A Twist Of Noir 376 - Robert Crisman

FADE IN:

INT. BATHROOM

JOEY fixes dope in a bathroom. ROB watches. Drug paraphernalia is strewn on the toilet tank.

Joey, mid-30s, is black, light-skinned, and slender. Rob, mid-30s, white, sharp-faced, thin, has dirty-blond hair.

SUPER: ROANNE

ROANNE, 29, appears as a scuffed Mediterranean beauty.

ROANNE
I’m Roanne. I finally quit shooting
dope. Most junkies don’t, and die ugly.

Like Rob, whose sendoff went this way...

Roanne looks at Joey and Rob in the bathroom.

INT. BATHROOM - DAY
Joey extracts the needle from his upper right thigh and tosses the rig in the sink.

ROB
Okay, man, my turn. Finally.

JOEY
(Laughs)
You are a rig faggot, Rob, I swear.

ROB
That’s alright, I’ll be one. At least I got veins left.

Rob and Joey laugh.

Joey gathers dope and workings from the toilet tank and cooks the dope. Rob wraps his belt around his left arm.

Joey injects Rob.

Rob’s eyes widen.

ROANNE (V.O.)
Look at Rob, ready to get happy.
But, life throws mean curveballs.
And dopefiends are always surprised
when it happens. Especially when
strike three splits the plate.

Rob’s eyes go wider and his mouth opens.

ROB
Oh fuck, man... That’s...

Rob wobbles, almost falls.

ROB
Oh fuck, Jesus, I...

Joey grabs Rob’s arm.

ROB
I gotta puke.

EXT. BACK YARD

Joey walks Rob into the back yard, lets Rob go. Rob stumbles, falls on his hands and knees. Rob pukes, spasms, groans, and falls. Blood flows from Rob’s mouth.

Joey backs up, looks wildly toward the house.

JOEY
Roanne! Roanne!

Joey backpedals toward the house.

ROANNE comes quickly into the back yard.

ROANNE
What? What is it?

Roanne catches sight of Rob, stares.

JOEY
It’s Rob, man, he’s --

ROANNE
Oh fuck. Oh fuck no.

Roanne starts toward Rob.

MICHELLE comes through the back door, sees Rob, stares. Michelle, 22, is a tall, slender, brown-haired suburban princess whose complexion is leeched out a little.

MICHELLE
Oh Jesus...

Roanne gets to Rob. Joey follows and stands beside her.

Michelle, gaping, comes up to stand by the two of them.

Roanne looks toward the neighbors’ houses on either side.

ROANNE
Joey...

Joey shakes his head wildly.

ROANNE (V.O.)
Joey’s whole fucking cool, just flat
blown. I mean, he’d been in rooms

where guys died and then gone
through their pockets. That’s
just how it goes. But -- this! Rob!
At Joey’s pad! No one had ever died
at his pad! Plus, he’d known Rob a lifetime!

They were close, you know,partners, or

something... Your ace boon gets scragged

in the trench. Do you shit or go blind?

Roanne looks at Joey and Michelle, then back down at Rob.

ROANNE
We’ve got to get him inside.

JOEY
Yeah...

ROANNE
C’mon.

Roanne takes Rob’s feet. Joey takes his shoulders.

Michelle blinks.

ROANNE
C’mon, Michelle!

The three roll Rob over. Rob is bloody and puke-flecked.

Michelle almost vomits.

They carry Rob toward the house. Michelle loses her grasp on Rob’s leg, then regains it.

INT. BASEMENT ROOM

Roanne, Joey and Michelle carry Rob across the room. The room’s furniture consists of a bed, chair, and table, all strewn with clothes, food cartons, pop cans, ashtrays, etc.

ROANNE
The bathroom.

They head toward the bathroom.

INT. BATHROOM

Roanne, Joey, and Michelle carry Rob to the bathtub. Michelle stumbles, holds tight, eyes squeezed shut.

They drop Rob into the bathtub and leave.

INT. BASEMENT ROOM

Roanne walks over to a chair, sits down, lights a smoke, and stares at the wall.

Michelle lowers herself onto the bed.

Joey shuffles, picking at things, in the closet, and on the dresser, table, and chair.

ROANNE
We’ve got to call 911.

Joey whirls, stares at Roanne.

JOEY
What? Roanne -- !

ROANNE
Joey, we’ve got to --

JOEY
Roanne, we --

ROANNE
We can’t just leave him.
Joey, he dead --

JOEY
Roanne!

Roanne glares at Joey.

Joey, agitated, futzes around the room. His face sweats fear.

