Savage Grace (5) look and takes off at a run. He reaches the entrance, but suddenly the entire floor seems deserted. He walks to the stairwell, but there’s no sound of footsteps going down. Dead silence. Then he’s grabbed from behind. There’s one on each arm and another with an arm around his neck . Denesh walks up and frisks him, taking the toy magnum from the shoulder holster.. He points the toy pistol at him then gestures for the 3 men to let him go. DENESH As a psychiatrist, I have always been amazed at the traps intelligent men can set for themselves. O’JOHN Easy, your madness is always a little smarter than you are. Strange. DENESH It’s an interesting conversation, but we barely have time for the ceremony. O’JOHN A shame, I figured I couldn’t die as long as I kept talking. DENESH This way, Mr. O’John. O;John lunges for the gun in the guard statue’s holster. The killers just stand there watching, chuckling at his silliness. The magnum is stuck in the holster, but they are giving him all the time in the world. They seem to be enjoying it and dont want it to end. Then O’John gets the gun out with a 2-handed yank. He shoots Rozzo as he brings the gun up and then another as he flings the sights into position. Denesh pulls the trigger of the toy .357 and is rewarded with a plastic click. O’John shoots him in the stomach. And O’John shoots 2 more. Denesh drops to a squat and reaches for a cigarette, but he’s shaking too badly and the cigarettes fly out of the pack with the jerking of his arm. O’John plugs in a quick loader and keeps firing slowly and methodically as the rest of them scatter to the rear galleries, bloody, lurching and falling down. He plugs in a 2nd quicker loader and waits. Dead silence. No sound from below, no response to the shots. The building seems deserted. Denesh looks up at him with astonished and gentle reproach. O’John picks a cigarette off the floor and puts it in Denesh’s mouth. He lights it for him. O’JOHN Where is he or is it who? He’s here in New York. Denesh bites the cigarette in two and begins hemorrhaging torrentially from the mouth, then he falls over dead. O’John holds his gun out in front of him in the police water-skiing pose and walks slowly through the galleries. Then suddenly a figure darts past him. It’s Octobrina and she’s into the stairwell and gone, down the stairs at a gallop. He chases her but she’s always one landing ahead, against the wall and showing too little and too fast to be shot at. One landing away from the ground floor the sound of high heels on marble suddenly stops. He leaps the last half flight of stairs He looks around. She must be somewhere in the lobby. He passes a few bodies, drugged or dead and looks around again. There standing in the shadows is Octobrina. She had knocked one of the ceramic skulls out of Jasper John’s Target With Five Faces and is standing in for the one on the end. She’s trying to keep her face stiff, but her face keeps twitching with tension. It’s the only thing moving in the room. She begins to cry noisily. He waits until she settles down to some muffled sobbing. O’JOHN Where is he? Who is he? OCTOBRINA I don’t know. O’JOHN Of course you do. That’s what all this is about. That’s why everyone goes crazy when I say his name. Because I’m about to find him. OCTOBRINA I’ll take you to him She comes out from behind the painting and leaps forward. She grabs the gun in both hands and presses it to her chest and pushes the trigger with her thumbs And then she falls over dying fast. O’JOHN But why? She smiles good naturedly and then she’s dead. Suddenly it’s time to go. O’John steps to the front door. He’s about to smash the glass with his pistol when he sees that it’s open. It had been locked before. He walks out looking no more worried than anyone else on a New York street in the dark. INT. VITO’S OFFICE (NIGHT) O’John enters without knocking. Vito is playing solitaire. He looks more ominous than before, a little less of a clown. O’JOHN Miracle to find you alone. VITO You waiting for a miracle? O’JOHN I’m counting on it. VITO What’s on your mind, old buddy? This doesn’t feel like a social call. O’JOHN How long have we known each other? VITO I don’t know, I really don’t remember. O’JOHN That’s a long time but, you know, I still don’t feel close to you. VITO If we were any closer, I’d be standing behind you.24 hours don’t go by that I don’t save your life. No, we don’t go out drinking together. That’s