JULIA:
Are you high?
PETE
Yes
JULIA
You have been missing for four days.
PETE
I know where I was.
JULIA
We are getting sick of this.
PETE
Who exactly is we?
JULIA
Ed and I. And we have to lie to your brothers. I don't get it. You want for nothing. You have a safe and happy home.
PETE
It isn't safe.
JULIA
Well I don't see why you have to skip school and such.
Pete
I said it isn't safe.
(Pause)
You know why I do what I do.
JULIA
I most certainly do not.
PETE
Then why do you take all those pills? For fun?
JULIA
I have issues with my nerves.
PETE
Is that right?
Mother, I get high for the same reason you do.
JULIA
You get high because you are a hedonist.
PETER
You get high because of the big secret hanging over the both of us.
You get high because of the big secret hanging over the both of us.
Mother, if I called the police to tell them why I really get high you would lose your house and your children. Know that.
JULIA
You would never.
PETE
I think I'll call them right now.
JULIA begins to shakes and runs for her pills. She goes to the medicine cabinet...
PETE
You'll notice a few are missing.
PETE picks up the phone and starts dialing. His mother desperately tries to pull the receiver out of his hands.
JULIA
Please don't.
PETE:
So you know. You don't want me to call the police for the reason I just said. You would lose everything.
JULIA
Please just don't.
PETE (into the receiver)
Ya, hi, um, ya the police please. Sure I'll hold.
JULIA
I beg of you Peter don't do this,
PETE (to Julia)
So you know what I'm going to tell them. (back into the receiver) Ya, hi, my name is Pete Kopecky and I... (Pete hangs up the phone but Julia thinks he is still connected.)...I would like to report a sexual assault. Ya, 8 a.m.? Sure. 32 Howard St. Thanks.
PETE: Hangs up his fake phone call.
JULIA
Oh Pete, Please. Keep it between Ed and me.
PETE
And who else ma.
JULIA:
Well, and you.
PETE:
Ya, me ma. The victim. You forgot about me.
And no. You harass me about my drugs and I can very easily wreck your little life, I have the power now. The cops are coming at 8 a.m. and I am going to tell them that your husband is a pedafile, and they are going to take your children from you and I will label you complicit and this house will go to me and I will kick you out. So ya I might be high all the time but fuck if I haven't thought this through.
JULIA
You would never.
PETE
The cops are coming at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning and I am telling them everything.
And the funny thing is, mother, is that you don't even know if he has ever stopped molesting me. Well it has stopped mother. It stopped when I got big enough to beat the shit out of him. Remember a few years ago when he showed up pretty messed up. That was the day it ended. That was the day your forgotten son took care of things himself..
And tomorrow morning when I tell the cops it ends for good. For all of us.
JULIA runs from the room.
INT: Pete's bedroom. Next morning.ED comes in and wakes PETE up.
ED
Your mother hes overdosed on her pills and she is dead. The ambulance and the police are on their way.
ED leaves the room.
Pete thought, oh my God, she did that because I threatened to have the police come over. He thought about it a few minutes. He realized he wasn't sad or guilty. After a little while there was a knock at the door. It was the police. There was a knock at his bedroom door, It was ED.
ED
The police are here and they want to speak to you.
PETE put some clothes on and went downstairs. He passed quickly past his mother's room where there were some strange people milling about. He saw only his mother's feet,
OFFICER #1
We understand you placed a call to 911 at 7 p.m. last night. Why was that?
PETE
I thought my mother was in distress.
OFFICER #2
But then you hung up.
PETE
I reconsidered it,
OFFICER #1
Guess you were wrong.
PETE
Guess so.
PETE went upstairs and gathered a few things in a duffel bag, He left and went to a flop house he knew, On that November Thursday he lost his mother, inherited a house and, at the flop house, met Justin Denny, It was the last part that would affect the rest of his life the most.
