AN EXCERPT FROM "FIRST NIGHT"

                                   Danny brings some decorations out back. 
                                   Meredith, who is also in her early
                                   thirties, enters the store very
                                   carefully.  She wears a  big winter
                                   coat and a cap.  She carries a big bag. 
                                   She closes the door without making a
                                   sound, then steps surreptitiously into
                                   the store.  When she hears the sound of
                                   a door opening in the stockroom out
                                   back, she panics, and dives to hide
                                   behind the counter.  Danny re-enters
                                   and steps past the counter to one of
                                   the displays.  Meredith bites the
                                   bullet, rises and speaks.

                                   MEREDITH
            Excuse me.

                                   DANNY
                          (startled)
            Hey!

                                   MEREDITH
            Am I holding you up?

                                   DANNY
            I hope not.

                                   MEREDITH
            I mean, are you about to close or anything?

                                   DANNY
            Uh...no.  No, you have plenty of time.  Till eleven.  It's
            only ten thirty-five.

                                   MEREDITH
            Thanks.

                                   Instantly, she retreats to the movie
                                   boxes.  Danny addresses the audience. 
                                   He is astonished, and unnerved.

                                   DANNY
            Do you have any idea who that is?  That is Meredith O'Connor!

                                   MEREDITH
                          (grabbing a video box)
            Oh!  You have THE QUIET MAN!

                                   DANNY
            Republic Pictures, 1952.

                                   MEREDITH
            I love this movie.

                                   DANNY
            One of the greats.

                                   MEREDITH
            John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

                                   DANNY
            Terrific couple.

                                   MEREDITH
            One of the greats.

                                   DANNY
            Fighting tooth and nail until all they can do is just let it
            happen.

                                   MEREDITH
            Just...let it happen.

                                   DANNY
            Yeah.

                                   MEREDITH
            Yeah.

                                   DANNY
            Yeah.

                                   They stare at each other a moment,
                                   speechless.  Meredith then returns to
                                   the movie wall, while Danny returns to
                                   addressing the audience.

                                   DANNY (cont'd)
            Meredith O'Connor...shouldn't be here.  Meredith O'Connor
            went away to be a nun.  Right after grade school at St.
            Pat's.  Didn't even go to high school with the rest of use,
            just went smack into some...nunestary...someplace in upstate
            New York and disappeared off the face of the Earth...Well,
            hey, look at her.  She still could be.  One of those...New
            Age nuns.  It's hard to tell the way they wear civvies these
            days instead of those...starched white cardboard pith helmets
            they used to have.  Sure.  Look at her.  The way she's
            standing.  Look at the fist.  Poised to whack knuckle with a
            wood ruler.  And the clothes.  The shoes.  The hat, even. 
            There's nothing about her that says she's not a nun anymore.

                                   MEREDITH
                          (replacing a film box)
            Oh, shit, I broke a nail!

                                   DANNY
                          (to audience)
            Then again...

                                   MEREDITH
            Pardon my vernacular.

                                   DANNY
                          (to Meredith)
            No problem.

                                   MEREDITH
                          (to herself, fascinated)
            Oh, my God...my first shit!