The Story of the Box Lady

INSPIRATION:

 So let me tell you what the inspiration is for this story:

I was walking on one of the busiest streets in Dublin (Ireland) O'Connel Street, as everyday there are 100s of people streaming up and down. In the midst of these people stands on old lady..she looked she was about 170 years old...she was barely moving forward...but more concerning was that she was wearing a carton box on her head (pears to be exact). I couldn't see her eyes, and it certainly was no joke..as nobody was with her. It was a weird image that stuck with me...I wanted to know why, and what! When I came home I drew this really quick sketch of her: Boxlady

I then started to think...what could be under that box? Maybe she being controlled by cats, maybe she is an alien, maybe she is one of those conjoint twin kinda people....

For the story, I took the image of the box as a symbol of the ladies' life experiences, stories she has to tell and imagination. We have to look into the box to find out more about her. Living in a city where you can walk on the street with a box on your head without anybody stopping to ask if you are ok, really makes me think we should stop and take some time to get to know each other again! Here's my initial story treatment...

STORY POINTS:

 Once upon a time… There was a guy who didn't care about anything else besides himself, he had very long hair covering his eyes and walks around with his head down looking at his feet. The world was a grey place and he was just living out the rest of his days.

 And every day…. He walked the same street on his way to the bar filled with beggars and tourists asking for directions. He steps on the feet of people, kicks over the collection jars of the bums, bumps into people flicking them off. But never looks anybody in the eyes.

 Until one day…. He bumps into an old lady wearing a carton box on her head (hiding her features). He is about to curse at her. but seeing this strange image makes him hesitate. He walks on, but still processing what he saw, he turns around and sees the lady is trying to cross the road while the traffic light is red. Cars are going at her at full speed. Every body just walks as normal, nobody paying attention to this danger.

 Because of this… He does something he normally never does, instead of ignoring everything around him, he jumps to the rescue of this lady. A car is about to knock her over, but he runs across the road like a rugby player and jumps into the lady to clear her from danger of being hit. she lies unconscious on the road. He is looking around to see if anybody is running over to help the lady, but everybody just keep walking on with their head facing the ground, not even acknowledging anything special has happened.

 Because of this… He needs to help her. First thing he tries to do is to remove the box from her head so he can perform first aid. As he tried to remove the box, we see a bunch of cats that are wrapped around her head, holding the box.

Like a spring the box recoils back on her head and the guy is totally surprised. He laughs out loud and we see him thinking "screw this man, I'm out of here". As he walks off, he looks back and the box is walking along dragging the body of this woman behind it.

He can't resists and follows the box lady. It disappears in a dark alley. He enters the dark alley carefully. The woman's' body is nowhere to be seen, but the box is lying there. He approach and tries to look in the box, which appears shallow from the outside but infinitely deep from the inside. He peeks inside and gets sucked into the box.

 (Here's where some fun stuff can happen)

Until finally….. He escapes from the weird world of the box , let's say he exits through a toilet. he shakes his head like a dog trying to dry his fur. He looks in the mirror and puts his hair on a ponytail revealing his facial features to us for the first time. He goes out the men's room and walks into what seems to be a cafe.

He takes seat next to an old lady who's face we can't see, but she looks like the lady with the box on her face. They are having coffee. Ever since that day…. Our hero walks with his head up, talking to strangers and engaging in the wonderful tales people have to tell enriching his own life.


 Below some more sketches I did :