Perfect Days

by Raphael Montes

  They weren’t in the car anymore, but sitting at a table with friends, lots of friends (some of whom, to tell the truth, he didn’t even know by name). He told everyone the story of how they’d met: the kiss at the barbecue, his ploy to get her number (now they all thought it was funny), his attempts to woo her, her resistance, the Clarice Lispector book as a present (Clarice Lispector?! They roared with laughter). Then they kissed, to show everyone that they were still in love after all they’d been through.

  Teo half opened his eyes, feeling really good. He didn’t want to get up because every movement distanced him from the dream. Slivers of light poked through the blinds and partially lit Clarice’s face as she slept beside him. He stroked her hair and leaned close to her, studying her labored breathing and the little teeth that jutted out of her dry lips. Little rat. It had an intimate ring to it. He repeated it aloud a few more times. Little rat, little rat, little rat.

  My little rat.

  • • •

  The idea came to him as if it had been there with them, on the double bed, all along. It was eight-thirty in the morning. Teo got up, full of energy, showered, and pulled on some comfortable clothes. He got the suitcases down from the top of the wardrobe and packed a few changes of clothes, underwear, socks, and shoes. He put some first aid supplies in a toiletry bag and picked out some of his favorite classic and contemporary films to watch with Clarice: 12 Angry Men, The Secret in Their Eyes, Little Miss Sunshine. He thought about taking Misery, but then decided against it. Excessive violence tired him sometimes.

  On his desk, he found the lovely black leather doctor’s satchel with the combination lock that Patricia had given him when he’d been accepted into the university. He was fond of his satchel and put Clarice’s screenplay in it, along with the bloodstained book, the ampoules of Thyolax. He placed Clarice back in the larger suitcase. It was amazing how flexible she was and how she folded up so easily, like a little travel toothbrush.

  He took the service elevator down to the garage and put the Samsonites in the trunk. Then he headed back upstairs and went to say good morning to his mother. She was sitting up in bed, going over her credit card bills.

  “Clarice called. She’s going to Teresópolis today, and she invited me to go with her. For a few days, I think.”

  Patricia looked up at her son. Her exhaustion was evident in her hunched body.

  “I don’t want to leave you here alone,” he continued. “Especially after what happened with Samson.”

  “Marli will help me if I need it. I’ll be fine,” said Patricia, as he knew she would. “You really like this girl, don’t you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then go. Just remember to call from time to time.”

  “There’s no phone reception there. But I’ll go into the town center to call, I promise. Can I take the Vectra?”

  “Yes, of course. And write down the name of the hotel for me. Leave it on the fridge door.”

  “Thanks, Mother.”

  Teo gave her a tight hug. He told her he still had a little time to kill before going to pick up Clarice and sat in front of the TV. When she left the bedroom, he hunted through the chest of drawers for his father’s old revolver and stowed it in a compartment of the toiletry bag. He was confident: he would travel with Clarice to Teresópolis, slowly win her over, and—he laughed at the pun—together they would spend perfect days.

  PERFECT DAYS

  —

  A Screenplay by

  Clarice Manhães

  ARGUMENT

  The film starts with a car [Research name] (posh, old-fashioned, roundish hood and trunk) on a highway. It is night, and thick smoke is wafting out the open windows, as if people were smoking inside. We soon see three friends, all a bit high, laughing so hard they’re crying. Amanda (redhead, skinny, freckled face) [Like Rita from uni] is driving. She looks a bit sad, but tries to have fun with her friends. From the dialogue, we discover that Amanda has just broken up with her boyfriend of many years. Priscilla [Like Julie] (brunette, chubby, short hair, wears thick-rimmed glasses, looks kind of square), sitting in the front passenger seat, says she’ll be fine and that she’ll forget the dickhead. The friend in the backseat, Carol (brunette, tall, very tall, like a volleyball player, short hair), is smoking a joint and looks really drunk. They arrive at the Dwarf Lake Farm Hotel. [See if it’s OK to use the real name in the film]

  Carol has a serious illness (leukemia) and knows she’s going to die soon (viewers find out later). The first night, they talk by the side of the lake. Carol gives her friends a letter, saying that they’ll know when it’s time to open it (in the letter, Carol tells them to continue traveling if she dies). Then Carol goes to bed. Alone with Amanda, Priscilla takes the opportunity to confess her biggest secret: that she’s in love with her. Amanda doesn’t know what to say and goes for a walk in the woods on the hotel grounds to unwind. Priscilla is confused and looks as if she’s going to go after her, but ends up falling in the lake (the scene is supposed to be ambiguous: viewers don’t know if she fell in the lake by accident or if she tried to kill herself).

