Give Me Love

[Background song- “Give Me Love” be Ed Sheeran]

Scene 1: The sun has just set and it is dusk but the street lights light the street beautifully. The scene is by a little restaurant outside. The chairs and tables are positioned in such a way that there is a small performing space in the center. Seated in the center, amidst the mixture of races dining there, is a beautiful black girl who is shyly but firmly strumming away at a guitar. The tune is the one in Ed Sheeran’s “Give Me Love”. She continues to strum as people come and go. There is one white American navy man (sailor) who is seated at a far corner who she does not see. At first he is lost in his own world drinking his beer but he soon fixes his eyes on her and keeps them there as the restaurant begins to close down. Unaware, she continues to strum as she stands and begins to gracefully sashay her hips to the rhythm of her guitar. After a while she turns and sees him approaching. Before she can walk away he stops her and shows interest in her guitar. Being one thing she is confident in she shows him and he begins to strum whilst she dances and laughs… This continues on the next night and the next until on the forth night we see them leave together. Laughing and smiling.

Scene 2: The handsome American man is seen at a navy base in a line with other men like him. They are being given instructions by a superior. Finally they are dismissed and he rushed off to his car, ignoring his colleagues that are calling after him. He drives along a lone road until he comes upon a cottage which he parks in front of. He knocks on the cottage door and as the beautiful black woman emerges he hold up the single rose he has for her. They enter into the cottage.

Scene 3: Takes place in the cottage which she lives in. He has his arms around her from behind and they are smiling and swaying a little. She takes his hand and leads him into the garden which is filled with fruit trees. They pick some and eat and walk until he stops by a small mound of dirt with a roughly hand-made cross protruding from it. She turns back to see what has stopped him and walks into his arms. She smiles a somber smile. The camera shows a picture of her performing at the restaurant as she always does with a content looking shaggy, black retriever dog sitting beside the tip-hat placed at her feet. The camera zooms out to show that they are back in the cottage and she is showing him the picture of the diceased dog whilst he stands behind her with his arms around her. He whispers in her ear and kisses her cheek sweetly.

Scene 4: They are seen to be walking down a street in a town where it is obvious by the crowd that blacks and whites generally keep to themselves. They giggle and hold hands whilst they walk and people of all races stop to look at them. As they walk past a particular café we see seated in there the sailor’s superior who happens to look up from his coffee date with a young woman just then. He stands up as if about to throw a fit of rage but then as the inter-racial couple walks past he gathers himself and sits back down although he is visibly distressed. The couple continues down the road oblivious to the rest of the world until they reach an old animal rescue shelter. They stop by the door and read the sign. They hug and she shyly pecks him on the lips. He is a bit surprised but more than that he looks at her with the eyes of a man who has fallen in love with a beautiful woman. They go in and are attended to by a kind, old white man. He walks them down a row of dogs needing homes in different shelters. They come upon a middle aged golden retriever who looks them in the eye. They simultaneously smile and when they do so he comes towards them and wags his tail. He fills out forms and pays whilst she fusses over their new dog. They walk out of the shelter, happy dog on leash and hand in hand.

Scene 5: Back at the navy base, the other sailors have just been released but the superior has detained our man. Our man stands to attention whilst the red-faced superior is bellowing in his face. His shouting obviously has something to do with the color of the skin of his lover. Meanwhile, our women and her dog are walking through the navy base sweetly asking the other sailors where she can find her lover. They ignore and scorn her. Bewildered and led by their dog that has a keen sense of smell, she stumbles into the room where the superior is lecturing our man. By this time our man looks dangerously angry with tears in his eyes. They both turn to face her in silence. Suddenly our man grabs her hand and together they run out of the navy base with shocked faces looking after them. They run and run through vegetated areas. She is visibly struggling to keep up but he keeps running. The dog is enjoying this. Finally he stops and whilst she is doubled over catching her breath he forcefully and passionately says something to her and then as she looks up he goes down on one knee and takes out a cheap ring. By this time they are both in tears and he slips the ring onto her finger and she crumbles to the ground into his arms. She rests her head on his chest and the dog sits beside them.

