Passion Play

Hey, Billy.

It's Thursday. Come back tomorrow.

No, it's actually Friday, ya cheap prick.

Hey!

Junkie putz.

You gonna kill me out here?

Hey!

Hey!

And that so lamely and unfashionable

that dogs bark at me as I go by them.

Discounts on my known deformities.

Milagros.

I give you heaven--

and I give you hell.

Hey, mister.

I had some car trouble out in the desert.

I need to use the telephone.

One American dollar.

Sure.

It's inside.

It's all inside.

It's all inside.

All your dreams come true inside this tent.

Hombres, juanitas

open your knees and feel the breeze.

Hey, brother, you have a phone around here?

Excuse me.

You girls seen this chick with--?

Yeah, she's over there.

Thank you.

What?

Hey.

What do you want?

Sorry, I didn't mean to be staring.

Yeah you did. You paid to stare. Show's over.

Are you deaf?

Are you real?

What do you think?

Well, I think no.

All right then. Get lost.

Hey, hey. Sweetheart. Please, I am lost.

Look, I scream and five guys with tire irons

come and beat you into pudding.

Please don't do that.

My name's Nate.

Nate Poole.

I play trumpet back in the city.

Look, I've been up all night long walking through the desert.

All I want is a drink...

and just a place to sit down for a while.

I ain't gonna cause you no trouble.

I just want a place to sit down and think about

what I'm gonna do.

What kind of music?

Mm. Oh, what difference does that make?

Hey. Really nice music.

One drink.

I'm drinking gin.

A girl after my own heart.

Goddamn, life is good.

Hour ago, I was a dead man.

Now I'm drinking warm gin with an angel.

So--mm--carny life, huh?

Yeah, Chiapas, Durango

yeah, the full circuit.

You ever been to the States?

No, I've never been there before.

Well, goddamn, your English is pretty good.

That's because of Sam. He, um, he's from London, and so--

and because of the movies, they, um, the small-town theaters

they hang sheets on the walls

and they show old movies on Saturdays at night.

Huh. How long you been an angel?

I'm not an angel.

I'm a bird woman.

I don't know, I, um--

couldn't get fat enough or grow a beard and I hate snakes, so--

just nothing else left.

Well, hey, it suits you.

Thanks.

I'm tired of them, though.

What's that? The wings?

Yeah, they're heavy.

They hurt my shoulders and my back

and I'm just, I'm tired of them.

Well, why don't you just take them off?

Why walk around in pain?

I'll give you a hand.

It's not-- I can do it, it's--

I feel like you should leave now.

You know?

Okay, listen, uh

hey, thank you very kindly for the drink.

Are you going back to the States?

Yep.

Listen, uh--

if you'd like to get away from all this, you know--

you're welcome to go back with me.

No, I can't.

You take care.

Mm.

Women.

Uh-huh.

You got a girl?

They're creatures, I mean it, freaks.

I found her in the garbage.

An infant, wet and crying in the garbage.

And I plucked her away from all that and I--

I gave her a home.

Hey there. Uh--

her wings--

they're real?

Hm.

You know, man, I've been around the block but I ain't never been around--

a neighborhood like this.

Thank you.

Are you trying to steal my Lily?

Is that why you're here?

It is, isn't it? Well, so be it!

Hey, man, I don't know what you're talking about.

I ain't trying to steal nobody, man, I just--

listen, I don't want your girl

I just wanna get the fuck outta this nut house.

Jesus.

Where's my Lily gonna go?

What is there for a girl like that? I'm her family.

I protect her from the real world.

Listen, Sam-- may I call you Sam?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You know things now, sir.

What if word got out the girl's for real.

Wings. For real.

Listen, mister, you ain't got nothing to worry about with me.

I just wanna go on my way.

Hey, listen, lady, I don't take kindly to snakes.

I'd appreciate it if you'd just--

Fuck! Goddamn it!

What the fuck?

For a few seconds before you die

you'll see the future with great clarity.

Hey, get in!

So after Happy kills you

can I get your record collection?

Jesus Christ, come on, Harriet

you think I'd make this shit up?

No. Hey. You know, some wandering Indians

shoot Happy's guy seconds before he's gonna shoot you

you walk all night through the desert on foot

get captured by some carny freaks

almost bit by a ten foot long rattlesnake--

and then a beautiful and mysterious girl

rescues you in her father's truck.

You're enjoying this, huh?

Jesus, Nate. You fucked his wife. Everybody knows.

Nate... are you there?

Are you--are you listening to me?

Oh, Jesus Christ, listen--hold--

Hey, listen. You tell Happy--

set up a meeting tomorrow.

A meeting?

At the Little New Yorker. Lunchtime.

You want me to just call Happy Shannon.

Yeah, you call that prick and you tell him...

Jesus Christ. You tell him, bring a million dollars.

Nate? Nate?

Hey, kid, can I borrow that camera for a second?

You're a dead man.

Wow! Goddamn!

Did you see? Did you see? I flew, I did, I flew.

Man, I didn't think you could.

I can't. I'm too big.

I'm too heavy for these to carry me

but sometimes when the wind is, is strong enough--

Wait, I gotta get a picture of this.

Okay, but if I don't like these

you're gonna throw them away, okay?

I swear to God.

Just stand right over there by the way.

You promise?

I swear!

Oh, just like that.

Oh.

I don't believe it.

So what happened to you out in the desert?

Oh. Son of a bitch tried to kill me.

Over a woman?

What else?

Did you love her?