DAD: Yes, how could you?

MOM: You had everything, absolutely everything.

DAD: We gave you everything. Everything. And then you threw it all away.

MOM: You threw it right back in our faces! Michael, how could you?

DAD: Look how upset you've made us! You threw it all away. Look how upset.

MOM: Upset? Of course we're upset!

DAD: Of course we are.

MOM: Can you imagine how we felt?

DAD: Devastated. Absolutely devastated.

MOM: Shocked. I can't think of a better word. Totally shocked.

DAD: Appalled. Completely appalled.

MOM: And so very, very embarrassed.

DAD: How could you embarrass us like this?

MOM: In front of everyone. In front of the whole town. The entire town.

DAD: This town! How could it have happened here? This isn't exactly trailer-park, gun-rack, hick country.

MOM: Or drive-by, crack-house, inner city. We thought we were safe here.

DAD: We thought we could protect ourselves. We thought we could protect you. We thought we were safe here.

MOM: I'll never forget the way I felt.

DAD: How can we? We have no choice.

MOM: It was such an ordinary day at the office.

DAD: Just another Thursday.

MOM: Briefs to write. Motions to file.

DAD: Reports to assemble. Numbers to crunch.

MOM: Clients to impress. Cases to win.

DAD: Markets to open. Products to move.

DAD & MOM : Bills to pay!

MOM: Mortgage payment.

DAD: Three car payments.

MOM: Credit card bills.

DAD: 401K

MOM: Michael’s college fund!

DAD: It’s not easy to make ends meet. I only make a hundred and twenty thousand a year.

MOM: And I’m only pulling in another eighty.

DAD: I am really looking forward to that promotion to executive VP. I know we can use the extra money. Well, back to work. Reports to assemble. Numbers to crunch.

MOM: Briefs to write. Motions to file.

DAD: Just another Thursday.

MOM: And then, a little bit after lunch, there was a bit of a commotion.

DAD: People were rushing around the office in a very agitated state.

MOM: A friend of mine poked her head into my office and she said, Have you heard about the high school? And she said, Doesn’t Michael attend that high school?

DAD: Well can you imagine how she felt?

MOM: What’s going on? I asked her.

DAD: I heard some kind of a fuss going on in the conference room. And there, on the big TV, there it was.

One or more of the Monitors come alive with TV news footage, no sound. A high school, from a helicopter. Vehicles and people scattered all about. Intercuts with a concerned-looking reporter on the scene - NATALIE HAIR

More intercuts with on-the-spot footage: SWAT teams work their way down high school corridors. Kids run and sob. Paramedics carry bloodied bodies out of the building

MOM: Oh, my God! That’s Michael’s school! What’s going on?

DAD: There are how many deputies surrounding the school?

MOM: The FBI’s on the scene?

DAD and MOM TOGETHER: Is Michael safe?

(DAD and MOM both take out their cell phones, start furiously dialing)

MOM: I’d better tell George.

DAD: I’d better tell Mary.

(Pause)

DAD & MOM : Busy!

MOM: I still don’t understand. What’s happening?

DAD: They said they’d heard shooting inside the school. There might be hostages inside.

MOM: Another high-school shooting? But, in our town?

DAD: They’re evacuating the school. They’re not sure, but they think several kids were shot.

MOM: Oh, God, please let Michael be safe!

DAD: Yes, look, they’re saying now there’s a single teenager, randomly shooting his classmates.

MOM: Oh, and please let his friends be safe!

DAD: He’s carrying an entire arsenal! He may have accomplices elsewhere in the school. Oh good, now they’ve got him surrounded.

MOM: Those poor children. I wonder if George is off his damn phone.

(MOM takes out her cell phone and dials. DAD’s phone, forgotten in his hand, rings. He answers)

DAD: Hello?

MOM: George? Are you watching TV?

DAD: Yes. I can’t believe it.

MOM: It’s just so terrible.

DAD: It’s disgusting. What kind of a kid would do something like that?

MOM: No kid I’ve ever known.

DAD: What kind of a monster shoots up his high school?

MOM: That’s exactly the right word. A monster. And who raised such a monster?

