It’s not what
Mom did. It’s what I did.
BRIAN
What do you
mean?
Brian, I
killed someone.
BRIAN
Come again?
I killed a
man.
BRIAN
His name was
Clifton Myers. Mom had been dating him
for the past few months. Of course she
moved him in after the first week.
BRIAN
Well, from
the first day he moved in, Cliff started giving me the eye. He looked at me like a piece of meat or
something.
BRIAN
I see Mom’s
taste in men hasn’t changed since I left home.
Did you tell her about this?
I tried to,
Brian. I did. But she wouldn’t listen to me. Cliff started telling her that I was coming
on to him and she believed him. He was a
disgusting drunk of a man. I couldn’t
even stand to be near him.
BRIAN
And of course
Mom believed him over her own flesh and blood.
What is wrong with that woman?!!
He had her
under his spell. I don’t know how or
what she saw in him, but he did. She
always fell in love easily, but with Cliff, she was so in love, she’d believe
anything he said, or do anything he wanted.
BRIAN
So tell me
what went on that led to you killing
him, Arden? How did this happen?
A few days
ago, I was home alone. Mom and Cliff had
gone out to a bar or somewhere. I had
been shutting myself off from them trying to figure out how I could scrape up
the money to leave.
BRIAN
And
then?
And then
Cliff came home. Alone. I asked him where Mom was and he started
spewing out something about her being a slut and he knew he couldn’t trust
her. I asked him what he was talking
about it, and he told me I was a tramp just like her.
BRIAN
And Mom was
nowhere around?
I don’t know
where she was. They left together, but
he came home by himself, angry and drunk.
BRIAN
Did he hurt
you in some way,
He started
grabbing my arms and telling me that he knew I wanted him. He had an intense look in his eyes. I knew I had to get out of there.
BRIAN
What did you
do?
I tried to
run away, but he tripped me then got on top of me.
BRIAN
No. He wanted to, but I was not going to be raped
by that man. I somehow managed to kick
him in the groin and he rolled off of me.
All I could think of was getting out of there so I ran for the
door. I heard him getting up and I knew
there wasn’t enough time to get in my car and get away before he caught up to me.
BRIAN
So what did
you do?
I knew Cliff
had a gun behind the seat of his truck.
I didn’t know if it was loaded or how to use it, but I thought it was my
only chance of getting away. So I ran to
his truck. I didn’t find it at first and
was frantically searching, but then I felt it on my hand and pulled it out.
BRIAN
Where was
this Cliff guy at this point?
He had made
his way out the front door and was coming toward me. I pointed the gun at him and told him that
I’d shoot and he told me I didn’t have it in me. I tried to pretend that I did, but deep down
I wasn’t sure if I could do it. I was so
scared, Brian.
BRIAN
Did you
run? Did he come after you? What did you do?
He kept
getting closer to me and I was frozen there, holding the gun in my hand. When he got about give feet away, he lunged
at me and grabbed my arm. We struggled
for a second and then the gun went off.
The next thing I remember was seeing Cliff lying on the ground in a pool
of blood.
BRIAN
Oh
I killed him,
Brian. And now I can never go home.
ANGELA is
sitting at her desk when Nurse KAREN GRISSOM walks in.
KAREN
Angela, you
got a minute?
ANGELA
Sure. What’s going on?
KAREN
You know that
student intern, Cyrus, pretty well, right?
ANGELA
I don’t know
about well, but I’ve talked to him a few times.
What about him?
KAREN
Well, people
are starting to talk.
ANGELA
Talk
about what?
KAREN
Apparently
some people overheard him talking to Caroline Hart the other day, telling her
he had a premonition or something.
ANGELA
A
premonition?! What are you talking about?
KAREN
It’s just
something I heard on the hospital gossip vine, and you know how that goes, but
supposedly Cyrus told Caroline that he was psychic. And now word is spreading and everyone’s
saying what a weirdo he is.
ANGELA
Aww, he seems like a great guy to me. I mean, sure he’s a bit odd, but he doesn’t
deserve to have rumors spread all over the hospital about him.
KAREN
I agree. I just thought you should know in case you
wanted to talk to him about it.
ANGELA
What do you
want me to say? ‘Cyrus, I heard you’re a
freak psychic, you wanna talk?’
KAREN
You have a way
with words, Angela. I’m sure you’ll be
able to approach it tactfully like you always do.
ANGELA
If you
say so.
PAUL and
BARBARA are sitting in the family room having tea.
PAUL
I think I
should take more afternoons off from work.
That was wonderful, Barbara.
BARBARA
I can’t
believe you managed to break away today.
You’ve been working twelve hour days lately.
PAUL
Well, now I
have someone to come home to waiting here for me.
BARBARA
Where do you
see us going, Paul?
They hear the
doorbell ring.
PAUL
Miranda will
get it.
BARBARA
I mean, we’ve
had a whirlwind romance and now I’m living here with you. I haven’t taken on any new clients in the
past few weeks and have dedicated my time to you. I love living the life of luxury at your
estate, but I worked hard becoming an event planner and don’t want to give up
my career unless I know there’s going to be some kind of commitment coming from
it.
PAUL
You just
moved in a few days ago, Barbara. How
much more of a commitment are you asking me for?
Manny walks
in.
MANNY
Hello Paul.
