THE CONSEQUENCES OF FALLING outline.
About my story idea, I was going to write a number of short character pieces
about people at different stages of coming to terms with their identities and
community-at-large, then structure it around two or three events, a la Robert
Altman's NASHVILLE and SHORT CUTS or Paul Thomas Anderson's MAGNOLIA.
The story, which should focus on characters all at points where they're dealing
with the risks they've taken to be who they are, is called either FALLING or THE
CONSEQUENCES OF FALLING. (I really, really like THE CONSEQUENCES OF FALLING, but
it's taken from a k.d. lang song - and I don't know if I can borrow it so
liberally.)
The key setting is a big, but not unrealistic or totally unfeeling, mall, viewed
and promoted as a "manufactured community" within an existing, older town. The
story takes place over five days during the week of Halloween.
(I work at the Mall of Georgia, which is this elaborate network of shops both
inside and outside of the main building. My store, for instance, is in the
"Village" at the Mall of Georgia. At times, the Village, complete with
sidewalks, street signs and an amphitheater, is used to host holiday gatherings.
In the winter, the week of Thanksgiving, the outdoor ice-skating rink opens.
It's fascinating how the area is genuinely beautiful, fun and inviting - while
not at all reflecting the reality of the area it's in. Like Helen's German
village, it shouldn't be there - and shouldn't look the way that it does or have
all that it has - but it's there and finds its own way of working. What is it
about modern communities that we'd rather exist in a fake neighborhood than hang
out in a real one - as older areas and urban centers die away? Coming from
Athens' thriving downtown area and the legitimate feel you get from the
individuals on its streets, you wonder what it says about yourself and your
world if you get similar feelings of joy and cultural exposure at the
"manufactured community" of Mall of Georgia.)
The key unifying event that ties the stories together is a suicide that occurs
at the mall. (This, though it features it, is not a story about the suicide.) A
teen boy jumps - or falls intentionally - from the third floor balcony of the
movie theater to the first floor below (near the food court and an information
desk), and the characters all experience it in one manner or another.
One story is, of course, Alex, the boy who jumps. Alternate characters reflect,
both before and after the fact, on who he was, what he wore, how he lived, whom
he knew, why he was upset and the unanswerable "why" surrounding his actions.
(Alex's story is more complex and more personal than this, but I can't really go
into it right now. Needless to say, he's mad, abused and hopeless - and feels
there's no other way out. This, though, will remain vague as other characters
project motives onto his actions after the fact.)
Another story involves Gabrielle, an African American girl in her early 20s, who
is obsessed with fashion and wants to become a designer. She goes to the mall to
experience its sense of "culture," studying what people are selling versus what
people are wearing. She takes notes on individuals - how they act versus what
they wear. She notes the kids who are obsessed with the Goth and punk looks; the
preppy looks; the Armani designer T-shirt and nightclub dressers; the
Abercrombie-Gap, disheveled-yet-not-poor look. At one point, I'm thinking she
initiates some friends of hers in an experiment to change the way they dress for
one day, in an attempt to see if their experience at the mall changes based upon
how they're dressed. (This, of course, will result in several characters being
dressed alike - thus helping make it unclear who dies when the suicide occurs.)
Gabrielle, incidentally, is new to the area. She's encouraged by new,
college-attending friends at the mall who notice her interests and like her, to
use her talents and enroll in a fashion program at a local arts college.
Gabrielle, though, moved to the area with her mother to pursue work
opportunities, and they share a car and coordinate their schedules so that they
can both get to temp jobs. (Gabrielle works near, but not at, the mall.) The day
of the suicide, Gabrielle has had a huge fight with her mother because Gabi
(encouraged by her experiment the day before) chose to quit her temp job without
telling her mother and without a guarantee that she's gotten into the college.
