Sandra Dauber
Aug 25, 2017 · 3 min read

Scene 3
INT KITCHEN
Woman, ALLY in early 30s walks into kitchen, in a robe, then nods to no one as she pours her coffee, stirs in 2 drops of artificial sweetener and stirs slow. Then Ally nods in a friendly way past where we can see. She has dark circles under her eyes. We see a girl, LIZ about 8 holding a pink kids camera and holding her thumb up to her. Ally turns and staggers back to her office and comes back and carries a laptop in plugs it in and starts clicking the keys. Her head starts to fall and Liz next to her shakes her shoulder till he snaps back awake.

Next a man, ROGER walks in to the kitchen, opens the fridge peering in and moving things around. Finally grabs a plate of meat and orange juice. He pours himself a glass of orange juice and the meat on a plate and turns and jumps to see a pink camera in his face. He opens his mouth, but Liz puts a finger to her mouth and he closes his mouth. He scowls and turns to the kitchen picking up a newspaper from the table and dramatically unfolding it.
Liz puts the camera down and hops on her dad’s lap. He is gripping his paper tight as he looks down at Liz looking up at him and smiling and puts her arms around him. He moves his arms till he is free. Then he shoos her off with his hand, and she grabs her camera and goes to sit in the corner, watching. Her brows knitted up and her eyes look like large saucers as her knees up are buckled up to her chest.

She turns on her camera and watches and rewatches a video of a weed swaying in the wind. Then the camera shows a mouse running across the floor. And a close up of a hand opening and closing.

Ally clears her throat, but Roger doesn’t turn. She gets up with her laptop in hand to show him a beautifully colored digital painting of a Chinese dragon of reds and greens. But he barely glances at it before turning back to his paper. Her shoulders tremble but she bites her lip and returns to her seat and goes back to typing.
A teenage boy walks in, CALEB. Roger puts down the paper watching Caleb. Ally gets out of her seat and rubs Rogers back, in large circles pressing her palm into his back. Caleb grabs some toast and walks to a seat. Ally slinks back to a seat as she watches, no longer looking at her laptop anymore. A collection of crumbs spill onto Caleb’s plate and on the table as he chews.
Roger stares, but Caleb continues eating and looks forward to the refrigerator.
Roger bangs his fist on the table. Ally jumps in her seat. But Caleb keeps staring at the fridge and eating. Then Roger gets up and stands in front of Caleb’s view of the white fridge. Caleb’s brows knit tight at this though and he rushes out.
Now the sound of the chair shoved into the table still resounds in the air. But otherwise silence between Ally and Roger. Ally stares in shock at everything. Then cleans the table of crumbs from Caleb’s toast. Sweeping the toast with her hands.

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    Sandra Dauber

    Written by