Jonesberry

Jonesberry is a kaleidoscope of sailing, surfing, shooting, Central and South American jungles, a generations-old South Carolina family, a beach house in a cow pasture, Spanish radio, Good Guys, Bad Guys, and a Led Zeppelin greatest hits cassette tape.

The Opening Shot

FADE IN to a sea gull perched on a fence post. Behind it: A field of sunflowers. The wind stirs, reminding the camera to move. It PANS across more sunflowers until finally we see a collapsed barn. Near the barn, the camera studies the big sailboat propped up on jacks (rust weeps down from fittings and portholes stare back worldly yet blank). Something large and dark nudges into the shot, blocking most of it. In temporary darkness caused by the blob, we notice music: The Willie Nelson/Ray Charles rendition of “Georgia.” The large dark thing steps away to reveal itself:  A big dumb cow. The camera follows the cow as it meanders across the shot. As the cow moves out of the scene, we home in on a beach house, up on stilts in the middle of the pasture. (Beach towels hang from the porch rails, drying, surfboards are propped up against the stilt and others lean against a tractor.) More big dumb cows dot the pasture surrounding the beach house. At last, we’ve come full circle …back to the sea gull on the fencepost. The wind stirs again and now the sea gull flies away. We follow the gull as it flies into the sun, blinding the lens into complete white out SOLARIZATION.

Cut to the GULL’s POV: As it flies up and away, we see the vast acres of pasture with its black cows and its white cows with large black spots standing in grass, chewing. We see the collapsed barn and the sailboat. We see the beach house – quirky and defiant — with enormous sails stretched out on the ground, drying. We see the surfboards and the tractor. As the gull flies further out, we notice a large black sedan parked, idling, on a side road overlooking the property. Inside are two men dressed in the dark suits and dark glasses of government-types. One holds a surveillance camera with very large zoom lens out the window, studying the beach house. The other is eating a HoneyBun, licking the sticky glaze off his fingers while trying not to spill the styro cup of black hot coffee with lots of sugar. Even the gull knows that these two are bad news in some way (in an inept, dull, bureaucratic, waste-of-your-tax-dollars way).

The Willie Nelson/Ray Charles rendition of “Georgia” has continued as the gull flies over to the dark sedan. It becomes louder as we follow the gull and zoom in on the car.

CUT to a closer shot of the two losers in the black car. The guy eating the sticky bun adjusts the volume on the recording device. In addition to Willie Nelson/Ray Charles singing “Georgia”, we now hear eggs and bacon frying in the background and other sounds of someone making breakfast. StickyBun guy then tries to clean the sticky StickyBun sugar off the volume setting button.

Next, we hear a man humming and singing along with Willie/Ray/“Georgia”, a little off key at times but happy with himself, and we hear more sounds of breakfast being made.

CUT TO the back porch of the beach house. There’s a table with bench seats, evidently removed from the sailboat because the table has raised, rounded “fiddle” edges and the benches are covered in a nautical motif fabric. A boom box on the table plays “Georgia.” Next to it are a large nautical chart, plotting tools and a Micro Uzi machine pistol with long black 50-round clip. A handful of loose rounds –bullets- are scattered on the table. A big white cat with large black spots is poking at one of the rounds. The camera gives us a CLOSE UP on the cat: written in red dye it says “DAIRY CAT.” …Weird, huh.

The cat sniffs one of the loose rounds, a 9mm, and finally bats it against the tabletop fiddle edges. The round flies off the table and hits the floor with a metallic clitter-clatter.

The camera is so close on the table and on the cat now that it sees only a hand (but little else of the person) come into the shot and sweep the cat off the table as a voice mutters “frikkin dairy cats!” and we watch a plate of eggs, bacon and grits fill the shot where the cat had been, followed by a Bloody Mary, loaded with a ridiculous amount garnishing of celery and olives. We watch a hand reach across the eggs to turnoff the radio, switching from “Georgia” to a CD that plays nothing but sounds from the shore: waves washing in along a beach. …Nothing more.

CUT TO inside the dark sedan where StickyBuns Man reaches over to fiddle with the volume, getting only static. Binoculars Man pulls the big camera into the car and takes his turn at the volume: static, static, squelch, then something that sounds faintly like waves washing in.

CUT TO a wider shot of the back porch of the beach house. The Dairy Cat is batting the 9mm round across the floor. Our Hero Dude, is seated at the yacht table eating breakfast, watching the black and cows, listening to the waves wash in. He wears a straw cowboy hat, red and yellow and orange Hawaiian shirt, green swim trunks and brown sandals. He keeps his eyes closed tightly because it intensifies the smells of bacon and eggs, the spicy cold Bloody Mary and gentle, easy familiar sounds of the seashore. He’s in his late forties but looks younger than that. He has a very dark tan, close beard and sandy brown hair. Handsome sucker.

Not until now do we notice his sunglasses are identical to those of Binoculars Man and Sticky Buns Man. Government issue.

CUT TO an exterior shot of the dark sedan. We’re about thirty feet away, shooting the car through a barbed wire fence. Binoculars Man absent-mindedly dangles the expensive binoculars out the window while leaning toward StickyBuns Man, fidgeting with the radio/recorder dials. “You’ve got it crudded up with sticky stuff,” he complains, in a spitting whisper through his teeth.

A cow wanders into the shot and fills it with a black blurry blob.

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Entries are added on Tuesdays and Thursdays –when I’m around.

The next entry in the story line is called The Colonel and The Albino and it has buttons to move forward or backward.

Once you’ve caught up, read the latest/additional entries by choosing the Dispatches page (where entries are presented with the newest on the top and oldest at the bottom).

Thanks for taking a look.