I try to mix things up on holidays and do things that are surprising, but sometimes it’s hard not to fall into a rut. Here’s a sketch that illustrates what might happen if you allow yourself to become boring…
\n<\/p>\n
EXT. FRONT DOOR – MORNING<\/p>\n
ROGER, mid thirties, tall and thin, nervous knocks on the door.\u00a0 He has a bouquet of flowers and a box of candy under his arm.\u00a0 He waits, and then knocks again.\u00a0 When no one answers, he leans down, lifts a stone from the garden, picks up a key and lets himself in.<\/p>\n
CUT TO:<\/p>\n
INT. HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS<\/p>\n
ROGER enters and turns on the lights.\u00a0 The floor is littered with rose petals.\u00a0 He follows them down the hall and into the kitchen.\u00a0 They circle the table. On the table is a card, leaning against a bottle of wine.\u00a0 There are two empty glasses and a corkscrew as well.\u00a0 As he enters the room, he notices a red light playing across his chest.\u00a0 When he breaks the beam, music starts to play, slow sultry music.<\/p>\n
ROGER<\/p>\n
Mom?<\/p>\n
There is no answer.\u00a0 He crosses to the table and leans down to read the card.<\/p>\n
CARD<\/p>\n
I’m in the bedroom.\u00a0 Come on in, I’ve been waiting for you.<\/p>\n
ROGER hesitates.\u00a0 He glances back at the hallway leading to the front door.\u00a0 Then he turns and follows the still proceeding trail of rose petals out of the kitchen.<\/p>\n
FADE TO:<\/p>\n
INT. BEDROOM – CoNTINUOUS<\/p>\n
The room is lit with candles.\u00a0 Incense is burning on the dresser.\u00a0 The music he tripped by passing through the light sensor in the kitchen emanates from a stereo in the corner.\u00a0 On the HDTV, the image of a crackling fire is playing.\u00a0 On the bed a figure is apparently asleep beneath a red satin sheet.<\/p>\n
ROGER<\/p>\n
Mom?<\/p>\n
There is still no answer.\u00a0 ROGER hurries across the room and reaches down to shake the arm of the figure in the bed.\u00a0 His ankle trips a string.\u00a0 The sheet begins shooting around, air hissing, as the blow-up doll beneath shoots out and sputters around the room.\u00a0 The music stops and is replaced by laughter.\u00a0 (O.S.) We hear the outer door open, and ROGER spins toward the bedroom door. He quickly hides in the closet.\u00a0 A moment later EARL, late sixties, balding, carrying a box of chocolates identical to what ROGER has, and some flowers, enters the room.\u00a0 He looks confused.\u00a0 He sees the now flat blow-up doll on the floor, bends, and picks it up.\u00a0 ROGER steps from the closet.<\/p>\n
ROGER (CONT’D)<\/p>\n
Dad?<\/p>\n
EARL<\/p>\n
Son?\u00a0 Where’s your mother?<\/p>\n
ROGER<\/p>\n
I was going to ask you that.<\/p>\n
An alarm bell starts ringing, and both men turn toward the sound.\u00a0 A camera flash goes off in their faces.\u00a0 The laughter gives way to a woman’s voice, speaking calmly.<\/p>\n
ROGER (CONT’D)<\/p>\n
That’s Mom’s voice.<\/p>\n
The two listen.<\/p>\n
MOM<\/p>\n
Earl, this is one time I don’t have to say ‘I wish I could see the look on his face’ because I have it on film.\u00a0 Since I’m sure you are standing there with the same old box of chocolates and some flowers, listen up.\u00a0 I have had it.\u00a0 Every year, it’s the same.\u00a0 Every year you come in, you give me flowers, you give me candy, you take me to dinner, and put a check mark next to Mother’s Day on your list.\u00a0 Jesus, you even have your son trained to do the same.\u00a0 God help our future daughter-in-law.\u00a0 This time, I wanted something more.\u00a0 I’ve gone to Hawaii.\u00a0 I’ll be back in a week.\u00a0 There is no food in the refrigerator, the bills are in the hall by the door where you usually leave them until I get tired of seeing them and take care of it.\u00a0 The trash is not out, the house is not clean.\u00a0 Maybe if you blow that thing in your hands back up, you won’t be lonely until I get back...<\/p>\n
(pause)<\/p>\n
And Earl?\u00a0 Happy Mother’s Day.<\/p>\n
EARL turns to ROGER – a stricken expression on his face.\u00a0 ROGER starts to laugh.\u00a0 He holds out the box in his hand.<\/p>\n
ROGER<\/p>\n
Chocolate?<\/p>\n
The recording returns to laughter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I try to mix things up on holidays and do things that are surprising, but sometimes it’s hard not to fall into a rut. Here’s a sketch that illustrates what might happen if you allow yourself to become boring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[132],"class_list":["post-1199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sketches","category-uncategorized","tag-mothers-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}