I LOVE this movie so much. It is probably the best movie I have ever seen. Very dark, and very, very sad, but absolutely stellar. I'm kind of a film nerd so I also really liked the cinematic aspect of it. Anyway, I couldn't help but write a story, imagining what the movie would've been like if another American was trapped in the cathedral with the rest of the people inside.
I've also made a trailer for this story on Youtube. You can see it by going to my channel, aspiringsinger15.
Now while this story is rated T, and most of the events written in here are about what's implied, rape is mentioned several times and is a major theme in the story, as it is set during the Massacre of Nanking. Please be advised that there are some mature themes in here.
As Mona raced through the streets of Nanking, there was only one thought on her mind: survival. If she was caught by the Japanese, her life was over and they would not go easy on her, especially since she was a woman. Her loose long brown hair trailed behind her and she desperately wanted to tie it up, but she didn't dare stop running. She spotted an older man and two young girls at the entrance to a cathedral. Seeing no other option, she ran up to them.
"Hey," she said breathlessly to the man. "Are you American?"
"Yeah," he answered awkwardly.
"You staying here?"
"Nah, I'm just here to do some work."
"Good enough for me. If they'll let you in, hopefully they'll let me in."
A younger boy came to the entrance and looked at the girls, the man, and then Mona. He looked at her disapprovingly and it made sense that he wouldn't trust her.
"I promise, I mean no harm," she said to him. "I just need a place to stay. Please."
He allowed her entrance, and the boy led the girls into the cathedral while Mona and the man stayed outside by a really big hole. Mona tied her hair up into a bun while she waited for the boy to return. Immediately, several shorter pieces fell out of it, but there was nothing she could do about that. She just needed it off her neck.
The boy came back to her and the man. "Father Ingleman fly away," the boy said in broken English.
"Fly away?" the man asked.
"On here, Japanese bomb."
"He flew away with the bomb, right."
"Yes."
"Why was the deceased out here?"
"Gu. All because of Gu."
"Gu?"
"He said, bad smell. He moved the body here."
"Who's Gu?"
"Gu is our cook. He ran away. He leaves some students here. Some students took away by parents. Some students nowhere to go."
"So who's inside? Just you and the girls? Just you and the girls." The man put his hand to his mouth and looked at the hole, then back at the boy. "Even without a body, you gotta pay me."
"No," the boy said quickly.
"No, you gotta pay me. That's the rule. There's nothing I can do about it. With what I came through, I should raise the price."
Mona looked at the man in disbelief. "It's a pretty desperate time," she said. "Do you really need the money that bad?"
"It's how I make my living, so yes. So is the money inside?"
"No. No money," the boy insisted.
"Money? Inside? Come on. There's no money inside?"
"He said there isn't any, okay?" Mona said beginning to really dislike this man.
"Let's look," he said. "It's a Catholic church. There's gotta be some cash inside."
"No."
"No?" the man sighed. "You say anything but no?"
Mona sighed as she, the man, and the boy started to walk inside the cathedral. The boy stopped by a broken down truck.
"Can you fix truck?" the boy asked him.
"Huh?"
"Help us leave Nanking."
"Fix this truck? For free? No."
Mona sighed again. "Do you ever do anything where you don't get paid? Would it really be so hard to just do something for the good of someone else, no money involved?"
The man completely ignored her and went over to the boy. "I can take parts, sell parts. You got tools?"
"No," the boy admitted.
"No. Let's get inside."
Mona knew one thing right off the bat. She hated this man. He only cared about himself and his own personal fortune. He wouldn't go out of his way to do anything for anyone else if he didn't get paid for it. It sickened her. Didn't he realize that they were in the middle of very, very harsh times?
The three of them walked in and saw two of the fourteen girls fighting each other while the others tried to stop them to no avail. The boy ran forward and tried to pull them apart, but he had no success either.
"Hey," the man said to them. "Hey!" When he still got no response, he yelled, "Hey! Stop!" He got into the middle of the fight and pulled the girls away from each other. "Stop!"
All of the girls were all sobbing and Mona's heart went out for them.
"I'm John. Hi," the man said awkwardly to all the girls.
"I'm Mona."
"I'm American."
"Same."
The boy told them something in Chinese, but he spoke too fast for Mona to understand what he said. She knew a little Chinese and she could read it pretty well, but she couldn't speak it fluently nor could she understand what other people said to her especially when they talked fast. She could only catch a few words here and there.
John went over to one the girls he had come into the cathedral with and put his hand on her shoulder. "I know it's hard. But you've gotta stop fighting everybody. You know you two, you've seen enough…seen enough tragedy for a lifetime today."
