Breakfast In The Next Century: An Original Screenplay

BREAKFAST IN THE NEXT CENTURY a screenplay by S. A. Scoggin

Registered WGA and ©2009

[email protected]

EXTERIOR. THE CABOT ESTATE. DAY. The year is 1895. The Cabot Estate is several manicured acres of green a few miles from Boston. Carriages approach by a long tree-canopied driveway. The passengers discharged are sharply attired young men, and young women who shake out long, full dresses. They head for a party in progress behind the great house, where tents shade tables of sweet cakes and lemonade. A string quartet labors seriously at a classical piece. On a grass tennis court, four young women in ankle-length white skirts are having a doubles match while a raucous crowd cheers and jeers. Presently serving is GRACE ELLSWORTH CABOT, a robust young woman who has twisted her long black hair into a ponytail. Her partner, HELEN SANFORD, a stout redhead, is at the net waiting for the service return. YOUNG MAN Brave Helen! At net are the quick and the dead. HELEN Quick like a cobra. I catch the eyes and I strike. Grace delivers a strong overhand serve which is weakly returned. Helen pounces on the ball and knocks it for a winner. YOUNG MAN What a world is this when the gentlewomen hurl lightning bolts! HELEN Perhaps we must furl the net and roll the ball underneath? Grace serves another, gather at the net and their rackets to four begin to rally. Grace

hard and not returnable. The players congratulate one another, then surrender young men who roll up their sleeves and and Helen link arms as they stroll away.

HELEN I would live my life this way forever. GRACE Forever? Would you weary of frivolity day after day? 1

HELEN Did we tire of four years? GRACE You characterize Radcliffe College as frivolity? Grace and Helen grab glasses of lemonade and stretch out onto lounges. HELEN But Grace - how swiftly it passed. Four years, and I feel strangely untouched. When I am on my deathbed, I wonder how much substance all the years between now and then shall have. GRACE Why are you so morbid amid this gaiety? Have you been reading Hawthorne again? HELEN Poe. GRACE Even worse! A tiny girl, BESSIE DELANEY, comes sprinting across the lawn and launches herself into Grace's lap. She is about four years old, shoeless, wearing a worn, plain dress. GRACE Bessie! My feral child! BESSIE Gracie, Papa said I was to stay in the house while you were having your party. But I heard the music.... She looks longingly at their glasses. Grace hands hers over, and Bessie gulps it down. GRACE Where is Mr. Delaney now? BESSIE 2

Workin'. GRACE And your brothers? BESSIE Workin'. GRACE And who is left at home to mind Bessie? HELEN Obviously...Bessie. Bessie nods. GRACE Well then, little wanderer, drink your fill of lemonade and let us stuff you with cake. Before Papa comes home from workin'. BESSIE Oh, thank you, Gracie! This is a most splendid party. Papa said it was a gradulation. GRACE Helen and I have gradulated from Radcliffe College. We shall now conquer the world. BESSIE Papa said you should be looking for a husband soon. GRACE Papa is from an old school. BESSIE He's not at school. HELEN George Hoving is looking after you again. I gather he would be happy to continue your education. GRACE That stuffy? His philosophy was arthritic 3

before he saw his twenty-first year. HELEN How about Thomas Crump? He would be glad to warm the air for your every breath. GRACE And that would be my last breath. Perhaps we shall meet an Italian count in Rome. Or a Spanish nobleman in Barcelona. HELEN We would find some destitute duke or earl eager to trade his titles for your father's gold. BESSIE We have Italian lace on Momma's table. GRACE Then I know what I must fetch a lovely young lassie from our travels. A fine set of Italian lace for her own home, for when she marries. BESSIE Where are you going? GRACE Helen and I are traveling the world. Mr. Cabot has given us a gradulat - graduation gift. We are to see Europe and darkest Africa and the mysteries of the Orient. HELEN Guarded by Aunt Cabot - in case we require protection from Spanish noblemen or Italian poets. GRACE Come with me, young Bessie Delaney. Let us visit the cake table. They go to a table of cakes and sweets. Bessie picks out several and curtsies to the server. Grace helps Bessie with her load and holds her hand as they walk across the grounds. 4

BESSIE Will you be my friend forever? GRACE Forever. She begins to sing. GRACE When, like the dawning day Love sends his early ray What makes his dawning glow Changeless through joy and woe Only the constant know BESSIE (Joining in.) Eileen Aroon! Were she no longer true What would her lover do Fly with a broken chain Far o'er the bounding main Never to love again HELEN (Joining in.) Youth must in time decay Beauty must fade away Castles are sacked in war Chieftains are scattered far Truth is a fixed star, Eileen Aroon.

EXTERIOR. AFRICA: A RIVERBANK. DAY Grace and Helen are standing on a crude dock beside a wide, lazy river. AUNT CABOT, a stout matron, waves away insects with a huge leaf. Dense jungle hangs over the riverbank. A wiry brown man, MR. HENNESSEY, is making an adjustment to the engine of a small boat. AUNT CABOT How much longer, Mr. Hennessey? MR. HENNESSEY 5

Maybe an hour. AUNT CABOT (To the girls.) The gorillas should be a wonder to warrant this bother. She eases carefully down onto the dock in a patch of shade and motions toward a small shack set back from the water. AUNT CABOT Why don't you girls wait inside where it is cooler? Grace and Helen go into the shack. Once inside, Grace winks at Helen and sneaks out a back door into the jungle. Helen sighs and follows.

EXTERIOR. AFRICA: IN THE JUNGLE. DAY. Helen catches up to Grace, who has stopped to examine a large flowering plant. Helen is flushed and shining with sweat. GRACE I think this is a new species! Helen is busy scanning the branches above. HELEN Mr. Hennessey did say to beware of asps. GRACE Then be ware, Cleopatra. (She slaps at her neck.) Ouch! HELEN What? GRACE Look at this audacious insect. It was boring its mandibles into my neck. HELEN 6

Fascinating. GRACE I believe it is uncataloged! HELEN I hear the engine. Grace is poking at the bug lying dead on her palm.

EXTERIOR. AFRICA: ON A RIVER. DAY. Mr. Hennessey's boat has put out onto the river. It chugs along as he stands in the middle, one hand loosely on a large steering wheel. Aunt Cabot reclines under an awning. Grace and Helen peer in the direction of travel, pointing out sights to one another.

INTERIOR. AFRICA. NIGHT. Inside a canvas tent, Helen is sleeping on a cot hung with mosquito netting. Grace sits on a small box, using a trunk as a desk. She is writing in a journal. The carcass of the insect which bit her lies on the page. She finishes her entry and carefully closes the book with the bug inside.

EXTERIOR. THE CABOT ESTATE. NIGHT. In a violent thunderstorm, a carriage pulls up to the front entrance. SAMUEL CABOT, a rotund, well-dressed man, fights through the deluge to the carriage. He is followed by ALICE CABOT, an older version of Grace, and a small cluster of servants bearing umbrellas. They pull a very pale and exhausted Grace from the carriage and bear her into the house.

INTERIOR. THE CABOT ESTATE. NIGHT. The storm is still beating about outside. An elderly DOCTOR is examining Grace, who appears to be sleeping. 7

DOCTOR It is not malaria. MRS. CABOT Thank God. MR. CABOT But what is it? DOCTOR I am not yet positive. But we can safely rule out beri-beri and tuberculosis. MRS. CABOT We should never have let her travel to the tropics. MR. CABOT Doctor, what can we do? DOCTOR I have a powder. Give it to her with some broth when she wakes. Mr. Cabot accepts a small envelope, not impressed by its feel in his hand.

INTERIOR. THE CABOT ESTATE. DAY. Grace opens her eyes and sees Bessie standing still and silent at the foot of her bed. Grace speaks in a weak whisper. GRACE Hello, my love. BESSIE Gracie, are you truly sick? GRACE Only very tired, little Bessie. Fetch me that bundle upon the bureau. Bessie brings a bulky but light bundle wrapped in paper over to the bed. 8

BESSIE What is it? GRACE Something for you. Open it. Bessie rips off the paper. It is a set of lace tablecloths and doilies. She holds up a larger piece. GRACE That is a shawl. It was made in Turin. Bessie wraps herself in the cloth. It covers her from crown to heel. BESSIE Thank you, Gracie. Gracie? Grace has closed her eyes.

EXTERIOR. NEW YORK STATE. DAY. A carriage comes down the main street of a small village and stops in front of a large Victorian house. A sign reads: Dr. Sherman Teale. Mr. Cabot climbs wearily out of the carriage and approaches the front door.

INTERIOR. NEW YORK STATE: DR. TEALE'S OFFICE. DAY. DR. SHERMAN TEALE, a thin, balding man with a generous white beard, is writing at his desk. Mr. Cabot enters. MR. CABOT Dr. Teale? DR. TEALE Mr. Cabot. I received your letter. Has there been any improvement in you daughter's condition? MR. CABOT No. 9

DR. TEALE And she has been unconscious for...nine weeks now? MR. CABOT Yes. DR. TEALE Mr. Cabot, I am very sorry, but my experience has been entirely with patients comatose due to some injury. You said in your letter that there was no insult to the head. MR. CABOT But your methodsDR. TEALE My methods have never found much favor in Boston. MR. CABOT I have employed every physician in Boston and New York. I do not think that any of them have the knowledge to wake her. DR. TEALE Because such knowledge does not exist. When I was a young officer in the Federal Army, soldiers in coma from head injuries were rolled into corners to die. One day two boys from the Eleventh New York, boys from my hometown, were caught under a collapsing bridge. I knew their parents. In desperation I set off on this long futile path. I have treated hundreds since then. Horses falling, wagons overturning, logging blunders. My method is sound. There is sometimes a chance of improvement if we provide nourishment, work the limbs, stimulate the visual and aural senses. Still - the odds are very much against us. MR. CABOT I have not given up hope. You must come 10

with me to Boston. DR. TEALE I cannot leave. I have nine patients here now. MR. CABOT I will build you a clinic. You can bring them all with you. I will provide funds for your work. I am a wealthy man, Dr. Teale. Please. Grace is our only child.

EXTERIOR. BOSTON. DAY. Helen is walking up the broad steps of a new five-story brick building. Carved in the polished granite over the entrance is: THE TEALE CLINIC.

INTERIOR. THE TEALE CLINIC. DAY. Helen stands at the foot of Grace's bed. The room is large and well-lit by the sun. Graces's eyes are shut, and she is still except for her leg, which is being flexed at the knee by a nurse. The nurse is singing softly. Helen turns away, tears streaming down her face.

EXTERIOR. THE TEALE CLINIC. DAY. Helen runs down the Clinic steps.

EXTERIOR. THE TEALE CLINIC. DAY. One hundred years have passed. The exterior of the clinic has not aged gracefully. The windows, many cracked, are covered with screens and bars. The brick is pitted and discolored. The granite is eroding. Graffiti has been scrawled across the bottom courses of brick. The neighborhood has grown in upon the clinic: an auto glass shop, a bottle and can redemption center, abandoned townhouses. The squares of the sidewalk are 11

badly tilted, and weeds grow up through the openings. An ambulance pulls up. A male and female EMT hop out and grab a gurney from the back.

INTERIOR. THE TEALE CLINIC. DAY. The two EMTs are let in the front door by a young NURSE. FEMALE EMT I didn't realize there were still paying customers in this place. NURSE Just one. She leads them through the dim lobby to an ugly old elevator which has been tacked onto the wall.

INTERIOR. THE TEALE CLINIC. DAY. The nurse is helping prepare Grace for the movement onto the gurney. Grace has not changed. Her room is also still much the same but for the electric wiring on the walls. MALE EMT Car, drowning, or drugs? NURSE Don't know. I'm a temp. The male EMT checks Grace's pulse and listens to her chest with a stethoscope. MALE EMT Wow. Pulse is ten. Respiration is...two or three. She's really deep. NURSE Apparently for her, that's normal.

INTERIOR. THE TEALE CLINIC. DAY. 12

The EMTs are rolling Grace out the front door. MALE EMT What's happening to this place? NURSE Boston General is going to knock it down. They need the parking. FEMALE EMT I bet this place was beautiful in its time. MALE EMT Well...time's up.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: NEUROLOGY. DAY. DR. JULIAN WEST, a resident in neurology, is walking slowly down the hallway, scowling as he reads the fine print on the back of a bright orange parking ticket. He is tall, blonde, clean-shaven: a fine Aryan specimen. As he passes the nurses' station, SHEILA KANTOWSKI, a tiny round-faced woman of about forty, reaches out for his arm. She has a reedy little voice with a pronounced Boston accent. SHEILA Hey, doc. Welcome to Boston. He glances at her ID. JULIAN Sheila. What the hell is this 'resident parking' all about? It's a public street. She plucks the ticket away from him. SHEILA Marlborough Street. Your place? JULIAN Yeah. I'm still unpacking, and I get this as my hello? 13

SHEILA You are entitled to a resident parking sticker. Then you are legally allowed to compete with the other ten thousand residents for the five hundred available spaces. JULIAN This sucks. She waves the orange paper. SHEILA You're the one from Orange County. And as long as you're in town, would you like to practice medicine? We got a new girl in 412.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Julian and Sheila come into the room. Grace is in the bed, her hair fanned about her head, her face calm and lovely. Sunlight filtering through the drawn curtains gently lights her pale features. Julian stops short at the sight. JULIAN Oh, my. She’s... Sheila hands him a folder. SHEILA She's a veg. Sorry your first case isn't more exciting. Julian scans the contents of the folder, looking down at Grace frequently. JULIAN Have you checked this pulse rate? SHEILA Several times. It's damn feeble. Ten to twelve per minute, just like it says. JULIAN 14

Where are the rest of her records? How long has she been like this? Sheila shrugs. JULIAN Get her family for me, will you? I want to do a whole work up on her. Something's not right. She was at the Teale Clinic? SHEILA It's down the street. You've heard of it? JULIAN Sherman Teale was a pioneer in the maintenance of neurologically damaged patients. His clinic was once the world's center of brain research. I had no idea it was still in operation. SHEILA It’s not. They've been sending us their patients. We evaluate them and ship them out to long term care places. JULIAN I'd like to get an EEG on her before she goes, then. Call her parents? SHEILA Okay. JULIAN Grace Cabot. SHEILA Good Boston name. JULIAN Is it? SHEILA Haven't you heard? "Welcome to Boston, the land of the bean and the cod, where the Lowells talk only to Cabots and the Cabots talk only to God." 15

JULIAN There's one Cabot who talks only to God.

