Any Day Now

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' Sims:
I put ketchup covered tampons in the trash.

Colliar Sims:
[Kelly and Davis are fighting] Now how would you two feel if something happened and you never saw each other again? You'd want this to be the last thing you said to each other?

Kelly Sims Williams, Davis Sims:
Yeah!

Sarah Jackson:
After what that man did to us 35 years ago, this is nothing.

Bill Moody:
What did O'Brien 35 years ago?

Rene Jackson:
Let's just say I breathed a sigh of relief every night when my father came home.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' Sims:
[discarding her robe] I think I still look best in my birthday suit.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' Sims:
[to a cop looking over her car] What're you expecting to find back there, a big bag of money? [laughs] That's right, I'm Thelma and [Rene] she's Louise.

Davis Sims:
Mom, what're you doing in my room? Looking through my socks?

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' Sims:
I was just looking, I wasn't looking for boy things, I was looking for... guns, knives, plastic explosives.

Davis Sims:
Mom, have you gone crazy?

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' Sims:
I sure hope so.

Rene Jackson:
If they would look past the witchcraft stuff they would see a perfectly normal pre-Christian religion...

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Pre=Christian? Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?

Rene Jackson:
It means there were religions before Christianity, like Buddhism, Hinduism, and Wicca is one of them.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Oh my God, they've got you under their spell, don't they?

Rene Jackson:
Basically we've started World War 3. I guess Claire can be a real b*tch when she wants to be.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' Sims:
Well so can you, honey, so don't worry about it.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' Sims:
And then she said that my imagery was vivid and brilliant, and that my metaphors were subtle but powerful. I didn't even know I was using metaphors, I usually just write the first thing that pops into my head.

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
If I tell you something, you promise not to tell anyone?

Young Rene Jackson:
Promise.

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
[open her shirt] See that scar? Last summer I was riding Feather and he threw me. Only I told everyone I fell off the fence.

Young Rene Jackson:
How come?

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
Aunt Blanche can be mighty mean, she told me if a horse ever threw her, she'd shoot it, skin it and turn it into glue.

Young Rene Jackson:
Glue? [drops her glue brush]

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
Uh huh. And if he throws me again, Aunt Blanche is gonna [throat cut gesture]

Rene Jackson:
[on the carousel] For future reference, this is as close to a horse as you're ever gonna get me.

Bill Moody:
Why? You afraid of them?

Rene Jackson:
No, I just have a healthy respect for any animal that weighs 2000 pounds more than I do.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' Sims, Rene Jackson:
I swear I'd rather die and rot than tell about our secret spot, so cross my heart, I will not tell, cuz if I do I'll go to hell!

Rene Jackson:
I can't believe you remembered!

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' Sims:
Are you kidding? It's the first thing I ever wrote!

Matthew O'Brien:
She's my mother, I've loved her more than you ever have.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Since when?

Rene Jackson:
He probably can't deal with the fact that she's getting older. Some people do that, they withdraw from people's lives to avoid seeing them age.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
For 35 years?

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
[finds Irene's cat, calling] Hey Grandma, it's Mr. Tangerine. [hears gunshot]

Catherine O'Brien:
Now just what am I going to tell Mrs. Sims if you don't come to the picnic?

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
Tell her I saw Colliar's father hit him and it gave me a stomachache.

Colliar Sims:
It has to get really dark for the stars to shine, suge.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
This is dark enough for me.

Mary Elizabeth:
Once you lose a child, you never feel completely safe again.

Rene Jackson:
Everything's going to be okay, M.E.

Mary Elizabeth:
Yeah? Then why does it feel like there's a storm coming?

Lurla Spettiswood:
You and your lifestyle...

Mary Elizabeth:
We have a lifestyle now?

Lurla Spettiswood:
Your white trash neighbors and your uppity colored friends.

Mary Elizabeth:
I'm gonna have to ask you to stop right there.

Mary Elizabeth:
Personally, I think all rapists should be castrated.

Catherine O'Brien:
[the staff at a white hospital refuses to admit Rene who's unconscious and needs stitches] If you let this child die, I'm calling President Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., the NAACP and every other Colored organization, we'll rally outside the hospital, it'll make last month's march on Birmingham look like a picnic. Now you get this girl some help!

Rene Jackson:
I think we should add this to our list of things not to talk about.

Mary Elizabeth:
That list gets bigger every day and I hate it.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Did you have to fake anything?

Rene Jackson:
No, I didn't have to fake anything 3 times.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Really?

Rene Jackson:
Didn't you ever have a multiple orgasm?

