Post by flaps2 on Feb 28, 2007 21:16:49 GMT -5
The scene opens inside a dimly lit room, the only source of light flickers continuously exposing the white walls that surround and occasionally catching a few pieces of dust as they slowly hover and flutter downward. Moments pass before the room illuminates more as a large beams of light made from many different colours fills the room along with random but recognised voices speaking. Against one of the walls a television is the source of this disruption, upon it’s screen now is a man stood in the ring, his face bruised, battered and bloodied as many surround him some trying to help, some asking questions and others congratulating the him but the mans response to all is just to scream out the name of a loved one as he ignores the crowd to yell out the name “Adrian”
?????:……you still lost.
Suddenly the channel flicks and changes, the screen now shows two women sat in a car, the women glances across at each other as red and blue sirens bellow and flash in the distance behind them.
?????:……just drive.
Again the picture changes, this time a man dressed in a smart black suit firing a M4 machine gun whilst wildly screaming out abuse is appears, all the time he fires the man fails to realise the lone person creeping up behind him taking aim with a shotgun.
?????:……all good things come to an end.
Now the TV is turned off and the room is reduced back to it’s dimly lit state. A few seconds now pass before a knock is heard, from the right of the TV a wooden door stands with a small golden peep hole in it and hotel fire escape instructions glued to it. The knock continues as a male voice speaks.
?????:Johnny?
The knock repeats a few times before the voice speaks again.
?????: Johnny it’s Kazuki you there?
Kazuki waits for an answer but as the silence remains he speaks again.
Kazuki: We need to speak, about……well you know, why’d you run off? Why won’t you even speak to her?.......Johnny?
Again there is no response before a fist slams against the door and Kazuki lets out a sigh.
Kazuki: Damn it are you there?
Seconds pass before the sound of footsteps can be heard heading away from the door. Inside the room a man is sat on the edge of a neatly made bed a few yards in front of the television set. To his side is a thin dark oak candle stand with a candle melted three quarters down still burning at its top, the flame is still bright although it struggles to stay lit against the melted wax. Presently the mans eyes remain focused at the television as his face remains still and expressionless. After a few seconds the man raises his left arm within which he holds the remote for the set, he points it forward once again turning on the screen and once again exposing the room to the light from it that this time exposes his face to be the WFWF hall of famer Johnny ‘The Movie Man’ Michaels. Michael’s flicks through the same channels he did before but now each channel displays nothing but a black back drop with the films credits running down. After seeing this Michaels turns the set off and drops the remote on the floor before slowly turning his head across to look at the door.
Michaels: Is it ironic that before what some would say, the biggest spectacle of my time, I sit here in the dark and in silence……is that ironic considering the lights and sounds that will engulf me soon…..too many things about myself others find ironic but this really isn’t one, this is more of a time for me to look through what has gone before and what will come now, it’s time to get my story straight and attempt to make sense of my life.
Michaels takes a quick glance at the candle watching as the flame flicks and shakes desperately trying to stay alight.
Michaels: Everyone has a story to tell, billions of people world wide each with their own lives and experiences and each could tell a different tail……but every story has one thing identical ….each has an end. The ending is a vital part that is always told yet they are not always understood, to loose but get all you ever dreamed of, to come to an end with all you care of by your side or to be destroyed before your own self destruction….are those happy or sad endings? That all depends on the teller of tale, love or glory, life alone or the end together, death by another or a life of lonesome insanity….the teller is the one who knows what the character wanted. Well, at least, that’s normally the assumption . Now, I will present to you, if you’ll listen, my story, a story that I believe to be unique not because it is one of complex twists and turns, not because it is made to shock or surprise, but because it is simple, from the heart and most exceptionally….it has no end. Now as I sit here just waiting for something big to arrive, I know what time it arrives and so I know I have time to tell this story so I’ll tell it and I’ll start from the very beginning…..
Michaels rises to his feet and stands over the candle, he looks over the flame toward a darkened corner of the room, as he stares he lets out a light smile before lifting his hand toward his mouth as he speaks.
Michaels: Hello, I’m Johnny….
Michaels holds his thumb and index finger slightly apart in front of his mouth and proceeds to lick them before carrying on his sentence as he moves his hand toward the candle flame.
