(A school playground. The school building is shabby in grey brick, and the playground is overrun with screaming children. GILLIGAN kneels on the tarmac and speaks to BHOPAL, who sits with his lunchboxon a broken teeter totter.)

(Next to them, two youngsters of BHOPAL's age interact. One flourishes a gigantic pink and orange lollipop, and the other eyes it covetously.)

HOXIE

What's that?

MOXIE

What's what?

(Pause.)

HOXIE

That thing you got.

MOXIE

What thing you mean?

HOXIE

What thing you got. The only thing you got. The thing in your hand you got.

MOXIE

Ohhhh. This.

HOXIE

Yeah.

MOXIE

A lollipop.

HOXIE

I knew that. (Pause.) If it's a lollipop why don't you ever lick it.

MOXIE

Why would I ever lick it?

HOXIE

Because that's what you do. That's what you do with a lollipop.

MOXIE

That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. If I licked it, it would disintegrate.

HOXIE

How are you gonna eat it if you don't lick it. (Pause.) You gonna bite it?

MOXIE

No.

HOXIE

If you ever dropped it, I bet you'd get ants and bugs and twigs all over it.

MOXIE

No.

HOXIE

I bet you would.

MOXIE

It's not that kind of lollipop.

HOXIE

It isn't?

MOXIE

Yes. You don't know anything.

HOXIE

What if you dropped it in the mud? (Pause.) Don't you get worried?

MOXIE

No. I'm strong.

HOXIE

What if you slipped? Or tripped?

MOXIE

I won't.

HOXIE

What if your arm gets tired. (Pause.) If you arm gets tired I could hold it for you.

MOXIE

No thanks.

(Pause.)

HOXIE

Let's play a game.

MOXIE

What game?

HOXIE

Basketball.

MOXIE

You're just being stupid. you know we can't play basketball. We don't have a basket, or a basketball.

(HOXIE thinks.)

MOXIE

Why don't you get your own?

HOXIE

Get my own what?

MOXIE

You know what.

HOXIE

Well where did you get it from.

MOXIE

I forget.

(HOXIE thinks some more.)

HOXIE

If you don't let me hold that lollipop, I'm going to kill you.

(An altogether different sort of negotiation is taking place between our two accomplished chessplayers. GILLIGAN crouches over to face BHOPAL, gesticulating as he does.)

GILLIGAN

(Earnestly.) And, it was, just so jarring, I mean, I had no idea they, taht she was moving away, I guess I thought that I would have forever to make my, to, that she would be around, but that was just stupid. I mean, people move away, they get, they get ahead, they move away. (Pause.) God, I was so stupid.

BHOPAL

(Who has been listening intently.) Andrew, I... I have a confession to make.

GILLIGAN

You do?

BHOPAL

Do you remember how I told you that Yavlinsky wasn't prepared to take me?

GILLIGAN

Yes, yes I do, why, what --

BHOPAL

I lied to you, Andrew. I... he was impressed by my game, and he wants to work with me. (Pause.) It is quite an honor, as I'm sure you know. (Pause.) So I go to Budapest.

GILLIGAN

(Oh so upset.) Well that's great, I mean, that's, congratulations, Bhopal, you, you really deserve it.

BHOPAL

It will be a rigorous, difficult program. I, I will miss you, and the time we have spent together.

GILLIGAN

Oh, hey, well, I'll miss you too. (Looking straight down.) I'll miss you, too.

BHOPAL

You understand, of course, Andrew. It would be senseless for me to remain here.

GILLIGAN

Of course. Of course it would. (Pause.) I understand.

(The easternmost stretch of Christopher Columbus Avenue, and its panoramic view of the Manhattan battery. It's twilight. In a persistent rain, Andrew walks the block without an umbrella, shuffling toward the waterfront. Passing the modest Jersey City skyscrapers, housing their insurance firms and their atria, GILLIGAN reaches a riverside park. There, aged chessplayers in raincoats sit at stone tables, pushing their pieces heedles of the drizzle. Occasionally Andrew is recognized by one of these players. They never turn to address hi, rather, they lean across the table, and speak a few words to their partners. GILLIGAN strides by.)

