INT. VERA'S ROOM - DAY
A small room in a small suburban house. The walls are covered with an ugly patterned wallpaper. The room has a small closet, a bed at the wall opposite the door, and a decent sized vanity dresser and mirror opposite the tiny window on the wall adjacent to the closet. The bed is made with an ugly green comforter on top with matching pillows.
The walls have things pinned all over them. Pictures of two old women in different locations, always smiling broadly. Pictures of a little girl and the same girl at many different ages all the way up to 25. Pictures of a women that resembles the 25 year old. It is her mother. There are also various newspaper clippings and letters pinned to the walls as well.
The vanity mirror has a picture of the little girl stuck in one of the edges. On the dresser is a small stack of envelopes all addressed to Vera Smith.
A sad country music song plays.
Pan around the room ending with the bed, revealing an elderly woman, Vera (73) laying on her back. One of the old women from the pictures. Her body is limp. She has passed on just minutes ago, heart attack.
C.U. on Vera's face. It is in pain, but an emotional pain, not a physical one. More despair than anything else.
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Mind the Gap
Short StoryThis is an adapted screenplay for a short film based on a story published in the New Yorker in 2011. The story is called "Sun City" by author Caitlin Horrocks. This screenplay was originally written in 2011.
