The Paper Page #8

holds it to my head.

He says, "I blow your wife's brains out

or I blow up the Sun building."

Choose. Now.

What do you say?

What do you think I say?

It's ridiculous.

It's not gonna happen.

That is exactly my point.

It is never one big dramatic choice.

It is little, vague situations

every day...

and you're either there

or you're not.

If you keep waiting for the guy with

the gun to show up, it will be too late.

I will be there.

I promise.

Henry, 9:
00!

Let's go!

What?

You know,

I mean after tonight, hon.

You would do the same thing.

I saw you waddle off

81/2 months pregnant to chase a story.

We're gonna miss this guy!

Wait! Hold on a minute!

Come inside now. Sit down and

have dinner like you said you would.

Hon, come on.

Don't take the bat out of my hand.

It's the ninth inning.

I gotta get the quote.

The guy won't be there all night.

Why are you calm?

Don't get calm. I hate this.

Shout or something.

You like to shout.

You should have just told me

if we had a kid I'd be on my own.

You really should have told me.

You won't.

Two hours.

Two hours.

You hear me?

Probably not even two hours.

Hour and a half, okay?

Come on.

Honey, wait a minute.

It's not even...

It will be two...

Listen to me.

- Henry, come on!

- Oh, man.

Yeah, 99%

of your time and effort...

goes into three basic things:

Your house, your work,

your family.

- Well?

- Women in general...

if you don't have a family,

or men or sheep or whatever.

I made the leap, Bern.

If you put them all together...

the three of them want more than you

gotta give, so what do you do?

That's a tough one.

Now...

your family, they're people...

so you figure you can get

a little human leeway there.

You figure they'll bend.

- But...

- So you crap all over them.

Yeah, you do. You do.

- Freshen it up for you?

- Yeah, you read my mind.

Hey, you. Bong!

Oh, God, please.

Something. Anything.

Anything in focus.

Oh, sh*t!

I am fired.

Oh, that's it.

I got it!

I've been writing a book

about my life...

an autobiography of my days with the

Civil Rights movement and other cases.

I hope it's a big success.

Probably a movie.

- Ah, Greg, Cynthia.

- How are you?

Send me that advance issue.

Talk to you next week.

How are you?

It's good to see you.

I feel funny about it. Yeah.

See you later.

Excuse me.

There's something I'd like to discuss.

I didn't want to bother you upstairs.

I feel an obligation...

to act on this directly with you

because I think we have a good...

I think we have

a good relationship...

and I'd like to take it further.

And I think the way to do that

is face to face.

You know, you and I,

face to face.

I'm gay.

Well, I wasn't...

I mean, that's fine.

I'm kidding.

- That was really good.

- Yeah, well, what's up?

Well, I won't waste your time.

I have other offers.

Didn't we just

renegotiate your contract?

Yeah, but my deal's up

in just under a year.

Eighteen months, isn't it?

Well, technically, that would be

more accurate, but you know, with...

Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what.

If you have other offers,

you have my permission to pursue them.

Don't come to me again

without talking to Bernie first.

I don't like it.

It's cheap. Okay?

We done?

I don't think you...

I'd love it

if you weren't here.

I'm going to keep you

as my b*tch, boy.

I want those sneakers, man.

- What the hell you looking at, boy?

- How you doing, sweetheart?

You got a problem here?

- Man, I'm so scared.

- Don't talk.

Yeah, what am I

supposed to do?

Stay awake.

Here's your damn clipboard.

The next time you want office supplies...

Keep the clipboard.

The clipboard's for you.

A clipboard and a confident wave will

get you into any building in the world.

Hi. How are you?

Jesus Christ!

You scared the sh*t out of me.

We gotta talk about

this Williamsburg-Sedona thing.

Oh, geez, I don't believe this.

Let's go.

Everybody's on edge around here.

At home!

I told you a million times: You want

to talk to me, talk to me at home.

We think we know what happened.

Nick D'Onofrio wanted to settle a debt.

His guys made it look

like a race war.

Now they got the neighbourhoods

all stirred up.

You know what would happen to me

if somebody saw us talking?

What's going on?

You guys looking at D'Onofrio?

The dead guys lost

his five million bucks.

What's he gonna do,

buy 'em Giants tickets?

Congratulations. You have

a firm grasp of the obvious.

Thank you.

Then if you do suspect him,

why are those two kids in jail?

I ain't going on record.

Who the f*** is this guy?

We just want to know

what you think.

To characterize the arrest,

what would you say?

- To who?

- To anybody. To your wife.

Your wife says, "How was your day?"

What do you say?

F*** you.

To your wife?

You're not getting me fired.

If you're all right with "Gotcha"

as tomorrow's headline...

that's what it's gonna be.

Me, I can't live with it,

but if you can, okay. Thanks.

- "Gotcha"?

- Over a picture of the kids.

Don't run that bullshit!

What do you think I'm trying to do?

Look, I got news for you.

I'm not locked up in the men's room

with a cop because it's a good time.

Frankly, I've had better times.

I'm here because

I think the story is wrong. Is it?

Is it?

If you have something, give it to me,

but don't act coy...

and say "F*** you," because,

quite frankly, it's a waste of our time.

And you know what?

I have no more f***ing time.

I need it right now!

We run what you guys give us.

You gave us "Gotcha."

I didn't give you that bullshit.

Downtown gave you that sh*t.

All downtown cares...

is that you guys run nice, front-page

stories about how we got the guys.

Everybody can still come to New York

with their money. Next month...

when the kids are released

because of lack of evidence...

They were just walking by,

for Christ's sake.

We don't even have

a print on a murder weapon.

When that gets out,

you guys...

will bury it on page 23

and nobody will notice.

- Can you give me that on the record?

- Stop the sh*t, will you?

- Bullshit.

- Do something.

These are nice kids, Richie. These are

good kids you guys threw in jail.

These kids have bright futures.

One of them is an honour student.

The other one's a ball player.

He's a tailback.

He's going to Penn State this fall.

This makes me sick.

Penn State?

Yeah. Nittany Lions.

You guys use my name on this,

and I will f***ing find you.

You understand?

I got it. Police department source only.

Promise, right?

These kids?

They didn't do it.

This is great!

It writes like butter.

There is actual butter

coming out of my pen.

The guy actually said the headline.

He said it. He used the word.

"They didn't do it."

You got an honest-to-God exclusive.

Alicia's going to have to

kiss my ass on this one.

Come on, baby.

Right here!

I gotta know if she hates me.

If she hates me, there's no point.

Hates you?

She's your daughter.

What could you do

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