Act 2 – Four and a Half Stages of Grief
INT. KRAV MAGA GYM — DAY
AMY is in the middle of a fight. It is a “Monkey in the Middle” drill. There are four people surrounding a DEFENDER, and they each take turns attacking him. Amy holds a TOMBSTONE PAD. The DEFENDER is throwing groin kicks to another person holding the same pad as Amy.
Amy throws her pad to the side and attacks the defender with a side choke. The defender performs the technique to release himself from the choke, and as he counter attacks, he fails to pull his punch and drives his elbow up into Amy’s face.
Amy stumbles backwards, holding her nose. She stands still for a moment, breathing deeply. The rest of the group have stopped the drill and are surrounding her, asking if she is okay, but she hardly hears them.
The INSTRUCTOR runs over and places a hand on Amy’s shoulder. Amy is in her own world, almost meditating.
BEGIN FLASHBACK:
INT. GROCERY STORE — DAY
Amy mindlessly walks through the fruit and vegetable section. She hardly looks at the food as she passes. She suddenly stops in front of the apples, picks one up, and stares at it.
She turns it over and over in her hand, inspecting it closely. She puts it down and heads out of the fruit and vegetable section.
Amy enters a frozen foods aisle. She opens up one fridge and picks up a frozen pizza. She opens another and grabs chicken nuggets. Then she grabs a few gallons of ice cream and places them in her cart.
She turns down the chips and cookies aisle. She quickly grabs a package of Oreos and Chips Ahoy.
She stops in front of the giant wall of chips. She picks up Doritos, Smartfood, and Lay’s and puts them all in her cart. Then she grabs a bag of Hot Cheetos and immediately opens them and begins eating.
Amy stands in the middle of the aisle, eating Hot Cheetos and staring into nothing.
EXT. SHOPPING PLAZA — DAY
Amy walks through the grocery store parking lot with a cart full of groceries. She reaches her car, opens up the trunk and begins loading groceries in.
Suddenly, a tall, muscular MAN wearing a shirt that says “Krav Maga” and gym shorts bumps into her. The man is hardly jogging, but Amy is sent stumbling back, almost falling to the ground. The man doesn’t stop, but turns around.
MAN: Sorry about that!
AMY: Don’t worry about it. (under her breath) Asshole.
The man runs off. Amy continues to load groceries into her car, but doesn’t take her eyes off the man as he runs through a door to a space a few doors down from the grocery store. The words “Krav Maga” sit above the door.
Amy stares at the building for a moment, shuts her trunk and heads toward the gym.
INT. KRAV MAGA GYM — DAY
The gym is filled with people and noise. There are two large mats and two rows of heavy weight bags behind them. There are about fifteen people on each mat, and a couple of people on the bags.
The group on the first mat are split into pairs, and they are on the ground, wrestling with each other. The other group is split into groups of three or four, each with one person in the middle throwing punches, kicks and knees at pad holders. Occasionally they get choked.
There are giant letters painted on the wall above one of the mats: “SO THAT ONE MAY WALK IN PEACE”.
Amy is entranced. She walks to the edge of one of the mats and watches, jaw slightly slacked and arms crossed.
The man who she just ran into approaches her. He is now wearing an orange belt around his waist.
MAN: Oh, hey! It’s you again.
AMY: Hi.
MAN: Are you a member here?
AMY: No.. What is this?
MAN: Krav Maga.. it’s a self defense and fighting system.
AMY: So, you just beat the shit out of each other for fun?
MAN (laughing): Pretty much.
AMY: That’s… insane.
The man chuckles. They are interrupted by an INSTRUCTOR. She is a muscular woman wearing workout clothes.
INSTRUCTOR (yelling): Level 3, one line!
Amy jumps at the woman’s command, but the man is unfazed. He runs off and forms a line at the top of one of the mats with several others, all wearing orange belts. Amy sits to watch.
INT. KRAV MAGA GYM — NIGHT
It is dark outside of the windows to the gym now, but Amy still watches the fighters very carefully. She is approached by a man wearing a polo, jeans, and a name tag reading “John”.
JOHN: Hi! You’ve been here for a little while, do you know one of our members?
AMY: Oh, no. I’m just kinda curious about what this is.
JOHN: Sure! Well, I can tell you about it. Krav Maga is a self defense system that is used by the Israeli military and consists of elements from karate, wrestling, boxing and a couple of other fighting systems. Do you have any experience with martial arts?
AMY: Absolutely not.. I don’t think I could ever do something like this.
JOHN (chuckling): Why do you say that?
AMY: I don’t know… I just. Can’t. I wouldn’t be good at it. It looks way to hard for me.
JOHN: A lot of first-timers say that. It’s not true. Krav Maga is for all walks of life.. Old, young, tall, short, fat, skinny.. It doesn’t matter. Anybody can do it.
AMY: Yeah.. I don’t know. It’s too scary.
Amy laughs nervously, but John is silent, thinking. After a moment, he speaks.
JOHN: Yeah, I understand that. But that’s the beauty of Krav, you know? We come here, and put ourselves in scary situations so that when we walk outside of this gym, we aren’t scared of anything.
Amy considers this. She looks at the giant, painted words on the wall: “SO THAT ONE MAY WALK IN PEACE”. She says nothing.
JOHN: Would you like to give it a try? The first class is free.
Amy turns and watches a young girl get kneed repeatedly to a pad she holds to her chest by a slightly older, taller, and more muscular boy. The girl and boy have similar eyes and face. She turns back to John.
AMY: Okay.
EXT. PARKING LOT — NIGHT
Amy walks to her car. She is in a daze. As she gets close to the car, her face drops and she begins to run.
AMY: Oh, shit!
She runs to her car and opens up the trunk. Three gallons of melted ice cream cover the floor of her car. The carpet is stained. The packs of chips and cookies are soaked.
Amy punches the floor of her trunk repeatedly.
AMY: Fuck!
She stops and rests her body on the car. She breathes deeply for a moment, then faces her destroyed groceries.
She turns around and spots a garbage bin not too far away. She turns back around, grabs every single bag of groceries and walks to the garbage bin.
Without hesitation, she dumps all of the bags into the bin and walks away. She walks back to her car, closes the trunk and gets in.
INT. KRAV MAGA GYM — DAY
Amy lifts her hand from her face and looks at it. BLOOD covers her fingers. She stares at them for a moment, her face blank.
She snaps out of it and wipes her hands on her shirt, smiling. She turns around and picks up the tombstone she had dropped, and presses it tightly to her chest. She faces the defender. He is still apologizing, with a deep concern on his face.
AMY: Right here. Keep going.
The defender smiles, shrugs and throws punches at Amy’s pad. The instructor exclaims and claps. Blood continues to drip down Amy’s mouth and chin, but she doesn’t mind.
