Paper boats

I'm trying to finish a script, a one-hour teleplay worthy of Maaalaala Mo Kaya, ABS-CBN's longest-running anthology series. Well, its not for ABS-CBN but for a scriptwriting workshop I'm attending.

I tried doing one-sentence descriptions, the way grade school students write their essays. I need to simplify my thoughts and the progression of the action. And this is what I have so far:

Mira is a 22-year-old housewife. She got pregnant while still in college and has been married to Abe, a fisherman. He is a year younger than her. They are both passive characters, both unable to attain an educational degree. They are both sailing through life with the barest things. They depend on his father's red boat.

With a new baby on the way, they need a bigger source of money.

They live in his mother's house, a strong woman in her 50s. The mother sells fish in the market, gossips with fellow fish sellers, and comes home to nag at the incompetency of her in-law. Her day is incomplete without giving Mira a scolding.

Mira and Abe have a child, Angel, the only happy face in the rundown bahay kubo. She likes playing paper boats. She loves to smile and her giggles are as soft as her curls. Angel is a pretty kid. But Angel is sick. She needs blood. Mira can't donate blood, she is HIV positive.

The mother drives Mira away from the house. Ha, finally found a way to get the bitch off her roof. She has nowhere to go. The town is too small to hide the poison in her blood. People will talk and they will condemn her. For how can a wife acquire AIDS if not from an illicit affair?

She didn't know he also has it. That he got it from a prostitute in Indonesia. She didn't know she got it from him. But he knew all along. Abe knew.

With the deadline looming and still with 20 sequences to go, I'm not sure if I can finish the story. If the workshop session gets cancelled this Saturday, I will be very relieved.

Though I don't think delays will be good for my career.