BARTENDER
Hi, Jack...
CUT TO:
Jack reaches the door that leads to the passageway to Wan's. Reaches for the knob, opens the door, and runs FLAT into Cat. Cat stares at Jack.
CAT
What the fuck you---
Jack has had all the stress he can handle. As Cat grabs him, Jack lashes out before he can think, kicks Cat in the crotch. Cat drops him, howls.
MOVING
Jack runs, pauses at the men's room. It's locked. Someone's in there. He heads for the next door, a storage room.
STORAGE ROOM
Ducks inside, stumbles over mops, beer signs. Hides behind a stack of old tables. He can hear Cat's fury.
OUTSIDE MEN'S ROOM
Cat emerges with a broken urinal, a handful of pipe, suddenly figures it out, opens the storage room door. He blinks inside.
CAT
Little sum'bitch. Sum'BITCH!
Grape comes up behind him.
GRAPE
What the hell you think you're doing, man? Get out of there.
IN THE CLOSET
Jack has found a board on the wall. He's desperately trying to loosen it.
CAT (O.S.)
Little sum'bitch is in there somewhere.
GRAPE (O.S.
Isn't nobody here but you. Shit, you tore up the john. Mr. Dupree's going to have a fit.
CAT (O.S.)
Huuuuh!
GRAPE (O.S.)
Get out of there. Clean this fucking mess up!
Loud noise as something large crashes into the storeroom door. Jack cringes.
CUT TO:
OUTSIDE MEN'S ROOM
A urinal lands atop the mess.
CAT (V.O.)
Little sum....bitch.
IN THE CLOSET
Jack has freed a few boards on the back wall. He presses against the boards. They don't seem to give, then---the whole thing gives way and Jack, head first, disappears.
JACK
Whoa....!
IN THE CELLAR
Jack, landing in a pile of rubble. He reaches out, touches a cement wall. Spears of light find their way through cracks. He can see he's below Piggs.
He looks up, startled, as he hears DOUBLE FOOTSTEPS overhead. When he looks up he sees the underside of a stairway leading to the second floor.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UNDER THE STAIRWAY
DUST falls through cracks.
BACK TO
JACK blinks. A DOOR opens above.
CECIL (O.S.)
Goddamn Cat! I ought to kick that dummy in the ass.
GRAPE (O.S.)
You, not me.
CUT TO:
ON JACK
We catch him in the act of chinning himself on an old pipe, pulling himself up in the dark. A slit of light crosses his eye from the slats in the floor above.
CECIL (O.S.)
Him and Hutt fucking Kenny. Jesus.
GRAPE (O.S.)
The guy's a dope.
CECIL (O.S.)
'Course he's a dope. He's a messenger. You send a message, you send a dope. The dope scopes out the scene, takes it back to Junior.
POV JACK
A narrow horizontal view through the crack, from floor level. Cecil's bare feet as he crosses the room, toward us. One of Cecil's feet comes down on the crack, blacking out our view for an instant.
CUT TO:
CECIL'S ROOM
His room is somewhere between slovenly and garish. To quote a guy I know: "Cecil's place is cheap, but it's in poor taste."Cecil gets a beer from his fridge, doesn't offer one to Grape.
CECIL
The guy Junior sends with the package, this is the guy we've got to watch.
GRAPE
It'll be somebody else.
CECIL
It'll be more than somebody. Somebody and his friends.
Cecil crosses the room.
CUT TO:
THE CELLAR
Jack has scrunched himself onto a cement ledge. Light from above comes through the gaps in the floor.
BACK TO CECIL'S ROOM
GRAPE
To make sure it goes down okay.
Cecil makes a face.
CECIL
Don't be a klutz. It's not supposed to go down. I know old man Ambrose. He's maybe dying, he's not dead. We don't get the goods. HE gets the money. This is how he sees it coming off. Once he sees a hundred grand sitting there for the taking...
GRAPE
You let him see it?
CECIL
Got to let him see it.
GRAPE
We got a hundred Gs?
Cecil's birthmark goes dark. Grape sees his mistake, raises a protective hand.
GRAPE
Hey....
He waves Cecil off.
CUT TO:
JACK
CECIL (O.S.)
