Journal Excerpt, Short Screenplay. “Organic Coffee” (for Locus Magazine)

To start this, I leave my house and walk a block to my local coffee shop. A common location to find me, I have become through my young adulthood a coffee shop regular. One black coffee in a mug, a seat at an outdoor table is preferred. I sit and read the same books, not that I do not finish my books; they just retain the same qualities as the one prior. A man commits or is in question of a crime, loose women are everywhere, eventually our hero works his way I into a paradox of self-contemplation, generally ending on a bitter note.
Recently, in regards to this writing, I had become distracted from my usual habits. Partially from boredom yet mostly from the unavoidable noise making its way quite immediately into my area of literary engagement.

Scene:
Your general corner store coffee shop. Complete with traditional Baltimore store finishing’s, oversized windows, subtly contrasting colors and mixed low end furniture. The combination provides that of overwhelming comfort, or otherwise the feeling of authenticity.

The performer purchases their coffee at the counter, says a few words to the girl behind the register and obtains their mug. The black mug with white interior, filled to just one quarter inch below the brim with black poorly prepared coffee. The coffee is burnt, oily, however boasts the security of “free-trade” and “organic”, our actor is happy with their selection and takes a seat beside their jacket and book which they had placed down prior to our entering the scene.
The book is one we don’t recognize; yet if our observations are correct it has traveled the seas, changed languages and possibly intentions.
Adjacent to our focus, slightly out of frame, is (by contrast to the shop) a rather large building, designed for public schooling. Construction or destruction is underway on the roof. Large awkward machines, each defining their own uniquely specific uses scatter the lot sistering the building.
A specific point of interest lies in a long black expandable tubing assembly. The simple machine reaches from rooftop to the ground, continually expandable by the basic attachment of additional lengths of tubes, tied to one another by rusted chains. Some chains hang with slack, occurring were other chains retain the tension to compensate for these less stressed. The noise emitted from the tubing is a mixture of bangs and the jingling bell noise from the chains. Thrash is thrown from rooftop, through the tubing creating an almost lifelike quivering and shaking until the inevitable eruption at the end of the structure.
Lying patiently at the base of this large black snake is a single double lidded dumpster. Positioned in such a way to catch the ejections of its cooperative. The lids of the dumpster have been contorted to envelope the end of the tubes, possibly to further hinder losing overspray from the impact of rubbish. The scene is one of undeniable sexual metaphors, not one that would incite arousal but rather adolescent mockery.
As our actor sits and watches they ingest the tiny airborne ejections through their nose and mouth. Aptly subjecting them self to a quiet participation in the construction.
As we leave the actor, out of frame, we notice the inability for others to separate themselves from their own humanity. The processes that are ingrained in the producers are equally ingrained within the products, not so much a matter of coincidence but of consequence to ourselves. Inescapable we build our inadequacies, our needs, wants, and desires. Our intentions become remarkably human.

Action:
The actor leaves the establishment with mug in hand.
Sits causally at a table already accompanied by a jacket and book, we assume they belong to the actor.
The actor briefly attempts to read from the book, however becomes distracted by something unseen to the audience at stage left.
The actor watches for sometime while casually drinking from the mug.
The end could be noted by the leisurely smoking of a cigarette, yet this action could easily be disregarded,
Estimated time: ten minutes to thirty minutes