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Yeah but I was usually by myself.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
[about racism] How else am I supposed to learn about this stuff other than dying my skin black? Hey, there's an idea, I could call it "Black like M.E.".

Jimmy O'Brien:
It's been over 20 years, peanut, what brings you down here?

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
I'm writing an article for the Birmingham Voice.

Jimmy O'Brien:
About me?

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
About racism.

Jimmy O'Brien:
What you call racism, I call patriotism.

Young Colliar Sims:
Nobody's going to get hurt, Mary Elizabeth.

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
They bombed her church, four of her friends died, a lot more's happening than just getting hurt, Colliar, and I hate it!

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
He said he was going to kill you!

Rene Jackson:
So what else is new?

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
He is crazy, Rene, just crazy, just take a gun off the wall and go kill people crazy.

Rene Jackson:
I'm not afraid of your uncle, M.E.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Well I am.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Oh I get it, it's okay for her to hate me because I'm white but it's not okay for me to hate her because she's black!

Rene Jackson:
It's not okay but you probably haven't been hurt as much as she has. I've been there, mad at the world. Why was that saleswoman rude to me, because I'm black? Why did that clerk wait on that person first and not me, because I'm black? Is this guy looking at me because I'm a black woman driving a Mercedes or because he's just a jerk having a bad day.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
He's just a jerk having a bad day. You want to rock his world? Kiss me.

Rene Jackson:
[pause] No tongue.

Jimmy O'Brien:
Thank you for the cookies, peanut.

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
Rene and I made them just for you. [Jimmy pauses]

Matthew O'Brien:
[smirking] Eating colored cookies, how do they taste now, Jimmy?

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
So we told Kelly if she wants her own car, she's going to have to get a job, which I think put that issue to bed because that would mean precious time away from Jason.

Rene Jackson:
He seems like a nice kid.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
So did the Menendez boys.

Rene Jackson:
Okay, look, yes, you and I can both experience sexism, when was the last time you experienced racism? Hm? And it's not just white hoods and Nazis and skinheads, it's the subtle stuff, stuff you don't even think about that happens every day, like the butter!

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Here you go again with the damn butter!

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
We walk through every day pretty much invisible, you know? I mean we never have to think about being white, when was the last time you thought about being white? [Colliar doesn't answer] There, you see? And this stuff goes deep and it's all mixed up in the past with slavery and what we went through as kids. Do you ever think about those days?

Colliar Sims:
As little as possible.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Well I think about them. I called Uncle Jimmy today/

Colliar Sims:
WHAT?

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
He's the worst racist I've ever known! He wasn't at home.

Colliar Sims:
Don't you be calling him back, Mary Elizabeth! You cut him out of your life years ago with good reason!

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Daddy saw him last year, he was in the hospital, something with his heart.

Colliar Sims:
The man has no heart.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
He wasn't born with all that hate, Colliar. Where does that start? Where'd it start with my parents? With me?

Colliar Sims:
So Rene's right, you're a racist?

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
I don't know. I know my family's racist, or used to be. I know I can be pretty stupid.

Colliar Sims:
Calling your Uncle Jimmy was stupid. You're crazy if you open that door back up again.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
[watching her Uncle Jimmy from the car] Okay you bastard, let's talk.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
I can't write this article, Glenn, it hits too close to home, it brings up too many ghosts and I can't write it honestly anyway because it means that my family and friends would have to bring up all these old memories that are better off dead and I can't do that to them or me. I have an uncle in the Ku Klux Klan! Or he was, I guess he still is, I don't know, and I was going to talk to him and try to find out WHY he hates so much, but what good would that do? And WHY would I even want to TRY to understand something that is irrational and EVIL? And it's way too complex an issue, I don't have anything but my own experience and WHAT do I know anyway? So I can't write this article.

Glenn:
If it scares you this much, Mary Elizabeth, that's why you HAVE to write it.

Young Rene Jackson:
It's like my daddy always says, it's always darkest before the dawn.

Mary Elizabeth:
You son of a b*tch! You scared me when I was a kid but you do NOT scare me now!

Jimmy O'Brien:
What're you talking about?

Mary Elizabeth:
Cross! Gasoline! My front yard!

Jimmy O'Brien:
Calm down, Peanut, what's happened?

Mary Elizabeth:
You burnt a cross on my yard and don't peanut me!

Jimmy O'Brien:
[Rene recalls 35 years ago when Jimmy and his partner pulled she and Sara over, held a gun to Rene's head and made Sara call herself a n*gger] That wasn't me.

Rene Jackson:
But you watched, and enjoyed it. And through time you have continued to watch, is this all you do?

