

We can find out what it's about.

We can touch Indians. We can live

in the mountains. We can do

anything we want to do. And we're

still young enough to really

explore. So come on, let's go.

We're late. I'll wait here. Go

quit. Come on. We're leaving.

NANCY:

I can't just quit right now.

DAVID:

(looking at her with

a lust we haven't

seen before)

Oh, God, I want to f*** you. Come

on. Let's f***, right here.

Nancy is trying, without success, not to call anymore

attention to this particular discussion.

NANCY:

(lowered voice)

We can do it later. There's a

lot of people around now.

DAVID:

There's always going to be people

around. That was the problem.

We lived for them, not for us. It's

okay. There are some people you

want to f*** in front of and some

people you don't. Maybe you don't

want to f*** in front of these

people, I don't mind. I'll be

outside. You quit. I'll wait!

NANCY:

I can't quit now, even if I want

to. There is no one I can quit to.

My boss is not here. We'll

talk more about it tonight, please?

DAVID:

Okay, but we're saved. Honey, we're

saved. Somebody up there likes us.

I don't know who it is, but we're

going to find them. We'll find

everybody who likes us. We'll start

finding people who understand what

life is all about. We'll find people

who are really searching. We'll find

people who are willing to take a

chance. Look, I'll just get all

excited and get into it all again.

You go and finish what you have to

do and then I'll see you tonight.

David exits. Nancy watches him go. She's expressionless.

She doesn't quite know what to make of this. You can

sense that part of her thinks that maybe her prayers were

answered, maybe this is how the marriage can be saved.

You can also sense that part of her isn't sure her husband

is sane. Maybe this won't last more than an hour and you

can sense the last part of her is still embarrassed that

the other employees she works with have heard words like

"f***" and "jacking off." This is a woman of many parts.

CUT TO:

14INT. THE HOWARD'S HOME - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

David and Nancy are sitting on the floor.

They're surrounded by various maps, atlases and cata-

logues that show different pieces of property around

the United States, property that most people forget

even exist. These places look amazing in their little

pictures and, in fact, they might be amazing. It's

just that almost no one ever gets there to see them for

real. The longer Nancy has a chance to see what her

husband is saying, the more excited she becomes.

NANCY:

(looking in one of

the catalogues)

Look at this. This is the cutest

farmhouse I've ever seen. Twenty-

four acres near Darien, Connecticut,

five bedrooms, eighty thousand

dollars? How could that be?

DAVID:

Because it's there. It's not here.

We're used to this city. You know

what our new house would cost, if

it were where this farmhouse was?

Not four hundred thousand, maybe

sixty thousand if we were lucky.

Nancy is still looking at pages in the catalogue. She

stops at one picture. She is fascinated.

NANCY:

My God. Look at this. A converted

lighthouse in Maine, fifty-five

thousand, two bedrooms, a living

room, a kitchen, a playroom. How

do you put this into a lighthouse?

DAVID:

Well, maybe you go to Maine and

find out. Or you don't. You do

anything you want. Nancy, look

at this...

He opens a piece of paper, showing her the arithmetic

he has worked on all afternoon.

DAVID:

(continuing)

This seems to make sense to me.

You tell me what you think.

The one good thing about spending

all this time in Los Angeles was

that we got a free ride on this

bullshit inflation train. Don't

ask me how it happened, but we made

a hundred and ninety thousand dollar

profit by staying in this house

for less than five years. Now,

that was money we were never going

to see 'cause we were about to put

it back into another stupid house.

Okay. We pull out of that house,

we lose our fifteen thousand dollars

in Escrow, we take the money from

this house, we liquidate everything

else we have, cars, stocks, bonds,

everything... Nancy, we have two

hundred thousand dollars!

NANCY:

We couldn't.

DAVID:

We do.

David shows her the figures. As Nancy looks at the piece

of paper, he continues:

DAVID:

(continuing)

All we need to buy is a motor

home and we should get a great

one because we might live there

for the rest of our lives, or

for five years or ten years or

whatever.

NANCY:

What do you think a motor home

costs?

DAVID:

Guess who went motor home shopping?

We can get a great one for twenty-

five thousand dollars. If there's

one thing you can get a deal on

it's a motor home. This is the best

time in history to drop out. It's

a buyer's market!

NANCY:

So that would leave us a hundred

and seventy-five thousand dollars.

I can't believe it!

DAVID:

Yes! On that kind of money we

could ramble across the country

for years! We can paint, we can

explore, we can meet amazing

people.

NANCY:

And if we get to Connecticut and

we like one of these farmhouses,

we'd have enough money to put a

down payment on it, wouldn't we?

DAVID:

Yes! Then if we get sick of that

we could sell it and move on.

NANCY:

I'd like to go to Alaska.

DAVID:

Great! Alaska's great! We can

do anything we want.

NANCY:

This is what we talked about when

we were nineteen!

DAVID:

Yes. We talked about finding

ourselves but we laughed it off

because we had no money. Now

we can do it in comfort. We've

got our nest egg. This is a

dream come true.

Nancy has a tear in her eye. David sees it.

DAVID:

(continuing)

What's wrong? Are you okay?

NANCY:

We really can do whatever we

want to, can't we?

DAVID:

Who's stopping us?

Nancy stares. She thinks about that question. She

can't come up with an answer. Finally, almost in

tears.

NANCY:

Nobody's stopping us!

CUT TO:

15INT. PETE HIRSCH'S HOME - NIGHT

PETE HIRSCH is one of David's former associates at the

agency. He and his wife are throwing a party for

David and Nancy, a final farewell gathering. There are

people milling about, talking, general good cheer.

David and Nancy are the heroes of the evening. In the

corner of the room is a huge cake. The CAMERA MOVES

ABOUT, PICKING UP various bits of conversation.

PATTY:

You look very happy. You look

so good. I'm happy for you.

NANCY:

I know you are.

She gives Patty a hug. An older, dignified-looking man,

JACK MARTIN and his wife, CAROL, approach Nancy. Obvi-

ously, he's an executive at Robinson's.

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