EXT. CENTRAL PARK BY THE BETHESDA FOUNTAIN
CLAUDINE is found barefoot dancing crazily to her Ipod.
ERNEST enters & stares at CLAUDINE a bit perplexed.
CLAUDINE opens her eyes and notices ERNEST. She pops out an earbud, not hesitating in her dance.
CLAUDINE Wassup, dude?
ERNEST Oh, me? Nothing…Um…Sorry, I’ll be going now.
CLAUDINE No, no. I’m not freaked or anything. You can watch. Or you could join in.
ERNEST Yeah. About that. I don’t mean to…I mean…I don’t want to sound uppity or anything, but what exactly are you doing?
CLAUDINE Me?
ERNEST Well, I mean, well there’s not really anyone else here, is there?
CLAUDINE Oh. I guess you’re right. I just got caught up in the music, man.
ERNEST “The Music Man”?! That’s what you’re listening to?
CLAUDINE Is he a spinner?
ERNEST No. It’s a musical.
CLAUDINE Then, no. It’s this crazy trip hop music from The Roundhouse Kicks.
ERNEST So you’re just dancing to your Ipod?
CLAUDINE “Just dancing to my Ipod.” Nah, man. This. This is a cultural revolution.
ERNEST Dancing to your Ipod is?
CLAUDINE No. It’s the Silent Protest Rave.
ERNEST What are you protesting?
CLAUDINE The recession, man. I mean, I was just sitting there last Friday night, smoking a j, when I started thinking I really wanted a Mango Durango burrito from Burritoville. I mean, it was like the word from the 4th Dimension. It said…
ERNEST The 4th Dimension?
CLAUDINE That’s what I believe in.
ERNEST You believe in a concept?
CLAUDINE My Mom told me I should believe in something to straighten my life out, so I did my research and saw the tesseract on Wikipedia. Did you know you can like stare at that for hours and still be mesmerized?
ERNEST Well…I…I don’t actually know what a tes…
CLAUDINE Tesseract.
ERNEST What a tesseract is.
CLAUDINE Got an Iphone?
ERNEST Um. Yeah.
CLAUDINE Look that shit up.
ERNEST Now?
CLAUDINE Yeah, man. Now.
ERNEST looks it up on his Iphone. Claudine continues her Silent Protest Rave.
ERNEST Wow. I can’t even wrap my head around this.
CLAUDINE See, it’s like God. That’s what I told my Mom, and she got off my case. Something about a lost cause. (Awkward beat as CLAUDINE continues her Silent Protest Rave)
ERNEST You never finished why you’re doing this Silent Dance Thingy.
CLAUDINE Silent Protest Rave.
ERNEST Yeah, that.
CLAUDINE Well, the 4th Dimension told me to get a mango durango burrito from Burritoville. And I went out at 1045 at night to catch them before they closed at 11, right?
ERNEST Right.
CLAUDINE And the thing was gone. Because of the recession. I mean, I really needed that burrito, man. And I let the 4th Dimension down. (she starts to break down a little.) I don’t want to feel that pain again. (she recovers) FUCK THE RECESSION!! Join the Silent Protest Rave! (beat) Well, no one else is. So are you going to join me or not?
ERNEST How?
CLAUDINE By doing the 4th Dimension dance. Come on, man, I need you.
ERNEST Me?
CLAUDINE Yeah. Please, man.
Beat in which ERNEST becomes enraptured by CLAUDINE.
ERNEST What do I do?
CLAUDINE does a slo-mo roundhouse kick over ERNEST who crouches and tumbles forward. CLAUDINE moves to the four points of the square performing roundhouse kicks over ERNEST, who mimics the movement of the inside square of the tesseract. At one point, CLAUDINE accidently kicks ERNEST as he tries to do a more intricate part of the tesseract. ERNEST collapses.
CLAUDINE Oh my 4-D! Did my foot catch you?
ERNEST Yep. Just the tip.
CLAUDINE Oh, well, that’s not so bad. Where?
ERNEST Just the tip.
CLAUDINE Oh (awkward beat.) This is the resession’s fault! Bring back Burritoville!
ERNEST You know, there’s one on Water Street, right?
CLAUDINE No way!
ERNEST nods his head.
CLAUDINE (CONT’D) Well, sorry about the, you know. Um, peace. May the 4th Dimension transport you.
CLAUDINE’s gone.
ERNEST (to himself) But there’s no mango durango. (he laughs to himself on the ground. He puts his earbuds in, gets up and starts his own Silent Protest Rave as he exits.)
John Behlmann, Shotz: Just The Tip Oct ‘09