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"The Colors of Love"A Family Drama (OUTLINE)
FADE IN:
Tierney Santini paints with her heart, thinks with her heart,
sees with her heart. That is the problem, her heart is
blinded to her husband's infidelity, to the kind of man he
is, to the shape their marriage is in.
An artist should see truth, but Tierney's feelings for Austin
Majors, her husband's best friend, are camouflaged by fear of
truth.
On Graduation Day, the three lifelong friends, Tierney, her
husband Anthony,(Tony), and Austin, wave goodbye. Austin is
leaving to join his father's law firm in New York.
On their way home, Tierney and Tony stop at a mall where they
run into pregnant Brianne McBride, one of Tony's old
classmates. Brianne's sister runs up, waving her finger in
Tony's face asking when he will pay child support for his
baby.
Austin arrives back in California, and drops by Tony and
Tierney's for a visit. Tierney tells him off because he has
helped Tony keep his infidelity a secret. She tells him she
never wants to see him again.
Next, Tony and Brianne are arrested on drug charges, and
there is no one to keep their baby, but Tierney.
Tierney visits Brianne in jail and tells her where her baby
is. A year later, Brianne is released and shows up at
Tierney's house, but she leaves her baby, Tommy, with
Tierney.
Austin arrives back in town with his new wife. Time has
passed, and taken Tierney's anger with it. Tierney goes out
to dinner with Austin and his new wife, and sees them off on
their honeymoon.
At home, Tierney receives a phone call from Austin. He is in
the hospital, and his new wife has been killed in a
automobile collision. Austin may never walk again. Tierney
takes a plane to the hospital, and arranges to move into
Austin's condo, next door. She stays months with him, until
he recuperates and learns to get around in his wheel chair
and drive his specially equipped van.
Austin tells her he is in love with her, asks her if she is
ever going to divorce Tony, and if she will bring Tommy, and
come back to spend more time with him. He changes his mind,
and tells her not to come back unless she feels the same way
toward him that he feels about her, or else he will be
causing himself too much pain. He tells her she must make a
decision between him and Tony, and what she wants to do about
her life. Tierney goes home to decide.
In the meantime, Tony is released from prison, and arrives
home, only to pack and leave, with Tierney chasing after him,
out into the dark night, where she is mugged and blinded.
Tierney's large extended family support her and Tommy, Tony's
little boy. They have all come to love Tommy.
Austin calls to get Tierney's answer: if she is in love with
him, if she is going to leave Tony, if she and Tony have
gotten back together. Tierney leads Austin to believe that
she is back with Tony.
One day, after years of absence, Tony, remarried, to Gail,
shows up at Tommy's school and takes him.
Tommy calls Lane, one of Tierney's sisters, and she tells
Tommy to have Tony take him to the Fair, to the petting zoo
at a certain time.
At the petting zoo, Tierney's family members confront Tony,
as one of Tierney's nephews grabs Tommy's hand and runs away
through the fair with him.
Tony, determinded to find his child stalks Tierney's family,
to no avail. One night, he breaks into her house, demanding
to know where Tommy is. In Tierney's dark house, the
moonlight hits her face, and Tony realizes that the dog
scratching at the windows to get back inside is Tierney's
seeing-eye dog, and that Tierney is blind. Shocked and
confused, he questions Tierney about her blindness and when
it occurred. When he realizes it happened the night she went
chasing after him, he goes running out into the night, away
from her and from himself.
He runs past drug dealers, encouraging him to buy drugs, and
for the first time since his release, he stops and buys.
Now on a bridge, faced with the choice of taking drugs, or
fighting for his son and a new life, he throws the drugs into
the ocean.
Austin is fully rehabilitated now. He can walk and run
again. He arrives in California. At a restaurant he spots
Tony with Gail. He thinks Tony is cheating on Tierney. He
calls her and tells her to come to the restaurant to see for
herself. He is puzzled by Tierney's apathy, and her
disinterest in her marriage. He insists on seeing Tierney,
but she tells him that if he comes to see her, she will call
the police and get a restraining order.
