SLICE
A grieving widow uses her love of baking to exact
retribution against the system she blames for her suffering.

Helplessly witnessing a loved one's slow demise to a preventable illness can create wounds that mangle our sense of right and wrong. In order to reach closure after tragedies like that happen: isn't revenge sometimes just and fair?

Steve Miles' Slice delves deep into that theme.

When the script opens, Hetty Swain's already learned a hard lesson:  "doing all the right things" doesn't always work.  Particularly when a couples' love is up against a health care system's inhuman bureaucracy, sometimes "more time, more money and more insurance" is nowhere near enough.  Though - once the inevitable happens, how far might a grieving widow go?

A former nurse, Hetty begins by taking a new job - determined to balance the books of life and death, right and wrong.

INT. INTERVIEW ROOM - DAY

Hetty scans the contract, pen poised to sign. She looks up.

HETTY
I like to bake.

INT. WESTLAKE COLLECTIONS - MAIN OFFICE - DAY

Hetty slips a Tupperware box from a cooler bag. Adam cranes over a divider in anticipation.

Hetty pops the lid, places a sponge cake on a plate beside the coffee machine. She draws a knife from a sheath, divides the cake with a smooth, practiced hand.

PATRICIA
(whispered)
What do we got this week?

ADAM
(whispered)
Looks like a lemon drizzle.

Hetty withdraws the cart from the room. Voices rise as the door closes behind her.

MORGAN
Crazy old broad, ain’t she got nothing better to do?

PATRICIA
You don’t want your slice?

MORGAN
That’s not what I said.

Through a glass panel in the door, Hetty watches them descend on the cake - not a flicker of emotion in those eyes.

But Hetty isn’t a "crazy old broad". She has her reasons. Not to mention better things to do - just as soon as her treats are devoured by those who determined her husband's fate... based not on compassion, but hard and cold accounting rules.  

If you’re looking for a topical revenge story where just desserts are served with a twist, Steve Mile’s “Slice” makes the cut - in many ways!