The screen opens to see the scene of a park in late fall. Leaves are falling off the trees, people are sitting at benches drinking coffee and reading newspapers. The focus is shifted to a teenage girl, holding a photography camara, taking multiple pictures of her surroundings. The camara follows her as she walks from tree to tree as she starts narrating.
April: "I was just 17, with the world in front of me. Running, skipping, and diving for the opportunity to have the world give me the lable of an elite person. A person in society that is worshiped and loved by thousands of others. One who is praised. One who is a savior."
The screen goes black, to a frame which says, "Three years earlier."
The setting is in a old apartament. Every wall is white and chipping. The couches are old, there's no tv, and the dining room is filled with piles of mail. Several children run around, yelling and playing tag. An older woman sits on a wooden stool in the living room. April enters in the front door.
April: "Mom, you have to do something! John and Annie are out there, digging holes all over the yard!"
Mom: "April, when are you going to learn, they're kids. Kids are goin' to do what kids want. Im wastin' my energy just thinking about 'em."
April walks over, and drops a stack of mail on her mom's lap, stands there, and looks at her.
Mom: "What the hell is this"
April: "What do you think mom?"
The mom opens on of the letter, ans holds it up closely to her face. She starts to mumble the words she reads."
Mom: "Oh, April, don't start this shit again! I'm tired of hearing about it!"
April: "Mom! you didn't even read all of it! See,-"
April grabs the paper and points to the bottom
April: "It says, right here, it says, for the first app..."
April looks closer, and tries to figure out the letter.
April:"It says the first app... app- li.... Momma, what's this word?
Mom: "Applicants April! Applicants."
April:" It says the first of those get 10% off for the school."
Mom: "April, I'm not hearing it anymore. You're not goin' to no damn art school! I don't know who got it into your head, or gave you these ideas, but you tell 'em I said no! Now, I don't want anymore of this coming through this house!"
April: "Wha? What? Who could I talk to? You keep me in this house everyday!"
Mom: "Now, April, don't say that. I just let you go check the mail from across the street." Whispering- "Which was a bad idea."
The mom gets up from the chair, and walks over to the door. She pokes her head out, to see the damage the children made.
Mom: "Those children are going to be the death of me."
The mom closes the door and procedes into the kitchen. She opens the door to the refridgerator to see what's inside. After few seconds of looking, the pone rings. The mother immediatly runs the the phone to pick it up, and starts to talk. She motions for April to get out of her chair. April does so, and goes into the kitchen and starts to fix dinner.
While cutting and apple, she looks up to a tiny portrait of Jesus hanging on the wall. She starts to whisper to herself.
April: Jesus, what would you do? In church, they always tell us how you preform all these miricales for people. I was thinking I could use one of those too. My preacher always tells us that we never know when one's going to come. He says it's up to us to find the miricales in life. I always get confused because there's no way there's a miricale in this house, nope! I guess what I'm trying to say is, please, [She closes her eyes] give e one of those miricales. I always go
to church. I'm there every Wednesday and Sunday. I'm a good person..."
April's mom yells from the other room.
Mom: "You better be in there makin' dinner!"
April:" I am momma!"
April grabs a pizza box from the refridgerator, opens it, and puts the peices of leftover pizza in the microwave. Three children run in the kitchen.
April: " John, Annie, we're having dinner, grab your plates, I'll pour you milk.
John: "I don't want milk!"
Annie:"Yeah, No milk!"
Both of the children start yelling, "No milk! No milk!"
Mom:"April! You better be givin' them milk!"
April:" I am momma"
Her mom enters the kitchen.
Mom:"John, Annie, who's your friend?"
Annie:" Kenny! He lives over there!" [Pointing to the window.]
Mom: "Hm, the Ciecel's must've moved."
April: "Dinner!"
Mom: "Oh, don't tell me it's that damn pizza!"
April:" Momma, It's the only thing we had."
Mom: "Ah, hell, like I believe that!"
She grabs a couple of pieces and walks out.
The screen fades and then opens to April in her bed. The room is only lit from the moon shinning through the window. Her bed is against the wall, beside another bed with the children in it.
April: "God, please, I would do anything to go to the school. I mean, I'm good, arent I? Momma might not like what I do, but you love every body right? Oh, I sure do hope so. At least that's what they tell me in church.
April closes her eyes and the screen goes black.
