6 Page SYNOPSIS
followed by
OTHER CHARACTERS (1/2 page)
SAMPLE CHORD SESSION (3 pages)
WEEKLY SEGMENTS (1/2 page)
EMERSON BACKGROUND (3 pages)

SYNOPSIS

There’s an old junkyard some miles southeast of Los Angeles that contains more than broken vehicles. No longer open for business, the yard is still a haven of enterprise, although the Junkyard Dog is unaware of what is about to occur.

On the threshold of his sixtieth birthday, Christopher Emerson, long ago dubbed the Junkyard Dog by his grandfather Phaeanus, stands at the threshold of Phaeanus’ old study. He often visits the yard to see his aunt Chloe who lives there in a comfortable trailer, but it’s been some time since he wandered the warrens of his grandfather’s creation.

And it is a creation; built on two huge city blocks, the long street between them closed off during World War II, Emerson’s Salvage contains a mini-Disneyland of rooms and caves and billets. In the early part of the last century, Phaeanus surrounded the property with a twenty-foot fence and then began his remarkable construction.

Inside the main gate he placed a small office building and, beyond it, a trailer to accommodate his family when they were on the premises. As the years went by, the carcasses of junk cars and trucks were piled and massed in an almost orderly manner.

The somewhat tidy arrangement was not the uniqueness of the yard – Phaeanus’ constructions were. In the 1930’s he began fashioning areas out of the salvage parts: doors, hoods, roofs, bumpers and more were welded. He created a play area for his young son and a dance practice area for his little sister. For Jane, his wife, he shaped a sewing room and for himself, a study. There’s a children’s library, and a fort, as well as a small castle. In the 1950’s he fabricated a special dark room for his grandson, Christopher. Also, burrowed into the mini-mountain of salvage are areas never completed. When Jane died in 1960, Phaeanus lost interest in the junkyard, in everything, but somehow reaching Jane again. He embarked on a journey of understanding and spent the next twenty years of his life studying consciousness. When he died, he left a collection of journals.

Christopher is now focused on the shelves across the room that hold the volumes. He did glance through them twenty years ago, when Phaeanus passed away, but they seemed esoteric and philosophical in a way that did not engage him.

Having now reached the age that Phaeanus carried when he set out on his spiritual quest, Christopher is overwhelmed with a desire to find answers.

Chloe, his aunt, now in her late 70’s, is a vital, bright woman of many talents. A dancer in her youth, a painter in her middle age, and now chairman of the foundation she set-up some years ago for young people pursuing the arts, she is above all, a student of the occult.

She enters the study now, surprised to find Christopher there. After a short conversation, she recognizes the signs – the state of mind she once found Phaeanus in – and the two begin their partnership in communicating with a personality who is beyond the bonds of the human body. Chloe and her nephew take up where she and her brother had left off: holding sessions with Chord.

Chord is an entity, once part of the human race, who speaks through Chloe. Her gestures and expressions take on the persona of an older gentleman, cordial, intelligent, with a dry wit and slight unidentifiable accent. The dialogue of the sessions revolves primarily around consciousness, its abilities, its power, its place in the universe. Christopher videotapes the sittings, as Phaeanus once filmed them. Some of Phaeanus’ journals are directly from these encounters. Now, years later, meeting weekly, the aunt and nephew are absorbed in the work.

It becomes difficult for Christopher, a successful still photographer, to be satisfied with the usual subjects of his shoots. He needs to integrate what he is learning with what he is producing.

Frequently published in national magazines, he decides on a photographic project tied to some of his grandfather’s journals. Soon, a major publication announces the upcoming special; the word “journal” is not used, but “papers” – and the misunderstanding begins.

The brilliant and ruthless manager of a charismatic candidate for the approaching presidential primaries is knowledgeable about the World War II activities of Emerson Salvage. A particular incident, if revealed, could destroy his candidate’s chances. The candidate himself is not aware of the event, but his father was guilty of treason during the war. When the manager of the candidate reads that the article will be based on “papers” left by the photographer’s grandfather, Phaeanus Emerson, the manager believes the damaging story is about to be told.

Soon after, Chloe and Christopher are surprised to be visited by a representative of a federal agency who states that the junkyard has to be condemned, then dismantled and disposed of. The pair are also informed that national security is threatened by some of the yard’s contents and the journals are confiscated.

