HOLDING CELL
Curtain opens to a small holding cell in a police station.  There are two metal held to the wall by pipes.  In between the benches is a water cooler.  JAMES MILL sits on the bench R. JEFFREY GOOD sits on the bench L.  They are both handcuffed to the pipes.
JAMES
This isn’t how you treat a fuckin’ celebrity, Pigs!  Ya know that?  I’m a celebrity.  A fuckin’ celebrity!  In my circles, people would kill for me!  Ya know that?  They’d even kill a bunch of Pigs like you.  I need some more water, Pigs!?
(Tries to reach for the water cooler.)
I can’t even reach the cup!  Ya know that?  You give people water to drink but not the space to reach it?  That’s real fuckin’ great.  Real fuckin’ great!
(To JEFFREY.)
Hey, buddy.  Can you reach the cup there?  These fuckin’ Pigs here give a guy some water but no space to reach it?  That’s real great. Real fuckin’ great, right?  Buddy? Can ya reach it for me?  My mouth feels like I have a box of Q-tips in it?  That whole cottonmouth thing.  Ya ever have it?  Cottonmouth?  Huh?  Have cottonmouth, there buddy?
(Silence.)
You alive?  Nah, you’re probably some guy whose never been here before?  Ya know where you’re at?  Huh?  Ya have a bunch of parking tickets ya never paid?  Huh?  What’s your favorite movie?  I like that Rocky Horror Picture Show.  “Let’s do the Time Warp Again!”  Right?  Ya see that one?  “Rose tints my world.”  You alive?  I’m here cause of some fuckin’ Pig caught me with K.  Ya know that?  Ya know what K is, buddy? 
JEFFREY
I know what K is.
JAMES
Oh!  It speaks.  I been talkin’ to him for an hour and he doesn’t say a fuckin’ word, but I mention some K and he perks right up?  Ya hear that Pigs!?  The guy likes Special K.  Ha!  This is the best day of my life.  Everytime I come in here I always get to sit here with some teenage douchebag who stole cigarettes for his girlfriend.  Finally, some guy who actually knows what Special K is.  I love this. Thank you, Pigs!  Thank you for finally puttin’ me with someone who actually knows me.  Who understands me!  I need some fuckin’ K.  Some Special K.
JEFFREY
Its ketamine.
JAMES
What?
JEFFREY
Special K. It’s ketamine.
JAMES
I know what the fuck Special K is.  Do you not think I know what it is?
JEFFREY
You asked me if I knew.  I’m telling you.
JAMES
I know what Special K is.  You think I take something for the past year and I don’t know what it is?  You fuckin’ think that I’m a lunatic?  Huh?  You think of me like that?  I sell the shit.  Ya know that?  I sell it all over the fuckin’ place.  These Pigs know it and they can’t catch me at it.  See, just cause I have it doesn’t mean that I sell it.  Right?  Just cause I have a car doesn’t mean I’m a car salesman, right?  So, they think they can catch me sellin’ it cause I have it!?  Huh?  Fuckin’ Pigs.  I know what Special K is.  I know.  Ya know that?  Ya understand what I know?  I know what the fuck Special K is.  I know what it is.  And I also know that they can’t fuckin’ catch me just cause I have the stuff.  You don’t arrest people cause they have T.V.’s, right?  They don’t go around selling T.V.’s, right?  Just cause they own ‘em?  They don’t.  Just cause I have some Special K doesn’t mean I’m selling it!!  Fuckin’ Pigs! 
(Silence.)
I want my water.  My mouth feels like it has Q-tips in it.  Cottonmouth.  I have fuckin’ cottonmouth.  Still!  Ya know that?  Ya ever have cottonmouth, buddy?
JEFFREY
You already asked me that.
JAMES
So what if I did?  Ya never answered, right?  My mother always told me to answer my friends when they asked me a question.  ‘Wise, it’s rude.  Bad manners.  Fuckin’ bad manners.
JEFFREY
I’m not so sure you should be talking about your mother while in here.
JAMES
The fuck that’s supposed to mean?
JEFFREY
Its hard to believe you listened to your mother’s advice if you’re out selling ketamine.
JAMES
Who are you to tell me that?  Where do you get off talking to me like that?  Pigs, still need my water cup!?  This guy over here won’t hand me the cup!  Fuckin’ cottonmouth!
