A Corridor-marked Christmas
By Gerry Meyer
Having spent a little while reconnecting with my brother,
who is a writer for a daily TV show, I thought perhaps I could use my creative
juices to write a movie script. I understand that networks have writers to
tweak and fill in the fluff so rather than writing a detailed script, I thought
I would write a skeleton script, based on my years of research on the subject.
I will present it in diary form from the perspective of the star of the movie.
Let me introduce myself. I am Jane, a 28 year old very smart
woman who has been very successful in the business world, but is still looking
for that break to help move me to my goal, to be the best executive woman in
the world. Several years ago I was engaged to be married but the my fiancé ____
(died/ran off with my best friend/discovered he was gay). I was deeply hurt, and have not dated since,
despite my ____ (my dad/best friend/everyone in the office) pushing me
to “put myself out there again”. Instead, I have put all my energy into my job.
Since my mom died, I have not been into Christmas but this year I finally
agreed to spend some time with my family for the holidays. I live in a fancy
apartment in New York City.
Today I was called into my boss’s office and told that she
was putting me in charge of a huge account the company hoped to land. If successful, there likely would be a huge
promotion for me. I was to focus all my efforts on this and have a report
submitted by Christmas Eve. As everyone knows, executives like to spend
Christmas Day with their family, reviewing important reports and preparing for
important meetings scheduled for December 27 or 28, when Corporate America
seems to do all its major restructuring and other business deals. I accepted
the challenge, after all, I was going to visit my family at an extremely exclusive lodge in ______ (Vermont/Hamptons/Midwest/Portland
(because Vancouver can be substituted for it)). I could get my report done and submit it from
our Christmas location.
December 2
Today I literally ran into this guy _____ (on the
sidewalk/ on the phone at work). He’s the first man I have seen since my
meeting with the boss. His name was Chadwick and he was a jerk. Anyway, I
assigned most of my Christmas shopping to my secretary, because most companies
don’t mind if their staff use company time to do personal shopping.
December 14
My work is going really well. Tomorrow I will fly to ____ (Vermont/Hamptons/Midwest/Portland).
I will spend a little time catching up with people and work on my report.
December 15
I arrived at the ultra-luxury lodge. Everyone seemed loaded.
There I met the bold, in your face, obnoxious but sappy young girl, Mary. Mary
is here with her dad but she has no mom. I thought I would connect with her a
bit. I was here because of pressure from my dad and sister, but I would rather
be back at the office getting my work done. Christmas didn’t mean much to me
anyway.
December 16
Despite my busy work schedule, I was able to get out and
shop a little in the town for those last few items. I got the best hot
chocolate I ever had, complete with candy cane stir stick. It was surprising to
see that hot chocolate was the most popular drink in small town America. It was
consumed on the street, at Christmas festivals and while decorating the tree. Everyone
in town is very friendly, and totally into Christmas. I was also pushed into
signing up for the cookie making contest. The buzz around town is the season
highlight, the lighting of the town Christmas tree in the town square in a few
days. I’m not sure if I will have time for that. I also helped Mary with her
part in the town children’s Christmas pageant which is coming up in a few days.
December 17
Surprise, despite my busy schedule, I found more time and
visited the gingerbread contest. I helped Mary decorate her house. There I met
her dad, Chadwick. We recognized each other immediately and were cool to each
other. Someone brought us all a coffee. It is so fortunate that everyone in
town takes their coffee exactly the same way. Afterwards, Chadwick and I walked
the town while Mary went to rehearsal. He may not be as bad as I first thought,
but of course, I am not interested in a relationship. Despite him being a
workaholic, he seemed to have a lot of free time to join me around town.
December 18
Mary and I have developed almost a mother-daughter
relationship. I completely overlooked her forward nature. I also saw a
different side to Chad. He is not such a bad guy, although he is a little down
on Christmas. My sister said I should go after him but I was not ready yet to
date. Despite the fact that the lodge was completely decked out in Christmas
lights, ornaments, etc. Chad decided I needed to have my own Christmas tree so
we went to the local tree lot. Mary immediately found a perfect tree, with
perfect form, no holes in it, you know the kind they have at tree lots.
Inexplicably, we got the tree back to the lodge and in no time at all, had the
eight foot tree completely decorated, complete with that special tree ornament
that reminded me of special Christmases as a child.
December 19
My boss read my preliminary report and was quite excited.
