INT. AIRPLANE - NIGHT
Lawrence sits in the front row of a no first-class type
airplane. He watches a small TV screen. The Crocodile
Hunter is on.
He looks distraught, lazy and mostly trapped. He can't
really move or look any direction except for forward.
He flips the channels on his armrest. Looks to his
right.
An ASIAN MAN (50's) sits beside him reading a screenplay
and occasionally marking it with notes.
The Asian man has no fingers on either hand and has only
one leg. He turns to catch Lawrence reading over his
shoulder. He smiles, friendly.
Lawrence goes back to watching TV. Turbulence shakes the
cabin. BING! Seatbelt sign lights up.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
We all have ways of dealing with death.
The cabin shakes violently up and down. Everyone holds
on. The camera scans across the passengers, we hear
their thoughts.
PASSENGER #1
Oh God, if you don't kill me on this
flight I swear I'll raise my kids
Christian.
PASSENGER #2
I can't die on this trip. It's not a
good enough story of my life. It doesn't
mean anything.
PASSENGER #3
(puts on headphones)
Woooohoooooo!!! Here I am motherfucker!
Come and get me!
INT. MICHELE'S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - NIGHT
LESLIE (52) sits on the couch. Leslie is visibly
diminished, thinner, gaunt. She watches T.V.
MICHELE (56) walks in and sits in her chair. Doesn't
really talk. Just looks at Leslie. When Leslie feels
her stare she looks back and Michele smiles, embarrassed.
Michele's phone rings. It's Lawrence.
MICHELE
(picks up)
Hey. I was just thinking about you.
Thinking I need a call from my boy.
LAWRENCE (O.S.)
(filtered, sounds of traffic
in background)
I got your call a few days ago. Didn't
know what to say. I'm in Portland right
now. Cecily and I came in for a show.
MICHELE
You wanna talk to Aunt Leslie, she's
right here?
LAWRENCE
Yeah sure.
Michele hands Leslie the phone.
LESLIE
(slurring)
Hi. How are you?
Silence.
LAWRENCE (O.S.)
I'm good.
BLACK OUT:
FADE IN:
INT. MICHELE'S HOUSE - MORNING
Everybody's home. Lawrence, Michele, FRANCES (24),
MARTHE (22), LEE (50's) and LAUREN (17) wander around the
house packing for the car trip.
Michele stops Lawrence.
MICHELE
(fucking around)
Are you speaking or am I going to have to
take you off the roster?
LAWRENCE
(takes his time)
I don't think I can speak.
MICHELE
(genuinely sad)
Why not?
LAWRENCE
Because I think it's rude to eulogize a
person you don't know very well.
Lawrence walks away.
Frances stops Lawrence.
FRANCES
Hey, are you bringing your laptop
charger?
LAWRENCE
Yeah.
FRANCES
Good, cause we're watching a movie on the
ride to Kentucky and my laptop will
probably go dead.
LAWRENCE
What movie?
FRANCES
The Secret. Marthe hasn't seen in yet.
LAWRENCE
What the hell is that?
FRANCES
You know the movie you don't want to see?
LAWRENCE
Oh, the self-help movie? Right.
MICHELE
What movie?
FRANCES
The Secret.
MICHELE
Oh I love that movie.
LEE
I own the movie. Got it at Barnes and
Noble.
FRANCES
I want to read the book.
Lawrence heads down stairs. He begins to pack. Then he
stops and writes the previous scene quickly into his
laptop.
INT. CAR - DAY
Lawrence and Michele are in the front. Michele drives.
Lee and Lauren are in the back. Everyone seems lost in
thought.
Lee trying to read a self-help book, "The Power of NOW."
Keeps repeating the same paragraph.
LEE
Michele. Remember my idea about that
pool party book? I wanted to create a
web site of it.
MICHELE
Yeah, I remember.
LEE
Maybe Larry Junior could help me with
that.
Lawrence (Larry Jr.) is in the car. He ignores them.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
I remember when I found out Leslie was
dying. I walked to the grocery store.
Bought a box of fruit roll-ups. I
couldn't think of anything more opposite
of your family dying than eating a fruit
roll-up.
LAWRENCE (CONT'D)
Mom, you want me to drive?
MICHELE
No I'm fine.
