Harry leans on the jetty railing. He reaches inside his jacket and pulls out a LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT, tied with a red ribbon. He broods over the Will, flapping it against the palm of his hand.
PARTING TOUCHES BY MARK JONES 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 134 PREVIEW
EXT. HORIZON - DAY
Harry’s limo noses up to a jetty reaching out along a water-glittering gulf.
INT. LIMO
Harry grips the steering wheel with both hands, arms outstretched, and stares out at the jetty. He blinks and his eyes close.
A little girl climbs onto the limo and squashes her face against windscreen. Harry’s eyes snap open.
The little girl falls off the limo, and runs across to a playground, waving her arms and screaming to her playmates.
LITTLE GIRL
ZOMBIEEEEE!!!
EXT. JETTY
Harry walks out on the jetty. He’s wearing a chauffeur’s cap tipped back (Venezuelan six-star general style), a shabby black suit, shirt collar unbuttoned, and a long red tie hanging loose.
He reaches the end of the jetty and gazes at the gulf horizon.
A long-haired red-haired woman dangles her legs over the end of the jetty and shouts at her phone, stabbing the air with her free hand. (A long-haired red-haired dog squats beside her, nose held high, sniffing the ozone.)
RED-HAIRED WOMAN
It’s all so simple.
Harry walks back along the jetty. He stops by an old salty fisherman, Alfie.
HARRY
Any luck?
ALFIE
Caught a few.
Harry looks at Alfie’s empty bucket.
ALFIE
(prickly)
Threw them back of course. Always throw them back.
He folds his deckchair, grabs his tackle and bucket, and clatters off towards the shore. He turns back to Harry.
ALFIE
(yells)
You think I never catch nothing?
EXT. PLAYGROUND
The little girl rocks to and fro on a swing watching Harry on the jetty, frowning.
EXT. JETTY
Harry leans on the jetty railing. He reaches inside his jacket and pulls out a LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT, tied with a red ribbon. He broods over the Will, flapping it against the palm of his hand.
The ribbon unravels and flutters away. Harry grabs for it.
The ribbon coils lazily in the air, falls to the water, and tangles on a dead fish floating belly up.
EXT. GULF
The bloated sun kisses the horizon. The black shape of a container ship plows across it, obliterating it.
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