The counselor’s condominium bedroom. The curtains are drawn and it is all but dark in the room. The view is from the rear of the bed and of two figures in the bed. The dialogue is muffled at times by the bedcovers and it therefore appears in SUBTITLES on the screen.
LAURA Are you awake?
COUNSELOR No.
LAURA Okay.
COUNSELOR What time is it?
LAURA Two oclock. Almost two oclock.
COUNSELOR Two oclock what.
LAURA What?
COUNSELOR AM or PM.
LAURA You’re not serious.
COUNSELOR Not entirely.
COUNSELOR I know. God you’re a sexy woman. What time is your flight?
LAURA Seven-forty.
COUNSELOR What are you doing?
LAURA I’m not doing anything.
COUNSELOR They’re going to take me out of here on a gurney.
LAURA We could talk.
COUNSELOR Do you think we should have some coffee?
LAURA You think that we should have coffee.
COUNSELOR I guess not.
LAURA I havent seen you for two weeks. And I have to go back this evening.
COUNSELOR I know. Tell me something sexy. Words are everything to a man.
LAURA Okay.
LAURA I’m thinking.
COUNSELOR Okay.
LAURA I want you to put your hand up my dress.
COUNSELOR You’re not wearing a dress.
LAURA What does that have to do with it? It’s something you like for me to say.
COUNSELOR I know. But it has to be real, doesnt it?
LAURA All right. I want you to put your hand inside my panties.
COUNSELOR It’s the same problem. Maybe you should just say what it is that you want me to do.
LAURA I want you to touch me.
COUNSELOR You want me to touch you where.
LAURA I want you to touch me down there.
COUNSELOR You really do.
COUNSELOR Say it more sexy.
LAURA I want you to touch it.
COUNSELOR God. Are you wet?
LAURA Yes. Ooh. Baby?
COUNSELOR God. You’re sopping.
LAURA I know.
COUNSELOR How did you get yourself into such a state?
LAURA Ooh. From thinking about you.
COUNSELOR From thinking about me what.
LAURA From thinking about your sweet face between my legs.
COUNSELOR God, woman.
LAURA Baby? Ooh. I think I should go tidy up.
COUNSELOR I dont want you to. I want you all over me.
COUNSELOR Very sure.
LAURA All right.
COUNSELOR How did you get to be such a bad girl?
LAURA It was from hanging out with you. Can I tell you something?
COUNSELOR Of course.
LAURA I think you outdid yourself last night. I thought I would never stop coming.
COUNSELOR You know what that does to a man’s ego?
LAURA I do. Shall I go on?
COUNSELOR Please.
LAURA God. Slow. Slow. God. How do you know how to do that?
COUNSELOR From hanging out with really nasty girls.
LAURA You’ve ruined me. You know that.
COUNSELOR I hope so. God. You have the most luscious pussy in all of Christendom. Did you know that?
LAURA What do girls say when you do that?
COUNSELOR There arent any girls. There’s just you.
LAURA But there have been.
COUNSELOR A long time ago. I dont remember.
LAURA Yes you do.
COUNSELOR Do you really want to know?
LAURA Yes. I do.
COUNSELOR Okay. They usually would say one of two things. Either Oh my God, or Jesus Christ. But nearly always something religious like that.
LAURA You’re pretty funny.
COUNSELOR Women like to be amused. Tell me what to do.
LAURA You know what to do.
LAURA What if I shock you?
COUNSELOR Too bad.
LAURA Are you sure?
COUNSELOR Yes.
LAURA Okay. I want you to finger fuck me.
COUNSELOR What?
LAURA You heard me.
COUNSELOR I cant believe you said that.
LAURA Believe it.
COUNSELOR You’ve reached a whole new level of depravity, havent you? I thought that didnt mean that much to girls.
LAURA Depends on the girl.
COUNSELOR You really do.
LAURA I want you to stick your finger up me and find my spot and push on it.
LAURA No. On Thursday.
COUNSELOR God.
LAURA Ooh. God. Yes. Yes. Ooh. I thought you didnt know how to do that?
COUNSELOR I never said that. God you are luscious.
LAURA Shh.
COUNSELOR Okay.
LAURA Shh. Oh. God. Oh my God.
Mexican garage. A welder in coveralls and goggles is cutting a line along the side of the tank of a Ford F-650 septic-tank truck with an acetylene torch.
Mexican garage. The tank of the truck has been cut in two laterally and a hoist is lowering a fifty-five gallon drum into the open top of the tank. The welder is standing in the tank waiting to unfasten the hooks and the cable.
High desert grassland, similar to the country around Patagonia Arizona or east of Las Vegas New Mexico. Evening. A white Cadillac Escalade is parked along the edge of an arroyo under some large cottonwood trees. A two-horse trailer is hitched to the rear of the vehicle and the tailgate of the Escalade is down. The driver’s door is open and a man—Reiner—is sitting in the driver’s seat looking out the open door with a pair of binoculars. He is well dressed in khakis and sport shirt and he is wearing a pair of tall Gokey leather snakeproof boots.
High desert. Evening. A cheetah is loping at high speed.
A street in Amsterdam, shops, canal. The counselor crosses a bridge. He is dressed in a summer suit with no tie and he carries a black nylon portfolio in one hand.
High desert. A very attractive woman—Malkina—is sitting crosslegged in the luggage rack on top of the Escalade. She is wearing a black western hat with a flat or porkpie crown and a braided leather chin strap. A white shirt with a leather vest and a pair of whipcord riding pants with expensive leather boots. Her long black hair is pinned back and she is leaning forward with her elbows on her knees looking through a pair of expensive binoculars.
Mexican garage. The welder is welding the top of the tank back in place.
Mexican garage. The welder is grinding down the weld bead along the side of the tank with an electric disc grinder in a huge shower of sparks.
High desert. A jackrabbit is racing through the grass. The cheetah overtakes it and kills it in a cloud of dust.
High desert. The woman lowers the binoculars and closes her eyes and presses her elbows against her sides. She almost winces. At this close distance we can see the tattoo of an Egyptian cat at the side of her neck. A second cheetah is sitting chained at the side of the Escalade and it gets up and circles and sits again and stares very intently into the distance.
Mexican garage. A man in coveralls wearing a canister paintmask is spraying the tank of the truck in a paintbooth.
Office of a diamond dealer in Amsterdam. An old fashioned woodpaneled room. The dealer is in shirtsleeves with gaiters, a tie. He pushes the microscope across the table to the counselor. The counselor puts his eye to the microscope. There is a jeweler’s blackcloth spread on the desk between them and on it are seven or eight diamonds, three to five carats in size. The counselor looks up and the dealer reaches and pulls the microscope back across the desk and makes a shrugging gesture with one hand and removes the stone from the clip and places it on the blackcloth and mounts another stone in the clip and pushes the microscope back. The counselor bends to study it. The dealer watches him.
A small Mexican port town on the Gulf of California. Several trucks are being unloaded and are driven along the dock toward a warehouse with a sign over the door that says Aduana. One of the trucks is the septic-tank truck and it is waved aside and the driver hands a brown envelope down to the customs inspector who puts it inside the front of his coat and the truck drives out to the road.
High desert. Sunset. The woman is riding out across the grasslands at almost a full gallop on a good Arabian horse. English saddle. She turns the horse and looks behind her and bends low over the horse’s neck and urges the horse on. The two cheetahs pass her and disappear in the dust.
Southwestern desert. Distant mountains shimmering in the heat. Looking down a long straight stretch of empty blacktop road all but liquid in the waves of heat.
Southwestern desert. The septic-tank truck is sitting in the chaparral. The driver opens the door and stands up, holding onto the roof of the cab and the top of the open door. The other man watches through the windshield with a pair of binoculars. In the distance a line of stragglers crossing through the chaparral, men and women, carrying suitcases, carrying laundrybags over their shoulders. The standing man takes a cigarette from his shirtpocket and lights it and blows the smoke gently.
Office of the diamond dealer.
COUNSELOR I want her to have something that she would not be uncomfortable wearing. I dont want to give her a diamond so big she’d be afraid to wear it.
DEALER (Nodding, just the trace of a smile) She is probably more courageous than you imagine.
He takes the stone from the clip and sorts another one and puts it in the clip and looks at it through the loupe. He holds it to his mouth and breathes on it and looks at it again. He leans and fixes it under the microscope and leans back. The counselor bends to study the stone. The dealer watches him.
COUNSELOR Is this a Pillow?
DEALER No. It’s an Asscher. Look at the corners.
COUNSELOR Yes.
DEALER Let’s put it in the grading box.
The counselor looks up and the dealer reaches and takes the stone with the tweezers from the clip and takes a small white cardboard trough and places the diamond in it.
DEALER The Pillow has a slight arc to the sides. It is a modern version of the old-mine cut. Let’s look at the color.
The counselor adjusts the microscope and turns the stone with the tweezers.
DEALER Put it table-side down.
COUNSELOR So you’re looking through the pavilion.
DEALER Yes. There is more to look through.
COUNSELOR It appears to be yellow.
DEALER Yes. This is called the body color. It is still a white stone. But the body color will be either brown or yellow. The colors start with D. The D stone has no color.
COUNSELOR The colors go all the way to Z.
DEALER Yes.
COUNSELOR So what am I looking at?
DEALER H.
COUNSELOR Is that still a good color?
DEALER A very good color. It is nitrogen that gives it the yellow. The truth is that anything you can say about a diamond is in the nature of a flaw. The perfect diamond would be composed simply of light. Do you see the inclusion?
DEALER Look some more. It is small. What we would call a feather. Turn the stone slightly.
COUNSELOR Yes. I think I see it. (He looks up and sits back) So it is graded what?
