With closed eyes, an unemployed writer drops and catches seventy dollars. Is this in her mind, or really happening? She sees a housepainter, who looks at her. The housepainter opens, and closes her mouth. The writer drops the seventy dollars, and this time, does not catch it. It falls to the floor. She walks away, whilst the housepainter looks towards the sky. The housepainter, barefoot, steps on and crushes the seventy dollars.
Further along the route the writer walks upon, there is a bodyguard. The housepainter has disappeared, as has the writer.
As the writer walks by her, the bodyguard opens, then closes her mouth. The writer senses this, and looks to her right. With her hands curled up into the shape of a gun, she shoots the bodyguard. The bodyguard is shot, and begins to laugh manically. The writer again looks to the right. Is she awake, or is this ALL in her mind? The bodyguard has disappeared.
Now the bodyguard appears, falls to the floor, and from her pocket takes out the seventy dollars the housepainter previously stepped on. The bodyguard has disappeared again, and the writer continues along, away from both the housepainter and bodyguard.
The housepainter appears, and she throws the seventy dollars to her right, and shakes her head. With both the housepainter and bodyguard behind her, the writer stops, looks in front and beyond her, then looks behind. She looks forward one last time.
The housepainter looks away from the writer, and walks back to where the writer’s path began, where the housepainter stepped on the seventy dollars. The housepainter does not wait for the writer, and seems to expect her to follow, to take this cue.
The writer looks back, towards the housepainter, and follows her. She does not continue on her path, instead, she returns to where she had already been. Is she repeating her actions, or simply returning to what she walked away from?
The housepainter stops when they reach the area this film began at. There is a younger girl, a child, unmoving, her right arm outstretched. The housepainter turns to face the writer, who has now arrived. Hesitantly, the writer takes the child’s hand into hers.
The child falls to the floor, and behind her, the bodyguard rises from the floor. The writer is surprised, and cautious.
The bodyguard drops the seventy dollars onto the child. The writer looks at her, drops her outstretched arm, and the housepainter points her hand-gun at the bodyguard. The writer puts a hand up to stop her. The housepainter laughs manically, as the bodyguard did.
The bodyguard opens her mouth, and the housepainter closes her eyes, drops her outstretched arm and the gun, and falls to the floor. She has disappeared; only the coat can be seen on the floor. The bodyguard, looking at the writer, opens her mouth. The writer, looking towards the floor, and the child, opens her mouth. The bodyguard closes her mouth. The writer closes her mouth tightly.
NOTES
- the right side of anything, to me, has symbolised for a long time: God, goodness and Heaven, with the left symbolising the Devil and Hell
- the characters' occupations are not significantly relevant to the main story!
- 7 is a lucky number in my core family, hence the 70 dollars