Lost in America Page #9

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CUT TO:

25INT. DESERT INN CASINO

David comes tearing into the casino. He is still in

his bathrobe. A SECURITY GUARD stops him.

GUARD:

I'm sorry, you can't come into

the casino dressed like that.

DAVID:

What are you, crazy? I saw

Electric Horseman. Animals rode

through here. Excuse me.

He pushes past the Guard. He looks frantically around

trying to find Nancy. At this hour of the morning, it's

easy to spot people. There aren't too many of them.

He sees her. She's off in the corner at the roulette

table. There's a small group of people around her. They

seem to be watching, she seems to be gambling. David

walks as fast as he can. He doesn't want to run, his

robe might open up. As he approaches Nancy, he is

frightened by what he sees. She is a maniac. She has

been up for hours. The transformation is scary. It's

like Jekyll and Hyde. She's frantically moving chips all

around the table.

DAVID:

(continuing)

Honey? What are you doing?

NANCY:

(to the Dealer)

Eight! Big chips!

DAVID:

Honey?

NANCY:

Not now. Get away. Not now.

DAVID:

What's going on?

NANCY:

Stop it. Come on, eight! Come

on, eight!

The DEALER spins the wheel. The ball drops into the

number sixteen slot.

DEALER:

Sixteen.

NANCY:

(shrieks)

Sh*t!

DAVID:

Honey, calm down. Sweetheart?

The Man who spoke to David on the telephone approaches

him at the table.

MAN:

Could I speak to you for a moment?

DAVID:

What is it?

The Man takes David aside.

MAN:

Your wife is very distraught.

She's been gambling almost

five hours and she has not been

on a lucky streak. Now, it's

not our place to stop her, but

possibly, you should.

DAVID:

What do you mean she's not been

on a lucky streak? She's losing?

MAN:

Well, why don't you talk to her?

David runs back to the table.

DAVID:

Honey, I want to talk to you.

NANCY:

Get away!

(to the Dealer)

Once again! Give me eight!

The Dealer spins the wheel. The ball goes around and

around.

NANCY:

(continuing)

Come on, baby. Come on, lucky

baby. Baby, baby. Baby, baby.

DEALER:

Eight it is.

NANCY:

(jumping up,

excited as

can be)

Yes! Great!

DAVID:

(now a little

excited himself)

Hey, that is great. You're a

winner.

(to Dealer)

How much was that? How much did

she win?

DEALER:

Sixty dollars.

DAVID:

Alright. Nothing wrong with that.

What's wrong with that? Now, what

does this man mean who says you

weren't on a lucky streak?

NANCY:

I was down earlier. Just go away.

DAVID:

But you're up now, right?

NANCY:

I'm still down.

(to Dealer)

Eight again! And make it happen

for me!

David turns to the Man who spoke to him on the phone.

The Man is standing at a distance watching what's

happening with a slight look of pity on his face.

DAVID:

(walking over to him)

Boy, she keeps betting eight, huh?

How down is she exactly?

MAN:

Oh, she's very, very down. I

don't know how much money you

have, but on the average I'd

say this is what we call "very

down."

DAVID:

What do you mean? A thousand?

At this moment, we hear a GROAN from the roulette table.

The ball has dropped into double zero. David runs back

over. He sees the Dealer taking the chips off of eight.

NANCY:

Dammit! That keeps coming up,

that zero. Jesus Christ!

Now, once again, eight! Come back,

eight! Come back, eight!

DAVID:

Just a minute. Nancy, stop.

NANCY:

Please, David! Please! You're

bringing me bad luck.

DAVID:

Well, according to some people here,

I'm not bringing anything. You're

already having bad luck.

NANCY:

It's changing! Now come on,

eight! Eight's my mate! Take

the bait, number eight.

The Dealer spins the ball. It drops into the number four.

DEALER:

Four.

NANCY:

See what you did? Bad luck! Get

away, please.

DAVID:

This man over here says you're

very down. What does he mean?

NANCY:

F*** the man! I don't know who

you're talking about.

(to Dealer)

Try it again! Eight!

DAVID:

Nancy, stop betting eight. There's

hundreds of numbers on this table.

Why the hell do you keep betting

eight? Now, how much have we lost?

NANCY:

Everything. Come on, eight.

DAVID:

What do you mean everything? Did

you say everything?

At this moment, the ball falls into number nine. The

Dealer takes the last of Nancy's chips.

NANCY:

Goddammit! Son-of-a-b*tch! You

can't get any closer to eight

than nine.

DAVID:

(beginning to

take charge)

Come over here. Come with me.

He drags Nancy away from the roulette table. She turns

around. She's yelling at the Dealer.

NANCY:

Eight again! One more time!

DAVID:

There's nothing on the board.

You're not at the table. You

haven't placed a bet. Stop

yelling eight. He doesn't care

anymore.

NANCY:

I gotta find some money. Please.

I'm about to hit.

DAVID:

No, you're about to get hit. Come

on. We have some serious talking

to do.

David starts to pull Nancy out of the casino. He passes

by a one-dollar progressive slot machine with Nancy in

tow as BELLS START TO RING and LIGHTS FLASH. An OLDER

WOMAN has hit the jackpot and starts to scream.

WOMAN:

I won!! I won!!

NANCY:

Look. She won... I want to play!

DAVID:

It's too late. You chose the table.

Let's get out of here.

CUT TO:

26INT. COFFEE SHOP

They sit down at one of the tables. David looks a

little worried. Nancy is still frantic. She's mixed

up. She's also looking around for a Keno girl. She's

obviously in some sort of a daze.

DAVID:

Okay, talk. What's going on?

NANCY:

At two-thirty this morning, I was

up three hundred thousand dollars.

DAVID:

Three hundred thousand dollars?

That's a lot of money!

NANCY:

More chips than you've ever seen

in your life. You wouldn't have

believed it. They were all over

the place.

DAVID:

But when I came downstairs they

were all gone. You didn't have any.

NANCY:

Yes, but I can get them back.

DAVID:

Let's wait on that for just a

second. So, everything is gone

and I'm trying to figure out the

word "everything." We had a

little bit of cash with us and

you lost that?

NANCY:

Yes.

DAVID:

So, what did you do? You got

more cash?

NANCY:

Yes.

DAVID:

So, you wrote a check then?

NANCY:

Yes.

DAVID:

You started drawing cash from our

nest egg?

NANCY:

Yes. Yes.

DAVID:

How much of the nest egg did

you take? What's left?

NANCY:

Nothing.

DAVID:

Oh, my God. By "everything" you

mean "nothing."

NANCY:

Yes.

DAVID:

You didn't lose a hundred and

eighty thousand dollars?

NANCY:

Maybe. I don't know. Give or

take a thousand.

DAVID:

Give or take a thousand? Give

or take a thousand?

David is holding on to one of his testicles so as not

to kill this woman. This is the first time in his life,

where he truly can't comprehend what he has heard.

DAVID:

(continuing)

Oh my God! Oh my God! I understand

what we mean now. I understand what

we all mean. Oh my God! My God!

My God!

David puts his hand to his forehead. He looks around.

He's thinking. Something must be done. Something must

be done quickly.

DAVID:

(continuing)

Oh my God! Alright. Let's not

panic.

David thinks of something. He stands up from the

table and yells as loud as he can.

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