JEFFREY
What happens.
JAMES
What?
JEFFREY
Its what happens.  Its a withdrawal symptom.
JAMES
My mother was a saint.  Ya know that?
JEFFREY
I didn’t say anything to -
JAMES
Nah, my mother was a saint.  And she’s fuckin’ dead.  Ya know that?  She’s fuckin’ rotting in the ground.  Ms. Rosie Mill rottin’ in the ground next to the plot of the guy she married after my dad ditched us.  How is that supposed to make me feel?  Huh?  And you come in here and tell me that I don’t know what the fuck K is.
JEFFREY
You obviously know what ketamine is.  I was saying that your mother taught you better than to sell it.
JAMES
She taught me better to get caught.  That’s what she did.
JEFFREY
What do you mean?
JAMES
She taught me not to get caught.  She sold PCP all through my high school years.  Kids.  Adults.  Old foggies.  Everyone.  She sold it everywhere.  She never got caught.  Not a day in the slammer.  She didn’t even get arrested when she was pulled over and had a guy who O.D-ed in the back seat.  She was that fuckin’ good, buddy.  That good.  Ya know that?
JEFFREY
That how it start?
JAMES
Absolutely.  Buddy, I make over two grand every weekend rave.  Ya know that?  I bank on these crazy fuckin’ ravers.  Bank!  I can’t even tell ya how much I made at Club Party Monster last year.  Fuckin’ crazy ravers!
JEFFREY
(Tries reaching for the cup.)
I can’t reach the cup either.
JAMES
I tell ya, these ravers just can’t enough K and X.  Big into those letter drugs.  Not big on heroine or dust or anything.  Really big into K and X. Ya know what K is used for, buddy? 
JEFFREY
Its a tranquilizer.
JAMES
Big fuckin’ cats and horses is what they use it on.
JEFFREY
Used it during Vietnam.
JAMES
Fuckin’ big cats like tigers or lions…or panthers.  I used to look at all those cats when I was a teenager at the zoo.  Always wanted to work with animals.  Which is why I went into veterinary school.  Ya know that?  I actually went to college to be a veterinarian.  Workin’ with zoo animals.  My favorite were the black panthers.  Elegant, deadly, black, black, black.  All these sick zoo animals.  Sick panthers. Had to get ‘em to sleep so’s we could work on ‘em.  Ya know that?  Fuckin’ panters couldn’t get to sleep so we gave them some K.  Good old-fashioned Vietnam K. 
JEFFREY
Is that where you got it?
JAMES
They purr to sleep after that.  You can cut ‘em open and do whatever the hell you want with them after that.  Shoot some K and they’re out of it!
JEFFREY
Is that where you discovered ketamine.
JAMES
I discovered K in high school.  My Mom started selling it before she died.  Never tried it til I was in college though.  Julian Mack, fuckin’ vet science teacher sold it at raves.  Sold fuckin’ K just like Mom did.  Felt like home. 
JEFFREY
I see.
JAMES
Pigs!  Need some fuckin’ water in here!  Neither of us can reach the cups.  You give us water and no cups to drink it.  No space, Pigs!?  Can’t arrest me for sellin’ K when I wasn’t sellin’ it.  Can’t prove anything!
JEFFREY
You bought ketamine from your professor?
JAMES
I sold it for him.  He heard where I came from. The kind of house I came from.  And he offered me a job with a fifty percent take from whatever I sold. 
JEFFREY
Did you get your degree?
JAMES
Started using it.  To test it.  Ravers would buy me a hit and I did it.  Powder like coke, only goes down so much harder.  Hits like a fuckin’ bulldozer.  But, buddy, it goes so much harder when you don’t do it again. You just keep doing it so you can keep the high.
(Silence.)
I didn’t graduate.  Never did.  Can’t go to class when you’re on the floor thinking you have no legs.
JEFFREY
I guess not.
JAMES
And Julian Mack is a saint.  Ya know that?  He’s a saint.  He helped me when I lost the scholarship.  He gave me the job selling K and he let me live in his basement.  He kept me afloat til he died.
JEFFREY
He died too?
JAMES
We all do, don’t we?
JEFFREY
I guess so.
JAMES
There’s no guessin’ ‘bout it.  We all die.  Ya know that?  We all will one day rot in the grave.  Better make life amazing before we do it.  Huh?  Right?