EXTERIOR. BOSTON: MARLBOROUGH STREET. DAY. Julian is sitting inside his parked car, applying a resident parking sticker to the window. He opens the door, and a tricycle slams into it. The rider, BRENDAN NEWSTEDT, a small boy, tumbles onto the sidewalk. Julian jumps out and bends over him. Brendan begins to cry, holding up two badly scraped palms. KAREN NEWSTEDT, Brendan's mother, rushes up. JULIAN I'm so sorry. I didn't see him. He gets his doctor's bag from the car. JULIAN I'm a doctor. I can clean those hands so they don't get infected. KAREN I'm a lawyer. I can sue you if they do. Hey, I'm joking. Karen Newstedt. You don't have children, do you? JULIAN No. Those scrapes should be washed out. Karen cuddles the wailing Brendan. KAREN Grab the trike, will you? We have a complete first aid pharmacy upstairs thanks to Evil Kneivel, Junior.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Julian enters, leading a dozen or so doctors on Grand Rounds. Close behind him is DR. SIDNEY ZEIBE, the chief of Neurology, a short balding man wearing unflattering half-glasses. A therapist is flexing Grace's arm. 16

DR. ZEIBE Dr. West? JULIAN Grace Cabot. Age twenty-one. Transferred from the Teale Clinic two days ago. We still don't have her complete records. Unusual persistent vegetative state. Pupils are responsive. Reflexes sluggish but intact. Pulse and respiration depressed: ten and three per minute. No posturing, muscles are relaxed. DOCTOR EEG? JULIAN Scheduled for this afternoon. We assume that she'll be transferred to a long term care facility pretty soon. DR. ZEIBE Good. Can't tie up a bed watering a plant. JULIAN We haven't been able to contact her family yet for permission to transfer her. DR. ZEIBE Call billing. Find out who is paying. And Dr. West, if she is indigent, as I suspect, don't wear out our fancy equipment deducing just what kind of vegetable she is. JULIAN Yes, sir.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL. DAY. Julian is navigating along a hallway of hospital administration departments. Signs help him find his way: Personnel, Patient Records, Accounts Payable. He follows the Patient Billing sign into a busy office area. Several women 17

are shuffling manila folders, talking, and typing at computers. One looks up from her work. WOMAN Can I help you? JULIAN I need some information about one of my patients. I'm trying to locate her family, but she just came in and I don't have her full records. WOMAN Why don't you ask her? JULIAN She's in a coma. WOMAN Oh. That's too bad. What's the name? She types a command on her keyboard. JULIAN Grace Cabot. WOMAN Social Security number? JULIAN I don't have it. WOMAN Not a problem. Here we are. Billing to Wallace, Amberg, and McFadden. Address downtown. I'll print it out. Her father a lawyer? She hands him the paper from her printer. JULIAN Could be. Thanks.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. 18

Grace's head is spotted with electrode pads wired to an EEG instrument on a large wheeled cart. Julian watches jagged lines on the screen while the technician catches paper tape rolling out of a recorder. The technician hands the tape to Julian and starts to remove the electrodes. Sheila enters. SHEILA Hi, doc. What's new with our girl? JULIAN Her bills go to a law firm downtown on Summer Street. Paid out of a trust or something. SHEILA How's her noodle? JULIAN This is a strange EEG. Not like anything I've ever seen. SHEILA Bad? JULIAN No. In fact, if it were just faster, it'd be normal. SHEILA So why is she out? JULIAN Beats me. I'm going to schedule her for an MRI and a metabolic PET mapping. SHEILA That'll pretty much guarantee that her family will show up to raise hell at the cost. JULIAN Too bad. They should be visiting her.

INTERIOR. JULIAN'S APARTMENT. NIGHT. 19

The apartment seems large because there is not much in it: a TV on a wooden table, a chair and sofa, a bookcase. A framed picture of Ronald Reagan hangs on an otherwise bare wall. Julian is asleep on his couch, still in his work clothes. A knock at the door wakes him. He staggers up and opens it. It is Karen and her husband, JAY NEWSTEDT. Brendan bursts through the door past the drowsy Julian. KAREN Brendan! Don't touch! Dr. West, this is my husband, Jay. JAY Thanks for fixing up Brendan's hand the other day. I hope he didn't dent your car. JULIAN No damage done. KAREN Long day? JULIAN Thirty-six hours. JAY I thought they did away with that brutality. JULIAN They did. I just didn't have anywhere else I wanted to go. KAREN Are you hungry? We were just going out for Chinese. JAY Yeah. We want to retain you with Peking Duck. Brendan often needs medical attention. JULIAN Can I go like this? Karen points to Brendan, who is on all fours, imitating a dog. 20

KAREN Obviously we don't go to fancy restaurants. Here boy! Good doggie!

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. The crowd gathered for Grand Rounds is once more at Grace's bed. West holds a sheaf of test results which he passes around. JULIAN You recall Grace Cabot, age twenty-one. Admitted from a long term care facility. Incomplete recordsDR. ZEIBE Dr. West, as you cannot take a history from the patient, it is imperative that you obtain her full records. What if she has allergies? JULIAN Yes, sir. You recall that her pupils are responsive, reflexes dulled. Pulse of ten and respiration of three abnormally low. MRI shows no organic malformations, lesions, growths, or necrosis. CAT scan is normal. PET mapping with radioactive glucose shows normal metabolic distribution. DOCTOR If you showed me that EEG cold, I'd have said it was of someone in a sound sleep. DR. ZEIBE Fantastic. Your differential diagnosis of this persistent vegetative state is that she's asleep. The jury will understand why you didn't use an alarm clock on her. Obviously there is something seriously wrong with this patient. JULIAN I don't see a gross physical cause. I 21

would like to have some biochemical assays run. DR. ZEIBE You have the family's consent for these? JULIAN Not yet. Her bills are paid out of a trust. DR. ZEIBE As long as it's paid for. All but West leave. He sits down beside the bed and looks at Grace. Sheila comes in. JULIAN Zeibe bit someone for suggesting that she's just asleep. SHEILA She could fool me. JULIAN But the tests show nothing. SHEILA Listen, doc. You've chosen to spend your life around people with problem brains. Don't get fixated. Most people get better or worse no matter what you or I do. JULIAN I'm going home. SHEILA Good night, doc. I'll keep an eye on Sleeping Beauty for you.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: MAIN ENTRANCE. DAY. West is headed out the door when a hospital employee calls out to him. MAN 22

Are you Dr. West? JULIAN Yes. Can I help you? MAN Yeah. I got some patient records. They came into receiving mislabeled for finance and got stacked out of the way in a corner. I had records look up the name and they said that you had been waiting for them, so... JULIAN Great. Can I have them? He holds out his hand. The man is holding an envelope, but he does not volunteer it. MAN They're downstairs, on a dolly. JULIAN Fine. Can you take them up to Neurology, to Sheila? I'm on my way out. MAN Sure thing. They'll be there for you in the morning.

EXTERIOR. MARLBOROUGH STREET. DAY. West is walking up the steps to his building. One door down, Jay is sitting on the steps. JAY Hey, Julian. How've you been? JULIAN Good. JAY I'm a class father today. Brendan's kindergarten is going on a field trip to the Kennedy House in Brookline. Where JFK 23

was born. Want to come along? JULIAN No thanks. JAY Little bit of history. JULIAN Who do you think created the welfare state? This country would have been better off if JFK hadn't been born. In Brookline or anywhere else. JAY Sorry I brought it up.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: CAFETERIA. DAY. West is sitting alone, reading “The Wall Street Journal”. Sheila comes in and scans the room until she finds him. SHEILA You need to see this.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: NEUROLOGY. DAY. Sheila leads Julian into a small vacant office and shuts the door. In the middle of the room are stacked about a dozen large boxes labeled MEDICAL RECORDS: CONFIDENTIAL addressed to Chester Marcotte, Boston General Hospital. SHEILA These came up yesterday. Grace Cabot's medical records. Well, obviously these are for fifty people, so I started searching for hers. Look at this. Sheila hands him a yellowed envelope. On it is written in script: Grace Cabot, 1918. JULIAN Some old woman with the same name. 24

SHEILA Except these all come from the Teale Clinic, and they all physically describe our Grace Ellsworth Cabot. JULIAN Some old woman with the same name who resembles her. SHEILA These records start in 1895. The most recent are from last month. Continuous clinical charts, all of one Grace Ellsworth Cabot. JULIAN It's a screw up. SHEILA Must be. JULIAN Let me look these over. Sheila sizes up the stack of boxes. SHEILA I'll hold your calls.

INTERIOR. TEALE CLINIC. DAY. A buzzer echoes in the empty lobby. The temporary nurse from before opens the front door and sees Julian. NURSE Can I help you? JULIAN I'm Doctor Julian West. One of your patients was admitted to Boston General in my care, and I'm trying to find out more about her. NURSE 25

All patient records have been forwarded. Didn't you get them? JULIAN Yes, but I still have questions. NURSE Come in. I'll do what I can. Julian follows her into the lobby. He looks around in awe as she goes behind a reception desk and pulls out a cardboard box stuffed with papers. NURSE What was the name of the patient? JULIAN Grace Cabot. NURSE I remember her. She was the last patient we sent out. There were only three left when I started temping here. JULIAN Three? How many beds are there? NURSE Ninety or so. JULIAN What happened? Most of the other facilities in Massachusetts are overbooked. NURSE Money problems, I hear. I don't really know. Like I said, I'm just a temp. Here. Her last primary nurse was Diane Kinsey. She retired. JULIAN Do you have her address? NURSE No. Personnel files went to storage. I do remember that she lived in Marshfield. Or 26

was it Mansfield? Medfield? Something like that.

EXTERIOR. TEALE CLINIC. DAY. Julian is walking away from the Clinic. After he has gone about a block, he turns and takes a long look at the old building.

EXTERIOR. A RURAL ROAD. DAY. DIANE KINSEY, a tall, tanned woman with long grey hair, is powerwalking on the shoulder of a quiet back road. Julian pulls up alongside of her in his car and slows to match her pace. She glances over but does not stop. JULIAN Mrs. Kinsey? DIANE That's me. JULIAN Your husband said I would find you here. I'm Doctor Julian West, from Boston General. Grace Cabot is my patient. DIANE Yes? JULIAN I was wondering if maybe there were other patients at the Clinic with the same name? I received a bunch of old records all with her name on them. DIANE Did you. Julian holds out a Polaroid of Grace so she can see it. DIANE Yes, that's my Grace. I started at the 27

Teale in 1939, fresh out of nursing school. I've been taking care of her since. JULIAN This Grace Cabot has been in care since 1939? That's impossible. DIANE I didn't believe it myself. In 1939, she was...sixty-five years old. Same age as me, now. She was born in 1874. JULIAN But that would make herDIANE A hundred and twenty-one. JULIAN How could you have kept a thing like that a secret? DIANE Grace is not a thing, Doctor. They travel for a moment in silence. JULIAN What happened to the Teale? DIANE The Teale Clinic was about caring. The General is about the bottom line. JULIAN Boston General? DIANE The Teale has been affiliated with the General ever since the sixties. It started as a healthy partnership. In the seventies, the General was taken over by MBAs. They sucked the life out of us. JULIAN I'm sorry. 28

DIANE What the hell. I'm retired. JULIAN Thanks for the information. She stops. DIANE Doctor West, what's going to happen to Grace? JULIAN I don't know. We were waiting for next of kin to tell us, I guess. Now I know why her family never showed. DIANE Do me a favor? JULIAN Sure. DIANE Don't let them turn my Grace into some freak.

EXTERIOR. A BUSY SUBURBAN STREET. DAY. Julian has parked at the pump in a service station and is inside using the pay phone. JULIAN Sheila? Doctor West. Does that room with the Cabot records have a lock? Good. Could you lock it for me, please? Don't let anyone in for any reason. Not even janitorial. Hold on. The attendant comes to the window and points at Julian's car. Julian gets out his wallet with one hand and fumbles around until he digs out five crumpled ones. He holds them up, and the attendant nods. 29

JULIAN I'll explain when I get there.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. NIGHT. Julian is sitting by Grace's bed. Zeibe comes in with CHESTER MARCOTTE, a thin, unattractive man wearing a very nice suit. DR. ZEIBE Here she is. West, this is Chester Marcotte. MARCOTTE Yes. You have an explanation for her state? DR. ZEIBE My best guess is still some kind of fuck up. JULIAN I've checked the records. She's for real. Born in 1875. DR. ZEIBE Jesus Christ. MARCOTTE That is one possibility. Doctor West? How much longer would you say she has? JULIAN To live? Well, physically, she seems to be still in her twenties. MARCOTTE Any chance she might...wake up? DR. ZEIBE After a century? Zero. Marcotte is not unhappy. JULIAN 30

She should be in a long term facility. MARCOTTE We'll keep her here. Do whatever you need to do for her. DR. ZEIBE Of course. Doctor West is one of our best young neurologists. I'll see to it that he gives this young woman his undivided attention.

INTERIOR. THE NEWSTEDT'S APARTMENT. NIGHT. The Newstedts are hosting a cocktail party. Julian is sitting on the couch in between Karen and a young woman. Other clusters of conversation are going on around the room. Jay comes to them with more drinks. JAY I'm so glad you could make it. Lawyers get tired of always talking to other lawyers. WOMAN At least a doctor can answer the vital questions. JAY Careful. Doctors generate billable hours, too. KAREN We can swap. Medical advice for legal advice. Jay holds two invisible weights in his hands, judging them. JAY One pelvic exam...one oral deposition. WOMAN This is serious. I have a wrinkle. Right here. JAY 31

That's a freckle. WOMAN I can't get all old and grey before I make partner. JAY True enough. No man will have you. KAREN What's the secret, Doctor? Why do we get all old and worn out? Why can't we live forever? JULIAN I think your cells are programmed to age. Something in the DNA counts the number of cell divisions. You reach your quota, the cells die. WOMAN Why can't they just fix it, then? JULIAN I don't know. You'd have to ask a molecular biologist for the details. JAY Great. A referral. How much will that cost us? JULIAN Depends. You never told me what kind of law you all practice. KAREN Family law, of course. She nods at Brendan, who is playing with action figures on the floor. JULIAN Just what I need. JAY Get married. We'll divorce you pro bono. 32

WOMAN I still want to know why I have to get wrinkly.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL. DAY. Julian is in a busy vestibule, scanning the building directory. A name catches his eye: Chester Marcotte. He follows across to the title: Fiscal Services. He looks puzzled, then keeps reading down the directory.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL. DAY. Julian is walking along a corridor. Doors are open into laboratories on both sides. Researchers in lab coats brush past him, most paired in animated arguments. He stops in front of an office door : Beryl Von Jako, Ph.D., The Aging Project: Laboratory of Cellular Senescence. The door is ajar. He nudges it open and sees BERYL VON JAKO, a small, elderly man, doing sit ups on the floor. JULIAN Excuse me. Doctor Von Jako? BERYL Yes? Julian holds up two tubes of blood. JULIAN I've got a mystery here.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL. DAY. Beryl is thundering down a hallway, scattering persons and objects in his path. Julian struggles to keep up.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. 33

Beryl holds Grace's hands, examining her skin. BERYL Why haven't I heard of her? JULIAN She was at the Teale. BERYL No periods of consciousness at all? JULIAN Apparently not. BERYL That makes sense. JULIAN It does? BERYL She is not comatose. This is some sort of hibernation. What do you know of her? JULIAN We have her records back to 1895, when she was admitted to the Teale. BERYL No. Before that. Something happened to this woman. What do you know of her prior to 1895? JULIAN Nothing.

