Lost Lake (8 page)

VERONICA
:
I didn't try to give it back. I only talked to them on the phone. We didn't discuss it at all.

HOGAN
:
Good. Keep it.

VERONICA
:
You know I can't.

(
She sets it down
.)

HOGAN
:
You find another job?

VERONICA
:
Not yet.

HOGAN
:
So don't you need it? What about your kids?

VERONICA
:
They're—we're getting a little help right now.

HOGAN
:
From who?

VERONICA
:
Hogan. Just listen to me and let me do this. All right? Your brother said they've been trying to reach you but you won't talk to them.
     He said he's driven out here and you won't come to the door.

HOGAN
:
I probably wasn't home.

VERONICA
:
He said one time you pulled a gun on him.

HOGAN
:
Oh, that is ridiculous.

VERONICA
:
He said you came to the door with your shotgun.

HOGAN
:
I don't have a shotgun. I have a rifle.

VERONICA
:
Whatever.

HOGAN
:
There's a difference. He should know that. It belonged to our dad. It's a 1940s Remington. It's a collector's item. I might have been holding it when I came out but it's just because he was pounding on the door saying he was gonna kick it in.

VERONICA
:
All right, whatever. I don't care about that. The point is they're worried about you.

HOGAN
:
Right.

VERONICA
:
They are. You think I wanted to get involved with this? I wouldn't be up here if they hadn't begged me to give you a message.

HOGAN
:
Why you?

VERONICA
:
He said there isn't anybody else. Your wife didn't want to get involved, and your daughter just started—

HOGAN
:
All right, never mind.

VERONICA
:
Your daughter just started school, they don't want her upset—

HOGAN
:
I don't want anybody talking to my daughter.

VERONICA
:
They know that! That's why when I called they asked me—

HOGAN
:
Why the hell did they think I'd listen to you?

VERONICA
:
That's what I said. He said, You're his friend, aren't you?

HOGAN
:
What'd you say?

VERONICA
:
No, not exactly. But I said I'd try.

HOGAN
:
Try what?

(
Beat
.)

VERONICA
:
You can go back there, they said. They—just hear me out now. They asked me to tell you that they'll take you in. At least for a while. Let bygones be bygones. Till you can get things sorted out a little bit. Debbie agrees.

HOGAN
:
You've got to be kidding me.

VERONICA
:
It was her idea, I think. It sounded like she talked your brother into it. She told me. She said, Please try to convince him.

HOGAN
:
Debbie said that.

VERONICA
:
Yes.

HOGAN
:
That's why you came all the way up here? To deliver this “message”?

VERONICA
:
Well, like I said, they were very concerned.

HOGAN
:
(
Dismissive sound
.)

VERONICA
:
I'll tell you what. I'll drive over there with you tonight if you want. Help you pack up whatever you need here. If there is anything. You shouldn't be staying here now anyway, it's freezing.

HOGAN
:
It's fine once you get the heater on.

VERONICA
:
The heater's
broken
, you said.
     I can't be here all night, Hogan. I'd like to get home and put my kids to bed.
     Maybe just let me take you over there so you can talk to them yourself?

HOGAN
:
I got nothing to say to them.

VERONICA
:
What would it hurt to stay a couple nights?

HOGAN
:
If you think I'm leaving here you're crazy.

VERONICA
:
Just till you can get yourself together a little bit.

HOGAN
:
I don't need to get myself together!

VERONICA
:
Look
around
.

HOGAN
:
No. You don't—somehow you have got the wrong idea here. I'm fine, all right? I'm perfectly fine. I know the place could use some straightening up, I've been meaning to get to that but I've been busy, and—you really didn't need to come up here. I don't need any help.

(
He picks up the cash
.)

For God's sake, I was trying to help
you
!

VERONICA
:
I don't want that kind of help.

HOGAN
:
(
Shouts
.) And I don't want your FUCKING SYMPATHY.

(
He throws the money at her. It flies everywhere
.)

WE'RE NOT FRIENDS. YOU DON'T KNOW ME. I WANT YOU OFF MY PROPERTY.

VERONICA
:
Oh what, are you gonna pull a gun on me now?

HOGAN
:
TRY ME.

VERONICA
:
GODDAMN IT, HOGAN, THEY SAID YOU NEARLY DIED.

(
Beat
.)

Debbie said—

HOGAN
:
(
Scorn
.)
Debbie
.

VERONICA
:
When they pulled you out of the lake.

HOGAN
:
She wasn't there. She doesn't know what she's talking about.

VERONICA
:
“Severe hypothermia.” That's no joke. I've seen it.

HOGAN
:
That's an exaggeration.

