Script: 'Conversation' First Draft

A Conversation With The Devil

by

T. D Fuhringer



55 Anson Ave
Hamilton, ON
L8T 2X5
905-921-1617
tfuhr@sympatico.ca



FADE IN

INT DEN - NIGHT

A FIGURE lights a CIGAR.

LUKE, a man wearing white sits at a POKER TABLE. He smokes the cigar and shuffles a DECK OF CARDS. Sitting to his left is

SYD, a real estate agent wearing expensive clothes, sunglasses and a gold watch. Syd is sorting POKER CHIPS into four stacks. To his left is

JOHN, who is unshaven and slovenly in appearance. John pours himself a TUMBLER from a half finished BOTTLE OF SCOTCH. He takes a drink. To his left is

BILLY, a young man in hip-hop gear with a red ball cap. Billy drums his fingers on the table.

SYD
So. What’s the stakes tonight?

Luke flips cards over for the deal.

LUKE
(after a beat, smiling)
Twenty bucks (beat) and your souls.

Syd nods. He and Billy pull out their TWENTIES. John pours himself another drink.

BILLY
I’m down with that.

John draws an ACE. Luke looks at John.

LUKE
(to John)
You have the deal.

John pulls a crumpled TWENTY from his pocket and tosses it on the table.

JOHN
Terrific.

John takes the cards and shuffles.


BILLY
What’s the Payout?

Luke holds up the money in a fan.

LUKE
Winner takes all.

John deals.

SYD
My kind of game.

BILLY
I dunno man, I’m feeling lucky tonight.

JOHN
That’s what you said last time.

Smiles around the table.

LUKE
I guess we’ll find out.

They play.

SYD
Weirdest thing happened to me today.

Luke watches SYD. John pours another drink.

BILLY
(smiling, pushing chips)
Raise!

John rolls his eyes.

SYD
So I’m supposed to show the old Cohen
house, right?

JOHN
Who’s gonna buy that shithole?

SYD
I know.



LUKE
(pushing chips)
Call.

SYD
(looking at cards)
Fold. (beat) Anyway I get out there and
of course the client doesn’t show.

JOHN
(folding)
Fucking clients.

SYD
Amen. (beat) So I get tired of waiting.
I close the place up and go to leave.
That’s when I see her.

BILLY
Who?

SYD
Some crazy old bitch is looking at me
out the window, from INSIDE the house.

BILLY
Wha?

SYD
I shit you not. The place was empty when
I locked up but there she was, glaring
down at me like I pissed on her grave or
something.

LUKE
Well, knowing you.

Laughs around the table.

SYD
True.

More laughs.

BILLY
You think it was the ghost of Mrs.
Cohen?
SYD
Nope. Don’t believe in ghosts.

JOHN
(after a beat)
So did you go check it out?

SYD
Hell no, I got the fuck out of there!

Laughs.

BILLY
(showing cards)
I got Aces and Eights!

LUKE
(showing cards)
Aces and Jacks.

BILLY
Aw, no way.

Luke collects the pot. Billy shuffles. John pours a drink.

BILLY
(dealing)
I got a better story.

SYD
Does it involve you finally losing your
virginity?

John chokes on his drink. Luke smiles. Billy gives Syd the finger.

BILLY
(continued)
It didn’t happen to me though. It
happened to my Uncle.

JOHN
(sarcastic)
Your Uncle?

BILLY
Yeah! Back when he was in the Navy. They
used to use underwater microphones to
listen for subs, before computers.

SYD
I think I’ve heard this one before.

BILLY
So they’ve got this mic way down in some
trench, and suddenly there’s this sound,
like someone’s tapping on the microphone.

SYD
(raising)
Like maybe a hungry fish?

John folds.

BILLY
(calling)
Nope. Couldn’t have been a fish. One of
the Navy guys goes all white. They ask
him what’s wrong? He says, ’It’s Morse
Code.’

JOHN
No way.