JEFFREY
Life is a discipline.
JAMES
Life is a party.  Ravers have the right idea, crazy as they are.  Just because they’re crazy fuckin’ lunatics don’t mean they don’t have the right idea.  They live a party. 
JEFFREY
That’s hedonism.
JAMES
What?
JEFFREY
Hedonism.  That’s hedonism.
JAMES
If hedonism is living life as a party, then fuckin’ right!
JEFFREY
Hedonism is living for pleasure.  Following desire.  If you aren’t happy, then you aren’t alive.
JAMES
Sounds good to me.
JEFFREY
But its wrong.
JAMES
Where do you wanna talk about being wrong?  You’re ‘bout to go to prison.  Ya know that?  You’re here in this tiny holding cell where you can’t reach the cups for water.  Fuckin’ Pigs!
JEFFREY
Its wrong to live a life filled of pleasure.
JAMES
Why?
JEFFREY
I don’t have to prove my thoughts to you.  Only I need to know those reasons.
JAMES
And you sound like you’re ten years old.
JEFFREY
If you like.
JAMES
What’s so wrong with eat, drink, and be merry?  Huh?
JEFFREY
Nothing’s wrong with it.  Unless you have a conscience.  What about the happiness of others?  What about discipline?  What about the Golden Mean?
JAMES
What about number one?  My life is just that.  My life.  I know what the fuck I’m doin’.  I don’t need anyone to tell me I need to feel bad for how I live.
JEFFREY
What about ethics and self-control?
JAMES
The only person who can tell me how to live my life is the Lord God above, but he’s been outta commission for years now.  He hasn’t sent me angels or messengers or nothin’.  Fuckin’ too busy with those poor and down-trod, eh?
JEFFREY
What about excess and deficiency?  Don’t you feel obligated to discipline yourself? 
JAMES
I should feel obligated for a lot of things.  For a lot of people.  But I just live my life, buddy.  Fuckin’ doin’ what I do and sellin’ what I’m sellin’.  What’s so wrong with living how I do?
JEFFREY
Look at where you are?
JAMES
Me?  Just me?  You’re here too.  Ya know that?  You’re here sittin’ opposite me and you’re tellin’ me ‘bout ethics.  Need some fuckin’ water in here Pigs!  Can’t reach the water.  You give us water but no fuckin’ space to reach it!  No space, Pigs.  No space.  This clown in here calls me a hedonist and he’s probably in here for skippin’ out on some parkin’ tickets.  Lives his life like he’s on the edge, but here he sits.  Next to me.  For holdin’, right?  He doesn’t get water, neither.  Right?  Ya know that, Pigs!?  He doesn’t get water neither!  So what are you in here for, buddy?  What’s your name?
JEFFREY
Jeff.
JAMES
Your name is Jeff.  Your name is Jeff.  My name is Jimmy.  James.  Ya know that?  Your full name Jeffrey I take it?
JEFFREY
Yes.
JAMES
Jeffrey.  Jeffrey has a last name, right?
JEFFREY
Yes.
JAMES
Ya do?
JEFFREY
I have a last name.
JAMES
And would Jeffrey’s last name be?
JEFFREY
My last name is Good.
JAMES
I bet it is.  What is it?
JEFFREY
Its Good.  My name is Jeff Good.
JAMES
Jeffrey Good.  Huh?  So good ya got your ass in here, right?
JEFFREY
I guess.
JAMES
My last name is Mill.  Like a sawmill, but without the saw.  Ya know that?  I have a last name and it is Mill.  Good and Mill sittin’ here now.  Sittin’ here not getting any water from the Pigs.  Next to me getting no water.  How much do you think had to happen for us to be sititn’ here together not getting any water from the Pigs?  Huh?  What had to happen in life for us to be sittin’ here?  Jeffrey Good, what do you think had to happen?  What series of events had to occur?  You went to college?
JEFFREY
I went to college.
JAMES
What did you go to college for?
JEFFREY
I went for philosophy. 
JAMES
Philosophy?  You went for philosophy?  You wanted to be a philosopher?  Huh? 
JEFFREY
No.
JAMES
You went to college for philosophy and you didn’t want to be a philosopher?  That’s fuckin’ stupid.
JEFFREY
Maybe.
