EXT.IRISH DUSK –
GLEN
The
glen is very colorful. The air seems filled with
flying
colors. A photographer, WILL, is checking
angles
on his camera.
WILL
All
right CHANDRA, hold up your
right
hand, so that they land
on
your arm.
Chandra
obeys. A fairie lands on her forearm.
WILL
Look
surprised honey.
CHANDRA
It’s
not easy.
WILL
I
know. I work you too hard.
But,
the summer is almost over
and
they will be gone soon.
Chandra
looks surprised and excited to find the fairie
on
her arm.
WILL
Perfect.
CHANDRA
Father,
what seasons do
unicorns
come out?
WILL
I don’t know if they have a
particular
time. They’re so
endangered,
I’d imagine they
have
to stay hidden.
Will
smiles at her.
WILL
Most
little girls would be
happy
enough with fairies, you
have
to want unicorns too.
Chandra
brings in her arm and brings a fairy close to
her
face.
CHANDRA
Mom
says it’s cause I’m your
daughter.
Will
laughs.
WILL
I’m
sure it is.
FADE TO
INT.BEDROOM-NIGHT
Chandra
is in bed and her mother, CARRIE is tucking
her
in. Her father is in the doorway.
CARRIE
Aren’t
you sick of taking
pictures
yet?
CHANDRA
No!
When I grow up, I’m gonna
take
pictures just like father.
CARRIE
You
should take some photos of
those
pesky fairies making off
with
out windchimes. Then we’d
have
some good evidence of the
theives.
CHANDRA
No
Mother! Not fairies! I’m
gonna
find unicorns!
Carrie
looks at her husband worriedly to check his
reaction
to Chandra’s statement.
WILL
She’ll
breaking ground I’ve
never
covered. But I know...
Will
sits next to Chandra on the bed. Carrie moves to
the
door.
WILL
She’ll
be even better than
me. The
best in the world.
Carrie
watches from the doorway. It seems as if she is
miles
away from the two.
CHANDRA
I
love you father!
FADE
OUT
FADE
IN
INT.AMERICA-
KITCHEN
Chandra
is now grown to college age. She is dressed up
smartly
in a business ensemble. Her mother is sitting
at
a table.
CHANDRA
God,
I hate money!
Carrie
looks up startled from her tea.
CHANDRA
I
know that I don’t hate many
things,
but money is
definitely
one of them!
CARRIE
Well,
what happened?
Chandra
shuffles about the kitchen preparing some tea
and
pie for herself. She makes a mess as she is
talking.
CHANDRA
The
magazin said that they just
don’t
have the money to fund a
“shaky”
expedition.
CARRIE
I’m
so sorry honey.
CHANDRA
Well
that’s okay. Father was
right
about sticking to
fairies.
No one believes in
unicorns.
CARRIE
(laughing)They
didn’t believe
in
fairies either! Even when
the
devils would swarm around
the
house seeking anything
shiny
we had.
Americans
need to hold things
in
their hands to believe. It’s
amazing
they’re not all
heathens!
CHANDRA
Mom,
you know I don’t want to
blame
you. You are human and
make
mistakes, but these days
all
I can think about is how
much
easier life would be if
you
didn’t move here after
daddy’s
death.
CARRIE
I
know.
CHANDRA
Or
if you hadn’t spent all our
money
on the house and land.
CARRIE
I
know.
CHANDRA
Or
if you had worked and earned
more
money than you get for
those
darned quilts.
CARRIE
I
know Chandra.(Pause)I could
never
help you as much as your
father.
CHANDRA
Mom...
Chandra
reaches her hand across the table and puts it
on
her mother’s arm.
CARRIE
Well,
you do have your savings
right?
CHANDRA
I
can’t afford new equipment.
The
cost of the airplane
tickets
was exhausting enough.
That’s
not counting the cost of
shipping
everything out there.
What
I wouldn’t give for better
equipment.
CARRIE
We’ll
work out something love.
Until
then, heard of any
sightings?
After
she asks this, Carrie gets up and begins to
clean
up the mess in the kitchen that Chandra made.