Scene 6: They are in a church which is visibly a black dominated church; it is a bit run down. She is wearing a simple white summer dress and he is in his sailing suit. Between them is a young black pastor who pronounces them husband and wife. Our two people kiss slowly and passionately whilst the dog barks in the background. The kiss develops into something more. Their fingers are interlocked and on each person’s left ring finger are their simple but beautiful wedding bands. Finally, they are at rest. He holds her in his arms in bed.

Scene 7: It is now in the morning in the cottage. Our man gets out of bed to investigate why their dog is barking furiously. He is about to open the door when a big policeman breaks through the door and enters followed by the navy superior and a few of his colleagues. As the door splinters our woman who has been sleeping serenely in bed suddenly opens her eyes. In them we can see a foreboding look. Our man is visibly confused and angry and tries to ask questions. His new wife who has heard the noise slips into her dressing gown and runs into the lounge where the commotion is. The dog is barking furiously and tries to attack the policeman who at this time is walking menacingly towards our woman whilst three men hold her husband down. The policeman takes out his gun and shoots the dog. At this the woman screams and kneels beside the whimpering dog before she is roughly lifted and dragged out of her cottage. The scene blacks out.

Scene 8: The three men hold our man down in a chair whilst the superior bellows in his red face. He maintains a poker face. Meanwhile, just outside some more men tie two ropes to a tree whilst another two hold on to our woman as she cries and screams for her husband who, calls back but is held back. The men tie the ropes to her wrists and pull her up. She continues to shout but as he is led outside to witness this horror he is too stunned to call back to her. The superior rips off her robe and pulls out a horse whip. He beats her with it over her night-dress which is not slipping down her shoulders as slowly we see a strip off blood staining the pink silk where the whip made contact with her flesh. As he watches her being whipped he stifles a scream and eventually he slumps down with a far away gaze in his eyes. He is no longer present as his mind shuts out the sound of the whip and the sound of her screams. He thinks back to the times when they would dance to the sound of her guitar in the center of the small street restaurant. He then thinks back to a flashback where he is happily chatting with his colleges on a ship out at sea. When we return to the present our woman is silent and hangs there limply. His colleges lift up our man who avoids looking at his wife as he is led to the waiting navy truck in which he sits, face neutral and face forward. Everyone jumps into a vehicle. The superior takes out a dagger and in one swift movement cuts the ropes that held up our woman. Her limp body falls heavily to the ground.

Scene 9: The navy cars drive away and the camera focuses on our man’s face. He is poker-faced and does not spare a backward glance at his wife as he is driven further and further away from her. As the cars disappear the camera focuses on our woman’s still body. The dog, which we can now see was shot in the hind leg, limps on three legs to her still body and whimpers whilst licking her face. He curls down beside her and tries to keep her still body warm. Finally, the still body shivers and her shaking hand reached out and touches the dog as her body convulses with pain and with the effort of sobbing. They slowly and painfully make their way to the cottage.

Scene 10: Many months later. The camera focuses on a photograph of husband and wife smiling happily lying on a hammock with their dog and her guitar nearby. As the camera zooms out we see our man holding it whilst standing in his uniform at the helm of a ship. It is windy and he deliberately loosens his fingers so that the photograph is blown out to sea by the wind. He stands rigid for a while, again, poker-faced, until a well dressed white woman comes and, unaware of his emotional state, excitedly leads him away by the hand into the closed off area of the ship. Before he disappears within, he looks out to sea as though there is something he expects to see… We see the photograph flying further and further away. The camera zooms into the photo again and this time when it zooms out, it is in the hands of our woman which are shaking slightly. There are tears in her eyes which she does not allow to escape. She sits by the stairs of her cottage with their dog right beside her. She closes her eyes and clutches the photograph to her stomach. She is visibly about seven months pregnant.

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The End