1:36am: The Acadamy Rewards
PILGRIM putts out at the eighth hole (a large maple at the top of a rise), sending a low, flat disc in a straight line toward the base of the tree, where it hits and drops.
PILGRIM: That's a three. [Scores his card, picks up his disc and wipes it off with the chamois cloth tied to his bag before sliding it in and extracting the driver.]
BARNES: Nice putt, Pilgrim.
PILGRIM: Yes, Barnes; Thank-you, Barnes. Nobody on the course tonight, might be we can play 36?
BARNES: Yeah, everyone's holed up in their living-rooms, mulling over the Oscars.
SLICE: No pun intended, Barnes?
BARNES: Wha...?
PILGRIM: Yo, Slice, what's the Oscars?
SLICE: The Acadamy Awards, grasshopper: Best Actor, Best Picture...
PILGRIM: Wha...?
BARNES: You know, the movies.
PILGRIM: Movies? Nah, never heard of it, what's it all about?
[He sets his bag down and approaches the tee, sizing up the 9th fairway, just a horse-and-buggy path between two rows of tall poplars. The hole is a large boulder to the side of the clubhouse, which itself is just a couple of rocks forming a circle and suitable for sitting.]
BARNES: Motion Pictures, Pilgrim, feature films, lights-cameras-action?
PILGRIM: I'm drawing a blank here, fellas.
SLICE: Well, suffice it to say that it is a creative medium, based mainly in Hollywood, and the Acadamy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences annually presents statuettes of their mascot (scary little guy named "Oscar") to those it deems the best in each of many categories.
BARNES: I haven't seen any of the pictures yet.
SLICE: Yes, Barnes, you are blind.
PILGRIM: But he can watch them...
BARNES: I'm glad Denzel won.
SLICE: He certainly is deserving.
PILGRIM: Are you suggesting there have been winners who were not as deserving as other contenders?
SLICE: That has never been known to happen, so far as I can recall...
BARNES: And Halle Berry, but I didn't see that movie.
SLICE: It seems the Acadamy has opened the doors to its tidy little club a bit wider this evening.
PILGRIM: Wha...?
BARNES: African-Americans, they never win Oscars, especially in the main categories. But they got a bunch tonight.
SLICE: Yes, Barnes, and it's about time, one would think.
PILGRIM: What's an African-American, the travelogue said it was all just human beings over here?
BARNES: Ahh, well, that's true, we are. But there are a lot of people out there who have rules about which kind of human this and which kind of human that. It's all very confusing.
SLICE: Yes, Barnes.
PILGRIM: Okay boys, point me toward Hollywood, must be I gotta get out there and collect me some of them little statues. Hey, am I African-American?
BARNES: I can't tell...
SLICE: Because he's blind, Pilgrim.
PILGRIM: Hell, then whyn't they just let him judge the Acadamy Rewards from now on?
SLICE: Might be you're onto something there, Pilgrim.
BARNES: Yea, but I don't wanna sit through fifty-million movies every year.
SLICE: Relax, Barnes, none of the voting members ever watch any of the films...
-CURTAIN-