‘Have a Heart’: “I wonder if that pizza tasted any differently”

Our very first Christmas together, the first time Pete met my family, he noticed something on the dessert table. “Hey! This fudge looks like a heart!” It’s as if he had a spastic verbal outburst that he had no control over. My brother patted him on the back and said, “yeah. good call.” My brother was being a sarcastic jerk but Pete just smiled good-naturedly, which seemed to scare my brother a little. It was kind of awesome. I suppose I should point out that the fudge was not intended to look like a heart. It just turned out that way.

Pete has an eye for such things. Next time it happens in the fish aisle of Trader Joe’s. Pete gets this big smile on his face, picks up the sashimi grade ahi tuna and proclaims, “Look! It’s shaped like a heart!” This is way cuter than the time that lady in Echo Park saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in a slice of pepperoni pizza. I wonder if that pizza tasted any differently.

Anyhow, the finding-the-heart-thing would happen time and time again. We’d be taking a stroll and he’d stop mid-step, point to the sky and excitedly say, “Look! That Cloud! It’s shaped like a heart!” It could happen anytime, with just about anything, puddles, sunflowers, ice cubes. You name it, if it had a shape to it, and as far as I know everything has a shape to it, Pete would see the shape, eventually, at least once, in the shape of a heart. He’s not self conscious about this. He’s as joyful as a six year old boy on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. He doesn’t think he’s silly. Which I love most of all. Because neither do I.

In fact, I think it makes total sense. I would imagine, if you had a heart as big as he does, that it could very well multiply inside of you and maybe even spill over on occasion. All that excess heart has to go somewhere, right?

Annie Wood is a Hollywood native, lifelong actress and writer. She’s an award winning playwright with a hit web-series that she created, wrote and stars in, Karma’s a B*tch, which has over 1.7 million views and was Best of the Web on Virgin America. Season 2 was co-written with veteran TV writer, David Schladweiler. (Look for season 2 in 2015) Subscribe here: www.youtube.com/karmatheseries For information about Annie’s writer-for-hirer work, where she will write a unique scene specifically for you to use in your demo reel and in workshops, please visit