Random Pips

By: Winluck Wong

Two brothers from opposite sides of the law are sitting across from each other in a police interrogation room.

The police brother, TREVOR, turns on the overhead lamp to illuminate their table.

Stage lights up.

TREVOR:
Let’s start over again, shall we? Malcolm, a.k.a. “Monk”, Lee. Wanted in connection with the disappearance of Ricky, a.k.a. “Root”, Wagner and Felipe, a.k.a. “Ferro”, Mendoza on the night of April 6th, 2008. Explain yourself, Malcolm. Or would you feel more comfortable this time if I used your alias, “Monk”, instead?

MALCOLM:
Look…sir, you can call me anything you want, okay? You’re the bossman here. But how many more times do I have to tell you guys that I didn’t have anything to do with it? I was just being a good citizen and reported a crime. That’s it. Since when was that against the law?

TREVOR:
I really don’t think you’re in the best position to judge what being a “good citizen” means, Mr. I-Have-A-Criminal-Record-That’s-Dipped-In-Acid. But kudos for doing something right for once though. However, you do realize that there are a few fair-sized holes in your story. Like how you managed to miraculously escape while your partners-in-crime were, as you put it…“abducted”. How’d you get away from that?

MALCOLM:
I don’t know…they just missed me.

TREVOR:
They just missed you. Good one – very original. So what was it, really? A boost gone wrong? You got greedy, backstabbed your mates to rake in all the profits for yourself and now they’re lying at the bottom of the sea in cement-filled oildrums?

MALCOLM: (bolts up)
Hey, watch where you’re going with that! You talk about Root and Ferro that way again, I swear I’ll –

TREVOR:
You’ll what? Slug me? There’s a bright idea – right in the middle of the police station. Why don’t you give it a shot? Add a little more colour to your wretched life with police assault charges, eh? (tense pause)

Sit down! Let me lay out the scenario for you. Like you said, I’m the bossman here. I can make it so that you step out of this room a murderer – that’s minimum ten years in the slammer without chance of parole. So unless you cooperate and tell me the whole story, you can expect to be nothing but a number in a jumpsuit behind bars for the next decade or more.

MALCOLM:
Prick.

TREVOR:
Excuse me?

MALCOLM:
Yeah, you heard me. I said you’re a prick, Trevor. A prick who thinks he’s hotshot because he’s got a second prick in a holster and a shiny badge up his ass.

TREVOR:
Attitude is not going to get you anywhere. And that’ll be Inspector Lee to you.

MALCOLM:
Oh, fuck you and your fucking rank, Trev. I can’t even believe that you actually dragged me in for a full-blown interrogation. Or that when I called you to meet me alone, you brought along your entire squad of cops to clap me in cuffs. I’m your brother, for Pete’s sake! Your goddamn flesh-and-blood! The least you could’ve done was to just hear me out the first time. But no, you’re calmly going about trying to frame me as a murderer. What the fuck is wrong with you, Trev?

TREVOR:
What’s wrong is you. You’re the criminal and I’m the policeman. I’m upholding justice by arresting a lawbreaker. Simple as that.

MALCOLM:
Oh, I see. So it’s all just black and white to you – the fact that we both came from the same womb never crossed your mind at all. Well, what about our dear mother? Thought about her recently?

TREVOR:
Why are you bringing this up now?

MALCOLM:
Why am I bringing this up now? Hmm…let me think, maybe because you didn’t give me the opportunity when I politely asked for it the first time? So? Have you or have you not?

TREVOR:
Malcolm, this is neither the time nor the place to discuss our personal matters. Look around you – we’re in the middle of a police interrogation. Now, let’s just cut to the chase so we can get this over with as painlessly as –

MALCOLM:
It’s just one little question, Trev. Have you thought about Mom recently?

TREVOR: (gives in)
Every day. You don’t just forget about something as huge as your mother’s death, alright? But you also have to learn to move on. Mom’s been dead for years now and –

MALCOLM:
No, no, no…that’s where you’re wrong, Trev. Mom’s not dead.

TREVOR:
Malcolm…

MALCOLM:
She was abducted.

TREVOR:
Oh, don’t…

MALCOLM:
There’s a difference! Look, why are you like this? You know, it’s like you’ve completely forgotten what happened that night. Or you don’t even care –

TREVOR:
I do care. If you’ve any idea the hell I went through all these years…

MALCOLM:
No, I have no idea. ’Cause based on your actions after that night – or should I say your inactions – it didn’t look like you gave a crap. You hardly even lifted a finger in Mom’s investigation.

TREVOR:
Well, what was I supposed to tell them, Malcolm?

MALCOLM:
The truth.

TREVOR:
Our house got broken into, the robbers kidnapped Mom, she completely disappeared off the radar after that, and we had to presume she was dead. That was the truth, Malcolm.

MALCOLM:
No, that was you living in denial. You know –

TREVOR:
I know this has been rough on the two of us. But please Malcolm, just…I’m trying to look out for you here. I need to know what happened to Root and Ferro so that I can help you out of this mess.

MALCOLM:
You looking out for me? You’ve been hunting me down like a rabid dog for the past several years!

TREVOR:
But you’ve never actually been charged with anything serious, have you? Think about it. You’ve always somehow managed to slip away because of “insufficient evidence”. Or what about the numerous times when you found yourself being tailed by some members of a rival gang? Why did the police conveniently step out of nowhere and bust down on them? Coincidence? Why do you think I worked my ass off to become an Inspector? It’s so that I can be the one pulling the strings. I put my entire career – my entire life – on the line to watch over you, Malcolm.