DAD: What kind of parents could raise such a terrible kid? A pair of assholes, that’s who.

(Monitor shows deputies escorting a handcuffed figure to a waiting van)

MOM: We’ll find out soon enough. They’ve just arrested him.

DAD: Wait a minute, they’re about to say who he is.

MOM: And then they said your name.

(Monitors display MICHAEL’s high-school yearbook photo, appropriately captioned)

DAD: They said Michael Stewart Bailey.

MOM: It took us both a moment to realize that they were talking about you.

DAD: A moment before everyone else in the room realized that they were talking about you.

MOM: It’s because we don’t call you Michael Stewart Bailey.

DAD: The TV only says your first name, middle name, and last name after you’ve killed someone.

MOM: Can you imagine how we felt?

DAD: Can you imagine? The whole town. The entire town.

MOM: United in that moment. United in shock, united in grief.

DAD: United against us.

MOM: And my friend, who had worried about you, Michael, worried for your safety, worried for my state of mind, she looked at me and something changed in her. She actually took two steps back from me, as though she thought she might catch some kind of virus from me.

DAD: Upset? Of course we're upset!

MOM: And so very, very embarrassed. Imagine! Michael Stewart Bailey. Our son.

DAD: We were such good parents.

MOM: And now look what’s happened to us.

DAD: I was really looking forward to that promotion to executive VP. I guess it’s not going to happen now.

MOM: (into her phone) Are you still there?

DAD: Yes.

MOM: We’d better get ourselves a lawyer.

DAD: We’d better get down to the Sheriff’s.

(They hang up their phones)

MOM: Can you imagine? The whole town. The entire town.

BLACKOUT

SCENE 2

Lights up on NATALIE HAIR in her anchorwoman suit, clutching a microphone - the very image of television reporter perfection

NATALIE: This is Natalie Hair, News Nineteen, at a scene of carnage unlike anything this town has ever seen. Here at Eastwood High, a teenager has gone on a rampage of death and destruction, killing at least thirteen. Six more lie in area hospitals in critical condition. Sixteen other woundings are reported.

(DICK TASER lies on the stage. He is wearing sweat pants, running shoes, a whistle around his neck, and a tee shirt. He is shot, and covered in blood.)

NATALIE: And here’s the heroic gym teacher, Dick Taser, who saved perhaps dozens of children by his actions. Mr. Taser, tell us how you did it.

(The sound of a helicopter overhead. As it passes directly overhead, the noise overwhelms all other sounds. Suddenly it stops, cut off as by a switch. We hear Dick Taser speak:)

DICK TASER: I always knew that little faggot would go postal.

(The helicopter cuts in again as loud as before. DICK TASER dies. The helicopter fades away.)

NATALIE: Jesus -- are we live? Are we live? We’re not live ? OK. Start again. This is Natalie Hair, News Nineteen, at a truly mind-numbing scene of death and mayhem. Eastwood High School: scene of a rampage by a teenage gunman. Thirteen, sorry, fourteen are known dead. Among the victims, a heroic gym teacher who saved his entire class. His last words were, "Lord, help the children."

BLACKOUT - SCENE 3

ENTER MISS MILLSTONE. The sound of intermittent gunfire can be heard; she is frightened and literally running for her life. MISS MILLSTONE is in her early thirties, slim and pretty. She wears a prim and modest skirt and blouse. She hesitates for a moment, not sure where to go

ANDY enters from the opposite side of the stage. He is wearing a trench coat and has his hands in his pockets

MISS MILLSTONE freezes with fear, then stammers

MISS MILLSTONE: Oh God! Please don’t shoot me!

ANDY: Miss Millstone! It’s OK -

MISS MILLSTONE: Don’t shoot me, please don’t shoot me!

ANDY: I’m not the one, I’m not shooting! It’s Andy. Look...

(ANDY takes his hands out of his pockets to show that he is unarmed. He indicates the direction he entered from.)

ANDY: It’s Andy. Andy Lux? C’mon, let’s get out of here.

MISS MILLSTONE: Andy?

ANDY: C’mon, it’s safe this way.

MISS MILLSTONE: Andy Lux?

ANDY: Come on!

