What matters most

This is the screen play i wrote and filmed for my father, the same one i mentioned in my previous story "Something I have always wished to express but never dared to..."

�Sally, come here, honey, right now, please.�
Sally almost dropped the plate she was washing and hurried to her mother�s bedroom.
�Mom, do you feel bad? Should I call the doctor?�
�No, sweetie�please, go get the priest�
�The priest� No, mom, no� don�t say that!�
�Why, little girl? Don�t you believe in miracles anymore?�
�Miracles? Oh yeah, I do. But miracles do happen, only with others� not with us, even though we are the most people in need of a miracle��
�Sally, what are you saying? ... What happened to your faith?�
�I didn�t forget it� but mom, real life needs struggle and strength, not dreams and poetry!�
�No, Sally, faith is so real��
�But, mom, faith isn�t enough� I can�t live without you!�
�You won�t be alone� God will be with you�
�Will God leave his heaven and come everyday to talk with me?�
�Sure he will� (Smiling) I know you don�t believe me� but you will soon go through this experience ��
�Please, mom, don�t leave me� you�re the only person I�ve got!�
�No, dear Sally, I�m not�.�
�What?!�
�Listen to me: I have to tell you a secret� Your father� is still alive!�
�WHAT?!!... Why did you tell me that he�s dead then?�
Sally was really shocked.
�I was trying to spare you the suffering�
�Where is he then?�
�He�s gone� He left before you were born and I never knew where he was��
�Why?�
�We had some problems��
�Oh mom� So you never knew anything about him?�
�No� it has been 19 years��
�So how do you know then he�s still alive?�
Sally�s mother seemed confused� She had never thought about it�
�You�re right, honey� But I just know it� If your father was dead, my heart would have told me� Go search for him� Even if you don�t find him, you have nothing to lose��
Sally went to get the priest. But when she was back home, her mother was already dead.
�

After funerals, Father Victor, the priest, took Sally with him to the convent. She lived there and worked in the library. He told her many details she didn�t know about her father. He knew about her parents� problems, he had tried so hard to help them but he couldn�t. Sally�s father was broke and desperate, he felt unready for her birth, so he left trying to get a better job in order to provide her with a better life. Father Victor had sent him to another convent in the capital, but it seems he left that convent soon without telling him where he went.

A few months passed, Sally was forgetting her mother�s wish but Father Victor always kept reminding her of it. Finally, she agreed to go with him to the convent and ask about her father. Unfortunately, nobody could tell them anything about him. Only Father Edward knew where he was, but was not allowed to speak because he told him about this place during confession.
Despite all their trials, he said nothing.
Sally was so upset that she went out to the garden, leaving the 2 priests chatting alone.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn�t notice the gardener talking to her.
�Anything wrong, miss?�
�No, I�m fine. Thanks�
�You seem quite sad��
Sally didn�t reply.
�Did you come here with Father Victor?�
�Yeah, I was looking for my father but it seems it�s not our destiny to meet.�
�Who�s your father?�
�His name was Jim, he used to work here. Do you know him?�
�Jim!!! Of course� he was my friend��
�Oh really? Do you know where he went and why?�
�Oh no� He left without saying a word� But last year I found his address while I was cleaning the priest�s office� I kept it but I couldn�t travel to France anyway��
�France! My dad is in France?!!�
�

Sally suddenly became so impulsive. She decided overnight to sell her house, to learn French, and to go to France. Father Victor couldn�t convince her. So he decided to travel with her instead of letting her go on her own.
The address the gardener gave them was not the right one. The owner told them Jim had sold this house and moved to Paris seven years ago. He gave him his new address and, once again, they knocked on a new door.
This time, the woman who opened the door said she was his wife!!!
Sally couldn�t understand. The woman told her she met her father in a hospital where he was recovering from a serious brain surgery, he had lost his memory, and he knew nothing about himself.
�He had nobody to take care of him except me. When he proposed to me, I didn�t hesitate. We got married and came to live here. We had a son and a daughter, Gregory and Jessica. Three years passed, we were living so happily� Then, one day, a stranger who claimed to be a doctor came to the village and pretended having discovered a drug that helped in memory recovery. He absolutely wanted to take it and� unfortunately��
She stopped and started crying.
�What is it?�
�He�s been in a psychiatric hospital for 3 years now�but the children don�t know that, they think he�s abroad��
�

Sally couldn�t believe she made that entire journey to find an insane father!
She had lived all her live without him; did she have to meet him that way?
Yet, she insisted to go see him. She was shocked by his behavior and couldn�t help crying while watching him. When she showed him a photo of her mother, he became so agitated that the doctor had to ask them to leave.
A few minutes after they were home, the doctor called them and said Jim had recovered his memory (apparently due to the sight of his first wife�s picture) but he got such an emotional shock that he had a heart attack!!! They hurried to the hospital and Sally spent the last few minutes with him before he died�
�

They say : �Behind every difficulty lies an opportunity.�
You may not see the goal of such a journey (and maybe of much similar journeys you take in your own daily life)
But you forget that a journey is not only about what it leads to� It also teaches us to keep on trying with hope because every time a door is closed, another door opens. All we have to do is to pay attention to the open door to know life always carries hope�
After all, they also say: �Beginnings are scary, ends are sad, but what matters most is what lies in between ��

Reviews

[Nancy Lee Shrader]

Great Story Well Done!

[Andrea A. Wentz]

Very true, it's just getting past the endings that we have to figure out how to do.

Good story, I like the message shared!

[Dawn]

This is a wonderful story hun, full of misunderstanding. It is however filled with a great truth, that we have too fill our lives with everything, and sometimes this means painful moments to.

Thanks for sharing it. Dawn