JAMES
Why did you go to college for philosophy and not wanna be a philosopher?
JEFFREY
Philosophy was my major.
JAMES
And your minor?
JEFFREY
Pharmacology.
JAMES
Like pills and shit?
JEFFREY
Yes.
JAMES
So you knew what K is because you minored in pharmacology?
JEFFREY
I’m still in college.
JAMES
So you haven’t gotten anything yet?  How old are you?
JEFFREY
I’m twenty-five.
JAMES
Same the fuck here.  What events had to happen in order for a philosopher and a vet to sit in the same room as a drug dealer and a…What the fuck are you in here for anyway?
JEFFREY
Ketamine is an analgesic NMDA receptor antagonist.  It was developed by Dr. Callum Kitsonparker from Wayne State University and is given to dogs, cats, rats, horses, anything as an anesthesia.  It was fully developed in 1962 and given to soldiers in the Vietnam War.  Later, it was used as a treatment in psychiatric counsels.  It effects sight, balance, sense of time, sense of reality, and self-concept when used in a recreational way.  I know what ketamine is.
JAMES
What are you in here for, philosopher?
JEFFREY
You’re a hedonist.  You don’t think about what you do before you do it.  You just do things because you want to, with no thought of the consequences, which is how you ended up here.
JAMES
Take it easy.
JEFFREY
You simply act on impulse which is how you earn so much money selling drugs and have so little of it.  You buy things on impulse.  You have sex with whoever you want to and whoever gives you the time of day.  You act on every insane idea you have no matter what it is because it brings you closer to the high you know that you’ll never obtain.  You’re so close to the apex but every single time you get close you get shut off.  Arrested.  Brought here.  How many times have you been in this holding cell?
JAMES
Twelve.  This is my thirteenth.
JEFFREY
And how unlucky for you to be here with me.  This is all meant to happen.  Ya know that?  We’re here for a reason.  That’s fatalism.  Ya know that?  Do you know what that is?
JAMES
Well, I -
JEFFREY
Fatalism is when you believe that everything that happens to you is based on fate.  That if you’re sick you will get well if its meant to happen.  You can call for a doctor or you can’t.  Either way, you’ll get better if its meant to happen.  That’s fatalism.  That’s when you don’t believe that choice matters.  Aristotle talked about fatalism.  But he believed in discipline.  He believed in excess and deficiency.  Ethics and self-control.  He believed in what people like you could never hope to understand because you’re too busy snorting ketamine.
JAMES
Been holding that in, have you?
JEFFREY
You don’t know how it feels to be where I am right now?
JAMES
I’m with you, buddy.  Ya know that?
JEFFREY
Not with me.  No.  You’re not with me.  You’re on another plain.  Coming off a high you’ve probably been in for a year.
(Silence.)
You’re not with me.  You earn a living taking life away from others.  You sell ketamine.  Special K.  You sell it to those who want it, not caring about the destruction you’re causing.  The difference between you and I is money.
JAMES
You’re in for drugs, too, buddy?  Huh?  Is it drugs you’re in here for.  You don’t look like you’re in a K-hole or on a high.  Appearances can be deceiving, though, I guess.  Drugs?
JEFFREY
You’re still on the floor thinking you have no legs.  You are strapped to a thousand balloons and soaring through the air, high as a kite.  But you don’t care what will happen when those balloons decide to pop.  No matter how far you fall, you’ll still be on the floor with no legs. 
JAMES
What are you doing in this holdin’ cell, Jeffrey Good?
JEFFREY
I’m here for the same reason you are.  Only the circumstances have changed. 
JAMES
And what are the circumstances?
JEFFREY
Aristotle wrote that what isn’t a source of good in this world, that what lacks discipline and work to create happiness has lost the will and the requirements for living.  Did you know that Aristotle wrote that?  It was in a speech that he gave on philosophy.  Aristotle was a lot of things.  Not just a philosopher.  He was a chemist, biologist, mathematician, astronomer.  He was a jack of all trades.  He understood things that wouldn’t be understood by humanity for over a hundred years.  Aristotle was a teacher, most of all.  And he taught that if you are not truly happy through good works and deeds that you have lost the requirements for living.  He said those words.  And that whatever brings you happiness is good if it brings harmony and joy the rest of mankind.  Did you know that?