INTERIOR. THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY. NIGHT. In a dark room, Julian is operating a microfilm reader, flicking through images of Boston papers from the 1890's. He pauses to write something down.

EXTERIOR. THE CABOT ESTATE. DAY. 34

Not much has changed since 1895. Wires run overhead, the trees are larger, there is a new outbuilding, and the main house is a different shade of white. Julian has parked on the side of the road just beyond the gate. A man is clipping a hedge near the house. Julian walks slowly into the driveway, his eyes fixed on the house. Faint echoes come to him, laughter and music from another century. He turns suddenly and steps into a woman who is jogging toward the house. She bounces off of him, screaming, and they both fall awkwardly to the pavement. Julian looks up and sees the man standing over him, brandishing the hedge clippers.

INTERIOR. THE CABOT ESTATE. DAY. Julian is holding a bag of ice to the elbow of SUSAN ROSEN, the middle-aged woman he bowled over. HOWARD ROSEN, her husband, is pouring beers into glasses. HOWARD Here. This'll take the edge off. JULIAN Thanks, Howard. I can't tell you how sorry I am. SUSAN At least it's not my knee again. HOWARD So you must be an epidemiologist. JULIAN No, I'm a neurologist. HOWARD Then why the interest in the Cabots? JULIAN A medical history project. I was hoping to find some descendants. SUSAN As I recall, the Cabots who built this 35

house weren't of the big famous Cabots. HOWARD Mrs. Cabot lived here until she died in the thirties. It was sold to the Benfords, who lived here until we bought the place ten years ago. JULIAN The Cabots had a daughter. SUSAN An only child, thank goodness. JULIAN What do you mean?

INTERIOR. THE CABOT ESTATE. DAY. Susan opens the door into Grace's old room. The hinges squeak loudly. The room is undisturbed, musty but almost exactly as it was in Grace's last days there. SUSAN We do dust and vacuum every so often. HOWARD A provision in the title mandates that the room is to remain undisturbed, but there's a practical limit. The windows had to be replaced, for example. Julian advances into the room, taking it all in. SUSAN I doubt there would be any penalty now if we just cleaned it out. HOWARD Susan, we signed the deed in good faith. SUSAN I know. At least it's a conversation piece. 36

Julian has sat down at the vanity. He picks up a perfume bottle, a brush, a comb. He opens her journal and reads. SUSAN Howard, the curtains need mending. JULIAN She was in Africa. "...I was nibbled upon today by a queer wee beastie. He has drunk of my blood, and for that has paid the ultimate price. The carcass shall be pressed here until Professor Marshall can classify it. Graceotyx africanus, perhaps..." Julian looks about on the page, but all that remains of the bug is a faint impression and red dust.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: BERYL'S LAB. NIGHT. Julian enters. Beryl is at a bench singing loudly along with a Green Day tape. He sees Julian and turns the boom box off. BERYL Touchdown! He shows Julian a graph. JULIAN Enzyme assay? BERYL You remember how cells divide. JULIAN First year med school. That was a long time ago. BERYL Okay, stop me if I repeat myself. The chromosomes in a cell's nucleus are copied every time the cell divides. Two sets, one for each new cell. Both checked and rechecked for errors. So why don't cells divide forever? Mother Nature puts extra 37

bases on the end of the chromosomes. The telomers: the end pieces. We never knew what they were. Just nonsense? No way. Every time the cell divides, some of the telomers were clipped off by the telomerase enzyme. It's a fuse. When enough is clipped off, the fuse burns down, the cell dies. JULIAN Okay. BERYL This woman's enzymes are not clipping her telomers. Her cells are dividing, slowly, but her fuse is not even lit. JULIAN That sounds pretty simple. But it doesn't explain why she's asleep. BERYL Perhaps there is some kind of feedback mechanism from our cells that commands the brain to sleep for eight hours because you will live to be ninety. Grace's cells are planning to live forever, maybe the brain believes it should sleep twenty-four hours. JULIAN Based on that hypothesis, if we could restart the enzymes, she should wake up. BERYL Can't do it. JULIAN Why? BERYL You said that she had been in the tropics when she fell ill. Obviously she was infected there by a retrovirus. It inserted its DNA into hers. That viral DNA coded for a protein which just happened to block her telomerase. It may be only a few 38

dozen base pairs among a billion. The only possible way to find it would be to compare her DNA before and after infection. JULIAN Oh my God!

EXTERIOR. THE CABOT ESTATE. NIGHT. Julian is at the front door when Howard opens it. JULIAN I need one more favor.

INTERIOR. THE CABOT ESTATE. NIGHT. In Grace's room, Julian is carefully removing hairs from her brush with gloved hands and putting them into a plastic bag.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: BERYL'S LAB. DAY. Beryl is in a small room, working in a hood. He removes Grace's hairs one by one from the plastic bag and clips off the roots with tiny scissors so that each one falls into a plastic vial. MORGAN SNYDER, his granddaughter, enters. Morgan is Helen - in glasses and modern dress. MORGAN Papa, are you ready for lunch? BERYL Soon, dear. How are you? MORGAN Good. We got positive initial results with the whole-cell vaccine. BERYL So you will be a billionaire soon and fund my lab? 39

MORGAN Once Virgene goes public, I'll buy you golden Petri dishes. What are you working on? BERYL A most interesting problem. MORGAN Hairs? FBI stuff again? BERYL A friend has a patient with a condition I think is due to a retroviral DNA insertion. These may be hairs from before the infection. I'm going to amplify the DNA in the roots by PCR and see if I can find the exogenous sequence. MORGAN Oh my gosh. I bet we could use Fred... BERYL Who is Fred? MORGAN My secret. I wanted to surprise you. BERYL What are you talking about? MORGAN You told me that making vaccines against retroviruses the old way was a waste of time. BERYL But Virgene's vaccineMORGAN Following the pack. Me too technology. Papa, I made the magic virus. BERYL A synthetic virus? 40

MORGAN Yes. It works in vitro. And in mice. It delivers systemically. BERYL Morgan, that is wonderful! This is Nobel material! MORGAN I don't give a rotten squat about the Nobel. BERYL You're joking. MORGAN You're right.

EXTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL. DAY. Julian is driving past the main entrance. Beryl dashes out in front of the car, holding out his hands. Julian slams on the brakes and leaps out. Morgan runs up. JULIAN Are you insane? MORGAN Doctor West? I'm Morgan Snyder. BERYL She's my granddaughter. Genius skipped a generation. MORGAN I'm chief virologist at Virgene Biosystems. I have something for you. Something no one has ever had before. BERYL A man-made virus. MORGAN Woman-made. 41

JULIAN For what? BERYL You have a patient with a retroviral infection. Every cell in her body contains the foreign DNA whose action has put her to sleep for a century. JULIAN Hey! Not so loud. MORGAN I made a benign synthetic virus which colonizes every type of mammalian cell. JULIAN How does that help? MORGAN We can use the synthetic virus to implant sequences of DNA of our own into the host chromosome. Beryl draws a biochemical reaction in the dirt on Julian’s hood. BERYL Don't you see, man? Fight fire with fire. Bad DNA gets transcribed into bad RNA which tells the cell to make a bad protein. It's the bad protein which does the actual damage. We use the synthetic virus to implant good DNA which is the opposite of the bad DNA. It gets transcribed into a strand of good RNA which is antisense to the bad RNA. Good RNA and bad RNA come together like a zipper. No bad protein gets made. No damage done. JULIAN That's incredible. You're talking about a treatment for AIDS, herpes, Epstein-BarrMORGAN 42

Hey! Not so loud. JULIAN Does it really work? MORGAN We haven't begun clinical trials yet. A long line of cars has formed behind Julian. Horns are beeping, angry curses are shouted.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: NEUROLOGY. DAY. Julian, Beryl, and Morgan come down the hall toward Neurology. A security guard stops them. GUARD I'm sorry. This section is restricted. JULIAN I'm Doctor West. This is my floor. GUARD Sorry, Doctor West. Please wear your picture ID from now on. Are these people with you? JULIAN Yes. GUARD They'll have to sign in. Sheila pops her head out of a door. SHEILA Jimmy, don't give my doc a hard time, okay? The guard smiles and nods. Beryl and Morgan sign a clipboard, and Julian leads them into Grace's room. They gather around Grace. MORGAN This is true, isn't it? 43

BERYL I was born in 1915. She had already been asleep for twenty years. Sheila comes in. SHEILA Sorry about that. Zeibe hired some muscle to keep out the rubberneckers. JULIAN Sheila, this is Doctor Beryl Von Jako from Biochemistry, and Doctor Morgan Snyder. SHEILA Pleased. Miss Cabot has electromuscular therapy in about five minutes. Shall I postpone it? JULIAN No, go ahead.

MONTAGE. Beryl is alone in his lab. It is dark outside. He holds up to the light a square of blue X-ray film rippled with black bands. He circles one tiny band with a marker. A physical therapist massages Grace's legs. Morgan is pipetting a clear fluid, one drop or so at a time into hundreds of wells on a plate. Julian wakes up in the night. He turns on a light and picks up a book from the nightstand. He opens it to a bookmarked page and begins to read. The book is: “The Gay '90s: 1890-1900”.

EXTERIOR. VIRGENE BIOSYSTEMS. DAY. Julian drives up to a guardshack past a large sign: VIRGENE BIOSYSTEMS. He stops and rolls down his window. 44

JULIAN Doctor Julian West to see Doctor Snyder. The guard checks a list and waves him through.

INTERIOR. VIRGENE BIOSYSTEMS. DAY. Julian is waiting in a reception area. Morgan enters. MORGAN Thanks for coming. JULIAN This is a beautiful building. MORGAN Wait until the IPO. Then you'll see beauty up the wazoo. This way. Morgan leads him through some sets of doors into a laboratory area. White-coated workers are busy at benches, desks, computers. MORGAN Beryl found it. JULIAN That was fast. MORGAN He's got the best sequence lab in town. And he's one lucky son of a bitch. The retroviral DNA is 428 bases. I can have the antisense strand synthesized and cloned into Fred in a week. JULIAN Fred? MORGAN That's my virus. Fred. JULIAN What's it stand for? 45

MORGAN It stands for...Fred. JULIAN Oh. MORGAN I'll have him ready for injection in ten days. Something wrong? JULIAN Jesus. What are we thinking? Deliberately infecting a patient without her consent, with an untested virus? MORGAN She'd agree if she could. JULIAN She's got no parents, no next of kin. Nobody to speak for her - but me. MORGAN That's right. You are the man. JULIAN I really didn't expect you to be able to do it, I guess. It sounded like science fiction. I had no idea when I went to Beryl that he would... MORGAN Come on. Something in you wanted his help. JULIAN Sure, to understand why, maybe, but to actually try to treat her? Anyway, I can't. I'd need the head of the department to approve. MORGAN So ask. JULIAN I don't know exactly what is going on, but I got a pretty clear message from him and some suit from Finance that they would 46

rather she stay asleep. MORGAN For what? JULIAN Don't know. Doesn't matter one way or the other. He'd never let me use an experimental therapy. What if it made her worse? MORGAN How the hell could it be worse? This woman has slept her life away. Everyone she loved is dead. We just keep feeding and watering her. Why? Her body will wear out eventually. Do we watch her decompose for a while and then pull the plug on her? I know she wants to wake up. I feel it. When I held her hand, I felt it. She wants out, Julian. She just can't sign the form for us.

EXTERIOR. BOSTON: THE PUBLIC GARDENS. DAY. Jay and Karen are strolling along a path, holding hands. Well ahead of them, Julian is trotting to keep up with Brendan on his tricycle. JULIAN Brendan? BRENDAN What? JULIAN Tell me something. BRENDAN What? JULIAN You ever get in trouble at school? 47

BRENDAN Sometimes. JULIAN You ever get punished? BRENDAN Sometimes. JULIAN What if you did something you thought was helping one of your friends but you got punished for it? BRENDAN I'd be mad. JULIAN Yeah. Me too. What if a friend needed help, but you knew you could get punished for helping? Brendan gives a loud happy squeal to show that he gives not one whit for such punishment and pedals furiously away.

EXTERIOR. BOSTON. DAY. Julian is dialing a pay phone. Beyond him, Karen and Jay are buying Brendan a pretzel and soda from a cart. JULIAN Doctor Snyder? Julian West. Let's go ahead with it. MORGAN (Over phone.) Great. I'll tell Fred. I thought you were going the other way. JULIAN I was. This residency at Boston General was my first choice. Now I don't even have all my boxes unpacked, and I'm conspiring to disobey my boss. 48

MORGAN (Over phone.) You could get into big trouble by doing this. Last warning. JULIAN Screw it. I took an oath to my patients, not to Zeibe. MORGAN (Over phone.) What about 'first do no harm'? This is a live virus. JULIAN You were right. Letting her lie there until eternity would be the harm. Missing beautiful days like this is the harm. And Marcotte told me to do anything I needed to do for her. MORGAN (Over phone.) Me and Fred are with you, Doctor.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Julian and Beryl watch as Morgan opens a small case and hands Julian a syringe and a tiny glass vial. JULIAN That's it? MORGAN That's it. Julian punctures the vial and fills the syringe, then injects the contents into Grace's arm. MORGAN Holy Christ! Did you see that? Julian, startled, drops the syringe on the floor, and it shatters with a tiny fierce pop. 49

JULIAN What? MORGAN I could have swear that she smiled. BERYL An involuntary pain reflex. JULIAN Don't do that! MORGAN Sorry. JULIAN How long before we know? MORGAN Fred will take four or five days to colonize her nervous system and penetrate the brain.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL. DAY. Julian is examining a middle-aged man, holding his arm in one hand and a pin in the other. He first pricks the man's finger and then works his way slowly up the arm. JULIAN Now tell me if you feel this. MAN Ow. Yes. JULIAN This? MAN Yes. JULIAN This? 50

MAN Yes. JULIAN This? MAN Yes. Julian is poised to stick the man's elbow but is looking out the window at an object far away. The man waits a polite moment before speaking. MAN Doctor? Are we done? JULIAN No. Sorry. MAN Ow! Yes.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: NEUROLOGY. NIGHT. Julian is in the nurses' station, pouring himself coffee. Sheila comes by carrying an armful of sheets. SHEILA Jesus. We got bodies down in the morgue looking more alive than you. Go home and get some sleep. JULIAN I'm fine. SHEILA What's going on? JULIAN What's going on where? SHEILA With you and Ms. Rip Van Winkle. And your new buddies, the old guy and the redhead. You're not futzing around with my sleeper, 51

are you? JULIAN I thought she was a veg. SHEILA No way. She's sleeping like a baby. My baby. JULIAN We may have a therapy which could help her. SHEILA What kind of therapy? JULIAN It'd be better if you didn't know. It's a business thing, proprietary stuff. SHEILA Suit yourself. She spins around and stomps away. Julian goes into Room 412 and sits in the chair beside Grace's bed. She is indeed sleeping like a baby. He looks out at the busy lights of the city. His eyes slowly close.

