Passion Fish Page #6

They pray for me a lot.

Was I snotty to you

when we were kids?

Well, you weren't much

ot anything to me.

You know, we kind ot

just looked at each other.

I think you were real nice

to the people you knew.

You were difterent, you know,

but you were real nice.

Then how'd I get like this?

I'm laying cement at Landrys today.

I'll be by in a couple oF days.

Bye, Rennie.

All right. Game's over.

What gAme?

- Where'd you put all the liQuor?

- I threw it out.

- It's in the trash?

- I poured it out.

- Bottles Are in the bin.

- You poured it out?

The recycle people don't want

nothin' lett in the bottles.

Look, Chantelle,

I Am not ready tor this.

When I get stronger,

I'll Quit drinking.

If you keep drinking,

you will not get any stronger.

Okay.

The deal was 24 hours, right?

I've already done that.

- Ernie's closes by 9:00.

- I'm not getting you any more.

What?

You want it,

you get it yourselt!

I can't drive.

That's something to work toward.

Don't hand me

that condescending bullshit!

ust go and get me

some tucking wlne!

- Listen to you.

- You listen to me. I hired you!

- I want you to do what I tell you!

- Dream on, girl.

- Who made you the tucking warden?

- Who made you Queen ot the whole world?

You sit around,

teeling sorry tor yourself...

you miserable, TV-watching,

dried-up old witch!

You can't go more than a day without a

drink, and you're not even a drunk yet.

You're just tucking spolled.

Most mornings I wake up,

I wanna get high so bad I can't breathe.

Cocaine is different.

Bullshit!

What do you know about it?

- Where are you going?

- I am going away trom you.

I don't want to be around your sh*t

anymore, understand? Away from you!

You've been cooking.

Gotta do something

to keep busy.

Smells good.

Sit.

Nice plates.

I broke most ot the other stutf.

You did a number on them.

That's okra gumbo there.

You can start with some ot that.

Thank you.

I was gonna make biscuits,

but couldn't tind the lard.

Yeah?

Iced tea or Kool-Aid?

- May-Alice.

- Yeah?

- We've got compAny.

- Who is it?

- They say they're from daytime.

- Damn.

Dawn.

Oh, baby,

it's so good to see you.

You tracked me down.

Florida junket. They expanded it

to New Orleans this year.

Oh, May-Alice, Nina.

This is Nina Crossley.

- she's playing you.

- Yeah, Scarlet.

- I'm back in the story.

- Vance thought it was time.

I'm pregnant.

I'm sorry.

Have a seat, please.

Oh, no, scarlet is pregnant,

on the show.

Oh. Wow.

I'm taking Lamaze classes.

You know, me, personally,

as a preparation.

I had a hysterectomy.

Oh. I'm sorry.

On the show. scarlet.

My third season.

A hysterectomy?

They took the crib

and left the playpen.

Oh. Something my mother

used to say.

- Was she trom the south?

- she was trom the south side.

Maybe that's why the baby

had to be by Zon-Dar.

I haven't been keeping up lately.

Zon-Dar?

- He went back to his planet.

- Ah.

Well, this is a great surprise.

Have a seat.

Would you like something to drink?

Yes. Do you have

sassafras tea?

- Oh, she read that someplace.

- A wine spritzer?

We don't have anything alcoholic.

I'II just go and bring out

a bunch ot stutf.

Chantelle isn't my maid

or anything.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I thought she was

a tamlly retainer.

Right.

May-Alice, this countRy is so...

it's so laden, you know?

Laden? With what?

Oh, just atmosphere and portent.

It's like the air

is thick with...

What's it thick with?

Humidity.

Right. It's liQuid and heavy

with history and tradition.

It's fecund.

Well, it must be great

tor the soil.

This land,

deep And inviolate...

paid for in blood...

intused with the lite spirit

of those...

who would endure on its f ace.

Standing in mute

And eternal reproach...

to the cheap

intransigent babble...

ot the towns that fester

in its nether parts.

This land...

whispering with overripe breath...

its tale ot original sin.

That's amazing.

Who wrote that?

I forget.

That's why I've never had kids.

AFter surviving me as a mother,

they'd gRow up And write...

more of that

twisted gothic sh*t.

May-Alice, I think you'd

make a great mother.

Dawn, I couldn't keep

a pet turtle alive.

And when I was married,

it was to that...

that "actor."

He was on the show.

amie? On a soap?

- He played Zon-Dar.

- He got you pregnant?

He's got a sperm count ot two.

Does this place have a name?

- You mean Lake Arthur?

- Arthur?

Arthur, like the king. May-Allce

is turning back into a cracker.

Actually I meant the house.

Does your f amily have a name tor it?

You mean like Belle Rive?

Well...

- Does your apartment have a name?

- 14G.

jetfrey calls our apartment

in the Hamptons uncle Tom's Condo.

Excuse me.

L teel terrible.

Here I am,

sitting in your backyard...

having a nice time.

I'm the one who stole your part

and had an atf air with your ex-husband.

Now I'm carrying hisaby.

An aff air?

Oh, not in real life.

Oh, no. No.

She...

He was taken.

Taken?

He's grown a lot

since you knew him.

At least that's

what I thought anyway.

You poor baby.

How'd it come out?

He went back to his planet.

Can I help you with anything?

I'm tine.

Kim doesn't eat meat...

and Nina is just going to open it up

and scrape out the mayonnaise.

What about you?

I eat anything.

So...

you trom around here?

- Chicago.

- Really?

Me too. Cooley High.

Du Sable.

- Where'd you live?

- Euclid Street.

Pill Hill.

Father must have been a doctor.

I'm trom out of Cabrini Green.

- It's a long way out.

- Yeah.

So, how is she doing?

see for yourselt.

I don't think

I could handle it.

Are you and her good friends?

We spent a lot of time together.

Work, you know.

Yeah.

You two seem to get along

pretty well.

We spend a lot ot time together.

I did Blanche.

I did Laura.

I did Alma in Summer and Smoke.

I did Frankie

in Member of the Wedding.

- Where was this?

- Minnesota, in school.

Oh, Minnesota, huh?

One more year on daytime,

save my money...

I am going to Quit.

I'm gonNa go back to class

and I'm gonna do theater.

- I think I've heard this one betore.

- I've said that one betore.

i didn't ask tor the anal probe.

Four years starving

in New York...

doing showcases

I had to pay tor myselt.

That was my tirst big break.

My tirst feature,

this zero-budget movie...

about people who are taken up

into alien spaceships...

and given physicals

against their will.

I go in tor the audition,

and the director...

is really intense

and mysterious...

and he has me sit

with my eyes cLosed...

and free-associate, right?

We do these improvs

about the aliens...

representing our most primal tears.

And it's great.

Finally some real acting.

And they tell me before I leave

that I've got the part.

Only I don't know what it is yet,

but I'm so thrilled...

because it's this Feature.

It's not a student Film

or anything.

The agent gives me my script,

and L go through it...

Iooking tor Margaret,

the part that they say I have.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes