Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Nice Dream by B.Gibson

Nice Dream
By William Elliott



Int: Apartment Morning

Mayte and Elliott’s bedroom: Early Morning

Elliott is getting ready to leave. Walking from the bathroom to the closet and back not making any effort to conceal loud sounds or drawers. Mayte is faking like she is sleeping to avoid talking with him and telling him her a secret she has been keeping from him. Maybe they had a fight last night? We don’t know. We only see flashes of the back of a Nico getting ready putting his tie on in the mirror and moving about the room never seeing his full face. He is not speaking at all. Elliott leaves the room and walks out the door. All we hear is his keys and the door slam shut.

Just as soon as the door is shut Mayte turns on her back and lays in bed staring at the ceiling, thinking….Tears are coming down her face from the corner of her eyes. She looks at the nightstand and wipes her eyes as she sees a solid gold Rolex Submariner sitting on the opposite nightstand ticking away. We see that its 7:30AM

Mayte is sad and bored and for some reason this morning more than ever and she doesn’t know why. All she wants to do is get out of town and leave everything behind and find some place to be alone on this planet. She can’t take it anymore. The city, the people, Elliott. He hasn’t been the same since IT happened. And now she is pregnant on top of all that, and Elliott doesn’t know yet, because she can’t tell him. She thought that getting pregnant would help.

But where will she go. And how? He has all the money. She is a starving actress with no jobs and no auditions. No one is calling her. She has to work as a waitress just to pay for her subway and she hates her job and that she has to do it just to survive. And Elliott doesn’t even act like he loves her anymore. She can tell this is the end, he will kick her out on the street if he finds out she is having his baby. There was a time that she would have never thought that, but now after what happened everything has changed. He has changed. He doesn’t love her anymore, she just knows it.

Elliott was in Tower 2 of the world trade center when the jet hit the 73rd floor. He doesn’t remember how he got out of the building when all of his collegues didn’t. He has blocked it out and hasn’t seen anybody about the after effects that the attack might be having on him. Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome,

Mayte starts to frantically put together her plan laying it all out on the bed. Talking on the phone. Throwing clothes on the floor and the stuff she needs from the bathroom into a bag and gets dressed and starts to walk to the door. And stops, just as she is about to leave, she looks at the Rolex on the nightstand.

She starts to calculate in her head. She has no money on her credit card. About 500 cash in her checking account ATM card. She will have the baby on her own in Brazil. If he doesn’t want it she will just leave.

She grabs the Rolex that is sitting on the table. It doesn’t matter anymore. There is nothing between them, except the fact that they can’t figure out why they are even together anymore. Maybe this will help him to hate her., so she can leave without the guilt. Whatever happens, it’s better than sitting in this City, in this apartment, in this room! She grabs the watch and heads out to the nearest pawn shop.


Int: Pawn Shop Day

She sells the $10,000 Rolex for $1500. She decides that she can’t go back to the apartment. She is scared that he might be there. She goes to the cybercafé and looks up the place she has always wanted to go to in Brazil. Bahia. There is a flight that leaves at 530 from JFK. She has to stay out of sight till then.

She takes a cab to the airport with the one bag she packed before she left the apartment.
She is going with it. Her phone rings, she ignores it. It’s Elliott. . If she answers she will get scared, change her mind and turn back. What about the Rolex? When he finds out he will explode. What if he comes back to get it in the middle of the day and finds that she has taken the watch and left him. He’ll call the cops! And they will stop her at the airport

She could always say she lost it on the trip. Fuck it! She thinks to herself that She will never see him again anyway. “:He doesn’t care about me and how I feel”. The baby is all I care about. He will want to have an abortion. No, I’ve gone this far I want to leave. It feels good. I’m almost there, all I have to do is stay out of sight and hope that he doesn’t come home until after the plane takes off. Then Ill be safe.

At the airport she pays for the ticket with her credit card which is maxed out, but for some reason it goes thru anyway. She goes to the bathroom to wash up and then waits for the plane to leave at 10:30PM

Her cell phone is ringing of the hook. She turns it off completely. There is no turning back now.

She can imagine what will happen when Elliott finds out she is gone and she has hawked his gold Rolex to take a trip to Brazil just to escape him and all the gloom.


