Reel
By Doug Draime


( shot in 3D )

( John Lee Hooker’s, Blues Before Sunrise, weaves in and out till final wipe )

( close up )

She snores like an old man

( quick cut )

She lies in a bathtub fingering herself. The water bubbles up. She can
hear her husband walking in the hallway. And she can hear her children
asking for Cheerios.

( slow dissolve )

In the middle of the room she leans over the table with a straw up her
nose. Does 2 long lines in record time. She smiles at Mary. Mary’s
husband works at the Shell station. He has no idea, and won’t be home
for several hours.

( fade )

Her mother, an invalid, in a wheelchair, writing a check on a Sears catalog.

( cut to her daughter )

She is slamming a screen door over and over again, screaming at her
husband.

“ You fucking asshole, you dirty son-of-a-bitch. Fuck you!. Fuck you, I hate
your fucking guts, you fucking piece of shit.”

The screen door falls of the hedges. Her husband is sitting in an old rocking
chair just inside the broken door, rocking their 2 year old son, who is crying.

“Your mother loves you, “ he says softly several times.

( cut to flashback )

A car is weaving in and out of the California mountains. It jolts to a stop on
the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean.

( zoom to close up )

She is smashing her head on the steering wheel, crying and laughing hysterically.

( slow fade )

She is amazed that a plant is living in her house.

“Look,” she tells her husband, “this spider plant is actually still alive.”

( close up of plant )

( wipe )

( slow fade in )

Her mother in her wheelchair sitting in front of a muted big screen TV, shaking and
crying, tears flooding down her cheeks. She tightens the dirty gray blanket she has
wrapped around herself. A male nurse leans over her.

“Can I get anything for you, Mrs. Bergman? Is there something I can do?
Mrs. Bergman, Mrs. Bergman ...?”

( slow fade to her daughter in her car on the cliff )

( zoom to close up of her face, her breakdown )

( wipe )


- - -
Doug Draime emerged as a presence in the 'underground literary movement
in the late 1960's. He currently lives and writes in Ashland, Oregon.