Words to the Cosmos

Cozy & Mara Hale (from 1993)

// February 5th, 2010 // Blogroll, life the universe and everything, writing

I found John.  And we were talking about a screenplay he wrote back in 1992.  One that I did some independent re-working on in 1993.  Firehouse.  Josh.  Edwin Shaw rehab release papers.  Weird stuff, right.

So I go back to the virtual akashic and pull this up:

Sunday, May 02, 1993

Cozy & Mara Hale [screenplay]

• Mara Hale is Disease
• Cozy is the dislikable reality
• Cartoon is the human void
• Antoinette is the one reality; weighing the balance
• Little Happy is our society; hedonistic, “GenX”
• Lemonade is beautiful silence

Cozy vs. Mara Hale

[author note 030206: Cozy and Mara Hale was originally written as a three paragraph piece of prose by John McConnell who was my boyfriend's roommate. The "home base" of a multitude of psychotics, dope fiends and other miscreants of society. John McConnell was also someone I knew when I attended Firestone High School. He was a swimmer [spashfag] and I was the darkchild. He wrote it in 1992 and I expanded it to this in 1993. I have lost track of John, but if anyone knows where he is, have him get in touch with me. I still love this idea.]

Cozy: Such devotion they hold for you Mara Hale. Do you get any enjoyment from it?

MH: I enjoy it all and appreciate it. These are my children.

Cozy: Children you care nothing about. You are devoid of compassion.

MH: They ask nothing from me but my understanding.

Cozy: You understand nothing.

MH: I understand everything. I understand pain. Abandonment. The need for love. The need to be fulfilled. I understand that some thymes life and reality and all things social burn. And fire consumes. I have tolerated, endured, and the road I walk is MY shining path. I ask nothing and no one to accompany me here. But often thymes they do. And if the will is there, I invite, never force or even urge. Let thy will be done.

Cozy: It’s empty. A fence. When further down that road the blinders are removed and then they ask. They see emptiness, rot, void, pain and loneliness in its true form. Like they have never known. And they look around and they are alone. Truly alone for the first thyme.

MH: We are always alone. Even you Cozy. For all your ranting and praying do you feel anything other than the eternal loneliness? I’ve just provided a way through the pain. (Pause) So Cozy, answer my question. Do you not feel alone?

Cozy: (Pause)

MH: Cozy? Answer me… Do you not feel alone?

Cozy: Yes…of course I feel alone. But I stand alone without the aid of chemicals. I am pure.

MH: I am PURE!

Cozy: You are an illusion. A false sanctuary. You promise and ease to the pain and compound it.

MH: I promise nothing.

Cozy: You are nothing

MH: I never claimed to be (sly smile)

Chorus: MARA HALE

(end scene)

Antoinette’s Investigations

Ant: Quest for purity. Searching for something more. To fill the emptiness. The void.

Cartoon: I have something to fill it. (tapping syringe)

Ant: Oh again? I mean…yes that transforms.

MH: It transcends.

Ant: But still with thyme I question. I quiet. The answers never are there for the questions that form. Just cozy’s antagonist and Mara Hale’s agonist. Don’t you think? Don’t you wonder where it is. The fulfillment. The hope. Where happiness ran off to when the lights were dim. (Extending arm to Cartoon who shoots her up). (Relaxes…Rushes…Eyes & body change). (Eyes glazed over, looking away Antoinette contemplates). What would it be like. To have it all.

Cartoon: You have it all baby. Drugs, money, sex…me (laughs)

Ant: I have nothing, except this passage to bliss. Or erasure, perhaps. I have the parents that ignore. The unearned money as a payoff to be silent. To stay unseen. They pay me to stay high & out of their way. And I have unlimited earning potential…

Cartoon: You are droning again…(kissing Antoinette’s back and arms).

Ant: (not listening, she is used to being ignored) If I have it all as you say, then it is all a lie. If this is it, then it is nothing. I feel nothing.

Cartoon: I can make you feel.

Ant: All I have is a jar of unanswered questions. (pauses, obviously disturbed) Cartoon…listen to me. You know what I’m trying to understand. You want what I want.

Cartoon: That I do…you want more (preparing the next fix).

Ant: I do. I want more. More than this everything.

Cartoon: I’ll give you more than everything (injecting her once again).

Ant: (too high…escaping) …everything (nodding off)

Cartoon: (fading into sexuality with Antoinette) …everything.

Ant & Cartoon proceed to have sex with the integration of junkie wisdom.

Antoinette fades out into death: Neat death experience. Getting the answers she always looked for.

Antoinette: Rising up. Out. Down. In. All perspectives skewed. What is this. Who are you. (Bodies in colorful light)

1. Everything you missed
2. Everything you wanted to be.
3. Everything you wanted to feel.
4. All knowledge is here.

Antoinette: Everything…

Then it is all gone. Not available. Out of reach. All there. Just a moment away from where Antoinette was her entire life. But now it is forever out of her reach.

Cartoon Realization

Cartoon continues to have sex with Antoinette’s corpse. Nodding off droning on in the junky version of love. About 20 minutes elapse before he realizes that his partner has not responded in that same amount of thyme. Coming to a bit, he tries to rise a response in Antoinette. Realizing she is gone. He tries to collect himself enough to realize what has happened. He gets it. And gets out and paces the floor, beginning a diatribe. Antoinette naked, dead, body in the background. (Death, maybe Cozy’s right…dead body…Antoinette question answers. Being left.

Cartoon: I still don’t know. Antoinette becomes a goddess. She beat it. (Pacing…looking at Antoinette) So…are you there yet? Did you get what you were looking for? Is that what you left me for? You know I have questions. Dreams. At least I remember that I did. At least I remember that I did. I want everything too. Was Cozy right? Is there something without this? Something more. This city is too small. Too familiar, everything repeats itself. Exhausted. Stifling. Impossible to grin.

Cartoon: (fixing another shot) Mara Hale will understand. She will know. Questions. Dreams. Knowledge

Cozy: S I L E N C E
(silence fills the room. Little Happy stops played Lemonade looks at the mirror. Her eyes the only that aren’t fixed on Cozy.)

Cozy: What game is being played here?

MH: No game (stroking Cartoon’s hair as he shoots up.)

Cartoon: You understand don’t you (higher)

MH: I do. I understand everything. Shhhh, it’s okay.

Cartoon: (starting to break) So, what happens now?

Cozy: Now you have to see. Broken mirrors. Everything must go.

—end of act—

Go…indiscriminate pain. Go!…ground zero…go…left foot right foot…go! wait upon the man…go…thyme crawls away…go….intentions insane…go…in this road I’m waling…go…destroying the pain.

Concerns: Main character as Antoinette. She is searching for the usual meaning of life, coming from affluent parents who give her everything except anything with meaning. She falls lost empty and alone. Her friends are more like paid servants to keep her company. She provides the friends for drugs and housing and they provide the access to a social life for Antoinette.

She constantly drones her monologue about her quest, her pain, her emptiness to the annoyance of her companions. With the exceptions of Cozy. Cozy is the narcotics antagonist. Naltrexone.