Int: Plane takes off Night

Sleeping
Looking out the window
Reading an airline magazine
Listening to airline music’

She has no where to stay when she gets there and not a lot of money when she does find a place. How is she going to survive? Thoughts and scenarios run thru her head. Washing dishes, Cleaning rooms, Prostitution. (Dream sequences)


Int: Rio Airport: Morning
She has fallen asleep, she wakes up to a taxi driver shaking her and asking her what hotel she needs to go to.

She puts down an ATM card at the front desk and is taken to her room without hesitation.

It’s a one room basic with a bed a shower no TV. In the shower she washes away all of her worries and climbs into bed with her eyes wide open hoping that she will fall asleep fast and in the morning all of her worries will be gone. She is all alone.

Day 2: Early Afternoon

Walking to the beach in the sand over the dunes. Suddenly she sees the beauty of the blue ocean and the most incredible beach she has ever seen. Completely empty of people. The sand is almost white and the sound of the waves instantly put her in a different frame of mind.

She goes down to the water and takes off her clothes and dives in> the sun is hot.
She has no towel but the sun dries her as she lies on the wet sand.

She feels that since know one is on the beach its ok to be naked. She is nervous at first but puts out the towel from her room and starts her day in the sun.

More people start to arrive and look at her> She is asleep. When she wakes up she realizes that she is the only on with no clothes on and covers up with the small towel and puts on her jeans and her top and leaves the beach falling and tripping in the sand

A man from down the beach is laughing to himself as she is leaving the beach clutching to cover herself up.

Day 3:

She has a bathing suit, Bikini and a towel and water

The camera watches her during the day as Mayte goes into the surf cool herself from the hot sun.

The Man is not on the beach.

She gets up to leave and walks to town to shop at the market for fruit and bread and maybe a coffee. And, oh yea a bottle of wine so she can drink it tonight in her room
and get drunk as hell all by herself.

She stops at a café and has a coffee and the man from the beach is there by himself as well they say nothing to each other but glance at each other.

She is in the supermarket and picks out a bottle of white wine and some cheese and some crackers. And walks back to her room and flops on the bed and sleeps. She starts to turn on her phone to see the messages but turns it off before it goes on and curls up in a ball on the bed.

She has no music in her room only her ipod and earphones. She starts to drink the wine out of the bottle and eats the cheese and crackers with the silver wear she stole from the plane> It’s her own private party. She is dancing and jumping on the bed to the tunes on her iPOD. (A million miles away by the Plimsoles) She passes out.

Day 4

Hung over. The beach is the only remedy to snap her out of it. She walks to another beach and the Man from before is there again her by himself sitting next to his surfboard watching and waiting for his set.

She sits far away from him watching him with a renewed interest. They are the only ones on the entire beach. The day goes by and she watches him surf all day. And she goes in and out of the water to cool off. She is starting to be interested in who he is. Who he might be as a person. And she wants someone to talk to as well.

Walking back to town and her hotel on the side of the road, a moke with a surfboard sticking out of the back stops and picks her up they exchange the normal hellos and she tells him where to drop her off. He tells her come by the nearby restaurant for dinner and speeds off. As he is driving away he says my name is NICO

Restaurant Night

Outdoor seating

It’s the same place that she went for coffee the other day

Nico: So you made it, Thanks for coming…..What was your name?

Mayte: My name is Mayte

Nico: Alright Mayte, come..have a seat and Ill get you something to drink

Mayte: (Doesn’t answer and sits down at the small table in the corner)

Suddenly all kinds of food starts to come to the table. Tortillas, avocados, etc.
It’s a feast, the kitchen has been getting ready for her to arrive and there is not much business this time of year.

She eats it fast, she is famished. He and his workers watch her secretly from the kitchen and smile as she devours all of the food.

Without asking Nico sits down at the table with her and offers her a smoke she declines. He lights up a hand rolled cigarette anyway. He is nothing like she imagined him to be when she was watching him on the beach> He is Brazilian and extremely good looking, young and slim, but at the same time he has no manners. She lets it go because she really wants someone to talk to even though she isn’t acting like it.

Nico: So I see that you are alone here (in Porteguese)

S: No, Somebody is coming to meet me tomorrow (in Spanish)

Nico: Oh yea, and where is this person coming from. Smiling

S: New York,

The food was great, can I get the check.

