One Day When I Was Lost A Scenario

(The late afternoon, in New York, from the Statue of Liberty in the bay, and the busy water traffic, the downtown spires, the midtown spires, then the garage of the New York Hilton Hotel. The garage is utterly silent, long and ominous. The door leading to the hotel opens, and a man's long, lean silhouette crosses the garage swiftly and gets into a car. There is a long pause before he turns on the ignition and the sound of the motor rolls through the garage. The moment we hear the sound of the motor, the car s side-view mirror fills the screen--as blank as the garage. The radio begins to play--"soul" music--and the car's side-view mirror begins to move, up, into the daylight. We see the driver's bespectacled eyes in the rear-view mirror: eyes both haunted and alert. The music pauses. We hear an announcement that MALCOLM X will be appearing at the Audubon Ballroom in the evening. The side-view mirror, reflecting darkness, then light, then the traffic in the streets. A red light; people crossing the street; soul music. We now see the driver, MALCOLM X, bearded, harried, and yet, at the same time, calm and proud. As the car begins to move again, the side-view mirror begins to reflect inexplicable images, swift, overlapping, blurred. A fire fills the screen. Then, hooded men, on horseback, smashing in the windows of a country house; a fair, young mulatto woman, pregnant, flinching as the horsemen ride between her and the house; and between her and the camera. A voice is heard, shouting, "Brothers, sisters, this is not our home! Our homeland is in Africa! In Africa!" We hear a trolley-car's clanging bell, and see, from the point of view of the motorman, a beaten, one-eyed black man, lying across the streetcar tracks, watching his death approach. MALCOLM's face. The car is moving uptown, through the streets of Manhattan, and we watch MALCOLM watching the people and watching the tall, proud buildings. Following MALCOLM's eye, we begin picking out, isolating, certain details of these buildings: A cupola, at the topmost height of a New York building, transforms itself, as we pass, into the balcony of the presidential mansion in Dakar: flags flying, throngs of black people cheering. The bearded MALCOLM is smiling and responding to the cheers. A very young black STUDENT, male, with a bright and eager face, is speaking to him.) STUDENT You must return. You must come back to us. MALCOLM I have come back. After many centuries. Thank you--thank you!--for welcoming me. You have given me a new name! (MALCOLM, in a great hall, somewhere in Africa, being draped in an African robe. The black ruler, who places this robe on him, pronounces this new name at the same time that MALCOLM repeats it to the STUDENT.) MALCOLM Omowale. STUDENT It means: the son who has returned. MALCOLM I have had so many names-- (We see the Book of the Holy Register of True Muslims. A hand inscribes in this book the name: El-Haji Malik El Shabazz. We see a family Bible and a black hand inscribing: Malcolm Little, May 19, 1925.) I will come back to you. I promise--(After a moment) God willing. (The windows of New York buildings, blinding where the sun strikes.) MALCOLM'S VOICE OVER So many names-- (We hear the raucous sound of a Lindy Hop. In the side-view mirror: a conked and sweating MALCOLM, dancing, spinning. A voice yells, "Hey, Red! Go on, Red!" MALCOLM acknowledges this, without missing a beat. He is dancing with a very young, radiant, black girl, LAURA. They execute a particularly spectacular and punishing pas de deux, the crowd roaring them on, and when MALCOLM has, literally, set LAURA's feet on solid ground again, he holds her against him a moment. They are very, verBaldwin, James A. is the author of 'One Day When I Was Lost A Scenario', published 2007 under ISBN 9780307275943 and ISBN 0307275949.