Heartland
(a
seven scene drama that can be played without intermission)
Writing Sample:
KATIE
(Quickly)
I'm pregnant.
(MARTIN stands with his back to her and says nothing.)
I didn't do this on purpose. I imagined that things would be different when we finally decided to... I don't know. I imagined maybe you'd be further along.
(Pause. A slow smile creeps on MARTIN'S face, then.)
Oh, Martin, please say something...
MARTIN
Yes!
KATIE
Yes?
MARTIN
Yes!!
(MARTIN picks KATIE up and swings her around.)
That's great! This is great! This is the beginning of everything, Katie. The luck’s rolling. Now I just know that I’ll get that job on the soap. This calls for a celebration.
(MARTIN grabs his empty Jack Daniels bottle and exits above Kitchen panel.)
CAT (AMY)
It's true, right, Kate? All old people want to do is sit at home all day and watch soap operas. Kate?
(MEMORY lights come up. KATIE and CAT resume their childhood attitudes.)
KATIE (KATE)
What do you know about it, Amy?
CAT (AMY)
That's what my grandmother does all day.
KATIE (KATE)
Mine too.
(Going to KATHERINE)
It must have been pretty hard for you, mama. Being in that big old house with Meme and Pop all day long before you got a job. All Meme wanted to do was watch her stories on TV.
CAT (AMY)
They talk about them as if those were real people.
KATIE (KATE)
I know.
KATHERINE (MOTHER)
Lonely. I was lonely.
KATIE (KATE)
Not when I was born, right?
KATHERINE (MOTHER)
No, Kate, not when you and your brother were born.
CAT (AMY)
You got pregnant pretty fast, huh. Right on your honeymoon. My mama...
KATIE (KATE)
What do you know about it?
CAT (AMY)
More than you.
KATIE (KATE)
Right.
CAT (AMY) & KATIE (KATE)
(Old joke between girls)
Right yourself.
(They giggle.)
KATHERINE (MOTHER)
Say the same words.
(Puts their little fingers together)
Make the same wish.
(KATIE and CAT twine their little fingers, close their eyes.)
KATIE (KATE)/ CAT (AMY)
I wish for...
KATHERINE
(Jumps up.)
No!
(BEDROOM phone rings. CAT backs away from KATHERINE, then answers it.)
CAT
Hello?
(JESSIE is at a pay phone in the pool bar. He has been drinking.)
JESSIE
Cat.
CAT
Jessie.
(Looks at bedside clock)
Jesus, it's three o'clock in the morning.
JESSIE
I'm coming over.
CAT
What's the matter? You in an accident? Are you hurt or something?
JESSIE
No. No. I just want to come over.
CAT
Why? What's happening?
JESSIE
Nothing's happened. I just want to come over.
CAT
Oh, the bar's closing and you don't want to drive....
JESSIE
I want you, babe.
CAT
You had your chance earlier and blew it.
JESSIE
I'm coming over.
CAT
No.
JESSIE
Yes.
CAT
It's late. I got to work tomorrow.
JESSIE
I got to see you. I gotta see you.
CAT
Christ! I'm not your quickie fuck service.
JESSIE
I don't want you to be mad at me.
CAT
Then you shouldn't break your promises.
JESSIE
I was late. I promised the guys...
CAT
You promised me...
JESSIE
I promised Sam I'd be there at 8:30.
CAT
You promised me we'd have dinner, talk. You promised.
JESSIE
I promised Sam first... It got complicated.... I'm sorry. I... Look, let me come over. We can talk now.
CAT
No way. You had your chance. I'm too pissed off. We'll talk tomorrow.
JESSIE
Look, we still got those steaks in the fridge...
CAT
Goodnight.
(Starts to hang up.)
JESSIE
Cat, please!
CAT
Please? Please what? You got to make a choice here, Jessie. Who comes first in your life? Me or the guys. You got to make that decision.
JESSIE
You do.
CAT
Bullshit!
JESSIE
You do.
CAT
You have a fine way of showing it.
JESSIE
Look I don't hear you asking my permission when you do a job out of town with those fancy lawyer types, staying in those fancy hotels, eating fancy food, drinking, fucking around, who knows, I don't know. I don't hear you asking nothing from me. You go. Break off whatever we got going and you're outta here.
CAT
That's different. That's my job. And I don't fuck around.
JESSIE
Yeah, well your job is interfering with my life.
CAT
Yeah, well your pool buddies are interfering with us! So...
JESSIE
So what, Cat? We're even, okay. Let's drop it, okay. Let's just drop it!
(Pause)
I just want to come over and hold you and tell you... babe. I just want to show you in my own way what I feel about you.
CAT
Which at this moment is to crawl into bed, maybe make a half assed attempt at making love cause you're too drunk, fall asleep, and poof, back where we started. Right back to the beginning.
JESSIE
You know the way I am.
CAT
I got the chain on the door and I won't open it.
JESSIE
I'll break the fucking door down!
CAT
God damnit, you don't ever give me a chance, so why should I give you one? Answer me that? Huh? Answer me that! Give me one good reason why I should let you come over here at three in the morning. One good reason besides you don't want to drive all the way back to Jersey. Just one!
(Silence)
Hell, maybe I should start seeing one of those fancy lawyer types. Somebody that will be my friend, somebody that's a good listener, lawyers are pretty good listeners, how 'bout that for a change? At least it will be something for you to go back and tell your buddies about. Give you something to talk about besides pool! Cat ditched me for analytical conversation. Goodbye.
