Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Transcript - Support Group / Jesus and Moms - Fosters

402 words
3 minute read

TBI Survivor [off screen]:  ...like, blow-up with a friend over, like, nothing.  We were playing a board game and I totally lost it.  


Jesus: [to Lena]  This is pointless.  Can we get out of here?

Lena:  Please, just give it a chance.

Survivor:  I tried to explain that it wasn't me.  That I sometimes literally can't control my emotions.  But people - and even my own family, who spent all those days in the hospital with me - they still don't get it.  

Jesus: [Sits back.  What she's saying is hitting him.]

Survivor:  Because I look fine, they think I should be like I used to be.  They don't understand... 

Jesus: [Looks at Lena; hurt]

Survivor: ...because the disability you have is invisible.  

Stef: [Listens.  Takes this in.]

Survivor:  So, they think you're either being defiant, or not trying, or faking it to get off easy.

Jesus: [Listening, getting emotional]

Survivor: They end up talking about you behind your back.  Not sharing stuff with you 'cause they think that you can't handle it.  

Jesus: [listening, but it's getting harder for him]

Survivor:  ...makes you feel even more alone and isolated.

Jesus: [swallows, tries to keep it together]

Survivor:  But I don't want to tell anyone when I don't understand things.  Or when I forget where I parked my car.  Which happens a lot.

Other Survivors: [laugh gently]

Survivor:  Sometimes I just wish I could fade away because it's easier to be alone than to constantly be misunderstood....

Jesus: [close up on Jesus, struggling to keep composure]

Survivor: ...by people I love the most.

Lena: [sees Jesus upset] Honey...

Jesus: [bolts from the chair]

JESUS - OUTSIDE - MOMS COME TO JOIN HIM

Lena:  That's what we're doing to you, isn't it?

Jesus: [nods, forces a smile through tears]  I know you guys don't mean to but...

Stef:  Love, you don't have to say that, okay?  We've been, uh...

Lena: We've been doing this wrong.  And I'm so sorry.  We really thought that we were just helping you.

Jesus:  I know it's just...every time you guys try to help me it makes me feel like I--I CAN'T do it.  Or like I'm bad.  Or broken, or something.

Lena: [tearfully] Honey, you're not broken.  You're not.  And I promise you that we're gonna stop  making you feel that way.  

Jesus: [exhales, relieved]

Stef and Lena: [hug him]

***

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3 comments:

  1. Tonia and Tara:

    this is such a great scene.

    All the emotional release and disinhibition involved.

    People see but they don't see and then they make up explanations based on their own experience and/or what they think they would do.

    And there is actually a big hole where "defiance / not trying / faking it to get off easy" would be.

    A gap between expectations and the new realities, the new normal.

    "it's easier to be alone than to be constantly misunderstood ... by those I love the most".

    A pan is still a pan with boiling and heating water in it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good points Adelaide! I agree! This scene was really well done and quite powerful!

      Delete

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