FADE IN:
EXT. FIELD- DAY
A snowy field. A tall hill. A tree with dying leaves in autumnal colors. ZOE, 19, a red head wearing a green summery dress, lies on her back in the snow, eyes open, staring up. NELL, 25, tall and well dressed, handsome, walks up besides Zoe and leans over her.
NELL: Hello, Zoe. What are you doing?
ZOE: Hello, Nell. You’re blocking my view.
NELL: Hmmm. Well, Nell will do.
Nell lies down in the snow besides Zoe, stares up.
NELL: What are we watching?
ZOE: My mother.
INT. CLOSET- DAY
JOYCE, 50, dowdy looking, sits in a very small room which contains only the chair she sits on, a door, and a clock on the wall. She watches the clock. Its hands spin around quickly with loud ticks.
EXT. FIELD- DAY
NELL: What is she doing?
ZOE: Waiting for my funeral.
NELL: Oh. What are you doing?
ZOE: The same, I suppose. Is it time yet?
NELL: No. Not yet.
ZOE: Alright. What’s next, then?
INT. CLOSET- DAY
The door opens. NURSE, 30, an average looking man wearing scrubs, enters. He stands in front of the doorway. Joyce does not look at him.
NURSE: Joyce Douglas?
JOYCE: Yes.
NURSE: We’ve been looking for you.
JOYCE: This is a nice room.
NURSE: It’s supposed to be a janitor’s closet. I’m not even sure why it’s empty, I forgot it was here.
JOYCE: Are you going to make me leave?
NURSE: I… It doesn’t seem like you want to stay. What’s the point of being here if you’re off in some closet instead of in your daughter’s room?
JOYCE: I’m not sure I should be there. I don’t think they want me to be.
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM- DAY
Zoe lies in a hospital bed, with a breathing tube and IVs in her arms. She is hooked up to a heart monitor, which beeps intermittently. The room is full of a CROWD, holding get well balloons, cards, flowers, etc. Standing in the crowd is STEVEN, 50, weathered and expensively dressed, and AMELIA, 35, not quite pretty, in a white skirt and a nice blouse. The room is small and the crowd is smushed in tight. They all stare at Zoe.
EXT. FIELD- DAY
NELL: Seems like a lot of people are worried about you.
ZOE: You sound surprised.
NELL: Most of the people who end up here aren’t well liked.
ZOE: Oh. Is that why most people come to you?
NELL: Well, it’s more I come to them, isn’t it?
ZOE: Deal with you, then.
NELL: I’m not sure it’s the reason they deal with me, nothing that direct. But loneliness makes people more desperate. More likely to be in a situation that does lead them to me. To make a deal.
ZOE: ...I’ve never understood people.
NELL: You don’t count yourself among them?
ZOE: I never made a deal with you.
NELL: (smiling) No. You made a bet.
ZOE: Don’t you leer at me!
NELL: I’m just being friendly.
ZOE: “Friendly.” That doesn’t seem like something in your job description.
NELL: Really? Friendliness is quite useful to me. It’s a salesman’s best weapon, the way he gets his foot in the door.
ZOE: Is that how you see yourself? A salesman?
NELL: Aren’t I?
ZOE: I never felt particularly sold. Just… backed into a corner. More like I was a mouse being played with by a cat.
NELL: You always had a choice. That’s how this works. There has to be a choice.
ZOE: ...Ha! Hahahahaha!
NELL: You made your choice.
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM- DAY
Joyce enters. The crowd all turn to look at her. Joyce walks forward and kneels next to Zoe’s bedside. Joyce grabs Zoe’s hand. The nurse follows her in.
STEVEN: Joyce. You can’t be here.
NURSE: Sir, she has just as much right to-
STEVEN: (talking to Joyce) You need to go.
JOYCE: She… she’s my daughter, too. You can’t keep me away from her.
STEVEN: You don’t get to say that anymore.
JOYCE: She’s- you-
STEVEN: (interrupting) Dammit, Joyce! You can’t say that anymore! Not her, not in her hospital room as she dies because of you!
AMELIA: Steven…
STEVEN: (to Amelia) She has to leave. She has to…
JOYCE: I won’t hurt her, I won’t, I-
AMELIA: (interrupting) The damage is done, Joyce.
STEVEN: You have no right to be here. You have no right.
AMELIA: You should go.
JOYCE: (desperately) I’m her mother.
AMELIA: I was more of a mother to her than you ever were.
JOYCE: You kept me from her!
STEVEN: If you had just let things be, if you just stayed away from us, none of this would have happened. My daughter wouldn’t be stuffed with tubes, hanging on by a thread. I wouldn’t be-
JOYCE: You can’t take her from me, not again!
STEVEN: She’s already gone! ...She’s already gone. God, I can’t even look at you.
Joyce looks around the room, trembling. The crowd stares at her. Joyce gets up and leaves.
NURSE: How can you just…?
AMELIA: You have no idea what that woman has done.
EXT. FIELD- DAY
ZOE: Did you have to use her?
NELL: I’m sorry?
ZOE: My mother. Did you have to use her just to get to me.
NELL: I work through the world, not in spite of it.
ZOE: It could have been anyone, it could have been a drunk stranger on the highway or an old boyfriend with a bat. You chose her.
NELL: I had no obligation to make this easier on you. Quite the opposite, in fact.
ZOE: She wasn’t a part of this. She never made any deals.
NELL: I don’t just deal in deals. You yourself have made a bet. Come now, you had to know you wouldn’t be the only one impacted by this.
ZOE: Maybe I didn’t think about it.
NELL: A thing like this tends to ripple.
ZOE: I don’t recall that being in the fine print.
NELL: There was no actual-
ZOE: It’s just an expression, Nell.
NELL: Nell. You’re going to keep calling me that, then.
ZOE: You haven’t given me some other name to call you.
NELL: People are always trying to give me names, but none of them ever quite fit. Still, I’m surprised you’d pick that one.
ZOE: Surprised? Why? You borrowed his face, why not his name?
NELL: I’m not opposed to it. Just surprised you’d want to call me by his name.
ZOE: He doesn’t mean anything in particular to me.
NELL: No? Your soul is a lot to bet on a man you’re not particularly partial to.
ZOE: He made me a promise.
BEGIN FLASHBACK:
Zoe leans out over a very nice old looking stone balcony. The wind is strong and whips through her hair. She is wearing a t-shirt and jeans and is barefoot. Nell stands a few feet behind her, in a suit.
ZOE: Do you remember, you said you’d do anything for me. Did you mean that?
NELL: ...Yes.
ZOE: (turning to face him) Would you die for me?