Sleepless in Seattle Page #9

SAM:

Some woman is going to want me

to do it to her and I'm not

going to know what it is.

JAY:

You'll like it.

SAM:

(grimly)

This is going to be tougher

than I thought.

EXT. HOUSEBOAT - EARLY EVENING

Sam coming home.

INT. HOUSEBOAT - EARLY EVENING

As he enters. It's very quiet. Too quiet.

SAM:

Jonah?

No answers.

SAM:

Jonah?

He starts to look concerned.

SAM:

Jonah?

He goes down the hall to Jonah's room. The door is

shut. He opens it.

Jonah is sitting on his bed listening to a tape.

Earphones on. Next to him is a young girl named

JESSICA.

SAM:

Jonah?

Jonah takes off the earphones.

JONAH:

Hi, Dad. Dad, this is Jessica.

SAM:

It's nice to meet you, Jessica.

JONAH:

Dad, this is amazing. If you

play this backwards, it says

"Paul is dead."

SAM:

I know.

JONAH:

How do you know?

Sam shrugs, turns to go back down the hall.

JONAH:

Dad, could you close the door?

JESSICA:

H and G.

(Sam looks back)

Hi and goodbye.

Sam closes the door to Jonah's room.

Hold on Sam.

SAM:

(to himself)

Get a life.

INT. HOUSEBOAT - CONTINUOUS

As Sam comes downstairs, goes into his office. Closes

the door.

INT. SAM'S OFFICE AT HOME - CONTINUOUS

He goes to the phone. Looks up a number in the phone

book. Picks up the phone and dials a number.

SAM:

Hi, Victoria?... It's Sam

Baldwin, I don't know if you

remember me. Oh? Well, great.

I was wondering if you wanted

to have a drink... Friday,

say... Dinner?... Sure, dinner

would be fine. Sure. Dinner.

INT. AN UNFINISHED DINNER ON A PLATE IN ANNIE'S LIVING ROOM

- NIGHT

Annie is watching "An Affair to Remember" on television,

tears pouring down her face. Cary Grant is saying: "Are

you in love with him?" Deborah Kerr replies: "I'm not

now."

She's sitting at the dining room table. A dozen pieces

of paper litter the table. Annie's been unsuccessfully

typing a letter on an old Underwood typewriter.

ANNIE:

Now those were the days when

people knew how to be in love.

She takes a blast from the wine glass to her right.

Becky leans in, refilling the glass. Annie begins to

type and sob and look at the TV.

BECKY:

You're a basket case.

ANNIE:

(as she types)

They knew it. Time, distance,

nothing could separate them.

Because they knew. It was

right. It was real. It was...

BECKY:

... movie.

(beat)

That's your problem. You don't

want to be in love. You want

to be in love in a movie.

(beat)

Read it to me.

ANNIE:

(reading her letter)

"Dear Sleepless and Son..."

BECKY:

It sounds like the name of a

mattress store --

ANNIE:

"I am not the sort of person

who listens to call-in radio

shows" --

Becky flops on the couch.

BECKY:

And this woman is a writer!

That's what everyone writes at

the beginning of letters to

strangers.

ANNIE:

I know that. You think I don't

know that? "I know that's a

dumb way to begin, but it's the

only way I can think of to

convey what happened to me the

other night when I heard the

two of you on the radio. On

the other hand, maybe I'm just

losing my mind."

BECKY:

You are. You're losing your

mind. What about Walter?

ANNIE:

I'm going to marry Walter. I

just have to get this out of my

system.

BECKY:

Right.

ANNIE:

I should say something in this

about magic.

BECKY:

What?

ANNIE:

I don't know. I mean, what if

I never meet him? What if this

man is my destiny and I never

meet him?

BECKY:

Your destiny can be your doom.

Look at me and Rick.

ANNIE:

(typing some more)

"I want to meet you..."

Cary Grant says:
"How about the top of the Empire State

Building?"

BECKY:

"On top of the Empire State

Building at sunset on

Valentine's Day."

ANNIE:

Good. Perfect. I'll be in New

York with Walter, I can squeeze

it in.

She types in Becky's idea.

Then she takes the piece of paper out of the typewriter,

smashes it into a ball and tosses it up in the air and

into Becky's lap.

BECKY:

You want to hear about destiny?

If my husband hadn't gone on a

diet, which caused me to leave

him, I would never have been on

that flight to Miami, and met

Rick, and ended up having sex

in the bathroom of a 727 with

that nob you slide that says

"vacant-occupied, vacant-

occupied, vacant-occupied" --

(she shudders in

ecstasy, then pulls

herself together)

ANNIE:

You never told me you left your

husband because he went on a

diet.

BECKY:

(nods; after a beat)

He lost all the weight...

there.

ANNIE:

That's impossible. A guy can't

--

BECKY:

Can too.

ANNIE:

No.

BECKY:

Yes.

ANNIE:

And then you left him? He lost

weight there and you left him?

BECKY:

Plus he fell in love with a

temp.

ANNIE:

Listen to this, I love this

part --

Deborah Kerr says: "It's now or never." And Cary Grant

says:
"We'd be fools to let happiness pass us by."

Deborah Kerr:
"Winter must be cold for those with no

warm memories."

Becky and Annie with tears rolling down their faces.

BECKY:

Men never get this movie.

ANNIE:

I know.

BECKY:

Do you think at the end of the

movie when she's in the

wheelchair they can still do

it?

ANNIE:

I always wondered about that

too.

As Becky reaches for a Kleenex.

INT. JONAH'S BEDROOM

A Kleenex being pulled from a box. Sam is giving it to

Jonah, who's up. His hair is mated with perspiration.

SAM:

It's okay, it's okay. I'm

here.

A beat while Jonah calms down.

JONAH:

It was sinking.

SAM:

What was?

JONAH:

Our house. There was water

coming in all the windows.

SAM:

(calm and definite)

You're worried we're going to

be all right. We're going to

be all right.

(Sam gives Jonah a

squeeze)

I remember sometimes you'd have

nightmares as a baby. Your mom

would hold you and rock you and

sing you a song.

JONAH:

Bye bye blackbird.

SAM:

Is that what she used to sing?

JONAH:

I miss her.

(beat)

What do you think happens to

someone after they die?

SAM:

I don't know.

JONAH:

Like do you believe in heaven?

SAM:

I never did. Or the whole idea

of an afterlife. But I don't

know any more. I have these

dreams about... your mom... and

we have long talks about...

about you, and how you are,

which she sort of knows but I

tell her anyway. So what is

that? It's sort of an afterlife,

isn't it?

JONAH:

I'm starting to forget her.

SAM:

I know. But she's here, Jonah.

Because I have you. And as

long as I have you, I have your

Mom.

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