BOBBY’S FATHER She’d take your breath away, your mother. Most beautiful woman I ever saw. Snatch it out of your lungs.
Scene 13
The DOCTOR and the PATIENT.
PATIENT Let’s say we’d let Hal live.
DOCTOR Okay.
PATIENT He gives me the house and half the money, but he takes my child. That was his plan.
DOCTOR He would have been a better father than—
PATIENT
I know that, I know that. But what about me? And even removing me as a mother from the equation, okay, then what? Hal takes the baby, I get the house. Then what? It’s just the two of us, me and Will. And our love. Our love. Which doesn’t seem so hot after a while if there’s not a living, breathing representative of it to remind us. It’s just love. Two people who fuck on Saturday night if they’re not too tired from deciding where to eat the other six nights. But a child walks into the room like a candlewick? And sometimes, if you’re lucky, just by looking at him you remember you were young once. You lived.
DOCTOR We’re not special.
PATIENT I know. I know.
DOCTOR None of us.
PATIENT I do. I know that now.
DOCTOR Do you?
PATIENT Hey, I’m still getting my head around it, but…
[Beat.]
How long since your wife left you?
DOCTOR I never said my wife left me.
PATIENT How long?
DOCTOR She kicked me out six months ago. She…met someone.
PATIENT You let me believe I knew where you lived.
DOCTOR Well, I do. She doesn’t.
PATIENT So she’s not the perfect wife?
DOCTOR She was never even a very good wife. But I was never even a very good husband. I love her, though.
PATIENT Go back to her.
DOCTOR We don’t work. I mean, I mean, there’s what you want and what you can do. And in between? The world fucking waits to take its bites.
PATIENT Didn’t you know that going in?
DOCTOR Who knows that, going in? I knew the odds were a bit against us. I knew we didn’t really…align. But what do you do with the love? Put it on a shelf?
PATIENT Apparently, you do.
DOCTOR Yes. Apparently.
PATIENT Why’d you sleep with me?
DOCTOR Because I was an asshole.
[Chuckles. Shrugs.]
Because pain does that.
PATIENT It does, huh?
DOCTOR I’m sorry. Broke-down, lost-heart sorry.
[Beat. She smiles. She takes his face in her hands.]
PATIENT I want to give you something.
DOCTOR No. No. This ends.
PATIENT It’s not that. It’s not that. Trust me. Can you trust me?
DOCTOR Not really.
PATIENT Just this once. Pretty please?
DOCTOR Okay, but—
PATIENT Shush. Close your eyes.
[He does. Long beat. She kisses each eyelid once. She steps back. His eyes remain closed for a beat. He opens them. He stares at her and she at him.]
DOCTOR Thank you.
PATIENT Thank you. You probably can’t be a husband, but be a father. Okay?
[She takes several steps backward.]
DOCTOR What about you?
PATIENT Oh, yeah. That.
[She smiles and give him a bow. She waves and exits.]
Scene 14
Lights gradually up on BOBBY’S FATHER, his head barely above the grave now. BOBBY perches above the hole.
BOBBY’S FATHER I can’t fucking…
BOBBY Keep digging.
BOBBY’S FATHER Give me a break.
BOBBY Hard, huh?
BOBBY’S FATHER Look, she’s down here. Isn’t that enough? I admitted it. You asked, I answered. What’s the point?
BOBBY Keep digging.
BOBBY’S FATHER But what’s the fucking point?
BOBBY Put your back into it. Use a little elbow grease. Dig, bitch. Dig.
[BOBBY’S FATHER goes back to digging as GWEN enters. She sits behind Bobby, wraps her arms around him.]
GWEN Know what would be cool? If—if, if, if, if—all goes wrong? I put it in me.
BOBBY Don’t even talk ab—
GWEN Just saying. If I swallowed it or inserted it or…what else?
BOBBY You give it to him. You don’t get clever. ’Member?
GWEN The first time I saw you? Here? I swear I thought I’d lose my fucking mind if I couldn’t do this…
[GWEN tongues his neck.]