The Emerson’s are devastated. Chloe tells Christopher that a member of the current President’s cabinet, William Ramsey, was an old war friend of Phaeanus’. Christopher contacts Ramsey, hoping for some assistance and is amazed at the support he receives. Phaeanus helped with furnishing scrap metal during the war, that’s all the Emersons know. Who would think that could cause such loyalty and back-up? In any case, the journals are returned and the federal threat to the junkyard appears to end.

After the next session with Chord, Chloe believes that Chord is suggesting she and Christopher look more closely at some of the yard’s areas. Chord speaks of hidden material in a tunnel. The two interpret the word material as “papers”, perhaps more writings of Phaeanus’.

Exploring closer to the center of the salvage yard, the two find a way into an area that seems to contradict their understanding of the layout of the property.

They discover part of the street that runs between the two blocks, the street that was closed off during the war. That finding doesn’t surprise them, but the uncovering of a collapsed tunnel, built above ground and formed with salvage, astonishes them. More shocking still, they uncover the tunnel’s contents of a burnt out transport and human remains.

Christopher is reluctant to contact Ramsey again; concerned that Phaeanus must have done something unspeakable. Chloe believes they should make the call. She tells Christopher what she remembers about the war activities at the yard: she had been a teenager and very much in love with the young lieutenant who was the liaison between her brother and the government’s salvage efforts. She thought the large transports which came and went were just dealing with salvage. More than half a century later, she can’t imagine what else might have been going on, but she remembers, and with some grief, that the young lieutenant had to flee the country or face charges of treason. Then, before the war ended, the government activities ceased and Phaeanus barely spoke of it again.

Chloe never thought the lieutenant guilty and she always felt he would return. In fact, she had never married, though she had a number of often famous and usually flamboyant associations. Christopher tells her they need to find out what happened to her lieutenant. She points out that if anyone knows, it will be Ramsey – and that, in any case, they have to tell him of the tunnel’s contents.

Ramsey is called and a small investigative team arrives. The site reveals that during the war a large transport had driven through on a regular run but had been deliberately sabotaged: the driver and two others traveling with the truck had been killed, and the entire scene partially burned, then buried in salvage.

Christopher and Chloe mourn the actions of Phaeanus and cannot comprehend his capacity for such slaughter. Ramsey comes to L.A., however, meets with them and tells them what in fact occurred:

The trucks were not just hauling salvage. The operation was a cover for transporting weapons and other critical war materials. A truck would pull into the tunnel area, unload valuable cargo, and then leave with salvage. Another transporter would collect the high security material. The salvage was needed, but the operation involved more significant assets.

Then at some point it became clear that security had been breached and there was a traitor in the operation. Evidence pointed to a young lieutenant but Phaeanus believed the evidence had been planted. He financed getting the young man out of the country and overseas. Phaeanus thought the treachery was coming from a state senator but he couldn’t prove it. He did ascertain which middlemen were involved in the betrayal and the next time they came through on a regular run, he took their lives and buried the scene.

Ramsey had been a Major at the time and was fully aware of what Phaeanus had done; he considered it a “wartime execution on the battlefield”. The scene was meant to stay buried until the actual traitor was exposed.

The lieutenant disappeared into Western Europe. The charges had stayed in place, but no one who knew him believed it or wanted him caught. Funds were provided by Phaeanus to set-up the young man’s life in exile. The money was placed in one particular account in Europe, where the lieutenant was to withdraw the full amount and disappear. When, if ever, it was safe to return to America, there would be a certain message in the classifieds of a dozen major European cities, the message to run for thirty days. Otherwise, all contact was impossible.

Ramsey tells Christopher and Chloe that their discovery of the collapsed tunnel has provided evidence to prosecute the real traitor, the former state senator, and that the lieutenant is cleared.

Chloe asks what the classified message to the lieutenant is supposed to say, and will they still place it? He says, yes, they will run the ad, but it’s unlikely that he still lives, or if he does, that he would want to return after all these years.

As for the message to Lt. David Holliman, it will read: “Ronald, all is forgiven. Jane has baked you a German-chocolate cake.”

