The Day's Arithmetic
- Peter K F Cheung SBS
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
FADE IN
Act 1
INT. BEDROOM - 06:45
Grey-blue in the pre-dawn light. PETER is dressed in a slightly out-dated three-pieces black suit. A white shirt and a dark tie knotted casually.
PETER (V.O.): The suit. It weighs more than it used to be.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): It's the history. This is the suit of endings.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The last time I wore it - to Sam's funeral.
Peter picks up a simple wallet, slips it into his inner pocket. A habitual pat.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The equation was simple, bad. One. Minus one. Equals to zero.
Act 2
INT. MTR CABIIN - 07:30
Peter merges into a river of COMMUTERS. He boards, stands and watches a digital display.
PETER (V.O.): Hong Kong's corporate governance gadfly dies at 60.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): My namesake, who passed away in 2023, once told me that he claimed to know me.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I've faint recollection of a gentleman by that name attending a consultative session in the early 1990s.
Peter exhales.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): That connection - if it ever existed dies with him today.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I won't compare my quiet sum to another's loud equation. Some lives are solved by dramatic flourish; others are proved through daily, consistent workings in the margins.
INT WORKPLACE - 09:30
When work begins, Peter spots SOMEONE.
PETER (V.O.): Is she my former colleague whom I haven't seen since the late 1990s?
As they lock eyes, an unspoken recognition sparks between them.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The most valuable variables in life's equation are often the individual who reappears unexpectedly, turning a routine calculation into a beautiful, unsolvable problem.
INT. RESTAURANT - 13:15
Before Peter, a grilled hamburger set. As he chews and swallows, his eyes never leave his phone screen.
PETER (V.O.): I'm selling some stocks at reasonable prices. My objective is to lose less.
He taps "sell"and then taps "confirm."
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): For these lots, I might gain a little. It feels like a reward for patience. But for other lots, I'm still losing a lot.
INT. LIGHT RAIL - 16:45
When the doors open, uniformed INSPECTORS#1-6 board.
INSPECTOR#1: Octopus cards for checking please.
Peter presents his card. The inspector scans it with a handheld device.
INSPECTOR#1: Thank you Sir.
PETER (V.O.): My first experience. I only recently learned how to tap in and out with various machines.
Then, something hits Peter.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I take the light rail to go to Yuen Long Swimming Pool...but the Pool is closed at this hour for its weekly cleaning.
INT. MTR TRAIN - 17:15
On a different train, Peter is niether frustrated nor pleased.
PETER (V.O.): I'm going to the Kowloon Park Swimming Pool.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): A good day isn't one where nothing goes wrong. It's one where every wrong turn is met with a quiet recalculation that still gets me to where I want to go.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Wisdom is realizing that "wasted time" and "saved time" are often the same thing, just viewed from different emotional co-ordinates.
INT. KOWLOON PARK SWIMMING POOL - 18:30
Crowded. Peter struggles to swim his way through.
PETER (V.O.): I swim to stay fit. The arithmetic of the aging day has different variables: not how much time I gain, but how little I lose.
Act 3
INT. BEDROOM - 21:00
Peter uploads a photo depicting part of the Kowloon Park Swimming Pool to a draft on his laptop.
PETER (V.O.): I spend my early years adding - experiences, people, things. I spend my later years subtracting - until what remains is the essential balance of a life lived true.
Thinking.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Meaning emerges not from dramatic events, but from my ability to navigate, recalculate, and find balance in life's ordinary equations.
Reflecting.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): By evening, the day's arithmetic reveals itself not in tasks completed, but in the quiet balances struck - between what was lost and what was quietly, unexpectedly found.
The END
FADE OUT
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