the way it is in this business. You got to keep your private life separate or you lose respect for yourself. O’JOHN You make what off me? 50,000 a year? VITO Nowhere near and it costs more than that to keep you alive. O’JOHN Why? why do you keep saving my life? VITO I don’t need reasons for what I do. I can get away with anything. But, yeah, alright, in financial terms it was a mistake. O’JOHN Is it personal feelings? VITO What? You finally need a friend? You must be awfully scared. O’JOHN I’m scared. There’s something out there, something so monstrous I’d go insane if I even saw it. You keep it invisible for me. VITO That’s right, old buddy, that’s exactly right, but you’re going to see it soon. It’s you. O’John nods agreement. O’JOHN Who does Azriel work for? You obviously work for the same people. VITO How many times you ask me that? Is there a magic number, already? I don’t know. I’m like you, I don’t want to know. Ask her. O’JOHN I did. She says she works for you. VITO She didn’t say that. O’JOHN But she does, doesn’t she? VITO You got a cigarette? Never mind, I got another pack somewhere. He opens a drawer in his desk, but O’John has his gun out 1st. O’JOHN Get real. Vito pulls a pack of Pall Mall out of the desk. He opens one and lights it, talking as he does. VITO You oughta learn to relax. You’re getting to be like a wounded animal already. O’JOHN Who? VITO You forgot to put your gun away. O’JOHN Who? I’m going to see him soon so, what’s the difference. VITO This is painful, old buddy. He pulls out his .25 automatic and point it at O’John’s head. O’John doesn’t move. O’JOHN You’re not going to shoot. VITO You know that? O’JOHN You mean you’d rather die than tell me. VITO Well, yeah. O’JOHN That’s weird. I didn’t know there was anything you were willing to die for. No, I haven’t lost respect for you. He gets up and leaves, but outside the door he hears Vito making a hurried phone call. He throws open the door and shoots Vito through the head with the usual results. He walks behind the desk and steps over the body. The rat is squeaking in the garbage can. It’s the size of a cat, but apparently quite tame. He picks it up, wraps it in the garbage can liner and sticks it in his shoulder bag with its head peeping out. He gets out and walks to the elevator. AN OLD MAN has stuck his head out the door at the sound of the shot. O’JOHN Some goddamn kids been throwing firecrackers in the hall. You see which way they went? There is no reply and O’JOHN keeps on walking. The rat looks around and yawns. EXT. APT. WINDOW (NIGHT) POV is pointed in the window of Azriel’s apartment. Azriel and her secretary are playing out a private ritual. Azriel is wearing jodhpurs and riding boots and is naked to the waist. Her secretary is wearing a white wedding dress and veil. Azriel has her left arm out straight, but bent at the elbow with the hand pulled back to her ear. Her secretary is lifting her veil with one hand and lightly kissing the point of Azriel’s elbow. They are smiling and whispering to each other. O’John drops into the POV and walks along the ledge to Azriel’s window. Not being on a fire escape there is no gate. He unwraps the rat and heaves it through the window. Azriel’s attack dog takes one look at the enormous rat and runs for it. Azriel strides to the window, throws open the sash and looks out. He shoots her through the left eye. The back of her head is gone, but the message has already left her brain. She turns and runs across the room straight into the wall. She falls over backwards, but her legs continue running motions. Her face is rigid, eyes staring straight ahead as though she were concentrating very hard. He shoots her again, but she keeps trying to run up the wall. After the 4th shot she lays still. Her secretary is screaming, but the sound is muffled because she has her fist in her mouth. She is hopping slowly from one foot to the other, staring wide eyed at Azriel. He’s about to shoot her too then notices the rat looking at him. He looks at the rat then re-holsters his gun, changes his mind, shoots her and climbs back up on the roof and disappears. EXT. MEG’S APT. (NIGHT) O’John is squatting on the window ledge, 60 ft. above the ground. There is no fire escape. He opens the window with infinite patience. INT. MEG’S APT. (NIGHT) The window has a double locked gate, but he reaches in and wrenches on the locks, slowly, without apparent effort. It’s the strength of