“By the River”

Fade In:

Ext. river shoreline - Day

The river is flowing along the shore.

A rotted log lies in the water.

A CHILD sits near the water’s edge with his mother, reading a book and eating a candy bar.

There are other PEOPLE on shore, doing different things: talking, laughing, running. Nobody is in the water.

Then we see a MAN carrying a guitar walking toward the river.

He stops and looks around at the motley group gathered on shore.

Some people look at him with anger, seeing the guitar, then return to their business.

Another CHILD sits at the water’s edge, throwing leaves into the water. They float with the current.

Another MAN is standing at the shoreline reading a letter. As he reads it, he cries.

The leaves in the water float past him.

He looks up river.

MAN’S POV: a pipe is dumping a green liquid into the river.

The man looks at the letter again. He wipes a tear from his eye with his finger, then wipes the tear moisture onto the letter. He kneels to the shoreline and dips the letter into the water. He again looks up river at the source of green liquid, then back at the letter.

A green vapor begins rising from the water by the paper, then the paper dissolves into nothing.

The man with the letter looks at the boy who is reading. The boy has chocolate on his fingers from his candy bar. He puts his book down and walks to the shoreline. He puts his hand in the water and rinses it.

This makes the man very nervous. He looks again at where the letter had dissolved and sees the leaves floating by. Green vapor rises from some of them.

The man looks again at the child and almost yells out a warning. He looks around at the other people on shore. They sit peacefully, enjoying the day.

He looks again at the child.

But the child pulls his hand out of the water.

The man dries his face again and looks relieved.

The guitar man walks down to the river and stands at the shoreline looking at the water. He then walks up to the child and stops.

The child looks up at him and he looks down.

Their eyes meet. Then the child resumes reading.

Then the man sets down his guitar and grabs the child, who starts screaming.

People on shore take notice.

The man picks up the child as his mom tries to stop him and runs into the water.

The water is not deep – it is only up to the man’s waste.

People run to the water. One PERSON runs into the water and tries to get to the child.

There is splashing as the child struggles.

The child begins to cry. Green vapor begins shooting from the water.

The rescuer then runs back to the shore.

The child’s mother tries to run into the water but is held back by others.

The child screams and struggles against the man and against the pain of the acidy water, but the man holds tight, and both are eaten way in great pain.

People look down at the book that lay on the ground – the only part of the boy remaining. They also look at the guitar.

People are sad and angry. Many of them cry and we see the wetness of their tears.

There is the SOUND OF BANGING. Everyone turns and looks.

The man who had the letter stands with a metal bucket. He’s banging a piece of water pipe against it.

When everyone looks, he stops and holds the bucket up high so everyone can see it.

He brings the bucket over to the boy’s mother and holds it under her face. Her tears fall into the bucket.

Then everyone starts finding buckets. Many buckets are held under the mourning mom’s face. Many tears are caught.

Then Buckets are getting dipped into the river, filled with water.

There aren’t enough buckets for everyone, so some fight over them or try to pull them away from others.

One WOMAN is standing with no bucket. She only looks around at the others. Then she tries to stop people from filling buckets with water.

People take to the streets, walking around with buckets full of water with green vapor rising from them. There is green vapor everywhere. Water is sloshing out of some, leaving a trail of wetness and disintegration behind.

As the people roam, searching, they sometimes stop to look around.

Then SOMEONE makes a LOUD HOWLING SOUND.

Everyone looks and the howler points.

They look and see ANOTHER MAN WITH A GUITAR. He sits on a park bench strumming.

People run over to him, spilling water from their buckets.

The woman runs in front of them and tries to stop people from tossing water onto the guitar man.

SOMEONE dumps his bucket on her. Others laugh.

Green vapor rises from her, and she screams and is eaten away by the acidic water.

Some people cheer.

Then a lot of people drench the guitar man.

Water splashes everywhere.

When it stops, the guitar man is soaked. He looks at the mom daubing her eyes, which are red from crying. He only has a couple seconds.

Everyone stops and tries to catch their breath as green vapor rises from the man.

Then the bucket people start to notice that they, too, are wet.

Fade OUt.

The End