The Cancer Manifesto Screenplay, Part 1

It starts with love. . .

by

Wayne Stein

January 4, 2026

FADE IN:

Within a hallway of a hospital.

Seeing a patient holding his IV, standing at the end of the hallway, looking out a window into the wilderness of a park far below, thinking, worrying, standing in pain. . .

Suddenly the hallway darkens and behind the window is light, like a television, he sees is past life as a child. . . becoming the Prince of Pain.

Doc Nirvana (VO)

Cancer becomes hell especially when your father stands as the God of Death. As I go through chemo treatments, I am haunted by the last time that I went through hell, my childhood.

I teach people how to write as a professor who ran the writing center and was the director of the writing program. Chemo kills healthy cells as well as cancer cells.

Survive and live but return to world that is on fire and about to explode.

Now I have forgotten my English because I think in Korean, my first language and read in Spanish. I grew up in many countries before I moved to America.I always dream of my Salamanca girlfriend, my first love.

As a defenseless child, my father would strip all my clothes off and smile sadistically, "This hurts me more than it hurts you."

Then he would proceed beat me, making sure to leave absolutely no marks where a teacher could see it. Therefore, my bottom was really hit really hard.

Indeed, I had cutting welt scars, red blood marks, and purple scratches all over my body. I was warned to tell no one, or he would kill everyone in my family. I believed him.

Sometimes we moved three times in one year because he didn't trust me. If I cried or looked like it was painful, he simply hit me harder. Therefore, I had to look into his eyes like he was a compassionate god.

To me, he became the god of pain, the god of evil, and the god of all demons. Instead, I imagined that he was taking me to eat ice cream or taking me to Disneyland as he was beating me.

I was never told about the Prince of Peace, the Goddess of Mercy, or the Mother of God. My father was not religious, just a demon.

I only knew the Stranger, Satan, the man whom I feared.

Gabi (V0)

Doc Nirvana could defeat bullies, he could outrun hungry dogs, and he could survive watching the evening news about the evil in the world.

One day as he was walking away from my father's abusive beating, he noticed someone was following him: Shadow Man, Gabi. This magical shadow actually talked back and tried to console him

He was my shadow, mixed with insanity from my punishments. He knew it was just his own shadow trying to alleviate his tortures from the God of Death. He never trusted patriarchal religions like Christianity.

Who wants a father in heaven when you have a father in hell at home?

Instead, he desired a loving woman to marry, a kind mother to protect him, or a Black Goddess like Kali to seek justice and kill all men (except him), especially his mother.

He grew up hating all men. All men are created evil. To this day, my only true friends are women. Indeed, men bore him and usually try to kiss him. I am not that kind man.

One day, I found some golden tarot cards with dice. I started to read about my future and then a golden box magically appeared.

So I talked into it, imagining it was a lamp with a genie inside. Instead, I saw a shadow inside.

Then a miracle happened, my shadow man became a human and stood before me.

What happens next is unreal. Read the next chapter. . . . Thank you! Gracias. Halloween was coming. Kids love that, even Christian kids.

THANK YOU FOR READING. . .

More is coming. I am crying when I write this. I wrote this years ago. It is time to tell the truth. I have kept this secret for too long. I want to world to know what I went through.