[Everything is hazy.]
[Almost serene.]
[There’s a bright colorful hue over the screen, as if it’s the greatest daydream you’ve ever seen. Felix Foley – a grown man, sits on a child’s swing. He’s wearing a baseball cap and a t-shirt too small for him, but he’s happy.]
[Behind him, his father Fernicus pushes him happily.]
“Daddy, I wish we could stay like this forever…”
“Me too, son. But unfortunately, pop must go to work. Our little store won’t run itself, will it?”
“I understand…” [Felix says with a sigh.]
[Fernicus stops pushing him on the swing and comes around the front to kneel before him. He holds his hand and smiles softly at him.]
“I love you Albie.” [Fernicus says to Felix.] “I’m sorry that I have to be away so much but know that I love you more than anything in this world.”
[Felix smiles nervously.]
[Just then, Tombstone appears behind Fernicus like an apparition of demonic proportions and snaps his neck. Felix screams, dropping to his knees to cradle his dead fathers head.]
[Gasp! Felix awakens.]
[He’s in a cold sweat, beads of his dripping from every part of his body – only from his eyes, tears reside. He sits up and takes a sip of water from a tall glass on his beside table.]
“It says something when even in your dreams, you’re someone else, just to receive your father’s affection…” [Felix says solemnly. He shakes his head, swivelling around on the bed.] “I never had what Albert had. I didn’t have the white house and white picket fence with a swing in the front yard. I didn’t have the love and affection of my father.”
[He wipes the sweat away.]
“Everything Albert Lamplight had; I had the opposite. He had love, I had hate. He had a caring and nurturing family home, and I had a father that abused both my mother and I.”
[Felix shakes his head.]
“So, tell me, why am I so fucking sad?”
[The curse is a first. It shocks even him.]
“Why do I hate Tombstone so much?”
[He shrugs.]
“I should be grateful. I should be pleased that the very man who received everything I ever wanted is dead, but I not. I don’t feel that way. That’s not why I’m sad. I mean, sure, Albert had the life I wish I did but who didn’t? How many others were beaten from pillar to post all their life? I bet I’m not the only one with a childhood horror story, but there will be so many more who had it better than I did.”
[Foley lays back, putting his head on the pillow.]
“Tombstone stole from me an opportunity at family. He stole from me an opportunity at something bigger and better than I’ve ever had. He killed my brother.”
[He closes his eyes.]
“That’s why I’m sad.”
[He sighs.]
“Because after everything I’ve been through, Albert Lamplight was not only a chance to understand it, but an opportunity to know what being loved by another man felt like.”
[Felix turns over.]
“Tombstone stole that from me. That’s why I’m sad.”