Mien Box - The Screen Play

Bruce Bighorn's quest for personal salvation inspires him to abandon his life and posessions and live in a cardboard box. Bruce's journal serves as the key to his experience, for here is where his most intimate thoughts and feelings are documented.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Chapter 6 - Mission

Still in a daze like my mind is not able to catch up with the events that have transpired I find myself starring at Ann's mouth and nodding yes to whatever sounds come out of it and before I realize what has transpired I am signing a confidentiality agreement, taking her card and shaking her hand as I walk out of the station. I don’t know if it was the fear of being thrown in jail, or my drive to see how deep this rabbit hole goes, but apparently I am now some sort of an assistant to Lieutenant Ann Hegemony, and I am working undercover to find Bruce Bighorn and uncover the truth behind the events surrounding the murder of Bea Hegemony, formerly Bruce’s girlfriend and Ann’s younger sister.
A minute or two passes and cab pulls up and I get in, clutching Bruce’s journal ‘at least I have the journal’ I think to myself. I tell the cab my address and he pulls out of the lot, I feel a slight sense of relief for once today; at least I know where this ride ends.
The rocking of the cab puts and the creaking of the worn out shocks puts me at ease, I let out a sigh of relief and lean back into the smelly seat and watch out the window as the world goes by.
My mind switches gears and I laugh a little thinking about the day, and I think about Ann. After her sister’s death, she transferred from the Chicago PD to investigate the incident herself. After a while she went into internal affairs.
She spoke about her sister and how she was incredibly intelligent and, like her, was also a lawyer and police officer. She told me that Bea was about to become an agent for the FBI but when she met Bruce she seemed to stop caring about her career.
After about a month of dating Bea started living in a dumpster with Bruce, behind Taco Bell. Ann recounted the time that she flew into town to see her sister and was shocked to find that she moved out of her house. Bea invited her over to have dinner, and they tried to get her to eat taco salads that were made from remnants of discarded tacos that they found in the garbage. She says that they laughed at her when she refused to eat the food and they said “Good, more for us!”
Ann felt that as time went on something about her sister had changed, she acted as though she was on drugs, or worse that maybe Bruce had somehow brainwashed her. Bea's behavior was effatic and her thoughts were irrational, and after a while she couldn’t communicate with her anymore, she would go on and on about robots and aliens and the end of the world.
Anne belives that Bruce has a large following of many formerly successful people who were now living what is called “the life”. She pointed at the journal and said to me “that thing is dangerous”. She may be right, but I pretend to shrug off her warning and tell her that I had met Bruce and I felt that he was harmless, and crazy. She disagreed, She states that she once tried to have Bruce committed to a Psychiatric facility but he was quickly released after his initial evaluation. She says Bruce is not crazy or psychotic, he is rational focused and makes every move count toward his goal. She did say that she believes Bruce to be dangerous and psychopathological because his goals seem to be based in delusions.
After speaking with Ann about Bruce It was apparent to me that she thinks Bruce is a potentially dangerous person, but she does not think he was the murderer. Indirectly perhaps, and he may have information that could lead to the capture of the real killer

What I found most interesting about our conversation is when she said “Entry 374 and 947 may help shed some light on what Bruce is trying to accomplish. Combine the first paragraph from 374 with the third paragraph in 947 and it may help you to better understand Bruce’s message” She knows the journal, she must have studied it, maybe in great detail and maybe with Bruce himself. I was shocked, and I felt validated also, 'I knew that there was a code to the journal!' My subconcious mind picked up something and was constantly processing and rearranging pieces of the puzzle, but it was a slow and painful process, like someone putting together a jigsaw puzzle in the dark.

Entry 374
The world that I see and the world that sees me is merely perception and is not important to anyone. That is why it is so important. People are their perception. They see a world only to see themselves, however they do not truly see themselves in the world, because the world as they see never truly existed….Monks and philosophers have abandoned society and material possessions to gain insight to the true nature of themselves, and the meaning of life.
Entry 947
….You can not see the world as it exists if you are bound by the illusion of society. Society is a set up, designed to trap you into becoming a slave. Follow that path and you will fail to place yourself in this life properly and you fail to truly see this world. You must step outside of yourself in order to shed the preconception and bias that blind you from the true meaning of your existence. I have found this place outside of myself. I found myself hovering over my entire life and viewing it as if it was in a glass case in front of me. I watch the inevitable consequences propel me forward through life without any exertion of my own will, as if I was watching someone else. I wept because I then I knew I had not know myself. This it is the path to enlightenment.

7 Comments:

Blogger MeAt said...

I awoke nearly panicked, I heard a faint giggle of the Chode in what must have been a nightmare.
I was lying face down on the wooden floor in my bedroom, pants tangled around my ankles. I have a faint recollection of stumbling through my house, into my room and tripping over my pants as I tried to get ready for bed. I press a sore lump on the corner of my forehead and wince with pain

12:56 AM  
Blogger MeAt said...

I free myself from my pant shackles and get to my feat, my head is throbbing like a bad hangover. I look around my room, everything seems to be in it's right place. I touch the painful spot on my forehead again, the lump is big and squishy. "fucking shit" I say aloud and make my way to the bathroom to look in the miror.
I flip on the light and the horror of the person starring back at me is shocking. My entire face is engulfed in deep blue and green bruises, my neck and chest are faintly green and yellow as well.
"FUCKING FUCK! WHAT THE FUCK!"
I splash some water on my face and feel for other injuries, nowhere besides the lump. I look mesmorized at myself in the mirror. I imagine myself as the elephant man, and a slight twinge of laughter begins to creep up inside me, a giggle, and my face, my cheeks begin to ache where the muscles that make my smile are.

1:07 AM  
Blogger MeAt said...

I press on my cheeck to stop the smile, but I can't. I laugh "I look completely insaine!"
I open the drawer and pull out a bic razor "Fuck this ugly ass beard!"
as I begin to run the razor over the coarse hairs, tapping the razor into the sink. It seems of no use "this fucker is relentless!"
I toss the bic razor aside and laugh as I pull the drawer open hard and it jumps out of the cabinet and crashes to the floor. A fancy straight razor that an ex girlfried bought me for a christmas present is among the contents that spill from the drawer.
"perfect!" I lather up some soap under the steaming water and smear it accross my face, and the razor which has never been used before, efortlessly glides over my blackened skin removing patches of hair.

1:18 AM  
Blogger MeAt said...

I put my face into a towel a look up at the mirror, I still look like hell. I pick up a compact of zink sunblock from the mess on the floor and open it up, it has to compartments one red and white. I smear the white goo over my face "Ohh, that's better kabuki man!" I laugh and dip my finger into the red and make some red lips and some red on my cheeks and a little over my evelids and up to my evebrows "Ohh, kabuki clown!"
I pick up the straight razor and pose to the mirror, I make a sad evil clown face and then an evil grimmace and hold the razor out in front of me "Im going to fucking kill you bitch!"

1:25 AM  
Blogger MeAt said...

"Should I come back another time?"
I nearly fall over, Ann is standing at my bathroom door, she looks calm but has her gun out, not drawn.

"Ann, whoa, I was just messing around..I how did you.." I drop the knife and pull a towl from my wall and try to wipe my face.

"Your front door was open, It's 10 o'clock, I told you I was going be stopping, by at 9:30, you said last night..Oh my god, What happened to your face"

"Oh it's just sunblock, I was.."
"No Larry, It looks like bruises"
"Oh yeah, I fell"

Ann puts her gun into her holster under her left arm "What, you fell? It looks like someone beat the shit out of you" she turns my face with her hands.

"No, I'm pretty sure I fell I was trying to get my pants off and I slipped, or trippend and...these hardwood floors.."

"No way" She is done inspecting my face, and looks into my eyes "Are you not telling me something Larry?"

"No of course not, I came home" I remember stumbling through my house,why was I stumbling, I remember falling "and I fell in my bedroom, I have this lump on my head" I press the lump and wince, Ann is starring at me. I feel guilty like I really am withholding something from her.
"I thought I heard laughing when I woke up, but no one was here, I think it was a bad dream" I turn away from her "I don't think anything happened, I think I knocked myself out"
I put my face back into the towel and then like a memory of a vivid dream I see a bright light and hear a warning "stay away, from the trash in the dumpsters!"
I repeat it aloud to Ann "Stay away from the trash in the dumpsters"
"What?"
"That's wat I remember, It could be a dream, but I heard someone tell me to stay away from the trash in the dumpsters!"

She stands back, "You think someone is trying to intimidate you into stopping the investigation?"

