Episode # 5

(08:12-12:20) Scene 3: Horton Kitchen (Marie, Craig, Julie)

[JULIE is standing and looking at a vase she just dropped. MARIE and CRAIG rush in]

MARIE: Julie, are you all right?

JULIE: I didn't mean it! It just slipped right out of my hand! It just slipped, I didn't mean it, honestly!

CRAIG: Are you hurt?

MARIE: No, I don't think she is. Did you cut yourself, Julie?

JULIE: No, I was just looking at the vase. It was so unusual, just like a rainbow, and then it fell. I didn't mean it, I'm sorry!

MARIE: Why did you open it Julie?

JULIE: Well, I didn't really mean to. I was just sort of looking at the address and I saw it came from Uncle Bill.

JULIE: Well, all the way from Johns Hopkins.

MARIE: So, you opened it? Despite what I told you about wanting to wait for Tony to open the presents.

JULIE (annoyed): Well, I said I was sorry.

MARIE: Yes, you said you were sorry.

CRAIG: Well, at least she wasn't hurt.

MARIE: Did you call your home, Julie?

JULIE: Yes, I left a message.

MARIE: Well, as soon as your mother calls here, I...Ouch! (MARIE cuts herself on a piece of the vase she was picking up)

MARIE: No, don't worry about it, it's just a surface cut.

CRAIG: Go put a bandage on that, I'll take care of this.

MARIE: Oh, don't bother.

CRAIG: No bother now. Julie will help me, won't you, Julie?

JULIE (happier now): Sure.

CRAIG: No go on, put a bandage on that finger.

MARIE: I'll be right back.

[MARIE exits, CRAIG continues picking up the pieces of broken vase]

JULIE: She's mad at me, I just know she is.

CRAIG: She's not mad, Julie. It was an accident.

JULIE: Sure she is, you heard her. It was a wedding present. That's all she talks about anymore is the wedding.

CRAIG: You can't blame her for that now, can you? A girl doesn't get married every day now.

JULIE: Well, I suppose not. I may not get married at all.

JULIE: Be like Mother and Dad? Yeah.

CRAIG: Well, people are different Julie. Your marriage might be the romance of the ages.

JULIE: I doubt that. Besides I've never met anybody really romantic.

CRAIG: Well what's your idea of romance?

JULIE (looks longingly at Craig): Oh, I don't know. Someone who wears a uniform maybe and who travels to all sorts of different and interesting cities all over the country,

CRAIG: Oh, a postman!

JULIE (laughs): No. What's it like, Mr. Merritt?

CRAIG: Well, what's what like Julie?

JULIE: Traveling all over the country.

CRAIG: Oh, it's not so hot really. The most I see is the inside of a hotel room and the pilot's compartment of a plane.

JULIE: Well, at least the hotels are different.

CRAIG: You see one, you've seen them all.

JULIE: But the people are interesting.

CRAIG: You know something, Julie. The most interesting people I've met...they live right here in Salem.

CRAIG: You don't like Salem very well, do you?

JULIE: Well, I like it alright I guess. It's just that the people here don't like me.

CRAIG: Oh, Julie, your family not only likes you, they love you. What about your friends?

JULIE: Hmm. My two so-called friends just finked on me.

JULIE: Ratted! Told on me so they could weasel out of some trouble themselves.

CRAIG: Are you in some sort of trouble, Julie?

JULIE: Oh, well. Oh some old store said that I stole this crummy piece of fur.and they're making trouble with the police for me.

CRAIG: Piece of fur?

JULIE: I didn't steal it!

CRAIG: Well, I can't imagine you doing anything as foolish as that.

JULIE: You know, you're just about the only person around here who gives me the benefit of the doubt.

CRAIG: Well, as they say, a man is innocent until he's proven guilty.

JULIE: Not with me. With me it's just the opposite.

CRAIG: Well, I'm afraid they're just not giving you the break you deserve.

JULIE (smiling broadly now): Nobody talks to me like you do.

CRAIG: Well, maybe I'll start a trend.