LUKE
(calling, beat)
What was the message?

Syd taps out Morse Code on the table.

SYD
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T!

Laughs.

BILLY
It was some kind of really advanced
mathematical formula. Couldn’t have been
just random.

SYD
(raises)
Get out.

BILLY
(folds)
I swear.

JOHN
(beat)
That’s actually kind of scary.


LUKE
(to SYD)
Take it.

Luke throws away his cards. Syd rakes in the pot.

LUKE
(continues, to John)
What about you? You have a story?

John takes a drink. Luke shuffles. John pauses before answering. Luke begins to deal.

JOHN
I saw a UFO.

Luke pauses mid-deal.

SYD
Get the fuck out.

BILLY
Really?

Luke continues dealing.
SYD
Did you get abducted? Cause that would
explain a lot.

BILLY
A real UFO?

SYD
(conspiratorially)
Did they (beat) PROBE you?

John gives Syd the finger and takes a drink. Syd raises. John calls.

JOHN
We were flying down to Cuba, along the
East Coast. I had the window seat,
looking over the ocean. (beat) I see
this bright light flying with us.

Billy and Luke fold.

SYD
Like maybe, another plane?

JOHN
Not like a plane. It moved too fast.

LUKE
Were you near Florida?

JOHN
Yeah, why?

LUKE
Shuttle launch?

Syd raises. John calls.

JOHN
(shaking head)
No. I’ve seen a shuttle launch. This was
different. No smoke trail. And it was
FAST. It moved like it owned the sky.
Like a huge supersonic bird made of pure
light.

SYD
(beat)
You know it’s probably not a good idea
to get high before you fly.

Laughs.

John shrugs and takes a drink.

SYD
(continues)
What have you got?

Syd and John show their cards. John has a higher pair. John rakes in the pot.

SYD
(continues)
Damn.

BILLY
(to Luke)
What about you? You got a story?

Syd shuffles. Luke doesn’t respond.



SYD
C’mon. Don’t hold out on us. You must
have something.

Syd deals.

LUKE
(smiling)
Maybe.

John looks at his cards.

JOHN
(pushing chips)
Raise a hundred.

Billy raises his eyebrows. He looks at his cards.

BILLY
(pushing chips)
Call.

SYD
Ooh. A real hand.

Luke looks at his cards. He calls.

SYD
(pushing chips)
I’m going to have to raise on principle.
Two hundred more.

John calls.

BILLY
That’s half my chip stack.

SYD
You gotta pay to play.

Billy sighs and looks at his cards again.

BILLY
Call.

LUKE
Call.

SYD
Family pot.
Syd deals the flop. The flop is the Ace, Jack and Two of diamonds.

SYD
Possible flush! Do I deal excitement or
what?

JOHN
Three hundred.

BILLY
What?

Luke smiles. Billy fusses for a minute.

BILLY
I guess I’m all in for four.

LUKE
(beat)
Call.

SYD
Call.

John throws in another hundred.

BILLY
(to Luke)
You never told us your story.

SYD
Uh, monster hand here.

JOHN
Yeah, let’s hear it.

Luke smiles.

LUKE
You wouldn’t believe me.

BILLY
Try us.

Syd holds the deck in his hand.

SYD
You guys ready for the next card?

BILLY
I wanna hear his story.

Syd sighs.

JOHN
Me too.

Syd sets the deck down.

SYD
Unbelievable.

LUKE
You won’t like it.

SYD
I already don’t like it.

LUKE
(beat)
I once had a conversation with The Devil.

Silence. No one moves.

SYD
The Devil.

LUKE
I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.

Syd picks up the deck.

SYD
That’s because The Devil doesn’t exist.

BILLY
But ghosts and UFO’s do?

SYD
The Devil is a metaphor in Judeo-Christian
mythology representing the evil inside
people.

JOHN
Mythology?

BILLY
What do you mean?

SYD
They say ‘The Devil made me do
it’ as a way of avoiding the fact that
we humans are responsible for evil.

