Jan. 12, 1998 "The Biological Clock" By Josh Becker
EXT. SUBURBAN BLOCK - DAY 1 All of the houses on this suburban block are equally spaced from one another, and although they don't look exactly alike, they don't look terribly different either. We hear Bruce Springsteen singing I'm On Fire as our view moves down the street. It's a beautiful early evening in summer, orange rays of sunshine stream across various activities on all the lawns: mowing, trimming, watering, kids playing catch, washing the car (no cars, however, are newer than 1985 models). Leaning against a white Porsche parked in a driveway are AARON BROOKS and BETH ABRAMS. He's twenty-five and she's twenty-four. Both are attractive, dark-haired people in good shape. Aaron has his arm around Beth's shoulders. Aaron wears a cutoff, black, Shogun Assassin T-shirt, black jeans, and black Converse, high-top sneakers. His hair is long, as are his sideburns. Beth wears short blue jean cutoffs, a black bikini top and has short hair. She looks good. They both do. AARON Aaron and Beth both vaguely watch the activity on the street. Suddenly, they begin to kiss passionately, their hands moving all over each other. Beth pulls free, still holding onto Aaron's neck, turns and surveys the scene with a very serious expression. Nobody on the whole block pays any attention to them. Beth turns back to Aaron and looks him in the eyes, her nose touching his. AARON BETH Beth gives Aaron a devious look, then lowers both of her hands out of view. Two zippers in succession are heard opening. Aaron looks all around in a panic. Beth shifts around a little bit, as does Aaron, and suddenly they're doin' the funky thang up against the side of the Porsche. Aaron rests his face on Beth's shoulder. He looks around and no one's watching - really. Aaron shrugs, closes his eyes and gets into it. AARON We see the whole block again as we first saw it, rows of houses, activity everywhere. SLOW MOTION MONTAGE: Suddenly, sprinklers and hoses go on, water spraying in circles, straight up, thick streams hitting plants, and trees, and the sides of cars in a spattering cascade of glittering droplets. Aaron's face twists into an expression of total hilarity and he bursts out laughing. This is the funniest thing that's ever happened to him, or, certainly, one of them. People turn and look to see what's so
funny, but there's nothing to see. Beth is in Aaron's arms, laughing
along with him. INT. BETH'S PARENT'S HOUSE/LIVING ROOM - DAY 2 Aaron and Beth are all snuggled up on the couch. David Bowie and Queen doing Under Pressure is on the radio. AARON Aaron tries to start a conversation. AARON BETH Beth kisses Aaron's neck. AARON BETH Beth chews on Aaron's earlobe. AARON BETH AARON BETH Aaron kisses her, then tries again. AARON BETH She goes back to nuzzling his neck. The phone rings, and Beth answers it. BETH Aaron watches and listens in amazement as Beth just goes on and on . . . AARON DISSOLVE: EXT. RUTTED DRIVEWAY/KATE'S PARENT'S HOUSE - DAY 3 Beth and Aaron drive along a bouncing, rutted driveway in Beth's VW. They see big dogs chasing little dogs across a vast, unkempt lawn, surrounded by woods. Aaron and Beth drive up in front of a low, ramshackle house with a half dozen cars parked outside. BETH BETH Beth and Aaron knock on the front door. Dogs start barking from all over the place and going crazy. Women between the ages of eighteen and thirty begin appearing from everywhere, not one resembling the other, and grab the dogs collars and hush them. It's a Chinese fire-drill. The front door opens and KATE CUMMINGS appears - slim, tall, wearing tight, tiger-striped pants, with blonde tiger-stripe streaks in her red hair, and a tight, white tank-top that shows the outline of her breasts perfectly - Aaron feels like he's wearing X-ray specs and is doing his best to be nonchalant, however he is clearly impressed. He and Kate shake hands. AARON KATE AARON KATE Beth grabs Kate's hand. BETH They all head inside. Aaron can't keep his eyes off of Kate. EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY 4 The three of them walk up a country road smoking a joint. Beth and Kate are in front talking incessantly, Aaron is a little behind, watching and listening. AARON Aaron is particularly admiring of Kate's svelte, tiger-striped, derriere. He glances up to find Beth looking straight at him. He's caught. AARON
KATE Beth crosses her arms, looking at Aaron expectantly. AARON Kate turns back to Beth. KATE Aaron, still walking behind, is stunned. DISSOLVE: EXT. DETROIT METROPOLITAN AIRPORT - NIGHT 5 Jets land and take off, particularly
Northwest Airlines, for which Detroit is the hub. As it is with any international airport terminal, this one is filled with the peoples of the world, particularly, in the case of Detroit, a lot of middle-easterners. There are also Indian women in colorful saris, Africans with round, leather hats, Asians in abundance, etc. Amidst all of this hubbub sit Aaron and Beth on a large, round bench with a tree at its center. They are holding hands and leaning against each other. BETH AARON BETH AARON BETH AARON BETH AARON Beth doesn't see and shakes her head. BETH AARON BETH AARON BETH AARON
AARON BETH AARON Beth is looking over Aaron's shoulder to the opposite side of the round bench with the tree at it's center. On the other side it is secluded, facing out the window to a dark section of runway. Beth takes Aaron's hand and leads him around to the vacant side and they immediately launch into passionate love-making. SLOW MOTION MONTAGE: A jet's flaps go down; the landing gear unfold; a burst of vapor blows out of an engine; the wheels hit the tarmac emitting a screech and cloud of blue, burnt-rubber smoke. We see the international terminal with all its various peoples. Amidst all of it we hear Aaron burst out laughing, followed by Beth accompanying him. AARON DISSOLVE: EXT. ANN ARBOR - DAY 7 Ann Arbor is a quaint college town where the University of Michigan is located. There is the ivy-covered law school; Angel Hall, a big, classroom building; many other school buildings; outdoor cafes, numerous, interesting-looking bookstores, and a multitude of students carrying armloads of books and wearing knapsacks. AARON INT. AARON'S EFFICIENCY APARTMENT - NIGHT 8 Aaron sits on the bed in his tiny, efficiency apartment with no bedroom huffing down a joint by himself. There is a poster of Bruce Springsteen on the wall with his back to us and a guitar over his shoulder. Aaron, wearing a security guard uniform, looks at the old model, rotary, wall-phone, makes a scrunched up face, then grabs the receiver and dials. It rings several times, then is answered. AARON EXT. DUPLEX - EVENING 9 Aaron steps up in front of a small,
