Quicksand Page #2

- Are you crazy?

What do you think I am? A millionaire?

What's going on here?

Let's skip it.

Come on, we'll have our pictures taken.

Come on.

See you later, Nick.

Who goes first?

We both go.

What do you want?

Gimme a half buck's worth of nickels.

OK, admiral.

Now what do you want?

There's only nine nickels there, buddy.

Yeah?

Who's cheating who?

Look, you got your nickel, haven't you?

Hit the road.

Why hello, Nick.

Look, I've got rules in this house.

That goes for you too.

If you want to pull that kind of stuff,

go somewhere else.

Come on, beat it. Beat it!

Come on, Vera, let's get out of this

crummy joint.

Goodbye, Nick.

See that big star right there?

Yeah.

That's Beetlejerz.

Who?

Beetlejerz.

Beetlejuice, Dave used to call it.

Dave.

Who's Dave?

A fellow I used to know.

He taught me the names of all the stars.

You know, I never saw a star

until I was sixteen?

How come?

I was raised

in Steeltown, West Virginia.

And you couldn't see the sky

for the smoke.

So I ran away.

Funny, I ran away from home too.

That was a long, long time ago.

I uh..What did you do after you

ran away from home?

I was a car hop for a while,

waitress in a beer joint,

clerk in a five and ten,

cashier in a coffee shop.

It's not what you run away to,

it's what you run away from.

I ran away from a farm and the belt

the old man used to whip me with.

My old man sure was free with that belt.

I ran away from a lot of things.

Ma getting drunk all the time

and never having any

decent clothes to wear.

And the boarders.

Especially those boarders.

They wouldn't leave me alone.

It must have been tough.

I learned to handle them after a while.

Think you can handle me?

Sure.

I can handle you easy.

Yeah?

Hello, is Buzz there?

He what?

Took a fishing party?

When will he be back?

No.

No, never mind. I'll...

All right. I'll call him later.

Bye.

The bookkeeper.

What's he doing here two days

ahead of time?

If he finds out I'm short,

he'll tell the old man.

The old man's mean enough to

send a guy to jail just for laughs.

I gotta get twenty bucks in a hurry.

How about that Salary Loan outfit.

The one that's always yackin'

on the radio,

"Walk in with an honest face, walk out

with a pocket full of dough."

I must have walked in

with the wrong face.

A couple of days to check my references.

I haven't got any references

and I haven't got a couple of days.

THIS WEEK ONLY ONE DOLLAR DOWN

BUYS ANY WATCH IN THIS WINDOW

Can I have it for a dollar down

like it says in the window?

Soon as we've checked up on your credit.

Credit.

I can't wait that long.

- Wait a minute.

You got a charge account in town?

No.

Yes, I have.

The hub. At the Hub

where I buy my clothes.

I tell you what I'll do.

I'll call their credit manager and if he

says you're OK,

you can take the watch right with you.

OK?

Now, let's get it on

and show you what it looks like.

How much could you let me have

on this ticker?

Thirty dollars do you any good?

Thirty dollars will be fine.

Any better than last week?

I don't know yet, Mr. Mackey.

I'll let you know.

About that other matter,

see if you can't find a way

to make it a business deduction.

I'll think about it, Mr. Mackey.

Hi, George.

Hi, Danny.

You're uh...

You're here kind of early

this week, aren't you?

The old man sent for me.

He had some tax reports

for me to get out.

Oh.

And I figured as long as I was here,

I'd get my Thursday work done.

Say, Dan.

I just checked the register

and it's $20 short.

Maybe you could have

made a mistake or something.

No, I checked it twice.

Well...

Sometimes the money gets stuck

in the money sack down there.

Yeah.

Yeah, here it is.

I looked in the money sack.

You just didn't look good enough.

Can I do anything for you, sir?

Are you Dan Brady?

Yeah.

I'm Moriarity.

California Investigation Service.

You bought a watch yesterday

at Jay's Jewelers, didn't you?

Yeah, I did.

And took it straight to Uncle John's

and hocked it.

What if I did?

Don't play dumb. Why would you buy

a watch for a hundred dollars

and hock it the same day for thirty?

Well, I...

Because you don't intend

to pay the hundred. That's why.

Wait a minute.

Don't holler before you're hurt.

I signed up to pay that thing

ten bucks a month and when the month's

up, I'll pay them the ten bucks.

No, you won't.

Because Jay Jewelers don't think you're

going to be here when the month's up.

They think you're going to skip town.

So you'll pay up now or Jay's going to

swear out a warrant.

Warrant?

Warrant for what?

I'll give it to you in words

of one syllable, my friend.

When you buy something on the

installment plan you sign what they call

a conditional sales contract.

Yeah?

This contract says that the watch

the radio or the easy chair

don't belong to you till

you make your last payment.

It says that if you sell,

mortgage or hock

something you don't own yet,

you're guilty of larceny.

And a hundred dollar watch

is grand larceny.

That's three years in the penitentiary

in this state.

You're kidding me, aren't you?

Kidding? Me?

Not on your life.

You signed a contract like this,

didn't you?

Yeah.

Read what it says right there.

Debt is payable...

Within 24 hours

or charges will be brought.

Look, I...

I can't get a hold of a hundred bucks

just like that right away.

Well, you better dig it up somewhere.

Because if you don't pay it by noon

tomorrow, a little man's

going to call on you with a big warrant.

That's all, brother.

Till noon tomorrow.

Hey, Chuck.

- Yeah?

What does a guy do when he

needs lots of dough?

Me, I usually hock my watch.

That's a great idea.

Maybe I can get some dough on my jalopy.

I wonder how much

they'll give me for it.

No dice. What good is

three hundred bucks?

I still owe the finance company

three fifty.

By half past eight I'd tried everything

I could think of

and I still hadn't raised

a hundred dollars.

I hadn't raised a buck and a quarter.

So I threw in the towel and headed

for Phil's Place.

To knock off a couple of beers.

The longer I sat on that silly stool,

the more I felt like slugging somebody.

I could've socked old man Mackey

for being so tight.

Or the guy in the jewelry store

for sending Moriarity after me.

Or the fellow standing

next to me at the bar.

Because he had money in his pocket

and I didn't.

How much do I owe you, Philly?

Three sixty, Shorty.

OK. I gotta get home

before the old lady chops my ears off.

Haven't you got something smaller?

This one's a fifty.

Well, how's this one?

That's another fifty.

Here, let me look.

There's a five right there on top.

Oh, this one.

Yeah.

Just keep the change.

I gotta get home before the old lady

slaps me down.

Who?

Your wife.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, the old lady. Good night, Phil.

So long, Shorty.

How's a joker like that rate

all that dough?

Shorty? He runs the bingo game.

Do the suckers keep him happy.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes