Wednesday, January 30, 2013

HONEY # 5

...continuing on from HONEY # 4


101 INT. REBECCA’S OFFICE. DAY

REBECCA looks at the photocopy of a Birth Certificate in her hands.
JOHN watches HONEY and DANIEL in the recreation area.

REBECCA
Photocopy’s not enough…

DANIEL stands. HONEY  stands, facing him.

102 EXT. JUVENILE DETENTION CENTRE RECREATION AREA. DAY

HONEY and DANIEL stand, facing each other.

HONEY
My name’s Honey. Short for Honesysuckle. Honeysuckele Williams. I’m
not really bad and I’m not really mad…

DANIEL (smiles)
No more chairs through windows, Honeysuckle Williams, okay? (HONEY
nods) Promise?

HONEY smiles, nods.

103 EXT ROCKS. OCEAN BEACH. LATE AFTERNOON

DANIEL, carrying a fishing rod and a basket with bread, cheeses,
bottle of wine towards where HELEN and JASPER fish from the rocks.
JASPER smiles as she sees her father approach. HELEN’S smile is more
forced.

HELEN
I’ve already organized dinner! At home!

JASPER
Mum!

DANIEL kisses HELEN on the cheek, blows a kiss to JASPER.

DANIEL
Any bites?

JASPER (laughs)
Just a few mosquitos.

A LITTLE LATER

DANIEL baits a hook as HELEN pours wine into two plastic cups.

HELEN
Did she sign?

DANIEL shakes his head.

HELEN
But…

DANIEL holds his hand up: ‘Not now’. HELEN is annoyed.

A LITTLE LATER

HELEN finishes her wine, her eyes on:

DANIEL and JASPER fishing nearby – chatting and laughing together.
HELEN pours herself another cup, watches them.

104 INT. BEDROOM/EN SUITE BATHROOM. NIGHT

DANIEL cleans his teeth, his eyes on HELEN undressing in the adjacent
bedroom.  She is in a bad mood.

DANIEL
…step-dad’s been pimping her but…

HELEN
I don’t understand why she didn’t just sign today!

DANIEL
…but she won’t make a statement against him…

HELEN
And you let her keep the money! Sorry, but…!

DANIEL
Okay, what is it?

HELEN
What is what?

HELEN strides to the storage closet, opens the door, takes the plastic
bag from behind the red suitcase, dumps its contents on the bed:
Daniel’s climbing shoes and bag of climbing chalk.

HELEN
You told us you’d stopped.

DANIEL
I don’t want you to worry. Or Jas.

HELEN
You know with her bible stuff…Jasper’s obsessed with death…

DANIEL
That’s why I…

HELEN
Lied. (A BEAT) You want to break her heart?

DANIEL shakes his head. He does not want this!

HELEN
And what about that girl at the opening… the model. The one who looked
about 14 and couldn’t keep her hands off you.

DANIEL holds his hand up: ‘stop’.

HELEN
Do you think she’s attractive?

DANIEL  (angry)
I’m not going to do this.

HELEN
If I was a man I’d want to fuck her.

DANIEL
Stop. Helen. Please.

HELEN
The thought’s never occurred to you?

HELEN glares at DANIEL for a moment, crumbles, starts to cry, wipes
tears from her eyes. DANIEL puts his arms around her.

HELEN
Mum was the only one who understood me.

DANIEL nods, strokes HELEN’S hair.

105 EXT. RECREATION YARD. DAY

DANIEL, paper bag in hand, walks with REBECCA. They approach SIMMO,
aged 15,looking through the window of the Gymnasium.

REBECCA
Simmo, you got nothing better to do?

SIMMO
She’s fucking weird, Bec!

REBECCA indicates with a gesture that SIMMO should leave. He does.
DANIEL and REBECCA look through the window at:

HONEY dancing alone in the gymnasium. No music can be heard.

106 INT. GYMNASIUM. DAY

HONEY dances gracefully, eyes closed. DANIEL steps into the silent
gym. HONEY opens her eyes, smiles, holds her hand up in greeting as
she dances in time to music only she can hear.

HONEY
You think I’m crazy?

DANIEL (smiles)
Depends what you’re dancing to! (A BEAT) My guess is…not heavy metal?

HONEY laughs, closes her eyes. DANIEL watches her, fascinated; notices
Honey’s journal lying on the floor closeby.

HONEY stops dancing, walks to DANIEL, drops to the floor alongside her
journal, legs crossed, pats the floor beside her: “Sit!” DANIEL sits,
hands the paper bag to HONEY.

HONEY claps her hands excitedly, like a little girl, looks inside the
paper bag – extracts a packet of cigarettes.

DANIEL
You shouldn’t be smoking at all, you know.

HONEY
Thanks for worrying about my lungs.

HONEY pulls out a bar of chocolate.

HONEY
You’re not worried about my teeth?

DANIEL smiles.

HONEY
Thought you were busy today.

DANIEL
So, if not heavy metal…?

HONEY laughs, shakes her head. DANIEL gestures: ‘What?’

HONEY
You have to guess.

DANIEL
Is there a prize for guessing right?

HONEY
Me. (A BEAT) Angel music.

DANIEL
Harps?

HONEY
No. No harps. Just voices.

DANIEL
They talk to you? The angels?

HONEY
No, they just sing.

DANIEL
Can you see them?

HONEY
You mean are they real or just in my imagination? (A BEAT) If they
weren’t real I wouldn’t be able to hear them, eh? Unless I was mad, of
course, which some people think I am. I’m not mad and I’m not bad…
(QUOTING) ‘but I am, it is true, a little bit sad.’ And you?

DANIEL smiles, a bit out of his depth here.

HONEY
When you’re half way up one of your cliffs, do you ever think “I’ll
just step into space, leave my body, leave my aching heart with its
scars…live with the angels forever?”

DANIEL and HONEY look at each other for a long moment.

DANIEL
What if there are no angels?

HONEY thinks for a moment, her eyes on DANIEL’S.

HONEY
Life wouldn’t be worth living if there weren’t any angels. There would
just be devils and…

HONEY pauses, suddenly vulnerable. DANIEL holds eye contact with her
for a long moment before she shrugs, looks away for a moment, as if to
break some spell and then back at DANIEL.

HONEY
Have you got an angel in your life?

DANIEL
Two.

HONEY
Two!

DANIEL opens his wallet, takes out a photo of himself, Helen and
Jasper: a happy family.

DANIEL
Helen and Jasper.

HONEY
Jasper…

HONEY takes the photo, looks at it. DANIEL watches HONEY stare at the
photo with an intensity that intrigues him. She seems to have
forgotten that he is there.

107 INT. DINING ROOM. DAY

HELEN’S photo albums are spread out on the table in front of her and
the white leather couch beside her.

HONEY (voice off)
Helen said ‘no’!?

As she listens to a Saint-Saens Violin Concerto she fixes photos into
her most current album.

DANIEL (voice off)
She said no…she couldn’t meet me because of her boyfriend…

108 EXT. GYMNASIUM. DAY

SIMMO looks in through the window at HONEY and DANIEL talking.

DANIEL (voice off)
…and I said yes she could and she said no and I said yes and…

109 INT. GYMNASIUM. DAY

DANIEL and HONEY sit together on the floor.

DANIEL
…eventually she got tired of saying ‘no’ and agreed to meet me and…

HONEY claps her hands excitedly.

HONEY
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes…my favorite word in the whole universe: ‘Yes’!

DANIEL
…and nine months later Jasper was born.

HONEY
No way!

DANIEL (nods)
Angel number two.

HONEY smiles happily, looks from DANIEL to the photo – lost again in
her own memories. Her mood darkens.

HONEY
My mother never says yes. It’s always no. No, no, no…

DANIEL
But your mother’s dead. (A BEAT) Isn’t she?

HONEY
Yes, but…

HONEY looks away; evasive.

DANIEL
No ‘buts’.

110 INT. DINING ROOM. DAY

As the Saint-Saens Violin Concerto continues over HELEN sets a black
and white photo of herself and Jasper asleep in bed, cuddling, into
the album. It is a beautiful photo. Too beautiful, perhaps, as a
result of the photoshop work that has been done on it.

111 INT. GYMNASIUM. DAY

CLOSE ON a post card photo of a green fern seedling curling up from
barren bushfire-burnt soil – stuck in Honey’s journal.

HONEY (laughing off)
But…Life is full of ‘buts’.

DANIEL looks up from Honey’s journal, open in his lap.

DANIEL
‘Yes, but what if…!’ Usually an excuse not to do something you want to do.

HONEY
Or something you’re scared to do.

DANIEL
What are you scared to do?

HONEY  (laughs nervously)
I’m too scared to tell you.(A BEAT) Is there anything you’re too
scared to tell anyone? Even someone you love? (A BEAT) Especially
someone you love?
DANIEL smiles, raises his eyebrows, clearly does not want to pursue
this line of conversation

DANIEL
Do you want to tell me about your mother?

HONEY is silent for along moment, picking at a scab on one of the cut
wounds on her arm. She looks at her shoulder, panic in her eyes. She
flicks at her shoulder, tries to brush the unseen Goblin away.

