Body by David Mauriello
ACT ONE
GONZO: It's business. (Switches channels) What's this, Marilyn Monroe
Day?
GUS: Don't she wish, the Blonde Goddess has had her day. Guess the
stations haven't caught up with all the stories going around, ya
know, the news guys gotta check their sources.
TIM: Is Doris Day gong to finish the movie Marilyn got fired from?
GONZO: Doris Day!
GUS: What! Wait a minute, you guys! Hey, where you been, outer space?
GONZO: Underspace.
GUS: Shit! Maybe if I wasn't late gettin' here I would know
either. Rumors breakin' out all over the place. YOU DON'T KNOW,
YOU GUYS REALLY DON'T KNOW.
HE points to TV. They look, staring intently.
GUS: She is dead, man, Marilyn Monroe is Dead.
TIM: Marilyn Monroe.
GONZO: She's a movie star.
GUS: That mean they don't die? They die, just like you and me, just
like a ghost wind passing through. Wheeeeessssshhh! That's how she
went, I guess, all confusing stories going around, like she was pissed
at some big shots, ya know, like she was going to blow the whistle at
some press conference…but they found her in bed talkin' on the
telephone, to(he pauses dramatically)
TIM and GONZO: WHO?
GUS: they don't know! they do not know! but they found her, just
a couple of hours ago.
GONZO, visibly upset, looks closely at TV, turns volume up. We hear
MARILYN MONROE'S VOICE singing from one of her movies. They listen
for a moment. GONZO turns volume down.
GONZO: What are you talkin' about, you redberry prick fuck. There she is.
TIM huddles at the set.
GUS: There she was, and that's how she'll be forever, just doin'
that same thing over and over and over. Already some guys have killed
themselves, her fans! They pulled one out of the river, he had dressed
himself up like Marilyn and went screaming down the street to the
bridge, throwin' himself in screaming, "I'm coming, Marilyn,
I'm coming!" And some of her fans are thinking of taking pills
like in a group!
TIM: All this in a couple of hours. Aren't you exaggerating?
GUS: Maybe, but you get the picture. Out there is crazy. Someone said
they saw a fleet of Air Force helicopters hovering over where she
lived. They think she took pills…or someone gave them to her.
TIM: HUH?
GONZO: Ya mean, like she didn't want the pills?
TIM: That would be murder.
GUS: Who knows? Anyway, they gotta check her out.
GONZO: "Check her out?"
TIM: Like I told you, they do with dead people, autopsy.
GONZO: (grabs GUS's arm as if asking for more information) Yeah!?
GUS: To see what killed her, but she's special, see, I mean, you
know, famous, so they're checking her special.
GONZO stares at GUS, then slowly crosses towards door of morgue.
GONZO: Where? Where are they checkin' her?
TIM: They'll have to check her whole body.
GONZO: NO! not that "where"! The place where they bring her so
they can check.
GUS: Where do you think, a place that has the best equipment, maybe
someplace new…and, a little private, ya know? Not some place where
reporters are waiting at the ambulance entrance for some story, you
know?? So where is there a place like that?
They stare at him. He holds arms and hands out in a "right here" gesture.
TIM: Here! RIGHT HERE! YOU'RE KIDDING.
GUS: I Don't lie, exaggerate maybe so you get the picture. But SHE
IS HERE, upstairs, right now with all them doctors and coroners
GONZO is slowly moving towards the morgue door.
GUS: checkin her out, fingers up her blond pussy, tubes up her
ass,and they're waiting for some big shot from Hollywood to do a
special, they gotta pull the shit out of her and go through it with a
finetooth comb, had to do the same thing when the horse, that famous
race horse died, remember that?
TIM and GUS notice GONZO staring at the morgue door. GONZO holds up a
hand for silence.
TIM: What?
GONZO: (after a pause) I think she's in there (points to the door).
GUS: Huh?
GONZO: Ya notice who ain't here, Manny. And why's his bosses all
around. He got a call, somethin big, VERY big. What they wanted was
for him to get her down here fast so no one messed around until the
Hollywood guy got here. Manny lit out like he had a burning match up
his ass, right Timmy?, lit out so fast and maybe forgot to
HE pushes slightly against the morgue door, it opens a hairline.
