Shrines

Author's note: This is originally written as a screenplay, so a lot of the paragraphs/sentences will seem clunky. Anyway, part of the assignment is to create a premise, a message, central questions, and a character arc. One thing; although it's technically a 'screenplay', a story is still a story. The part with a premise, message, etc. is there to help us to unravel the yarn. I haven't done a lot of revisions to this story, but I would like to imagine that someday I would have the time to do it. Possibly even make it longer. Enjoy! :)

The automatic door slides open and Cooper does his best greet. He puts on a smile and said, “welcome to I.C.Vids—“ but he cuts it short when he realized that the door only slid open because a dog walked on the sensor rug in front of it. He shoots an angry glare to the door, then to the dog whose tail can still be seen from the last window of the video store. He sighs loudly and rests his chin on his right hand, his elbow on the counter. He gets out his cellphone, getting ready to make a call, but he looks at the time and realized that everybody is at work. There’s nobody to call. So, he gets up and walks towards the shelves instead.


He stops at the Romantic Comedy section. Somebody had put You’ve Got Mail in the middle of the A row. He picks up the DVD and bends down to put it back where it belong: the Y row. He shakes his head for a moment when he sees Miss Congeniality sandwiched between The Truth About Cats And Dogs and Bride Wars, all in a row where movies that start with O are kept. He picks up all 3 DVDs and stands up. “What is wrong with people?” he yelled out loud out of frustration.

As he returns the titles back to the right places, he mumbles something, obviously annoyed. But the mumbling stops instantly when he heard the sound of the door sliding open. He lifts up his chin to see past the shelves towards the door and it was closing. But there’s no one there, so he cancels his automatic smile and greet. He walks towards the Horror section and starts to scan for more anomalies.
Suddenly a head pops up from the other side of the shelves. “Hey,” it said. Cooper jumps out of shock. He pulls back to observe the owner of the head. Seeing the face, it obviously belongs to a girl. But because the body it belongs to is hidden behind the shelves, it looks like it’s floating. Cooper looks at the head, and then to the door, and then to the DVD that he is clutching to his chest. It says “Sleepy Hollow” on the cover, and when he looks at the head again, it starts to move, making its way to approach Cooper. For a moment Cooper forgets that it is real life, and the bodiless head freaks him out. But the shelves are only about 7 feet long. The head now has a body, and Cooper finally begins to breathe again.

The girl chuckled at the sight. “Seriously, do I really look like a ghost to you? Do I have blood dripping from my neck? Cause if I do… I might have to sue that mad scientist for not stitching me up nicely,” she said, expecting Cooper to respond. But Cooper is still having trouble registering what just happened to his mind. He can see that she’s talking. He can hear her talking. But he’s still having trouble composing himself back to normal.

The girl takes several steps towards him. She observes him. She brings her face close to his, practically invading his personal space. She sets her eyes on his and her eyebrows furrowed; she looks like she’s going to find some kind of an answer there. He swallows a lump in his throat and finally said, “Welcome to I.C.Vids. Can I help you?” She smiles. She pulls back, smiles, and said, “Yeah. I was wondering if you can tell me what time you get off work? You can walk me home.”

***

It’s 6PM and Cooper is ready to leave work. Lanie has been sitting on the floor on one corner of the store, waiting for him, reading the magazines she brought with her in her bag. Cooper makes a short trip to the restroom to wet his face and hair, and then wipe the dripping water with paper towel. He stares at his reflection on the mirror for a moment. He mouths to to himself, “be… cool.”

Then he takes out a comb from his back pocket and starts to fix his blonde hair. It’s not very long, but he can still style it. And tonight, his hair on the mirror starts to look like Kenickie’s. And the face that he sees on the mirror also begins to look like Danny Zuko’s best friend. Cooper unbuttons his shirt and it reveals a plain white t-shirt underneath it. He pops his collar, rolls his sleeves, rolls his jeans, and puts on his best 70s posture before he struts outside. Full on Kenickie mode. Nobody's cooler than Kenickie-- except Zuko, that is.

