FADE IN:
INT. DRUG STORE - DAY
Lawrence stands at the window. The PHARMACIST (30's) looks
uninterested.
LAWRENCE
She was supposed to call new the
prescription in two days ago.
PHARMACIST
I'm sorry. No one's called in
anything for Whiteside. Your
insurance would've flagged it
anyway because your last
prescription hasn't run out yet.
LAWRENCE
If I run out I'll break out all
over again. I can't take the damn
doyxcycline. See, she prescribed
me the wrong drug.
PHARMACIST
Tell me about it.
EXT. SIDEWALK - DAY
It's windy and cold and he's wearing a t-shirt. Lawrence's
face is healing but residual and secondary infections still
abound.
A HOMELESS WOMAN (40's) sits against a wall. She has a
cardboard sign propped against her knees.
Shopping carts full of miscellaneous crap surround her.
LAWRENCE
(dropping change)
You miss the whole point.
The woman doesn't even hear him. Reaches for the shinny
money.
INT. HARLEM APARTMENT - DAY
Lawrence stares at his stuff.
There's a couch and a microwave and toaster and a coffee
table covered in dishes. Next to and on top of the fridge
sits a neat stack of dusty film lights and stands of various
sizes.
In his bedroom there's a massive computer monitor, desktop,
printer, two scanners, speakers, a full sized mirror and bed.
Books cover the floor and clothes fill the closets.
There's a rolled and a folding bike near the door, an
acoustic guitar and a video projector, a typewriter, some
DVDs, papers and notebooks galore, loose change and CD's
strewn about.
And there's dirt, lots of dirt.
Lawrence sits on his bed, looking overwhelmed. He lays back
and closes his eyes. Raises his hand to block the overhead
light.
Sits up. Sits at his computer. Surfs eBay for a little.
Opens his writing program.
Types the following...
"LAWRENCE
I know I'm supposed to be writing
you about all the wonderful things
I'm up to but I'm really just
trying to figure out what to do and
wishing I could run away or that I
had someone else to do it for me."
Erases it. Types...
"LAWRENCE
Wow. I'm getting really self
reflexive with my scripts here.
I'm practically Charlie Kaufman."
Erases it.
EXT. WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK - EVENING
Lawrence and ERICA (21) tall and beautiful without makeup
walk and talk.
Lawrence tosses the last bit of his ice cream cone. Takes
off his Lennon sunglasses.
LAWRENCE
So basically I have just enough
time to sell everything I own on
eBay. It takes about seven days
and then I have like 4 days or so
to ship it all. Everything else
I'd give or throw away.
ERICA
You sure you want to sell
everything you own.
LAWRENCE
Never been more sure of anything.
I can't carry it around any longer.
ERICA
And you think you can get some
money for it?
LAWRENCE
Yeah. Maybe a grand. I can at
least buy a laptop for that. Ship
my beast back to Atlanta. My mom
just sent my brother off to college
with the family computer.
ERICA
Once everything's gone, then what?
LAWRENCE
Well, I'd be down to a week's worth
of clothes, a video camera and a
laptop. I could go anywhere I
want. I'd be the fastest turtle in
the world.
ERICA
Are you leaving New York?
LAWRENCE
I don't know. I don't want to but
my lease is up in two weeks. I
can't handle getting a room. The
deposit and everything would break
me. I need a cheap place to stay
or I'm going to have to go back to
Atlanta.
ERICA
You can always stay with me.
LAWRENCE
Thanks. But I can't put you out.
With that tiny room. I think I can
talk my friend Alice into letting
me move into this room off of her
room for a couple hundred. I'm
giving her my bed anyway.
ERICA
So you're staying in New York for
at least a month?
LAWRENCE
Yes. At least October.
ERICA
And what. Find another job?
LAWRENCE
I donno. I need to find a way to
make movies in the city without
starving and dying. I need to keep
writing, always writing, and then
hook up with some indy stuff in the
city. Pay or no, just to do it.