LAWRENCE
You keep swaying back and forth all over
the road.
MICHELE
I am not!
They ride in silence for a while. Lawrence sways back
and forth, letting his neck exaggerate the motion. He
smiles.
MICHELE (CONT'D)
(smiling)
Quit it, I'm not that bad!
INT. HILTON, LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY - NIGHT
Lawrence walks to his hotel room. Stumbling towards his
door. He pulls his key card and tries a door. Doesn't
work.
Tries the door next door. Nothing. Hmm.
Lawrence gets out his cell phone.
INT. CECILY'S MOM'S HOUSE - NIGHT
Cecily's phone buzzes in her purse.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
I don't know who to talk to...
EXT. HILTON, LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY - NIGHT
Lawrence wanders around the parking lot on the phone.
LAWRENCE
It's been so hard for me to write this.
It's a script journal right? Who gives a
fuck? I write these things so I can not
have that pressure. But. But what? I
think I'm actually starting to realize
what my problem is. It all came to me
today, well, three weeks from now when
I'm back in Olympia and talking to my mom
on the phone.
INT. APARTMENT, OLYMPIA - DAY
Lawrence paces the apartment in his boxers.
MICHELE
Or maybe you're just like your mother who
never finished anything she ever started
because she's such a perfectionist.
BING sound.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
What, no, earlier than that.
REWIND SOUND.
CUT TO:
MICHELE
You're so good, I mean you're better than
everything that's out there right now. I
think you should just spell check it and
put it in the mail.
REWIND SOUND.
CUT TO:
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
Fuck, I keep fucking it up. Even
earlier.
MICHELE
How's the scripts for the contest going?
Have you sent them out yet?
LAWRENCE
No, I'm trying to finish the second
draft. It's coming slowly.
LAWRENCE (V.O.) (CONT'D)
That's a lie. It's not coming at all. I
spend my nights the last couple weeks
drinking or catching up on work. You
can't lie and tell your mother you're
writing when you're not. It makes you a
shit and a phoney. I was blocked.
EXT. HILTON, LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY - NIGHT
CECILY (O.S.)
But what did you figure out?
Lawrence snaps back into his time and place. He's in
Kentucky, it's the day before the graveside service.
He sits on a curb. Slows down. Puts his head in his
hands.
LAWRENCE
I'm really fucking high right now. Did I
tell you about that? Getting high with
my uncles and my sister?
CECILY (O.S.)
Yeah you did. What was the end of your
thought?
LAWRENCE
I had this ridiculous dinner with all my
siblings, and Lee and Gene showed up.
He'd just flown in from Texas. Four
joints in a hollow flashlight. Shots,
oysters, beers. I just kept getting more
and more ridiculous. Like it was my
birthday or something. And one by one my
siblings decided to go to bed. Until.
INT. HILTON, GENE AND LEE'S ROOM - NIGHT
Lawrence, Marthe, Lee and Gene sit in a hotel living
room. Gene passes a joint to Lawrence.
LEE
Man, I haven't smoked in so long. I'm
such a lightweight.
GENE
This ain't good shit. It's that Mexican
grass.
Lawrence holds it in.
LAWRENCE
Three people... Listen. If you could
party and get high with three people in
the world who would it be?
Marthe looks at him like he's crazy. Lawrence passes it
to her.
INT. APARTMENT, OLYMPIA - NIGHT
Cecily and Lawrence are ripped!
CECILY
Oh, I know. First would have to be Jack
Kerouac. Absolutely!
INT. HILTON, GENE AND LEE'S ROOM - NIGHT
Marthe passes it to Lee. Who waves it off. He's got his
head down. The night has worn on.
LEE
I told you, I'm a lightweight with this
shit.
MARTHE
But what about musicians?
LAWRENCE
I know, like get high with John Lennon.
INT. APARTMENT, OLYMPIA - NIGHT
CECILY
No, cause then you're like, whoa that's
John Lennon. It's too something. He's
too much.
LAWRENCE
I gotta go with John Lennon.
INT. HILTON, GENE AND LEE'S ROOM - NIGHT
MARTHE
Of all the people in the world?
LAWRENCE
Well I'm not done yet.
LEE
(sort of to himself)
You know, I used to have to sneak out of
the house and smoke in the woods, Leslie
wouldn't let me smoke.
