The Community, Issue 3: Part 4.1

Page 70

Panel 1: Back home, in her bedroom, we see her fully wrapped in her bedsheets trying to relax. You can see a slate of names on a piece of paper in the lower right corner of the panel view.

VOICE

(Off-Panel, singing)

Ahhh ah ahhh...!

Panel 2: Same setting/layout as the previous panel. Jesminder raises her head up and to the left in the direction of the singing.

VOICE

(Cont. Off-Panel, singing)

Ah ah ah ahhh...!

JESMINDER

(thought bubble, translated from Hindu)

What in...?

Panel 3: Cut to a brief shot of a statue of Chitragupta placed on the wall just across from her bed. The eyes appear to be examining the woman with a stoic look on his face.

JESMINDER

(Cont., Off-Panel thought bubble)

Chitragupta...what?...

Panel 4: We move to a slight close-up on Ms. Borah's face a few moments later, turning back to her work. In the lower section of the panel, you can see the sound effect of a knock on the door.

JESMINDER

(Cont., dismissive; thought bubble)

Fever must be screwing with my brain...not a good sign.

Panel 5: Action shot a few moments later of Neha- wearing a mask and plastic face shield- entering her bedroom with the soup freshly made on a tray.

NEHA

(to Jesminder, translated from Hindu)

Soup's on, my dear.

Page 71

Panel 1: A three-part set of panels that comprise a single montage into the future. The first one shows Jesminder at the phone, lobbying colleagues; the soup on the tray next to her.

Caption

(Jesminder, narrating)

"I spent a week in bed, trying to both beat the virus and lobby any colleague I thought would be open to introducing the bill."

Panel 2: Slight close-up on Ms. Borah having a swab taken in her mouth as a part of an at-home test for the virus; an interlude between the flash forward montage.

Caption

(Cont., Jesminder narrating)

"A feat many of you watching are familiar with, in one fashion or another; a feat I couldn't have gotten through without my beloved Neha."

Panel 3: Back to the second part of the flash forward. The soup remains unchanged here, but a handful of the names on the paper have been crossed off. You can see Jesminder looking more sickly compared to Panel 1.

Caption

(Cont., Jesminder narrating)

"It ended the same way, every time: they thought it had merit, but..."

Panel 4: In the third and final one, we see her with an angered expression on her face to the response from the latest name on the list (which now is all but crossed off). As for the veteran MP, she looks very pale and considerably sicker than at any time before.

MP

(through the receiver, to Jesminder; translated from Hindu)

The rightwing would fry us like bacon...we'd lose our jobs in the next election!

Caption

(Jesminder, narrating)

"The rage that built up in me...If my throat wasn't clogged with dark yellow phlegm, I would've screamed loud enough to make Kali bow in reverence."

Panel 5: We move to a shot of Neha in the doorway, wearing the mask and face shield she had on earlier and holding the test results in both hands. You can see a look of love hiding deep sadness in her eyes.

Caption

(Cont., Jesminder narrating)

"My rock--my very soul kept me in good spirits as best as she could; the doctors doing what they could to help my body beat the virus."