MALCOLM:
It was…really you? Shit…all these years, I thought – You know why they call me “Monk”? They say it’s like I got angels watching my back or something. I always got through the deepest shit with hardly ever a scratch. Who would’ve guessed? My own cop brother. Well…you could’ve said something. We might’ve been able to work things out without you risking your job and all. We could’ve…

TREVOR:
Could we have, Malcolm? Could we really have? Every single time we’ve encountered each other after our last night with Mom, we couldn’t look each other in the eye. And when we did…I could barely recognize you – all that was there was…hate.

MALCOLM:
Yeah, well you really didn’t expect me to forgive you just because you’re my brother, did you? Actually, it was because you’re my brother that I couldn’t forgive you. I mean, you were a goddamn cop! You had all the resources you needed behind you and you blew the investigation with that cock-and-bull story of yours!

TREVOR:
It was a story that could be handled. No one would’ve been able to handle the truth.

MALCOLM:
And what is the truth, Trev? Because I’m starting to think that you’ve lied so hard to everyone including yourself that you’ve completely forgotten what the real truth is. Have you? What really happened on the night we lost our mother?

TREVOR:
Enough, Malcolm. Do you even realize how serious the situation you’re in right now is? You’ve been tagged as a prime murder suspect. It’s going to be tough to cover up and that’s why you have to tell me the truth about Root and Ferro.

MALCOLM:
Fine, a truth for a truth. You tell me what happened to Mom that night and then I’ll tell you what happened to Root and Ferro.

TREVOR:
We don’t have time –

MALCOLM:
You’ll get the precious information you want afterwards. I promise. I need to know this, Trev. I need to know that my brother did not disappear the night my mother disappeared as well. What happened that night?

TREVOR:
What happened that night was supposed to only exist in movies and novels…

MALCOLM:
She was abducted by aliens. It’s not fiction anymore – it’s reality. How did it happen?

TREVOR: (gives in)
One minute we were having dinner with Mom. The next minute the lights went completely dead. Even the moonlight was somehow blocked out. It was pitch-black. I couldn’t see my fingers when I held them right in front of my face…

MALCOLM:
And then?

TREVOR: (gathers himself again)
Then the kitchen door was smashed down and these…things – aliens…stepped in, flashing beams of harsh white light around. One of them aimed some kind of device at us and we were frozen just like that. Couldn’t even twitch a pinkie. They started scanning our bodies with some other instrument and finally concentrated on Mom. And they took her. Hauled her out into the night.

MALCOLM:
And we couldn’t do shit about it. We couldn’t even fucking scream. Yet, even with all this injustice done to Mom, you willingly turned this into an open-and-shut case.

TREVOR:
I had to. Look, I…okay, you know what? You want the truth? The truth is…I was afraid. I admit that. I was terrified of having to face whatever was waiting at the end of the investigation alone. Because that is what I’d be, Malcolm. Alone. No other policeman in this district or even the whole fucking CIA would’ve been able to stomach what really happened that night.

MALCOLM:
Alone? What the hell are you talking about? There’s still me!

TREVOR:
No, no, no…

MALCOLM:
What?

TREVOR:
I couldn’t have let you get involved. It would’ve been way too dangerous. You’re my kid brother. I can’t lose you, too.

MALCOLM:
Listen to what you’re saying, Trev. You have no right to exclude me from this just because you’re trying to protect me. This is our mother we’re talking about here! Not just yours or not just mine – our mother. If we’re gonna do anything about this, we’re in it together.

TREVOR:
Okay…well, that’s great and all…but what’s done is done. It’s all in the past now.

MALCOLM:
What if I tell you it’s not?

TREVOR:
What do you mean?

MALCOLM:
What if we have another shot at this? Would we tackle this together or would you start making decisions about my safety again?

TREVOR:
Malcolm, what’s the point –

MALCOLM:
Just answer the question.

TREVOR: (gives in)
If I have to face it one more time, I really don’t think I’d be able to shoulder it alone again. We’d do this together. I promise. But you still haven’t told me what this is all about though.

MALCOLM:
Okay, I will now. Root and Ferro were abducted…by the same aliens that took Mom. We were at our hideout and I went to get some take-out for dinner. On my way back, I noticed that the area around our hideout was completely pitch-black. The streetlamps and everything were out. Sound familiar? Then I saw the aliens. They dragged Root and Ferro out. One of them kicked Root in the gut and demanded him to tell them where we were. Trev, they called us by our names – there’s no mistaking it. I don’t know how that’s possible, but they somehow traced their way back to us after all these years! And there’s more: that alien said something about Mom. Trev, they still have her and she’s alive. Mom’s not dead!

TREVOR:
No…you’ve got to be shitting me.

MALCOLM:
Trev, I didn’t run away and go through all this hell just to mess around with your head, alright? And especially not about this. Those things are after us. I don’t know why, but they are fucking after us. The important thing is they have Mom and she’s still alive. I’ve no idea how much time we have and we need to have some kind of plan in place before they get to us. But we can’t do this if you don’t believe me. So do you or do you not, Trev?

TREVOR: (hesitant pause)
I believe you.

MALCOLM: (breathes out a big sigh of relief)
Alright. Okay, here’s what I think we should –

Blackout.

Searchlights sweep the theatre from backstage.

MALCOLM:
Trev?

TREVOR:
I’m still here, Malcolm. I got your back. We’ll get through this together.

Blackout.

~ by Winluck on October 21, 2009.

Posted in Fiction
Tags: Fiction