WRITTEN
BY
Roger Newcomb
STARRING
(in order of appearance)
Al Z. Becker as Dr. Howard Sullivan
Wendy Hammer as Miranda Phillips
NARRATED
BY
Steve Anderson
© 2007 A Loger,
Inc. Production
A
sullen Miranda is sitting in a chair from Howard’s desk when Howard enters the
office and closes the door behind him.
HOWARD
Hello. You must be Miranda. I’m Dr. Howard Sullivan.
Miranda
doesn’t say a word as Howard sits behind his desk.
HOWARD
I’ve
had a look at your file. It seems like
you’ve had a long journey over the past several months to get where you are
today.
MIRANDA
You
mean as a patient in the nut house?
HOWARD
This
isn’t a nut house, Miranda. It’s a
hospital, where patients can recovery and get to the root of their troubles.
MIRANDA
I
already know the root of all my problems so I don’t need a doctor to tell me
that.
HOWARD
Let
me be blunt with you. You are very lucky
to be a patient here and not an inmate at the
MIRANDA
I
went a little crazy and tried to hit someone with my car. Big deal.
HOWARD
You
don’t see that as a big deal? Attempted
murder?
MIRANDA
The
charge was aggravated battery. And I
wasn’t trying to kill her. I just lost
it for a minute. I hate that woman.
HOWARD
Caroline
Hart is her name, right?
MIRANDA
Yes. Miss sunshine and light. I’ll never forget her face staring me down at
the trial. What a bitch.
HOWARD
I’m
not getting a sense that you feel very repentant for your actions.
MIRANDA
Look,
doctor. The only thing I’m sorry about
is that I didn’t get away with it. I
thought Paul would appreciate my act of loyalty but he didn’t.
HOWARD
That’s
Paul Ramos, your former employer. I hear
he paid all your legal fees.
MIRANDA
Yes,
he did. But not out of any loyalty to
me. That high-priced lawyer was provided
so I’d keep my mouth shut about his dirty little secret.
HOWARD
He
had a secret? Are you saying you were
blackmailing Paul and that’s why he hired a lawyer for you?
MIRANDA
I
guess you could look at it that way. Paul’s
son, Dante, was adopted and he didn’t want him to know. He did everything in his power to prevent
Dante from finding out.
HOWARD
But
you knew the truth and used it against him?
MIRANDA
He
wanted to fire me from my job. I
couldn’t let him do that. I didn’t want
to blackmail Paul but he left me no choice.
I loved him.
HOWARD
And what about now? Paul is still keeping this
secret?
MIRANDA
Oh
no. You must not have read my file
thoroughly enough, doctor. Three days
ago, on the last day of my trial, my lawyer put me on the stand. Oh, you should have seen me. I revealed it all. You would not believe the mortified look on
Paul’s face in that court room when I announced Dante was not his son. Dante was there too. He just looked over at Paul with such a
confused stare then he stormed out of the courtroom with Paul following
behind. I never saw either of them
again.
HOWARD
And
the jury found you guilty but the judge sentenced you to a six month stay at
the
MIRANDA
What
can I say? My lawyer was good. (beat) So tell me, doctor.
How often are we going to have to have these little sessions anyway?
HOWARD
Well,
daily at first. That may change over
time.
MIRANDA
It’s
going to be a long six months.
HOWARD
We
have a long way to go to get to the heart of this anger and bitterness stored
up inside of you.
MIRANDA
I’ll
save you some time. Try twenty years of
working for a man, loving that man, and doing everything for him, and having
him treat you like garbage. Like you meant nothing to him.
HOWARD
That
must have really hurt.
MIRANDA
Of
course it did. I thought nothing could
hurt any worse than that until my son, Elijah, turned on me too.
HOWARD
He
did? In what way?
MIRANDA
When
the truth came out, he tried to act like he knew nothing about it. Like I was some kind of
monster. He works for Paul and he
refused to risk his job to defend his poor mother. I thought I raised him better than that.
HOWARD
Was
he there at your trial?
MIRANDA
Oh, he was there alright, sitting next to Paul Ramos every single day. He acted like he didn’t care if I rotted in
jail or not.
HOWARD
Have
you had a good relationship with Elijah in the past?
MIRANDA
I
thought so. I did everything I could to provide
him with a decent life. I worked my
fingers to the bone scrubbing toilets to provide for that kid. I was a single mother you know.
HOWARD
And what about Elijah’s father? Is he out of the picture?
MIRANDA
I
don’t want to talk about that, okay? I never want to talk about that!!!