Parallax
CHARACTERS:
This story is
follows two characters, the first is a male early twenties who works at a
clinic that take care of the mentally disturbed. He is a stern worrisome person who is
assigned to take care of a single patient.
Even though he is a stern man who appears very cold on the outside,
within hearing the man talk for a few moments it is easily understood that he
has a soft heart and cares deeply about his patients well being. He looks out for his patients best interest
and is always trying to figure her out for her illness is a mystery to him. He
is not her doctor, merely her caregiver, so he doesn’t know much of the exacts
of her illness, but is hesitant to probe to much for he fears that his patient
would react to it poorly.
Character two is a
young woman who suffers form a mental illness un known to the viewer and even
un known to her. She is blissfully unaware of many things, yet in tune with
everything. She may not realize that she is sick, but she realizes some things
are not right. She may not realize where she is, but she knows what she is
doing. She may not see the world as others do, but she recognizes the faces
that inhabit her world and the world around her. This seemingly scary and
paradoxical state leaves her in a blissful mindset. She may not know the
whether it is day or night, is well spoken and well educated. It is unknown where her wealth of knowledge
comes form for when she looks at a dictionary it very well my process in her head
as a picture book full birds. She knows the male character and trusts him fully
even though she may see him differently then he actually is.
STORY:
The caregiver begins looking for his
patient for she has the tendency to wonder off. He begins talking on the phone with his superior as he
approaches he location saying, “Iv found her. I know where she’s gone off to.
Don’t worry I’ll have her back to the clinic soon.” He enters the location and
sees her sitting alone swinging her feet and playing with a roughed up stuffed
animal. He approaches her and she notices him, greets him with a smile and asks
him to sit with her. He does as she says and does not scold her for leaving the
clinic for he understands that she is in a constant fragile state of mind. He
merely sits with her as if this was their planned meeting spot. He asks her
what she’s doing here and she replies telling him that this is one of her
favorite bed and breakfasts’. They are not at a bnb. He notices that she is
holding a roughed up stuffed animal, stroking it like a lap dog and feeding it
mud. He asks where she found that cute animal, she replies by telling him that
it wondered up and stared following her, it looked hungry and cold and needed
love. She then looks it in the eyes and tells it that it needs to go off on its
own now and she tosses it away. She smiles and drinks from a broken cup filled
with rain water as if she is sipping a fine tea. The caregiver pulls the cup away from her
slowly and sets it down worried that the water may be tainted and asks her why
she wondered off. She explains that she stole her deceased mothers journal form
the filing area of the hospital and he old cloths from when she was first
initiated into the hospital. Then she left to find a confortable place to do
some light reading from it. She asks in excitement if the caregiver would like
to hear a poem he mother wrote.
The notebook was filled with
nothing, but pressed leaves and bugs, strange illegible scribbling’s and what
appeared to be human blood. The caregiver agreed to hear the poem in an encouraging
manor for he did not want to discourage the patient or make them feel as though
they have done something wrong. The patient clears her through and proceeds to
recite an eloquently put prose about viewing life through a beautiful
perspective. An uplifting tale about seeing the light in all dark places and
finding the good in the most painful evils. The caregiver is surprised for the
notebook doesn’t have a single word written in it yet the patients eyes
followed line by line down the page. When through with the poem the patient
looks up from the notebook, presses it to her fluttering heart and sighs. She
smiles and says to the caregiver that the poem was entitles parallax. The caregiver with an encouraging pat on the
back tells her that was beautiful and that her mother was a lovely poet. The
patient agrees smitten and jumps up. The patient catches something in her eye
and her demeanor immediately changes. Shocked and frighten she says there he is
again. The caregiver jumps up and is immediately worried that some one else is
with them. The patient yells, “I know you’re here! I know you followed me here
too!’’ The caregiver worried asks who has been followed her, the patient antsy
says,” I don’t know his name he wont tell me, he just stares. We need to find
him!” She runs off toward where her eye was caught. The caregiver races behind
her telling her to wait worried she may get hurt by what ever she saw of that
he may lose her again. She sprints to a
corner and in frustration looks for where what she saw went. The caregiver sees noting as well and tried
to sure her that there is nothing here. She looks around anxiously searches not
listening until she look back at the caregiver in horror. She hysterically
manages to whisper out “he’s behind you.” The caregiver whips back in fright to
see that there is nothing there. He tells her this but yet her eyes are locked
above her caregiver’s head as she presses herself into the corner, attempting
to meld with the wall to escape. The caregiver again looks around at nothing
and tries to convince her that nothing is there, yet she is left petrified in
the corner. The caregiver approaches his
petrified patient slowly as not to disturb her as if this has happened before.
He puts one arm around her and the other over her eyes that are still locked on
nothing at all. He tells her its ok, that he has her, and to walk with him
slowly and she’ll be ok. She sniffles and shakes as he walks her away from her
unseen horrors. He tells her to imagine her pace, the place where her and her
mother went to. She claims she can never remember what that looks like when
that thing is near. The caregiver attempts to reinforce her as the walk away.
LOCATION:
There
is not only one location being seen through out the piece. There are actually
two locations being shown simultaneously. One being the reality of the
situation and the other being what the patient perceives in her head. The shots
will take turns seeing what is actually happening and seeing things from the
perspective of the patient. For example when the patient is seen feeding the
stuffed animal the shot will cut to her feeding an actual dong in a different
location. The real location is a old ice blocking factory that has been
overcome by nature, but the location seen in the patients head however is a
warm inviting home. The characters dress
even changes from one perspective to the next. In reality they are in casual
attire and in the patient case roughed up casual attire, but in the patients
perspective they are dressed very formally.
