By Misti Velvet Rainwater
Date: 18 March 2000
SCENE 69
SCENE 69-INT.-A bar in downtown San Antonio. Night.
It's an old bar. Small. Dark. Two pool tables. A bar.
A jukebox. Regular patrons. Derek is one of 'em.
The name of the bar is Flicker. The owner of the bar,
one Jiminy Blevins, is an old poet. He thinks that
Timothy Leary is God. He says that when he dies he'll
be in the 60s again. But it'll be better. No Vietnam,
no money, no Jefferson Airplane, etc. etc.
Derek is sitting at the bar talking to Jiminy. Derek
is smoking a pack of Marlboro reds and drinking a
bottle of Miller Genuine Draft, or MGD.
Music: "Pancho and Lefty" by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard
Jiminy: That's what I'm trying to tell you, man. You aren't
tuning in. You're on some other level.
Derek: I'm right on the level, man. I'm in the here and now.
Your ass is stuck in the Summer of Love.
Jiminy: That's irrelevant. What does time have to do with
anything? That's your biggest problem, man. You're linear.
Now this woman of yours, she knows. Believe me, man. She
knows! How many chics would take an old dude to Las Vegas?
I tell you what...if you don't marry her, I will.
Derek: Jiminy Cricket. The voice of reason. Sell it to
Pinnochio, man. I ain't buyin' it.
Jiminy: Listen, all you see around this town are plastic,
spastic, elastic pseudo women with dollar signs in their
eyeballs and egos the size of Chernobyl. If you want to
screw around and piss away your chance at a stellar woman,
so be it. I'm just a bartender. What the fuck do I know?
Derek: How can you be 53 years old and still believe in
love? You've been married five times, you never see your
kids, but you have all the answers?
Jiminy: No one has all the answers. Not even Timothy Leary
or Henry Miller or Hunter S. Thompson. But I know the truth
when I see it. So I've made a few mistakes and had shitty
luck. I still know a good woman when I see one. Or hear about
one, in this case.
Derek: I know Becca is a good woman. There's no doubt about that.
But am I a good man?
Jiminy: She can help you become one. She can fix whatever's
broken. A good woman can see all that blackness inside you
and kiss it until it's white light.
(Music changes to "Woman" by John Lennon)
Derek: Great timing.
Jiminy: That's a sign, man. This Becca...she's your Yoko Ono.
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