He Wakes Up

  He Wakes Up By

  Ramin Pourmand

 

 

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  INT. BEDROOM- DAY

  MARGUS, 35, white skin, thin, with short brown hair, opens his eyes and wakes up, there is a bit panic in his eyes, He is in the bed wearing his nightshirt.

  He remembers some sounds and voices from his dreams. The vague sound of talking with a woman. The sound of noises in the bus. The sounds gradually disappear.

  He listens to the surrounding sounds. He hears some noises of a person packing in the other room; after a while, he hears a woman is shouting to a child.

  A WOMAN (O.S) (With anger)

  I said you can't take that doll!

  (A bit calmer)

  You will not play with it.

  Margus hears the kid start to cry. Margus listens to the other sounds around him, some birds are tweeting outside, and he looks over to the window. He sees a big willow tree, then he looks into the street, then he pays attention to a car that tries to park in front of the neighbour's house

  He hears the struggle of the mother and the daughter continue from the other room but, for a short while, there is no sound and there is peace around him. Silence. Then the woman calls him.

  WOMAN(O.S)

  (Shouting)

  Margus!

  Margus lazily slides away from the bed.

  WOMAN(O.S) (Shouting louder)

  Margus! Honey!

  Margus goes close to the mirror, looks at himself, he touches his beard that has not been shaved for two days and then stares at his eyes. Then he looks back to the bed. He looks over to the bed for a long time without blinking.

  WOMAN(O.S)

  Margus! Don't go to sleep again!

  We are late!

  Margus quickly leaves the room.

  2.

  INT. LIVING ROOM DAY

  As soon as he enters the living room, he sees his wife, MARIA,35, chubby, with long blond hair, is sitting on a suitcase pressing it hard with her body weight and trying to close the zipper, but she can't. Margus helps her to close the zipper. Maria immediately gives him the car key and leaves to go into the kitchen.

  Margus first tries to lift the suitcase but it's too heavy, so he turns it to its wheel side and pulls it behind himself to the parking lot.

  EXT. PARKING DAY

  Margus wears two slippers, they don't match; one is red and the other one is brown. Then he tries to fit the suitcase into the car boot, but it does not fit. Finally, he gives up and puts it in the back seat. The car is a rather old blue 1995 Ford but, it is clean. He bends under the steering wheel to pull a cord that opens the bonnet. Bonnet opens with a slight clunking sound.

  When he wants to close the car's front door, he sees a scratch on the car door just below the window, and immediately he gets sad, he checks if the scratch is deep or if it can be removed easily.

  He makes his finger wet with his saliva and tries to clean the scratch, but it does not go away. He tries to remove the scratch with his thumbnail, and finally, he gives up. He closes the car's front door and goes a bit back and looks at the scratch from a distance to see what it looks like. The scratch can't be seen easily from a distance.

  He feels better, so he opens the bonnet to look inside. The engine is very clean. There is some rust on it, but it is not greasy at all and is very well kept. He first opens the radiator cap to check the water level, then he checks the engine oil level.

  Engine oil level is full. Then he closes the bonnet and goes back towards home, but on the way back he looks back to see the scratch for one last time. He murmurs something under his lips. It is like he is talking to himself. He brings his hands up and it seems he says to himself, "whatever," and then he leaves the parking lot and enters his home.

  INT. LIVING ROOM DAY.

  Maria in a rush feeds the kid with some kind of yellow cereal. Kid, ELIZABETH is 4 years old.

  3.

  MARIA

  (To Margus angrily) Honey!Don't you understand we are late?

  Margus does not answer. He stares at the cereal that drops onto the kid's dress. Maria sees what she has done, she gets more frustrated, she runs to the kitchen and brings a napkin to clean the cereal from Elizabeth's dress. But she can't clean the dress, the yellow stain just gets bigger.

  Maria takes Elizabeth's dress off and looks with wide eyes to Margus, who is still looking aimlessly. She gets really upset.

  MARIA

  Am I the only person in this house? I have to do everything myself.

  She leaves the living room and then comes back to the living room with some clothing in her hand. Then she throws pants, a shirt and a pair of socks for Margus at him, and begins to change Elizabeth's dress. Margus takes the dress from the ground and goes to his room to change.

  INT/EXT CAR DAY

  Margus is driving. It's not rainy, but clouds are all over the sky. It's a bit dark. The road is outside the city. Margus looks at the different signs on the road. Maximum speed is 80 and the guiding sign to next city, then a sign saying that passing another car is forbidden and then a sign for turning left.

  Margus has put his left hand outside the window. The wind is blowing under his sleeves.

