Simpatico Page 3

  VINNIE: I never pretended with Rosie.

  CARTER: No, but you know what I mean.

  VINNIE: I know what you mean but I never pretended with her. I never had to pretend with Rosie.

  CARTER: All right—

  VINNIE: You’re not trying to imply that me and her had some superficial thing going, are you?

  CARTER: No, I’m just saying—

  VINNIE: That suddenly you came along and she saw the light?

  CARTER: No! She seemed to have this idea in her head. And I don’t know where it came from.

  VINNIE: What idea?

  CARTER: That I was her—ticket—out. I guess.

  VINNIE: Well, you were, weren’t you? She got what she wanted.

  CARTER: No. No, she didn’t.

  VINNIE: Oh. Well, what happened, Carter? Come on. You can tell me. We’re old buddies. Confidants. We’ve been through the wars together.

  CARTER: I don’t know what happened.

  VINNIE: Things went sour?

  CARTER: Yeah. Very suddenly.

  VINNIE: Things went a little limp in the sack, did they?

  CARTER: No. She—(Stops himself.)

  VINNIE: What?

  CARTER: I’ve gotta get going, Vinnie. I really do.

  VINNIE: Hang on, hang on. She found someone else. Is that it?

  CARTER: No!

  VINNIE: Here, take another pull.

  VINNIE offers CARTER the bottle. CARTER takes it and drinks, hands it back.

  CARTER: I didn’t want to get into this!

  VINNIE: Well, I didn’t realize there was any big trauma. I thought you and Rosie were—

  CARTER: We’re not!

  VINNIE: You wanna—sit down and talk about it?

  CARTER: No! I do not want to sit down and talk about it! I’ve got no business here! I’ve gotta get back. I don’t have time to fuck around here with your personal problems, Vinnie!

  VINNIE: My personal problems?

  CARTER: That’s right. That’s why I’m out here, in case you forgot.

  VINNIE: Well, maybe I could help you out, Carter.

  CARTER: You?

  VINNIE: Yeah. Maybe I could help you out with Rosie. I don’t know.

  CARTER: You could help me out with Rosie? What is wrong with you, Vinnie?

  VINNIE: I don’t know. Seems like it’d be a fair exchange. I help you out with Rosie, you could help me out with Cecilia.

  CARTER: Cecilia?

  VINNIE: This girl.

  CARTER: The one who had you popped?

  VINNIE: Yeah. That one.

  CARTER: I don’t know how your mind operates, Vinnie. You don’t give two shits about this girl, do you? You’re just looking for a way to sabotage me.

  VINNIE: Sabotage you?

  CARTER: Yeah! Plotting behind my back. What else have you got to do, laying around here with your bottle and your bullshit detective paraphernalia? Dream up ways stab me in the back!

  VINNIE: I was just making an offer, Carter. That’s all I was doing. A friendly gesture. I know how—painful it can be, see—When things—fall apart.

  Pause.

  CARTER: I am leaving, Vinnie! I am walking out this door and you can take all the junk you’ve supposedly got on me and turn it in.

  VINNIE: You don’t want me to do that.

  CARTER: Gather it all up and trundle it down to the local PD! Tell them your amazing tale! Tell them how come you’ve waited fifteen years before you revealed all the slimey facts! Tell them how much you want to go to prison right along with me! I’m sure they’ll be more than willing to re-open the case. There’s such a scarcity of dramatic crime these days!

  VINNIE: I’ll make you a deal.

  CARTER: Oh, now you’re gonna make me a deal? Stick it where it fits, Vinnie!

  VINNIE: Just listen to me.

  CARTER: I made you an offer but all you wanna do is jerk me around! Play this little psycho-game of how you’re really the big dog pushing all the buttons. All you are is a scumbag fugitive from the law, Vinnie! A fleeing felon! That’s all you are. A low-life punk who gets busted for harassing women. Good luck, pal.

  VINNIE: No wait! Just hang on a second.

  CARTER: You can’t hurt me, Vinnie. You’ve hurt yourself too much.

  VINNIE: Just do me one favor, okay? One last favor. I haven’t asked you for many favors over the years, have I?

  CARTER: Are you begging now?

  VINNIE: Yeah. Yeah, I guess I am.

  CARTER: You’re begging. That’s better.

  VINNIE: Yeah.

