screen play- rough draft

Because one often writes about what one knows...

Scene opens:

(girl pulls up to gas pump in beat up Cavalier. she's on a road trip for thinking and is in a distracted state. the car had been chugging on the mountain and she figured it needed gas. she had just driven over 200 miles through the Rocky Mountains and doesn't know how big the tank is. goes into the gas station, buys Octane Boost and puts $15 towards the tank. begins to pump. at 4.7 gallons, it stops).

girl: damn pump! it's nowhere near full. I'm not losing $15 on 5 gallons

(starts handle again and it stops a few 10ths later)

girl: son of a monkey

(keeps pumping the handle- 4, 5, 6 times. starts to smell gas, then notice that there's some spilling out of the top. the gas attendant runs out of his shop right as she hears a water fountain-type noise. he's holding out a dollar and some change)

attendant: it's okay! you could get back whatever you don't use!

girl: oh! thank you! I was wondering...

(she looks under the car. gas is spilling out everywhere onto the ground)

girl: um, there seems to be a problem. i thought I was out of gas so I stopped to fill up, but it only took 5 gallons. now gas is spilling everywhere on the ground. um, do you think that's because i overfilled the tank or from a mechanical problem?

(attendant gets on his knees and lets out a low whistle as he watches gasoline shooting out everywhere. girl starts ringing her hands and pulls them to her chin)

girl: I think maybe there's a problem with the fuel pump

attendant: does it run rough?

girl: yes, sometimes and I have to gun it. do you think this spillage could be caused by that?

(attendant looks under the car again. the flow's slowing to a trickle. girl's hands take a sort of prayer position and her face flushes)

girl: I kind of kept pumping it after it stopped too. maybe it's overflowing

attendant: yeah, it's really slowing down. I don't think a fuel pump would do that. you know, when the pump stops, usually that means the tank is full.

girl: I know... I'm not just not, um, very familiar with this car. I'm so sorry. is there anything I can do to help? can you remove the gasoline from the driveway?

attendant: yeah, I'll just wash it off with water

(gives girl a strange look)

girl: I really am sorry. I'm distracted today and I... thank you for giving my change back. I'm sorry.

(she crawls in the passenger side of the car to the drivers seat and puts the key in the ignition. it starts up right away, the needle moving over way past full. she doesn't look in the rearview mirror for the attendant's face, just lowers her head and drives off)

girl: wow, Fugs, we got 40 miles to the gallon in the mountains! way to go buddy! man, I feel like an idiot...