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Chapter 35 By Punkerslut
The camera fades to black. It then opens on a night scene. Gunner and Rat are standing outside of the park. Rat's back is leaning against the park fence, while Gunner is kissing, biting, and sucking her neck, and he's extremely drunk. It's not raining out, but the streets are wet with a few puddles, but not soaked. Maybe it rained four or six hours ago. The heavy blare of street traffic can be heard, of pedestrians jaywalking and running across when it is illegal, of cars beeping and honking at each other and their misfortune with the road. A group of working class people walk by talking loudly about this or that, all of them carrying drinks, and walk past the rather uneventful scene of squatters necking. As he tries to neck with her, her leather collar with studs on it gets in the way. GUNNER: Heh... RAT: Hey, let me take it off. GUNNER: Take it all off, baby... Don't tease me. Rat takes off her collar. GUNNER: Hey, look up. He does, and then she places the collar on his neck. GUNNER: Neat... RAT: Hey, back to your position... (smile) He goes back to necking with her... RAT: One second, honey, I'm hungry... I'm gonna steal some cheese from the grocery store. GUNNER: Steal is such a harsh word. You're going to borrow it without paying them back, hehe... RAT: Whatever you want to call it. (smile) GUNNER: Repossess! We're the repo-men of the world! RAT: I'll be right back, Gunner... Stay right here, and remember, shiny things are not the best things in the world. Rat leans Gunner up against the fence. GUNNER: Hey, just what are implying...? Hey, let me shoplift the cheese for you... Gunner reaches out to Rat and tries to take a step forward, but falls down, landing on his one knee and his other side. GUNNER: Uh, heh, I can still get it. RAT: You're drunk and you know the rules. No shoplifting when you're drunk. GUNNER: Anarchy means no rules! RAT: Come on.... I'll be back in only a few minutes, I promise. GUNNER: Okay, I can please myself with myself for a few minutes, I guess. (big grin) RAT: Okay, stay right here, I'll be right back. She walks away, as he stands there, leaning against the fence. He's watching Rat walk away. Only twenty feet away, she turns and smiles at Gunner, he waves and she turns back to walking. He then stops leaning against the fence, and tries to balance himself, and then starts walking a little forward, awkwardly, heading towards Rat. GUNNER, VOICE OVER: When you're this fucked up, off of booze and Vicadin, you have to learn again how to walk, and even then, you feel a little embarrassed that a four year old appears to be a master of something that has you baffled. One rule when you're this fucked up. Don't do anything stupid. Well, actually, if you didn't do anything stupid, you sure as shit wouldn't be having fun, and then drugs become a pointless escape. Don't do anything that'll land your ass in some place where you can't do drugs. In other words, jail. Rehab isn't necessarily where you can't do drugs so much as they shove them down your throat, excusing it as treatment. Gunner struggles to walk. The camera views him from in front, as he is looking down while he is making his steps. GUNNER, VOICE OVER: Left, right, left... left... (heavy breathing) Gunner stops in his tracks and turns his head to his left. He sees Rat in the grocery store through the store windows. He smiles. GUNNER, VOICE OVER: Smart fuckin' girl, but everyone learns to shoplift eventually. At least, when you're on the streets. Maybe that's an essential part of any culture: a system of learning. If that's the case, education on the street means learning how to rip off big corporations. I could name a thousand scams. You run into some valuable merchandise? Pawn broker. They're gonna ask you if you're pawning it for yourself or for someone else. Say yourself, unless you're fond of seeing flashing red and blue lights. Found a sledgehammer in a dumpster? You just found an access key to the jackpot of every parking meter and phone booth. Have willpower and starvation? Break into parked cars and steal the change in the ashtray and the CDs. Used CD stores will buy those from you. A hundred thousand scams, so that we can perpetuate the way we live, and maybe kick it around this bleak world just another five years, forgotten and missed so dearly. Want some quick cash? Head on down to the social security office and