The Gargoyle…screen-play by Pamela Hunt (4392 wds)

"Get that damn animal out of here!"

Jerry yelled hoping one of the kids might listen. Crystal was his girlfriend but she didn’t know crap about
being a good mother!
Mabel Curran a Jehovah Witness cringed at the cuss word…An oh My…hanging off the colored
womans pious lip!

Seven-year-old Autumn Belle was visiting.she was the neighbor's kid…she giggled and chased the vapid
creature all over the living room. Jerry frowned…should have went bowling!
\Crystals house on a Saturday morning was like being at the zoo with everything let out of its cages!

"Sorry…Autumn, blue eyes and sweet apologized to Mabel who seemed like a good lady to her.
She had not meant to scare Shit (short for shitake) the mushroom colored ferret and he had swooped past
Mabel on the back of the couch ruffling her perfectly coiffed hair and giving the middle-aged woman a
fright!

Josh…Joshua had been in his room when he quit playing his guitar and paused to listen…he hurried to
catch Shitake!"
"Shit!" he yelled, get over here now…the ferret tired climbed onto the boys shoulder and panting looked as
if he had worn himself out to the point of croaking.

Mrs. Cullans bushy eyebrow seemed as if it might stay forever in a raised up way…and Autumn giggled
again. Ignoring the woman's scowl she ran outside to find more trouble to get into.
Shitake back napping in his comfy cage lent a calmer ambiance to the room and Mabel spoke;
"Ill just leave this tract she said meekly and rose to her feet to go.
Crystal came in the front door. She had been talking to Autumns mother. Now it was her turn for raised
eyebrows…
"Autumn let her in…. Jerry explained smiling wryly and shrugging his big manly shoulders.
Crystal felt a twinge of desire…. Saturdays were theirs to enjoy! She had hoped to
To get alone with Jerry.was her joy! Well, Josh was a good kid.he wouldn’t bother them. At seventeen he
had a lot of friends…gigs. He would probably be playing with his band at the Oasis or some other club that
let.well; they had been making exceptions with letting the teens play…
Before happy hour and after that…they had to be careful since they were working around the alcohol.
"Come here sweetie…Jerry pulled her in his arms.
"I love the way you look in that tank top and shorts." Crystal smiled…his embrace was what she needed…
A single mom and writer she had felt totally out of sorts about the novel she was writing! She hadn't
wanted to sign up for foodstamps…The EBT card they had sent her was a disappointment. She and Josh
had been eligible for fifty dollars a month! That’s it!"She had been incredulous….

Jerry tried helping out.but she wouldn’t let him become her "meal-ticket!"
Josh bless his heart hightailed it…"See ya later Ma.Jerry!" he hauled butt out the door with his guitar in
case." I'm going to Deese's I'll be home for supper!"

"OK kid…she loved her son more than her next breath of life.she would do anything for him.
Jerry made love to her in her massive (it was a Queen-sized) bed…and what he did.he did well, they lay in
each others arms for what seemed like hours, content and happy. Of course…the dang phone would have
to ring…
Someone looking for Joshua…Crystal didn’t have any friends. She had only lived in Crystal Gables,
Florida for a year and a half. She usually dragged out her old typewriter or went to the library and got on
the computer there. Wherever she could spend at least a few hours a day writing her novel.
Single Mom.it was titled and so far it was going good…she would wonder later…. After the dream.if her
credibility was at stake.
Jerry took her out for supper and she brought a doggie bag home for Josh. Some steak burger and onion
rings…he was always ravenous after a gig!
Would he be the next Eminem? She didn’t doubt it for a minute…the band was good, but he was the best
one in it. His acoustics and venerable singing voice made the girls go ape shit over him! He didn’t sit home
a lot.
Jerry spent the night like he usually did. She liked his wholesome nature and the fact that he drove a
school bus for a living made him somewhat of a blue-collar hero in her sight!
"I'm easy…she'd purrrr…and he loved her to death! Jerry always felt and
He finally got the confidence to tell her so…that she.his crystal could do better than him!
A humble guy she planned on marrying him as soon as he popped the question. Josh came in around 2 in
the morning…he didn’t creep in and kiss her cheek like he usually did. He knew she was in good hands!

