FADE IN:
INT. HARLEM APARTMENT - DAY
Lawrence, in penguin boxers and South Park T-shirt, slowly
pulls a gigantic fucking light off the top of the fridge.
It lands on the hard wood floor with a metallic thud.
Lawrence lifts his socked feet like it landed on his toe.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
I must've gotten a lot weaker
since I put this fucker up there.
(beat)
How in the hell did I put this
fucker up there?
He then slides a giant stage electrical box off the fridge.
This one even heavier and sharper looking.
Dust slides off the items as he takes them down.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
These are the first two things I
bought out of college. I dreamt
I would own thousands of dollars
in equipment. Keep them in some
space in the city and make movies
every weekend for cheaper than
renting.
(beat)
I can't sell these heavy things.
I'll never be able to ship them.
It'll cost too much.
Lawrence sneezes hard.
LAWRENCE
Everything is so dirty.
EXT. ROOFTOP, BROOKLYN - NIGHT
CRACK! Boom. Screeeeck! A rooftop door swings open.
Erica, JOY (21) smiling and sheepish and Lawrence walk onto
the roof.
LAWRENCE
All it needs is a little kick.
ERICA
Cool.
LAWRENCE
I can't believe you guys have
lived here for a month and have
never come up here.
JOY
We didn't want to get in trouble.
The lease says no roof access.
ERICA
I wonder where the cable box is.
Lawrence walks to the edge of the roof. Peers over the
side.
LAWRENCE
You know I'm scared to death of
heights?
EXT. HARLEM STREET - DAY
Lawrence carts the giant light out with considerable
effort.
Two LOCAL THUGS (20's) sit on the stoop outside the
condemned methadone clinic.
Lawrence places the light next to the stage box on the curb
for garbage.
LOCAL THUG #1
What's that?
LAWRENCE
It's a big light.
LOCAL THUG #1
Like for movies and stuff?
LAWRENCE
Yep.
Lawrence walks off.
LOCAL THUG #2
That was in your house?
EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - DAY
Lawrence walks in a simple brown cloak. He carries only a
bowl and a thermos on a rope slung across his shoulder.
He is older, maybe a few years from now. He has a beard.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
Let me describe where I imagine
you living.
A minivan drives by. Several more are parked along the
street.
The lawns are green. Robots sticking a few inches above
the grass water in crescent patterns.
The homes have a Spanish architecture. Tiles roofs. Every
color is an earth color. Deep reds and browns.
A WOMAN exits her suburban home. Heads towards her car.
This is far in the distance. This woman is deeply out of
focus.
EXT. ROOFTOP, BROOKLYN - NIGHT
Lawrence approaches a thick block of stone. In this light
it could be anything.
LAWRENCE
Maybe the cable box is in this
thing.
JOY
That's a chimney.
Lawrence jumps back, punches quickly in the air a few
times.
ERICA
How's that schizophrenia treatin
ya?
LAWRENCE
Something flew past me.
JOY
(brightens)
I bet it's a bat!
Lawrence blanches.
LAWRENCE
Oh. Good. Bats in Crown
Heights?
JOY
That's where they live. Chimneys
ERICA
We could have parties up here.
We should come back when there's
more light.
JOY
I can't see where I'm walking.
EXT. HARLEM APARTMENT, BEDROOM - DAY
Lawrence fucks around on eBay. He keeps posting items at 1
cent starting price and no reserve.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
If this shit sells for one cent
I'm gonna jump out the fucking
window. But I live on the first
floor so it'll probably only
result in a scrape.
EXT. ROOFTOP, BROOKLYN
ERICA
At least it'll be off your hands
either way.
INT. HARLEM APARTMENT, BEDROOM - DAY
LAWRENCE
I'd rather put it in the fucking
street. I'm always taking
necessary risks in the name of
getting shit off my hands.
EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - DAY
Lawrence bends down, picks up a pebble in the road
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
I've wondered exactly what you
look like now. I mean from
moment to moment. I have so many
different versions of you. Some
are fat and jolly, yes actually
jolly. Some are really cute.
Some of my versions of you are so
beautiful I'd mourn the fact we'd
never be together. I'm that
superficial.
The woman pulls various out of focus items from her
backseat. She returns to the house.
Lawrence steps out in the middle of the road. He places
the pebble in his mouth and sits, cross-legged.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
I had five days before I knew how
much everything I owned was worth
to the rest of the world. I put
it all up for 1 penny. That's
what it was worth in my
possession.
(beat)
I'm not a man who's capable of
possessing much outside himself.
The woman in the distance gets in the car. Starts the
engine.