EXTERIOR. AFRICA. DAY. Julian is dreaming. He is stumbling along an overgrown path through dense jungle. Ahead he sees a flash of white, and he redoubles his attack on the green vines blocking his way. Again he glimpses white - a long gown. He falls and scrambles back to his feet only to freeze. Grace is before him, in an old fashioned white dress. She beckons to him, a smile flickering across grave features. She purses her lips and closes her eyes. He takes her hand and leans forward, ready to kiss her. A tree crashes between them, parting them with a metallic clatter.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. NIGHT. 52

Julian wakes up at the noise, yanked from his dream. An apologetic janitor is picking up an overturned trash can. JANITOR Excuse me. The janitor wheels his cart from the room. Julian settles back in his chair. One of Grace's hands has slipped off the bed and seems to reach out to him. He takes it and holds it for a long moment before putting it back at her side. He stands and looks anxiously at the door. His eyes flicker back and forth as he silently debates. He checks the door, then leans down and quickly kisses Grace. He steps back, watching her closely. There is no change. He blushes deeply and rushes from the room.

INTERIOR. JULIAN'S APARTMENT. NIGHT. Julian is sleeping peacefully, not moving a muscle, breathing deeply and evenly.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. NIGHT. Grace is twitching. Her eyes are moving around under her eyelids. She kicks her feet, tiny flutters under the blanket.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: NEUROLOGY. DAY. Julian is walking down the hall, whistling a cheerful tune. SHEILA Back from the dead. JULIAN Good morning to you, too, Nurse Kantowski. He opens the door to Room 412 and glances inside. He sees Grace's eyelids flutter slightly. He closes the door and takes a step before what he has seen sinks in. He spins back and sprints into the room. Grace is moving her hands in spastic 53

jerks, her eyes opening to slits and closing rapidly. She opens them wide at last and stares up with unfocused eyes. Julian grabs her arms as she begins to shake, inarticulate panicky noises deep in her throat. Julian punches the call button, and Sheila runs in. JULIAN Fifty milligrams Valium i.v., stat! Sheila darts out and returns in an instant with a syringe. Julian takes it and plunges it into Grace's shoulder. After a moment she calms and closes her eyes again. JULIAN Oh, God. What have I done? SHEILA What do you mean, 'what have you done'? Julian staggers toward the door. SHEILA What do you mean? What did you do to her?

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: BERYL'S LAB. DAY. An Offspring tape is blasting; the ringing of a phone barely penetrates. Beryl answers. His face lights up; he drops the phone and hops around in a celebratory dance keeping good time to the music.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Julian is sitting by Grace's bed. She is sleeping. Beryl and Morgan come in, talking excitedly. BERYL Julian! Congratulations! MORGAN Hey - what's wrong? JULIAN 54

I had to sedate her. MORGAN Did she speak? JULIAN She made noises. BERYL She hasn't used her vocal cords in a hundred years. They’re stiff. JULIAN Or the virus had secondary effects, like neurological damage. What if she is mentally impaired? MORGAN Too late to worry about that. BERYL When will the sedation wear off? JULIAN An hour or so. BERYL You are prepared to welcome her? MORGAN I'd love to be there. BERYL I would think it best if she had one person to focus on.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Sheila is standing by Grace's bed, holding a syringe. Julian is pacing. SHEILA Doctor. She's coming up. 55

Sheila shields the syringe from Grace. Julian comes and sits by the bed as Grace opens her eyes. JULIAN Miss Cabot? Can you hear me? Grace nods slowly. JULIAN I’m Doctor Julian West. You had an illness which kept you asleep for a long time. GRACE (She can speak only in a barely audible whisper.) Where am I? JULIAN Boston General Hospital. Her eyes explore the room. GRACE Where are Mother and Father? Julian glances at Sheila, who moves the syringe slightly to draw his attention to it. He shakes his head. JULIAN They are not available. GRACE Where are they? What is this place? JULIAN Miss Cabot, I know this is confusing. GRACE How long? A week? A month? JULIAN I'll explain later. The nurse is going to give you something to let you rest. He nods at Sheila. She makes the injection into Grace's arm, and Grace's eyes close. 56

GRACE Don't want to rest.... SHEILA How are you going to break it to her?

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: DOCTOR MARTIN GARY'S OFFICE. DAY. DOCTOR MARTIN GARY is a tall black man with a touch of grey at his temples. He is escorting a patient to the door. DR. GARY Don't forget to take that with food. If you get an upset stomach, stop taking them and give me a call. The man nods and leaves. Doctor Gary holds the door open. DR. GARY Doctor West? I have some time now. JULIAN Thanks for seeing me on such short notice, Doctor. DR. GARY My pleasure. How can I help you? JULIAN You have experience counseling patients who’ve come out of long comas. DR. GARY A bit. You have such a case, I suppose? JULIAN Yes. An extreme case. A young woman who has been asleep for a long time. Doctor Gary has a chair and a lounge by his desk. He motions to them as he sits in his own chair. Julian looks at the lounge but sits in the chair. DR. GARY 57

You and I take for granted the incremental changes of the calendar. Day follows night. Seasons flow gently into one another. The length of sunlight waxes and wanes. Our biorhythms are tuned to all those things. I had one patient who was out for eighteen months. He was so disoriented that it took him a year to get over the time loss. My research proved the confusion is due to chemical imbalances. How long has your patient been unconscious? JULIAN Since 1895. DR. GARY That’s - what? JULIAN I know. It shouldn't be possible, but she has been asleep for over one hundred years. Doctor Gary ponders that deliberately, then flips open a notebook, picks up a pen, and proceeds in a soothing voice. DR. GARY Tell me more about...this patient. Julian jumps up. JULIAN No. It's true. You come with me. I'll show you.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Julian is showing Doctor Gary a selection from Grace's records dating back to her original admission. DR. GARY This is fantastic. You've considered that this is some elaborate coincidence. 58

JULIAN It isn't. DR. GARY A hoax of some sort? JULIAN I spoke with a nurse who had care of this woman since 1939. Julian notices Grace's eyes flutter. JULIAN Oh shit...Grace? Remember me? GRACE Doctor West. JULIAN This is my colleague, Doctor Gary. GRACE Have you sent for my mother and father? And Helen. You must send word to Helen. DR. GARY Miss Cabot, I have very bad news. Are you strong enough to hear it now? Grace looks at him for a moment before nodding slowly. DR. GARY You were afflicted with a strange illness which caused you to fall into a deep sleep. You could not be awakened. You have been kept in good health, but you have been asleep for a very long time. I am afraid that both your mother and father have passed away. Grace closes her eyes, then opens them. GRACE Helen? Where is my friend? Doctor Gary shakes his head. 59

GRACE What tragedy has taken all this from me? DR. GARY Only time. This is the year two thousand. Grace turns her head away from them. GRACE Please leave me. Doctor Gary signals to Julian that they should obey. They go out of the room and close the door gently behind them.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: NEUROLOGY. DAY. Doctor Gary and Julian are walking from Grace's room. JULIAN Now what? DR. GARY Now she sorts it out for herself. JULIAN Just like that? DR. GARY It's the only way. Give her a half an hour, then go back in and answer all her questions. Don't tap dance. Don't bullshit.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Sheila tiptoes into the room to draw the shades against the afternoon sun. She turns and sees Grace's eyes on her. GRACE I'm unbearably thirsty. Sheila puts a straw into a cup of water and holds it to Grace's lips. Grace sucks a bit up with great effort. 60

GRACE Thank you. SHEILA You're welcome. GRACE Is it true what they say? SHEILA Yes. Grace smiles a thin enigmatic smile.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Grace opens her eyes. Julian is sitting, waiting. JULIAN How are you feeling? GRACE Weak. JULIAN You must have a million questions. GRACE No. JULIAN None? GRACE I can't...hold a thought. She opens her hands and stares at them. GRACE I feel a stranger to my flesh, as if I were just born. I have memories...so fleeting, so fragile. I cannot fit them back together. 61

JULIAN It's only natural that you feel some dissociation and confusion. GRACE Natural? Nothing in what you have told me can be called natural. This must be some terrible fantasy. It cannot be real. Julian bites his lip, nodding, thinking.

EXTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: THE ROOF. DAY. The sun is setting. An access door opens, and Julian wheels Grace out onto the roof. She is wrapped in a gown and thin blanket even though the afternoon is warm. The wheelchair has a long back which supports her head so that she is reclining. Julian pushes her to the edge, against a low restraining wall. He holds a Boston guidebook. GRACE Is this my Boston? Julian opens the book to a map and shows it to her, turning the page to match their view. JULIAN We're here. That's the Prudential building. That's the Hancock building. Insurance companies. There's the old Hancock building. GRACE Are they dwellings? JULIAN Mostly offices, I think. GRACE I have my bearings now. There is the gilded dome of the State House. Grace begins to cry silently, sobs shaking her thin frame. Julian kneels down and puts a hand on her shoulder. 62

GRACE This is not a dream.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: AN ELEVATOR. DAY. Julian pushes Grace onto an elevator. Her eyes are still red from crying. A teenage boy is in the corner of the elevator, listening with headphones to a small tape player. He has the music turned up way too loud. After a moment, the teen sees Grace staring at his tape player. GRACE What is that? TEEN Beastie Boys. GRACE May I? The teen looks at Julian and shrugs. He takes off the headphones and puts them on Grace. She makes a face, and he quickly turns the volume down. GRACE How does this work? JULIAN It's a tape. Grace waits for more. Julian takes the player from the teen and pulls out the cassette. JULIAN The music is recorded on this tape. GRACE How is that accomplished? JULIAN It's...magnetic tape. GRACE It does not appear to be magnetic. 63

JULIAN The tape is magnetic. GRACE But how does it operate? TEEN It's...magnetic.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL. DAY. Marcotte is stepping out of his office. Zeibe stops him and whispers something quickly. MARCOTTE You said she could neverHe looks around, grabs Zeibe by the elbow, and yanks him into his office.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: THE LOBBY GIFT SHOP. DAY. Julian is pushing Grace’s wheelchair slowly down an aisle. JULIAN I should get you something to read. He parks her near a magazine and book rack. On the front shelf are copies of “A Long Fatal Love Chase”. GRACE Not her best. JULIAN Who's that? GRACE Miss Alcott. JULIAN Oh. Little Women. 64

GRACE You've read her work. JULIAN I saw the movie. GRACE Movie? JULIAN Motion picture. GRACE A zeotrope? JULIAN I guess. He puts a copy of the book in her lap. Grace reads the back cover. GRACE She wrote this in 1866, and yet it was just published. Grace looks over the rack dominated by womens' magazines featuring bra and panty models and lead articles about sex. GRACE It appears that social mores are such that it can now be published without scandal. She was the boldest woman I had ever metJULIAN You knew her? GRACE She was a close friend of Mother's. She begins to read the book. Julian steps to the register and directs the attention of the cashier to the book as he takes out his wallet.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: CAFETERIA. NIGHT. 65

Julian is having a cup of coffee and occasionally holding Grace’s tea to her lips. She is reading her book. She stops to examine the cover. GRACE My goodness. I forgot to pay the proprietor of that stand. JULIAN It's taken care of. GRACE You? JULIAN A present. GRACE But look at the price they ask! I realize that it is impolite for a lady to remark on the cost of a gift, but you paid eighteen dollars for this! JULIAN That's not bad for hardcover. GRACE You must be a wealthy man. Oh, no forgive me. That was rude. JULIAN It's okay. I'm not rich, I'm only a resident. We make thirty-three grand a year. Barely enough to live on. GRACE That was the income of a wealthy man, once. JULIAN Not anymore. We had some pretty bad inflation a few years ago, thanks to the government taxing and spending. GRACE My father has...had similar complaints. 66

JULIAN It's not too bad these days, but still, I remember when bread was only a dollar a loaf. GRACE I cannot comprehend such a price except that it be referenced to the common wage. JULIAN What do you mean? GRACE The true cost of a good is the labor required to obtain it. If you must work an hour at your profession to buy one loaf of bread, it is irrelevant how many dollars and cents are involved in the purchase. How many hours do you work in a week? JULIAN Forty, officially, but that's a cruel joke. GRACE Two thousand hours per year. You receive sixteen and one-half dollars per hour of your labor. How much is bread? JULIAN Two bucks? GRACE Two dollars! Very well, then you may take home some eight loaves of bread for your hour of labor. In Boston, the usual wage was about eleven cents per hour and bread was three cents per loaf. It seems you are better off now. JULIAN The key phrase is 'take home'. I don't take home thirty-three. A third of it disappears off the top into the bloated government sinkhole. 67

GRACE Do you not have representation to determine your taxation? JULIAN It doesn't feel like it. GRACE Use your vote to change the government, if you are so dissatisfied. Men are forever complaining about the burden of the franchise when women would so eagerly share the load with them. JULIAN Women vote. GRACE After one hundred years? I should expect so. JULIAN I read a story once about a man who built a time machine. Instead of trying to change the world or get a look at the future, all he did with it was once a week go back a couple of decades to buy pork chops. GRACE (Excited.) Such a device exists? JULIAN No. It was science fiction. Grace is crestfallen.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: NEUROLOGY. NIGHT. Julian wheels Grace off the elevator. It is obvious that the floor has been in an uproar. Security guards are all about. The nurses look upon Julian with disapproval. Zeibe rushes up to Julian, restraining his anger. 68

DR. ZEIBE We were about to search the building for you. JULIAN I thought Miss Cabot would like to see the hospital. Zeibe wrests the wheelchair from Julian. DR. ZEIBE That was an excellent idea. Miss Cabot, how do you like our home? GRACE I am spent from having my breath taken by every new sight. DR. ZEIBE Of course. Let's get you settled in for a rest. Nurse! Sheila takes Grace into her room. DR. ZEIBE Doctor West, you must show better judgment. JULIAN What do you mean? DR. ZEIBE Haven’t you know how the world will respond to this? Neo-Luddite fundamentalists with signs and bullhorns will surround the hospital. We'll have every psycho on the East Coast camped outside. You don't need to think about that stuff. I do, so let me decide where she goes and where she does not. Okay? JULIAN Sure.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: NEUROLOGY. DAY. 69

Morgan steps out of the elevator, and two security guards set upon her immediately. FIRST GUARD Ma'am, I need to see some identification, please. Sheila darts out from the nurses' station. SHEILA She's okay, guys. That's Doctor Snyder. I'll vouch for her. MORGAN Thanks, Sheila. SHEILA Hey, where have you been? You missed all the excitement. MORGAN I had to go to Washington and grovel before the FDA. Is she up? SHEILA She's having walking lessons. She had flex and tone therapy all those years, but that's still a century of not standing up. Morgan opens the door to Room 412 cautiously and slips inside.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Grace is balancing herself on a walker. A physical therapist holds her up as she slides one foot along the floor, then advances the walker with a monumental effort. She looks up and sees Morgan. GRACE Helen! Grace nearly topples over. The therapist has to grab her. GRACE 70

God's name, my friendMorgan comes closer, startled and puzzled. Grace gets a better look at her. GRACE You are not Helen? MORGAN I'm Morgan Snyder. She extends her hand, but Grace does not see it. She is absorbed by Morgan's face. GRACE You could be her. MORGAN I could be who? GRACE No one. Forgive me. MORGAN How are you feeling? GRACE Weaker than a newborn babe. THERAPIST Don't worry. We'll have you dancing pretty soon. GRACE I suppose the popular dances will be unfamiliar to me. THERAPIST Can you waltz? GRACE It is still done? THERAPIST Sure is. I love to waltz. GRACE 71

Perhaps I am not altogether superannuated. The therapist looks at her, confused. GRACE Are you to examine me, Doctor Snyder? Although I did not request a woman physician, I welcome your attentions. MORGAN I'm not an M.D. I'm a Ph.D., a virologist. GRACE I am not familiar with that discipline. MORGAN I study viruses. GRACE What are viruses? MORGAN Viruses are infectious agents, tiny packages of nucleic acids and proteins which infect a cell and hijack the cell's own machinery to manufacture more viruses. GRACE Insidious. MORGAN It was a virus which caused your illness. We managed to block its action. GRACE And I awoke, like Lazarus. Will you tell me more? Some of what you say is known to me, but much more is like some foreign dialect. MORGAN Okay? THERAPIST Okay by me. Grace continues to struggle about the room, supported by the 72

therapist. Morgan follows, talking with her hands. MORGAN Okay, so you've got genetic information, blueprints for cell construction. These messages are carried in the chromosomes, which are linear polymers of nucleic acids...