  Maria is next to him sitting in the front seat. She is changing the CD for a new song, and at the same time, she looks back at Elizabeth to see if she is okay. Elizabeth is sleeping, but the wind blowing on her face and clothes.

  MARIA

  Close the window! Elizabeth may catch a cold.

  Margus closes the window.

  Maria presses the play button on the tape, it's Bob Dylan, "Hurricanes". Margus feels it's too loud, so he turns the volume down. Maria does not resist. She leans to the right window watching the woods through the car's window.

  4.

  Margus sometimes watches Maria while driving. She does not pay attention that he is watching her. After a short while, Maria falls asleep. Margus continues to watch her. Then he turns the tape volume lower. He can barely hear the voice anymore.

  Margus looks at the road. There are not many cars on the road. He looks around and he sees a shop where some cars are parking in front of it. He does not stop there, but a car which was driving in front of him stops there.

  Then, Margus looks back to Maria. Maria's sleep is deep. She is snoring, but her snoring is very low. He turns off the tape and looks back to see how Elizabeth is. Elizabeth is sleeping and she wears a sweet smile. When Margus sees the smile, he also smiles.

  Then he looks back at the road. But his eyes get wide. A truck is coming towards them. The truck is big, and the driver seems to be sleeping and the truck is heading directly towards them and is about to hit Margus's car. The big truck is just a few meters from hitting their car.

  Margus does not know what to do. At the same time, he turns the steering wheel to the right and pushes hard onto the break pedal.

  INT. BEDROOM DAY

  Margus 35, white skin, thin, with short brown hair opens his eyes and wakes up, there is a bit panic in his eyes.He is in the bed wearing his nightshirt.

  He remembers some sounds and voices from his dream last night. The vague sound of talking with a woman. The sound of the car. The sound of the Bob Dylan music. The sound of car breaking and the sound of a crash. The sounds gradually disappear.

  He listens to the surrounding sounds.

  There is no sound at first, but then he hears a TV sound from the other rooms. He hears a Cartoon or a children's film playing on the TV. He looks towards the window. It's sunny outside, a tight traffic jam is outside, and one car is honking. he stays in the bed. He does not move. He looks at the ceiling and the lamp, the lamp is on.

  He looks at the table clock it's 7:59, he immediately presses the button before the alar
m goes off for 8:00 o'clock.

  He slides away from the bed. He looks out the window to see the traffic jam. The traffic light is off and the cars are stuck one behind the other.

  5.

  Margus goes close to the mirror, looks at himself, and touches his beard that has not been shaved for two days. He stares at his eyes. Then he looks back to the bed. He looks for a long time back at the bed without blinking.

  After a long pause, he leaves the bedroom.

  INT. LIVING ROOM DAY

  He enters the living room and Elizabeth, 4 years old, is sitting on the couch watching TV. A Cartoon is playing on the TV. He smiles at Elizabeth, but Elizabeth is so into the cartoon that she does not see her dad.

  Margus hears a person washing the dishes in the kitchen. He goes to the Kitchen.

  INT. Kitchen Day

  Margus enters the Kitchen. JOANA is a 30 years old woman, with short black hair. She is washing the dishes. She notices Margus in the kitchen. She comes forward and kisses Margus, and Margus kisses her back. She immediately gets a cup of coffee ready for Marus.

  JOANA

  The traffic light is not working and there is a mess outside.

  Joana brings a piece of cheese, butter, cereal and toasted bread and puts them all on the table.

  JOANA

  I could not sleep from 6:00, the cars were honking madly. Could you sleep?

  Margus nods his head to confirm that he could sleep. He then drinks a sip of coffee and then looks into his coffee cup. Joanna sees his reaction.

  JOANA

  Is it cold, let me change it.

  Margus does not give the cup to Joana and keeps it, with a hand gesture to show that the coffee is good enough, no need to change it.

  JOANA

  Can you come a bit like earlier? Half an hour. We need to buy some stuff for Elizabeth's birthday, the shop closes at six.

  Elizabeth enters the kitchen.

  6.

  ELIZABETH

  Mom! Only buy green candles.

  Margus is eating a toast and confirms to Joana by nodding his head. Joana smiles, and Margus smiles back to her. Then Joana goes and hugs Elizabeth.

  JOANA

  Only green!

  EXT. PARKING DAY

  Margus, who is dressed up officially, goes toward his car to drive to his workplace. The car an old red Renault.

  But when he looks at the street where all the cars are stuck, he regrets it, then he puts the key into his pocket and goes toward the street.

  EXT. STREET DAY

  He looks at cars and drivers who are impatiently stuck at the traffic jam. He walks without hurry, he looks at his own shoes; they are clean and polished. While walking, he looks at his bag. It is a big brown bag which seems a bit heavy. When Margus looks closer he sees a stain on the suitcase. It sees it's an oil stain or a candle tear.

