Moonless And Dead by Gary O. Bennett
INT. AIRPORT WAITING AREA NIGHT
CAROLYN sits in a chair that is pushed up against a wall.
There are sevral chairs to the left and right of her. A bag
lies on the chair to her right. She is reading a Vogue
magazine. She checks her watch occasionally. A few moments
pass. LAUREN walks in with bag in hand. She sits next to
Carolyn, placing her bag on the floor.
LAUREN
Hi.
CAROLYN
Hi? Hi? Is that all you’re going to
say?
Lauren pulls a cell phone from her bag.
LAUREN
I’ll just be a moment. (to Carolyn)
Harvey, did the fax come? What’s it say?
No. No. It has to stipulate our fee.
No. Listen to me…the fee must be
specifically stated…a sum certain…not
a percentage deal. Harvey, shut up and
hear me. Listen to my words. The fee
must be stipulated as a sum certain.
That means an exact amount. Two point
seven million. A sum certain. Got that.
No. No. I don’t care that we might lose
out if the deal grows bigger. I don’t
care. I know these guys…trust me…it
won’t grow bigger. Fax them back the
deal memo with a sum certain stip, and do
it immediately, or else I swear I’ll send
you back to the bond department, do you
hear me. Do you hear my words.
Good…and stay at the office till you
hear back from them…I sdon’t care if
you have dinner plans…I don’t care if
it’s your mother, I don’t carwe if it’s a
fucking funeral, stay at the office till
you hear from them…and then stay there
till you hear from me. Bye.
Lauren fliups her cell phone closed.
LAUREN (cont’d)
The lidiots I have to deal with. It’s
really incredible. I’ve got seven people
working for me and only one has an MBA.
And it’s a woman, of course.
CAROLYN
Can we talk?
LAUREN
Sure.
Lauren pulls out a Wall Street Journal. She starts to
obviously search for something. Carolyn covers her
irritation.
CAROLYN
You realize you are over an hour late.
LAUREN
Just a second…Here it is…look
(pointing to a page in the newspaper).
That’s my deal. Last month I put
together this deal. A twenty-two million
IPO dor some dipshit little internet
company that barely has a wing and a
prayer to make a profit.
CAROLYN
This is something you’re proud of?
LAUREN
We disclose everything. It’s not like we
don’t tell investors the risks they are
taking. I tell people the risks but if
they are stupid enough to invest, is it
up to me to stop them? And anyway, this
is my business. Risk. OK. So let’s get
off the high horse and dis the judgmental
stuff.
CAROLYN
I find this amusing. You have an
attitude and yet it is you who have kept
us waiting here for over an hour. You
know the sun is down. The sun is setting
right now. You know this, right?
LAUREN
Yeah, so. Can’t boy wonder handle a
little moonlit ride?
CAROLYN
There is no moon.
LAUREN
Look, I have a job. A job wwhich
contains emergencies
everyday…emergencies I have to handle
with split second timing. If I make one
mistake, just one little mistake, then
don’t fix the mistake with the correct
response, the whole deal starts to spiral
out of control. I have to remain on top
of every little detail, or else the deal
is dead.
Carolyn just barely rolls her eyes and goes back to her
Vogue.
LAUREN (cont’d)
You don’t seem to get it, do you? Look
at you, sitting there reading a
completely vapid magazine about the
superficiality of being a woman…about
issues with the depth and importance of
thin air…and you have the gall to cop
an attitude with me about my work.
CAROLYN
I’m not copping an attitude. It’s just
that…it’s just that it wasn’t easy to
arrange dropping you off on your little
weekend vacation, not to mention your
rather distasteful refusal to go to the
wedding. So I would expect you to be a
touch grateful.
LAUREN
Stop. Just stop with the lecture. I am
grateful. I just don’t show things the
way you now think I should. Ever since
your marriage, you have become so proper
about everything. Everything goes
through some kind of litmus test of
appropriateness. I am who I am, and I
was always just fine in your view…never
a complaint…until you became this
phoney private person with your
pretentious Yamamoto clothes, always a
foot behind your husband, like your
Princess Di before she finally grew up.
CAROLYN
Yeah, well, when she grew up, as you say,
she ended up dead.
LAUREN
Bad luck. A conspiracy of events that
she had no control over. Life is a
series of risks. You just have to assess
the risks. Analyze them, dissect them,
be smart about them. That’s my business.
So maybe you should take a step foward
and stop trying to hide behind your
veneer of perfection.
CAROLYN
You know what this is about? You know
what this is about? You’re jealous.
You’re jealous. ever since we were kids,
you have always been jealous of me. You
were the short one, the pudgy one, the
short pudgy one with brains…but it
pissed you off that brains were not
enough…that maybe a little style and
grace could also be assets in life.
LAUREN
You are such a fucking bore. Style and
grace! You remain aloof and cool with
your hair pulled back like you invented
the hairdo and you call that style and
grace.
CAROLYN
Look, can we not fight. Can we just calm
down and not argue about this now. Let’s
hug and makeup and have a nice ride, OK?
LAUREN
We can have a nice ride without hugging
and making up. I don’t want to makeup.
I’m not sorry about anything.
CAROLYN
OK. OK. So we won;t make up. We’ll just
continue this discussion some other time.
LAUREN
Why…because we are in public? Because
you don’t want anyone to see you and your
sister having an argument…because it
would be in bad taste. You are so
fucking concerned about good taste and
yet your husband’s money-losing rag is
the most tasteless piece of journalistic
political trash on the newstand.
A man comes into frame.
MAN
Your husband says the plane is ready now,
ma’am.
CAROLYN
Thank you, Charles.
The Man leaves.
LAUREN
Thank you, Charles. Ma’am. You’ve
really gotten used to the royalty
treatment, haven’t you?
Carolyn grabs her bag, but before she rises…
LAUREN (cont’d)
Just remember baby sister that life is
filled with surprises, and maybe someday
you’ll realize that this whole trip that
you are on is just going to come crashing
down and you are going to land with
nothing.
CAROLYN
I love you, Lauren. I love you and
that’s all I have to say.
Carolyn gets up and leaves the frame. Lauren pauses for a
momenbt, maybe a bit regretful of the sharpness of her words.
She grabs her bag and leaves.
FADE TO BLACK.
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