On Brexit

The year is 1999 and Pemulis, as every young man should, goes to Paris. There's something in the air of France that does a young man good. He'd asked previously, "can I go to Paris?" and they told him "no, you're not French". "Well what does it matter?" Pemulis asked. It's just the ways things are. But he goes to Paris and he lives in a small apartment.

The year is 2003 and Pemulis goes to England. Ay, marry, was he sent to England? No he just wanted to go; he asked before, "can I go to England?" and they told him "no, you're not English". "Why does that matter?" Pemulis asked. It's best if we just stay where we come from. But anyways he goes to England and the people there don't seem so different.

Now it's 2012 and Pemulis goes to France. To the mountains. They said "you can't work in France, it's for French people". And he asked "why not?". They said "it's the law". But he goes to Grenoble and he visits the mountains and he goes to work. He travels through France and visits Spain. He goes to Switzerland and takes the train to Belgium. He drives to Italy. Everywhere people are different but the same. The food is different but it's also the same. The languages are different but the people understand each other. He takes a plane to Munich and Pemulis and Joelle decide to go live there.

And so it's 2013 and Pemulis and Joelle go to Germany. To the south. Again to the Alps. They said "but you don't speak German". And they said "we will learn". Then it's 2015 and a warm November and Helga arrives in the English Garden. One day she asks "Papa, can I go to Austria?". Pemulis tells her she can go wherever she wants. "But will the people be different?" she asks. "Everybody is different, but the same." "What does that mean?" "It means that being different is good, but we're never so different from each other that we can't live together and get along". "Good," she says, "because I was going to go anyways."

Canadian Heat Wave [S1E3]

INT. RURAL FARM - DAY

The CAMERA TRACKS slowly down a dusty dirt road. The sun shines brightly and there is a light wind rustling the leaves in the trees and the overgrown grass on the sides of the road. What must be at least 40 FARM VEHICLES begin to appear on the horizon. Old trucks, new combines, tractors, ATVs, even a BIG BOAT sits in a modern-looking barn.

A parked PICKUP TRUCK comes into view in front of a HOUSE with a SHELBY MUSTANG GT-350 in the garage. We see hints of cats and there is a brand new BBQ in front of the garage. A BLACK DOG waits eagerly waging his tail.

CUT TO:

INT. SUBARU WAGON (MOVING)

The SUBARU is approaching the HOUSE. In the front seat are a WOMAN driving and a MAN sleeping in the passenger seat. The WOMAN is called GRANDMA S and the MAN is called PEMULIS. In the back there is a YOUNG WOMAN sitting next to a BABY in a car seat. The YOUNG WOMAN is JOELLE and the baby is HELGA. HELGA is sleeping and JOELLE is close to sleep herself. The trunk is filled with suitcases and it seems clear that PEMULIS, JOELLE, and HELGA have traveled to the farm.

The SUBARU comes to a stop and GRANDMA S kills the engine, silencing a 1960's Rock Opera. GRANDMA S looks relieved.

GRANDMA S

We're here!

PEMULIS stirs and opens a single eyelid. 

PEMULIS

Nice BBQ GRANDMA S!

GRANDMA S

Ya, K-FED built that for you when he was here yesterday. We're having NY steaks tonight with cold beer. I hope it's OK that the beer is ice cold?

PEMULIS

Fine by me.

JOELLE snaps out of her almost-slumber and gazes lovingly up at PEMULIS in the front seat. She looks at HELGA who is still sleeping. Everyone starts getting out of the SUBARU. The DOG goes crazy.

CUT TO:

INT. HOUSE - STILL DAY

There is a man, GRANDPA S, sitting on the couch drinking a BEER and watching a CAR RACE. Inside the HOUSE it is clear that they are having some RENOVATIONS done; the WINDOW TRIM is not finished, and there is a giant SILO that could one day be a STAIR CASE and above it an additional room. The rest of the FAMILY enters from outside. 

CUT TO:

CREDIT SEQUENCE:

"CANADIAN HEAT WAVE"

The song BUNKBEDS by HAYDEN is playing just because. This SCREENPLAY abruptly ends because it turns out that it takes forever to write like this.

The year when summer never arrived

In the year when summer never arrived we were living in a one-bedroom apartment beside the train tracks that looked across the trees to the cemetery. The leaves were vividly green from all the rain and the dust that we were used to seeing lifted up by the trains was only mud in the ruts of the railroad ties. Sometimes the sun would appear for moments at a time and the children would race outside to feel its warmth on their skin. One day a family set up a picnic table and a BBQ with cold beer for the parents and ice cream cones for the children. The rain never stopped that day and the men drank their beer on the terrace hiding from the rain while the children cried and, well, they mostly cried.

The shallow river, normally lazily running through the city, its banks spotted with sunbathers and young people playing games and enjoying the weather, dogs jumping in with children at their sides, smoke from hand-made grills wafting in the air, and smooth pebbles in the river bank shining brightly in the afternoon sun, was instead a deep, ravenous, white-water body hurrying its way angrily through the grey city, its banks devoid of life other than upset crows squawking at the never-ending rain. At times the rising waters would take another long-forgotten bicycle from the receding riverbank and swallow it whole.

The winds howled that year. It is said that a man was killed instantly when at his family's insistence he attempted to make his way through the rainstorm to the corner Rewe and purchase some Bratwurst to be boiled on the stove. Another man was wounded in hatred as he screamed to the skies demanding God to explain what he hath wrought. I knew a woman who lost her parents when against all reason they tried to go for a walk in the Ostpark. The floods had taken all the deer's food and the once-docile animals had seen only blood and survival in the last moments of the elderly couple's lives.

Offices and stores and businesses of all kind shuttered their doors and turned away their employees. The customers weren't arriving and the banks had been swallowed whole by the Earth itself, taking all the workers' pay down towards the depths of Hell where the weather for the season landing between Spring and Fall had been sent from in the year when summer never arrived. A small bird landed on my shoulder one day and suddenly viciously attacked my ear. Ever since that day I have no longer been able to hear the cries of my young daughter. So the year wasn't all bad...