Johnny Returns to Boston (or is it Casablanca?)

JOHNNY RETURNS TO BOSTON(or is it Casablanca?)

(with apologies to the Epstein brothers and Howard Koch)

Setting:
Boston, Yaz’s Café Bostonian

Cast:
Henry: Bartender of Yaz’s Café Bostonian, Red Sox fan Johnny Damon: Former Red Sox centerfielder
Andy: Accountant, Red Sox fan, Regular at Yaz's
Alexis: Former President of the Johnny Damon Fan Club
Papi: Piano Player at Yaz’s Café Bostonian

Scene:

December 2005. Inside Yaz’s Café Bostonian. Henry is behind the bar serving a beer to a customer. Andy is sitting at the bar drinking a beer and snacking on peanuts. Papi, a rotund, happy-looking, jazz pianist from Minnesota, is playing the Steinway in the middle of the smoke-filled café.

FADE-IN ON PAPI

PAPI [playing piano and singing]

It had to be you, it had to be you I wandered around, and finally found The somebody who could make me be true Could make me be blue or even be glad Just to be sad just thinking of you …

[In walks Johnny with Alexis, an attractive brunette. Alexis is the former president of the Johnny Damon Fan Club which was abruptly shutdown upon the news of Johnny’s decision to sign with the rival New York Yankees. Johnny and Alexis sit down at the bar next to Andy. Henry, recognizes Johnny from the end of the bar and swiftly walks over]


HENRY
Johnny Damon.

JOHNNY
What! Do you know who I am?

HENRY
I do. You’re lucky the bar’s open to you.

JOHNNY
Oh, you object to the kind of business I do, huh? Suppose you run your business and let me run mine.

HENRY
Why did you come back? To tell me why you ran out on me?

JOHNNY
Yes.

HENRY
Well, you can tell me now. I’m reasonably sober.

JOHNNY
I don’t think I will.

HENRY
Why no? I think I’m entitled to know.

JOHNNY
You despise me don’t you.

HENRY
If I had a gun I’d shoot you.

JOHNNY
Go ahead and shoot. You'll be doing me a favor.

HENRY
Did you run out on me because you couldn’t take it?

JOHNNY
You can believe that if you want to. Do I have to hear again what an important cause we were fighting for?

HENRY
It was your cause too. In your own way, you were fighting for the same thing.

JOHNNY
I’m not fighting for anything more, except myself. I’m the only cause I’m interested in.

HENRY
Serves me right for asking a direct question.
[Henry walks away]

JOHNNY [turning to Alexis]
I tried to stay away. I thought I would never see you again, that you were out of my life.

ALEXIS
The day you left, if you knew what I went through. If you knew how much I loved you, how much I still love you!

JOHNNY
It seems that destiny has taken a hand.

ALEXIS
Oh my darling! I wish I didn't love you so much. Who are you really? And what were you before?


JOHNNY
We said “no questions”.

ALEXIS
Just believe that I love you. Will I see you tonight?

JOHNNY
I never make plans that far ahead.

ALEXIS
Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time.

[Johnny passionately kisses Alexis]

ALEXIS
Was that cannon fire, or is it my heart pounding?

JOHNNY
Here’s looking at you kid.

[Alexis hands Johnny a note and rushes out of Yaz’s sobbing.
Johnny grabs it, opens it, and stares down at the letter]

Johnny, I cannot go with you or ever see you again. You must not ask why.
Just believe that I love you. Go, my darling, and God bless you. Alexis

JOHNNY
Why did she have to come to Yaz’s? There are other places.

ANDY
My dear Johnny, I suspect that under that cynical shell, you're at heart a sentimentalist.

[Henry returns]

JOHNNY
[to Henry]
I would like to buy your bar.

HENRY
It’s not for sale.

JOHNNY
You haven’t heard my offer.

HENRY
It’s not for sale at any price.

JOHNNY
What do you want for Papi?

HENRY
I don’t buy or sell human beings.

JOHNNY
Suppose we ask Papi. Maybe he’d like to make a change.

HENRY
Suppose we do.

[Peter and Johnny walk over to the piano]

HENRY
Papi, Johnny wants you to work for him.

PAPI
I like it fine here.

HENRY
He’ll double what I pay you.

PAPI
Yeah, but I ain't got time to spend the money I make here.

HENRY [to Johnny]
Sorry.

JOHNNY [to Papi]
You’re being cheated.

[Johnny walks back to the bar]

PAPI [to Henry]
When they come to get me, Henry, I hope you’ll be more of a help.

HENRY
I stick my neck out for nobody.

PAPI
Yes, boss.

[Henry returns to bar]

CUT TO BAR

JOHNNY
You are a man. If someone loved you very much, so that your happiness was the only thing she wanted in the whole world, but she did a bad thing to make, certain of it, could you forgive her?

ANDY
Nobody ever loved me that much.

[Johnny departs Yaz’s dejected]

HENRY
Love, it seems, has triumphed over virtue.

ANDY
We’ll always have 2004.

FADE OUT

THE END