Cannonball: Written and Directed by Katherine Barrell
Video link: Cannonball
Transcript
Marley: [Gasps]
[music]
Marley: Ian.
Ian: Happy Birthday.
Marley: Is it?
Ian: You didn’t really think I’d miss it, did ya?
Marley: I feel sick.
Ian: Marley.
Marley: I can’t do this. I can’t do this, not yet.
Ian: Yes, you can. You’re alright, Marley, just talk to me.
Marley: I don’t want to.
Ian: Come on Smarley, Smarley.
Marley: What? And then you’re just going to leave?
Ian: I have to leave.
Marley: Did you do this?
Ian: Eh, you know.
Marley: Oh my god, 30. When did that happen?
Ian: The big 3-0. How adult.
Marley: How old.
Ian: You look good. You look great, you look great, you look….no
Marley: Yeah, I know, shut-up, I’m in my PJs.
Ian: You’ve never looked more ravishing that you do right now.
Marley: My tits are starting to sag and I’m not going to tell you what I had to pluck this morning or from where.
Ian: Age is a work of art.
Marley: Um, please. Bull-shit.
Ian: Yeah, you’re right actually, it’s total bull-shit. Why focus on how amazing you are now when we can focus on how you will be old and senile one day?
Marley: Pooping in diapers and eating pureed carrots.
Ian: Life’s full-circle.
Marley: So unfair.
Ian: Is it, though?
Marley: I actually never thought that you and I would get old, not us.
Ian: Well we won’t be… Happy Birthday.
Marley: You already said that.
Ian: I don’t really know what else to say.
Marley: Well, why are you here then?
Ian: I don’t know. Closure or something dramatic like that.
Marley: I don’t want closure. Not yet.
Ian: Well I can’t stay here forever, Marley.
Marley: Then go.
Ian: I just want to know you’re going to be okay.
Marley: Well I’m not.
Ian: You don’t have a choice.
Marley: Yes, I do. I can stay just like this.
Ian: Like a sad, depressed little shell of a person?
Marley: I have the right to that.
Ian: And throw away everything that’s beautiful about you. Why? Why would you do that? I know you Marley, I know you and I know that you could be happy if you wanted to be.
Marley: I don’t even remember what happy feels like.
Ian: Yeah, well maybe I need you to fight for it, Marley.
Marley: Oh, so you need something from me? None of this shit is for me is it? Is any of this shit even real?!
Ian: You know that’s not what I mean.
Marley: You left me, remember?! I was sitting there, waiting to meet you and you didn’t show up, you disappeared. And everyone told me you weren’t coming back, but I swore, I swore I convinced that one day you would call me and this would all be a horrible mistake.
Ian: You think that I wanted this? You don’t think that I had plans of my own? I would never have chosen this.
Marley: You know the craziest thing is that the world keeps going. People keep getting coffee and walking their dogs and making plans and I just want to run up to the top of the tallest building and yell “Ian’s gone!”. I don’t understand living in a world that you’re not a part of and I’m so afraid that what’s left of me will shrivel up into nothing if I actually admit that you’re never coming back.
Ian: I’m not coming back, Marley.
Marley: You can’t, I’m not ready.
Ian: Marley, life is hard and you can’t keep running away from that. It’s hard and it’s scary and magical and overwhelming and painful and beautiful and no one has the answers.
Marley: I’m so scared.
Ian: Of course you’re scared. Everyone’s scared, life is scary, but you will always have me, right here…always. Do you remember when you turned 10?
Marley: Ha. The big 10-0.
Ian: It was pouring rain outside and everybody’s huddled inside and nobody wants to go swimming because they’re all afraid of getting wet and you came over to me and you told me that you had never done a cannonball.
Marley: [laughs]
Ian: It’s a rite of passage.
Marley: When my mom wasn’t looking you just ran right to the edge of the pool.
Young Ian: Cannonball!
Marley: No.
[music starts]
Off-screen: Happy Birthday.
Teen Marley: [giggles]
Young Marley: [giggles]
[Kids shouting]
[Birds chirping]
[Door closing]
Sorry, it's a lot. 