PAUL
Manny! What the hell are you doing back in
MANNY
Can’t a guy
come visit his brother from time to time?
I mean, it has been five years.
PAUL
We’re not
brothers. And you’re not welcome in my home.
BARBARA
(acting as if she’s never met Manny before)
Paul, who is
this? Aren’t you going to introduce me?
MANNY
Hello
there. I’m Manuel Ramos, Manny for
short. Paul’s younger, and more
handsome, brother.
PAUL
I have no
problem calling security to have you thrown out of here, Manny.
MANNY
Get over it,
Paul. What the hell is your
problem? I’m not here to cause any
trouble for you.
PAUL
Well based on
past experience, I’m not so sure I can believe that.
BARBARA
Paul, tell me
what’s going on here. Is Manny your
brother or not?
MANNY
Do you want
to tell her, Paul, or should I?
PAUL
Manny showed
up on my doorstep seven years ago, claiming to be the long lost son of my
father, Richard Ramos. He was a gold
digger then and he’s a gold digger now.
MANNY
You see, Paul
didn’t want to accept the fact that Richard had an affair while his mother was
still alive.
PAUL
In order for
your story to be true, my father would have had to have cheated on my mother
while she was dying of cancer. He may
have not been a saint, but he wouldn’t do that.
MANNY
Well, he
did. And if you’d just allow me to have
that DNA test run, I can prove it.
BARBARA
Paul, don’t
you want to know the truth about this?
PAUL
No. Not really.
MANNY
What are you
afraid of, Paul? That you’ll find out
that I have Richard’s blood running through my veins. That I’m a REAL Ramos, unlike you!
PAUL
That does
it. Get the hell out of here, Manny.
MANNY
Fine.
I’ll go. But I’m not letting you
run me out of town again like last time, Paul.
I have formally changed my name to Ramos and I’m not going to leave
PAUL
You’re not
getting a dime out of me, so you’re wasting your time. I’ll spend as much as it takes to run you out
of town yet again.
MANNY
It won’t work
this time, Paul. I’m stronger now. I wasn’t sure of myself back then, but I have
a greater resolve now.
PAUL
Well,
congratulations. But I’m giving you two
minutes to get off my property or I’ll have security throw you out. And I don’t think you want to mess with
Bruno, my newest security guard.
MANNY
You love
making threats, don’t you, Paul? But you
don’t scare me anymore. I’m going, but
I’ll be back. Barbara, it was nice to
meet you.
Manny leaves.
BARBARA
Geez. I think you’ve
forgotten to tell me a few things, Paul.
PAUL
I think you
have as well, my dear. You didn’t tell
him who you were and he just called you Barbara. How did he know your name?
DANTE has
just arrived at the office of his aunt, CAROLINE.
CAROLINE
Wow. To what do I owe the honor of this visit,
Dante?
DANTE
I haven’t
talked to you in a while and thought I’d stop by.
CAROLINE
I normally
see you when you have something on your mind.
Why don’t you tell me what it is?
Is it Paul?
DANTE
Well, Dad is
part of it, of course. He always
is. But I met a girl.
CAROLINE
You seem to be
meeting a lot of girls lately.
DANTE
I know. I’ve been getting around. But this one was different. There was something special about her.
CAROLINE
Was? Does that mean you’re not seeing her any
more?
DANTE
Well, I’ve
only known her for a few days. But I’m
not sure if I’ll ever see her again.
CAROLINE
From what
I’ve seen, you normally see that as a good thing.
DANTE
I don’t know
what it is about her, but I dropped her off in
CAROLINE
I guess this
girl made some impression on
you. What’s her name?
DANTE
CAROLINE
Do you have
any idea if she felt this strong connection with you too?
DANTE
I’m not
sure. I think she did, but she was
distracted the whole time we were together.
Like she had something important on her mind. Something she couldn’t say.
CAROLINE
So you
dropped her off in
DANTE
Well, she’s
not from around here. I’m not sure where
she’s from actually. Her brother lives
in
CAROLINE
Well, my
advice to you is this… If you really
like this girl, then make sure you see her again.
DANTE
But I’m not
sure how to make that happen.
CAROLINE
You’re a
pretty resourceful guy, Dante. I have a
feeling you’ll figure it out.
PAUL and
BARBARA are sitting in the family room.
PAUL
I’m waiting,
Barbara. How did Manny know your
name? Do the two of you know each other?
BARBARA
Look,
Paul. Manny stopped by here once before. I didn’t think much of it and he asked me not
to say anything.
PAUL
Well, isn’t
this just wonderful. You’ve lived here
for three days and you’re already conspiring with this con man against me.
BARBARA
I’m not
conspiring with anyone, Paul.
PAUL
And you have
the nerve to ask me about a commitment when you were lying to me about my
so-called brother.
BARBARA
I wasn’t
lying to you, Paul. I told you, I didn’t
think it was a big deal. Now I know.
PAUL
The one thing
I won’t tolerate is dishonesty, Barbara.
You got that?
BARBARA
And the one
thing I won’t tolerate is being talked to like one of your employees. You got THAT?!
The doorbell
rings.
BARBARA
I’ll get it.
PAUL
Let Miranda
get it. That’s what she gets paid for.
BARBARA
No, I need
some air.
Barbara makes
her way out of the family room and walks to the front door and opens it.
BARBARA
(gasps)
Oh my
God. How did you find me?!!