(CAT hangs up phone)
JESSIE
(Dials her back)
Don't! Please! God damnit! Don't hang up the phone!!
(CAT picks up phone)
I'll tell you why you got to give me a chance. We got this connection, see? It's like, I don't know, like an electrical current, you know.
CAT
Jessie, go home.
JESSIE
I felt that first time I saw you that night over at Joe's Bar.
CAT
Call me tomorrow.
JESSIE
I looked up before making that final shot. I had the run of the table. Best run ever. Last ball. Eight ball. Waiting for a gentle touch into the side pocket. A fucking baby could make that shot.
CAT
Call me in the fucking morning!
JESSIE
But I had to look up right into your eyes and I missed. Fuck that pissed me off...
CAT
Jessie...
JESSIE
You laughed at me. I wanted to strangle you and fuck you.
CAT
Jessie, this is bullshit....
JESSIE
This is not bullshit! This is not bullshit!! You're shutting me out here.
(Pause)
Okay, it's bullshit. Okay. Okay. I need you, Cat. I don't just want you anymore. Don't you understand? I need you. I need you like air. You know that. I know you know that. You know that, don't you? You're everything to me, Cat. Everything. You're perfect. Perfect. I love you so much it hurts.
CAT
You love me?
JESSIE
I love you.
CAT
You love me?
JESSIE
I love you!
CAT
Oh babe. Jessie... God. You know how long I've waited for you to say...
JESSIE
I am so sorry about tonight, babe, if I could back up the world, I'd do it for you. I'd make it right. I know you wanted to talk about something and I...
CAT
Then come over.
JESSIE
You mean it?
CAT
I can't wait to tell you our news.
JESSIE
Our news?
CAT
I bought some champagne.
JESSIE
Our news?
CAT
Our special news.
JESSIE
Our...
CAT
This is the best thing in the world that has ever happened to us, Jessie.
(Silence)
Jessie?
JESSIE
Look, babe, you're tired...
CAT
I'm wide awake now.
JESSIE
Yeah, but you got to get some sleep. Get to work early.
CAT
That doesn't matter...
JESSIE
Here I am being selfish again.
CAT
It's okay...
JESSIE
You always tell me I don't think with my brain, right? What if I call you tomorrow about getting together?
CAT
Call me?
JESSIE
I got an early day at the shop.
CAT
But...
JESSIE
There's five cars coming in in the morning.
CAT
Jessie...
JESSIE
They're all rush jobs, you know?
CAT
What about our news?
JESSIE
I know how you are about that sort of thing. Everything has to be at the right time. We'll work out a time, okay? I'll call ya, okay?
CAT
But...
JESSIE
Get some sleep, babe.
(Phone receiver goes dead. JESSIE'S special out.)
CAT
(Hanging up phone.)
What the hell....
KATIE
(Writing in her diary in LIVING ROOM)
Dear diary. It was winter.
CAT
Late in the night.
(KATHERINE as MOTHER dresses CAT during this next section and takes her back to the CLINIC.)
I was asleep, Mother came into my room and woke me up. She said...
KATHERINE (MOTHER)
Get your coat on.
KATIE
I was about nine or ten.
KATHERINE (MOTHER)
Here your shoes.
CAT
I remember asking her why.
KATHERINE (MOTHER)
Shush!
KATIE
I was so small, so sleepy on that cold winter night.
CAT
She took me for a drive to my daddy's battery shop.
KATIE
Dark. Nobody around. Cold.
CAT
A light was shinning under my daddy's back door pulling my feet out of the shadows.
KATIE
Mama burst through the door with me in tow.
CAT
And they were all sitting around a cardboard table playing poker. A single light bulb hung down over the table. It made shadow puppets dance all around the tables filled with rebuilt batteries, stacks of old metal and cast off generators, starters...
KATIE
The room was filled with smoke. Cigarette. And cigar.
CAT
Mr. Hutchinson smoked the cigar. He was the fancy man from Memphis that sold stuff from the back of his station wagon.
KATIE
Mr. Sherman was there too.
CAT
And daddy.
KATIE
They had piles of cigarette butts on the table, loose change, hundred dollar bills and moonshine whiskey.
CAT
Mama dragged me over into the smoky light. And she said to daddy.
KATHERINE (MOTHER)
It's three o'clock in the morning. Your daughter needs you at home. Either you come home now. Or you don't come home later.
CAT
And she turned to Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Sherman and told them.
KATHERINE (MOTHER)
I'm ashamed of you. Keeping a man away from his family. Ashamed.
CAT
And she dragged me back outside into the cold night, into the car, and home.
(KATHERINE takes CAT back to her bedroom and gently removes CAT'S coat)
MIRIAM
Katherine?
(MIRIAM enters with party hats and streamers.)
Sugar, you alive in there?
KATHERINE
Excuse me, what?
KATIE
I remember I could see my breath in the night air.
(KATIE closes her diary)
KATHERINE
Yes?
MIRIAM
I got your receipt right here. Don't fret, baby doll, I'll be calling you back for the final tests before you can say the alphabet backwards. Alphabet backwards. You do that in school too? No?
(MIRIAM exits)
KATHERINE
Yes. No. Thank you.
(KATHERINE disturbingly watches CAT and KATIE playing as children)