GONZO: ....forgot to lock the door.
TIM: We would've heard.
GONZO: Manny wouldn't want us to know, and he couldn't let anyone
know we wuz here.
TIM: But then he would've sent us out. Why hasn't he come back to
tell us to leave?
GUS: Anyway, she wouldn't be in there! All the real doctor's
equipment is upstairs. In there is where they preserve them, right, or
spray the air to kill any germs the bodies might have.
TIM: The room can be sealed shut .Sometimes they set the electric
timer so they can fumigate it with poison gas. And there's a
camera, hanging from the ceiling.
GUS: That's for police records, ya know, pictures at the scene of
the crime, all that stuff
GONZO: Yeah, but!
They look at GONZO.
GONZO: But upstairs, hot! right! they don't want hot, not while
they're waitin' for that Hollywood guy, so they
GUS: put her in, THERE, where it's so COLD! Fuck, YES, PUT HER
ON
GONZO: ICE!!
GUS and GONZO stare at each other, they smile.
GUS: (nervous laughter) Fuck, you saying Marilyn Monroe, MARILYN
MONROE is laying in there, only about twenty feet from us, FUCK!
HE laughs nervously, paces, snaps the TV off.
GONZO: (softly) Wheeeewwwww.
A long silence. GUS sits in chair, gets up, sits again. GONZO stares
at him, his head nodding quickly as he thinks.
TIM: Manny must've forgotten to press the automatic switch. Pull the
door shut.
GUS and GONZO look at each other. TIM starts to cross to the door, but
GUS rises and GONZO stiffens. TIM freezes.
GONZO: (not looking at anyone) Yeah, yeah, yeah.
GUS: There's this door, and what else?
HE points to morgue door.
TIM: In there? Big double door, for the elevator.
GUS: That's the only way in??
TIM: Except from this office. .
GUS and GONZO stare at each other.
TIM: What are you going to do?
GUS: What are YOU going to do?
TIM: Nothing.
GONZO: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
GONZO moves his head, then his entire body, all nervous gestures. He
smacks one hand into the other and laughs, the beginning of a mild
hysteria. He picks up a calendar, flips pages, looking for a
particular page, presents picture to GUS.
GONZO: Golden dreams.
GUS looks at picture. GONZO touches GUS's crotch, bounces away a
nervous boxer.
GUS: (looking at picture) Golden dreams. (he sits with a sigh as if
the breath has been punched out of him.) God. That. Golden Dreams, is
in. (he looks at morgue door.) There. Oh, Shit.
HE looks at TIMMY, who stares at him.
GUS: What would any guy do, right this minute, HUH??
HE stands, paces. GONZO paces.
GUS: Golden dreams.
TIM: She isn't a picture.
GONZO: I see a picture.
TIM: You know what I mean.
GONZO: She is a movie star.
TIM: Movie stars are people.
GONZO: People don't pay to come see me.
GUS: People don't stand on boxes to make themselves look bigger. Why
do they do it, they sell themselves, right…so we…own them.
TIM: You can't buy dreams.
GONZO: (picks up calendar, puts it down) Golden dreams and the
fuckin' door is open.
GUS: It is? You sure it is?
GONZO: What? I didn't just move it? Want me to do it again, huh,
want me to, want me to, right? You want me to, right? OK, I'll do
it, right? Watch…it's open, if it opens when I touch it, it'll
move, right?
HE crosses to the door as he talks. Stops, takes a moment, a moment of
"electrically charged" hesitation, then he pushes the door, and it opens, visibly.
GONZO: AHHHHHHHH! (he jumps back as if burned) She's in there!
Fuckin' Marilyn Monroe is in there! (he half sobs in a kind of
excitement and fear) It's her, I know it's her. (Laughs exultantly) Marilyn Monroe.
(he sobs)
GUS: SHUT YOUR FUCKING FACE!
Nervously, he shoves GONZO, GONZO shoves him back. They stare at each
other, then GUS walks, almost on tiptoe, to the door. Again there is a
charge of electricity in the air, until…
TIM: WHAT!
