Purim Spiel, Part 3

Cut to: Int. Kitchen. Night.

Lally and Ehud are sitting at the kitchen, drinking tea.

            Lally*4
אז סןף-סוף שכניתה את אביך לנסע לפגישה שמאלנית?

            Ehud
כן, מלא אנטשמים והכל. בפגישה הבאה אנחנו מציגים את היטלר.

            Lally

חשבתי שהוא מת.

            Ehud
אז נעשה סאנס.

Lally laughs.

Cut to: Ext. Porch -Same.

 Close-up of different angles of different body-parts of Sarah and Ilana making out.

Cut to: Int. Bedroom - Same.

 Moshe, sits in his bedroom, looking over the porch with a pair of black binoculars.

Cut to: Int. Kitchen - Same.

            Lally*5
זה לא עשמאותך, אהוד.

            Ehud
אז של מי?

            Lally
של אף אחד .

Ehud shakes his head with a sardonic smile.

            Ehud
של אף אחד.

            Lally
כן. של אף אחד.

She hugs him. They hold each other.

Int. Moshe's Bedroom, Same.

As the door opens, Moshe scrambles to hide his binoculars before Ilana walks in. Ilana, her hair and clothing ruffled, kisses Moshe.

            Moshe
    What was that for?

            Ilana
    I don't know.

She keeps kissing him. He responds.

Int. Moshe's Bedroom, Night.

Moshe and Ilana lie wrapped around each other, covered only by a blanket. Moshe kisses Ilana's shoulder.

Beat.

            Moshe
     Do you want a divorce?

            ILANA

     I don’t know. Do you?

            MOSHE
     I don’t know.

            ILANA
    I’ll be right back I -

            MOSHE
     Need another cup of tea?

            ILANA
    No. I have to pee.

They laugh.

Purim Spiel, Part 2

Cut to: Int. Shiva House Living Room, Israel - Day.

Ehud, handsome, in his late 30s, with wavy brown hair, sits on a low stool next to his older brother, Moshe, in his early 40s, and his mother Tali, in her early 60s, who is wearing a kerchief around her hair in the fashion common among religious Israeli Jewish women. Ilana, American, early 30s, Moshe's wife,  sits next to him. She covers her hair in the Jewish Orthodox fashion. From the way she is interacting with him, it is clear they are romantically involved. The family is surrounded by visitors. All the men are wearing yarmulkas.

A large family picture hangs on the wall.

When Lally and Sarah walk in, there is a hush in the room. Lally nudges Sarah toward Ehud. She hugs him.

Lally walks over to Tali.

            Lally*1
המקום ינחם אותך בתוך שער אבלי ציון וירושלים.

            Tali
אני מצטערת שזה לקח מוות לגרום לך להביא את נחדי לביתי.
           
            Lally
זאת היתה הברירה שלה, לא שלי.

Same - Same

The family, including Lally and Sarah, are sitting, surrounded by visitor.

            Man*2

שחר היה צדיק, ממש צדיק. מסירותו לעם היהודי, לארץ שלנו - פשש! חבל על הזמן. לא כמו השמאלנים האלו, המשטמתים. פתירתו היא טרגדיה לכל קהילות ישע.

Ehud clenches his fist. Lally notices, places her hand on his. He starts. Sarah looks up from her book.

            Man
המקום ינחם אותכם בתוך שער אבלי ציון וירושלים.

            Lally
אמן.

She nudges Sarah.

            Sarah
אמן.

Int. Empty Living Room Israel-Night.

Tali, Ehud and Sarah are the only ones sitting there.

            Tali
    I don't think anyone else is coming. I'm going to bed.

She leaves.
            Ehud
    Maybe you should get to bed. You've had a long day.

            Sarah
    You've had a long day too.

            Ehud
    I didn't travel 6,000 miles with your mother.

            Sarah
    She's not so bad.

            Ehud
    Did I say she was bad? I said she was tiring. There's a difference.
        (Beat.)
    So, is your grandmother still addicted to cocaine?

            Sarah

    You knew about that!