DEALER A VS-1. Some might grade it higher.
COUNSELOR You might grade it higher.
The dealer shrugs.
COUNSELOR You like this stone.
DEALER I like that stone.
COUNSELOR How many carats is it?
DEALER Three point nine.
COUNSELOR It’s expensive.
The dealer shrugs. He pulls the microscope toward him and places a stone in the clip and pushes it back.
DEALER Tell me what you see. Remember that you are not looking for merit. This is a cynical business. We seek only imperfection. This is a five carat stone. Tell me what you see.
COUNSELOR (Bending to the microscope) This view.
DEALER Yes.
COUNSELOR The culet seems big.
The dealer shrugs. The counselor studies the stone.
COUNSELOR The crown and pavilion dont fit. The girdle comes out crooked.
DEALER (Raising his eyebrows) Yes. The crown and the pavilion may be well cut each in itself and yet stand alien to one another. Once the first facet is cut there can be no going back. What was meant to be a union remains forever untrue and we see a troubling truth in that the forms of our undertakings are complete at their beginnings. For good or for ill.
COUNSELOR (Looking up) But there is no perfect diamond.
DEALER En este mundo nada es perfecto. As my father would say.
COUNSELOR You are Sephardic.
COUNSELOR Do you know Spain?
DEALER I do. And Spain me. At one time I thought that she would return from the grave. But that is not to be. Every country that has driven out the jews has suffered the same fate.
COUNSELOR Which is?
DEALER Ach. You dont want to hear. We should talk about the stones. The most valued stone is the red diamond. From the Argyle mines. So very rare. I have seen two in a long life. A price almost beyond belief.
COUNSELOR I do want to hear.
DEALER (Leaning back and studying the counselor) You do.
COUNSELOR Yes.
DEALER Ach. Well. How to say. There is no culture save the Semitic culture. There. The last known culture before that was the Greek and there will be no culture after.
COUNSELOR That’s a bold claim.
DEALER The heart of any culture is to be found in the nature of the hero. Who is that man who is revered? In the classical world it is the warrior. But in the western world it is the man of God. From Moses to Christ. The prophet. The penitent. Such a figure is unknown to the Greeks. Unheard of. Unimaginable. Because you can only have a man of God, not a man of gods. And this God is the God of the jewish people. There is no other God. We see him—what is the word? Purloined. Purloined in the West. How do you steal a God? The jew beholds his tormentor dressed in the vestments of his own ancient culture. Everything bears a strange familiarity. But the fit is always poor and the hands are always dripping blood. That coat. Didnt that belong to Uncle Chaim? What about the shoes? Enough. I see your look. No more philosophy. And perhaps Schiller is right. When gods were more human men were more divine. The stones themselves have their own view of things. Perhaps they are not so silent as you think. They were piped up out of the earth in a time before any witness was, but here they are. Now, who shall be their witness? We. We two. Here. (Fitting a stone in the clip) This is a cautionary stone.
COUNSELOR A cautionary diamond.
DEALER Of course. Why not? Although I suppose every diamond is cautionary. It is not a small thing to wish for, however unattainable. To partake of the stone’s endless destiny. Is not that the meaning of adornment? To enhance the beauty of the beloved is to acknowledge both her frailty and the nobility of that frailty. At our noblest we announce to the darkness that we will not be diminished by the brevity of our lives. That we will not thereby be made less. Let me show you. You will see.
Evening. The woman Malkina is sitting in a camp chair at a folding table set with a linen tablecloth, with china and silver. An Aladdin lamp burns on the table and she is reading a book. Reiner places a cocktail glass before her with a cherry in it and leans with a shaker and pours a Manhattan cocktail for her. She looks up and smiles. He goes to the fire and turns two filet steaks on the grill. The two horses are grazing just beyond. The cheetahs at their chains stir, one rises and turns and lies down again. The woman sips her cocktail.
High desert. Evening. Reiner and Malkina are standing on a rise out on the prairie watching the sunset. The sun is about half way down. A vast red sky.
REINER You like it because it reminds you of Argentina.
MALKINA It is like Argentina. The Pampas. But that’s not why I like it. I like it for itself.
REINER It doesnt have to be like something else.
MALKINA No.
REINER Do I remind you of someone else?
MALKINA Yes. You do.
REINER Someone you miss?
MALKINA Someone who is dead. I dont think I miss things. Things are here and then they are gone. I think to miss them is to hope they will come back. But they are not coming back. I’ve always known that. Since I was a girl.
REINER You dont think that’s a bit cold?
MALKINA I think that truth has no temperature. There it goes.
The sun flares out beneath the horizon.
Desert. The sun has just set. Bare purple mountains dark against a darkening sky streaked with deep red. The high thin scream of a motorcycle in the far distance, very slowly becoming louder. Very slowly. Then it streaks across the middle distance in a small part of a second, really just a blink of lights, and whines away into the distance and the silence.
A small and elegant restaurant in a private club. Some twenty tables, the diners well dressed, the women in cocktail dresses and jewelry. Chandeliers, crystal, silver, linen. Over the sound system Anne-Sophie Mutter is playing Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 2. The waiters are in black tie and black trousers with white kitchen coats. Along one wall are eight large oil portraits of celebrities: Bogart, Monroe, Dean, Elvis, Lennon, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, and the Spanish Formula One race driver The Marquis de Portago. The paintings are bright and quite striking but neither lurid nor cheap. They are oil paintings that look like really high quality pastels. At the far end of the room there is a raised platform—a small stage—and on the platform is a grand piano. The top of the piano is covered with a red quilt or blanket and it is fastened with bungee cords that go underneath the piano. A cheetah is lying on the piano. The second cheetah comes down through the room past the tables. A woman strokes it absentmindedly as it passes without looking at it. It leaps effortlessly to the top of the piano and sniffs the other cheetah and licks its fur. They wear heavy and elaborate collars with black transponder receivers. On the third wall there is a complete Formula Two Lotus racecar hanging from the actual wall nose down. There is a wall of photographs of cars and drivers and celebrities. At the corner table a man and a woman sit opposite each other. He is forty-three and she is thirty-six. They are well dressed and very attractive. A waiter is clearing the table and another is pouring their champagne flutes. He rewraps the towel around the neck of the bottle and stogs the bottle into the tableside bucket of ice and moves on.
COUNSELOR Anyway, I have something to discuss with you and I’m a bit scared.
LAURA (Smiling) Have you been bad?
COUNSELOR No. Actually I dont have that much to discuss. So let me just give you this and you tell me what you think.
He takes a small black velvet box from his coat pocket and places it on the table before her. She puts the back of her hand to her mouth and looks up at him. Then she picks up the box and opens it. She looks up at him again.
LAURA Oh Baby.
COUNSELOR Will you …
LAURA Yes. I will.
COUNSELOR Whew.
COUNSELOR I knew. But I was scared anyway.
LAURA Good. It’s beautiful.
COUNSELOR Are you okay?
LAURA Yes. I feel a bit strange.
COUNSELOR You’re not going to cry.
LAURA No. I dont think so. Are you sure?
COUNSELOR Oh I’m more than sure.
LAURA It’s beautiful.
COUNSELOR You are a glory.
LAURA I’m a glory?
COUNSELOR Yes. As in glorious. You are a glorious woman.
LAURA Thank you. You are a man of impeccable taste. I shouldnt have said that.
He raises his glass.
COUNSELOR You cant take it back.
She takes the ring from the box and puts it on her finger and holds out her hand to look at it. She turns her hand to show it to him. She picks up her glass and touches his with it and they drink.
LAURA Okay then.
COUNSELOR I intend to love you until I die.
LAURA Me first.
COUNSELOR Not on your life.
* * * * *
A small grocery store. A young man dressed in a bright green leather motorcycle outfit—jacket and tight pants and green boots and gloves—is waiting in line, his helmet hanging over his arm. He is somewhat dark. Part Mexican. The woman in front of him has unloaded her groceries onto the conveyor belt and the clerk is adding them up. She turns and smiles at the boy. He is holding a ten-pound bag of dogfood.
WOMAN Do you have a dog?
YOUNG MAN Do I have a dog.
WOMAN (Smiling) Yes.
YOUNG MAN No Mam.
WOMAN (A bit disconcerted) Oh.
YOUNG MAN I dont have a dog.
WOMAN Okay.
YOUNG MAN These are for me.
WOMAN For you.
YOUNG MAN Yes Mam. It’s a diet.
WOMAN A diet?
YOUNG MAN Yes Mam. Well. I probably shouldnt even be telling you this. I’ve tried it a couple of times and I got to say it works pretty good. You dont really eat. You get hungry? You just pop a couple of these bad boys. I carry a baggie full around with me. Night, you wake up? You dont go down and raid the refrigerator. You got a dish of these on the table by the bed and you just reach and pop a couple. You got your glass of water there. Last time I lost twenty-seven pounds in thirty days. I’d pretty much recommend it to anybody. These diets you read about? (Pointing) I know this works. Of course like anything else you got to use your head. Time before I woke up in the hospital. You just got to keep your mind on business. Like anything else. But you want to lose weight? This is it. You got everything you need in here. All your vitamins and minerals. I’ll tell you what. After a few days you dont even want anything else. I’d absolutely recommend it to anybody.
The woman turns to the clerk and he gives her back her credit card. The other clerk has finished bagging up her groceries. The boy pushes his bag of dogfood forward.
WOMAN But you said you woke up in the hospital. What happened? Did you have a systemic reaction or what?
YOUNG MAN (Taking out his money to pay for the dogfood) Oh no Mam. It wasnt anything like that. I was sitting in the street licking my balls and a car hit me. You take care now. You hear?
