Ghost Mayor of Chicago
ALAN NAFZGER’s Ghost Mayor of Chicago
Ghost Mayor of Chicago- Pecan Street Press
Lubbock ● Austin ● Fort Worth – Ghost Mayor of Chicago
Ghost Mayor of Chicago is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Amazon edition
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Copyright © 2016 Alan Nafzger
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 9781071360187
Ghost Mayor of Chicago
Written by Alan Nafzger
We hear church bells tolling mournfully in the distance.
SUPERIMPOSE: “Death Be Not Proud; No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main…. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.” John Donne – 1572-1631
FADE IN
TITLE CREDITS BEGIN
EXT. INNER CITY CHURCH – CHICAGO – DAY
GHOST Mayor of Chicago
Parked outside are all the necessary vehicles for a funeral. Waiting are the hearst and two big black Cadillacs. Enough other cars are on the street to indicate a sizable funeral is taking place. There are two police motorcycle escorts waiting.
MINISTER (V.O.)
We have but a short time to live. Like a flower, we blossom and then wither; like a shadow we flee and never stay. In the midst of life we are in death; to whom can we turn for help, but to you? Yet, Lord God most holy, Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us from the bitter pain of eternal death.
There is a long beat.
MINISTER (V.O.)
We have entrusted our brother, Calvin Palmer, into God’s mercy, and now, in preparation for burial, we give his/her body to be cremated. We look for the fullness of the resurrection when Christ shall gather all his saints to reign with him in glory forever and ever.
CONGREGATION
Amen.
The recessional organ music begins.
The doors to the church opens and the congregation emerges. The minister emerges, followed by the coffin and pallbearers. The FAMILY (widow and three children) files out of the church. Others crowd the sidewalk to see the coffin placed in the hearst.
Many are crying.
TITLE CREDITS END
The MINISTER turns to the widow (40) and children.
MINISTER
Please except our heartfelt sorrow for you and your ; I hope you will remain in the church and continue to worship with us?
WIDOW
Well, this was Calvin’s home church. He was baptized here; you know that. I’m from Philadelphia and my family is there. The children’s grandparents are there. But thank you.
MINISTER
God go with you.
Everyone slowly (mournfully) go to his or her vehicle. The widow and children enter a black Cadillac. Slowly the procession leaves down the street.
CALVIN Palmer (58), in his finest suit, exits the church. He is reading the literature “What God has planned in the Afterlife”. He is preoccupied reading and almost trips down the church steps. He looks up from the pamphlet and the sidewalk is empty. The funeral procession is a block or two down the street disappearing out of sight.
Calvin looks very lost. He lurches a few steps as if he wants to follow. He turns to reenter the church but the caretaker shuts the church door in his face and we hear a heavy duty lock engage. Calvin looks even more lost.
Ghost Mayor of Chicago
The street is empty.
EXT. CHICAGO STREETS – DAY
As he walks, he nods and waves to a few people. He speaks to someone and they look up curiously but apparently they can’t see Calvin. From the pedestrians POV, Calvin is not there. Calvin walks the streets.
Ghost Mayor of Chicago
Again Calvin is reading about afterlife and walking. Calvin walks though a group of girls who are jumping rope on the sidewalk. He doesn’t hit the rope (or it passes through him) and the girls don’t see him to mind. They continue jumping.
We see Calvin reading and walking. He crashes into a light pole and it makes a loud noise. A pedestrian (waiting to cross the screet) looks at the pole, he doesn’t see Calvin.
Calvin approaches a town house and searches for his keys. They aren’t in his suit pockets. He reaches for the door and his hand passed through it. He passes his entire hand through the door and then his arm. His entire body enters the building.
Clearly, he is a ghost.
INT. CALVIN’S OLD HOME – DAY
Calvin
Honey, I’m home.
Calvin walks though the home; he finds no one. He knocks on his children’s bedroom doors (his hand passes through) and tries to turn the door knob.
Calvin forgets (or doesn’t realize) he is a ghost. There is a learning curve. Rather than opening doors, he peaks his head in “through” the door and looks around.