  CARTER: That’s more in line with how it should be.

  VINNIE: Yeah. Yeah, I guess you’re right.

  CARTER: What kinda favor do you want, Vinnie?

  VINNIE: I got—used to talking to this girl. I liked talking to her. She’s—nice, ya know. She’s not Rosie but she’s—nice.

  CARTER: A nice girl.

  VINNIE: Yeah.

  CARTER: And you want me to tell her what a nice guy you are, right? What a sweetheart you are, deep down.

  VINNIE: You don’t have to lie. Just—

  CARTER: Make up a story.

  VINNIE: Tell her—how I used to be.

  CARTER: When was that?

  VINNIE: Back—you know—When we were runnin’ claimers. In the old days, you know.

  CARTER: Oh yeah. You were pretty nice back then.

  VINNIE: We had some laughs.

  CARTER: We did.

  VINNIE: Tell her how we used to swap those two geldings around—you know. How the money was flying.

  CARTER: Back before Simms got wind of it, you mean?

  VINNIE: Don’t mention anything about him. There’s no reason to.

  CARTER: He’s changed his name, you know.

  VINNIE: Simms?

  CARTER: Yeah. I set him up with a bloodstock agency back there. Selling seasons and shares. Dabbling in pedigrees. He’s doing all right for himself.

  VINNIE: Changed his name?

  CARTER: Calls himself “Ames” or something. Ryan Ames, I think it is.

  VINNIE: Seasons and shares? Simms?

  CARTER: Yeah. What’s so surprising about that? He was always very industrious.

  VINNIE: So that means there’s two of us collecting hush money off you?

  CARTER: It’s not hush money! I just thought it was the least I could do for him, after he—stepped aside.

  VINNIE: Well, he must’ve been very grateful. How much do you give him a month?

  CARTER: I don’t give him anything! He’s got a job. He’s independent.

  VINNIE: Does he get more than I do?

  CARTER: He’s got nothing but a job, Vinnie! That’s all. An opportunity to put himself back on track. The difference is that he took advantage of it.

  VINNIE: The difference?

  CARTER: Between you and him.

  VINNIE: Oh, yeah.

  CARTER: Now what’s this big favor?

  VINNIE: What?

  CARTER: With the girl—Cynthia or whatever her name is.

  VINNIE: Cecilia.

  CARTER: Cecilia, yeah.

  VINNIE: I can’t believe Simms is back in the mainstream, selling seasons and shares. Doesn’t anybody recognize him?

  CARTER: He changed his name.

  VINNIE: “Ames”? “Ryan Ames”? What is he, impersonating an Irishman or something? Right in the middle of Lexington?

  CARTER: Midway.

  VINNIE: Ah. Midway. So you’ve got him tucked away too.

  CARTER: Some people have the capacity to take their knocks and keep on going, Vinnie.

  VINNIE: I guess—Midway. That’s quaint.

  CARTER: Some people even get stronger from it.

  VINNIE: I tried, Carter. It wasn’t from a lack of trying. I’ve changed my name a dozen times and nothing came of it. I’ve moved all over the place. I was in Texas for a while, remember? Arizona. Nothing came from any of it. I just got—further and further—removed.

  CARTER: Well, let me try to talk to this girl f
or you.

  VINNIE: I don’t know. I don’t know if she’s the answer. I mean—

  CARTER: Let me just talk to her. She might come around.

  VINNIE: I was thinking, you know—What I was going to tell you was that if you could get her to change her mind about me—Maybe get her to come over here and talk to me about the whole business—What I was thinking was—

  CARTER: What?

  VINNIE: That I’d hand over all—the stuff. Let you have it.

  CARTER: All the negatives?

  VINNIE: Everything.

  CARTER: You’ve still got it all?

  VINNIE: Yeah. It’s all in a shoe-box. It’s all stacked very neatly in there. Not a speck of dust on anything. I check it all on a regular basis.

  CARTER: Good.

  VINNIE: I check it every night before I go to bed. Some of—the letters—kinda take me back.

  CARTER: You still have them? All the letters?

  VINNIE: Every one.

  CARTER: All the pictures?

  VINNIE: Yeah. All but a couple.

  CARTER: There’s a couple missing?

  VINNIE: Two. Yeah. But I know where they are.

  CARTER: You gave them to someone?

