In the driveway of the sunset boulevard motel
Emily pats her bouffant, and puts her briefcase
in the trunk of her aging Oldsmobile. A braided
black and white bullwhip her daughter, Rose
had purchased in a Tijuana souvenir shop
is coiled on the back seat.
It's time to get on the road to Apple Valley if they
hope to beat the afternoon traffic crawling out of LA.
A few miles east of Pear Blossom a radiator hose
pops loose. Emily pulls off on the shoulder.
No service stations or minimarts in sight.
Rose says, Now what are we gonna do, there's
nobody around here.
Emily just looks at Rose and goes around
to the front of the car.
Steam hissing through grill. She stares at the hood
and reaches for the latch, quickly jerks her hand
away from the overheated metal.
As she ponders what to do, a vehicle pulls up behind
the Oldsmobile. The driver in the battered 4-wheel drive
Toyota has smeared his face with white mud and has
feathers and ball point pens stuck in his hair.
Rose gestures frantically: get in the car! Emily just stares
at the stranger who is smiling through his dusty windshield.
He has very white teeth. He gets out of the truck and walks
towards her. Rose scrambles to lock the doors, leaving
her mother standing outside.
-Hi Frank, long time no see.
-Yeah, you're lookin' good Em,
what're you doing out here?
-We were just on our way home, damn car broke down.
Rose is in the car, I don't think she recognizes you.
wasn't sure myself, uh what's with your……..getup?
costume party?
-Not exactly. Think it'd be alright to say hello to Rose?
-I don't know, maybe. It's up to her. Let me ask her,
you'll freak her out. Just be cool for a sec, ok?
Emily goes around to the window motions for Rose
to put it down. Rose looks back and forth from Emily
to where Frank is standing back by the truck, finally
lowers the window.
-Mom! What's going on? Who is that crazy dude?
-It's cool, hon, don't worry, it's Frank.
-What? You mean…
-Yeah, honey, it's him.
-Why does he look like that?
-I don't know. He wants to talk to you. Are you ok with that?
-What? Why does he want to talk to me?
-I don't know.
-Maybe, oh jesus, Mom. Will you ask him why?
-Sure, baby. Hold on.
Emily goes back to where Frank is standing scratching
his neck with the quill of a feather he has pulled out of his hair.
-She wants to know why you want to talk to her.
Frank says, Because this opportunity could not be
just a random coincidence.
-Oh really? Some kind of cosmic event? Same old Frank.
You gotta come up with something better than that.
-Do I? Why don't you let Rose decide?
-Ok Frank, whatever. But it better be good or else, I'll drop
a karmic shitload of hurt on you, you hear me?
-Yeah, yeah, I'm cool.
Emily goes back up to Rose. -He thinks it's some kind
of cosmic thing, fate or destiny or something.
Rose rolls her eyes. -Ok, whatever.
Emily wags her fingers motioning for Frank to approach.
He walks slowly up to the car. Rose stares up at him
through the glass. Frank holds up his hands palms out
and grins. Rose lowers the window an inch.
What do you want? she says.
I just wanted to look in your eyes, he says.
-Well, what do you see?
-Fear? Confusion? Anger?
-Well what do you expect? You look like something
out of a slasher flick.
-Oh this? Not exactly ready for GQ, I guess.
-You think? What the hell are you supposed to be?
Frank looks at the ground, then back at Rose.
-I've been on a spirit quest, he says, gesturing
vaguely to the mountains.
-Uh huh, find any?
-Yeah, actually.
-Cool. So what are you doing here? I mean now.
Where we just happen to be at the same time.
-I don't know, but I think we were supposed to.
Be here.
Rose sighs, looks up at the roof of the car then back at Frank.
-Right. So now what?
-Does the car run? He looks over at Emily.
She says, It overheated, I think we busted a hose or something.
-See if it'll start. I've been staying up the hill at St Andrew's.
You know the Benedictine Monastery? They have a retreat house.
Follow me up there and you can cool off and freshen up.
They are very welcoming.
Emily says, monastery? Somehow I don't see you as monk
material, Frank. Not unless you've had some kind of brain
transplant.
-People change, Emily.
-Right. Have you?
-i'm working on it.
-With this? Covering yourself in mud?
-That's part of it, getting in touch with what you might call
my primitive side. To put it in simplistic terms. It's deeper
than that. Actually I'm finding more peace and serenity
than I've ever had. It's hard to explain, I don't have the
words for it. But believe me it's real.
Rose says, Real. Real like when you came back from Burning Man?
Quit your job and said you were tapping into your authentic self?
Then you took off. We got a post card from Katmandu, then nothing.
How do you think that made me feel. My own brother. My god damned
twin brother for fucks sake.
Frank peers into the back seat, sees the bullwhip.
-Been on a little trip to Mexico? You want to use that on me?
-What? Maybe I should. You ain't getting off that easy. How'd you
know we were in Mexico.
-Well, those whips are in half the gringo shops in Tijuana.
Why did you buy it?
-I don't know. Just an impulse. A joke.
-See? I'm telling you, this chance meeting is not by chance.
-So you think the gods or karma or whatever meant for us
to wind up out here on this road, our car just happened to get hot
and I'm supposed to beat you with a cheap mexican souvenir?
I just bought it for a joke.
-You think so? That's a lot of coincidences, don't you think?
It's symbolic. I don't think you are supposed to literally beat me,
but it's like a talisman. A sign that you have a choice to either
punish me or forgive me. And that I need to make some kind
of restoration to you or I'll never get to where I'm trying to go.
-You got a lot of that you owe.
-I know. Let me start with this. One small thing. Okay?
-One small thing. I guess. What do you have in mind?
-Like I said, come up to the Abbey, it's a very beautiful and
peaceful place. Rest for awhile, cool off and we'll have a look
at this old car. Some of the brothers have a real way with
things mechanical.
-Divine touch, huh? What do they do, exorcise automotive demons?
-Something like that. What do you say?
Rose looks at Emily. -Alright. Mom?
-It's up to you, hon. If you're cool with it, so am I.
-Alright then, lets go. Lead on Frank.
Franks walks back to his truck and pulls around in front of the Olds,
which starts up immediately, without a trace of steam.
