1313 - Chapter V

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.

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, 

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.