Meet Joe Black Page #18

DREW (cont'd)

(to Quince)

Wake up and smell the thorns.

Drew joins the employee as Quince slumps against the wall.

INT. FOYER, PARRISH TOWNHOUSE - DAY

Parrish enters, Joe right behind him, Coyle takes their coats,

disappears. Parrish hesitates for a moment, shrugs as if he

has a thought he doesn't want to share, then heads upstairs

with Joe. He is trudging a bit, Joe senses his mood.

JOE:

I'm sorry, Bill --

PARRISH:

That's okay.

JOE:

What's okay?

PARRISH:

Just a manner of speaking.

Joe seems puzzled.

PARRISH:

(cont'd)

What 'okay' is, it's 'okay' it's

over. We've got bigger fish to fry,

don't we, Joe?

JOE:

'Fish'?

PARRISH:

Never mind. I'm tired. I'm going

to take a nap.

A moment.

PARRISH (cont'd)

Are you hungry? Coyle will have

Luisa fix you something to eat.

JOE:

I'm not hungry.

PARRISH:

Then I can't help you.

Parrish turns into his bedroom, closing the door gently

behind him. Joe continues down the hall, enters the guest

wing.

INT. GUEST SUITE, PARRISH TOWNHOUSE - DAY

Midday sunlight streams into the sitting room, Joe passes

through to his bedroom, sits tentatively on the bed, feels

the edge of the silk spread, touches the pillow, then rises

again, crosses back to the sitting room.

Susan appears in the doorway, Joe suddenly senses her, turns

around.

SUSAN:

You're here?

JOE:

I am.

He stands, they regard each other for the moment.

JOE (cont'd)

May I take your coat?

She doesn't answer, starts to take off the coat herself, Joe

comes around her to help, Susan senses him breathing in the

scent at the back of her neck.

SUSAN:

I just thought I'd drop by, scrounge

a little lunch, I was in the neigh-

borhood --

JOE:

How beautiful.

He starts to hang Susan's coat up.

SUSAN:

Just throw it on the chair.

Joe holds her coat carefully on the chair. An awkward

moment, the two of them shifting from foot-to-foot.

SUSAN (cont'd)

When I called, they said that you

and Daddy had just left the office.

JOE:

He's taking a nap.

SUSAN:

He must be tired -- this Bontecou

thing --

JOE:

Yes, he's tired. I believe so.

A moment.

JOE (cont'd)

You must be hungry?

Susan sits on the couch.

SUSAN:

No, not anymore. Are you?

Joe hears the question but doesn't answer, sits down on the

couch beside her.

SUSAN (cont'd)

(after a moment)

Are you cold?

JOE:

...No.

SUSAN:

Maybe it's the draft through the

door.

She gets up, closes the door, sits back down again next to

Joe. A warm, awkward silence, they move closer to each

other, now they fall into a foreplay which Susan recognizes

as such, Joe, on the other hand, participates hungrily but

has no knowledge where it is leading. His movements are

instinctive, the smell of her hair, the shape of her fin-

gers, odd things about her seem to interest him. This

excites her because she senses his untutoredness and the

very sense of that stirs her, their reactions to each other

are intuitive and spontaneous; even though Joe has no know-

ledge of how to make love to a woman, ironically his actions

are such that they never beg the question -- has he done it

before.

Strange territory for Joe, not to be 'in control' and exert-

ing his power, but his inventions and responses in lovemak-

ing are so real that an emotional exchange between he and

Susan builds. Joe has found himself in an unexplored land

of feeling and passion, he loves what is happening and yet

at the same time, is terrified by it. He feels himself being

lured by some power he has not only never been aware of, but

is deeply dangerous to partake of; he knows what he is doing

is putting who he is at great risk, yet he goes right on.

The powerful contradiction is transmitted to Susan, and in

the end there is the knowledge they have together made a

journey, they both have been swept away in a stream of events

they have created; and they don't care about the consequences.

Spent, they lie in silence. Finally Susan speaks:

SUSAN:

It's so wonderful to make love to

you. It's like making love to some-

one who has never made love before.

Joe senses an opportunity not only to admit to what she has

said, but to tell her more, even the truth about himself.

He weighs, then resists, the impulse.

JOE:

Thank you.

Her head nestles underneath his arm, she has a sense of his

comforting her without knowing that he is doing so.

SUSAN:

Did you like making love to me?

JOE:

I loved it.

SUSAN:

More than you love peanut butter?

JOE:

Yes!

She laughs at the earnestness with which he answers.

Joe seems to drift away now, they lie together as one but for

the first time, she feels separate from him, sensing him gone

to some distant, distant land.

SUSAN:

Where are you going?

JOE:

Nowhere? I'm...here.

SUSAN:

For how long?

JOE:

Oh, I hope a long, long time.

A moment.

SUSAN:

Me, too.

Another moment.

JOE:

What do we do now?

She smiles.

SUSAN:

It will come to us.

INT. FOYER, PARRISH TOWNHOUSE (LATER) - DAY

Joe and Susan are at the front door, he has helped her

on with her coat, she turns around, they kiss. The kiss

lingers, Susan breaks away, reaches for the door, looks back

longingly at Joe and then she is gone, Joe closing the door

softly after her.

He turns back into the foyer, looks up, Parrish is on the

balcony, it is clear he has observed Joe and Susan.

JOE:

Hello, Bill.

Parrish, in a state of shock, doesn't answer for a moment.

JOE (cont'd)

Did you have a nice nap?

PARRISH:

I couldn't sleep.

JOE:

I'm sorry to hear that.

He starts up the stairs.

PARRISH:

No, I'll come down

Joe waits guardedly at the bottom of the stairs as Parrish

descends.

PARRISH (cont'd)

What's going on?

Joe senses Parrish's tone, doesn't answer.

PARRISH (cont'd)

I saw you kiss Susan.

JOE:

Yes, I saw you see me.

PARRISH:

Well, you're at the wrong place at

the wrong time with the wrong woman.

JOE:

I'll be the judge of that.

PARRISH:

I'm her father!

JOE:

With all due respect, Bill, I'm not

asking your permission.

PARRISH:

Well, you goddam well should. You

walk into my life, give me the worst

news a guy can get, have me dancing

on the heads of pins with my busi-

ness and with my family, and now

you're spooning with my daughter.

JOE:

'Spooning'?

PARRISH:

Yes, and stop repeating everything I

say, and turning it into a question.

Spooning, fooling around, God knows

what. You arrive on the scene -- why

you picked me, I still don't under-

stand --

JOE:

I picked you for your verve, your

excellence, and for your ability to

- how shall I say - instruct. You've

lived a first-rate life. And I find

it eminently usable.

Parrish measures Joe.

PARRISH:

What do you want?

Joe doesn't answer, riveted now on Parrish.

PARRISH (cont'd)

Everybody wants something, Joe.

You've been taking me from pillar

to post here. I thought I knew who

you were, and it wasn't a whole lot

of fun, however it was almost bear-

able. Now I'm getting something

else from you, something very, very

strange -- what is it that you want,

Joe?

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