sign up for a food stamp card. What's the scam? You get fed. Or, you trade in the card to local groceries in exchange for cash.... Which rarely happens. The camera focuses on Gunner's face as he closes his eyes and smiles a euphoric, drunken grin. He puts his arm out and then falls against a store wall, leaning. A yuppy walking by... GUNNER: Excuse me? Can you spare a cigarette? The yuppy gives him one. GUNNER: Thanks. The yuppy keeps walking. Gunner looks over to the store. He can't see Rat. GUNNER: Hhhhmmmm, wonder where she went... A working class female walks by Gunner. GUNNER: Excuse me? Could you spare a light? She pulls out a book of matches and hands it to him. WOMAN: There, that should last you a while. GUNNER: Thanks, that's very charitable of you. (smile) He lights the cigarette and starts smoking. He puts the rest of the matches in his pocket. GUNNER, VOICE OVER: Those will go to starting a trash bin fire later tonight. He goes to take another puff of his cigarette, only to notice that it's not lit. GUNNER: Fuck... He takes out the whole book of matches, tears off the cover, lights one, applies the flame to all the matches, and lights the end of his cigarette. GUNNER: How's that for fuckin' charity... Gunner looks over and sees that a police car pulls up to the store that Rat was in. He lowers his eyes and focuses on it. A cop jumps out and goes into the store. GUNNER: The fuck is goin' on over there? The cop comes out with Rat in handcuffs. She looks over and sees Gunner, and she has a look of dread and pain on her face. The cigarette drops out of Gunner's mouth. The song "61C Days Turned to Nights" by Justin Sane plays. The cruiser speeds off. Gunner starts running down the sidewalk. He runs past one gutter, a few yuppies, and a few working class people. He runs into Spike and Lily. He grabs spike by the shoulders. GUNNER: Spike! They took her! The cops, they... Gunner lets go and leans against the fence covering the park, and vomits. SPIKE: Are you okay, Gunner? What the fuck happened, man? Come on, fuckin' tell me... GUNNER: The cops.... she's arrested. He vomits again. LILY: Gunner, please tell me that you're okay... GUNNER: No, no.... no... He contains himself a little bit, stops leaning and faces Spike and Lily. Tears are running down his face. GUNNER: Rat's arrested. She was caught shoplifting. Spike puts his hand on Gunner's shoulder. His eyes are fixed on the pavement. SPIKE: Aw, dude, I'm fuckin' sorry. But, it's only some time that you'll be apart. You'll see her again. Show up to court, pretend to be a brother, and maybe they'll dismiss the charges. You know how it works, hehe... GUNNER: No, it doesn't work like that. His eyes lift off the ground and meet Spike's. GUNNER: She's sixteen years old. She won't go to jail, she won't serve time, she won't fucking pass go. She'll be in custody and then shipped out to where her parents are. LILY: Where's that? Gunner looks down again and starts crying. GUNNER: I don't know, otherwise I'd take the next freight out of here to it, so I could be waiting for her on her doorstep. Gunner wipes his tears on the sleeve of his trench coat and walks past the couple. Spike grabs Lily and looks into her eyes, mournfully. Three seconds pass, and Gunner is still walking past them. Spike turns to Gunner and follows him. SPIKE: Gunner, if you need someone to talk to, or some alcohol, or anything.... Spike stops, and Gunnery keeps walking. SPIKE: You can always count on me... (shouting, as Gunner keeps walking and is further away now) Even if you need to be alone! Spike stands there, looking at Gunner. The camera is watching all this go down from the sky. Spike just stands there, watching Gunner... Lily walks over to her boyfriend, from behind and puts her hand on his stomach. He waits, a few seconds, and then puts his arm around Lily, and keeps walking, away from Gunner. The camera watches Gunner walk away from the couple from behind. He's just trekking forward. GUNNER, VOICE OVER: It's very awkward... In a single moment, a single action, one or two words, and your intoxication turns to painful sobriety. The euphoria dies in your spirit, as you try and tackle the situation you are presented with. It seems that no matter what angle you come from, you can't wholly and fully accept it. Of course, I'm still glad that I'm drunk when this shit happened. It hit me with less ferocity.
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