REBEKAH’S CLOSET
1. INT. REBEKAH’S PARIS LOFT, NIGHT
Rebekah goes to her clothes closet, to ready for bed.
Pulls out a hat box from the darkness. Takes it to the bed.
Inside are mementos, family photos.
She starts to go mad, believing the photos have come alive. We see the photos move in a ghostly way, with intense eyes, sometimes smiling.
Talks to the photographs as if her family were there. Pauses on one photo for a few moments ...
REBEKAH
Why didn’t you treat me like your sister? I’d still be with you...
Rebekah eventually puts everything back in the box.
Feels comforted somehow, softly soothed by the Moon in the windows, while she reads more Mallarme, until she falls asleep.
2. EXT. JUNGLE
Rebekah is dreaming:
She is walking through a lush jungle, stopping to take photographs with her camera here and there. Entranced.
Sees movement ahead, and a strange woman appears ahead of her through the trees and undercanopy. She has brown eyes, long brown hair, beautiful, mysterious.
Rebekah looks into her eyes to see if she can trust her. They smile, and Rebekah follows the woman ahead.
They reach a clearing where there is a fire and a ring of six people sitting around it.
They make a space for Rebekah and the woman. Rebekah sits down, and the person next to her is the strange man!
He laughs. Speaks in a language she understands, but does not understand.
The Strange Man:
Ooh leh mia bee. Ooh vuh leya tee.
Rebekah laughs and shakes her head at the strange man, looking around her.
They are all wearing many different types of clothes, some in various states of nudity. They have all kinds of masks, from Venetian Carnivale, to hand made primal masks that are collages of textures, feathers, mud, and colors. Some look as though they were made by children.
No clothes or mannerisms stay with any one person for long.
Everyone is changing clothes, laughing, from among different historical eras, cultures. Renaissance era corset, white poet shirt, or more primal and feathered, fringed leather accessories.
Sometimes they give each other things, but sometimes the clothes change on their own with video effects, to different time periods, colors, textures, customs, masks in a watery way, so that it blends together in a wash of color and texture.
This makes everyone laugh from time to time.
She turns to the strange man, and suddenly it’s as if there was a big joke.
Laughter rises from the group, as she looks at the strange man in wonder ...
3. EXT. NIGHT, WOOD SHED
OUTSIDE A SMALL, SILVERED, WOODen shed near a field, woods, with a dirt road running between the field and the woods. The shed is in the field, near the road.
We see Rebekah’s hands in the soil of the road. She is sorting through it. Looking for something.
Then a skeleton hand is seen on the black fabric of her shoulder.
Above it the face of a pumpkin headed figure. He has black cutouts for eyes, and black judge robes. His eyes and toothy grin are glowing from a candle inside, with video effects.
PUMPKIN MAN
It is time ...
Rebekah nods, resigned. She straightens up and we see her magical, unusual black fine wool dress.
It has a very long train, full of pocket watches, pieces of old open books, tassels, skeleton keys, feathers, handwritten poetry, pieces of sea glass. All sorts of things she has sewn into it for her own form of time travel.
She picks up a large silver can marked kerosene and moves to what we now see is a large silver wood framed wood shop of some kind, and strokes the wood with anguish, her free hand with unusual silver rings, shaking.
There are two pumpkin men now and they circle her protectively.
We see the dirt road and the woods behind them as they cheer her on.
She is shaking her head, laughing and crying, alternately.
4. INT. WOOD SHOP, 1972
Rebekah is flashing back on what happened in the wood shop as a little girl.
Close up of a seven year old girl. She is lying on a green wool blanket looking up at a bare bulb light.
She is confused. Crying. Closes her eyes. Whispers, Daddy, Daddy plaintively, counting up from one to ten, then starts over.
We see a full screen of red, then black.
Close up of very tan, wrinkled hand putting a metal can on a wooden shelf. The hand holding a cigarette as it burns away...
5. EXT. WOOD SHED, 1990S
Rebekah pours the kerosene liberally in a circle around the shed then reappears where she started.
REBEKAH
Believe what you will. Do no harm. Let Karma find the guilty.
She is handed a large torch by one of the pumpkin men and lights the shed on fire.
They watch the shed catch fire and then the pumpkin men lead her sobbing, solemnly into the woods ...
6. EXT. PARIS, AFTERNOON
The day of the photo shoot comes and Rebekah and Rupert meet at a cafe. There are flowers on the table. Sitting outside the cafe, they have coffee, pastries, asking each other questions. We don’t hear them talk, just see their responses, the spark between them. We hear be bop era jazz over the scene. Like early Thelonious Monk, but not literally.
