project 1 script

[A mother calls her son to ask if he is coming home for Easter weekend]

[the son’s cell phone rings]

OWEN: Hey mom.

MOTHER: Hey how are you doing?

OWEN: I’m alright.

MOTHER: Well I was just calling to ask when you’ll be coming down on Friday.

OWEN: What?

MOTHER: For Easter weekend. You said you’d be coming home this weekend.

OWEN: Mom I never said that.

MOTHER: Well, yes you did. Are you saying you aren’t coming home now?

OWEN: No, I didn’t say that either. I’m still not sure yet. Last time you called and asked me about it I said it would depend on how much work I have to do, like it always does. And it turns out that I have a lot of stuff to finish this weekend.

MOTHER: [sarcastically] Great, so I’m not gonna get to see my son for Easter this year.

OWEN: Well mom, school is a little more important I think. You’ll still have Austin and Caren there with you.

MOTHER: I’d like to have all my children here for once, Owen.

OWEN: Well Christopher’s not coming down from Richmond is he?

MOTHER: No, he has to work.

OWEN: Well see, so even if I came down you still wouldn’t have all of us together. I don’t think Christopher was able to come home for Easter last year either and you didn’t seem to have a problem with it.

MOTHER: It would mean a lot to me if you came down Owen.

OWEN: I can’t come for down the whole weekend mom. I’ve just got too much schoolwork.

MOTHER: Can you at least come down for one day?

OWEN: I seriously doubt it.

MOTHER: What if you came down on Saturday evening? You could be here to dye Easter eggs with us that night and you could leave Sunday morning, after Mass

OWEN: Mom, you know mass isn’t over until like one o’clock. By the time I got back to Memphis I wouldn’t have much time left to do homework.

MOTHER: Can you bring your homework with you to do here?

OWEN: No, it’s computer stuff; if I had a laptop, maybe, but I don’t. Even if I did, it’s not like I would be able to get anything done because I’d be visiting with family the whole time.

MOTHER: [sighs]

OWEN: I guess I could try to come down late Saturday and do the egg hunt Sunday morning, but I would need to leave after that. You know there’s really no reason for me to stay and go to mass anyway.

MOTHER: [slightly angered] Oh, so you're at the point now where you aren't even going to church anymore?

OWEN: There's no point in me going mom. I feel uncomfortable just being there because you and Austin always glare at me when I don’t participate. Just walking into the church makes me feel like a liar. I’m not catholic mom. It isn’t a big deal.

MOTHER: It IS a big deal.

OWEN: Only to you it is. (Maybe add something else here)

MOTHER: You know, I really hope you don't have any children until you can start believing in God.

OWEN: What!?

MOTHER: Do not bring an innocent life into this world not believing in God. If you don’t believe in God, you do not deserve to have children. Don't corrupt them with your.. corrupt thinking.

OWEN: I’m not corrupt, mom. Why do I not deserve to have children?

MOTHER: Because having child is a product of God. I would throw up; I would vomit if you had children not believing in God.

OWEN: Well I guess you should know that I plan to have kids someday, and I don’t think God is going to seem any more real to me in the future than it does now.

MOTHER: If you do, then whenever they are around me I am going to be teaching them about God.

OWEN: Oh but they’ll be smarter than that.

MOTHER: Don't you dare spew your venom on innocent lives. That's as bad as abortion; you might as well be killing them. It is a SIN to bring an innocent life into this world not believing in God.

OWEN: Well I don’t think so.

MOTHER: I hope you go the rest of your life without children if you don't believe in God. I pray that you are unable to conceive a child until you can start believing in God. No one deserves children if they don’t believe in God. That's a child of the devil, basically.

OWEN: A child of the devil. Really mom?

MOTHER: A child void of God is a child of the Devil, yes. That's the truth.

OWEN: That’s ridiculous and hateful mom.

MOTHER: No it's not. I do not want you to bring any children into this world if you don't believe in God.

OWEN: So it’s not enough to just love and care for them?

MOTHER: Love and God are one in the same; if you don't have God you are incapable of loving. You don't know what love is if you don't have God. You cannot experience love on any level for another human being if you don't have God, because that's what love is — it’s God inside you — so you are incapable of loving if you don't have Him.

OWEN: So I am incapable of loving you?

MOTHER: You can't love me in a true sense if you don't have God. People who don't believe in God are selfish, self-absorbed creatures.

OWEN: Just because they don’t concern themselves with religion?

MOTHER: God is pretty much fact. If it takes you until you are on your deathbed that you start to believe in Him and ask for His help, then—-

OWEN: I would ask for the doctor's help in that case.

MOTHER: Doctor's that don't believe in God are not good doctors. You can only be a good doctor when you realize that you are being guided by a much higher power than yourself.

OWEN: I’d rather be under the care of a doctor who doesn’t rely on imaginary beings to help him fix people. I think science does a better job at that.

MOTHER: People die when they are meant to die, as part of God’s plan.

OWEN: Then why would you go to a doctor at all?

MOTHER: Because a doctor can help to ease a temporary hardship, but God has a plan for everyone and no matter what choices you make, your fate stays the same. That’s his design.

OWEN: Well mom, to me that’s just a depressing idea. That sounds like being in prison your whole life. And bad things happen to good people everyday; innocent lives are lost all the time.

MOTHER: Everything happens for a reason, Owen; the best thing anyone can do is pray for God’s guidance.

OWEN: Then why didn’t God save your marriage with dad? I know you prayed for him to.

MOTHER: God's unanswered prayers are gifts; something good always comes from the bad. My gift from God was finding another man that I am much happier with.

OWEN: So if I have a child one day and I’m still agnostic, that would be evidence that your prayer for me was unanswered. And according to you that would be a gift from God — perhaps for me to be able to raise my children the way I want to?

MOTHER: No, that would certainly not be a gift from God.

---

End Scene:

[OWEN at his computer – emailing (or IMing) a friend]

"... i told her toward the end of our conversation that my one hope for her was that one day she’d realize how hateful and intolerant she was being, and maybe even apologize for some of what she said to me.

and she replied "i will never apologize for saying any of those things"