FADE IN.
SCENE OPENS. VIENNA. AUTUMN DAY, LATE AFTERNOON.
CLOSE-UP OF KEVIN TIMONEY ON SIGMUND FREUD’S COUCH.
FREUD
So, you don’t mind if I use Google Translate?
KEVIN TIMONEY
No. I use it with Eric Adams all the time.
FREUD
… Jet-lagged?
KEVIN TIMONEY
A little bit. But my stuffed bunny helps me get over it.
FREUD
Hmmm… (Pause)….
You know, Mister Timoney, I have been reading your Piermont mayoral campaign literature... The mailed postcard... The Facebook postings.
KEVIN TIMONEY
Oh?...
FREUD
Buried in and amongst a numbing succession of meaningless platitudes and doggerel, offering no real specifics about your mayoral plans for Piermont – you seem to have quite an obsession with “growth” and development… You write about “Overgrowth of supertall developments”… and “Sustainable growth”… I must have seen you cite “growth” at least four or five times in your campaign literature.
SCENE OPENS. VIENNA. AUTUMN DAY, LATE AFTERNOON.
CLOSE-UP OF KEVIN TIMONEY ON SIGMUND FREUD’S COUCH.
FREUD
So, you don’t mind if I use Google Translate?
KEVIN TIMONEY
No. I use it with Eric Adams all the time.
FREUD
… Jet-lagged?
KEVIN TIMONEY
A little bit. But my stuffed bunny helps me get over it.
FREUD
Hmmm… (Pause)….
You know, Mister Timoney, I have been reading your Piermont mayoral campaign literature... The mailed postcard... The Facebook postings.
KEVIN TIMONEY
Oh?...
FREUD
Buried in and amongst a numbing succession of meaningless platitudes and doggerel, offering no real specifics about your mayoral plans for Piermont – you seem to have quite an obsession with “growth” and development… You write about “Overgrowth of supertall developments”… and “Sustainable growth”… I must have seen you cite “growth” at least four or five times in your campaign literature.
KEVIN TIMONEY (defensively)
Yeah?... So what?
FREUD
(Taking a drag on his cigar). Mister Timoney, I’m your therapist. Somewhat well-known, at that. I’m here to get to the bottom of your issues. Besides, the people of Piermont deserve to know the real truth. You’re asking them to make you Mayor of their Village. Many of them have no idea who the blazes you are…
So - Why “growth”, constantly?
KEVIN TIMONEY
(Thinking)… Because the Three Wyrd Sisters and the Piermont Democratic Committee told me it would be a good buzz-word to use.
FREUD
Oh, no, Mister Timoney… You can’t fool me… I looked it up. Isn’t it true that you are married to a Brian V. Jauntig? He’s Chief Operating Officer of Atlas Capital Group, having joined them in 2016 – a commercial real estate company!:
https://www.atlas-cap.com/team/
https://www.atlas-cap.com/overview/
Are you telling me that your husband’s commercial real estate interests have no effect on, and nothing to do with, your Piermont mayoral intentions and your obvious albeit distasteful obsession with “growth”?
KEVIN TIMONEY
Um…
Yeah?... So what?
FREUD
(Taking a drag on his cigar). Mister Timoney, I’m your therapist. Somewhat well-known, at that. I’m here to get to the bottom of your issues. Besides, the people of Piermont deserve to know the real truth. You’re asking them to make you Mayor of their Village. Many of them have no idea who the blazes you are…
So - Why “growth”, constantly?
KEVIN TIMONEY
(Thinking)… Because the Three Wyrd Sisters and the Piermont Democratic Committee told me it would be a good buzz-word to use.
FREUD
Oh, no, Mister Timoney… You can’t fool me… I looked it up. Isn’t it true that you are married to a Brian V. Jauntig? He’s Chief Operating Officer of Atlas Capital Group, having joined them in 2016 – a commercial real estate company!:
https://www.atlas-cap.com/team/
https://www.atlas-cap.com/overview/
Are you telling me that your husband’s commercial real estate interests have no effect on, and nothing to do with, your Piermont mayoral intentions and your obvious albeit distasteful obsession with “growth”?
KEVIN TIMONEY
Um…
FREUD
And by the way, where the Hell in Piermont are you going to put all these new “growths” and newly-erected developments, anyway, Mister Timoney? There are virtually no more lots in Piermont to build on. The answer for Piermont is to stop the growth and claim back the land. The village is regularly flooding out. People are re-building their houses on stilts. More infrastructure would mean more taxes. All because you want to pad people's pockets just like your governmental guru Bruce Tucker tried to do?
All because of your apparent obsession with “supertall” towers?...
(Pause).
Take your time before you
answer. I need to re-light my cigar anyway.
END OF SCENE 1.
END OF SCENE 1.