JAMES
No.
JEFFREY
You’re in here for selling ketamine that your veterinary science teacher gave you to sell so that you could pay rent, buy more ketamine, whatever else.  You do what you do because you’re constantly reaching for that one special high that you know you will never obtain.  You keep trying and trying, more K, more K, but you just can’t reach it.  Can you?  You try and try and nothing.  Do you know why you never reach that special high where you forget every single thing you know?  Where you’ll forget about your Mom dying, about your failed college graduation, failed relationships, failed pitiful existence you call a life? 
JAMES
I’m not…
JEFFREY
You can never reach it because your type of happiness entails no work.  You go to a rave, make a couple grand, sit back, relax, soak it up all in alone in your crummy apartment where you hide all your stashes in the backs of toilets.  That’s where your life is leading, James Mill.  Its leading to the spot you go to all the time.  Its leading to the toilet.  Flushed away down the drain, filling up a fresh pot for new and dumber piss-ants like you to feel special.  That’s why you can’t reach the high.  No work.  Its as easy as breathing, doing drugs.  Sniffing.  That’s what it takes, right?  That’s what it takes, breathing.  Where’s the work in breathing?
JAMES
It’s not like I haven’t tried stopping, ya know.
JEFFREY
You’ve tried stopping?  You’ve tried?  What use is trying when you don’t complete something?  You can’t reach your goals because you have none.
JAMES
I have goals.
JEFFREY
What would those be?  Not to get caught like your Mom taught you?  Not to get caught with a guy O.D-ed in the backseat of your car?  What goals do you have?  Real goals.
JAMES
To make something out of myself. 
JEFFREY
Make something or make anything?
JAMES
You may not think that I fuckin’ care what happens to me, that my life is nothin’ but a party with fuckin’ crazy ravers.  But let me tell you somethin’, Jeffrey Good.  I have dreams.  I’ve had the same dream my whole entire life.  I want to work with those big fuckin’ panthers.  I do.  Don’t laugh.  You’re only laughin’ cause you don’t believe what you’re hearin’.  But believe it, buddy.  I wanna be a vet.  Ya know that?  I still do.  I sell this fuckin’ shit because I have nothin’ else to work with.
(The balloons begin to pop.)
I have nothin’ else in this whole great world to work with.  I don’t have any family.  I don’t have any friends who can help.  I make do with what I got.  I wasn’t given any handouts like some prep school jock with a football scholarship.  I worked hard.  Mom was a druggie, Dad was gone.  No family.  No handouts.  What the fuck do you want me to say, that I was wrong?  Cause I can’t say that when there wasn’t any other road to go on.  You can’t travel without legs, can ya?  Huh?  You can’t walk down the right path when the only one in front of ya curves to the left.  Can ya?
JEFFREY
You can blaze your own trail.
JAMES
Easier said than done, buddy.
JEFFREY
Everything, no matter what it is, is done easier than it is said.  When you simply, just do it.
JAMES
Listen, buddy, you haven’t lived my life.  You don’t fuckin’ know who I am.  You know my name and know that I like K.  That’s all you know.  You don’t have any clue about what this feels like.
JEFFREY
Feels like?
JAMES
This.  Sittin’ here again.  For the thirteenth fuckin’ time, sittin’ next to a philosopher and I can’t fuckin’ get any water cause the Pigs won’t give me the space.  I feel like I have Q-tips in my mouth.  Cottonmouth. 
JEFFREY
I can’t tell you why I’m in here.  You’ll feel like you’re better than me.
JAMES
Nothing in the world can make me feel better than anyone else, buddy.  I sell K at raves to stupid fuckin’ ravers.  Sure, they know how to live, but they keep buying me hits, buddy.  Ya know that?  Those stupid raver kids are the ones that did this to me.  I can’t even breathe right now.  It feels like I have no arms.  Cottonmouth!  Pigs!  Can’t get to the water.  Need water!
JEFFREY
If I told you why I was in here you would know that I was a hypocrite.
JAMES
I think everyone’s a hypocrite.  You outta everyone.  I mean, you talk about changing your life and you sit in a holdin’ cell with a drug dealer.  You say that if you don’t do things for the good of mankind or whatever, that you don’t have the right to live.  So why are you still breathing.
JEFFREY
Because I took that right away from others.
