Full Transcript for Reflection 3: Elephant in the Room

MUSIC CUE INTERIOR HOSPITAL ROOM AMBIENCE WOMAN Some things are better left alone, better left unsaid, better not looked at for too long. Staring at something intently can be misconstrued as aggressive as opposed to simply studying it with passion. If satisfying your curiosity requires unlocking a door or disregarding a warning then maybe you deserve the consequences. MUSIC THEME ANNOUNCER This is 13 Reflections. Reflection 3: Elephant in the room. MUSIC CUE - DARK MAGIC MIRROR WORLD AMBIENCE NARRATOR In the world of darkness, Polly presses up against the dark side of the mirror that stands over the sink in her bathroom. On the other side, in the world of warmth and light, only a few feet away her mom Ashley, weeps. POLLY Mommy. I’m right here. NARRATOR But Ashley can’t hear her daughter’s plea and walks out of the bathroom. FREYA She can’t help you. Not in the way you think. POLLY What do you mean? FREYA It’s not like she can just pluck you out of here. POLLY Then how do I get out? FREYA I don’t think you can. POLLY Then why did you pull me in here? FREYA To save you from him. MONSTER FOOTSTEPS DISTANT GROWLING POLLY My mom will save me. You’ll see. FREYA She can’t protect you. Not from him. MONSTER FOOTSTEPS GROWLING MOVES CLOSER KID FOOTSTEPS RUN AWAY MUSIC CUE - ASHLEY’S HOUSE NARRATOR Ray and Ashley sit across from each other at Ashley’s tiny kitchen table. Their dinner is untouched, but the wine in their glasses is low and the wine bottle is empty. The air is pregnant with unspoken thoughts. RAY Why didn't you tell me about your husband? About the murder investigation? ASHLEY There are lots of reasons. RAY We gotta have trust, Ashley. ASHLEY What do you want to know? RAY Everything. Start at the beginning. ASHLEY Well okay. I was born Ashley Wen. My father was Chinese American and my mother was Filipino. RAY Okay maybe not that far back. ASHLEY Jonathan and I met in college. I was completing my masters in architecture, he still had a year left in Law school. A year after he passed the bar, I gave birth to Polly and then we got married. RAY Fast forward a bit. ASHLEY I guess everyone has difficult times in the first years of marriage. Jonathan got a job with Einhorn Industries as a junior corporate lawyer. The pay was good but it was long hours and he had to travel a lot. RAY He worked for Einhorn? ASHLEY At the old corporate headquarters in Chicago. ASHLEY FIDGETS WITH HER ZIPPO LIGHTER ASHLEY And you know Einhorn’s way of doing business? RAY Yeah, grunt work during the day and partying all night. ASHLEY Which requires lots of drinking. That’s where the trouble began. BACKGROUND OF FLASHBACK AMBIENCE GLASSES CLINK WHISKEY POURS RACEY MUSIC MEN LAUGHING RAY So Jonathan couldn’t handle his drink? ASHLEY Oh he could handle it fine. He was charming after the first Scotch. He would float like a butterfly after the third. After the fifth he became King Kong. RAY Was he violent? I mean did he...? ASHLEY One time but once was enough. Polly was never great at sleeping through the night. That night she had a nightmare and wandered into our room. DISTANT VOICE OF POLLY SLEEPILY CALLING “MOMMY?” ASHLEY Normal for a kid that age, but Jonathan had just come home after a bender. He was passed out or so I thought. Polly stumbled over his briefcase and that woke Kong. DISTANT JONATHAN ROARING DISTANT POLLY SQUEELING REPEATED FISTS IMPACTING FLESH RAY He didn’t hit her? ASHLEY Instinctively I leapt in front of Polly but he hammered me in the side of the head. I don’t remember much else except that I held Polly to my chest while Kong raged. RAY Did you call the cops? ASHLEY I didn’t. But the hospital did. DISTANT HOSPITAL AMBIENCE DISTANT POLICE RADIO CHATTER ASHLEY I needed twenty four stitches just above my right ear. The scar is almost gone. That was a month before... RAY Before what? ASHLEY I was building an add on office just off of our kitchen. This required me to reroute the gas lines. As usual, Kong had passed out upstairs. WELDING FLAME ASHLEY I was in the middle of welding some copper tubing, when Polly shot me with her dart gun. DART GUN POP DISTANT POLLY GIGGLING DISTANT FOOTSTEPS ON GRASS ASHLEY I chased her into the backyard to play a little dart gun tag and keep her from waking Kong. I could have sworn I switched the gas off. RAY What happened? HUGE EXPLOSION FIRE CRACKLES FIRE TRUCK SIRENS POLICE RADIO CHATTER ASHLEY The house exploded. Jonathan died in the flames. RAY It was an accident though. Right? ASHLEY Exactly what the police wondered. Given the previous hospital visit, the life insurance policy, and the fact that Polly and were safe in the yard, the police opened a murder investigation. ASHLEY FIDGETS WITH HER ZIPPO LIGHTER. ASHLEY The police investigation allowed the insurance company to deny a payout. RAY But it was an accident. ASHLEY I like to think so, but memory is a funny thing. The mind does what it does to protect itself. I could have sworn I turned off the gas. ASHLEY FIDGETS WITH THE ZIPPO LIGHTER RAY Will you knock that off? MOVEMENT AS RAY SNATCHES THE LIGHTER AWAY ASHLEY Give it back. RAY What’s the inscription say? "TO ASHLEY, YOU'RE MY ADDICTION I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART JOHN" ASHLEY Give it back. SOUND OF A KEY ON THE TABLE RAY Here’s your key back. If you can’t trust me with your history, how can you trust me with your key? I should go. FOOTSTEPS DOOR OPENS THEN CLOSES RAY'S THROATY MUSTANG DRIVES AWAY CUT TO MUSIC CUE SHERIFF CRUISER INTERIOR POLICE RADIO CHATTER ENGINE AT SPEED NARRATOR Sheriff Gordon drives Agent Lee to the station but her eyes are not on the road. She keeps glancing over at the bundle under Agent Lee’s arm. Tightly wrapped in a plastic bag it looks like a baguette of French bread but every so often, it twitches, writhes and pokes. SHERIFF We gonna talk about that thing you’re holding? AGENT LEE Is it necessary? SHERIFF A girl’s severed arm grabbed your ankle...seems