| Letters and Diary Script posted February 20, 2017 | Chapters: |
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Potlatch Challenge--Non Fiction
A chapter in the book Scripts
Growing Up Quickly
by michaelcahill
Fade in Characters Mom: Early thirties, housewife. Step Dad: Electronics engineer. Korea vet, Early thirties. Grandma: Late fifties in poor health. Widowed young. The matriarch. Mike: Ten-year-old, only child. The families focus and hope. It's 1962. The Russians are attempting to install a missile base in Cuba. This threat is unacceptable to the United States. The U.S. has set up a blockade and vowed to stop any Russian ship bringing supplies to the missile base. A Russian convoy is enroute. The nation is watching the events unfold on television. The front door bursts open and Mike comes bounding in. The household that usually is waiting anxiously for news of his day is instead huddled together in the living room glued to the television set. The only sound is emanating from the set. The tone is somber and takes Mike aback. Mike What's going on? We get nuked? Grandma tries to adopt an upbeat attitude. Grandma Well, there's our boy. No, we haven't been nuked. Just some goings on with the Russians, diplomacy and the like. Nothing to worry about. You know how adults get over news sometimes. How was your day? Mike Same as the day before and the same as tomorrow I'm guessing ... everyone looks so serious though. Really, what gives, what's going on? Mike saunters into the living room and dumps his books on the coffee table. No one looks up. There are images of military ships on the T.V. screen and a voice over solemnly speaking about them. Voice over Our ships stand in defiance of the approaching Russian convoy. It is reported that our ships will not move aside and have orders to fire upon the Russians if they don't turn back. The Russians show no signs of slowing and continue on a course straight towards the blockade ... Mike sits down unacknowledged. All eyes are fixed on the screen. Our ships sit in the water waiting. Miles away the Russian convoy steams ahead towards a confrontation. If they don't turn back, war is a certainty. Mike This is war. That's what this is. Mom I don't know, I just don't know. Kennedy knows what he is doing. Dad The Russians will back down. The Russians won't risk it. The stakes are too high. They stand to lose as much as we do ... more. They must know they can't beat us head to head. We're second to none. The world is behind us. Grandma Are you hungry, Mike? I could fix you something. You don't need to worry about this. It will pass. Mike I'm not a child, Grams, I'm just young. We hear about this in school constantly. I know this is real. You don't have to protect me from it. I need to see this. I need to know ... just like you do. Voice over The Russian ships have turned around. They've backed down. Oh, boy, I don't know what happened, but I know those ships are heading home to Russia and all is well. We can breathe again. Amen. We can breathe again. The sigh of relief is audible in the living room. But no one gets up to resume normal activity. Everyone remains in silence watching the ships sailing back to Russia for as long as the T.V. shows them. Finally, the broadcast ends and local programming resumes. Everyone watches, but the mood remains the same. Grandma It's still light out. Dinner's not for a couple hours. You can go out and play if you want. Mike Naw. I don't know when I'll want to play again. Fade out The End
Just a synopsis really. This scene played out all over the country. A lot of kids my age grew up real fast and real early those few days. Let's take a turn at some non-fiction the next couple weeks. I will announce an event from the past for you to write about. I suggest allowing an hour and a half as you may want/need to do a bit of research. It will be past--like not the last election or anything. You can write it as a news article or report or any creative form you can think of. Most of all have fun with the challenge of non-fiction. Topic will be announced at 6:00pm Fanstory EST. Subject 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Take your time if need to research. How you present the info is entirely up to you. It is non-fiction however. Have fun~Debbie 
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