.The One not Fondly Mentioned – A Screenplay.

  1. Scene 1: (Married couple: A man and woman on a road trip to New York to take care of important paperwork/documents). It is very early in the morning. Everything seems fine.
  2. They laugh. She falls asleep for an hour or two. She wakes up when he pulls over to get coffee. (A little break but he does not seem tired at all).
  3. (They arrive in New York. She gets out of the car and walks to the office. He tries to find parking in the area).
  4. She receives messages on her phone while walking to the office. She doesn’t know the person who sent the messages but it is disturbing nonetheless. “Your husband is having an affair with my wife”, she reads. She reads it over and over and feels that a huge hole opens in front of her – ready to swallow her up. She falls into this depth. It is dark, cold and painful.
  5. “Who is she?”, she asks.
  6. “Nothing is wrong”, he says and “this woman is just a colleague; a friend. Nothing more. The colleague needs help dealing with issues and he, of course, gives his advice. It is a war zone, after all. There is a lot of stress. Her husband is a psychopath”.
  7. The man denies everything, and she cries out, ” Why didn’t you tell me?” “It means nothing because nothing happened”, he says. (Long silence)
  8. They drive back. Ahead of them: an (at least) eight-hour drive (800+km) next to each other (trapped) in the car. (No escape, just silence). She stares out of the window for the first hour. Speechless.
  9. (Neither of them is happy but nobody wants to leave. So they continue and call it love. )
  10. She digs one more time through her bag to find her phone,
  11. to gather information and missing links,
  12. to check messages and emails,
  13. to arrange everything in a huge pile and looks for her red lipstick (she needs red lipstick to make herself happy)
  14. (She applies the lipstick.)
  15. She then finally just stares blankly at all this mess her life has become. In one second (with one message) everything changes.
  16. Outside: It looks sad, it is fall. November.
  17. Back at “home”: She considers going to bed, to forget the whole thing. Maybe it is all just a bad dream?
  18. His suggestion of what to do next, not a perfect one, but…. He suggests weird things and says them out loud while peace tries to spread out in her head. She does not want to listen to him anymore.
  19. Her complaint, “We cannot live like this. I don’t want to live like this. How do you think this can be even possible….?”
  20. (Change of scene. Both sit in the kitchen, brooding angrily. Trust is broken. There is no way back, she thinks. Maybe there would be, but he chooses to go on a Safari instead. “Alone”, to relax because he works in a war zone)
  21. She knows what will happen next. Deep inside. At this point, there is no return. She is in charge. He won’t be any longer. Enough is enough.
  22. (First change of scene: Months passed and no change but fighting and arguing). [Possibly insert a scene: Two people typing emails, one looking sad, the other one is denying] 😉
  23. (Second change of scene: She walks to the car and drives to the lawyer’s office)
  24. For her to eventually lean over the counter and
  25. to take the stack of papers out of her purse,
  26. to retrieve a paper fallen to the ground, to catch the other ones slipping.
  27. The length of her explanation, her supplication,
  28. and meanwhile (change of scene) he is furious. He does not want the change.
  29. (A lawyer starts to work on the application- typing things, taking notes). She leaves the lawyer’s office and walks back to the car.
  30. (At this point: heavy snowfall)
  31. She glances back, to see the lawyer’s office entrance again. She sees her footprints in the snow while closing her warm winter jacket. She feels good and is proud that she had the strength to take this step.
  32. (At home: Holds her marriage certificate in hand and thinks: What is she going to do now? This meaningless piece of paper. It means nothing after all)
  33. The emergence of a slight headache. So much stress. Barely any sleep.
  34. The emergence of thoughts in her mind, the suppression of it, its reemergence
  35. The contemplation: She was too blind to see. It is better this way.
  36. In emails, he recites a list, another list, of other things she has done to him in all those years. The punch lines. She does not listen any longer.
  37. (Change of scene/Drive to the airport): In the car, she looks out of the window: A hawk flies overhead. Is he following their car? Woods everywhere, low red sky. Sunset. The evening then night)
  38. (At the airport: Four blinks from him, seven from her [watery eyes). One last hug. He said, “I am sorry!” (Neither did she feel anything anymore nor did she say anything back but she hugged him goodbye. She walked back to the car without turning back.)
  39. (Change of scene: After the drop-off): She wiped away one last tear. Then she sees a little boy next to a woman who both want to cross the street. The woman looks sad but the boy seems happy and jumps up and down. “It is not that bad, mommy,” he said while grabbing her hand.
  40. The little boy looks at the woman and smiles.
  41. At this point, she knows she will be fine.


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