Go one, get me some ribs. Don't go to that place on the highway, go on into Lockhart. And find that dumb shit Jack. Don't play with him, just bring him here.
ON JACK
He hears the door close, hears Grape go down the stairs. He listens. Hears Cecil go across the room, open the fridge, get another beer. Hears Cecil come back. He stops. Right on top of Jack's position. He hears Cecil squat down. Cecil uses something to pry up a floor board. Jack nearly panics. But, only a little light comes through. Jack hears Cecil pull something out of the floor. Then he hears a key click in a metal box. Cecil takes a stack of something out of the box, lays it on the floor. Then another stack. Jack can see the shadows of the stacks through the cracks. Then, Cecil picks up a stack, rifles through it. Jack's eyes go wide. There's only one thing makes a sound like that. MONEY! Cecil flicks through another stack, and another. Finally, he puts the stacks back in the box, locks it, puts it back in the hollow in the floor, snaps the boards back in place. Jack looks up, makes kissing motions with his lips. Hears Cecil go back, open the fridge. Hears him turn on the TV. Jack just sits there a moment, and grins.
DISSOLVE TO:
DARK CELLAR
Jack feels his way past boxes, debris, in the half light. He reaches a cyclone fence. Looks surprised. What the hell is a fence doing down here? He walks through a narrow passage between rows of fences.
ANOTHER VIEW
The room suddenly ends at a rusty ladder. He climbs up. Bricks fall around him. He lifts a rusty manhole cover aside.
EXT. PARKING LOT
Jack peeks up.
POV JACK
He sees Ortega sitting on the back steps of Wan's. Headlights glare and Jack ducks as a carload of college guys roar right over him.
CUT TO:
PIGGS MAIN FLOOR
Maggie is doing a lap dance for a RUBE. Rube is dazed, not listening at all.
MAGGIE
I was going with this guy, he had a Honda dealership in Houston? Least that's what he says he's doing, right?
I catch him one day, he is coming out of this Nazi bookstore?
Christ, used to be you could tell a man by what he drives...
RUBE
Huuh..huhh...
DRESSING ROOM
Gloria and Wilda. Gloria going through her costumes. Wilda is eating Ricky's chocolates, watching the tiny TV. Ricky's rose is stuck in an empty beer bottle. Minnie is in the john.
GLORIA
I am not a racial person at all. It's not the color of a man's skin it is what's inside. If a man is of the greaser folk, that is what God meant him to be, he cannot help that.
FAVOR WILDA
WILDA
That isn't no taco he's wearing, dearie. That is your honest to God Roll-o-dex is what it is. You could buy a Lexus for that.
BACK TO SCENE:
GLORIA
I do admire a man who will talk about something besides "You think the Cowboys got a chance?" I cannot go a minute on current events.
MINNIE (O.S.)
(from the john)
Don't be fooled by that, hon. A man don't give a damn about talk
ing to a woman. You're lucky, he'll talk to the other end a while.
GLORIA
That is not entirely fair.
WILDA
It's disgusting is what it is.
WILDA (CONT'D)
Arnie Pratt, used to come in? Took me to this part in San Antone. Wasn't anyone there but these proctologists. Not a one of their wives would turn their backs on those dudes.
MINNIE
Isn't a man I ever saw isn't an asshole doctor, you give 'em half a chance.
GLORIA
Know what a guy said to me last night? "If women would go around naked, we wouldn't have to have strip clubs."
MINNIE (O.S.)
Sounds like something they'd say in France. Sin is not a big issue over there. What they do is get right to it.
Your European does not share the re-pressive nature of your normal American male...
Wilda and Gloria look blank.
WILDA
What?
SOUND of toilet flushing.
CUT TO:
THE WOODS NEAR WAN'S
Jack and Ortega are walking toward a grove of large oak trees.
ORTEGA
I think Cat is gonna kill you, Jack. Maybe worse than that. I was you, I'd go east. I would go to Maine or Delaware.
JACK
Why up there?
ORTEGA
'Cause Cat don't know where it is.
JACK
I'll keep it in mind.
ORTEGA
(pausing)
I think the great whales are against us. I think there is evil in these creatures we have yet to dream about.
JACK
I never gave it much thought.
ORTEGA
Look at a whale sometime. Look him right in the eye.
