Coronado - Dennis Lehane [53]
BOBBY Nurses’ station?
GWEN Twenty-two yards to the left.
BOBBY Janitor’s closet?
GWEN Directly across from Three-ten.
BOBBY Security rounds?
GWEN Ten-ten, ten-forty, eleven-ten.
BOBBY Fire escape?
GWEN To the right, end of the hall.
BOBBY We run into a security guard?
GWEN I rip my blouse, scream rape, and point at the guard.
BOBBY Run into a nurse and a guard?
GWEN Point at the nurse.
BOBBY I’m laughing all the way to prison here. Laughing hard.
GWEN Okay, okay. You take the security guard, I take the nurse, it’s every robber for herself.
BOBBY In the event we’re split up?
GWEN Rendezvous right here.
BOBBY If I don’t make it?
GWEN Bobby.
BOBBY If I don’t make it, Gwen?
[GWEN stares at him.]
Scene 2
The fairgrounds. Night. The DOCTOR and the PATIENT.
PATIENT Used to be a train ran past here. Route dried up, so they killed the service. Still see the tracks, though.
DOCTOR It’s too dark.
PATIENT They’re there. Dated a cop once. He drank so much I always figured he became a cop for the drinking. He told me once, swear to god, “Ever want to kill someone, Gina? Do it with water or a train. Fucks the evidence all to hell.” Irony, right?
DOCTOR So your name’s Gina.
PATIENT According to the birth certificate, yes, sir.
DOCTOR You killed your husband with a train.
[Beat.]
He scream? He cry? Beg?
PATIENT Not so much.
[GINA, WILL, and HAL enter. HAL’s arm is swung around WILL and all three have been drinking. HAL’s carrying a bottle.]
HAL It’s fucked-up. I mean, I have kids from Number One. Now Number Two had no interest. She was nutritionally imbalanced anyway, so what the fuck. But Gina? Shit, boy, I never dared dream.
WILL Well, boss, dreams have a way of coming true.
GINA At a price, of course.
HAL Ain’t that the Bible truth? But, baby, trust me, ain’t no price on this. You could leave my ass and take half my money and the beach house in Corpus, and I wouldn’t care. Ha! Long as I had me a little shit kicker to kick shit with?
[HAL sits suddenly. He laughs and hoots at the moon. GINA and WILL can’t stop staring at him and then each other.]
HAL Yeah, a little tyke! A little tyke! Yee-hee. Got-damn!
DOCTOR So…?
PATIENT I know. Right?
DOCTOR But, you could have—
PATIENT Oh, Doctor. Please. We are all—all of us—about the children.
Scene 3
Headlights cut across the fairgrounds. BOBBY and BOBBY’S FATHER exit their car offstage and enter the fairgrounds.
BOBBY’S FATHER So we getting warm?
BOBBY I’m feeling all tingly.
BOBBY’S FATHER I always liked this place off-season, the tarps flapping in the wind, faint smell of elephant shit.
BOBBY Ain’t no elephants at a fair.
BOBBY’S FATHER No?
BOBBY You’re thinking of the circus.
BOBBY’S FATHER The circus. I hate trapeze artists. Women all look like men and the men all look like cock smokers. And don’t even get me started on fucking clowns.
[BOBBY stops at a freshly turned mound of dirt. He kicks it lightly with his foot.]
BOBBY Mandy?
BOBBY’S FATHER Who the fuck’s Mandy?
BOBBY The hooker.
BOBBY’S FATHER That was her name? Huh.
[BOBBY kicks the mound again.]
BOBBY Oh, no, right, you drove her home. Which was where again?
[BOBBY’S FATHER chuckles softly.]
BOBBY’S FATHER This has been nice, reconnecting and shit.
BOBBY A time to treasure.
BOBBY’S FATHER You think I’m shitting you, but I missed you, boy. I’m the only daddy you’ve ever known and you’re the only son I’ve ever known and we had ourselves some times over the years.
BOBBY Name one.
BOBBY’S FATHER I could name a hundred.
BOBBY Try one.
BOBBY’S FATHER Why you gotta be cold?
BOBBY I’m not being cold. I’m asking—
BOBBY’S FATHER
You’d a preferred going to some same-as-every-other-fucking-kid grade school? Playing video games in some stink-ass suburban basement? Some stink-ass suburban town with a mall looks like every other mall? You get through high school and go to college, study business or poli-sci? And then get you a job, a 401(k), marry the receptionist because she smiles at you right and gives okay