the insane. With the same silent patience he slides back the gate and climbs through the window. Meg is in bed asleep, looking childlike and innocent. He stands over her staring down. He makes no move, but there is something homicidal in the rigidity of his stare, the fixity of his stance. Then Meg’s cat jumps up, meowing loudly and demanding to be petted. He pets the cat absently and the animal closes its eyes in ecstasy, purring loudly as an alarm clock. Meg wakes up sleepily, rubbing her eyes. MEG Sit down, I’ll make coffee. It’s made, I’ll reheat it. She starts to get up. He just stands there. O’JOHN Go back to sleep. She gets back under the covers. MEG You killed them all? O’JOHN All I know about. MEG You must be hungry. O’JOHN Go to sleep. MEG Are you coming to bed? O’JOHN Yeah, I guess so. DREAM --- INT.MEG’S APARTMENT O’John is in bed with Meg. He sits up sharply as though he heard a sharp noise, but the room is dead quiet. This time there is a sound: A persistent, impatient rapping. He reaches under the pillow and pulls out a large black automatic. O’JOHN (V.O.) It sounded like a rat in the breadbox, a large fearless rat. I needed a shotgun. Gun in hand he advances into the room. He passes a mirror full of hot white light, more light than there is in the room. He looks into it automatically. There’s Gen rapping insistently and emphatically gesturing for him to come on through. Behind her is a scene with the dream logic of a painting by Richard Lindner called THE MEETING: The principal characters of the story, but shown of a size according to their importance. The cat is 15 ft. tall, Vito is barely 10 ft. tall, Azriel an easy 19, Meg is maybe 4’11 and the girl of the 1st scene a bare 6 inches. They are motionless, staring in to space oblivious to each other. They are seated around a roulette table, but it looks like the Wheel Of Fortune in the Tarot pack. Behind them all and the size of character balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade are models out of a 1963 lingerie ad in Harper’s Bazaar. They’re wearing shiny girdle things from their armpits to just above the knee and posturing ecstatically in sexual transport. They are the only thing moving. Gen is in the wings smiling with a frozen gesture of encouragement. He tries to walk through, but just bumps his nose. He smashes the mirror with the gun butt. The mirror stays intact, but the image shatters and fall off the glass like autumn leaves. The mirror is still full of light, but it’s impossible to see anything in the glitter and glare. He steps through the surface of the mirror and as he does there’s a sudden breeze that ruffles his hair. Inside the mirror is a CGI featureless black plain and blank non- specular blue-green sky. Everything in the room is duplicated in the mirror, but made out of cardboard cut-outs painted in carnival colors. And instead of growing smaller with distance by the rules of perspective, things are growing smaller physically. As he walks deeper into the mirror, the furniture is ˝ normal size, then Ľ then 1/8 and the ceiling keeps rising. Behind him the mirror is a blazing white doorway which doesn’t seem to illuminate the darkness. Figures in the black ninja costumes of Kabuki puppet handlers are scurrying impossibly fast rearranging the cut-outs. The one of Meg in bed is instantly replaced by one that shows she’s rolled over in her sleep. There’s a twinkling on the horizon. He starts walking toward it, but he’s moving much faster than he’s walking. It’s another white mirror doorway with cardboard cut-outs arranged in front of it. He’s approaching it fast and the black figures are swarming around him like a cloud of flies. He walks through the 2nd mirror and finds himself seated in a Chinese coffee shop with a mirrored wall. The WAITER walks over. WAITER I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t see you come in. O’JOHN Coffee. Suddenly, the Black girl is seated across from him. BLACK GIRL Make it 2. O’JOHN Things were almost getting interesting for a minute. What now? BLACK GIRL You didn’t sign. O’JOHN It wasn’t necessary. BLACK GIRL It is now. O’JOHN No thanks. He turns and walks through the mirror. She walks through and after him. On the other side are cardboard cutouts of the coffee shop interior. There’s a larger than life cardboard figure of the waiter holding 2 cups of coffee with a cartoon word balloon coming out of his head saying: “Where’d they