PODEY
Wrong apartment. You don't get anything.
MRS. WASHINGTON
(hopes dashed)
But you said...
PODEY
(casually mean)
Yeah, well...people lie, lady. .
And he's gone, around the bend and up the stairs. Hold a beat on the poor woman's expression of loss. Just one more shitty lie to add to the lifetime supply.
8 - THIRD FLOOR LANDING
as Podey comes up the stairs fast. FOUR BLACK KIDS between the ages of eight and eleven are sitting in the middle of the floor with some robot toys—Gobots, Transformers, etc.—and playing. And chatting. Low, so we don't need to hear what they're saying,[insert 1] but the word Christmas is heard a few times. Podey hits the landing, brushes past them, not being too careful about stepping on toys. They grab them out of the way of his big feet with panic.
___
[insert 1]
(Supplementary dialogue: to be vaguely heard off-screen)
POOCH
I been thinking about Christmas since 'summer. You know why? 'Cause my momma and my poppa save up all year for that, and I know just what I want.
PUERTO RICAN GIRL
What’chu gonna get for Chris'mas, Pooch? Betch they give you some clothes. They always give me clothes . I want—
POOCH
I thought you asked me what I want for Christmas, not you?!?
PUERTO RICAN GIRL
Okay, okay...you! What they gonna give you?
POOCH
A bicycle. Ten speed with a real heavy'..lock so's no one can. steal it when I lock it up.
[end insert 2]
___
9 - UP ANGLE PAST KIDS - STAIRWAY
as Podey climbs the last flight to the fourth floor. They watch, silently. One little kid in particular—for fast identification let's call him POOCH—holds our interest. He's about eleven, small but very neat, handsome kid with big eyes and intelligence in his face. He watches with uncommon interest.
10 - FOURTH FLOOR LANDING - FULL SHOT
as Podey emerges on the landing, looks around, spots the door to 404, even though the final 4 is held by one nail and hangs at a wry angle. He comes to the door and knocks imperatively. Three beats. He bangs on the door again. A voice from inside the apartment calls through the door. A woman's voice, with a marked Latina accent.
CONSUELO (O.S.)
Whose dere?
PODEY
Department of Social Services
There is silence. Podey understands the stall.
PODEY
Jack Podey from the Welfare Center, Mrs. Losada.
More silence. Then the sound of movement in the apartment.
CONSUELO (O.S.)
(a stall)
I'm not dressed.
PODEY
(flat and mean)
Open the door, Miz Losada. I got no time for this. Open up or the AFDC goes.
(beat)
Understand me, Miz Losada? The Aid. To. Families. With. Dependant. Children stops. No dinero, no food stamps, the cockroaches take over!
(1/2 beat)
Comprende?
The sound of three or four locks being undone. Bolts. Bars. A heavy iron Fox Lock with its bar-in-a-floor-slot being slipped back. Then the door opens... slowly.
11 - INT. LOSADA APARTMENT - DAY - ANGLE ON THE OPENING
DOOR - MEDIUM CLOSE
CONSUELO LOSADA was gorgeous when she was a teen-aged girl. But now she's in her late thirties and she's had four kids; and god only knows what happened to Francisco, who went out to get a fanbelt to repair the icebox ten years ago and never found his way back; and twelve years working behind a sewing machine in the sweatshop of Marci Jean Fashions and working a night shift cleaning up office buildings while she raised the kids...well, it's all taken its toll. You can see she had great beauty. The cape of dark hair, the good cheekbones, the tensile strength in her body that keeps her going. But she's old folks. Before her time. She's just hanging in there. And standing in her doorway is Jack Podey.
PODEY
Podey. Investigator from Welfare Center. I want to talk to you about your eligibility.
12 - REVERSE ANGLE - PODEY IN F.G.
Consuelo looks frightened, but moves aside. Podey steps in as CAMERA FOLLOWS. Off camera we hear door close behind us. Podey looks around. Two tiny children, both girls, stand against the far wall in front of something squat that has a blanket thrown over it. (This item is a foldaway bed, that has been rapidly closed up, rolled against the wall, and covered.) The rest of the apartment is what we'd expect at this economic level. Dingy but clean; a corner shelf of cheap bric-a-brac; a table covered with a lace throw; an old tv set with rabbit ears; carpet threadbare.
Open doorway to the right shows us the edge of an old kitchen. Two doors on the -left wall, both closed. One would be the, bedroom, the other the bathroom.
CONSUELO
Please sit down if you want.
Podey goes to the table, pulls out a straight-back chair, plops his case on the table, sits down and opens the case. He takes up a sheaf of papers held with one of those big black pressure clamps. He flips through them quickly, looks at the kids, looks at her. She stands with hands folded, looking midway between trepidatious and scared.
PODEY
Missuz Consuelo Losada?