            Ehud
    Of course! She was already an addict when your mother and I got married. I remember, she got high at the wedding. We were afraid the rabbi would find out, so your mother kept your grandmother locked in a closet until five minutes before the ceremony.

            Sarah
    She did that?

            Ehud
    You know your mother when she wants her way.
        (Beat. Ehud looks dreamy.)

            Sarah
    What are you thinking of?

            Ehud
     I don't think you want to know.

            Sarah
    Yes I do.

            Ehud
    To keep your grandmother in the closet, your mother borrowed this black silk scarf from a friend. I was thinking of the fun we had with the scarf after the wedding.

            Sarah
    Eugh!

            Ehud
        (Shrugs)
    Well, you said you wanted to know.

            Sarah
    But only because I didn't know what you were going to say!

            Ehud
    Speaking of knowing, why do I know so little about your boyfriend?

            Sarah
    Mom mentioned him?!

            Ehud
    She said he wears leather.

            Sarah
     I'm beginning to think Mom is a perv.

            Ehud
    I know she is.
        (Beat.)

            Sarah
    Do you ever wonder if she's still in love with you?

Ehud looks at her.

            Sarah
    Well, she never really had any serious boyfriends.

            Ehud
    Go to bed.

He kisses her on top of the head and walks out. When he gets upstairs, Lally is standing outside a door, from which Moshe and Ilana's voices can be heard screaming.

            Ehud*3
אפה האום כשצריכים אותם? בן-זונות. 

            Lally
לא צריכים אותם. יש רק דרך אחת לעשות שלום.   
        (Beat(
מין.

Ehud laughs.

            Lally
ברצינות - אם כל הישראלים היו מזדינים את כל הפליסתינאים…

INT. VILLA BEDROOM - NIGHT

In bed, Ilana and Moshe face away from each other. Moshe turns over and puts his arm around Ilana. She does not respond. He kisses the side of her neck. She gets up.

        ILANA
     I’m going downstairs for a cup of tea.

Ext. Porch. - Night

Sarah is standing, taking in the panoramic view: red roofed villas with blooming back yards and caravans, surrounded by Judean hills dotted with olive trees. Ilana enters.

            Ilana
    So what do you think?

            Sarah
    It's beautiful here.
        (Beat.)
    In there its a nuthouse.

            Ilana
    Yeah. Your parents are crazy

            Sarah
    Tell me about it.

They both laugh. Ilana puts her arms around Sarah, then pulls back. Awkward silence.

        Sarah
    Are you glad you moved here?

            Ilana
    Sometimes.
        (Beat.)
    You disagree with us, don't you?

            Sarah

     This land belongs to the Palestinians.

            ILANA
    When your grandparents came, there were no Palestinians - there weren’t even any trees.

            Sarah
    But they chose the land so the Palestinian village nearby wouldn’t become part of a Palestinian state.

            ILANA
    Most Palestinians support terror even after a Palestinian state. Giving them land proves terror is working. Besides, this land was promised to us by God.

            Sarah
    Do you believe in him?

Long silence.

Sarah slowly takes out a cigarette, begins to smoke.

            Ilana
    Since when do nice American girls smoke?

            Sarah
    What makes you think I'm a nice American girl?

        (Beat. )

Ilana walks over, and takes a drag on Sarah's cigarette. They kiss. Ilana stars playing with Sarah's breasts.

Purim Spiel, Part 1

Int. Bedroom, New York -Late Afternoon.

    Nanny, in her early 70s, is opening up drawers, looking for pills.

            Lally's Voice, Off-Screen
    Nanny!

            Nanny
כוסאמק.       

Nanny leaves, walks into the next room, the dining room. Lally, a beautiful woman in her late thirties, is standing there, next to Sarah, 16, dressed in punk-goth attire.

            Lally
    Do I smell cigarettes on your breath?

            Sarah
    No.

            Lally
    I smell cigarettes.
           
            Sarah
    That must be the after-scent from when I sucked my boyfriend's dick while you were at the cleaners. His sperm smells of cigarettes.

            Lally
    Nanny!

            Nanny
    What?

            Lally
    Did I not tell you to watch the girl while I was out?

            Nanny
    A girl 16 years old needs a babysitter?

