Slippage (36 page)

3 - LONG SHOT - ACROSS STREET - ESTABLISHING

We see Podey climbing the steps to the stoop. It is a FOUR STOREY BUILDING. Not three, not six, not what's convenient, dammit, but FOUR STOREYS ONLY!

4 - MEDIUM SHOT - ON PODEY

as he reaches the stoop landing. The doors which once held glass now hold plywood sheeting with graffiti defacing. He opens a door and steps inside, out of the wind and cold.

5 - INT. FIRST FLOOR LANDING

Podey goes to the mailboxes, runs one meaty finger along the line of broken-open, battered boxes. Most have no names on them. But several have Dymo tape labels. The note is still in Podey's hand. Camera closer to show the clear block printing on the note
large enough to read.
It says:

CONSUELO LOSADA

4TH FLOOR

RACK FOCUS off note to the mailboxes. One of them says:

LOSADA 404

and another says:

WASHINGTON 202

and Podey
purposely
pushes the button for Washington 202, rather than Losada 404. There is a beat as we hear the buzzing sound of the button Podey had his finger on. Then a hollow, tinny voice comes through the rusted speaker:

TENANT VOICE (O.S.)

(female, tinny)

Yes, who is it?

PODEY

(into speaker tube)

Empire State Carpeting. We came to put in the new wall-to-wall.

There is a pregnant pause of several beats.

TENANT VOICE (O.S.)

(cautious)

You say what? New carpets?

PODEY

(very tradesmanlike)

Is that Miz Washington?

TENANT VOICE (O.S.)

Uh...yes, it is...are you sure...?

PODEY

(mock impatient)

Look lady, we got an order here from the landlord says put in new wall-to-wall, deep-pile, for Washington, apartment 202. You don't want it...we take- it back to the warehouse...

The door buzzer rings and keeps on ringing. Podey grabs for the inner door, chuckling despicably, and lets himself into the building proper. As he passes through we see a stairway.

6 - INT. TENEMENT STAIRWELL - DAY - LOW ANGLE TILTING UP PAST PODEY IN F.G.

looking up the stairwell. Like that shot in Orson Welles's
The Magnificent Ambersons,
enabling us to rack focus so we see the three landings above us, and the ceiling. A dirty skylight permits only ominous shadowy light to filter down. Everything is in twilight here, even at high noon. And we hear the O.S. SOUND of a group of children talking, but we cannot make out what they're discussing. It comes from overhead.

7 - MOVING SHOT - WITH PODEY - HAND-HELD

as he begins to climb. We go with him. He moves fast for a man with such bulk. It is
important
that he move swiftly.

As he rounds onto the second-floor landing, the door at the turn, with the numbers 202, opens and a middle-aged black woman, MRS. WASHINGTON, stands there looking expectant.

MRS. WASHINGTON

You the man from the carpets...?

Podey keeps moving past her. This dialogue must be fast, even as he surges past her door, turns and climbs to the third floor.

PODEY

Wrong apartment. You don't get anything.

MRS. WASHINGTON

(hopes dashed)

But you said...

PODEY

(casually mean)

Yeah, well...people lie, lady. .

And he's gone, around the bend and up the stairs. Hold a beat on the poor woman's expression of loss. Just one more shitty lie to add to the lifetime supply.

8 - THIRD FLOOR LANDING

as Podey comes up the stairs fast. FOUR BLACK KIDS between the ages of eight and eleven are sitting in the middle of the floor with some robot toys—Gobots, Transformers, etc.—and playing. And chatting. Low, so we don't need to hear what they're saying,[insert 1] but the word
Christmas
is heard a few times. Podey hits the landing, brushes past them, not being too careful about stepping on toys. They grab them out of the way of his big feet with panic.

___

[insert 1]

(Supplementary dialogue: to be vaguely heard off-screen)

POOCH

I been thinking about Christmas since 'summer. You know why? 'Cause my momma and my poppa save up all year for that, and I know just what I want.

PUERTO RICAN GIRL

What’chu gonna get for Chris'mas, Pooch? Betch they give you some clothes. They
always
give me clothes . I want—

POOCH

I thought you asked me what
I
want for Christmas, not
you?!?

PUERTO RICAN GIRL

Okay, okay...
you!
What they gonna give
you?

POOCH

A bicycle. Ten speed with a real heavy'..lock so's no one can. steal it when I lock it up.

[end insert 2]

___

9 - UP ANGLE PAST KIDS - STAIRWAY

as Podey climbs the last flight to the fourth floor. They watch, silently. One little kid in particular—for fast identification let's call him POOCH—holds our interest. He's about eleven, small but very neat, handsome kid with big eyes and intelligence in his face. He watches with uncommon interest.

