Human Nature Page #5

CUT TO:

INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT

The room is lit with candles. Lila finishes shaving herself

all over. Then she takes the double-edged blade out of the

razor and climbs into the a bathtub filled with warm water.

She is about to slice her wrists.

LILA (V.O.)

I decided there was something poetic

about killing myself with a razor

blade.

On the shelf next to the tub a little gray mouse watches her

intently. At first she is startled, but then she and the

creature seem to be communing. His little black beady eyes

reflect the light. Lila starts to cry. She puts down the

blade.

CUT TO:

INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT

Lila wipes a tear from her eye.

LILA:

The way that mouse looked at me.

There was no judgement. It didn't

care if I had hair all over my body.

I was just what I was. I felt so

free. Do you understand what I'm

saying?

The cops look up, on the spot. It seems their minds were

elsewhere.

COP:

Something about a mouse, right?

Lila sighs.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. FOREST - EARLY MORNING

We see a tent in a clearing. A smoking campfire. There is a

rustling inside the tent. Lila steps out naked. She is covered

with fur. She pours a cup of coffee, and stands, comfortable

in her skin, watching the world around her.

Squirrels jump from tree to tree, birds look down at her.

She smiles.

LILA (V.O.)

Birds and squirrels and rocks and

trees didn't seem to judge my hair.

I felt at peace when there were no

humans around. I figured out a way

to spend as much time as possible

with no people around. I became a

nature writer.

Lila picks up a pad and pen from a rock, sits on the rock

and writes.

CUT TO:

INT. BEAUTY PARLOR - DAY

A woman under a hair drier reads a book intently. We see the

first sentence of the chapter: "Last night I almost died on

this mountain top." We hear Lila's dramatic reading competing

with the very loud sound of the hair drier.

LILA:

Last night I almost died on this

mountain top, and the irony is I had

never felt more alive.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. FOREST - NIGHT

There is a violent, violent storm. The hair drier drone has

turned into the explosive noise of rain beating down in sheets

and wind howling at fifty miles an hour. Branches crack.

Lila's tent blows over, revealing her huddled there with a

sleeping bag wrapped around her like a blanket.

LILA:

I knew it was coming when in late

afternoon, a thunderhead drifted

over, sneaking in like kids through

the back door of a movie theater,

forced casual. It turned the sky a

queer shade of green. A green that

said "watch out, baby, this is gonna

hurt like hell." I could've

hightailed, but that would be

cheating. Part of the Nature

experience is recognizing its mastery

over you, your smallness in the face

of it.

Lightning hits a tree nearby. It falls with a smack

practically on top of Lila. She screams, then defiantly

stands, throwing off the sleeping bag. The wind and rain

whip her hair around her head. She laughs with amazing gusto

and raise her arms like a runner winning a marathon.

LILA:

As Nietzsche said, what does not

kill me makes me stronger, and that

goes double if you're a woman.

CUT TO:

EXT. BOOK STORE WINDOW - DAY

We see many copies of a book entitled "Wind in my Hair" by

Lila Jute.

LILA (V.O.)

I became a successful nature writer.

CUT TO:

INT. BEAUTY PARLOR - DAY

We see a woman under a hair drier reading "Wind in my Hair".

We pull back to see that a long row of women under hair driers

are reading Lila's book. They all stand defiantly, proudly,

knocking their hair driers up and back as they do.

The blowing hair driers whip the women's wet hair around

their heads. The blowing hair drier drone is unbearably loud.

LILA:

Then I became a famous nature writer.

I said to myself, f*** humanity...

CUT TO:

EXT. BOOKSTORE WINDOW - DAY

A big display of the book "F*** Humanity" by Lila Jute. A

long line of women with beautifully coiffured hair snakes

out of the store.

LILA:

...and I became a recluse. I had a

menagerie of animals at my house.

They loved me because I was me. They

loved me on the days I shaved. They

loved me on the days I didn't. For a

while this was enough.

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