Puzzled by Tierney's reaction, he goes walking near her
house, on the beach. Approaching him, he sees a blind woman
with a seeing-eye dog. As she comes nearer, he realizes it's
Tierney. Understanding, now, why she refuses to see him, he
says hello in a foreign accent. He never tells her who he
is, even after they've seen each other for months.
One day, as Austin and Tierney sit eating at a restaurant, a
friend of Austin's speaks to him. For the first time,
Tierney realizes her new friend is really Austin. She takes
Toby, her seeing-eye dog, and leaves. Austin follows her
outside, telling her to call him if she ever needs him.
Tony feels divided, too guilty to take Tommy now, but Gail is
insisting that Tony get Tommy so they can get on with their
lives, and go to Italy to run a new chain of restaurants for
her father.
Now, Gail coincidentally sees Tierney and Tommy walking down
the street. Gail decides to grab Tommy and run. Tierney,
hearing Tommy's cries and Gail's movements, turns and grabs
Gail around the neck, choking her, but releases her amid
Tommy's pleas. Gail lunges toward Tierney; and Tommy, afraid
Tierney will get hurt, voluntarily agrees to go with Gail.
Tierney stands on the street corner screaming Tommy's name,
grasping at air. She falls into the street where her head
meets with an oncoming car.
Tierney lies in a hospital bed, for the first time feeling
absolutely defeated without sight, without Tommy, without
knowledge of Tommy's whereabouts.
The phone rings and it is Tony's sister, Josephina (Phina),
who lives in New York. She puts Tommy on the phone to speak
to Tierney. Phina tells Tierney that Tony is leaving for
Italy and taking Tommy with him. Phina gets Tony to agree to
let Tierney see Tommy in person once more before they leave
for Italy. Tony, feeling guilty about Tierney's blindness,
agrees. Tierney will meet them at the airport when they
leave for Italy.
From her hospital bed, Tierney is infused with renewed hope,
as she hangs up the phone. She phones Austin, and asks for
his help. She jumps out of bed and heads for the wash room,
getting her foot caught up in her IV bottle cord. She goes
sprawling on the floor, face down, bumping her head against
the floor. Wiping blood from her brow, she sees movement,
shadows, and light. Her sight is returning.
Later, Austin enters Tierney's hospital room, glad to see
her. He tells her that he doesn't care that she's blind.
She tells him that she is no longer in love with Tony, and
that they are no longer married. He asks Tierney how long
she's known she wasn't in love with Tony. When he finds out
that Tierney hasn't been in love with Tony for years, he is
hurt and angry about her deception, about all the years
they've wasted. He tells Tierney she has to tell him whether
or not she loves him and she has to do it now, or else he's
leaving and she won't ever see him again.
But Tierney's mind is divided, she hasn't heard half of what
Austin has said. She's still in a state of wonderment and
euphoria. By the time she realizes that Austin is giving her
an ultimatum, he is getting up and exiting the door. Her
lips want to call him back, but she hesitates, realizing that
she is in the process of deceiving him again, she still
hasn't told anyone she can see. It is too scary, too new.
Will it last? In that moment of hesitation Austin is out the
door, and, it dawns on her, out of her life forever.
She runs to the window and spots him exiting the hospital.
She runs to the closet, throws on her clothes and hits the
streets searching for him. Finally, she takes a taxi home.
Later, the hospital staff, Austin, and her family call,
wanting to know where she is since she disappeared from the
hospital. She's been shopping for a new dress, and to the
bakery to invite everyone over. But all she tells them is to
come over at a certain time.
Everyone enters her home, wanting to know what's going on.
She is upstairs, and Toby, her dog races upstairs when he
enters the house with her family and Austin. She celebrates
with Toby first, with pets and hugs, and then goes downstairs
to share her surprise and joy with the rest of the family.