Michaels:…..Johnny Michaels.
Michaels closes his went finger tips over the flame putting it out and descending the room into total darkness.
Michaels: The earliest thing I remember about the enigma I supposedly am is waking up barely remembering a thing, my memories were nothing more then blurry headaches washed away with all kinds of pills and shots that really only made the situation worse. Whoever, or probably more appropriately, whatever I was, was taken from me and I didn’t even know I’d been it, in reality I was a child, enough of an understanding to know how to get by but too young to truly grasp what’s actually going on. But the people around me told me to run, just run with it, I was told it would be what people wanted, just run Johnny run and it’ll all be yours in no time. So I ran, as fast as I could and I didn’t stop running.
A faint breeze flows into the room pushing back a pair of curtains letting a faint sliver of light in the room, enough to show the outline of Michaels as he sits back down on the bed and looks down at his left hand that is currently clinched to make a fist.
Michaels: Running blindly down a country road you wonder how you even managed to stay on the path rather then ask why your running. I didn’t ask a lot back then, I did as I was told and did what I knew, a few people made names for themselves and a few people got rich from me just following orders, almost like being drafted for a war, not sure why your there or if you want to be there but you put faith in the cause being true. Many battles arose, every time I gave everything I had, I‘d fall down gasping for air, seeing red and wishing I could just move one part of my body without feeling pain, but despite that, I’d get up and I’d carry on…..that isn’t a self testament to my own bravery, stamina or toughness, it’s more….well….a stupid is a stupid does.
The curtains shake again letting in another glimpse of light showing Michaels as he holds a silver locket and chain in the palm of his hand. The locket lay open as he looks at the photograph inside it for a few seconds. Carefully he closes it and lifts up the chain to lay it across his wrist and he slowly begins wrapping it around his wrist as he continues to speak.
Michaels: Although it wasn’t all so terrible, after a while I started to be able to handle what was going on and it some ways understand the world around me. I broke away from just doing what I was told to do and just did what came naturally to me and before I knew it seemed I was taken in by new people, people who didn’t want to use me for their own agenda but people who wanted to be around me just because I was me. Things were good at the top, heck, far as I know they were perfect…..but there was one thing to make it all fall apart, one question that made the mountain I’d climbed crumble…..was it really what I wanted?
Michaels has now finished wrapping the chain, he now tucks the locket under it keeping it tightly wrapped around his lower arm.
Michaels: What was my destiny? That was something I was supposed to work out on my own but when I first came to this place I didn’t even know my name, how could I know what I wanted? I ran so far I didn’t even know where I’d come from or how to get back so the only answer was to carry on running but then it was in a whole new direction, a direction that led me away from the place that gave me a name, road that I hoped would lead me to some place where I could be free, forget about everything and start over…..someone once told me I was a freak who should run off and join the circus…..sound like a good idea to me so that’s what I did. In a place where there is no truth, everything is just an act, I thought I could feel at home, in that environment I thought I could feel something close to normal since I was the same….but the surprising thing was for a man who forgot everything memories haunted me.
The breeze recedes and the curtains drift back to there original place once again cutting out the rooms light.
Michaels: And that’s where the story is now, once an actor blind to the script written by heartless directors to then become the director himself only to be too shy so he hopes to be forgotten…..problem is the movie was all he was good at, was all he knew….although, as I said, this story does not have an ending. Now there is another, one not unlike myself, one who I perhaps should hate, one who I should envy, one who’s story in the eyes of others should be enough to break me down to my knees wishing I could trade chapters with him. His story was much simpler, fewer twists and turns but still one of greatness that any writer would wish to claim as his works. This man has done all I have, he ran down the same road and achieved similar accolades, even more then myself actually, and he was running because he wanted to. He set his own goals, gave himself the reasons for his heart to say keep moving when his body and better judgement said stop…..he knew all he wanted and so was in ecstasy when he got it……so do I hate this man, a man who understood the feeling of joy found in success, a man who knew why it was ok to have no remorse after beating another person bloody, a man who ran the same race I did because he wanted to……because he knew just where his finishing line lay. Knowing what his destiny was and not just floating around like an endless breeze…..one minute pushing against and moving things…..
