From left field...

So...the job this morning went nice and smooth and I headed straight home...well, to Corning because I'm visiting the Museum of Glass, tomorrow. Then going home. But as I'm driving along what has to be the most tedious stretch of turnpike in America, asking myself questions about Dair's window and other possibilities for HNH's cover...suddenly I started thinking about how to adapt Bobby Carapisi into a screenplay.

I don't know why. No idea where that came from. Just suddenly I'm working up a vague outline. Despite knowing this script would never get made, not in today's Hollywood. It's a story about two men--Eric and Bobby--who are raped by a third--Allen, and a couple of buddies--and how differently each is treated by the system of justice and society.

But I figured out how to tell it without actually showing the rapes. Focus on the emotional and psychological effects. There's Bobby, who's straight and cannot handle the aftermath so commits suicide, while Eric, who's gay, slowly comes to terms with what happened and finds a way back to balance. He also grows to understand who and what Allen was, and why, and winds up feeling sorry for him.

It's not a short book. 468 pages. But I'm thinking a script of maybe 140 pages. And not cheap to make. Bobby's a relief pitcher for an expansion team in LA, so there would be baseball games involved. Including one where he's driven off the field by fans who reject the idea he was sexually assaulted and accuse him of cheating on his wife with a man.

Maybe it's because Bobby's from Philadelphia. There's a pivotal moment where Eric apologizes to Bobby's mother for his unintended part in driving him to kill himself, and I saw a lot of houses that match the description I give of her home. I dunno. The book's been out 15 years...

It's just, I could not shake it and by the time I got to the Corning area, I had it half worked out.