Sirena's Scenes: At the Processing Center
Act I, Scene 2 PLUS: Berlin as the slacker capital
These dispatches are part of a special BQE section, “Sirena’s Pages”: an installment of our slacker film script accompanied by an unrelated but interesting piece of antiwork- adjacent content.
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The Scene
INT. Immigrant processing center. Day.
Shivering and wrapped in a towel, Jaime sits on a bench inside a crowded center that looks like a DMV.
With envy, he watches a girl happily clutch a teddy bear.
Sirena and Matilde, also in towels, sit beside him. Sirena shivers.
MATILDE (Spanish) Don’t ask for sympathy. You’re the one who got us put in this freezer.
She quickly straightens up and smiles politely as...
Zoe glides through with a stopwatch, stopping in front a MIGRANT who she engages in a silent eye-contact test. He looks away. She clicks her stopwatch and writes a note, unimpressed.
She drops a snack in his hand.
ZOE (Spanish) Welcome, good luck.
She moves on. Sirena watches her, bewildered.
A number bell DINGS. Matilde hurries to a counter with two GUARDS half-working, half-playing chess.
MATILDE (English) Hello.
Guard 1 puts his hand up, telling her to wait.
GUARD 1 (to phone) Does your embassy claim this man? … You do? Great. Few weeks to a few months.
He points a SOUTH ASIAN MIGRANT toward a packed holding room.
GUARD 1 (slow, pointing) Over there.
He turns to Matilde...
GUARD 1 (Spanish) Hands please.
...and starts taking her fingerprints, taking a quick break between fingers to make a move on the chess board.
GUARD 2 taps lazily at a computer while studying the board, raising his eyebrows.
Then, as if remembering he has a job, he turns to Matilde.
GUARD 2 (Spanish) Your hearing will take a few weeks.
He turns to the board, makes a move, and continues.
GUARD 2 Make yourself at home.
Matilde surveys the crowded center. A bunch of people, dead-eyed watch a corner TV that plays Marley and Me. A sneeze echoes under the film’s cheerful score.
Across the room, Zoe slips a sudoku sheet onto a bench, in front of another group of migrants. She steps back. No one bites. She sighs, notes it.
At a jug, Sirena pours Gatorade. Grizzie does math homework beside it.
SIRENA (English) What is she doing?
GRIZZIE No clue. She says it’s our way of “volunteering” on vacation.
SIRENA This is your vacation?
Back at the counter...
MATILDE (English) While I wait...can I work? I know engineering.
Guard 1 looks at her skeptically.
GUARD 1 (Spanish) Do you have a degree?
Matilde’s eyes drop.
MATILDE I learned by doing.
GUARD 1 (dry) Another engineer, fresh off the river.
Sirena catches this and perks up, frowning.
GUARD 2 (Struggling) You’re from...Seeuuu
Matilde opens her mouth to answer but Sirena steps in.
SIRENA Ciudad Montes.
Guard 2 nods.
Matilde gives her a look like “what are you doing?”
SIRENA (English) Never heard of it? It’s a paradise only an idiot would leave to come here.
Matilde’s look is now a glare.
Zoe also perks up.
GUARD 2 (English, to Guard 1) Doesn’t wanna be here. That’s a new one.
GUARD 1 (English) Wish more thought that way, instead of hustling for our work.
SIRENA Work? I won’t be doing that.
She casually grabs a piece from Guard 1…
SIRENA Don’t let him take your lunch, rookie.
…and makes a move for him.
SIRENA Hustling is for suckers.
Guard 2 looks at her, stunned.
GUARD 2 (English) Your English ain’t bad.
Zoe drifts closer, locked on Sirena.
MATILDE (English, proud) We taught ourselves. Discovery channel.
A few quick moves—click-clack. Sirena keeps reaching in, not letting Guard 1 get his moves in.
GUARD 1 (annoyed, to Sirena) Most people are grateful we don’t ship them straight back. Would you prefer that? Can’t cut it here?
Sirena looks at him, betraying offense, but brushes it off.
SIRENA I’d totally cut it here.
Matilde snorts.
SIRENA I just don’t feel like it.
Matilde is now worried and tries to pull Sirena away.
MATILDE (To guards, nervous) Maybe we should have separate applications.
(Nervous laughter)
Kidding.
Sirena gives a fake, boisterous laugh.
SIRENA Great, then mine won’t say “vibes engineer with no degree.”
Matilde shoots her an offended look.
GUARD 1 (dead serious) Happy to serve. Head to the waiting cell. We’ll arrange a bus home. Only takes a few months.
Sirena glances at the holding area: shivering families, a single exposed toilet.
GUARD 1 What, were you thinking a first class flight?
He starts typing. Zoe swoops, gently closing the laptop.
ZOE That won’t be necessary. I’ll sponsor them.
Everyone stares—even Grizzie looks up from her homework.
Zoe hands a letter. Guard 2 skims, shrugs, stamps.
GUARD 2 Whatever. Good luck.
Sirena flicks one last move on the board, cocky.
SIRENA Sorry we couldn’t finish.
GUARD 2 We could.
(moves a piece, beat)
Checkmate.
Guard 1 facepalms. Sirena’s swagger drains as Matilde steers her off.
EXT. Processing Center Parking Lot. Day.
Zoe dials on her cell phone.
Behind her, out of earshot, the family loads into her immaculate SUV: Matilde corrals bags and barks orders at Sirena. Grizzie fusses with floor mats. Jaime bounces up and down from the back door.
ZOE (into phone, low) Roland? I’ve got the perfect candidate. A natural.
Scene Notes
The center itself reflects descriptions from a Youtuber who spent some time in a Texas processing and detention center during the Biden administration. Of course, America’s already-previously-grim immigration situation has become even more of a horror show since. I considered working in some of those changes, but decided not to. When it’s all said and done, I’d like this story to make an argument for what I see as the unapologetic dignity (not justified by “hard work”) that immigrants deserve even when the system treats them relatively “well,” and the court of public opinion doesn’t feel the need to grant them sympathy because they’re facing down the gestapo.
You may notice quite a few tags denoting language, as characters switch between Spanish and English. I don’t think it comes across much when you read it, but I’m trying to have language use convey power dynamics and assumptions that characters make about each other. Namely, notice that Matilde speaks to every American in English, but they insist on speaking Spanish to her. While Zoe, for example, readily speaks to Sirena in English, a way in which she holds her in higher regard.
This scene has passages of verbal sparring, which I always enjoy, but in the back of my mind I’m always wondering if I’m slowing the scene down just to fit some zingers.
The above is where re-reading, and doing it out loud, sometimes helps. You don’t listen for the content necessarily, but for whether the pacing sounds pleasing.
Like the previous scene, the plot of this one didn’t change very dramatically from draft 1. The only large difference is Zoe’s strange evaluation of migrants at the center. Since on this draft she has a stronger reason to be down there (not just a wacky “vacation,” as she has her daughter believe), it feels appropriate to seed that a bit and in the process take the opportunity for some offbeat humor.
Berlin: the slacker capital?
I’ve never been to Berlin, so I don’t know how accurate this is. But there are interesting observations in here about it as an outlier capital where people are laid back and disheveled. If Sirena had to leave Ciudad Montes, maybe she would’ve liked Berlin instead of America.