A gust of wind hits the curtains again pushing them both up halfway fully exposing Michaels in the sunlight from outside.
Michaels:….and then the next stopping without knowing the real impact and purpose of which, only knowing that you’ll soon do the same again.
The curtains slowly float back down as the breeze drifts away cutting out all light again.
Michaels: So do I hate him…..no. I wish no harm to that man, it’s just the way life seems to work sometimes. In the first world war both sides tried to kill each other every day in the trenches, not because they hated each other, heck they didn’t even know one and other, they just both believed what they fought for was right. We both fought thinking we were going for our destiny and one of us got and well…..I guess Germany moved on eventually….we’ve both done a lot more then thought possible for folks who started with nothing, as proud as we can be of that if we weren’t the first and we won’t be the last to do it so really we didn’t do anything really special and if that was his destiny then I guess he is nothi….now I’m sorry I don’t mean to offend. I guess I just don’t understand all the hype around the two of us, from my perspective we’re just doing what we do, it’s nice to look across and see someone who’s against me for the experience rather then wanting to pound my head in worse the it all ready is but legends? That just seems strange, why would anyone look up to me or want to be like me? Maybe they don’t see me right….bit like a shrimp, people look at them and see those little lines and think it’s a part of it’s structure, like veins that hold it together and keep it going, just keeping it all together , but really, when they get ready to cook or fry them they pull it out and it’s just an little system of small things, they fall out into a big mess, there not together at all inside….well a little mess, they are only shrimp. I guess he’s more, I guess if I can call myself a shrimp he’s a prawn but then….no one really needs me to be telling them how great that man is and if he has all he wanted I hope he crosses the line with a smile on his face and the respect he’s earned…..but for me, it’s not time to stop, was one story a sprint with the quick rush and glory afterwards and the other a marathon still on going…..I wouldn’t say so, just two different people is all. He’ll understand that he’s coming to his end whilst I still gallop on knowing I can’t stop and won’t stop, same passion he felt to get him where he is, is the passion I still have now….though I don’t know why……I don’t know if that means something, him slowing down and me still knowing I have to carry on, wouldn’t like to question him and say it shows who it means more too because I know this means a lot to him. That’s why I run to this now rather then away, that’s why I ran back here, it will be an honour but this isn’t my finishing line I….
Michaels is suddenly interrupted by a feminine voice coming from the darkest corner of the hotel room.
?????: You’ve been running for a long time John….isn’t it time you went home?
Amongst the darkness movement can now be heard when slowly Michaels has gotten to his feet and pulls the curtains open slightly to look outside. Light breaks through onto Michaels face just as his jaw draws back letting out a smile on his face.
Michaels:…..it wasn’t a long time ago when I said I was home…..in my mind the top of the mountain was home but as I said, like a thought hit me like a landslide hitting that mountain….removing everything that once was and leaving it with anew almost as if nothing was there before…..Congratulations to him for winning his race, if it’s destiny fulfilled then this is his victory ceremony and out of respect I’ll play my part for another one more time and make it one to savour…..but I won’t be standing to once side, when he’s done I’ll be running right by him leaving him to get fade in the distance as my breathless lungs still have many yards yet to travel, because after all….
Michaels pulls open the curtains and steps out onto a balcony, outside the sky is a golden orange and the sun slowly begins to descend. Below water splashing and a child’s laughter are all that can be heard where under the balcony the sparkling water in a pool thrashes a little as Michaels son and some other children play in it. Michaels steps to the edge of the balcony and places his hands on the wooden rail at the end, as he looks around a figure slowly walks out from the hotel room behind him, the figure belongs to a women with long brown hair who now stands behind Johnny slowly wrapping her arms around his midsection and resting her head on his shoulder. Michaels closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath before lifting his wrist up to retract his hand back and flick open the locket on the chain wrapped around him. The locket falls open and Johnny looks at the picture inside of himself, a small baby boy and a women, the same one who now rests her head on him. He stares at the picture before letting out the breath he drew in and looking upward at clear bright yellow and orange skyline.