Rebekah is in a grey silk gown she has made, inspired by wind and clouds. It has a poem in the pocket, that she shows Rupert, laughing at herself.
The dress changes in the breezes, moves, billows around her. Some of the silk is threaded with wire, in soft, cloud-like, curvy shapes.
RUPERT
Are you ready?
REBEKAH
Sure!
They leave money on the table, then walk to the park. Rupert with his photography gear. Rebekah in the beautiful handmade gown.
Some people stop and stare.
7. EXT. WOODED PUBLIC GARDEN, SAME DAY
As the photo shoot progresses near a winged sculpture and flower beds, Rupert is becoming entranced with Rebekah.
She is delicately becoming less shy under his lens. He encourages her.
They are almost through with the shoot, when he gets closer to her, as if to adjust something. He whispers.
RUPERT
I’m falling in love with you.
He kisses her tenderly. She is under his spell.
He resumes taking photos.
For Rebekah, the place is alive with tree spirits, or dryads, beautifully floating about the woods via visual effects. The are a mix of tree colors, from brown to silver, greens, with iridescent wings.
The dryads are glowing, rustic.
Rupert and Rebekah stop near the winged sculpture.
Rebekah pretends to interact with the statue in a magical way, and we see a visual effect where it begins to glow slightly and move its hands. Mystical. Rupert starts taking photos again.
For Rebekah, the statue comes alive with visual effects. The marble statue begins glowing from the inside, then shakes its beautiful wings, causing fireflies to sparkle away from it.
The strange man suddenly appears at her elbow in a dapper tuxedo. He invites her to dance.
Rebekah starts to dance around in a light, primal way, Greek sort of way, following the dryads and the strange man.
Rupert smiles. Captures her movement in stills that we see overlaying the action.
Rebekah stops eventually, winded. Gazes into the distance.
REBEKAH
Do you see them?
Rupert is intrigued.
RUPERT
See who?
REBEKAH
The tree spirits ...
RUPERT
I don’t. But if you see them, that’s a gift.
Rebekah nods.
REBEKAH
It’s magic!
8. EXT. WHITE SHEETS HANGING ON A CLOTHES LINE, GEORGIA, SUMMER, 1968, DAY
Flashback:
Rebekah remembers her Mother pinning the sheets on the line when she was little
The world between the sheets on the line. The best world of all.
The smell of the linens fresh, wet and dry. On her skin. Blowing in the wind hypnotically.
Rebekah’s perspective is so small.
9. EXT. SAME SHEETS ON THE LINE, GEORGIA, SUNLIGHT, 1990S.
Dreamy, suddenly she an adult again, walking between the sheets, hanging head height.
The space overpowers her.
The angles of light on her face. Long hair blowing against the pure white sheets,
REBEKAH
Mama always wanted things to be perfect. White. I could never get it right...
Rebekah feels the Sun on her skin ...
REBEKAH
Nature doesn’t ask for anything in return...
The strange man comes back. Walking between the sheets toward her. He stops.
STRANGE MAN
You are perfect ... Even with your wounds and imperfections ...
Rebekah looks up at the strange man. The Sun radiates around him. Eclipsing the Sun.
Her face is in the dark. She can barely see his face.
STRANGE MAN
Even with your broken heart ... Broken mind ...
10. EXT. SAME SHEETS ON LINE, SUNLIGHT.
Rebekah is a little girl.
He picks up the little Rebekah and raises her to the Sun, so that her face is in the light.
STRANGE MAN
You are perfect ... And whole.
11. EXT. SAME SHEETS ON LINE, SUNLIGHT.
The strange man is gone. Adult Rebekah is filled with the light of the Sun everywhere, its angles on the sheets in the wind. The shadows it casts.
Somehow she believes him.
12. INT. COUNSELOR ROSEMARIE’S OFFICE
Cozy but professional office. Rosemarie and Rebekah are sitting opposite each other in comfy floral chairs. Rebekah is holding a soft pillow over her chest, trying to catch her breath.
Rebekah shakes her head, trying to make the memories stop.
ROSEMARIE
Try to remember that it’s not happening anymore. You’re safe.
Rebekah laughs.
REBEKAH
I never feel safe. That’s a joke.
