SCENE 8

The camera shop. Wheeler repairs a camera. Anita cleans a display case. Michael sits.

They work in silence. Finally . . .

MICHAEL: It’s quiet in here.

ANITA: I noticed that.

MICHAEL: Normally, you two are a couple of Chatty Cathys.

ANITA: Maybe it’s the weather. Feels gloomy out there. Maybe it’s just Wednesday.

(More silence.)

MICHAEL: Anybody watch anything interesting on TV last night?

ANITA: I don’t have a TV.

MICHAEL: Why is that?

ANITA: I had one for years but it broke. And I realized how much I didn’t miss it.

MICHAEL: You must do a lot of reading.

ANITA: Yeah, I read a lot.

MICHAEL: What are you reading?

ANITA: I’m working through My Struggle by that Norwegian guy. I kind of hate it but I kind of love it too. What are you reading?

MICHAEL: I wised up, I only watch TV now.

ANITA: Is that right?

MICHAEL: Every night from seven until midnight. Mother and I.

ANITA: What do you watch?

MICHAEL: Murder mysteries, mainly. Or crime shows, I guess. I’m not sure of the classification. Violent crimes are committed and the perpetrators are pursued and eventually captured. And oftentimes technology is involved.

ANITA: And are these fictional programs or more sort of true crime?

MICHAEL: They seem pretty real. Last night there was a story about a man in Kansas City who kept a sex slave in his basement.

ANITA: Ugh. Those stories give me the creeps.

MICHAEL: He had a relationship with this young woman, he was a friend of her family, maybe. She was young and wholesome and blond-haired and milk-fed. And he had picked this girl up along the road, just giving her a neighborly ride, but instead he took her to his house and locked her in a storage room in his basement, and she lived there with him for many years.

ANITA: Yeah, I hate those stories.

MICHAEL: They had intercourse every day.

ANITA: Right. Well. Wheeler? Watching anything good on TV? Reading any good books?

WHEELER: No.

MICHAEL: He was in love with her. And when they took her away from him, he cried like a baby.

ANITA: Okay.

MICHAEL: Can you imagine that? Being kept in a room and once a day your captor enters to penetrate you?

ANITA: Yeah, no, that’s . . .

MICHAEL: I wonder if you’d get to the point where you might start to look forward to him coming in, just as a distraction.

(He points to a spot on the display case in front of him.)

There’s a spot right here.

(She cleans the spot in front of him.)

Or maybe she started to care about him. Maybe she started to think about him as a real friend.

ANITA: I don’t think so.

MICHAEL: Do you suppose, after all that time, when he would enter the room for her daily penetration, do you suppose she was ever able to have an orgasm?

WHEELER: For the love of Christ, Michael . . .

ANITA: Wheeler—

MICHAEL: What?

WHEELER: Do you even hear yourself?!

MICHAEL: Sorry, have I offended your delicate Victorian sensibilities?

WHEELER: We work with this young woman every day. You don’t even seem to register that she’s a person, you think she’s just some human fuck-toy. My God, are you that afraid of women?

ANITA: It’s okay, Wheeler—

MICHAEL: I don’t have to justify myself—

WHEELER: What happened to you? I’m sure your mom did a number on you, put clothespins on your little pee-pee or something—

MICHAEL: Anita and I are just having a conversation—

WHEELER: You apologize to her right now.

MICHAEL: For what?

ANITA: I don’t need an apology—

WHEELER: For being fucking disgusting.

MICHAEL: I only apologize when I’ve done something wrong.

WHEELER: You worried about your liability? Cause she’s got a sweet case for harassment if there ever was one—

MICHAEL: Why don’t you just get back to work?

WHEELER: Apologize.

MICHAEL: I’m warning you.

ANITA: Wheeler!

WHEELER: You’re warning me, you sick fuck? Apologize to Anita.

ANITA: Please stop this, I don’t want this—!

MICHAEL: You have worked here a long time and I would hate for—

WHEELER: After all the disgusting shit I’ve had to listen to, your sick fantasies about fucking this woman and your cum hitting the ceiling and—

MICHAEL: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

WHEELER: You apologize, Michael.

MICHAEL: Get back to work, or you’re fired!

ANITA: Wheeler! Stop!

WHEELER: Apologize!

MICHAEL: This is your last warning!

WHEELER: Fuck you and your warning! Fuck you, Michael!

MICHAEL: That’s it, you’re fired!

ANITA: No he’s not! No you’re not!

WHEELER: Good, fuck you and your fucking lame-ass shop! Fuck you and your mom and your stupid car, I hate your fucking car!

MICHAEL: What about my car?

WHEELER: I don’t need this shit job! Nobody uses real cameras anymore anyway!

MICHAEL: What about my car?

WHEELER: If you punish this girl, I’m going to come back and kick your fucking ass!

ANITA: Goddamn it, Wheeler, don’t do this!

(Wheeler grabs the Mamiya-Sekor from under the counter.)

MICHAEL: You can’t take cameras out of here!

WHEELER: Fuck you I can’t, this is my personal camera, you asshole!

MICHAEL: I’m going to need the key to the store.

WHEELER: You need the key, you grimy fuck?! You fucking pig-dog?! I’ll give you the key to your ass, you fucking prick . . .

(Wheeler struggles to get the key to the store off his key chain.)

ANITA: Goddamn it, Wheeler—!

MICHAEL: I’ll send your last check to your apartment.

WHEELER: You better pay me every penny, Michael, you fucking cunt, or I’m coming back here and I’ll drag your ass out of this store and throw you into traffic, I swear to God.

MICHAEL: Give me my key and get out of here.

WHEELER: All right, you scumbag prick— (Still struggling with the key) —(goddamn this fucking goddamn thing)— (Finally gets the key off, brandishes it) —here’s your fucking key, but you had better know one thing: I have not received satisfaction!

MICHAEL: What? What does that mean?

(Wheeler cocks his arm.)

No, don’t throw it! (Cowers) I HAVE NO DEPTH PERCEPTION!

(Wheeler zings the key at him.)