We see the family is half pack for the move to Philadelphia; full boxes, half-full boxes, empty boxes and packing material are stacked and about.
Calvin
Angel?
(half beat)
Lil Bit?
(beat)
Malcolm?
Calvin finds no one. He looks lonesome and lost.
Calvin looks out the window and far in the distance he can see the cemetery. He can barely distinguish a burial party.
His family isn’t home so he tries to turn on the television. He can’t operate the remote and this confounds him, but after a time he gives up and then concentrates. He “wills” on the television. There is a baseball game on TV – either the Cubs or the White Sox.
Time passes…
Calvin is asleep in his recliner, when the family returns from the cemetery.
WIDOW
Angel, you and Malcolm finish packing your things. Lil Bit you come with me.
She enters the home with the children and shuts the door loudly. This awakes Calvin. His family can’t see him.
Calvin
Hello, Honey. How are you? How are the kids?
The widow stops dead in her tracks. She thinks she heard the voice of her deceased husband. But then the television is on and thinks this is strange. She turns the TV off.
WIDOW
Get packed kids; we are leaving first thing in the morning.
(half beat)
Angel you have a lot of work to do. Now get with it.
Angel
Oh, mom. Can’t we stay here?
WIDOW
No. Your granny and pa-pa are waiting on us. You will like Philadelphia. New school and new friends.
Angel (10) disappears into her room. The widow and the smallest daughter (3) go into the master bedroom and begin to pack. Calvin stands in the door and watches his wife painfully pack his things in boxes.
After a short time, Calvin moves to the bedroom of his son. Calvin says nothing. But helps the boy pack. The boy doesn’t notice the boxes filling up with books and toys. When the boxes are packed, the boy (5) takes out a coloring book and dutifully colors.
Calvin moves to the daughter’s room. She is very depressed and is dragging and not really packing. He helps her but she notices the items have been moved into the boxes and she didn’t put them there. She becomes frightened. She stops and bursts into tears.
Calvin
Honey. Honey it is okay.
Angel appears to have seen (or heard) a ghost. She is catatonic.
Calvin
I’m going to hang around and few days and then I’m going to a better place.
Angel begins to shake uncontrollably. Calvin reaches to hug her and this sends her over the edge. She panics and screams. She runs out of the room to her mother. She jumps into her mother’s bed terrified, which frightens everyone. Calvin follows the girl and looks inside the master bedroom room on her.
ANGEL
He’s… He’s…
Ghost Mayor of Chicago
Angel points to her bedroom.
Ghost Mayor of Chicago
The widow moves down the hall, past Calvin. She stops she has had a feeling. She looks at where Calvin is standing. She moves on and looks into the child’s bedroom.
WIDOW
It’s okay, honey.
(beat)
Come look there isn’t anyone here.
Calvin looks terribly sorrowful and guilty. All three children are crying.
Malcolm and Lil Bit transition to sobbing and join their mother at the door of Angel’s bedroom. Angel will not get out of the bed.
WIDOW
(to Angel)
Come get your things and take them downstairs.
Angel refuses.
Calvin begins to make his way down the stairwell and nears the front door of the home. He pauses at the door and regrettably turns.
Instead of passing through the door as a ghost. He concentrates and reaches for the doorknob. He opens the door by concentrating and it slams on his way you.
Ghost Mayor of Chicago
We see the widow react when she hears the door slam. It appears she might know this sound will be the last real memory of her husband. It is a bit eerie to her, but she conceals this feeling from her kids. She hugs every kid.
INT. TOWNHOUSE – NIGHT
All three kids are crowded into the bed with their mom. They are NOT sleeping and appear frightened.
EXT. CHICAGO STREETS – NIGHT
Calvin walks the city. He is in despair but also curious about the city at night. Clean cut, he has generally been inside at night with his family. Now without fear (he’s already dead) he walks at night. He sees the underclass – pimps, prostitutes, thugs, dealers and the rest of the criminal class.
