I wrote this morning too and sent it in, but didn't post it for the chunk on the 19th. So, here's tonight's offering, continuing the scene. I think altogether it is 7 pages, just spilling over into the 8th page barely. Not bad. Maybe I'll finish at least this play by the end of the month if I don't get too distracted.
___________________________________
GABRIELLE
Step backwards.
(PEARL
literally does step back)
Non, not what I mean to
do that. Go back to what you were doing when Jim appear. Where were you?
(PEARL goes to
where she was. Then she moves and moves again)
You don’t know?
PEARL
No. Someone bashed me
over the head and I can’t think!
GABRIELLE
Je suis désolé.
PEARL
Sorry?
GABRIELLE
Oui, sorry.
PEARL
What? Oh, you did this?
GABRIELLE
Oui, sorry. I do my
job.
PEARL
Your job is to hurt people while their backs are turned?
GABRIELLE
Non. Non. My job is to
protect people who come here and destroy and graffiti and wreck the resting
space of so many that did not ask you to do that. Not even Jim!
PEARL
Jim is not resting! Jim
is up and horny and taking a walk for all we know!
GABRIELLE
Non. Impossible!
PEARL
Which part?
GABRIELLE
All!
(THEY are nose
to nose when PEARL starts to swoon again)
Sit, sit, sit, sit,
sit!
(GABRIELLE
lowers her down to sit)
PEARL
Thank you.
GABRIELLE
De rien. Now, we think
of this different. Where was your friend?
PEARL
Patty? She was…was…was…
there. We both were, I think.
(GABRIELLE
inspects JIM’S grave)
GABRIELLE
Aha! There is blood!
PEARL
Blood, are you sure?
GABRIELLE
And you are the only one bleeding, so logic says it is your blood.
PEARL
But I was nowhere near
there when you hit me.
GABRIELLE
True, I hit you over
here.
PEARL
Was that after or
before Jim poofed into existence?
GABRIELLE
Chez pas.
PEARL
Great. And we have
blood but don’t know whose it or why. We thought we saw Jim Morrison and Janis
Joplin…alive? Dead? Both? You don’t think they’d eat our brains, do you?
GABRIELLE
Non. They are not… what
do you call them…zombies.
PEARL
How do you know that?
They could be!
GABRIELLE
They walked with
purpose. They were not rotten. They drank from that bottle and Janis
(makes pop
sound with her mouth)
Jim and he passed out!
All very human-like things. They seem alive, yes?
PEARL
Yes! But how could they?
GABRIELLE
I do not know, but I do
not know what happens to us when we shed the mortal coil that binds us to this
life. Look around you? Maybe this is a city of people waiting to wake and live
a second time! Who knows.
PEARL
That’s heavy, man. Now
you sound religious or something.
GABRIELLE
Or something, oui.
PEARL
How long have you
worked here?
GABRIELLE
Many years. Too many. We become friends in the nights. I walk and talk to them.
PEARL
Than you should know Jim and why he is walking and talking tonight.
GABRIELLE
No, he never before
did. You, wake the dead.
PEARL
No. No! How do you know
that? This is a huge cemetery and maybe he goes for a walk every night.
GABRIELLE
Not possible.
PEARL
It is possible. We saw
it. Unless…No, I haven’t been doing any drugs. I’m clean. And you and me, and
Patty saw it.
GABRIELLE
Group, how do you call
it… dream…
PEARL
Hallucination?
GABRIELLE
That. It is a thing, non?
PEARL
Only if there is a gas
leak or something. Any gas lines running under these graves?
GABRIELLE
Non.
(PATTY ENTERS running
with a first aid kit)
PATTY
Did… did.. …go by..there?
PEARL
Did they?
PATTY
Her! It’s her!
PEARL
This is real.
PATTY
Janis was right in
front of me! Lost her!
PEARL
Where?
(PEARL stands
up fast and starts to sink as GABRIELLE catches her)
GABRIELLE
I go. My job. Where?
PATTY
There, I think?
(GABRIELLE
EXITS)
She’s fast!
PEARL
You’re not kidding. She
tore outta here before like a bat outta… maybe she is coming from hell? Do you
think she’d be in hell.
PATTY
I don’t know if there
is a hell, a real one. Is this real?
(PATTY starts
fixing PEARL’S head or handing her bandages and things as she turns away)
PEARL
The guard and I were
just talking about that.
PATTY
What’s her name?
PEARL
Who? You know Janis.
PATTY
No, the guard. What’s
her name?
PEARL
I don’t know.
PATTY
That is so you. In those
ten minutes or so, I was gone you probably learned her shoe size, where she
lives, and her philosophy about life, but not her name. The basics elude you.
PEARL
Not true, man! I told
you the story of my name, right?
PATTY
Several times. You don’t
know mine, do you?
PEARL
Sure, I do. Your mom’s mom
liked Patty Duke!
PATTY
No! Who is Patty Duke?
PEARL
You know, the Patty
Duke show! She stood on the stairs (sings) “Cousin’s identical cousins.”
She played both the part of Patty and her cousin, who was from somewhere with
an accent. British, I think.
PATTY
When was this show?
PEARL
The fifties? No, must
have been the sixties, cause all those shows I watched in the seventies growing
up, and grandma used to sit with me. An old show, but she was… well, it was kinda
cool how she’d flip back and forth in her accent, and this was before all these
special effects that are so mind-blowing nowadays.
PATTY
Yeah. I saw this movie
once that wait a minute, mind-blowing special effects! Could this be for the
finale? There is no Jim or Janice, but just actors and a hoax or, is it? Is it
something to throw us off?
PEARL
Hey man, you might be onto something! But
why run away? What is the point?
PATTY
There are written clues
to find the cache, we know, but why not other clues!
PEARL
I don’t know, man. Jim
and Janice were never in Paris at the same time until now.
PATTY
Are you sure, sure,
sure?
PEARL
I’m pretty sure Morrison
moved here after Janice kicked off.
PATTY
Did they like each
other?
PEARL
It was pretty much like
we witnessed tonight what was said when they met for the first and I think the
only time. Janice hit him over the head with a bottle that night, too!
PATTY
Oh.
PEARL
The guard lady..person…she
was trying to figure out why they appeared. She had me retracing our steps, but
we didn’t find nothin’, except some fresh blood.
PATTY
Yeah, that’s mine.
PEARL
You’re bleeding too?
PATTY
Don’t focus on it, or I’ll
lose it again. I was just forgetting about all this.. stuff. That’s what took
me so long, as I had to fix up my hand too, see?
(Holds up
bandaged hand)
PEARL
What happened? Did you
lose a finger?
PATTY
No, I cut it on… never
mind.
(PEARL is
looking around where the blood was found)
PEARL
There’s nothing sharp
over here. Hang on.
(PEARL picks
up a broken piece of the vial)
This looks just like…
Patty, where is the vial? Are you wearing it?
PATTY
Not exactly.
PEARL
That is my one precious
thing, and she guides us. If we don’t have that vial, we are flying blind here!
PATTY
No… that isn’t true! We’ve
got an actor or special effect Janis to guide us.
PEARL
No, no we don’t because
she ran off.
PATTY
The guard will find
her! She went in the right direction. I saw her! I was chasing her!
PEARL
And you lost her, and
what happened to her ashes in the vial?
PATTY
Remember, we went to
hide and you were and I was and then we were…I broke it on Jim’s headstone. I’m
sorry. I didn’t know it was still in my hand when we heard the noise and I
panicked. I’m so sorry.
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