ChairBoy
Narrator: [Narration, Several cutshots
of Jake doing things]. This is Jake Stewart, a young seventeen year old boy
living in Burham, Norfolk. He likes
watching the football, playing video games and seeing his friends at the
weekend but when he is away from all that he enjoys nothing more than spending
time with his partner whom he has been together with since he was little. The only problem is, that it is a chair. [Shot pans from Jake to the chair, whom has
been on a leash in the majority of the photos so far]. My crew and I shall be staying with Jake
for the next week to see if love really does travel in mysterious ways…
INTERVIEW
WITH MOTHER #1
Narrator: Hello, you are
the mother of Jake Stewart, is that correct?
Mother:
[concerned] Yes…
I am Mrs Stewart.
Narrator: Can you please
tell me when Jake started his relationship with his chair?
Mother:
[still hesitant] Well, he was five years old…
Narrator: Please, go on.
Mother: Well, he was
five. He hadn’t been at school long, he
was only little- He was a very easily influenced young boy, you see. And he saw this chair in the library of his
school and- Well… He just couldn’t stay away from it – he wouldn’t! It got so bad that he was told off and given
detentions almost every day! Eventually
I had to buy the chair just to keep him from getting into trouble. He was a
very demanding young boy was Jake.
INTERVIEW
WITH JAKE #1
Jake:
[Mid
interview, very excited] It is the best chair you’re ever going to find! Look, touch it! Actually no don’t only I am allowed to touch
it, she’s mine.
Narrator: What is it that
first drew you to this chair?
Jake: I don’t know
really. It just had something about it,
something made me know that I had to have this chair. See that was when I was a boy, but I’m a
young man now and I couldn’t be happier
Narrator: So you would
rather go with a chair than a woman?
Jake: Well, yes! I
don’t see any reason why not. [Growing hostility] The chair can do anything any normal girl can
do!
Narrator: I wasn’t doubting
that-
Jake: I can hold and
sit with her when I am happy, I can talk to her when I am sad! [looks around suspiciously] And, coitus?
Well… [spins the chair around to show a hole in the back of the chair].
WALKING
INTERVIEW WITH JAKE
Narrator:
[Narration] After
the first few days, it was clear to us that Jake doesn’t like to travel
anywhere without his chair, preferring to keep it held by a leash for easy
mobility.
[cut to walking behind Jake with his chair
down the street]
So where are we going today Jake?
Jake: We’re going to
Zak’s house. He’s cool.
Narrator: What makes him
cool, Jake?
Jake: He’s got lots of
cool stuff and he’s my friend. We play games all the time and talk about
football and life and school and stuff.
Narrator: Does Zak not go
to the same sixth form as you then, Jake?
Jake: Nah, Zak is a few
years older than me. We always have to
go through the side door so his parents don’t see me, he’s not allowed friends
over on weekdays!
[Shot of a sign saying “Dr Zachary’s
Therapy Clinic” outside the house]
INTERVIEW
WITH COUNSELLOR
[shot of Dr Zachary sitting writing notes
as Jake enters the room]
Dr.
Zachary: Hey
there big guy, how’s it going?
Jake:
I’m alright thanks.
Dr. Zachary: Good stuff, take a lay down man let’s have a
talk!
[Jake goes to
lay down on the bed]
[cut to
interview with Dr. Zachary]
Dr. Zachary: I’ve been Jake’s therapist for over five years now and- wait is it
six yet? [counting on fingers] One, two, three, four… No it is about five
years. I pretend to be a teenager in
order to help my younger patients trust me more, to show them I’m not some big
scary therapist who’s gonna rip out your thoughts and suck out your soul like a
fresh vacuum!! [dry laughter]
Narrator: Some people have said that some of your methods are quite…
controversial. What do you make of this?
Dr. Zachary: Well I would disagree, I think that I do the job I do to help
people. I mean yes, maybe I do sometimes
use some ‘unorthodox’ techniques… but I get results, I get the job done!
[Scene cuts back
to Dr. Zachary and Jake’s therapy session, mid exercise. Jake is positioned in an elaborate pose and
Dr. Zachary is yelling at him]
Dr.
Zachary: Strip.
[pause]
[back to the interview]
Dr. Zachary:
What do I
think about Jake’s problem? No, yeah I
think he’s pretty fucked up. Beyond my
help definitely! But well, if they want
to keep paying me then who am I to stop them?
INTERVIEW
WITH MUM #2
Narrator:
Do you think
Jake will ever grow out of this phase he is going through?
Mother: I don’t know. I hope so.
It’s too bizarre, I’m not sure how much more I can take of this.
Narrator:
Why, do you
think it will affect him in the future?
Mother: Well, he’s
leaving for university next year and I- [pause] I just don’t want to see him
humiliated because of his… disorder.
Narrator:
And you
think this will be the case?
Mother: [defensive] I don’t kn- I never said that he would definitely be
treated differently! It’s just… Well, what would you think, if you were walking
through the halls or something and saw… that?
INTERVIEW
WITH JAKE:
Narrator:
What does
the word ‘love’ mean to you?
Jake: I think that love
is a mystical and spiritual thing.
People have been saying for centuries that love ‘travels in mysterious
ways’…
Narrator:
[pause] And
so do you think love travels in mysterious ways?
Jake: I think love
comes to everybody in some shape or form, and when it does, there isn’t going
to be anything that stops it.
Narrator: So, you’re saying
that you think love is quite a bizarre sort of-
Jake:
[laughing]
I’m saying that it doesn’t matter! All
that matters is that I love her and she loves me, there isn’t anything else.
Fin.
James Huxtable x
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