Lanie smiles, bewilderedly watching her new friend’s completely new attitude. “Don’t tell me. Grease, right?” she asked him. Cooper smiles, trying to hide his nervousness. He doesn’t smoke, so instead of a cigarette like Kenickie, he grabs a pencil from the store counter and slips it on the top of his left ear. He doesn’t say anything, but he stretches his hand out to Lanie. She gets up and walks towards Cooper before she finally takes his hand. “You’re weird,” she says. “I like that.” Cooper, still trying to mask his nerves, smirks a little before he turns off all the lights in the store and open the door for them both to get out. They walk together hand in hand. Lanie walks lightly, while Cooper’s still in his Kenickie mode.

Trying his best to keep his cool, Cooper steals several glances to his side to observe Lanie more. But every time he does that, Lanie catches him. She smiles and said, “My name is Lanie. I’m 23 years old, new in town. I always bring a pack of gummi bears in my purse, you know… just in case. Yes, I just met you today and I seem crazy. But let me assure you that I’m not. I’m just very… outgoing.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Cooper starts to protest, but Lanie cuts him short. “Yeah, but you were thinking it very loudly,” she teased. Then she stops walking, forcing Cooper to also stop. They stand face to face. “You don’t talk very much, do you?” Cooper shakes his head, “not really. But I’ve been thinking about something clever Kenickie would say.”

“And?” She asked. Cooper looks up, trying to remember a line from the movie. After a few seconds, he looks back at Lanie and said, in hesitation, “a hickey from Kenickie is like a Hallmark card?” Lanie bursts out laughing. “Sorry, that’s all I can think of. I’ll come up with something else,” he said. He slaps his forehead with his free hand and lets it linger there for a moment as they start to walk again.

Lanie starts asking him questions about his life. What is he like, and what does he do. His favorite color, the names of his brothers if he had any. Everything she could think of and he was game. He answers every single question, even though he stuttered in the beginning. He tells her that he has a dead-end job but he gets to watch a lot of movies for the job. He doesn’t work on Tuesdays. He doesn’t have a sibling but he has 3 goldfish in his room that he named Poirot, Sherlock, and Colombo. Lanie laughs to the fact that they’re named after famous detectives. Then, he tells her that his mother died of pneumonia and his father kept their wedding cake in the freezer for 10 whole years. She looked at him in disbelief. “Badlands? Really,” she asked, realizing that the last part of his monologue is taken from a movie. She takes her hand out of his. “How much of your story was real?”

His face falls. He knows he screwed up. He looks down and apologized for it. Then he looks at her again and continues, “I think I’m the one who’s a bit crazy. I carry the movies with me all the time. I sometimes see things literally in black and white. I also see things in slow motion. I’m the most socially awkward person you’ll ever meet, and I talk in movie quotes because they sound a lot more exciting than my real story. The truth is, my parents are both still alive and I live in their basement.”

Lanie doesn’t say anything. She grabs his hand and starts walking again. As it turns out they’re just a short distance away from her house. When they get to the door, Lanie said to him, “Tomorrow’s Tuesday. Pick me up at 2. We’re going to see that basement of yours and decide if your life is really not that interesting.” She lets go of his hand and turns around to open the door. But she stops midway and turns around again to face Cooper. She gives him a quick kiss on his cheek before she finally gets into the house.

The next day, Cooper and Lanie sat in the basement of his parents’ house. It doubles as his bedroom. It’s not much of a room, but it’s decent. It has good lighting, walls made of wood planks, and it’s considerably big that Cooper has a bed and a sofa in it. His computer sits on one corner of the room, on a desk that’s reasonably messy. He doesn’t use the computer anymore. The monitor has no components in it and is now home for the three fish detectives.

Lanie gets up. Her long brown hair shines from the light that’s practically 10 inches above her. “Nice room,” she laughs. She walks around the walls and observes the many movie posters hanging on them. “I can’t believe you bring your work home.” She moves from one poster to another, observing each one carefully. “You got yourself quite a collection here,” she looks at him.

“That’s all I know,” Cooper said. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty much the definition of lame.” Then he puts on his best Napoleon Dynamite face and said, “Gosh.”

Lanie turns around. She walks towards Cooper, who’s sitting on the bed, and cups his face with her hands. “Stop it,” she said. “Why do you keep doing that? Stop.” She then gives him a speech about how she doesn’t like it when he imitates movies. “The Kenickie thing was fine. I thought it was cute the first time. But if you keep doing it,” she shakes her head, “how will I know the real you?” They lock eyes for a moment but she decides to turn away and playfully taps the aquarium.

