Alan-Michael's Return

Going back to his chair, ROGER shakes his head, as if to shake the thought of HOLLY out of his mind. However, as soon as he settles himself back on his chair, her shoes, a pair of sexy gold strap heels lying on the floor, catch his attention. They almost shimmer. ROGER closes his eyes and averts his head.

At this moment, HOLLY comes out of the shower in a white terry cloth robe, the collar of which she holds snugly around her neck. She squeezes by ROGER again, and then bends down and looks into his face.

HOLLY: Roger, I thought I might call room service. Do you want anything?

ROGER (already sounding rather dreamy): No thanks. All I need is sleep.

HOLLY (walking around him again and stepping over to the window): Well, it's not even dusk yet, and I'm totally exhausted.

ROGER: You worked hard too, keeping Blake from going crazy.

HOLLY: She still seems like a little girl to me.

ROGER: This has taken its toll on all of us.

From below, ROGER and HOLLY hear Blake and Alan-Michael's laughter. ROGER turns around and looks at HOLLY, who is already smiling in his direction and about to laugh as well. He wryly comments ...

The young seem to recover quicker.

HOLLY: She sounds so happy.

ROGER (turned back as if to sleep): I believe she is.

HOLLY: I believe she is, too.

HOLLY looks at ROGER very gently as she says this, as if to imply, "And I give you credit for bringing Alan-Michael back to her."

ROGER then says: There was a time, a very very long time, when I didn't believe I'd ever hear my daughter's laughter again . . . or even know if she was happy.

HOLLY: Did you care? (She comes back around to sit across the table from ROGER, looking more cynically at him).

ROGER laughs a little at what seems an absurd question; and, seeing something or someone in the back of his own mind, he says:

Yes, yes I cared ... always ... right from the very first moment, right from the very beginning...from the minute I saw her. She was so beautiful. She made me so happy ... no, peaceful, peaceful. (He looks up at HOLLY at that). She made me feel I could change. I thought ... I saw in her that part of me that was good, and innocent, and able to love.

HOLLY: Yes, she was like that as a child.

ROGER: She was the one good thing in my life. . . and I lost her to Ed. (He closes his eyes, not wanting to look at HOLLY).

HOLLY: Well, you went on with your life.

HOLLY seems slightly uncomfortable.

ROGER: Yes I did...and that fella that I thought that I could be died. (ROGER looks very pointedly at HOLLY).

ROGER continues ... I still felt glimmers of him, sometimes, when I managed to see Chrissy from the back of a school auditorium ... across a train platform. I didn't dare come too close because I knew that if you knew I was alive, and knew I was near, that you'd move her even farther away than Switzerland.

HOLLY: I'm glad I didn't know.

ROGER : Then she showed up on my island, and right then it's like time stood still and ... I mean she was all grown up and everything, but she was still my little girl ... still my Chrissy. And I knew that I loved her more than anything and anyone in the world, and I had a reason to live again, not just to exist, but to live.

HOLLY: Roger, tying your existence to a . . .

ROGER (quiet, emotional): And right from the beginning on that island she started trusting me. You know, feeling that I could make things right. And that was so ... I mean she had no idea I was her father. I couldn't get over that. I just couldn't get over it. All I ever wanted really was for my daughter to believe in me ... believe I could give her the world.

HOLLY has tears in her eyes.

Next scene:

ROGER (self-mockingly, and mocking HOLLY'S earlier cynicism a little, too, perhaps): Well, I suppose real fathers don't carry on like that; it's only pretenders like me who need the big speeches.

HOLLY speaks very quietly, carefully, painfully . . .

When she was little, I hated you so much.

ROGER lowers his eyes, and nods.

HOLLY: I never even thought how you might feel about her. And then when I thought you were dead I just wanted to forget, and to make Christina forget.

ROGER: I know. I understand.

HOLLY: But I can tell you if I had been separated from her like you were . . . it would have driven me mad. (They look at each other very briefly, and he nods again).

ROGER: Was she happy in Switzerland?

HOLLY think about this for a moment, and then replies . . .

Well, she was always hard to read.

ROGER and HOLLY both laugh.

HOLLY: I think so. I think she was.

ROGER (still smiling): What kind of music did she like?

HOLLY: Oh ... It wasn't Mozart and Beethoven. (HOLLY moves back over to the window.) Thelonious Monk, as I recall.

ROGER (turning around to look at her): It drove you crazy, right?

HOLLY: Just as it was supposed to. And then she sang in the school choir for a while.

ROGER: Oh ... And did she have the voice of an angel?

HOLLY: That voice was too low to ever be angelic. She sang alto.

ROGER: Did she play piano or anything?

HOLLY: She took guitar lessons for a while.

ROGER nods solemnly at this for a split second, but then as he takes it in, they both crack up, and he stands and looks into HOLLY'S eyes as he says ...

I take it we did not produce a Maria Von Trapp?

HOLLY: No, we did not.

ROGER: What else?

HOLLY wipes a tear from her eye.

ROGER: What'd she want to be when she grew up?

HOLLY: A ballerina, of course. She fell in love with Baryshnikov. We took her to Paris, see? She said she'd love him forever.

At those last words, HOLLY looks into ROGER'S eyes but quickly turns away.

ROGER (enraptured): No, please... (as he moves in step with her, she turns to him again) Don't stop. Tell me all of it.

HOLLY smiles and remembers ...

Next scene: Apparently, some time has passed. Perhaps hours. ROGER brings a tea tray to the table.

ROGER: Well, this is a real good idea.

ROGER stops short at the sight of HOLLY asleep on the bed. Walking over to it, ROGER tucks a blanket around HOLLY and watches her sleep.

Then, he gets paper and pen, and, looking over at her again, begins writing a letter.

ROGER: "Dear Holly, Thought I'd clear out of your way and let you get some beauty sleep. (At this, ROGER glances over at her, but then continues, his lips curving upward in a peaceful smile ... ) Guess I'll stay in Costa Verde a while. Just tell everyone I'm looking for the kidnappers. Please tell Blake I love her. And thank you for tonight."

With that, ROGER props the letter by the tea pot, takes his jacket, and, looking at HOLLY one last time, quietly leaves the room.

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