Bunny

81

A week had gone by and I spent it running errands for Mr. Durango while he edited his script. It was like he only got up to use the bathroom and then he'd be back at his computer to write some more.

I was resting in bed watching a movie on my laptop and eating a pint of ice cream when I got an email from him.

I clicked it and my heart raced when I saw it was sent to multiple people as the new script. Along with an added message.
"Due to casting changes, I had an idea for a new story and made a few quick changes. Please review over it and let me know if there are any issues."

Robert Durango just sent me a raw script. He sent me a SCRIPT.
I could pass out.

I had goosebumps while I went to click on the file.

The title stayed the same. It was still "Is It You?".

I would binge read this all night if I had to.

Especially since...I was in it.
I'm in.
I'm a leading actress in a film.
I'm a leading actress in a Robert Durango film.

I'm-...

I'm gonna go into cardiac arrest.

I started reading.

~~~

I'm only halfway and so far...I'm in love.

The story was changed pretty drastically but also still stayed the same.

It was still about an interracial couple in the south during the 1940s.
The two worked to hide their love. And the man came from a really racist family. Which isn't a shocker.
And the love interest, who would be played by Morgan, was born and raised to hate people of color. And he did.
For a long time.
He used to be in groups that beat up black men. Broke into their cars. Set houses on fire. Sent bricks through the windows of black homes.

But he had a nanny. A black woman who would go to his home and basically babysit him while his parents were away or just when his mother didn't want to deal with him.
And the daughter of that nanny was Annie.

I reread the part of the script where Daniel and Annie met each other. Most of their actions, I imagined for myself. I pictured what I thought they'd do in their setting and situations.

She was in a field writing. A flower field. In a beautiful dress her father bought her.
Annie is written as a really smart and beautiful girl with a father who did very well for his family to say he was a black man during a racist era. She's a straight A student. Her family is loved by the community because of their constant giving and visiting of the church. They were one of few happy homes.

Daniel and his friends were a few hundred feet away from Annie who sat kneeling on a blanket in her dress while she wrote.

All he saw was the back of a woman in a dress with her hair up and a pretty silk bow tied around it.
He couldn't see her race with her legs hidden and arms in front of her, writing.

"Hey, look." said one of his friends. They were on a break from work.
They turned to see.
"Who's that?" Paul asked.
"Don't know."
"You think it's Mary?" Scott wondered.
"Mary don't live no where near here!"
"So!? Neither do we!"
"We work here, dumbass!"
"I bet you I'll go talk to her." said Morgan's character, Daniel.
"Talk to Mary? Her dad's a big shot, you wouldn't get anywhere near a relationship with her." Paul stated.
"His dad's the fuckin' mayor, dummy."
"But he's stupid!"
"Don't hurt to try, does it?" Daniel put his hands in his pockets and began the walk.

Annie had no idea the type of danger she was probably in.

It made me wonder if I'd be afraid to play this character. It might make me uneasy to experience what she does or to watch it take place. But I wouldn't turn down the role.

Daniel leaned against a tree behind Annie and just looked far out into a field instead of at her. Trying to seem as sneaky as possible.

"You think you should be sitting out here by yourself?" asked Daniel.
Annie's head picked up from her journal but she didn't turn to look at the man behind her.

"Is there a reason I shouldn't?" she asked.
Daniel noticed that voice didn't sound like Mary's. But he liked it. She had a cadence that sounded smart to him.

"They got men working in that building over there across the way. And you're sittin' kinda close. I'd say it was dangerous." he shrugged.
"Hm. Maybe you're right."
He looked at her.

"Hey." he called.
"Yes?"

She heard footsteps behind her and her heart raced.

He walked in front of her.

She noticed he wasn't who she thought he'd be either. She expected a brown skinned man with the way he spoke. Instead it was some pretty white boy with brown hair and blue eyes.

He looked down at her.

Obviously she wasn't Mary.

"Get outta here." he commanded.
"What?" she asked.
"Don't make me repeat myself. Go on! Get!" he shouted.
"I'm not a dog." she replied and was shocked at the way he spoke to her.
"Have you lost your mind-..." He went for his belt and Annie flinched before getting up and grabbing her things to leave.
She walked away quickly and Daniel watched as he buckled his belt back.

He stared at the ground and sighed before walking back to his friends.

"You scare her off?" Paul joked.
"That wasn't Mary. It was some colored girl writing some bullshit in a book."
Daniel walked off to go back to work.

But he paused when he walked inside.
He tried smacking some sense into himself. Feeling gross that he found some colored girl pretty for a split second.
He'd hesitated when it came to telling her to leave. He also bluffed when it came to his belt.

The rest of the story is even more interesting.

There are murders of black men around the city being hung or burned and beaten. Every single night one of them was killed, Daniel was missing and Annie hadn't heard from him. Every time she brought up the murders, Daniel seemed indifferent. She asked him if he was doing it and he said no. But she didn't believe him. So she started investigating it herself.

I was equally nervous and excited to play this role.

I would have never expected this to be in the cards for me.