  Amanda comes across a man sitting at the foot of a tree, thinking. She strikes up a conversation with him and finds out that he is French [Vincent]. The scene has a romantic atmosphere, and they talk a lot (the Frenchman has a thick accent).

  The next morning at breakfast, Amanda introduces the Frenchman to her friends. It quickly becomes obvious that Priscilla doesn’t like him. There is a sequence of short scenes: the girls on the lake in pedal boats, playing football in a field and cards at night. The Frenchman is always present.

  One night the Frenchman tells Amanda that he’s going to visit the island of Ilha Grande [I need to go back to make the details of the scene better] and invites her to go with him. Amanda likes the idea and invites her friends. They set out the next day. On the way there, they get a flat. In the scene, the Frenchman changes the tire without a shirt on (I’m thinking blond and muscular, a kind of James Dean who says au revoir). There won’t be a lot of dialogue in this scene. Everything will be written on the actor’s faces: Carol looking sad, knowing she’s going to die. Priscilla looking jealous. Amanda looking like she’s in love. And the mysterious Frenchman (I won’t reveal much about who he is or what he wants. I want viewers to share the discomfort of traveling with a stranger).

  They end up sleeping in a motel. Carol and Priscilla in one room. Amanda and the Frenchman in another. The screen is divided in two: in Carol and Priscilla’s room, the atmosphere is heavy. At the same time, in the other room, we see Amanda and the Frenchman kissing (it’s the first time they kiss) and then going to bed together.

  They continue on to Ilha Grande. They rent a [dialogue to flesh out this part] tent and decide to camp on a deserted beach. The days pass. Priscilla still doesn’t like the Frenchman. In one scene, she tries to investigate the guy (she looks for documents and information in his suitcase) while he is swimming in the sea with Amanda. The Frenchman catches Carol [Priscilla] rummaging through his things and is pissed off. He says he’s going to leave, and Amanda decides to go with him to Paraty. [Actually, they run away together]

  Night falls. On Ilha Grande, we see Carol and Priscilla talking about the fact that Amanda has left. The next morning Priscilla realizes that Carol is dead. She remembers the letter and opens it. Renewed by what Carol wrote, [This shit has to be beautiful and poetic. It’s going to be a pain in the ass to write] Priscilla throws Carol’s body into the sea (Carol asks for it in her letter) and starts to see life differently. It becomes clear to viewers that Priscilla is okay in spite of everything.

  Cut to Amanda and the Frenchman in Paraty. They wander the streets, visit charming shops and famous tourist attractions. At lunch, Amanda asks more about his life, and he changes the subject. He says he wants to take her out for a special dinner that night, when he’ll tell her everything she wants to know. Amanda accepts.
At dinner, Amanda arrives at the restaurant, but the Frenchman doesn’t show. She waits all night until the restaurant closes. When she gets back to the hotel, she sees that the Frenchman [Definitely a Scorpio!] has packed his bags and left. Amanda is sad and returns to Ilha Grande to try to find her friends. They aren’t there anymore (Amanda doesn’t know Carol is dead). She stays there alone, crying, staring out to sea. She realizes how badly she screwed up with her friends and decides never to see them again (she’s embarrassed). We see Priscilla again, looking happy, with a pretty girlfriend. Then we see Amanda looking the worse for wear.

  Cut. We see a woman lying under a sheet, sleeping. As the camera draws closer, we see that it is Carol. She wakes up with a start to the sound of an alarm clock, as if waking from a dream. Next to the bed are her packed bags. The idea is that viewers should wonder: “Will they really enjoy such perfect days on this trip?”

