Written by Joe Janes
9/24/09
249 of 365
CAST
Oswald, 60s
Ike, 30s
George, 40s
(Lights up on Oswald looking down through reading glasses working on the keys of an old typewriter. We hear a store bell ding as George walks in through the door. He is wearing an iPod. Oswald gives him a look. George nods and looks around the small store a bit.)
OSWALD
That’s a 1922 Underwood.
GEORGE (taking out ear buds)
It’s beautiful.
OSWALD
It’s a 1922 Underwood.
GEORGE
I feel like there should be an old candlestick phone right next to it. “Got a hot one for you, Mack - Governor and Mistress Caught in Love Nest. Stop the presses.” (He nods to himself) You restore these?
OSWALD
Restore and repair. Need a typewriter repaired?
GEORGE
Wish I did. Been by this place a million times. Looked in your window and decided, “What the hell?” I had an electric portable one in college. A Royal. Quite the popular guy on my dorm room floor. Everyone wanted to borrow it. A guy named Ted broke it.
OSWALD (pointing)
Did it look like that one?
GEORGE
Yep. Sure as hell did. Wow. Mine was dark blue, but this. Takes me back. So, this is what you do.
OSWALD
This is what I’ve always done.
GEORGE
All by yourself?
OSWALD
My son helps.
GEORGE
This is so great. You do this one thing, that you love, right?
OSWALD
That’s why I do it.
GEORGE
I don’t do anything.
OSWALD
Everybody does something.
GEORGE
Nothing like this. Not everybody gets to do something like this.
OSWALD
Not like I’m turning people away at the door.
GEORGE
But you make a living, right? You support yourself.
OSWALD
I sleep in the back.
GEORGE
In the back of the place where you get to do the thing you really love to do.
OSWALD
Guess so.
(Ike enters carrying take out. He is dressed almost identically to Oswald and wears similar glasses.)
IKE
I got us some gyros.
OSWALD
Jesus, Ike. Why not just take an eggbeater to my guts? Or just throw it in the toilet, because that’s where it will be in twenty minutes.
IKE
Hey. Whoever gets lunch gets to decide lunch. And, besides it’s cheap and next door.
OSWALD
Cheap and next door. Like your mother. (They laugh and then turn serious) God rest her soul.
IKE
God rest her soul.
GEORGE
You two are father and son?
IKE
Yep.
GEORGE
Man, this place just gets cooler and cooler. You do what you love and you’re passing your legacy on to your son.
(Ike and Oswald look at one another like George is crazy.)
GEORGE (continuing)
Typewriters. These are all like sculptures, works of art. I bet when they first came out, printers were crapping their pants.
OSWALD
How’s that?
GEORGE
You know, new technology. People could do what they do, but on their own.
(Ike shrugs.)
GEORGE (continuing)
Like computers today and how they’re killing newspapers. I can’t remember the last time I bought a newspaper. Hey, how much is this old Royal.
IKE
Seventy-five dollars.
GEORGE
Really? That’s what I paid for it in college.
OSWALD
Too much?
GEORGE
I thought it would be more, being an antique and all.
OSWALD
Well, it’s electric.
IKE
Not as much call for those.
OSWALD
And it did drop in value over the years. Now, since I restored it, the price crept back up to what it used to be worth.
IKE
Goes in cycles. Like life.
OSWALD
Like a looping typewriter ribbon.
GEORGE
Wow. You just blew my mind. I’ll get this. I’ll get this.
(Oswald, who has continued working on the typewriter in front of him, directs Ike to go get it. Ike puts down his gyro and brings the typewriter back to the counter. They conduct their transaction as they talk.)
GEORGE (continuing)
Why typewriters?
OSWALD
I love typewriters.
GEORGE
I know. I get that. But why? How did you know, “Hey… typewriters.”
OSWALD
Some people do cars. Some people do model trains. Electronics. For me, it’s the smell of the oil, the clack of the keys, the weight, the elegance of the lines. The pure human-driven mechanics of it. On these old ones. There’s no battery. The only battery is the brain. “War and Peace” was written on a typewriter. Lots of great novels were. Important documents, too. Peace treaties. There was no cutting or pasting or deleting. There was trying to get it right, thinking it through, thinking ahead and making big, sloppy messes.
IKE
What’s not to love?
(George picks up his typewriter and heads to the door.)
GEORGE
I’ll be back. And I’ll tell my friends.
(He nods and exits.)
OSWALD (looking at typewriter)
Is he gone?
IKE
He’s looking in the front window.
(Ike waves hesitantly. Oswald takes his gyro and holds it up.)
OSWALD
Eat this or throw it in the toilet. Ike shrugs and takes it. Lights fade as Oswald sneaks a look up at the window and does a small wave.)
