We enjoy warmth because we have been cold. We appreciate light because we have been in darkness. By the same token, we can experience joy because we have known sadness.
--David Weatherford

 


 

***The scene opens in a garage of a white home somewhere in Weslaco Texas.  The garage looks dusty, old, cluttered…all and all it’s just like a normal garage owed by anyone in America.  Slowly the scene moves through out the garage.  Pictures, tools, and other pieces of material are found through out the dusty place.  Suddenly a noise is heard from the other side of the garage door.  The garage door opens…a man walks into the garage with a trash bag in his right hand.  He’s wearing an old “Metallica” T-shirt as well as some faded blue jeans.  The man starts to walk around the garage slowly looking around at everything there.  Out of the blue the man drops the trash bag…he stops directly at a picture.  The man picks it up.  After a few seconds gazing at the picture he shakes his head.  The scene moves to a direct shot at the picture…it shows a man with his arm around a girl.  Both of them are smiling for the picture…they look like two of the happiest people in the world.  The man throws the picture across the room shattering the picture frame.  An upset look forms on his face followed by tears…we finally realize who the man is that is standing in the garage…as well as the man in the picture…it’s none other than David Dunn.***

 

DUNN: …why….why me…

 

***David drops down to the floor and holds his hands over his face as tears slowly dip out of his fingertips.***

 

DUNN:  She was…she was here. 

 

***David crawls over to where it threw the picture frame…he swipes the glass away from the picture.  He then picks up the pictures and leans back against the wall.  David gazes down at the picture…at Jeannette’s face…suddenly a drop of blood falls on Jeannette’s face.  David holds up his hand to find slivers of glass jabbed through out his fingertips as well as the rest of his hand.***

 

DUNN:  …fuck.

 

***Slowly David starts taking out the slivers of glass and throwing them on the ground.  More blood starts to dip out of his hand.  The picture that he was hold is now covered in blood.  David looks down at the picture once all the glass has been pulled.***

 

DUNN:  Blood…another word for family. 

 

***David grabs the picture and tosses it of sight.***

 

DUNN:  Fuck…I can’t be thinking of this shit right now.  I love Jeannette…I will always love Jeannette…but I have to take everyone’s advice…I have to move on.  I have to stick my head in my work…try to get away from my problems.  But how can I.  I'm way off my game. My game's left the country. It's in Cuernavaca.

 

***David cracks a smile.***

 

DUNN:  That’s probably the first time I’ve smiled since Monday.

 

***David is about to get up when he notices a pink sweater hanging off of an old dusty chair.  David sits back and thinks for a second.***

 

DUNN:  I remember that sweater…Jeannette was wearing it that day…hey…I wonder…

 

***David gets up and goes over to the sweater…he looks into the sweater pockets and pulls out a note.  He walks back where he was and sits back down.  David then opens the note.***

 

DUNN:  This is the first love letter I sent her…

 

I saw you before you saw me.

I watched you, and I saw you fall. It was a bright afternoon out in front of your school. You walked down the steps... and...and I loved you.
 
I could see your heart. You held it before you for everyone to see. And I worried that it would be bruised or torn. And more than anything in my life I wanted to keep it safe... to warm it with my own.

 
***David crumbles up the note and throws it away.***

 

DUNN:  I can’t be thinking about this shit right now…I need to get out of here.

 

***David gets up and walks out of the garage.***

 

***FLASH***

 

***The scene reopens inside David’s house…he’s sitting alone in the living room on his lazy boy chair in a dark corner.  Suddenly there is a knock at the door.  David doesn’t respond.  The door opens and Wilson walks in with Mary in his arms.***

 

WILSON:  Dad?!

 

***Wilson looks around the house then walks into the living room.***

 

WILSON:  Dad you in here?

 

***Wilson walks a little more into the living room when David’s head slips out of the shadows.***

 

DUNN:  What do you want Wilson?

 

WILSON:  Well I brought little Mary over, I thought maybe…

 

DUNN:  I just want to be alone and quiet in a room with a chair and a fireplace and a tea cozy. I don't even know what a tea cozy is, but I want one. Instead, I keep getting trouble, which I am more than willing to share.

 

WILSON:  Dad why do we have to start this now…

 

DUNN:  Because you started it.  I just want to be left alone.