go?” O’John kicks it over and keeps walking with the Black Girl beside him. It’s like Hong Kong’s busiest street at rush hour, but the figures swirling around them are all solid black. BLACK GIRL You could try to repent; that would be fun to watch. O’JOHN Repent what? She laughs with delight O’JOHN (continuing) Well, for example? BLACK GIRL How many men have you killed so far today? O’JOHN I don’t know, but I always thought that, you know, between consenting adults and all that. BLACK GIRL Sleeping with your sister? O’JOHN Well, not very often. She laughs again with astonishment and delight. He’s walking away fast, but she keeps up with him without moving. O’JOHN Anyway, (he jerks a thumb toward the sky) he’s a pretty good guy so, you don’t have to worry about him too much. BLACK GIRL That part sounds true. O’JOHN Oh, yeah, sure, so, I don’t understand why you play these games. They prove the existence of the Devil which proves the existence of God and that’s the last thing a demon would want to do. BLACK GIRL That’s why we pretty much gave up doing it. O’JOHN Which brings up another point: Where the fuck are the angels? The wind roars up and the dark comes roaring down. Automatically, pathetically, he reaches for a cigarette and tries to light it The background is blacked out by the glare of the flame. There’s nothing but the flame surrounded by darkness. POV pulls back to show him sitting up in bed and lighting a cigarette. Meg is still asleep. THE SAME (MORNING) He’s still in the same position staring at the phone. Meg wakes up and looks at him sleepily. MEG What are you doing? O’JOHN Waiting for the phone to ring. I guess she’s really dead. THE SAME (AFTERNOON) They’re sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. O’John looks shell shocked. MEG Take it easy. Don’t try to talk. It’s a long swim back to consciousness. (He nods) We’ve got to find him. O’JOHN Find who? MEG Savage Grace. He grabs his head with both hands and begins rocking side to side. She grabs him and holds his head to her breast. MEG (continuing) It’s alright, Baby, I’m here, it’s alright. But we have to find him. O’JOHN What for? MEG Because it isn’t over. It isn’t over till we do. How many fireman were killed at the Trade Center? O’JOHN 430. MEG You’re well informed. O’JOHN It seemed important at the time. That’s a little cold blooded even for him and, for a moment, she looks at him in horror. MEG Yes, well, that’s not that many at all. How do you find out their names? The Hall of Records, yes? IRONIC SIDESTEP: A 3-minute sequence of still shots each about ˝ second long, very much like the pysch test Warren Beatty had in PARRALLAX VIEW. That was centered on figures of authority, this should focus on rock concerts with a few quick supernatural inserts And, maybe, Jimmi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and MaMa Cass choking to death on their own vomit. And then dancing women falling through the air with their hair on fire. EXT. BATTERY PARK (DAY) They’re standing at the rim, watching the boats drift by. MEG What are you doing? O’JOHN Trying to figure out how you got me out here. MEG Come on, it could take hours and they close at 4. O’JOHN No thanks. He drags her away violently and very much against her will onto the Staten Island Ferry. EXT. REAR DECK OF THE STATEN ISLAND FERRY (DAY) They sit on the last bench of the rear deck. She shivers and looks at him accusingly, but says nothing. She looks over her shoulder and makes a noise like a cat that’s had its tail stepped on because there in plain sight are The Twin Towers untouched and intact. O’JOHN I see it too. He grabs her again and they retreat into the bowels of the ferry. It seems to keep getting larger until they find themselves in an ancient dusty room full of obsolete computers noisily chugging away. A sign says: HALL OF RECORDS. INT. HALL OF RECORDS (MUSTY) They’re sitting at a long table with a line of computers. Meg reading through a long list of names. She comes to the name ‘O’John’. MEG You were at the towers. O’JOHN A lot of people were. MEG It says you’re dead. O’JOHN They exaggerate. Let’s get out of here. MEG It’s not a common name. She punches the keyboard faster, calling up images of the dead fireman named O’John. It’s him. She looks up at him questioningly. MEG You’re him. He switched identity with you. You’re Savage Grace. O’JOHN They’re playing with our heads. You know it isn’t true. They’ve been fucking