In the Middle of Grand Central Station

EMILY: Oh. Do you know him?

I know everybody

SEARSON: I like strawberry

I know. It's from a friend. Emily Demerest. Her father is Arthur Demerest

DINO: Touchy. You seem to be doing okay around this place.

Not okay, Dino--brilliant. I am doing brilliant. Have you got that?

SEARSON: Hello, Marty. Did you bring me something?

(defeated) A shake

HANEY: For how long?

(shrugs) A while. Until my father calls from Honolulu or something

EMILY: Pardon me?

(stretching) We're not allowed to divulge the identity of individual residents. Not without authorization

HANEY: So go back and try again.

Air's too thick there, Dixie. I can't breathe. I know this will come as a shock to someone who probably sleeps on a Sealy Posturepedic, but I like it here. I'm free. I'm independent. I've got friends. I've even got a few people who need me.

HANEY: Because under the circumstances, she doesn't have much choice.

All right! "Under the circumstances!" Score twenty points, Dixie, and advance to Al's Sundries. You are now free to buy me a pack of cigarettes.

ANNA: I don't want to fight, please! I said that before I came down here. I don't want to fight with you anymore.

Am I fighting?

EMILY: Oh, you're right!

Amazing thing; the way these street people can tell time. Gives you a whole new insight into the mind of the homeless, doesn't it? Oh, well, it was only the orthodontist

HANEY: I can't believe I just did that.

An act of mercy, Dixie.

HANEY: I don't smoke

Bad choice of words. Will you buy me a pack of cigarettes, Dixie?

DINO: How do you know?

Because I'm smart, Dino. Because you're gonna be hangin' around this place forever, and I'm not

EMILY: I only have a five

Buy the old man a strawberry shake

HANEY: Julius thinks I should find another place for you. He wants me to get you out of here.

Can't do it. Sorry. Not unless two MD's say I'm an immediate danger to someone. Do I look dangerous, Dixie?

HANEY: It's an heirloom. I was named after my great-grandmother

Did she leave you any money?

DINO: Right. Don't believe me, you little smart ass. Let Haney pull her big surprise

Dixie found her?

KARPOS: Don't bother to ask him for cigarettes. He won't give you any.

Dixie? Did your mother make that up?

SEARSON: I'm working

Do you know you taught history once?

EMILY: He might not take it from me. Maybe you should give it to him.

Do you want me to tell him who it's from?

HANEY: How old are you, Marty?

Don't worry. Al sells me cigarettes all the time.

SEARSON: This is my favorite. Can I have another?

Don't you remember teaching?! Don't you know who were were?! Why do you have to sound so stupid, Searson? Don't you know you were a teacher? Can't you remember even that much? (sympathetically) What happened to your other life? (angry) Why do you have to keep sitting here, waiting for the world to go blank? Dementia, Searson. That's what they call it. When your mind goes. Maybe I'm just one of those people who forgot who I was before I ever became anybody. (desperate) I don't want to go blank Searson. Not yet.

EMILY: Why's he shaking his stick?

Dramatic effect

ANNA: Those Demerests. They called me up, Marta.

Emily?

HANEY: Okay

Even if it's bad for her.

EMILY: Is he crazy?

Everybody around here is crazy. It's a regular nursing home. Aren't you late for class or something?

EMILY: That's what he likes? What about you? What do you like?

Filet mignon. It's okay. I'll take a rain check. What year are you in school?

EMILY: Oh. Are they going to arrest him?

For what? Being crazy?

KARPOS: One is plenty. I have enough trouble keeping you people off the floor. Who wants to drag you off the floor? Get down, will you?

For you, anything. I'm out of cigarettes, Julius.

DINO: If you're too crazy, she'll sign the papers. And then you're outta here and into some psych ward in 30 minutes. Marty, I found something. Down below the tracks

Found what?

KARPOS: ...She's the guy in charge of the Foodwagon Program. Dixie, Marta de Silvia. She wants to ask you something.

Good, then I want to ask her something.

DINO: ...the way you wrap every social worker around your little finer. Why don't you send me out for cigarettes sometime?

I don't like what you smoke

HANEY: But eating is not the same as smoking, Marty.

Have you tried your bologna on rye? Under the circumstances, I'd say smoking is safer. Come on, Dixie. I promise not to get cancer until after you go home.

EMILY: Only a dollar

He doesn't need a dime.

HANEY: Calls? Grand Central Station?

He knows where I am. He'll find me, when he's ready

...God, how do people live without music? (Emily sits for the second time)

He's adding up the numbers on the turnstiles

ANNA: About drugs

I don't take drugs

ANNA: Mrs. Haney thinks you should come home

I don't want to come home.

ANNA: Because they make me feel guilty--all these social workers you turn your insides out for--

I don't--

(DINO bums change off of EMILY)

How much did you give him?

SEARSON: Hello, Marty

How were the numbers this morning?

ANNA: Maybe school is a mistake, then. Okay? That's not the point here, Marta. The woman wants to help you

I am not in need of help! You got that? This screwed up world is in need of help. YOU are in need of help!

ANNA: Do you wanna come home?

I asked you what you think!

EMILY: Pardon me?

I said, he's been downstairs on the subway platform writing down all the numbers on the turnstiles. Now he's adding them up. He does it every morning. And every night

HANEY: I've, ah, been talking to your mother.

I see that.

HANEY: ...You're rotting away here. You ought to be in high school.

I thought we discussed this, Dixie. I mean, I thought we went over and over this until those little veins in your right temple were about to burst. I can't go to school. I am a freak at school: I am a monster. They drive me crazy at school--all that buzzing about football and homework and lipstick. I go crazy!

HANEY: My sandwiches? You mean the Foodwagon?

I thought you were the gal in charge

EMILY: You actually live here?

