22. EXT. OUTSIDE FRANKIE’S APARTMENT COMPLEX – DAY
Frankie and Hymie drive up to the curb and get out of a new car. They head inside toward his apartment.
HYMIE (V.O.)
It was quite a while since I’d seen Frankie, but the telegram he sent was as if it were yesterday. He had no doubt that I would come, and I did. As tight as he was with some people out here, he was still alone. He had called me because he needed me, as simple as that. It was a new world and he needed a friend alongside.
They pass the swimming pool stocked to overflowing with starlets.
HYMIE (V.O. CONT’D)
He was living in a posh place just off the strip. It was a far cry from the motels we used to crawl into. It had hot and cold running everything. He introduced me to the troops as his public relations man from New York. Out here nobody walks around without a title, so that was mine. I came, I saw, and he conquered. It was the same Frankie. A little more tanned, more assured, better dressed, but the same Frankie.
They reach the apartment, and enter.
23. INT. FRANKIE’S APARTMENT – DAY
HYMIE and FRANKIE enter through the front door. The apartment is not huge, but well furnished and impressive to someone who is used to much less.
HYMIE
Wow! What a pad!
FRANKIE
This is the place, Hymie. It’s like Hollywood was waitin’ for me. You’ll bunk here on the duo-bed. Hang your stuff in there.
HYMIE
Hey, are there always that many broads around?
FRANKIE
(laughs)
Wait till the weekend!
HYMIE
Hey, I’m gonna like it here.
FRANKIE
Speakin’ of broads, whatever happened to Laurel?
HYMIE
(quietly)
I married her.
FRANKIE
Oh yeah? How is she?
HYMIE
(even more quietly)
She died.
FRANKIE
What’d you say?
HYMIE
I said she died.
FRANKIE
Hey, get into some trunks and then we’ll pick us a couple of goodies from poolside.
Frankie goes into another room. Hymie, disgusted with Frankie’s lack of concern, angrily throws one of the shirts he is unpacking.