HONEY stares at DANIEL, stares through him; in a zone.

DANIEL (panicking)
Honey, what is it? What’s wrong?

HONEY looks at her shoulder, panic in her eyes. She flicks at her
shoulder, tries to brush the unseen Goblin away. She has turned pale;
is sweating profusely. She looks at DANIEL as if she does not know who
he is. She looks at her hands as if she does know what they are.
DANIEL takes her hand, holds it.

DANIEL
Honey!

HONEY holds his hand tight – her whole body shaking now. DANIEL’S
mobile rings. He ignores it; looks around, sees:

SIMMO, in shock, looking in through the window. He signals to SIMMO to
get help.

DANIEL
What is it, Honey?

HONEY stares at him blankly, her eyes darting then to one shoulder and
then the other. HONEY’S POV:

The Green Goblin is sitting on her shoulder, laughing maliciously.

112 YOUNG HONEY’S BEDROOM. NIGHT

YOUNG HONEY looks out the window of her bedroom at:

HONEY’S MOTHER, in a white night dress, moving around in a storage
shed in the back yard – filled with old furniture, boxes etc. Her
movements are purposeful but it is difficult, from YOUNG HONEY’S POV
to make out just what she is doing.

It dawns on YOUNG HONEY what her mother is doing. She opens her mouth
to scream – panic and terror in her eyes.

113 INT. GYMNASIUM. DAY

HONEY, her mouth open, panic and terror in her eyes, stares at DANIEL.
She has turned white and her face glistens with sweat.

REBECCA rushes into the Gymnasium with a bottle of pills and a glass
of water. She sits beside HONEY, hands her some pills. HONEY throws
them into her mouth, washes them down with a gulp of water, looks at
her shoulders, clings to REBECCA tightly.

DANIEL’S mobile phone rings. He ignores it.

HONEY
Don’t leave me.

REBECCA
I’m not going anywhere.

HONEY lays her head on REBECCA’S  breast.

A LITTLE LATER

HONEY lies in REBECCA’S arms, REBECCA strokes her hair. DANIEL’S
mobile rings again. He glances at the screen.

HONEY
You need to get back to your angels?

DANIEL
Soon…

HONEY
I’d better sign your contract, ay?

DANIEL takes the contract from his pocket, looks at it. HONEY holds
out her hand. DANIEL hesitates, hands it to her.

HONEY
Pen!

DANIEL takes a pen from his pocket, holds it out to HONEY. She looks
at it, then up into DANIEL’S eyes.

DANIEL shakes his head, puts the pen back in his pocket.

DANIEL
I’m not going to use the photo.

HONEY nods, takes the envelope full of $100 bills from between pages
of her journal, holds it out to DANIEL.
DANIEL
No, that’s your bail.

HONEY
But…

DANIEL
No ‘buts’. (A BEAT) I want you to get away from John…

HONEY
Yes, but…(why)? I’m just someone whose photo you took, ay?

DANIEL shakes his head.

HONEY
Who am I, then?

DANIEL shakes his head, lost. He looks at REBECCA. She can’t help him.
HONEY hugs REBECCA tight but her eyes are on DANIEL.

114 EXT. JUVENILE DETENTION CENTRE. DAY

DANIEL stands at the front entrance with REBECCA.

REBECCA
When we track down her family…

DANIEL
Yes, please, let me know. And if there is anything…

HONEY (voice off)
Daniel!

DANIEL and REBECCA turn to see HONEY struggling with TWO YOUTH WORKERS
in the entrance.

HONEY
I’m not going to run off!

REBECCA nods to the YOUTH WORKERS. They release their grip on HONEY.
She walks up to DANIEL, clutching a small parcel wrapped in newspaper.

HONEY
It’s a present. For you.

She holds the parcel out to DANIEL. DANIEL holds his hands up, shakes
his head. A blue car pulls up in the parking lot.

DANIEL
No, Honey.

HONEY lowers the parcel, thinks a moment then suddenly throws it to
DANIEL. He catches it reflexively; laughs. HONEY smiles, spins on her
heels, walks back toward the entrance. DANIEL calls out to her:

DANIEL
I’ll accept it on one condition.

From JOHN’S POV sitting in the blue Holden:

HONEY spins around.

HONEY
What’s your condition, Mr Photographer?

DANIEL
No more chairs through windows.

HONEY smiles, nods.

DANIEL
Promise?

HONEY
Promise.

The smile disappears from HONEY’S face as she sees JOHN get out of the
blue car. DANIEL follows her stare, sees JOHN.

DANIEL
Tell Rebecca what he’s been doing to you? They can charge him.

HONEY
He’s all I’ve got.

...to be continued...

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