Twice two

“And now… it’s an honor for me to announce the winner of 10^th Annual Short Film Festival dedicated to one of the most tragic pages of our history. And the winner is…” A man in an irreproachable black suit shining in the light of soffits was professionally dragging out an intriguing pause. Sticking his little finger out, he carefully tore a white envelope with a name in it. “And… the winner is… Alison Chance!” The man got a radiant smile and inspected an auditorium in front of him packed with neatly-dressed people. He was enjoying an effect made by his words. “… and her ten-minute-long film Two Dollars which hit thousands and thousands of American hearts by its poignant story”.

Suddenly, she could not breathe as if someone just cut off the oxygen in the auditorium. It was improbable, unbelievable; she felt like being in a movie where dreams come true. Wearing this splendid dark cherry dress, she is sitting in the auditorium that before she saw only on TV. She is surrounded by the most famous people of American filmmaking industry, and the person at the stage is calling her name. All of this was too wonderful to be true.  

“… film about love that never dies… film about the warmth of human heart that saves the life…” The anchorman readjusted his tie and turned over a paper sheet with his speech.

It’s her who all of these people are cheering now; it’s her who they are smiling to so nicely; it’s her who they are looking at with such an admiration. She stood up from a velvet armchair. “… film about eternal…”

“What is he talking about?” flashed through her mind.

“… and now I invite you to enjoy this striking movie”.

There are two high school students on the huge screen. They are riding a merry-go-round, holding hands and kissing every two minutes.  She is laughing contagiously; he is looking at her with eyes full of insane love.

Next shot. She is playing in a school theater and receiving a great ovation. He notices dozens of admiring looks at her and hears students’ parents discussing her acting talent. At the end of the show she is officially titled The Queen of the Prom. They are escaping from the prom together to glide in a small boat on the plant-filled surface of a night lake. He is reading her his poems about everything in the world being doubled: a boat has two oars, a day always has a night, a moon always has a sun, and he will always have her in his heart… She is smiling elegantly and saying that he is funny.

Next shot. They both are 19. They are sitting on the shore of the same lake, his arm round her waist, and discussing how to call their future son and daughter. She is telling him that she has just received a letter from Yale School of Drama about her enrollment in a first year class. She is saying that her family is incredibly proud of her and that her mom is already packing warm clothes for her daughter. He inhales and resolutely offers to get married and to go to Connecticut together. Lyrical music, camera is slowly moving away.

Next shot. New Haven, winter night, a heavy snowfall. A tiny room filled up with things. He is in the bed reading a book.  The phone rings. It’s her saying that she’ll be late because they have a dinner party with directors and actors after the show. She asks him to not wait for her and to go to bed. He turns off the lights and lays in the darkness with opened eyes for a long time.

They are 25. He comes home after work, takes off his suit and puts his bank employee card on the table. She is dressing up for a theater play, looking for matching shoes and doing her make-up. She says they have to discuss something. He is looking at her inquiringly. She tells him that she is going to Los Angeles for the whole summer to study in Hollywood Film School and that they probably should get divorced. She is delivering an emotional speech about very important places that theater and actress career take in her life. She is crying that it’s not his fault, that she just needs freedom, freedom to create, that anyway his rational accountant’s mind would never understand her soul.

Slow sorrowful music. A plastic cup appears on the screen with a blue toothbrush in it. Right away there is a next shot with a green toothbrush in a cup. At first sight it seems to be the same cup with two toothbrushes in it but a viewer soon understands that they are already far away from each other. Two bearded, famous directors in the first row approvingly exchanged glances.

Once, when Alison was six, she accidentally found an old toothbrush of the same blue color in a small cardboard box in her mother’s closet. She always asked herself why her mom would keep such trash at home.

To be continued...