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Zeibe and Marcotte enter. Grace is propped up in her bed upon a mound of pillows. She is doing curls with a minuscule barbell, listening to classical music from a radio. GRACE Good morning, Doctor Zeibe. DR. ZEIBE Good morning, Miss Cabot. This is Chester Marcotte. He works here at the hospital. Marcotte takes her hand. MARCOTTE It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Cabot. Your recovery has astonished us all. GRACE Thank you. I was rather surprised myself. MARCOTTE How are you getting on here? Is there anything we can do to make you more comfortable? GRACE Yes, there is. Would it be possible to obtain a davenport? I grow weary of lying abed. MARCOTTE Of course. 73

GRACE And a writing desk? MARCOTTE Our pleasure. DR. ZEIBE I'll have Doctor West pick up anything she needs. MARCOTTE Anything you wish, Miss Cabot. Anything at all.

INTERIOR. BOSTON: A DEPARTMENT STORE. DAY. Sheila and Julian come up to the automatic doors. Julian puts out his hand to push the door and nearly loses his balance when it opens by itself. SHEILA I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself. Getting to shop with other peoples' money. JULIAN Zeibe said to damn the expense. They enter the furniture area. Sheila tosses herself onto a plush sofa and makes a satisfied noise. JULIAN We'll take it. They move on. Julian points to a reclining chair, a desk, a lamp, a bookcase. He spots the stereo section. JULIAN That compact black one will do the job. Where's the CD department? SHEILA What kind of music does she like? JULIAN 74

Hell, what can she like? She's never heard jazz, ragtime, swing, country, rock and roll, punk, grunge, new age, or Slim Whitman. We'll get some of each. He leads her into the computer aisles. A sales associate comes up to help them. JULIAN Show us your finest computer. SHEILA We want a G4 Mac. DVD, plenty of RAM. And a laser printer, too, twelve hundred dpi. She sees Julian looking at her, impressed. SHEILA I got kids.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Julian enters. The room has been redone with the furnishings that he and Sheila picked out. A television and VCR are on a table. The computer and printer have been cabled together on a workstation. Grace is sitting on a sofa, holding a CD up into a shaft of sunlight so that it makes rainbows flash around on the walls. JULIAN What do you think? GRACE I feel like it is Christmas morning. JULIAN Thanks to Santa Marcotte. Grace points to the television. GRACE These devices were all about downstairs. JULIAN 75

Television. GRACE Tele. Vision. Greek for 'far seeing'? JULIAN Must be. He turns it on. The station is showing a Three Stooges short; Moe pokes Curly in the eyes and belts him over the head with a crowbar. GRACE Doctor West! Stop them! JULIAN That's not real. I mean, they were real. It's only an image. GRACE It is theater? JULIAN Yeah. Usually women don't appreciate this particular theater. GRACE How are the images produced? JULIAN There's some kind of beam. The screen has some stuff on the inside that glows. Anyway, you can watch programs which are going on live or are recorded onto a tape. GRACE Ah. A magnetic tape? JULIAN Like this one. You can go out and rent a movie on tape and watch it whenever. GRACE And you have no idea how this magnetic tape accomplishes its task either, I suppose. 76

JULIAN So? GRACE I know there can be no magic here, even after a century. You show me these wonders yet you cannot tell me their nature. In my day, a physician knew his physics and his chemistry. JULIAN Hey, maybe things were simpler then, too. GRACE Apparently so. And now your devices are so obtuse that their users know not what is inside the box? JULIAN Sorry. I'm a doctor, not an electrician. GRACE You are right. Forgive me. The body of medical knowledge must be so vast now that you can attend only to it. JULIAN Right. I'm a neurologist, but I don't even know everything about neurology yet, let alone gastroenterology, cardiology, rheumatology, dermatology. And now I'm supposed to know how a TV works? Grace indicates the computer. GRACE And that? Another television? JULIAN Computer. Don't get started on me, okay?

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: NEUROLOGY. NIGHT. Grace is moving slowly down the hallway using her walker. She stops in front of a set of swinging doors that block off the 77

hall. The two security guards stand as she approaches. GRACE Good evening. FIRST GUARD Evening, Miss Cabot. She looks past them at the doors. They make no move to open them for her or to move out of her way. She struggles to turn around and begin the journey back.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. NIGHT. Julian comes in to find Grace sitting in the dark. Only the blue glow of the city illuminates her. JULIAN Hello? GRACE Am I a prisoner here? JULIAN Of course not. Why do you say that? GRACE There are guards here at every hour. JULIAN Oh, no. Those guys are to keep anyone from sneaking in and bothering you. GRACE What manner of person would do that? JULIAN Reporters. Nut jobs. GRACE Nut jobs? JULIAN Crazies. Kooks. 78

GRACE So I may leave as I wish. JULIAN I guess. GRACE Is it yes or no? JULIAN Where do you want to go, anyway? GRACE You must know. JULIAN Yeah. Look, Zeibe nearly had a stroke when I took you to the lobby. GRACE So I am Doctor Zeibe's prisoner. JULIAN He's worried about exposing you to the world too quickly. GRACE Bosh! I was about in this world quite happily when his greatgrandfather was in knickers and curls. JULIAN I don't know... GRACE I will need proper outfitting. This gown is not suitable for public demonstration. JULIAN There are dresses in your closet. GRACE My closet? Where? JULIAN In your father's house. They preserved 79

your room. GRACE Poor dears, they must have kept their hope as intact. Why did you not tell me? JULIAN It slipped my mind.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: NEUROLOGY. DAY. It is early in the morning. Julian comes down the hall, pushing a blonde woman in a wheelchair. He speaks a little more loudly than should be needed. JULIAN Here we are, Mrs. Dodge. Back to your room. I'll have the test results later. He nods at the security guards as he passes. JULIAN First come in and meet my friend Grace. He pushes the woman into Grace's room.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. The woman removes a blonde wig and stands: it is Sheila. She sheds the robe; her uniform is underneath. SHEILA Good luck. She goes out the door. Julian brings the wig and robe over to Grace, who has been watching from her chair. JULIAN Ready to roll, Mrs. Dodge? He helps her into the wig and gown and arranges her in the wheelchair in a reasonable likeness of the former occupant. He takes a parcel out of a bag hung from the handle, rips the 80

plastic open and unfolds an inflatable sex doll. He inflates it with oxygen from a wall outlet. GRACE A manikin? JULIAN Yeah...a manikin. He arranges it beneath the covers of her bed so that it mimics Grace asleep in her bed. JULIAN Let's blow this joint.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL. DAY. Julian is pushing the button in an elevator as the doors close behind them. JULIAN You sure you're up to this? Grace lifts herself to her feet, clutching his arm, and steps away from the wheelchair. GRACE With your kind assistance. JULIAN Of course. You can take off the robe now. She opens the robe just a bit and looks down. She is wearing jeans, sweatshirt, and some running shoes. She closes the robe snugly. JULIAN They fit okay? GRACE I am not sure how they should fit. JULIAN What's the matter? 81

GRACE I feel like a trollop. JULIAN That's how people dress nowadays. GRACE Still, I have not accepted that these days are my days. JULIAN Okay, leave the robe on.

EXTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: PARKING GARAGE. DAY. Julian and Grace walk slowly up to Julian's car. Grace is closely examining every auto in the place. GRACE What cunning machines. He unlocks the door for her and holds it open. GRACE I should not be in a carriage alone with you without a chaperone. JULIAN What will people say? GRACE It is done without pause, then, 'nowadays'? Julian nods. Grace slides into the seat. GRACE It is like a tiny apartment. Is it propelled by steam or electricity? JULIAN Gas. GRACE 82

Coal gas or city gas? JULIAN Gasoline. From oil. GRACE How extravagant. He gets in, starts the car and drives out onto a narrow road. Cars are driving much too fast in both directions. Julian looks over and sees that Grace is staring in horror, gripping the dash with white knuckles. JULIAN Oh yeah. Better put on your seat belt. He reaches over her, ignoring the road, and buckles her in. GRACE I believe that I used to take this road in my gig. JULIAN What's a gig? GRACE A fast carriage. A truck honks at them and swerves around to pass. GRACE Not this fast. JULIAN They told me that the streets of Boston were laid down over old cow paths. GRACE Yes. One sometimes had to pause for a stubborn cow. I don't suppose that is a problem anymore.

INTERIOR. THE CABOT ESTATE: GRACE'S ROOM. DAY. The door opens, and Grace looks into her old room. She enters 83

on Julian's arm, barely breathing, looking about without touching. The Rosens watch from the hall, still in awe and uncomfortably out of place on their own property. GRACE I could have been here yesterday. Sitting at the vanity, she opens a drawer and takes out a cornhusk doll. GRACE Mrs. Cobb! A young friend made this for me. Isn't she beautiful? JULIAN Sure. GRACE Mrs. Cobb, you have waited faithfully for me these hundred years. She pats the doll on the head and much of it disintegrates. Grace sighs. GRACE Sorry, Mrs. Cobb. She replaces the remainder gently in the drawer and closes it. Julian helps her up and over to a walk-in closet filled with dresses and gowns, shoes and purses. She pulls gently at a sleeve and it tears off like tissue. She looks at the fragment in her hand. GRACE That was out of style anyway. She examines others more carefully. Most are just as fragile. At last she finds a sturdier one, a simple white dress. GRACE This will do.

INTERIOR. THE CABOT ESTATE. DAY. Julian and the Rosens are waiting in the hall outside Grace's 84

door. JULIAN I'm sorry for disturbing you again. SUSAN Nonsense. It is her room. HOWARD She's welcome here anytime. The door opens. Grace is wearing the dress, a beautiful piece which has held up well. It is modest, covering her neck, legs, and arms. She has put her hair up in a bun held by a comb from her vanity top. SUSAN Gorgeous. HOWARD It looks brand new. GRACE Thank you. It is. Or was. Mother gave it to me at graduation. Silk and fine wool. Grace lifts her skirt to show the running shoes she had on before. GRACE I could not find a shoe which was not lost to age; however, these are far more comfortable than any I owned.

EXTERIOR. A SUBURBAN CEMETERY. DAY. Julian is driving very slowly through an old part of a green suburban cemetery. Grace watches out her window. GRACE It was smaller. The trees have changed much. They coast down a low hill. 85

GRACE There. Julian parks and helps Grace over to a large grassy square marked off by granite curbing. The plot has three stones. The one on the left is inscribed: SAMUEL ABRAHAM CABOT, 1850-1901. The one on the right reads: ALICE LONGSTREET CABOT, 1854-1932. In the middle is an unfinished stone: GRACE ELLSWORTH CABOT, 1875-. Grace falls to her knees. GRACE Since I opened my eyes I have filled with black rage. Eternal oblivion would have been preferable to that cursed sleep. Here are my two most beloved in all the world, silenced forever. And me with no farewell for them, no comfort to them in their last days. JULIAN They must have visited you often. GRACE Perhaps I have a dream of them. JULIAN Do you remember your dreams? GRACE I have a manifold of dreams secured away. A hundred years of days and nights dreaming. My dreams far outweigh the true memories. Perhaps some of those dreams were built from scraps of reality. I dream of my mother. Was it because she was holding my hand? Or was it just a fanciful impression? Dreams order themselves by their own mysterious convention. Perhaps I am dreaming now. She lies down on her back on her gravesite, head toward her stone, and folds her hands on her chest. GRACE I should be here, too. Why this reprieve? JULIAN 86

You're in the middle? Other families have the parents together. GRACE I insisted that they both be next to me. As usual, I was obeyed. JULIAN You were spoiled. GRACE Spoiled? I think not. I was indulged and attended, but that did not spoil me. When I was a child, I had the habit of leaving my nursery in the middle of the night and climbing into their bed. Those were the happiest times, snuggled in the safe darkness between them. Is it not appropriate to arrange ourselves in this manner for eternity? JULIAN Why didn't your parents have a larger family? GRACE Mother had problems delivering me. The doctors advised her that she would risk death the next time. JULIAN They were pretty young to stop. GRACE Stop? JULIAN Having.... GRACE They continued to enjoy sexual congress. Father had safety devices from Paris. Surely you know of them. They must be legal by now. JULIAN Condoms were illegal? 87

GRACE Yes - even to married couples. Is that not the most wicked act of mortal man? How is conception prevented today? JULIAN Well, there's...those, and the pill. That's a hormone that women take to prevent pregnancy. GRACE A simple pill? What a miracle. Are you uncomfortable with this subject? JULIAN Of course not. I'm a doctor. I just assumed...that sex was not discussed in your day. GRACE You jest! That is all anyone ever talked about. Father and Mother had once considered joining the Oneida colony, which made them the most envied and scandalous couple among their young friends for a time. JULIAN Why? GRACE In the Oneida colony, the adults were resworn in marriage to all the other. Women each had a cottage of their own while the men moved among them. JULIAN That's extreme. GRACE On the contrary. It was a brave and sublime attempt to construct a true community with an emotional bond among its members. (Beat.) When I am laid to rest here, the carver 88

shall be able to finish the stone. Future generations will think that he made a grievous error.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. NIGHT. Julian enters. The room is dark. Grace is sitting, looking out the window. JULIAN Grace? She does not respond. He moves closer. JULIAN What's wrong? GRACE I spent the day studying history. JULIAN Pretty overwhelming, huh? GRACE Actually, I was hoping to find that you had channeled wonderful new powers of nature to your bidding. But at the core of each of your creations - which were at first as incomprehensible as if I were a savage, I have found nothing more than refinements of the electromagnetic force and mechanical gadgetry. Until I saw this. She points at the television. Julian goes over and picks up the tape cover lying on top, a video history of the Second World War. He turns on the VCR and the television and sees the unmistakable mushroom cloud of a nuclear detonation. GRACE The single creation your century can truly call its own. JULIAN Is that's what's upsetting you? Keep reading. There was a Cold War, but it's 89

over. Reagan backed them down. The Russians are dismantling their bombs. GRACE A curse on both you and the Russians! I did read on. I read about the thousands of rockets built to carry this destruction across the globe. Thousands. And yet you have been only to the Moon? You spend your enterprise on weapons. I expected that given a full hundred years you would have means to reach the stars. JULIAN Hey, it cost billions to get to the Moon. We've got plenty of problems down here on earth that you never had. We've got murder in the streets, the government's run by scum who get reelected by doling out our tax money to shiftless illegal aliens... GRACE What nobility you imagine of my time. Those scourges and more are not novel. I read of them in Latin, and in Greek, and in the ancient Hebrew. Unless there has happened some momentous shift in the breast of man while I slept, those complaints are now and ever constant. If you forgo adventure and challenge until they wane, you will die huddled upon the cold hearth of your lonely darkened hut. That is why I am melancholy. I find myself transported against my will to a land without frontiers.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Julian enters to find Grace up and eating breakfast by the light of the breaking dawn. JULIAN You're up early. How are you feeling? GRACE 90

My despair is lifting. I feel capable of intercourse with your world. JULIAN Uh... GRACE What is it? JULIAN Nothing. Say, it's going to be a gorgeous day. Want to go down to the Public Gardens and smell the flowers? GRACE That sounds lovely. JULIAN I'll go and wake Mrs. Dodge.