JOHN
Did you just call the religious beliefs
of billions of people, mythology?

SYD
The point is, there is no Devil. He’s
not real.

LUKE
He seemed pretty real to me.

BILLY
(beat)
What did he look like?

Syd put his hand to his forehead.

LUKE
Funny thing. I can’t remember.

JOHN
What do you mean?

LUKE
He didn’t look like anybody. He was so…
ordinary. One of those guys who’s face
you can never remember no matter how
hard you try. (beat) I won’t forget his
voice though.

BILLY
What did he say?

LUKE
(smiling)
He ordered coffee. ‘Black and hot’. I
told him we were closing but he said he
wouldn’t be long. He said, ‘I have to
get back to work.’ Naturally I asked him
what he did for work. (beat) He looked me
right in the eye and said, ‘I collect
souls.’

SYD
Get the fuck out.
LUKE
That’s what he said. I thought he was a
nut ball at first but he seemed so
sincere. So I played along, I said ‘So
what, you’re The Devil?’ And without
missing a beat the guy says, ‘Some call
me that, though I don’t see myself that
way.’

BILLY
Holy Shit!

SYD
You realize it was just some guy,
yanking your chain.

LUKE
(beat)
I’m not so sure. The way he talked, the
things he said. I’ve never heard ideas
like that.

JOHN
Like what?

LUKE
He told me that the secret to telling a
really great lie was to go all or
nothing. You tell the truth, then just
spin it ever so slightly to suit your
purposes. Or you make something up, the
more outrageous, the better. He said
people will see through a small lie
easily, but make it a whopper,
something totally unbelievable and
people will wonder if just maybe it
might be true.

JOHN
Our government does that all the time.

SYD
No kidding.

LUKE
He seemed kind of sad though. He said he
wished every soul could be truly free
to choose their own destiny, but that
people are inherently lazy and would
rather let someone else do the thinking
LUKE
(continued)
for them. Let someone else decide what’s
right or wrong.

BILLY
Wow.

LUKE
Yeah it kind of blew me away.

SYD
He say anything else?

LUKE
(smiling)
Well, he did offer me a job.

BILLY
Wha?

JOHN
Doing what?

Luke thinks for a moment, then looks down at the table.

LUKE
I didn’t ask.

SYD
Good thing too. Clearly you were talking
to a nutcase.

Luke shrugs.

LUKE
You’re probably right. (beat) Let’s see
the next card.

Syd grins and turns over the Ace of Spades.

JOHN
Five hundred

LUKE
Call.

Syd pushes the chips into a side pot. He adds his own.


SYD
Also call.

Syd turns over the last card. It is the Three of Diamonds.

JOHN
(pushes chips)
I think it’s time for me to go all in.

LUKE
Interesting.

Luke looks at his cards. He calls.

SYD
I call. And unless one of you guys has
the straight flush, I’ve got you all
beat.

BILLY
Straight Flush?

LUKE
Four and five of diamonds makes the
straight flush. (to Syd) You got Aces?

Syd lays down his cards. He has pocket Aces.

SYD
Quad Aces baby.

LUKE
Nice.

Luke throws his cards away. They remain separate from the rest. John shows his cards. He has pocket Jacks.

JOHN
Full House.

He takes a drink.

SYD

Ouch.

BILLY
Great. Just great. I had the nut flush
and you guys are getting full houses
and Quads. I can’t win.
SYD
(smiling)
Thank you gentlemen.

Luke hands him the cash.

LUKE
Here you go.

SYD
I gotta call my wife, tell her I’m bringing home the bacon.

Syd makes a phone call. John stands up and stretches. Billy is lost in thought.

When none of the others are looking, Luke moves the cards. He pulls the Ace, Two and Three of diamonds out of the house and puts them in front of himself. He pulls his hole cards over. He looks at each of the others, then flips over his hole cards.

They are the Four and Five of Diamonds.

Luke smiles.

FADE OUT