Chapter 1 - Memories

(Present time - Two Years - One Month and 23 Days Later)

* It was Sunday – February 29th 2004 1:30pm Somewhere in England, the scene zooms in on garden … closer to a person sitting in a swing … and then to Miss Parkers face. She could feel the sun warming her skin. 

* Still shaken up from all the unexpected life changes that threw her so incredibly off balance.  She is not the same person now… A dazed look on her face as memory after memory flashed through her mind … the volume was turning down, even the barking dog and chatter in the background faded into white noise …

* She fades to the past. The sounds in the garden fall silent but inside her mind voices are yelling …  “You’re killing him! Jarod is dying! He is dead! …

 
* She remember back to what she called “the 30 days of Hell”  Her memories bounced uncontrollably from one thought to the next. Flashes of drowning Underwater, explosions, people, words, fire, bubbles and helplessly reaching for the surfac.

As her mind jumped from memory to memory she kept murmuring

“It’s only been two years!”

* Her mind was still in turmoil … as she shifted between memories,  She didn’t know if she was going forward or backward…  In another memory she was on a couch, crying to a psychiatrist … date unknown.

THE DOCTOR:
“Lay down Miss Parker, this trauma may take a few years for you to sort out …  Take your time”

* She fades back to another memory … Murmuring the sound

MISS PARKER:
“DADDY”

MISS PARKER:
“I don’t care about the truth about my father, or Director of the Centre or call just Mr. Parker …  To me he will always be my daddy! Daddy, what did you do?”
“Why did you leave me … It has only been two years …”

* She asks herself “When did this all start? “ Her mind jumped to another painful memory …  the last time she set foot in the Centre; two years ago… she twitched as her mind jumped back to that time …

* (The Broken Gates of Hell)

* Wednesday - February 20th, 2002 - 10:02 am (Day 30) Miss Parker was now in the hot seat … SHE was the one being questioned … A dark room, dark faces but only one voice asking questions, she had already been there for over 2 hours with still more questions needing answers …

VOICE 1:

“What else happened … Miss Parker?”

MISS PARKER:
“You should know … aren’t you proud of how you manipulated your programmed soldiers? … They built that great bomb … It blew up…  It blew up everything!”

VOICE 1:
“Where is Jarod?”

MISS PARKER:
“Jarod is dead! I watched him die!”

VOICE 1:
“How about all the others?

MISS PARKER:
“No one survived … everyone died! Destroyed everything … I barely escaped the explosion with my life!”

VOICE 1:
“How did you survive?”

MISS PARKER:
“I am a Parker or at least what is left of us, why am I still here?

* The stress took its toll. The Great Miss Parker started to break. Her composure shattered. Too much has happened …

MISS PARKER:
“I can’t take this anymore. I can’t function another day here …it is time for me to go… Daddy promised me … It’s on Record … I had a deal with my father your chair-person... that once Jarod is returned or killed, I will be able to leave The Centre for good, on my own terms! Directives, you said, once implemented, cannot be reversed … He has been brought back twice and now he is dead …Why are you keeping me here? You are KILLING ME. LET ME OUT OF HERE!”

VOICE 1:
“Do you have anything else to report?”

* A teary eyed Miss Parker regains her composure, took a long puff on her cigarette and said:

MISS PARKER:
“NO!”

VOICE 1:
“You can wait outside … while we go over your statements”

*Waiting outside, you could see her wounds still fresh, cuts on her face, bruises on her shoulder, neck, hands and body… all remembrances from the last 30 days of hell she just barely lived through…she popped a pain pill into her mouth, lit another cigarette and puts her hand to her head. Sitting there seemed like another painful eternity. Her fate now in the hands of “the committee”, but she was too numb to even care! Inside that room all the secret members with unseen faces debated.

VOICE 1:
“Well?”

VOICE 2:
“She is telling the truth, we detected slight variation with her emotions responses, but that is to be expected with the trauma she has been through, she won’t last, not in her shape!’

VOICE 3:
“How can we let her go? There are no more Parkers to take charge right now!”

VOICE 2:
“We voted … The Unbreakable Directive, the Law is valid, once she captures Jarod or he is Killed, We have to! Let her go”

VOICE 4:
“What of the prophecy, the scrolls, what are we going to do about THE CENTRE?”

VOICE 1:
“There is still the other path. It will take a little longer but The Bloodline will continue … and The Centre Will Rise again, The Chosen will be found! What say
you? …Yes/No... VOTE!”

ALL VOICES: (Voting one at a time)

“Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes”

* 10:39 am – The speaker nods to one of the sweepers who immediately turned and walked out. Miss Parker was summoned and escorted in.

VOICE 1:
“Sit down … Miss Parker”

MISS PARKER:
“I’d rather stand!”

VOICE 1 CONTINUES:
“As you wish. The committee has recognized your statements and acknowledges that the directive is valid. Your work is done here. You can leave on your own terms anytime!”

* Her face went blank. Was she terrified, happy, uncertain, frightened or relieved? Her knees became weak and almost gave out, but she would never give them any satisfaction or show of gratitude compared to all the pain she suffered.

She just stepped back, turned around … and walked out … never to return…

* Sunday – February 29th, 2004 – 1:50 pm (Present time) Miss Parker awoke from her vivid memories just as her dog came running up to her and sat at her feet. She took a few deep breaths, looks down and started talking to her dog …

MISS PARKER
“Of all the things that happened over two years ago… the good, the bad, the ugly and tormenting… What are my redeeming memories … There has to be some … there has to be at least one …

Yes … Yes, (she smiles) …. There is … it’s you! (She hugged her dog so lovingly!)  “It’s only been two years … it’s only been two years …”

* Her memories started to jump again … this time to a more painful time ... Something she tried, so desperately, for the last two years to forget … “The 30 days of Hell” … but then she stopped and thought … that was only the beginning of it… the cause was much deeper … it really all started when my Daddy disappeared … and the day HE took over!