A vast, dimly lit
room is cluttered with stacks of books, files and papers strewn over the floor,
tables and the bed. A parting of the mess reveals the back of a young man bent
over a huge desk. He is writing furiously. A bust of Sir Isaac Newton dons a dusty, worn top hat and stands next to a large framed vintage print of Nicola Tesla and his coil. A large
telescope pointing out a set of French windows doubles as a coat rack. A
crackling sound comes over an antiquated intercom system.
ROSE MAY
Darling? Harry? Are you there? It's
three o'clock and she's not come back
again today. That's over a week she's been missing.
HARRY
Yes...curious. I'll investigate.
Harry jumps from
his desk and rifles through his mess, finding some binoculars. He moves to the
windows, searching.
EXT.
Gabby walks
slowly down the street in a daze, her knapsack drooping over her shoulder. Her school uniform is more wrinkled than
usual and her hair is a tangled mess.
She walks mechanically, without purpose, lost in sadness.
A car full of
schoolmates pulls along side her, taunting her before speeding off.
She hangs her
head and walks on. Until, seemingly out of nowhere…
HARRY
Where have you been? My mother is
worried sick.
Harry has
appeared from over the wall of 1313 and stands blocking Gabby’s way. She is
stunned and speechless at the sight of his beautiful face, shoulder-length
chestnut hair and big black eyes.
HARRY (continued)
You sit on the street corner for
weeks drawing my house and as soon as my
mother invites you into the garden to get a closer look, you disappear?
You’ve
really upset her.
Gabby, feeling
slightly dizzy, straightens her knapsack and finds her voice.
GABBY
My mother's in the hospital.
HARRY
I apologize. What’s wrong with
her?
GABBY
She fell and hit her head. She’s in a coma.
HARRY
That’s very upsetting. Do you want
me to come
with you?
Gabby is confused by Harry but comforted by his direct manner and thrilled by the intensity of his
focus.
GABBY
Come with me to the hospital? Are you
a doctor?
HARRY
No...oh, my coat? No, I wear this when
I’m working.
If you need an advocate, though, I will accompany you.
Doctors can be a pompous clan with
their secret nods and
wild assumptions. I hear you’re on your
own.
No father, like me.
GABBY
We’re living with my aunt. She’s waiting for me
to take me to the hospital.
HARRY
Very well. What’s happened to you
mom is very unfortunate
but you mustn’t
stop your drawing, your work.
We’ll be expecting you.
With that, Harry scampers
up and disappears back over the wall. Gabby hears an awkward thump and bump
from the other side and a mumbled “fucking hell” from Harry.
EXT. – LATER
Gabby sits on steps
of her aunt’s front porch. She pulls her
sketchpad out and flips through the pages, the drawings marking her history of
past events. She stops at the drawing of
1313, only half-done, and runs her raw, bitten fingers over the page. Looking up, she soaks in the beauty and peace
around her and smiles. Her aunt appears
with a glass of lemonade and joins her on the steps.
MAEVE
What have you got there?
Gabby quickly
returns her sketchbook to her knapsack.
GABBY
Just some scribbles.
MAEVE
How are you doing? Everything okay at
school?
How are things going with your finals?
GABBY
Alright, I guess. I have calculus next week I’m sure to fail.
MAEVE
Why don’t you invite some of your
friends over to study?
I don’t mind. I’d
love to meet them. Have you given any more
thought to enrolling at the junior college? It's not that
bad, from what I hear.
thought to enrolling at the junior college? It's not that
bad, from what I hear.
Gabby takes a long
sip of lemonade then breaks the awkward silence.
GABBY
Aunt Maeve, do you know anything about that big,
weird house at the corner of Star and
Summer Street?
It’s got a big stone wall
around it and a copper roof?
There’s lots
of amazing plants and trees and...
MAEVE
Oh, that crazy, spooky house? We
used to joke the Addams
family must live
there. I think it’s an eyesore and I am too spooked
to walk past it. It’s so out of place in the lovely, quiet
neighborhood. My friend, Janet, lives
around the corner.
Janet says the woman
who lives there is a real bitch
and very strange. Very anti-social. Janet says every year,
about this time, the woman throws a huge party
and all kinds of crazies show up. Janet, who never gets invited,
said one year the police came and
arrested one of the guests
who’d
been parading around the block stark naked
banging some kind of African drum,
shouting about a
zombie invasion or something...
Gabby laughs,
spilling her lemonade.
MAEVE
It’s not funny, Gabby. They could be dangerous people.
And please don’t
make such a mess. Anyway, Janet says they’re
anarchists. I guess the husband
died quiet unexpectedly and left the
woman, Rose, a boatload of money. He was a scientist or inventor
or
something… and a lot older than her. They
had one child, a son,
who was apparently sent away to a very
exclusive boarding school
in Paris? London? Somewhere…when he was quite young.
Who sends their only child away to boarding
school?
Sounds suspicious to me. Anyway, Janet’s never seen the boy,
Sounds suspicious to me. Anyway, Janet’s never seen the boy,
he’s all grown
up now, of course, but she’s heard he is also
very strange
and is supposedly engaged
to some kind of princess who is somehow
related to the Crown Prince of Morocco? Dubai? Somewhere…
Gabby stops
laughing and slowly pours the rest of her lemonade into a potted plant.
MAEVE
Gabby! Don’t do that. I made that lemonade for you.
You’ll kill the plant and I
just repotted it.
I know you’re upset
about your mother
and the doctor’s
don’t have a clue…
we’re both left alone to deal with her mess
but I’m trying my best, I really am.
Maeve bursts into
tears, jumps up and runs back into the house, leaving Gabby alone on the
front steps.
GABBY
Fucking hell, indeed.
