The Call

So, like everyone else, I have an idea for a book and/or movie. It's pretty simple but has a lot of different ways it could be handled. Basically this guy goes somewhere for the weekend or week to a conference or vacation or something. He meets this beautiful girl, they have this odd sort of romance where they keep running into each other at wherever they are for the week. It kind of grows in intensity. A nice slow sort of warm relation develops between the two of them. Very normal. Very conversational. No jumping into bed to have sex but you can feel the intensity grow between the two to of them. Maybe there is some hesitation between the two because of something in either of their lives that we don't know about at this point.They do have dinner together one night but other then that it is just running into each other, talking, sharing stories. Maybe they are on vacation. Maybe they are at a trade show for business. Then on the last day the guy is getting ready to go. To catch his flight or how ever he is getting hoe. He wants find the girl before he goes but doesn't really know where she is staying. So it gets kind of frantic because he doesn't want to let the romantic possibility die. He really needs it in his life. And he senses that she needs it too. So there's all this last minute shuffle to find her. Finally, they do cross paths minutes before he has to leave. All they have time to do is exchange phone numbers. They hug. They kiss. You can feel the burning desire. They get each others phone numbers. He starts to write it down...978-448-50??.........

The alarm goes off and he is laying in his bed with that strange feeling you have after you have just had your sleep interrupted. He sits up. He looks around his room. Rubs his eyes and then it hits him.....the whole beautiful encounter was a dream! You can imagine the frustration that begins to set in. It felt so real. She was so real. It had to be real. He reviews the dream in his head and the phone number comes to him. He runs around his room frantically looking for something to write the number down 978....shit....978-4...oh shit!....978-448-50...DAMN....he cant's get it all..finally he is sure that he knows 978-448-50?? can't get the last two.

He sits there. This can't have just been a dream, It was so real. He puts the number down. Goes about his morning routine. Makes his coffee. Makes a bagel. Sits down to read the paper. His coffee gets cold for a while so he takes it to the microwave to give it a twenty second reheat....he misses and punches in 28. 28. 28. 28. The number reverberates in his head.....and the others come back to....978-448-50xx. He freaks. THAT's the number. He grabs the piece of paper that he wrote the digits on and completes it. 978-448-50xx. What does he do? Does he call. He paces around. He says, come on, it was just a dream. this is crazy!

So he goes to work. Goes about his daily life. But...he keeps seeing the numbers...bus 978, time 4:48, extension number 50xx. It goes on all day. He goes home.

It's still eating at him. He stares at his phone but keeps saying it was a DREAM! What are you think. You can't dial the number.

He dials.

It rings. He gets scared and hangs up. You see the phone on the other end ringing...and sure enough, it's the girl in the dream.

Now, here's where it gets difficult. Does the girl not know him and he is some freak calling out of the blue? Does she still not know him but he recounts the dream to her on the phone and she falls in love with him over the phone? Does he have to hassle her over and over again like a love sick puppy before it becomes real for her? Or, does she answer and say, Oh my god, I had the same dream. I felt like someone was calling then they romance part two in real life and live happily ever after?

Or, it is freaky David Lynch like. He had the dream. She had the same dream. He calls. She answers. They have romance part two in real life.......then...he wakes up one morning a sleazy run down piece of shit apartment....and realizes that BOTH were a dream? Dream within a dream thing.

Or, the first one's real. The second on is a dream he has while in hospital after being in a car accident on the way to the airport after he gets the girls number in the first sequence....which was actually real?

Fuck, the possibilities are endless.

Then, are they married and it is an affair thing or are the single and it's simple and clean? If they are married, do they have happy marriages or un-happy marriages? Is it a moral thing were the dream happiness, they get together in real life but end up going back to their marriages because it was just a fantasy and they realize the lives they already have are perfect and they have a bittersweet goodbye.

Or, is it some science fiction crap where they have some sort of mental telepathy connection?

Another...first scene is the exchange of numbers shot so you don't know who she is. He leaves for the airport but gets into a terrible car accident. Cut, to him going to bed one night apparently all fine after the accident and he has the dream. You see the exchange of numbers again but you see the girl this time. You see him wake up and and go through the whole numbers thing....but, he doesn't remember the last two digits. He paces around his apartment frustrated and keeps repeating the number over and over to see if he can get it .......then....oo, I like this....cut to him pacing around a mental institution apparently from brain injury from the accident. He is mumbling the number over and over again. It's like years later. That's all he's done for years. Pace and repeat the number. Then....close shot....he says the number but he suddenly says the whole number. He remembers it. Remembers it like after 7 years. Ends with a zooming close of his face smiling. End. Maybe he's cured, maybe he isn't. We will never know. Maybe it was all a dream. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe he really did meet her. Maybe it al happened in his head in the hospital. Or, for those who like happy endings, after he remembers the number, he goes back to his real life, calls the girl and they live happily ever after.

See, the first part works great and makes for a great surprise when he wakes up but what happens after that? Maybe that's all there is. The dream. The wake up. The facing of real life.

I guess I'll actually have to write it to see where it goes.

Now, it's all documented here. Don't go and steal this idea cause I'll sue your ass:-)


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by Steve Hall    Apr-24-02    




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