JACK
What do you know about Chavez? What's he do? Big guy. Comes over here from San Antone.
ORTEGA
(frowns, as if insulted)
I know who he is, Jack. You don't got to tell me who he is. A white man is thinking, both these dudes are enchiladas, they gonna know each other, right?
JACK
You been drinking, pal.
ORTEGA
Si. We are all borracho. Read you fucking Hemingway. It is this thing of the drink, Ingles.
JACK
I feel I've caught you in a bad frame of mind.
Jack and Ortega reach the far edge of the grove, where Ortega has set up a shabby tent near his BEAT-UP CAR.
ORTEGA
Chavez owns a bank in San Antonio. He has about a billion acres near Carrizo Springs.
JACK
Jesus. That explains the gold-toed boots.
ORTEGA
People of the Hispanic culture say a man like this has the suerte, the luck. Good fortune.
JACK
That's what people of the gringo culture say too. You going to go anywhere, you going to be here?
ORTEGA
Why don't you just ask? Give me the courtesy of that.
JACK
Okay. You think I could use the car?
ORTEGA
There is very little gas. I will hold you responsible, you run out and leave it somewhere.
JACK
(frowns, like his feelings are hurt)
I wouldn't do that, amigo.
ORTEGA
Good. Because you have done this a number of times before.
Jack lays an arm on Ortega's shoulder, gets close, confidential like. Ortega shows he's suspicious of such an action from Jack.
JACK
Besides, buddy, changes are rapidly taking place in my life. I can't say a lot about it right now, but I will likely be buying you a new car of your choice right soon.
ORTEGA
Good. Do not lose this one until you do.
JACK
You people are a very suspicious race.
ORTEGA
I wonder where the fock we get that?
MAIN ROOM -MUCH LATER THAT NIGHT
The contrast is startling. The place is almost empty. A couple of strippers are leaving. Hutt, under the weather, talks to the aging lady bartender.
HUTT
This....and do not take offense... This is not--not my idea of a really swinging town. You know?
BARTENDER
Uh-huh.
HUTT
(glances at the bartender)
You get off?
BARTENDER
I used to. How about you?
Hutt sits on the floor. Bartender raises a brow. Cat comes out of shadow, carries Hutt toward the door.
CUT TO:
DOWN THE ROAD
Jack slumps in Ortega's car, trying to read a Discover in the dark, and keep one eye on Gloria's Rambler in the nearly empty parking lot of Piggs.
POV JACK
A car picks up Wilda and Minnie.
DISSOLVE:
MOMENTS LATER ON JACK
Jack wearily opens his eyes.
POV JACK
THROUGH WINDSHIELD
Maggie Thatch leaves in her pickup with a British flag painted on the door.
ON JACK
He picks up another magazine, one with a whale on the cover. Looks puzzled.
ON HUTT
Hutt staggers out alone, drives off erratically.
BACK TO JACK
He yawns. Closes his eyes. Opens them quickly, looks up.
POV JACK
Gloria stands by her Rambler, sees a tire is flat, kicks it in disgust. At that moment, Cecil's car lights go on, and he pulls up beside Gloria. He gets out, talks to Gloria. Gloria argues a minute, then gets in the car.
ON JACK
Jack gapes, pounds on the steering wheel. This is too much.
INT. CECIL'S CAR -NIGHT
MOVING
Cat drives, Grape beside him. Cecil sits in back with Gloria.
GLORIA
It's very nice of you, Mr. Dupree, you don't have to do this.
CECIL
What are you talking about? People help each other, that's what people do. And not Mister Dupree, please. I feel old, a young lady like you calls me that. You get to be my age, that is not a title you care to hear.
GLORIA
Oh, I don't think I could.
CECIL
Could what?
GLORIA
Call you that. I feel it would be a presumption on my part, me being in your employment and all.
CECIL
Well, as your employer, I say it's Cecil, I say Cecil's just fine.
GLORIA
If you say so.
CECIL
So say it.
GLORIA
Do what?
CECIL
Say it.
GLORIA
Say what?
CECIL
Say it. Say "Cecil."
GLORIA
You mean all by itself?
CECIL
PIGGS - A Novel with Bonus Screenplay Page 17