The Marquis’ Intimate Diary

FRIDAY, 10 DECEMBER, 1999, PHILADELPHIA
Scene from my movie…



SCENE 32 — Quiet, tree-lined suburban street. 3 or 4 slow suburban vehicles crawl along the avenue. Elementary school is down the street a short bit.

POV from within a car. We are looking through the dirty windshield of the car at the back of a minivan in front of us. We approach a SIGN on the next telephone pole that says, “DRUG FREE ZONE”. The word “DRUGS” below it is circled in red with a red slash through it. There is a BARREL on the sidewalk next to the sign.

The car in front of the minivan is stopped by the barrel. Someone gets out and deposits an item in it. We cannot see what it is. The car then drives away.

The minivan ahead of us then pulls up to the barrel. A HOUSEWIFE gets out and dumps orange plastic bottles into the barrel, gets back in her minivan, and drives off.

Our car approaches the barrel and pulls over.

CUT TO:
We now see the car we were in, a beat-up Chevy Nova. A scrungey looking man gets out and tosses a crinkled plastic baggie filled with pills into the barrel. He drives off.

SAME POV: We see TWO CHILDREN, around 11 years old walking down street in coats, mittens and backpacks on their backs. They are chatting merrily with each other. They approach the barrel and start to sift through the contents.

CUT TO:
C.U. of interior of barrel, piled several feet thick with bottles of aspirin, prescription bottles, baggies of powders, weeds and pills, needles, spoons, lighters, Co2 tubes, etc. 4 mittened hands plunge into the barrel and take out a handful of objects.

CUT TO:
Previous POV. The two children are sifting through their collection of drugs, tossing some back, pocketing others, trading others.

A TEACHER comes out from the front of the school and yells to them across the street. The children look up at her. She is smiling brightly and waving to them to come to school. The children wave back, smiling, and run jauntily across the street.

FADE