A sad story
Scene 1
We‘re at a clinic, a mother is getting an ultrasound and the doctor announces, “You’re having twins!” The mother, Mrs. Lim, is surprised but she smiles with joy nonetheless. On the bus back home, she pulls out a piece of paper from her folder and writes:
<Get another pacifier — having twins.>
She draws a heart around the word “twins”. Once she’s home, she places the paper inside a box that she keeps under her bed.
Scene 2
As the years go by, we see snippets of the mother aging while her two kids growing up.
The twins, Jeremy and Daniel, are going through the terrible twos! And Mrs. Lim? She’s super-mom-ing. Multitasking away, baking a cake and talking on the phone. She absently grabs a pencil and writes down a quick to do list for the twins’ little birthday party.
Meanwhile, Jeremy is dumping sauce on his head and making a mess of his hair and everything within reach. Daniel has an iron grip hold on his mother’s left leg.
Sometime later we see her pulling out the box from under her bed and a paper stained with sauce in her hand.
Scene 3
The twins are 5 years old.
Mrs. Lim is laughing.
Jeremy wore his underwear on his head and is running around pretending to be a superhero. Daniel stands sulkily to one side, towel-cape bunched up in his hands.
Daniel:
That’s not how superheroes wear their underwear!
Their mother writes on a random piece of paper:
<I have my very own superheroes! Need to buy DIY superhero costumes ASAP!>
We see her placing the paper in her box later on, her arms laden with cloth and glitter and other artsy materials.
Scene 4
9 years old.
Mrs. Lim is screaming, she pinches her nose in frustration and turns around looking for her rotan.
Daniel is crying, looking down at a shattered bowl, his body drenched in that night’s dinner, Curry Mee.
Jeremy walks downstairs after a shower. He swiftly takes in the situation as he walks towards his brother. He messes his hair up almost unconsciously before lifting his brother’s hand to his face and licks it.
Jeremy:
Yumm! Ma, I love your Curry Mee!
Her anger fades and she bursts out laughing. Daniel joins in. She grabs papers and starts to cover up the mess before she writes down on a stained piece:
<Must remember: Be patient with the boys. Give them extra kisses tonight — after ensuring that Daniel takes a proper shower. Also — buy more noodles (Daniel’s fav!!!). >
Before going to sleep that night, she pulls out her box.
Scene 5
13 years old.
Mrs. Lim is looking stressed. Her hair’s in a messy bun as she writes down a rough budget for the coming month’s expenses. She adjusts her reading glasses (the frame is loose):
Must spend: Rent, electricity, water, petrol, groceries, fix glasses(!), textbooks for the new school year, uniforms also!! why they grow up so fas -
She starts to frantically write when suddenly, Jeremy and Daniel run into the room, banging the door open.
Jeremy:
“Maaaa! My headphones broke! We need to get new ones!”
Daniel:
“It wasn’t my fault, I swear.”
Mrs. Lim *distracted*:
“Not this month, sayang. We’ll see how in the next few months, okay?”
Jeremy frowns, looking at his torn up headphones. He stares around the house, looking at all their second-hand furniture. Then while messing his hair in frustration he says:
“Why?! How will I walk to school without music? I need it lah.”
Mrs. Lim *turns around in her chair in frustration*:
“Well you should’ve taken better care of your things then!”
Daniel:
“Yeah, Jeremy!”
Jeremy *swears*:
“Shut up, Daniel!”
Mother:
“Eh, watch your mouth! No speaking that way in my house!”
Jeremy’s face reddens, he yells at his mother, pointing at all their second hand furniture before throwing his broken headphones at her feet and storming out of the room. Daniel looks at his shell-shocked mum before shrugging and following his brother.
Their mother turns around slowly, takes a few breaths and replaces “fix glasses” with “headphones”.
Scene 6
17 years old.
The clock shows it’s slightly past 1A.M. Mrs. Lim switches between looking at the TV and glancing at the door.