            Lally
    A babysitter, maybe not, but a chaperone - yes, when Mr. Leather is involved.

            Sarah
    His name is Dave.

            Lally
    I know that מותק. But I'll start calling him by hist first name when he stops sucking my daughter's lips like a piece of fucking fruit.

         (Goes to the stove, slams a dish down on the table.)

    Dinner's served!

They eat in silence.

            Nanny
    Excuse me. I have to go to the bathroom.

Cut to: Int, Bathroom - Same

Nanny is going through pill bottles.

            Nanny
    Where is it? Where is it?

    (Takes out a bottle labeled "birth control", and opens it. Some white powder spins out.)

    Ahah!

She starts sniffing the cocaine.

Cut to: Dining Room - Same.

Dinner table. Sarah and Lally eat in silence.

            Lally
    What's taking so long?
        (Beat.)
        (Screaming)
    Nanny, did you think the laxatives were Motrin again?
        (To Sarah)
     I swear that woman is senile!
        (Screams)
    Nanny!

            Sarah
    For God's sake mom, can't a person even take a shit in this house in peace?
        (Beat.)

            Lally
    Oh my God! Where did you hide the cocaine?

            Sarah
    In my birth control bottle.

            Lally
    You're on birth control?

            Sarah
    Mom, I already told you - Dave and I are safe, ok?

            Lally
    Safety isn't just about birth control.

            Sarah
        (rolls her eyes)
    I know, it's also about STDs.

            Lally
    STIs.

            Sarah
    What?

            Lally
    STIs. It's the new term. We use it down at the center. Anyhow, that's not the point - there's also emotional safety, security -

     (There's a loud crash.)

    Shit!

Cut to: Ext. - Ambulance riding through New York street, Early Evening.

Cut to: Int. - Emergency room, A few hours later.

Lally and Sarah ate seated on a bench. Dr. Smith, a handsome-ish man in his thirties walks in.

                Dr. Smith
    Hi. Mrs. Annavian?

                Lally
    Ms.

They shake hands.

                Lally

    And this is my beautiful daughter, Sarah.

They shake hands.

            Dr. Smith

    You're mother is going to be just fine.
        (Beat.)
    Uh, I am not sure how to say this but - it looks like your mother may have a cocaine addiction problem. You really should get her into rehab.

            Sarah
    We know. I hid her cocaine in the birth control bottle. The birth control bottle! What kind of a fucking 70-year-old goes looking in a birth control bottle?!

            Lally
    Sarah! Please, your language!

            Dr. Smith
    Addicts will look anywhere for drugs.

    (Clears throat).

    Here's a folder with rehab info. A social worker will call you tomorrow to discuss different options. If you'll excuse me, I have other patients to attend to.


They go in to a hospital room. Nanny is lying there, her eyes open.

            Lally
    You, my dear, are going to rehab.

            Nanny
    Just kill me, why don't you?

            Lally
    Don't tempt me. If that cocaine doesn't do it...

            Nanny
    Dying of cocaine is like dying of an orgasm. It's a good way to go.
        (Beat.)
    Not that you'd know.

            Lally

    Nanny!

            Nanny
    What? When's the last time you had sex? I'm telling you, you need to get some ass and get off hers.
    (Gestures to Sarah)

            Lally
        (turns to Sarah)
    You think I'm hard to put up with - you should have seen what it was like growing up with her!

Inside back seat of cab - New York - Night.

Sarah is resting with her head nestle against Lally's shoulder. Lally has her arm around Sarah.

            Sarah
    Since when do you think I'm beautiful?
           
            Lally
    Since always! Or you would be, if you didn't wear these weird earrings.

She starts playing with Sarah's ears.

            Sarah
    Stop!

            Lally
    What? What? Don't stop?

She starts tickling her. Sarah laughs.

Cut to: Ext., Zenut Rehabilitation Facility, New York - Day.

Cut to: Int. Lobby, Nurse's Station Area, Zenut Rehabilitation Facility - Same.

            Nurse Lola
     And our facilities are 100% kosher and sabbath observant.

            Lally
    I don't care about that religious crap. Just keep my mother away from cocaine, and if you can also keep her away from multiple orgasms, that would be good too.

