Opening scene of SEEING MAYA

INT. JERUSALEM RESTAURANT – AFTERNOON

Danny rushes in. Spotting Maya within the bustling lunch crowd, he’s stopped in his tracks.

DANNY VO

I saw her before she saw me, and something made me stop and just watch, how people, especially women, looked at her, not with envy, but with the spontaneity of discovery. And I knew exactly why, even if they didn’t. The pure aliveness that poured through her, like some kind of body-generated light, was plainly visible to me, the way some people see auras. I knew then I had a gift for seeing Maya, which changed both of us, because we both became clear in this seeing, as if without it — though we’d lived that way all our lives until now — we were always somehow blurred. I realized I had something serious to lose in her, and it scared me, and I knew at that moment I needed to either love her from then on, or turn around and leave, and not see her anymore. But before I had time to consider this, she saw me and waved me over. 

Joe Bardin