Marlowe Page #2

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The old pizza which was on my desk.

Wow, this is soo cool. I’m Cole.

Nothing happens so Cole points to himself with his

other hand and repeats,

COLE:

I’m Cole. Guess you don’t speak

inglish. Maybe you’re like a

general or something so I should

salute you.

Cole takes his free hand and salutes Marlowe. Marlowe

watches with fascination and then repeats Cole’s action and

salutes Cole. Cole retracts his hand from the house and

sits down on the floor of his room.

COLE:

This is so – I mean this is –

I have a aleene general in my

room and no one in all the

world knows.

Cole looks down at Marlowe who is waiting to see how it all

turns out.

COLE:

Hi.

Marlowe does not answer.

COLE:

Hi.

Again Marlowe does not answer. Cole reaches over to his

back pack and takes out a pencil and paper and writes ‘hi’

on the paper and shows it to Marlowe.

Marlowe looks at the scribble for a long time. Cole holds

the paper closer to the mouse. Marlowe looks closer at the

shapes on the paper.

Cole folds the paper so it is smaller and he finds a

miniature-golf-course pencil and lays the pencil and the

paper down in the room in the toy house.

Marlowe moves across to the paper and the pencil.

To Cole’s amazement Marlowe picks up the pencil and holds

it so it sits over his shoulder with both of his little

hands around the base.

The mouse walks to the paper with the pencil and examines

the shapes that Cole used. Marlowe draws those shapes with

the word ‘hi’.

Cole is totally frozen looking at the mouse message.

COLE:

No one – is ever going to believe

this. I don’t even believe it

myself – except that I see the

paper you wrote on and it says

hi’.

Cole points to himself.

COLE:

Cole. I am Cole. My name is

Cole. What is your name?

Cole points to Marlowe who just stares up at him wondering

what he wants. Finally Cole takes the paper out of the

little house and with his big pencil he writes his name.

Cole. And then points at himself again. Cole carefully

places the paper back in the house.

Marlowe notices out of the corner of his eye a book in the

toy stack which was open to a page which started with the

symbols M A R L O W E.

Marlowe had no idea what it said but he liked the way the

shapes fit together and the way the whole word looked after

all the shapes were made so – as carefully as possible and

with Cole looking on like he was watching a major surgical

operation – Marlowe copies the letters from the book and

then put the pencil down.

COLE:

Mar – Marlo – Marlowe – you are

Marlowe.

Marlowe heard his name or the name he gave himself, for the

first time. Cole pointed at him and said it again so

Marlowe was pretty sure that he was that sound – Marlowe.

Marlow sat back as Cole wondered around his room trying to

make sense of the situation.

Suddenly and without warning Miss Penney was in the room

and now in the air on her way down to land on the mouse in

the toy house.

Cole did not skip a beat as he pulled Miss. Penney out of

thin air and grabbed her around the scruff of her neck and

took her in the hallway.

He returned to his room and he closed the door. Cole

walked over to his computer and typed some words. He hit

print and the printer printed a sheet of paper which

said in large, bold letters, Keep Door Closed.

Cole found some tape and took the paper and the tape into

the hall and he taped the note on his door and then

returned to Marlowe.

Cole walked back to his bed and sat down on the corner

looking at Marlowe.

COLE:

Wow. This is just so cool. I

guess I’ll have to feed you and

everything until we figure out

a way to tell everyone. I don’t

suppose you know how to make some

money so my dad and mom can keep

our farm, do you? Guess not.

LOUISE (O.S.)

Cole, it’s time for dinner so

wash up and come down.

COLE:

All right mom, just a minute.

Listen, I’ll steal some food off

the table and bring it to you

after dinner. My mom is a really

good cook. I don’t know if you

like our kind of food but, if you

liked that old pizza you’ll love

mom’s cooking. Okay, gotta go so

you better go back in and close

the door.

Cole goes to the door and closes it behind himself. Marlowe

hears him RUNNING down the stairs.

He walks back in the front door of the little house and

closes it behind himself.

Almost immediately Marlowe comes back out the front door and

climbs into the pile where he saw the book and finds the

book again with the word Marlowe on the page. Marlow sits

in front of the book and carelessly begins to turn the

pages.

He sees all the words but they don’t mean anything to him.

He quickly goes back in the toy house and brings back the

paper with the words written on it and compares it to the

ones in the book.

Hours go by as Marlowe studies the book and the way the

words are arranged. He traces the words across the page with

his tiny hand. He finally falls asleep with one thought on

his mind. Among all these words – he was Marlowe and the

human was Cole.

Marlowe opens his eyes slowly and he is rocking back and

forth in Cole’s palm. He tries not to show fear but Cole

is huge like a giant in the eyes of the mouse.

Cole stops and lowers his hand and Marlowe immediately jumps

out and onto the floor.

COLE:

Sorry. I didn’t want to wake

you. You were reading the book

weren’t you. I can’t even read

that book so you are very smart.

Cole points to his head and repeats it.

COLE:

Smart.

Marlowe finds the pencil and small, folded paper and offers

them to Cole.

Cole takes them and immediately writes down S M A R T and

then shows it to Marlowe and then points to his head.

Marlowe bounces up across some toys until he is on Cole’s

desk. He walks to the end of the desk and waits. Cole

comes over and gets down on his knees so they are face to

face.

COLE:

Smart.

Marlowe closes his eyes down and wrinkles his nose and moves

closer to Cole and looks right at Cole’s mouth as Cole says

it again.

COLE:

Smart. Like you are. Because

you want to see what is making

the sound. Right? Right.

Marlowe, come over here. Let

me show you this.

Marlowe hops across to the computer table where Cole sits

down. Cole presses some keys until a program comes up that

shows words and how to pronounce them.

COLE:

I tried as hard as I could not

to tell anybody in school about

you. I almost did but I didn’t.

I just had to think really hard

about what would happen – if I

said anything. Right?

COLE:

Look at my hand. Cole points

to his hand as he pushes the

mouse and shoves the cursor over

the word ‘right’ and the computer

speaks the word. See?

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