* * * * *
Reiner’s penthouse. A large room giving onto a patio with a swimming pool. There are about twenty people in the room and on the patio—including a number of goodlooking young women. There are tables and chaise longues out at the pool and naked girls splashing in the water. On the outer patio there is a cabana and a bar with a bartender mixing drinks and a large black weightlifter beside him at an outdoor stainless steel grill cooking steaks and ribs. In the room itself are tables and sofas. There are two waitresses on rollerskates taking drinks and food to people, one in a bikini and the other in panties and T-shirt. One of the cheetahs is stretched out on a sofa and the other is crossing the room. The waitress pulls up at the bar and orders two Budweisers. Her T-shirt, worn braless, bears a cartoon of a dragster with enormous wheels and a huge 671 GMC supercharger mounted on the engine. The script says: Injection Is Nice But I’d Rather Be Blown. The bartender opens the cooler and takes out two longneck bottles and calls out Pilsener! and the cook, wearing cut-off bib overalls, braces himself and the bartender shoves the bottle into the seat of his overalls and pops the top off the bottle and then does the same with the second beer and puts them on the girl’s tray and she glides away and pulls up at a coffee table and sets the beers out and two young women pick them up and sip from them. On the wall there is an enormous screen which continually flashes color photos taken of people at parties here. The counselor passes through the room and comes to a door where he pushes three buttons on a keypad. He waits. There is a click and he pushes the door open and enters and turns and shuts the door. The room is modern and elegant. A bank of computers and electronic equipment along one wall. An elegant desk of figured hardwood and stainless steel. Reiner is sitting on the edge of the desk talking to Malkina, who stands between his knees. She turns and smiles at the counselor and Reiner greets him.
Malkina leans and whispers into Reiner’s ear and pats him on the knee and turns to go. She is tall, dark, and very attractive. She smiles again at the counselor as she passes him.
MALKINA Hola, Guapo.
COUNSELOR Hey.
She goes out and closes the door and Reiner gets off of the desk and turns his leather swivel-chair and sits in it and motions the counselor to a leather sofa at the end of the desk and at right angles to it. The counselor comes over and sits down.
REINER How’s the bride?
COUNSELOR Bridal.
REINER That sounds about right. Nice lady. I assume she’s not privy to your newest business venture.
COUNSELOR She’s not. And your lady?
REINER Yeah.
COUNSELOR Yeah what.
REINER She’s fine. I dont know what she knows. I dont want to know.
COUNSELOR You dont trust her.
REINER Jesus, Counselor. She’s a woman.
COUNSELOR Woo.
REINER Yeah, well. I dont mean it to sound that cold. I just mean that where men are concerned they’ve got their own agenda. I always liked smart women. But it’s been an expensive hobby.
COUNSELOR Yeah. (Nodding toward the electronic wall) Do you know what all that stuff is?
REINER Mostly. Anything I dont know I can ask her. Which worries me even more.
COUNSELOR Mmm.
REINER Yeah.
COUNSELOR You never told me what happened with you and the lovely Clarissa.
REINER Miss Clarissa. Of the extraordinary body. What happened? I think in the end it was jealousy that undid us.
REINER Yeah. She was getting more pussy than I was.
COUNSELOR (Smiling) Is that true?
REINER I dont know. Probably. I have to say that for a girl who liked girls she took an extraordinary interest in the male member. She sucked on it so hard it finally corrected my vision. She left me for this goodlooking black woman. Had a boyfriend used to play for the Oilers. Nice chap. We met once for drinks at a club in Dallas to discuss our mutual plight. He was taking it rather poorly, I have to say. Women do better, dont they?
COUNSELOR Maybe they have more practice at it.
REINER Yeah, well. My guess is that in most cases if you still had the woman you’re weeping over you’d be weeping harder.
COUNSELOR (Smiling) You cant hear anything in here, can you?
REINER It’s better than that.
REINER You cant hear anything out there.
COUNSELOR So is this place secure?
REINER Who knows? I dont speak in arraignable phrases anywhere. There’s a scrambler on the phone but still there’s a lot of smart people out there. Of course anybody who thinks he’s the smartest is on his way to the slam.
COUNSELOR Would that be me?
REINER Nah. Although I have to say that I always did think a law degree was a license to steal. And that you for one hadnt really capitalized on it.
The counselor shrugs.
REINER Yeah. Well, you’re not the straight dude people think though, are you?
COUNSELOR I guess not.
REINER I dont mean the caper. I mean you. Women like you.
COUNSELOR All right.
REINER You know what they like about you?
COUNSELOR I’m a good fuck?
REINER Yeah, right. They can sniff out the moral dilemma. The paradox.
COUNSELOR Moral dilemma.
REINER Yeah. They’re drawn to it. Not sure why. Maybe it’s just that lacking any moral sense themselves they’re fascinated by it in men. You think about it. You want to know if a guy has issues watch the way women react to him.
COUNSELOR Interesting.
REINER Men are attracted to flawed women too of course, but their illusion is that they can fix them. Women dont want to fix anything. They just want to be entertained. The truth about women is you can do anything to them except bore them.
COUNSELOR Well, there’s nothing about Laura that I would want to fix.
REINER Maybe not.
COUNSELOR But you think she probably knows things about me that I dont know about myself.
REINER Jesus, Counselor. I’m not even sure what sort of a question that is.
COUNSELOR Yeah. And you? Vis-à-vis your inamorata.
REINER You dont want to know. I dont want to know.
COUNSELOR Moral dilemmas.
REINER Yeah. You pursue this road that you’ve embarked upon and you will eventually come to moral decisions that will take you completely by surprise. You wont see it coming at all.
COUNSELOR Such as?
REINER Such as whether to waste somebody. Or have them wasted.
COUNSELOR You ever been faced with a decision like that?
REINER You’re a member of the court.
COUNSELOR Well. I dont intend to take this up as a trade.
REINER One-time deal. Right?
COUNSELOR Which you’ve heard a thousand times.
REINER No. But a few. What usually happens is that after a couple of deals they know more than you do and they set up shop across the street.
COUNSELOR How does that work out for them?
REINER Not well.
COUNSELOR So would that be a moral issue?
REINER Not for me.
COUNSELOR Or for your associates.
REINER Yeah well. They have a real aversion to mixing business with pleasure. Do you know what a bolito is?
COUNSELOR No. A bolo is one of those skinny neckties. Or is it one of those things you throw? Argentina.
REINER Yeah. In this case it’s a mechanical device. It has this small electric motor with this rather incredible compound gear that retrieves a steel cable. Battery-driven. The cable is made out of some unholy alloy, almost impossible to cut it, and it’s in a loop, and you come up behind the guy and drop it over his head and pull the free end of the cable tight and walk away. No one even sees you. Pulling the cable activates the motor and the noose starts to tighten and it continues to tighten until it goes to zero.
COUNSELOR It cuts the guy’s head off.
REINER It can.
COUNSELOR There’s nothing he can do.
REINER No.
COUNSELOR Jesus.
REINER Yeah.
COUNSELOR How long does it take?
REINER Three, four minutes. Five maybe. It depends on your collar size.
REINER Nope. Mostly wretched excess of course. It’s just that there’d be no easy way to turn the thing off. Or reason to. It just keeps running until the noose closes completely and then it self-destructs. Actually you’re probably dead in less than a minute.
COUNSELOR From strangulation.
REINER No. The wire cuts through the carotid arteries and sprays blood all over the spectators and then everybody goes home.
COUNSELOR Jesus.
REINER Yeah, well.
COUNSELOR Bolito.
REINER Yeah. Probably a play on words too. Boleto—with an e—is the spanish word for ticket. As in yours has just been punched.
COUNSELOR I wouldnt think it would go through bone.
REINER It wont. It would have to go between the vertebrae. The gear is a worm drive with a gain built into it. Or a reduction, actually. It keeps getting stronger and slower. To compensate for the compression of the tissue.
COUNSELOR How do you know all this?
REINER You know how I like gadgets. Anyway, a friend of mine got hold of one. In Calexico. Stolen out of County Property.
COUNSELOR I would think they’d be expensive.
REINER They are. This one was used.
COUNSELOR Sweet.
Reiner shrugs.
COUNSELOR Why does no one see him?
REINER See who?
COUNSELOR The garroteer.
REINER Oh. Well, given a choice between watching someone walk away down the street and watching someone being slowly decapitated by a device apparently engineered and patented in the halls of hell you are going to watch the latter. That’s just the way it is. You may think you should avert your gaze. But you wont.
COUNSELOR Where’s all this beheading shit come from? You never used to see that.
REINER Yeah. It’s blown in here from the East.
COUNSELOR Meaning the East.
REINER Yeah. You put nine Mexicans and an Arab in a room and give them each a hundred dollars and come back in a couple of hours who do you think is going to be holding the grand?
COUNSELOR So are you gearing up to do business with them down the road?
REINER The Arabs?
COUNSELOR Yeah.
REINER No.
REINER Because they dont need your money.
* * * * *
Southwestern desert. The septic-tank truck and a pickup are parked in the chaparral. The two Mexican drivers are talking to two other men. They squat on the ground. One passes around a pack of cigarettes. Then he picks up a stick and draws a map in the dirt.
* * * * *
A warehouse with floodlights. The metal door clanks upward and the green leather cyclist comes whining through on a Kawasaki ZX-12 and brakes and does a donut on the concrete floor and stops and shuts off the bike and takes off his helmet. A doberman runs to him and stands up and he hugs her and tousles her ears and steps off of the bike. There is a black late-model Cadillac Escalade parked toward the rear of the warehouse. He crosses the room with her leaping about him to an island in the far corner that contains a kitchen and a bed, a tin locker, a leather easy chair—taking the bag of dogfood with him. He fixes her bowl of food and turns on the stereo and opens the refrigerator and takes out a frozen dinner and puts it in the microwave and opens a beer and sits, watching the dog eat. He puts the beer on the table and stands up and takes off the leather jacket and unzips a pocket and takes out a clear plastic bag and pitches it onto the table. It is full of hundred dollar bills. He opens a drawer and takes out a packet of marijuana and papers and sits rolling a joint. He lights it and leans back with his eyes closed. The dog finishes her dish and comes over and circles and sniffs and sneezes. He blows smoke at her and she sneezes and circles.