Michaels:….life is like a box of chocolates……leave them out in the sun too long and you’ll never get a taste.
He now closes the locket and leans his head across to rest it upon the women’s head and removes his arms from the rail and gently lays then on top of the women’s arms around him. The scene now begins to fade leaving the sight of Michaels embraced with a female from his past looking on at a bright clear sky as his son laughs joyfully below.
?????:……you still lost.
Suddenly the channel flicks and changes, the screen now shows two women sat in a car, the women glances across at each other as red and blue sirens bellow and flash in the distance behind them.
?????:……just drive.
Again the picture changes, this time a man dressed in a smart black suit firing a M4 machine gun whilst wildly screaming out abuse is appears, all the time he fires the man fails to realise the lone person creeping up behind him taking aim with a shotgun.
?????:……all good things come to an end.
Now the TV is turned off and the room is reduced back to it’s dimly lit state. A few seconds now pass before a knock is heard, from the right of the TV a wooden door stands with a small golden peep hole in it and hotel fire escape instructions glued to it. The knock continues as a male voice speaks.
?????:Johnny?
The knock repeats a few times before the voice speaks again.
?????: Johnny it’s Kazuki you there?
Kazuki waits for an answer but as the silence remains he speaks again.
Kazuki: We need to speak, about……well you know, why’d you run off? Why won’t you even speak to her?.......Johnny?
Again there is no response before a fist slams against the door and Kazuki lets out a sigh.
Kazuki: Damn it are you there?
Seconds pass before the sound of footsteps can be heard heading away from the door. Inside the room a man is sat on the edge of a neatly made bed a few yards in front of the television set. To his side is a thin dark oak candle stand with a candle melted three quarters down still burning at its top, the flame is still bright although it struggles to stay lit against the melted wax. Presently the mans eyes remain focused at the television as his face remains still and expressionless. After a few seconds the man raises his left arm within which he holds the remote for the set, he points it forward once again turning on the screen and once again exposing the room to the light from it that this time exposes his face to be the WFWF hall of famer Johnny ‘The Movie Man’ Michaels. Michael’s flicks through the same channels he did before but now each channel displays nothing but a black back drop with the films credits running down. After seeing this Michaels turns the set off and drops the remote on the floor before slowly turning his head across to look at the door.
Michaels: Is it ironic that before what some would say, the biggest spectacle of my time, I sit here in the dark and in silence……is that ironic considering the lights and sounds that will engulf me soon…..too many things about myself others find ironic but this really isn’t one, this is more of a time for me to look through what has gone before and what will come now, it’s time to get my story straight and attempt to make sense of my life.
Michaels takes a quick glance at the candle watching as the flame flicks and shakes desperately trying to stay alight.
Michaels: Everyone has a story to tell, billions of people world wide each with their own lives and experiences and each could tell a different tail……but every story has one thing identical ….each has an end. The ending is a vital part that is always told yet they are not always understood, to loose but get all you ever dreamed of, to come to an end with all you care of by your side or to be destroyed before your own self destruction….are those happy or sad endings? That all depends on the teller of tale, love or glory, life alone or the end together, death by another or a life of lonesome insanity….the teller is the one who knows what the character wanted. Well, at least, that’s normally the assumption . Now, I will present to you, if you’ll listen, my story, a story that I believe to be unique not because it is one of complex twists and turns, not because it is made to shock or surprise, but because it is simple, from the heart and most exceptionally….it has no end. Now as I sit here just waiting for something big to arrive, I know what time it arrives and so I know I have time to tell this story so I’ll tell it and I’ll start from the very beginning…..
Michaels rises to his feet and stands over the candle, he looks over the flame toward a darkened corner of the room, as he stares he lets out a light smile before lifting his hand toward his mouth as he speaks.
Michaels: Hello, I’m Johnny….
Michaels holds his thumb and index finger slightly apart in front of his mouth and proceeds to lick them before carrying on his sentence as he moves his hand toward the candle flame.
Michaels:…..Johnny Michaels.
Michaels closes his went finger tips over the flame putting it out and descending the room into total darkness.
