Jerry is a veteran from the War in Afghanistan. After serving three tours he is finally home with his wife and son. Unfortunately Jerry has some skeletons in his closet that he brought back with him that will not be hidden for long. He can’t sleep. He can’t focus and the two reasons he had for living, his son Jesse and his wife Stacy are the two people that he ends up hurting the most. When the dreams turn into nightmares that won’t go away, when light is always too bright and all sounds are always too loud Jerry starts to lose his mind. He starts to see innocent people as his enemy. Passing cars start to sound like the engines of military tanks. The longer that Jerry is not on the battlefield the more that his mind takes him back there and he can’t fight it anymore. His breaking moment comes on the saddest of days when his head is fighting against him in such a way that he can no longer fight it. The only thing a solider can do is go to war, the war home in his own head. The sound of his sons footsteps become the boots of militant insurgents that want to kill him and in an instant Jerry does what a warrior does best, he kills. In the silence that he has been waiting for he holds his son, the reason that he lives.
Male- Things We Bring Back
- (The scene opens with Jerry. He is a man in his late thirties and is intensely watching television.) This is what I was doing on the day that my life changed. I was watching TV that day. Now I hear people complain about their life's tragedies. I listen and I try my best to focus so that I can just be able to think clearly. Be able to formulate thoughts that actually makes sense to someone other than me. These are my journals. (He holds up a few handfuls of journals) Since I've been back I have filled up 263 of these books. Writing front and back on every page, at all hours of the night, day, and morning and sometimes when I read back over them they make no sense. Random words on an ink filled page. (Beat) Thirteen years ago today my life became a tragedy and I didn't even know it, just sitting at home like most Americans were that day and watching television. Happy 9/11 America. When I saw the replay of the first tower being hit by the plane I jumped up and I yelled at my wife to come into the living room. We stood there hand-in-hand and watched the second plane hit. We could see the smoke billowing and the people standing on the edge of this massive building choosing to jump rather than wait for what was to shortly come. Within 10 minutes the towers are down and within 30 minutes I had been called in by my Captain, I left immediately. That's what happens, you know bad things happen and the military gets called in to handle those things. Create a plan of attach, a strategy to help keep this land safe. It's my job and it's the only thing that I ever wanted to do all my life so when I graduated from high school at eighteen I enlisted immediately and I became a career military man. Proud to serve. Honored to wear the uniform.