A few days ago there was an OP on artist Edward Hopper's "Night Hawks."

[brush]

https://i.postimg.cc/gk2Vwkst/hoppernighthawk5001.webp

A favorite of several DUers,including me. Poster CTyankee mentioned that it has a film noir quality and what if the lone, male diner had a gun and was about to rob the place.

I liked that idea immediately and conjured up a film noir-ist type script that needs the next page. Here it is. Anyone else in this writing group want to take it, participatory-style, from where the woman leaves the dinner following the protagonist (who, btw, needs a name)?

The protagonist arrives, fortuitously, quickly sizes up the what's up,stymies the holdup, his own gat handy, an army .45, surplus. Disarms the robber, tosses his .25 to counterman, cautions the bandit to sit, and still.

Counterman makes a call, covers the crook with his own piece, waiting for the squad car.

Not particularly anxious to be around cops, the protagonist tilts his hat just right, tips it to the woman then leaves for a drink, needs one now, food can wait.

She follows, alone, just like that, heels tapping signals on the sidewalk.

Take it away, whoever wants to join in.

[CTyankee]

1. I think everyone has an opinion about what is going on in that painting.

It almost invites you to tell the story behind it, what is going on, how does it relate to our lives in America.

[brush]

2. Thanks for indulging me in my "Film Noir" imaginings.

I've belonged to a couple of writers' workshops and an exercise used in one was a participatory story where everyone added their own portion to the story. "Night Hawks" by Edeard Hopper seems straight out of the Film Noir era.

I started it off and as you probably can see, my effort tried to capture the fast-paced short, declarative phrasings/dialogue of the second half of the '40s thru first half of the '50s period, like in "The Maltese Falcon", "The Big Sleep" and other classic films from that era.

I didn't get any takers here on DU, which is a bit disappointing but perhaps appropriate as it's no longer safe in America for women to strike out on their own, alone and walking on our streets at night.

I probably should've put it in the Writers' forum. I don't think I did. The bolded type in the above graph is my comment on the polarized demographic of today that trump, as all other former presidents have done, refuses to leave the stage (he's trying keep his behind out of jail of course, but it won't work as SC Jack Smith and DA Fani Willis are going to get him, just as Tish James, the NY AG, did today.