"I don't know, It could have been a dream"

"Have you looked in the morror today Larry, dreams don't leave marks like that!"

"All I know is that I fell and hit my head, maybe I have amnesia"

"Amnesia?" Ann throws her hands up and begins to say something, but I cut in.

"The journal, where the fuck is the journal" I look around where the chalk outline of my body should have been drawn, my pants, jacket, I run down the hall through the door, outside, along the sidewalk, driveway, in the mailbox..nothing, it's gone. "Fuck!"

2:04 AM  
Blogger MeAt said...

I search around the house for another hour or so, and Ann calls the cab company and asks if anyone had turned the Bruce's journal in, but no luck.

"we don't need the journal Larry" Ann says as I flip the mattress off my bed for the third time.
"I have a list of just about everyone who knew Bruce and Beebe around the time of the murder"

"So, what is that going to do!? How is that going to help us find Bruce? We need the journal! We need to get the information from the Journal! Mein Box is where we will find Bruce!"
I pick myself off the floor from looking unde rthe dresser, again, and look at Ann "In Mein Box, Bruce said that if you open a dumpster, he is there. If you are living the life then he is within you! So are you telling me that we will just have to go to any dumpster and there he is! there's Bruce, randomly at a dumpster! No no NO Ann, that is not the case that is figuratively speaking! Truth is we wont find Bruce we don't have the journal and this whole 'investigation' is fucked!"

2:20 AM  
Blogger MeAt said...

Ann is leaning back into my Lazy boy, her head tilted back completely, she starres at the ceiling.
"Let's go" she says in a long exhausted breath.

"Fine!" I say "but this is bullshit"

We walk out to her car to, the afternoon is air hot and humid. Luckily her car has been running and the AC is pumping out cool air.
Ann slowly backs out of the driveway, and I pull the visor down to get a look at my battered face. A picture of falls out and lands in my lap. It is a picture of a Young couple on a beach. They are all smiles, he has his arm around her waist and they are holding beers out for the camera.
Ann looking straight ahead says in a monotone voice "That's Bea and Bruce, on vacation, Venice beach I think, somewhere near Los Angeles"
"she was beautiful" I say to her, looking for an appropriate place to lay down the picture.
"Yes, she was" Ann nods, and takes the picture without a glimpse, and puts it over her visor.
"I wish I could have seen her one last time. Just look at her face, just to say good bye"
I look over at Ann, her face was nearly expressionless but I could tell that the thoughts were painful to her.
I try to think of something to say, I remember a piece I did about a psychic who claimed to be able to talk to people who passed away, but she had to be close to the body at the wake or the funeral. The person was found to be a fraud and was beaten badly at a funeral home, but I had nothing else.
"Do you believe in the afterlife, souls, you know, heaven hell?"
She looks over at me with a grimmace and then back to the road.
"I was reminded of a story I did about this psychic, she would talk to spirits of those who had passed at their funerals"
Ann shakes her head, and rolls her eyes. "Gutsy move, that takes some balls to try to pull that crap at a funeral"
"yeah, she said that she had to be close to the spiritual vessel to make contact, because the spirit stays close to the vessel until it gets buried"
Ann laughs a little "Well, then she wouldn't have made much contact at that funeral, Bea's vessel wasn't there."

"What, where was..she?"

Ann raises her hand "Don't you listen, do you know nothing of that case? Bea's body was never found!"
"Yes, I thought I remember you saying something like that, I just.."
"Someone hid the evidence, Bea's body was never rocovered, the case was never closed. That's how Bruce, or whoever did this to bea, is able to stay out of prison! Bruce he knows something, that's why he hides, but he can't hide from me, not anymore!"

I look into my visor at my face, the bruises are beginning to yellow around their edges. "Good God I look..."
"you look perfect" Ann says "They'll trust you more if you look like shit"
"Who? Who won't trut me?"
Ann pulls into the parking lot of Super Beef, an italian beef sandwich restaurant. I ask "Are we getting lunch? because Im not hungry"
"neither am I" she says and slowly pulls around the back of the restautant. The car comes to a slow rolling stop next to a fenced in dumpster. "Lets get to work" Ann says as she pushes the car door open. I feel the uncomfortable heat rush in as steps out of the comfort of the car's cool interior. I take a breath and brace myself for anything before I reach for the door handle. I think of Bruce, and I am given comfort, knowing that he will be with me when I enter this dumpster.

2:51 AM  

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