Dope Thief
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Ray has always lived in the netherworld between memory and the moment.
Acting on the shadow fight-or-flight impulses erupting from an ever-present cognitive dissonance.
And through it all, he still manages to solve some riddles of the case at large.
Like Jimmy Popeye Doyles heroin withdrawal sequence inFrench Connection II, only from deeper inside the protagonists afflicted mind.
Its a beautiful day.
We live in the moment.
As fate would have it, Bart a.k.a.
the ghost of Bart from Rays past is the pole-position demon along Rays spiritual redemption path.
Images of distant and not-so-distant past meld together in the emotions that tether them together.
A blurry Dutch-angled shot of a cross on the Wall.
Xuans name means springtime.
Thats beautiful, Ray says.
The promise of spring and growth in the present time.
A young ray looks up at a crying Mina next to him in a car.
Getting Ray to a hospital is now their only option.
The first wound never heals, Ray had acknowledged as he drifted into unconsciousness.
Now its time to open those origin-wounds and deal with them head-on.
But a song isnt meant to last forever.
Neither are the hauntings inflicted upon us by our pasts.
What youre trying to keep alive is just a dream, Marletta tells him.
The parting words ofthisghostly image of her have been lodged in Rays mind way past its welcome.
The final showdown is always the toughest.
You killed me a thousand times already.
Our boy has let one ghost move on, but hes still keeping tally with the other.
But this isnt a game of final tallies.
Only the final shot counts.
Im giving you my last dying breath, his father replies.
And give Bart does, probably a lot sooner than even he expected.
Same path, different vantage points.
Were not done yet, she tells him with the force of the fates behind her.
I was a good mom, she tells him.
And he believes her.
Marin Irelands peerlessly authentic expression of immovable pain bridges the gap when Mina replies, You dont.
