Scene 8.13 - Behind The Apron, Under The Thrust
EST: EXT. Sound stage. - July 4th, 1815, South Beach, Florida - Early Evening
(Throngs of college-age and high-school-age couples, groups and groupies are milling-about. Roadies are heard doing sound-checks with non-electrical amplification systems. The stage is covered with cowbells of different shapes and sizes and there is a constant chime of a cowbell somewhere in the moving crowd as anxious fans await the main attraction. Over in the food court, past the jugglers, midway booths and beer tent, is a small picnic table holding a small group of teens and a row of isolated chairs, affixed to the Earth as if part of a carriage-stop when the streets are normally open. MISTY sits alone on one of the isolated chairs, people moving about her, having fun. Good looking, buff and sporty men walk by. One particular shirtless hunk seems to be smiling directly at her and waves, she smiles back but before she can wave back he yells and gives a high-five to a man carrying a stuffed oval-and-pointy pigskin used for some yet-to-be-developed sport and the two handsome, young and muscular men run off together, slapping each other's behinds, laughing. She regards her outfit. Mom clothes. Sure, she put on a little extra makeup and perfume but that's only because she put on a little extra weight this year. Also, she didn't want to arouse suspicions or generate questions -- Alberta is very inquisitive. [Long pause.] Some getaway to debauchery. Dressed for souvenir-shopping all right. No problem with that alabi. Roller-blading by, a tan girl in a string thong smiles. MISTY re-examines her big, baggy purse and her clothes: Jersey tucked into denim shorts with the stretchy waistband, bobby socks, white canvas tennis shoes, a gardener's visor, big, round, turtle-shell sunglasses, a khaki fanny pack containing sunscreen and tissue. Total mom wear. Looks at her legs; no varicose veins yet, but many scars from shaving them. All alone. Anxious the whole trip to slip away and see what freedom would be like and now alone, hearing sporadic firecrackers and watching people stuff their faces with sausages and things covered with melted cheese. Perhaps Moe was right, after all. Maybe he is the only man who would-)
MONTY
Hello, Beautiful.
MISTY
(Immediately overcome. As if being attacked:) What?!?
(No mask, no piercings filled, no one recognizes him as being L-G-C, the one they've come to hear; MISTY refuses to believe...)
MONTY
(Sits.) We've waited a long time to be together again...
MISTY
(Pause. Reality trying to sink in... Short of breath:) Wh- who are you? You ca- You can't be the person you pretend to be...
MONTY
(Shows her that he's still wearing her necklace after all these years.) It's me, Limonium...
(They embrace. He supports her and confirms with touch what her tear-filled eyes were trying to tell her was true.)
MISTY
Oh! This is- this is- (She cries.) How?
MONTY
A very, very long story...
MISTY
I thought you were dead!
MONTY
I know.
(Sobs, mascara coating her face, tries to wipe it off.) You have a daughter...
MONTY
I know.
MISTY
I love you Monty, I always will.
MONTY
I know.
(He leads her to a secret curtain under the stage, where white-and-purple misty and white-and-purple montecasino are used with white-and-purple alberta to decorate the area inside. Thin lavender bunting material around the stage allows light to permeate and we are able to see out, but no one can see in. Fireworks and pyrotechnics go off as MISTY and MONTY get off. The band begins a 9-minute cowbell medley warming-up the crowd as MONTY and MISTY make love below. At the end of the quickie that didn't show anything but kissing and cowbell, MISTY recovers from passing out and looks around -- MONTY has departed in the Shower-Lynn way. She hears her masked lover hop onto the stage above. She looks nearby. A revealing, maroon-satin salsa dress and a ruby-and-blue sapphire mask in the form of a Monarch butterfly set upon a small pillow next to black dancing heels and a jeweled necklace of amber, onyx, topaz, ruby and sapphire monarchs in a sky of lazuli and diamonds. A bouquet of alberta, montecasino and misty is next to a pillow displaying a jeweled, cigar-band wedding set. MISTY smiles.)
FTB