Michaels: The earliest thing I remember about the enigma I supposedly am is waking up barely remembering a thing, my memories were nothing more then blurry headaches washed away with all kinds of pills and shots that really only made the situation worse. Whoever, or probably more appropriately, whatever I was, was taken from me and I didn’t even know I’d been it, in reality I was a child, enough of an understanding to know how to get by but too young to truly grasp what’s actually going on. But the people around me told me to run, just run with it, I was told it would be what people wanted, just run Johnny run and it’ll all be yours in no time. So I ran, as fast as I could and I didn’t stop running.
A faint breeze flows into the room pushing back a pair of curtains letting a faint sliver of light in the room, enough to show the outline of Michaels as he sits back down on the bed and looks down at his left hand that is currently clinched to make a fist.
Michaels: Running blindly down a country road you wonder how you even managed to stay on the path rather then ask why your running. I didn’t ask a lot back then, I did as I was told and did what I knew, a few people made names for themselves and a few people got rich from me just following orders, almost like being drafted for a war, not sure why your there or if you want to be there but you put faith in the cause being true. Many battles arose, every time I gave everything I had, I‘d fall down gasping for air, seeing red and wishing I could just move one part of my body without feeling pain, but despite that, I’d get up and I’d carry on…..that isn’t a self testament to my own bravery, stamina or toughness, it’s more….well….a stupid is a stupid does.
The curtains shake again letting in another glimpse of light showing Michaels as he holds a silver locket and chain in the palm of his hand. The locket lay open as he looks at the photograph inside it for a few seconds. Carefully he closes it and lifts up the chain to lay it across his wrist and he slowly begins wrapping it around his wrist as he continues to speak.
Michaels: Although it wasn’t all so terrible, after a while I started to be able to handle what was going on and it some ways understand the world around me. I broke away from just doing what I was told to do and just did what came naturally to me and before I knew it seemed I was taken in by new people, people who didn’t want to use me for their own agenda but people who wanted to be around me just because I was me. Things were good at the top, heck, far as I know they were perfect…..but there was one thing to make it all fall apart, one question that made the mountain I’d climbed crumble…..was it really what I wanted?
Michaels has now finished wrapping the chain, he now tucks the locket under it keeping it tightly wrapped around his lower arm.
Michaels: What was my destiny? That was something I was supposed to work out on my own but when I first came to this place I didn’t even know my name, how could I know what I wanted? I ran so far I didn’t even know where I’d come from or how to get back so the only answer was to carry on running but then it was in a whole new direction, a direction that led me away from the place that gave me a name, road that I hoped would lead me to some place where I could be free, forget about everything and start over…..someone once told me I was a freak who should run off and join the circus…..sound like a good idea to me so that’s what I did. In a place where there is no truth, everything is just an act, I thought I could feel at home, in that environment I thought I could feel something close to normal since I was the same….but the surprising thing was for a man who forgot everything memories haunted me.
The breeze recedes and the curtains drift back to there original place once again cutting out the rooms light.
Michaels: And that’s where the story is now, once an actor blind to the script written by heartless directors to then become the director himself only to be too shy so he hopes to be forgotten…..problem is the movie was all he was good at, was all he knew….although, as I said, this story does not have an ending. Now there is another, one not unlike myself, one who I perhaps should hate, one who I should envy, one who’s story in the eyes of others should be enough to break me down to my knees wishing I could trade chapters with him. His story was much simpler, fewer twists and turns but still one of greatness that any writer would wish to claim as his works. This man has done all I have, he ran down the same road and achieved similar accolades, even more then myself actually, and he was running because he wanted to. He set his own goals, gave himself the reasons for his heart to say keep moving when his body and better judgement said stop…..he knew all he wanted and so was in ecstasy when he got it……so do I hate this man, a man who understood the feeling of joy found in success, a man who knew why it was ok to have no remorse after beating another person bloody, a man who ran the same race I did because he wanted to……because he knew just where his finishing line lay. Knowing what his destiny was and not just floating around like an endless breeze…..one minute pushing against and moving things…..
A gust of wind hits the curtains again pushing them both up halfway fully exposing Michaels in the sunlight from outside.
Michaels:….and then the next stopping without knowing the real impact and purpose of which, only knowing that you’ll soon do the same again.