Autumn came over the next morning, joining them for breakfast. Her parents were drips! Crystal didn’t
mind her mother Arial Carpenter was cheerful, chubby and always hell-bent on keeping hen-pecked eyes
on her skinny, alcoholic husband Ted!
Autumn spent much time with crystal.
"Can I help you with your book?" she watched as crystal poured over her first rough draft, squinting in
glasses, (though slightly scratched) were still vitally essential to her…

Autumn took a noisy sip of her orange juice…

"You are helping me Autumn, just by being a good girl and being my friend!
Autumn's eyes filled with tears, she ran and hugged Crystal.
"You're like my second mom, she said laying her head on the thin woman's shoulder. Ted had probably
been yelling at the kid again, that morning…because the check for Autumns child support didn’t come as
quick as his drug addictions did…he often took it out on the kid that her father was a shiftless bum and Ted
feared the checks may quit coming altogether!

Arial was a sweet but dumb woman. Have to be to marry that Ted guy…Jerry had told her when Autumn
wasn’t around, She didn’t even go to bingo like the other women her age, somewhere around forty-eight?
She was always calling Crystal on the phone to ask her questions. The most simple of things…at first she
thought Arial was just lonely, but it became vividly clear that the woman could not even cook a hamburger
without supervision.
She would sometimes take the two of them a casserole or other recipe she had made and didn’t feel like
eating herself!

She would find them eating big, plastic bowls of cereal on TV trays in their trailer while they watched
the six o'clock news…. She knew they were inseparable. But their lives seemed incredibly boring and sad!

The only time Autumns parents bothered her was when they played those old Hank William's records (all
tinny sounding) too loud.or when they neglected their daughter.
Crystal would have loved having a little girl like Autumn; alas…she had almost died having Josh. They
had operated on her…a late in labor c-section kept her from having anymore.
She knew that a lot of women had this cross to bear!

Sometimes…And Jerry winked at her across the kitchen table as if he knew her thoughts, she thought about
adopting! Of course she'd be married…and financially steady before she would even dream of it.but; it was
a fantasy she had often!

Jerry had gobbled his eggs, ham, and toast while she had only coffee.
Autumn had skipped off and out the door, the screen door slamming behind her.
"I'm gonna catch some frogs…she smiled coyly at Jerry expecting him to be impressed and ignored
Crystals"Oh dear do you think…. She never finished her sentence, Autumn like the wind blew out of the
trailer with a brief "I'll be back people…and they didn’t see her for a week
After that…

Chapter two-gargoyle

Jerry shaved and readied himself for work Monday mornings came to soon, he missed being with his
Crystal.He had finally bought her a ring…he planned on asking for her hand in marriage that Saturday,
He would call her mid-morning and see if she needed anything while he was ON LUNCH BREAK. A
SANDWICH…GALLON OF MILK.HE WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR HIS LOVELY LADY!
She didn’t answer the phone…." Back to the salt mines.he spoke to no one there and hung up the
payphone. Maybe he would invest in one of those new-fangled cell phones for himself and crystal. No
sense in being too behind the times. Old-fashioned as they were…they did enjoy their laid-back lives!

Crystal had gone jet-skiing with her new friend, Jazz cooper…she had just met the woman that
morning in the small grocery store near the trailer park and the two had become fast friends!
Jazz was fun, energetic…with frizzy blonde hair and an athletic body…. She made crystal feel like a puny
punk!

Looking quite small and vulnerable in her fuschia unitard-tank style swimsuit, Crystal had been glad
Jerry wasn’t there to see her. The first and last time she would go jet skiing.
Heellp!" she fell in the water and the ski died out before it could knock someone senseless! She was glad
for that. She spent the remainder of the morning, on a terry-cloth blanket watching Jazz speed by on the Jet
Ski like a minnow on amphetamines! She waved and smiled…waved and smiled…waved and.
A handsome guy strode up to crystal. She laughed she watched Jazz out of the corner of her eye. She
looked like she couldn’t get back to the beach fast enough and if she could sprout wings she would!
Jazz got a date for the evening…and Crystal had felt happily taken for a first….
And she hoped for forever…. Jerry was a gem!
Jazz took her out to lunch. They had a wonderful light meal of chicken mandarin salad and lemon and key-
lime pie for dessert! The phone was ringing when she got to the front porch of her trailer!

"It was the superintendent of the school.

"Ma'am there has been a terrible accident…Crystal let the phone drop and ran to her room flopping on the
bed sobbing hysterically…. Jerry was dead and so was she on the inside!