Where’s your father now?
BOBBY Far away.
GWEN Where’s your life now?
BOBBY Far away.
GWEN Good. Gotta pee.
BOBBY Don’t go.
GWEN Just going to the grass.
BOBBY Don’t.
[GWEN leaves him, exits. BOBBY’S FATHER hits something with the shovel. Looks up.]
BOBBY Throw the shovel back up.
[BOBBY’S FATHER tosses the shovel out of the grave.]
BOBBY’S FATHER You know, your mother and I used to come here and get ourselves some—
BOBBY Time to whip Mom out, is it?
BOBBY’S FATHER Get ourselves some cotton candy and ride the teacups and—
BOBBY What was her name again?
BOBBY’S FATHER
—just feel the night. You know? You know how that feels so good, the night on you? Like to make you crazy that soft, soft touch.
[BOBBY peers into the grave.]
BOBBY What’d you do with her clothes?
[BOBBY’S FATHER looks down into the grave.]
BOBBY’S FATHER Burned ’em.
BOBBY I mean, why’d you take ’em off in the first place?
[BOBBY’S FATHER shrugs.]
BOBBY Look at her.
BOBBY’S FATHER I’m looking.
BOBBY No. Look real close.
BOBBY’S FATHER I see the bones.
BOBBY Look closer. Where her stomach used to be. That general area.
[BOBBY’S FATHER looks.]
BOBBY’S FATHER Well, I’ll be damned.
[BOBBY hits his father in the head with the shovel.]
BOBBY’S FATHER Now hold on—
[BOBBY hits him again. And again. And one more time.]
Scene 15
WILL and GINA in the parking lot.
WILL It’s a pretty color.
GINA Are you flirting with me?
WILL No, I just like the color. I like the blouse. I like…
GINA What?
WILL Huh? Nothing. I just…
GINA Hey, you ever?
WILL What?
GINA Not want to get in your car?
WILL Yeah.
GINA When?
WILL Now. I don’t want to move.
GINA I know.
WILL I love that color.
GINA Thank you.
WILL It, um, suits you.
GINA What suits you, Will?
WILL You.
[WILL touches her chin with his fingers. GINA backs away.]
GINA I’m married.
[WILL shrugs.]
WILL You. You do, Gina.
GINA Oh God.
WILL Oh Something.
Scene 16
BOBBY finishes filling in the grave. He stands in pale, weak moonlight and removes his baseball cap to wipe his brow.
BOBBY I wish…I wish…I wish I’d taken a picture of you. Just one. Just once.
[GWEN enters from the darkness.]
GWEN You don’t need a picture.
BOBBY Yes. Yes, I do.
GWEN No, baby, you don’t. You’re good.
BOBBY Enough?
GWEN Enough. Yeah. You’re good enough.
BOBBY I’m not. I’m not.
[GWEN approaches until she’s an inch from him and BOBBY recoils from the pain. Her lips pass a hairsbreadth from his ear.]
GWEN You are. You are.
[GWEN fades into the dark. BOBBY covers hi
s face with his baseball cap. Long beat. BOBBY removes the cap from his face and places it on his head. He tosses the shovel into the darkness. He takes several breaths. He notices a bench and goes to it. He sits. He pulls his cap tighter down his forehead. Music slowly filters into the scene as the light around him grows enough to reveal—
He sits in a bar booth. A waitress emerges from the darkness. It is not the WAITRESS we’ve seen before. It’s GINA/PATIENT and she looks weary from a long night.]
GINA Solo?
BOBBY Huh?
GINA Just you tonight, sweetie?
BOBBY Just me.
GINA What can I get you?
BOBBY Take a Bud and a shot of Beam.
GINA Right back.
[BOBBY splays his hands out in front of him and studies them. He removes his cap and runs a hand through his hair. GINA emerges from the dark as he rubs his face and leans back against the booth. GINA cocks her head, recognizing something in his movements, the jut of his jaw, his eyes. She looks at the tray in her hand. She looks at him. BOBBY turns his head and notices her. He smiles. She approaches.]