A few weeks later, at a scheduled session with Chord, Christopher and Chloe set up as usual in Phaeanus’ study. But shortly after they begin, Chord suggests they end the session for the evening since Chloe will need to answer the gate. The session is ended and the two sit on the steps of Chloe’s trailer, watching the main entrance.

An elderly gentleman, dressed in a suit and carrying flowers, approaches the gate. The aunt and nephew go him. It becomes clear that the man is her lieutenant. He admits he is somewhat tardy for their date, but hopes she will still join him for dinner.

Christopher leaves them to talk. He goes back to the study and stands at the door’s threshold, as he did at the beginning of this story. Then he had wanted to read Phaeanus’ journals. Now he crosses to a drafting table and begins writing his own.

OTHER CHARACTERS

Christopher has a son, Graham, in his 30’s, who’s involved in the field of electromagnetism. Graham is profoundly “earthbound” and unencumbered by fanciful thoughts. He is engaged to a young woman from an old Boston family, Jocelyn.

Chloe owns a trailer park (inherited from Phaeanus) just down the street from the salvage yard and has a close relationship with Sheila, the woman she’s hired to manage the park. Sheila’s family includes a precocious seven-year-old boy, Forrester, who likes to go to the yard and hang out with Christopher, as Christopher did so many years ago with Phaeanus. The trailer park has an additional assortment of characters, including a shrewd old woman who reads tarot cards for cash, an up and coming call girl, an anti-social old codger, and two brothers whose source of income no one has yet determined.

SAMPLE CHORD SESSION

Chloe’s posture alters from a graceful, poised position to a more relaxed state. Her upper limbs rest on the arms of the chair. Her body leans back, head somewhat tilted. Her eyes become luminous. One leg stretches out and the other leg crosses the lower portion of the first. The following carries warmth, confidence, and is marked by a sense of courtesy. The voice is lower in scale than Chloe’s, the words spoken with great care placed on each syllable, an almost lingering of the hard sounds.

CHORD: Good evening, Christopher.

Christopher is tongue-tied. He nods.

CHORD: And as Chloe will be viewing this at a later time, (looks into the camera) good evening to you, Chloe. It is good to join you in this room again after, in your terms, so many years. (to Christopher) You have read some of the previous material. Do you understand what is occurring?

CHRISTOPHER: ...In some ways.

CHORD: Do you know what I am?

CHRISTOPHER: Uh, you’re a – a personality without a body. I mean, once you had a body. But, now you – don’t. Although sometimes – someone like you can – visit – like this – and never have had a body.

CHORD: That is correct.

CHRISTOPHER: And you are not Chloe’s subconscious, or another – well, personality of Chloe’s. You are a – separate – entity.

CHORD: Very good. Many will argue with you on that. It is for you to make your own determination. I see that your reading of our esteemed Phaeanus was applied with comprehension.

CHRISTOPHER: And I am to never forget that this kind of – communication is sometimes – distorted. Unavoidably. That you – go through Aunt Chloe’s nervous system. You affect it and it affects your – communication. Something like that.

CHORD: (smiling) Something like that. Do you have any questions?

CHRISTOPHER: Do I have questions!

CHORD: Ask.

CHRISTOPHER: I think I understand what you are – but who are you?

CHORD: I am a personality composed of energy – as are you. I am part of a greater whole. As are you. You, the personality you are now, is focused in the physical world. I am not. I visit you in the guise of a man, though I have been both man and woman in your reality. My essence is not defined by gender, however. In your reality, a human has a physical gender, so I oblige. But your reality, this reality, is only part of a greater reality.

CHRISTOPHER: Why are you called Cord?

CHORD: I must be called something; it suits our purposes. I choose a name that ties to a universal language, music.

CHRISTOPHER: Oh. Then it’s “c H o r d”?

CHORD: Yes, Christopher.

CHRISTOPHER: Why do you come here?

CHORD: Because I am called. You called me. Our dear Chloe invited me.

CHRISTOPHER: Don’t you have a – a “life” where you are?

CHORD: Most certainly. And I am involved in that process at all times. But a part of me can be sent for on occasions such as these. Why did you summon me, Christopher?

CHRISTOPHER: I’m not sure.

CHORD: What do you seek from me?

CHRISTOPHER: Answers.

CHORD: You understand that answers are available from many sources? That your mind already has the answers.