CHANDRA
(Excitedly)Oh
yes!Why just last
week!
Isn’t Ireland wonderful
that
it can hold fairies and
unicorns?
I’ve triangulated an
area
that I’m sure will produce
some
unicorns to view. Extinct
my
eye! Why, there are enough
sightings
that I would guess
that
there were...five! Yes,
five
unicorns just on our
Ireland!
Carrie
smiles but is obviously distracted by her own
thoughts.
CHANDRA
After
I see the unicorns and
get
to know their behavior, I
can
determine if there would be
any
in America. You see, they
say
unless you believe in
unicorns,
you’ll only see a
horse.
Well, this idea is held
by
people that are so ignorant
that
they don’t know that they
most often resemble goats. In
any
case, if they live in
America,
I can spend some
months
here with you,
photographing
them. Mom, are
you
listening?
CARRIE
I’m
sorry. Maybe you should go and pack.
Chandra
is worried, but she obediently leaves the
room.
Carrie begins to cry once she leaves.
INT.BEDROOM-DAY
Chandra’s
cellphone RINGS. Chandra is zipping up her
travel
bags. She looks like she is in a hurry.She lets
it
ring a few times before picking up.
CHANDRA
Hello?
Hi Uncle Henry, I’m just
heading
out the door now. What?
No,
I’m not sitting down, I’m
packing.
Why? What’s going on?
She
begins to cry and sits down on the floor.
CHANDRA
Are
you saying my mother is
dead?
She was a very careful
driver,
you know that. Oh God!
She
can’t be, she just can’t.
EXT.FUNERAL-DAY
Chandra
is dressed in black with her head bowed. She
looks
up into the sky as an airplane flies overhead.
INT.KITCHEN-NIGHT
Chandra
is a mess. She is in a long, frumpy nightgown.
She
stands in front of the refrigerator and finally
picks
out some cheez whiz and cookie dough. She closes
the
fridge door and slowly leans on it. She drops the
food
and rips it open.
INSERT-SHOT
OF LETTER
CARRIE
(VO)My
Darling Chandra, I’m
sorry
I couldn’t hold you one
last
time, but I knew if I told
you,
you would stop me. Let me
explain
my reasons for killing
myself.
Maybe it’s for me as
much
as you.
Since you are a baby, you
father
was always there for you
and
you were there for him.
There
was a kinship between you
two
that not even him and I
shared
let alone you and I.
Anything
you needed, he gave to
you.
I have never been able to
help you. Then when he passed
away
and I had my chance to
support
you, I was too selfish.
This
is my last chance to make
that
up to you.
You can’t tell anyone that my
accident
was deliberate, my
insurance
does not cover
suicide.
I’m so sorry that I
won’t
be there to take care of
everything.
You’ll get a lot of
money
out of the house.
I love you so much Chandra,
now
I can finally be as
important
to you as your
father.
Chandra
breaks down in tears.
INT.
LIVINGROOM-DAY
Chandra
is red-faced from crying and is staring off
into
space. Next to her on the couch is the letter.
EXT./INT.HOUSE-DAY
Chandra’s
uncle is outside the house. He looks like a
friendly,
round man. He knocks on the door and after
no
answer, opens the door and comes inside. Chandra is
still
in her pajamas on the couch.Her face looks
hollow.
HENRY
Chandra
darling! Oh, you’ve got
to
get ahold of yourself.
Henry
pushes her up by grabbing her shoulders. She
doesn’t
resist him. He shakes her lightly.
HENRY
How
long have you been like
this?
Have you eaten since the
funeral?
Okay, come on, let’s
get
you something warm to drink
okay?
You look positively
deathly.
He
picks her up which isn’t very hard, because she
looks
like she doesn’t weigh very much. He carries her
into
the kitchen and sets her down on one of the
chairs.
He prepares tea by nuking the water in the
microwave.
HENRY
Aunt
Sharon said to me that
none
of the family has seen you
for
days. It’s been three days
you
know. Since the funeral.If
we
had known you’d be this bad
off,
we wouldn’t have left you
alone.