YOUNG MAN Yeah, well. Too bad.
The timing bell rings on the microwave. He gets up and goes over and opens the door and takes out the meal. The dog sits watching.
YOUNG MAN You dont eat lasagna. Go lie down.
* * * * *
In the club. The counselor and Laura at a table. A young man in a T-shirt, sportcoat, and jeans, with a girl, on their way out. They stop and he pulls back from the girl and smiles at the counselor.
TONY Well Counselor, how are you making it?
The counselor leans back and studies him.
COUNSELOR I’m all right.
TONY Is this your lady?
COUNSELOR It is.
LAURA I’m fine. Thank you.
TONY Me and the counselor go back a ways. Dont we, Counselor?
COUNSELOR We do. I’m afraid.
TONY Dont be afraid, Counselor. Hell, I’m okay with everything. You okay with everything, Counselor?
COUNSELOR I am if you are.
TONY (Addressing Laura) See there? Aint he just the best son of a bitch?
GIRL Come on, Tony.
TONY How long you know this guy, Petunia?
LAURA Long enough.
TONY Long enough? How long is that, long enough?
COUNSELOR Maybe you should listen to your lady friend.
TONY Is that what you do, Counselor?
TONY Does he keep you entertained?
LAURA That’s none of your business.
TONY Because you look to me like you might get bored easy.
GIRL Tony. Let’s go.
TONY Okay. I’m gone. Here. Let me try this one on you. See if you can tell me what this is. This is pretty good.
He pulls up his T-shirt and places his hands palm down on either side of his navel and moves the skin of his stomach up and down alternately six or eight times very quickly and then spreads them to show his navel. Then he does it again.
TONY You get it?
Laura has turned away with her eyes closed.
TONY Let me show you again. Watch.
He repeats the performance.
TONY Come on, Counselor. It’s a girl runnin the hurdles.
Laura bows her head, her eyes closed.
TONY Come on, Sugardumplin. What? You dont think that’s funny? She’s a little up tight aint she Counselor?
The counselor pushes back his chair and stands.
GIRL Tony I’m going.
TONY Hell, Counselor. Keep your seat. You dont have to get up for me. You know, Petunia, the counselor here has got a way of sullin up like a possum when he dont get his way. I’m goin to say that you have probably noticed it. But that aint really the problem. The real problem is that his thin skin makes it okay in his eyes for you to wind up under the bus. You know what I’m sayin? Anyway, that’s how I see it. (He holds up his hands) All right. I’m goin. I’m goin. You take care now. You hear?
* * * * *
A cafe in a shopping mall. Malkina and Laura are at a table having lunch.
MALKINA So how many carats is it?
MALKINA (Pausing with a forkful of salad, then putting it down again) You dont know.
LAURA (Smiling) No.
MALKINA You have got to be kidding me.
LAURA No.
MALKINA Let me see it.
Laura holds out her hand.
MALKINA No. Take it off.
Laura takes off the ring and hands it across the table to her. Malkina looks at the ring, turns it, holds it up to the light. She hands it back.
MALKINA It’s a three and half carat. Maybe a three point eight. Nice stone. Asscher cut.
LAURA (Putting the ring back on) Thank you.
MALKINA Good color. Probably an F or a G. Nothing visible so it’s at least a VS-2. Do you want to know what it’s worth?
MALKINA (Smiling and shaking her head, stabbing at her salad) You really dont, do you?
LAURA No.
MALKINA So have you set a date?
LAURA No. I want to get married in the Church. Which he says is all right. He’s been married before and I thought that would be a problem but the Church doesnt recognize other marriages. Anyway, I’m looking for a job here.
MALKINA Are you scared?
LAURA (Smiling) No. A bit nervous. Sometimes.
MALKINA Are you a church lady?
LAURA I go. Yes. It’s important to me.
MALKINA What about confession?
LAURA Yes. Well, maybe not so much.
MALKINA Does the priest ask you about sex?
LAURA He doesnt ask. But you’re supposed to tell him everything.
MALKINA He doesnt press you for the juicy details?
LAURA (Smiling) No.
MALKINA He touched me, Father. Where, my child? In the back seat, Father. But you’re supposed to go, right?
LAURA Yes. So you can go to communion.
MALKINA And whatever nasty shit you did you’re supposed to promise not to do it again.
LAURA Yes.
MALKINA (Shaking her head) Mmm. What if a non-Catholic went in to confess? What would he do?
LAURA I dont know. Why would you?
MALKINA I dont know. Maybe because you’re only as sick as your secrets. Would he listen?
LAURA I dont know. He wouldnt be able to give you absolution if you’re not a Catholic.
MALKINA You believe that only Catholics go to heaven?
LAURA I think it’s pretty much what the Church teaches. I’m not so sure.
MALKINA Yeah. But anybody could just wander into the booth, right?
LAURA The confessional? Yes. I suppose.
MALKINA So what do you say?
LAURA You confess your sins.
MALKINA Yes, but what do you say? You get in there and what? Do you tell him who you are?
LAURA No. You say: Bless me Father for I have sinned. And you say how long it’s been since your last confession. And then you tell him what you’ve done. Then when you’re through you say that you’re sorry. Heartily sorry, you say. And that you wont do it again.
MALKINA But you do.
LAURA I suppose. Usually.
MALKINA Do you give him any money or anything?
LAURA No.
MALKINA (Shaking her head) Mmm. Strange. Suppose you’ve done something really nasty. He doesnt pump you for details?
LAURA I dont think so. You’re embarrassing me.
MALKINA I can see. You’re blushing. Okay. We’ll change the subject.
LAURA Good.
MALKINA We’ll talk about my sex life.
LAURA (Looking up) You’re teasing.
MALKINA Just rattling your cage. What a world.
LAURA You think the world is strange.
MALKINA I meant yours.
* * * * *
Northern Mexico at US border. Night. The septic-tank truck is lumbering over the desert, driving with only the parking lights on at the front of the truck. The truck crests a slight rise and grinds to a halt. In the distance are the lights of a city along the horizon.
* * * * *
A bar at the edge of the city. Afternoon. The counselor comes in and stands at the door for a moment to accustom his eyes to the darkness. Westray is sitting at a table in the corner and he raises one hand. The counselor crosses the room and pulls back a chair and sits at the table. Westray is slightly older than the counselor, nice looking and well dressed. There are very few customers in the bar. At the far end a young man is playing the pinball machine and he gives it a shove and tilts it and walks away. Westray is wearing dark glasses.
WESTRAY Counselor.
COUNSELOR It’s not dark enough in here for you?
Westray removes the glasses to reveal a black eye.
COUNSELOR Wow. That’s a dandy. What happened?
WESTRAY Confrontation with a doorman. Who bore a disquieting resemblance to Proconsul.
COUNSELOR A confrontation?
Westray shrugs.
COUNSELOR Jesus. What did you say to him?
WESTRAY I think I told him that he was not to take it personally but that he should go fuck himself.
COUNSELOR But not to take it personally.
WESTRAY No.
COUNSELOR What did he say?
WESTRAY He said: I’m going to hurt you, White Person. Here she is.
A waitress has arrived at the table. She puts down paper napkins.
WAITRESS What’ll it be?
WESTRAY I’ll have a Heineken.
COUNSELOR Make it two.
The waitress glances at Westray’s eye and moves away. Westray sits back in his chair and studies the counselor.
COUNSELOR I didnt know that you got into donnybrooks.
WESTRAY I dont. Anyway, that was in another country.
COUNSELOR And besides the wretch is dead?
WESTRAY No. But I’ve sent a pair of reliable chaps to talk to him. Bloody expensive, too.
COUNSELOR You surprise me.
WESTRAY You shouldnt be surprised, Counselor. What’s the Miller quote that Reiner likes? The smallest crumb can devour us? You learn to let nothing pass. You cant afford to.
COUNSELOR I should keep that in mind?
WESTRAY You might keep that in mind. So. Fire away.
COUNSELOR All right. What do you do with the money?
WESTRAY What do I do or what does one do?
COUNSELOR You.
WESTRAY Mine goes off shore. We can talk if you like. But you cant use my people.
COUNSELOR All right.
WESTRAY Let me make a call.
WESTRAY What else. You’re not happy.
COUNSELOR I’m all right. What’s the buy-out for this whole deal?
WESTRAY Net net?
COUNSELOR Funny. Yeah. Net net.
WESTRAY Hard to put a cold dollar on it. You dont know what your expenses are up front. It’s six hundred and twenty-five kilos. Pure uncut. It goes for about fifty dollars an ounce in Colombia and the street price in Dallas can be as high as two grand.
COUNSELOR Is that where it’s going? Dallas?
WESTRAY No. It’s going to Chicago. If the whole deal were to go tits up in a ditch the papers would put the street value at a hundred mil. We’re probably looking at twenty. Maybe a bit more.
The counselor gets out his pen and starts to write on the napkin.
WESTRAY It’s twenty-one thousand nine hundred ounces.
COUNSELOR (Leaning back and studying Westray) You do that in your head?
WESTRAY No. I just remembered it. I know somebody who could do it in her head though.
COUNSELOR Yeah. I’ll bet you’re right.