"Mom!" Joshua had been given a ride home from school with an older friend. "I got here as quick as I
could.he held his mother, feeling like death himself!
"I got here as soon as I could.he had heard what happened, the whole town had by now….
How was he going to get them both through this.this tragedy he worried?
And sub-consciously canceled all his gigs for two weeks up ahead. She would need him to be strong.hold
down the fort son…His real father? He could almost hear him say that.
Crystal attended the funeral, silent, face composed but nervous, her hands shook. The next few weeks
were just a blurry existence in her memory…. Josh made sure she ate a little food and that she slept. She
had to take valiums or some damn pill to make her sleep.
There would never be another Jerry…another man to fall in love with her like he had. All this she had
told herself as if to encase his memory in some kind of ephemeral shrine where she could keep her
loneliness and guilt at being divorced could remain.
The truth. Jerry hadn't been in love with her that much.as she would later discover.
He had a wife in Minnesota ad three kids! Bastard…
Chapter three
"I gotta stretch…. She sighed and rose to her feet. The weather conditions were rainy and cold.a Hurricane
warning? Crystal had been so immersed in writing Single Mom that she had blotted the real world out.
That made her feel nervous sometimes in a fuzzy, cute way…when she discovered that she hadn't missed a
thing!
After stretching.she made herself a light lunch.a bowl of soup and a half-of ham sandwich. Josh came into
the kitchen.
"How do you like your new computer mom?" he asked sweetly.
She was swirling her head around like Linda Blair in the excorcist to "get the kinks out…while stirring the
soup on the stove. What talent.she chuckled to herself?
"I think it is a great invention…she told Josh punching him playfully in the arm.
He had found it for her at a garage sale one of his buddy moms was having and for twenty dollars they
weren't sure….
"I'm starting chapter twelve she told him…nodding he fished a TV dinner out of the freezer and Frisbee-
style tossed it in the microwave!
"I got a gig tonight…he told her hesitantly…would she be all right? He couldn’t ask her straight out. She
seemed every bit back to normal.
"Listen son. I know you have been worried.but I am ok…she sipped her soup and sitting across from him
at the table beamed…. Smiling, she assured him she would be fine.
"Do you wanna come here me play?" He toyed with his chicken leg
And dismissed the corn as inedible…He and the guys would grab a pizza later…
Crystal axed the idea due to the fact she wanted to get more work done.
"Be mindful of the Hurricane warnings son…. He promised and loped off to take a shower kissing her
Briefly on her cheek. She was a good mom.one of the best!
Three and a half-hours into the rainy Florida evening. Hurricane warnings threatening to dampen her
enthusiasm…Crystal finally completes her first novel,Single Mom is sure to sell like hotcakes. It is a
fictional piece about how the hot and racy singles manage to keep life and limb together, so out of character
for her Crystal.Her father a Pentecostal preacher that she later admits to a few blushes during the writing of
the very genuine and honest first book!
"Im done!" she shrieks into the phone. Jazz is holding it away from her ear and her tiny schnauzer
Felix begins to yowl. Gee…I thought the wind would get him uptight…
Aren't you scared?" Jazz lived in a sturdy brick house.more like a castle. She was the daughter of a rich
software inventor and when his plane had crashed in the Andes she had inherited a shitload!
"I have been too dang busy to care about the storm…she admits ruefully", I do need to keep abreast of the
news tho.Josh is out there in this mess!
"In a trailers not the best place to be in one of these….Jazz warned her friend." If you want can come get
you! Crystal thought for a moment…"I guess I shouldn’t wait till it gets too bad…
I need to bring Shitake…is it OK?"
"Sure pussycat…she cooed into the phone…"I love that rascal!"