There is a heavy silence.
JAMES
You what?
JEFFREY
I attend Banks College. 
JAMES
‘Cross the river, yeah.
JEFFREY
What do you know about Banks?
JAMES
There’s been lotta suicides.
JEFFREY
They haven’t been suicides.
JAMES
What have they been?
JEFFREY
Aristotle wrote that extravagance is a punishable lifestyle.  I agree with that.
JAMES
They ain’t been suicides?
JEFFREY
He told that those who haven’t worked for their happiness have lost the requirements of life. 
JAMES
If they ain’t been suicides, what were they?
JEFFREY
Tonight, my philosophy teacher gave me back a paper I did on Aristotle.  His ethics and beliefs.  I failed the assignment.  He said that I didn’t understand what Aristotle was saying. That I didn’t get it.  That I was too black and white about it. 
JAMES
Why are you in here, philosopher?
JEFFREY
(After another heavy silence.)
They didn’t have the right to live.  They didn’t work for what they had, they just lived like life was a party.  They didn’t understand what it took to be happy.  They wanted happiness to just be a part of them.  Every single night, they came to me, asking me for help on this.  Help on that.  I didn’t go to the all-night parties on the quad.  I didn’t go to the socials or the trips or the beer runs at three in the morning.  I stayed in my dorm doing my work.  I was working to be happy, not just happy right now, but happy for the rest of my life.  They raved and partied, did ketamine with the veterinary science teacher.  They did Jello shots off of sorority girls.  I studied.  And I was sick to death of hearing their excesses.  They had no right to have happiness.  They lost the requirements for living and I made sure that they wouldn’t be given another chance by fate.  There is no fate, only choice.  And the choices they made landed them a one-way ticket to Hell, my friend.  Straight to fire and brimstone!  Damnation!
(Running out of breath.)
I need some water.  Officer!?  Officer!?  I need some water.  I’m dying in here sitting next to a ketamine dealer.  He admitted that he was selling it.  Did you hear that!?  Or are you too busy not giving me my fucking water!?!?
JEFFREY kicks at the water cooler and topples it over.  There is no water in it.
JAMES
Whoa, philosopher!  Take it easy!
JEFFREY
This is wonderful.  Isn’t it just wonderful?!  They give us the cooler, they give us the cup, but they don’t even give us the water.  What a wonderful institution!  Tax dollars down the drain.
JAMES
I have fuckin’ Q-tips in my mouth.  Cottonmouth.
JEFFREY
I hate this.  I hate being here.  I wanna go home.  I wanna go home!  I WANNA GO HOME!  I don’t like being here!  James? 
JAMES
I’m a celebrity in my circles.  Never pay for blow or drinks or anything.  Did you know that?  Fuckin’ Pigs can’t put me in here for just havin’ the shit.  Can they?  Huh?
JEFFREY
James?  I don’t want to be here.  I want to go home. 
JAMES
A fuckin’ celebrity.
JEFFREY
(Begins to shatter.)
James.  I don’t have friends.  I don’t have any…friends.  I need a friend in here.  I don’t know where I’m going.  I need a hedonist to tell me what to do.  I need a friend here, James.
JAMES
Why are you in here tonight, philosopher?  Tonight.  Suicides haven’t been suicides.  No cuttin’ wrists tonight?  You decided to be here.  Why?
JEFFREY
I’m here because I need a friend, James.
JAMES
Who died tonight?
JEFFREY
Nobody died tonight.  Nobody that didn’t deserve it.
JAMES
Do you really think that what you did was right?
JEFFREY
I was told to do what I did, wasn’t I?  How can that be wrong?  Obeyance is wrong?  That isn’t right?  That’s…backwards. 
JAMES
Ya know what’s backwards?  The justice system is backwards.  Fuckin’ Pigs doin’ what they do.  I can’t look at ‘em.  They make me sick.  You make me sick.  I coulda’ been a fuckin’ vet, ya know that?  I can’t even fuckin’ feel my legs right now.  I can’t fuckin’ feel my legs. 
JEFFREY
(Coughing.)
No water.  No water.
JAMES
Don’t let me fuckin’ die in here, philosopher.  I don’t want to die in here.
JEFFREY
I need to leave.  There’s water somewhere else, isn’t there?  I need water.  I need a friend who will give me water.  That’s what I want.  I need it.