CHRISTOPHER: I don’t always trust my own mind.

CHORD: Then you should exercise great caution in trusting someone else’s.

CHRISTOPHER: I think I can tell if what you say isn’t – good for me.

CHORD: I think you can, too. But if you knew more clearly how your consciousness operates, then you could learn to trust your own mind.

CHRISTOPHER: You talked to my grandfather for almost twenty years, didn’t you?

CHORD: He wished to publish our conversations.

CHRISTOPHER: I don’t know why he didn’t. But it can still be done.

CHORD: Perhaps your reading his transcripts now is the beginning of their being published.

CHRISTOPHER: But all those years he didn’t speak of them, of this.

CHORD: What would you have thought, then?

(Christopher smiles.)

CHORD: He felt you would come to the material when it was time for you to come to the material.

CHRISTOPHER: Now is the time.

CHORD: Then determine your questions, for I am not here to tell you what you should ask. I am here to answer, if possible, what you decide are the proper questions for you.

CHRISTOPHER: How often can you come?

CHORD: Usually, when you ask. But that is strongly affected by the intensity of your call. So, in your world, appointments seem to suit best. You and your dear aunt might set the same time aside each week for our engagement. And given that she has not been in this position for some years, I believe we should end this particular discussion.

CHRISTOPHER: All right. Though I want to hear about those greater realities.

CHORD: Then you shall, at our next session.

CHRISTOPHER: How do we end this?

CHORD: I withdraw my energy.

CHRISTOPHER: Does it hurt Aunt Chloe in anyway?

CHORD: It refreshes her.

CHRISTOPHER: Then, I just say – goodbye?

CHORD: I say a good evening to you, Christopher, and you say –

CHRISTOPHER: Good evening, Chord.

There is silence and then Chloe’s form shifts. She blinks. She looks at Christopher to see his expression of amazement; and she smiles.

WEEKLY SEGMENTS

Each episode revolves around Chord’s information applied to a seemingly unrelated event in the Emerson’s lives, and revelations regarding the Emerson family background.

Example: the beating up of young Forrester by a neighborhood bully

Example: the return of Graham’s mother, Missy, shortly before Graham’s high society wedding. He is delighted to learn that after her flower-child youth, his mother became a lawyer. But the stiff and almost pompous Graham is caught in conflict when he also learns he has a black grandmother.

Example: the arrest of the old woman at the trailer park for bilking a customer out of money through the tarot readings

Christopher’s work of photography results sometimes in traveling – and in those roamings he obtains more information about the Emerson family.

EMERSON BACKGROUND

Christopher’s background and ancestry represent, to Chord, the synthesizing of a variety of races, nationalities and environments. In Christopher’s blood runs Every Man.

The next three pages describe five generations of the Emersons – the context of Christopher Emerson.

Just after the turn of the twentieth century, Samuel Emerson, a banker in New York married Lillian Hendrix, from a “fine” Philadelphia family. Samuel’s father was a descendant of an old Southern family with a “name” but no money. His mother was a Yankee girl from a merchant family with Oriental ancestry.

A year after Samuel and Lillian married, a son was born to them, Phaeanus. He was raised in an elegant, prosperous environment and his later schooling involved economics. His interest and ability, however, were wed to creating inventions. When their son was twenty, the Emerson’s unexpectedly had a daughter, Chloe. Two years later the Wall Street crash occurred. Samuel was almost ruined and devised a scheme to burn down his estate on Long Island for the money. He believed Lillian to be out of town. In fact, she was at the house with her lover that night and was killed in the fire. The accidental killing devastated Samuel, and, soon after, the investigation proved his act of arson. He was already ruined financially. Within months, Samuel committed suicide.

Just before the Wall Street crash, Phaeanus had married Jane Spiegel, a lovely young woman attending finishing school in the East. She was from California, the daughter of a wealthy filmmaker. The crash, however, jeopardized Phaeanus’ financial future. After the loss of his parents, Jane’s father invited the couple to Los Angeles, offering Phaeanus a position at the studio. The couple accepted the offer and took his now-orphaned sister, two-year old Chloe, with them.