WESTRAY If you’re not in, you need to tell me.
COUNSELOR I’m all right.
WESTRAY It’s not just our people. You’ve got the money guys. You have to get cash in dollars into Mexico and then they have to get it out again. But that’s all they do. You have to use US banks. This means you have to have a corporation. And even then you have to have someone on the inside. You’d be surprised at the people who are in this business. Very surprised.
COUNSELOR Do you have a corporation?
WESTRAY No. Of course not. We just pay the points. The other option of course is cash. Which is an even bigger headache. For all the obvious reasons. The biggest issue is not that your man is going to fall in love with a poledancer and go south with your ducats. The biggest issue is that somebody is going to figure out who he is and what he’s up to. Here we go.
The waitress arrives and sets down the bottles and glasses. The counselor takes a clip of bills from his front pocket but Westray already has a twenty out and he puts it on the tray. She reaches in her apron pocket for change.
WESTRAY You’re good.
WAITRESS (Surprised, smiling) Well thank you.
WESTRAY I dont suppose you have any pilsener glasses back there.
WAITRESS Any what?
WESTRAY It’s all right. Thanks.
The waitress moves away.
WESTRAY I see your look. I like to tip them enough that they dont thank you.
COUNSELOR Why dont they thank you?
WESTRAY Because they think it’s a mistake. And they dont want to call attention to it.
COUNSELOR (Shaking his head and smiling) Well. Cheers.
WESTRAY I dont like to be wrong about human nature. Anyway (Tipping his bottle toward the counselor) a plague of pustulant boils upon all their scurvid asses.
COUNSELOR (Smiling) Is that your normal toast?
WESTRAY Increasingly.
COUNSELOR (Smiling) If the drug wars stop this will dry up, right?
WESTRAY Let’s just say it will be more risky. That’s the part that Reiner doesnt seem to get. You may have noticed that his lifestyle has become increasingly lavish.
COUNSELOR I’ve noticed.
WESTRAY I never go in his club. And I miss the bastard. We always shared a taste for exotic women. A few times in fact shared the women themselves.
COUNSELOR That wouldnt include the present one would it?
Westray leans back and studies the counselor.
WESTRAY And why would you ask me that?
COUNSELOR No reason. Sorry.
WESTRAY I see a murky picture forming in your mind. How well do you know her?
COUNSELOR Not all that well. Why?
WESTRAY Because you dont know someone until you know what they want. Is why.
COUNSELOR I’ll try and remember that.
WESTRAY Good.
COUNSELOR And you’re advising me to travel light.
WESTRAY Yes.
COUNSELOR And Reiner?
WESTRAY Reiner thinks that nothing bad can happen. He’s in love. Any of this sound familiar? You guys are opening a new club.
COUNSELOR Is that okay?
WESTRAY Sure. What the fuck. What else?
COUNSELOR I dont know.
WESTRAY Do you know how many people were killed in Juarez last year?
COUNSELOR No. A lot.
WESTRAY Yes. I think three thousand is a lot. These people are another species, Counselor. You might want to think about that as well. They will rip out your liver and eat it in front of your dog.
COUNSELOR Jesus, Westray.
WESTRAY Let me ask you this. Before the so-called drug wars who do you think was killing all those young girls in Juarez?
COUNSELOR I dont know. Nobody knows.
WESTRAY Nobody knows.
COUNSELOR No.
WESTRAY Come on, Counselor. Hundreds of young girls? Thousands, most likely. Follow the money. If you have so much cash that you’re using it to insulate your house and you’ve bought all the cars and clothes and guns that you can find a place to put, and you are morally depraved beyond all human recognition, what then do you spend your money on?
COUNSELOR Why do they kill them?
WESTRAY Who knows. For fun. Snuff films. You’ll see. Those will start turning up. Anyway, what do you do with a fifteen year old girl that you’ve just violated with a tiretool?
COUNSELOR You think the drug lords hire kidnappers to keep them supplied with young girls.
WESTRAY I think they have kidnappers on full retainer.
COUNSELOR I guess I should think about that too.
WESTRAY I cant advise you, Counselor.
COUNSELOR Yeah. But you are advising me.
WESTRAY I just want you to be sure that you’re locked in. I dont know. Maybe I should tell you what Mickey Rourke told what’s-his-face. That that’s my recommendation anyway. Dont do it.
COUNSELOR (Smiling) Because I’ll tell you something, Counselor. This arson is a serious crime.
WESTRAY Yes. And so is this.
COUNSELOR Well. I guess I’m a bit surprised at the cautionary nature of this conversation.
WESTRAY Good word, cautionary. In Scots Law it defines an instrument in which one person stands as surety for another.
COUNSELOR As surety.
WESTRAY Yes.
COUNSELOR Sounds a bit primitive.
WESTRAY It is. The problem of course is what happens when the surety turns out to be the more attractive holding.
COUNSELOR (Pause) What about you?
WESTRAY I can vanish. In a heartbeat. With my money. Can you?
The counselor sits looking out across the room.
WESTRAY Look, Counselor. The truth is I can walk away from all of this. And I mean all. I know you probably wont believe this but I’ll tell you anyway. I think about my life. What have I ever done for the hapless, the hopeless, the horse-fucked? And I’m pretty skeptical about the goodness of the good. I think that if you ransacked the archives of the redeemed you would uncover tales of moral squalor quite beyond the merely appalling. I’ve pretty much seen it all, Counselor. And it’s all shit. I could live in a monastery. Scrub the steps. Wash the pots. Maybe do a little gardening. Why not?
COUNSELOR You’re serious.
WESTRAY Very.
COUNSELOR Why dont you?
WESTRAY In a word? Women.
The counselor smiles.
WESTRAY I know. But time is not going to stop, Counselor. It’s forever. And everything that exists will one day vanish. Forever. And it will take with it every explanation of it that was ever contrived. From Newton and Einstein to Homer and Shakespeare and Michelangelo. Every timeless creation. Your art and your poetry and your science are not even composed of smoke. Alles Vergänglich ist nur ein Gleichnis, as Goethe has it. Everything that perishes is but a likeness. That’s really Plato on wheels. A likeness of what? Is that true? I dont want your eyes to glaze completely over, Counselor, but what this is coming down to for me is that seizing the day wont quite do it. I wont flesh out the argument but the only thing ultimately worth your concern is the anguish of your fellow passengers on this hellbound train. I have a lot to answer for. I know that. And I may be a motherfucker but I’m not a hypocrite. You have to help Tom Gray up off the barroom floor. It’s little enough. But it’s not nothing. All right. Are you ready?
Outside the bar.
WESTRAY Where are you parked?
COUNSELOR (Pointing to his Bentley) That’s me over there.
WESTRAY (Looking around) Some neighborhood. You’re lucky it’s still there. Anyway. You take care now. You hear?
The counselor waves and crosses the street. Westray watches him go.
WESTRAY Counselor.
The counselor turns.
WESTRAY You know why Jesus wasnt born in Mexico dont you?
COUNSELOR No. Why?
WESTRAY They couldnt find three wise men or a virgin.
The counselor shakes his head. He turns to go.
WESTRAY Counselor.
The counselor stops and turns.
WESTRAY Here’s something else for you to consider. The beheadings and the mutilations? That’s just business. You have to keep up appearances. It’s not like there’s some smoldering rage at the bottom of it. But let’s see if we can guess who it is that they really want to kill.
COUNSELOR I dont know. Who?
WESTRAY You, Counselor. You.
* * * * *
A small and bare conference room for lawyers and their clients at the Texas State Penitentiary for Women. No windows. A table and two chairs. The counselor is standing at the table with his briefcase, going through his documents. The door opens and a guard hands in a woman in prison uniform and closes the door behind her. She is an attractive woman in her early forties.
COUNSELOR Hey.
RUTH Did you bring cigarettes?
COUNSELOR Yeah.
He digs into his briefcase and comes up with a carton of cigarettes and slides them across the table and she sits and starts to open the carton.
COUNSELOR (Arranging his files on the table) I know you use those things to trade with but I still dont understand what it is that you trade for.
RUTH (Opening a pack of cigarettes and tapping one out) You dont want to know.
COUNSELOR They treating you well?
RUTH Oh yeah. Peachy.
COUNSELOR You’ve got a preliminary hearing on the seventeenth. What size dress do you wear?
RUTH I wear a seven.
COUNSELOR What about shoes?
RUTH Lo mismo.
COUNSELOR Seven?
RUTH Yeah.
COUNSELOR Hat?
RUTH What?
RUTH Hat? I dont know what size hat. Goddamn. What do I need a hat for? A hat? You’re shittin me.
COUNSELOR Yes.
RUTH Smart-ass. You had me goin there for a minute. (She lights a cigarette with a lighter and looks up and blows smoke.) You goin to get me somethin sexy to wear?
COUNSELOR No.
RUTH You’ll have me lookin like a fucking schoolmarm.
COUNSELOR How about a business woman?
RUTH Yeah. Some business.
She leans back and blows a stream of smoke across the table and the counselor waves his hand back and forth to waft it away. He pulls back the chair and sits at the table.
COUNSELOR All right.
RUTH I know you dont think this room is bugged but you dont really know that, do you?
COUNSELOR No. Not if you put it that way.
RUTH I dont know any other way to put it.
COUNSELOR What was it you wanted to tell me?
RUTH My kid’s in jail.
COUNSELOR Oh boy. Where?
RUTH Fort Hancock.
COUNSELOR Fort Hancock.
RUTH Yeah.
COUNSELOR What was he doing in Fort Hancock?
RUTH He was comin to see me.
COUNSELOR What’s he in jail for?
RUTH Speeding.
COUNSELOR Speeding?
RUTH Yeah.
COUNSELOR He couldnt pay the fine?
