'Rev on the Red Line'

'Rev On the Red Line'--- some early thoughts and maybe part of the treatment. Updated 11-14

        On this warm spring night, Vince didn't know what his near future would hold. A few extra minutes sitting on his porch watching the starry sky for a meteor or two to pass through his sight. This was an on early March night where the temperature had reached 75 during the day and now at this late hour, it still hovered at around 60 degrees.

        There had been a lot on his mind. The prospect of going into the Air Force, up until recently had been on his mind quite a bit. However, everything was changing with the announcement of the main highway connecting the two closest towns being shut down. There was a cancer rotting away the ground beneath their feet. The fire had burned under the town since '62, and now it was getting real, real enough to affect their lives.

        Jim and Steve didn't do much in the spring after school, except hang out in their tree house. For two young teens, this was their real estate. Steve had already been in high school being the older of the two boys. Jim was going to be entering high school the following year. The thought of going to a high school without his friends had been something that had now become real. The mine fire, was dictating a course for Jim and his friends. The thought that this could be their last summer here in Burnside, was a disturbing one. This was their home, their patch, a home base.

        Some of the residents of the town had already been relocated and it looked like the moving had been finished. Then, with this announcement came the prospect of a whole new wave of families being relocated. His family's house was located between two towns and acted as a nice buffer to say, “I don't really live in either of the towns, but I enjoy them both equally.”

        What kind of changes were to come from this most recent announcement? The news seemed to be making bigger headlines recently, than the Iranian hostage crisis, the rising oil prices, the disaster at Three Mile Island and even the uneventful and not so loved  job of President Carter.  

        One thing was for sure, if their families were going to be leaving this town to move somewhere safer, they were not going to let any of the following months go to waste. Hell, they would have all of spring and summer coming up. Even thought the burning was eating away at the town where they attended elementary school. Neither Vince nor Jim were  going to let the next few months burn away without starting some fires of their own.

        The July 3rd Bonfire was coming up and may or may not be the last one for his little town. The teens would make sure that with the help of  family and neighbors, this one would be one to remember. This had been a town tradition that all of the residents would come out to help with and certainly enjoy.

        The closed and now vacant highway, sitting there like some buffet of  memories and great times, was just waiting to be welcomed into what was to become the last days of this patch of a town. Since the highway had been closed about a week before, Vince had taken a hike on to the highway and walked the mile and half length that had been shut down. The fire had only broken through in one area, yet out of concern for the traffic that normally traveled this highway, the town decided to shut down the entire stretch of  road. One thing that kept crossing his mind was... with no cops on the highway, oh how he could open it up in his 400 horses that he had packed under the hood.

        On this awesomely warm March night, they thought about what was to come over the next several months. One thing was for sure... if there was something to get away with, they wanted to be part of it.

        Vince hadn't yet signed his life away to his country. What was in front of him was the possibilities of how to spend the last several months in their home town. What was to become of his family and friends? Would they all stay local after they would be relocated by the government, which he now chose to give his service to. Or would they scatter like the fallen leaves in autumn. 

        Would this fire burning under the town eat their spirit away or would they all be able to ride this possible crazy ride right up to the red line? The following months would shape the courses of their lives into adulthood.

(Outline coming soon...)

(c) 2014

- Early thoughts and a slight background for the upcoming screenplay 'Rev on the Red Line'

(A story of youth, growth and transition .) 

by Jim Catizone