BOBBY New?
GINA New?
BOBBY Here. You’re new here.
GINA Um, yeah. Yeah. Yes, I am.
[She places his drinks on the table.]
BOBBY What happened to V?
GINA V?
BOBBY Videlia. She was the waitress here for, like, centuries.
GINA Oh, she met a man. You know. True love. Moved all the way to Coronado, way I hear it. He’s a musician.
BOBBY Big music town, Coronado? I hadn’t heard.
GINA You know how it is. It’s all big music if you think you can play.
[BOBBY throws back his shot.]
BOBBY And if you can’t?
GINA You find out, don’t you? One way or the other.
[BOBBY nods. He smiles at her. She smiles back. A curious, comfortably awkward beat.]
GINA Well, I should…
BOBBY Sure. You go ahead, um…
GINA Gina.
BOBBY [Offers his hand.] Bobby.
GINA [Shakes his hand.] Nice to meet you, Bobby.
BOBBY The same, Gina.
[GINA has a little trouble letting go of his hand, but eventually she does.]
BOBBY And, hey, Gina?
GINA Yeah?
BOBBY I’m thirsty as all hell tonight. Fact, I’m fixing to howl at the moon. So keep ’em coming, yeah?
[GINA smiles a broken smile.]
GINA You bet, sweetie. But you promise me something?
BOBBY Sure.
GINA You let ol’ Gina tell you when you’ve had enough. Okay? It’s been raining nickels out there the last half hour. You hear it?
BOBBY I hear it.
GINA And the weatherman says it’s going to rain all night. The roads get slick. Real slick. And I want you getting home.
BOBBY Okay.
[She nods and he nods back and she walks off into the darkness. BOBBY spins his empty shot glass as the rain clatters on the roof.
A song comes on the jukebox and BOBBY watches a YOUNG WOMAN appear and start to sway to the beat. A MAN comes up behind her, and she leans back into him. For a few moments, it’s purely sexual, and then she turns in his arms and looks straight in his eyes and mouths the song’s refrain to him, and he looks back at her, helpless and emboldened and in love.
Lights fade on the rest of the bar.
BOBBY watches them with a mixture of enjoyment and envy and heartbreak. When it gets to be too much, he turns away. He spins his empty shot glass again. He looks back at them and gives it all a small, sad smile. He turns back to the table, spins the shot glass.
Lights down on BOBBY.
Only the MAN and YOUNG WOMAN are lit as they dance. They can’t take their eyes off each other.
Lights down on the MAN and YOUNG WOMAN.
The song ends abruptly.
The rain takes over, clattering…
…and faintly, the sound of BOBBY spinning that shot glass.
Lights out.]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DENNIS LEHANE is the author of A Drink Before the War, which won the Shamus Award for Best First Novel; Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; and the New York Times bestsellers Mystic River and Shutter Island. A native of Dorchester, Massachusetts, he lives in the Boston area.
www.denislehane.com
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ALSO BY DENNIS LEHANE
A Drink Before the War
Darkness, Take My Hand
Sacred
Gone, Baby, Gone
Prayers for Rain
Mystic River
Shutter Island
CREDITS
Front jacket photograph by Randy Olson/Getty Images
COPYRIGHT
“ICU” originally appeared in the Beloit Fiction Journal, Spring 2004, vol. 17. “Gone Down to Corpus” originally appeared in The Mighty Johns, edited by Otto Penzler, published by New Millennium Press (July 2002). “Running Out of Dog” originally appeared in Murder and Obsession, 1999. “Until Gwen” appeared in The Atlantic, June 2004, and was adapted for the stage as Coronado in November 2005.
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
CORONADO. Copyright © 2006 by Dennis Lehane. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JULY 2006 ISBN: 9780061849961
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lehane, Dennis.
Coronado: stories / Dennis Lehane.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-113967-3
ISBN-10: 0-06-113967-X
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Dennis Lehane, Coronado: Stories
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