Wrong House by Gary O. Bennett
INT. NINA’S HOUSE
Nina is lying in bed. It is early morning. The sun peaking
over the horizon, yellow sunlight softly bathing the bed wear
Nina lays. Shirley walks in. She is holding a gun. She is
shaking and clearly agitated. She holds the gun on the bed.
She kicks the bed. Nina doesn’t wake. Shirley kicks the bed
again. Nina’s eyes open, she turns and through the fog of
early-morning eyes, she sees Shirley with the gun.
NINA
What?
SHIRLEY
Stay where you are.
Nina starts to contemplate that a strange woman with a gun is
standing in her bedroom.
SHIRLEY (cont’d)
I’m not happy about this, but I have to
do what I’m about to do.
NINA
What are you about to do?
SHIRLEY
I have to kill you. Mind you, I don’t
call it murder, because I feel like I’m
totally justified in this act. So it is
not murder, it is self defense against a
heartless, lying, husband-stealing
female.
NINA
Husband stealing?
SHIRLEY
Don’t try to deny it.
NINA
I didn’t know he was married.
SHIRLEY
Oh, cut the crap. He has pictures of me
and his kids on his desk; you work for
him. How could you not know.
NINA
I never noticed the pictures.
SHIRLEY
How could you do this? I have kids. Two
children…you want to wreck a family,
you want to destroy the lives of three
people to satisfy a little sexual whim?
NINA
No. Look, I’m sorry. I swear, I didn’t
know John was married.
SHIRLEY
You can’t even get his name right. So
are you screwing a John too? Or do you
call all your affairs John? Isn’t that
what prostitutes do?
NINA
No. No. John Rosen. Look, Mrs. Rosen,
I promise, I will end this…
SHIRLEY
My name is Shirley Sticklehead, and you
are fucking my husband , Frank
Sticklehead, so please stop the acting
job.
NINA
I don’t even know any Stickleheads.
SHIRLEY
Don’t play with me, Judith Jenson.
NINA
I work at the Johnson-Dewey Consulting
firm in Hackensack and my boss is John
Rosen and we have been having an affair
for about four months. And my name is
Nina Pew.
SHIRLEY
This is 1025 East Madison Avenue?
NINA
No. This is 1023 East Madison Avenue.
1025 is next door. That’s where Judith
Jenson lives.
SHIRLEY
You mean I have the wrong house?
NINA
Yes. And the wrong person.
SHIRLEY
Oh jeez. Oh jeez. I am so sorry.
NINA
No. No. It’s OK.
SHIRLEY
I didn’t mean to wake you.
NINA
No. I had to get up anyway. I’m already
running late.
SHIRLEY
I can’t do anything right. Everything I
do I just mess up.
NINA
It’s an honest mistake. You just misread
the address off the house.
SHIRLEY
No. This is why Frank is having an
affair. I’m a loser…I can’t get
anything right.
NINA
Shirley, you have discovered your
mistake, and you can now correct it.
Just leave my house and go next door.
I’m sure Judy is home.
SHIRLEY
Yeah, well, you see, you know about all
this, and you will just report me, or
call the police the moment I leave. I
can’t let that happen.
NINA
No. I swear. Judith and I have been
fighting for years over property lines,
and she complains to the town about my
vegetable patch. About vegetables she
complains. Can you imagine. Go next
door. Be my guest. Have fun. I’m
certain she deserves what’s coming to
her.
SHIRLEY
Are you sure?
NINA
Yes. Shirley? It’s Shirley, right?
SHIRLEY
Yes.
NINA
Could you do me a favor and not walk
through the vegetable patch?
SHIRLEY
The vegetable patch?
NINA
It’s clearly marked.
SHIRLEY
Sure. I feel…I feel…like we’ve just
become friends.
Shirley points the gun at Nina.
SHIRLEY (cont’d)
Are we friends, Nina?
NINA
Yes. Yes. I mean not good friends, but
it’s a start. Listen, Shirley, I don’t
want to question your solution to the
problem you have, but don’t you think
doing your husband is a better option
than Judith?
SHIRLEY
Oh no, I love my husband.
NINA
Of course. Sorry.
SHIRLEY
I’m going now.
NINA
Good. I mean, certainly, yes, go.
SHIRLEY
Who’s the guy your having an affair with?
NINA
John Rosen.
SHIRLEY
I suggest you find out if he’s married.
NINA
It’s the first thing I’m doing when I get
to the office.
SHIRLEY
Smart girl.
Shirley leaves. Nina remains frozen.
THE END.
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>