Slippage (37 page)

He starts moving toward one of the two doors on the left. She moves to stop him, but he isn't stopping. Over his shoulder he speaks:

PODEY

Mind if I use your bathroom?

He doesn't wait to get an okay but opens the door and steps in. He doesn't close the door.

13 -INT. BATHROOM - WITH PODEY

Typical crowded, tiny bathroom. Shower curtain pulled across the tub. Shelves full of toilet articles. Sink yellow and stained from decades of cleanser. ANGLE with Podey as he checks out the shelves of toilet articles. He puts his hand on a mug of shaving lather with a brush still upright in it. He puts his hand on the toothbrush rack.
Four
toothbrushes.

Then he turns suddenly, and whips the shower curtain back. A fully-clothed man wearing a workman's jacket and gloves stands in the tub. This is ROSARIO. They stare at each other a moment, then Podey turns on his heel and comes back into the living room.

14 - LIVING ROOM - ANOTHER ANGLE

as Rosario comes after him. Rosario is about forty, Puerto Rican, nice-looking man, nothing less than honest and hard working about him. Podey is gathering the papers into the case. Rosario exchanges hurried words in Spanish so rapid with Consuelo that we may not be able to tell what he said,[insert 2] but it's clearly upset and panicky.

___

[insert 2]

(Supplementary dialogue; to be translated into Spanish)

ROSARIO

(extremely angry)

Consuelo, he surprised me. I kept very still. What does this mean. . .will he take away the money for the children?

CONSUELO

(wildly)

I don't know, I don't know I He
wouldn't
do this to us at Christmas. I'm afraid, Rosario; Pilar may be coming down with the flu, or something worse.

ROSARIO

Talk to him, this man...talk to him. I can beg him not to do this, perhaps he’ll listen.

[end insert 2]

___

PODEY

(fast and mean)

Don't bother, lady. I know all the stories. He was just fixin' the shower, right? In his galoshes, right?

(beat)

Boy, you people really fry me!

CONSUELO

(hysterical)

Rosario iss justa fren'! He stop by to say hello. My sons aren't here now, bot they come back...

Podey slams the lid of the case, turns on her, on fire.

PODEY

We got computer matching on concealed employment, we got cross-checking from other states, we gotcher act down cold, lady. This's fraud, you got that?

[see below for additional scene: revised version]

CONSUELO

You gonna take the Aid away? My kids...it's Christmas, mister...

Podey aims a fat thumb at her.

PODEY

Don't blame me. One of your "close friends" in the building ratted you out. I'm just doin' the job, lady. I write the report with a recommendation, that's all I do, Christmas, New Year's, Halloween or Cinco de Mayo!

He starts toward the door. Rosario comes after him. Podey turns, just spoiling for a fight.

PODEY

(ugly)

You lift one hand, spick, and I'll put you in traction for a year!

Consuelo rushes to Rosario, grabs him. Rosario is 
fuming, grating his teeth, cursing in Spanish.[insert 3] Podey laughs a rotten laugh and opens the door. He steps out, and just as he closes the door he says:

PODEY

Merry Christmas.

___

[insert 3]

(Supplementary dialogue: to be translated into Spanish)

Rosario is fuming, grating his teeth, cursing in Spanish

ROSARIO

Filth! Heartless degenerate! You would throw children into the streets where you spend your nights sucking garbage from the sewers! Slime for brains, dirt for heart! Pig...less than a pig...pigs have more honor than you!

[end insert 3]

___

[additional scene, from above]

(Additional scenes: revised version, scene 14)

Rosario understands only part of this. But the tone doesn't escape him. Something is threatening the woman, and he won't stand for it. He takes a step toward Podey, but Consuelo—frantic not to get. Podey any further aroused—gesticulates wildly for Rosario to stay where he is. She comes closer to Podey, imploring him:

CONSUELO

(emotional, utterly honest and convincing) 

Please, Mister, lemiue 'splain. I don't cheat onna welfare, honnes' to God!

PODEY

(smirking)

Oh...right. I forgot the story. There's always a story. Almost forgot I'm s'posed to take off a minute to hear the story.

He stands, arms folded, clearly not hearing anything, making a nasty mockery of listening.

CONSUELO

(honest, decent) 

Francisco, ees my husband, he left 
us, he went out an' never come back, 
almos' ten years ago. I been workin' 
at the same job twelve years—you can check, they give me good report, you see—downtown inna garment dis'rict. Marci Jean Fashions, you heard of them?

PODEY

Never heard of them.

(beat, sarcastic)

But they geev you good report, right?

CONSUELO

(hopeful)

Si, I ron a sewin' machine, nine hours a day. An' I gotta secon' job, nights, I go clean up office fouildin's. Joss to raise my kids proper. They never got in no trobble, they good kids,..but...

