The Weight of a Key
- Peter K F Cheung SBS
- Aug 29
- 3 min read
FADE IN
Act 1
INT. LIVING ROOM - 16:00
Behind the main door, PETER pats on the pockets of his shorts. His left pocket bulges with a yellow plastic bag.
PETER (V.O.): It's my habit to put my wet swimming briefs and goggles into the plastic bag.
As Peter pulls the house keys from his right pocket, he pats it again,
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Where are my car key and remote?
Once inside, Peter eagerly checks the plastic bag, but he can't find the car key or the remote..
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Are the car key and remote inside my handbag?
Peter empties his handbag, but there is no car key or remote to be found.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Did I take the car key and remote from the car? I'm not sure.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Or did I drop them when I pulled out the Octopus card linked to my house keys while paying at the restaurant's cashier?
Act 2
INT. BASEMENT CAR PARK - 16:15
Upon arriving at the parking lot where his Nissan 200 SX is parked, Peter reaches for the door handle. As he opens it, the siren sounds.
PETER (V.O.): Oh, I haven't locked it with the remote.
FLASHBACK
INT. BASEMENT CAR PARK -15:00
After parking his coupe, Peter glances at the plastic bag and his handbag on the passenger seat.
PETER (V.O.): I'll grab them from the passenger side.
He exits from the driver seat, walks around to the passenger side, opens the door, picks up the bags, closes the door, and begins to walk away.
END FLASHBACK
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Yes, I forgot to use the remote to lock the coupe. Are the car key and remote at the ignition?
Peter checks the ignition, but finds nothing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Not there?
Peter searches the floor of the seats and every corner of his coupe, yet the car key and remote are nowhere to be found.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I must have dropped them at the restaurant in the mall.
INT. RESTAURANT. MALL - LATER
Peter checks the corner table where he had sit earlier, but there's no sign of the car key and remote. He approaches a STAFF.
PETER: I might have left a car key and remote here. Have they been picked up?
STAFF: No, there's nothing left in the corner table.
The staff moves the table to check if Peter's belongings are hidden there.
STAFF (Cont'd): Nothing.
PETER: Thank you very much.
PETER (V.O.): Could I have dropped them between the car park and the restaurant in the mall, or on my way home?
Peter retraces his steps, scanning the floor as he goes.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): If I had dropped them like that, I'd have heard the sound.
INT. BASEMENT CAR PARK - LATER
Peter searches his coupe again, and finds nothing.
PETER (V.O.): The weighless absence of the car key and remote is a mystery to me.
Peter crouches down to scan the ground in the nearby parking lots.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Nothing. I'm not surprised; if I had dropped them on the ground, I'd have noticed.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I've had the car key since 1989 while the remote is relatively new. Remote became a standard item several years later.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The weight of a key symbolizes the weight of possibility. Losing it means facing the reality of all the doors that may now remain closed.
Sighing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The car key unlocks different eras of my life. To lose it feels like misplacing a piece of my own history.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I worry that the disappearance of the car key and remote is a precursor to other losses yet to come.
Act 3
INT. LIVING ROOM - 18:45
Peter uploads an image of a spare Nissan car key and a spare remote to a draft on his laptop.
PETER (V.O.): Loosing a key and a remote feels like being haunted by a ghost of my own carelessness; its weight transforms into the gravity of a single misstep.
Thinking.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): It's not just the loss the burdens me, but the endless silence of the question: Where did they go?
Reflecting.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The heaviest key and remote are the ones I never feel in my pocket - until the day when they're gone.
FADE OUT
END
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