Gabi, in her fit and in an attempt to annoy her mother, says she's going "candle
shopping." Enraged, she takes the car, though her mother needs it to get to
work, and goes to the mall to find solace in the community of her friends she's
met there. She sees the suicide when it happens - and isn't sure if one of her
friends (wearing clothes from the experiment the night before) or someone she's
taken notes on is the one who has died. She only recognizes the outfit as one
she took notes on and one that she used in the experiment. (Somehow, it's got to
be made clear that someone would wear the same outfit either two days in a row -
or every other day.)
Gabrielle's mother, Ruth, follows her daughter to the new city so that they can
both find work. Ruth's not able to let go of her daughter - and clings too
closely to her - because her spouses and other children have abandoned her from
time to time. She doesn't feel she can cope on her own. Though it's not beaten
to death in the story that she wants someone there in her house - to care for
her and assure her that she's doing all right, she isn't aware that she's
holding her daughter back by caring too deeply for her. Ruth wants things safe.
She wants things her way. She doesn't understand quite why the situation has to
change. She, of course, finds out about the suicide from her daughter. Her
feelings, at the end of the story, are unclear, though she draws a parallel with
her daughter that pursuing a better sense of self does - as in the case of the
suicide - not always turn out as we want it to. Thus, is it better to be safe or
daring? Is it better to fall and take a risk, or is it better to stay safe? Is
it possible to do both? Do you do justice to yourself by trying to do both? Is
there a way of maintaining safety while risking enough to find out who you are?
Bill, an almost-30, part-time clerk in a mall bookstore who wants to be a
writer, is good at his job and knows his regular customers in passing - if not
well. He knows Alex, Gabi, members of their families and their friends
separately, but he doesn't know if they know each other at all. Remembering that
he was once a mall kid, he identifies with how they act and who they are, yet
he's also reminded constantly that he feels too old for this environment. In a
sense, the stories that Bill has already lived through are the ones the younger
characters are now experiencing. He sees a therapist. He wonders if he's
actually moving forward in his life, or, if by working two jobs and staying at
the bookstore, he's keeping himself from doing the things he needs to grow and
reach his ambitions. He's secure in his positions now, and his past attempts to
escape the world he's in haven't worked. He's scared, but he wants more out of
life than this. (For instance, in talking to a 19-year-old gay person, not Alex,
he realizes that this is his only contact with another homosexual. He used to be
more immersed in his community than he is now. Because he's so busy and because
the community he's most often in is filled with either much younger or older gay
people, he's either too wise for some men or too young and not-successful-enough
for others. He's too intimidated, based upon past experiences, to wander into
the more open, urban settings that most gays his age populate.) He doesn't hold
real relationships, for the only new people he meets are from the mall, either
customers, co-workers or shop workers at different shops. His family, though he
avoids them, also frequents the mall. (Ooh, guess who I'm basing this character
on.) Bill doesn't see the suicide but hears about it when he gets to work later
that day, but he identifies with it - because he once felt suicidal and
remembers (before the suicide happens) nearly attempting a fall similar to the
suicide. After the death, he wonders a) if he could've done anything to help the
kid who died; b) if, by mentioning the story of his own attempt within Alex's
earshot, he gave the kid an idea on how to do it; and c) if mentioning it
stirred some kind of karma that both made it happen and made him aware of it.
(This really did happen at my mall. This week, I actually went about contacting
the parents of a kid named Douglas Alan Lyle who died in this manner at my mall,
and I told them that I once, as a teenager, contemplated a similar jump but
didn't do it.)
Parallels in the visuals and dialogue should suggest that Alex and Bill are, in
some ways, the same person. Though Alex's story ends (for this is not just
Alex's story), Bill, who has his own story, shows an alternative to Alex's life
- if he had lived.
Other stories involve an evangelical Christian attempting to pass out flyers at
the mall - only to get kicked out for soliciting on private property.
Eventually, after the suicide, the Christian, warned repeatedly not to come
back, does because he feels that his flyers would do some good in the atmosphere
surrounding the suicide. (This sort of story is in newspapers all the time.)
This act can be seen either as a well-intentioned good from a well-meaning
person or extreme bad taste and bad timing. What if the Christian is intending
it as one - but angers a lot of people by having it perceived as another thing.