JULIE: Oh, no. I want it to be special, just between you and me.

CRAIG: Well, you know what's between you and me, Julie?

CRAIG (picks up the box with glass pieces): A lot of broken glass.

DISSOLVE TO: MICKEY'S OFFICE

(12:20-16:07) Scene 4: Mickey's Office (Mickey, Ben)

[MICKEY is seated, working at his desk. BEN enters without knocking]

MICKEY (surprised): Well, has knocking gone out of style?

BEN: Your secretary said you were alone.

MICKEY: Well does it occur to you that I might be working?

BEN: Sure, it occurs to me, but I haven't much time. I'm due back at the bank in a half hour. Well what action have you had on Julie's case?

BEN: Yes, action. You've heard of it?

MICKEY: Ben, this may come as a very complete surprise to you, but I do have other clients.

BEN: Well doesn't my daughter, your niece, come first?

MICKEY: Not necessarily.

BEN: Oh, that's a fine attitude.

MICKEY: Julie's case is progresssing just as it should.

BEN: Oh, in whose estimation?

BEN: Now I told Harry Grill about the incidence this morning. He said if he were handling it the whole thing would be tossed out on insufficient evidence.

MICKEY: Oh, really? Did you tell him that one of the eyewitnesses was a detective? And that they had the whole attempted theft recorded on tape?

BEN: Now those are just details.

MICKEY: Well they are pretty damaging details for Julie.

BEN: You're pessimistic about the whole thing, aren't you, Mickey?

MICKEY: I am optimistic, Ben. There's a difference. Julie's in very serious trouble. Now if you would just acknowledge that instead of running around here trying to get this thing hushed up or rushed out of court we might get somewhere.

BEN: Now law is just like any other business. Deals are made every day.

MICKEY: Maybe so, but I'm not aware of it.

BEN: Oh, well what's more important? Your ideals or Julie?

MICKEY: Both. And in that order!

BEN: All right. I promised Addy we'd play it your way. So when's the case get to court?

MICKEY: Well there's a different procedure for juvenile cases and this case won't even be held in court.

BEN: Well is that good?

MICKEY: Well it's good in a way. It's less formal. There'll be a preliminary hearing in the judge's private chambers.

BEN: Do you have a date on that?

MICKEY: It's on the calendar for next Tuesday.

BEN (outraged): Tuesday?! Why didn't you tell me it was that soon?

MICKEY: Well, you didn't ask, Ben.

BEN: Well, what do I have to do, beg you for information? Now Tuesday doesn't give us much time to prepare.

MICKEY: I am prepared, Ben.

BEN: Well, I wish I could be that sure. Who is the judge?

MICKEY: The judge is Clinton Bridges.

BEN (happy to hear this): Oh, Clint Bridges, huh?

MICKEY: Now wait a minute, Ben.

BEN: What;s the matter?

MICKEY: I am telling you, once and for all, to lay off. Don't try to make any deals with Judge Bridges.

BEN: Now what are you trying to do, run my life?

MICKEY: I am trying to tell you how this case is going to be conducted. No more attempted deals of any kind!

BEN: Do you know why I am in the top tax bracket?

MICKEY: Because your father died and left you a bank.

BEN: It didn't have a loan department then. I'm the one who built that. Now we've got most of the property in Salem sown up. Do you realize what that means in dollars and cents?

MICKEY: What are you trying to prove, Ben?

BEN: I buy and sell people like you all day long.

MICKEY: Well isn't that dandy. What about your own daughter? Is she up on the auction block too? While you're out buying and selling and wheeling and dealing, what happens to Julie?

BEN: Well, when this case is over...

MICKEY: I'm not talking about this case. I am talking about a sixteen-year-old girl who's so confused and bewildered, she doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. And that's what your deals have done for Julie. She has a sense of values about as crooked as a jigsaw. Not the slightest idea about morality or integrity. And all you can talk about is wheeling and dealing and deals and your daughter's about to plunge herself right into a volcano.

BEN: What are you getting so steamed up about, anyway?