  8

  Teo was in a good mood, almost merry in fact. He had put a Caetano Veloso CD on to play. He admired Clarice sleeping—there was a trickle of saliva running from her mouth to her chin, which he wiped off affectionately. Back in the garage of his building, taking advantage of the fact that there was no one around, he had put Clarice in the front passenger seat, cuffed in such a way that she couldn’t lash out with her hands or feet. He had checked to see if the cuffs were visible from outside, but the tinted glass made it almost impossible to see anything. Someone would have to look very hard to notice them.

  He drove down the highway at fifty-five miles an hour but slowed down when he began the ascent of the Serra dos Órgãos Range. Teresópolis was over a half mile above sea level, surrounded by forests and mountains. On the horizon, Teo could see the Dedo de Deus, a rocky outcrop that looked like an index finger pointing at the sky. He had looked up the Dwarf Lake Farm Hotel on the Internet. The site showed photographs of the rooms, leisure areas, and lush vegetation. It was great that the place was isolated, a few miles before the main turnoff into the city. He really wanted to be alone with Clarice.

  Clarice was breathing heavily, as if she had a cold. She was still unconscious. Her brown hair had fallen over her shoulders, covering her face and chest. She woke up slowly. Caetano was singing “Sonhos” to the sound of a solo guitar. Teo loved that song. It was all a game, it grew and grew, absorbing me and suddenly, I belonged to you. He smiled at Clarice. She looked serious and woozy, gazing out the window at the cars flashing past, the steep road flanked by green. A sign pointed the way to Inferno Cave.

  Her silence lasted a few more minutes. When she turned her head, and he could see her in profile, her eyes were open, but she didn’t look scared.

  “I need a cigarette,” she said. Her voice was raspy.

  Teo liked her good manners and agreed. He had brought her menthol cigarettes. He reached out and opened the glove compartment, seeing as how Clarice’s hands were cuffed behind her, around the seat. He put the cigarette in her mouth and lit it. He opened the window a crack to let the smoke out.

  She closed her eyes, puffing out smoke. She couldn’t hold the cigarette between her lips, and he had to help her: he held it to her mouth and took it away again, without taking his eyes off the road.

  “You really shouldn’t smoke right now. Your lungs are congested.”

  She didn’t care. Coughing and clearing her throat, she kept puffing. Teo wished she didn’t smoke. But Clarice was satisfied with her cigarette.

  “Aren’t you going to say anything else?” he asked.

  The CD returned to the start. Clarice finished the cigarette, and Teo threw the butt out the window. She was still coughing.

  “Why are you doing this to me?” she asked finally.

  Teo pointed at a sign on the side of the road: Serra dos Órgãos National Park. They were only a few miles away. “Can’t you tell where we’re going?”

  “Why are you doing this to me?”

  “We’re going to Teresópolis. Don’t worry, I brought your laptop.”

  “My laptop?”

  “Yep, and everything else you need to write. You won’t want for anything.”

  “What are you going to do with me? I’m handcuffed to the seat. Dizzy . . . I don’t know . . . what day it is . . .”

  “You don’t need to be afraid. Sorry about the dizziness. Maybe I went a little overboard.”

  “A little? Do you have any idea what—?”

  “Don’t shout, please,” he said calmly, turning off the stereo.

  Clarice resumed the conversation. “This is a kidnapping. You saw my place, thought I was rich, and decided—”

  “Nothing of the sort.”

  He thought about saying he’d never do anything so petty but decided to stay quiet. She was just trying to get a rise out of him. Even feeling queasy, Clarice was provocative.

  “Then what?” she insisted.

  “There’s nothing to tell. You said you were going to spend some time in Teresópolis. And that’s where I’m taking you. We’re going to spend some time together.”

  “I don’t want to go anywhere with you.”

  “Oh, come on, Clarice. It can’t be that bad. I’ll be good company, I promise.”

  She winced, as if she felt a sharp pain in her head. “What do you want?”