(Flipping up the collar of his coat, GILLIGAN walks out onto an abandoned pier. Seabirds flutter away as he walks forward. Ahead of him, through the mist, is the indifferent Hudson; across it, the ice-blue office towers of the greatest city in the history of the world. GILLIGAN looks down into the water.)

(Two huge pylons stand straight up before him, covered with seabirds. Looking to the left of them, GILLIGAN notices a tire, and a headless baby doll; city flotsam cast on the shores of the Hudson. Andrew casts his gaze to the right of it, and jumps out of his skin.)

(Standing firm and erect, waist deep in the water with his hands submerged, is Guy de Mauppassant RABINOWITZ. A huge black seagull, mouth open, perches on the top of his head.)

RABINOWITZ

Gee-lee-gahn!

GILLIGAN

Oh, my god, how did you, what the, what are you doing, why aren't you --

RABINOWITZ

Apparently you have never heard of ze French Resistance.

GILLIGAN

(Still too petrified to walk away.) No, no, I have.

RABINOWITZ

Convenient, yes, convenient eet would be for you, Gee-lee-gahn, to believe you had reed yourself of me, zat you had conquered me, taken zat wheech you wanted, and zen deesposed of me.

(The bird flutters.)

RABINOWITZ

Eet ees not so seemple. As zat.

GILLIGAN

What, what are you?

RABINOWITZ

I am going nowhere. And even eef you are angry wees me, you weel, eventually, see zings my way.

GILLIGAN

I, I don't think that's going to happen.

RABINOWITZ

Perhaps. But eef eet does not, ze company you keep, and ze place you have made for yourself, weel continue to hold you back. Your brain, eet has atrophied, surrounded by mediocrity. You weel make your choice, Gee-lee-gahn. You weel decide if you weesh to be... deesteenguished.

GILLIGAN

I don't feel surrounded by mediocrity.

RABINOWITZ

Zen you are not payeeng attention. Zen you are not payeeng attention to your friends, and what zey have chosen for zemselves.

(There's a pause.)

GILLIGAN

Guy de?

RABINOWITZ

Yes?

GILLIGAN

Can I ask you something?

RABINOWITZ

Make eet quick. I have much to do.

GILLIGAN

My father, is he really French?

RABINOWITZ

What do you zink?

GILLIGAN

I think maybe no.

RABINOWITZ

You don't know your fazzer. Don't know who your fazzer ees.

GILLIGAN

No.

RABINOWITZ

Perhaps we keep eet zis way. For now.

GILLIGAN

Okay. Um, goodbye.

RABINOWITZ

Oh, no. Never goodbye. Who on earzz do you zeenk you are?

(An image of BHOPAL, playing by himself at the Grove Street Chess Club.)

(An image of AUNT SHEULIE, getting ready for bed, but with dark lipstick still on, lighting a long, tapered candle.)

(An image of GENERICA and LUXOTTICA, sitting together in their cubicle. Night has fallen. GENERICA types, and talks into her headset, while LUXOTTICA takes a big, juicy bite out of a peach.)

(An image of ROB and MYRON, staring out the hospital window.)

(A quick image of the ghostly interior of the abandoned factory, a chess game still set up on a forlorn table.)

(Inside Andrew's ransacked bedroom. He hasn't managed to clean up a bit, and, apparently, old PHINEAS hasn't volunteered to help. GILLIGAN himself lays flat on his back on the bed, eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling. His clock reads 2:45 AM. Augie in the AM broadcasts from his radio reciever.)

DERWIN

...so, Aug, I says, pardon me, fellow, but you are racist against the German people. You are a racist, and I don't like that. I won't tolerate that.I'm not going to put up with it.

AUGIE

And nor should you.

DERWIN

Racism is a terrible thing, Augie. To me, alright, everybody is the same. I don't care if you're white, yellow, brown, blue with polka dots on top, it doesn't matter to me.