EXTERIOR. MARLBOROUGH STREET. DAY. Julian is helping Grace out of his car. She points across the street.. GRACE My classmate Lucinda Thorton lived at Number Seventy-Five. And the Tudors had just moved out of Number Ninety. JULIAN These're all pretty much apartments and condominiums now. I'm up this way.

INTERIOR. JULIAN'S APARTMENT. DAY. Julian comes in the door with Grace leaning on his arm. JULIAN This is it. Sorry about the mess. I'm never here to clean it up. Have a seat. I'll shower and shave, and we'll head out. 91

He helps Grace to the couch. She laughs. JULIAN I asked Beryl and Morgan to join us for lunch. What's so funny? GRACE I am in a man's apartment without escort. JULIAN What's the deal? You were the one defending the free love hippie commune. GRACE And if the women had their way, free love would have carried the day. Especially if we had the wonderful implements available to the ladies of today. It was the young gentlemen who wished to take naught but innocent virgins in holy matrimony. A young maiden without chaperone in a man's apartment? Shame! Decent men would never pledge their hearts to such a one. She must marry beneath herself, or become an old maiden aunt. JULIAN Somehow I knew it would end up being the man's fault. He goes into his bedroom and shuts the door. Grace inspects a stack of magazines and newspapers on the end table. She uncovers the television remote control and stabs it with a finger. The television explodes on, volume at maximum. She grabs up the remote and punches buttons frantically to quell it. An infomercial for a skin cream is on. A perky blonde is rubbing some on the back of her hand. BLONDE ...researchers have formulated this cream specially to penetrate deep into the skin. Its patented blend of antioxidants and lipids actually reverse the aging process... Grace feels her cheeks with both palms. 92

GRACE (Shouting.) Julian? Is my body reset upon its normal path? JULIAN (O.S.) (Faintly through the door and the shower noise.) What's that? I can't hear you! GRACE Do you think I shall now age as a normal person? JULIAN (O.S.) I guess so. Do you want to? Most women would kill to stay twenty-one forever. GRACE Then they are impractical fools. I would rather grey as nature intended. JULIAN (O.S.) Time will tell. Grace has been flipping channels, not really paying attention to any one. She pauses at a black and white movie. A vampire has cornered his cowering victim just as the sun threatens to come over the hills. The sunlight catches the unprepared vampire. He begins to smoke. His skin wrinkles, his hair greys, his body shrivels. He ages ten centuries in a moment until he is nothing but dust and bones. Grace shrieks, then leaps up and clicks the television off. Julian bursts out of the bedroom, barely covered by a towel. JULIAN What is it? GRACE Nothing. A start. She inspects him head to toe. GRACE Now this be the stuff of scandal. Julian blushes. 93

JULIAN What happened to Victorian modesty? He stomps back into the bedroom and slams the door. GRACE It is no more than what God has given us. Why should we deny the beauty of it? JULIAN (O.S.) Hey, you're the one who wouldn't go out in public in pants. GRACE Custom dies hard. But even with your immodest daily dress, you are unwilling to make the ultimate disclosure? JULIAN (O.S.) You got that right.

INTERIOR. BOSTON: A RESTAURANT. DAY. Julian and Morgan are on opposite sides of a salad bar, plates in hand. Morgan is looking back at their table, where Beryl is telling Grace something which makes her laugh heartily. MORGAN He has been giddy as a child lately. JULIAN Beryl? I've never seen him not giddy. MORGAN And he won't let you, either. He has advanced pancreatic cancer. JULIAN Shit. MORGAN Double shit. He's a wonderful grandfather. I can't even think about him not being around. 94

Grace has cleverly responded to Beryl with a remark which makes him roar. MORGAN That's the best medicine we have for him.

EXTERIOR. BOSTON: THE PUBLIC GARDENS. DAY. Morgan and Grace are waking arm-in-arm along a path through flower beds. Beryl and Julian are several yards to their rear, out of hearing. GRACE The Gardens are much the same as they were when I was a girl. MORGAN I would have liked to have seen Boston in those days. Before all this traffic. GRACE The streets were cobblestone, and crowded with carriages and delivery carts. MORGAN Still, a horse is much nicer than a car. GRACE You have never had to cross a street after it has been filled with horses all the day. MORGAN Oh, yeah. Forgot about that. GRACE You remind me very much of my dearest friend. For an instant when we first met, I thought.... MORGAN That I was somebody else? GRACE 95

Yes. Please do not take offense. I mean none. MORGAN No, I like the idea. It seems that we've been friends for a long time. Maybe I am reincarnated to help wake you from your long slumber. GRACE How romantic!

EXTERIOR. BOSTON: THE PUBLIC GARDENS. DAY. Beryl and Julian are walking. BERYL I never tire of looking at her! What would these people walking right by her say if they knew? JULIAN They wouldn't believe it. BERYL Right. Isn't that grand? It's like going around with the pope in disguise. JULIAN Yeah. BERYL Show some enthusiasm. She's the most amazing case you'll ever see. You helped her like no mortal ever helped another. Isn't that why you became a doctor? JULIAN Warm fuzzy feelings won't pay the bills, Beryl. It won't get me into private practice before the liberals totally screw up our medical system. BERYL So you feel the need for baubles? When 96

your spirit stands naked on the lip of your grave, you will have no possessions. All you get to take are the warm fuzzy feelings. JULIAN You're not still paying off med school. BERYL I envy you, Julian. Someday, as for every man, the moment will come when your heart will cease its labor. These physical desires will fall away in silent peace as your tired flesh slowly cools. And you will be able to remember her and the good you did.

EXTERIOR. BOSTON: THE PUBLIC GARDENS. DAY. Grace and Morgan are still walking together. GRACE I am still rubbing the sand of sleep from my eyes. Every morning I wake I think that I am in my Boston, but that will pass. Soon I pray that I will be as comfortable in this time as a native. MORGAN I would not have handled this as well as you have. GRACE I had no choice in the matter. MORGAN What's next? GRACE I grow weary of life in a hospital room, as comfortable as they have strived to make it. I should look into my finances that I might settle my debts and make my independence. 97

MORGAN Do you have money? GRACE I cannot believe that Father would have not entrusted some funds for my use. My fear is that they may have been consumed in a bank panic. There was one almost every year. Have you had one lately? MORGAN After the last bad depression in 1929, the government started insuring bank deposits. GRACE Doctor West says the government has overstepped the bounds of its original purpose. MORGAN Still keeps his money in a bank, though, doesn’t he? You've got a college education. You're intelligent and attractive. You can do anything you want. GRACE Once I believed I could. I had to believe it, fiercely, for the reality of the world was that a woman might at best be tolerated in the professions. I could have been a lawyer or a physician, and I would have been a very lonely pioneer. They have come to a subway station entrance where a man is selling newspapers from large stacks. He has one Globe taped up on a wall so the front pages of the various sections can be seen. Something on the front of Living/Arts catches Grace's eye, and she bends down for a closer look. It is a color photograph of an ancient woman in a wheelchair surrounded by several children. The caption reads: "Visit from another century: Third graders from the Tucker School in Milton visit with Mrs. Bessie Delaney McNamara, who was born in 1890". Grace touches the photograph gently.

98

INTERIOR. BOSTON: MORGAN'S CAR. DAY. Morgan is driving, honking her horn. Julian is in the passenger's seat. MORGAN I have the right-of-way, you moron! JULIAN You can let me out here. I'll get the bus. MORGAN This is not a problem. I grew up in Boston. Beryl taught me to drive right here on Mass Ave. Hey! Asshole! JULIAN No wonder my car insurance went up when I moved here. MORGAN Most of these jerks should pay more. JULIAN Thanks for coming downtown with us today. MORGAN Our pleasure. Beryl and I work too hard. JULIAN He should take it easy. MORGAN He says he'll rest when he's dead and not before. JULIAN Grace will be devastated when he's gone. MORGAN Look, Julian - there's no delicate way to bring this up. You spend an awful lot of time with her. JULIAN What the hell do you mean by that? I'm her 99

doctor. MORGAN And you're a man, thus blind. You don't know that Grace has one hell of a crush on you. JULIAN That's not true. MORGAN No? She opens her eyes after a hundred years of godawful loneliness, just her and her dreams, and she sees you: father figure physician. She imprints on you like a freshly-hatched chick. JULIAN What's wrong with that? MORGAN What's wrong with it is that your guy ego will conveniently forget about it when Mr. Libido takes control. JULIAN That's silly. MORGAN Bullshit. I bet you know a dozen doctors who've slipped between the hospital sheets with their patients. JULIAN I don't know one. MORGAN Don't feel bad. It works the other way too. Take a plain woman, give her an M.D. and a stethoscope. Suddenly she's got hunks coming on to her while they're still on the gurney. JULIAN You think she likes me? Morgan sighs. 100

MORGAN Just please don't let Mr. Happy steer the brain car.

EXTERIOR. A BOSTON SUBURB. DAY. Julian is driving Grace along a quiet back road. They turn onto a driveway which leads to a long brick building. A sign reads: CHARLES RIVER ESTATE: A COMMUNITY FOR ASSISTED LIVING.

INTERIOR. JULIAN'S CAR. DAY. JULIAN It probably isn't her. GRACE It must be her. What has happened to me cannot be without reason.

INTERIOR. CHARLES RIVER ESTATE. DAY. Grace and Julian stand in a sunny room. An employee pushes in a wheelchair, and there is no mistake; it is Bessie. Grace kneels in front of her. GRACE Bessie, do you remember me? It's Grace. BESSIE Grace? Bessie's eyes are almost opaque white. She puts out a hand. Grace takes it and presses it against her face. BESSIE Gracie? They told me you were dead. GRACE Much worse than dead. I was asleep. 101

BESSIE But you feel so young. GRACE Yes. Once you were my fair child. Now I shall be yours. BESSIE I never forgot you, Gracie. See? She lifts a corner of her shawl, the Italian lace given her so long ago. Grace notices it for the first time. Bessie begins to sing "Eileen Aroon". Grace joins in, but the song wanes as Bessie seems to lose her wind. GRACE How have the years treated you, my dear little Bessie? BESSIE Oh, I have been busy. Mr. McNamara and I had eight beautiful children. Five boys and three girls. My oldest girl was named Grace. Was that all right? GRACE I am flattered. I would have been godparent to them all, had I been there. Where are they now? BESSIE My Grace is gone to God with her father. GRACE I'm sorry, Bessie. BESSIE Her daughter Grace has a daughter Grace. GRACE Oh my! An abundance of namesakes. How many more? BESSIE Twenty-two grandchildren. Many, many great-grandchildren. 102

GRACE Fortunate world, which never saw better stock than you. This day is far superior to that I departed from if there is so much of you about in it. BESSIE You make me feel like a child again. Will you visit me often now? GRACE Every day. I should like to run with you into the meadow and gather the tiny spring flowers for your crown once more. BESSIE I might not run. GRACE I will run for us both. BESSIE I'm tired. Grace snugs the shawl around her. GRACE Then you must rest. I will call upon you when you are stronger. BESSIE I have pictures of my family. GRACE I shall see them, every one. BESSIE Thank you for coming back to me, Gracie. I love you. Grace hugs her. GRACE I love you, too, my petite feral child. Thank you for waiting for me. 103

INTERIOR. JULIAN'S CAR. DAY. Returning from Charles River Estate, they are approaching Boston General. Grace is ebullient, chatting away. GRACE ...and I shall find solace in no small measure from acquainting myself with their descendants. JULIAN That's a tall order, tracking down all the great-greatgrandchildren of your old friends. GRACE But imagine the rewards. Something in those I loved must be evident in their progeny. I shall be the most blessed person in history, as my friendship was cast upon the waters to multiply many fold and return to me in my hour of need.

EXTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: PARKING GARAGE. DAY. Julian parks, gets out, and comes around to help Grace. She sees an angry Zeibe, coming up fast and furiously behind Julian. Two security guards follow. Julian senses someone behind him and turns to face a seething Zeibe, who is barely able to control his anger. DR. ZEIBE Here, Doctor, let me help you with that.

INTERIOR. JULIAN'S APARTMENT. NIGHT. The bell rings. Julian comes out of the bedroom, unshaven, unwashed, and rumpled. He opens the door. Jay is there, swinging a putter. JAY 104

Hi. Here's your putter back. JULIAN Thanks. Do you any good? JAY Define 'good'. Off duty? Julian flops into a chair. JULIAN Two weeks off. JAY Vacation? Great. Let's do eighteen tomorrow. JULIAN Nah. JAY What's wrong? JULIAN Zeibe caught me sneaking Grace back in after a field trip. JAY So you were disobeying orders. JULIAN Not exactly. Zeibe never ordered me not to take her out. JAY And you didn't ask. JULIAN Nope. JAY Well, we can beat that. I can have an injunction by nine-thirty tomorrow morning. You'll be back at work by ten. JULIAN 105

And kiss my residency goodbye? I'm already number one on their shit list. JAY You plan to do the time and slink back in quietly? JULIAN Exactly. JAY What did Grace have to say about it? JULIAN I don't know. What should she care, anyway?