10 - FOURTH FLOOR LANDING - FULL SHOT

as Podey emerges on the landing, looks around, spots the door to 404, even though the final 4 is held by one nail and hangs at a wry angle. He comes to the door and knocks imperatively. Three beats. He bangs on the door again. A voice from inside the apartment calls through the door. A woman's voice, with a marked Latina accent.

CONSUELO (O.S.)

Whose dere?

PODEY

Department of Social Services
 

There is silence. Podey understands the stall.

PODEY

Jack Podey from the Welfare Center, Mrs. Losada.

More silence. Then the sound of movement in the apartment.

CONSUELO (O.S.)

(a stall)

I'm not dressed.

PODEY

(flat and mean)

Open the door, Miz Losada. I got no time for this. Open up or the AFDC goes.

(beat)

Understand me, Miz Losada? The
Aid. To. Families. With. Dependant. Children
stops. No dinero, no food stamps, the cockroaches take over!

(1/2 beat)

Comprende?

The sound of three or four locks being undone. Bolts. Bars. A heavy iron Fox Lock with its bar-in-a-floor-slot being slipped back. Then the door opens... slowly.

11 - INT. LOSADA APARTMENT - DAY - ANGLE ON THE OPENING 
DOOR - MEDIUM CLOSE

CONSUELO LOSADA was gorgeous when she was a teen-aged girl. But now she's in her late thirties and she's had four kids; and god only knows what happened to Francisco, who went out to get a fanbelt to repair the icebox ten years ago and never found his way back; and twelve years working behind a sewing machine in the sweatshop of Marci Jean Fashions and working a night shift cleaning up office buildings while she raised the kids...well, it's all taken its toll. You can see she had great beauty. The cape of dark hair, the good cheekbones, the tensile strength in her body that keeps her going. But she's old folks. Before her time. She's just hanging in there. And standing in her doorway is Jack Podey.

PODEY

Podey. Investigator from Welfare Center. I want to talk to you about your eligibility.

12 - REVERSE ANGLE - PODEY IN F.G.

Consuelo looks frightened, but moves aside. Podey steps in as CAMERA FOLLOWS. Off camera we hear door close behind us. Podey looks around. Two tiny children, both girls, stand against the far wall in front of something squat that has a blanket thrown over it. (This item is a foldaway bed, that has been rapidly closed up, rolled against the wall, and covered.) The rest of the apartment is what we'd expect at this economic level. Dingy but clean; a corner shelf of cheap bric-a-brac; a table covered with a lace throw; an old tv set with rabbit ears; carpet threadbare.

Open doorway to the right shows us the edge of an old kitchen. Two doors on the -left wall, both closed. One would be the, bedroom, the other the bathroom.

CONSUELO

Please sit down if you want.

Podey goes to the table, pulls out a straight-back chair, plops his case on the table, sits down and opens the case. He takes up a sheaf of papers held with one of those big black pressure clamps. He flips through them quickly, looks at the kids, looks at her. She stands with hands folded, looking midway between trepidatious and scared.

PODEY

Missuz Consuelo Losada?

(she nods)

Record shows you're getting AFDC on four children, zat right?

(she nods)

He looks around. It's just a pro forma look. He's toying with her. Sits back in the chair, tilts it, opens his coat and jacket underneath, hooks thumbs in vest lapels.

PODEY

I only see two.

CONSUELO

(in Spanish)

What?

PODEY

(mean)

I
said,
Senora, I see
two
kids here. Muchachas, comprende? Two. Not four.

CONSUELO

(indicates girls)

Si. Paloma y Pilar.

PODEY

(very snotty, making fun of her Spanish)

Yeah? So where's Raymundo y Virgilio?

The Puerto Rican woman looks nonplussed. She wets her lips.

CONSUELO

They in scool now.

PODEY

Lady, don't jerk me around. It's three days to Christmas. You get my meaning?

(beat)

Christmas vacation, lady. There's no school.

She is caught, doesn't know what to do.

PODEY

(goes for throat)

How about they're not even in this state, howzabout
that?
Howzabout they're stayin' with your mother, Mrs. Lupe Hernandez, at 555 Carb Street, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, howzabout?

She's now utterly unmanned. She doesn't know how to lie out of it. The kids stand there watching with big eyes. It is obviously cold in the apartment... the kids wear two sweaters each, and gloves. Podey rises, looks around.

CONSUELO

No, thass not true...

PODEY

And howzabout maybe Gramma is collecting public assistance in New Mexico for Raymundo y Virgilio... and you're gettin' AFDC for four, but you've only got two in the apartment?