You’re positively a
zombie.
I’d better make you
some
soup or something too.
Now, why didn’t you just call
me
or something? You know your
Uncle
Henry is good for a
shoulder
to cry on. For
heaven’s
sake, she was my
sister!
I lost someone too. We
could
console each other or
something.
You know, carry each
other’s
burdens.
He
sets down a plate of bread slices in front of her.
She
looks at him as he does.
HENRY
There
you go. Get something in
your
stomach. Those’ll make you
feel
better.
They
stare at each other and the microwave beeps.
Henry
goes over and pulls out the water quickly adding
the
tea. Chandra picks up a slice of bread. She looks
at
it. Henry sets the tea in front of her.
HENRY
Here
it is. Make you nice and
warm.
Chandra
looks at the tea and bursts into fresh tears.
With the bread still
in hand, she cover’s her face
with
her hands. Henry squats down next to her.
CHANDRA
Mother!
HENRY
Poor
thing! It’s alright
darling.
Just think about it.
Your
mother was such a good
woman,
you know she’s in
heaven.
She’s probably baking
those
angels some cookies.
She’s
got pretty wings and she
probably
looks like one of
those
fairies your father took
pictures
of.
CHANDRA
(angrily)
Mother
hated the fairies.
HENRY
Nonsense.
No one hates fairies.
And
her house and money came
from
them. She was grateful no
doubt.
CHANDRA
They
stole the windchimes that
she
made after she arranged
them
with pipes and beads and
prisms.
And they would knock
our
clothes off our clothesline
after
she had cleaned them and
set
them all out.
HENRY
Sure,
but that isn’t enough to
hate
them.
Chandra’s
face becomes like a light, realizations
hitting
her.
CHANDRA
No,
it wasn’t even that! She
hated
them because Father loved
them
more than her! And he
loved
me more than them!Oh God!
How
could she even stand the
sight
of me?
All
that work to make him
notice
her. She was always
trying
so hard to be perfect
and
when he died, she wasn’t
even
the first thing in his
mind.
Then there I was, and she was
just
as much third for me as my
father.
How must that have made
her
feel? Always being less
important.
And even through all that, she
never
hated me! I’m so sorry
mother!
So sorry!
FADE
OUT
EXT.IRELAND-DAY
Chandra
is setting up her equipment on a gorgeous
field.
There is a stream in front of the camera. She
looks
happy. She sits in the grass and writes in a big
leather
bound blank book. Occasionally she looks
around
excitedly,waiting for the unicorn.
The day turns darker and Chandra looks bored
and
disappointed.
As the day becomes sunset, Chandra
looks
sorrowful. She gets out her cellphone.
CHANDRA
Uncle
Henry, it’s Chandra. They
aren’t
coming. I think I’m
scaring
the unicorns away with
my
grieving. I don’t know,
maybe
they can smell death
around
someone. Anyway, it’s
pointless.
I’ll call you when I
get
back to the house.
Yes, it’s beautiful. Just like
I
remember it. I still can’t
believe
that the MacNeil’s were
selling
it at the same time
that
I needed a house. The
fairies
might give me a few
problems
come summer, but right
now,
I haven’t even seen one
yet.
Okay, well, it’s getting cold,
so
I have to go. I love you
too.
Chandra
hangs up the phone and sticks it into her bag.
She
also puts in a few other things, like her books
and
her food wrappers. Then she pauses and looks up.
There,
right by the stream, she sees a unicorn eyeing
her.
She holds very still. Eventually it bends down
and
drinks from the stream. With the smoothest
movements
she can manage, she presses the button on
the
camera. The unicorn doesn’t move, so she gets
behind
the camera and commences to photograph it.
EXT.IRELAND-DAY
Chandra
is a child again. She is giggling as Will
picks
her up and twirls her around. Fairies move out
of
the way of her swinging body. Carrie comes out of
their
house and Will grabs her too. The three dance
happily
as the fairies twirl around them.
WILL