Crystal passed the time at Jazz' house playing euchre and getting a little high with her! Her boyfriend of
the week.she went through guys like cheap flip-flops…Derek was watching the ferret and laughing quite
amused.with the animal's funny antics. First Shit rolled up into a ball and played possum…"are you dead
then? Derek had a cute English accent. Crystal felt the first of what would be sexual feelings, in a long
while since Jerry's death and it made her sad and uncomfortable. A man could not get close to her or she
would cringe and freeze up! His memory was still a shrine erected in her mind…and it would not be torn
down by anyone until the pain healed…
She blushed when Derek looked at her…which seemed every few minutes…she knew he had a slight crush
on her,the thought was not too UN-pleasant…She prayed he wouldn’t try and get too close though.
CRYSTAL CALLED THE Oasis…"Is Josh there?" Yes…he was.
Tell him to go to Jazz' house when he finishes his next set! Moms orders!
The voice on the other end was soothing…"I'll make sure he gets the message ma'am".
"I DON’T WANT HIM IN THE TRAILER DURING THIS STORM…SHE ANNOUNCED TO
EVERYONE THERE. Jazz got out an old bottle of expensive wine and the wind which was tearing things
up like roofs and boats and other things in its path…could scarcely be heard outside the cozy confines of
Jazz coopers castle….She prayed silently for her neighbors and hoped little autumn was visiting her
grandma out of state like she had told them she would be.
"I'm going to see my grandma…excited she had ran into the trailer after knocking slightly and grasping
a handful of daisies had given them to Crystal.
"Oh I see…is she nice?" crystal politely kept the small talk going…
"Oh she is better than nice…Autumn sounded faraway suddenly, she is so good and kind to me…. I used to
want to live with her…but mommy needs me!"
Crystal had hugged Autumn and told her what a brave little girl she was…
It was Ted and Arials turn to be brave….Back in the trailer park-it was not a happy scene.
The hurricane was wreaking havoc and though no lives were lost…Arial was driving Ted crazy screaming
after every gust or howl of wind…"Immmsoo….scared…she clung to Ted who reeked of whiskey and
spilled his beer all over the front of his shirt…
"Arial…calm down god dang it all…he was pissed! She had freaked out when someone's Pink Flamingo
lawn ornament flew by the window…"we're next!" she wailed…
"Oh honey calm down…Teds speech slurred did little to assure the hysterical woman." You're not going to
blow past anyone's window anytime soon!" She glared at him.." You idiot! She shrieked…"You couldn’t
help yourself to a dry towel after a shower!" Ole noodle arms…that’s how she got to see Ted as…"You're
supposed to protect me!"

The storm abated quite a bit and by morning of the next day….it looked like a zoo…lawns littered with
windmills…now broken,flamingos everywhere…the plastic kind!
One of Arials housecoats now hung in a tree looking like a bright flag with flowers on it!She had hung it on
the line to dry…and forgot it. Thank God she hadn't hung any of her bloomers on the line; she breathed a
sigh of relief. She ripped the housecoat down, whipping it to get the soggy out.
The air felt dirty…even with the sun shining.like every dirty thing had been un-covered. It felt like she did
if her and Ted sinned by watching a Porno movie and then she would awake the next day and feel filthy and
cheap!

They watched the news and were happy that no one had been injured, no deaths.
She had knocked On Crystals door, had tried calling her all day the day before. Crystal had taken her
phone off the hook, a good habit when she was busy writing!

Joshua had showed up late…around eleven! Early for him…but not for crystal her fear he'd be swept
away in a flood or something made her nauseous! Jazz finally got her to gulp not sip a few glasses of wine!
Her face flushed a nice cherry red color Derek was gawking at her even more now! Jazz had hit him not
too gently a few times…not the jealous kind.but gee something had to give with that! She looked hot too!
She wore black silk leggings under a sheer teal and blue tunic that had cost her a mint in New York City!
She wanted Derek in her waterbed made of mahogany and smelling like Myrrh by daylight or she would
have a spell!
"Hey whazz-up?" Josh always fun always smiling…helped himself to a brandy. The snifter produced long
before he had arrived and re-filled again twice! Jazz had a lot of class and she set before them "dainties….
small shrimp canapes, mushroom caps filled with a creamy crab fillingand small elegant pizzas sangrient
and good with garlic chicken and veggies roasted atop.

Crystal had found pewter Gargoyle in her room. It made her laugh.
With its red eyes and wrinkled skin was it supposed to be scary? She kissed his left eye and tried
deciphering an odd code that was written on the base of the pedestal in which the Gargoyle rested.
A small book had come with it…a tag around his ankle. This Gargoyle has been in chains…for centuries in
chains…hmmm, thought crystal pensive, hadnt they all? She read on...
He can now choose to serve evil or good. Lucifer or God? It made her shudder to think that ones mind
could even consider doing anything but what was best for mankind. But then.look at Hitler? They had been
evil! She thought- Stalin…even Timothy McVeigh? These ordinary people had twisted minds. Why did
they choose to serve evil? She looked at the hideous Gargoyle and sighed; if you looked like him? Who
would believe you if you were good?

She kissed his eye laughing, as thunder rumbled and a streak of lightening, made her gasp suddenly.she
almost dropped the Gargoyle. "Now I'll write better than Stephen king…she spoke
Aloud to the dark room. The lights had gone out early in the evening.. The large vanilla candle scented the
room but cast an eerie kind of glow over the festivities.
Josh standing in the doorway…went UN-noticed by his mother.
"Oh you will…will you?" she shrieked,"Achhhh! I didn’t see you there Josh.
Well…I just wanted to say goodnight…
"Good-night son…. composed now he couldnt see her grinning,like a child caught with her hand in the
cookie jar. No. didn’t see it,but he could feel it!
Shaking his head…he retired to his own room.the wine had made her tipsy like that!
She found a nightie and fell into bed so sleepy from the wine she couldn’t lose the calm smile on her face,
she had kissed the Gargoyles eye…. Now…she would enter his world!