INT. APARTMENT, OLYMPIA - NIGHT
Cecily lounges on the couch. Lawrence paces the floor.
CECILY
Owen fucking Wilson. You know?! He
seems like he'd be so much fun at a
party.
Lawrence stares at her.
LAWRENCE
Jesus... No that's too easy.
CECILY
You know, you've really ruined me for
stories. Like before I knew you, I just
thought writers wrote the story of what
happened. You know? Like it had
happened somewhere in the world and they
recorded it.
Now I'm like, fuck this movie cause the
writer's are at fault. They are to blame
for all this bullshit in Hollywood.
LAWRENCE
Oh right, my point. Did I tell you I was
supposed to speak at the funeral?
CECILY
Yeah. I would say Bob Marley but that's
like smoking with Jesus. You don't like
want them to just dominate the
conversation. You kinda just want them
around, strumming and smoking. Someone
like Jack Johnson.
LAWRENCE
How many heros can one person have?
INT. CAR - MORNING
Lawrence wears his sunglasses. He's obviously not
feeling well. He rides in the back seat through
Lexington.
His sisters sit in the car with him. Everyone's dressed
up.
They enter the Lexington cemetery. In the middle of the
city.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
If you had asked me wear my family was
buried I would not have described this
cemetery.
It's a perfectly beautiful cemetery. Trees, flowers,
very old graves, lining a lake, a winding road flowing
around it.
The caravan of cars comes to a halt. A young, odd
looking man, the UNDERTAKER waits outside the cars.
LAWRENCE (V.O.) (CONT'D)
I would've described a simple country
hill covered in wheat grass. Somewhere
no one goes in Kentucky. With gentle
tobacco fields softly out of focus. The
head-stones stepping down the hill,
crooked and old, like we had some proud
history of Confederate Generals and
fucking pilgrims in our past.
They begin to move.
LAWRENCE (V.O.) (CONT'D)
I wasn't hung over. I was just sad and I
hated this day. I hated that it was so
sunny and didn't rain. She deserved
rain. Lee looked happy when I mentioned
the forecast of rain.
EXT. CEMETARY - DAY
Matt stands tall and strong, like a secret service agent.
MATT
Not a cloud in the sky.
He looks up.
MATT (CONT'D)
(to the sky)
Won't you stop this from happening?
Around him stand the Walker family. Parked eerily close
to the grave. UNCLE WALLACE (80's) leeeeeaning out of a
parked Lincoln. Looking all the worse for wear.
Lee sits in the front row of a stupid little tent
creation. I must explain this shit to you. It's a micro
tent, filled with chairs.
The chairs are placed atop the fucking graves of the
other Walker family. Including Bruce Walker, and Frances
Walker, Leslie's parents.
In front of Lee sits a picture of Leslie in her younger
days. Fresh and smiling.
Behind that is a hole. Surrounded by Astroturf.
Marthe and France sit next to Lawrence in the back of the
stupid little tent. Matthew stands just outside the
tent.
Leila gets up to speak.
LEILA
Leslie and I were the closest sisters
when we were growing up. I mean we
shared a room when we were little.
Lawrence sees Frances and Marthe tear up bad and hold
hands.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
Everything came into perspective for me
with that. It didn't take much. I
imagined burying one of my sisters and I
couldn't hold it in any longer. Though I
tried.
Lawrence starts to tear up.
Karen and Todd speak as well.
INT. WOMAN'S BEDROOM - DAY
Michele (at 9) sits on her grandmother's bed.
Leslie (at 5) climbs up the side of the bed with a wide
hair brush.
LESLIE
Can you brush my hair?
MICHELE
Yeah, turn around.
Leslie turns and faces the mirror. Michele brushes
Leslie's hair and ties a white ribbon around it.
LESLIE
Do you think we'll see mommy again
someday?
MICHELE
I hope so.
LESLIE
Do you think she'll recognize us?
MICHELE
Of course she will. She's our mom.
INT. MICHELE'S HOUSE, GIRL'S ROOM - NIGHT
Michele sits with Leslie who is in bed.
MICHELE
Now, you have to let me know what's on
the other side. If you can, you have to
let me know.
LESLIE
I don't want to talk about it, Michele.