Rosemarie is quiet. Gets out of her easy chair. Goes to her bookcase. Produces a beautiful, thick, blank journal. Gives it to Rebekah, whose eyes widen. Overwhelmed.
REBEKAH
Are you sure I can handle all this?
ROSEMARIE
I believe in you. Think of what you’ve already survived!
REBEKAH
What survived? I’m a mess!
ROSEMARIE
You are a loving, creative, intelligent, passionate woman.
REBEKAH
Wow. Thank you for saying that. I don’t know who I am.
ROSEMARIE
You will see your true self more in time.
Rebekah admires the journal in her hands.
REBEKAH
I always wanted to be a writer.
Rebekah opens the journal, stroking a beautiful blank page.
13. EXT. DIRT ROAD BETWEEN TALL TREES, NIGHT
Languorous hot Summer night ... Cicadas, crickets, birds can be heard.
Rebekah is walking hypnotically down the road in a long black velvet dress. Close up of the train of the dress shows collected leaves, flowers, love letters stuck to the dress ...
The moon is like a lamp at night above her, on the unlit road, it lights the way through the darkness.
Very old trees dwarf her on either side of the road ...
Full of deep grief ...
She is confused ... her emotions change so quickly ...
14. EXT. PARIS STREET, NIGHT, 1990S
Rebekah is walking ahead in the fairly empty street outside her apartment.
Rupert is captivated by the swing of Rebekah’s hips as she walks away from him and toward each street light. Gets distracted taking pictures.
He is adjusting the camera, when she enters a major street. She disappears.
Rupert screams after her.
15. EXT. OUTSIDE REBEKAH’S APARTMENT, NIGHT
Rupert sits on her front stoop all night waiting for her, like a soldier.
He’s not sure what’s happening but he cares so much for Rebekah already.
16. EXT. OUTSIDE REBEKAH’S APARTMENT, DAWN
Rupert is half asleep at dawn, when he hears the clack of Rebekah’s d’Orsay heels on the cobblestones. Close up of her feet in the heels unsteadily walking on the pavement.
The street is asleep except for Rebekah slowly coming toward him. Rebekah thinks she’s being escorted home by the strange man, holding her hand, and the Victory of Samothrace statue via visual effects, with a wing around her.
Rupert jumps up and runs up to her.
She is clearly in shock, with bruises and cuts, and a tear stained face through all that makeup.
Her hair is a mess. She can’t talk, listless.
Rupert looks in all directions, sensing danger, as a former soldier with primal instincts.
Rupert gently takes Rebekah’s purse, and finds her keys.
Rebekah is dazed and confused, but allows Rupert to carry her into the apartment.
17. EXT. PARIS STREET, DAY, SIX MONTHS LATER
Rebekah and Rupert are walking to her apartment with their rescue puppy. They are holding hands.
Rebekah is deeply dissociated, more than usual today. She’s in space, and her internal world is hell, confusing feelings and traumatic memories.
Rupert is walking in rhythm with Rebekah as best he can, but something is wrong.
He stops and puts a hand on her shoulder, then strokes her hair.
RUPERT
Hey baby ... Where are you?
Rebekah stops. The dog pulls on the leash, then comes back to them.
She takes a deep breath, trying to form her words carefully, speaking slowly, with difficulty.
REBEKAH
So many flashbacks! I’m sorry sweetie, it’s just all the junk in my head. Hard to be in the moment ...
Rebekah covers her ears with her hands, as if she can stop the sound, the pain in her head...
REBEKAH
I hear my brothers shouting curse words at me ... Foul things I would never say.
Rebekah sticks her tongue out completely, feeling sense memories of the abuse ... She feels like a mad woman ... she goes back into shock, becoming very still, motionless.
REBEKAH
I don’t know what to do anymore. The flashbacks don’t stop, like it’s happening right now ...
Rebekah opens her mouth all the way and pretends to scream ... She feels like she’s going to lose her mind ...
REBEKAH
It’s in my mouth ...
Rebekah feels helpless again. Nothing works, anyway.
She brings her hands down.
REBEKAH
Do you have any chewing gum ... To get the taste out?
RUPERT
No. Let’s go get some for you, though ...
Rupert shakes his head. He looks around for a moment before speaking, then back at Rebekah.
RUPERT
Wait... It’s been like this for six months ... Can’t we do anything?
REBEKAH
Rosemarie says if I can stand this intensity for a while longer ... I’ll know all the details of what happened to me growing up ...
Rupert is insistent, though.
He’s had enough of this already, and his true feelings of loving concern are coming through.
