Act 1
INT. SLEEPING ROOM - DAY
Getting out of bed, Peter's WIFE sees PETER sleeping in bed. KAJI, their pet, is sitting near to him.
Then, Peter wakes up lazily.
PETER (V.O.): I dreamt about people whom I hadn't engaged and thought about for years. It can't be a reality in the waiting. It has become a day-time nightmare.
Peter takes a deep breath.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): As I dream more, I sleep more.
INT. SITTING ROOM - DAY
Sharing breakfast with Kaji, Peter surfs the web on his phone.
PETER (V.O.): Should I write about dreams, or plans, today?
Peter's wife is leaving home.
PETER (V.O.): As I don't have any immanent assignment, let me prepare for my law teaching class later in the year. What do I have to teach?
Peter checks his phone mail inbox.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I'll teach the Legal System, Contract, Communications, Torts, Criminal Law, Intellectual Property and Data Protection. I'll make my knowledge transfer relevant and practicable to my audience.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I taught law part-time at tertiary institutions soon after I have become legally qualified. I was then keen to better equip myself. Now, I only want to do the knowledge transfer in an interesting fashion.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Let me start preparing for that, particularly when I've the inclination.
Act 2
INT. STUDY - DAY
Reclining on a sofa, Peter watches TV breaking news and surfs the web on his phone. Then, he is wide-eyed.
PETER (V.O.): Oh, I've bumped into something about the relationship between Coke and Bacon - a famous attorney and a famous philosopher.
Focusing on his screen, Peter reads the small prints.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In May 1596, Coke helped set a stricter standard for calling to the bar ie "he was of seven years' standing and had kept his exercises of learning." I was called to the Hong Kong Bar upon getting my PCLL at HKU.
Peter reads on.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Oh, Coke even prepared patents for the saltpetre monopoly.
Peter reads on.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In prosecuting a treason case, Coke opens the case by defining the law: "May it please your graces...In all good governments, men's judgements and answers are and ought to be directed by reason and precedent...The law, that by long experience and practice of many successions of grave, learned and wise men, have grown to perfection..."
Reflecting.
FLASHBACK
INT. LECTURE ROOM - DAY (1984)
A moot. A LECTURER (30s) is remarking on STUDENTS' performance. Peter (29) listens attentively.
LECTURER: The opening of a case isn't to speak about the law but about the factual story that one side is going to tell...
PETER (V.O.): To begin with the end in mind sounds logical to me though.
END FLASHBACK.
Peter reads on.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Oh, Cook and Bacon quarreled publicly in April 1601. Coke told Bacon that: "If you have any tooth against me, pluck it out for it will do you more harm than all the teeth in your head will do you good."
Smiling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Bacon's reply was great: "Mr Attorney, I respect you, I fear you not: and the less you speak of your greatness, the more I shall think of it."
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): That's an interesting documented tension between a salaried- attorney and the then debtor-philosopher.
Peter continues to read.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In 1613, Bacon was finally appointed as the Attorney General.
As he gets some chocolates, Peter checks a WeChat message.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): How nice it was for a mainland friend to ask about my situation in Hong Kong about the coronavirus scare! I couldn't remember her face.
Having tapped on his phone screen, Peter checks a WhatsApp message depicting an alter image.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Oh! My matriculation classmate who was suffering from brain cancer has passed away...
Peter looks lost.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I'll have a joy ride in my sports car later in the day...
Act 3
INT. STUDY - DAY
Working before his computer, Peter checks an incoming email.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Oh, the university has sent me some complementary inventive antiseptic liquids. How comforting, scientifically and technologically!
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): No matter what, I just continue to practise my life-long learning and deliver whatever value as long as I can - in university governance, in law, or in creating other literary and artistic works.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): When there's life, there's hope and future. We can make hope and future rhyme by not dreaming it but by doing it!
INT. SLEEPING ROOM - NIGHT
In pajamas, Peter taps on a bedside radio to let music play before going to bed.
FADE OUT.
END.
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