I can't even think about it.
MICHELE
I know, but I want... I guess I just
still want to call you up, hear all about
it. I know you're scared, Leslie. But
I'm scared too. You'll be in a better
place and I'll be here.
LESLIE
I always thought, like, when I was a
little girl that you'd introduce me to
mom. I don't really have any memory of
her.
MICHELE
Well, you guys will have some time to
catch up, then.
EXT. CEMETARY - DAY
Michele gets up and starts to speak. She's witty and
eloquent. She wraps up the ceremony.
MICHELE
So it's a gift to have my kids here all
acting right and not picking on their mom
for once. So thank you for that Leslie.
We got some yellow roses, because our
mother always loved yellow roses. So if
anyone wants to place them in with her
ashes, we've got enough to go around.
Everyone takes a handful of roses and tosses them in.
Lee breaks down as he places his.
LEE
(through his tears)
Here baby.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
And it's rare, especially in my small
perspective to be humbled by one's
elders. But I am not ready for this. I
cannot yet do what they did.
INT. APARTMENT, OLYMPIA - NIGHT
Lawrence and Cecily drink beers. Lawrence takes another
toke.
LAWRENCE
My mother. I want to smoke weed with
Jesus, John Lennon and my Mom.
CECILY
Yeah. See I've gotten high with my mom a
lot. Like when we were young.
LAWRENCE
I've gotten high with your mom for fuck's
sake.
CECILY
I can't really anymore. It's too much to
handle. I guess you want what you can't
have.
EXT. HILTON, LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY - NIGHT
Lawrence paces the parking lot.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
I couldn't speak for a couple reasons.
One, I thought I didn't know her well
enough. As much as she was my only blood
relative, I always thought her kind of a
pill.
(pause)
I never thought about how she thought of
me.
EXT. HILTON, RESTAURENT - NIGHT
Lawrence stuffs his face with oysters.
LEE
I wanted to call you about my web site
idea. Leslie wouldn't let me. She was
always saying, "don't bother him, he's
busy writing the next great American
novel."
LAWRENCE
Wow. Really?
INT. MICHELE'S HOUSE - NIGHT
Lawrence gets himself a beer out of the fridge. The
kitchen is filled with cakes and rolls and little
sandwiches. Relics of a reception.
He looks to the dining room table. Whereupon sits a
black hard-bound Master's thesis.
He meanders over.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
I want to tell the world exactly how
selfish I am. I never read Leslie's
thesis for a MA in creative writing. I'm
such a little twit that I never spoke
word one to the ONLY other writer in my
family about writing.
Lawrence picks it up.
LAWRENCE (V.O.) (CONT'D)
I was young. I didn't know any better.
He sits down and opens the book.
EXT. SIDEWALK, STREET, PORTLAND, OREGON - NIGHT
Lawrence stands on the phone with his aunt.
LAWRENCE
I'm good. How's it been living with your
sister.
LESLIE
(slurring badly)
Fine. What are you doing?
LAWRENCE
(not sure what to say to
that)
Um. I'm going to L.A. in about a month
if that's what you're asking...
LESLIE
Okay. Well, I love you.
LAWRENCE
I love you too.
INT. APARTMENT, OLYMPIA - NIGHT
Lawrence passes the bowl to Cecily.
LAWRENCE
I've had one death after another for a
few years now. Marlin Brando, Hunter
Thompson, Steve Irwin, Charlie Purpura,
my writing mentor, then Saneesh's mom,
and then my grandfather and my aunt.
It's getting closer. I guess this is
what getting older means. At least this
is like practice.
CECILY
Practice what?
LAWRENCE
You know. My grandfather, who I barely
grieved or knew, now my Aunt who I... I
don't know. It'll prepare me for people
I care about.
CECILY
I don't know. I don't think I want to
have practice. I want to grieve as hard
as I possibly can.
LAWRENCE
(thinks about it)
Really?
CECILY
It can't possibly be something you can
get used to.
EXT. CEMETARY - DAY
Lawrence stands. No one is speaking. The undertaker has
taken a few steps forward but stops when Lawrence walks
to the front of the crowd.
Everyone stares at him.
