MIDNIGHT THREE & SIX Directed by Joe Callander Final Cut 12-20-14 A teenage girl stands at a kitchen counter looking bored. A middle-aged woman enters from frame left carrying a bunch of boxes. Woman So, to change her, uh, pump site...the pump she wears, the tubing needs to be changed every couple of days. So we’ll... The insulin goes into the reservoir, the reservoir is attached to the tubing, then to her pump, then into her body. She also takes shots. Let me go get those. The woman exits frame left. A big rude orange cat jumps up on the counter. Girl C’mere bud. The girl picks the cat up and sets it on the floor. The woman enters frame left with more boxes. Woman So, sometimes she’ll take a shot with what’s called a “flexpen“. Test strips. If she’s gonna go swimming, we prep her site with skin prep wipes. These are extra lancets. We have extra kits. And there a gluco-gun. Course, if we’re using this, 911’s on the way. But typically with lows, this is our friend: Juice. Close up shots of diabetic supplies on the counter. Girl It’s just... Woman It’s just too much. Girl I’m trying...I’m trying to act interested. [sarcastic] ‘Wow, Yeah...hmmmm’. Woman Laughs. Woman It’s kind of overwhelming to say it, but that is the way she lives. Transition shots of coffee being made. Coverage of a bedroom. Closeup of a photograph. The girl pulls down the top of the photo, which reveals itself to be a homemade cup holder. The girl sits down in a chair. Close up shots around the room. Girl (VO) They thought it was the flu so they just sent me back to school. Then they figured out it wasn’t the flu. No matter how hard you try to explain the difference between the two, people are always just gonna mistake you for a type 2, and then it just...I don’t even like try to explain anymore, like ‘oh, did you eat too much sugar, is that why you’re diabetic?‘, and I’m like, ‘nope’. Cut back to the girl speaking. Cut aways to an agitated dog. Girl I recently had a friend pass away from it, and she was my age. And it’s just scary, like, things like that. So it kind of...I don’t know. One day I could be here and one day I could just not, so. I guess I kind of appreciate the little things more and...[dog whining off camera] um, guess I don’t know, things like that. I guess I don’t take things for granted as much. Even though I still do, but I try not to. Girl shushes dog. Girl Oh, she wants me to check. Is it ok if I get up and check really quick? The girl and dog exit to the left. The girl is standing at the kitchen counter checking her blood levels while the dog watches attentively. Girl (VO) Jackie is my diabetic alert dog, and my other half [laughs]. She alerts to my blood sugars when they’re fluctuating, and will give me a paw and let me know, because I can’t really feel it that often. A giant lumbering prehistoric golder retriever ambles into the wide shot. Girl Ben, you’re not getting anything. Lay down. Ben lays down. Hesuchagoodboy. Girl Waneme, good low. Waneme, good low. Close up shots of diabetes gear, wide shot of girl drinking a juicebox. Girl (VO) If my blood sugar goes below twenty, I’ll um, go into a seizure or a diabetic coma and if I’m not rushed to the hospital then I would just die. And I’m very comforted I have Jackie because she catches things like that a lot. Close up of Jackie watching the girl intently. Girl Good girl The girl walks across a yard carrying a frisbee. Jackie is jumping around her excitedly. They play a bit of frisbee and then the girl brushes the dog. Girl (VO) When I got Jackie, like a lot of things changed for me. Like, that I don’t remember being this happy before, I don’t remember liking dogs this much before. I think Jackie is what started my crazy dog loving thing. I take her everywhere with me. Woman (VO) What if she wants to go to college? Or what if she wants to move out someday, and she doesn’t have a roommate that would act as kind of a protector? So we decided to invest in Jackie for added insurance, or assurance. We wanted to put as many layers of protection as possible between what could happen with Grace, and what will happen with Grace. Girl She doesn’t like her whole tail being brushed too much. Nighttime in the house. Grace feeds Jackie grilled chicken from Chic-fil-a and then they sit on the bed and watch The Office on Netflix. Dwight from The Office VE VILL ASK THE QUESTIONS Dwight slaps Michael, Grace chuckles. Michael from The Office WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? Dwight from The Office WHAT ARE YOU DOING!??! Michael from The Office WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?! Woman (VO) With Grace, as a mom, I hover. And it’s the opposite as I used to be as a mom. And she rolls her eyes, especially as she’s becoming an adolescent. She wants to break away and we’re in this point where we’re training her to be independent and yet, she’s still a child and we have to hover. I mean, we’re forced to hover. But between Jackie alerting her at night and the artificial pancreas, I’m almost sure I can let her go. Shots around a quiet house at night. Cut into an interview shot of the woman. Woman I may have to become a stalker though [laughs]. Grace sleeping. Shots in another bedroom where a clock reads 11:59pm. It turns to 12:00am and an alarm goes off. The woman arises and turns it off and walks into the kitchen and prepares to check Grace’s levels. Woman (VO) My husband and I take turns on duty, and on duty means we check her blood glucose levels through the night. Midnight, three AM, six AM. Type one diabetes represents, I think the last figure I heard is five percent of all diabetics in the world. And Grace is a Type one diabetic. She’s a volatile Type one and she hasn’t really stabilized. So every three hours keeps her safe. The woman walks into the room. Jackie is wide awake and panting. Grace is sleeping. The woman checks Grace’s blood levels as she sleeps. Woman (VO) Every five or six hours can be very dangerous. And by very dangerous I mean, you know, she could die. That’s the best we can do, is checking her, correcting her, checking her, correcting her. Her pancreas is dead, and it died all the sudden and it becomes very life-threatening, very fast. Woman stands at the kitchen counter making notes. She walks through the house back into her bedroom. Woman (VO) Sometimes we have to check her every 15 minutes for a few hours, or every hour for 10 hours. It just depends on what’s going on with her. Shots around a quiet house at night. A cat tries to kill a bug. Back in the woman’s bedroom, it’s 3AM. The alarm goes off. She arises. Woman (VO) Do I fear sleep? Yeah. If I’m on duty, I do. The woman walks back through the quiet house to Grace’s room. Shots around a quiet house of empty chairs and the hunting cat. Woman (VO) I’ve slept through an alarm before and woken up in a panic and run to her room. In the past five years, four of her friends her same age have passed. Three of them at night while they were sleeping, and one in the morning. One of her girlfriends died last May. And we went to her funeral. She’s three days younger than Grace, and it’s just surreal. I mean, you look at the families, you look at the parents, you look at the casket. A lot of kids came from all over the United States and they all sat together. And you know, they all had a wisdom beyond their years. They knew why they were there and they knew that they could be in that casket. So remembering it I get emotional. But I believe Grace will have an artificial pancreas before she turns 20. There really is hope. Close up of an alarm clock that reads 5:59am CUT TO BLACK. ROLL CREDITS. Filmmaker Joe Callander Producer Dave Munson Suzette Munson Associate Producer Jason Tippet Pat Janssen Loren White Sound Mix Pat Janssen Color Correction Loren White Thank You Saddleback Leather & Love 41