ON THE BRIDGE
It was a chilly night
in Kentucky, it was December
and the night was foggy, a car was traveling at a moderate
speed, passing through the bushes which
were illuminated by the
street light.
(rusty was driving the car)
(rusty is a tall guy and handsome
guy in his mid 30s with a cowboy
accent and little
rough in driving
,he is wearing a suit and a denim
and has a hat on his head which he
loves in short he looks like Raylan givens
from justified)
(As he turned his car left to take the bridge
he saw a girl) (the girl was shine,
shine was a average build but beautiful
girl she was in her 20s and she was wearing
a printed dress
and had glasses bigger
than her face, they were covering her
entire face ,but still her simplicity made her look
beautiful)
(shine was crying
and was standing in the middle of the
bridge she was cold and calm just she wanted
to jump off the
bridge)
(rusty stops the car at the starting
of the bridge gets out of
his car)
rusty: miss are you alright,
you looking for something?
(SHINE BUSY LOOKING AT THE WATER)
rusty: miss
can you hear me? do you
need a ride home?
(SHINE FINALLY
LOOKS AT RUSTY)
shine: no sir , I am good.
rusty: miss I think
I didn’t hear what you said so let me just come over
there so I can listen
to you clearly..
(RUSTY STARTS
WALKING TOWARDS HER)
(AS SOON AS RUSTY
WALKS TOWARDS HER SHE SCREAMS) SHINE: don't ...don’t
come here, if
you take one more step forward I swear
to god I will jump ....so
just stay the fuck back.
(RUSTY PUTS HIS HANDS UP AND WALKS BACK)
rusty: it's okay I am going
back to my car and just going back on road to
home.
rusty : by the way do you have a home here? means near? Or you just passing by and saw the bridge
and thought about jumping
off.
(SHINE LOOKS
AT RUSTY) shine: what stupid question
is that..of course I have a home and yes
I stay here only.
(RUSTY NODES
IN AGREEMENT)
shine: why you ask? it's not like
you have their number
and you will
just call them to say "hello sir
your daughter is about
to jump from
the bridge can you come and get
her?" or are you going to do that.
rusty: that’s actually
a very good idea ...that thought
didn’t cross my mind...let me just call them.
(SHINE LOOK AT RUSTY )
shine: I have not given you the
number though so you better
keep your phone inside
and move on.
rusty: you are smart, but the
problem here is miss is that I am a very
generous guy and I like to save woman who are on verge of a
nervous breakdown and I won't be going
anywhere until you change your mind and get off the railing,
shine: then you won't be here for long
as I am about to jump.
(RUSTY LOOKS
AT HIS WATCH IT WAS 3 AM IN
THE MORNING)
RUSTY: no worries take your time I
am totally
comfortable here.
shine: don’t get too comfortable rusty: aye aye captain
(as she closes
her eyes and about to lean forward
to jump suddenly rusty asks her)
rusty: hay before
you jump ,by an
chance do you have a lighter I have
one in my car but if I go inside
you might just jump so...do
you have any?
(shine in shock)
shine: do you have any idea what
you just did?
rusty: ya..I asked
you for a lighter.
shine: no you just broke my
concentration, I was about to jump
..I was all ready...
rusty: oh I am so sorry I didn’t
realize that..
rusty: so now as you have lost your
concentration can I just get my
lighter.
(SHINE GIVES
HIM A LOOK)
(rusty goes inside
his car gets his lighter and lights
his cigar )
rusty: tell me why you want
to jump off from this beautiful
bridge?
shine: because I want to end my life,
isn’t it very obvious?
rusty: miss I am just trying
to
have a conversation here and I hope
you know that this bridge is one of
the most safest bridge
in the
world, this bridge
is almost 20
years old and till now no one has
died by jumping of...so
in other
words you have 100 % chances
of
survival
(SHINE LOOKS
CONFUSED BUT SHE WANTED TO GIVE
RUSTY A SMART
ANSWER)
shine: may be I will make an exception
OUT
(RUSTY SMILES
WHILE EXHALING THE SMOKE)
rusty: indeed you will and I am
fully supporting you.
(SHINE LOOK AT RUSTY)
shine: thanks that’s
very encouraging of you.
(RUSTY PUTS HIS HAT UP IN RESPECT).
rusty: so tell me why you want to
jump ? you look like 20 something, smart ,educated and beautiful. why you want to jump?
(SHINE LOOKING
FOR AN ANSWER)
shine: no reason
RUSTY LAUGHS
rusty: that was a good one. you
want to jump off a bridge because
you
have no reason. that seems
fascinating
SHINE GETS ANGRY
shine: look mister
rusty: its rusty...you can call me that
SHINE NODES
shine: okay,
look MR. rusty
RUSTY INTERRUPTS
rusty: just rusty
(SHINE TAKES
A DEEP BREATH)
shine: look rusty its none of your business and I don’t talk to strangers .
rusty:oh yeah! (pointing finger at himself) you talking to this
stranger for like half an hour now.
RUSTY PUTS HIS CIGAR OUT
rusty: look miss..
(THIS TIME SHINE INTERRUPTS)
shine: its shine...just shine.
rusty: look shine I am just trying
to help..I don’t want you to jump of
this beautiful bridge...if you want me to leave I will leave .. I will
leave right now...but just give yourself a chance ..if you
want to talk then I am here and I am in no hurry...so now I am going
back into my car an I will drive
away if you want to say something
just tell me right now
(RUSTY MOVES
TOWARDS THE DOOR AND OPENS HIS
DOOR AND THEN SHINE CALL HIM)
shine: rusty...
RUSTY PUTS THE DOOR BACK AND COMES IN FRONT OF HIS CAR
shine: it's a long story
rusty: I am all ears
(SHINE STARTS
TO CRY)
shine: there
is a guy..
rusty: there
always is.
