Restaurant

Characters:
Jerry
Carl
Becky
Gareth
Luke
Luke’s mum
Luke’s dad
Jenny
Joyce
Policeman / PC Garnett

CREDIT SEQUENCE

Black. Credits roll. Sound of traffic.

FADE UP:

EXT. RESTAURANT- DAY
A shabby roadside restaurant, tidy but dull.

INT.RESTAURANT- DAY
UNSPECIFIED TICKING SOUND plays over everything.

Customers walk in and out. Many are seated, chowing down. It’s summer, and the dust and smog from outside wafts over every meal with every opening of the door. The overhead fans do nothing but shift the heat about.

A family sit at a table- a mother, father and eight-year old son LUKE. Luke has a Polaroid camera around his neck. LUKE'S DAD glances to the other side of the room and recognises a woman, BECKY. They spot each other uncomfortably but both look away.

Nearby, 2 men are sat on stools on opposite sides of the serving counter- JERRY, the tubby manager, and regular customer CARL.

Carl is staring at his stopwatch, the source of the ticking. JERRY is staring at a book. We can’t see what’s on the page.

CU STOPWATCH
The second hand reaches the top of the hour. The stopwatch is stopped.

CARL
Now look at the circle.

JERRY
I can see the dot. Just.

CARL
We call it “persistence of vision”. Basically your eye retains that image of the dot for a fraction of a second before shooting it off to your brain. It's like animation. You don't see each individual frame- just the moving image. And that's because every fraction of a second, that image is going in through your eye, through your, er, your optical nerve and into your brain, faster than your brain can work out what it's seeing. Hence, you see a moving image, not a series of frames. With this trick, your brain expects to still be receiving the signal of the dot when you've moved your eyes onto the circle, so it thinks it is.

 CARL
I was in the opticians waiting room the other day, ironically, reading National Geographic I think. Out in the freshwaters of South America there's this four-eyed fish. Weird-looking thing.

JERRY
Has four eyes?

CARL
You'd think so, right? It has two stupidly large ones. Looks like a cartoon frog. Each eye is separated by a septum, like a layer, that helps it to see above and below the water. Half for food, half for predators, I suppose.

JERRY
I could do with a couple of septums of my own in this place. Keep an eye on these-

A TABLE

A woman, BECKY, picks up her fork and stabs her boyfriend, GARETH, in the eye. He grips his face firmly, fork jutting out between his fingers. His screams are deafening. Patrons back away. A waitress drops and smashes a plate.

Jerry freezes in shock. Nearby, a customer called JENNY turns around.

JENNY
What the hell?

BECKY (to Gareth)
Fuck you, you piece of shit!

Luke's parents are horrified, more so when Luke slips out of his seat and takes a SNAP of the doomed pair. LUKE’S DAD snatches him back and the Polaroid picture flutters to the floor. Luke’s Dad vomits over his meal. Luke’s Mum is still gawking in shock.

LUKE’S DAD (to Luke’s Mum)
Don’t look.

LUKE’S MUM faints.

JENNY
What was that for?!

BECKY
This has nothing to do with you. Stay out of it.

Jerry is still frozen in shock.

JENNY (to Becky)
Don’t you move.
(to Jerry)
Phone an ambulance! What’s the matter with you?

BECKY
An ambulance? He’s not dying!

JENNY
Look how much blood he’s losing you shallow bitch!

GARETH begins to sob.

JENNY
Sorry.

She puts a hand on Gareth’s shoulder.

JENNY
In fact, get the police as well.

BECKY
Oh, what, who's this? Detective Supergrass in the corner here? Nobody's calling the pigs.

JOYCE (O.S.)
Try Trading Standards instead.

JOYCE, a middle-aged woman, holds her plate by the edge in one hand.

JOYCE
I can’t eat this.

JERRY
Look, we can sort this out at another time when-

JENNY (to Joyce)
Are you kidding? We've got a man in serious pain here and you're p*ssing and moaning about lunch? Get a grip for Christ's sake and show some respect!

(to Jerry)

JENNY
Get. On the phone.

Jerry goes into the back, picks up the phone and dials 999.

BECKY
You have no idea what this is about. None of you do, except this f-cking loser!

Becky grabs a salt pot from a nearby table and launches it at Gareth. It lands near his feet. She storms off into the ladies room.

Jenny sits with Gareth, only his forehead not covered in blood.

