Open on a MODEL BOAT which widens to show a yard sale in progress in front of a white clapboard house. There is a CAMPER VAN and a thirty foot CABIN CRUISER in the drive. The lawn is covered in furniture and personal effects. RAY TABERNAC, a heavy set man, in blue jeans and slightly soiled white T shirt, is helping DAN, a friend and neighbour, with some chairs. Over on the other side of the yard, RITA, his wife, a slender woman in blue jeans and an oversized sweatshirt, is selling a basketball to a WOMAN.  The couple are in their early fifties.

RITA

Yeah, it belonged to Charlie. He liked to shoot hoops.

She presses the ball into the woman’s hands.

RITA (cont’d)

Look, take it.

The WOMAN looks startled but keeps the ball.  RITA turns to RAY.

RITA (cont’d)

Hey Ray! Don’t forget we’ve got the table over there….goes with those chairs.

RAY acknowledges her and, having finished packing the chairs, leads DAN over to the table.

RAY

Yeah, so we’re going to Moose Jaw first. Course, we’ll hit Kansas.

DAN

I still can’t believe you’re going.

RAY

There’s got to be more to life than hardware.

DAN looks at him in exaggerated disbelief. They grin at the joke.

DAN

You got the carburetor fixed on the van?

RAY

Sure, sounds sweet, she’ll go like a dream.

Cut to RITA serving MARTHA, an elderly neighbour, MARTHA is examining an antique china bowl.

RITA

Now, are you going to have that, Martha?

MARTHA

Well, I don’t know.

Rita pushes the bowl firmly into Martha’s hands.

RITA

Look, have it.

MARTHA scurries off clutching the bowl triumphantly. RAY sees the incident but says nothing.

CUT TO:

EXT. RAY & RITA’S HOUSE. DAY. EARLY MORNING.

There is a sold sign outside the house. It is a misty September day.  The Van is packed up to leave. RITA is sitting in the passenger seat whilst RAY cleans the windscreen meticulously. She gestures impatiently to him but he can’t resist bending to polish the chrome bumper.  RITA’S quite amused by it. RAY gets in and after countless adjustments to seat, mirrors etc. They set off.

CUT TO:

EXT. MAIN STREET. DAY. EARLY MORNING.

RAY and RITA drive  past a hardware store with its boarded up  windows and sold sign. The name of the shop TABARNAC’S HARDWARE is clearly seen. RAY slows the van down.

CUT TO:

INT. VAN. DAY. EARLY MORNING.

RITA looks out at the store, she is close to tears.

CUT TO:

EXT. OUTSIDE STORE. DAY. FLASHBACK. 4 YEARS EARLIER

It is hot and sunny. A taxi pulls up. The store is in business and flourishing. RITA gets out of the taxi and goes inside. After a while she reappears with RAY, they embrace and RITA gets into the taxi. RAY waves her off and then goes back in the store. We see RITA through the window of the taxi she is clearly anxious and unhappy.

CUT TO:

INT. VAN. DAY. EARLY MORNING.

The camper pulls away. Rita wipes a tear away. RAY’S eyes are fixed straight ahead. They’re driving through an avenue of trees. Behind them the street is empty, one leaf spirals down signalling the start of fall.

‘It’s a really terrific piece of writing. You conjure places and characters with marvellous economy; it reads real and – no greater compliment – you make it look easy. It’s lyrical and effecting – really strong.’Mike Bullen, creator and writer of the television programme ‘Cold Feet’.

Ray and Rita, a Canadian couple in their early fifties, decide to sell-up everything and travel South, they peel away the layers of their life and go back to their true values. Like the Uroborous they complete the circle. One clear message is that it is the simple things in life that give pleasure. When Ray says to Rita ‘It scares me to feel this happy.’ Rita replies ‘Maybe we just try too hard. Maybe it’s easier than we think.’

Their son Charlie died as the result of a drug overdose four years before and en route they visit his grave.

They are sensible, they have planned the trip and not rushed into it. They tidy up loose ends, leaving nothing behind to draw them back.

Rita and Ray are very close as a couple. There is a gentle tension in their relationship, which shows they know each other very well and they are clearly affectionate with each other.

Despite appearances to the contrary – small town North America – they are open to new experiences, although Rita, perhaps surprisingly, is the one who has some mystical view of the trip. She leads the way and Ray instinctively goes along with her. Initially, he finds it hard, and this is a source of tension between them, as is their unspoken feelings about their son’s death.

Both went to college away from home in the early seventies which opened them up to a different, more liberal, wider world view, something they both retained and valued but perhaps became lost during the day to day treadmill of creating a living and a family. This trip is like taking out a stopper, it blows them away and opens them up to new questions, lets them seek out their reasons for being alive.

Their apparent insignificance causes the surprise and tension in the significance of what they undertake.

Ray would be more likely to tell the story because he likes telling a tale. Rita is more self-contained, for her it is a private experience.

‘The story has a charm and delicacy that is quite beguiling and draws us into the darkness at the heart of this marriage. We care about them, and their pain, and we want them to come to terms with it, somehow.’ Charles Harris, Euroscript