Against black, title card:

"Us
A Tale of You and Me"

Fade in.

Cast the scene
amidst a misty courtyard
on a tepid Summer's eve,
light pink pedals fall
from a nearby dogwood tree
as a zephyr whisks them
in circles around a pair of Lovers

LOVE
I Love You.

HATE
(ambivalent)
I… don't Hate You.

LOVE
(disheartened)
But why not Love?

the pedals begin to settle
surrendering themselves
to the cold granite ground

HATE
I will die
an illiterate to love
for I've cast away
my sentimental heart
and refuse to see
but the hopeful lies
of my poetry.

LOVE
(a worried half-smile)
Then be rid
of that horrid hollow
and simply Be,
specifically, with Me!

HATE
But to be, is to die;
to let beauty fade
as idols become idle
and memories become lies;
so as that is so
I'd rather believe
in what is My own.

a breeze starts to carry
and the pedals begin to float
in a child-like defiance
of Gaia's gravity

LOVE
(passionate)
That is not Real!
it lacks all that is to Feel!
If You are to Live
You need more,
You need Me!

HATE
(sly smirk)
I need but my rhymes
to have all that is life,
for cannot You see
the immortality
of even
the simple nursery
'Jack and Jill
went up the hill?'

LOVE
But if You'll be
the Jill to my Jack
and the bucket,
Us to mack,
You can forget the lies
of claiming life 'Mine'
and then You'll get by
no longer an 'I'

HATE
I am not lonely
for I have eternity
to let My dreams
speak for Me
to any he and she,
but what they say now
is that if you truly 'loved' Me
you'd love them just the same,
for I am nothing
without my words.

There turns a gust and
the pedals begin to spike
in violent bursts
like lightning in the night

LOVE
(desperate frustration)
I care not for words
I care not for life after Me
Why can You not see!
I simply need You
to be near,
I need You
to be Here.

HATE
(solemn surrender)
Hope and dreams,
that's all we would be,
false hope and lying memories.

LOVE
I… don't love You.

HATE
I hate You.

the pedals finally
acquiesce by the feet
of the hopeless couple

LOVE
(with a silent tear in eye)
…but We should be Lovers.

and in that moment
all crystallizes and clears
as the two join in epiphany;
there needs not be
a You or Me
but a subtle balance in between.
So, they look into the lakes
of one another's eyes
knowing They can never die,
as a quiet whisper
leaves their lips:

US
(in a happy sigh)
I Love Us.

and by the lift
of that last breath
a sole pedal comes aloft
and lands upon the embrace
of Love and Hate.

Fade out.

T H E B E G I N N I N G