Scene 2.06 - A Moppet Marriage
EST: EXT. - Trinity, New Mexico/Courthouse
(A grainy, raw, low-budget, rural, reporter-wannabe news story.)
POCKETS TO HEADROOM
HERMES
Trinity, New Mexico. To the locals, a place of desolation. One hundred twenty years ago, the test site of the first nuclear bomb. It is also the place where, last year, an innocent girl fell to the perverted pleasures of a man now accused of being a sexual offender. A place where this girl, middle-school-honor-student Percy Fawney met this man, ninety-five-year-old sex-crazed musician and convicted-drug-offender Roberto Hades.
(Hay'-deez. He appears to be about 30 years old in the photograph, much the same as he appears today.)
BOBBY
(Seeing his disheveled appearance in his mugshot:) O-yeah, I forgot that part.
HERMES
(Reenacted with two of the cameos, made to look like PERCY and BOBBY. PERCY’S DOUBLE is dressed ala Shirley Temple, lollipop and all. BOBBY’S DOUBLE like a dirty, unshaven, grease-stained, wild-eyed, cotton-T-shirt-denim-blue-jeans-and-leather-jacket-wearing pervert. Like a pedophilic Arthur Fonzarelli.) Fawney was attending an anti-nuclear proliferation protest with her mother, enjoying all the innocence and all the promise a pre-pubescent girl of thirteen enjoys during childhood. On that ill-fated afternoon, Fawney was posting flyers on cars in a parking lot when Hades laid his ravenous eyes on his young and helpless prey. Hades had just finished performing his obscene stage act for the demonstration and was meandering in the back parking lot, doing suspiciously unspecific and possibly illegal activities. According to police, Fawney, an innocent child of thirteen, was lured by Hades to his private trailer where he seduced her with a bottle of imported pomegranate wine and illicit drugs. According to court records, he then coerced her to have sex with him and even recorded her abduction on video. Upon learning of the abduction, the governor issued a state-wide Amber Alert, but it largely went ignored by the public, since the Amber Alert system had already been tested three times earlier that week and many people considered the alert to be yet another test of the system. Hades, already a step-ahead of the authorities, used this headstart to elude police; fleeing justice by taking his private jet outside of U-S airspace. They landed in Southern Mexico, where Hades promptly married his jailbait junkie in what witnesses later described as a pagan and hedonistic ceremony chock-full of illegal activity and sacrificial ritual. Since August, Hades has returned to the United States, and Fawney’s mother, Trinity police and the U.S. Attorney General's Office all have petitioned the District Attorney to file criminal charges against Hades. As of this month, he stands accused of kidnapping, criminal exploitation of a minor, child abduction, criminal sodomy with a minor, harboring a runaway, statutory rape, felony child endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, unlawful crossing of national borders to escape criminal prosecution and driving under the influence.
CUT TO: The reporter standing outside of a courthouse.
HERMES (Cont’d)
Since the preliminary hearing, Hades has adopted the stage name Bobby Pluto and has created a band around his corrupted sex-slave and child bride, who, to this day, is kept under the spell of Hades’ lurid lust and controlling command, despite court orders restricting their association until the jury delivers a verdict, which is expected later this month, after closing arguments. Prosecutors say the upcoming trial is a slam dunk, while defense attorneys maintain that the trial hinges on whether the initial glass of wine was requested by Fawney and whether the liberal, antiquated age-of-consent laws of New Mexico will apply in this case, as Hades was born in the twentieth century and is given provisional immunity from charges stemming from the 23rd revision of the New Patriot Act. So far, the Mexican moppet marriage is not being contested by prosecutors although additional criminal charges may be filed. Until the trial is fully underway, Hades, for now, is an accused child abductor free on bail and residing in the secluded Ratcliffe Manor, near Mt. Poskipah, enjoying a posh and pampered lifetsyle, a mere five-thousand feet from the very person he is accused of drugging, raping and kidnapping. Brainwashed babydoll, or delinquent darling? As it has been said for centuries, only time will tell. Keeping you informed of the latest, exclusively for the Four Corners Cablestar News Network and Internet Television, I’m Hermes Harrah (Hair'-ah) reporting...
FADE OUT
DISSOLVE TO: A closed, radium-green eyelid, the eye moving swiftly underneath, caught in a REM state.
DISSOLVE TO: Smoke, mirrors, broadcast.
SEREECE
Bobby, although you were cleared of all charges, do you have any new thoughts now that you’ve seen that story again? Any pent-up feelings?
BOBBY
I’ll say it once: I was found not guilty on all counts. Not only did the Governor publicly apologize for any of it ever going to trial, he was instrumental in promoting my "Fickle Earth" environmental-awareness concert. If people remember, that’s where I named a mile of freeway after the famous two-headed calf Betsy, to help people become more aware of the importance of our environment and wildlife preservation -- but I'm rambling... as far as pent-up feelings, I really don't blame the people for that one, Sereece. Present company excepted, I think the real problem is with the media; rookie reporters and pandering politicians. Sometimes there’s more to the story than what is presented, and that was the case here. The journalist for that story never asked for my truthful side of the events, never talked to Percy, and never retracted anything -- even after my full acquittal.
SEREECE
Hmmmm. Senator?
EPHRAIM
If legislation like the bill I authored were law today, there would be no aquittal; we would close all these so-called, legal loopholes and mumbo-jumbo, and men like Mr. Pluto would be behind bars where men like him belong, instead of getting rich by exploiting our children's pocketbooks and indirectly corrupting their minds, bodies and spirits.
SEREECE
Hmm. Speaking of the tour, Bobby, I hear you’ve got a new song for us.
BOBBY
Well, yeah. Actually I’ve got about ten new songs. They’re coming out on the next album and nobody’s heard any of them yet. If it's okay, I’d like to sing one of them for you right now.
SEREECE
(Pretending surprise:) Oh, wow! A new song, just for Athens Live! We’ll need to take a station break first, but before we do, I hear there’s a story behind your new album...
BOBBY
Yeah, it’s kinda funny, actually. I composed these songs right after my honeymoon. Perce (purse) and I were touring an ancient ziggurat of my ancestors, some temple where blood rituals were performed, and I took the liberty of copying the symbols inscribed on the altar -- and later, I had them loosely translated by a friend back at my alma mater. Now, I’ve written them into songs that everyone can enjoy.
EPHRAIM
That is precisely the kind of trash I’m talking about. Spells, contracts with the devil. I vow to the good people of America that my legislation will put an end to it, so their so-called religious freedom will stop where the prayers of God-fearing Americans begin.
SEREECE
Well Senator, perhaps we’d better hear the song before we decide whether it’s trash. What’s the song called, Bobby?
BOBBY
It’s a protection spell, it’s called Fortify My Soul and-
EPHRAIM
Completely outrageous.
SEREECE
(Pause, truly impromptu:) We’ll hear just how "outrageous" Bobby’s new song really is, when we return. Don’t go away, we’ll be right back.
(Studio applause.)
CUT TO: ATHENS LIVE BUMP
DISSOLVE TO: