If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother Earth and eating in such a way, you feel in touch with true life, your roots, and that is meditation. If we chew every morsel of our food in that way we become grateful and when you are grateful, you are happy.
Thích Nhất Hạnh
ePub
A4Chapter Chapter Three
S
CENE 4(Back in store office, OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS calls MELISSA.)
MELISSA: (on phone) Hello?
(At MELISSA'S house, the HOKEY POKEY song is playing on POLLY'S record player. POLLY, hold-ing her doll, watches MELISSA.)
BUDDY: (on phone) Hey. It's Buddy.
MELISSA: Oh, hi.
BUDDY: (on phone) Are you okay, Melissa?
MELISSA: (on phone) I'm fine. Why do you ask?
POLLY: Who's that, Mommy?
BUDDY: (on phone) I know you were here, Melissa. Down at the Super Saver.
MELISSA: (on phone) I don't know what you're talking about, Buddy.
POLLY: Hang up, Mommy.
BUDDY: (on phone) Melissa, turn the music down. There's some talk that you're involved in what happened here today.
MELISSA: (on phone, going downstairs and outside) I'm not involved in anything.
BUDDY: (on phone) I know that. Would you listen to me?
I'm not saying that you are.
MELISSA: (on phone) What are you saying?
POLLY: (from inside) Mommy!
BUDDY: (on phone) I want to help you, but you've got to keep it a secret or we're both going to be answering questions. Now, I've got something to tell you.
MELISSA: (on phone) What?
BUDDY: (on phone) Something bad.
MELISSA: (on phone) What is it, Buddy?
BUDDY: (on phone) Dave's dead.
MELISSA: (on phone) Oh, my God!
BUDDY: (on phone) I've got to see you right away, Melissa.
MELISSA: (on phone) I can't.
BUDDY: (on phone) You need a friend more than ever.
(Upstairs, POLLY sits with the doll, listening to the Hokey Pokey.
Doll's eyes open.)
DOLL: Let's have fun.
MELISSA: (on phone) You can't come here, Buddy.
BUDDY: (on phone) Why? Tell me why?
MELISSA: (on phone) I can't explain it to you now.
BUDDY: (on phone) I'm coming over there, Melissa. You shouldn't be alone.
(Behind MELISSA outside, we see the shadow of the doll on a sheet hanging to dry on a clothes-line. Its eyes blink.)
(Commercial 1.)
SCENE 5
MELISSA TURNER RESIDENCE
2:08 PM
(BONSAINT and SCULLY drive up in a patrol car and get out. BONSAINT knocks on front door. No answer. SCULLY looks in a window.)
SCULLY: Back door's wide open.
(They go around to back.)
BONSAINT: Melissa! (to SCULLY) Sheets are still wet.
(SCULLY enters house, goes up to POLLY'S room and looks at windows which are nailed shut.)
SCULLY: Chief? Take a look at this.
BONSAINT: What the devil's this for?
SCULLY: It looks like she was afraid of something.
BONSAINT: Whatever it is, she's run off in a hurry. Laundry's out.
Door's unlocked. Beats me.
SCULLY: You know her?
BONSAINT: Melissa Turner?
SCULLY: Mm-hmm.
BONSAINT: About as local as you can get. Born and raised here.
Married a fisherman. Widowed last year after a boating accident. Don't know if the little girl, Polly ever really understood. Toys in the attic.
SCULLY: The daughter's autistic?
BONSAINT: That's what they say. There was the incident last year
over at the daycare center. Proprietor slapped Polly across the face.
SCULLY: Slapped her? What for?
BONSAINT: Well, she said Polly threw a tantrum so fierce there was
nothing else she could do. Next thing she knew, she's on the ground.
Little girl knocked her silly.
SCULLY: The little girl did?
BONSAINT: Well, that's her story. Polly never touched her, far as
I could figure. Oh, it was a real drama, though. The lady who ran the school lost her license. People calling the kid all manner of names saying Melissa's a witch. Polly never went back to school a day since.
SCULLY: This ah, this affair that the mother was having with the butcher ...?
BONSAINT: Dave. Oh, I might have given you the wrong impression. That wasn't really an af-fair. Although Dave did make quite a fool of himself and his wife.
SCULLY: So, it was unrequited.
BONSAINT: You could say that.
SCULLY: To the extent that she'd have to nail her windows shut?
BONSAINT: Oh, he wasn't that big a fool. You know, maybe she
wasn't afraid of something getting in. Maybe she's afraid of something getting out.
SCULLY: Like what?
BONSAINT: Just a thought.
