Contagion


 * [first lines; Day 2 – at the airport lounge Beth gets a call on her cell phone]
 * Beth Emhoff: Hey.
 * John Neal: [voice] Yeah, John Neal here. You just had sex with me in a hotel and left without saying goodbye.
 * Beth Emhoff: Yeah, I ended up being delayed. So, sorry. I was panicking.
 * John Neal: [voice] Well, if I don’t get to see you again, I just wanted to say it was nice to see you again.
 * Beth Emhoff: Yeah, it was nice to see you too.
 * John Neal: [voice] Um…and listen, use that other email I gave you. Because that’s the only secure one, okay?
 * Beth Emhoff: Okay. contagion-2
 * [Beth coughs]
 * John Neal: [voice] You alright?
 * Beth Emhoff: Yeah, I’m just…I’m just jet lagged and tired.
 * John Neal: [voice] Well, you should go home and get some rest. Hong Kong is a long way.
 * [Beth hears her flight being called]
 * Beth Emhoff: Oh, wait.
 * John Neal: [voice] Is that you?
 * Beth Emhoff: Yep, that’s me. They’re calling my flight.
 * John Neal: [voice] Alright. Well look, I’m really glad you called.
 * Beth Emhoff: Thanks. Bye.
 * Roger: Hey, doc. I know you’re busy, I uh…you got a second?
 * Dr. Ellis Cheever: Sure.
 * Roger: I got a medical question. Uh…my kids have been…uh, having problems at school. Attention deficit thing.
 * Dr. Ellis Cheever: A-D-H-D?
 * Roger: Yeah.
 * Dr. Ellis Cheever: He been diagnosed yet?
 * Roger: That’s the thing, they want him to see someone and I was wondering if you could take look?
 * Dr. Ellis Cheever: I’m not really that kind of doctor, Richard.
 * Roger: Oh, I didn’t know. I just maybe…
 * Dr. Ellis Cheever: Maybe I can refer someone.
 * Roger: Yeah?
 * Dr. Ellis Cheever: Yeah. It’s treatable.
 * Roger: Okay.
 * Dr. Ellis Cheever: We’ll find someone, have him take a look at him. It shouldn’t be a problem.
 * Roger: Okay.
 * Dr. Ellis Cheever: Alright?
 * Roger: Yep. Thanks, doc.
 * Dr. Ellis Cheever: You’re welcome.
 * [looking at a footage captured on camera phone of a man in Tokyo convulsing to death in a bus]
 * Lorraine Vasquez: Why doesn’t anybody help him? Is he okay?
 * Alan Krumwiede: Read the posts. Some say it was staged, an art project. Some say the authorities wouldn’t do an autopsy. Covered it up.
 * Lorraine Vasquez: Covered what up?
 * Alan Krumwiede: They don’t know. Maybe Minamata disease, you know, from mercury in the fish. They’ve been outbreaks in the past. Fishing industries suppresses it, industrial disease.
 * Lorraine Vasquez: Yeah, but it’s just one man. We don’t even know…
 * Alan Krumwiede: Just one man on video. One who has the foresight to die in front of a camera. The ones we don’t see worry me. Fish is shipped all over the world from there. Now, how many people read your paper over a plate of sushi everyday?
 * Lorraine Vasquez: Yeah, Alan, we have almost no freelance budget anymore. And after H-one ends up…
 * Alan Krumwiede: You wait a few days. This will be tweeted, YouTubed all over the planet.
 * Lorraine Vasquez: I’ll show it to Hobart. He…he does our health stuff.
 * Alan Krumwiede: You’re gonna give him my story? You’re gonna give him my story, aren’t you?
 * Lorraine Vasquez: What? No. Alan, I’m trying to help you. It’s just one man on a bus.
 * Alan Krumwiede: I taped this meeting.
 * Lorraine Vasquez: We need more information than that.
 * Alan Krumwiede: This story runs in The Chronicle, I will sue your ass!
 * Lorraine Vasquez: Great, okay! Bye, Alan. Don’t call me anymore.
 * [Alan gets up to leave]
 * Alan Krumwiede: Freak media is dying, Lorraine. It’s dying. I’ll save you a seat on the bus!
 * [Mitch comes to collect his step son who has become ill from school]
 * School Nurse: He said he was feeling very warm in Miss Jacobs class. I took his temperature again since I called. It’s just a touch over a hundred.
