The Morning After…

There’s a screenwriting blog that I read on a daily basis, and every few months the woman who runs it has a Short Scene Competition.

The challenge is to write a SINGLE-PAGE scene and include three words that she chooses. This latest one had to include Thanksgiving, election, and chihuahua. It can be any genre. The only real rules are that it has to fit on a single page and the three words need to be utilized in a creative manner.

I submitted my entry last night. Here it is (please excuse the incorrect formatting), entitled The Morning After.

INT. HOUSE – VARIOUS ROOMS – MORNING

The light of dawn infiltrates through window blinds and into a bare, simple bedroom. The only conspicuous feature is a candle holder; it intertwines two candles into one design.

In bed, KIA and RACHEL lie with their eyes shut, but the tangled sheets and the pillow on the floor suggest it wasn’t a peaceful night of sleep. A phone RINGS.

Kia’s eyes open; they’re bloodshot, puffy. She remains still. It rings twice, a third time. A moment, then a woman’s sophisticated, and yet delicate voice from the other room.

Kia softly kisses Rachel still lying asleep next to her, then slips out of the room.She shuffles sleepily through the living room, passing by an empty pizza box and depleted beer bottles. Without breaking stride, she flips on the NEWS and moves to the front door.

A WOMAN on her cell phone is too enamored with her conversation to notice her chihuahua lifting its leg on a MARRIAGE FOR ALL, NO ON PROP 8 campaign sign in Kia’s yard.

Kia watches the dog finish, then shuts the door with conviction. She pulls a cell phone from her pocket and dials.