Three Year Old Jesse Hammers Tent Stakes, Tent Gets Soaked, and Lori Decides to Light a Candle for Heat #lorijeanfinnila #reallifestory #screenplay #domesticviolence

EXT. Day. Campground Site

Lori is pulling up the tent setting it up.

Lori: Jesse want to help mom with the stakes for the tent?

Jesse: Yeah

Lori: Ok.

Lori walks over to Jesse and hands him the hammer and takes a stake and puts it into the ground pulling the tent tighter.

Lori: You take the hammer and this part of the stake till it goes into the ground. Don't put your hands near it.

Jesse: Ok.

Lori: I'd rather you miss than hit your hand. I want you to take your time.

Jesse: Ok.

Jesse swings the hammer to the top of the stake and it slides off. Lori looks and smiles.

He does it again and moves the stake a bit.

Lori: I don't want you to rush. We have plenty of time.

Jesse: Ok.

Jesse keeps hitting until the stake starts towards the ground more. Camping neighbors walks by.

Neighbors: Oh look! (One woman with a hand to her mouth smiling.)

Her husband smiles too. Lori looks over proudly to Jesse and then smiling back to them.

EXT. Day. Campsite

Jesse has almost 100 cars lines up in the campsite.

Jesse: Broom......

Lori smiles towards him. She walks into the tent and begins to go through some things.

Lori: Ohhh.....

She picks up some paper batches in the corner of the tent and sees they're soaked and running in many places and shows a discouraged face. She tries to separate them to dry. She walks out of tent.

Jesse: Is everything okay Mom?

Lori: Yeah. (pauses)

Jesse still looks concerned.

Lori: (cont.) Some things got wet in there.

Jesse: I know. (concerned)

Lori: Yeah.. (pause) You did huh?

Jesse: Yeah

Jesse then puts his head down. Lori looks straight ahead solemn.

Narrated: The mornings are getting wetter at times with the cold moving in. I can feel the drips of the water on the outside of the tent first thing in the morning that seem to be making it's way closer to us. This scares me.

INT. Night. Tent

Lori looks over at Jesse snuggled in his sleeping bag in the tent. The light from the flashlight gently shines. She shrills to a chill then. She stops and looks at Jesse. A concerned look comes over her face. You can hear the wind outside. She turns her head and stops and thinks for a moment then slowly goes to her matches and finds a candle. She looks at it and feels it and thinks and looks at the spaces around in the tent. She more abruptly moves some things over in her newer smaller tent and sets the wide short candle in a short candle holder. She pauses again looking at it. She thinks for a moment. She then lights the candle and stops and stares for a bit. She goes to the sleeping bed where Jesse lays and cuddles up sleeping on the side of where the candle is and closes her eyes.

The candle brought a type of warmth I couldn't imagine.

Photo by Dhivakaran S from Pexels

For the most part our tent was cozy with an inflatable mattress.

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels