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Bottom of the World (2017)
It's just the heat. That's all.
You want me to stop? I can stop. No, I think I just gotta get my pills. Oh, pull over. Alright, Scarlett. "The charm of yesterday, the convenience of tomorrow." Shit. I mean, it's so wrong, it's right. - You seem to be feeling better. - Yeah, brand new. I think I puked it all out. God, where the hell are we? I don't know. Some old town like a million others. I swear I've been here before. This place? No. All these old towns look the same. Oh, like this place? No way. Whoa. I wonder what the rooms are like. Tiny bathrooms and musty carpet. If you're feeling better, we should really get going. What? We can't not stay here. You go get the bags... and I'll get us a room. We're on the end. What the fuck? What? There's mud in the bathtub. You're not gonna take a bath, are you? I guess I wasn't, no. Well, then don't worry about it. I like this room. - You do? - I got a surprise for us. Where'd you get that? Front desk runs little concessions. Strictly on the downlow. And those are? Southwest shot glasses. Muy autntico. Nice. But didn't you leave lunch by the side of the road? It's old news. I think it was just a passing thing. - Cheers. - Cheers. Ah! So now what? What is the worst thing that you've ever done? - Truth or dare? - Sure. Like, the meanest, most rotten, horrible, dirtiest, dishonorable, despicable thing that you've ever done. I took the five finger discount on these back in Santa Fe. Is that not what you meant? - What about you? - What? What's the worst thing you've ever done? - Seriously? - Yeah. My mum's sister, Polly, died in a car accident when I was really young and her son Wayne was in the car with her but didn't die. He... He kind of turned into this vegetable. So... Wayne kind of became my doll. I would dress him up in my mom's clothes and plaster his face with make-up and I would put on these little plays with him as the star. I really shouldn't have been watching him, but I mean, there was, like, no one else. So... I mean, I was so young and he kind of sickened me. I mean, he smelt, particularly when he took a shit. He just constantly had this drool running down his face. So... I kind of started fucking with him. I drew a bull's-eye on his head with a red lipstick and I would throw soft fruit at him, like target practice. And when he shat himself I would just wheel him into a closet and leave him there all day until my mom came home. And I was, like, a girl interested in sex and boys. I would take off all of Wayne's clothes and, one day, I put peanut butter, like, all over and just let the dog come and lick it up. And then I would kind of jerk him off and watch him get hard. And... I mean, at the end of the day, he was covered with whatever I threw and I dumped on him, and I would just wheel him outside and just hose him down. And if it was raining, I would just leave him out there for hours. And then I would wash him sometimes in the kiddie pool. And I would just let him slip in the water until there were no bubbles or anything and his face would be, like, red and purple and... And then, you know, I would save him just at the right time. My mom had a boyfriend, this Gulf War vet, complete asshole. We were all watching TV one night and he mentioned how... Wayne was doing really weird things with his eyeballs. Wayne's dad was a Marine. It turns out he was doing Morse code with his eyes. He was saying, "SOS, SOS, SOS, SOS." I mean, over and over and over. Oh, my God. Do you see what I just did? That is the worst thing that I've ever done. Ah... Oh. Let's go get a real drink. Yeah, let's get out of this room. All I need is some sunshine All I need All I need is some sunshine All I need The siren called beyond the treeline With another one for the caves We reached the moon falls icy cauldron And found the spirit that I crave All I need is some sunshine All I need All I need is some sunshine All I need Black water (pull me down) Black water (pull me down) Black water (pull me down) Black water (pull me down) Black water (pull me down) Black water (pull me down) Black water (pull me down) Black water (pull me down) It's a hard road we've got to travel. It's a road that is not fit for them who want to take the easiest route. Because the easiest route has been paved smooth by the tramplings of sin and perdition. No, the road we travel with Jesus is a road that's uneven. It's a road that's not to be chosen by its even-ness, by its length. It's a road that's chosen by virtue of its destination. Of where we're going. Of where we're all going. Scarlett? What are you doing? Did you turn on the TV? Are you crying? I thought I heard someone. I'm just hearing... Who? Who are you talking about? I heard someone talking to me in the room. There's no one in here. You're probably still sick, and all that tequila, don't you think? Yeah. Come to bed. OK. Hey! Was that you last night? You were looking up at our room. Hey, let's shake a tail. LA is not gonna drive to us. How are you not hung over? Desert air? Good genes? I don't know. They don't want you to know the truth. No, that fork-tongued speaker of calumny shall rassle you down... Check it out. You think that's the asshole who woke me up? Everything that you thought was rued shall recede! We shall be rassled down! The walls that keep you, the woman beside you... God, it's beautiful. Scarlett. - Scarlett? - Ah! Scarlett. - Can you turn around? - What? Stop the car! Stop! What is it? What's going on? I don't know, it's like I feel like I'm being crushed and then... like, then next I'm falling 1,000 feet from the sky. We... We need a doctor. I don't think there's a doctor for this. What do you mean? I think we just have to go back. What? Let's make it to the next town. No, the further away I get, the worse it gets. Further... Shit. Please. OK, I'm turning around. Isn't that the church from the TV? Go. Drive. Drive! Go! I'm sorry, OK? I don't know what to say. Is there anything I can do to help? No. I think I just need to rest. OK. You rest, I'll just sit here until you fall asleep. No, you don't have to do that. It's sweet. You should just go. Go downstairs, have a beer. Go on, go. I need to sleep. I don't feel good. El Rancho? Hang on a second. It's for you. Hello? Alex. Hello? Alex. Scarlett? I think I know him. Who? The guy on TV? I know how it sounds. Scarlett. I think he's trying to tell me something. Something important. Jesus, I forgive my children... Alex... I don't know why I feel so crazy. I just feel like I know this town. So let's just go. Let's get out of here. We'll be in LA by morning. OK. - Scarlett? - Oh, Alex. Oh, my head. It feels like it's going to explode. Scarlett, just... We have to go back. I don't want you to worry. We're going to find a doctor tomorrow for you. Call someone and get someone to come out here and pick us up. Promise me. We'll get out of here tomorrow. Promise. All I need is some sunshine All I need Front desk, can I help you? Hello. I wanted to see if I had any messages. Hello? Hello? Hello? Scarlett? - Hello? - You only lost your girl. Well, I tell you what. It seems only right I should help you find her. - Who is this? What the fuck? - What a thing to say. Here I am, trying to be neighborly. I may be the only one who understands you - in this godforsaken town. - I don't know who you are or... Just a man, Alex. What do you want? Tell me. Let's start with you telling me your particulars. - What does she look like? - What? I hear she's a real looker. Don't let the red cross fool you. She ain't fit to... of the Lord. Of course, maybe she's sleepwalking, like a detached witness, as if she's watching a movie or listening to the radio. Is that girl a sleepwalker, Alex? Where are you? In there. In where? - In there. With you. Lose something? No, sir, I just thought I'd take myself a little look. You know, sometimes I hear even the mouse chases the cat. Fucking mouse. I tell you what, why don't we go for a little drive? Are you starting to feel it then? You're taking me to Scarlett. That's where you're taking me, isn't it? Hey! Schilter! How about you put on that radio? Let's hear some of that good old spiritual music. He can be found in a mother's smile He can be found in the eyes of a child ... They sure don't make songs like they used to. It's louder because they know we're here. All this time and they never give up. Who? Who are you talking about? Well, that's the real story right there. Well, I never really took to people much. That's just the truth. But I didn't like to be all by my lonesome either. So I found people of my choosing and I took them out here. What I do first is I dig a hole, a nice deep hole, and I make them watch as I dig it. And then I take the person. Let's say it's you, or your girlfriend. Let's say it's Scarlett, and I take her, just for instance. And I throw her in the hole and I bury her. I bury her alive and she never ever dies. She lives for all eternity under a heavy darkness of dirt, reaping what she sowed. - This is impossible. - Impossible? Just ask them. They all have a story. Hundreds of them. Thousands. Oh... A city of pain under our feet. Oh, pain's a beautiful thing. In the end, it's the only thing we really deserve. It is only due to the concept of guilt we allow ourselves to see ourselves as imperfect. Our ego depends on guilt for its survival as it allows us to separate the world into different objects which we then call "good" and "evil." There is no good and evil. There is only perfection. Father, I'm gonna thank you for your son Jesus who died on the cross for me. For my sins, not only for my sins, but for my fears. I'm gonna thank you for your son Jesus who makes me whole, in my spirit, in my body, in my soul. I want to thank you, Father, for your son Jesus who helped me sever the ties between previous generations, - from that bad blood... - Hello. I'm the whole operation, so I need to loop it if I want to take a break. Want coffee? When Slocum sailed the world... he'd tie himself to the masthead when he wanted to sleep. Me, I got no such methods, no. My work is my word, it cannot be rigged up. Whiskey in your coffee? What is this place? Well, if I say it's a church then it's a church. If I say I speak to God then there is a God that is spoken to. There was a man. Dirty hands, rings. This smile. Smile, well, that's a crime. There's the thin wedge. It was cut into his face like with a knife. You're talking about the angel of the bottomless pit. That's an ordinarily fella with the wretched odor of a million painful deaths on him. But pain... is a beautiful thing. In the end, that's all we got. You're gonna have to excuse me for just a spot, son. Have a look around. But do your best to keep quiet. Do me a favor, hit that record switch for me. Spare me the indignity of having my audience see me scurry up onto my own set. Son, I promise you, we will get back to our conversation momentarily. But first, the work of the Lord, then the work of man, alright? Hit the button. And just as soon as that there sun shines down with its warmth and light on all things equally, so too will guilt enwrap you like a plague. And drown you in sorrow. Now, when we imagine things, we start creating them in our mind. We open the door to our hearts... Open your mind and then... You must be very careful about what things you allow yourself to focus on, lest they become real. Lest the ethereal becomes poor. Lest your fantasy becomes reality. You have to avoid these things. There is Satan waiting to open the door to your heart and walk in. So you have to be very careful about the images you allow yourself to focus on. And it's like one moment you're being crushed, and the next you're falling from 1,000 feet up in the sky. I don't know, it's like I feel I'm being crushed and the next I'm falling, like, 1,000 feet from the sky. - Hey, what are you doing? - How do you know what she said? You can't just interrupt me - mid-sermon. - Why is this here? What is this? It's a mememto. It's all I have left of her, - so mind how you handle it. - Is she here? Scarlett? Scarlett? I'm the only one who's here, Alex. How do you know my name? why wouldn't I know your name? You've been running around with my daughter, haven't you? Daughter? Scarlett's father is dead. She told you that? Well, that cuts the patriarch right to the quick. I don't say I don't deserve it, though. It's true I knocked her around a time or two. But... My tiddling is strictly medicinal now, you understand. Bingo. Here. It ain't there, son. There you go. Hold still, son. You can't die if you ain't alive. What did you say? This is hell. - We're in hell, aren't we? - No. I'm dead. We're all dead. People tend to focus on the world that's around them rather than the world that's within them. Oh! Tell me what this is. - It's murder, if you do this. - No! Tell me what this is! God damnit, I don't know! Ow, fuck! No, OK, OK, OK, it's a dream. - There we go. - I'm dreaming all of this. No! No, the divine plan is in play here, son. You can either take charge and fight your way through it, or you can continue to be a pansy ass spectator. What's it gonna be? What's it gonna be?! - I don't know. - Enjoy the ride. No, I don't understand! You said this is all a dream. Yes, it is all a dream. But you ain't dreaming nothing. Scarlett is. Hey. Sit down. You OK, honey? Uh-huh. I have so much to do today. I have to go buy Isabella a gift and then I have to go get a manicure and pedicure. But they messed up the appointment so I'm supposed to go there for 4:30 but... That's it. Get that, hon? Hey. What, are you not gonna let me in? What are you