Versonnen Outline
An outline of a story/script I am working on. Started as an idea in 2013 during senior year of high school.
Act 1
Starts out on highway 66 with Otis fixing a flat tire, but struggling. He gives up after a little and then it flashes back to a week prior.
A week prior
Otis is cleaning up at an office building. He is the local janitor and mops away reluctantly. He is called into his boss’s office and is told that he will be let go. They have decided to use machines for the cleaning and his services will no longer be needed.
He leaves Tuscon and decides to go on a road trip back east to move back to his hometown in Georgia. On the way back home his car breaks down. His car needs repairs and it will take a week for the parts to come in.
He visits Window Rock and ultimately stays in Gallup, New Mexico while his car is being repaired. That is when he stumbles upon Versonnen diner.
Act 2
**Before Otis visits Versonnen diner he goes to the doctor because of a nasty cough he has had for a few weeks. He ends up finding out he has lung cancer.
**Each night at the motel in Gallup, Otis has a dream of a memory in his past. The following day at Versonnen diner he stumbles upon the person in the dream from the night before:
First visitor: Old crippled friend (Benji)
Benji is a friend of Otis from his youth. They both grew up outside of Augusta, Georgia. Benji had polio, which caused him to use forearm walking sticks. He would get teased constantly for this and needed a lot of assistance as a child. He is also of Jewish descent, which is a rarity in the area they grew up in. Otis relieves memories of growing up with Benji and how they slowly drifted apart in friendship. Once they got to high school, Otis tried to separate himself from Benji trying to not be typecast as weird for hanging out with the disabled kid.
Second visitor: Old Persian gulf war friend (Leon)
Leon is a friend of Otis, who was part of his platoon in the Persian Gulf War. Leon is African American and probably the first black friend that Otis ever had. They bonded in wartime despite seeing all the chaos and tragedy around them in war. Leon ended up getting shot and killed in the war because Otis was on a smoke break and not keeping lookout.
Third visitor: Old girlfriend (Rose)
Rose is Otis’s high school girlfriend. They talked about getting married someday before Otis decided to pack up and move out west. Rose suffered from depression her whole life and ended up overdosing on pain medication not too long after Otis left. She never wrote to tell him that she was pregnant with Otis' child before he left. They have a son that Otis has never met nor never knew existed.
Act 3:
Otis decides to make his way back to his hometown in Georgia. He hopes to find his son before he dies since his lung cancer diagnosis is not good. He gets a flat tire along the way and nearly gives up. He gets help from an unexpected good samaritan.
No point in giving away the ending though….