Dark Water

Dahlia, let's go inside now.

She'll come soon, but let's go inside now.

What are we gonna do, Dahlia?

What are we gonna do about your mother always being so late?

- Hi. - Hi.

Did you ring?

It's not 11.

You didn't ring.

Good. You're early. You can come right in.

- You've been subletting? - Right.

When my company moved me to New York, the rents were outta sight,

so we only took a one-year lease.

And when my wife asked me to leave,

I got a small one-bedroom in Jersey City that's cheap.

- How much? - 800.

Where will Cecilia sleep then?

There's a pullout couch in the living room,

so when she comes to stay with me,

I'll sleep there. I can't afford two bedrooms.

How 'bout you, Dahlia?

We need to know what your situation is gonna be.

Any luck in finding a suitable place for you and Cecilia?

- I'm looking at apartments today. - Where?

- Where? - I told you, I'm moving to Jersey City.

There's a school there, it's great.

And there's plenty of cheap places to rent, so...

You got an apartment near me, it would make the shared custody easier.

Why do you want her, Kyle?

What do you mean, "Why do I want her?"

You were never interested in her before.

What?

You know, he forgot her 5th birthday.

- No. No, I didn't. - No?

No, I didn't. The plane was stuck on the tarmac, and we didn't have a gate.

I told you a million times, the phones didn't work.

No one believes you, 'cause everyone knows what you were doing.

- "Everyone"? No, you. Only you. - OK.

You see? She's crazy. You live in a world of your own.

I make one mistake, and I don't care about Ceci?

- You don't like playing with her. - You're insane.

Be honest with yourself. You can't raise Ceci alone. You can't handle it.

Just be honest with yourself.

Isn't it funny how small the cars look?

- Yeah. - If you look at them from up here.

Fit them between your fingers, if you squint.

Yeah.

Oh, look. There's a tram.

And that's where we're going, Roosevelt Island.

Mommy, that's not the city.

Sure it is. Just a different part of the city.

No, that's the city over there. That's not the city.

- She's right. - Mm-hm.

Here we are.

It is chilly, though, isn't it? Are you cold?

Yeah, a little bit.

Yeah? Hey, look, that's where you'd go to school.

I don't want to go to school here.

Why not?

It's too small.

Oh, I see.

Mm-hm.

- You know, I got your snack for ya. - You do?

Yeah. Are you hungry now? Do you want it now?

- Maybe I'll wait. - OK.

Let's just check.

Let's see.

540...

Just...

40...

That way.

OK.

It's nice here. It's like a small town.

I like the big city better.

Why didn't we rent that last place? That was really nice.

It was. It was too expensive for us, honey.

We need something that's a better price.

But I don't want to live here, Mommy.

Why not, Ceci?

It's all the same. And it's small. Too small.

"It's too small?" I think you're too small.

- No, I'm not. I'm big. - Small.

- I'm big. - OK, good.

Then are you gonna be a big girl, and give this one a chance?

Yeah? 'Cause otherwise you know what happens?

What?

My itsy-bitsy muffin. I cover you all up with jam like this, and then...

And then eat you up.

OK. That's us.

We are a little bit early.

We need... Oh, golly. Five...

- Hi. - Hi.

- Are you Mrs. Bernstein? - No, I'm Ms. Williams.

Ah, Ms. Williams. Oh, you're early. Mr. Murray. We spoke on the phone.

Listen, since the Bernsteins aren't here, I can show you the apartment now.

You're lucky to get a jump on them, actually.

OK, that'd be great.

- So we'll just go up, and... - Thanks.

- Hello. - Hi.

These tend to go pretty quick.

You know, Manhattan is so expensive, and this is practically in Manhattan.

- I mean, it's five minutes away. - Yucky. This is yucky.

It is yucky down here, which is why we are repainting

all these lobbies this summer.

And I think they're replacing all the doors, if I'm not mistaken.

It'll make it a lot brighter.

This is Mr. Veeck. He is the super for building C.

Hello.

Mr. Veeck, can you say hello?