doing? Where have you been? Hey, you don't answer your phone calls, no email, nothing. Jensen's pissed. And I saved your ass. I talked to the Rancho clients myself, fuck you very much. - Clients? What clients? - What are you talking about? You said Rancho? What do you mean? What do you mean, "what do I mean?" You just said Rancho. What is Rancho? El Rancho Estates. The deal we've been putting together for the last four fucking months. What's going on here, Alex? Are you OK? Paige, is he OK? Hey, come on, man, I was just trying... Alex! Alex? What are you doing? Come to bed. It's time now for your national forecast... Easy. You want me to get you in the mood? Relax, Alex. Forget about everything else. What do you mean, everything else? What the fuck, Alex? For all the wrongs we have committed to one another. It is the single act of kindness that God requires of us. You're looking for a room, sir? Can't do much better. And if you can, I dare you to find it. I wonder, could I ask you a question? No harm in it. It might sound strange. Do I look familiar to you at all? Couldn't say. All you young people look alike. - I might have been with a girl. - Pretty one? Yeah. No. If I saw you, it didn't stick with me. OK. A room then. Does anything ever happen here? I drove all this way and when I got here everything was wrong. Do you know what that's like, to drive all this way and have it not be what it should be? No, I can't say as I do. Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Come on now, get up. I won't say it again. Now, you can't do that. This is not a campsite. Fine. Just tell me where it is. - You just get on out of here. - I'm going. - Just tell me where it went. - Where what went? The church. There was a church here. Couldn't have been too long ago. The Church of the Solid Rock Sufferer. There's no place like that around here. Not here. - You've got to be... - I've got to be nothing. People tend to focus on the world around them, rather than the world within them. Now, you just drive on out of here. OK. Alex? What the fuck? You just leave in the middle of the night? For, what, a day and a half? You don't bother calling me, - nothing? - Sorry. Oh, my God. It's fucked up but the only reason why I didn't call the police is because you have been acting so strange lately. Do you understand what I'm saying to you? That it didn't faze me that you just left like that. - What are you doing? - Looking. For what? Scarlett. Where'd you go? Why are you acting like you don't know me? Hey. What are you doing? I can't explain it. Why don't you give it a try? It's an idea I had. I was at the grocery store. I knocked over a carton of eggs and I saw this bloody yolk. You were buying eggs at two in the morning? It got me thinking about some peas. You hate peas. Well, I was looking at them. I was looking for something. I looked at them and most of them are perfect. Bright color, firm, good size. But then I found this rotten one in the can. Now, if, say I was dreaming... I know how that sounds, but let's just say I was dreaming. Do you really think that my mind would take the time to put a rotten pea in there? I mean, think about it. When you think about a pea, what do you think of? A fresh pea, right? A normal pea. Don't you? I really don't think about peas, Alex. It's not really you, it's your subconscious. Do you really think the part of you that dreams is gonna put a rotten pea in a can? Don't answer that. Just look. If I was in a dream, why would that one bad pea be in there? I'm gonna go to bed. Paige? Alex? Alex. What's going on? I don't know. Are you OK? Are you OK? - No. - Alex. Talk to me. Talk to me, please. Tell me what's happening. My head's not right anymore. I'm... I'm all over the place. Distracted. I'm... I'm obsessed with this idea that I don't think I exist. I don't think you or any of this is real. How long have you felt this way? I wake up and I feel like I'm still in a dream. If you're... If you're dreaming all of this... - I'm not dreaming this. - But you just said that. No, no. It's worse than that. I think someone else is dreaming this. But, Alex, how can we be in someone else's dream if you're here? If she dies in this world, then she wakes up. Wait. If who dies? And if she wakes up, then we're... Alex, this is real. This is real, you and me. Nothing else matters. Just ignore whatever's going on out there. Look, stay here with me. OK, you need this. This is your home. I love you. And you love me. All you see You don't want to see But can't seem to avoid When you're trying to be right