  VINNIE: It’s all right.

  CARTER: Who’d you give them to, Vinnie?

  VINNIE: It’s all right.

  CARTER: WHO’D YOU GIVE THEM TO!

  VINNIE: Cecilia. She has them. She’s got them in a safe place.

  CARTER: Why’d you give them to Cecilia, Vinnie!

  VINNIE: Just—I loaned them to her as proof.

  CARTER: Proof of what?

  VINNIE: That I actually am a detective.

  Pause.

  CARTER: Give me her address.

  VINNIE: You’re gonna talk to her?

  CARTER: Just—give me the address, Vinnie!

  VINNIE: You’re gonna talk to her about me or are you gonna ask her for the pictures back?

  CARTER: I’m going to talk to her about you. I’m going to, very calmly, explain to her the roots of your particular insanity.

  VINNIE: No, don’t tell her that. She already thinks I’m crazy.

  CARTER: She’s right.

  VINNIE: That’s not gonna help! I don’t want her coming over here out of pity!

  CARTER: What difference does it make why she comes? Once she’s here you can line things out with her. Vindicate yourself.

  VINNIE: I AM NOT GUILTY!!

  Pause.

  CARTER: No. No, you’re not, Vinnie. And I’ll make sure she understands that. I’ll make sure she sees that your downfall was the result of bad company. Nothing else. Just plain old bad company.

  Pause. CARTER moves downstage, then suddenly remembers something and turns to VINNIE.

  CARTER: What year was that Buick, anyway? You remember?

  VINNIE: ’58.

  CARTER: ’58. Well, maybe I’ll try to find you another one, Vinnie.

  Blackout.

  Act Two

  SCENE ONE

  Stage is divided in half. Stage-right half is occupied by CECILIA’s house. Above this set is another place-name card that reads—“SANDIMAS”. The interior is very simple, 1940s style with a few plants and a “woman’s touch” about it. Sofa and chair with coffee table between them. Curtained windows, again looking out into black. Stage-left set is in blackness and should “disappear” as much as possible. Lights up stage right on CECILIA in action, serving tea on a tray to CARTER who is seated on sofa facing her. CECILIA is a very attractive yet slightly eccentric dark-haired woman in her mid-thirties. She wears a brightly flowered Japanese silk robe. Her hair up off her neck but unruly strands are dangling free.

  CECILIA (serving tea on coffee table): So, you and Vinnie go back a long way, huh?

  CARTER: Yeah, that’s right. We do. Clear back to the fifties in fact.

  CECILIA: That far?

  CARTER: Back to the days of “I LIKE IKE”.

  CECILIA: That’s hard to believe.

  CARTER: Why’s that?

  CECILIA: I don’t know. It’s hard to believe he’s ever known anyone for any length of time. He’s such a loner.

  CARTER: Well, he wasn’t always like that, you know.

  CECILIA: Like what?

  CARTER: Separate. I mean—remote, like he is.

  CECILIA (offering tea): Milk and honey?

  CARTER: Oh, no thanks. Just black or—whatever you call it.

  CECILIA: Tea. I call it tea.

  CARTER: Yes. I’m used to drinking coffee, I guess. You know—black coffee. Force of habit.

  CECILIA: Oh, I’m sorry. I should have asked. I’m strictly a tea drinker myself. Don’t even keep coffee in the house. It gets me rattled.

  CARTER: That’s all right. This is fine.

  CECILIA: Are you sure? I’ve got hot chocolate if you want. Ovaltine.

  CARTER: No. This is great.

  CECILIA: I’ve got little miniature marshmallows.

  CARTER: No, really.

  Pause.

  CECILIA: I got into it in London. Back in the seventies.

  CARTER: What?

  CECILIA: Tea.

  CARTER: Oh. I see. But you’re not English, are you?

  CECILIA: No, no. Missouri. Independence, Missouri. “Home of Harry Truman”. “Plain-Talkin’ Harry”.

  CARTER: Right. Independence. Mark Twain’s from there too, isn’t he?

  CECILIA: No, that’s Hannibal. Hannibal, Missouri.

  CARTER: Oh, that’s right! Hannibal. I get them confused.

  CECILIA: They just had the flood.

  CARTER: Right.

  CECILIA: Haven’t been back there since I left.

  CARTER (glancing at his watch): I’ll be darned.