old, brick, duplex with a piece of paper in his hands and rings the
bell. Kate answers, sans tiger stripes, although her hair is INT. KATE'S HALF OF THE DUPLEX - NIGHT 10 Aaron rolls a fat joint, and Kate plays
with her new Husky puppy, Misty. Bob Marley sings Get Up! Stand
Up! Aaron lights the joint, takes a big hit and hands it to
Kate. AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON Kate nods, considering. KATE AARON Aaron makes a move to kiss Kate. She lets their lips touch before saying: KATE AARON
Aaron backs off and nods. AARON KATE Kate holds Misty's front paws and makes her dance. Aaron jumps up and dances, too. Kate picks up Misty and hands her to Aaron. Aaron bounces the slobbering puppy in front of his face, then hands her back to Kate . . . INT. KATE'S RECONVERTED GARAGE - NIGHT 11 Kate now lives in what was formerly a garage. . . . As Misty is handed back to Kate, we see that Kate's hair is now blonde, and Misty is six months older, meaning twenty pounds heavier. We now also see that Aaron has a Van Dyke beard and mustache. A kitten, Luna, has been added to the menagerie. They are watching the Eastern Conference basketball playoffs are on a little, black & white TV set. KATE Kate sets Misty down, steps over to the corkboard behind her desk taking down a photo of a baby. There are seven or eight other photographs of babies tacked up. Kate shows the picture to Aaron who gives it a perfunctory glance and hands it back. AARON
KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE Kate jumps up and dashes into the kitchen. She returns a moment later with a tray of black, burnt cookies. She looks like she's going to cry. AARON Kate sets the tray down, then drops onto the couch still looking like she's going to cry. Aaron hesitantly turns from the game. AARON Kate starts to cry. AARON KATE Aaron hesitantly puts his hand on Kate's shoulder. AARON Aaron gives her a burnt cookie and a Stroh's. Kate gratefully takes them. They both turn back to the game. Each one steals one more glance at the other one. DISSOLVE: INT. KATE'S HOUSE/LIVING ROOM - NIGHT 12 Luna and Misty are both long full-grown. Aaron and Kate are watching the basketball game, but only half paying attention. Kate's hair is blonde (although the dark roots are showing), and looks rather good. Aaron has only long sideburns, just like the first time we saw him, but short hair. Kate does an unending procession of little jobs. As she bends down to pick things up or put them down, Aaron is very aware of the way her body looks, the way her breasts show through her Pistons World Champions 1989 t-shirt, and the way her midriff gets exposed on occasion. Aaron watches, and thinks, and watches, and thinks . . . Suddenly he blurts out: AARON Kate turns to Aaron with a serious expression. KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON
Aaron wasn't expecting such a definitive response. AARON AARON FADE
OUT: BLACK: The tinny, monophonic strains of an electric piano are heard, followed by the rhythmic plucking of a bass guitar, an eerie shaking tambourine, then the trademarked flanged bass drum of a Motown song. Marvin Gaye's young voice bellows the song That's the Way Love Is . . . INT. TUNNEL - DAY 13 A spot of light becomes visible in the distance and we realize that we are driving in a car in a tunnel. Our point of view continues toward the light . . . EXT. JEFFERSON AVENUE/DOWNTOWN DETROIT - DAY 13A . . . We come out of the tunnel and we're driving north on Jefferson Avenue in downtown Detroit, directly beneath the Renaissance Center, four sixty-story, silver glass silos looming up on the edge of the Detroit River. INT. BLUE ELDORADO - DAY 14 Aaron, who is now thirty-six years old, his dark hair is short, and there's a bit of salt & pepper at the temples. He is driving the car and busily singing along with Marvin, and making Temptations-like hand gestures. MARVIN
& AARON AARON INT. KATE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY 15 Our view moves down a large pile of manuscripts sitting on Kate's desk, beside her brand new Gateway 2000 computer with a large color monitor. As Kate works at the computer we see that she now wears glasses, her hair is in no particular style or fashion. She's thirty-five. She edits manuscript after manuscript with a cigarette dangling from between her lips. Kate still looks good, but now there's no pretense about who she is. On the corkboard where there were previously a few pictures of babies and kids, Kate has created a shrine - a veritable explosion of baby pictures. Many are actual photographs, however, many others are cut from magazines - it is a three foot square collage of cute kids. Kate studies the collage, then frowns. She removes her glasses and rubs her eyes. Kate spins around in her chair, reaches down and picks up a gift box. She opens the box revealing a tiny, baby-sized, Detroit Tigers uniform, with a cute little baseball cap. Kate puts the uniform back in the box, and begins the process of wrapping it. She also picks up the phone and dials.
The flip celluar phone sitting on the passenger seat rings. Aaron answers it. AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE
KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON Kate is nodding, intrigued. KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE AARON KATE Kate starts to cry. AARON KATE AARON KATE Aaron smiles again - she amuses him. He shakes his head.
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