We have a membership with Netflix. The other day I was going through the list of recent releases and began wondering how writers come up with these fantastic ideas for movies, which are really storytelling in movie form. The words “what if” came to my mind. I decided to do this exercise and share it with you. All you have to do is ask "What if?" and then see what comes. Here goes.
What if .... an old lady who is living in near poverty with her dog, a mutt, takes her last dollar and buys a lottery ticket. The dog waits patiently outside the door while she purchases the ticket. She decides to take the ticket home to fill it out because she wants to carefully pick her numbers. If she doesn't win, she will have no money for food for her or the dog for two weeks. Now, she lives alone with her dog. She has no children or spouse. So, she talks to her dog just like he were a person, and of course, the dog never speaks because he can't. She and the dog return home and she sits down at the kitchen table. The dog lays down beside her chair. She begins mumbling about birth dates, favorite numbers, and lucky numbers. In desperation, she lays her forehead down on the table and prays. “Oh Lord, please help me. I really need a miracle.” A few seconds later, a male voice suddenly says “Why don't you ask me what the winning numbers are?” Her head comes up. “Is that you, my Lord?” The voice laughs, “I've tried really hard to convince you that I am, but actually, I'm just your dog.” Still looking up, she says “did you say dog?” “Yep.” is his reply. This time she realizes the voice is coming from below her chair. She turns to look at the dog, who is now sitting up and wagging his tail. The lady just shakes her head and says “Oh my, I think I'm losing my mind.” “No you're not” replies the dog. “Can we talk about this later, because you have to get that ticket back to the store in less than 22 minutes.” He gives her the winning numbers, she marks them on the ticket, and as she stands up to put on her coat, she remarks to the dog “You best not say anything until we get back home.” The dog just wags his tail, lifts his ears, cocks his head to the side and whines as if to say “I don't know what your talking about.” They go to the store to turn in the ticket. Of course, she wins the lottery and move to a nicer house. From that time on, the dog always sat at the table to eat his food. And of course, he never speaks again to the end of his life. But they do die on the same day of old age.
What if .... There was a soldier in Irag whose wife back home was about to give birth to twins. The soldier had requested some leave time, but his request was denied. The soldier goes back to his barracks and, with tears in his eyes, sends an email home to his wife telling her that if there had been any way possible, he would be there for birth of his twin sons. Meanwhile, back home, the wife is at the doctor's office sitting up on the exam table following her examination. The doctor tells her he thinks the twins will be born within 24 hours and asks if her husband will be present for the births. She tells him about the sad email. Noting her sadness, he tries to cheer her up with the idea that they could set up cameras and broadcast the event to her husband over the internet. She loves the idea and goes home with a hopeful heart. That evening, while putting groceies away, the wife's water breaks, signaling her labor. At the same time, her husband's commanding officer sends him to run an errand in town. The soldier gets in the jeep and heads for town, which is only five minutes away. The wife calls her sister and asks her to take her to the hospital. When she gets there, she's informed that they can't transmit to the base because the connections are down. The nurses discover that she is very close to delivery time, so they prep her, and take her to the delivery room. Meanwhile, the soldier in the jeep has come upon a riot in the town. As he brings the jeep to a halt, someone hurls a rock at him and knocks him out. The doctor comes into the delivery room and tells the wife how sorry he is that the transmission idea failed, but that they would still video tape the event for her husband to watch when he comes home. In the middle of the labor, the wife's husband quietly enters the room, smiling. She shows her surprise in her eyes, but can't say anything because she is pushing. Her husband holds her hand as the babies come out. The doctor lets out a gasp of surprise and says “The sonograms lied, you have a boy and a girl!” The wife lets go of her husband's hand to hold the babies while they cut the cords. In Iraq, another jeep with several soldiers arrive at the scene of the riot to help the unconscious soldier. As he begins to wake up, one of the other soldiers hands him a military phone and says “It's your wife sir, she has something to tell you.” He takes the phone, and asks his wife “how are you and our son and daughter doing?” She laughs and says “We are all fine, how did you know we had a girl?” “I was there, remember?” he replies. “Oh yeah, but I thought is was a dream.” she said. The soldier tells his wife he loves her, and that he'll be home in 3 months. The wife decides to not watch the video until her husband comes home. Three months later, they are sitting in the family room watching the birth video. To their amazement, the video reveals the wife holding a man's hand and they could see the camouflage shirt sleeve of the soldier.
Sorry this was so long. Once I started writing, it just came. Thanks for reading this experiment.
Simmie