AUGIE

That's very well-put. Well said. We go to Nathaniel, in Massapequa. Nathaniel, how are you this evening?

NATHANIEL

Hi, I wanna comment on what that last caller just said.

AUGIE

That's what we're here for.

NATHANIEL

When he said about, it being good to be color-blind. I think that's wrong. I think, why, how blind do you have to be to be color-blind.

AUGIE

I don't follow.

NATHANIEL

When you, when you don't differentiate, when the whole world is telling you to differentiate, is what I'm saying. What I'm trying to say is, you can't ignore it, when everybody is thinking about it.

AUGIE

But you have to try, Nathaniel.

NATHANIEL

Well, who profits. If I, I am a poor man, and I forget that there is a rich man, then the rich man profits from my ignorance, is what I'm trying to say. But if I am a rich man, and I forget that there is a poor man, I profit even more. Do you know what I'm saying?

AUGIE

I think I do.

NATHANIEL

Because then I don't have to, I don't have to know, and face up to inequality, that already exists, is what I'm trying to say. Now transfer that onto white, and black.

AUGIE

I see your point.

NATHANIEL

So, so when you say, I don't even care, I don't even care, I say, care. Care, because it's ignorant to pretend that it isn't matter, that it doesn't matter more than anything, everything. Be conscious, you know what I'm saying? And if, and if you don't even see, then you've chosen, it's your choice to be blind to the facts, is what I'm trying to say. Pay attention, and acknowledge, what the whole world is telling you.

AUGIE

Uncle Augie holds out hope, hope that we can all live together without hate, regardless of race, color, or creed. Thanks for the call. We're talking to you, overnight, until the sun comes up, and then it's back to work, friends. Sorry to say.

(Sun comes up, it's Tuesday morning. GILLIGAN sits in the Chew-Z Cafe, at the counter. The SHORT ORDER COOK fries up an early morning truckburger for his favorite CUSTOMER. GILLIGAN talks to the SHORT ORDER COOK, who, keeping his back turne, is listening only out of the utmost politeness.)

GILLIGAN

So, it turns out, everybody is going away, all my friends are going away. I'm going to be left completely on my own.

SHORT ORDER COOK

At's a tough break.

GILLIGAN

And, for all of them, they all have this, I don't know, it's, they don't come out and say it, but, it's like they're all so happy to leave Jersey City. I mean, don't you, in your heart, don't you love Jersey City?

SHORT ORDER COOK

Sure. Sure I do.

GILLIGAN

I don't know, am I, um, am I a freak? I guess I'm about to find out, I'm going to be alone, I'll have lots of time to think about it.

CUSTOMER

Ah, sheddup already.

GILLIGAN

And I'm, what, what?

SHORT ORDER COOK

I think you're bothering the customers, kid.

GILLIGAN

Oh. Oh, well, I see. I see, I'm not even, welcome here, the place I come, to eat every day. I'm, I don't belong here, where do I belong?

SHORT ORDER COOK

I don't understand you, kid. This is the biggest city in New Jersey. Look around you, throw a brick, you hit about fifteen thousand people. How the hell you ever could be lonely?

GILLIGAN

You don't understand, I, I don't know those, I, mean, they aren't my people, I don't know of, there aren't any contexts in which I can really meet new people, you see?

CUSTOMER

(Turning up his nose.) Oh. Dey aren't his people.

SHORT ORDER COOK

Yeah. Go away, and go meet some people. Because you're driving the ones you already know fucking crazy.

GILLIGAN

(Exhaling.) You know, I think I'm going to take a break. I think I'm going to stop playing chess for awhile.

SHORT ORDER COOK

No kidding. I didn't know you played chest.

(GILLIGAN pauses. Suddenly, he begins to laugh; first, and inward chuckle, then a cascade. Smiling broadly, he takes money out of his pocket, slaps it down on the counter, and walks towards the exit. Pushing the door open, Andrew Gilligan, once and future chess champion, exits to Grove Street.)

CUSTOMER

(Gesturing with his thumb.) That's a weird fuckin guy.

 

FIN.

Take it from the top.