Is he doing more harm than good? He feels what he's doing is true and right, but
the climate surrounding him disagrees with him. Though it's a community created
by the public, it's a private institution - that can kick him out.
Daniel, a mixed-race man filled with confidence interested in Gabi, who works as
a store manager at the mall and is the primary one who speaks to her about her
research and takes part in her "experiment," makes eye contact with her on the
second floor just as Alex falls past them. Thus, his romantic connection with
her, the choice that she makes in regard to him and in regard to her new
ambitions, is tainted by that view. What if, in the one instant you felt the
most hopeful about a new love or a new direction in your life, an outside force
- by complete coincidence - managed to darken it? How would others view him? How
could he maintain a positive view of himself in spite of that?
Ally, a girl recently hired by Daniel who used to work at Bill's bookstore,
changes her hair color routinely - but is told that her new purple hair doesn't
fit with her new company's appearance standards. She needs the job, so she
changes the look - but disagrees with the fact that she has to do it. Ally is
Bill's chief confidante.
(If the parallels in my story are close to real life, it's because these are the
sorts of things that I see everyday at my store and with my friends that work at
the mall. Don't worry, though, Ally, in the end, will not be my real friend
Jessika.)
Zach, who serves as Bill's counselor, is walking out of a movie with his family
in time to see Alex jump. Though he specializes in caring for depressed people,
he's tortured by the sense that he should've been able to do something more -
and that, at times, it's impossible to save someone.
Phillip and Jennifer are executives with the mall who attempt to assure the
"pleasant atmosphere." They're the ones in charge of the look and feel of the
place, the ones who determine the mall's position on how to cope with the
solicitors. They also decide how the mall should respond to the suicide itself -
it closes the section where Alex jumps for three or so hours - then reopens it
with police tape up so that not much business will be lost. (I believe this is
how my mall coped with its suicide.) They'll, of course, clash about the
management of the incident. One of them will choose to leave the job. Another
will keep it. I'm trusting that one of these, as well, can be a character that
Vickye is developing - though she may be an older shopper. I need more shoppers.
Chloe is a teen customer who tells off Bill in a vicious tirade and is just
generally unreasonable to the friends and sales clerks around her. She wanders
in and out of other scenes and in and out of her involvement with other
characters. She's the only one who meets everyone, and she manages to impact
them all just through random meetings. Her own anxiety is never really
explained. Some people are just angry.
Goth Kid, the one that everyone would expect to cause trouble, doesn't.
Bill's parents.
A security guard.
A store executive who doesn't like the clothes her store is promoting this
season.
A mother with a small child.
People from a "model search" that Gabi attends and another character, possibly
the song girl below, competes in. (The recital is separate from this.) Gabi asks
them what they look for in an individual to be a representative of the clothes
they promote.
The shopkeeper in the town that the mall is in, having to come to terms with
losing customers. (This is too Meg Ryan in YOU'VE GOT MAIL, so I may lose this.)
Alex's mother will find his suicide note before he commits suicide and heads to
the mall to try and stop him from doing it - only to arrive just after he's
jumped. (Speaking with the father of the boy who died at my mall makes me want
to flesh out these characters more, but, at this point, I can only think of the
actions inherent to the story.) Alex's father will be the one who seeks out the
reasons behind his own son's death, the one least pleased with its apparent lack
of full motive. (I don't want to ORDINARY PEOPLE this too much.)
A girl who wants to sing one racy song for a school recital but is urged by her
parents to Bill's store to seek out other, more appropriate songs to perform.
She's also Alex's best friend. She's singing the song - though I'm not sure if
it's going to be the one that she wants to sing (because, in the end, some
choices leaning toward being your own person are inconsequential, in the long
run, to showing who you are) - when he dies. She doesn't find out he's dead
until after she performs. This then could lead her toward either joy or regret
regarding something as small as the song she eventually chose to perform - and
how it does reflect on who she is. I like this incident, but it's not clearly
defined how it will happen to me yet. (This is also based upon something that
actually happened.)
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