VERONICA
:
That's a
coma
, Hogan. If whoever it was, that neighbor, hadn't seen you in the ice—

HOGAN
:
There was hardly any ice, the lake never freezes over anymore.
     Look, I'm not saying it was a great situation or that I'm not grateful for the help, but you have to understand Debbie's agenda here. Bottom line, she would like to have me declared incompetent. You remember all that shit from last summer. Short of my actual death, that would be the best possible outcome for her. That would get her everything she wants.

VERONICA
:
I only talked to the woman a couple of times but she really didn't seem that bad, she—

HOGAN
:
She
hates
me. There is
nothing
she wouldn't say or do. She once ordered me—you are not going to believe this—to “stay the hell away” from her children! What is that? I don't have my own kid around—I'm missing her for chrissake!—if I offer to take my nieces to the movies or over to Putnam Lanes once in a while— Jesus Christ. This is the woman who accused me of stealing from her—

VERONICA
:
That was true.

HOGAN
:
That was a
fraction
of the money that I would have realized from the sale of this property—from which they were trying to have me vacated, remember? On the way to them taking the whole place for themselves. This is just one more excuse for them to get me out of their way—

VERONICA
:
How the hell did you end up in the lake, then?

(
Beat
.)

HOGAN
:
Well, that—

VERONICA
:
In January.

HOGAN
:
It was an accident.

VERONICA
:
What kind of an accident?

HOGAN
:
All right. I admit it sounds a little silly now.
     I was trying to fix the dock.

VERONICA
:
In January?

HOGAN
:
I always felt bad about not fully completing that project. And I was out here …
     I went through kind of I guess you'd call it a rough patch after last summer, you know, after you and your family had gone. I didn't stay here—it didn't seem wise, with all the tensions with my brother and sister-in-law, so there was a period there when I didn't have a firm base of operations, I was sort of floating more or less, you know, sleeping in the truck most nights. But I drove over here one day a couple weeks ago, gorgeous morning, just to check the place out, and it was so clear and sunny I just thought—there had been a little light snowfall the night before so even though the lake only had the thinnest skin of ice on the surface it
looked
thick, with the snow resting on it, it looked like it used to look when we were kids and we could skate after a big freeze.

VERONICA
:
You didn't—

HOGAN
:
What? No. I'm not an idiot. I knew I couldn't walk on it. I took the canoe. But it was such a gorgeous day—I don't know what it was like down in the city but up here it was gorgeous—I guess I just felt like this is the kind of day when you can do
anything
, you know. And maybe I was overambitious before, with the diving platform, but I've still got the lumber I bought, I can at least go out and replace some of the bad planks in the deck. It won't solve the pilings issue but maybe I can get us through another summer or two. I must have just slipped.

(
Beat
.)

VERONICA
:
I see.

HOGAN
:
The whole thing is sort of embarrassing in retrospect.

(
Beat. She's staring at him.
)

What?

VERONICA
:
They said … they found you in the water at night. Not the daytime. At night. And you were stripped down to your underwear, they said.

(
Beat
.)

HOGAN
:
(
Quietly
.) They would say that.

(
She takes a step toward him
.)

VERONICA
:
Please. You don't have to—

He backs away, knocking into a chair. Something snaps. He kicks the chair over. Knocks everything off a table. Smashes a lamp. A brief but destructive rampage. He stops, breathing hard.

He weeps.
VERONICA
watches. A long beat.

She goes, gets one of the bags. Takes out some napkins. Gives them to him.

Beat
.

VERONICA
:
I'm gonna have one of those coffees before it gets too cold.

(
She takes a coffee. She sits. Sips it
.)

You sure you don't want a doughnut?

(
Beat
.)

HOGAN
:
What kind?

VERONICA
:
Glaze or plain.

HOGAN
:
Glaze.

VERONICA
:
Good, I like plain.

(
They eat. Long beat
.)

HOGAN
:
Who's with your kids?

VERONICA
:
What?

HOGAN
:
Who's taking care of your children?

VERONICA
:
Oh. Charles. Mia's father. My little girl's friend?

HOGAN
:
The helmet guy?

VERONICA
:
Turns out he's not so bad. I don't see why a ten-year-old needs to be a vegetarian, but whatever.

HOGAN
:
He the one helping you?

VERONICA
:
Yes.

(
Beat
.)

The board said no. The license board?

HOGAN
:
Oh yeah. Shit.

VERONICA
:
But Charles knows someone who places health-care providers with stay-at-home patients. It's not ideal. It's not like hospital work. But I can't be too picky right now. So that might work out, but it hasn't yet.

HOGAN
:
You sleeping with him?

VERONICA
:
What? Shut up.

HOGAN
:
Are you?

VERONICA
:
He's married.

(
Beat
.)

Separated.

(
Beat
.)

I don't know what we're doing.

HOGAN
:
Well. Congratulations.

VERONICA
:
I guess.

(
Beat
.)