Phaeanus’ job at the studio tied to special effects and to maintaining the vehicles used in shooting. He and Jane made a home in Beverly Hills and began their own family. Jane, who was diagnosed as a child with a heart disease that promised a severely limited life span, thrived. Their firstborn, Chester, was a healthy, active baby, but several years later, their second child, a girl, was stillborn. Meanwhile, they raised Chloe as their own.

Jane was a woman of great serenity, dedicated to her family. She acquired the skills of homemaking, particularly housekeeping, cooking, nutrition, sewing, as if they comprised a profession. Her devotion to her husband, to his young sister, to her son, was complete and sincere.

Over the years, excelling in his responsibilities at the studio, Phaeanus built his own business on the side – a salvage yard southeast of L.A., near Downey. His father-in-law loaned him the money for a large piece of land and helped him with studio contracts for their junk film vehicles.

By the beginning of World War II, Phaeanus no longer worked for the studio. He had put a trailer on the junkyard premises in which his family stayed on weekends and he had built, over the years, a number of “rooms” out of salvage parts for his family’s recreation and interests. At the start of the war, teen-aged Chloe was a vivacious, lovely young woman, studying dance. When Chester turned sixteen, he became a soldier and was sent overseas.

Two years later, in Italy, Chester married Sophie Valachi. She was carrying his child when he was killed in action. Several months later, Sophie did not survive the birth, and the son, Christopher, was brought to America, to be raised by Jane and Phaeanus.

Chloe was out on her own by then, attending dance school in Europe. Her talent ultimately led to outstanding accomplishments in her profession.

At the Emerson home in Beverly Hills and at the salvage yard, Christopher became Phaeanus’ shadow. The elder nicknamed the younger “the junkyard dog”, not knowing how seriously the junkyard dog would someday protect the salvage yard and its contents.

Phaeanus encouraged his grandson’s interest – still photography, even built him a darkroom at the yard. The young man showed exceptional talent and after his college graduation embarked on an impressive career. But before then, when Christopher was in his mid-teens, he lost his grandmother. Jane’s heart had held out much longer than ever expected, but she passed way in 1960.

Phaeanus took it hard. Chloe, back in America by then, did what she could to help her brother. In her many travels she had become more and more drawn to the occult and gained some understanding of death that Phaeanus had never considered.

In his grief, he turned to the idea of reaching Jane beyond the grave. Chloe told him what she could of what she’d learned, but didn’t think his efforts were wise. Coming at the issue from several different directions, from the ouija board to seeing a medium, the two decided to make the effort on their own. After several attempts of trying to will herself into what she believed to be a trance, Chloe succeeded in connecting with a non-body entity. The personality that she channeled, however, was not Jane, but Chord. And there began her and Phaeanus’ partnership into the unknown.

Christopher was in college then and not aware of their experiments. At a protest rally he became involved with Missy Bissonet, a lovely “flower child”. Missy’s father was originally a prisoner sent to Australia. He escaped to America and settled in Louisiana, and later married a black woman. Missy was a free thinker whose goal was to go to New York and live in Greenwich Village. Her short alliance with Christopher resulted in a pregnancy. When she contacted him, months later, he wanted to marry her, but marriage was not for Missy. Nor was motherhood. When the baby was born, she brought the infant to Christopher. He, in turn, financed her move to New York.

Christopher became a single father, and with the help of Chloe and Phaeanus, took on Graham to raise.

When Graham was an adolescent, Phaeanus died. It appeared that the old heart just stopped. He was eighty years old and nothing about his death was unusual. But Chloe believed he decided to go on, that his experiments with “turning into light” succeeded in some way. Christopher, in his forties, had great difficulty at the lose of his grandfather, but Chloe helped him continue with his life.

Our story begins twenty years later. Graham and Christopher live in the Emerson house in Beverly Hills. Chloe lives in the trailer at the junkyard.

Graham is engaged to Jocelyn Bartholomew, a lovely girl from Boston he met while getting his degree at M.I.T. He is drawn to the values and the lifestyle of her prominent family. Graham does admire his father’s success and loves his aunt, but has never understood their affection for the junkyard.

The story begins here, with Christopher, a man from a family tree of great variety in creed, race, environment and background. A man who is almost sixty years old and finally needs to know there is more to existence than the simple life span of the human body, more to the spirit than preparing for heaven, and more to consciousness than mankind seems to recognize.

© 2003, Darlene Bridge Lofgren