SCENE FROM CITY ROCK SEASON ONE, EPISODE 11: "ORIA"

I wrote the pilot episode of City Rock a few months after 9/11/01. Over the next 2 years, I wrote another 9 one-hour episodes, including a season finale that I was very happy with. The scripts just flowed out of me, effortlessly, coming from a place other than my intellect or memory. Two years ago, in 2009, it occurred to me that I should finish the first season according to the contemporary standard of 13 episodes, so I wrote and inserted three more scripts where I felt inspired to do so.

"ORIA," the story of a young Dominican girl caught up in the crack cocaine trade in Washington Heights in the early 1980's, was one of those new scripts, and a favorite of some fans of City Rock.

Here is the finale of the episode:

CAMERA follows Frank as he moves through the sea of intense teens. Many of them acknowledge Frank with various nicknames and street slang, almost all are affectionate in their energy towards him.

He sees her, sitting in a corner, hunkered down with her book.

FRANK
Oria.

She doesn’t look up. He squats down next to her.

FRANK (cont’d)
What are you reading?

She closes the book.

ORIA
Nothing.

FRANK
I’m sorry about Manny, Oria.

ORIA
We were going to go back to Santo Domingo and live on the beach.

FRANK
He told you that?

She shakes her head.

FRANK (cont’d)
You know, Oria, I don’t think that would have ever happened.

ORIA
Manny always meant what he said.

FRANK
He may have meant it, but... Manny was hurting people and heading for a bad ending.

ORIA
You mean because he was selling drugs?

Frank nods.

ORIA (cont’d)
So many people seem to really want drugs, though.

FRANK
That’s true. It’s confusing.

CUT TO:

INT. BARRY CRAMER’S OFFICE - EVENING

FRANK (O.S.)
It’s confusing.

Frank is sitting on the couch, across from the therapist.

FRANK (cont’d)
Why do we desire things so desperately that are bad for us?

BARRY
Control.

Frank looks curious.

BARRY (cont’d)
When someone abuses us, it often seems to come out of left field. When we do it to ourselves, we’re in control of the abuse. We know it’s coming. There’s no shock factor. We’re making the choice.

FRANK
So, what am I doing? Why am I so drawn to all of this... drama? I don’t think I was abused in my childhood.

BARRY
Think again.

FRANK
What do you mean?

BARRY
In a way, you’re at a disadvantage compared to someone like Jennie. It’s easy for someone to know they’ve been abused when a parent was a drunk or was violent or flamboyantly crazy. But when the parents seemed normal, seemed to be in control of themselves because their dysfunctions were outwardly masked or socially acceptable, that child’s got a tougher time in their healing process.
(beat)
Who are you trying to save, Frank? Really?

Frank reflects silently.

CUT TO:

EXT. PHOENIX RESIDENTIAL DETOX AND RECOVERY CENTER - DAY

Jennie is smoking a cigarette on a cement bench in front of the center. The building behind her is a 2-story adobe structure painted in pastel colors that blend in with the desert surroundings.

CLOSE-UP of Jennie shows her lost in thought.

CONAN (O.S.)
Guess you didn’t know you had so much to think about.

Jen doesn’t turn around. She knows the raspy voice. We see who it is. It is the tall, thin, weather-and-life-beaten black man who looked in on Jennie while she was detoxing.

He is CONAN MATHIAS, counsellor at the Phoenix Center. He walks over and stands next to her.

JENNIE
Who says I’m thinking?

CUT TO:

INT. FRANK’S COLD WATER FLAT - EVENING

Frank enters his apartment and turns on the light. The place looks somehow particularly empty tonight.

He walks in and takes a beer out of the fridge, pops the top and takes a deep draught.

He sees that a note is on the floor, near the door. He goes over and picks it up.

He reads:

"A leader is at his best when after his work is done, his aim fulfilled, his followers will say: we did it ourselves."

FADE TO BLACK.