She asked me to come back early, leaving on Christmas Day or Boxing Day so I am
up and ready for the big meeting. I met up with young Mary and later went to
the Christmas Cookie contest. We won. I agreed to go sightseeing with her and
her dad tomorrow, reluctantly. We also had a lame snowball fight where we each
got hit with a little snow puff and ran around a bit. So fun.
December 20
I spent the day with Chad and Mary, although Mary would
often run off for who knows what reason, leaving me alone with Chad. We laughed
and talked about our past Christmas experiences and reluctance to date again(actually,
we didn’t laugh about that). He asked me to join Mary and him at the
tree-lighting. I got some work done and then joined them. The whole town was
there, all excited. The major was in charge. Even though I had only been in
town for a few days, and knew a handful of people, he overlooked all the long
time residents and naturally asked me to do the honour of pushing the button.
We all shouted out the countdown from 5 to 0, and then I pushed the button. The
tree lights went on. So exciting!!! We all oohed and then it was over.
Afterwards Chaddy and I shared some hot chocolate. We found
ourselves alone under a mistletoe. We looked at each other awkwardly and just
as our lips were 2 inches apart and getting closer, some unaware oaf barged in,
looked at us but failed to see what was happening, and said: “I hope I am not
intruding but there is something unimportant that could wait but I should tell
you about right now anyway.” The moment ended and we spent the next few days pretending
there was nothing going on. I am madly in love with Chaddy boy, but I can’t
show it. I learned later that Chad felt the same but backed off because I was
so focused on my career and was leaving right after Christmas.
December 21
I met up with Chad again today. We had hot chocolate
together. We are growing closer and I might consider dating him, but of course
it can’t work because our jobs are sending us in different directions. Chad’s
father was pushing him very hard to take over the family business and move to
Switzerland. He needed to decide in the next few days so he could be in
Switzerland by December 26, ready to get things started before the new year, and
he was struggling because his heart was not in it. His real love was building
things like wooden Christmas ornaments. I told him about my job opportunity and
having to go home on Christmas, or Boxing Day at the latest. He looked a little
down about that. He said he was going to talk to his dad on December 23 with
his decision regarding moving to Switzerland.
December 22
Making travel plans to return to my home in New York did not
seem to be a problem, despite the busy travel season. However, we heard on the
radio that a massive snow storm was heading our way. It could be the biggest
storm to hit this region in many, many years and could cause havoc with
flights, etc.
December 23 – Christmas pageant
I was beginning to have doubts about how much I wanted to
return to New York and pursue my job opportunity. I was beginning to see that
there was more to life than being a successful businessperson and I would like
to work on more charitable work.
Today was the night of the children’s Christmas pageant, and
I promised Mary I would be there. I was running very late, making the last
minute touches on my report. On top of that, the first snowflakes of the
massive storm started as well. I did manage to make the show at the last
minute. Mary was a star. Afterwards, I went back stage to congratulate her.
There, while waiting in the wings, I heard part of a conversation that
suggested that Chad had accepted his dad’s offer and was leaving for
Switzerland in a few days. I had not told Chad about my reassessing whether to
go back to New York. Rather than talk to him about it, I immediately went home
to pack my bags.
December 24
The snow storm hit. All airports were closed. Roads leading
in and out of town were impassible. This was a little surprising, since there
was only about one inch of snow on the ground and on the roof tops, and all
roads, sidewalks and driveways in town were perfectly clear. I was stuck and
there was now less than 10 minutes left in the movie. I decided that it was
time to pursue what my passion really was for once. I went into town to look
for Chad and tell him I wasn’t leaving and that I loved him. I couldn’t find
him until I went back home, only to run into him coming to my house. Chad said
he turned his father down and was pursuing his ornament making business, after
he completed his annual toy distribution to underprivileged kids in the
community. I told him I too was staying and loved him. He said he loved me too.
After, all, we had known each other for several days now. We had a long kiss.
At the point, my story was over and the movie started rolling the credits. Who
knows how we spent Christmas Day or how we handled stress together or if we
continued to make rash decisions based on unconfirmed rumours. What is
important is we had that big Christmas kiss!
The End
Note that this script is good for approximately 250 movies,
with slight variations of location, occupation and sequence of events. After
this, something must be changed to prove that the producer has an ounce of
creativity. The important thing is that the love interests must meet each other
in the first scene of the movie, must have a failed attempt at a kiss, have a
major misunderstanding 10 minutes before the end which threatens to destroy the
love story, and the movie should not continue more than a minute after the big
kiss.
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