Infinitely Polar Bear Page #2

MAGGIE (CONT'D)

We live in this house -

He jabs his finger in her face.

CAM:

You’re just like my parents. You

want to keep me doped! Depressed!

Fat! Slow! You’d neuter me if you

could!

MAGGIE:

(like speaking to a child)

Your parents let us live in this

house on the condition that you

remain stable -

CAM:

To hell with the house then! I’m

not going to let my goddamn parents

use it as a choke chain!

MAGGIE:

How could you not take it?! How

could you do that to us?!

He suddenly drops to his knees, maudlin and melodramatic and

overcome with sincere emotion. He holds onto her housecoat.

CAM:

It kills me, Maggie. The girls and

I had a beautiful morning. It was

magical. That doesn’t happen when

I take my lithium.

(MORE)

6.

CAM (cont'd)

Don’t you understand? Please tell

me you understand.

He looks so desperate that she wants to say she understands.

But she can’t. He reacts with another 180-degree turn, back

to anger. He pounds the floor repeatedly.

CAM (CONT'D)

You know what? Forget it. I’m

going to find someone who gets it.

Who gets me!

Cam turns and rips open the front door. He marches down the

sloping lawn, swiftly and stiffly like a soldier.

Maggie runs to the open door.

MAGGIE:

That’s just an excuse to get laid!

CAM:

(without looking back)

It’s a chance to be understood!

MAGGIE:

By getting laid!

CAM:

Boo hoo hoo! Poor bourgeois Maggie

and her bourgeois monogamous

fantasy!

EXT. DRIVEWAY. LATER

Maggie, wearing a crochet dress and knee-high boots, throws

garbage bags stuffed with clothes and toys into the trunk of

a pale blue Saab. The two little girls watch their frantic

mother. Amelia holds the entire “Little House on the

Prairie” series; Faith hugs eight different Barbie Dolls.

Cam appears at the end of the long driveway, riding his

bicycle uphill. He is now wearing a red Speedo, thin-soled

canvas tennis shoes, and a red bandana tied around his neck.

It is a ridiculous get-up. When he sees Maggie, he starts

shouting.

CAM:

Hey! Hey! Hold it, god damnit!

Hold it!

MAGGIE:

(to her daughters)

Get in, get in!

7.

CAM:

That is my car and those are my

children! Feeble, Maggie, pretty

f***ing feeble!

He pedals faster as Maggie pushes her daughters into the car.

She dives in after them, pulls the door shut and locks all

the doors.

INT. SAAB. SAME TIME

Cam races up and crashes his bike hard into the car. He and

the bike go sprawling. Maggie and the girls scream.

Maggie slides into the driver’s seat and fumbles for the

right key. She drops her key ring on the floor.

Cam circles the car, gesturing wildly. He sounds faraway

through the glass but he is roaring. The girls stare at him.

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