RUTH No. He had twelve thousand dollars on him but they took that off of him.
COUNSELOR Where was he going with twelve thousand dollars?
RUTH He was comin here. Like I said.
COUNSELOR How did you find this out?
RUTH He called.
COUNSELOR What else is he charged with?
RUTH I dont know. Some other stuff. Reckless endangerment or whatever. He said they just piled that stuff on on account of how fast he was goin.
COUNSELOR How fast was he going?
RUTH Two o six.
COUNSELOR Two o six.
RUTH Yeah.
COUNSELOR What is that? Two o six? That’s not a speed.
RUTH That’s what he said. He didnt want to tell me.
COUNSELOR That’s a time of day. Or somebody’s weight. Two o six? Are you telling me he was going two hundred and six miles an hour? In what?
RUTH On that Jap bike of his.
COUNSELOR Jesus.
RUTH If you could get him his money back he could pay off the fine and get out of there.
COUNSELOR Where did he get the money?
RUTH I dont know.
COUNSELOR Well. That’s the problem.
RUTH What’s the problem?
COUNSELOR If you have more than ten thousand dollars on you it belongs to the United States Government.
RUTH How is that?
COUNSELOR Because they say so. If you cant explain where you got it they take it. You might think you should get to keep everything up to ten grand and the government would just get the overage but the government doesnt think like that.
RUTH He aint gettin his money back.
COUNSELOR No.
RUTH Well I dont see how you can just take somebody’s money.
COUNSELOR Yeah, well. Welcome to America. How much is the fine?
RUTH Four hundred dollars.
COUNSELOR Jesus.
RUTH I dont guess you’d spring for it, would you?
COUNSELOR Christ. Four hundred dollars?
RUTH Yes.
COUNSELOR All right.
RUTH All right what?
COUNSELOR All right I’ll get him out.
RUTH You will?
COUNSELOR Yeah.
RUTH Really?
COUNSELOR Yes really.
RUTH Thanks. I owe you.
COUNSELOR Yes you do.
RUTH How about a blowjob?
COUNSELOR Well, you’d still owe me three eighty.
RUTH Damn but you are a smart-ass.
COUNSELOR I know. You bring it out in me. Lighten up, Ruthie.
RUTH Dont call me that. I hate that name. I dont even like Ruth.
* * * * *
An inspection station on Interstate 10. Vehicles of various sorts are inching along. The border patrol agent waves several cars past and stops a truck and talks to the driver and then waves him past. The septic-tank truck pulls up and the driver nods and smiles.
DRIVER How you doin?
AGENT (Making an unpleasant face) All right. Get that thing out of here.
DRIVER You got it.
The truck pulls away and out onto the highway. The driver shifts gears. He is suddenly a very serious-looking person.
* * * * *
The counselor’s condominium. Night. He is sitting in his leather chair with a drink, talking on the phone.
COUNSELOR I know. I just wanted to hear your voice.
Yeah. I really miss you.
Dont go there.
(Chuckling) You’re just glowing with sexual health?
No. I love it.
Yes. Bad. Badly.
You havent been taking liberties with your person have you?
(Smiling, almost chuckling) You couldnt touch it with a powder puff?
It’s too boring.
I kept waking up thinking you were there. I could smell your perfume on the sheets. I had such an enormous erection I had to get out of bed in order to turn over.
Yes.
In the airport parking lot.
Of course.
Did I know that you would do it with me? Of course.
I dont know. I thought it would be exciting.
Like high school. Yes.
I remember asking you if you were all right. Because you were gasping like an asthmatic.
Of course I remember. What I said was: Here, let me help you off with your damp things. And then I pulled down your panties.
Yes.
Ooh.
Oh my goodness.
Is this phone sex?
I know.
Life is being in bed with you. Everything else is just waiting.
Yes.
I love you very much.
Yes.
You too.
Good night.
He lowers the phone into his lap and leans his head back in the chair with his eyes closed.
Reiner and the counselor in an empty nightclub. Late afternoon.
REINER You see a place like this in the cold light of day it looks pretty seedy. Everything’s lighting, really. Lighting and music. You get the right lighting in here and some music and some goodlooking girls and suddenly it’s a whole other world.
COUNSELOR How soon do you think?
REINER Two weeks. Three, max.
COUNSELOR You’re keeping the dancefloor.
REINER Yeah. A dancefloor takes up a lot of space but when you have live music and dancing you have a very different sort of place. The door fees dont really amount to all that much but you can charge more for the drinks. But mostly it’s just a different milieu. You try and chat up a girl at a bar? That’s a no-man’s land. How many guys are good at that? But you ask a chick to dance, well, she doesnt want to look like a bitch. You got a better shot. Sitting at the bar she’s supposed to tell you to fuck off. You know Peterson, right?
COUNSELOR Sure.
REINER Did you know he speaks portuguese?
COUNSELOR I didnt know that.
REINER His mother was from Brazil. She grew up here but her whole family’s from Brazil. So this cousin of Peterson’s shows up and he speaks about three words of english. If that. This is maybe three years ago. We’re all out here on Saturday night and the cousin is asking Peterson how do you say may I have this dance, only we get wind of it and we shut Peterson up and we’re coaching the cousin on how you say it. Repeat after me: I. want. to. eat. your. pussy. And we work with him till he’s pretty much got it down. I vant to ate you poossy. And we send him off. He’s this kind of elegant looking guy anyway. He’s wearing a suit and everything. And he goes off across the room and he picks out this really great looking girl and he stands in front of her and gives her this little bow and he says: I vant to ate you poossy. Well. The table gets pretty quiet and this girl looks up at him and she says: What did you say? So of course he says it again. Little bow. I vant to ate you poossy. So she studies him for a minute and then she leans over to see past him and of course here’s these three guys across the room all hugging each other and just weeping with merriment and she gets up and she takes Peterson’s cousin by the hand and she says something like: Well Buster, this is your lucky night. And she takes him out to this Mercedes van in the parking lot and proceeds to fuck his brains out. He’s gone for an hour. We dont know what the hell is going on. But everything he’s ever heard about American girls is true. Finally she leads him back in and she gives him this big sexy kiss and she cuts her eyes over at us to make sure we’re watching and she sends him back to the table. Well. We’re going nuts. Peterson is trying to get the story out of him and he’s jabbering away and rolling his eyes and we’re like, what’s he saying? what’s he saying? And finally it all comes out. And we’re just fucking flabbergasted. No way is this guy lying. We look at the girl across the dance floor and she blows us this big kiss. Jesus. We’re just fucking stunned. We want all the details of course and fucking Peterson is feeding it to us in driblets. And of course it’s the whole thing. Blowjob. The works. Until we’re just sitting there staring at each other. And after a while Peterson gets up and he looks at us and he says: I’m going for it. And off he goes. He crosses the floor to this other table where this really cool looking girl is sitting by herself and he gives her the little bow and announces that he vants to ate her poossy. Well of course about this time the husband is coming out of the mens room and he’s about eleven feet tall and he looms up behind Peterson and the girl says: Why dont you tell him what you just told me? Anyway, to make a long story short, this guy hits Peterson so hard that he goes completely across the dancefloor on his back with his arms at his sides and comes up against the wall with his head under a chair and just lies there. Apparently dead. This guy hit him so hard that he came out of his loafers. His loafers are still standing at the table. Peterson is lying dead on the dancefloor in his sockfeet with his head under a chair. Now I know what you’re thinking. The guy grabs his wife, throws some money on the table, and they split. Right? Not a bit of it. He sits down and snaps his fingers and they order fresh drinks. Like this is every day for him. Anyway they call an ambulance and they haul Peterson off to the hospital and he’s got a concussion and a broken jaw. And his loafers are still at the table.
COUNSELOR Jesus. What happened with you guys?
REINER Nothing. We left. We’d had enough fun for one evening. Somebody wanted to go over and get Peterson’s loafers but I didnt think that was such a good idea. Anyway. The other big space-eater is the bandstand. They just had a jukebox in here. I think what I’m going to do is take that wall out and get rid of the hallway.
* * * * *
Yard of the Pump Masters Septic Tank Pumping Company. Early morning. The trucks are pulling out one by one and the yard master is checking them off on his clipboard. When they are all gone there is one truck left in the yard.
* * * * *
A large motorcycle store in the city. A man enters and stands looking. He crosses to where a Kawasaki ZX-12 motorcycle is mounted and circling slowly on a motorized dais. The dais is marked off with a blue felt rope and the man approaches and stands looking at the bike for a moment, then unhooks the rope and lets it fall to the floor and mounts the dais and stands circling with it. A clerk talking to a customer nearby sees him.
BIKE CLERK Excuse me a minute.
The clerk comes over to the dais. The man has taken a steel tape measure from his coat pocket and is measuring the height of the Kawasaki at the handlebars.
BIKE CLERK Sir, may I help you?
WIRE-MAN (Looking at the bike while the steel tape spools up and clicks home. He pops his lips.) Nope. I’m all done.
The man steps down from the revolving dais and puts the tape measure back in his coat pocket and goes past the clerk toward the door. The clerk bends and picks up the rope and hooks the end of it back in the stand and turns and watches the man as he leaves.
* * * * *
Church, interior. Five women are standing in line along the rear wall of the church waiting to go to confession. The women are both hispanic and anglo. At the front of the line is Malkina, dressed casually but fashionably. The woman in the confessional pushes back the curtain and exits with her head bowed and Malkina enters the confessional booth.
MALKINA Hi.
PRIEST Hi?
MALKINA Oh. Bless me father for I have sinned.
Silence.
PRIEST How long has it been since your last confession?
MALKINA I’ve never been before. This is my first.
PRIEST Are you Catholic?