MISS MILLSTONE: Andy. Thank God! Andy!

ANDY: I was looking for you. I was worried.

MISS MILLSTONE: Andy! There’s a maniac with a gun! Let’s get out of here.

ANDY: I know. It’s safe over there. Come on!

MISS MILLSTONE: Thank God! I’m safe!

BLACKOUT - SCENE 4

MOM and DAD sit with CLARENCE GLOCK. He has a yellow legal pad, well-used, which he consults frequently

MOM: There's been a mistake. I'm just sure there's been a mistake.

DAD: I’m not, I don’t know, I'm not sure.

MOM: Michael is my son! I know. He's not the one. It's just too horrible.

DAD: Where is he now?

CLARENCE: They haven’t moved him. He's still in lockup, at the sheriff's office.

MOM: They've got the wrong boy. Michael could not have done this.

DAD: Is he all right? Have you seen him yet?

CLARENCE: I've spoken with him. Briefly.

MOM: Oh, him, he’ll speak with.

DAD: He’s Michael’s attorney now, Mary. Of course he’ll speak with him.

MOM: Oh, and we’re just his parents. They gave us fifteen minutes with him. And he didn’t say a word the entire time.

DAD: It’s true, Clarence. He barely acknowledged our presence.

MOM: He just sat there, like some kind of robot.

CLARENCE: Well, it’s possible he was still in a bit of shock.

DAD: Shock? What do you mean?

CLARENCE: Well, there were an awful lot of cops. He got taken down pretty hard.

DAD: Was he hurt?

CLARENCE: Physically, not really. As you saw, he's got a few cuts and bruises. Otherwise he's fine.

DAD: Well it could have been a lot worse.

MOM: They could have shot him! They might have shot him!

CLARENCE: It was a pretty tense moment, yeah. They had sharpshooters, SWAT guys, the whole works. They were ready for the worst.

DAD: When can we see him again? Maybe actually talk to him?

CLARENCE: They don’t think that would be a good idea right now. He’s on a twenty-four-hour suicide watch.

MOM: Suicide watch? What the hell for?

CLARENCE: You didn’t hear about that?

DAD: Hear about what?

CLARENCE: I can’t believe they didn’t tell you. George, when they took him down he, uh, well, he had a shotgun in his mouth. He was trying to kill himself.

MOM: George, tell him that our Michael is the wrong boy. He didn't do this. Suicide watch! I can understand that. I’d want to kill myself too, if they were accusing me of killing all those kids!

DAD: Clarence, uh, you suppose they got the wrong kid?

MOM: There are four hundred students in that high school. There's plenty of children who are mentally unstable there. One of them did it. Not Michael. One of them. He was probably trying to stop it!

DAD: Clarence, they're executing a search warrant on the house right now. The sheriff’s office.

CLARENCE: I know.

DAD: My house is a god damned cop convention. I’ve never seen so many cops in one place before in my entire life.

MOM: What they’re doing to my beautiful house. It’s so horrible. I get so mad just thinking about what they’re doing to our house!

CLARENCE: George, are you OK? You’re shaking like a leaf.

DAD: I’ll be OK.

CLARENCE: Sure you will.

(CLARENCE crosses the stage and retrieves a glass, pours something into it)

CLARENCE: Here, George. This is for your nerves. Calm you down a bit.

DAD: I don’t need that.

CLARENCE: George, as your attorney, I advise you to take a drink.

MOM: It’s OK.

DAD: OK.

(DAD slams the drink)

DAD: OK. Now Clarence, you've spoken with Michael. Did he tell you about anything they'd find? Anything special? Anything?

MOM: God damn it, George, what's the matter with you? Michael is a good boy. He wouldn't shoot up his high school, like some deranged, lunatic, uh, high-school shooter.

DAD: Clarence?

(CLARENCE takes a sheet of paper out of his legal pad)

CLARENCE: Well, he did have this on him.

DAD (reading) "The High Score List"?

CLARENCE: Yeah, uh, they're also gonna find that on your son's computer.

MOM (reading) "4/20/99. Littleton, Colorado. Columbine High School. Harris and Klebold. Killed : 12 students, 1 teacher, no parents, 2 shooters. Total score : 26 points. Current High Score." This is disgusting!

