Against the Grain has been submitted for consideration to a couple of new studios in the UK. This is a first attempt at exposure to the European market. While I wrote this work with Charleston and Folly Beach specifically in mind, it adapts to any seaside or resort area where there are vacationers and water.

About Eshu:

Eshu, also known as Elegba or Legba, is a trickster god of the Yoruba people of Nigeria in West Africa. He is unpredictable, sly, and fond of pranks that can be cruel and disruptive. Eshu, who knows all the languages spoken on earth, serves as a messenger between the gods and people. He also carries up to heaven the sacrifices that people offer to the gods.

According to one story, Eshu became the messenger after playing a trick on the High God. He stole yams from the god's garden, used the god's slippers to make footprints there, and then suggested that the god had stolen the yams himself. Annoyed, the High God ordered Eshu to visit the sky every night and tell him what happened on earth during the day.

Eshu enjoys confusion. Many stories tell of tricks he plays that cause arguments between friends or between husbands and wives. In one myth he lured the sun and moon into changing places, which upset the cosmic order. As the god of change, chance, and uncertainty, Eshu is sometimes paired with Ifa, a god representing order. In one tale Eshu claimed that he would ruin Ifa, who laughingly replied, "If you transform yourself, I shall do the same, and if I die, you will die, for so it has been ordained in heaven."

Below: Eshu with his walking cane

Against The Grain - A Screenplay

Title: Against the Grain

Genre: Psychological / Supernatural / Thriller

Logline:
A struggling carpenter discovers an ancient African cane which gives him the ability to solve all his problems, but the gift turns out to be more curse than blessing.
 

Synopsis:

Parker Jones, an early 20’s carpenter who is trying to make his murdered father’s business succeed is struggling to make ends meet in a seaside resort town while unknown to him, Ken Franklin a master wood craftsman in a neighboring town has planned and committed the murder of his wife and her lover. The key to his success in the killings is somehow linked to a strange wooden cane which Franklin discards fearfully after the final murder.

While working on a dock one day, he and his friend and partner, Jamie, discover an intricately carved African cane. Parker injures himself on the job and begins using the cane as a crutch.

What Parker does not know is that the cane is the embodiment of a West African god called Eshu, the trickster who toys with humans by giving them gifts / powers which will ultimately undo them.

Parker accidentally discovers the following evening that the cane answers any question he asks by highlighting letters inside any book in the room where the question was asked. It is as if the wood in the room speaks through the paper of the book and messages are revealed to the owner of the cane. He confirms his suspicion about the cane's ability by asking it where his mother and father were killed during a home invasion and the cane reveals the correct answer. The least lucky man has suddenly found the luck he's never had.

As Parker explores the extent of his new ability the local police chief discovers Parker's gift. He then coerces Parker into assisting the police in solving a break-in, arson, and two murders. Parker’s luck seems to be changing for the good.

In attempt to prove to himself to his long-time love interest, Janet, a girl who does not love him in return, he discovers that his best friend Jamie has been sleeping with her. This discovery sends the usually mild mannered Parker into a selfish rage.

Hurt and angry, Parker decides to use his new power to look after himself by blackmailing a group of businessmen who are plotting an insider trader deal and collecting the reward money for revealing a mobster's whereabouts.

But Parker’s plan to selfishly use the cane to benefit himself begins to go awry when the murderer from one of the murders he helped solve, Ken Franklin, discovers Parker helped finger him and Parker has the cane, which Franklin previously owned and used to commit his murders. Now he wants the cane back.

Franklin finds Parker, kidnaps Janet and attempts to escape with the cane before the police can find him. He fails, the cane turns on him and in a twist causes Franklin to unexplainably kill himself.

Parker recovers the cane and reconciles with his would-be girlfriend and best friend. There seems to be a happy ending for everyone. But, while examining the evidence in all cases, one of the detectives discovers that the cane, while it gives its owner great psychic ability, exacts the price of death in return.

Parker unwittingly continues to use the cane and its powers and just as he and his girlfriend Janet are planning their wedding, the cane suddenly causes Parker to fall to his death from the end of a high ocean pier. Eshu’s curse has once more succeeded.

The cane is soon found by an unsuspecting couple walking along the beach and its terrible trickster cycle will soon begin again.