JENNY

(looking very

uneasy)

Yes.

 

MONA waits, everybody looking at her and JENNY.

 

MONA

Okay, Miss Jenny.  Here it is.

 

MONA pauses.

 

JENNY

Yes?

 

MONA

Were you fucking my husband before

he left me?

 

Everyone stares at JENNY, waiting.

 

MONA

Simple yes or no will do.

 

 

HENRY SENIOR

Mona, let’s stop this right now.

 

JENNY

(softly)

Yes.

 

MONA

What dear?  Can you speak up?

 

HENRY

What? 

(to HENRY SENIOR)

You were always accusing

Mom.

 

HENRY SENIOR

Henry.  Believe me, it’s not . . .

was not a simple matter of right

or wrong.

 

HENRY bolts out the front door, slamming the door behind him.

 

EXT. THE WALES HOUSE   EARLY EVENING

 

HENRY jumps on his bike, which is by the front door.  His paintball gun hangs from the handlebars. 

 

He furiously peddles away from his house just as HENRY SENIOR pulls open the front door and steps out onto the front stoop.

 

HENRY SENIOR

Henry!  Henry!

 

MONA comes out of the house.

 

MONA

(to HENRY SENIOR)

Proud of yourself, big man?

 

HENRY SENIOR

What?  Why the hell did you have

to conjure up all the old demons,

Mona?  Why?

 

MONA

They’re not so old, Big Henry.

 

HENRY SENIOR

I’m going after him.

 

MONA

You are, are you?

 

HENRY SENIOR

Yes!

 

MONA

You won’t catch him.  He won’t let

you.

 

JENNY comes out of the house in a rush, looking upset, and heads for her and HENRY SENIOR’s car parked at the curb.

 

DOG appears in the doorway.

 

DOG

(calling after

JENNY)

Offers open any time.

 

MONA

You leaving, too, Jenny?  Why

don’t you stay so we can trade

recipes?

 

JENNY and HENRY SENIOR pull away from the curb.

 

EXT. HENRY’S NEIGHBORHOOD   EARLY EVENING

 

HENRY peddles furiously down a street of his neighborhood.  

 

Then he hears a car horn behind him, looks back, and sees HENRY SENIOR’s car. 

 

HENRY peddles harder, turns at an intersection, then turns up an alley, HENRY SENIOR in pursuit and continuing to blow his horn. 

 

HENRY turns out of the alley, crosses some lawns, finds a trail across a field, and soon enters the lush woods of the public park.

 

EXT. WOODS OF THE PUBLIC PARK   EVENING

 

With night falling fast, HENRY peddles along a trail, deeper and deeper into the woods until his front tire hits a protruding tree root, and he takes a spill head first over his handlebars. 

 

He lies sprawled face down next to the trail.  He finally turns over and crawls to a tree and leans his back against it. 

 

He’s banged up from the fall but is worse off emotionally than he is physically.  He starts to cry as the last light drains from the woods.

 

EXT.  PUBLIC PARK   NIGHT

 

HENRY pushes his bike out of the woods.  The front wheel wobbles.  HENRY’s paintball gun dangles from his belt. 

 

There’s a large pond and a sidewalk that circles it.  Regularly spaced along the sidewalk are tall streetlamps, and beneath them are benches.  Ducks sleep along the shore of the pond.  There seem to be no other people around.

 

HENRY pushes his bike along through the patches of light cast by the streetlamps.  He is obviously tired.  He limps a little. 

 

A teenage couple appear suddenly out of a dark patch, the TEENAGE GIRL wearing a dress and struggling to walk fast on heels to catch up with the TEENAGE BOY, whose shirttails are out and whose hands are busy lighting a cigarette.

 

TEENAGE GIRL

Hey, Don’t you . . . don’t you

love me?  Huh?  Don’t you? . . . 

Seth?

 

HENRY stops, looks after the two.

 

TEENAGE GIRL

Seth.  Seth.  Come on.  Tell me

you love me.  I’ll do it again,

Seth.  Just say it.

 

HENRY

(exploding)

For God’s sake, tell her!

 

TEENAGE GIRL

(whirling around toward

HENRY)

Shut up, kid!  Fuck you.  It’s none

of your fucking business. . . .  So fuck off.  Fuck you.  . . . Seth,

Seth.

 

HENRY walks on, the girl’s voice fading.

 

One of the streetlamps is broken, and the public bench beneath it is almost completely lost in darkness.  HENRY sits down on the bench, then lies down on it.

 

He reaches over his head, stretching, and touches something.

 

HENRY

What the--?

 

He sits up, rolling some kind of silky material in his fingers.  He carries it to a patch of light and sees he’s holding a pair of panty hose. 

 

He can vaguely hear across the pond the teenage couple.

 

TEENAGE GIRL

I love you so much, Seth.

 

TEENAGE BOY

Man, you are something else.

 

TEENAGE GIRL

You want?

 

HENRY drops the panty hose.

 

TEENAGE BOY

You got any money?

 

HENRY looks down at the panty hose, then picks them up and stuffs them into his pocket. 

 

Then he pushes his bike away, lets it drop, and walks quickly away, his paintball gun dangling from his belt.

 

FADE OUT:

 

FADE IN:

 

EXT.  TACO YUMMY   NIGHT

 

HENRY stands in the shadows of the trash bins at the back of the TACO YUMMY lot, watching. 

 

Inside, EDWARD mops the floor in the dining area.  A couple of other workers are finishing the cleaning of the grill area.  The last two customers of the evening are leaving. 

 

HENRY fidgets, licks his lips.  His face is sweaty.

 

When the two grill-area cleaners leave the restaurant, get in a car, and drive away, HENRY moves to the back door of the building. 

 

He takes deep breathes, sweats, mumbles to himself.

 

HENRY

You can do this.  You got to.

 

HENRY pulls one leg of the panty hose over his head.  The other leg flops in front of him until he twists the panty hose around so that the other leg droops from the back of his head and trails down his back.  He looks something like a Harlequin.

 

Then he takes his paintball gun off his belt and knocks on the backdoor. 

 

EDWARD

Who is it?

 

HENRY knocks again.

 

EDWARD

That you, Wally?

 

HENRY knocks again.

 

When EDWARD opens the door, HENRY pushes EDWARD back from the door so that they’re both inside. 

 

HENRY has his paintball gun in EDWARD’s face.

 

HENRY

(trying to disguise

his voice--gruff and

deep)

Give me the money.

 

EDWARD

(peevishly)

Hey, I don’t like people that push

me.

 

HENRY

Boo hoo, faggot.

 

EDWARD

I’m not a faggot.

 

HENRY

Get the money.

 

EDWARD

I want to make this clear.  I’m not

a faggot.  I’m one hundred percent

heterosexual.

 

HENRY

The money!