The Making of 'The Number 23' Page #2

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That an education was my

best shot at getting out.

See, the stork dropped me in

a small dustbowl of a town.

There wasn't anything wrong with it.

As far as boring towns go,

I'm sure it ranked above average.

I had friends, but...

I always felt alone.

No one ever left,

But I wasn't gonna die here.

As much as I loved him,

I didn't want to be

anything like my dad.

He seemed so distant and sad.

Numbers were his life.

He was an accountant.

And I guess he had expected me to

take over the business he had built,

But I had other plans.

My mom was tickled pink

on my eighth birthday

When I announced I

wanted to be a detective.

Can't say the same for my father.

It really put the

kibosh on his master plan

And it fueled his hatred

for the widow dobkins.

She lived next door.

- It sounds odd, but her dog alfie...

Is the reason I became a detective.

The grass is always

greener on the other side,

At least according to alfie.

That's why he was always in our yard,

And it was my job to catch him.

But I never crossed the fence

into the widow dobkins' yard.

That was my father's rule.

On my eighth birthday,

I broke the rule.

Now I must admit that my

loneliness and obsession

With detective stories

had fueled fantasies.

So I'm not sure of all the details,

Except one.

The widow dobkins was dead.

It was a whole hour

before the doctor arrived,

And in that uncertain hour

My eight-year-old

mind raced.

I decided that the

widow dobkins was killed

By a man with a deranged mind,

A mind such as our town

had never seen before.

No one would be safe from

him, not even his loved ones.

Especially his loved ones.

Of course, a doctor later

concluded that it was suicide,

But I never believed it.

By then, my mind had been

opened to a whole new existence.

From this, a

detective was born--

Detective fingerling."

This has promise too.

Hey, there you are. What are you doing?

I'll clean this up later.

Filling your head

with nonsense, are you?

- Did you read this?

- Most of it.

- It's very creative.

- This fingerling guy.

Yeah, it's a cool name.

Yeah, what did you make of him?

I loved him at the-- Well,

at the beginning I did.

What do you mean at the beginning?

Well, he-- How far

have you gotten?

- Oh, two chapters.

- Oh.

Honey, will you move this ladder

for me, just right over here?

You know, honey, this fingerling

guy reminds me of my life.

It's so weird.

Like, it's like my childhood,

my memories, you know?

Will you hand me that blue paint?

- Here.

- Fingerling's nothing like you.

Oh, yeah, look at that?

"Fingerling at the zoo." My mother

read it to me when I was a kid.

I'm sure a lot of people

read that as a kid.

- Did you?

- No.

- Ha-Aa! - But you know what?

Every time I read a book,

It's like, the author stole a part

of me that I thought only I knew.

Someday I'm gonna write a book

and I'll do it to somebody else.

I don't know, hon.

It's-- It's just really

- Kind of strange.

- You know what?

There's a lot of neighborhoods

with houses just like yours,

With streets just like yours.

Yeah? With dogs next door?

Oh, your neighbor had a

dog. Well, that's shocking.

It wasn't called

alfie. It was called chief.

"Mis-Chief" my father called it.

He used to escape all the time.

That's why I became an a.C.O.

Fingerling's a detective.

I used to collect detective magazines.

And the widow next door, mrs. Dobkins,

Well, that's like my mom.

She died on my eighth birthday.

Look, I got freakin' goose bumps.

Honey, keep reading, okay?

Soon you will discover that

fingerling is nothing like you.

Somebody wrote a book about dad?

- No.

- Yes. Yes.

- How's school?

- Horrible.

Am I in it?

I mean, if the book's about dad,

Then I should have, like, a

starring role or something.

Yes, you should, and yet you don't.

Now what do you think that means?

- Hmm, jeez.

- Who's that?

- Fabrizia.

- Fabrizia?

Uh-Huh.

got a big plan, this mindset

maybe it's right at the

right place and right time

maybe tonight and the whisper

or handshake sending a sign

wanna make out and kiss hard?

wait, never mind

late night and passing

mention it flipped her best friend

who knows saying maybe it slipped

but the slip turns to

terror and a crush to light

then she walked in, he throws up

- believe it's the fright, it's cute in a way...

till you cannot speak and

you leave to have a cigarette

your knees get weak,

escape was just a nod

and a casual wave, obsessed about it

heavy for the next two days

it's only just a crush it'll go away

it's just like all the

others, it'll go away

or maybe this is danger

and you just don't know

you pray it all away

but it continues to grow

I want to hold you close

skin pressed against me tight

lie still, close your eyes, girl

so lovely it feels so right.

"Chapter 5:

I meet the suicide blonde."

I got a tip from your

neighborhood watch.

I know what you're up to.

This befriend-Me crap, it won't work.

Come any closer and I'll do it.

Well, I hope you don't.

It's my birthday today.

You end up hanging yourself,

it'll be the worst one ever.

You're pathetic.

- I'm serious. I'll

do it. - Hanging--

It's a painful thing.

Most people get the noose wrong,

End up walking around with

a permanent necklace...

agonizing reminder of how

f***ing pitiful they are.

Come on, let's talk.

If you're still bummed, I'll

put one right between your eyes.

I'm a good shot.

Is it really your birthday?

"The suicide blonde

tells me she was a good person once,

But now..."

I'm a bad person.

I don't wanna make you bad.

You don't have that power.

Go see my ex-Boyfriend. He'll show you.

"I should

have gotten out of there

Right at that moment,

but then she said..."

It's this number!

This f***ing

number-- 23.

It rules my world.

It's my father's fault.

He said he'd found a

way to beat the number,

That he'd beat it, that I was safe.

He said, "daddy loves you.

And he's gonna do something...

...to guarantee that

you won't inherit the curse."

He was wrong.

His guarantee wasn't worth

the blood it was written in.

I guess daddy didn't love me enough.

It's everywhere--

Dates, times,

License plate numbers, pages of books,

Even elevator floor lights.

Soon I found it was in my name.

It was in the words I spoke.

Nothing, nothing is safe.

Pink is my favorite color.

Do you know what pink is?

Red 27, white 65.

Pink has four letters.

92 divided by four.

Twenty-F***ing-Three!

"I'll be honest--

I didn't get it.

I asked her the only

question I could muster."

Any more coffee?

"It was

important to keep her talking,

So I tell her a story."

I had this

uncle, his name was charlie.

And, uh, one day, he read in his stars

That he was gonna fall in love

With a woman in red.

So he went out looking all day long

And he found one.

Six months later, they were married.

You're lying.

Two years later, the woman

in red divorces my uncle,

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