Coronado - Dennis Lehane [45]
DOCTOR So you’ve been forgetting.
PATIENT What’s the missus think of the new digs?
DOCTOR So you’ve been forgetting.
PATIENT Go to Crate & Barrel, did you? Get the latest stemware?
DOCTOR You’ve been forgetting.
PATIENT A lot.
DOCTOR What’re you on?
PATIENT Nothing but the shit you prescribed. What’s it? Haldol. I had a dog once. Had him from the time I was four till I was sixteen. His name was BB and when you stuck your nose in his fur it smelled like cinnamon. Don’t ask me why, but it did. And I can tell you how he didn’t so much walk as trundle. Is that a word? He trundled and his butt sashayed like a French hooker’s. I loved that dog. So how come I can’t tell you what kind of dog he was?
DOCTOR He was a mutt?
PATIENT If he was a mutt, I’d tell you he was a mutt. I’d remember he had a mutt’s face. But I can’t see his face. I can’t remember what he looked like.
DOCTOR You can’t see his face.
PATIENT Twelve years of my life and I can’t see his face. It’s the noise, the noise, the noise, don’t you think?
DOCTOR What noise?
PATIENT
What noise? The fucking bells, the whistles, the plethora of fucking choices for fucking nothing. The fucking Coast or Irish Spring or Ivory Snow. The SUVs and handbags and coats and diet pills and fitness programs and everything new-and-fucking improved! And you buy it so it’ll fill those places in you that never did fill, those places you carry around in you like extra lungs? It’ll make you feel right, but you’re not filled, you’re not right. And then you wake up and you can’t remember what your dog looked like. Jesus Christ.
DOCTOR Take a breath.
PATIENT I’m breathing. I didn’t forget how to do that.
DOCTOR Well, that’s something.
PATIENT Yeah, that’s something. Who are you?
DOCTOR What?
PATIENT Kidding.
Scene 6
BOBBY and BOBBY’S FATHER.
BOBBY’S FATHER So you didn’t stash it at Gwen’s house?
BOBBY Not that I recall.
BOBBY’S FATHER Think.
BOBBY I’ve been thinking.
BOBBY’S FATHER So you’re sure it’s not there.
BOBBY I didn’t say I’m sure. I said “Not that I recall.”
BOBBY’S FATHER Well, recall better.
BOBBY Would that I could. Where’s Gwen?
BOBBY’S FATHER I told you two years ago, that girl got gone. No note, no nothing, just blew out of town. Forget her. Shit, you forgot everything else. Forget Gwen. Hear me? Forget Gwen. So where do you think it is?
BOBBY Like a bulldog on a pork chop.
BOBBY’S FATHER You’ve got to have some theories.
BOBBY Where’s Gwen?
BOBBY’S FATHER Caracas. Uzbekistan. Kathmandu. I told you. I don’t know.
BOBBY So maybe it’s with her.
BOBBY’S FATHER No.
BOBBY Why not?
BOBBY’S FATHER You told me.
BOBBY I did? What I tell you?
BOBBY’S FATHER You called me from the hospital parking lot.
BOBBY I did? The hospital? No shit?
BOBBY’S FATHER Dumb fucking move if ever there was one, her dropping you there.
BOBBY I seem to remember I was bleeding all over the place by that point, starting to talk all funny.
BOBBY’S FATHER Oh, sure, you remember that.
BOBBY So what’d I say when I called you?
BOBBY’S FATHER You fucking with me?
BOBBY Perish the thought.
BOBBY’S FATHER Are you?
BOBBY Just asking what I said.
BOBBY’S FATHER You said, “I hid it somewhere safe. No one knows where but me.”
BOBBY I said all that? Wow. What else I say?
BOBBY’S FATHER Nothing. Cops had pulled up by that point, were calling you motherfucker, telling you to drop the fucking phone and get on the fucking ground you fucking motherfucker. You hung up.
BOBBY Cops do love saying “fuck.” So I guess Gwen doesn’t have it.
BOBBY’S FATHER No, she doesn’t.
BOBBY Huh. Well, let’s hope something jars my memory.
BOBBY’S FATHER Yeah, let’s.
Scene 7
The DOCTOR sits alone in the booth. The table is littered with empty glasses. The WAITRESS approaches.
WAITRESS Let me get some of those out of your way, honey.
DOCTOR Thanks.
WAITRESS You guys want another?
DOCTOR Sure. Why not?
[The WAITRESS leaves as the PATIENT returns from the bathroom. She sits, looks across at him. They both laugh.]
PATIENT What?
DOCTOR What, what?
PATIENT You’re lit.
DOCTOR I am.
PATIENT