  He stops and quickly scratches the stain away from his bag to remove it. He does it for a few seconds and when it goes away, he rubs it with his thumb and finger for few seconds till it's complete clean.

  Then he continues on his way.

  EXT. BUS STOP DAY

  Margus is waiting for the bus. He is looking around. He looks at some flowers in the yard behind the bus stop that have just blossomed.

  The bus arrives and he enters the bus. He places his bus card onto the machine to validate his ticket. But the machine rejects the card with a loud beeping sound. He does it again and second time the machine rejects the ticket and so he does it for one last time and machine rejects it.

  He searches for some coins in his pocket and gives them to the driver. Driver issues a ticket, and he takes the ticket and takes a seat.

  He sits in an empty place right in front of a black skin woman, the woman is reading a novel. He looks at the face of the woman.

  7.

  After a while, the bus stops. But from the movement of the bus, the black skin woman's book drops. The book cover is solid blue. Marus bends to takes it to help the woman, but the woman at the same time bends to take it. The woman is faster. Accidentally, their hands hit onto each other.

  INT. BEDROOM DAY

  Margus 35, white skin, thin, with short brown hair, opens his eyes and wakes up, there is a bit of panic in his eyes.

  He remembers some sounds and voices from his dream last night. The vague voices of a woman, a child, a bus driver. The sound of dropping a book in the bus, Noises of the bus. The sounds gradually disappear.

  He is in the bed wearing his nighshirt. He listens to the surrounding sounds. There is no sound. Absolute silence. He listens more, and he looks over to the window, There is no car on the street. A woman riding a bike is passing in the street.

  Marus listens more. Absolutely no sound.

  He slides away from the bed. Hr looks out the window. The woman with the bike is already gone. And the street is empty.

  Margus goes close to the mirror, looks at himself, and he touches his beard that has not been shaved for two days, He stares at his eyes. Then he looks back to the bed. He looks for a long time at the bed without blinking.

  Then he leaves the bedroom.

  INT. LIVING ROOM DAY

  The living room is empty. No one is there. He takes an ironing table from the drawer and puts his pants on the ironing table to iron. He plugs in the iron and goes to the kitchen and makes a tea for himself. Then he comes back and irons his pants.

  He changes his clothes and then he reads some papers when he is changing. Then he makes a roll out of the papers and leaves the house. After few seconds, he comes back and unplugs the iron that he has forgotten.

  8.

  EXT. PARKING DAY

  He puts his paper in the back of his bike. The bike is a red girlish bike, and he sees that bike's gearwheel is a bit oily. There is a napkin in a box near the bike, and the napkin is a bit greasy. Marus cautiously takes the napkin and cleans the gearwheel. He puts the napkin back in the box, then checks with his fingers to see if the gearwheel is clean enough or not. Then, he sits on the bike and rides the bike out to the street.

  EXT. STREET DAY.

  While Marus is riding the bike, he watches the street and the cars and drivers.

  He passes a bus stop, and he sees a black skin woman is sitting at the bus stop. She is reading a novel. He looks at the book, but he forgets to look forward and he has to break to stop when he is about to hit a man who is coming towards him from the other side.

  INT BEDROOM DAY

  SMITH, 20, brunet, a bit fat, opens his eyes and wakes up, there is a bit panic in his eyes, he is in the bed wearing his nightshirt.

  He remembers some sounds from his dream last night. The vague sound of cleaning the gearwheel, the sound of riding a bike. The sound of the street. The sound of the bike. The sounds gradually disappear.

  He listens to the surrounding sounds. There are many sounds in the home. An older woman and a man are talking in the living room, but their voices are not clear.

  Smith looks out of the window; it's sunny outside. Two men are standing in the street and talking to each other. He listens more. Then a bird comes and sits behind his window. The bird tweets several times and then it flies away.

  Smith slides away from the bed. He looks out the window. Two men are still talking. They are both rather old and one of them has a shopping bag in his hand. The man with shopping bag puts his bag down and continues talking.

  Smith goes near the mirror, looks at himself and stares at his eyes. His beard is well shaved. He sees a pimple on his face. He tries to remove the pimple, but he can't and the pimple gets bloody. Then, he cleans the blood with his finger. Then he looks back to bed. He looks for a long time at the bed without blinking.

  Then he leaves the bedroom.

  9.

  INT LIVING ROOM DAY.

  In the living room an older woman and an older man are sitting watching TV and talking, the TV is mute. When Smith enters, they pause for a second, but then they continued talking.

  Smith takes his xlo
thes from washed clothes basket, quickly goes to his room and changes them and walks out of the house.

  EXT PARKING DAY