CLARENCE: They're also gonna find, uh, a sort of a map of the high school on his computer. A 3D computer model. He built the map into his Quake game.

MOM: Quake?

CLARENCE: It's like Doom.

MOM: Oh no, oh God. I hate those god-damned video games. He's always playing those god-damned video games.

CLARENCE: This was more than just a video game. He had the high school mapped out in meticulous detail. Both floors, the library, the gym, the cafeteria ... it’s all there. Game monsters in place of students and teachers.

DAD: Wait. He was playing the game, but he was sort of, virtually in his high school?

CLARENCE: Exactly. The DA's gonna make a case that he used the video game to actually plan and rehearse the assault on the school.

MOM: I knew it! I told you, George. I knew those god-damned video games were gonna rot his brain out. I told you, over and over again.

DAD: Mary, calm down. He's not in jail because he plays video games.

CLARENCE: I don't know. You ever play Quake?

MOM: Absolutely not!

DAD: Sure. It's pretty fun, actually.

MOM: George!

DAD: Sorry.

CLARENCE: Well, we're gonna bring in a US military psychologist who has research showing that these games actually prepare the mind for exactly the sort of brain-numbing violence which your son has, uh, allegedly perpetrated.

MOM: You see?

CLARENCE: I really think he crossed a line here. By putting the monsters from the game into his high school, maybe he lost the ability to distinguish between the monsters and his fellow students and teachers. He may have thought that he was still playing the game when he started shooting for real. At least that’s a defense I might be able to put up.

DAD: I don't get it. What's that going to do for him? For us?

CLARENCE: Well, it’s something I’m thinking about. I’ve got a few ideas about a defense, but at this point that’s all they are, is ideas. Look, here’s the deal. There’s a bunch of conservative social critics who are on the plane here even as we speak. They’re from a legal foundation called FTP.

MOM: FTP?

CLARENCE: Yeah, it’s the Family, Tradition and Property Foundation. They’ve been gathering steam since the Paducah shooting, and they’ve got their organization down pretty well. They’re going to have a big press conference at the airport when they land.

DAD: So what? What the hell does that have to do with us?

CLARENCE: Well, it’s because this might be the most complicated defense I’ve ever attempted. We don’t have a case on the facts. There are plenty of witnesses. His face is all over video tape. Michael did it and we can’t contest that. The most we can do is try to make a case that the computer game, or something, contributed to his state of mind and made him not really responsible for his own actions.

MOM: Damn right he’s not responsible. It must have been that game.

CLARENCE: Well, we can make the case that the excessive violence in the game may have contributed to Michael's, uh, alleged violent outburst. Like I said, there’s this psychologist, a Colonel Abe Crassman, who’s pretty aggressively pushing on this idea. At the very least, I’ll be able to use this theory to muddy the waters.

DAD: Okay, great, we're on board with that. Well, who else can we blame, then? The Internet? He's got a computer in his bedroom.

MOM: Pornography. I'm sure the deputies will find Michael's stash. Also George's.

DAD: Mary! Oh, and guns. We can blame the guns. Where did he get those, anyway? I don’t own a gun.

CLARENCE: Exactly.

MOM: Now where did he get those guns?

CLARENCE: I don’t know, but we’re gonna find out. And whoever he is, he’s gonna take his share of the blame.

DAD: Good. I think we got a pretty good case here. So we're not going to contest the facts, then? We're gonna just admit that he did it?

MOM: We admit nothing. Make them prove everything.

CLARENCE: Right.

DAD: So what do the social critics have to do with this?

CLARENCE: Well, since Paducah happened, every high-school shooting, the parents have banded together, with plenty of legal muscle behind them from outfits like FTP, and they’ve filed civil lawsuits blaming the high school shootings on the media. The video game companies, the movie studios, et cetera. They’re asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages. You can expect them to file their first briefs in the morning.

DAD: I still don’t get it.

CLARENCE: It means that there are really going to be two parts to this litigation. There’s going to be a criminal trial, in which Michael will most likely be convicted of multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. And then there will be a civil trial, in which blame will be laid on the media and especially the video game companies.