The curtains slowly float back down as the breeze drifts away cutting out all light again.
Michaels: So do I hate him…..no. I wish no harm to that man, it’s just the way life seems to work sometimes. In the first world war both sides tried to kill each other every day in the trenches, not because they hated each other, heck they didn’t even know one and other, they just both believed what they fought for was right. We both fought thinking we were going for our destiny and one of us got and well…..I guess Germany moved on eventually….we’ve both done a lot more then thought possible for folks who started with nothing, as proud as we can be of that if we weren’t the first and we won’t be the last to do it so really we didn’t do anything really special and if that was his destiny then I guess he is nothi….now I’m sorry I don’t mean to offend. I guess I just don’t understand all the hype around the two of us, from my perspective we’re just doing what we do, it’s nice to look across and see someone who’s against me for the experience rather then wanting to pound my head in worse the it all ready is but legends? That just seems strange, why would anyone look up to me or want to be like me? Maybe they don’t see me right….bit like a shrimp, people look at them and see those little lines and think it’s a part of it’s structure, like veins that hold it together and keep it going, just keeping it all together , but really, when they get ready to cook or fry them they pull it out and it’s just an little system of small things, they fall out into a big mess, there not together at all inside….well a little mess, they are only shrimp. I guess he’s more, I guess if I can call myself a shrimp he’s a prawn but then….no one really needs me to be telling them how great that man is and if he has all he wanted I hope he crosses the line with a smile on his face and the respect he’s earned…..but for me, it’s not time to stop, was one story a sprint with the quick rush and glory afterwards and the other a marathon still on going…..I wouldn’t say so, just two different people is all. He’ll understand that he’s coming to his end whilst I still gallop on knowing I can’t stop and won’t stop, same passion he felt to get him where he is, is the passion I still have now….though I don’t know why……I don’t know if that means something, him slowing down and me still knowing I have to carry on, wouldn’t like to question him and say it shows who it means more too because I know this means a lot to him. That’s why I run to this now rather then away, that’s why I ran back here, it will be an honour but this isn’t my finishing line I….
Michaels is suddenly interrupted by a feminine voice coming from the darkest corner of the hotel room.
?????: You’ve been running for a long time John….isn’t it time you went home?
Amongst the darkness movement can now be heard when slowly Michaels has gotten to his feet and pulls the curtains open slightly to look outside. Light breaks through onto Michaels face just as his jaw draws back letting out a smile on his face.
Michaels:…..it wasn’t a long time ago when I said I was home…..in my mind the top of the mountain was home but as I said, like a thought hit me like a landslide hitting that mountain….removing everything that once was and leaving it with anew almost as if nothing was there before…..Congratulations to him for winning his race, if it’s destiny fulfilled then this is his victory ceremony and out of respect I’ll play my part for another one more time and make it one to savour…..but I won’t be standing to once side, when he’s done I’ll be running right by him leaving him to get fade in the distance as my breathless lungs still have many yards yet to travel, because after all….
Michaels pulls open the curtains and steps out onto a balcony, outside the sky is a golden orange and the sun slowly begins to descend. Below water splashing and a child’s laughter are all that can be heard where under the balcony the sparkling water in a pool thrashes a little as Michaels son and some other children play in it. Michaels steps to the edge of the balcony and places his hands on the wooden rail at the end, as he looks around a figure slowly walks out from the hotel room behind him, the figure belongs to a women with long brown hair who now stands behind Johnny slowly wrapping her arms around his midsection and resting her head on his shoulder. Michaels closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath before lifting his wrist up to retract his hand back and flick open the locket on the chain wrapped around him. The locket falls open and Johnny looks at the picture inside of himself, a small baby boy and a women, the same one who now rests her head on him. He stares at the picture before letting out the breath he drew in and looking upward at clear bright yellow and orange skyline.
Michaels:….life is like a box of chocolates……leave them out in the sun too long and you’ll never get a taste.
He now closes the locket and leans his head across to rest it upon the women’s head and removes his arms from the rail and gently lays then on top of the women’s arms around him. The scene now begins to fade leaving the sight of Michaels embraced with a female from his past looking on at a bright clear sky as his son laughs joyfully below.
)