Pan out to nurse's shocked face.

Int. Living Room, New York, Later that Day.

Sarah is doing homework. Lally walks in.

            Lally
    Turn on the news.

            Sarah
    What?

            Lally
    NOW.

Sarah turns on the news.

            News Anchor
    Today, more violence on the West Bank. Shachar Zehavi, a 75-year old man was killed on his way to attend a rabbinic conference on, ironically, peace and coexistence. Now, Mr. Zehavi was a resident of the controversial Beth Joshua settlement. Many diplomats think that settlements like Mr. Zehavi's are major setbacks to the peace process. Stay tuned. After the break, Professer Mantos from University of Maryland and Professor Joshua from Columbia will discuss today's attack and debate this controversial topic.

            Sarah
    Saba?

            Lally
    I have us booked on the ten o'clock plane.

Sarah and Ehud: Another Scene

 "As long as you were productive, that's what matters."
Sarah laughed. "That's easy for you to say - my bills don't see it that way."
"You don't have to tell me about bills - I'm a starving grad student."
"But you're not starving now", she said, gesturing to the magnificent spread that lay across the red tablecloth.
"No, I'm not" Ehud said, and he kissed her.

Then the intifada came - right after Ehud had accepted a new job at a non-profit that protected the rights of Arabs living in Sheikh Jarach. Sarah was working as an English tutor while going for a bachelor's degree in comparative literature at Hebrew U, and Tammy had just turned two. The Israelis did not stop going out; they simply put out security guards, women allowing men with pistols to rifle through their tampons before they went to the club to find their latest lay. But Sarah was not Israeli - she was American, and she always would be. "I can't take this anymore, Ehud", she cried one night, after they found out their neighbor had just been killed in the Sbarros bombing on Jaffa street.

He laughed. "Don't be a drama-queen".

Sometimes at night, she hated them when she thought of her lost lover.  She felt guilty afterwards: Not for the hate, but because the hatred was for her sex life, and not the hundreds killed. On nights like those, she would lift up her down comforter, and creep softly into Tammy's room, to check on her breathing. She would lay a finger to her cheek, and cry.

Then came the morning after: The struggle not to call him on the telephone. She won - most of the time.

"Why do you think we're still married"" he asked her one night.
It was late;Tammi lay in the room upstairs, as they sat in the lobby of the Plaza, drinking wine. Sarah had just shaved her legs; she could feel Ehud's eyes admiring their smoothness as the candles sent flames up and down her ankles. Her feet were killing her, but the black pumps had been worth it. The low-necked dress and diamond necklace made her feel conscious of her chest, and she wanted so much to reach out and place his hands (or better yet: his lips) on her breasts.

"I don't know", she said. She could hear the sound the white wine made as it slipped down her throat.
"Do you want a divorce?"
"No. Do you?"
"No."
He set down his glass and reached for her wrists.
"I don't want to lose you."
"Don't be a drama-queen."

He stopped; his fingers lay over her like a bracelet, until, slowly he unclasped her wrists. He got up without a word. She sat in the sleek black chair, sipping her wine, suddenly aware that her back hurt like hell. When she got back to the room, he was asleep, the white comforter pulled up to his shoulders. She felt under the blanket to see if he was wearing underwear. He was.

She sighed and walked over to the adjoining room, to check on Tammy. She put her finger to her cheek, then pulled off her shoes, dropping them by the bed on her way to the bathroom. The carpet muffled the noise, and Ehud continued sleeping. As she brushed her teeth, she wondered what she should wear to bed: She had not brought pajamas. By the time she re-entered the bedroom, she had already decided to sleep in her black dress, since she already knew she would send it to the cleaners tomorrow.

She got in gingerly, pulling the comforter up to her waist, and closed her eyes.
"My God", she thought, "what does it mean that I'm too tired to hate?"

On the other end of the bed, Ehud opened his eys, forced himself not to turn around, to unzip her dress and kiss her back. He felt her rustling in the sheets, and closed his eyes.

"Damn! Still asleep", she thought, before turning over again, to spend a night in restless contemplation.

