Kaji: The Silent Watch
- Peter K F Cheung SBS
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
FADE IN
Act 1
INT. BEDROOM - MORNING
A silver of morning light cuts across the floor. The room is still.
KAJI (V.O.): The sun is up.
Kaji lies on the plush bed with the PACK LEADER and PETER. Her ears are perked, tracking the sounds outside the room.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): I hear the distant clunk of the front door, the fading footsteps on the floor. Our maid has left home.
Kaji's head turns. She looks at the human mound in the big bed. Peter is a fortress of blankets, breathing deeply, the Pack Leader is a smaller hill beside him, also motionless.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): They're in the deep-sleep. Peter's feet twitch like he is chasing something. Waking him now to get bread for me as usual would be disruptive.
Kaji looks at Peter's peaceful face.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): I'll be patient. I won't bark.
Pausing.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): My patience isn't passive. It's an active, willing suspension of my own desires for the rhythm of theirs.
Act 2
INT. LIVING ROOM - LATE MORNING
Sunlight floods the room. Peter and the Pack Leader move around the room.
PETER: I'm surprised I'd wake up after 10.am. We've to set off to pick up my Mom for the Winter Solstice gathering shortly.
PACK LEADER: I need to feed our darling.
KAJI (V.O.): The waking up chaos. They don't smell the air propertly.
Pausing.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): My watch begins when theirs ends. In sleep, they're vulnerable. In wakefulness, they're distracted. So I remain, perpetually aware.
Later, they lean down for quick, distracted head pats. Then the click of the front door. Kaji is left in the empty home.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): To be left behind isn't an abandonment if I'm holding down the fort.
Pausing.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): Solitude isn't loneliness when it's chosen as service.
Pausing.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): The weight of a waiting heart is the heaviest thing in an empty room.
EXT. RIVERSIDE PARK - LATE AFTERNOON
The sky is golden. Kaji trots ahead on her leash, the Pack Leader holding the other end.
KAJI (V.O.): I want to decode the history of the path.
Pausing.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): The late afternoon reward. Grass. Wind. A hundred stories in the air.
Suddenlly, a Corgi goes straight for Kaji, head low, wiggling, a play bow. Kaji freezes, her body stiff.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): An urgly Corgi. Wet nose. Chaos embodied. I don't like you.
Kaji turns her face away.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): It's my masterpiece of disdain.
INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT
A variet of food is spread out between the Pack Leader and Peter. Kaji is at her designated dinner observer spot with a few small treats before her.
KAJI (V.O.): This is a logical error.
PETER: Our darling is giving us the look.
PACK LEADER: Human food is for humans. She has her treats.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): I accept this. Not because it's enough. But because I'm what I'm. The one who waited, the guardian of the silent home.
Kaji finishes her treats. She rests her chin on her paws, watching them.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): I know my place within the structure I rely on.
Pausing.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): I register the injustice.
Pausing.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): But my love for the pack and my own self-respect override any futile protest.
Pausing.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): In essence, love is often a one-sided story, told in the quiet moments others fail to notice.
Act 3
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT
Kaji relaxes in the big bed.
KAJI (V.O.): Love is often a vigil kept in a language the beloved doesn't speak.
Thinking.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): The greatest guardianship goes unnoticed. The watch continues, whether the world notices or not.
Reflecting.
KAJI (V.O.) (Cont'd): Don't bark, just witness. That's the silent watch.
FADE OUT
THE END
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