with the data. MEG You said you killed them all. O’JOHN Not before they did this. It’s a false trail. We have to try something else. Let’s go. MEG What if it’s true? O’JOHN Then you found him and we can go home. MEG Oedipus, schmedipus, so long as he loves his mother. Reluctantly she follows him out. They walk downstairs and come to a floor with a long hall and many doors. At the end of the hall is A CREATURE, A VERY TALL HUNCH BACK. Without the hunch, He’d be at least 8 ft. tall. He has a huge long face and his posture, bent over and looming forward, makes it look even bigger. His head is twisted to one side and he is drooling, eyes wide and burning. He is gesturing frantically, pointing to a side door and pantomiming holding something in his hands. MEG When we came in, we walked up one flight. We have now walked down one flight and we should be on the street. O’JOHN I know. MEG (majestically calm) We are not and that creature at the end of the hall is beckoning to us. He seems to know you. What is he trying to say? O’JOHN He's saying that he has what we're looking for. Hang on to my hand very tight. We are going to walk down the stairs. They walk down another flight of stairs, holding hands very tightly. But the next floor down is the same floor with the same creature at the end of the hall, gesturing and shouting in his private language. MEG I begin to sense a trend. O’JOHN Nothing slows you down, does it? You’ll sit up in your coffin to make one more smart ass remark. MEG I’m standing up in my coffin right now. They stare over the banister and see an unlimited number of floors below them, each identical to the one they're on, each with an identical gibbering creature at the end of the hall. O’JOHN I think that means we might as well see what he wants to show us. They walk down the hall and follow the creature through a door and into what should have been an apartment. It’s a long narrow railroad flat, but there isn't any furniture, just ceramic figures on shelves from floor to ceiling. There are plaster statues of the Virgin and of Spiderman. There are Louis XIV and Hummel figurines and every other kind of ceramic statuette. The creature keeps beckoning them farther in. The walls have floor to ceiling shelves of statuettes. At this point, the figurines begin to move, very slightly and with tiny intermittent jerks like a fly in a glue pot. There is the sound of a bell or something like it. As they go deeper into the apartment, the figures keep getting larger. They’re the size of department store mannequins, the lingerie models of his dreams and they’re moving, then larger than life: 7 ft. tall Something is jingling in the rapid complex rhythms of African drumming. The figurines are moving with increasing confidence and the bell-like music is getting louder. The room has narrowed like the prow of a boat and the walls converge on a towering Egyptian mummy case. The creature opens the door. Inside is a skeleton fireman’s uniform. The name tag says “O’JOHN” VITO (V.O.) Never lost a bail jumper yet. They turn to see Vito come up behind them. The music is in time to the jingling of the handcuffs he carries. Meg begins to cry loudly, sobbing and sniffling. It should be clear that Vito is THE DEVIL, maybe, just a flickering red corona like the sun in eclipse MEG No horns? VITO No, no horns. That’s the Babylonian yellow journalism. MEG But the Devil is supposed to be beautiful, clever, agile and you’re… She gets slapped. Vito laughs. VITO As I was saying: The problem was…the contract was due, but I couldn’t collect. You lost your memory. You were the metaphysical equivalent of not competent to stand trial. MEG I want my lawyer present. She gets slapped again. Now her nose is bleeding. VITO Your lawyer is present. I had to trick you into finding out who you are and what you’d done so I can collect. O’JOHN What happens now? VITO Nothing happens now. This is it. In the middle of blubbering, Meg sneezes noisily. O’JOHN (absently) God bless you. Vito’s face contorts in absolute horror. All the figurines leap off the shelves and run for it. The flat has turned into a telescoping tunnel with a nasty red glow at the end. Vito is shrinking and turning bright vermilion. Now he’s the size of a rat and he scampers off after the galloping figurines. The red glow goes out. The flat is completely empty and an accelerated dawn is coming in the windows. FREEZE FRAME
Copyright © 2001 Angel Obregon |