SHIVERS Page #10

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PARKINS:

She had a couple just like them.

Right here near her belly button.

You could push 'em around. I thought

they were kinda sexy, myself.

ST. LUC

Didn't she ever have these lumps

looked at by a doctor?

PARKINS:

(shrugs)

Didn't seem worried about them.

ST. LUC

Was this girl from Starliner Towers?

PARKINS:

Yep. She lived in 1208. But we usually

went to my place. Bigger liquor

cabinet, bigger bed.

(chuckles, then gets

serious)

She was gone when I got back from my

last Florida trip. Too bad. Had a

beautiful tan.

(smiles again)

Must have gone home to mother.

ST. LUC

Was her name Annabelle Horsefield?

PARKINS:

That's the one.

St. Luc sits down at the counter beneath the medicine cabinet

and begins to write in Parkins' file.

ST. LUC

OK, you can get dressed now, Mr.

Parkins.

The old man begins to put his shirt and tie back on.

ST. LUC

(handing Parkins a

slip of paper)

I'm going to send you to the hospital

to have a few X-rays taken. I want

to find out exactly what you're hiding

in there, OK? Give them this. The

address is right there under

Radiology.

PARKINS:

Gonna cut me open?

ST. LUC

Well, let's wait for the X-rays.

PARKINS:

Used to know a doctor who said he

got to know his patients better than

their wives did.

(chuckles)

Cutting a man open sure does expose

more of him than pulling down his

pants, gotta admit that.

St. Luc smiles politely, his mind obviously elsewhere.

INT. LAUNDRY ROOM -- NIGHT

A bar of laundry soap props open the window of the laundry

room. The presence of the wounded parasite is indicated only

by the glistening slime trail which streaks the section of

wall immediately below the window.

The hand of an old woman, puckered and wrinkled from many

hours submerged in hot soapy water, reaches up, and yanks

the bar of soap out of the jaws of the window. The window

swing shut. The woman's hand slides the bolt home, locking

the window from the inside.

The old woman is short, dumpy, puffy-faced, in her late

sixties. Her hair is carelessly tied in a bun on top of her

head.

She sniffles, shakes her head, turns away from the window,

and walks across the room to the long bank of washers and

dryers. As she walks she has to thread her way among the

dozen or so shopping bags full of dirty laundry -- against

apartment regulations, she takes in outsiders' laundry --

which she has brought down the elevator with her.

She flips open the top of the first washer and begins to dig

clothes out of the nearest shopping bag.

From above and behind the washer, we watch her fill the

machine and reach into the front of her dress, which is black

and frayed. After feeling around for a few seconds, she pulls

out a plastic bag filled with white granulated detergent.

She dumps some of this into the washer, finds the appropriate

coins in the pocket of her dress, and starts the machine.

She watches it for a second to make sure it's working

properly, then puts the plastic bag back where she found it.

She picks up the bag she has almost emptied and shuffles in

her ragged slippers to the next washer. She stops in front

of it and puts down the bag.

The old woman notices a slimy streak near the open hole of

the washer. She grimaces, grabs a sock from the bag and cleans

off the top of the washer with it. She tosses the sock into

the washer and leans over the hole, trying to see inside.

The parasite which has been lurking in the washer suddenly

springs from the opening on to the old woman's face, suckering

on to her flesh with its stubby tentacles. She shrieks and

grabs at the creature with both hands, trying to pull it

off.

She stumbles back from the washer and begins to trip over

various shopping bags. Finally she goes down amidst her

laundry, thrashing and spilling clothes out everywhere.

INT. STARLINER TOWERS GROCERY STORE -- NIGHT

In the grocery store built into the base of one of the towers,

Janine flips through some magazines, finally buying a Vogue.

She stops to look at several shelves of various kinds of

food, picking up this and that, but somehow the thought of

cooking or even eating repulses her, and she leaves without

buying anything but the magazine.

INT. HALLWAY -- NIGHT

Janine walks along a hallway, stops at a door, knocks gently,

and then opens the door and walks in, obviously very familiar

with the occupant.

INT. BETTS' APARTMENT -- NIGHT

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