 * Mitch Emhoff: Okay. Well, first his mom and now the mighty Clark.
 * [Clark, looking ill, coughs]
 * Mitch Emhoff: Alright. Let’s go get some soup for you and mom.
 * [Mitch and Clark turn to leave]
 * School Nurse: Hope you feel better, Clark. Okay?
 * Clark Morrow: Okay. Thank you.
 * Mitch Emhoff: Good boy. We’re gonna beat this thing down by turkey day.
 * [Day 4 – a very ill looking Beth is at home staring at her coffee cup]
 * Mitch Emhoff: And Jory’s going straight from the band trip to her mom’s place. And my job interview got pushed to next week. I’m not really sure what that means. Hopefully nothing.
 * Beth tries to pick up her coffee cup but she is too weak and drops the cup
 * Beth Emhoff: My hand!
 * Mitch Emhoff: Sit down! Sit down! Sit down! Watch your feet. Come on.
 * [he walks her out of the kitchen counter chairs]
 * Mitch Emhoff: Come on. Come on. What happened to you? You take too much of that blue stuff?
 * [suddenly Beth collapses to the floor and starts having a seizure]
 * Mitch Emhoff: Honey! Honey! Beth! Beth! Hey! Hey! Honey! Honey! Beth! Jesus! Jesus! Sweetheart? Sweetheart? Beth!
 * [Clark comes through the kitchen doorway]
 * Clark Morrow: Mom?
 * Mitch Emhoff: No! No! No! Uh…stay there, Clark. No! No! Just go…go up to your room, honey.
 * [Mitch panicking as Beth’s seizure doesn’t stop and he rushes to make a 911 call]
 * [at the hospital]
 * ER Nurse #1: Does she have a history of seizures?
 * Mitch Emhoff: No! No! No!
 * ER Nurse #1: Allergies? Other medical problems?
 * Mitch Emhoff: Uh…she’s…I think she’s allergic to penicillin.
 * Dr. Arrington: Did she throw up recently? Hit her head in the shower?
 * Mitch Emhoff: No! No! She came back from a trip and she…she was…
 * Dr. Arrington: What about drugs? M-D-M-A? Ecstasy?
 * Mitch Emhoff: No, we don’t do that.
 * [suddenly Beth has another seizure]
 * Dr. Arrington: Okay, let’s get some help!
 * Mitch Emhoff: Beth! Beth!
 * ER Nurse #1: You have to go. You have to leave.
 * [the ER doctor that was helping Beth tries to tell a shocked Mitch that Beth died]
 * Dr. Arrington: So, uh…despite all our efforts, she failed to respond.
 * Mitch Emhoff: Okay.
 * Dr. Arrington: And her heart stopped.
 * Mitch Emhoff: Okay.
 * Dr. Arrington: And unfortunately she did die.
 * Mitch Emhoff: Right.
 * Dr. Arrington: I’m sorry, Mr. Emhoff.
 * Social Worker: I know this is hard to accept.
 * Mitch Emhoff: Okay. So, can I go talk to her?
 * Dr. Arrington: Mr. Emhoff, I’m sorry, your wife is dead.
 * Mitch Emhoff: What do you mean? I just…I just saw her. We…we were just at home.
 * Dr. Arrington: Is there somebody that we can call? Someone who you think should be here with you?
 * [after Mitch has just been told Beth has died]
 * Mitch Emhoff: We had dinner, we had pizza. She…she…she said she was jet lagged.
 * Dr. Arrington: You…you mentioned that she was away, Hong Kong? We checked the latest bulletins, the only things there were measles and H1N1, and this was not that.
 * Mitch Emhoff: Then what was it?
 * Dr. Arrington: We don’t always know. Some people get a disease and live, some get sicker and die. Now, we’re gonna have to notify a medical examiner and they may request an autopsy. Or if you wish, we can order one. But I can’t guarantee it’s gonna tell you anything more than I can. My best guess is this was either meningitis or encephalitis and with encephalitis we’re in the dark a lot of the time. Now, if it was summer, I might say uh…a bug bite, West Nile, herpes can cause encephalitis.
 * Mitch Emhoff: She didn’t have herpes! What are you talking about? What happened to her?
 * [Arrington doesn’t know what to say]
 * Mitch Emhoff: What happened to her?!
 * Dr. Arrington: Okay. Okay. Mr. Emhoff, there are grief counselors who are very helpful with this sort of passing. Okay? You might find some resolution there. Now, I am sorry.