Mona raised her eyebrows. Maybe he did have at least a little respect in him. The girl took off and ran up the stairs away from everyone else, too upset to be near anyone.
"I can't, um, I'm not good with kids. Let's go." He turned to leave, but then turned back to the girls. "Oh, you want some flour?" he said pointing to the sack he had with him. He set it down in front of them. "You like some flour? Make some bread for the girls."
"Buns," the boy told him.
"Huh?"
"Buns."
"Buns, whatever. Let's go find the collection box."
John left to go find some money and the boy was forced to follow.
"No, wait, John!" Mona called. She went after him, leaving the girls to continue their mourning.
Finding no money, John headed upstairs with the boy.
"Here is place for you to stay," the boy said to Mona. He led her to a very nice room that looked more comfortable than anywhere she had stayed in quite a long time.
"Oh, nice," John remarked as he put a cigarette in his mouth. "Forget going back to the refuge, I think I'm bunking here tonight."
"Not in here you're not," Mona said sharply.
"Calm down, I'll sleep on the couch right there."
Mona rolled her eyes. She was not happy about this whole situation, but she'd deal with it because it was a heck of a lot better than trying to find a place to stay outside.
John walked over to a picture of a priest. "He's grim, who's that?" When the boy didn't answer, he asked, "Is that Father Ingleman?"
"Yes."
"These North Europeans they're all like, you know, tuna, playwrights, not much fun. Look at that face. He's ruining the…What do you call it? Feng—Fengshui? I can't have a priest staring at me while I'm sleeping."
He began to turn the picture around, but the boy snatched it away from him and put it back up on the mantle. "No! My father. Me, orphan. Adopted."
"I'm sorry," John said. "But I just…it's not good for me to have a priest staring at me while I'm sleeping. I can't. Please, I gotta just…" He took the picture back and placed it back on the mantle with the front of it facing the wall. "There, better."
"You know, you would be a lot easier to understand if you didn't have that horrid cigarette in your mouth," Mona said sharply.
John scoffed a little, not caring about her words in the slightest, and looked at the boy. "You got any drink around here?"
"No."
"You're a church. You got wine, something?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
Mona looked at John. "You really don't know the meaning of the word 'no', do you?"
John ignored her for the millionth time and started rummaging through the desks in the room, tossing things out as he tried to find what he wanted. He laughed as he discovered something and started to open it. The boy angrily tried to take it away from him.
"That's a shaving kit," John laughed.
The boy muttered something in Chinese as he put back all the things John had tossed out.
"What?" John asked.
The boy repeated what he said in Chinese so John still didn't understand, but Mona was fairly certain that she had heard the word 'jerk'. She made eye contact with the boy and slightly nodded, signaling she completely agreed with him.
"What did you say your name was?" John asked him.
"George Chen."
"George."
"Tomorrow, you fix truck, help us."
"Fix truck?" John rubbed his fingers together, telling them that he would only do it if he got paid which forced Mona to roll her eyes again.
"No money!" George exclaimed in frustration.
John led him to the door and pushed him out of the room. Before he slammed the door, he called out in Chinese, "Money, George!"
And now Mona was alone with him. "Let's get one thing straight right now," she ordered. "There will be no smoking in this room at any time. It's vulgar and rude and it smells awful, not to mention it ruins your perfectly good lungs."
"I'll smoke if I want to," he replied with a smile that made her want to punch him. If only he had known what she had been through before she got here.
"Oh, no you won't." She went up to him and snatched the cigarette right out of his mouth and flung it out the window.
"Don't do that again."
"Or what?"
He didn't reply and she smiled at herself for winning the argument so easily. He went to light another cigarette, but she stole that one and threw it out the window also. She raised her eyebrows, daring him to try it again. He didn't. She went over to the bed and threw him a couple pillows and a blanket.
"Make yourself comfortable on the couch."
He didn't look too happy, but Mona really couldn't care less. He would just have to suck it up. After all, this was technically her room, not his.
After a while, Mona heard some commotion outside. She ran to the window and saw George talking angrily with some people on the other side of the door. Suddenly, suitcases started getting thrown over and women in fancy clothes climbed up the walls. George brought out a really long stick and started whacking them with it in an attempt to get them to stop climbing in, but his efforts proved useless.
The women who had climbed over opened the doors and more women dressed in beautiful gowns walked into the courtyard of the cathedral.
John roughly pushed Mona aside and sat on the window to get a better look at the women. She was briefly tempted to push him out of it.
He whistled at the ladies and they all began laughing and waving at him.
Deep breaths, Mona, she thought. You are in a church.
One of the ladies blew a kiss at John which made him grab his heart and fall over playfully.
"Ugh," Mona said under her breath as she rolled her eyes yet again.