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. Grace is seated in front of her computer, typing rapidly. Zeibe comes in. DR. ZEIBE Miss Cabot? You wanted to see me? GRACE Yes. I have been informed that my physician has been put out for a fortnight. DR. ZEIBE He needed some time off. We were happy to accommodate him. GRACE Then it is your contention that the decision was his. DR. ZEIBE More of a mutual agreement. Residency is a stressful time. Doctor Clarke will take good care of you. GRACE I do not consider myself in need of any 106

further 'care'. But you may inform Doctor Clarke that heDR. ZEIBE She. GRACE That she may accompany me to Radcliffe College this afternoon if it pleases her. DR. ZEIBE I've been meaning to have a long talk with you about your escapades with Doctor West. GRACE Escapades? I knew that subterfuge should only delay confirmation of my suspicions. Tell me truly. If I proceed down that corridor under my own identity, will I be allowed to pass? Zeibe is silent. GRACE Inform whatever authority is necessary. In two days' time I shall leave this facility, never to return. Good day, Doctor Zeibe. Zeibe starts to speak but instead closes his mouth and exits.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: AN ELEVATOR. DAY. Zeibe is alone in the elevator. He takes out a cellular phone and pushes one button. DR. ZEIBE Hello. She just gave two days' notice. Yes, of course. As soon as possible. I'll be there.

EXTERIOR. BOSTON: THE ESPLANADE. DAY. 107

Julian is squatting on a pile of rocks which jut out into the Charles River. He is tearing up pieces of bread and tossing the crumbs onto the water, where they are sucked down by a greedy school of golden fish. He hears a noise and looks up. Sheila is rolling up behind him on skates. She is wearing all the right pads. SHEILA Jesus, doc. You're a bitch to track down. Julian scrambles to his feet. JULIAN What's wrong? SHEILA Relax. She's fine. JULIAN What then? SHEILA First you've got to promise not to tell. JULIAN Okay, okay. Tell what? SHEILA You use our email, right? You can set it up to blind forward, you know. Automatically bounce copies of all your messages to another user? JULIAN If you say so. SHEILA You know I like to keep up with what's going on. JULIAN What are you trying to say? SHEILA One day Doctor Zeibe logs on at the nurses' station and gets called into another room for a minute. 108

JULIAN You're reading his email. SHEILA I bounced it to my account. You promised not to tell. JULIAN Do you read mine? SHEILA Yeah, like yours would be interesting. Anyway, he got a message this morning from Chester Marcotte. JULIAN The guy from Finance. SHEILA Cc'd to legal. About a petition in the matter of Grace Ellsworth Cabot. They have an emergency hearing scheduled for this afternoon. JULIAN What kind of petition? SHEILA Declaration of custody. They want to have Grace declared incompetent to manage her own affairs. JULIAN That's crazy! SHEILA Yeah. I mean, she ain't crazy. Is she? JULIAN No. SHEILA I thought not. And she hasn't got a lot of friends left in this world to speak up for her. I thought you would want to know. 109

Enjoying your vacation?

EXTERIOR. BOSTON: A COURTHOUSE. DAY. Jay and Karen are ascending the long flight of steps. Shoulder to shoulder, armed with briefcases, they have on their legal game faces. Julian follows behind, noticeably nervous. KAREN Go home. You don't have to be here. JAY I thought you didn't want to be associated with this. KAREN Julian, let us handle it.

INTERIOR. BOSTON: A COURTROOM. DAY. The old courtroom is mostly empty and quiet as the court goes about a subdued routine. Marcotte and Zeibe are sitting together. Jay and Karen come in the back and stand, waiting. The JUDGE, a balding, middle-aged man, looks exceedingly bored as he listens to the end of a rambling argument. He taps his gavel. JUDGE So ordered. Continued until scheduled. Next? The CLERK of the court flips a page on her clipboard. CLERK Case H793. A petition of custody brought by Boston General Hospital. Cornelius Brophy for the petitioner. CORNELIUS BROPHY is an anemically-thin man with a craggy face. He comes forward, followed by Zeibe. Marcotte stays seated. BROPHY Cornelius Brophy, your Honor. 110

Karen and Jay walk to the front and set their briefcases on the table across from Brophy. JAY Karen and Jay Newstedt, your Honor. Representing Miss Cabot. Brophy looks at Marcotte. Marcotte shakes his head. Zeibe whispers in Brophy's ear.

BROPHY Your Honor, the petitioner asks that the court not recognize counsel for the respondent. We have reason to believe that they have inadequate grounds for representation. JUDGE Well? KAREN We have been retained by the respondent, Miss Cabot. Marcotte curses silently. JAY We ask the court's indulgence, your Honor. Miss Cabot only became aware of the petition about an hour ago. BROPHY Your Honor, I must object. The petitioner is here to argue that the respondent is incompetent to conduct her own affairs. That would include retention of counsel. JUDGE Mr. Brophy, I haven't granted your petition. She is not yet incompetent by this court. You have a motion or not? Zeibe is whispering frantically to Brophy, who finally puts up a hand to quiet him. 111

BROPHY Your Honor, this is a most extraordinary case. The object of petition is a woman with no living relatives who has suffered for some decades from a tragic and debilitating illness. That illness rendered her comatose. She has only recently become aware of her surroundings. We are asking that she be placed in the custody of the Boston General Hospital and Doctor Sidney Zeibe, Chief of Neurology, until such time as she is competent to manage her own affairs. JUDGE Fair enough. Mr. and Mrs. Newstedt? JAY This case is even more strange than Mr. Brophy describes. This woman was born in 1875. She has been asleep, not in a coma, since 1895JUDGE 1895? I'm sorry, did you say 1895? KAREN That's correct, your Honor. She has been in a deep sleep for the past one hundred years. And she is not 'becoming aware of her surroundings'. She is fully cognizant and mentally competent. JUDGE And well-rested, I imagine. BROPHY Your Honor! I have Doctor Zeibe here. Mr. Newstedt is not a neurologist. JUDGE I'm sure he will stipulate to that. Doctor Zeibe, you have examined this woman? You are under oath now. DR. ZEIBE 112

Yes, of course. JUDGE Is she mentally incompetent, in your opinion? DR. ZEIBE Well...not clinically...but she does have moments of extreme confusion. Marcotte shakes his head in disbelief. DR. ZEIBE But I have no doubt that she should not be out on her own. JUDGE Out on her own? My God, she must be one hundred and twenty some years old. KAREN Nevertheless, she is not incompetent. Clinically or otherwise. 'Moments of confusion' might describe us all. BROPHY She has no experience dealing with the modern world. Imagine how alien our time must seem to her, so swift and cold. I beg the court to grant our petition so that we may protect her from those who would take advantage of her innocence. JUDGE Can't she be transferred to a nursing home? BROPHY That is a viable option which we would pursue when appropriate, your Honor. JAY We understand that she is not in need of nursing care. She is healthy and clearminded and impatient to be discharged from Boston General. 113

JUDGE Discharged? Ye gods. But you've never met her? Mr. Brophy, have you? BROPHY No, butJUDGE And you want me to sign her over to you just like that. BROPHY Your Honor, I will have expert testimony to demonstrate the need for our petition. JUDGE Fine. But I want this woman in person. Let's say, tomorrow. BROPHY Tomorrow? JUDGE One o'clock tomorrow. BROPHY Yes, your Honor. JUDGE We will convene in the respondent's room. What was her name? KAREN Grace Cabot. JUDGE We will convene the court in Miss Cabot's room. Zeibe is whispering in Brophy's ear again. Brophy is very annoyed. BROPHY Your honor, we do not think that advisable. 114

JUDGE You want me to drag a hundred and twenty year old woman here? Cruel and unusual! Tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen. He bangs his gavel with relish.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: NEUROLOGY. DAY. Julian steps off the elevator and pushes through the swinging doors leading into Neurology. There is now an additional guard sitting next to Grace's door. The guard rises as Julian approaches. GUARD Sorry, Doctor West. I was told not to let you in. JULIAN C'mon. She's my patient. Give me five minutes to check her pulse and take her temperature. GUARD I don't know. JULIAN Five minutes. The guard steps aside.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. When Julian comes in, Grace is pacing, arms folded, listening to a Walkman. She sees him and turns down the volume. JULIAN Beethoven? GRACE The Red Stockings. JULIAN 115

What's the score? GRACE Neither side has brought a runner home. There was some trouble with ducks on a pond. Have you heard from your attorneys? JULIAN Your attorneys. No word yet. GRACE I shall forever have understanding of a prisoner who awaits his judgment. She sees Julian's grim face. GRACE Why the somber visage? I am the object of their evil machinations. JULIAN This is all my fault. I had to be the healer, had to experiment. Look where that got you. Woken into this fucked-up world. Grace takes his hand. GRACE My friend, you are suffering for a chimera. Have I not confessed to you the many defects of my time? Yes, I have lost my family and my friends and all I held dear. Those aside, I would rather be here with you. Look around you! There is magic in every room, and compassion and reason in society which surpasses any imagined in my day. JULIAN You mean that? GRACE With all my heart. I cannot say that I would not eagerly go back if some conjuring could make it so. You, however, would be the victim of wishful fantasy to trade your time for mine. 116

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: NEUROLOGY. DAY. The judge, his clerk, and their entourage come down the hall like a tidal wave, sweeping up the curious along behind them. They crash through the double doors, and the security guards begin a furious but doomed effort to block out the uninvited. The judge leads the pack to the door of Grace's room, where Zeibe, Marcotte, and Brophy are waiting. JUDGE Gentlemen! He waves for them to follow him as he shoulders open the door.

INTERIOR. BOSTON GENERAL: ROOM 412. DAY. The judge and his followers enter. Grace is sitting on her sofa, Karen and Jay on either side of her. Karen and Jay stand up. The judge nods at them and surveys the room. JUDGE Well, where is she? KAREN Your Honor, Miss Grace Ellsworth Cabot. Grace extends her hand. The judge takes it automatically. JUDGE Hello. I thought she had no family. JAY This is Grace Cabot. Born in Boston Massachusetts on June 10th, 1875. JUDGE You can't be serious. He looks to Brophy, who nods. JUDGE She is the object of your petition? 117

BROPHY Yes, your Honor. JUDGE Mr. Brophy, you told me this woman was over a hundred years old. BROPHY She is. JUDGE So...what's going on here? KAREN Your Honor, Miss Cabot contracted a rare viral infection sometime in 1895. Shortly thereafter, her metabolism slowed to nearzero. She did not age normally. She was in a kind of deep sleep until recently. JUDGE This is simply astounding. Miss Cabot, how is your health? GRACE First-rate, your Honor. JUDGE You are aware that Mr. Brophy has brought a petition before this court? By the way, everyone, court is now in session. He requests that the Boston General Hospital be named as your legal guardian. GRACE I am. JUDGE What do you have to say about it? GRACE I am at a loss, your Honor. I do not see why I should not be allowed to leave this place and resume my life. JUDGE 118

Good question. Mr. Brophy, please tell me why this feeble old woman can't take care of herself. BROPHY It was never our intention to deceive the court regarding Miss Cabot's appearance. The fact remains that she is one hundred and twenty years old. All of her knowledge and experience is of the year 1895. It is our contention that her lack of understanding of contemporary society, not her physical state per se, makes the need for our governance and direction imperative. JUDGE Uh-huh. Is this her room? GRACE It is. JUDGE You have a computer? A very nice one, too, I see. GRACE Yes, your Honor. Mr. Marcotte was kind enough to provide it. JUDGE Do you use it? GRACE Yes. The hospital has a wonderfully fast fiber optic local area network with transparent Internet access over T3 lines. JUDGE Okay. Miss Cabot, before you became ill, what were you doing? In your life, I mean. Morgan and Beryl slip in the door and stand at the back of the crowd. GRACE I had just graduated from Radcliffe 119

College. JUDGE Did you handle your own finances? GRACE Yes. Father gave me a stipend each term from which I was to budget. JUDGE So, Mr. Brophy, exactly what kind of social inadequacies are you alleging again? Julian comes in quietly and hides behind Beryl. BROPHY Your Honor, there is also the matter of Miss Cabot's health. She comes to us from a time before vaccines and antibiotics. In her time, small pox, cholera, the black plague - all were still common killers. Who knows what forgotten infection she might innocently harbor? Should she leave here, the general population may be at risk of exposure. JAY Although she was asleep, Miss Cabot's medical records show that she was inoculated with each new vaccine as it became available. She is no more a risk than you or I. BROPHY Then there is the matter of her illness. Mr. Newstedt characterizes the misfortune which befell Miss Cabot as a virus. The truth is, we do not know what struck her down. She must stay in isolation here at least until the infectious agent is identified. GRACE But we do know. I was infected with a virus, a particle entirely unknown in my time. Doctor Snyder has characterized it 120

and devised a suitable antidote. I have her and Doctor Von Jako to thank for my recovery. And Doctor West. Julian blanches and sneaks back out. JUDGE Are they here today? MORGAN Here, sir. Doctor Morgan Snyder. I am chief molecular virologist at Virgene Biosystems. JUDGE You are not a physician? MORGAN No, your Honor. I used a proprietary technique to infuse Miss Cabot's cells with an antisense nucleotide sequence which blocked the effect of the virus. DR. ZEIBE You experimented on her! MORGAN We used a benign, synthetic virus to carry the antisense packet. Zeibe confers briefly with Brophy. BROPHY Your Honor, we move that you grant our petition based on Doctor Snyder's statement. Apparently Miss Cabot has been deliberately and recklessly infected with an experimental virus. The effects are unknown. We must assume the worst. BERYL Your Honor! Professor Beryl Von Jako. This virus is totally harmless. DR. ZEIBE You can't guarantee that. 121

BERYL No, not altogether. But I have been injecting myself with it. DR. ZEIBE Then you are a fool. BERYL I have pancreatic cancer. I should be dead now, except that I have been using Fred to deliver RNA sequences which suppress the expression of key receptor fragments in the blastMORGAN Papa, that is brilliant! JUDGE Wait. Who is Fred? BERYL Fred is the virus. JUDGE Of course. Mr. Brophy, any other points to make? Brophy huddles with Marcotte and Zeibe. BROPHY Your Honor, my client wishes to withdraw the petition. JUDGE Good. I was going to deny it anyway. BROPHY And my client would like to extend to Miss Cabot an offer of free room and board for as long as she wishes to stay. We could arrange for her to move into the hospital's condominium complex. Or, if she pleases, we will secure any other housing for her of her choice at our expense. JUDGE 122

That is a generous offer. BROPHY My client also wishes to offer Miss Cabot unlimited visitation with any and all of their physicians and therapists at no charge to her. JUDGE Miss Cabot? Counsel? KAREN Your Honor, my co-counsel and I took this case only yesterday, but already we have a number of unanswered questions about the Boston General Hospital's relationship with our client. JAY If you would indulge us, we would like to question parties to the petition under oath. BROPHY Your Honor! This is outrageous! We withdrew the petition. The case is no longer before the court. He makes a show of folding up his many papers in preparation for an exit. JUDGE Thank you, Mr. Brophy, but my clerk calls the cases. Bernice, what case is up? CLERK Case H793. A petition of custody brought by Boston General Hospital. Cornelius Brophy for the petitioner. JUDGE Thank you. I will give you some latitude, Counselor. Mr. Brophy will cooperate to the best of his ability. KAREN We call Doctor Sidney Zeibe. 123

