The Script

In the script, a young man makes his way through a desolate landscape of waist-high weeds and scrap metal to the towering city of steel and glass. It is a story of youth and quests and adversity and ultimately triumph.

The script needed a main character, so the author held auditions.

A, an experienced character, liked the script and said he would be committed to following it verbatim. This pleased the author. B, young and starry-eyed, recommended a different setting—a desert with the only prop being a parachute. The author politely dismissed B, having long ago failed in his own use a similar device in a short story. C suggested that an already successful character, like himself, who comes home to discover his vulnerability and his emptiness, would make the script more sophisticated and mature. The author advised that a different script might be more appropriate for him.

The author accepted A, and A maintained his pliable facade during the early going. Up to a point, A was very enthusiastic about the setting and the plot. Nevertheless, the setting which he re-described as a post-apocalyptic wasteland should be THE setting. In the distance, there could still be a magnificent, bright city on a hill, but it had to be unattainable and so always in the backdrop. The main character would endlessly seek to reach the city but would be prevented by one setback after another. Unable to leave the outer region, he would come to recognize that he was one of its denizens, forever imprisoned to live in the foreground of a future he would never enjoy.

Meanwhile, the author reluctantly gave in to the demands of A. He was resigned but insisted on preserving at least the outlines of his story. But the outlines blurred to extinction when A hooked up with a band of marauding outlaws. The author then entered into secret negotiations with C who called in a few favours and managed to get A removed. With the author's gratitude, C proceeded to make his way to the city, though by a more straightforward approach. Altered script in hand, C arrived in a private plane.

News of a stock market crash was reverberating through the city, but C, calm and unflappable, was not detoured from the parties, galas and fundraisers that were his obligation. However, it started coming unravelled when the district attorney filed fraud charges. That's when the author perked up and took notice. Then came the allegations of sexual debauchery, murder, and even human trafficking. That was it. The author took over the script and wrote C out, begging B to come to the rescue.

A substantial amount of re-work was required to accommodate B's script rewrites and scene changes. As a goodwill gesture, the author invited A and C to join in for the opening scene. It was staged on a mile-high mesa a hundred miles from the nearest town. With all three characters together, the author deleted the parachute.

First published in Danse Macabre DM 94 Orangerie.