OTHER FAN ART
DR. BENNIE
Because me and a bazillion other people watched the memorial on T.V.
JO
You mean that circus with the fake tears and the big, gold, empty casket?
JAMES
Please.
DR. BENNIE
That casket wasn’t empty.
KIKI
I heard it was empty, too. I heard he was still alive.
Everyone groans
KIKI
I’m serious! You didn’t see the video of him in the helicopter? Or his ghost on
CNN?
JAMES
Sure, I saw it. Trust me, the man’s as cold as his singing career.
KIKI
James! How could you? Weren’t you his lawyer?
JAMES
Yep, and that’s how I can say we’re better off. That freak did a lot toward
healing the world when he left it.
DR. BENNIE
What about the Ferris Wheel?
KIKI
Guys, I never told you this but I’m a little bit psychic.
She closes her eyes, concentrating. James pulls a jacket and hat out of a box,
slips them on
KIKI
He’s here.
DR. BENNIE
Don’t get yourself worked up again.
KIKI
And he wants us out of his house.
DR. BENNIE
It’s not his house. The bank owns it. He abandoned the house and he abandoned us.
KIKI/ JO/ JAMES
“Us”?
Dr. Bennie continues talking and searching through the boxes, talks as if nobody is there.
JO
You might want to keep the harsh words to a minimum, James. Especially in
his living room.
KIKI
Jo’s right. The walls might have ears.
DR. BENNIE
Boy, if these walls could talk...
JO
And what would they say, doctor? Would they tell on you?
JAMES
Here we go again...
After a long pause, Kiki starts talking, almost to herself
KIKI
I was at a stoplight on La Brea. Tasha texted me. He was dead. Heart attack. I
thought it was a joke. Then, I got a text from Dr. Bennie. I couldn’t believe it. I
mean, I only met him a couple of times at the end of my shift, but I sensed a
connection...I just loved him so much!
She breaks down. Jo comforts her.
KIKI
(hysterical)
Ever since I was a little girl, I used to talk to my poster, the one where he’s
wearing the yellow sweater? I didn’t see why everybody said he was aDR. BENNIE
Nutcase?
JO
-Eccentric. If I were you, I’d stay right here in this room, wait until daylight and
then leave. Peacefully. With your sanity.
DR. BENNIE
After the second trial, I told him “fire everybody”. The handlers, the advisorseverybody. I told him he needs to go on T.V. and just blast those lying S.O.B.’s.
I wanted him to get pissed! Stand up, look us in the eye and say he didn’t do it.
(pause)
He was a patient, but dang it if he wasn’t a friend. None of us got to say goodbye. Not even his kids. What kind of man does that to his kids...?
JO
Let he who is without sin, Dr. Feelgood...
DR. BENNIE
Stop calling me that! I’m not saying I didn’t do my part, all right? I knew I was
wrong, I’m not saying that it wasn’t. But he was a fifty year old man. He knew
what he was doing.
James doubles over, groaning. He wears a fedora and a high school letterman
jacket.
KIKI
Are you all right?
DR. BENNIE
What happened?
James looks up, mimicking a werewolf.
JAMES
Go away!
KiKi screams as James falls over, laughing.
JAMES
I can’t believe you idiots! Where’s your sense of humor?
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