A Reckoning Beckons

`FADE IN:

INT. HARLEY STREET DOCTOR'S OFFICE - DAY

Elegant. BG, a medical closet lined with pill bottles, etc. A DOCTOR, 50s, with the bedside manner of Attila the Hun, sits at a desk opposite a once dashing merchant banker, KEN Orcott, also 50s, struggling to conceal erosion caused by terminal illness.

The Doctor shuts a file. Shakes his head.

KEN
There has to be a treatment. Some experimental-

He whips out a designer wallet from his jacket. Extracts a wad of notes.

KEN
How much can research cost? I've got a small fortune-

DOCTOR
It isn't money, Mr. Orcott.

KEN
A foundation? Can't you see your name on a plaque? Where would you like it? Oxford? Cambridge?

DOCTOR
Mr. Orcott, you're a man in a million.

KEN
Why d’ya think I'm always featured at Davos?

DOCTOR
You're only chance is to find a suitable stem cell donor. And you just confirmed your odds are a million to one.

KEN
How about my parents? They weren't cremated. They were embalmed.

DOCTOR
Within the last 36 hours? That's the latest the cells can be harvested.

Ken pauses.

KEN
What about a brother?

DOCTOR
You said you didn't have any living relatives.

KEN
He's not living. He's surviving. And with his lifestyle, his tissues would probably kill me before the cancer would.

DOCTOR
Obtain his consent and have the procedure-

KEN
Consent?! I have to have his consent?

DOCTOR
If you don't, then you have three months maximum. Three VERY unpleasant months.

INT. BENTLEY - NIGHT

In a daze, Ken drives through a pouring rainstorm.

OS, a WAIL-

EXT. BUS SHELTER - NIGHT

-from ANDY ORCOTT, late 40s, once handsome, now indifferent to his own dissolution, the impact of his thrift-shop stylish clothes diminished by their shabbiness.

Two tattooed Wideboys, late 30s, restrain him. REG, ponytail has him in a chokehold. NICK, shaved head, bends Andy’s fingers back.

ANDY
Oy! Stop it, you pinhead skinhead.

REG
(to Nick)
Didn’t tell me he was a poet.

NICK
The worst kind.

REG
Yeah?

NICK
Predictable.

REG
Didn’t I predict he was gonna welsh?

Nick bends Andy’s fingers even further. Andy HOWLS.

ANDY
Break my fingers, my income drops to zero.

REG
The satisfaction's worth it.

ANDY
My novel’s gonna be published any day. You can have the entire advance.

NICK
Reg, mate, you know I’m terrible at maths.

REG
No wonder this is the only job you can get.

Nick bends Andy’s fingers back even further. Andy CRIES out.

ANDY
Listen, listen.

NICK
(to Reg)
Are fingers fifty quid? Or a hundred?

ANDY
My brother’s a merchant banker. In the City.

REG
Why hasn’t he bailed you out?

ANDY
I thought I’d be flush by now.

NICK
I got an imaginary brother, too. He’s the bleedin’ King of Rumania.

ANDY
Every night he comes this by here on his way home. Any minute.

REG
Any minute, Nick’s brother’s gonna come trottin’ along in a coach-and-four.

Nick peers into the traffic. Andy struggles to the curb.

ANDY
I'm telling the truth.

He spots Ken’s Bentley stopped at a traffic light.

ANDY
Ken! Hey, Kenny!

Reg and Nick ease up slightly as the Bentley slides past.

INSERT:

Ken at the wheel oblivious to the tableaux in the bus shelter.

KENNY
(calls out)
It’s me. Andrew. Your brother.

The Bentley turns at the next corner.

REG
Do we stick around till his supermodel sister shows up?

NICK
Is it five hundred divided by fifty. Or a hundred.

ANDY
You Neanderthal scumbags.

Nick squeezes Andy’s cheeks.

ANDY
Didn’t your brother teach you to speak nice to people you owe money too?

OS, a SCREECH.

BLAM!

Ken slams open the driver’s door against the trio, sending them sprawling.

He gets out of the car as Andy and Reg struggle to their feet. Nick has scraped his lip against the cement and remains prone, rubbing away the blood.

KEN
How much does he owe you?

ANDY
Who said this was about money?

Ken rolls his eyes, removes his wallet.

REG
Five hundred.

Ken peels out five bills and tosses them on Nick. He shoves his wallet into his pocket and pulls out a handful of change. He throws it onto Nick.

KEN
(to Nick)
Buy yourself some iodine.
(to Andy)
Get into the car.

ANDY
Don’t you wanna see the King of Rumania?

KEN
(to Reg)
If you or any of your cretin mates touch my brother again, all the fish in the Thames won't find a morsel of you to nibble on.

REG
How’s a poncy git like you-

Ken gives a look down his nose that freezes Reg.

REG
Okay, okay.

INT. - BENTLEY - NIGHT

Ken drives; Andy plays with the electric seat until he’s fully reclined.

KEN
Andrew-

ANDY
If you’re going to recite your CV like it’s bloody Shakespeare and then go down the checklist of my failures one by one, you-

KEN
Now, now, what makes you say that?

ANDY
Our last ten conversations maybe.

Andy keeps rising and falling in the seat.

KEN
Actually, I’ve been reflecting on the fact that you’re all the family I’ve got.

