Basket Case

Sharon:
What's in the basket? Easter eggs?

Josephine:
What's in the basket?

Duane Bradley:
[laughs] My brother!

Josephine:
Your brother? What is he? A midget?

Duane Bradley:
No, he's deformed!

Casey:
[In the Bar] There's something I've been dying to ask you. What's in the basket?

Duane Bradley:
My brother.

Casey:
Your brother!

Casey:
[Duane and Casey both laugh] What is he, a midget?

Duane Bradley:
No, we're twins. Siamese twins

Casey:
That's funny, you don't look...

Casey, Duane Bradley:
oriental!

Casey:
[Duane and Casey both laugh] So what happened? Somebody shrink him?

Duane Bradley:
No, he's deformed. A freak, he looks like a squashed octopus!

Duane Bradley:
Our mother died giving birth to us. He was attached to my right side. They wouldn't let us go to school or anything. They kept us hidden. We were the big family secret. everybody hated us, except our aunt. See, he likes the dark. He doesn't like to be seen, not even by me sometimes. And you know what else?

Duane Bradley:
[Casey shakes her head] He talks to me

Duane Bradley:
[Points to his head] Up here.

Duane Bradley:
Without words. I just here him whispering in my brain. Sometimes he talks for hours and won't shut up. i used to be able to talk to him like that, but that was when we were still connected. Our aunt said it was our special gift. But since we've been separated, I can't do it anymore, but he can still do it to me. In fact, he's even better at it now, he always knows what I'm thinking...

Casey:
Duane, you're giving me the creeps.

Duane Bradley:
They didn't want him to live. But he fooled them. He didn't die, he just got stronger. Oh, If you only knew what it was like. Duane and I kept hidden from everyone. We're the both of us so messed up. I don't know which one of us is worse...

Casey:
[very concerned] Dwayne, what's the matter?

Duane Bradley:
[furious] Get out of here!

Aunt:
[Reading to young Duane and Belial] Art thou afraid? No monster, not I. Be not afraid, for the isle is full of sights, sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will humm about mine ears. And sometimes voices, that if I then had waked after long sleep would let me sleep again. And then in dreaming, the clouds we thought would open and show riches ready to drop upon me, that when I waked, I cried to dream again...

Josephine:
[Shortly after booking into the hotel, Duane is accosted by a strange woman he does not know] Hi! I'm Josephine! What room are you in?

Duane Bradley:
Seven.

Josephine:
Oh, you are so lucky! That's the best room in the place! It was lived in by a little old lady who only went out on Sundays. She lived there for ages, used to tell everyone she was rich, owned oil wells in Texas, had millions, and was hiding from her relatives who were trying to steal it from her. She'd creep up to you and say... "They're trying to take my money, but they don't know where I am!" Oh, everyone thought she was nuts! Then one day, she appeared in the lobby dressed in pearls and jewels, said she was leaving to tour the world. She paid her bill and left, no one's heard from her since.

[she leaves abruptly]

Hotel manager:
This isn't a hotel, it's a nuthouse!

Dr. Julius Lifflander:
No, no, I think we're making a big mistake. We're rushing things. We shouldn't even be here.

Dr. Harold Needleman:
Where's the boy now?

Duane's Father:
He's upstairs in bed asleep, he can't hear us.

Dr. Julius Lifflander:
We need to think this over. Talk it over.

Duane's Father:
We don't have time, it must be done now, while my sister in law's away.

Dr. Julius Lifflander:
I'm not sure, I've got second thoughts.

Duane's Father:
Bullshit, second thoughts! I've had twelve years of doctor's second thoughts!

Dr. Julius Lifflander:
I don't know, I just don't know!

Duane's Father:
Well you'd sure as hell know if it were your own son we were talking about.

Dr. Harold Needleman:
Okay, do you understand that if we seperate the deformity from Duane it will probably die?

Duane's Father:
It's better off dead. What kind of life would it have the way it is?

Dr. Julius Lifflander:
We're talking about your child!

Duane's Father:
Child? Duane is my child, not that other thing. All I want is Duane to be normal, it's too late to change the other one, just cut Duane from it.

Dr. Julius Lifflander:
I don't know, I don't know!

Duane's Father:
The hospital says no, every doctor I've asked says no, you two may be my last hope. I don't know who you are, or where Lifflander found you, and I don't care. No questions asked, just separate them.

Dr. Judith Kutter:
He's right of course, the boy should have a chance at a normal life. They don't share organs or bone, just tissue and flesh. If the operation is successful the most we will have is a nasty scar.

Dr. Julius Lifflander:
And the other one?

Dr. Judith Kutter:
Doctor, I'm not even sure it's human...