The boys come home together, they’re loud but she smiles. They walk in and head straight for their rooms. Mrs. Lim gets up and follows behind them, asking how their day was. Without glancing back, Daniel waves her off, mumbling something about an early morning. Not disheartened, she turns to her other son only to find herself alone in the corridor. Jeremy’s already inside his room and Daniel is closing his own bedroom door.
Mrs. Lim walks back, sits down slowly and stares blankly at the tv screen. On the coffee table, there are various books on parenting and right in front of her are some notes taken on paper, her scrawl clearly visible. At the top of the topmost paper, underlined twice, are the words
<How to talk to your teenage kids>
Scene 7
21 years old.
The boys are standing in front of a large crowd of people.
Jeremy messes his hair up, a habit everyone’s noticed, before saying:
“Gotta hand it to you ma, you’ve thrown us the best birthday party ever! Here’s to being 21 and having the coolest mum!”
Their friends cheer as their mother beams. She’s tired but happy that it all worked out.
After the party is over, she puts in her box a stack of papers, detailing the night.
<Daniel danced with a girl! The girl left after that though… I will make him soup for his heart tomorrow. I also met Jeremy’s girlfriend. I liked how she made him eat his vegetables.”>
Scene 8
22 years old.
A funeral.
One casket.
One twin standing, the other lying down.
A photo with the words: “In loving memory of Jeremy” printed across the bottom sits by the casket.
Mrs. Lim is being supported by the people around her, barely able to stand on her own. At the front, Daniel stands on the podium. He says something only to stop mid word, choking back his tears and this sets his mother off again.
Scene 9
23 years old.
Daniel and his mum go through the motions of everyday life. Daniel is working now, so he’s out almost all day. When he’s home, they barely interact with each other, choosing to leave notes behind for the other to find. Mostly it’s just “To Dos” or “To Buys”. Sometimes, there are “thank yous” and “I love yous” but it’s rare. More often than not, we see Mrs. Lim crying or staring off into space. Daniel doesn’t eat much, he pushes his food away often. They look tired, haggard, lost.
Scene 10
Age 25.
They’re at the hospital, the doctor is speaking and Mrs. Lim pulls out some paper and starts writing what he says:
<Alzheimer’s — must do the GOOGLE on this — also need to buy milk before going home.>
Daniel looks scared. He’s asking many questions as the doctor explains calmly why his mother sometimes leaves the tea to boil until it’s boiled over or forgets the way home. The doctor says that it’s only going to get worse. She doesn’t yet understand the gravity of the situation.
That evening, before putting the milk away, she hobbles into her room to place the paper into her box under her bed.
Scene 11
30.
They’re in an old folk’s home, specializing in the care of dementia patients. Mrs. Lim sees Daniel once a week, sometimes every fortnight. He tries to bring up memories from the past, sometimes she smiles and joins in with what she remembers. Other times, she looks confused. She questions him often, asking where is she, why is she there. He’s glad that she remembers his name though. She hasn’t forgotten him.
Scene 12
33.
Daniel is married now, he’s having dinner with his wife and son when they get a phone call. It’s the home that his mother’s in and the Head Nurse says his mother is out of control, screaming for him. She’s been getting worse and they believe it would be best if he comes over. The mood is sombre.
Daniel’s wife drives him to the home, with their son in the back seat, watching his parents quietly. They walk with him until the door of his mother’s room when his wife says:
“Come boy, let’s leave daddy alone for a while, okay?”
He enters alone. Mrs. Lim is at the very edge, not understanding where she is or who he is. His face cracks. First, she asks calmly. Soon she’s in hysterics, confused and raising her voice, afraid of where she is and who this strange man is.
He’s in shock but only for a heartbeat. He tries to calm her down, saying that he is in fact Daniel and that everything will be alright — it doesn’t work, she’s too far gone, say the nurses.