Jimmy O'Brien:
I don't always watch and you know it you fancy assed high heeled n*gger! [court gasps]

Rene Jackson:
You hate me, don't you?

Jimmy O'Brien:
Yes I do, and that ain't illegal either.

Rene Jackson:
No, but you went from hating to hurting and God bless Alabama because in this state, hurting IS illegal!

Matthew O'Brien:
Why were you over there?

Mary Elizabeth:
He [Jimmy] burnt a cross on our front yard.

Matthew O'Brien:
What?

Mary Elizabeth:
Your brother, burnt a cross, on our front yard.

Catherine O'Brien:
Mary Elizabeth, that is ridiculous.

Mary Elizabeth:
Oh no it was really quite spectacular, what was it Colliar? About 8 feet, turned into a block party, neighbors brought lawn chairs, everybody had such a good time we hope he does it again next week.

Mary Elizabeth:
Colliar, do you ever that maybe we're doing something wrong here?

Colliar Sims:
Now don't go there.

Mary Elizabeth:
No no, really, think about it. The FBI has been on our front lawn all night, my parents have opened a home for wayward Hitlers, our credit cards are maxed out, we have no money coming in, our whole life is a MESS!

Colliar Sims:
Too bad Jim didn't burn down the house, we could've collected on the insurance.

Mary Elizabeth:
Got a match?

Mary Elizabeth:
[Jimmy's in the hospital] They'd tell us if he was dead, wouldn't they?

Colliar Sims:
[takes coffee from her] Is this decaf?

Mary Elizabeth:
Once when I was 6 he took me to the circus. I loved it: clowns, elephants, acrobats. And then the monkeys came out. He said they were unshaved n*ggers. I despise him. I wish he needed my kidney or my blood or something so I could just LAUGH in his face!

Colliar Sims:
Mary Elizabeth, calm down!

Mary Elizabeth:
I have SIX FBI AGENTS on my front yard, I don't want to calm down!

Rene Jackson:
Please tell the court if you had any recent conversations with your uncle where my name came up.

Luke:
Objection, leading the witness.

Judge Leonard:
Overruled, and she's not leading, she's getting to the point. You may answer the question.

Mary Elizabeth:
Yes, your name came up.

Rene Jackson:
What did he say?

Mary Elizabeth:
He said 'I had a chance to kill that little n*gger a long time ago, and the one good thing about getting older is you have a chance to correct your mistakes'.

Jimmy O'Brien:
Somebody take me home.

Mary Elizabeth:
[under her breath] It's alive. [to her father] Ask him about the cross, he'll brag about it.

Colliar Sims:
Did you get any sleep? Man I feel like I got hit by a truck.

Mary Elizabeth:
Yeah I got about a half hour, the whole time I dreamt you joined the Klan, white sheets and all.

Colliar Sims:
Nice. [gets his breakfast] One egg?

Mary Elizabeth:
Chickens are having a cash flow problem, remember?

Kelly Sims:
I'm still kind of creeped out. I just, it makes me so mad, I want to do something, I hate people who think like that.

Mary Elizabeth:
Let's see, you hate people who hate, there's something not quite right with that picture.

Colliar Sims:
Did you get any sleep?

Kelly Sims:
I kept seeing that stuff Davis found on the internet last night. Talk about hate!

Mary Elizabeth:
What kind of stuff?

Kelly Sims:
He got on your uncle Jimmy's website. It was disgusting, Mom.

Mary Elizabeth:
What are you doing? [switches off computer]

Davis Sims:
I'm just playing around.

Mary Elizabeth:
On HATE sites?

Davis Sims:
Your uncle Jimmy is NUTS, Mom.

Mary Elizabeth:
Davis, I'm tired and I'm hungry, and I'm angry, and I don't want to take it out on you. That said, I will not have you fooling around on these hate sites. I don't want that filth in my house.

Davis Sims:
How else am I supposed to find out about this stuff?

Mary Elizabeth:
Like any normal human being, just ask: I will talk to you about anything, but I don't want this garbage in my house. And you're sitting too close anyway, your retinas are going to detach. Now come have breakfast.

Davis Sims:
I think you should see this first. It's from his website: it's a hit list.

Mary Elizabeth:
A what?

Davis Sims:
A hit list, Rene's name is on it.

Rene Jackson:
[cuts to Rene seeing it] And my MOTHER's name, and her PHONE NUMBER, and the schedule of her prayer meetings at the CHURCH?

Matthew O'Brien:
This morning, Rene served him papers, you know she's suing him?

Mary Elizabeth:
You know he threatened her AND Sara?