THE DREAM
Crystal still groggy…lifts her eyes up to peer amongst some moss-covered branches? Branches?"she
wonders…what the heck is she doing in some kind of gloomy Jungle? She had fell asleep and now she
glanced around and panicked?Where was Josh her son? Was she alone?"
"I can answer that next question…a strange-looking beast stepped out of the dark,mossy tree studded area
she had first eyed learily when she awoke to this nightmare!Crystal screamed!
"Ohmiggod who are you?" she trembled..
"Oh..don’t worry little one I wont harm thee…
He was a Gargoyle!
She had kissed his beady little eye and had entered his world..it made sense..via dreams ….she had now
travelled into a realm of the UN-known. Was it just a realm of her mind,she wondered or an actual and
literal place that she had come to?
"No and Yes….he could read her mind,thisfreaked crystal out!
"Stop that…damnit! She scowled at him.
"What is the matter dear Crystal?"
"And how do you know my name?" Listen…she nearly hissed at the poor,amiable but ugly creature,"How
do you know my f-----name?"
"I just know things…he told her …coming off as some damn wealthy Aristocrat wasmaking her any less
mad at him.
"And why am I here?" Is this you're doing?"
He laughed at her then….a hideous laugh…born of suffering and regrets.
"You wanted to write like Stephen King?" So…you figured out the secret code on the base of the pedestal
and kissed my eye..You arent the only one who has figured this out?
"You have got to be kidding,crystals eyes smarted with tears,blinking incredulous…"There are others?"
"Yes,my dear and you can relax knowing that most of them have returned home now..
"Most? Now?" she was getting hysterical…
After she had calmed down a bit….he began to tell her things.He was kind and patient…and it ws only a
little eeerie being there…in the Jungle with him.
She looked upp at the bit of sky that she could find and prayed…
He sensed this too….
"Ahh..he said feeling her courage,"I used to feel him too!"
"Him?" she inquired more calmer now,"By him are you refferring to God?"
"Yes…God,Jehovah …the great spirit of us all."
He gave me choices you know…and I didn’t make very wise ones…
"what do you mean?" Crystal and the Gargoyle were sitting on a fallen log…
"I was an atheist for many years.…I worked as a surgeon at an Abortion clinic in Venice….
I knew it was wrong…taking innocent lives….the UN-born babies that we threw away….
"I don't want to hear anymore…Crystal covered her ears!
"Ahh..dear Crystal…The Gargoyle sighed. I have been given this last bit of freedom before the judgement
day,a breather if you will and I likeit immensly!You see I was in chains of darkness for many centuries…
and when he finally let me go..he gave me the choice. I could serve Evil or Good!"
I hope that maybe some grace and mercy will find me for the good deeds I do henceforth. Of course
pertaining to…ereto …erenow erepsin!(the snatching away of the saints..well,I don’t stand a chance in
Hell,pardon the pun..of making that!)
"You mean the Rapture…Crystal puzzled…waited for a response.(The catching away of the saints to be
with the son of God -more of a rescue for them,from the evil to come. Poor thing! He knew the score…

"Yes..Yes…You are ready for that..I can feel it in my bones!

"Wel,I am a Christian woman…and so is my son Joshua…

"But what will happen to you….He didn’t answer but took her hand and ran with her thru the misty jungle
and suddenly he stopped! He scratched her suddenly,with one long,nasty-looking talon…on her right thigh.
Crystal gasped in horror.
"Wha…why did you do that? I thought you were my friend?!"
"I did it my dear…so that you would remember that this dream was real!"
Crystal awoke the next morning,groaning. The sun bright was blinding as it streamed thru the window.
Suddenly,grateful for the feel of her bed she remembered that it was Saturday.
She reached under the coverlet and slid her hand on her right thigh. It was sticky..oozing? Was it blood?
She slung back the covers and gasped…..
"What in the world…There was a nine inch long bloody gash on her thigh…How did it get there….
Suddenly a vision flashed into her mind….of the Gargoyle and the Jungle,
and then the last scene of her dream where he told her.
"So…you will remember that the dream was real!"
Real…..she was too freaked out to scream!
After showering…she applied antibiotic to her wound and donned a soft,terry-cloth jog suit and did her
best to relax…She didn’t sit around trying not to think about it..she thought till her brains bled! What in the
world…Things like that didn’t happen everyday to people did they?
She'd tell Josh when she was ready to….