The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) Page #8

---

that he was in an almost comatose state

before we operated.

There was still some bleeding in the left

frontal lobe, but no tissue was lost.

The head trauma clogged up

the spinal fluid absorption pathways,

which slows speech, causes lethargy,

headaches.

This should have been taken care of

immediately after the trauma.

Did you notice his wife

was heavily perfumed?

- I think I smelled alcohol on her breath.

- Yes, I'm worried about her as well.

I didn't realize anyone was here.

How's he doing?

- He's sleeping.

- Not too much, sleeping. Sh*t! Sorry.

- Good. You're family?

- Yes.

- Maureen only told us this morning.

- Right when we heard. Via text.

- They were in Maureen's country house?

- We drove from Rochester to pittsfield.

- We wanted to talk to a doctor.

- We haven't been able to get information.

I'm Pam. This is Dr. soni.

- Hi, nice to meet you.

- Jean.

- Hi, nice to meet you.

- Danny.

[Jean] Dr. soni, can you tell us

what's going on with our dad?

When your mother's here,

we can go over it.

She's our stepmother.

She would've been seven

when she had me.

Well, when your stepmother comes back.

We can't find her.

She's not at the country house.

- Her voicemail's full.

- Why can't you tell us right now?

This is awkward.

- What's awkward?

- What?

I don't want to get involved

in family dynamics,

but she told me not to talk

to anyone else.

Well, that's not right, obviously.

We're his kids.

- You can talk to us.

- No, that's what I'm saying.

Since she's the next of kin, I legally

cannot talk to you. I'm very sorry.

He has an opening on Monday.

This is our first real hospital...

[Dr. soni] Talk to your stepmother.

Why'd you tell the doctor

not to talk to us?

Maureen, where have you been?

Are you moving that way on purpose?

What? No, it's always worse

after I've been sitting.

- I thought you were mocking me.

- You don't walk that way.

- I thought it was a bad imitation.

- We need to be able to talk to Dr. soni.

Dr. soni looks very much

like a chum of mine at university

who became an art looter,

but that's of no use to you.

- No.

- Absolutely none.

I'll get the information,

and you can ask me.

Email might be best

if we're gonna be in Rochester.

- I'm here, Danny's here.

- I'm here.

You need to tell her it's okay

to speak to me or Danny or Matt,

who's on his way.

- Matt's coming?

- He texted me, I texted him.

He texted you, you texted him.

Do you think I'm not

gonna tell you the truth?

- I can drive, Maureen.

- Jean...

You were wearing that same sweater

that last time I saw you.

Was I?

Maureen, we've been sitting

in that room with him,

and he's attached to those machines,

and there's a drain in his head,

and he's unconscious,

and we don't know where you are

or what's going on.

Talk to the doc...

[Car door closes]

[Car beeps]

Oh, hi. Still sleeping?

I'm Pam, the nurse.

Hey, I'm Matt, the son.

Oh, I met your brother and sister.

Half-brother and sister, yeah. Is he okay?

Dr. soni spoke with your stepmother,

and then your siblings... half-siblings,

and it's all been cleared up,

and she can talk to you freely now.

Oh, okay. How's he doing?

Your father was brought to us

the night before last,

but because he was taking baby aspirin,

which thins the blood, Dr. soni had

to wait until the morning to operate.

What happened?

He had a chronic subdural hematoma,

which meant in his case there had been

steady bleeding in his head for some time.

How did he get this?

Something like this generally can happen

from a fall, or if he hit his head.

He fell about four months ago.

Bruno pulled him onto a path.

Honestly, I'm surprised

he had such a delayed response.

He must have a real tolerance

for discomfort.

Will he be okay?

Well, because he waited so long,

there was quite a bit of irritation

in the frontal lobe,

and now that the pressure's

off the brain, it causes severe agitation.

The frontal lobe has language,

but it's potentially

a hundred percent recoverable.

He was very responsive this morning.

He was identifying objects. I showed him

a flashlight, he said, "flashlight."

Oh, I'll leave you guys.

Oh. Thanks, Pam.

Hey.

Do you know my name?

Of course, it's Matthew.

Um...

What is this?

BlackBerry.

Yes.

This is...

What, dad?

This...

You...

It's okay, we don't have to talk.

I can say it.

You're here...

Is what I wanted.

How... are you feeling?

I'm happy...

I'm happy you're here.

Yeah, I took a red-eye when I heard.

I'm sorry we...

I'm sorry this happened.

When is my...

Your opening?

It's on Monday.

Is that today?

No, today is Wednesday.

Will it happen?

It will happen, dad.

I don't know if you'll be able go.

Will you?

Sure, I'll go.

You speak for me.

Yeah, I can say something, yes.

It's yours.

We made it together.

I have a meeting in the city

which I really need to get to.

- Okay.

- That's okay, right?

- Sure.

- He's okay, right? I'm not abandoning him?

- I can't really answer that.

- I just have this client meeting.

- I understand.

- He's okay, right?

I think so, yeah.

I left my number in the room.

Call me if anything changes.

[Tony] where you are?

[Matthew]

I'm in pittsfield. It's in Massachusetts.

Is that like New York?

Well, it's a different state.

It's sunny here. What is it there?

Rainy.

You can't fight the weather.

You can fight knights.

- Yeah.

- And ninjas.

Do you know who's good

at playing ninjas? Jim.

- Who's Jim?

- He's the handyman.

I've never heard of Jim.

You used to live here,

but you don't anymore.

If you did, you would know Jim.

Do you see a lot of Jim?

He comes on weekends.

Is this a weekend?

In three days it's a weekend.

Three days, that's three weeks.

No, sweetheart, it's three days.

Does Jim stay over?

No, Jim doesn't sleep.

He stays up all night with mommy

eating dinner and leaves in the morning.

Hold on, I'm getting another call.

Raise your hand

if ninjas are your favorite thing.

- Okay, just wait a second, sweetheart.

- Okay, bye now.

Hello?

Maybe if he hears it?

Danny, stop. It doesn't help.

Do you know who this is?

It's all right.

Do you remember when you said, "Danny?"

- You have to stop giving him the answers.

- It's all right.

Who's this?

It's all right.

- Oh, no.

- It's Matt. He just got here.

- Stop giving him the answers.

- So, how are we doing?

- [Harold] it's all right.

- Where's Pam?

- Pam engels or Pam chin?

- I don't know.

I was just here. He knew

what a BlackBerry was

and could say my name and everything.

We talked about his show.

You were here? Where were you?

Sometimes they can take a little while

to come back from these surgeries.

No, he was already back.

I'm sorry, who are you?

Who is everybody? I just got here.

- We're his kids.

- Where's Pam?

- I wasn't here so I don't know.

- I was, that's what I'm telling you.

Why didn't you call us? Where'd you go?

Heading back to the city for a meeting,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes