SECOND SERVING

So they just wrapped filming one of my short stories which became the longest short film ever! The story is a simple one…KINDNESS.
Do because you want, not because you want something.
I got my inspiration when I lived in NYC and watched as people raced by this homeless guy who was sitting outside the subway entrance, on a subway grate trying to keep warm from the steam rising. He had a cup of hot something and was wrapped in a blanket trying to stay warm. People were racing by and he tried to stay out of their way, but they seemed determined to get in his way and remind him how unfortunate he was. Someone kicked over his hot drink and didn’t even think that he deserved an apology. I watched this wanting to yell at them, but no one stayed long to hear never-mind care. My attention was drawn away by a street preacher announcing that the second coming of Jesus was upon us! That he was living among us! I stared harder at the homeless man and I got it…He was Jesus and he came back as a homeless man. He is looking for someone to show kindness and prove that there was love left in the loveless city. I got it. I went over to him and we shared a knowing smile as I dropped some loose change I had in my pocket into his opened hat. He smiled back and then looked thought the change I dropped and picked out the pennies and handed them back to me. “I don’t take pennies” he said as I took the pennies back. I was stumped. Jesus was kind of rude to me.
I walked by the street preacher who also announced that GOD showed him the year that the world would end-2000 (this happened back in 1997). I asked how he found out and he informed me that GOD gave him a sign in his cereal. I thought for a moment and asked if he ate Cheerio’s? I mean making 2000 out of Cheerio’s isn’t very imaginative. He brushed me away saying Satan had sent me…Yeah, like he’s the first one to say that to me.
So when I got home I wanted to write about the experience and immortalize my own revelation about the inhumanity that I had experience. I worked with a girl named Tamela and she was a heavy set African American girl who was so sweet but kept going out with losers because that is all who would date her. He was so self conscience about her weight and would never go after attractive men because they would just “sleep with me, get me pregnant and leave me with supporting the boo-boo’s of my booty call!” She was probably right, hell if I had a kid for all my booty calls I would be able to start my own village. There was one moment with Tamela that always stuck out in my memory. We worked in a restaurant together, she was the hostess and I was the bartender. We were hanging at the host station when one of the under-paid, overly sarcastic waitresses came over and told us a customer wanted to know if could get a second serving because she was still hungry. Tamela just shoot back, “where does she think she is at grandma’s house?” I could not stop laughing.


When I started writing the story I knew right away I wanted it to take on the old black and white nickelodeon, “Perils of Pauline style” silent with underscorepiano music and a few written words and at the end a message.


The title “SECOND SERVING”

YOU are now in "the time of the end."
"the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet"


Once upon a time in a city like New York City there was a neighborhood like Harlem and a single mother of two like Tamela. There were many people in this place that was like New York City especially in the neighborhood like Harlem and a single mother of two like Tamela could easily get swallowed up in such a place. A person would have to wake up fighting every day just to survive, Tamela was no exception. She considered it a victory to make it home and placing dinner on the table for her two reasons for living the life. Each day she would plunge into a hole in the ground that was like a subway entrance and escape the hole in the late evening. What went on in-between was a mystery to Tamela as well as to us. Everything evening there was a less fortunate man who looked like a homeless person. He would try to bring a smile to Tamela’s face, but she would have none of it! She had no reason to smile, nor did she think it was the place of a homeless bum to suggest it! “Get a job and leave me alone” is what went through her head. “Would that really make your life easier” he thought back. He would greet her everyday and just smile. She wasn’t enjoying this uncomfortable relationship.
While doing laundry one day her children came upon him and liked the tricks he performed. Tamela was horrified that they were near him and discouraged them from being kind to him. They wanted to give him change, but Tamela did not want them to be nice! She reluctantly gave them change and got them home safely!
The next day was no different as she exited the hell hole she saw her secret stalker waiting to make her smile. She avoided eye contact and ran into the super market to get dinner for her kids. When she exited the store she saw her secret stalker and she banged into a happy couple who thought she was drunk and left her on the sidewalk with all her groceries scattered around. It was Tamela’s secret stalker who came to her rescue. She, still avoiding his eyes, grabbed things from him and noticed her roasted chicken was out of its case. She couldn’t serve it to her children and was going to throw it out- instead she gave it to her homeless hero. He was so happy and grateful; Tamela was just disgusted and wanted to get away.
When Tamela gets into the safety of her “self made” prison she saw the hungry faces of her two reasons for living this life. It dawned on her that she had given their dinner away and she had no money! She saw the pancake mix on the kitchen table and improvised a breakfast dinner. Exhausted she saw the happy faces of the two reasons for her living this life and started to clean up. It was then that the male reason for her living this life that tugged on her shirt, holding his empty dinner plate. He wanted a second serving. Tamela scraped what was left in the bowl and managed to make a pancake. As the pancake was being created a slow discovery of shock appears on Tamela’s face. The pancake shines in GOLD and the face of Jesus Christ appears on the pancake! Standing there shocked Tamela cries out! She runs out into the apartment hallway with the frying pan banging on the neighbor’s doors. Everyone runs out into the hall and some start praying. Tamela’s best friend ushers her back into her apartment.
We see people lined up to pray at the pancake, which is now in a glass covered cake plate. The two reasons for Tamela living this life had their own pancake mix stand selling batter for five dollars a bag.
Tamela secretly had travel brochures and wish list of what to do with the money they were making. It was then that the phone rang. Tamela answers her cell to find Father O’Hara, the local priest, calling out of the blue. Seems Father O’Hara wants a cut of the profit…I mean wants to legitimize the miracle of the pancake. He makes Tamela an offer she cannot refuse.
Father O’Hara places the pancake on the altar and gets a call that Tamela is on her way for her check. He leaves the pancake uncovered. The smell lures the hungry homeless hero into the church, passes all the silent sinners praying for redemption. The hungry homeless hero takes the miracle pancake and sits on the altar to enjoy his food from GOD. The sinners see the bum eating Jesus and attack him! They are throwing him and grabbing the miracle. Father O’Hara and Tamela, holding the check, run in and try to break it up. Tamela notices the miracle pancake missing. After Father O’Hara breaks up the fight and sees the pancake scattered all over the altar floor he takes the check out of Tamela’s hand and leave. Everyone leaves and Tamela is all alone with the man that took her life away from her.
The hungry homeless hero reaches up to Tamela to help him; a feeling of emptiness freezes her from movement. The vacations, the easy life, the dreams are all gone. Her two reasons for living the life will never get out of the hell home she has made for them- this BUM took that from them. He damned them to hell and now it is her duty to return the favor. Tamela goes to offer her hand to the hungry homeless hero when it grabs on to a solid gold cross and Tamela cannot stop herself from hitting the homeless hero and hitting and hitting and he lays there in blood and pancake pieces.
Tamela steps back and disassociates herself from her hands stretching them out as though they do not belong to her body. Behind her we see a stained glass of Mary, the mother of GOD, with her arms stretched out. We see the homeless man with his fingers making a peace sign.
We see Tamela, hand-cuffed, going into a police car and the stain glass of Jesus making a peace sign lights up.
CUT TO STATION INTERRUPTION AND THE BEEPING SOUND....




Did she kill the second coming?
Acts 2:19-21 (NIV) "I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

The end

The piece was done as a one-act play where Tamela is on stage with a light above her as if she is being questioned in a police station…She tells the story sitting at a table. Wonderful piece! It was also published as a short story.
Original Tamela brings the pancake to the church, but it’s locked> Tamela goes to the side door toget in leaving the pancake. The homeless hero walking by sees the pancake and eats it . Tamela comes back and starts hitting him …passer-bys think the bum is attacking Tamela and attack him. He falls to the fence and his sleeves get stuck. The sun shadows the church cross on him and we see that he is stretched out to look like Christ on the cross.

Virginia is for lovers- not airlines

So my cousin from Oklahoma whom I sorta share the same birthday with- she was born March 28th and I was born March 29, 1960. She was born in California and I was in New York, we always felt that we would have been born the same day on some time line. But, as a child I always the younger one and she would always taunt me by saying “Respect your elders…I am your elder.” Needless to say my pay backs came when she turned thirty first, and forty and this year turning 50! I hadn’t seen my cousin since 1997 and was determined to see her. She was going to vacation in Virginia where her sister lives. My intention was to go down for a few days, but as luck would have it I had a full schedule between job interviews and work commitments. There was two days to fit it in, Monday and Tuesday- so being the me that I am I called Orbit cheap tickets on Sunday afternoon got a six o’clock flight to land in Newport News because my cousin had said it was a closer airport (She didn’t think I was serious about going down-I was and did). I arrived at 7:30 ish.
The flight down was uneventful and the anticipation of seeing my long lost twin cousin was keeping my mind occupied.So my darling 77 year old Aunt is making her famous Mac and Cheese while her 21 year old granddaughter and I are watching..As she scrapes the bowl trying to get all the macaroni's out, wipes the sweat now pouring in the macaroni, she comments how hard it is and says, "Imagine what this does to your stomach! Dinner will... be in a half hour." Her granddaughter and I look at each other and announce “We’re on diets!” I also started reading Joel Osteen’s It’s Your Turn. The book is about opening yourself to GOD’S love and not allowing stress and disappointment to discourage you from your successful God goals. I am opened to positive energy. My cousin and my aunt meet me at the airport and my twin cousin will be at the beach the next morning. That’s cool. My cousin and her husband are great and I find the ride back to their place long. I keep it to myself. At the house we stay up and chat until midnight. She has a 21 year old that will be forced to hang with me the next day.
We wake up and my aunt is put to work making macaroni and cheese- she’s like 78 and is trying to work in a kitchen that is modern and spread out, add a 70 lb. dog getting in between her legs and you have the aunt from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Stacy, my cousin’s daughter and I watch, promising each other NOT to eat the macaroni and cheese, expressions like; “Kiss it up to God,” “Three second rule” and pinkie swears not to tell anyone where the macaroni landed after the dog flip…I never said anything about writing.
We get to the beach and it seems like it’s the shadiest day of the week-surprise me, but I managed to get a shade burn. At night we laugh and spend more time taking pictures than talking. I find out that Norforlk to a closer airport and Newport News is the cheaper airport…I would have paid the extra. They are all asking me to stay longer, but I have my own theory- see if I stayed a week they would be pushing me out the door to leave, staying a day has them begging me to stay!
The next day I arrive at the airport at 6:30 am. My cousin dropped me off on his way to work. My flight is at 7:50 am. THANK GOD FOR JOEL OSTEEN! I start reading my inspiration book and it’s all about delays in life…We board the plane and are on time until….We are taxiing around the airfield and called back to our gate. It seems a storm and traffic back up caused LaGuardia to refuse to allow us to take off until 9:45. We were supposed to land at 9:05 am. I reread Joel’s chapter and understand that God has a reason for this delay…What could it be? There is an announcement…Flight cancelled! Why???? I want to flip out and yell and act like a lunatic, but thanks to Joel, I think why?
Then they announce that we can take a flight to Indianapolis to get a flight to LaGuardia. That makes no sense to go three fours out of our way to go 53 minutes away! I text my friend when I land in Indianapolis. He tells me to look for Mary Tyler Moore’s hat! ?? Mary came from Minneapolis not Indianapolis…no one comes from Indianapolis and there is a reason… their state motto is “cow tipping is fun pa.” That is what the tee shirt in the gift store said. I went a little less tacky and bought a “hoosier momma?” tee- which I just noticed is woman’s med. So is the continuing saga of my life. I guess the tee shirt is how they get tourist to visit or just book a flight with orbiz and you will end up there.
Now I tell GOD, get me to my night job by 6pm and I will believe in all that Joel teaches-does not look good for God. We land in LaGuardia at 4:20 pm. I get to the curb and am told the only way to get to Port Authority is to take a bus- subways are now close to airport. God is in trouble, traffic in midtown AND we have to stop at Penn station first. I get there in record time and after a few kick starts get on the bus to Hackensack, where my night job is, before 5 pm. Alas, Tunnel traffic---amazingly the traffic was light and I get to my night job by 6:02pm. It wasn’t 6 , but pretty close.


