Cutlery

Thijs Rozeboom www.autumnleaffilms.com.au

INT. DINING ROOM. MORNING
NORMA is standing at the tallboy polishing cutlery and
putting it away, neatly into the drawer. Footsteps with high
heels in the hallway. NORMA listens intently to what is
happening outside the dinning room while slowing down a bit
with the polishing as her concentration focuses on what is
happening in the hallway.
MUM
Norma! Where is my handbag?
NORMA hastily polishes the last spoon and closes the drawer
a bit too hard so that the content of it shifts a bit. She
turns to go but then turns back and looks at the drawer.
MUM
Norma! My handbag!
NORMA runs out of the dining room. After a moment footsteps
with high heels leave the house. A door is shut, a bit too
forcefully.
NORMA walks back into the room - under tension. She opens
the drawer again and quickly takes out 2 forks and 3 spoons,
turns them around, puts them back and shuts the drawer. For
a beat she just stands there and stares at the drawer in
anger, then the tension in her face relaxes, she sighs,
opens the drawer again and realigns the cutlery carefully.
She leaves the dinning room again. Outside in the hallway a
cupboard door is opened with a slight screech, rummaging,
then the door is carefully closed again. NORMA returns to
the dining room with a broom and starts to sweep the floor,
first under the table, then around the table.
Footsteps upstairs, long paces. NORMA stops sweeping for a
moment and looks up with an uncomfortable face. Somebody
turns on the shower. NORMA continues sweeping. She walks out
of the dining room with the broom. Outside in the hallway a
cupboard door is opened with a slight screech, rummaging,
then the door is carefully closed again. NORMA returns to
the dinning room with a small hand broom and a dustpan to
scoop up the dirt.
INT. SHOWER. MORNING
BRUCE is standing in the shower sharpening his butchers
knives. He tests the sharpness with his thumb. Suddenly with
a pain filled face he pulls his thumb away, looks at it,
puts it in his mouth for a moment, pulls it out and looks at
it again and presses it several times against his index
finger of the same hand.
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 2.
Bruce seems to be talking to someone standing next to him in
the shower. Most of his mutterings are mumbled and
incomprehensible. Only at times when he puts emphasis on
what he is saying, his speech is comprehensible.
BRUCE
If he kicks like that, hell never
get the ball trough the posts.
Then he skewers up the bar of soap with his long knife and
asks his knife - without actually saying the words, only
gesticulating and facial expressions - if it would be so
kind as to scrub his back. He then proceeds to soap up his
back with the knife and soap attached to it. Only with
difficulty can he reach all the places on his back and has
to make several attempts from different angles. After
soaping up his back he flicks the soap bar off his knife
with a violent thud into the shower tub.
INT. DINING ROOM. MORNING
NORMA hears a banging noise from upstairs and ducks away.
She looks up to the ceiling, her eyes wander from one end to
the other and back. She is listening carefully to what is
happening upstairs. A dog barks outside in the distance.
NORMA continues checking the the correct alignment of the
dinner plates on the sideboard. Intermittently she turns one
around by a quarter or two only to turning it back 2 plates
later.
INT. SHOWER. MORNING
BRUCE lifts his knife back up from flicking off the soap bar
and starts scraping the dirt and soap off his back with the
cutting edge of it. Scars are visible on his back where he
has scraped the soap off. Some are newer and red in colour,
some are older and have faded.
EXT. STREET. MORNING
NORMA comes out of the front door and closes it carefully
behind her. Quick paced she walks down the steps and down
the garden path and through the gate. She turns right. NORMA
is wearing her high school uniform and has a bundle of books
under her left arm.
3.
EXT. STREET. AFTERNOON
NORMA walks into a catholic church. A few long beats a MAN
in his mid twentys walks into the church as well.
FADE TO BLACK
FADE FROM BLACK
EXT. STREET. AFTERNOON
NORMA and the MAN walk out of the church. They are holding
hands and look a bit sheepish. They kiss and walk off in two
different directions.
EXT. STREET. AFTERNOON
NORMA walks down the street in her high school uniform. She
walks up the garden path and up the stairs. NORMA hesitates
before opening the door, turns around, looks up and down the
street as if she is weighing up where to go, then she opens
the door behind her, glides into the house and closes the
door very quietly.
INT. KITCHEN. EVENING
NORMA is sitting at the kitchen table doing her home work.
BRUCE walks into the kitchen and throws something wrapped up
in butchers paper onto the table. It lands halfway on top
of NORMAS school books. The wrapping paper is blood
stained. NORMA gets up, takes the package to the kitchen
bench. She opens the parcel and places the meat in a dish.
Out of a cupboard under the bench she gets potatoes. Peeling
and washing potatoes. BRUCE is still standing in the doorway
looking at NORMA. Every now and then NORMA has a secret peek
over her shoulder to see if BRUCE is still standing there.
She pulls faces when she is sure BRUCE cannot see it and
smiles impish. NORMAS body tension relaxes a bit.
Footsteps walk away. Long strides.
INT. DINING ROOM. EVENING
NORMA, BRUCE and MUM are sitting at the dinner table and
eat. NORMA looks down at her plate and does not look up. No
one speaks.
MUM gets up halfway through her dinner and walks out of the
dinning room. She walks a bit unsteady. From the kitchen the
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 4.
chinking sound of glass hitting glass and the pouring of
liquid is heard. MUM returns to the dinning room with a
water glass filled with scotch. She sits down, pushes her
plate away from her and takes a good look at the bottom of
her glass. Then she puts it down and looks at NORMA. Her
eyes squint for a second.
MUM
How was school?
NORMA puts her cutlery down and looks up.
NORMA
Good.
MUM
(sarcastically)
Thats nice!
NORMA
I married John today.
NORMAS face has changed. It shows a spark of defiance. She
gets up and leaves.