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Chapter 14 By Punkerslut
The camera shows Hey Kid on a water tower, doing just that. Slowly the camera fades to a picture of him, sleeping on top of card board in the water tower (the walkway part of it). The camera pans upward to the stars, and then fades to early morning (six o'clock early morning). The camera pans to an alleyway, the one where the store that had their rooftop was. A homeless person is pushing a cart of empty soda and beer cans, looking rather haggard in appearance. Some guy has a blanket covering him against one wall. Cars drive by, some of them honking. The steps of people can be heard, as they walk by. Joggers, people on their way to work (for either blue collar or white collar or "brown collar" jobs), go by. Then the camera pans towards what seems like a confused pile of thrown away newspapers. The wind blows a piece of newspaper off at the end, revealing boots, and then the whole pile of newspaper erupts, as Gunner sits up from underneath, and immediately gets on all fours and vomits, several times, pausing only once to look up at the sunrise for a brief second. GUNNER, VOICE OVER: Time to walk home, back to the squat.... The early morning walk home. The song "Never Want To Leave Home" by Justin Sane begins to play, as Gunner stands up, looks up to the sky, and then turns around heading down the alleyway. He turns for a moment and spits, removing a bit of extra vomit and saliva. Then the camera is in the room of the squat where all the kids sleep. The door opens. It's Gunner. Everyone is asleep. He takes out the subway sandwich, puts it next to Freak, and lays down next to her, wrapping his arm around the sleeping girl. He closes his eyes, lies still. She puts her hand on her forearm and pulls a little, with a smile. The sun rises, as it shines through the window, and all at the squat awake, slowly. The camera fades to Gunner lying on the floor alone. Kevin is intently reading a book by Noam Chomsky (it could be any book). GUNNER (just waking, disoriented): Huh? KEVIN: You passed out. We should leave soon. GUNNER: What time is it? SPIKE: Fuck if any of us know... Almost afternoon I'd guess. FREAK: The sun is at high noon. It beckons us. SPIKE: ... or what I said. GUNNER: Aaarghh... If there's one thing I value, it is the blessed sleep. Gunner rolls over onto his back and stretches out, with his eyes still closed, awake, but relaxing, and praying that he was asleep. LILY: Aaaawwww, isn't the little Gunner cute? Gunner smiles at the comment. FREAK: Aaaaawwww... Freak runs over, bends down, and kisses Gunner on the neck, making out with him for a few seconds. FREAK: Come on, get up, sweetie... Spike and Lily are buying us lunch. GUNNER: Whooo! Lunch! Gunner stretches more, still sleepy. It's obvious that he still won't get up for free lunch. GUNNER: Eeerghh.... do I have to go? FREAK: It'll be a hot meal. Something we never get. And thanks for the sandwich. It made well for a breakfast. I thought of you while I ate it. Could you feel it? Gunner sits open and struggles to open his eyes. GUNNER: Okay, I'm up. The camera cuts to the group walking on the sidewalk, all of them heading to the McDonald's. Spike is carrying a bottle of Everclear (150 proof alcohol). SPIKE: Thing is... Morning is the greatest time to get up and get drunk. Because it's the happiness that lasts. KEVIN: Doesn't last nearly long enough. SPIKE: Granted. Spike takes a swig and passes the bottle to Kevin. KEVIN: Uuhhh... I 'unno. I mean, straight vodka is one thing. This is like, uhhh, here, Gunner, you take. Gunner takes the bottle from Kevin. GUNNER: At least this is real alcohol. Gunner takes a long chug and then hands it to Freak. GUNNER (looking exasperated): Yeah, now that was harsh, motherfucker. Come on, take a sip, Kevin. Kevin hesitatingly takes the glass and tries to sip it. As he does, Spike lifts the bottom of the bottle up, causing Kevin to choke on it and spit some out. KEVIN: Aw, that was awful, you asshole.... Hey, Gunner, what the hell did you do last night anyway? You never came back to the squat. GUNNER: Aw, you know. Hey Kid and I found a shitload of hard liquor and we decided to get hammered. FREAK: Mmmmmmm, such heart-warming stories, Gunner. Sometimes I wish I were you. LILY: Oh, that's normal. GUNNER: Where the fuck is Sweep, anyway? SPIKE: I thought he was with you? GUNNER: My ass... I so was alone with Hey Kid when we hit up the dumpsters. KEVIN: (mumbling) I thought he was with you... (pointing to Spike) SPIKE: (shrug) Not I. LILY: Don't worry, you guys... This morning, I was disturbed by someone walking. It was Sweep. He left early. He said he was going to walking around the early morning to enjoy the stars while they were still out. SPIKE: What a weird little man. And he has my blessings. With that, Spike takes another chug of his Everclear. LILY: Does someone want to find him and tell him that we're buying lunch for everyone? KEVIN (eyeballing Spike): Come on, we're all waiting for you to say 'no, ixnay, Lily.' SPIKE: Hey, fuck you.... If this wasn't 150 proof alcohol, you'd be wearing it. Spike takes a chug, looks at the bottle, looks at Kevin, growls, looks back at the bottle, and takes another chug. GUNNER: So, who wants to go on a quest for the alluring Sweep? KEVIN: I shall endeavor on this quest, fellow mates. See you at the McDonald's. I'll scour the streets with the bars. LILY: Don't forget the underground record shops. KEVIN: Yeah, those, too. FREAK: He likes to hang around that water tower thing, too. KEVIN: Aw, man, how long is this gonna take? And will I get this time back at a later time in life? GUNNER: This journey is going to take away thirty seven minutes from your life. Thirty seven minutes that you will never get back.... now chop chop! KEVIN: All right, I'll catch you guys later. Kevin heads off in another direction. The camera slowly moves up towards the sky, with a bird's eye view, watching the crew, as the song "I still love you Julie" by Against Me! begins to play. The camera fades to a scene where all of them are at McDonald's eating: Gunner, Kevin, Spike and Lily, Freak, and Sweep. The volume of the music is lowered for a voice over by Gunner... GUNNER, VOICE OVER: Spike and Lily bought us each two sandwiches, and two large orders of French fries for community use. It was nice to have warm, hot food for once. Something that shoplifting can't always acquire. Finally, sitting down eating warm food was too easy for Kevin... Kevin gets up out of his chair and sits at a table with two yuppies (one wearing a Nike shirt). He talks to them.... GUNNER, VOICE OVER: So he decided to interrogate some yuppies about their support of Nike clothing. I'm not sure any more if we do it because politics means something to us or if we feel awkward without having some trouble.
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