To feel alive again.
ERICA
And when the money runs out?
LAWRENCE
I use my last $150 to fly back to
Atlanta and start making plans for
a car and L-A.
ERICA
But what do you want to do, like
ultimately?
LAWRENCE
I want to write and direct my own
indy movies.
ERICA
So why can't you just make movies
right now?
LAWRENCE
Because it takes a lot of shit.
People I don't know. Resources I
don't have. I don't feel like I
have the momentum to make a movie
right now.
ERICA
You know people.
LAWRENCE
I know, but I can't put them out.
Erica stops. She's in the middle of the street. Lawrence
keeps walking.
ERICA
Hey!
Lawrence turns around.
LAWRENCE
Hey. You're in the street.
ERICA
I was working in Michigan. I
couldn't come to the city to look
for apartments.
Who volunteered to look at the
apartments I found and take
pictures and who wrote a huge long
email and who recommend the
apartment that me and Joy and
Teresa are all living in right now?
LAWRENCE
Me.
ERICA
Who takes the train back to
Brooklyn with his women friends
when they leave a party by
themselves so they get home safe
and then takes it all the way back
to fucking Harlem at four in the
morning.
LAWRENCE
Me-getoutoftheroaderica!
ERICA
Who is giving away everything he
owns giving his friends first dibs,
including a microwave I'm getting
and a bed some other chick's
taking.
LAWRENCE
ME!
Erica walks out of the crosswalk. She's stopped traffic.
She palms Lawrence on the forehead.
ERICA
Put your friends out.
Lawrence pauses.
LAWRENCE
No.
INT. QUIZNOS - NIGHT
Erica and Lawrence share a salad. (Very newly unemployed of
them.)
ERICA
Are you moving by yourself too?
LAWRENCE
I'm gonna get one of those man with
a van dudes on C-L to park in front
of the apartment while I cart it
all out. The shit thing is Alice
has a fourth floor walk up.
ERICA
Eh, yeah. I know how she feels.
LAWRENCE
God, I wish I could've come to all
of this two months ago. I'd have
time to breathe. I wish I hadn't
been trying to play adult games
until exactly two hours ago.
ERICA
Everything always happens at once.
And (gulps) you're free now.
Cheers to that.
They hold their nonexistent drinks. Imaginary clink them.
LAWRENCE
Cheers to being young, broke and
scared of your own dreams.
EXT. CITY STREET - NIGHT
Lawrence walks to the subway station. He sees another
HOMELESS WOMAN (40's) surrounded by her stuff. They are
laying on a dirty mattress in the middle of it all.
He looks again and notices a HOMELESS MAN (40's) laying
beside her, under a blanket.
They're sharing a banana. Smiling through the grime.
Lawrence goes underground.
INT. SUBWAY CAR - NIGHT
Lawrence sits alone. No one else on the whole car. He looks
around.
LAWRENCE
(shouts)
Are we ready to take this?
An A.D. walks over, clipboard in hand.
Lawrence stands.
A.D.
Camera needs five minutes to flag
the flare from the H-M-I's. Sound
says the daily player walked off
with his FM mic. Wardrobe wants a
decision on the shoes.
LAWRENCE
French-flag-it-she's-at-the-craft
table-red-with-the-buckles.
A.D.
Okay.
(shouts)
Pictures up. Quiet on the set
please.
The ACTORS (20's) appear on the subway car, sitting.
CAMERAMAN holds a digital camera.
SOUNDMAN holds a boom over the Actors.
Lawrence holds a hand monitor with a video feed.
LAWRENCE
Now with every word you speak,
every movement you make, remember,
this is your chance to turn your
life around. Everything you are is
new and difficult and you've never
done anything like this before.
But if you don't succeed. You
believe you will die.
The Actors look at him like he's crazy.
Lawrence smiles big. He is.
A.D.
Roll camera.
CAMERAMAN
Camera speeds.
LAWRENCE
Action.
FADE TO BLACK:
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
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