Two Brothers Lost

In a cinematic dream, two brothers spend a lot of time near the water and on the football field. One brother is tall, copper-skinned, with kinky, red hair. When he walks the field, counting off the yards, I see through his eyes. The other brother is dark skinned with dark, kinky hair. The captain (an unknown, voice-over-only character) tells them that a person went to end of the field, dove into the water, sank to the bottom, and died.

On the water, the brothers watch a cow swim to an open garage and walk into it. The cow exits with a boar, and they swim to the pier where the brothers are standing with an elderly couple and the captain. The boar stampede’s the docks and the elderly woman stumbles and almost falls into the water. A brother reaches for her and misses, but she’s OK.

The dark-skinned brother forgets his shoes in another scene by the shore. His copper-skinned brother offers his, but the says that they don’t need shoes. Chicken John Ribaldi shows up, looking for a button he’d left behind. They all walk to a warehouse where the brothers live, and Chicken and Leon Rosen used to live. Chicken finds his “Ammiano for Mayor” button. The dark-skinned brother pulls off a voting receipt and Chicken leaves with the button.

Back out by the water, the dark-skinned brother hypnotically walks to the edge, dives in and sinks. Someone saves him and no explanation is given as to why this happens.

In the pivotal scene, the copper-skinned brother looks down and counts the yards on the football field. He starts off neatly counting them and then just walks to the water’s edge. The dark-skinned brother stands there and they look at the water, contemplating life and their desire to jump into the water, sink, and drown.

The copper-skinned brother earnestly tells his brother, “We aren’t really brothers. I’m Indian and you’re African. We were once exchange students and have forgotten who we are.” Feelings of shock and thoughts of going home end the dream.

Two scenes do not fit the story line:

One, in a voice-over, has my best friend Mark Cort tells the brothers about a mutual friend who made a video titled “Drugs, Guns, and Explosions.” This video became a cult hit, and infamy dogged the friend. “You know what happened to him because of the title,” Mark asks. The question is never answered. Visuals of water serve the backdrop.

Another scene has the captain talking about how there’s a current that comes in at this time of year, churning things up and out of the water. Someone may have gotten washed away by it and the brothers planned to swim in it.

8/24/2005