Chet: Well, shall we begin? (paging through book) First of all, thank God we speak fluent Spanish, huh? Jeez. (laughs)
A look in Otis’s eyes indicates that he most certainly doesn’t speak fluent Spanish. He turns the book over and begins intently to read the back.
Chet: (cont.) Know what I noticed? Near the end of the book, when Grady goes to the prison, that the violence–which up till then has had a ferocious energy about it–departed from the emotional violence and became terrifyingly brutal and real…and particularly after he left the prison and went to find that horse, I found the descriptions of the horse to be, frankly, astonishingly beautiful and yet disturbingly arousing.
Otis: Mmmhmm.
Chet: What are your thoughts?
Otis is intently paging through the middle of the book.
Otis: Um…yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. Um–yeah. You are–you are right on. (turns the book over again and looks at the back cover) I think, you really… You have pinned down the, uh–what it is about the book. Uh, definitely with the–the prison, when, um… (checks back cover to make sure) …when Grady is–does–he’s… There’s violence, there’s a lot of violence, and it’s like night and day… And when Grady saw, uh…those, those horses, I think you were saying, um, and it was…arousing…it was violently arousing.
Chet: Otis. Have you read this book?
Otis: (laughs) Yeah! (small pause) No.
Chet: Oh, please.
Otis: It, it, it’s just that I’ve been so busy…
Chet: I managed to read this entire book and form a few thoughts about it. Now if you’re not going to take this seriously, perhaps we should disband this club now… before feelings get hurt.
Otis: No no no no no no no no… I don’t want to–any, any feelings… I was remiss, in that I, I-- I’ve got my brother with the mail fraud thing, and I… My mother caught me authorizing the porn station last night.
Chet: Ooh. I’m sorry. (laughs) I don’t mean to laugh, but…
Otis: She was angry like I’ve never seen her. (looks at his watch, sighs) God, you know, I think I’m going to blow this job interview off…
Chet: Oh no. Otis, please don’t. You obviously need a healthy boost of self-esteem. You need a job. Get out of your mom’s home, get a job. Please.
Otis: I know, I just–but I–what if I don’t get it?
Chet: (makes gesture upwards) Well, you shoot for the stars, and you…hit the roof… (trails off)
pause
Otis: Yeah.
Chet: Well…next week?
Otis: Next week, without–by far, I mean, this… (looks at book again) Y’know, from your description this sounds like a great, great book.