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Synopsis A lower middle class home on a winters night.

The action predominately takes place in a living room and a kitchen, two rooms which are interconnected. A boy in his late teens stands in the kitchen, finishing off cooking a plate of food. Meanwhile, a boy of a similar age, perhaps younger, sits by a computer in the corner of the living room. A phone receiver in a nearby room emits a womans voice (must be assumed that the phones battery is dead), whose message comprises of a list of instructions to one of the boys: namely to prepare food for the other. When the instructions end, the boy in the kitchen calls out to the other to sit by the table. His command is responded to swiftly; the younger boy gets up from the computer and makes way to the table near the computer. His movements are impaired, lame. His legs drag themselves across the floor, and his back rocks to and fro with a noticeable slightness. The boy in the kitchen comes into the living room, bearing the plate on a trey. He sets it down and sits opposite the other boy. When the other boy catches sight of his food, he instantly begins to complain in a premature slur. His apparent brother insists that he has to eat it, that he has no other choice. His manner is very forthright, though never intimidating or violent. It appears pre-rehearsed. To this the boy continues to complain. His brother says that if he doesnt eat the food, he will be forced to ban him from the computer. This almost immediately sets him off. His arms flail around, he kicks and screams and bangs his fists on the table. The frantic screaming is quite quickly subdued by the raising of his brothers voice, in a far more agitated state than it was previously. He says that if he just eats the food he will not be forced to ban him from the computer. The boy sits there with a bitter gaze on his brother. With this gaze fixed, he proceeds to take a huge bite out of his food, chew on it and spit it out into his brothers face. Time is taken to soak up this response, and by the look on his brothers face it is clear that the calmness that has characterised his aura thus far is gone. He lurches his body across the table to the brother, taking his plate of food and throwing it against the wall. He then aims his fist at the boys now terrified face. The punch sends him to the ground. Rather than rendering him unconscious, he is crying under the desk. His brother is standing in the middle of the room now, clutching his head in his hands. He shouts across the room for the boy to shut up, and when he doesnt, he punches the wall nearest to him and marches out of the room. A slamming of a door is heard, and the boy is left alone, crying heavily.

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