{"id":2067,"date":"2011-12-07T10:32:06","date_gmt":"2011-12-07T15:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=2067"},"modified":"2012-07-15T20:11:22","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T00:11:22","slug":"head-chef-by-shannon-casey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/head-chef-by-shannon-casey\/","title":{"rendered":"Head Chef by Shannon Casey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

EXT. CHINATOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL – EARLY MORNING<\/p>\n

HEAD CHEF (40s) Asian male sits on a park bench in his work clothes – stained chef hat and apron. He listens to the sound of school children frolicking about in a school yard. Head Chef\u2019s in a numbing daze.<\/p>\n

EXT. CHINATOWN RESTAURANT<\/p>\n

A crappy Chinese restaurant is suffocated by surrounding competing business complexes.<\/p>\n

INT. CHINESE RESTAURANT KITCHEN<\/p>\n

NAGGING WAITRESS (Late 20s) shouts and waves a plate full of food at Head Chef.<\/p>\n

NAGGING WAITRESS
\n(Mandarin)
\nIt\u2019s too oily! It\u2019s too oily! It\u2019s always too oily!<\/p>\n

She drops the dish full of oily food onto the counter \u2013 THUMP resonates.<\/p>\n

NAGGING WAITRESS (CONT\u2019D)
\nThey\u2019ll never leave a good tip with all this oil! Do it over!<\/p>\n

Head Chef lethargically grabs ingredients from here and there. He fires up the wok – noodles, chicken, soy sauce. Waitress mutters indecencies under her breath while she hawk eyes his every movement.<\/p>\n

EXT. BACK ALLEY WAY<\/p>\n

It\u2019s break time. Some play on their phones, others read the paper. A small group play a game called, \u201cWho can toss the quarter closest to the brick building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cigarette dangles off Head Chef\u2019s mouth. He\u2019s not even smoking it.<\/p>\n

Quarter bounces off building and onto the cement. Sound resonates in Head Chef\u2019s ear drum.<\/p>\n

CO-WORKER
\n(Mandarin)
\nGot a quarter old timer?<\/p>\n

Co-worker waves his hand in front of the Chef\u2019s face. He doesn\u2019t see him.<\/p>\n

CO-WORKER (CONT\u2019D)
\nHey, old timer? You\u2019re not dying are you?<\/p>\n

Head Chef wakes up from his daze.<\/p>\n

CO-WORKER (CONT\u2019D)
\nGot a quarter?<\/p>\n

He digs into his pockets and pulls out some spare change. He hands him a quarter.<\/p>\n

Co-worker rejoins the game. Head Chef wipes his face with his stone fingers. His wrinkles are well defined.<\/p>\n

Something catches his eyes. Amongst the spare change in this hand he notices – A WEDDING BAND.<\/p>\n

He just stares at it empty, then returns it into his pants pocket.<\/p>\n

INT. KITCHEN<\/p>\n

Worker barges in and shouts an order. Head chef fires wok. He throws in ingredients. He slides food onto dish. He rings bell. Worker takes dish out. Another worker barges in and shouts an order, and another one and another one and another one and another one. Head Chef repeats this routine over and over and over and over and over again.<\/p>\n

INT. BAR AREA<\/p>\n

Workers eat. They talk amongst themselves and watch the television.<\/p>\n

Head Chef watches his wedding band spin on the bar counter. Just before it stops spinning he slams his hand down on top of it. He spins it again and repeats the process.<\/p>\n

INT. KITCHEN<\/p>\n

Water sprouts out of the faucet. Head Chef cleans his area.<\/p>\n

Nagging Waitress sticks a hand full of cash out to him. He doesn\u2019t even notice her. She waves the money in front of him. He\u2019s still in a daze, numb and blind to everything around him.<\/p>\n

Annoyed she sets the money down on the counter. She pins a bowl on top of it and walks away.<\/p>\n

Steam gushes from beneath the dishwasher. Workers clean up. Some do prep work for the next day.<\/p>\n

INT. DEEP FREEZER<\/p>\n

Head Chef opens the door on a floor worker weeping quietly by himself. Head Chef puts away vegetables. He doesn\u2019t see him there.<\/p>\n

INT. KITCHEN<\/p>\n

Nagging waitress comes by and steals a couple dollars from Head Chef\u2019s share which still rests underneath the bowl.<\/p>\n

INT. DEEP FREEZER<\/p>\n

Sniffles resonates in Head Chef\u2019s eardrum. They make eye contact. It\u2019s the first time we see the Head Chef make eye contact with anyone in the film. Tears crawl down the worker\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

INT. KITCHEN<\/p>\n

Nagging waitress cautiously looks around. She takes some more of the Head Chef\u2019s tip money.<\/p>\n