(she nods)
Record shows you're getting AFDC on four children, zat right?
(she nods)
He looks around. It's just a pro forma look. He's toying with her. Sits back in the chair, tilts it, opens his coat and jacket underneath, hooks thumbs in vest lapels.
PODEY
I only see two.
CONSUELO
(in Spanish)
What?
PODEY
(mean)
I said, Senora, I see two kids here. Muchachas, comprende? Two. Not four.
CONSUELO
(indicates girls)
Si. Paloma y Pilar.
PODEY
(very snotty, making fun of her Spanish)
Yeah? So where's Raymundo y Virgilio?
The Puerto Rican woman looks nonplussed. She wets her lips.
CONSUELO
They in scool now.
PODEY
Lady, don't jerk me around. It's three days to Christmas. You get my meaning?
(beat)
Christmas vacation, lady. There's no school.
She is caught, doesn't know what to do.
PODEY
(goes for throat)
How about they're not even in this state, howzabout that? Howzabout they're stayin' with your mother, Mrs. Lupe Hernandez, at 555 Carb Street, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, howzabout?
She's now utterly unmanned. She doesn't know how to lie out of it. The kids stand there watching with big eyes. It is obviously cold in the apartment... the kids wear two sweaters each, and gloves. Podey rises, looks around.
CONSUELO
No, thass not true...
PODEY
And howzabout maybe Gramma is collecting public assistance in New Mexico for Raymundo y Virgilio... and you're gettin' AFDC for four, but you've only got two in the apartment?
He starts moving toward one of the two doors on the left. She moves to stop him, but he isn't stopping. Over his shoulder he speaks:
PODEY
Mind if I use your bathroom?
He doesn't wait to get an okay but opens the door and steps in. He doesn't close the door.
13 -INT. BATHROOM - WITH PODEY
Typical crowded, tiny bathroom. Shower curtain pulled across the tub. Shelves full of toilet articles. Sink yellow and stained from decades of cleanser. ANGLE with Podey as he checks out the shelves of toilet articles. He puts his hand on a mug of shaving lather with a brush still upright in it. He puts his hand on the toothbrush rack. Four toothbrushes.
Then he turns suddenly, and whips the shower curtain back. A fully-clothed man wearing a workman's jacket and gloves stands
in the tub. This is ROSARIO. They stare at each other a moment, then Podey turns on his heel and comes back into the living room.
14 - LIVING ROOM - ANOTHER ANGLE
as Rosario comes after him. Rosario is about forty, Puerto Rican, nice-looking man, nothing less than honest and hard working about him. Podey is gathering the papers into the case. Rosario exchanges hurried words in Spanish so rapid with Consuelo that we may not be able to tell what he said,[insert 2] but it's clearly upset and panicky.
___
[insert 2]
(Supplementary dialogue; to be translated into Spanish)
ROSARIO
(extremely angry)
Consuelo, he surprised me. I kept very still. What does this mean. . .will he take away the money for the children?
CONSUELO
(wildly)
I don't know, I don't know I He wouldn't do this to us at Christmas. I'm afraid, Rosario; Pilar may be coming down with the flu, or something worse.
ROSARIO
Talk to him, this man...talk to him. I can beg him not to do this, perhaps he’ll listen.
[end insert 2]
___
PODEY
(fast and mean)
Don't bother, lady. I know all the stories. He was just fixin' the shower, right? In his galoshes, right?
(beat)
Boy, you people really fry me!
CONSUELO
(hysterical)
Rosario iss justa fren'! He stop by to say hello. My sons aren't here now, bot they come back...
Podey slams the lid of the case, turns on her, on fire.
PODEY
We got computer matching on concealed employment, we got cross-checking from other states, we gotcher act down cold, lady. This's fraud, you got that?
[see below for additional scene: revised version]
CONSUELO
You gonna take the Aid away? My kids...it's Christmas, mister...
Podey aims a fat thumb at her.
PODEY
Don't blame me. One of your "close friends" in the building ratted you out. I'm just doin' the job, lady. I write the report with a recommendation, that's all I do, Christmas, New Year's, Halloween or Cinco de Mayo!
He starts toward the door. Rosario comes after him. Podey turns, just spoiling for a fight.
PODEY
(ugly)
You lift one hand, spick, and I'll put you in traction for a year!
Consuelo rushes to Rosario, grabs him. Rosario is
fuming, grating his teeth, cursing in Spanish.[insert 3] Podey laughs a rotten laugh and opens the door. He steps out, and just as he closes the door he says:
PODEY
Merry Christmas.
___
[insert 3]
(Supplementary dialogue: to be translated into Spanish)
Rosario is fuming, grating his teeth, cursing in Spanish
ROSARIO
Filth! Heartless degenerate! You would throw children into the streets where you spend your nights sucking garbage from the sewers! Slime for brains, dirt for heart! Pig...less than a pig...pigs have more honor than you!
