Post by Sam Kidsgrove on Feb 28, 2021 7:06:10 GMT -5
I’m Sorry for your loss
By: S Kidsgrove
Written by: S Kidsgrove
FADE IN
GREENVIEW MUNICIPAL CEMETERY - DAY
Rain pours down on an assembled group of mourners. A child sized coffin is being lowered into the ground, sent off by heartbroken parents and family. At the back of the mourning group stands SAM KIDSGROVE, sombre man of the people and Hollywood A-List legend, he’s flanked by ZOOEY DESCHANEL, dreamgirl and the other half of the Hollywood A List couple. They watch in silent respect, Zooey dabbing tears away from her face with tissue, Kidsgrove clenching his jaw, trying hard to not show how much this also affects him.
The coffin is lowered and the priest says his final words, the congregation starts to thin out, paying their respects to the family at the graveside before they do so. Kidsgrove and Zooey wait until most people have paid their respects before they make their way to the grave.
They catch up with the parents as everyone else leaves, leaving them the last 4 mourners on site.
KIDSGROVE
We’re sorry for your loss.
Kidsgrove shakes the hand of the father as Zooey hugs the mother, then Kidsgrove hugs the mother. She is appreciative. Kidsgrove looks at the tombstone.
“Here lies Thaddy McFatty. Lil TFK. May he fly with the stars and laugh with the angels.”
MRS MCFATTY
He was such a good child. He loved you. And Shadow, and TFK. I’m glad you could come. He was proud to know that you were there for him, till the end. He kept bragging about it to all his friends, y’know? I’m a friend of Sam Kidsgrove, he used to tell everyone.
KIDSGROVE
Yeah. He was such a good kid. He’ll be a loss to everyone.
MRS MCFATTY
You were his inspiration you know? He said if you could do everything you do through your disease, why can’t he do what he wants?
KIDSGROVE
Funny, that. He was my inspiration, the reason why I wanted to help others. He was my beacon of hope. In my line of work you meet a lot of people, it’s rare that you meet someone who’s so special and so brilliant that their star shines so brightly, enough for you to wake up and change your reason for being you know? Thaddy, well, he was one of the two people that’s done that to me. The first is standing right next to me.
Zooey fishes out a gift wrapped package from her handbag, a small box. She hands it to Kidsgrove.
KIDSGROVE
I was going to give Thaddy this when I saw him this week, a little token to remind him that no matter how tough things got, someone was always there to help him.
MRS MCFATTY
He deteriorated so quickly, I’m sorry we couldn’t let you know sooner.
KIDSGROVE
Don’t apologise for that, the thing that matters is you and your family were there. That’s what he’ll have wanted. I’m just glad I could help him and you guys when he needed it.
Kidsgrove hands Mrs McFatty the box.
KIDSGROVE
Wanda, whatever your family needs, let me know. Take this token, I know from experience how hard these moments are right now, I hope that this helps you and gives you comfort just as much as it would have Thaddy.
Mrs McFatty starts to cry and brings in Kidsgrove for an almighty bear hug. Mr McFatty signals to her that they have to go.
MRS MCFATTY
The car is ready, we’re going to the wake now. Are you coming?
KIDSGROVE
If you don’t mind, I’ll catch up.
She puts on a week smile, kisses him on the cheek. She turns to Zooey.
MRS MCFATTY
This is a good man, you take care of each other OK?
Zooey just nods, tears in her eyes as she hugs the McFattys one by one.
After they leave, Zooey and Sam look down to the grave. Zooey slips her hand into Kidsgrove’s and leans her head on his shoulder.
DESCHANEL
What is it with this date?
KIDSGROVE
Yeah. First mum, then Bishop and lil Thad? Next year, let’s get away to Cancun or something.
Kidsgrove squats near the tombstone. He puts his hand on the slab and looks down to the coffin below. He grabs a small handful of dirt and drops it onto the coffin.
KIDSGROVE
Rest easy my friend, you will be sorely missed. Life was taken away from you way too quickly and I am sorry this happened to you. I really am. I’ll miss our chats and your pep talks about how I should approach matches and, well life really. You lived free and happy, despite your condition and that should be an inspiration to everyone you met. Hell it was to me. I just hope to accomplish in life everything you hoped and wished I could be. I say I’m a beacon of hope to people, and that’s only because I was borrowing off of your light. Your joy and happiness sustained me, inspired me and made me a better man. So my little friend, I’ll miss you.
LONG SHOT TRANSITION
FADE TO
INT - SAM KIDSGROVE’S CAR - NIGHT
Kidsgrove and Zooey are travelling home, the mood is sad, but they’ve just celebrated someone’s life so they are also wistful.
DESCHANEL
You OK?
KIDSGROVE
Yeah, just thinkin.
