Flipped Page #2

for the rest of my life.

JULl:

It's three blocks away.

Two blocks.

One block away.

- Like that's valuable information.

- I hate it when she does that.

I like to think there's at least a chance

the bus won't show.

I think the tree looks particularly beautiful

in this light. Don't you?

If by "beautiful" you mean "unbelievably

ugly," then, yes, I would agree.

You're just visually challenged.

I feel sorry for you.

BRYCE:

"Visually challenged"?

"Visually challenged"?

This from the girl who lived in a house

that was the joke of the neighborhood?

They had bushes growing over windows

and weeds all over the place.

It bugged my dad bigtime.

Oh, there he is.

The bricklayer who thinks he's a painter.

That truck's not ugly enough in real life?

He's gotta make a painting of it?

No, he does landscapes.

Sells them at the county fair.

People say they're beautiful.

Landscapes? Let me tell you something.

The world would have

more beauty in it...

...if he'd do a little landscaping

on that piece of crap he calls a yard.

PATSY:
I feel bad for his wife.

She married a dreamer.

Because of that, one of the two of them

will always be unhappy.

Yeah, fine.

But why do we have to be unhappy?

BRYCE:
As annoying as the yard was

to my dad...

...it was nothing compared to how annoying

Juli Baker was in that tree.

JULl:

Three blocks away.

BRYCE:
Every morning

we had to listen to the sound...

...of her blow-by-blow traffic report.

JULl:

Two blocks.

WOMAN:

There you go.

Why do they call it The Three Stooges?

- I mean, there's five of them.

- What?

Well, yeah, there's Moe, Larry, Curly,

Shemp and Curly Joe.

- Yeah, but they only have three at a time.

- Yeah.

You know, I hate Curly Joe.

I mean, he shouldn't even be a Stooge.

MAN:
Listen, girl,

I'm this close to calling the police.

You are trespassing and obstructing

progress on a contracted job.

GARRETT:
What's going on?

MAN:
Either you come down...

...or we're gonna cut you down.

JULl:
You guys, come up here with me.

They won't cut it down

if we're all up here.

- Bus, bus, bus.

BRYCE:
Juli was frantic.

They wanted to cut down her tree.

I couldn't understand why

that mutant tangle of gnarly branches...

...meant so much to her.

JULl:
Bryce, please.

BRYCE:
I felt bad for her.

GARRETT:
Leave her.

BRYCE:

But I wasn't about to cut school over it.

GARRETT:

Come on, bro.

CHET:

Why isn't she your friend, Bryce?

You'd have to know Juli.

Well, I'd like to.

Why?

That girl has an iron backbone.

Why don't you invite her over sometime?

An iron backbone?

She's just stubborn...

...and she's pushy beyond belief.

Is that so?

And she's been stalking me

since the second grade.

Well, a girl like that

doesn't live next door to everyone.

Lucky them.

Read this.

Without prejudice.

BRYCE:
Like I needed to know

anything more about Juli Baker.

Juli wasn't at the bus stop

the next morning.

Or the morning after that.

She was at school,

but you'd never know it.

- Little Joe? He's got so much makeup on...

- He doesn't age.

BRYCE:

I told myself I should be glad about it.

I mean, isn't that what

I'd always wanted?

But still, I felt bad for her.

I was gonna tell her I was sorry,

but then I thought, hey, no...

...that's the last thing I needed:

Juli Baker thinking I missed her.

I see why you like to come out here.

Would you mind explaining it

to your mother?

JULl:

I loved to watch my father paint.

Or really, I loved to hear him talk

while he painted.

I learned a lot about my dad that way.

He told me all sorts of things...

...like how he got his first job delivering hay

and how he'd wished he'd finished college.

Then one day he surprised me.

What's going on with you

and, uh, Bryce Loski?

What do you mean? Nothing.

Oh, okay.

My mistake.

Why would you even think that?

No reason.

Just that you...

...talk about him all the time.

I do?

Mm-hm.

I don't know.

I guess it's something about his eyes.

Or maybe his smile.

But what about him?

- What?

- You have to look at the whole landscape.

What does that mean?

A painting is more

than the sum of its parts.

A cow by itself is just a cow.

A meadow by itself is just grass,

flowers.

And the sun peeking through the trees

is just a beam of light.

But you put them all together...

...and it can be magic.

JULl:
I didn't really understand

what he was saying until one afternoon...

...when I was up in the sycamore tree.

I was rescuing a kite.

It was a long way up,

higher than I'd ever been.

And the higher I got,

the more amazed I was by the view.

I began to notice

how wonderful the breeze smelled.

Like sunshine and wild grass.

I couldn't stop breathing it in...

...filling my lungs

with the sweetest smell I'd ever known.

Hey, you found my kite.

Bryce, you should come up here.

It's so beautiful.

I can't. I sprained my, um...

I have a rash.

JULl:
From that moment on,

that became my spot.

I could sit there for hours,

just looking out at the world.

Some days the sunsets

would be purple and pink.

And some days

they were a blazing orange...

...setting fire to the clouds

on the horizon.

It was during one of those sunsets

that my father's idea...

...of the whole being greater

than the sum of its parts...

...moved from my head to my heart.

Some days I would get there extra early

to watch the sunrise.

One morning

I was making mental notes...

...of how the streaks of light

were cutting through the clouds...

...so I could tell my dad...

...when I heard a noise below.

Excuse me.

Excuse me. I'm sorry, but you can't

park there. That's a bus stop.

Hey, what are you doing up there?

You can't be up there,

we're gonna take this thing down.

- The tree?

- Yeah. Now come on down.

- But who told you, you could cut it down?

- The owner.

Why?

He's gonna build a house,

and this tree's in the way.

- So come on, girl, we got work to do.

- You can't cut it down. You just can't.

Listen, girl.

I'm this close to calling the police.

You are trespassing and obstructing

progress on a contracted job.

Now either you come down,

or we're gonna cut you down.

Go ahead. Cut me down.

I'm not coming down.

I'm never coming down.

Bryce. You guys, come up here with me.

They won't cut it down

if we're all up here.

Bryce, please don't let them do this.

Come on, you guys.

Bryce, please. You don't have to

come up this high. Just a little ways.

Bryce, please. Please.

JULl:

What happened after that was a blur.

It seemed like the whole town was there.

But still I wouldn't move.

Then my father showed up.

He talked a fireman into letting him come up

to where I was.

Sweetie, it's time to come down.

Daddy, please don't let them do this.

- Sweetie...

- Daddy, look.

You can see everything.

You can see the whole world from here.

No view is worth my daughter's safety.

Now, come on.

I can't.

Julianna, it's time to come down now.

Please, Daddy.

It's time.

JULl:

And that was it.

Rate this script:4.3 / 4 votes