JAMES
You need to fuckin’ shut the fuck up!  I have Q-tips in my mouth.  Cottonmouth.
JEFFREY
I need to get out of here.  I can’t stay here. 
JAMES
Shut up!
JEFFREY
I need water and I need to get out of here with a friend.  James!?  What’s prison like?  I don’t want to go to prison.  I’m scared.  I’m scared to go.
JAMES
You’re not afraid of prison.  You’re afraid of not knowing what prison is like.
JEFFREY
What?
JAMES
You’re a fuckin’ coward, philosopher.
JEFFREY
I was told to do what I did.  Mr. Brooks told me I didn’t understand.  It was then that I knew that he didn’t understand.
JAMES
He understands.  You just can’t read into what the fuck he means.
JEFFREY
You’re not making sense.
JAMES
I’m making more sense than I ever have before.  Fuck!  Can’t feel my legs and you’re here arguing with me.  Something that K does, buddy, is let you see the shit around you without a veil.  You see things how they really are.  How they were meant to be seen before people all medicated the fuck out of themselves and toned down the reality!
JEFFREY
You don’t…
JAMES
Things ain’t as tinted rose as you thought, huh?
JEFFREY
I’m not jaded.
JAMES
We all are.  You with your crazy, fucked-up philosophy and me sittin’ here with cotton in my mouth and no feeling in my legs, dyin’ of thirst and from that poison that’s spewin’ outta your trap!
JEFFREY
I’m not jaded.  I’m scared.
JAMES
You’re scared of being jaded is how it is, buddy.  Fuck!  Even a fuckin’ baby can see that. That’s what you are.  A baby.  A fuckin’ baby.  I just slaughtered your philosophy that it took years to build up in a few seconds.  That ain’t me, philosopher.  That’s the beauty of K.
JEFFREY
Ketamine doesn’t do that.
JAMES
Lucid dreamin’ is just an eyes wide shut away.
JEFFREY
What?
JAMES
(Singing.)
“Rose tints my world.  Keeps me safe from my trouble and pain.”
JEFFREY
James?
JAMES
(Singing.)
“It’s beyond me.  Help me, Mommy!
I’ll be good, you’ll see.  Take this dream away-y-y-y-y”
JEFFREY
I’m terrified.
JAMES
(Singing.)
“Oh-h-h-h.  I feel released.  Bad times deceased.
My confidence has increased.  Reality is here-e-e-e.”
JEFFREY
You’re a good boy, Jeffrey Good.  That’s what I was told when I was a little boy.  You’re good, Jeffrey Good.  Good Jeffrey Good.  Don’t be frightened.  It’s only a matter of time before the demons sleep.
JAMES
(Singing.)
“The game has been disbanded.  My mind has been expa-a-nded.”
Blackout.

“It’s freezing here.  I made decisions that I wasn’t proud of.  Did things that I regret.  But after the guilt and the sorrow melt away, I’m left with a glass full of memories.  I’ve been pondering on what the most powerful elements that we possess turn out to be.  I’m focused on one in particular.  And this is doubt.  People doubted me.  When I was down, people threw the stones, kicked me in the ribs, left me in rags.  But when I was up, they threw roses, put out the red carpet and gave me more influence than I could ever ask for.  The ghosts of those times are nigh.  I sit out here on the rink where it happened to go over it all.  Trying, still, to decipher the meaning.  Themes pass by on skates, leaving etches in the ice.  Yet, after all is said and done…what do we really have left but the soulful march of a thousand experiences marked across the sky like crystalline stars, shimmering in the moonlit darkness?  Joan and Louis were there for me during this trying time.  Louis tried telling me that guilt wasn’t alive.  Joan taught me it was everywhere.  I suppose I’m the unhappy medium.  Lost in the galaxy of doubt, where everything looks the same, but turns out to be nothing more than gas.  I look back at all I’ve done, and I’m left with so many questions.  I can’t imagine a world without them.  But where are the answers?  Where have they gone off to?
(Pause.)
Here they are.  Beneath the ice.  Below what we believe and what we remember.  It’s all there…we just have to wait until the ice melts.  Until we skate enough to wear out the hardness.  Make things less…vulcanized.  We have to be prone to being brittle.  We’re not all hockey pucks.  One day, we just have to shatter.”