ANDY
Depressing, idn’t it?

KEN
And I wanted to apologize for being so busy. The City might be the treasury of King Midas, underneath it’s a vampire haven out your blood drop by drop. The only thing that keeps me human is remembering how much fun we had chasing that adder in Wales. Thank heavens it was only a grass snake.

ANDY
I hope that's a metaphor.

He toys with the air-conditioning vents.

KEN
Would you stop fidgeting?

ANDY
Swank is such an novelty.

KEN
Until it isn't.

ANDY
Sorry, bro. Apologies for my rudeness in not thanking you for saving my life.

KEN
You’d do the same.

ANDY
Dissing your deus-ex-machina is the height of ingratitude, isn’t it?

KEN
Your what?

ANDY
Ah, I'd forgotten the chief benefit of a classical education. Incoherence to your friends and family.

KEN
Hunger making you light-headed? You had dinner yet? Crap doesn’t count.

Andy looks away.

ANDY
I’m fine.

INT. - MEMBERS CLUB - NIGHT

Posh.

Ken introduces Andy to NIGEL, the Maitre D', who scrutinizes him dismissively.

KEN
Nigel, meet my brother, Andrew.

Nigel clasps Andy's hand, startling him.

NIGEL
How do you do.

Andy steps back-up, holding up on a clip-on tie.

ANDY
What's this?

NIGEL
Guests must wear a tie in the dining room.

Andy studies the tie for a moment, SIGHS. He pins both clips to the same side of his collar. Beams at Nigel.

NIGEL
Sir-

Ken takes Andy by the arm, and, with a glance at Nigel, leads Andy into the dining room.

KEN
I'll deal with it.

INT. - DINING ROOM - NIGHT

Ken and Andy, looking around, at a corner table, menus in hand, glasses of whisky before them. Other diners do their best not to stare.

ANDY
Can't remember the last time I was a center of attention.

KEN
The investiture when you flew the paper airplane at the Archbishop?

ANDY
Cost me my medal for memorizing the most Bible verses. Oh, well.

He sips of whisky. Swirls it around in his mouth.

ANDY
Can't remember the last time I tasted Lagavulin, either.

KEN
Have you decided what you want?

Andy studies the menu.

ANDY
Aren't any prices on this? How can I make sure I order the most expensive dish?

KEN
Didn't they teach you anything in that fancy public school-

ANDY
I'm just messing with you, bro.

He mock cuffs Ken, flinches. Sucks on his fingers.

KEN
You want to see a doctor. Privately?

Andy shakes his head.

DISSOLVE TO:

Their meals half-finished.

ANDY
Why'd you stop? Usually you just drive past in your Bentley with your windows rolled up.

KEN
My attention's lasered on the driver ahead.

ANDY
Or is it because the bigger your bonus, the more transparent I become. You’re making so much money now I'm fuckin' invisible.

KEN
You want me wedged in the tailpipe of the psychotic asshole ahead of me?

ANDY
Do you know the number of nights I've spent hours waiting for the bleedin' bus, and you go sailing by?

KEN
It'll never happen again.

ANDY
What's a few hours for a nobody like me?

KEN
Andrew, once the past and future have squeezed all the bitterness out of you, you're not even going to be a husk. For why?

INT. ORCOTT LIVING ROOM - 35 YEARS EARLIER - DAY (FLASHBACK)

Younger Mr. and Mrs. Orcott watch on as Young Andy beams. He holds up a toy race car, then sets it on the carpet and WHOOSHES it back and forth. Young Ken opens his present and holds up a pair of socks with look of disgust.

KEN (VO)
You were spoiled at every turning. Look at our Christmas presents - you get an electric racer, and I get bleeding socks.

BACK TO SCENE:

Andy flips up Ken's tie.

ANDY
Even then they knew what a flippin' fashion plate you were.

KEN
They must have been hoarding all their love for you, too. Certainly didn't waste any feeling on me.

ANDY
You're all selfishness and sharp angles. How would you recognize love? Care? Compassion?

KEN
Believe me, I've become a real expert. And I don't see a single symptom of sympathy in you.

ANDY
Fifty-quid notes are the best blindfold the devil ever invented.

KEN
When Mum got pregnant, they turned so aloof, I didn't even think they were capable of love. But then you came along. If they'd been any more doting, I'd have died from sugar shock.

EXT. GATE OUTSIDE PUBLIC SCHOOL - DAY (FLASHBACK)

MRS. ORCOTT, late 30s, beside YOUNG ANDY, 6, in a school uniform, and YOUNG KEN, 13, beside MR. ORCOTT, early 40s.

Mr. Orcott leads Young Ken, indifferent expression, away, as Young Andy CALLS out.

KEN (VO)
When I think of all the advantages you squandered, I want to weep.

ANDY (VO)
You have tear ducts? Since when?

KEN (VO)
You go to that posh public school, with me stuck in that crummy state school.

ANDY (VO)
By the time I came along, the folks were better off. Don't you understand? I didn't admire you, I IDOLIZED you. Then you rejected me as the tagalong kid brother.

NIGEL (OS)
Do you gentlemen want coffee?

BACK TO SCENE:

KEN
The usual.

ANDY
I wish I could come into an old established establishment like this and ask for "my usual".

Ken indicates Andy's glass.