Marlowe

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FADE IN:

INT. MOUSE BURROW – DAY

Underground on a Virginia farm, Marlow wakes up in his

burrow and realizes he is alone. He looks through the trash

and fur covered walls to the sun light coming down the hole.

Marlowe grabs his possessions – a human watch on a chain and

two rings which he drags to the top and looks out towards

the house and the barn.

EXT. VIRGINIA FARM - DAY

Marlowe takes off towards the house pulling his treasure all

the way under the porch and into the darkness under the

house.

INT. UNDER HOUSE - DAY

A large dark spider with green eyes leers across at Marlowe

as he hops across the dirt to an old sub floor.

He pulled his treasure up to the subfloor and then back

further into darkness where he leaves it as he peers up

through a hole in the real floor into a kitchen.

Marlowe crawls up and reaches the hole when a huge cat’s paw

slaps down across the opening and knocks Marlowe to the

subfloor.

LOUISE (O.S.)

What have you got down there

cat? Lloyd, have you seen this

hole down by the stove?

LLOYD (O.S.)

Haven’t seen it yet. I’ll come

look directly.

Marlowe waits and explores until he spies another hole where

the gas line goes up behind the stove. He crawls up the gas

line and waits for his eyes to focus.

He could see dust, old food particles, a dead mouse further

under the stove and out in the kitchen Marlowe could see the

cat and the dog playing.

He hopped back towards the hole but discovered kernels of

dog food which he picks up, sniffs, licks and sniffs again

and then he eats the nuggets and goes to sleep.

Marlowe wakes up from the purring of the cat who walks up

and back in the kitchen waiting. Marlowe sees the stairs on

the far side of the kitchen and decides it is now or never.

INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT

The mouse tears out from under the stove and hops like a

deer to the stairs. The cat is instantly right behind him.

Marlowe bounces up the stairs, two stairs at a time until he

hits the landing.

INT. HOUSE - NIGHT

The cat is just behind him. Marlowe picks the first door in

front of him and dives under the doorway as the cat smashes

into the door and bounces off.

INT. COLE’S BEDROOM – NIGHT

Eleven year old Cole sits up in the darkness.

COLE:

What was that? Who’s there?

Cole hears his mother outside the door.

LOUISE (O.S.)

Oh my God. Miss Penny knocked

herself out. Lloyd, the cat is

unconscious.

LLOYD (O.S.)

I’m coming, I’m coming for darn

sakes.

LOUISE (O.S.)

Cole, are you all right in

there?

COLE:

What happened mom?

LOUISE (O.S.)

It’s all right son, you go back

to bed now, the cat just knocked

herself out hitting your door.

Must have been chasing something.

Good night son.

COLE:

Good night mom, dad.

All is quiet as Marlowe steps out from the darkness and

examines the room. There are balls, bats, gloves, shoes,

clothes, books, belts, backpacks, toys, toys and more toys.

Marlowe sees, in the middle of a pile of toys – a miniature

house, just his size. He carefully scampers over to the toy

house and crawls in the front door.

INT. TOY HOUSE – NIGHT

There are rooms and rooms of small furniture made just for

a mouse. Upstairs there are beds and tables and bureaus

with drawers to hide treasure in. Marlowe is beside

himself.

He finds a mirror and suddenly sees himself for the first

time. He looks long at the mirror – changing his pose,

cropping his ears, holding his whiskers back and finally

turning so he can see his tail and his back.

He finds no food in the kitchen but plenty of boxes that

look like food. In another bedroom he finds doll clothes

and puts on a vest and goes back to the mirror to see how

he looks.

Marlowe runs back and finds pants and a shirt and puts them

on and plays in the clothes, sitting in all the chairs and

holding up toy glasses that are empty and toy plates with no

food.

Finally Marlowe climbs up the stairs and finds a warm bed

and crawls into it and goes to sleep.

INT. COLE’S BEDROOM – MORNING

The bedroom door slams open and Lloyd yells at his son.

LLOYD:

Cole? Get out of that bed and

get ready for school.

COLE:

Ahhh. K dad, just getting up.

LLOYD:

You don’t get to miss the bus

anymore this year, understand?

COLE:

Yes sir.

Cole climbs out of bed and dresses as he looks through his

toy pile. He finds his shoes in the pile right next to the

toy house.

Cole pushes the house sideways to get his shoe and the roof

accidentally slides off showing Marlowe, standing on his

back legs and sniffing the air.

Cole freezes and Marlowe freezes. Cole, slowly leans down

until he is on his knees towering over the top of the house.

He takes both fists and tries to scrub out his eyes using a

twisting motion back and forth. Marlowe does not move a

whisker.

Cole looks down again and shakes his head in disbelief.

COLE:

You – got clothes on.

Marlowe’s large dark, glistening eyes look like some kind of

moist candy frozen in the head of a mouse with clothes.

LLOYD (O.S.)

Cole! If you miss the damn bus

you’ll be grounded for a week.

COLE:

Okay dad, I’m coming.

Cole slowly lowers the roof back onto the toy house and then

turns toward the door but Miss Penny is standing right in

the middle of the doorway purring.

COLE:

Oh. So that’s what you were

chasing last night, huh Penny

girl?

Cole quickly picks up a backpack and then the cat and goes

out – closing the door behind him.

COLE:

Don’t anybody go in my room

today – I’m working on a project.

Marlowe steps out the front door of the toy house and begins

to explore the room. He goes into every corner and every

dark space looking for a crack or a hole or some other enemy

who might wait for him in the night.

On a kitchen plate on the edge of Cole’s desk Marlowe finds

a piece of pizza and after smelling it and licking it he

sits down on the desk with the pizza in his hands and looks

out the window as he eats.

Marlowe takes the pizza and drags it into the toy house and

finishes it sitting in the rocking chair.

INT. COLE’S BEDROOM – AFTERNOON

The roof is lifted off the house. Marlowe jumps out of the

rocker and rushes upstairs until he meets Cole’s eyes and he

freezes.

COLE:

How can you have clothes? Are

you an alaene?

Cole slowly lowers his hand into the toy house.

COLE:

Now, don’t bite me aleene, I’m

not going to hurt you.

Marlowe looks at the huge hand and doesn’t know what to do.

He looks at Cole and Cole looks back. Marlowe doesn’t feel

any fear so he steps slowly forward toward the hand when he

realizes that he still is holding onto the pizza. He pushes

the piece up above his head and places it in Cole’s hand.

COLE:

Wow. You’re offering me food.

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