PODEY

(holds up a hand)

Let me take it from there.

(recites)

Nobody can raise four kids in New York City these days on what the AFDC gives you, right? You work your
maracas
off scrimping and saving, but it ain't even enough to buy the kids a decent Christmas toy...am I right?

CONSUELO

(nods fast, a spark of hope)

Si, si! I can' make ends meet, so I send the boys to my mother for a coupla weeks, joss till I can—

PODEY

(silences her)

You should've thought of all that before you had your litter, lady. You people spawn like sardines and then expect the City to take up the slack, (beat)

 
You slugs are all alike! Forget it! 

Podey picks up his case. Consuelo is terrified now.

[end additional scene, revised version, scene 14]

___

15 - HALL LANDING OUTSIDE APARTMENT - WITH PODEY

as Podey turns away from 404. He starts down the stairs and then we hear the kids talking. Podey goes down the stairs a bit and listens.

POOCH (O.S.)

(energetic)

And you know why Christmas be the best? I tell you why. Cause Santa Claus gone come and make all your wishes true.

Podey leans over to look.

16 - PODEY'S POINT OF VIEW - WHAT HE SEES

On the third floor landing the four kids sit, and three of them stare wide-eyed and delighted at Pooch, who spins his tale of Christmas wonders, of the kindness of Santa Claus.

POOCH

I know! Santa comin' down the chimbly, with his reindeer on the roof, and he gotta big bag of toys and candy and ice cream that never melt till it get to your mouth, and he gone fill your socks up with robots an' AM-FM radios, an...an...

PODEY'S VOICE (O.S.)

An'
nothing.
Because Santa ain't comin' to you, because Santa's white and he can't
find
black kids.

17 - ANGLE UP PAST KIDS

to Podey's big mean face peering at them over the bannister. He's taking great pleasure in tormenting these kids.

POOCH

(fights back)

Thassa lie! Santa's good, cause he's a friend of the baby Jesus, and they can find kids anywhere!

PODEY

(warms to his evil)

White folks have someone
else
who comes to kids like you. You know who
that
is?

They stare at him, sad and frightened.

PODEY

(malevolent, eyes shining)

Nackles. That's the one comes to black kids. He's the
other
side of Santa Claus. Santa Claus comes down through the chimney and brings white kids toys; but Nackles, ah Nackles...
 

(beat)

Yeah...he's eight feet tall, all dressed in black, and real thin and nasty, and he's got a dead white face like a corpse, and eyes that burn like fire, and he travels in the tunnels under the ground in a black coal car on rails, pulled by four blind white goats.

(beat)

And you know what Nackles'll do to you?
 

They are terrified. Their faces are trapped in his story.

PODEY

Nackles eats the flesh of kids like you. Nackles roams back and forth underground in his dark tunnels darker than subway tunnels, and he looks around for kids like you to stuff into his black bag, and he takes you away screaming, so's he can eat you when his big fangs get hungry.

18 - ANGLE DOWN ON KIDS - PODEY IN F.G.

as Pooch leaps up. He is holding a toy robot. He is wild with justified hatred.

POOCH

You lyin' at us, you chinch honkie geek!
 

And he throws the robot toy as hard as he can. It hits Podey on the left temple, breaking skin, bringing blood in a small cut. Podey howls with rage and rushes down the stairs. Pooch takes off at a dead run, as fast as he can, down the stairs below Podey.

PODEY

(howling)

I'm gonna kill you, ya little nigger bastid!

19 - ACTION SEQUENCE - EITHER STEADICAM OR RAPID INTERCUTS 
- WHAT WE SEE

Podey running as fast as he can, jumping the last few steps onto a landing, banging off the walls to catch up with the kid. Pooch running full out in sneakers, fast as he can, rounding the corners and sliding along the bannisters, down and down and down.

We expect to hit the first floor foyer in a moment, but somehow we keep going down and down. Is it four storeys, five, six, eight...what the hell is going on here?!? It's a blur of walls and steps and stairwell, the angles tilting crazily as Podey keeps on going, foaming at the mouth, cursing, screaming, and at one point, when we've covered twice as many as four floors, but he keeps going because WE CAN HEAR the sound of the kid ahead of him, the feet hitting the steps and the landings ...and Podey's right around the bend, coming after him. We don't see the kid anymore, but he's there because we HEAR him.

20 - CUL - DE - SAC

Podey comes pounding down the last flight of stairs, and finds himself in a narrow, square bottom landing. No windows and only ONE DOOR...a door that is slowly closing as he hits the floor. He doesn't even stop to think. He grabs the closing door's knob, hurtles through and...