RUPERT
But at what price, Rebekah?
Rupert pulls Rebekah just enough out of the path of passerby on the sidewalk, into a garden-like space with a soothing fountain.
RUPERT
You’re so distant ...
from me, from your friends ...
Rebekah nods her head.
She feels helpless, and starts to cry.
Rupert strokes the tears from her face, and puts his hands on her shoulders.
RUPERT
You’re living in the past ... Obsessed with the abuse.
Rebekah nods again. Sniffles softly.
RUPERT
Can’t you be happy in the present? For what we have ... Now?
REBEKAH
I can’t help the memories. I can’t help having multiple personalities, or being depressed ...
Rebekah focuses on her breath, trying to get her mind and emotions to calm down, so she can speak again.
REBEKAH
My heart is so broken from all the abuse and ... Betrayal? It’s like my heart’s dead or ... Something.
Rebekah gazes off into the distance, absolutely numb.
REBEKAH
I don’t feel anything positive anymore. Joy, compassion, love?
Rebekah looks back Rupert like a child, not knowing how to express herself.
REBEKAH
I know I have a heart but it’s ... Gone somewhere right now ...
RUPERT
Oh baby, don’t say that. Of course you have a heart. You are a very loving person. You know that.
REBEKAH
But I can’t feel ... Love! ... Warmth!
She pounds her chest slightly over her heart.
Rebekah starts to cry loudly now, bowing her head. Rupert holds her.
RUPERT
Please talk to Rosemarie about medication. This has gone too far.
Rebekah vehemently shakes her head no. Not willing to say it out loud to Rupert. She is scared.
Rebekah and Rupert stand there holding each other.
Rebekah cries and focuses on her breathing. The water fountain sends soothing sounds into the air ...
Rupert is beside himself.
He’s been so patient, but as a caregiver, he is burned out. He is having a hard time calming down anymore.
RUPERT
Okay ... Okay. Just breathe it down ... That’s all we’ve got ... One day at a time ...
Rebekah nods and focuses on her breath. Tries to keep it slow, steady.
Her eyes are big as saucers, in shock, from so much trauma.
18. INT. HOSPITAL, OVERNIGHT
A nurse has been staying with Rebekah overnight since the overdose attempt, per hospital procedure.
She sits near the bed in a rocking chair. Hums Amazing Grace.
19. INT. HOSPITAL, NEXT DAY
Rupert and the strange man are in the hospital room with Rebekah. Rupert is holding Rebekah’s hand with the IV very carefully. The strange man seems incredibly sad, but also trying to comfort and revive Rebekah.
Rebekah isn’t doing well at all. She seems to be in some sort of waking coma, a deep shock, unresponsive.
Rupert is totally exhausted, so worried about Rebekah. He’s angry at Rebekah for attempting suicide, but is focusing on being supportive instead.
Rupert can’t figure out why the strange man is in a hospital gown. The strange man is see-through, like a ghost.
Sometimes the strange man’s presence is intermittent, like a light bulb that goes on and off, or a wash of color, the sense of his presence. He will only be there for a few seconds and then gone, sometimes in different clothes.
20. EXT. DIRT ROAD, NIGHT
Rebekah has black swallowtail butterfly, long soft wings, with iridescent blue spots. The long black velvet gown trails behind her. The strange man is following her train. He laughs. He in his tuxedo, now barefoot, jacket off, tie loosened.
They can hear 1940s Jazz, but now they also hear something like Louis Armstrong’s voice, strangely interwoven ... Echoing around the trees... The two musicians create an odd but beautiful collage of music, somehow blending, as if the musicians were playing together, riffing off each others’ riffs ... a dream collaboration ...
The colors of jazz notes with visual effects floating in the air above them ... we see musical notes in warm and cool colors. Flying and bobbing the way butterflies do in fields, down the dirt road.
The dirt road around them seems to fade into the trees, as if it has no beginning or end.
Heat shimmers the moonlight and colors with steam.
Rebekah and the strange man arrive at a rustic bridge, nestled in the lush green woods.
The Etowah River rushes playfully underneath the bridge like a silvery brown snake ...
Rebekah lets the strange man catch up to her, also playfully.
He embraces her from behind, as they watch the river flowing under the bridge, laughing.
She lifts off the black velvet gown, the wings, from her skin, leaves them on the bank of the river, and walks toward the water.
The strange man follows, taking off everything ... we see him from behind, walking into the water.
