CHAPTER 3 “Let him go”
INTERIOR UMC, CF WARD, DAVID’S HOSPITAL ROOM – NIGHT (PRESENT)
Its been a long day and David is exhausted. David sleeps restlessly — his breath thin and rattily through the oxygen mask; the hospital stillness accentuated by the quiet CLICKING and BEEPING and SUCTIONING SOUNDS of the medical machines. The DOOR TO HIS ROOM quietly pushes open. The SHADOWY FIGURE of CF patient IRENE NICHOLSON quietly slips inside the room, tantalizingly back-lit by the lighting from the hallway. Irene is mid-twenties; an attractive Pat Benatar type, sexy though thin.
She quietly watches David sleeping for a few seconds. She gently touches his hair with the back of her hand. She smiles and with a grin she opens a jar and smears a THICK, GOOEY SUBSTANCE onto David’s hair and beard, and onto his phone receiver, then quietly scurries out of the room. A long beat, then — David SNAPS AWAKE as the sound of his PHONE RINGING shatters the stillness. He fumbles groggily in the darkness for the phone, puts it to his ear.
DAVID
Hul-lo –?
Irene’s GIGGLY VOICE on the other end:
IRENE
Yes, Is this the residence of a Mister David Foster?
DAVID
Huh? Th’ wha –?
IRENE
Gotcha! (click, the line goes dead)
Puzzled, David looks at the PHONE RECEIVER. It is gummed with the same thick, sticky goo. David touches his finger to the stuff, tastes it. Reaching up he turns on his light; beside the phone on his nightstand he discovers the JAR OF MARSHMALLOW SAUCE left behind by Irene…
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