PERSHING SQUARE RED LINE STATION (a "Downtown LA Playlette" in 3 acts)
ACT I - INT. TICKET MACHINES
(BILL, earbuds in, walks up to the ticket machine and begins to buy a ticket. A MAN, surfer-blonde hair, 62% sketchy, approaches. He holds out a gold token.)
MAN: Wanna buy a token for a dollar?
BILL: (takes off earbuds) No, sorry, thank you.
(BILL hears the train approaching downstairs. He gets his ticket. He tries to leave, but the MAN stands in his way.)
MAN: How about seventy-five cents? Fifty cents?
BILL: No.
MAN: Fifty cents!
BILL: No.
MAN: Why not?
BILL: Because now I have to run.
(Bill sidesteps him, and runs to catch the train.)
ACT II - INT. RED LINE SUBWAY PLATFORM
(BILL reaches the bottom of the stairs as the doors of the train begin to close. BILL throws his arm between the closing doors, getting it in all the way up to his bicep. He waits. The doors do not open. In the car, a teenage BOY and a middle-aged MAN watch him.)
MAN: Not gonna happen. Not gonna happen.
BOY: No way, sir. No way.
MAN: Let it go. You gotta let it go.
BOY: Let it go!
(Bill tries to pull the doors open. No good. He pulls and pulls.)
MAN: It's over! Let it go!
BOY: Let it go!
ACT III - INT. RED LINE SUBWAY CAR
(BILL enters the car and leans against the opposite door. The MAN turns to look at him as the subway starts to move.)
MAN: They don't open those doors, son.
(BILL takes off earbuds.)
BILL: What?
MAN: Once they close those doors, you know, they don't open 'em back up.
BILL: They just did.
