Marlowe Page #3

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Marlowe sees everything on the screen, on the desk and in

the room but his eyes are focused on Cole’s hand as his

finger pushes the mouse and the computer talks.

COLE:

It’s not really funny I guess

but this is called a mouse.

Pretty crazy. Okay, this is

what I am gonna do. I can

leave this program on and you

can learn if you understood

anything I said and I know you

did because you are a smart

aleene and it’s my job now to

teach you. Now it’s on and you

can type from here any word.

Cole slowly types out Marlowe and then puts the cursor over

the word and just before he pushes the mouse, Marlowe jumps

right next to his hand and pushes the mouse button and the

computer says his name,’ Marlowe’.

Marlowe and Cole look at each other for a long time and then

a huge smiles grows across Cole’s face which lights up

Marlowe’s face.

COLE:

Smile.

Cole types in the word, points to his face and his smile

and Marlowe pushes the mouse button with his tiny little

hand and the computer says the word, smile.

LLOYD (O.S.)

Cole, do we have to wait dinner

for you every night of the week?

COLE:

Coming, coming. Okay. I have

to go but I’ll bring more food

and ah some water and other stuff

you might need – here. Okay,

see you Marlowe.

Marlowe watches sadly as Cole goes out the door and closes

it. He briefly sees the sign to keep the door closed before

it whizzes past his face. Marlowe stares at the computer

screen. He looks over at the book and back at the screen.

He looks at the paper where Cole wrote the words and slowly

Marlowe starts to piece the puzzle together.

He pushes the mouse again over his name and again the

computer says his name, Marlowe. A smile slowly grows on

Marlowe’s face and he feels it.

He instantly runs down to the tiny house and rushes inside

where he finds the mirror and he looks at himself. He

smiles slowly and his eyes almost bulge out of his head in

excitement.

Marlowe bolts out of the toy house. He runs so fast he

runs across a wall sideways until he jumps on the bed and

then bounces all the way back to the house where he sits in

front of the mirror and he smiles over and over and over

again.

Marlowe swaggers out of the house and bounces back up to the

computer table. There are words everywhere in the room on

posters, notes, books, maps, toys, puzzles and even on the

machine.

One by one Marlowe types them out on the key board and then

has the computer speak the word. First, one at a time and

then later five at a time and then even later ten at a time

until Marlowe falls asleep on the key board.

Miss. Penny stares down at the mouse, asleep on the key

board. Her tongue passes across her nose and upper whiskers

in a flash. Her purr grows louder as the hair stands up on

her tail.

Marlowe is frozen below her with his little heart racing a

hundred miles an hour. His eyes are frozen in her eyes.

Suddenly Miss. Penny makes her move and lunges down on

Marlowe with her mouth wide open. Marlowe squeaks as the

cat’s teeth touch his skin and instantly Marlowe wakes up

alone on the key board with his legs moving in all

directions.

Marlowe scampers down to the toy house and jumps inside.

The bedroom door opens and Cole comes in. He drops his

stuff on the floor, closes the door and then sits sadly on

the end of his bed looking at nothing in particular.

Marlowe sees Cole from the toy house window. Marlowe

recognizes that look but doesn’t understand it.

He bounces out the front door and hops up on the bed and

sits next to Cole until Cole finally realizes the mouse is

next to him.

COLE:

Hey. Sorry, I didn’t see you

there. Hi.

Marlowe recognizes the sound of ‘hi’ and he perks up as Cole

raises his arm and waves.

Marlowe watches him for a moment and then repeats the motion

and waves back to Cole.

COLE:

Right. That’s right. I sure

wish I was as smart as you

aleene because my mom and dad

could use my help right now

cause we’re going to have to

move. We just broke I guess.

What we need is to find the

treasure – that was left here

some place by my grandfather

who had something worth a whole

bunch but he hid it and no one

can find it cause we searched

and searched for a long time.

Cole watches Marlowe to see if he is following the story.

COLE:

My dad almost went crazy cause

we couldn’t find anything.

Suddenly from downstairs came the sound of a loud ARGUMENT

between Lloyd and Louise.

Lloyd (O.S.)

…and in the end it was all over

some stupid watch, some damn…

LOUISE (O.S.)

…don’t you dare start using that

language in this house.

COLE:

Oh boy. Now dad’s talking bout

the watch that he says has a

clue to the real treasure.

Of course dad is the only one

who seen the watch cept he

described it to me many, many

times so it’s like I seen it

but really haven’t.

Cole looks down at the toy house as Marlowe sticks his

head out the window.

COLE:

Do you know what a treasure is?

Marlowe looks at Cole but does not understand.

Cole crosses his room and picks out a book on the book

shelf. He flips through the pages until he finds what he

wants and then he sits down outside the toy house.

COLE:

See this?

Cole holds up a page to Marlowe which is a picture of a pile

of treasure.

Marlowe comes out of the house and stands in front of the

picture.

COLE:

This is treasure. I don’t

know if grandpa had something

like this but this is what we

are looking for. And there is

a clue on grandfather’s watch.

Marlowe looks over the treasure picture until he focuses on

a ring. He gets very excited and starts to jump around and

then he looks around and remembers how he got in this room.

COLE:

What is it?”

Cole watches Marlowe with fascination as the mouse jumps

down and goes to the bedroom door. He looks under the door

and sees Miss. Penney’s paws standing right on the other

side.

COLE:

You can’t go out there. The

cat is out there.

Marlowe jumps up on the bed and then down on the floor in

front of the door. He repeats this until Cole gets the

idea.

COLE:

Okay, I’ll take you out, I

guess. You have to stay

hidden so my mom and dad don’t

see you. That would be bad.

Cole reaches down and opens his hand and Marlowe jumps in.

He deposits Marlowe in the pocket of his shirt and he opens

the door and Miss. Penny runs in immediately and Cole close

the door and locks her in.

INT. THE UPSTAIRS LANDING - DAY

He heads downstairs until he gets to the bottom of the

stairs when Marlowe climbs out of his shirt pocket and

crawls down Cole until he gets to the floor.

INT. THE KITCHEN - DAY

He mouse takes one second to look around and then races like

a gazelle across the kitchen and disappears under the stove.

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