Below is the original script for The Widow Reminisces Over a Plate of Vegetables, as presented to Stephanie for illustration. Also of interest is the original poem this script is adapted from.

Page 1

One full page panel, with a single inset, lower left.

Panel 1
Open on a rural cottage. It is an autumn evening, around sunset, and a forest of vibrantly colored trees surround the lush field where the cottage sits. There is perhaps a pond near the house, and a vegetable garden in the yard. An aging truck sits on a dirt patch, at the end of a dirt road that runs off panel. Overhead, two or three wild ducks are flying by.

SFX (spaced out): quack quack quack

Panel 2 - Inset
Closer in on the cottage. We are looking in at an angle through the dining room window. We do not have a perfectly clear view, but we can make out a woman in her mid-forties sitting at the table having dinner. She has the look of someone caught up in sad memories.

SFX (overhead): quack quack

Page 2

Panel 1
Inside the cottage now, facing the widow. On the table in front of her is a dinner plate containing only vegetables - peas, sliced carrots, some spinach. She is raising a fork with some carrots to her mouth, distractedly.

SFX (overhead): quack quack

CAP: She has learned to love the sound of ducks.

Panel 2
On the wall behind her, we see a photograph from some years ago, of her with her husband. He's very mid-west - a rugged flannel-clad man, with strong weatherworn hands. He looks like a goodhearted man. He has his arm around her, and she leans in close - they both look very happy.

SFX (overhead): quack quack

Panel 3
Close on the photo of the widow and her husband, as described above, showing the details in better focus. Center the shot not on the two of them together, but on the husband specifically.

CAP: They remind her of her husband's hands…

Panel 4
We are now out by a lake, still focused on the husband. He is in hunting gear, and is in the process of firing his hunting rifle at an unseen target.

SFX (more urgently): quack quack quack quack

SFX: BLAM

CAP: …the way they smelled of oil and gun-metal.

Panel 5
Husband heading back to his truck with his gun and his kill.

Page 3

Panel 1
Shot of the cottage again, still in the past. The husband, still dressed in hunting gear, is walking from his truck to the cottage door, carrying the body of a duck, by it's legs.

Panel 2
Inside the cottage. Husband has just entered, proudly holding up his kill.

CAP: In those last years, he couldn't even hold a pen to sign his name.

Panel 3
Woman gives him a broad congratulatory smile.

CAP: But when he presented her with a fresh carcass…

Panel 3
Closup on the husband's hand, holding the duck's legs. It appears strong and steady.

CAP: …his hands were perfectly steady in those moments…

Panel 4
Wife now carrying the duck's body back to the kitchen. With her back to her husband, she looks much less happy about the duck - part revulsion, part sadness. Behind her, her husband beams proudly.

CAP: …the moments of his pride.

Page 4

Panel 1
The duck is featherless now. She is holding a butcher knife now, and it is raised, aimed directly at the duck's neck.
CAP: She cleaned the bodies dutifully.

Panel 2
Shot from behind the widow. She has just brought the knife down, but we do not see it, as her body is between us and the severed head. Perhaps some motion lines over her arm, indicating the arc of the knife. She is hunched over, revolted by what she is doing, but still determined to do it.

CAP: Such things had always been the gift of man for woman.
CAP: He believed these ducks were prizes for the woman he loved.

Panel 3
Facing the widow again, with the knife raised once more - this time aimed to remove the duck's feet. The body is headless, but the head itself is not in the panel. Same look of grim determination on her face.

CAP: She never faltered as she worked on the little bodies.

Panel 4
Close in on her face - emphasizing her grim determination.

CAP: She never loosed the bile in her throat…

Panel 5
Pull out - her expression has not changed, but now we are at the dinner table. There is meat on her plate, and a piece of meat on her fork, which she is raising to her mouth (this should parallel the raised carrot from earlier). We can see the roast duck in a pan on the table, partly carved, but still quite recognizable. Husband is sitting opposite the widow, with his back to the camera.

CAP: …even as they shared the meat at dinner.

Page 5

Panel 1
Shift to present - still at the dinner table, but husband is gone, as is the roast duck. Only vegetables on her plate. The food on her fork is once again a carrot, as when we first saw her.

CAP: When she eats alone…

Panel 2
The fork reaches her mouth, which is closed around the carrot.

CAP: …every night for almost two years now…

Panel 3
Her hand is lowered now, as she looks slightly upward, as if looking into the eyes of someone taller than she. Her eyes glisten sadly.

CAP: …she thinks of those meals that she hated so much…

Panel 4
Slip into the past - her husband's fingers brush her lips, gently, lovingly. Her eyes still glisten, but with rapture rather than sadness.

CAP: …and then she thinks of how he would softly touch her lips…

Panel 5
She turns her face into his hand, her eyes closed. His thumb still brushes her lips, as his palm cradles her cheek.

CAP: …filling her with the gun-metal smell of his hands.

Page 6

Four panel grid, with a long panel for the third row.

Panel 1
Slip back to the present - the widow, face upturned, eyes glistening sadly.

SFX: quack quack

CAP: And now, whenever she hears ducks…

Panel 2
Widow turns toward the window, as does the camera. We see the back, and partial side of her head, as she looks wistfully toward the sky. Through the window, we can only faintly see birds high above.

CAP: …she wishes them dead…

Panel 3
Close in on one of the ducks, showing a single wild duck flying past.

SFX: quack quack

CAP: …every one of them…

Panel 4
Pull out to show a whole flock of ducks - perhaps 10-20 - flying in formation.

SFX: quack quack quack

CAP: ….if only he could bring them into their kitchen himself…

Panel 5
Pull out showing the clearing with the cottage as when we opened. Now, however, there are hundreds of ducks in the sky, and probably hundreds more that we can't see beyond the panel's edge.

SFX (throughout the sky): quack quack quack quack quack quack

CAP: …one feathered carcass at a time.

END