Scene four
(JOAN in the bookstore reading "Footprints" out loud.)
JOAN:
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.
This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.
So I said to the Lord,
"You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during
the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one
set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most,
you have not been there for me?"
The Lord replied,
"The times when you have
seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you."
Mary Stevenson
(JOAN's face is stricken with fear as she slams the poetry book shut and locks up the store. We pan to the GIRARDI household where they are beginning to eat dinner.)
HELEN: Luke, no texting at the table!
LUKE: I am not texting, mom, simply checking to see if any updates were made with ATLAS.
WILL: Isn't that going to cause black holes?
LUKE: No, we don't have enough mass in our entire solar system to generate the gravity to cause one.
HELEN: Well whatever; eat dinner.
(JOAN enters)
KEVIN: Joan! It's about time you showed up!
(JOAN rolls her eyes, sits and digs into dinner with the rest of the family. Worry, however, is written all over JOAN's face. Now, up in KEVIN'S room)
JOAN: Ever get a bad feeling?
KEVIN: Everyday, and then I go to the bathroom.
JOAN: Eck! Gross! No, I mean like when you have a feeling that something bad might happen to you?
KEVIN: Are you going crazy again, Joan?
(JOAN rolls her eyes and leaves.)
---Insert where a commercial break would be.---
( JOAN'S room. A knock is on her window.)
JOAN: Grace! What are you doing here?
GRACE: Clinging to a pole, you know Girardi, we've been through this. Can I come in?
JOAN: Yeah. Did you tell Luke?
GRACE: That's none of your business.
JOAN: I knew you didn't! He didn't act like you did! Why not?
GRACE: Well, maybe I did tell him, and he doesn't.
JOAN: Grace, yes he does.
GRACE: Well, he certainly didn't say it back.
JOAN: (Gasping) NO!
GRACE: (mimicking JOAN) YES!
JOAN: Grace! That's horrible!
GRACE: (pacing and ranting) And-you-and-ugh! He had more than two chances! (sighing and flopping herself on JOAN's bed, pillow in GRACE'S face.) I feel like a girl.
JOAN: This is called paranoia.
GRACE: I got into Yale.
JOAN: That's great!
GRACE: No, it's not.
JOAN: I'm not getting something then.
GRACE: I didn't get into Harvard.
JOAN: Yeah, but you got into Yale.
GRACE: That's not the point. I'm too opinionated for Harvard.
JOAN: But, you got into Yale.
GRACE: I was supposed to get into Harvard.
JOAN: Grace, I'm not following.
GRACE: Harvard is down the street from MIT. Yale...Yale is much further.
(JOAN gave a knowing nod and remained silent. Pan to LUKE in his bedroom. Laying on his bed holding and looking at a picture of him and Grace. He rubs the photo with his thumb.)
(GRACE is sitting in kitchen eating Cheerios while solving the word search on the back of the box. Enter LUKE. He does not seem to notice GRACE while he rumages in the refrigorator for milk. It is not until he goes to get the cereal from the table that he realizes GRACE is sitting there.)
LUKE: Oh my God! Grace you scared the shit out of me.
GRACE: Dude, matching?
LUKE: (returning her defensive clothing critique) Pink?
GRACE: (viscously with a tone of hurt) I'm not anti-pink.
LUKE: What is your deal, Grace?
GRACE: I went and had a total regime change, and you—you didn't even have the decency to say it back!
LUKE: Say what back?
GRACE: I dunno, how about 'I love you too' maybe!
LUKE: Grace? Do you really need words?
(They look intensley at one another, as if magnets of opposite poles; They kiss passionately.)
LUKE: (Whispering as his lips travel to her earlobe then neck.) I love you...
FADE TO BLACK, CREDITS ROLL...
Reviews are as always accepted. I love how no one noticed that Luke never said I love you too to Grace, and yet it was important. But seriously, people it doesn't take long to review a story. I would know, I do it all the time. So review, and if you want something in particular to happen, you need to say so in that review, and I just might go for it.
