Chicle’ Chicle’ explores the universal question: Why can’t we accept ourselves…just the way we are? This dramedy spans three generations as the West family comes to terms with their vanity, sanity, virginity and…mortality.

God was good to Hayden West. Tall, dark, smoldering looks offset his surly disposition. Sometimes. When Hayden wipes out his education and his Legoland job to join the ranks of the "Big Wave Quest" his father Dave, a surfer himself, couldn't be prouder. His mom, Linda couldn't be more irate. After all, the Lego uniform wasn't that bad. Besides, 'Big Waves' in extreme surfing means waves fifty-foot plus. The difference between life and death. Linda prefers Hayden tries something really scary--like finishing college, getting an apartment and landing a real job. Her biggest fear is Hayden will end up like all those other surfers whose biggest goal each day is to watch a sunset. Dave reminds her that she hasn't seen a sunset in years.

Gigantic waves in Mexico waters become an enormous obsession for the West men. Hayden’s best friend, Tim provides the Jet Ski for waves so powerful that surfers have to be towed in. Photographers provide the evidence. Their accomplices include local peasants in shoddy pongas that don't speak English. But they all understand Hayden's exhilaration as he conquers fifty, sixty, and seventy-foot waves. Even Uno, his favorite Tijuana vendor. The severely deformed man with one “good arm” and no legs, hobbles to Hayden’s van, lighting up the border crossing with his smile. But Hayden still can’t figure out what the hell Uno’s got to smile about.

Dave, a Viet Nam vet with a dead-end job as a tile setter allows him to sneak off to Mexico with Hayden for a surf session now and then. Scrawny brother Evan seethes in jealousy as he videotapes Hayden's every wave in the hopes of becoming a documentary film director. The West Fraternity makes Linda mad as hell. She dives into her bleak DMV job. Mother Nature rears her ugly head again as other DMV customers deny their vital statistics. Linda simply denies that she is menopausal. Linda’s only daughter Ashley, the sophomore class president and Daddy's little girl, makes her own waves as she kisses her virginity goodbye with that worm in her Biology class that Dave detests.

Life for the West family unravels as Hayden's lifelong passion becomes life threatening. As Hayden packs for a global quest, a last minute physical reveals a serious condition that requires emergency surgery. When Hayden undergoes surgery, the West family opens up their hearts and minds to a new way of dying -- and living. A revelation that makes Hayden and his family realize Mother Nature may not be such a bitch after all. 

Copyright 2006 Maggie Franks
All Rights Reserved