Nico: Wait, what’s the rush, besides I would like to buy you the dinner if you would let me do that?

S: That’s OK I can pay for my own food thank you. And I really have to get back. I’m very tired.

Nico: If you want, I can take you surfing tomorrow at the beach

S: I don’t surf

Nico: Ill teach you fast, you’ll be surfing by the afternoon

S: I’m afraid that I won’t be that good and I told you that my boyfriend is coming tomorrow. *(A total lie)

Nico: You didn’t say your boyfriend, you said someone, that’s is a big difference

Mayte: Silence, she stands to leave

Nico: Well, then when he comes we can all go

S: Sounds good! (Lying) Thanks for dinner>

She leaves 10$ US on the table

Nico: Thanks for coming

Nico is taken back by her beauty as she walks away. She looks completely different at night after her shower she is glowing. The sun has made her dark amber skin brown and red at the same time and she is glowing from head to toe from being in the sun all day and is wearing a Sarong and a white T shirt.

Who is this woman and why is she here he asks himself.

Day 5: Morning

Mayte wakes up to find an old motorized bicycle outside her front door> Inside the basket is a pair of fins and a mask and a snorkel and an envelope with just a map.

The map is to a beach on the other side of the island from where she has been going in a secluded cove that you have to hike to.

Riding the bike on the open road she thinks about what she is doing but the adventure has taken hold of her. She can’t turn back now. She has almost forgotten her life in New York and could stay here forever it seems like. The nervous feeling she had when she first got hear is gone. She is completely different, free, without attachments. She will never turn on her phone again. As a matter of fact she may throw it into the ocean just as a symbol to herself that she is free and this is what she really wants to be independent and to start over maybe, somewhere else with someone else.

Hiking in to the secluded oasis


She comes upon the most beautiful beach she has ever seen. The sky is full of perfect mid-day sunlight. Breathtaking crystal clear water and light brown sand and a soft breeze. Totally secluded.

Nobody is on the small beach. She puts on her bathing suit anyway and takes out the gear to go snorkeling immediately.

Underwater she sees the purest place on earth. It’s the fountain of youth that has been untouched by Man or women for that matter

She lies on the sand all day at the same time she is secretly wishing she had someone special to share her private beach with.

She falls asleep in the sun and begins to dreaming.

Dream Sequence: A young little girl with long curly brown hair. The little girl comes up to her while she is sitting on the toilet seat half asleep in the bathroom of a small NYC apartment. The little girl comes up to her face and says something to her in her ear. She looks out the door of the bathroom and we see the back side of a Man’s head who is sitting on the couch in the other room reading. Its morning and she has just gotten up. In the dream we can’t make out who the Man is, only that he has dark curly hair. And the dream won’t let us or her see him clearly but the little girl is the cutest girl in the world and it looks like a small version of her with a big smile and big brown eyes.

When she wakes up on the beach its Magic Hour. The Sun is on its way down. She decides to go back into the blue water that is beckoning her. When she walks out of the water she sits down to watch the sunset in front of her. All of the sudden there is someone standing behind her. She is afraid to look but she can feel it. She can feel it. She doesn’t move. The person doesn’t say a word and she is scared. She thinks that she is going to get hurt all alone on a seclude beach. How stupid can she be. It’s all been a set up so she can be raped. She starts to cry silently.

Just when she is about to get up to run, He says her name. She stops and her eyes open wide with surprise. We see his legs then his wrist that has the Rolex on it and on his pinky he has a large diamond engagement ring. Mayte……..will you……. She jumps up and hugs his head and says yes before he gets out the rest of it:” Will you marry me?” It’s all I have ever wanted”

She turns her head and looks up at him into the sun. There is a glare but we can see a diamond ring on his finger.


Cut to: 3 or so years later

Mayte is sitting on the edge of the bath tub with her robe on and the water running and a little girl comes bursting in on her while she is about to take a bath and gives her a kiss on her cheek and a picture that she drew of a beach and the sun and two people on it sitting, holding hands and looking at the sunset labeled Mommy and Daddy in little girl writing. The little girl runs out opening the door a little more to reveal a Man sitting on the bed in the other room. Elliott whose face we see for the first time is sitting on the bed, confirming that he was the Man from her dream all along
The END




Cue Music: (Nice Dream by Radiohead)
Credits Roll

4:18 PM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home