INT. DEEP FREEZER<\/p>\n

Head Chef takes a seat next to him.<\/p>\n

The Worker\u2019s very young.<\/p>\n

YOUNG WORKER
\n(Mandarin)
\nLast time I saw her, I was thirteen
\nyears old. I\u2019m twenty six now.<\/p>\n

His lips move, but nothing comes out.<\/p>\n

YOUNG WORKER (CONT\u2019D)
\nShe died Sunday.<\/p>\n

Head Chef clears his throat.<\/p>\n

HEAD CHEF
\nWho?<\/p>\n

YOUNG WORKER
\n(Beat)
\nMy mother.<\/p>\n

He tries his best to hold back the pain.<\/p>\n

Head Chef uncomfortably searches for a place to rest his hand on him – to console him. His hand never finds his way to the young worker\u2019s back.<\/p>\n

YOUNG WORKER (CONT\u2019D)
\nI couldn\u2019t afford to fly home and see her one last time.<\/p>\n

Head Chef nods.<\/p>\n

YOUNG WORKER (CONT\u2019D)
\nThey buried her today.<\/p>\n

Pain pours out of the young worker.<\/p>\n

INT. KITCHEN<\/p>\n

Nagging waitress takes some more of the Head Chef\u2019s money which she originally gave him.<\/p>\n

INT. DEEP FREEZER<\/p>\n

They both sit there numb, empty.<\/p>\n

YOUNG WORKER
\nIt doesn\u2019t get easier does it?<\/p>\n

For the first time Head Chef makes eye contact with someone in the film. Tears fill his eyes.<\/p>\n

HEAD CHEF
\nNo.<\/p>\n

Young Worker nods and looks away.<\/p>\n

Head Chef gets an idea. He leaves.<\/p>\n

INT. KITCHEN<\/p>\n

Head Chef takes the remaining dollars left under the bowl.<\/p>\n

INT. DEEP FREEZER<\/p>\n

Head Chef returns with two bills and a box of matches. He hands a dollar to the young worker. He sparks a match.<\/p>\n

He lights the dollar on fire and watches it as it burns in his hand.<\/p>\n

Young worker looks at the Chef, then at the burning dollar, then back at the Chef.<\/p>\n

At first, Young worker doesn\u2019t get it. Nevertheless, he does the same. Young Worker follows the traveling flame.<\/p>\n

CLOSE UP on the Chef. A tiny crevice of a smile forms. He breathes it in.<\/p>\n

For a tiny moment, a false<\/em> moment… Head Chef enjoys his victory. They both do. Young worker sucks in his tears.<\/p>\n

YOUNG WORKER
\nGoodbye Mom.<\/p>\n

He sighs. They stare at each other, nod and smile.<\/p>\n

INT. KITCHEN<\/p>\n

Nagging waitress searches for the remainder of the money. She looks under the bowl. She\u2019s confused. She searches around and then looks under the bowl again.<\/p>\n

INT. DEEP FREEZER<\/p>\n

Head Chef and Young Worker burn more bills.<\/p>\n

In pops the Nagging Waitress. She bellows out a painful whimper.<\/p>\n

NAGGING WAITRESS
\n(Mandarin)
\nWhat are you doing? Have you gone mad?<\/p>\n

She rips the burning bills out of their hands. She tries to put out the flame before it\u2019s too late. She\u2019s hysterical and nearly to tears. It\u2019s as if she lost a loved one – her very own child even.<\/p>\n

Head Chef and Young Worker watch her desperation and empathize. Young Worker rests her hand on her shoulder. She smacks it away with disgust.<\/p>\n

NAGGING WAITRESS (CONT\u2019D)
\nWhat\u2019s wrong with you! You could have given it to me! You should have
\ngiven it to me!<\/p>\n

Head Chef and Young Worker look at each other and let out a deep sigh.<\/p>\n

The brief moment of victory is over.<\/p>\n

EXT. CHINATOWN<\/p>\n

Head Chef listens to the sound of school children frolicking about in a school yard. Head Chef\u2019s in a numbing daze.<\/p>\n

—-<\/em><\/p>\n

About the Author<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Shannon Casey is an emerging screenwriter, novelist and poet. He studied literature and film at\u00a0Hunter\u00a0College\u00a0and\u00a0New York\u00a0University. He has written pieces for several indie film production companies both domestic and foreign. He is an active member of the\u00a0New York City\u00a0literary and film communities. He is currently working on a supernatural thriller entitled God Talks to Mommy. For more on Shannon Casey please go to his website\u00a0www.sites.google.com\/site\/shannonkowriting<\/wbr><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EXT. CHINATOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL – EARLY MORNING HEAD CHEF (40s) Asian male sits on a park bench in his work clothes – stained chef hat and apron. He listens to the sound of school children frolicking about in a school yard. Head Chef\u2019s in a numbing daze. EXT. CHINATOWN RESTAURANT A crappy Chinese restaurant is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,200,219],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2067"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3228,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions\/3228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}