- Hello. - This is... What's your name?

- Dahlia. This is Ceci. - I'm sorry. Dahlia and Ceci.

Uh... Mr. Veeck lives in 1A. He's been here for 20 years.

He'll fix anything that goes wrong.

- Oh, that's good. - Which is a big savings,

'cause he does it for free.

There's also a doorman on duty from four to midnight here,

so you don't have to worry about coming in late. And that is the lobby.

Mr. Veeck, if the Bernsteins show up, just send them right up to 9F.

- OK. - 9F.

OK.

OK, so, we'll just head up here.

- Did you take the Tram? - Yeah.

- Oh, you did. Did you like that? - Yeah.

You get to do that every day when you live in this building.

Oh, yeah. There's the camera. Say hi. Mr. Veeck is watching us.

I'm gonna take you up to nine. Almost our top floor.

I call it the lower penthouse level.

Um... You get some city views up there.

A little cut off, but you can still see the city lights, at night.

Oh, you know, we're two blocks from the school,

which is one of the best in the city.

Yeah, I was just reading that.

- Isn't that great? - No.

- I don't like it here, Mommy. I wanna... - Ceci, please.

- Sorry, Mommy. - That's OK.

It's OK. You're gonna love it up here.

And they just opened a pizza place on the island.

Do you like pizza? I bet you do.

I like pizza, too. I like it a little bit too much.

Wait, sweetie. Don't run. Don't run.

What the...

Get stuck in here, huh?

- Mommy, what happened? - Sorry. It's all right.

Dammit. Another puddle.

Sorry about that. I keep telling Mr. Veeck

he's gotta mop in there every morning.

You know, with all this rain we're having,

you can't stop some of it coming down that elevator shaft.

There's just no way to stop it. Anyway, here's 9F down here.

The building was built in 1976 by Stern-Jackson and associates,

in the brutalist style.

Um... Now, what they were trying to create,

as you can see, was kind of a little village,

kind of a Utopia, actually, is what they had in mind.

And some of those ideas have come together.

Some of their original plans for the place

were a little crazy, if you ask me, actually.

Hello.

Yeah, I just do that just in case. It's vacant.

- Come on in. - Shall I close this?

Yeah. Let me just apologize in advance. The place is in a little bit of a mess.

Our last tenant was a little messy,

but we're gonna put a fresh new coat of paint on this whole place.

It's gonna brighten it up quite a bit.

Let's take a look at your bedroom, sweetie.

This could be your room if Mommy wants it to be.

- What do you think? Isn't that great? - There's no air in here.

Of course there's air in here.

If there wasn't air, we wouldn't be able to breathe.

Uh... That window does not open,

but it lets a lot of natural light in in the afternoons.

- It's really great. - Strange.

I kinda like it. In the afternoon, it brightens the place up quite a bit.

Anyway, here's the closet.

You could put your dollies in there,

or, you know, Mom could use it for storage.

- Lemme show you the bathroom. OK? - OK.

Come on, honey. Is this another closet here?

Yeah, that's the foyer closet.

The bathroom's pretty self-explanatory.

It's in decent shape. Once we clean it up.

You got the toilet, of course, the sink, bathtub.

This glass is safety glass.

I mean, you could hit that as hard as you want, it will not break.

And that is great for your peace of mind, you know, when Ceci's taking a bath.

Hey, Ceci. Come look in here.

Ah, you're right. That's much better.

You can smell the river. Can you smell it?

- Yeah. - Let me show you the other bedroom here.

You know, it's tough to get two bedrooms in Manhattan,

any of the boroughs, for under a thousand dollars.

OK, that's a closet. Scratch that. That's a closet.

Um... Kitchen.

Got the refrigerator, sink, stove,

and this is kind of a country eat-in dining room.

You see this. It's just really smart how they did this.

See that little thing? Boom - dining room.

You can put your stools around it, and when you're done -

out of the way, no clutter.

The dishwasher, if you're entertaining, very convenient to have.

Kitchen. OK.