Our Day Will Come, Part II

Friday, February 18, 1994

The next morning, the sound of the bedroom door opening startles a sleeping ROGER. As HOLLY enters with a breakfast tray, ROGER turns onto his back so that he can see HOLLY better.

HOLLY [putting down the tray and sitting on the bed]: Now, don’t get used to this. I only serve breakfast on state occasions.

ROGER [taking her hand]: Is this hand real? Am I waking up a free man? I’m afraid to believe this—it feels too good.

HOLLY: I know. . . So, what are we going to do with ourselves, now that we don’t have to worry that every minute we spend together is going to be our last one?

ROGER: Well, I gave you a lot of space last night, because this is all really scary. I mean, this all could change now.

HOLLY: What could change?

ROGER: Us. It just feels like . . . We’ve got something back, something wonderful, and I can’t help wondering if . . . because, you know, you knew there was an end to it . . . and now that there’s . . . like . . . a chance for us, you know . . . will you still want me? [HOLLY’S look says “YES!” but she doesn’t say anything.] Because I tell ya, Holly, I’ve never wanted anyone so much in my whole life.

ROGER, with adoring eyes, watches her reaction.

HOLLY: I know it’s true. A lot has changed.

ROGER: I was afraid you’d say that.

HOLLY: No, I mean . . . you . . . a lot has changed. I mean, before . . . you’d have taken a night like last night, when you were so full of yourself, and so happy, and just played it for all it was worth. You would have tried to get everything you could [ROGER grins and nods, and HOLLY laughs] and sulked if the next day didn’t quite live up to your expectations. Kinda like a drunk, who has a horrible hangover, but he goes for the high anyway. But you didn’t. You didn’t do that. It seems . . . different. [HOLLY settles onto the bed and props herself on one elbow.]

ROGER: Well, it’s because of what happened last summer, you know, that night we had together. After that night, I made a promise to myself.

HOLLY [getting closer, more comfortable]: What did you promise?

ROGER: That if we ever made love again—not that I had any right to hope for that, but if by some miracle, that chance ever presented itself to me again—then I wasn’t going to settle for any less than all of you, Holly. I mean . . . no regrets.

HOLLY [slowly moving ever closer to him]: Well, fair is fair. We haven’t always been fair to each other. But, uh, I would like to start ... now. So what do you say? ... Shall we give it a try? [whispers] Huh? C'mon.

[As HOLLY kisses ROGER’S lips, his hands slip from her hair down along her shoulder and arm, until he finally pulls her on top of him.]

A little later, both are still in bed . . . HOLLY has a rose in her hand.

ROGER: You know, when I was lurching about town with a bullet lodged in my chest, there was a lot of times I found myself wondering “Why?” You know . . . why I kept going, why I didn’t give up. I’d lost everything. I had nothing to look forward to but jail. Did I know? Did something in me know that I was about to be offered the second chance of all time?

HOLLY [touching his lips with the flower]: Well, I’ll tell you... there's something that I believe.

ROGER [dreamily]: Yeah ...

HOLLY: That sometimes, there’s a connection between people ...[ROGER nods] ...and when you were lurching around with a bullet in you, I kept thinking about you and praying for you. And I willed you to come back ... to come back to me. So you can believe that if you like.

ROGER [he smiles then kisses her]: I like. I will believe that.

A shrill beep suddenly interrupts them. It’s the clock radio.

HOLLY [as she turns it off]: What'd you do? You set the radio?

ROGER: Yeah, I set it for eight o’clock. I was gonna bring you breakfast in bed.

HOLLY: Oh.

ROGER [smiling]: How do you work that thing?

HOLLY [amused]: Roger Thorpe, master spy, cannot operate a clock radio? But he can be taught!

ROGER [laughs]: I have a theory about that. You want to hear it?

HOLLY: Yeah, sure.

ROGER: There was a long time after I lost you when I just couldn't listen to the radio at all because every song seemed to laugh in my face and give me some sort of moral about why I had failed, you know? But there was this one song, "Our Day Will Come". Do you remember that?

HOLLY [laughing a little]: Oh, yeah. Very sentimental, lots of strings.

ROGER [smiling]: Yeah, that's the one.

HOLLY [singing softly]: Our day will come ...

ROGER [kisses her]: Yeah, it was a very, very schmaltzy song — pure glitz — but I went right out to the record store and I bought it. Listening to that song ... was my dark secret, my drug, my secret vice. I wanted it to become an incantation. I thought, somehow, that if I listened to those words and played those words enough, that they'd evolve into a kind of magic. You know, a kind of spell that would find you wherever you were and will you back to me.

HOLLY: Well, it only took ten or twelve years. These things take time. ....[pauses and looks at ROGER] I can't believe this myself. I mean, I've dreamed about it so many times I keep wondering if this is one of those dreams.

ROGER: Wait a minute, wait a minute. You dreamed about me?

HOLLY: Oh, God yeah. Countless times. I'll tell you about my one recurring dream.

ROGER: Okay.

HOLLY: I would be alone somewhere, feeling sad, and I was looking for something. . . And you'd show up and ask if you could help me. And it was so hard for me to say yes, it took me so long, that by the time I said it you weren't there anymore ... nobody was there.

ROGER: Well, somebody's here now. And he will be for as long as you'll have him. [They kiss passionately].

HOLLY [as they're kissing]: Guess what?

ROGER: What?

HOLLY: I have something for you. [They both laugh] Hold everything.

HOLLY reaches over and takes a key out of the nightstand drawer.

HOLLY: Now, I don't even know if you want to stay here. I mean, this place is hardly what you're used to, but ...

ROGER: Oh, Holly. Can you imagine for one minute that I wouldn't want to stay here? I've been happier in this little house than I've ever been anywhere in my whole life.

HOLLY [touching his lips]: Well, I want you to stay. But, you know I'm used to living alone now.

ROGER [kissing her fingertip]: Yeah.

HOLLY: So there may be some adjustments. But let's say that I have my room, and you have your room, and ... we visit. Is that all right?

ROGER [smiling]: Oh, it's only the best deal I've been offered in about ten or twelve years.

HOLLY laughs, and the scene closes with ROGER and HOLLY embracing and kissing.