DESCHANEL
Can I help?
KIDSGROVE
With thinkin?
DESCHANEL
With listening, dufus.
KIDSGROVE
Sorry for your loss.
DESCHANEL
Er, thanks?
KIDSGROVE
Nah, I’m thinking, sorry for your loss. It’s one of those things Mrs McFatty must have heard a million times today. Yet it doesn’t mean anything from most people, right? It’s just a thing people say at funerals. I never understood that. Last year they were queuing up to say it to me for it seems like months.
DESCHANEL
You said it tonight.
KIDSGROVE
Yeah, it’s weird though. I am genuinely sorry for her loss, for everyone who knew the kid. But when you say it, it sounds like empty platitudes. 5 words to convey your sorrow to someone? Not enough.
Hell, it sounds like something someone says in a promo. I’m sorry for your loss. A cocksure overconfident jackass who decides to use that phrase to talk his opponents down in a snarky passive aggressive fashion before he’s even had the chance to measure the man.
Sounds like something Howard Black would say, to be honest. I can picture it now, him standing there somewhere talking shit about someone and starting with “sorry for your loss” because one of their family died but he actually means the loss in the match this weekend. I mean he really is one hell of a piece of work.
Imagine being angry after a hall of fame worthy year, imagine being angry because someone tried to help your family, imagine being angry when someone called your future ages ago and you had the chance to change your ways but got sent packing by your family so now you have to try and insert yourself into an awkward home wrecking situation with Spencer Adams and Lissie Hope.
Imagine all that happening but then having the gall to be angry with the one guy who tried to warn you and help you stop the slide because they saw it coming. If there’s anyone he should be angry with, it’s himself. I mean honestly, all he had to do is put his pride away for 5 minutes, look at himself and realise that my warnings were nothing but genuine. I know on Sunday, at Battlebowl I’ve got a target on my back from the likes of him, for having the absolute nerve to care about what happens to him and his family. There is no legislating for the pride and vanity of a desperate man though, right?
Hell, I probably don’t need to worry about him anyway. If Spence has any smarts about him, he’d see what’s going on and at Battlebowl Howie won’t have time to worry about me, Spence would take care of his short sighted ass. Spence is a legend in this business, he’s one of the best, he’s the hot ticket favourite to win this, then go and win Havoc and be the guy to finally knock Ash Blake off of her perch. Spence can do it, he’s the one who has it all.
Except for the ultimate affection of Lissie, I guess. It’s a shame, he’s nothing but a loyal, kind natured stand up kinda guy. He helped Lissie through everything she went through, he’s still there for her now and she’s being preyed upon by the guy who didn’t even bother to keep his own house in order, but Spence will probably be too nice to do anything about it. If he doesn’t win this it will purely be down to that kind of shit, yeah he’s a good guy and loyal, he can be vicious when he wants but, y’know, so can puppies. I saw all this, that he’s the favourite and whatnot, but it’s all so razor thin that all it’ll take for him to lose is to let his guard down once around that predator Howie for one moment, hell if he does it against any of us he’ll feel it.
Especially if one of those snakes from the following see a weakness.I mean come on, it’s supposed to be every man for himself and you got these three in the ring together, working their asses off to get that budget cut Pete Davidson the win? Fuckin’ Dandy, he always ruins everything. You weren’t around before, when I went to war with that shithawk. It was horrible, he was the worst person imaginable to fight. He fought like a hellcat and was twice as vicious, the problem wasn’t that though - I’ve fought dangerous people before, the problem was his brain is so smooth he’s an unpredictable piece of filth that just doesn’t quit. So quite why Phoenix, an actual intelligent human being who’s not constantly off his face is a part of his little group is a mystery to me. Kemp, I can kind of get. He’s always been slightly nuts. He’s always been one to find a pit bull and hitch himself to another guy’s star, but Phoenix?
Either way, the three of them together in the ring causes a huge problem for the rest of us. It’s every man for himself but you just know that’ll only apply to these three after they get rid of everyone else. We know that these snakes will do what it takes for one of them to win, hell we all win. So I don’t begrudge them for it, when I was riding with Thaddy and Shadow we did the same, it’s part and parcel of the gig. The only difference with us and them is that, for all our faults, none of us were Dandy.
Phoenix should know better though, he should know with his history that there has never been any good that’s come from trusting someone so chaotic, so fucked up, so dense as Dandy or so devious and snake oil as Kemp. I mean hell, last time he trusted someone wasn’t he accused of murder or some shit? Not that murder is a bad thing nowadays, I mean it’s just prime time TV top of the slot shit right?
Kidsgrove sighs in resignation of how a talented guy like CJ Phoenix can fall so low.
KIDSGROVE
I guess they’re each other’s insurance policies, if one wins, they all win right?
