Tagger by Marc Garren

 

Final Episode ­ "Taggerdt the Unkissed"

SCENE: Its the midnight run for the Boston Municipal Subway Authority. The massive steel worm shrieks its way across the subterranean tracks blind to the....

CUT TO: A stark rounder than round and bigger than a Georgia Peach silver Moon shines down reflections shattering on the surface of the Charles river to reveal the floating carcass of a half eaten fish.

CUT TO: A fat rat running across the beams of light illuminating the darkness of the tunnel stretching beyond the vision of the Subway driver ­ he pulls down hard on the cord to honk the locomotives pneumatic horn. An earpiercing "WHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...." as our perspective switches from scuttling rats and the dank riverwater dripping red brick tunnel twisting out of sight to the sweating locomotive driver sitting before his shiny control panel wearing well worn jeans, b.o. stained undershirt singlet and red suspenders ­ obligatory white shirt and tie tossed across the empty co-driver's seat beside him and suddenly...

CUT TO: The rails rumble as the passenger cars snake their way towards their destination; sliding, sledding, clicking and clacking, aligning and unaligning as the polished steel wheels cut their way through the stainless steel groove of the rail.

CAMERA PANS TO REVEAL AN ASSORTMENT OF INNER BOSTON CHARACTERS. They sit in their seats staring into space avoiding eye contact: (1) The PIMPLY GUY just out of high school wearing a Harvard sweatshirt (but who really goes to BU). (2) the LADY MIT SCIENTIST peering warily through her thicker than thick glasses while clutching a tray of smoking bubbling test-tubes, the precipitating droplets burning little sputtering smoking holes in her labcoat. (3) The NUBILE WOMAN wearing only a tiny silk summer skirt and blouse over her hotter than hot young body. (4) An OLD CLEANING WOMAN with her mop and pail by her side, a jeweled crucifix is prominent around her neck. (5) Taggert, his face a shadow hidden in the folds of his hood, only his mirrored sunglasses shining with the reflected flourescence of the train cars interior, sitting as immobile as a bhuddasatva.

Suddenly the subway pulls into Port of Boston station with a screeching of asbestos against wheel and a bellowing of the horn ...

VOICE (heavy working class Boston accent screaming with urgency): POT O' BAASSSTAAN !!!! POT O' BAASSSTAAN !!! LAAAST KAAA!!! LAAAST KAAA!!!

Three tall THUGS enter the subway car. One aims a smack at the pointy top of Taggerds hood, to which provocation Taggerd does not move or flinch. Two of the THUGS seat themselves on either side of NUBILE WOMAN and the THIRD THUG positions himself in front of her, sealing off any hope of escape. Her EYES turn desperately to each of her fellow passengers carrying a silent prayer for assistance. One by one they turn away shamefacedly, only Taggerdt ­ seated direct across from NUBILE WOMAN keeps looking straight ahead, his MIRRORRED SUNGLASSES perfectly reflecting the THUGS evildoing back at them.

CLOSE UP: As the THIRD THUG twists his giant grease stained hands across Nubile Woman's throat Taggerdt leaps on top of his seat and before you can say "jiminy cricket" he has whipped out his paint spray can and spritzed a dark opaque cloud of liquid across the windows located behind Taggerdt (the ones facing the THUGS - who first think he is trying to help them by obscuring the view of passersby's when they pull into the next station).

THIRD THUG: (tearing off NUBILE'S blouse leaving her shapely feminine torso clad only in a bra as she screams) "Why thank you kindly mister..."

SHIFTING VIEW: Suddenly from dark and opaque the liquid transforms by alchemy into a brighter than bright perfect quicksilver reflecting the THUGS assaulting NUBILE and then it freezes becoming a gigantic extremely high clarity photograph of the assault by the THUGS plastered across the side of the subway train capturing the moment larger than life- unerasable court admissible evidence of the culpability of the THUGS.

THUGS (suddenly leaving Nubile alone ­ who sobs silently - to surround Taggerdt­ each speaking in unison): "You bastard... you think you can fuck with us?"

Suddenly the train pulls into Boston Central Station ("BAASTAAN SINTRAA STAY-SHUNN" yells the driver.) NUBILE starts to scream like a house on fire and the THUGS exit from the subway car like a clutch of bats on a three day pass out of hell.

NUBILE: patching her outfit back into respectible condition turns to Taggerd as the train starts chugging away leaving the bad guys behind. "Oh, thank you! I don't know what I would have done without you. It is too terrible even to think of..."

TAGGERDT: "Oh, it was nothing."

NUBILE: "Like hell it was nothing. It took courage for you to face up to those guys. And now I would like to give you your reward..."

CAMERA SHIFTS: Taggerdt starts to shake as NUBILE puckers her lips.

CLOSEUP ON NUBILES LIPS: They are red, shapely, perfectly glossed and puckered up.

TAGGERDT: (shaking, fear clutching in his voice) "I cannot...."

NUBILE: (quietly beseeching) "But don't you want to?"

TAGGERDT (still shaking): "Oh believe me fair maiden - there is nothing that I would like to do more... but ..."

NUBILE reaches over and removes TAGGERDTS mirrored glasses and pulls back his hood; pauses a beat and then she shrieks with horror and dispair as the unforgiving flourescent lights reveal....

CLOSE UP at Taggerdt's hideously scarred head and face, a mishmash of melted flesh having lost all features of ear, nose and lips, with blind empty eyes like deformed egg whites from which are now falling perfect tear drops in the rhythm of the rain.

NUBILE shrieks uncontrollably ­ this is more than she can handle - and she flees to the next car (we hear the door slam irrevocably) and then she disapears out of sight.

TAGGERDT (shaking, tears streaming from his deformed face, he pleads his case in a deep manly voice): "Oh, high priestess, please release me.... have I not made amends for my sins? Have I not endured my twenty degrees of solitude? I cannot bear this loneliness any longer.... release me!"

OLD CLEANING WOMAN (who is really a high priestess of Candoble, an expatriate from Brazil, who oversees all of the strange events that transpire on this vehicle in the middle of the night.) She starts to chant out an old incantation making the sign of the cross. (In a voice not entirely unlike that of Glinda the good witch of the West.): "Very well, if that is what you choose, then so be it... here is your freedom, make the most of it ... if I knew the way then I myself would take you home ... VIA CON DIOS."

A beat, and then the glasses, the paint spray can, the hooded sweatshirt, the denim pants, and the New Balance sneakers drop empty on the seat of the rail carriage. As the Conductor's amplified voice screams "KAAMBRIJJ STAAASHIN KAAMBRIJJ STAAASHIN" no one notices the extra second shadow which follows the LADY MIT SCIENTIST on her way past the turnstyle.

FOCUS ON THE SECOND SHADOW: Although unattached to any visible tangible form, we can see it is the shadow of a fine featured hawk faced man buck naked, dancing and skipping to an unheard music, drunk and entranced with his new found freedom making his way up the tiled steps towards the light of a summer East Coast early sunrise.

THE END