Guest Post: Rocky K

Excerpts From “Juju Baxter”: A Future Major Motion Picture

Our story begins at the end…well, that sounds a little strange. Let me explain. The year was 2008 and while the rest of the world was spending their time re-arranging their “top 8” list on MySpace and picking sides on the much heated debate of “Blu-Ray Vs. HD DVD”, I was busy writing my masterpiece. Five years have gone by and i’m nearly half way finished! (My mom said sometimes masterpieces take awhile) Either way, when Lance Manion calls and asks for a story, he gets it…finished or not! So, friends, enemies, former lovers and future flames…this is my treatment…(all i have is the ending, so we’ll start there).

The story revolves around Bryson Thorpe (played by Corby Tendin). Bryson is a struggling writer from the pacific northwest. Haunted by demons of abuse, addiction and patchy facial hair, he wanders aimlessly around the dreamy landscape of Gransen Pallows, Oregon. Picture the movie, fresh after a montage that shows us how Bryson is a tortured soul. As The rain pours from the gray sky, Bryson sits beneath an oak tree with his notebook and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” begins playing. As Bryson’s trials and tribulations culminate from earlier occurrences in the movie and he reaches his boiling point, He holds his head and begins furiously ripping apart his notebook…his life, and the pouring rain has been overtaken by the shower of pages filling the thick autumn air“…hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again”. As the camera is covered for a second by a piece of paper, we are now in a dirty old bathroom in Bryson’s run down apartment and as he stares into the mirror at what he has become and with one swift punch from his callused fist, shatters it. While the ground is littered with millions of shards of glass, Bryson looks at his scattered reflection and a lone tear falls “…Because a vision softy creeping, left it’s seeds while i was sleeping” He then is wearing a scarf, walking down the street and he stops outside of a laundromat and watches a mother fold clothes with the help of her young son, as their faces fill with joy and laughter, Bryson remembers the mother that wasn’t there and he walks into the darkness “…and the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains, within the sound of silence”.

Now, The ending. The final scene takes place in a hospital room located in the East Village of Lower Gransen Pallows….”The Hospital District”. Bryson is visiting Juju Baxter, a 12 year old boy with terminal cancer (Played by Staniel Tipsston). Bryson met Juju earlier in the movie and for reasons unimportant to this story, the two form an unbreakable bond and Bryson know’s that if Juju loses his battle, a part of himself will die as well. Trying to hide emotion, Bryson chokes back his tears and mutters “You’re gonna make it through this, sweet prince”. Without a response, Juju reaches under his hospital bed and pulls out a shoebox of his most treasured possessions. In the box, three items. An arrowhead from the summer he spent at Lake SparkleBelly, A 1992 Crease Wilson Rookie Card and his Lucky Rabbit’s foot. Juju tells Bryson to hold out his hand, in it, he places the rabbit’s foot and says “I think you could use this more than me”. Bryson exhales, and looks down at the gift, knowing it’s gonna be alright. Not only Juju’s cancer…but Bryson’s depression and life in general. Two rubs of his thumb to the rabbit’s foot and Bryson looks up with a “Mona-Lisa Smile” and “Hard Sun by Eddie Vedder plays. Bryson looks at Juju, throws his jacket over one shoulder and says “take care of yourself, Kid” …”I Walk Beside Her, I Am The Better Man, When I Look To Leave Her, I Always Stagger Back Again”. He walks out of the room and through the long hallway. He looks to his right and he sees a heavy set black woman in a nurse’s uniform help an old man from the bathroom, a little further to his left he sees a bed-ridden man in a full body cast sipping apple juice from a crazy straw. “…Once i built an ivory tower so i could worship from above, when i climb to be set free, she took me in again. At the end of the hallway was a round, wide angle inspection mirror. Bryson looks at his reflection, and though it is distorted and carries all of demons he has struggled with throughout the film, it also now carried something else, hope. With a smirk and a nod his reflection disappears down the hall “…Theres a big, a big hard sun, beating on the big people, in a big hard world”. Credits……When the film is actually made it will include a special thanks to Lance Manion, for all the encouraging words and the great chicken salad recipe.

Rocky K is the host of the wildly popular Complete Sentences podcast