MALKINA No.
PRIEST Why are you here?
MALKINA I wanted to confess my sins.
PRIEST Have you ever done this before?
MALKINA No. I told you.
PRIEST I couldnt give you absolution. Even if you did. Confess. You couldnt be forgiven.
MALKINA I know. I just wanted to tell someone what I’d done and I thought why not go to a professional.
PRIEST Have you thought about taking instructions?
MALKINA That’s not something I do very well.
PRIEST I mean in order to become a Catholic. You take what are called instructions. You learn about the faith. What it means. Then you could confess and you would be forgiven for your sins.
MALKINA How do you know?
PRIEST Excuse me?
MALKINA What if they’re unforgivable?
PRIEST Nothing is unforgivable.
MALKINA Yeah? What’s the worst thing anyone ever told you?
PRIEST I wouldnt be at liberty to tell you a thing like that. The priest can never reveal anything from the confessional.
MALKINA That bad, huh? Well, I havent killed anybody. But I’ve been pretty bad. I think. I dont really know because I’m not all that sure about the rules.
PRIEST Where are you from?
MALKINA Buenos Aires. You?
PRIEST Excuse me?
MALKINA Where are you from?
PRIEST Phoenix. Arizona.
MALKINA I know where Phoenix is. Do you ever go out on dates with girls?
PRIEST No. Of course not.
MALKINA Boys?
PRIEST No. What did you want to tell me.
MALKINA What if I’d done something really bad? What if I had killed somebody. Would you call the police?
MALKINA I killed somebody.
PRIEST You said that you hadnt. Look, I’m sorry, but we have people here waiting to go to confession.
MALKINA They can wait. I did. You want to throw me out because I’m not a Catholic but what if I’d said I was one? I mean, you dont carry a card around do you?
PRIEST Who did you talk to about this?
MALKINA Why did I talk to somebody?
PRIEST You said Bless me father.
MALKINA I asked a friend. But she didnt know I was going to do it. I asked her if non-Catholics could go to confession but she said no you couldnt.
PRIEST But you didnt believe her.
MALKINA No. I believed her. I just wanted to see what would happen.
PRIEST So are we done here then?
MALKINA I havent told you my sins yet.
PRIEST I dont want to hear your sins. There would be no point. Are you baptized?
MALKINA I dont know. It’s possible.
PRIEST Your parents never told you?
MALKINA I never knew my parents. They were thrown out of a helicopter into the Atlantic Ocean when I was three. Look, you dont have to do the forgiveness thing. All you would have to do is listen. To the sins. You could even pretend I was lying. If you didnt like what you were hearing.
PRIEST Why would you lie?
MALKINA I wouldnt. But you could think that I was. Maybe I wanted to be wicked but I didnt have the stones for it. So I would just make up stuff. Women tell you about sex, dont they?
PRIEST I cant talk about that.
MALKINA Yes. But every woman who comes to confess tells you that she is an adulterer or a fornicator or something or else why would she be here? The only women who dont come are the ones who arent doing anything. So you must get an unusual picture of women. You must think that they are just having sex all the time. That that’s all they do. Anyway, I think that women might make up sexy things to tell you just to make you crazy. Dont you think that’s possible?
PRIEST No.
MALKINA But you dont know. Suppose I told you that I had sex with my sister. Would you believe that?
PRIEST You really have to go now.
MALKINA Because I did. We did it every night. As soon as the lights were out we were at it. We’d be falling asleep at our desks the next day at school. They didnt know what was wrong with us. But that’s not the worst thing. Where are you going?
The priest pushes back the curtain and exits the confessional. Malkina, kneeling, turns and pushes aside the curtain. The priest is hurrying up the aisle, blessing himself.
MALKINA (Standing up and calling to the priest) Wait! I wasnt finished!
The women waiting to go to the confession are confused, horrified. One of them blesses herself.
* * * * *
Border city. Evening. An outdoor cafe adjoining a parking lot. Metal chairs and tables. Traffic. A Mexican man is sitting at one of the tables with a cup of coffee before him and a newspaper. The young man in green pulls up on the Kawasaki ZX-12. He takes off the gloves and the helmet and puts the gloves inside the helmet and steps off of the bike and walks down to where the man is sitting and kicks back a chair and sits down.
A man and a girl are sitting in a parked car. The girl is watching the table through a pair of binoculars.
GIRL I wont be able to get what the kid is saying. Is that okay?
MAN (JAIME) We dont care what the kid is saying.
She is watching through the binoculars and writing on a pad on a clipboard.
The man at the table rises and leaves, leaving the paper on the table. The kid sits at the table and opens the newspaper and sits reading.
JAIME Did you get it?
JAIME That’s okay. Keep your eye on him.
GIRL I am.
JAIME This guy doesnt read the fucking newspapers.
GIRL I know.
The kid rakes an object from under the paper into his helmet and puts down the paper and stands and puts the helmet under his arm and crosses the plaza to his bike and puts his foot over the bike and starts it with the starter and pulls his gloves from the helmet and lays them on the tank in front of him and pulls on the helmet and fastens the strap and then pulls on the gloves and kicks back the stand and pulls away into the traffic.
JAIME Could you see what it was?
GIRL No. But it’s in the helmet.
JAIME Yeah. It’s in the helmet.
The man is dialing a number on his cell phone.
* * * * *
Reiner’s house. Malkina is on the phone.
MALKINA Look Jaime, he doesnt have to know, he just has to do what I tell him to do. No. It’s already downloaded. It’s programmed to pick up the bike at above five thousand rpm’s and that is coded into the global. The only way we can lose him is if he suddenly decides not to drive over thirty miles an hour and I’ll leave you to think about how likely that is. Call me in an hour.
Jaime and the girl in the parked car. Jaime clicks off the cell phone and looks at the girl.
JAIME Let’s go.
* * * * *
Corner table in an upscale club. The counselor and Reiner.
REINER I dont know. Women have funny ideas about sex. They’re supposed to be so modest? Let me tell you. When they get it into their head that they want to fuck they’re like a freight train. The things I’ve learned about women? Fuck. About half of it I’d like to forget.
He takes a sip of his drink.
COUNSELOR I’m not sure I follow you. What is it you’d like to forget? For instance.
REINER You dont want to know.
COUNSELOR Sure I do.
REINER Not the worst things.
COUNSELOR Those in particular.
REINER Not the very worst.
COUNSELOR Come off it, Reiner.
REINER I dont know. Let’s talk about something else.
COUNSELOR Are you shitting me? What else?
REINER Yeah. I dont know. I shouldnt tell you this.
COUNSELOR Just pull up your socks and tell me. What is it you’d like to forget?
REINER All right. I’d like to forget about Malkina fucking my car.
COUNSELOR What?
COUNSELOR What did you just say?
REINER I said I’d like to forget about Malkina fucking my car. I think.
COUNSELOR What the hell are you talking about?
REINER You remember the 328 I had.
COUNSELOR Sure. Nice car.
REINER Very nice car. Not a V-12 but a better car than the 308. Which was an embarrassment for a Ferrari. Westray had one and he said that it wouldnt pull a greasy string out of a cat’s ass. His metaphor. Is that a metaphor? Anyway, this was a while back. Not that long. We’d been getting it on for a while and we came back one night—we were staying up at Cloudcroft. Mostly for that great stretch of road between Cloudcroft and Ruidoso. And we drove out on the golf course and parked and we’re sitting there talking and for no particular reason that I could see she lifts herself up and slides off her knickers and hands them to me and gets out of the car. I asked her what she was doing and she says: I’m going to fuck your car. Jesus. She tells me to leave the door open. Turns out she wants the domelight on. So she goes around and climbs up on the hood of the Ferrari and pulls her dress up around her waist and spreads herself across the windshield in front of me with no panties on. And she’s had this Brazilian wax job. And she begins to rub herself on the glass. Dont even think I’m making this up. You cant make this up. I mean, she was a dancer, right? In Argentina? She danced at the opera thing down there. I’ve seen the clippings. And she does this full split and starts rubbing herself up and down on the glass and she’s lying on the roof of the car and she leans down over the side to see if I’m watching. Like, no, I’m sitting there reading my e-mail. And she gestures at me to crank down the window and she leans in and kisses me. Upside down. And then she tells me that she’s going to come. And I thought, well, I’m losing my fucking mind. That’s what’s happening here. It was like one of those catfish things. One of those bottom feeders you see going up the side of the aquarium. Sucking its way up the glass? It was just. I dont know. It was just … Hallucinatory. You see a thing like that, it changes you.
COUNSELOR Jesus.
REINER Tell me about it.
COUNSELOR Did she?
REINER Did she what?
COUNSELOR Did she come?
REINER Yeah. Sure. Then she just laid there. Spread out across the windshield. Finally she climbs down and comes around and gets in the car and shuts the door and I hand her her knickers and she puts them in her purse and she sort of looks at me. Like to see what I thought about that. What I thought about that? Jesus. I dont know what I thought about that. I still dont. It was too gynecological to be sexy. Almost. But mostly I was just fucking stunned. Maybe I was thinking about the leather. I dont know.
COUNSELOR The leather.
REINER Yeah. The seats. You know. Where she was sitting? I mean the car is about two weeks old. Finally I asked her if she’d ever done that before and she said she’d done everything before. Of course. So I start the engine and turn on the lights but the windshield is all smeared and I didnt have anything to wipe it with and of course she suggested that I get out and lick it off and I tried the wipers but naturally the windshield washer thing doesnt work because the Italians dont really believe in that sort of thing and finally I took off my socks and got out of the car and used them.
COUNSELOR Catfish?
REINER I dont know. Yeah. I think so.
COUNSELOR Do you think she knew the kind of effect this might have on a guy?
