Pushing Dead

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1

[TIRES SCREECHING]

[CRASH]

- [Man] Ugh!

Holy f***ing sh*t, this hurts!

- Hang in there, Danny!

- Oh. Ah!

- Dan?

- Danny?

- Yeah?

- I'm sorry about the time

I hit you in the face

with that big rock

down by the river.

and when I told your

mother about--

- Careful up there!

[TIRES SCREECHING]

- And I'm sorry for

everything I ever said or did

that I should feel

sorry for. I'm sorry!

I love you, Danny!

I'm not dying back here, okay?

It just feels like I am.

(chuckles painfully)

I just wanted to get a

few things off my chest

Why do you always have

to question my motives?

[TIRES SCREECHING]

- I think that was a stop sign.

[TIRES SCREECHING]

- We are two blocks

from the hospital.

- Just hang in there, Danny!

- Aargh!

[MUSIC]

[PHONE RINGING]

- (grunts, sniffs)

- [Woman] My God,

you sound awful!

- Hey mom.

- What'cha doin' honey?

- I'm not, uh...

I'm not really doing anything.

- Oh I won't keep you.

Sounds like I woke you up.

- (yawning) No no, no.

You didn't wake me,

it's just, uh...

one of these new

pills I'm taking.

It makes me a little groggy.

- A new pill?

What does it do?

- Uh, I don't,

I don't remember, exactly.

- Did you get my card?

- Last night I got it.

(sniffs) Let's see here.

- Oh my God.

Look at that thing on TV.

- (sighs)

Thank you, mom. That's very,

- that's very sweet.

- You're welcome.

- Are you sure you

can afford it?

- Do something fun with it.

- Oh I will.

I promise.

[MUSIC]

[BEEPING]

[WHIRRING]

[COFFEE BREWING]

[WATCH BEEPING]

- [Dan] AIDS used to be

a big deal in America:

Marches, red ribbons,

media coverage.

Those were the f***in' days.

Now it's just another boring

life threatening illness.

It's about as exciting

as having...

Hep-C.

One thing that hasn't

changed for me,

it's still really hard to

be open about it.

Even in San Francisco.

Revealing HIV status

is an energy suck, so

I've successfully avoided

the dating scene.

The problem is,

I feel this need

to find someone

before I get sick.

I know that's f***ed up.

- Hey, Danny, Danny.

- Hello.

- Aw, man.

- There's coffee. It's fresh.

- No thanks.

I want something to eat.

[DOGS BARKING]

Ew!

Ugh!

That's really gross!

You want to go out?

Get something to eat?

- I can't eat,

I just took my meds.

What, are you trying

to get rid of me?

- Oh yeah.

- Besides, (sighs)

I need to get some

writing done today.

- I will write today.

I will write today.

- You planning to eat this?

- Of course I'm gonna eat that.

(sighs)

you can have

the head.

[MUSIC]

[TYPEWRITER SOUNDS]

[TYPING ACCELERATES]

- [Man] Dot?

Hey, Dot?

(grumbles) Jesus,

Mary, and Joseph.

- I'm trying to find that

big jug full of that stuff.

- It's where it always is,

aisle three.

(grunts)

- You love swiss cheese.

Hm.

We should try these!

They're swiss flavor.

- Yeah.

We don't need 'em.

(sighs)

- Mr. Shwa-bell?

- Pretty close, actually.

Schauble.

- That'll be $2,841

and 12 cents.

I guess it's a good thing

I have insurance, huh?

(chuckles)

[COMPUTER BLIPS]

- There appears to be a

problem with your coverage.

That's very strange. I've never

had a problem with it before.

- It would have been $5,682

but the government

kicked in part...

I don't know.

They installed a new system and

everything's all weird.

The background's green,

the text is yellow.

This is really hard to read.

We ran it through twice

but it didn't work.

Hold on.

[DIAL TONE]

[BEEPING]

American Medical Advantage.

Please enter the

client's ID number.

[BEEPING]

Please hold while we

access the information.

Please hold while we

access the information.

Client ID is not valid.

- What? (laughs)

- Sorry.

You might want to

change plans.

Hold on.

- You're on American

Medical Advantage Plus.

You might want to try

American Medical

Advantage Premium

or American Medical

Advantage Premium Plus.

That one sounds good.

- What's the difference?

- I don't know.

- Uh, okay, thank you.

- $22.11.

[BEEPING]

[SLIDES CARD]

[BEEP]

[SLIDES CARD]

[BEEP]

Card's been declined, sir.

- (sighs)

Well... (chuckles)

Uh, I'll tell ya what.

I'll just, uh...

I'll take the coffee.

I'll pay with cash.

[MUSIC]

(belches)

(sighs)

- Nice.

- (sighs)

- You won't believe what

happened to me earlier.

- Well my imagination

is offended.

- I was just walking along

over by Sunny Produce.

and hit the wall behind me.

[BANG]

Then there was another one.

Then I felt a sharp pain

in the center of my back.

(slow motion, guttural,

deep scream) Ow!

Flying towards me were

these small

metallic things.

Someone...

[BANGING]

was hurling D batteries

from a rooftop,

trying to hit me.

- Jesus.

- Some woman.

They don't even know.

Can you believe that?

- Why would somebody do that?

- Are you okay?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- Yes.

Physically, anyway.

- I hate this story.

for being afraid to walk

by myself in this town.

[WATCH BEEPING]

(sighs)

[DOOR SLAMS]

- (groans)

Oh, hey there, Danny.

- Oh no. Bob,

I'm so sorry.

Could you tell how

hard I was trying

not to wake you?

- Oh you didn't wake me.

Besides, I'm, I'm glad I'm up.

I had to make some calls

to cash in on some debts

before they cut our

utilities off.

- Nobody's going to turn

off any utilities.

I just looked at the books.

It's really not that bad.

It's by no means great,

but I have an idea.

I'm gonna make some flyers

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