JENNY
Why are you with a woman like that? Someone who treats you that badly isn't worth a second of your time.

GARETH
Maybe I deserved it. Oh, god...

JENNY
No. No, you mustn't think like that.

Jenny walks to the window and looks out at the road. No sign of any emergency vehicles. After a moment, she returns to Gareth.

JENNY
Let’s get out of here. I’m not waiting any longer.

Tentatively, she helps Gareth to his feet.

JERRY
Don’t. Stay here.

JENNY
We’re going to A and E. I'm driving. This ambulance is taking too long.

Gareth sobs.

BECKY emerges from the ladies room.

BECKY (to JERRY)
Where’s she going with him?

JENNY
Where do you think?

To Becky, this whole scenario is a fuss over nothing. She goes and sits down.

JERRY
Well, bring the fork back when you’re ready. There’s no rush.

JENNY
Fuck you.

Jenny slams the door behind her, sending a cloud of smog and dust through the restaurant. The dust gets into Jerry’s eyes; he blinks. Carl takes out a Swiss army knife and pulls out the tweezers.

CARL
Try these.

Jerry fumbles with them to check what they are.

JERRY
I’m not plucking it out, I’ll blind myself!

CARL
No. Try plucking a nose hair out.

He does. A tear runs down his eye.

JERRY
Good call.

MATCH CUT

A tear runs down Becky’s eye.

In the silence, the room turns to her. She notices, looking over the faces of the patrons. Most of them are terrified still.

BECKY
Oh. So I’m the worst person in this room, right? That bastard got what he deserved. How do you think we’re paying for this meal?

Luke and Luke’s Mum (who has regained consciousness) look uncomfortably on. Luke’s Dad looks down into his cold meal in despair. Becky is looking right at him, and the rest of the patrons slowly turn their attention to him too.

BECKY
You know. You know better than anyone.

LUKE’S DAD
Don’t.

LUKE’S MUM (confused)
You know her?

BECKY
You paid for me. You paid my fucking boyfriend so you could be with me. You and loads of others. He’s been pimping me out for months to scum like you!

Luke’s Dad covers Luke’s ears. He bats his father’s hands away easily.

LUKE’S MUM (overlapping Becky)
No. You’ve got the wrong man. My husband wouldn’t do that… would you? Baby?

Luke’s Dad takes a breath, still not looking up. He doesn’t speak.

BECKY
How blind can you be?

Becky starts to sob loudly.

LUKE
What's pimping?

Becky's sobs overlap with the sound of a siren. An emergency vehicle is approaching.

A police car pulls up outside the restaurant. A policeman and a young woman step out and walk into the restaurant.

Becky stifles her sobs and braces herself.

The two approach Becky.

POLICEMAN
Rebecca Shuttleworth?

Becky nods.

POLICEMAN
I’m PC Garnett. This is Sophie Summers from victim support. We’ve been trying to contact you for a few weeks.

Sophie smiles uselessly. PC Garnett crouches; lowers his voice.

PC GARNETT
We know what Gareth has been doing. We can stop it from happening if you cooperate.

BECKY
I think I’ve stopped it myself, thanks!

PC GARNETT
We've been informed of the situation. We’d like to help you. But we need you to work with us. I've still got to arrest you, but it's just a formality. I think you'd rather we did that outside.

Sophie helps Becky out of her seat. She slides out from the blood-splattered table and walks, shaking, towards the exit with the woman. PC Garnett approaches Jerry.

PC GARNETT
Are you the manager?

JERRY
Yes.

PC GARNETT
I'd like to thank you for how you handled this situation. It could have been much worse without you.

JERRY
Oh... erm, the guy you're looking for is on the way to hospital with a young woman.

PC GARNETT
Well... that can't be helped. We'll pick him up at A and E.

(To Becky)
You're safe now, Ms. Shuttleworth.

PC Garnett holds the door open for the two women. They are about to reach the door when-

LUKE’S MUM
Officers!

The three stop and turn.

LUKE’S MUM (through tears)
I think my husband might be able to help you.

Pause.

LUKE’S DAD
Fuck it, I’ll come with you.

He gets up and, to the customers’ surprise, walks out with Becky and the 2 others.

Once they have left, other officers file into the restaurant and begin to interrogate the customers. Resting on the floor under the table, Luke’s Polaroid picture shows Gareth in pain.

FADE TO BLACK.