GOLDEN
the movie
by Tom Lichtenberg
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2009 by Tom Lichtenberg
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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INT. BOOKSTORE - DAY
Fading in with the opening of 'This Train' by Bunny Wailer, a man (WOLFF) sits behind the counter of a small old-fashioned bookstore. The time is the mid 1970's. The man is white, thin, middle-aged (40's), clean shaven, hair mostly gray. The store is quiet. There are no customers. He is reading a paperback book ('Ubik', by Philip K Dick) when a LITTLE BELL RINGS and the door opens, and another man enters the store. This man (RONSON) is wearing a Hawaiian shirt and is younger, in his mid-thirties, wearing glasses, and bearded. He comes up to the counter.
RONSON
Good choice.
WOLFF
Not sure I get it, though.
No need. I like a story you can just enjoy while it's happening, and think about it later.
Looking for something in particular?
Actually, I'm looking for someone. It's very important I find him.
Ronson turns away and pulls something out of his pocket - a small gadget of sorts, like some kind of PDA from the lights and sounds it makes. He begins to touch the screen and a picture emerges of a face - it is the face of a man we will soon come to know as GOLDEN. Ronson turns back and shows it to Wolff.
I was wondering if you've seen him.
Wolff takes the device and holds it in his hands - in closeup he turns the device over a couple of times, and as we see the rest of him again, he is somehow younger, wearing glasses and has a beard, while Ronson is now older and clean shaven - it is as if their bodies have partially switched places. They are still recognizably who they were before, but altered. Also the device is no longer present, but there are a few books on the counter, and Wolff proceeds to ring them up. The previous conversation is as if it had never occurred.
That will be eight forty nine.
Here's ten.
OK. Fifty one makes nine and one is ten.
Wolff puts the books in a bag along with the receipt and hands it to Ronson, who picks it up.
Thank you.
Thanks. Goodbye.
Ronson leaves the store and the little bell rings again. Wolff returns to his reading, but moments later the little bell rings once more and two men rush into the store. JIMMY, a medium-sized wiry Caucasian, is all in camouflage green, and RILEY, a tall, large black man, is dressed in a sort of Union soldier garb, blue with gold.
Good morning, can I help you?
JIMMY
Actually we're looking for someone. Thought he might have come in here.
RILEY
(glancing around)
Doesn't look like you get a lot of business.
It's still early.
He was wearing one of those Hawaiian shirts. Dark hair, glasses, beard.
Don't know about the beard, but the Hawaiian shirt ... Man wearing that was here just a moment ago.
Damn.
Riley dashes back into the street. It is a warm, sunny day.
Did you happen to notice which way he went?
Sorry, no.
Jimmy walks out and joins Riley on the sidewalk. No one is there except for a black family - an older father, his teenage son, and a little girl.
Could be anywhere.
Anywhere? Hell, he could be anyone! Didn't he tell us to always stick together? Always stay in pairs?
We gotta find him. What are we going to do without the captain?
Shit. And we can't split up to look for him.
OK. Which way?
Might as well go back to the station.
Jimmy and Riley rush off down the street, as the family reaches the bookstore.
MYRON enters the bookstore, saying goodbye to his DAD and sister LEDGE
MYRON
Bye Dad. Bye Ledge. See you tonight.
DAD
Work hard, son. Nothing comes from nothing.
Don't worry, dad. Be good, Ledge
LEDGE
I'm always good.
Dad and Ledge walk away as Myron enters the store to the tinkle of the little bell. Wolff is still sitting behind the counter.
Good morning, Myron.
Hi, Tim. What have we got today?
There's a shipment from Bantam came in this morning. I was saving it for you. Otherwise there isn't much to do.
OK. Maybe I'll do some overstock later.
Good idea. I was thinking we'd close up for lunch and stop by Luigi's. What do you say?
I say you always want to go to Luigi's when that girl Lacey's gonna be there.
(puzzled)
Lacey?
Yeah right, play it cool. I know you. How come you never ask her out?
Ask her out?
If that's how you want to play it. I'll go get started on that shipment now.
INT. LUIGI'S RESTAURANT - DAY
Later that day, WOLFF and MYRON are waiting to be seated at Luigi's. LUIGI, an old man, is at the grill as usual, occasionally BELTING OUT a line from some Italian folk song. A middle-aged, heavy woman, THERESA, is at the counter, joking with a group of old men.
THERESA
You giving me special grief today or what?
GEEZER #1
Whatever you're taking.
GEEZER # 2
That's rich. Whatever she's taking. Ha!
