Scrapbooking - Feature Screenplay

INT. MOSQUE - DAY

BARRY MOORE (African-American, early 50s, looking good for his age) enters a mosque, nodding to the people greeting him but remaining silent.

Prayer services are going on and he watches.

Not long after he arrives, services are over. Barry waits for NAEEM RAFIQ (Pakistani, mid-40s, chipper) to pass near and gets his attention.

For a moment, images of faces and names flutter around Naeem’s head.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Hey, how are ya?

BARRY MOORE

I’m fine. I’m looking for Imam Rafiq?

NAEEM RAFIQ

You found me! What’s your name?

BARRY MOORE

Barry Moore.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Nice to meet you Barry. New here?

BARRY MOORE

First time, yeah. I was hoping to

talk with you.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Sure, sure. My office is right down

the hall.

INT. MOSQUE - NAEEM’S OFFICE - DAY

Naeem turns on the lights to his office and both sit down, Naeem behind his desk and Barry in front. It’s a little messy with lots of books and papers around. There is a jar full of lollipops on his desk.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Please, take a seat.

BARRY MOORE

Thank you, Imam.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Just call me Naeem. I don’t want to be calling you "Mr. Moore" this whole time just to feel even. It is "Mr. Moore," right? I’m not missing a "Dr." in there, am I?

BARRY MOORE

No, just Mr. My son’s the doctor.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Really? That’s great. Technically I’m a doctor too but I don’t harp on it. Lollipop?

BARRY MOORE

No thank you, Naeem.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Mind if I have a lollipop?

BARRY MOORE

Go ahead.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Great. I say I have them here for kids but really I like them too much. Do you want to join services here?

BARRY MOORE

No, I’m actually not a Muslim.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Oh boy. I don’t have to convince you I love America, do I?

Naeem gets out his phone.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Because if I hit shuffle, I promise, there’s a very good chance Fleetwood Mac will come up first.

BARRY MOORE

No, nothing like that.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Good, because the first thing that came up was an NPR podcast and I don’t know if that’d help my case.

BARRY MOORE

I’m here because I need someone to

pray with me.

NAEEM RAFIQ

I see. You’re interested in converting?

BARRY MOORE

Oh no. You all seem very nice and all but let’s just say, if I converted to Islam, I just be trading one problem for another.

NAEEM RAFIQ

You sound like just the kind of person I’d want to pray with.

BARRY MOORE

Right.

NAEEM RAFIQ

I wasn’t being sarcastic. So what brought you here?

BARRY MOORE

Fear.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Fear of...?

Naeem gives himself devil horns and makes demonic noises.

BARRY MOORE

No, not like that. Or maybe.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Barry, I am dying to get a straight answer from you.

BARRY MOORE

I keep having the same nightmare. And I don’t forget it when I wake up. It stays with me, like a bad memory I can’t shake.

Naeem relaxes back into his seat, ready to listen.

BARRY MOORE

I’m in an office building. Sometimes it’s one floor, sometimes it’s two. File cabinets and cubicles everywhere so it’s hard to see what’s around me. It’s dark except for this muddled blue light on everything. And from behind one of the cubicles, I can hear someone reciting the Bible. Really, it’s just gibberish but in the dream, I can tell it’s John 3:16 and the following verses.

NAEEM RAFIQ

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son-"

BARRY MOORE

Don’t, please. You just know that off the top of your head?

NAEEM RAFIQ

When you get a doctorate in religious studies, you hear it a few times.

BARRY MOORE

So someone is reading these Bible verses with such intensity. This malevolence. I know what I’m describing doesn’t sound like much but in the nightmare, everything is telling me to be afraid. And I am afraid. Does that make sense?

NAEEM RAFIQ

I think I understand. Is that all that happens?

BARRY MOORE

Once a young boy with a deformed face jumped out of a cabinet in the office but I don’t fixate on that.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Good advice.

BARRY MOORE

But I need something in my life to counteract this. Something to convince me there’s no reason to be afraid of a prayer. Every time I hear anything Christian, it takes me back and I panic and get this cold sweat. I used to love gospel music, if you can believe that, but I can’t listen to it anymore.

NAEEM RAFIQ

And you think going over another faith’s prayer will help?

BARRY MOORE

Not just another faith but another language too. In my nightmare, it’s not about the words. There’s a feeling of terror behind them. I want to have a prayer in my head that calms me, even if I don’t understand it.

Naeem leans forward.

BARRY MOORE

So you’ll do it?

NAEEM RAFIQ

Let’s do a quick prayer and see how it feels.

Barry moves closer and both bow their heads.

NAEEM RAFIQ

Bismil Laahir-

BARRY MOORE

Wait, I’m sorry, what is this prayer?

NAEEM RAFIQ

I thought you didn’t want to understand it.

BARRY MOORE

I want the general idea.

To read more of this screenplay, contact Michael Papich.