The Dark End of the Street

Ssh.

Evening, Marney.

Hi, Ian.

How's it going?

It's going good. How are you?

Did you hear that music down the street last night?

Uh, no, I didn't.

What was it, some kind of party?

I think it was a rock band.

I went over there and then told them knock it off,

it's the middle of the night in the middle of the week.

Kids.

Punks is what they are to call themselves.

I think that is what they call themselves.

Have a good one, Ian.

See you later.

- -

Bruce.

Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty.

Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.

Oh, no. What the...

Hello, yeah, yeah.

I... Yeah, I...

I think somebody broke into my house.

I don't know, I just got home.

No, no, I know nothing. I think they broke it to my house and...

Killed my cat.

Okay.

Okay.

Hey, Richard.

Oh, no, no, not interrupting anything.

I'm just putting this crib together.

What's up? Yeah.

Tonight, I'd love that.

Yeah, I just need to talk to my wife, but she should be home any minute.

I definitely want to come. It sounds great.

Your friends sound awesome.

No, I could drive myself.

Well, if it's on your way then sure, I just, I don't want to...

- - What? Hold on, hold on.

What are you doing? Hi.

- Whom are you talking to? - No one, it's fine, one second.

Yeah, she actually just walked in. It should be fine.

Yeah, okay, thanks, Richard.

- Bye. Oh. - What should be fine?

Nothing.

- Who's Richard? - Remember, um,

I told you I met that guy at a bar.

Uh-huh. I guess. What does he want?

Just wants to meet-up tonight.

Oh, he asked you on a date?

Very funny.

How was your day?

- It was bad. - I know.

Got a new school, substitute teacher, you know.

- Yeah. All right. - Just fresh meat to those kids.

- Rough. Kids suck. - Plus, you know I'm gigantic.

You are not. Beautiful.

Did you finish the crib?

I didn't, but it'll be done by tomorrow.

- Great. - Yeah.

- Did you hear that? - What?

What's he saying?

- Call me Jackson. - What?

- We just decided on Grayson. - I know, but...

- We don't have that much time. - We do.

He could come any day now and we need to have decided on a name.

I know, but, you know, I think that when we see his little baby face,

we'll know.

- We'll just know. - This is so like you.

- It's one of those things. - A man with no plan, just winging it.

Okay.

You got to see these.

Mmm.

Up to no good.

Do you want to come out this time?

Oh, come on.

Richard's an interesting guy, you'd like him, it'd be fun.

And we should make an effort to...

This isn't fun. You don't have fun around here.

I'm not saying that, just we used to have fun all the time.

I have to get out of the house.

Yeah. Yeah, it's not my idea of fun tonight to go to some bar

and watch you and your new old friend drinking together.

- He's not even that old. - Okay.

He's nice.

You should go and have a really good time.

You've been cooped up all day, you don't have work in the morning. You should go.

I'm exhausted, but you should go.

.

Oh, my God.

- Yo, you guys trying to sneak out tonight? - I don't know, man.

My mom would kill me if she found out I was skating that late,

I don't know if I could do it.

Again, like he said, like it depends like my mom goes to sleep around, like...

- It's crazy sometimes... - My mom goes to sleep early.

I don't know what time my mom exactly goes to sleep,

but if she goes to sleep and like it's not hot or like dangerous,

look I'll go, but like you'll go regardless, even if we don't go.

Yeah, man, but I'm just saying you guys are going to miss out.

Yeah, bruh, that would have been some sick ass shit.

Get that gap next time, bro.

Yeah, I know I should have stuck it.

Come here.

Come here. You want some food, Luna?

- Yo, you guys want some noodles, by the way? - Yeah, sure, I'll take a cup.

Oh, you get wrecked, man.

- Bro, I killed them twice, I killed them twice in a row. - Oh, thanks, man

Dude, you just got blasted in the basement.

You got blasted in the base wax.

- I am. How many cues you got? - We're tied. Shut up.

We're tied.

- Get in here before it starts pissing rain. - Coming.

- All right, thanks for getting me. - Yeah, man.

- So you got fired today. - Well, I left.

It's not like losing a janitorial job something to be too upset about.

Have you had many jobs?

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I guess I worked, um...

worked as a bartender for a little while.

I was a bank clerk, I worked as a deli cook, you name it I can do it.

- Pretty decorated. - Yeah, you could call it. Yeah. What about you?

- You had a lot of jobs. - Yeah, I've had a couple, but mostly as an editor.

All right, I remember you saying that when we were at the bar.

I remember you telling me you were a film editor.

Film editor. It's a stretch. I do like online commercials.

I just did a commercial for a sink faucet.

So that's where I'm at.

That's pretty great. You get to stay at the house all day,

I didn't even think of that, you get to work from home.

No. That's actually kind of shitty.

Like never see anyone, you know, like, I'd prefer to be out in the world.

It was easier to do that when I was in the city.

I don't know, people are pretty much the same anywhere you go.

Like all places, you got interesting people.

People not so interesting, nice people, shitty people, good people, bad people.

So, you're saying...

What? I mean, since it's all the same what exactly, just stay where you are.

Yeah. I'm not saying like this place is better than other places or anything like that.

I'm... I'm... Obviously, I like it. I like it, you know.

I like my house, I like my car, I like, uh, getting drunk with my friends at my bar,

you know, so for me, it's just this is what I like.

I don't want this to sound rude, but do you grow up wanting to do something,

like be an astronaut or an actor?

So did I want to grow up, you know, to be an ambitious person.

- Yes. - Yeah, yeah.

Well, what happened?

Well, reality is what happened.

If your kids go to college and they're going to read, uh, Nietzsche and Madame Bovary,

they'll bind that all up and do precisely what with it?

Serve burgers with me.

That's okay, man. Cut him some slack, right?

Encourage them to find something they enjoy, something that makes them happy,

because we're all going to end up in the same spot.

The burger flipper and the Nobel Laureate both shit sitting down,

we're both gonna die someday the same way, confused, scared, full of regret, right?

Because we're visitors here, man, that's the thing, Jimmy.

We're just visitors down here.