A new scene opens, with the sun shinning in on April's bed. She wakes up to smell bacon cooking. The children's bed is messed up, and they've already gotten up. She hears a mans voice. Her brown, faded hair is tangled, and she stumbles while trying to get her blue jeans on. She wallks into the living room to find her mother sharing a piece of bacon with a man on the couch.
April:" Momma?"
The mom laughs hysterically with the man, and doesn't turn her head.
April:"Momma!"
Mom: "Oh, good morning."
She turns her head back to the man. April turns back to her room and shuts the door. She grabs a tee-shirt hanging out of the broken dresser beside her bed. She quickly tied her hair back and grabbed her house key.
From her bed, she jumped up to the the window, barely hanging on, she pulled herself up, and through the window. She ran briskly out of the neighborhood, keeping an eye out for the children or any of their friends. After a 15 minute walk on the highway, she made it to the city.
April walked down the sidewalk in the crowded city. The camara follows her as she turns down several sidewalks. Strret vendors came and go, yelling anout neww skin care products and hot food items.
She comes to a store with its door open. There are a few people inside, looking closely at the expenssive camaras and lenses inside the lit, glasss cases. She starts looking intently too, when a tall, older getleman looks over from the other side of the store.
[The gentleman is wearing a brown suit. He is balding, and in his mid- 30's.]
Gentleman: "Excuse me, miss. May I help you find something?"
April:" Oh, no. I'm just looking."
Gentleman:" Well, are you interested in something?"
April:"Not, really...I'm just looking."
Gentleman:"I understand that, but if you're in my store, shouldn't there be a reason? You must be interested in something."
April lifts her eyes from the counter, and meets with his face.
April: " Um- I was.."
She stares out the door.
April."I was leaving."
She started towards the door.
Gentleman: "Are you interested in photography?"
April stops before she gets to her second step towards the door.
Apirl: "Yeah, I really like it."
Gentleman: "Well, photography isn't just something you can like."
He starts to laugh a little.
Gentleman: "If you love it, it will love you back."
April stands there, starring at the mans buldging chest.
Gentleman:" Come this way, I'll show you."
The man leads April to a back room in the store. The room is tiny, filled with pictures and broken camaras.
Gentleman: " You can go through every one of these pictures, and I can honestly tell you that every one o them had passion, love, and truth behind them."
April: "And how do you know that?"
Gentleman: "Because they're all my pictures, and these are the camara's I took them with."
He picks up a broken camara lense off of the desk.
Gentleman:"Used these camaras so much, every single one of 'em broke."
April: "Wow, this is an awful lot of pictures."
The man laughs.
Gentleman:"So, by the looks of you, you don't own a camara, do you?"
April: "No, my mom won't let me."
Gentleman:"Ah, adults, who needs 'em, right?"
April giggles to herself.
Gentleman:"You know, I could let you borrow one of my camaras..."
April:"Wait, really?! You would really let me take one?"
The smile on her face got bigger.
Gentleman:"Hey, why not? I have a store full of camaras, I can spare one."
He grinned and looked April in her eyes.
Gentleman: "But only on one condition
April's eyes widened with excitement.
Gentleman: "I want you to bring back the pictures you take, so I can witness all of your talent."
April:"Really? That's all I have to do?"
Gentleman:"Yep. Now, let me go get you that camara."
The man walks out of the room. April looks around at the pictures. All of them are women, posing. Some are tateful nudes, others are of smaller girls, smiling at the camara.
He returns to the room, with a small, black case with the letter A on it.
Gentleman:"Now let me show you how all of this works."
He opens the case to reveal a big, proffessional camara, lenses, and other equiptment. April zones out and doesn't hear what the man is telling her. She just stares at the case.
Gentleman:"And, in conclusion, I'll just let you carry on with the picture taking since you didn't just hear a single word I said."
April looks up to the man smiling at her.
April:"I..I was listening."
Gentleman:"Mhm. Now go on-"
Gentleman:"Oh, and don't you forget what I told you."
April:"I won't. Thank you! Thank you!"
April skips cheerfully out of the store, with the case swinging from her hand. The camara follows her while she runs to the park. In the park, she finds a bench, sits down the equiptment and tries to figure it out. she puts the lense on the camara, and points it to a tree. She then takes her first picture.
She goes through the park taking picture after picture of everything she can find. The camara fades out.