He witnesses a shooting and an arson. A prostitute is stabbed and beaten. Calvin helps her until the EMTs arrive.
A crowd gathers to watch. A White POLICE OFFICER arrives.
POLICE
Anyone see who did this?
Ghost Mayor of Chicago
Silence. The crowd, of course, refuses to help. Calvin is standing in the middle of the group watching the woman being loaded into the ambulance.
Calvin
Black male, five foot eight or nine. Phoenix Suns jersey. Black jeans. Black Swatch wrist watch. Blue and black, Nike Lebron XII BHMs.
POLICE
Who said that?
The crowd looks about and, of course, they can’t see Calvin. They are suspiciously looking at each other looking for the rat.
The policeman writes this down in his pad.
POLICEMAN
(to his radio mic)
Suspect is a Black male, five foot eight or nine. Phoenix suns jersey. Black jeans, no belt. Blue and black, Nike Lebron XII
(beat)
BHMs?
The crowd chuckles.
Someone in the Crowd
Black History Month, cracker!
The crowd laughs.
Calvin slowly moves away.
EXT. WATERFRONT PARK – DAWN
The city is empty. Calvin walks to the waterfront and we see the fog rolling in. As the fog reaches the bank, Calvin steps into it and disappears.
The fog begins to clear a bit and Calvin is in front of what looks like a government office building.
INT. MYSTERY BUILDING – DAWN
Calvin enters the building and inside he greets a security guard “Raphael”. There is a stairwell up and one down to a basement. In the basement there is light emerging – almost like there is a fire blazing. Steam seems to be rising from below. Calvin is reacting also the smell (sulpher) from below.
Calvin glances downstairs, hesitates out of curiosity and he finally takes the stairwell up into a processing area.
At the top of the stairs we see a sign “Processing”. There are at least ten positions on a long counter. It looks much like a DMV office where people are registering their cars or renewing their driver’s licenses.
Calvin
(to himself)
I thought it was going to be something like a Jamaican vacation resort.
Two bureaucrats, hauling paperwork, overhear Calvin and chuckle.
There are instructions on various signs to take a number and wait. There is a crowded waiting area and the people all seem to passing the time by watching television. The news is on television – 24/7 hurricanes, draughts, tornadoes, various murders, war stories.
At the head of each line is a different sign – Baha’ism, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Animism. Under each sign is a bureaucrat appropriate (stereotype) – a Tibetan Buddist, an Indian Hinu, an Arab Muslim, a Rabbi, a Russian Orthodox priest, a Sikh, a Chinese and an African witch doctor, etc.
The nameplate on the counter of the “Christian” bureaucrat reads “PETER”.
Everyone is slowly working to process applications. Each bureaucrat has an old outdated computer there on the counter and tons of paperwork. There is little or no progress. A few Hindi are reincarnated and frogs, dogs and rabbits leave out of an exit.
An application is approved and the person proceeds up another stairwell. This second floor is bright and newly painted. There are at least 20 dogs waiting at the top of the stairs for their masters. The newly approved person hugs his overly happy dog and they proceed out of sight.
Behind each bureaucrat are several desks and clerks, then an office with glass windows so a manager can oversee the work. Behind the Christian desks is a “manger” who does NOT resemble Michelangelo’s God, but instead looks like Sheryl Crow. The Buddha is in an office. Mohamed is in an office. Vishnu is there pushing papers. Every god is our stereotyped image except the Christian god, which is a woman.
Calvin takes a number, “1,238,033” and the loudspeaker calls for the next applicant.
LOUD SPEAKER
83,492
Calvin understands he will be waiting for a long time. He sits. He walks around. He sits. Finally, he exits out the door he entered.
Raphael, the security guard, stops Calvin as he approaches the exit.
Raphael
You are free to leave but I have to tell you something. There are only two reasons to remain on Earth. One, revenge but this is highly discouraged…
INT. JUDGE’S CHAMBERS – DAY
A ghost is haunting a judge.