MOM: Wait a minute. I think I see what you’re getting at.

CLARENCE: Right. We’re in a position here to do a very neat triangulation. We’re going to claim ourselves that the games had a hand in the violence. See, the prosecution will be very keen to demolish our theory of media-instigated violence, since they feel it weakens their case. They want to lay the entire blame on Michael. They will try him as an adult and they are pressing for the death penalty.

DAD: They want to kill him. Of course.

CLARENCE: And of course the parents of the victims are eager to cooperate with that. They want a measure of vengeance, it’s a natural impulse. But, but -- they also want to sue the media corporations in civil court, and get damages.

MOM: Right. So... if Michael’s responsible for his own actions...

CLARENCE: Exactly, then id Software and Time-Warner are off the hook, and FTP and the parents don’t get a dime. But if they made him do it, then Michael can at least avoid being executed, and he may possibly even be acquitted.

MOM: Yeah, don’t hold your breath.

CLARENCE: Well, we’re just hoping to peel enough support from the prosecution’s case. Just enough to put that reasonable doubt in the jury’s mind. The prosecution, they’ll want to have it both ways, and we can’t let them do that.

MOM: Wait a minute. I remember those people now, those FTP people. Only they aren’t just suing the media companies, right?

DAD: What do you mean?

MOM: They’ve got a pretty strict line on laying blame. They’re big born-again Christians, after all. They’re going to sue us, too, aren’t they?

CLARENCE: Yeah. Yeah, they will.

DAD: I don’t understand.

MOM: They’re going to sue us, George. They’re going to sue us for not supervising Michael properly.

DAD: What? That’s insane! We gave Michael everything.

MOM: Everything. Absolutely everything.

DAD: How can we be bad parents?

MOM: We’ll probably lose the house. One way or another. Either we’ll sell it to pay our legal bills, or we’ll lose it to those vultures.

CLARENCE: Mary, it’s way too early to tell how it’ll play out.

MOM: So they’re going to sue us. And what exactly do you plan to do about that, Mister Triangulation?

CLARENCE: We -- that is, Michael and I .. we’re planning to sign on as co-plaintiffs.

MOM: Jesus Fucking Christ! I should have seen it!

DAD: What’s going on?

CLARENCE: Hey. But I want you to know, it’s not personal.

MOM: It’s not personal? You want to take my house away and it’s not personal?

DAD: What the hell is going on?

CLARENCE: Look, Mary. George. You want me to save Michael, right? This is the only way I can see through to that. Look, we're not only going to put video games, guns, pornography, and the Internet into the dock with us in criminal court, but we're also going to sue them in civil court. We're going to sue them for the damages that they caused to my client. But, uh, well, we're also suing you, for being such rotten parents.

DAD: What? You've been my attorney for over ten years!

(CLARENCE takes a form out and places it before MOM and DAD)

CLARENCE: That’s right. That’s why I’d like you to sign this release. This says you understand that I will no longer represent you. And as your attorney, my advice to you is to get another attorney. I’m representing Michael now. After they file that lawsuit, we shouldn’t even talk to each other.

MOM: You’re telling us everything you plan to do. You’re telling us now.

CLARENCE: It’s because we’re friends. And even though you can’t see it now, everything I’m going to do is because we’re friends. Even suing you.

DAD: What a fucked up world. Jesus Christ.

CLARENCE: George, Mary, I know things look bad right now, but look on the bright side. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Can you just imagine the media circus that's gonna descend on this town? The major networks, every cable outlet and every newspaper and magazine in the country, they’re all going to be here. Think of it. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC... And we're all going to be in the middle of it. Opportunity is knocking. How could I pass this up? If we play this right, we can all come out the other side, save Michael, and be rich and famous. But only if we play the game right.

(MOM & DAD exchange looks.)

DAD: Sure, Clarence. We’ll do it.

CLARENCE: Great.

MOM: If it’ll save Michael, we’ll do it. You’d better be sure about this.

CLARENCE: Listen, start working on your book tonight. I’ll put you in touch with a good agent, she’s a friend of mine.