Lawrence swishes the pebble in his mouth.
INT. HARLEM APARTMENT, BEDROOM - DAY
Lawrence bites his fingernails and watches the minutes tick
by on eBay.
No one's bidding.
A list on screen keeps track of the progress of 20 items.
LAWRENCE
I can't watch this. This is too
stressful.
Lawrence looks at his fingernails. Each one holds a
planter's worth of black dirt.
Lawrence grimaces.
EXT. ROOFTOP, BROOKLYN - NIGHT
They stand on a silver section of the roof.
Lawrence sticks a foot on a black part of the roof. The
blackness is vast and formless.
He tests the dark roof's stability.
ERICA
Does it exist?
LAWRENCE
Yeah. I guess they just paved
this part of the roof.
Lawrence walks on it.
LAWRENCE
This is freaky. I'm walking on
emptiness. Does it look like I'm
floating?
JOY
Don't fall please.
LAWRENCE
I don't see that happening,
exactly. It could, I suppose. I
feel like I'm in a lifeboat and
everything around me is sinking
but I'm afloat.
Like the second I throw something
out, the sharks get it.
EXT. HARLEM STREET - EVENING
Lawrence walks out of his apartment towards the subway. He
looks to his left. The Thugs are gone.
And so is the stage box. The light is still there but it's
face has been kicked in. Pieces of the lens lay all over
the sidewalk.
A huge dent, like a bite unbalances the light's remains.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
Of course you're right. The only
thing I had to do to keep her
regardless of my identity was
keep her wanting me. Wanting the
person she was when she was with
me. She misses him. She misses
herself with him. I miss myself
with her. I am a castaway from
that shipwreck.
INT. SUBWAY CAR - NIGHT
Lawrence viciously reads "Life of Pi." Finishes it.
A HOMELESS MAN (40's) walks into the car.
HOMELESS MAN
(staccato, like a
recording)
Excuse me ladies and gentleman
Not too long ago I was like you
but now I'm homeless...
Fades out.
After a moment he sits down next to Lawrence.
HOMELESS MAN
You know they say the only non
neurotic response is a sneeze.
LAWRENCE
They didn't say that. Dawn said
that.
HOMELESS MAN
Oh. You know you should really
use the next five days to write
Dawn the confession she deserves.
You can do 20 pages a day. Hell,
you write Hilary 8 pages in an
hour or two. That's incredible!
I bet if you really just sat and
let fly you could do 20 pages a
day for 5 days straight. What
else've you got to do? Watch the
damn eBay?
Lawrence drops change in his hand.
HOMELESS MAN
That book there. That's a
hellova story. I love that it's
so unbelievably fantastical and
yet completely factual, or at
least that's what the author
wants you to believe. How
perfectly fact and fiction become
a story. You can't make shit up
any better than life can.
EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - DAY
Lawrence spits the pebble into his hand. It's blue and
white and brown swirls. It's a gorgeous smooth spherical
pebble.
The woman drives towards him in her car.
Her face is behind the visor mirror, applying makeup.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
I sometimes wonder if I'll ever
see you. I sometimes think it's
impossible, with the way things
are set up online, it's almost a
defeat to see someone in person
after they've inhabited your
dreams for so long.
The car screeches to a stop, inches from Lawrence's face.
The visor flips up. It's Dawn.
You know what she looks like.
(Was she anything how you pictured her from my
discriptions?)
She gets out, yelling at Lawrence. But muted.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
I'll never been the subject of
your poetry. You write about
him. He and I are as different
as mothes and oranges. Don't try
and be vague. You only embarrass
us both.
Lawrence holds the pebble out for Dawn to see.
After many years and countless attempts to block his image
out of her memory, she doesn't recognize Lawrence as the
man she slept with.
Dawn looks at the pebble. Its peculiar brown white and
blue swirls.
LAWRENCE
That's my atlas globe now. The
one I held on my shoulders for
all those years.
Dawn recognizes his voice. Some small inflection maybe.
Her face changes.
LAWRENCE (CONT'D)
I've never felt lighter in my
life. I wouldn't've gotten this
far without you.
(beat)
I wrote you the story. I
confessed everything in that last
week of September. Ready to tell
it, I needed once more to be
reminded how much I cared about
the telling.
Dawn takes the globe in her fingers.
DAWN
(mouths)
Can I have it?
Lawrence nods.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
But I did not win you back. You
were always out of my grasp. The
story would always be a thank you
letter to an old friend. Not some
miracle of love and words. And my
fate from that point to this were
no longer my concern.
FADE TO BLACK:
Thursday, September 23, 2004
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