CONVICT GHOST
I was executed for a crime I didn’t commit.
The judge gives an uncomfortable/haunted look around his office. He looks down at papers on his desk. A law book falls off shelf and crashes onto the floor.
Return to…
INT. MYSTERY BUILDING – MORNING
Raphael
And the other reform (and we are in a position to encourage this). If you have something important that remains undone, this falls under reform.
INT. PUBLISHER’S OFFICE – DAY
GHOSTS
In folklore, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike forms. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance. Other terms associated with it are apparition, haunt, phantom, poltergeist, shade, specter or spectre, spirit, spook, wraith, demon, and ghoul.
In folklore, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike forms. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance. Other terms associated with it are apparition, haunt, phantom, poltergeist, shade, specter or spectre, spirit, spook, wraith, demon, and ghoul.
The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead, is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary, human-like essences, though stories of ghostly armies and the ghosts of animals rather than humans have also been recounted.[2][3] They are believed to haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life. According to a 2009 study by the Pew Research Center, 18% of Americans say they have seen a ghost.[4]
The overwhelming consensus of science is that there is no proof that ghosts exist.[5] Their existence is impossible to falsify,[5] and ghost hunting has been classified as pseudoscience.[6][7][8] Despite centuries of investigation, there is no scientific evidence that any location is inhabited by spirits of the dead.[6][9] Historically, certain toxic and psychoactive plants (such as datura and hyoscyamus niger), whose use has long been associated with necromancy and the underworld, have been shown to contain anticholinergic compounds that are pharmacologically linked to dementia (specifically DLB) as well as histological patterns of neurodegeneration.[10][11] Recent research has indicated that ghost sightings may be related to degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.[12] Common prescription medication and over-the-counter drugs (such as sleep aids) may also, in rare instances, cause ghost-like hallucinations, particularly zolpidem and diphenhydramine.[13] Older reports linked carbon monoxide poisoning to ghost-like hallucinations.[14]
In folklore studies, ghosts fall within the motif index designation E200-E599 (“Ghosts and other revenants”).
MAYOR
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as the means by which a mayor is elected or otherwise mandated. Depending on the system chosen, a mayor may be the chief executive officer of the municipal government, may simply chair a multi-member governing body with little or no independent power, or may play a solely ceremonial role. A mayor’s duties and responsibilities may be to appoint and oversee municipal managers and employees, provide basic governmental services to constituents, and execute the laws and ordinances passed by a municipal governing body (or mandated by a state, territorial or national governing body). Options for selection of a mayor include direct election by the public, or selection by an elected governing council or board.
The term mayor shares a linguistic origin with the military rank of Major, both ultimately derived from French majeur.
The mayor is the municipal head of government, the maximum civil authority at the municipal level, in most United States municipalities (such as cities, townships, etc.). In the United States, there are several distinct types of mayors, depending on whether the system of local government is council-manager government or mayor-council government.
Under the council-manager government system, the mayor is a first among equals on the city council, which acts as a legislative body while executive functions are performed by the appointed manager. The mayor may chair the city council, but lacks any special legislative powers. The mayor and city council serve part-time, with day-to-day administration in the hands of a professional city manager. The system is most common among medium-sized cities from around 25,000 to several hundred thousand, usually rural and suburban municipalities.
Under the mayor-council system, the mayoralty and city council are separate offices. This system may be of two types, either a strong mayor system or a weak mayor system. Under the strong mayor system, the mayor acts as an elected executive with the city council exercising legislative powers. They may select a chief administrative officer to oversee the different departments. This is the system used in most of the United States’ large cities, primarily because mayors serve full-time and have a wide range of services that they oversee. In a weak mayor or ceremonial mayor system, the mayor has appointing power for department heads but is subject to checks by the city council, sharing both executive and legislative duties with the council. This is common for smaller cities, especially in New England. Charlotte, North Carolina, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, are two notable large cities with a ceremonial mayor.
Many American mayors are styled “His Honor” or “Her Honor” while in office.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor#United_States