[end insert 3]
___
[additional scene, from above]
(Additional scenes: revised version, scene 14)
Rosario understands only part of this. But the tone doesn't escape him. Something is threatening the woman, and he won't stand for it. He takes a step toward Podey, but Consuelo—frantic not to get. Podey any further aroused—gesticulates wildly for Rosario to stay where he is. She comes closer to Podey, imploring him:
CONSUELO
(emotional, utterly honest and convincing)
Please, Mister, lemiue 'splain. I don't cheat onna welfare, honnes' to God!
PODEY
(smirking)
Oh...right. I forgot the story. There's always a story. Almost forgot I'm s'posed to take off a minute to hear the story.
He stands, arms folded, clearly not hearing anything, making a nasty mockery of listening.
CONSUELO
(honest, decent)
Francisco, ees my husband, he left
us, he went out an' never come back,
almos' ten years ago. I been workin'
at the same job twelve years—you can check, they give me good report, you see—downtown inna garment dis'rict. Marci Jean Fashions, you heard of them?
PODEY
Never heard of them.
(beat, sarcastic)
But they geev you good report, right?
CONSUELO
(hopeful)
Si, I ron a sewin' machine, nine hours a day. An' I gotta secon' job, nights, I go clean up office fouildin's. Joss to raise my kids proper. They never got in no trobble, they good kids,..but...
PODEY
(holds up a hand)
Let me take it from there.
(recites)
Nobody can raise four kids in New York City these days on what the AFDC gives you, right? You work your maracas off scrimping and saving, but it ain't even enough to buy the kids a decent Christmas toy...am I right?
CONSUELO
(nods fast, a spark of hope)
Si, si! I can' make ends meet, so I send the boys to my mother for a coupla weeks, joss till I can—
PODEY
(silences her)
You should've thought of all that before you had your litter, lady. You people spawn like sardines and then expect the City to take up the slack, (beat)
You slugs are all alike! Forget it!
Podey picks up his case. Consuelo is terrified now.
[end additional scene, revised version, scene 14]
___
15 - HALL LANDING OUTSIDE APARTMENT - WITH PODEY
as Podey turns away from 404. He starts down the stairs and then we hear the kids talking. Podey goes down the stairs a bit and listens.
POOCH (O.S.)
(energetic)
And you know why Christmas be the best? I tell you why. Cause Santa Claus gone come and make all your wishes true.
Podey leans over to look.
16 - PODEY'S POINT OF VIEW - WHAT HE SEES
On the third floor landing the four kids sit, and three of them stare wide-eyed and delighted at Pooch, who spins his tale of Christmas wonders, of the kindness of Santa Claus.
POOCH
I know! Santa comin' down the chimbly, with his reindeer on the roof, and he gotta big bag of toys and candy and ice cream that never melt till it get to your mouth, and he gone fill your socks up with robots an' AM-FM radios, an...an...
PODEY'S VOICE (O.S.)
An' nothing. Because Santa ain't comin' to you, because Santa's white and he can't find black kids.
17 - ANGLE UP PAST KIDS
to Podey's big mean face peering at them over the bannister. He's taking great pleasure in tormenting these kids.
POOCH
(fights back)
Thassa lie! Santa's good, cause he's a friend of the baby Jesus, and they can find kids anywhere!
PODEY
(warms to his evil)
White folks have someone else who comes to kids like you. You know who that is?
They stare at him, sad and frightened.
PODEY
(malevolent, eyes shining)
Nackles. That's the one comes to black kids. He's the other side of Santa Claus. Santa Claus comes down through the chimney and brings white kids toys; but Nackles, ah Nackles...
(beat)
Yeah...he's eight feet tall, all dressed in black, and real thin and nasty, and he's got a dead white face like a corpse, and eyes that burn like fire, and he travels in the tunnels under the ground in a black coal car on rails, pulled by four blind white goats.
(beat)
And you know what Nackles'll do to you?
They are terrified. Their faces are trapped in his story.
PODEY
Nackles eats the flesh of kids like you. Nackles roams back and forth underground in his dark tunnels darker tha
n subway tunnels, and he looks around for kids like you to stuff into his black bag, and he takes you away screaming, so's he can eat you when his big fangs get hungry.
18 - ANGLE DOWN ON KIDS - PODEY IN F.G.
as Pooch leaps up. He is holding a toy robot. He is wild with justified hatred.
POOCH
You lyin' at us, you chinch honkie geek!
And he throws the robot toy as hard as he can. It hits Podey on the left temple, breaking skin, bringing blood in a small cut. Podey howls with rage and rushes down the stairs. Pooch takes off at a dead run, as fast as he can, down the stairs below Podey.
PODEY
(howling)
I'm gonna kill you, ya little nigger bastid!
Slippage Page 26
