Solving for Zero
- Peter K F Cheung SBS
- 54 minutes ago
- 3 min read
FADE IN
Act 1
EXT. SILVERSTRAND BEACH - 12:45
A small sandy beach and green-blue water under the blue sky. PETER emerges from the water. His breathing steadies. The nearside of the beach features a high concrete block: changing rooms and showers. At the far end is a low concrete block: refleshment kiosk.
PETER (V.O.): The kiosk is open. A small light is on inside. No customers.
The PROPRIETER steps out, checks something and steps back in.
Peter doesn't move forward. He stays where he is, watching.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I've been visiting the beach for over a decade, and I've never walked to that kiosk. Why?
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The changing rooms and the showers are nearer. The metered car park is up there. And I got a ticket before.
He glances up the hillside. A brutal staircase of over 100 steps zigzags up the hill.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): And my urban home is just 10-minute drive away. Why would I buy anything from the refreshment kiosk?
Act 2
FLASHBACK
INT - RESTAURANT - NIGHT (Around 2014)
Peter is having dinner with a FRIEND.
PETER: When I retire, I may rent a beach kiosk. A little one.
FRIEND: You may play your guitar and sing your songs.
PETER: Yes! And I'll wait for customers the way a fisherman waits for a bite.
END FLASHBACK
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): But the circumstances are that, in retirement, I work as a barrister and a volunteer for HKUST.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): And I read about the hedonic adaptation. I get the thing I want, and within six months, I'm back at baseline.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Happy as I was before. No happier.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): So a kiosk becomes just a job. Opening hours. Stock taking. The same conversations each day.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): It'd be no difference from the office. Same cage. Different lock.
He begins to climb the stairs.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): What I want is creativity. Not biological, but intellectual. Something that doesn't depend on selling refleshment to customers. Something that outlasts me.
Step 72.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): My knees complain...years ago, I could run all the way up.
Step 100. He pauses to breathe.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): My car's metered time runs out in one minute.
INT. SAISERIYA - 13:45
A quiet corner table. Peter eats alone. He checks unread WhatsApp messages in the M7 group.
PETER (V.O.): Seven of us - sharing ideas on business adminstration since 2008.
Peter watches clips.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Oh, a friend of a friend is getting married...Good for him.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): He's a year or two older than me... just...starting again.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I spent some time earlier proving to myself that a kiosk would be a waste of time. And may be I was right. But I also proved something else.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I've turned wanting into algebra. Every dream, I solve for zero. And I always get zero. I didn't fail to start the kiosk. I solved it first. And solving is a kind of killing.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The problem isn't that happiness fades. The problem is that I use its fading as a reason never to begin.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Solving for zero means I never lose. It also means I never win. And after a while, those two things feel exactly the same.
Act 3
INT. LIVING ROOM - 15:15
Peter uploads an image to a draft on his laptop. It shows the refleshment kiosk at the Silverstrand Beach.
PETER (V.O.): Zero is safe. Zero is clean. Zero is also the exact temperature of a life never lived.
Thinking.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Wisdom is supposed to save me from pain. But too much wisdom saves me from everything else too.
Reflecting.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I don't need a perfect life. Just uncalculated walks. To a refleshment kiosk. Or anything I haven't tried before.
The END
FADE OUT
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