He walks out of the room, tears welling up. Suddenly, weirdly, like a dream coming to surface hours after waking up, he remembers something. Quickly, he calls his wife and gives her instructions. She leaves and returns a while later with an old box. She hands it to him with a kiss on the cheek, his son saying: I carried it all by myself papa! He smiles at his son and nods at his wife before entering his mother’s room one more time.
Once again, she looks afraid. She asks him to please leave her alone, soon screaming the words at him. He pulls open the box and grabs some of the papers inside. He starts reading them out loud and her screams lessen as she hears familiar sentences:
“It’s so cold here! I wrapped the boys’ heads with my extra scarves. They pretended to be Egyptian mummies”
Daniel grabs another, encouraged by her quiet mumbling and lack of screaming:
“Oh look at this one, Ma! It’s when I got my first job and you left me this note, reminding me to brush my teeth…”
Mrs. Lim seems to be listening to him. She cocks her head to one side as if thinking before saying:
“First impressions are so important! And let’s face it, you have bad breath, sayang. It’s about time I told you.”
They laugh and he rifles through the stack, he hands her a few and they seem to calm her. She’s more present when she’s holding the familiar papers in her hands.
He pulls another out and starts saying something only to realise that his mother is staring off into space, eyes glassy. “Ma” he calls out. She smiles absently and he smiles too before she calls him by his dead brother’s name:
“Jeremy”
He stops, barely holding in a gasp. In a split second he makes his decision. Daniel runs his hand through his hair and messes it up the way Jeremy did as locks eyes with his mother.
Daniel:
“Yes, mum?”
Mrs. Lim
“Is it nice where you are?”
Daniel:
“It’s… Wonderful.”
Mrs. Lim:
“Okay good, because I think it’s time I see you”
Daniel:
“Alright, mum” (He chokes, holding back the tears.)
Mrs. Lim
“But first, I need to tell your brother, Daniel, something”
Daniel:
“Okay”
She’s unfocussed after this and soon dozes off. Daniel leaves in tears, his wife holding him tightly, his son walking behind them.
He gets a call that night and without answering, he knows. He lets the phone ring as he gets up and gets ready to go to the hospital with his wife and son.
He says thank you to the doctors and the nurses, managing all formal courtesies. One passes him a box with his mom’s belongings and at the top of the box is the stack of papers he’d left behind in his grief-stricken state earlier that day. But at the top is a fresh piece of paper and on it he sees his mother’s tidy handwriting.
She wrote:
<Today I saw both my sons, for the first time in a very, very long time. They’re as beautiful now as they were when I first held them. I’m happy.>
Daniel’s son gambles over and pulls on his father’s pants:
“Daddy, are you okay?”
Daniel wipes his tears away, randomly pulls out a paper and smiles:
“I’m okay, Jeremy… Have I ever told you about how your grandmum once made me and your uncle Jeremy superhero costumes out of her old batik sarong?”
Father and son turn and walk out, the box clutched tightly in Daniel’ arms.
Screen Fades
SIGN OFF:
Never let the memories fade.
***Product name here***
I had written this script for a long-form video advert idea while I was working as a Copywriter in Malaysia (hence the Malay/Manglish colloquialisms). The brief was to create something similar to a Thai ad. If you’ve seen those, you know that they’re usually long, extremely dramatic, and you never see the ending coming. Because the ending is product branding.
The script made it quite far up before finally being turned down (as is the life of a copywriter: to watch your babies die. Cause of death? Client’s upper management.). Anyway, I figured I’d share it here, hopefully get some love and feedback :)
Now for the fun part, can you guess what product this ad was actually for?
PS: Translation for Malay/Manglish colloquialisms
- sayang: a term of endearment like “love” or “sweetheart”.
- rotan: a tool used for corporal punishment — very Asian, very usual, especially back in the day. Doesn’t have to be made of rattan and anything long and within reach can usually be used.
- batik sarong: a long skirt-type garment made from a textile that was created using the batik method (dyed colored designs).