She apologizes to Austin, and confirms that she loves him.
He proposes, and gives her the ring he's been saving for her.
Her sister says she wishes Tierney could see how beautiful
her ring is on her finger. Tierney tells them she can see
it. There is unspeakable joy and elation. They p-a-r-t-y!
Now Tommy, Josephina, Gail, and Tony stand waiting at the
airport for Tierney to arrive to see Tommy before they can
depart for Italy. Tierney enters the airport, carrying a
white cane, assisted by the taxi driver. For the first time,
Tony fully appreciates the full gravity of Tierney's
blindness. Josephina walks up and takes Tierney's hand,
escorting Tierney and Tommy to a secluded table by
themselves, so that they can say goodbye. Tony gets
something from the refreshment stand as Josephina and Gail
sit at another table talking. Tierney and Tommy sit talking,
and holding hands. Suddenly, they jump up and run through
the crowd, out the door, down the sidewalk, with Tony in hot
pursuit.
Tony grabs Tierney, but Tommy keeps running as directed by
Tierney into the parking lot next to the airport, to a red
van where Austin stands waiting. Austin puts Tommy in the
van, and runs toward the airport, straight up to Tierney and
Tony, grabbing Tony in the collar. Now two ex-best friends
stand face to face, Tony scandalized. Austin adamant. Tony
runs, calling for security, and Austin and Tierney take off
running toward the parking lot. They get in the van with
Tommy, and take off.
Tony stands incredulously staring at his sister, angered by
what he considers her disloyalty to him, realizing that she
helped Tierney, her best friend, get Tommy back.
Now they stand in court. The judge awards Tommy to Tony, his
natural father, even though Tommy's real mother, Brianne, has
come to ask for custody on Tierney's behalf.
Outside the courthouse Tierney's family hugs Tommy goodbye.
When Tierney hugs Tommy goodbye he won't let her go. He
falls out, screaming, inconsolable, refusing to let go of the
only mother he has ever known. He looks into the eyes of his
own mother, and her new husband, strangers. He looks into
Tony's eyes, the father he has come to like, but home is with
Tierney and her family, the ones that have been there for,
and with, him all his life. His uncles who taught him to
ride his first bike, to swim and fish, and scout and play
ball. His aunts who babysat him, bandaged his scrapes and
cuts, cuddled him when he was afraid, helped him take his
first steps. These are the people his memories, his past,
are tied up with. Now he is being torn away from everything
he knows, a part of himself.
That's what Tony sees in his eyes: the peaceful colors of
blue like the pictures that Tierney has painted of Tommy and
his uncles sailing on the ocean, the white sails resting
against blue skies; the warm rays of orange, like a summer
sunset, when Tommy's aunts would sit in the backyard swing at
the end of the day, rocking him and singing the songs that he
loved; the intense hues of red excitement like balloons at
the fair, ketchup on hot dogs, red fire engines and trains,
flying kites with his cousins, running races with his
friends. The spark of life, every color of emotion, every
shade of memory reflected in Tommy's eyes are captured in
Tierney's paintings. She's captured the glint in Tommy's
eyes, the colors of love, everything that Tommy is or will
ever be.
Tierney has always said that her favorite colors are the
colors of the human family, because only in humans is there
the knowledgeable potential to reflect self-sacrificing love.
Would Tony ever be able to do it, would Tony ever be strong
enough to sacrifice for someone he loves? Tony leans over
and whispers in Josephina's ear. Phina walks over to Tommy
and holds him in her arms, "Your father is going to let you
live with Tierney," she says. Josephina walks back over to
her brother and kisses him on the cheek.
Tommy, Tierney, Austin, and their family watch Tony, Gail, and
Phina walk away. They hug, kiss and cry. Tierney stares into
Brianne's strained face. "Tommy," Tierney says, "This is your
real mother. If you'd ever like to go see her, it's all right
with me."
THE END
FADE OUT:
Copyright-Tiana Boulet-2000
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