LAWRENCE
I didn't think I was qualified to say
anything about this woman, this life. I
have very few memories of Leslie. But,
I've realized that doesn't reflect on
her. When I sat in the back row and wept
to myself, I wept because I put myself in
your place. I thought about burying my
beautiful girlfriend whom I'd spent
twenty years of my life with. I thought
about eulogizing my little sister. It's
not hard to feel shity when you're
feeling shity about yourself. So I
didn't stand up. I wasn't worthy of
standing up and speaking to her family.
But perspective is that funny business of
putting you where you need to be after
the fact. As I write this, or say it
many years from now, Earth is already in
this hole. We've already consumed the
reception potato salad and we've returned
to our jobs.
She stays with us but we still sneak that
cigarette and forget that this family is
one member smaller because of tobacco. I
cry today because I recognize my mother's
strength. My uncles and aunt's who say
goodbye to a woman who they loved all
their life. All their life. I can
recall one real true memory of Leslie.
When I was younger, thirteen, my family
didn't have much. I was a writer for
some reason before I had the tools to
write. Sometimes my mom would bring home
a typewriter but... That wasn't enough.
But Leslie had a computer. For some
reason computers birthed my passion for
writing. They felt better than typing,
better than longhand. And Leslie has one
in a time when fucking nobody had them.
Some little shity, I-B-M thing. And my
mom would drive me over some weekends.
And Leslie would leave me be. I'd be
alone and I'd spend hours writing.
Saving what I'd writing to a little
floppy disk. Those are the seeds of
everything I've done since and everything
I will ever do in my artform. And I
didn't know. Didn't even think to know
the woman who gave me that gift. Maybe
she did it because she too was a writer
waiting for her time. I knew about her
Master's. I knew she wrote non-fiction.
I didn't care. Honestly. Non-fiction.
Pfst! But my last day in Atlanta, days
after this ceremony took place and with a
heavy heart of perspective, I read her
master's thesis. My favorite parts where
the inner-texts. They cut right into my
nature. She wrote about her process, how
she came to include each piece and it's
greater place in her thesis. It's
through these little essays she wrote
about finally meeting her mother through
letter correspondences found forty years
after their writing that I finally got to
know my aunt. And I cried over that book
that night because I could never ever
have that talk about writing. And in
that tragic statement I am forever the
worse. Sometimes we can't make the best
of things and say there's a reason for
everything. Sometimes it's best to mark
something off as a tragedy to give it
meaning. Like when the baby of a family
dies first.
We try and leave something behind. I've
oft wondered why graves were marked in
stone. Looking around, I see a lot of
names staring back at me. Perhaps the
only thing that will survive after
everyone standing here is returned to the
Earth, is those words that say who was
here and when they lived. And after all
is done and cried over, these stones and
those names tell the story of a simple
southern family making their way through
the world.
(pause)
Goodbye Leslie.
Lawrence sits back down.
INT. ATTIC, CECILY'S MOM'S HOUSE - NIGHT
Lawrence sits awake, writing on his little laptop.
Outside the Oregon weather is making it not seem like
summer.
LAWRENCE (V.O.)
So, I'm going to Los Angeles. To make
movies and make somebody proud. I don't
think I have an idea of how hard my life
is going to be. Or if somehow it'll get
better from here. And I guess it's taken
me so long to write this, at least 6
weeks, because it was both true and
important to me.
INT. HOSPICE - NIGHT
Lee sits quietly with Leslie, who is asleep. She is
surrounded by monitors and has an IV in her wrist.
But you can't really see any of that. All you see is her
face under the moon light.
LESLIE
(wakes)
Lee? Baby?
LEE
Yeah?
(he starts to tear up)
I'm here.
LESLIE
I'm scared.
LEE
I am too baby.
He kisses her cheek.
LESLIE
I'm not scared for me. I'm scared for
you.
(pause)
I want you to be happy in your life.
After I'm gone. You hear me? I know how
you can get.
LEE
(wiping his eyes)
I'll...I'll try.
Leslie lay quiet for a while. Looking out the window.
LESLIE
I'll be fine. I get to play with my mom.
INT. WOMAN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT
Leslie (at 2) sits starring into a mirror across the room
right at...
FRANCES WALKER (30's), Leslie's mom. Who brushes her
hair with a wide brush and braids it.
Leslie is so happy.
FADE TO BLACK:
THE END
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
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