FLASHBACK - ROB IN THE BACKYARD

--Rob lies on his side in the yard, face bloodied.

BACK TO PRESENT DAY

Joey futzes, his face sweating fear.

ROANNE (V.O.)
Yes. Joey’s cool. Flat blown away.

Rob! Dead! At his pad! Too close to
home! Rob was his...friend? Well, not
exactly. What sort of friend can a
dopefiend really lay claim to, total creature

of need that he or she is? Still, though,

man -- Rob! Joey had known him since Jesus

had stepped out for lunch. And -- maybe

this starts to get to it -- Rob stayed with Joey,

up in his mind through the years. Rob

wasn’t just part of the flotsam and

jetsam. They’d always talked, shared
perspectives, beyond all the

day-to-day bullshit.

Joey stares. Joey’s lips part.

FLASHBACK - JOEY AND ROB

--Joey and Rob talk and laugh MOS.

ROANNE (V.O.)
Where most junkies drool all those
rock ’n roll mumbles, Joey and Rob

had talked politics, man, the social

dynamic, the world... Joey and Rob.

They weren’t just your scuts. They

had opinions, like real-time folks. Dope-
fiends were outhouse; Joey was
something other than that. And
parsing the world with his old buddy
Rob had helped bring alive the sense
that he mattered, if but for a moment...
Rob, part of Joey -- now dead in the tub.

Death, you could say, had tapped Joey’s
shoulder and spun him around and said Boo!

--Rob’s face drips blood and puke in the back yard.

BACK TO PRESENT DAY

Roanne steps toward Joey.

ROANNE
Joey! We’ve to call 911!

JOEY
I can’t, I can’t, I’ve got warrants!

I can’t call!

Roanne stares at Joey, mouth open.

INT. BATHROOM

Joey, Roanne, and Michelle wrestle Rob out of the tub and toward the door. Michelle dry-heaves.

INT. BASEMENT ROOM

Joey, Roanne, and Michelle lug Rob to a trunk in the middle of the room. Michelle drops the leg she holds halfway. Rob’s head hits the floor with a thunk.

MICHELLE
Goddamn! Goddamn!

ROANNE
Michelle, goddamnit!

Michelle picks up the leg she dropped and they carry Rob over to the trunk and cram him inside.

Joey starts to close the lid to the trunk -- and pukes into the trunk all over Rob.

MICHELLE
Oh God!

Michelle whirls and runs out of the room, retching.

Roanne stares after Michelle, then laughs, goes and sits in the chair, her whole body shaking, her head in her hands.

EXT. BACK YARD

Roanne, Joey, and Michelle wrestle the trunk into the back of a station wagon parked at the foot of the driveway.

Joey and Roanne climb into the vehicle and back up the driveway. Michelle goes back in the house.

EXT. HEAVILY WOODED ROAD

The station wagon pulls slowly over to the right of the road into a wide, graveled spot. No lights shine on this stretch. Roanne and Joey get out of the car.

Roanne and Joey unlatch the back and pull the trunk out, until it is teetering on the edge.

Joey lurches and loses his grip. Roanne can’t hold on.

The trunk tips over, hits the ground, and splinters. Rob, eyes wide open, stares up at Joey and Roanne.

Joey scrambles toward the driver’s side. Roanne staggers away, slips, falls, scrambles up, and dives for her door.

JOEY
Let’s go, let’s go!

Joey and Roanne slam into the car and patch out.

INT. CAR

Joey drives, cursing softly, repetitively. Roanne slumps, eyes shut.

EXT. WARHOUSE PARKING LOT

The station wagon pulls into an empty, dimly lit lot, and parks in the shadow.

INT. CAR

Joey shuts off the lights, leaves the car running.

Joey fishes out dope and rigs. Joey and Roanne cook and fix the dope.

ROANNE (V.O.)
Joey and I probed those veins,
to let in the dope that would take
us to some other place.

Joey and Roanne fix more dope.

ROANNE (V.O.)
We were there 20 minutes. A merciful
god let us go. We patched out, left
Rob’s ghost, to find its way to
wherever it is that dead junkies go.
R.I.P., Rob. Strike three, you’re out...

Joey, done fixing, hits the ignition and backs out of the lot.

EXT. STREET - NIGHT

The station wagon ghosts down the street. A ghostly Rob, dressed and messed as he was, plods slowly out to the street from the lot.

Rob’s arms hang limply at his side. Rob is slack-jawed. Rob’s eyes follow the station wagon a moment, then look off at nothing.

THE END