Reaches her arms up toward the strange man on the bank, inviting him.
The strange man swims in the river toward Rebekah, and they splash playfully.
They are both floating downstream, flowing with the motion of the swift muddy Georgia water.
The strange man smiles and holds tightly to Rebekah’s hand.
She is safe, and passionate, grinning the confident sexy smile. Primally excited.
Drifting over to the bank, Rebekah leans back, completely soaked and very happy, as if she is now part of the river, the Earth itself.
Rebekah closes her eyes, delighted, waiting for the strange man ...
The strange man swims over the rest of the way to Rebekah.
As if he was a tiger with visual effects, some sort of ancient mating animal, he rubs up against her, until he is lying on top of her, kisses her, explores her soul, her source ...
... Until they are tumbling back into the water, under the water, part of the water, above it, within it ...
... Via visual effects, we see blue green colors, silvery white spots, the surface of the water, reflecting the light of the Moon ... a sparkle!
The singer croons notes again ...
21. EXT. BANK OF ETOWAH RIVER, 1975, DAY
A fifth grader now, Rebekah is flat on her back on the grass, a book with a bookmark beside her, and off a bit, her bicycle.
Rebekah is so depressed, it’s confusing. It doesn’t match the situation of the beauty around her. She tries to smile, but falls into despair again.
She looks up at the branches and green gold leaves of the trees above her, swaying in the wind, patches of Sun and blue sky, the sound of the river rushing by.
Soon Rebekah is sleeping soundly on the bank of grass under the river oak trees, just beginning to dream.
Suddenly, Rebekah is startled awake, thinking she hears a sound in the water.
Frightened, she crawls over to the mossy edge of the riverbank.
Over the edge of the bank, a young Rebekah peers ...
Sees the Sun sparkling on the water of the muddy river...
Becomes hypnotized by its rushing depth, the way the water rolls over the pale gray rocks, smoothing them down over time ...
Rebekah looks for something in the water ... a spark!
She shakes her head sharply ... Her personalities switch ... Rebekah rubs her eyes. She looks again at the water and smiles this time.
Gazing deeply into the surface of the river, eyes transfixed ... Her eyes fill with wonder ...
22. RUPERT’S ARTIST LOFT, EARLY MORNING IN BED
Rebekah wakes up when the alarm goes off at 6:00 am, turning on the daily radio news show.
She feels so happy, she is beside herself. This is a new thing ...
Rupert turns off the alarm and presents himself as snuggle material ...
RUPERT
Strange man?
REBEKAH
No, it was you and me! It was so beautiful, so deep ...
Rebekah inches her way over to his side and puts her head in place, cupping her ear on the ball of his shoulder, placing the rest of her body where it will fit all the way down to his feet.
They both shiver in pleasure, as she does.
RUPERT AND REBEKAH
You feel so good!
Laughing, they both shiver again with incredible delight.
Rupert rubs Rebekah’s shoulder with a free hand, lovingly.
RUPERT
I love you so much...
REBEKAH
I love you ... I can feel it!!! I feel you, all over! I feel safe!
Rupert kisses the top of Rebekah’s head over and over. Then Rebekah starts to speak, dreamily.
REBEKAH
I think this is what Rosemarie meant ... It’s about love after all...
Rebekah smiles sweetly in wonder, glowing. Rupert can’t see her face.
RUPERT
Right?
They laugh, then Rebekah nods slowly, the truth of that dawning on her, deliriously happy, her eyes glowing with delight, truly happy ...
Rupert is for real. She is beginning to realize what life can be like when it’s happy ...
Rebekah turns her head up to face Rupert ... Rupert finally sees her amazing glow.
It sparks Rupert into a state of wonder ...
He lights up into a dazzling smile, stunning her as he did the first day Rebekah met him, subconsciously trusting him with this journey ...
Rebekah lowers her head, humbled.
He takes her chin lightly with his hand and lifts it up to kiss her gently ...
They hold each other close, satisfied, and have a deep breath, as the morning Sun shines on them from a nearby window ...
EXT. ALEXANDRE III BRIDGE, SEVERAL DAYS LATER
Rupert and Rebekah are holding hands as they walk the dog, so in love, crossing the bridge.
They stop to look over the edge and laugh. They walk toward the Grand Palais, still on the bridge.
One of the statues winks at Rebekah, and she winks back, which Rupert doesn’t see. Rebekah laughs, so happy...
Rupert and Rebekah walk into the distance with the dog, holding hands ...