DESCHANEL
I guess, kinda like how Bull was yours.
KIDSGROVE
Bull wasn’t so much an insurance policy, sure we made sure we looked out for each other when we faced down the people in the tournament, but at the end of the day we both knew that when it came down to it, it was just a mandatory pairing that we had to make the best of. We’re not friends though, I was half expecting Frank to force Bull to turn on me at any point during those matches, but I guess his end game involves something more.
Bull is a dangerous man you know, you don’t ever wanna get on the wrong side of him. The shit he did with Shaw back in the day, well we’ve talked about it before and you saw the fear in Shaw’s eyes and you saw first hand how desperate Shaw was during our match last week. If that doesn’t tell you everything there is to know about how scary dangerous Bull can be I don’t know what does.
Shaw only picked up the win because, yet again, someone else did the dirty work for him and he just took advantage of the situation. I had the monster down, I had him beat, but Shaw bided his time and got the 3 count. It’s happened to me before, it’ll happen again, there’s always those people who are opportunistic. They are smart in a way, but eventually that shit comes back on them. If you spend most of your time running away, eventually you’re gonna get caught and you won’t have any answers. Well, after he loses the insurance policy he holds in his hands at least. Granted, as we’ve said before he’s not going to use it in the current climate, but it’s there, just in case. So why would he need to do well here, why would he need to win at Havoc when he’s got the ultimate title shot in his hands anyway? Personal pride? A sense of accomplishment? Nah that’s not it, he gave away his personal pride and a sense of accomplishment when he became a corporate shill to a soulless organisation. Maybe the end game is to block every avenue for anyone to get at Ash. You saw the chaos that was caused by her goons at the end of Clash. She just sat in the middle of it, untouched while everyone set at each other. That’s her goal right there, get Carter to be her big assed linebacker so she can never be challenged by anyone. If he holds the briefcase and wins at Havoc then she doesn’t even get a challenger - all roads are blocked.
At the end of it all though, it doesn’t matter what Carter Shaw does and doesn’t do with the briefcase to me, it doesn’t affect us, it’s a non factor in our plan, something that doesn’t take us away from our path. None of it matters really.
DESCHANEL
It doesn’t matter?
KIDSGROVE
Nah, I mean at any one point life can be taken away from you at the snap of a finger, at any point you can just disappear from this life, whether you’re 8 or 80 - it doesn’t matter. When your time comes it comes. We just have to do what we can with the time we get given. Lil Thaddy showed me that. I could have a bad accident in a fight one day, or get broken beyond repair by the likes of Harrison, who knows?
This is why I’m going to go out there at Battlefield in the Battlebowl and leave everything I have in that ring. Yeah, Spence may be the favourite, but there’s a chance a vindictive Howard Black might strike, yeah the whole of the following might just be watching each other’s backs, Kemp has his insurance policy but is still scared as all hell over Bull and Bull might just be a little pissed he got pinned by Kemp last week.
I don’t have any distractions, I have no insurance policies. This is my chance to make a change in this company, to win battlebowl and move on to Havoc as one of the favourites. Hell I don’t have that long left in the business, so why not go out there and leave it all out? Why not go out there and make a difference? I mean if I can just literally be snapped out of existence just like that. It makes sense, right?
DESCHANEL
Not exactly, you do have a family now, remember?
TRANSITION TO
McFatty residence, Mrs McFatty and Mr McFatty have finally returned home after an emotionally charged day. The tears are over for now, they can start to piece their lives together again. Mrs McFatty sighs and goes into her purse to get some headache tablets as she flomps onto the sofa. She fishes out the package Kidsgrove and Zooey gave her. She opens the package and opens the jewellery box contained within. There’s a note, written in the careful handwriting of Sam Kidsgrove.
“Dear Wanda and Keith.
Allow me to express just how wonderful it was to know your son, ever since I granted his wish with Shadowlove, the young man has brought joy to my life and became my beacon of hope in this world of darkness. The world will not be the same without his light. Remember, you’re not alone in this, that Zooey and I are here for the entire McFatty family. I wanted to give Thaddy this personally but alas, our time drew short far too quickly.
This coin is my first sobriety token from my AA meetings. It’s been in my living room for years as a constant reminder that whenever I need help and whenever I need guidance there is always someone, somewhere ready to listen and act. I want you to have it as a reminder of the bond we share through Thaddy and, if you ever need anything from us, we are there for you as family.
I know what you’re thinking, don’t worry about me. I have something new to remind myself to stay humble, seek guidance and act with love.
We’ll see you as soon as you’re ready, but until then, as little Thaddy would say “stay safe, live life, keep on going as long as you’re allowed to.”
Yours in Love
Sam and Zooey.”
FADE OUT
END