I was interviewed once, on the nightly news. Two months ago. They couldn't believe it either. You'd think they'd do a follow-up. To see if I ever got out. But Wall Street has been more interesting this year

KARPOS: Don't go down to those platforms Searson. Come on, old fella. Get up here

I'm leaving

DINO: Try not to be so nasty this time.

I'm not nasty. The woman drives me very crazy

SEARSON: Did I? When?

In another life. At NYU

EMILY: Are you talking to me?

It's a free country. Interpret it any way you want

HANEY: ...Half of New York City passes through her every day. Just what is it you think you're doing?

It's a waiting room, Dixie. So I guess I'm waiting.

DINO: We could fix this up, Marty; posters, mattresses. Why don't you ever loosen up? You don't give me a chance. You don't give nobody a chance.

Let go of me.

EMILY: That's abuse. Yelling like that is abusive

Maybe in Stamford. Here it's just another little daily act of mercy. You missed your train. No skin off my nose.

HANEY: I guess not

Me, neither. You got a cigarette, Dixie?

EMILY: I don't really have much choice

My dad lives in Hawaii. You ever been there?

HANEY: Your family could move to have you committed.

My mother already has. Four times. She's fed up. You're not gonna get her to do another thing.

EMILY: At the university. We go out for a conference every year

No kidding. They have great beaches there, don't they? You swim?

EMILY: I think he used to teach with my father at NYU

No, he didn't

ANNA ...That doesn't work. Not after you've been out her on your own so long. Am I right? That just doesn't work.

No, it wouldn't work.

DINO: I said, your old lady's on her way.

No, she's not.

HANEY: We do think about that, Marty, believe me. But almost everything we serve is donated. Salt is cheap and people donate cheap food.

Okay. And you would rather serve cheap food than serve nothing. And Erma would rather eat cheap food than eat nothing. Am I right?

HANEY: That bad?

Old Erma there has a water retention problem. Did anybody bother to check that out? I bring her a sandwich from the wagon, and in two hours her legs are swelled up like balloons. I gotta carry her to the bathroom. And old man Searson won't touch anything but the bread. He spits everything else out

EMILY: Thanks

Professor Searson, I presume

HANEY: We thought, maybe together, we both could help you

Provided I need help.

SEARSON: I'm sure I was very good at it

Searson!

DINO: What a little charmer.

Shut up, Dino

HANEY: They're bad for you.

So are your sandwiches

HANEY: Dozens, according to Julius.

So don't get all hot and bothered, okay? I'm fine.

EMILY: What does that mean?

That means, what difference does it make if he was a teacher--

EMILY: I'm suppose to be at the orthodontist in Stamford. I'm catching the 10:17

That where you live?

EMILY: What's his name?

That's confidential, I'm sorry.

ANNA: I told her that. She's worried about you

That's her job. She's worried about everybody

EMILY: What?

The old guy's not suppose to go down on the subway platforms. He almost fell on the tracks last week. Julius is trying to scare the hell out of him.

HANEY: I am

Then as one who eats your sandwiches, I should be honest with you, Dixie. The wagon would be better named Sodium Central.

ANNA: I don't want to go through this anymore, Marta. You don't do what I ask. You don't come home when I tell you. You don't listen. You don't learn. You don't do a single thing like I say.

Then why do you come down here?

ANNA: I can't take it when you're home, Marta

There are people here--all these old farts. They think I'm an angel. They think I can fly. What about you? You think I can fly, Momma?

HANEY: I talked to Halligan at Good Shepherd. He thinks you've got problem, but he likes you, Marty. He thinks they might be able to help you.

They tried.

KARPOS: About five stories.

This would be a helluva place to fly, Julius. Not enough people realize that.

HANEY: Really?

Those Vienna sausages? They're killers, Dixie. So is the deviled ham. And the processed cheese would melt ice. I have already suggested it to the highway department

EMILY: A junior. At St. Bart's. Did you finish already?

We moved around a lot. It got too complicated. Your dad's a professor? I guess you're pretty smart then

EMILY: How well do you know that old man?

We're not dating, but we see each other socially.

EMILY: He was a professor--a history profressor

Well he's into turnstiles now. It's not the same guy.

HANEY: No, just the name.

Well, at least it's something. But the really lucky people get money, too. Are you one of the lucky people, Dixie?

EMILY: Emily. Demerest. My father is Arthur. I owe you a steak

Well, don't wait forever. I'm outta here pretty soon

ANNA: We don't know that, Marta. But the chances you're not--

Well, let's take a test, okay? Let's do a urine-alysis, and see if the kid is taking dope. And if she is, we'll lock her up. And if she isn't, we'll all go home and leave her alone, okay?

HANEY: Hello, Marty.

What are you doing, Dixie?

ANNA: And these poor little rich girls with their holier-than-thou daddies--

What daddies? What girls? What, what what?

ANNA: She thinks you should come home

What do you think?

DINO: A room.

What kind of room?

EMILY: I'm not sure I know how to give this to him

What's there to know?

DINO: Wake up, your mother's coming.

What?

ANNA: Talk. You talk to everybody, but me. About me! They think I'm some kind of monster

Who are you talking about?!

DINO: Big, tough job. Her number's in the book, ain't it?

Why's she have to drag her down her? She hates coming down here.

KARPOS: Hey, Marty. Marty? MARTY! Are you practicing the ascension or what?

You ever look up here, Julius? You know how high that ceiling is?

HANEY: I'll get us something to drink

You gonna have me committed?

EMILY: ...I know him. I mean, I knew him. His face. Before. Where does he sleep? Where do you sleep?

You got two bucks?

EMILY: I'm sorry?

You missed your train, *******. It's 10:22

SEARSON: Very heavy

You should stay off those platforms, Searson. Julius is going to have to arrest you