Treatment for first novel: "Dreaming of Revelry"

 DREAMING OF REVELRY

               (working title) 

                           BY

   

           S.E. JEAN - CHARLES

   

                                                                     

            DREAMING OF REVELRY 
                                 BY
             S.E. JEAN - CHARLES

'DREAMING OF REVELRY' by S.E.Jean-Charles is a work of semi-fiction involving two childhood friends, a guy & girl, who've lived the entirety of their millennial lives in New York City. Despite leading very eventful lives, the two are just beginning to face the realization that they are approaching the end of their twenty's, embarking on their 30s, yet their arrival lacks any traditional signs of maturity or stability. 

       Aidan works as a buyer and corrdinator for an event planning firm in lower Manhattan; and Adeline is a waitress at a popular downtown restaurant. Both, admittingly, are milking the remainder of their 20s for all its menial worth---prancing aimlessly through life with expensive, unused college degrees and a mountain of expensive, unpaid debt.

       Aidan is gay and ever since he turned 18 and came out, he has been estranged from the entirety of his  family who disapprove of his lifestyle. Adeline, an only child, was at 2 years old abandoned by a drug addicted mother and left to be raised by a neglectful father whose penchant for all forms of a gamble far exceeded his penchant for fatherhood. Both have been each other's support system and for Aidan, Adeline was the first person he came out to. She, for all intent and purposes, is his one and only friend---besides the occasional weekend tryst that enter and exit his revolving door of a bedroom. 

      One paticularly drunken weekend, spent couped up at their favorite downtown bar is interrupted by an unusual request from Adeline that is sure to change their lives forever.

   Adeline, nervously, ask Aidan if he would consider platonically impregnanting her as a gift so she could fulfill her dreams of being a mother and provide the unconditional care and love she herself never received from her own absentee mom. She reassures Aidan that he will, in no way/shape  or form, be obligated to be in the kids life as anything more than mommy's friend Aidan ---- it will simply be a gift of life from one friend to another. 

     Trying hard to find a genuine reason why a sperm donation to his most dearest friend would be a problem , Aidan agrees---somewhat reluctantly.

       The date, July 4th weekend in the Catskills mountains, is chosen. When that day arrives, a case of wine and a few joints are polished off, the two proceed with comical attempts at arousal and orgasm yielding activity until the deal is ultimately done. 

   Fast forward, a 3/4ths of a year and Shayla, their daughter, arrives at Lenox Hill Hospital on the upper east side weighing in at 8lbs and 4oz.

        While initially motherhood is embraced by Adeline and her life begins to appear as if it now contains purpose and meaning, she is quite quickly made aware that motherhood is: one, not a decision that should be made under a plethora of emotions, cocktails and unaddressed abandonment issues stemming from an absentee mother and neglectful father; two, being a single parent is a task that one, if they were aware of the impending struggle, would never volunteer for willingly; and three, motherhood is less social media shareable moments and more struggle, angusih, pain and tediousness. 

   As time progresses and the sleepless nights , lack of support and harsh reality of having to raise, feed and care for an actual other humanbeing, all the time, becomes fearfully evident, Adeline, tearfully leaves Shayla with Aidan one afternoon under the guise of needing a few hours of 'me time'.       

          However, instead of returning a few hours later, she makes the  painstakingly harsh decision to skip town, leaving both Shayla & Aidan to fend for themselves with nothing but a note found tucked deep inside the diaper bag apolgizing profusely , but confessing "I can't anymore, I just can't."

          Aidan, almost certain this is a joke waits as Adelines estimated arrival back time comes and goes. Calls go straight to voicemail indicating a phone turned off. Completely blindsided, scared and unprepared for being a parent, initially dances with the idea of giving shayla up all together, but decides against it when during one of Shaylas paticularly epic crying session, he comes to realization  that while they both may be crying, they, at the very least, were together and not alone. And after she was his biological child and therefore ultimately his responsibility
           Days, weeks and months go by with not even a call, letter or text from Adeline. Eventually Aidan begins to find great purpose in raising his biological daughter. The bond between the two get incredibly close. And, much to Aidan's surprise and an unpredicted outcome of being a newly single parent , Aidan reestablishes the once seemingly unrepairable relationship with his parents, who start out by helping him little by little tend to Shayla financially. 

      As time tends to do, it carries on. Months turn into years, milestones such as shaylas first words , steps and smiles happen and are happily celebrated.

             While incredibly difficult, raising Shayla proves to be awesomely rewarding for Aidan, who has now begun turning his life around due to no longer exhibiting carelessness due to being without responsibilities. All appears to be progressing well until , out of the very blue one August morning appears Adeline.
              Adeline reappears, looking like an entirely new person. Surprisingly, however, her looks arent the only major  change in her life. Adeline is now a married, born again Christian who, as she tells Aidan that evening over coffee, had suffered a mental breakdown brought on post partumly by the stress of taking care of a  newborn and her mountains of unaddressed bpersonal issues. She admits to fleeing to Florida on a one way Amtrak to reside with an aunt like figure from her dad's side who had been the one and only consistent and stable person in her whole life. Upon getting settled , the two began attending church and soon after arriving, she was committed to a psych hospital to help hash through her unresolved issues.

           Her presence, however , is suspicious and Aidan inquires what is it she intends to do now that she's back in town. Adeline , with her newly acquired religious rehtoric , informs Aidan that she is now equipped and prepared to be the mother Shayla needs. Aidan, offended and dumbfounded by her cluelessness half heartedly shares his appreciation for her request , but tells her that he's got this.
             Adeline, reading the subtext of Aidan's statement, realizes that Aidan not only has no intentions of allowing her to get Shayla back, but will not so much as allow them to see one another. Tensions begin to run high and Adeline spews some horrendously hurtful comments about the dangers of gays raising children and how her church in Florida is certified in the practice of praying the gay away. Aidan, shocked and appalled by this unrecognizable person in front of him, exits the coffee shop only after telling Adeline that---as long as he is alive and breathing--- she will never, ever see Shayla again.
            Aidan exits , leaving a distraught Adeline sobbing and screaming obscenities. A few weeks later, when arriving to drop Shayla off at his parents house , Aidan is served legal papers informing him that Adeline is taking him to court, seeking full custody of Shayla
             What follows is a heartwrenching legal & emotional battle between two childhood friends whose pain and shortcomings brought them together in the beginning and in the midst of their search for meaning & stability, they created someone that ultimately may tear them apart.