REINER Jesus, Counselor. Are you kidding? She knows everything.
COUNSELOR You dont think this is an odd thing to tell me?
REINER I think it’s an odd thing.
COUNSELOR Yes, but I mean why would you tell me this? I mean, I know this woman. Why is it okay to tell a thing like that about somebody …
REINER Somebody I’m banging?
COUNSELOR Come on, Reiner.
REINER I dont know. You’re probably right. Maybe I wanted to see what you’d say. Maybe there’s more to it than that. Maybe I’m scared.
COUNSELOR You’re scared?
REINER Yeah. Probably. Yeah. Sometimes she scares the shit out of me.
COUNSELOR Because of that?
REINER No. Not that.
COUNSELOR You’re in love with her.
REINER I dont know what I am. Yeah. I suppose I am in love with her. You dont think that’s cause for worry? It’s like being in love with … what? Easeful death? Fuck it. Fuck it, Counselor. Just forget the whole thing.
COUNSELOR It’s just that I dont know what it is that you’re trying to tell me.
REINER I know.
COUNSELOR Does this have anything to do with the deal?
REINER I dont know. You’re right. I shouldnt have told you. Just forget it.
COUNSELOR Forget it.
REINER Yeah.
COUNSELOR How do you propose that I do that?
REINER I dont know. Jesus, Counselor. How do I know?
* * * * *
Malkina’s bedroom. She sits in a robe in front of the fire. The cheetahs are lying on the rug at her feet. She is listening on the phone.
LAURA No. I had a dream about you. And when I woke up I couldnt remember why the dream was so troubling even though I could still remember the dream. I just wanted to call and see if you were all right.
MALKINA Are you superstitious?
LAURA I dont think so. No more than the next person.
MALKINA And who would that be?
LAURA Excuse me?
MALKINA The next person. You’re not gay are you?
LAURA No. Of course not. I shouldnt have called. I know you think my world naive. But is that so bad?
MALKINA I dont know. I cant advise you.
LAURA I know.
MALKINA You should be careful what you wish for, Angel. You might not get it.
LAURA I know.
MALKINA Do you?
MALKINA Good. I’ll see you at the club.
* * * * *
Two-lane blacktop road through the high desert. Night. A car passes and the lights recede down the long straight and fade out. A man walks out from the scrub cedars that line the road and stands in the middle of the road and lights a cigarette. He is carrying a roll of thin monel wire over one shoulder. He continues across the road to the fence. A tall metal pipe is mounted to one of the fenceposts and at the top—some twenty feet off the ground—is a floodlight. The man pushes the button on a small plastic sending unit and the light comes on, flooding the road and the man’s face. He turns it off and walks down the fence line a good hundred yards to the corner of the fence and here he drops the coil of wire to the ground and takes a flashlight from his back pocket and puts it in his teeth and takes a pair of leather gloves from his belt and puts them on. Then he loops the wire around the corner post and pulls the end of the wire through the loop and wraps it about six times around the wire itself and tucks the end several times inside the loop and then takes the wire in both hands and hauls it as tight as he can get it. Then he takes the coil of wire and walks out and crosses the road, letting out the wire behind him. In the cedars on the far side a flatbed truck is parked with the bed of the truck facing the road. He walks up to the rear of the truck and turns and pulls the wire taut and shines his flashlight back along the length of it. There is an iron pipe at the right rear of the truckbed mounted vertically in a pair of collars so that it can slide up and down and the man threads the wire through a hole in the pipe and pulls it taut and stops it from sliding back by clamping the wire with a pair of visegrips. Then he walks back out to the road and takes a tape measure from his belt and measures the height of the wire from the road surface. He goes back to the truck and lowers the iron pipe in its collars and clamps it in place again with a threaded lever that he turns by hand against the vertical rod. He goes out to the road and measures the wire again and comes back and wraps the end of the wire through a heavy three-inch iron ring and walks to the front of the truck where he pulls the wire taut and wraps it around itself to secure the ring at the end of the wire and then pulls the ring over a hook mounted in the side rail of the truck bed. He stands looking at it. He strums the wire with his fingers. It gives off a deep resonant note. He unhooks the ring and walks the wire to the rear of the truck until it lies slack on the ground and in the road. He lays the ring on the truck bed and goes around and he takes a walkie-talkie from a work-bag in the cab of the truck and stands in the open door of the truck listening. He checks his watch by the domelight in the cab.
WIRE-MAN Anything?
VOICE (MALE) He’s coming.
WIRE-MAN You’re at eight miles.
VOICE Yeah.
WIRE-MAN That’s less than three minutes.
VOICE Yeah. Flat out it’s about two minutes and twenty seconds.
WIRE-MAN Can you hear him?
VOICE Not yet.
They wait.
VOICE There he is.
WIRE-MAN Yeah. I hear him. All right. Let’s do it.
He hangs up the walkie-talkie and takes the cigarette from his mouth and grinds it into the dirt and shuts the door of the truck. He looks at his watch. Very thin in the distance we can hear the highpitched scream of the Kawasaki bike flat out at eleven thousand rpm.
Shot of the green rider bent low over the bike at one hundred and ninety miles an hour. Suddenly the floodlight comes on and he raises up and turns his head to look at it.
The truck. The desert is suddenly lit to the north of the wire-man and he takes the ring and carries it forward and pulls it over the hook. The wire hums.
Shot of green rider with his face turned back to the floodlight now behind him. Suddenly his head zips away and in the helmet it goes bouncing down the highway behind the bike. The bike continues on, the motor slows and dies to silence, and in the distance we see a long slither of sparks recede into the dark.
The truck. The man clips the wire at the ring with a pair of wirecutters and the wire zips away. He walks out to the road with the walkie-talkie. In the road he shines the light down the blacktop and then walks down the roadside ditch until he comes to the helmet.
WIRE-MAN (Into walkie-talkie) We’re good. Yeah. Over and out.
He puts away the walkie-talkie and bends over and picks up the helmet. It is surprisingly heavy. He goes back to the truck and opens the cab door on the driver’s side and puts the helmet in the floor and shuts the door and goes out to the road and crosses to the fence where he cuts the wire free from the fencepost and begins to wind it up as he walks, passing the wire over his elbow at each turn to make a coil of the wire. At the truck he stows the wire in a toolbox under the bed of the truck and gets in the truck and starts it and turns on the lights and turns out into the road.
Desert. Night. At the fence the man is disassembling the pole and floodlight. Disconnecting the wires. The pole is made of sections of 1-5/8 inch galvanized chainlink fencepost that slide one into the next and he puts these in the bed of the truck and puts the small components in the under-bed toolbox.
Desert. Night. The truck pulls out and drives past the headless body sprawled in the road. Then it stops. The man looks out the window of the truck back at the body, then backs up the truck and gets out. He picks up the feet and drags the body into the ditch and wipes his hands on his pants and then gets back in the truck and pulls away down the highway.
* * * * *
Death row cell, Texas State Penitentiary. Night. Ruth wakes and lies looking up at the ceiling. She sits up, pushing back the bed covers. She sits on the edge of the bunk with her hands folded.
* * * * *
Front gate of the septic-tank company. The flatbed truck pulls up and the wire-man gets out and shuts the door. He is holding a battery-driven diegrinder in one hand and he watches the road behind him where a single light is approaching. Sound of a motorcycle. The cycle pulls up and halts and the rider gets off and kicks down the stand and the wire-man goes to the gate and turns on the diegrinder and bends to cut the padlock on the gate. A sheaf of sparks lights up the area and the lock falls to the ground in about twenty seconds. He pushes open the gate and then bends and picks up the lock and juggles it in his hand and throws it into the bushes.
WIRE-MAN (Shaking his hand) Hot son of a bitch.
The second man goes past and turns on a flashlight.
The wire-man goes back to the flatbed truck and opens the passenger side door and takes the green motorcycle helmet off the seat and takes out of the helmet a set of keys and a computerized jumper cable with three color coded jacks and shuts the door and follows the second man into the yard where the septic-tank trucks are parked. The second man has opened the door of the truck and pulled the hood release and he goes around to the front of the truck and opens the hood.
WIRE-MAN Let me see your light.
He takes the light and goes along the side of the truck and picks up a loose set of wires.
SECOND MAN You know how it goes?
WIRE-MAN Yeah. It’s color coded. Red to red, green to green. Black to black. Here. Hold the light.
He plugs in the connections and hands the keys to the second man.
WIRE-MAN See if it’ll start.
The second man gets in the truck and turns the key. He turns it again.
WIRE-MAN Wait a minute. This thing’s got a switch on it. How do you say on in Mexican?
SECOND MAN You’re shittin me.
WIRE-MAN Try it now.
The second man cranks the engine and it starts. Wire-man drops the hood and steps back.
* * * * *
The counselor is sitting in his chair in his condo, listening to Westray on the telephone.
WESTRAY Counselor.
COUNSELOR Que pasó?
WESTRAY We’ve got a problem.
Silence.
WESTRAY You there?
COUNSELOR I’m here. How bad a problem?
WESTRAY Let’s say pretty bad. Then multiply by ten.
COUNSELOR Fuck.
WESTRAY What time can you meet me tomorrow?
COUNSELOR It is tomorrow.
WESTRAY What time?
COUNSELOR Nine oclock.
WESTRAY All right. Where.
COUNSELOR How about the coffeeshop at the Coronado.
WESTRAY How about McDonald’s? We can start getting used to our new lifestyle.
COUNSELOR (Softly) Jesus. Coronado. Nine oclock.
WESTRAY See you at nine.
The counselor hangs up the phone and leans back and puts his hand over his eyes.
COUNSELOR Fuck. Fuckety fuck fuck fuck fuck.