Lots of Plans

I've got a busy weekend; I'm going to go see the play PROOF tonight here at Ball State University, going to a dinner party tomorrow, and Sunday watch my niece get christianed. I think I am there to serve as a horrible warning.

Also need to write a chunk of PETER ROTTENTAIL. I'm getting behind.

Today's chunk of AMONG US includes some scenes I wrote right before I went to the shoot in Pennsylvania, to flesh out the characters at my wife's suggestion. I really liked these and thought the talent did a good job, considering they read them on-set and did them right away (although as usual Jon McBride had to use crib sheets).


DISSOLVE TO:
INT. CABIN (KITCHEN) -- DAY
Wayne is sitting at the table drinking coffee.
WAYNE
I believe this is day five...and if I were to give a status report, I would say...we have had no progress since the claw marks on the first day. And, since we are here at an isolated cabin, the down time can be the worst part. Television reception is poor, Internet access nonexistent...there is a closet full of games, but many are broken or incomplete...for instance, the Scrabble board is missing two Gs. There are puzzles as well, but every one I have put together has been missing just one piece.
(beat)
Just one piece of the puzzle...that's always it in the end, isn't it?
CUT TO:
INT. CABIN -- LATER
Billy, Jennifer, and Wayne are playing cards.
BILLY
So did you ever watch any scary movies as a kid?
JENNIFER
Oh, sure.
BILLY
What was the first, like, scary movie memory you have?
Jennifer keeps playing, thinking for a moment.
JENNIFER
Probably "Escape to Witch Mountain."
Billy looks incredulous.
BILLY
What? That's like a Disney movie!
JENNIFER
You know, it's just those kids getting chased all around, and their powers, and all that.
BILLY
I'm talking about a real scary movie! Stuff like "Don't Look in the Basement" or "Abby" or something like that. Hard-core drive-in shit that your parents took you to by mistake! Bail me out here, Wayne.
Wayne stops and thinks.
WAYNE
What was that movie where the guy from "Herbie the Love Bug" turns invisible?
JENNIFER
Oh, what was that?
Billy almost doesn't want to say.
BILLY
"Mister Superinvisible."
WAYNE
That had some startling things.
BILLY
Scary here, Wayne. "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." "Suspiria." Jesus Christ, Wayne.
Wayne frets.
WAYNE
Probably "Escape to Witch Mountain" then.
BILLY
This is what's wrong with the industry.
Billy gets up and starts restlessly walking back and forth.
JENNIFER
Billy, has it ever occurred to you that maybe your parents shouldn't have let you watch that shit when you were just a kid?
BILLY
They didn't. That was me acting out. Military brat.
Jennifer throws up her hands.
JENNIFER
Sounds like something you need to tell your therapist.
BILLY
I did. Originally I started going to one out in L.A. to network, because Betty Ford was too expensive.
Billy stands, thinking. The silence stretches.
WAYNE
Does anyone want to play "Go Fish?"
Billy heads out. After a moment, Jennifer follows.
CUT TO:
EXT. CABIN -- MOMENTS LATER
Billy is looking off into the woods.
BILLY
When I was a kid we had all of these books around the house, religious books. Crap stuff, about how Halloween is bad and shit like that. Did you ever read those things?
JENNIFER
Maybe in Sunday school.
BILLY
We didn't have any normal books, just this shit. There were stories like, you know, a greedy kid who always took the biggest piece of pie, then his mother starved to death. Like there was nothing to eat but pie. Or a kid who lied too much and ended up in hell. For lying. I mean, and my movies are fucked up?
JENNIFER
What do your folks think about all this going on now?
BILLY
Well, lucky for them they're dead. Mom and "the colonel" were killed in a car wreck back in Mankato.
JENNIFER
My dad was killed in VietNam. My mom died of cancer a couple of years ago.
BILLY
I guess we're both alone.
JENNIFER
I guess so.
Billy looks for a long moment at Jennifer, then walks away.

Give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.