 

WILSON:  Look…

 

***Wilson puts Mary down softly on the floor.***

 

WILSON:  …you need to get over this dad.  You need to just quit the SWF, leave Mary with me, and go up to the cabin for a few weeks.  Just clear your mind of all this shit.  Go get drunk, fish, do something.

 

DUNN:  I can’t quit…

 

***David lowers his head back into the shadows.***

 

WILSON:  Why not?!

 

***David leaps out of the shadow of the corner and looks right into Wilson’s eyes.  A tear rolls down David’s cheek.***

 

DUNN:  Because it’s all that I have left.

 

***David turns about around so he doesn’t have to look at Wilson.***

 

DUNN:  With Jeannette gone my job is all I have left in the world that I care for.  It doesn’t compare to Jeannette but at least when I’m in that ring…all my hate…all my anger…all my troubles…they don’t seem all that bad at all.  That’s what matters to me right now.  Not feeling as bad as I already do.

 

WILSON:  What are you talking about?!  You have me, you have a newborn daughter.  I loved Jeannette too.  She wasn’t my mother but goddamn she acted like it.  She was more of a mother to me that Amber ever was.  Can’t you see that you’re not the only person that lost someone they loved.  Can’t you see that there are other people in this world that care about your ass.  Your not alone dad.  Your not.  The sooner you get that the sooner you’re going to feel better.  There are people out there that still care for you.  Till cares for you.  Stranger than fiction but it’s true.  Brody still cares.  Hell I’ve had phone calls from dozen’s of people that have called just to see how you were doing, if there was anything they could do to help you.

 

DUNN:  No words or help is going to make me feel any better.  There are no words that can describe or help what I feel like right now.  It’s not going to heal my pain.

 

WILSON:  It can’t make it worse dad.  These people just want to help you.

 

***David turns around and grabs Wilson by the top of his shirt.***

 

DUNN:  You don’t get it!  I’m the reason she killed herself…

 

WILSON:  I don’t buy that.

 

DUNN:  It’s the truth…it’s my fault.  Maybe I wasn’t the best person in the world to her.  Maybe I could have spent more time with her…maybe I could have told her more how much I loved her…then…maybe then she wouldn’t have done what she did.

 

WILSON:  Dad I didn’t know Jeannette like you did…but it was coming.  It wasn’t your fault dad.  You could have spent all the time in the world with her and it wouldn’t have mattered one damn bit. 

 

DUNN:  So you say…

 

***David lets go and turns around.***

 

WILSON:  So I know.

 

***Wilson picks up Mary and walks out of the living room, then the house.  David still stand there.  He just stands there with a blank look on his face.***

 

DUNN:  My job is all I have left in the world…it’s the only thing that has brought any meaning into my life besides Jeannette. 

 

***David sits back down in his chair in the corner.***

 

DUNN:  Stone…I’m not looking past you…I’m not thinking you’re a push over…I just don’t care about you.  I don’t care if you live or die.  You think that mean Jeannette left this mortal world that she took my manhood…she didn’t…she took my heart.  She took all of the emotion that I held dear.  Feelings that made me realize that I wasn’t alone…that’s what she took from me Stone.  Something your going to regret her taking as well.  As I said…I don’t care if you live or die…what makes you think I’ll care when I hurt you…or I decide to just snap and break your leg…or your neck.  You haven’t thought of that have you…you just think that my whole life has been turned around that I was just going to pack my bag and go live in the woods like some freak.  I don’t think so Stone…I don’t think so.

 

***David leans back into the corner.  This time we can’t see his face…all we can hear is his words.***

 

DUNN:  Stone…Hawk…your on borrowed time.  For now someone who is really Disposable is being forced to face you two…I didn’t want to face any one…but…my mind keeps thinking about things…things that I shouldn’t be thinking about…the loss of someone you hold dear will do that too you I guess…wrestling is the only way too keep my mind away from the pain…even if it’s just a brief second…the pain will be gone…and I can finally stop thinking about her face…her smile…her sweet voice…take my advice you too…don’t get in my way…or your friends…your family…your children…will learn the same loss as I have.

 

***David stays quite for a second.***

 

DUNN:  ……..enough….said….

 

***The scene fades to black.***