It's night time, and as April sneaks up on her house, she notices all of the lights are on, and yelling. She carfully climbs in her window, walks over to the door in her room, and peeps out.
She see's her mom, the children, and the strange man, all playing a board game. With the satisfaction of the day, she lays down, and goes to sleep.
April wakes up to the sound of pounding on her door. She gets up, confused, and opens it to find a police officer.
Officer:"Is your name April Kursh?"
April:"Yes, officer, what's wrong?"
Officer:"I'm sorry to inform you, but, you're sister, Annie, went missing late last night. We're guessing around 2 A.M.
Now, I apologize for the circumstance, but I'm wondering if you could give us any information."
April's eyes start flowing with tears. She starts to shake. The officer kneels down a little.
Officer:"I'm terribly sorry, April. But, don;t you worry, We'll find your sister. We just need the information to do so."
April:"I understand."
With each word, April starts sobbing more. She can see her mom, being hugged by the strange man on the couch behind the police officer.
April turned, and shut her door so she could get dressed. She walked towards the dresser, and tried to put her pants on without trembling.
The next clip shows April, sitting in a room, with a big, muscular man sitting across from her at a table.
Detective:"Where were you last night? Home?
April:"Yes."
Detective:"And, you saw your sister the entire time you were home?"
April:"Yes."
Detective:"What time did you, your brother and your sister go to bed?"
April:"I'm not sure. I went to bed early."
Detective:"And did you hear any disturbances during the night?"
April:"No, sir, I did not."
Detective:"Well, do you have anything that could tell us where Annie would be?"
April:"My mom's being seeing this man for a couple of days. She never told me his name. I think he might be with my mom right now. I've seen him looking stangely at my sister before."
Detective:"And you're thinking he might be a suspect?"
April:"He's not just a suspect. I know he did it."
Detective:"And how does he know your mom?"
April:"They're seeing each other. He's been staying at our house."
Detective:"Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?"
April:"No, sir, that is all."
The scene is ended when the detective closes his brief case, then a new scene opens with an attorney opening a brief case.
The room is quiet as the the scene opens wider, showing an entire court room.
April's mom is seen sitting with her son and April. The rest of the audience is empty. April's mom is crying while April sits there, comforting her mom. The word guilty is said by the judge as his gavel echos through the room.
The strange man is escorted out of the room. The lawyers exit, as Aprils mom sits, and sobs in the chair.
April:"It's going to be ok, mom. It's all ok, momma."
April rubs her moms back.
The camara zooms out of the room, and cuts to the next scene. A picture drops on a wooden desk.
Gentleman:"Dammit! You mean, they thought it was ME?"
April:"Yes, but I completly covered. The case is closed. done."
The man stares at April.
Gentleman:"Good. Now, leave."
April:"What? Do you not see these pictures? They'll sell like hot cakes!"
Gentleman:"Yeah, hot cakes, whatever-"
Gentleman:"Listen, you say nothing to any cop, actually, say nothing to no one. You take your little, cute pictures of...of-"
April:"Trees?"
Gentleman:"Yeah, trees. April, there's something I've been meaning to ask you actually."
April:"I can stop taking pictures of trees."
Gentleman:"No, it's not that."
The man closed the door begind him.
Gentleman:"Would you consider yourself an adult?"
April:"Well, I'm not sure. I'm 17. Don;t you have to be 18 to be an Adult?"
Gentleman:"Well, not exactly. Would you like to be an adult?"
April:"I can;t just turn into an adult."
Gentleman:"Good point, but you can act like one, no?"
April:"Well, of course."
Gentleman:"Good, because I need you to start doing adult things now."
April:"Are you promoting me?"
Gentleman:"Yes, yes, promoting."
The man walked over to April and lifted her off of the ground, on to the table. his hands started moving up and down her body.
April:"No, please, I didn't mean it that way."
Gentleman:"But, April, this is what adults do. You're an Adult, right?"
April:"Yes, sir."
Gentleman:"Good. Go along with what your body tells you to do. It's natural."
The screen goes black and a scream is heard.
The screen focuses on a tree in the fall. April is seen taking pictures with a camara. Across the screen, it says, 3 years later.
April:"At 17, you never really know what a savior is, or what a mirical is. It reigns true that you never know what a miricle is. The miricle in my life was the strange man, Ron. He married my mother and sent me to art school. But, most of all, he sent the gentleman to jail."