  “For you to get to know me. I’m doing my part for the two of us, you know.” He turned the music back on. Caetano Veloso’s voice in the background was appropriate for what he wanted to say next. “If I hadn’t come looking for you, everything would have ended at that barbecue. We’d never have seen each other again. It would’ve been a waste.”

  “I—”

  “I started reading your screenplay. I’m going to finish at the hotel. Meanwhile you can write. It’ll be amazing!”

  “I want to be alone.”

  “Oh, come on, Clarice, be reasonable!”

  “I want to be alone!”

  “You’re too old to get everything your own way. Don’t worry—you’ll have your space,” he said. “And we can talk about art, literature, and everything.”

  “I’m afraid, Teo.”

  “We’re both adults. Two people with common interests who are going to spend some time together. What’s the problem?”

  Signs of urban life were beginning to appear in the landscape: parked cars, florists, delicatessens.

  They turned onto a dirt road.

  “We’re almost there. I need you to behave.”

  Clarice nodded, but Teo wasn’t convinced. She squirmed when she saw him get the syringe from the glove compartment. She tried to free her arms, but her movements were limited. He had to pull over onto the side of the road to control her. He found a vein and injected the sedative. “Queixa” was playing. A love so delicate, you take it and cast it away. I shouldn’t have woken up, you kneel and don’t even pray. He was frustrated because the conversation, the music, everything was so pleasant that he didn’t want it to end.

  • • •

  As soon as they arrived, Teo sensed that their stay was going to be great. Surrounded by all kinds of trees and flowers (in exotic blue, yellow, and violet hues that Clarice would love), the gravel driveway led from the gate to a little wooden house with a sign saying RECEPTION.

  Behind the counter, two dwarfs were playing chess. They stopped playing when Teo walked in, making a metal decoration on the door jingle. It was an unusual scene, and he had to suppress a chuckle when the older-looking of the pair got up to greet him. He’d never have guessed that the Dwarf Lake Farm Hotel was indeed run by a family of dwarfs.

  He told them that he had a booking under the name Clarice Manhães.

  “Today’s Thursday. She was supposed to check in on Tuesday,” said the dwarf, lowering his glasses on his nose and staring at Teo. He hadn’t even needed to look at the computer.

  “I know, we had a few setbacks and couldn’t come until today. D
on’t tell me you’re fully booked!” He put on a worried voice.

  “She comes here a lot,” said the other dwarf. “Alone, normally.”

  “I’m her boyfriend. She’s asleep in the car. She was a bit carsick on the way here. What documents do you need to see?”

  Teo pretended to look for his credit card, opening his wallet in such a way that the dwarf would see the photograph of him and Clarice at Lage Park.

  “That won’t be necessary right now. The chalet is the one by the lake.”

  “Right.”

  “There’s a desk there for her to write at,” he said proudly. “It’s the most isolated of all the chalets. Clarice likes to work in silence.”

  Teo didn’t like the affected way he referred to her and was already eager to get out of there.

  The dwarf placed the key on the counter. “Our chalets aren’t numbered. Each one has a different name. Clarice’s is Sleepy. She knows where it is.”

  Teo nodded. He took the key and went back to the car feeling as if he were in a fairy tale.

  • • •

  He parked the car next to the chalet. A fine, almost invisible rain was falling. There was a gnome statue with a red cap pointing at the door. Sleepy Chalet was spacious, with two windows overlooking the lake. Three empty yellow pedal boats were floating on the calm water. The chalet was set back from the others, almost hidden by the vegetation. Teo carried Clarice in, taking care not to bump her head on the doorjamb. As he laid her down, he noticed that the legs of the double bed were bolted to the floor, which struck him as appropriate. He took sheets and a blanket out of the cupboard, which smelled of varnished wood, and put them on the bed.

  The chalet was rustic, painted in dark colors and decorated with paintings of country landscapes. Against the wall by the bathroom door was the desk that the dwarf had mentioned. Teo put Clarice’s laptop on the desk and confirmed that there was no Wi-Fi signal. He also remembered to remove the telephone plug, which he hid at the top of the cupboard, along with the key to the bathroom door.