Matthew O'Brien:
Where do you get these CRAZY ideas?

Mary Elizabeth:
Crazy? Davis found these on the internet: the first one is a HIT LIST with Rene and Sara's names, addresses, and telephone numbers! The rest of them are just you know, your everyday run-of-the-mill hate sites like The Jew Patrol, God Hates Homos.com, or my own personal favorite, the N*gger JOKE Center, trust me, none of them are funny. The organization that puts all this out is called New Patriotism, and your brother's name is on EVERY ONE OF THEM.

Matthew O'Brien:
[talking about Jimmy] I guess there's nothing more to say. We can agree to disagree.

Mary Elizabeth:
I'm sorry, you're wrong, and he's wrong, any day now maybe you'll be able to realize that. I hope I'm alive to see it.

Rene Jackson:
[about the N word] I don't ever want to hear that word again.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Never? What about "To Kill a Mockingbird"? "Huckleberry Finn?" "Port Dixie"?

Rene Jackson:
I don't think those kids were expressing their artistic freedom the other night, M.E.

Rene Jackson:
In 1963 it was what color you were, in 1998 it's who you sleep with.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
It's a good thing I'm not black, because by now I'd be dead, or I would've killed somebody.

Rene Jackson:
Or both.

Singer:
Children, full of fear and anger/Caught up in a deadly dance with danger/Why can't we read the signs/Before they make headlines?/Oh, somebody please, see through them!/Calm their fears, hold them close/The ones who seem to deserve love the least/Are the ones who need love the most/They wanna lock him away, forever and a day/He killed someone cold, he's only 12 years old/Somebody please, see through me, I'm not so bad I'm just lost, the times we seem to deserve love the least are the times we need love the most.

Rene Jackson:
Are you okay?

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
My 15 year old daughter just got picked up for drunk driving and called my best friend to come and bail her out and not me. No, I'm not okay.

Rene Jackson:
You got so drunk the night of our senior prom that you drove your car into an electrified fence.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Tell me you didn't tell her that.

Rene Jackson:
I told her we had a rough time growing up.

Catherine O'Brien:
[vacuuming] How was the game?

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
There was no game.

Catherine O'Brien:
Did you win?

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
I didn't even play.

Catherine O'Brien:
What was the score?

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
[shouting] You're not listening to me!

Catherine O'Brien:
[shuts off the vacuum] I'm sorry.

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
We didn't even play, yesterday Rene started bleeding all over the place.

Catherine O'Brien:
Oh my!

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
Now she doesn't want to do anything, she says it's because she's a woman now.

Catherine O'Brien:
Well yes, it does have to do with becoming a woman, it's called menustration.

Young Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien:
Why do they call it a men's station if it's about being a woman?

Catherine O'Brien:
No, Mary Elizabeth, menustration.

Rene Jackson:
If she loses this case, she'll be deported and her son will go to foster care.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
[sarcastic] Oh yeah that's just what we need, another kid in foster care.

Rene Jackson:
I was conceived on this rug?

Sara Jackson:
Either that, or in the toolshed behind the church.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
[to Tillie Sims after Colliar got beat up by a bookie she owed money to] You know a couple months back Colliar and I were behind on our bills and I had to go down and pay in person and they didn't break my nose for paying what I owed them, so try it again.

Rene Jackson:
What're you doing here?

Mary Elizabeth:
Hiding out, plotting murder, the usual.

Mary Elizabeth:
[remembering why they broke up] You said I should get an abortion.

Rene Jackson:
You called me a n*gger.

Mary Elizabeth:
[about she and Rene growing up] Can you imagine not being able to sit next to your friends on the bus?

Davis Sims:
Is this the girl you marched in the parade with?

Mary Elizabeth:
Demonstration, not parade.

Rene Jackson:
Yesterday I caught April smoking a joint.

April's Mother:
At least it's just weed.

Rene Jackson:
Today...

April's Mother:
Look, it's not like I can keep tabs on my daughter. I'm serving 10 years in here because my boyfriend was a dealer, at the time we were living together it was because I needed someone to help raise my kids. He pulled up a name so high and mighty, nothing I had to say about him meant jack. He cut a deal and got out after two years, does that sound fair to you? Now I got someone I don't even know telling me how to raise my kid.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
Davis, do you know why Kelly's dressing like death warmed over?

Davis Sims:
Duh, it's because she's a goth now.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
A what?

Davis Sims:
A goth, you know, like Gothic...fantasize about death and stuff, you need to get out more.

Mary Elizabeth 'M.E.' O'Brien Sims:
And I think you've been getting out too much.