GUS stops in his tracks as if shot, sags, regains himself.
TIM: (softly whispers) are you going to do?
GUS: What would anyone do? (Looks to GONZO) Right??
TIM: We don't know who that is…maybe it's not even a body, just
some old blankets.
GONZO: Through the crack I seen flyin' saucer lights lit up over a
table.
TIM: What kind of table?
GONZO: Huh, kind? Fuck chew, I seen through just that crack, a table,
somethin'! I mean the fuckin' body ain't just floatin' in the air. (Bangs walls)
Like this, metal, METAL.
TIM: But on top, it could be blankets.
GONZO: With toes?
GUS: What?
GONZO: White toes, man, almost looked like flowers that we never seen
before, little blossoms or somethin' the way the light hits 'em,
except somethin' hanging from one of the toes, a note paper with
string.
GUS: Like the book Timmy was reading, Flora, tellin' us, what it is.
TIM: You saw an awful lot through just a crack, yet when I asked you
about the table!
GONZO: Somethin' wrong with that?
TIM: Your mind is what's wrong, it's beginning to play games.
GONZO: OHHHHH, listen to who's talking about mind games. The A-1
freak…who can remember dictionaries but don't know his way
home…because HE DON'T WANT TO GO HOME. HUH?
GUS: Cool it, man, cool it.
TIM: Yes, Gus is right, cool it. I'm going to lock that door. (he
starts to cross.)
GONZO: YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!
TIM: GUS!
GUS: STAY COOL, GREASER! and YOU, TIMMY, don't move.
TIM starts to move.
GUS: NOOO! You are very good at getting me and the PR working against
each other when YOU want, but not now! Gonzo and me are thinking, JUST
thinking. Now don't start looking at me like I make you sad.
HE crosses to TIM and embraces him in a brotherly way.
GUS: Listen, you know who that is in there, huh! Think about it!
Marilyn Monroe.
GONZO comes close, encouraging TIM.
TIM: We don't know that and
GONZO gives TIM a short, swift jab on the arm
TIM: Owwwwww!
GONZO: We are thinking.
GUS: What are you thinking?
GONZO: What are you thinking?
GUS: I don't know, what are you thinking?
GONZO: Nothin', just thinkin'. (he picks up calendar, puts it
down, paces)
TIM: I won't let you, either of you, go in there.
GUS: Timmy.
GONZO: He's right.
GUS: WHAT?
GONZO: HE IS GOIN' IN THERE!!
GUS: YEAH!!
TIM: NOOOO!
GUS and GONZO: YEAHH!
TIM: NOOOO!
There is a moment of no action, then GUS and GONZO descend upon TIM.
TIM hugs his sack of books to his chest. GONZO and GUS scoop him up
and carry him to the door.
GUS: Push it open.
TIM: No.
GONZO: Do it.
TIM: No.
GUS: Why?
TIM: I'm afraid.
GONZO: We're goin' in with you.
TIM: It's not right.
GUS: We'll say it was a mistake.
GONZO: Yeah, if someone comes.
GUS: What about putting something against the elevator doors, just in
case, to stall 'em?
GONZO: Listen, all ya gotta do is squeeze somethin' between the
doors, that way, when someone presses the button it'll be like it
won't work.
GUS: How you going to squeeze something in?
GONZO: With my blade, then I'll just stick
HE grabs at calendar while GUS hangs on to TIM. GONZO folds the
calendar.
GONZO:this! This'll do it.
GUS and GONZO: YEAH?
TIM struggles.
TIM: I'm GOING HOME.
GUS: We'll take your map.
TIM: Noooo.
GONZO: You gotta help us, Timmy, TimmyTimmyTimmy.
HE croons the name, kisses TIM on the cheek.
GONZO: Come on.
They set TIM backwards against the doorway.
GONZO: There, now just back up, lean, lean some more.
TIM: No.
GUS and GONZO push TIM. TIM falls as the door opens behind him. TIM
falls into the other room with a cry.
TIM: NOOOOOOOO!
Instant blackout
END OF ACT ONE
[end of extract]