JUDGE Doctor Zeibe, you are still under oath. Zeibe nods, glances nervously at Marcotte. JAY Doctor Zeibe, why was Miss Cabot transferred from the Teale Clinic to Boston General? DR. ZEIBE Because the Teale is a dump, that's why. She couldn't get proper care there anymore. It's broke. JAY Would it surprise you to learn that the Teale Clinic, far from being 'broke', is actually one of the most well-endowed private clinics in the world? DR. ZEIBE It's a run-down hole. JAY But the Teale was a premier medical facility until about thirty years ago. BROPHY Your Honor, please. That's not even a question. JUDGE This isn't a murder trial, for Christ's sake. Go on. KAREN In 1962, the Teale Clinic entered into a partnership with the Boston General Hospital. Doctor Zeibe, where did the patients who once filled the Teale go? DR. ZEIBE Over time, they were transferred to us for evaluation. 124

KAREN And they all stayed here? DR. ZEIBE Of course not. We are not a long-term care facility. They were all found beds in excellent places. KAREN Because the Teale Clinic was deteriorating. DR. ZEIBE Yes. It was in their best interests. JAY Have you ever sat on the boards of either the Boston General Hospital or the Teale Clinic? DR. ZEIBE No. I am a doctor, not an administrator. JAY Do you know anyone on those boards? Zeibe is defiantly nonresponsive. JAY You are under oath. DR. ZEIBE Marcotte is on both boards. KAREN In fact, Chester Marcotte has been for some years the sole member of the board of the Teale Clinic. JUDGE Okay, okay, stop badgering the man. What are you getting at? KAREN Boston General has been systematically siphoning funds from the Teale Clinic. 125

Certainly for the past decade, probably for much longer. Mr. Marcotte has been on both boards since 1969. JAY The Teale was built and endowed by Samuel Cabot, Grace's father. The endowment explicitly demands that it be used to provide state of the art care for Miss Cabot. KAREN As long as Grace was at the Teale, it had to be kept open for her. So Mr. Marcotte decided to move her here. The Teale Clinic becomes a plastic sign in a Boston General hallway, and the endowment stays in his control. JAY Unfortunately for Mr. Marcotte, our client woke up. As for their 'generous' offer? They want her to stay on Boston General property, where ever that might be. Legally, she could live in a Boston General-owned house in Hawaii, and Marcotte would still control the Teale funds. BROPHY Your Honor, that is enough! They are slandering my client without any proof. I demand that you hold them in contempt! JUDGE Give me a break. Shall I issue a subpoena so the Newstedts can go rummage around in Mr. Marcotte's office? Marcotte whispers to Brophy. BROPHY I apologize to the court for my outburst, but I reiterate my statement that our petition has been withdrawn. JUDGE 126

I am afraid, Mr. Brophy, that you are correct. This is not the proper forum for these allegations. For that you will be soon standing before some other judge. Case dismissed. He looks at his empty hand. JUDGE I forgot my gavel. Miss Cabot, you are free to go and do as you please. Best of luck to you. Grace comes and gives him a kiss on the cheek. GRACE Thank you, your Honor.

INTERIOR. JULIAN'S APARTMENT. DAY. The place shows signs of neglect: clothes on the floor, dishes lying about, paper strewn around. Even Ronald Reagan's picture is askew. Someone is knocking insistently at the door. MORGAN (O.S.) Hey, West! Open up! Julian stumbles out of his bedroom and opens the door. Morgan and Grace enter as he collapses on the couch. He is halfdressed and unshaven. Grace is still wearing her old dress. MORGAN Why don't you answer your goddamn phone? He shrugs. GRACE What is wrong? JULIAN Where have you been? GRACE I have been staying with Doctor Snyder. 127

MORGAN Man. We blow off a couple of days, and you go straight to hell. JULIAN I was dismissed. After Zeibe found out about Fred the friendly virus, I was a goner. GRACE I'm sorry, Julian. I had no idea. MORGAN Fuck them if they can't take a joke. You want to sit in this hellhole and cry about it or come out to play? GRACE I am going to call upon the solicitors which Father once employed. Mr. and Mrs. Newstedt discovered that they are still entrusted with the Teale Clinic funds. Perhaps Father had a modest sum put aside for my own use. MORGAN First we're going to pry this old dress off of her and go shopping for some power clothes. GRACE Yes. I have been a tourist from the past long enough. I must assume the raiments of the day. Will you come?

INTERIOR. BOSTON: A WOMEN'S SHOP. DAY. Julian is squirming uncomfortably in a chair as Morgan browses the racks. Grace opens the door of a dressing stall. Behind her, the white dress is hung up. She is wearing a dark grey dress suit and white blouse. Morgan whistles in approval.

INTERIOR. BOSTON: A SHOE STORE. DAY. 128

A salesman is kneeling at Grace's foot, helping her into a pair of leather pumps. She stands and takes a few cautious steps.

INTERIOR. BOSTON: FANEUIL HALL MARKETPLACE. DAY. Grace, Julian, and Morgan are strolling among the pushcart vendors, Grace in her new suit. Morgan stops by a cart hung with leather goods and takes a briefcase from the display. MORGAN This is the one. It says 'Don't tread on me'. She takes out a credit card and hands it to the vendor. GRACE Enough. Your generosity is making me pink with shame. MORGAN Get over it. Here you go. What do you think, Doctor? We got the total package here or what?

EXTERIOR. BOSTON: FINANCIAL DISTRICT. DAY. Morgan, Julian, and Grace in her new equipment are standing on the sidewalk in front of an old granite building with an impressive carved front. Morgan looks at her watch and motions for the others to follow her as she starts up the steps.

INTERIOR. BOSTON: FINANCIAL DISTRICT. DAY. Grace, Morgan, and Julian step from the elevator into the reception area of a large law firm. Brass letters on the wall announce: WALLACE, AMBURG, AND MCFADDEN. RECEPTIONIST May I help you? 129

GRACE I have an appointment to meet with Mr. Winston at three o'clock. RECEPTIONIST Your name? GRACE Grace Ellsworth Cabot. The receptionist looks her over anew and picks up the phone. RECEPTIONIST (Into phone.) She's here. (To Grace.) That way. His name is on the door. Grace, Morgan, and Julian follow her directions through a large open area filled with the desks of support staff. The workers stop and stare unabashedly at her. As she passes, office doors pop open, and the occupants peer out after her. Finally the three come to a door upon which is printed: ARTEMUS WINSTON. The door is open onto a separate reception area of his own. They are met just inside the door by ARTEMUS WINSTON, a large man in his late sixties. WINSTON Hello, hello! I'm Artemus Winston. He looks from Grace to Morgan, trying to decide. Grace puts out a hand. GRACE Grace Cabot. These are my friends, Doctor Morgan Snyder and Doctor Julian West. WINSTON A paradox, eh? Welcome. Please come into my office.

INTERIOR. ARTEMUS WINSTON'S OFFICE. DAY. Inside waits EARLE NELSON, a bookish man in his forties. 130

WINSTON Allow me to introduce Earle Nelson, the head of our accounting unit. Please, sit. Coffee? Tea? Juice? They shake their heads. Winston sits behind his desk. WINSTON First of all, let me say that managing the Cabot Trusts has been a source of pride for this firm as long as I have been here. And now - to actually meet you - it is like a bonafide miracle. GRACE Is there some reason why you have not attempted to contact me? Surely you knew of my well-being. WINSTON Frankly, Miss Cabot, no one here had any reason to think that you could still be...alive. As an institution, frankly we just forgot about you. Please accept my apologies. GRACE I understand. WINSTON We should have been informed immediately. We directed an inquiry to the Hospital as soon as we heard that you were not in fact deceased. MORGAN Let me guess. Chester Marcotte? WINSTON Yes. He is President of the board of the Teale Clinic, and therefore the director of the Teale Trust. Or he was. You see, once the attorney for the Trust, that's me, determines that you are of sound mind and body, both of those positions fall to you. And you seem sound enough. 131

GRACE Then you shall remove Mr. Marcotte from both positions without delay. WINSTON Done. That'll teach him not to return my calls. He hands Grace a check. WINSTON I took the liberty of drawing the first stipend due to you each year as Director of the Trust. At constant 1895 dollars, adjusted for inflation, it's now fifty thousand dollars and change, as you see.

GRACE (To Julian.) Will this be sufficient to live upon? JULIAN Yes. Winston looks confused. WINSTON Oh, right. Your father made these arrangements after your illness. Mr. Nelson, give her the bad news. Nelson gives him a curious glance. NELSON Mr. Cabot - your father - established two trusts. The Teale Clinic Trust, to provide funds for the operation of the Clinic and for your care in perpetuity. And the Cabot Family Trust, a small trust to be available to you should you ever claim it. I guess that you are claiming it now. He looks to Winston, who nods grimly. 132

GRACE That it is small is no matter. I do not require much. NELSON I said it was small. It has been invested conservatively in blue chip stocks, government bonds, real estate, and other such stable vehicles. Profits and dividends were reinvested. He picks up a folder from Winston's desk and hands it to Grace. NELSON My annual report of the assets of the Cabot Family Trust. As of July, the Trust has assets worth roughly $586,000,000. I can get a more accurate figure if you wish. GRACE Oh, my! JULIAN Oh, man! MORGAN Holy shit! Winston is beaming, hugely satisfied with himself. WINSTON That's something you don't get to do everyday.

INTERIOR. BOSTON: FINANCIAL DISTRICT. DAY. Grace, Morgan, and Julian are walking quietly. Morgan lags slightly, as she is trying to also read the contents of the folder Nelson had given Grace. GRACE I must sit down. 133

Julian helps her to a nearby bench. JULIAN Feeling weak? GRACE Lightheaded. Even now, my fortune is...a fortune. JULIAN It'll buy a few loaves of bread. Grace looks up into the sky. GRACE I received word yesterday that Bessie had passed away in her sleep. JULIAN I'm sorry. Are you okay? GRACE I told you that nothing happens without reason. She lingered on this earth to welcome me back into it. Morgan, still absorbed in the folder, sits beside them. She points across the street. MORGAN Hey! You own that building. GRACE This will take some getting used to. MORGAN Better than the alternative. JULIAN What are you going to do with all that money? GRACE Help me up. There is one thing I must do.

134

EXTERIOR. THE TEALE CLINIC. DAY. The building is blocked off by a temporary chainlink fence hung with bold caution signs. Inside the fence is a huge crane fitted with a wrecking ball. Men in hardhats walk about.

INTERIOR. NEAR THE TEALE CLINIC:A CRANE. DAY. The crane operator pulls back a lever, and the dented black wrecking ball rises off the ground. He touches a pedal which turns the crane slightly. The ball starts to swing ponderously. Scattered yells and shouts of warning come over the roar of the diesel but are not heard by the operator, who wears a large set of ear protectors. Suddenly a woman's hand covers one of his. He looks up in surprise and sees Grace clinging to the outside of the cab. She leans in to speak. GRACE Stay your hand. I shall not have this building destroyed. Behind her, the operator sees men sprinting for the crane.

EXTERIOR. THE TEALE CLINIC. DAY. Some weeks have passed. The fence and all traces of demolition have been removed. Most of the neglect has been corrected on the building. New shrubs have been planted, the sidewalk has been patched, the window frames have been painted, and the windows cleaned. A crew is removing stains from the marble of the entrance. Julian comes up the sidewalk and enters.

INTERIOR. THE TEALE CLINIC. DAY. Julian wanders through the lobby, which is a hive of tradespeople. Building materials are piled about. He approaches a man working on an electrical outlet. JULIAN I'm looking for Grace Cabot. 135

INTERIOR. THE TEALE CLINIC. DAY. Julian stands outside Grace's old room. He knocks on the door and pushes it open. Grace, dressed in tattered jeans and workshirt, is hanging pictures on the wall. Her old bed and furnishings are still there. GRACE Julian, it's so good to see you. You got my message at last. JULIAN I've been busy. I managed to hook on over at Saint Joe's in Dorchester. It's a small department, but the people are decent. They needed a body, so they were willing to overlook my little resume problem. GRACE I thought that you were eager to return to California. JULIAN Yeah, well, what's the rush? It's not so bad here. I never did get to hear the Pops. What's all this? He looks more closely at the photographs she has hung. GRACE That is Doctor Teale. We were never properly introduced, yet I owe everything to him. Without his skills I would have wasted away. I thought I would keep this one room as it was in his memory. Julian pauses in front of a large photo of Doctor Teale with Samuel and Alice. JULIAN This must be your mother. GRACE Yes, and that is Father. Have you seen the rest of the Clinic? We have made 136

remarkable progress. Grace takes his hand. JULIAN Maybe some other time. GRACE You have a commitment? JULIAN Yes. Grace does not release his hand. GRACE Julian, my friend. Do you find me unattractive? JULIAN No. GRACE Then why have you never shown me affection? JULIAN I...you were my patient. Whatever I felt, that had to come first. GRACE You are a gentleman as fine as any of my day. I was afraid I held no appeal in your eyes. JULIAN Believe me, that's not true. He takes his hand back. JULIAN When does this place reopen? GRACE In four months. I will begin assembling a staff shortly. I shall bring Doctor Teale's dream back to life as you brought 137

me back to life. This will once more be the world's finest center for the study of the brain and its glorious mysteries. JULIAN Sounds like a big job. GRACE One step at a time. How long is your residency? JULIAN Three years. GRACE Would you be interested in an association with this Clinic until that time? By then, our new research wing will have been completed. JULIAN You don't have to do that. GRACE You mistake my offer for charity? Can you truly believe you are unworthy? I do not. JULIAN Okay, okay. I'll submit my application. GRACE And may I call upon you for guidance? JULIAN Of course. GRACE Thank goodness. I fear I am not qualified to run this Clinic, Julian. JULIAN You'll do fine. Are you still staying at Morgan's? GRACE Yes. For now. She is like a sister, and I love her dearly. But I must move on. 138

JULIAN Where to? GRACE I believe I will call upon the Rosens and attempt to purchase the Estate. JULIAN Make them an offer they can't refuse. GRACE I shall be overly generous to induce them to agree, if that is what you mean. JULIAN There are so many movies you've never seen. GRACE Would you educate me, then? JULIAN I'd like that...I really have to go. GRACE Wait! Look at this! She bends down so he can see the top of her head. She parts her hair. GRACE Do you see it? JULIAN What? GRACE A grey hair! I found a grey hair this morning. Is that not wonderful? JULIAN Normally, no. GRACE It is a sign, a heavenly sign that I shall grow wrinkled and wise as a normal person 139

does. JULIAN I'm happy for you. He turns to go. GRACE Oh! JULIAN What? GRACE I am steeped with convention long out of favor, dear Julian. Stay a moment and let me assume a contemporary bravado. JULIAN I am definitely going to have to buy a thesaurus. GRACE Bother. Julian, I no longer wish for you to by my physician. JULIAN Sure. I understand. GRACE No, I suspect you do not. I mean that the very nature of our peculiar concern must...resolve. JULIAN Okay. You lost me again.. Grace gathers herself as if firming her resolve. She takes the last step between them and kisses Julian. JULIAN No chaperone? GRACE I never liked that fashion. JULIAN That is so modern. 140

She kisses him again. THE END

141