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JackCain · (06-28-2017)

**The camera fades up to a darkened room. The only illumination is a bare light bulb in the centre of the room. It shines down on a table where a black hold-all sits. The zip on the main pocket is undone, and inside, piles and piles of dollar bills can be seen.

Silence for a few moments, then, in the background, a door opens and a huge figure is silhouetted against the sickly yellow light behind him. As he moves forward he slowly extinguishes the backlight and it's anaemic glow with his size and billowing floor length coat, until he himself is only visible by the overhanging bulb.

Jack Cain steps into the light. He reaches into the bag and pulls out a handful of bills, thumbing through them and smelling the aroma of cold, hard cash. He replaces all of the money apart from one single bill. He holds it up to the light and it meekly peeks through the paper**

Money can be the great divider.

Give someone enough of this, and they can make a world.

Give someone else enough of it, and they can destroy a world.

It's all a matter of perspective though, who makes, and who destroys.

But the money? That's the constant. The common denominator. No one achieves anythin' without this. Oh sure, you can have will, desire, intelligence, strength, guile, looks, brains, muscles, integrity, charm and all those other things you get told when you're growin' up are absolutely fuckin' essential to succeed in life.

But it ain't worth shit if you don't have this.

"Money makes the world go round", my old man used to say. And he was right. I look around this place - who's runnin' the show? Vinnie Lane, Theo Pryce? They got capital. Enough to buy their way outta trouble. They'll tell ya all day that they solve their problems with their intelligence, strength, guile, looks, brains, muscles, integrity, and charm, but at the end of the day, they got the cash to be in charge, so they can pretty much do what the fuck they like. Without that, they're just another voice in the dark.

I never had money. Not when I was a kid, not when I was in college. Not when I was in the Corps, not when I came out. Not even now. This?

**Cain indicates the bag of cash in front of him.**

This comes from a nice guy called Frankie who no longer has a left leg. Or any teeth. Not that they'd do him much good where he is now. Flippers and an aqualung maybe. That's a story for another time though. The story Frankie concerns though, is that money may make the world go around, but it also make you complacent. Now Frankie thought all his money would make him safe. He thought as long as he had this - no one could touch him.

Well, he was wrong.

And now his money is mine. I'll find a good home for it. Won't be with me though. I'll find someone who needs it. I'll make the money work for someone who needs it. It'll make a world instead'a destroyin' one.

Frankie wouldn't have done that. And I'm guessin' you wouldn't either, Neville Sinclair. I've been takin' notice of you a bit since you got here. You and your precious education.

I'm guessin' that education cost some money - lot of it probably. So you got the brains. The best Goddamn education money can buy. You could be a doctor, a leader, someone who could make the world.

Instead, you flaunt your fuckin' cash. You buy expensive booze, you have a big fuckin' house that you use to beat people up in.

What a fuckin' contribution to society you make huh?

**Cain removes a single bill from the bunch in his and places it down on the table in front of him, smoothing it out with his gloved hand**

Easy to make a mess of something if you don't treat it with respect ain't it?

I know what I am Neville. I ain't perfect. I ain't educated. Hell, I ain't even sure of the difference between right and wrong when it comes to pricks like you. See, the responsible thing to do, the right thing to do, would be to try and ask you to do more with your money and privilege. To try and do the right thing.

But from that I've seen so far, you'd struggle to know the right thing if it walked up to you, pulled your mouth open and took a shit down your neck.

Or is that what the butler's for?

See Neville, I'm expectin' some preachin' about how stupid I am, how you're gonna take me to "school", how I'm a dumb brute and I'm not smart enough to beat you.

But that's what the money's tellin ya Neville. You're listenin' to the cash, to the privilege. This stuff is makin' you believe you're better than you are.

So keep hearin it's voice Neville, keep bein' blinded by the green. Keep livin' the lie that all that money somehow makes you better - when in reality, all it's done is fool you into thinkin' you gotta chance come Saturday.

After all, a rich fool, is still a fool.

**Cain reaches into the bag and this time pulls out a big handful of cash**

But this stuff is more than just privilege to you ain't it Jenny? Everyone's favourite little crack whore knows what it's like to have a wad of this stuffed into their panties, don't ya?

Money's a big thing for you too ain't it Jenny? It's what you screw outta all those guys who're dumb enough to fall your your tits and ass.

We've been through this before ain't we Jenny. We had that nice little Battle Royal where you sprayed shit in my face from your stinkin' pussy, and I still broke you the fuck in half and threw you over the top rope.

And all the money in the world can't change that little gnawin' in your soul that however much you convince yourself that you can win on Saturday, the truth is, you can't.

See I get why you'd spend some of that money on fake tits and fake lips and fake hair to try and convince yourself that you're some kinda big player. But the fact remains it's all for show. You use your money - in much the same way Neville does, to make you feel better about yourself. You use it to twist yourself into some perverted vision of beauty so people think you're hot shit.

But just like him, the shit part is the only part that's true.

You stuck your nose in my business last week, and I can't deny that it worked out ok for me before Nixon's little shitshow. But if you think I'm gonna be thankful, you can think again.

I know what you are. I know you're superficial, you're materialistic and you're blinded by the fact that all the money you spent to make yourself look beautiful still doesn't mean you're the best.

I know what I am too.

I'm the guy who doesn't have money, who doesn't have privilege, who doesn't have the need for acceptance, and who doesn't have to prove anything to either one of you.

Cos when it all comes down to it, you got money...

**Cain reaches into the bottom of the bag, and pushing the cash aside, produces the Television Title Belt**

And I'm the one with the gold.

**Cain looks down at the belt and smiles. He puts the belt over his shoulder, zips up the bag and, carrying it under one arm, turns to leave through the door. He closes it behind him and the camera is left focusing on the single bill on the table he's left bathed in the dim light from above**

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