INT. karen in psychiatrists office - mid day
Karen is leaning back in a brown leather chair staring at the ceiling.
KAREN
I feel like my heart is missing. It's only been a day without the medicine and my chest just feels hollow again.
PSYCHIATRIST
You are just thinking to hard about it. You've done this for two years.
KAREN
But this time it feels real...
The psychiatrist just nods his head and doodles on his paper. He is scetching Karen with devil horns and a pitchfork.
PSYCHIATRIST
Here. I'm sure this'll help.
He hands her another prescription slip. Karen rises up in her chair quickly and anxiously.
INT. KAREN At RANDY'S PRESCRIPTIONS CENTER
Karen walks up to the counter and hands the slip to the lady with the name tag Sheryl. Smacking her gum loudly she speaks in a very unpleasant tone.
SHERYL
Would that be it?
Karen nods politely with uneasiness. The woman appears back at the desk with the bottle that says "Milligrams" on it. Karen takes the bottle in her hand delicately. She opens the bottle and takes out a pill. On the pill it says “How to feel again” in tiny black letters. She takes it and shakes it by her ear.
KAREN
Where is the ladies room?
Sheryl points to the back of the store
INT. KAREN IN THE LADIES ROOM
Karen looks at herself in the mirror. She opens the bottle and looks at the pill again. She whispers while reading the pill.
KAREN
How to feel again...
She hears a knock
KAREN
Just a minute.
She slips the bottle in her coat pocket
EXT. KAREN MEETS THE ACTIVIST
In the parking lot Karen spots a female activist marching with a sign in her hand screaming the words of the sign
ACTIVIST
Love is not essential. Love is not pure. Love is the disease that makes us impure.
She stops shouting with the sight of Karen.
ACTIVIST
You taking those meds to make your heart feel stronger?
Karen gives a cold look.
KAREN
Actually, I think I lost my heart a long time ago...
ACTIVIST
Good. That's what you get.
The activist continues to yell and march in circles. Karen walks a little further down the sidewalk and sees a clump of trash, digs around in her coat pocket and throws the bottle in the pile of trash on the ground.
EXT. THE BAND OF GREENERS
Twenty minutes later a group of environmentalist called, “The Band of Greeners” walk down the sidewalk with trash bags to clean up the sidewalks. Kevin, part of the group, finds Karen’s prescription bottle. He picks it up out of the trash. It reads,
kevin
Hm. Milligrams? Karen Rosenbloom. 4203 Pacific Ave SE, Olympia, WA, 98513.
He puts the bottle in his pocket and continues on cleaning.
EXT. KAREN SEES THE MOTHER ON THE BUS STOP BENCH
Karen strolls down the street and sees a lady holding a new born baby on a bus stop bench. Karen stops and sits next to the lady.
KAREN
How many months is she?
the mother
Six months. Just enough to have a heavy heart beat I can hear to reassure me she has a heart.
Karen's eyes grow wide and she looks down at the baby's chest. She sees the heart of the baby beating through her clothes. She feels at her chest and runs down the street to her home.
INT. KAREN IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR
Karen runs through her front door. She runs to the lifesize mirror in her bedroom. She rips open her shirt and there is a small wooden door on her chest with a key hole. She knocks on her chest pointing her ear towards the door. A hollow knock echoes for a minute. The house phone rings but she doesnt answer it. Karens voice recorder begins to play
KAREN
This is Karen. Leave a message at the beep.
KEVIN
Hi. This is Kevin. I am part of the Band of Greeners. I was picking up the sidewalks today and I came across your perscription bottle. I figured it might have fallen out of your pocket. Call me back at (360)876-4691.
Karen stands at the mirror and trys to open the small wooden door. It is sealed shut. She needs a key to open it. A memory sparks in Karens head. She walks out of the front door.
EXT. KAREN WALKING FROM HER HOME - PAST AFTERNOON
She sees the activist with her sign outside Randy's Prescription Center. She takes the sign from her hand and throws her sign on the on the ground.
KAREN
Who the fuck do you think you are! Love makes us impure? We spend our whole life looking for love. That love that will make us feel pure again, like nothing else in this world matters. We all think we know how to live until we find out that we are heartless. We leave our hearts hidden away in some mysterious place that we have to search and find...
Karen looks down at her chest. The activist stands there with her jaw half way open. She picks up her sign from the ground and walks down the sidewalk without a word.
EXT. KAREN UNDER THE BRIDGE - SUNSET
Karen comes to her old hiding place underneath the bridge of fourth street on the abandoned train tracks. A desk hides underneath the bridge. She had put it there two years ago, before she started taking the medicine. She sits at the chair in front of the desk. She opens the top drawer of the desk. She finds a beating heart and a skeleton key. She unbuttons her shirt and feels the door. She grabs the skeleton key and unlocks the door. She grabs the heart and puts it inside the door. A light projects out of Karen's chest. She closes the door and locks it with the skeleton key. She gets up with a smile on her face and pushes the chair into the desk and puts the skeleton key in the top drawer of the desk. She walks in the direction of the sun on the grassy train tracks kicking the overgrown weeds. She mumbles a quote to herself.
KAREN
All we need is the truth within our chest.
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