my little sister was there…there with some boy from greeley, he’s in debate, he said. seemed nice enough…she likes him.
JOHN
we ran into sue’s sister, did she mention that?
SUE
hadn’t seen her since august…
JOHN
younger sister, maureen, with some kid…
SUE
he’d been drinking…
JOHN
ahh, he was okay. (BEAT) had a good band going. reggae…
SUE
i’d never been to the plaza before, i mean, past it, shopping and whatever, with my mom, but never to it. it was tremendous! so much glass, high white walls, it was like…a cake, some wedding cake, left on the corner there, downtown. ’s what it reminded me of… (BEAT) the whole thing, though…the trip, dance and all…made me sleepy.
JOHN
sue went upstairs to our room, room we’d rented, with karen and tim’s girlfriend…patrice…
SUE
i’d known patrice since kindergarten…
JOHN
said they wanted to take a quick nap, just a half-hour, whatever, then we’d go get a bite. this was, like, maybe, one-thirty…
SUE
’s a king-size bed. a gold comforter on it…
JOHN
so, we hung out downstairs a bit, talked to some guys from home…david, tim, and me.
SUE
we all fell asleep, together on that bed…
JOHN
i was a touch bored, you know, room was warm, and lots of people we didn’t recognize…so i suggested a walk. “let’s head over to the park.” about six, seven guys all together, it was still nice out…
SUE
i’m not sure what time it was…
JOHN
we strolled around a bit, over by the paris theater, some guy, younger guy, kicked over a garbage can…i mean, it happens, you get together, doing stuff, no big deal. ’s just garbage…
pause.
fifteen, twenty minutes later we split up, lot of the high schoolers want to get back to the bash, but us three, tim, david, and me…no hurry, we just kind ’a wander around, hanging out. after a while, we shoot over into central park, the 59th street entrance…looking around, talking. ’s really dark in there, only lights coming from the buildings, way off. kind of exciting…
SUE
i thought i looked up at two, or two-fifteen…but i’m not sure. ’cause i kept sleeping…
JOHN
…and then i saw ‘em. both of them. those guys…
SUE
i was so tired…
JOHN