LACEY, a dark-haired beauty in her mid-thirties, approaches Wolff and Myron and beckons them to a table in the middle of the restaurant. There are other assorted groups of people throughout the place. Luigi BELTS OUT another line.
That guy's been singing the same songs for more than thirty years.
He's probably too busy to learn any new ones.
Some people never get out of their past. Not me. What do I care about yesterday when today's got so much going on?
LACEY
What can I get you gentlemen to drink?
Lemonade, please.
The same, thank you.
Coming right up.
(departs)
What's up with you? How come you're not flirting with her?
Why would I do that?
Tim! You're in love with her, remember?
Yeah? You'd think I'd remember something like that. Huh.
You're just playing with me.
No. Listen. I was just thinking about something. If you could see me from the outside, if you were standing somewhere outside of time, you would see me in the same place every day, same job, same lunch, same everything, and you would think that maybe I got stuck somehow. Like a bug in amber. Like that waitress there.
That waitress? You mean Lacey, the love of your life? "That" waitress? What's got into you, man?
Yeah, got stuck. You just show up somewhere one day, and there you are for the next twenty years. You sure didn't know that was gonna happen when you first walked in that door. It was just that way with me, the day I opened the store.
Not me. I'm not getting stuck. I've got other plans.
Gonna get out of this dump?
I figure my ticket out is college. If I can pull that off, maybe I can get somewhere.
I know you can.
First I'll finish high school, of course. Then I have to get that scholarship money. You sure don't pay me enough to get through college.
(laughing)
I would if I could, you know.
I know. Excuse me.
Myron gets up to go to the bathroom. Turning suddenly, he collides with Lacey who is just bringing the two lemonades. Myron and Lacey get drenched as the glasses smash on the floor. At the same time, the two of them look at each other and BURST OUT LAUGHING. Wolff starts laughing too.
Suddenly there is a VERY LOUD CLAP OF THUNDER and a simultaneous FLASH OF LIGHTNING. Pan outside the window to a downpour, getting louder and louder, rain heavier and heavier as the scene fades out
INT. COLLEGE CLASSROOM - DAY
Booms, and then rumbles of thunder continue, but fading. Sound of heavy rain battering against the window. It's thirty years later, and we pull back to see we are inside a college classroom. GOLDEN, a black man in his late 40's, stands in front of a small class. He is dressed formally, in a suit and tie. The classroom is temporary, cheap; it's a city college, not a university. The class contains students of various ages and ethnicities. Golden stands in front of two maps of the world - one showing the nations, the other showing what looks like climate zones.
There are two basic categories of disaster - man-made and natural. When a war wipes out a people, we call it genocide. When a hurricane or a flood does the same thing, we say it's 'an act of God', but in our time, that line is beginning to blur. Natural disasters are becoming more and more a combination "act-of-god-and-man". Carbon emissions heat up the oceans, making hurricanes more powerful, which leads to floods overwhelming construction defects and entire cities are wiped off the map. What are we supposed to call this new kind of calamity?
A young Chinese-American man speaks up, to laughter
STUDENT # 1
Maybe God is working in less mysterious ways these days.
An older woman in the class raises her hand and speaks when called on
STUDENT #2
I suppose it doesn't make much difference what you call it, not if you're one of the people caught in it.
I suppose it doesn't. So much of our lives depends upon the accident of when and where we're born, the times we live in, the opportunities we have, or don't.
A middle-aged, middle-management-type Caucasian man interjects.
STUDENT #3
I say we're exactly who we're meant to be.
See, I don't agree. We are who we become. If you and I were born in a different time and place, we wouldn't be the same as we are now.
There's a reason for everything.
There's an explanation.
(beat)
That's different.
Golden turns his back to the class and resumes his lecture, with a pointer indicating various areas of the posted maps.
Born here a thousand years ago, chances are you'd never see thirty, but if you're born over here at the same time, you might well see forty-five, and if you're born today in Wetford, you're liable to double that.
(pause)
When you say you're exactly who you're meant to be, I don't know what you mean by that. I'm not the same as I was twenty years ago, are you?
Well, no
So if you never get a chance to grow up, or grow old, or be free, or be healthy ... I don't even like to think about what God has in mind when thousands of children die every day right now from malaria or starvation. If that's what's "meant to be", I don't approve of that intention.
But we were talking about the climate change. Let's take a look back at some earlier episodes in history. I think you'll see some interesting consistencies.
(FADE OUT)
EXT. trolley ride home - EVENING
Golden waits at a modern light-rail stop downtown. It is still raining, but lightly, drizzling. Behind him a city block contains office buildings, a government building, and the street is filled with traffic. A light-rail train approaches.
...
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