Emma Bolger: Ariel

In America

Ariel

Johnny: Are you okay little girl?
Christy: Don't "little girl" me. I've been carrying this family on my back for over a year, ever since Frankie died. He was my brother too. It's not my fault that he's dead. It's not my fault that I'm still alive.
Johnny: Ah, Christy.
Christy: Mom was always crying because he was her son. But he was my brother too. I cried too... when no one was looking. I talked to him every night.
Ariel: She did, Dad.
Christy: I talked to him every night, until...
Johnny: ...until when?
Christy: Until I realized I was talking to myself.

Mateo: I'm an alien, like E.T., from a different planet. My skin is too sensitive for this Earth. The air is too hard for me.
Ariel: Are you going home like E.T.?
Mateo: I suppose I'm going home.

[through her camcorder, we see Christy walk into Mateo's empty room - we see the view out the window, and then Christy turns to see Ariel sitting on the couch, grief in her eyes]
Ariel: [whispering sadly] He never said goodbye...
Christy: What?
Ariel: [shakily] He never said goodbye.

Mateo: This house is haunted, but it's not scary. It's a magic house.
Ariel: Frankie believed in magic.
Mateo: Who's that?
Ariel: Frankie. Our brother. He died.
Christy: He fell down some stairs when he was two. We thought he was okay... but there was something in his brain. A brain tumor. It was malignant.
Ariel: [to Mateo] Are you crying? Are you?
Ariel: It's okay, he's in Heaven now.

Johnny: Why would youse wanna be the same as everybody else?
Ariel: 'Cause everybody else goes trick-or-treating.
Sarah: What's that?
Ariel: It's what they do here for Halloween.
Johnny: What do you mean? Like, help the Halloween party?
Christy: No. Not help the Halloween party. You don't ask for help in America. You demand it. Trick-or-treat- you don't ask, you threaten.
Sarah: You can't do that on our street.
Christy: Why not?
Sarah: Because you can't threaten drug addicts and transvestites, that's why.

Ariel: It's alright, Dad. Mam's breathing's okay.
Johnny: [trying to fix the air conditioner, it's a boiling summer day] Is it okay, Sarah?
Sarah: [smiles reassuringly at Johnny, fanning herself]
Ariel: It's the lemon drops; they're magic! You take one and you forget about your breathing.
Sarah: [opens her mouth to show the lemon drop, grinning]