Cecil and Adina
WE OPEN ON THE AEGEAN SEA.
TITLE IN WHITE OVER THE WATER: October 21, 1930. Sifnos, Greece.
THE TITLE FADES.
ADINA MAY (V.O.)
Hell is a place of memory. In hell you remember things.
Music Cue: “Sifnos” plays as the ocean rolls. We hold on it. A beautiful young woman out of a postcard enters the frame. She looks at the camera for a moment before continuing her walk and exiting frame left.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. SIFNOS BEACH - MAGIC HOUR
Adina and her father goof around a bit as they head to the sea. We are stationary behind them as they disappear into the waves.
CUT TO:
EXT. SIFNOS BEACH - CONTINUOUS
Adina and her father are playful as they trudge through the sand, pausing for Adina’s cartwheels. Dad retching a bit. Trying not to let on.
CUT TO:
EXT. SIFNOS BEACH - OCT 21, 1930
Adina and her father watch the solar eclipse (research what time exactly totality reached the Greek Islands).
ADINA MAY
How old will I be when it happens again? I’m 14 now.
ADINA’S FATHER
I know that.
EXT. SIFNOS BEACH - THE MAGIC HOUR
Adina and her father build makeshift film sets out of sand for their stop motion animation. The sun slowly melts behind the cliffs. Father strikes his lighter. A little blaze of dried sea wood goes up. Adina smiles. Enough light to finish their work. Adina dances around the structures, winding a seashell as if to film it.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. VACATION BEACH BUNGALOW - DAY
Adina May (14 Y.O.) holds a bucket while her father vomits violently into it. For a moment the puking ceases.
ADINA’S FATHER
Christ it just keeps coming. Comin’ and comin’ and comin’ and comin’, christ, must be coming up from my toes at this point.
ADINA MAY
Don’t worry about where it’s coming from, let’s just see to it that it gets out of you for good and all.
ADINA FATHER
I’m sorry, sweetie. I’m all...just rotten.. The water. Maybe the water? Not used to it yet.
ADINA MAY
If it were the water wouldn’t I be sick, too?
ADINA FATHER
Your guts don’t hate you like mine do. You’re young, healthy, your constitution... You know about my.. don’t play babe in the woods on the subject of... (head down) just don’t pick at me about it. K? Ad?..(uh oh look/mixed with exhaustion)
The vomiting resumes.
CUT TO:
INT. GREEK VACATION BUNGALOW - NIGHT
Father lies sweating under a blanket while Adina reads to him from “Rebecca.”
ADINA MAY
“If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.” Gee, wouldn’t that be something?
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