I just want to know why an airline can sell you a ticket for a 52 minute flight taking off at 8am and have it postponed until 10am then cancel it and make you take a flight to Indiana to get the plane that you were supposed to have at 8am...and have you arrive at 4:20 PM...and then tell you to have a nice day!!! HELLOOOOO the day is over!

manners

Whatever happened to manners? Is it an old-fashion concept? Are parents teaching children to have manners or just to be mean? I was in a Disney store and a little girl banged her stroller into a 70 year old woman, the woman fell over. The mother grabbed the stroller and took off. She didn't apologize or help the lady up, just took off. I'm thinking you are in a Disney Store and you act that way? I get involved because this old lady is reaching up for help and I am the only one around to help her. I almost fling her across the store because I hoist her up not realizing she may weigh only 90 lbs at the most. She in turn gets up and walks away. No thank-you. I am dumb founded. Whatever happened to manners?
An African American woman swears she will not get a teaching job in a town that she likes because she is black and the town is white. She makes this case because she was interviewed by them and they did not hire her. I didn't even get an interview, but never mind that; she is sitting in class with her BAREFEET on the chair next to her and sipping on a big gulp while gnawing on Twizzlers and offering me any.
She has on a sequin tube top and her 7 year old daughter is walking the halls because she couldn't get a babysitter. I tell her that she should go to an inner city school where frustrated white woman are teaching African American children that they should stay where they are and not to try and compete in the white man's world.
Honest to God I was subbing in this school where a 24 ish young white girl was screaming at these Kindergarten kids to stay in line. She told me that it angers her that these kids don't listen and who knows what kind of family life they come from, if they even have a family. I told her that she should rethink her career.
Needless to say I was never called to sub in that school again.
My classmate informs me that she only wants to teach in the town that she lives in. I have my cheerleading speech on what a great gift it is to teach a child and how rewarding the profession is, she cuts me off by calling me a racist. "I can only teach blacks kids?" "No I just meant by being a teacher in a child’s eye you are a success and these children will learn that they can succeed no matter what they look like." I wonder what kind of manners she is teaching her child that is wandering the hallway.
When I was a waiter, one of the bus boys informed a very famous movie star- Think Pretty Woman- "We ain't got no bread. " The star corrected him by saying, "You do not have any bread." The busboy comes cursing into the kitchen about how his people were going to take over America. I informed him we were the United States of America, not America. The continent is North America; Canada is considered America as is Mexico.
The Americas, also known as America, are the lands of the western hemisphere, composed of numerous entities and regions variably defined by geography, politics, and culture.
The Americas are frequently reckoned to comprise two separate continents (North America and South America), especially in English-speaking nations. The Americas may also be reckoned to comprise a single continent (named America), particularly in Latin America and in some European nations. ****Wikipedia
I asked why would he want to take over the US? Why not take over the country you came from? I am called a racist.
I wonder what manners he is teaching his child, who is going to have to struggle learning English because his father is too angry to learn the language himself?
Are we so Politically Correct conscience that we forgot how to be human? Does holding the door for someone have an ethnic attachment? Does saying "excuse me" offend some culture? Does "love thy neighbor as thyself" have to apply only to Catholics?
In a time when Global Warming has become more a reality can we really afford to find reasons to separate as a society? Shouldn't we be coming together and working on saving the earth that we all have to share. Maybe the earth realizes we will never come together and feels there is nothing worth saving.
But even GOD told Saul find five good hearts and I will spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Maybe we can find five good cultures that will work together and save the rest....Maybe, but first you have to ask and remember to bring your best manners to the table.