INT. DEN - DAY
Handsomely appointed. Old wood, loaded bookshelf, reading nook, window view to lap pool in grass yard fenced by foliage. Antique GRANDFATHER CLOCK KEEPS TIME.
John and Jan at laptops across from each other at table. John types, checks screen. Jan reads, scrolls.
JAN: So what did we learn about Brian's golf game?
JOHN: That he played a few rounds when he was a teen on his uncle's hillbilly country club course in Tennessee. He's borrowing a friend's clubs.
JAN: He looks athletic.
JOHN: He does. She's nervous about meeting his father and son in Pismo next week.
JAN: The son and ex are in Long Beach?
JOHN: The ex is, the son was. He's moving up to play baseball at Cuesta. Reminds me. Tee time change, now ten-thirty.
JAN: What does or did his father do?
JOHN: Bob. Retired carpenter. Bingo..
JAN: Bingo?
JOHN: Got it. Street view of the entry to their mobile home park.
JAN: Tom and Wanda's.
JOHN: Yes.
He turns laptop to Jan, who stares at the street view image of the entry to the Meadowlark Park Mobile Estates. Patches of snow on the ground.
JOHN (CONT.) Travis did the trick. Theirs is one-twelve Centennial. Three bed, two bath.
She uses the 360-degree feature to navigate a full-circle surveillance of the unremarkable surroundings along a remote area offering a view of distant mountains. A field half-covered in snow.
JAN: Have you ever been to Laramie?
JOHN: Two days in Cheyenne for a depo when I was at Flynn. Middle of February.
JAN: Balmy?
JOHN: Snow and a tropical twenty-below both mornings. You?
JAN: Closest was Fort Collins for a track meet at Colorado State. Mid-fifties, early April.
JOHN: How'd that go?
JAN: Third place and a hamstring strain that ended my season.
JOHN: When were you last in a manufactured home?
She returns his laptop. John stares at the screen.
JAN: An asbestos case my first year at Ryan Kelly. Several in the same park over a few days. You?
JOHN: I had a great aunt and uncle who had one with a pond in the woods outside ____ It was nice. He built a double-level deck around it, a brick grill, and a boardwalk to the pond. I was there a few times over two junior high summers. James and Edith.
JAN: Is this something you've told me and I've forgotten?
JOHN: If it is then I've forgotten too.
JAN: Were there fish in the pond?
JOHN: Yes, Perch and catfish. And as there was neither creek nor stream to get them there, I asked my uncle how they arrived and he told me how waterfowl could get fish eggs stuck to them, and then deposit said eggs into a pond, et cetera. I think if I remember that I would remember if I had told you.
JAN: Did you go fishing?
JOHN: Yes. With can poles from the pier he built. We'd dig up worms and catch crickets for bait. He cleaned, she cooked.
JAN: Pan fry.
JOHN: Cornmeal batter. Edith was from east Texas. James was granny's cousin. They died in a car crash when I was in high school. Have you ever fished? And if I have, is it something you've told me.
JAN: You'd think something like that would have come up, don't you? Whether we'd ever fished or not. Right?
JOHN: A good possibility but the possibility otherwise.
JAN: To the best of my recollection, I have never fished.
JOHN: Would you like to?
She smiles.
JAN: You're funny.
JOHN: I'm serious.
JAN: I know you are.
She kisses his cheek.
JAN (CONT.): Where would we go?
JOHN (TWO BEATS): Nacimiento. Rent a boat.
JAN: What will we do with the fish we catch? To use Chloe's vernacular, I'm not sure I'm down with the clean and cook thing.
JOHN: Catch and release, assuming catching.
Jan stares at him, shaking her head and smiling.
JAN: What if I hook myself?
JOHN: I hooked myself at the pond. James showed me how to unhook. But you won't hook yourself because I won't let you. You'll catch a fish and never forget the feeling of the sudden tug and pull. And if not, sweetheart, it's a day on the lake in a boat with the man who loves you.
She closes laptop, stands, extends her hand, John closes laptop, takes her hand, stands and follows her out of the room into hall.