“Sorry,” Cooper apologizes from where he’s sitting. Then he said, “it’s me. Big Mouth.” But by the time he realized that the line is also from a movie, Lanie already has her coat in her hands, walking towards the door. “Really, Cooper. Barry Sullivan? The Bad and The Beautiful? Right after I told you to stop?”
“You know Coop, for someone who watches a whole lot of movies, I’m surprised you don’t have a problem with remakes and being unoriginal. I love movies too, but I don’t just throw quotes in everything I say. I say what I what I have in mind and when I do, I mean it.” she makes her last remarks and goes out the door. Cooper sits on his bed, regretting everything.

***

It’s been another slow day at the store, the only people that came through the door were an old couple, looking for a restroom. So Cooper gave them the key and they took turns doing their business. Cooper brings out a chair for the old lady to sit while she waits for her husband. She starts to tell him a story about how her husband is the perfect gentleman. “We’ve been married for almost 23 years. And he’s never let me down. Not even once. Everything comes from the heart, son. Love comes from the heart,” she said.

Cooper stands there, awkwardly listening to her story until her husband finally comes out of the restroom. The husband puts his elbow out so she would link hers to his and then they walk out of the store after saying thank you. Cooper watches them from behind the window. They walk slowly; the woman slower than her husband. Cooper smiles unconsciously, his heartstrings tugged by the way the husband waits for her by taking the extra time from one step to another.

“Everything comes from the heart,” he repeats, whispering to himself. Then, he shots up. He turns off all the store’s lights and flips the OPEN sign on the door. He walks out of the store and makes sure the doors are all locked. He enters a nearby office supply store spent three days worth of paycheck there.

That night, Cooper walks to Lanie’s house. He picks up a handful of small pebbles to throw on her window, but then he realized, he doesn’t know which window is Lanie’s. So he rings the doorbell. The man who answers the doorbell looks a lot like Lanie; only he’s older, has gray hair, and a man. Cooper assumes he’s her father and addressed him with ‘Mr. Stotts’. He didn’t seem to mind. Cooper then asks if he can see Lanie. ‘Mr. Stotts’ took a moment to step away from the door and Cooper hears him calling for Lanie. A second later, ‘Mr. Stotts’ said that she’d be coming down in just second. He invites Cooper to come inside, but Cooper said he’d rather wait outside, “thank you for the offer.”

When Lanie got to the door, Cooper was facing the street. So, Lanie cleared her throat to signal him that she’s there. Hearing her voice, Cooper takes a deep breath and turn around. Lanie sees the cardboards in his hands and asked, “are you gonna do a lame-ass reenactment from Love Actually?”

Cooper doesn’t answer. He smiles and reveals the first cardboard. It says, just like in the movie, “TO ME YOU ARE PERFECT.” Lanie isn’t impressed. She rolls her eyes, annoyed. But just as she starts to turn around, Cooper takes out the second card. It says, “KIDDING.” That regains Lanie’s attention. So Cooper continues with his cardboard scheme.

Third board, “I KNOW I’M NOT THE MOST ORIGINAL PERSON…”

Fourth board, “IF I WERE, I WOULD’VE INVENTED THE GUMMI BEARS YOU LIKE SO MUCH…” Lanie rolls her eyes again but she couldn’t help but smirk with one corner of her lips.

“BUT I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I WANT TO TRY,” board number five.

Sixth board, “SO HERE’S SOMETHING I WROTE WITH ALL MY HEART.”

“I THINK YOU’RE REALLY WEIRD… DISTURBED. (What kind of a girl would want to get to know me?),” board number seven says.

And then he quickly flips the board to reveal the other side that says, “BUT BEAUTIFULLY DISTURBED.” Lanie chuckled a bit and bites her bottom lip as she smiles.

Then, Cooper pulls out another board. It says, “PLEASE STAY. MAKE MY LIFE A COMPLETELY NEW MOVIE. I’LL BE THE HERO. YOU CAN BE MY LOVE INTEREST. Y/N?” Then he hands her the Sharpie. She takes the Sharpie and scribbles on the board. When she’s done, he flips the board to read it. She circled Y, and under it she wrote, “(but why do you get to be the hero?)”

Cooper looks up, and they both smiled at each other.