Vort

"Jealousy is an unflattering shade on anyone, but especially on you my dear", he said, handing her a glass of wine. She laughed, her eyes still focused on the happy couple that lay a few feet away, the man gently tucking a strand of hair behind the woman's ear as she flashed a diamond ring.

"Then get me something else to wear."
 They sipped in silence.
 "You've grown thorns", he said.
"Have I?"
 "Yes. But the rose grows ever more beautiful."

He kissed her. His breath tasted of merlot mixed with saffron, and a little bit of sea-salt that remained on his tongue from the appetizers. "Not a bad vintage", she thought, as she sipped his lips.

Ehud and Sarah: A scene

"You've grown afraid", he said.
"Does it matter?".
She took a drag on her cigarette. She could feel his thighs shifting beneath her knees.
"Have you been thinking about death again?"
"I always do."
"You think about death too much. That's your problem."
She took another drag. He could feel a slight tingling at the point where the backs of her knees touched his skin. She laughed.
"I'm waiting for you to tell me my lips taste like strawberries."
She wanted to kiss him, but she knew he hated her cigarette breath.
"I told you, I don't write poems anymore."
"Well you should".
She was not aware of her fingers crawling down his back. He laughed.
"How can I, when my muse is so far away?"
She took another drag.
"Do you fuck other women?"
He was silent. She got up, and walked towards the window. The sound of footsteps, and his body against her back. His arms reach for her breasts. She stands still, feeling the white curtains caress her cheeks, aiming her ashes out the window, towards the moonlight.
"I think you just killed a rose", he says, as they both look out over the garden. She laughs. He kisses her neck.

As their bodies weave in and out of each other, the word "love" never passes between them. But why does it hurt so much the next morning, when she leaves him behind - or is he the one leaving her? She holds her daughter's hand tighter as they turn the corner, knowing that she is the one thing that binds them together - or the one thing that tears them apart?

"Mommy, you're hurting me!"
"I'm sorry sweetheart. How would you like it if we stopped for donuts on the way home?"

Great, she thinks to herself, it's not even 7 am and I'm already breaking one of the rules in the parenting book. Ehud had bought it for her while she was pregnant, and they had mocked a different chapter everynight. "Great foreplay", she had teased him, when he triumphantly laid the book on her belly and proceeded to screw her on the couch. "So sexy. Next thing, you'll be bringing me Plato". "I'd rather bring you the Marquis de Sade", he said with a grin.

But of course, they had first bonded over their love of Rilke. He had been the starving grad student, she had been the waitress of the local cafe - like some sort of Hollywood movie. He came in while he was working on his thesis on poetry and peace. She was wandering aimlessly in her post-seminary years, having decided to stay in Israel, but not quite ready to move on to college. "You're too smart to be a waitress", he had said, and she had been too flattered to be offended. Growing up no one had ever expected her to be brilliant; as long as she got above the C-range, and was on home on Fridays in time to bake the challah, nobody really cared. She used to hang out with all the off-the-derech boys at night, smoking cigarettes and doing other things that tasted deliciously forbidden. But somehow, she could never get herself to have sex. It was the one halacha she just couldn't break, no matter how much the other girls teased her. By senior year, she had grown too resentful of their treating her like a baby because she was a virgin to stay friends with them, really, and then she had gone off to Israel and "straightened out".

He, on the other hand, had grown up in Efrat, the son of American parents, but Israeli in a way that she never could be, no matter what it said on her teudat zehut.

Jeremiah 21

"I have turned my face against you", he said.
I could see the flames' shadows flickering on the hollows of his cheeks. His blue caftan was too bright, somehow: I wanted to look away, but I was transfixed by the movement of dark and light playing on his face, the fire's dance reflected on his skin.

"You can't hurt me anymore", I said.
We both knew it was a lie, like the lace coverlet that hid the flaws on our bodies.

He did not answer. I found myself staring into the crevice in his cheek, wondering how it could be so hollow.

"You can let yourself out.", he said. He walked through the door, and was gone.

I was left staring at the flickering shadows waltzing across the wall. I was not even worth cruelty - it was that knowledge that made me cry.

I turned my face away from the space that had once seen his shadow.