SHINE GETS ANGRY AND STILL CRYING
shine: do you want to
hear it or
not...
RUSTY PUTS HIS HANDS UP IN AN APOLOGY
rusty: I am sorry..please say
(SHINE WIPES
OF HER TEARS) shine: we are in the same batch,
I know him since my first
day in college, but for him I don’t
exist..he is like this super cool
guy ,famous and all are like love him
and even I do but I don’t
just exist for him.
SHINE CONTINUES
shine: okay I understand I am not
that good looking I don’t have
those tricks
I can't talk like
others do but that does not make me
invisible, even I am a human.
SHINE CONTINUES (cont’d)
rusty: did you ever try taking to him.
shine: no..
SHINE NODES
rusty: then how do you know that he does
not like you or know you...you
seems to be smart and intelligent
shine: what's the use of being smart and intelligent if you are
invisible.
RUSTY TAKES
A BREATH rusty:i can see you and you are
beautiful
SHINE DISAGREES
shine: yeah a girl about to jump of
a bridge
will look beautiful
to any
one who is trying
to save her...
rusty:woooooo.....wait...
(RUSTY RUNS TOWARDS HER AND CATCH HER BEFORE SHE JUMPS.)
(shine constantly trying to
break free from rusty s arms)
rusty: calm down...calm down....
(SHINE STILL
TRIES BUT FAILS AND IN THE
END HE GIVES UP AND IS JUST HELD BY RUSTY)
rusty:shh....it's okay calm down...calm down...
(rusty takes her to his car and puts her on the seat and offers her his coat..he
quickly get her a bottle
of water from his back seat)
rusty: here...have some water and take
some deep breaths
...every think is alright,
everything will get
better.
IS STILL
SHAKING)
(SHINE TAKES
SOME DEEP BREATHS
AND SHE
RUSTY:HOW DO YOU FEEL...
shine's am okay.....
RUSTY PUTS HIS HEAD ON THE HEAD THE DECK
AND TAKES A FEW DEEP BREATHS HIM SELF
(after there that there is a
moment of total silence)
PART 2
(shine wants to say something
but hesitates but finally
gathers courage to talk)
shine: you know sometimes, its
being only girl who has every grade
in the book which she wants but not
the one person which
she wants.
RUSTY LISTENING TO HER
shine: it's like people look at you and think you don’t have
any problems in life, you are smart, intelligent you have all good
grades professors adore you ,your parents loves you and your
best friends feel you are the coolest
person on this planet. but only you know what you don’t have , that void keeps getting bigger and bigger every
day..
shine: I have never said all this things to any one in my life
,you who is complete stranger
to me is listening to every
word is say, may be because
there is an un written universal law that what I just told you will never reach any ones
ears
(shine takes
a sip of water while
rusty looks at her)
rusty: you know if I would
have
been married
I would have a
daughter like you..she would have
been in some college
far away from
home and I would
never know what is
going in her life...all my life I
have done only one thing that is
"work". I never had time for a
family..or a kid.
rusty: but all I have learned
through various experiences in life is that we always
take things as problem..we live with it and some time
we just can't get rid of it..
HER OLD LOST FRIEND
SHINE IS LISTENING TO RUSTY LIKE HE IS
rusty: you know what is the first step in solving any problem?
shine: tilts
her head ..
rusty: let me tell you what's the first step in solving
any problem is recognizing there is one..
SHINE SMILES
shine: that a very good line sir,
but I must say Jeff denials
said it
better in the newsroom
RUSTY SMILES
rusty: so you are familiar with
that...very smart
(THEY BOTH LAUGH)
rusty: see the thing is when people
point fingers at you we feel scared but when we our self lose hope in our self that thing kills
us..what you have is special..live for
people who loves you,
who wants you don’t go for people who thinks you don’t exist, or make him feel your
existence, work for it..nothing
comes easy..it's a harsh world
and you can't change
the entire world but you can change
what people
think about you....you know how you can
do that....just don’t
care
about what others think.
SHINE’S FACE TURN RED rusty: don’t be a victim of your
circumstances, be a master of it.
SHINE LOOKS
SATISFIED rusty: and when it comes
to college boys trust me they always comes
back to the girl they don’t
know...we boys get bored easily with all that constant
attention and then we fall for a girl who is totally opposite of what we
are..and that’s when we get lucky.
(THEY BOTH LAUGH)
shine: yeah hope that happens
rusty: don’t
hope..be sure... shine: yes I will be and the chance
comes I will be ready..
rusty: so on that note let me tell
you this there is no water
under(THEY
BOTH LAUGH) (cont’d) the bridge and there is only mud,
if you would have jumped you would not have
died or even broken a bone you would
have just wasted
your
clothes.
SHINE SEEMS
SHOCKED shine: then why didn’t
you let me jump?
RUSTY SMILES
rusty: if you would have jumped
then I would have to go to the
other end of the bridge and then I
would have to pull you out and
frankly I didn’t want my clothes
to
get dirty.
SHINE HITS RUSTY AND SHE SMILES
shine: rusty...no sir thank you for
everything....thanks for saving
me..
rusty: my pleasure
miss...
SHINE OPENS
THE DOOR AND MOVES OUT AND
STARTS WALKING TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE
(rusty starts the car and moves it head near shine ,he rolls
the window down and asks her)
rusty: how did you manage
to come all the way here to the bridge? the town
is 5 miles from here?
SHINE SMILES
shine: I have a bicycle..
RUSTY SMILES
rusty: that’s really
cool...
(rusty moves ahead
and puts his hand out to wave good bye to
shine and shine smiles and waves back)
THE END
