My Dear Cousin - Phone Call

23^rd May 2021

My Dear Cousin,

In yesterday’s letter I told you that my family had given me a basket of cookies as an olive branch. Rather a way to say, how about we just forget all the harm we did you and move on. As I said, when I showed no interest in these they found their way to the trash, and I’m not the one who put them there.

 I overheard (Pickle) on the phone with the aunt that made those cookies and heard her say “Is he still mad?” Given the fact that I was expected to pay two hundred thousand dollars for a car that they sold for four hundred bucks they probably would have asked for one of my kidneys in a week.

If they tried to make amends it would have cost them money. I would have expected my family to give me money for college as they did for my (Pickle) and (Pony Girl). I would have expected compensation for my pain.

Honestly, I think what they wanted was for me to spend the rest of my life looking after (Pickle) and they wanted to give me nothing for it. I was in school for the arts and there is no limit to how much I could have made but no likelihood of me making money. It was a gamble but so is most of life.

Further, the old man made it clear that he didn’t want three children, and I think he resented having to look after me. If he could have he’d have kicked me out when I was eighteen. The only reason he didn’t is that it’s my house I live in. He said as much back when I was in high school.

Then, they’ve been trying to take that away from me for years now. I don’t know why those folks were so dominated by greed. I had to live to make them happy, and I was never expected to be happy on my own.

Some would say that my family owed me nothing. Just because my siblings got something did not mean that I had to get the same. That could be true, but why should I suffer for those who don’t care about me?

Best, 

 

Richard Leland Neal

 

 

 

My Dear Cousin - The Third Olive Branch

22^nd May 2021

My Dear Cousin,

I have now told you of the first two of three gifts that my family gave me as peace offerings after they told me to leave and never return. The first and second were checks for two hundred and one hundred dollars respectively. The last gift they gave me was a basket of cookies.

To be fair, no one gave this to me. It showed up on Christmas in my home with a tag that said “Richard”, and I paid it no mind. I figured that (Pickle) would eat it sooner or later. Whenever there is something sweet in the house he tends to eat it in short order.

I also mentioned to myself that I’m not the only Richard in the world, and that they could have been for someone else. A few days past and they were in the trash. I figured that it was for the best. If (Pickle) wouldn’t eat them they must have been some bad cookies.

It’s crazy to say, but the family did kind of say a few times that they wanted me dead, and I didn’t think it was all that safe to eat anything they gave me. They had harassed me to the point where I was ready to die to get them to stop, and then they just wanted to pretend it never happened.

If they were ever to be a part of my life again they needed to make it clear that they understood that trying to force me to do things against my will simply wasn’t right. The situation called for honesty, but if they were honest they would have lost any control they had.

As it was, they thought giving me a beat up old car gave them leverage over me. What I had suffered demanded compensation, and there was no way I was getting that. When you need something people can force you to do a great many horrible things. I learned that working in security.

I had seen these people bring my home and my life to ruin. Now I was to forget all about it over some cookies. They say that the people you love the most are the people who can hurt you the most. It’s so very true.

Best,

 

Richard Leland Neal

 

My Dear Cousin - The Second Olive Branch

21^st May 2021

My Dear Cousin,

In my last letter I spoke of the first of the three gifts my family gave me as, what were they really, olive branches. Giving someone an olive branch is a symbolic way of saying ‘let’s stop fighting’. An apology would have meant more, but they wouldn’t have meant it anyway.

In any case, the second of these I believe was a birthday card from my grandmother with a check for a hundred dollars. This hits on the vary basic problem that my family believed that no matter what they did to me it had no ill result. At this point I was so damaged from the anger I felt that it was consuming my life. I had to learn to manage my anger.

As I said, this gift came as a birthday card handed to me by (Pickle), and I looked at it and said “what is it?”

(Pickle) said “she just told me to give it to you,” and I opened it wanting to just tear it in half but trying to keep the pain in check. I found the check and a card that said “here is a little something …” I don’t recall the rest.

The bottom line was that the old woman was toxic. I remember when I complained about her son she would say “there are worse fathers” or “you’re making me sound like a bad mother”. I would say that her mothering skills were the issue as she raised a man who would never take responsibility for his own actions and would listen to no argument other than violence.

For a hundred dollars this woman wanted to come back and destroy even more of my life. I just wasn’t going to let her. I handed the card and the check back to (Pickle) and said “you may return it”. That was the last I would hear from the old woman.

I think she was better off without me. She was better off without the constant reminder of what a man-child her son had become, and better off without whatever nightmare the family would have inflicted on me next.

The attempts to make things right were getting more and more feeble. To me they were saying “you’ll take what you’re given”, and I was done.

Best,

 

Richard Leland Neal

 

 

 

High Concept

                                               8th November 2021

Dear Producer,

Alright, what you’re looking for is a low budget, costing little to produce, high concept, will make a lot of money, film script. Just as a note, the term ‘high concept’ gets tossed around a good deal, and I have never really encountered a writer who doesn’t want to make money. It does, however, imply that this film will not be hitting the conventions and will be produced to play in theaters.

In that vein, I have a few scripts that I can pitch. ‘Walker in the Trees’ where a man needs to save his friends from serial killers. It’s your good old cabin in the woods type horror movie, PG-13, with a few supernatural elements to make it stand out.

I have ‘Never Will’ a romantic comedy about a woman who needs to build the confidence to go after the man she wants. It has few characters and locations but is mostly an illustration of toxic relationships.

Then there is ‘House Broken’ about a man trying to escape a toxic family. It’s ‘The Glass Menagerie’ on steroids and updated for a modern audience. I wrote it to be performed live so it all takes place in one location.

I would think the first one is the most promising, but then finding a script tailor made to your needs can only be accomplished by tailor making one to your needs. You mentioned having a few concepts you’d like to discuss with the right author. Well, I would point out that if you like my work but it fails to suit you by the time you’re looking for another script I can have finished one of your ideas and have it ready for you.

I currently work as the one staff writer for Absurd TV, a small YouTube channel, and we have five or six scripts ready to shoot, maybe twelve scripts on the back burner waiting for funding, and I’ll write another short or two tonight.

When you’re looking for a job you don’t stop sending out applications because you have an interview. The same thing should really apply to finding the script you want to produce. The economy rises and crashes and the faster you get projects going the less likely you are to be impacted by that problem.

If your first project is doing very well, then the best time to pitch the new one will be as people congratulate you on the old one.

Just a thought,

 

Richard Leland Neal