On this trespassed life where You don't seem to care And you're making the motions to be aware As to why you're here Paige? What are you doing? I was thirsty. What are you doing? Getting something to eat. - Can I ask you a question? - Mm-hmm. When did we meet? That is such a silly question. We met yesterday. I'm your wife? I love you. Don't be too long. You can come out now. We can just skip the formalities. I know what you want. Scarlett. You know me. You know all about me. Yeah. I saw you at the supermarket. You're my neighbor. That's not what I mean. Tell me you remember me. No. Why don't you remind me. We're in love. If you want it, just take it. You don't have to ask me if it's OK. - What are you talking about? - You came here to rape me. I know what you want. You can say her name if you want to. You want to... call out her name? Scarlett. I can be Scarlett if you want me to be Scarlett. No. No. No, you can't leave. You're not going anywhere! Fuck. What is this? Who is this? You both know who I am. What the fuck is wrong with you people? Why are you lying? He's been watching me across the street for weeks. I think he was trying to rape me. What the fuck are you talking about? Don't! Stop! Do you know where you are? Do you remember this place? You remember him? What happened? Where is he? Where? My cousin, he's... But who knows? Maybe it was for the best. I mean, can you imagine the kind of life he would have had? It was the fire pit, wasn't it? That's where you put him. And this is your house. This is where you grew up. And the fire pit, you tell me about that. You tell me about when you put him in there. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! Do you know what this is? Is this him? His bones buried for years in this exact place. Come on, Alex. We both know how this is gonna end. Can't we just skip all of this? No! I remember. How can that be possible? How can I remember? How can I remember the dirt falling in on me? You dropped him... Me. Into the hole. Until there was only my face and my fingertips. And then the rain came, pellets of it. Bullet-sized. Do you remember? You remember, don't you? It filled my lungs and my throat with mud. Even if I wasn't paralyzed, there was no fighting against it. There was nothing I could do. Look at me! I want you to know what happened to me. Do you know what happened to me? He died, of course. First there was fear. And in those last few seconds, I knew I would die. I felt my body slip away. I saw the world darken. I felt the weight of that mud pressing down on me. And my heart beat so fast until it just collapsed. And I left myself. Don't you know that you're the one that I've been waiting for all of this time? Now pick up the shovel. Pick it up! Pick up the shovel! Go on. Just take it. Can't you see that you're nothing anymore? You're not Alex. You're not some hooded man. You're not the little boy that I killed. - Shut up. - You don't even exist. You're only good for one thing, and you know it. So just do it. Just hit me. What? Just do it. Hit me. - I deserve it. - Shut up. I deserve it. I want it. - I want it, Alex. - No. - Hit me! - Shut up. No. You know, if you really were him... If you really were Wayne, I'd watch you drown 1,000 times. Every night I would beat you and cut you and drag you into another hole. And I'd watch you, and your eyes, your wild eyes, as earth spills in on you. And you'd finally understand that this is it. This is it! And I'm the one who's kneeling in front of you, filling your grave with laughter. - Stop it. - And I would say it again and again and again. A man in a hood came and broke in and he threw you into a hole, - and then he raped me. - Shut up. It was so easy. It was so easy and they would all comfort me. And they would make me feel so much better. And they would never know that you could never die - enough for me. - Shut up! " I know now I must be accountable for my unspeakable actions. "And don't worry, just death comes to all things. "Flesh, blood, bone... are all just temporal. "Rock lasts forever. "Which is where my spirit will reside. "I love you. Scarlett." Alex. I go hungry Pick at the shell Paw the bottom Of the well I wear My body I go bottom Struggle for air I go humming "Like a Prayer" I wear My body I wear my body like a rotted peach You can have it if you handle the stink I'm as open as a gutted pig On the small of every back You'll see a picture of me Wearing my body I go guzzle Scrap from the bin Take it all On the chin I wear My body |
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