  CECILIA: I’ve got no nostalgia about the place. “Americana” bores the shit out of me. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Who are they kidding? I went straight to London and never looked back.

  CARTER: Well—That must’ve been kind of a shock, huh?

  CECILIA: It was, but I loved it. London. Sipping tea and reading Byron, you know. I still think of it as home actually.

  CARTER: Is that right.

  CECILIA: It’s the dampness I think. The moisture in the air. Something haunting about it. All that history.

  CARTER: Right.

  CECILIA: Hounds.

  CARTER: What?

  CECILIA: Hunting to hounds.

  CARTER: Oh, right. Look—Vinnie was wondering—

  CECILIA: But you and Vinnie are from around here originally?

  CARTER: Yes. Yes, we are as a matter of fact. Only about ten miles away. Cucamonga. Pretty boring. “Home of Grapes”.

  CECILIA: Grapes?

  CARTER: Yeah. Used to be nothing but vineyards as far as the eye could see. Cheap grapes—you know. “Ripple”. “Thunderbird”. Nothing fancy. Headache wine.

  CECILIA: Hard to think of anybody being actually from this area.

  CARTER: It is, isn’t it. But it’s true. Born and raised.

  CECILIA: You went to school together?

  CARTER: Yes, we did. From the sixth grade on.

  CECILIA: Sixth grade? So you must have been through a lot then, huh? Lots of ups and downs.

  CARTER: We have.

  CECILIA: There’s something nice about that—Having an ongoing friendship. Must give you a real sense of continuity.

  CARTER: Well—

  CECILIA: I miss that myself.

  CARTER: What.

  CECILIA: Continuity. Everything seems so busted up to me. Like I’ve lived a dozen different lives. But a long-lasting friendship—That must be a very nice thing to have.

  CARTER: Well—yes and no.

  CECILIA: Oh, I suppose there’s times when you’d just as soon throw in the towel. Go your separate ways.

  CARTER: There are. Yes.

  CECILIA: But then you must just see yourself through those rough spots because you realize the value of continuity. “Perseverance Furthers”. Remember that?

  CARTER
: What?

  CECILIA: The I-Ching. “Perseverance Furthers”. I don’t know how many times I used to roll the coins and it came up “Perseverance Furthers”. Must’ve been trying to tell me something, I guess.

  CARTER: I don’t know uh—anything about that.

  CECILIA: Oh, it was just a fad for a while. Everybody used to do it so I did it. I don’t do it anymore.

  CARTER: What’s that?

  CECILIA: Roll the coins. It was just a fad. You know—but then there’s lots of things that just kind of fall by the wayside as you get older. Don’t you think?

  CARTER: I guess—I was—

  CECILIA: Like cheating on your partner. I gave that up too.

  Pause. She sips tea.

  CARTER: Uh—I wanted to talk to you about Vinnie—

  CECILIA: Never used to bother me at all. That’s what’s so amazing. No guilt. No remorse. No nothing. Then one day it just stopped. Why do you suppose that is?

  CARTER: I have no idea.

  CECILIA: It had nothing to do with conscience or will-power or anything like that. It just suddenly came to an end. I knew it was over.

  CARTER: What.

  CECILIA: Cheating.

  CARTER (trying to make a joke out of tension): Yeah. Remember the days when sex was safe and racing was dangerous?

  CARTER laughs nervously. CECILIA doesn’t. Pause.

  CECILIA: That’s not the reason I stopped.

  CARTER: Oh, I didn’t mean—You’re not with a uh—“partner” now, are you?

  CECILIA: Oh, no! Not now. I was talking about the past. The distant past. That’s why it was so great meeting up with someone like Vinnie. He kind of reminded me of myself.

  CARTER: How’s that?

  CECILIA: Just the way he was fishing in the dark, I guess. Experimenting.

  CARTER: Oh, you mean the “detective” routine? Well see, that’s what he wanted me to try to explain to you.

  CECILIA: You don’t have to explain.

  CARTER: No, but see—

  CECILIA: I don’t need you to explain him to me. In fact I wish you wouldn’t. I understand exactly what he’s going through.

  CARTER: You do?

  CECILIA: Yes. Of course.

  CARTER: So, you’ve uh—dropped the charges then, I guess, huh?

  CECILIA: What charges? (Pause.) Who are you exactly?