1985

INT – GREYHOUND BUS – DAY AND NIGHT x 4

Montreal

To Santa Cruz, California.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World

Of FM music

Including my boyfriend.

I think, Cool, why not?

Let’s cross that

Big continent

Without stopping,

With no money.

Just you and me

High on the

Power of Love!

 

We’re not scared!

We have a phone number

To call like a

Careless Whisper

Once we get there,

Arrogant in our belief that

It is normal to

Show up

Looking like something the cat dismembered.

Hello Joy!

Remember us?

We met you a couple of times at that fun place in Geneva!

So we thought we would come all the way from

Switzerland via Montreal

For you to Take On Me

(And him)

In your Hotel California.

 

But

 

EXT - SANTA CRUZ - NIGHT - TELEPHONE BOOTH

 

The Heat Is On

She is not home and I have

Twenty dollars in my fancy Italian handbag.

We get on a Metro bus to

Where?

 

The Santa Crutz

Nightshift

Feels unsafe to me,

A silly sheltered Swiss girl

Playing Rock Chick

In the brand-new sheepskin coat

My mama bought me because she was

Worried I would be cold in Canada.

 

INT- BUS - NIGHT:

 

An old lady is sitting next to me.

I sway with fatigue,

And catch her eye.

Her kind smile tells me

She sees the sheltered, scared girl.

I want to take her hand and hold on tight.

But I just ask her

If she knows a place

Where we can sleep

For cheap.

 

And she looks deep into my eyes

And says:

 

“You two look like a couple of decent kids. I live in an old people’s home since my husband Jeff passed away, but I kept my old camper van. It’s parked out the back in the parking lot. So, I’ll sneak you into my room so you can have a quick wash, brush your teeth, and then we'll hustle out back, quiet as mice, and get you settled in the van. I’ll pull Jeff’s old army sleeping bags from underneath the fold-out table, and you’ll be snug as bugs, you'll see! I’ll be back in the morning with coffee and pastries and sneak you back into my room to freshen up.”

 

And just like that, a complete stranger

On a bus saves two ridiculous

Exhausted twenty-something-year-olds

From a night on the streets.

 

EXT - SANTA CRUZ - THE NEXT MORNING

 

Joy answers her phone.

We are safe

And welcome

And Joyful!

And still in touch!

2024 – INT – GINGINS – SWITZERLAND

 

Every time I hear “Don’t You Forget About Me” by Simple Minds, I think of that wonderful kind old lady on that transit bus who saw panic in my eyes and reached out to help.

 

N.B: I am no longer a rock chick. I am now a rock-poet and author of romcom JUST LIKE A MOVIE that is being developed into a screenplay in Los Angeles, and the wife of a retired lawyer, whom I met after running away from California and the rock star when my sister came to rescue me two years later. I got my Kelly McGillis Top Gun hair a week or so before flying home because perms were on sale at Saks Fifth Avenue.