Pale Blue Dot Page #5

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LAURA:

You know I missed you, right-

NEIL (O.S.)

AHHHHHHHH!

Laura turns towards her screaming sons, who are wrapped up in

a tangle of pulled hair and kicked shins. She runs to break

up the fight:

LAURA:

Stop! Stop!

NEIL:

A**hole!

LAURA:

Watch your mouth!

Laura pulls the boys apart. They’re both red with anger,

ready to tear each other to pieces.

LAURA (CONT’D)

Guys, what are you doing?

ED:

Neil tied Venom to a bottle rocket.

Ed points to Neil’s handiwork, which is, just like he said, a

Venom action figure bound with a shoelace to the barrel of a

bottle rocket.

LAURA:

Neil.

25.

Neil bursts into tears.

NEIL:

I wanted him to be up there for

you. I wanted you to have something

to remember us.

Laura looks at the toy super villain tied to the firework and

her heart breaks for her children. There really was a price

to her going to space.

Laura doesn’t have the words, might never have them but-

DREW (O.S.)

Don’t worry, boys.

-- Drew steps up and puts his arm around Laura, pulling her

in tight.

DREW (CONT’D)

Your mom’s back now. And she’s here

to stay.

We’re the only ones who catch the momentary flicker of panic

on Laura’s face at just how permanent those words seem.

CUT TO:

EXT. LYNDON B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER - DAWN

Laura runs on the training facility’s outdoor track. She’s

sprinting, drenched in sweat. She’s been at this a while, but

she’s still going. She’s pushing herself as hard as she can.

Behind her looms the giant SATURN V ROCKET.

Finally, with one last burst of speed and energy, Laura

sprints a hundred yards. It’s intense, ugly running-- a

person pushed to their limit.

And when she stops, she doubles over. She’s gasping for

breath, the sweat pouring from her face.

MARK:

Hey, space girl.

Mark jogs casually past, making no attempt to hide the fact

that he’s staring at her ass. Laura struggles to get out a

response between ragged breaths:

LAURA:

Hey...you.

26.

Mark continues on his jog, calling back to her:

MARK:

Keep up the good work!

CUT TO:

INT. HOUSE - BETHESDA, MARYLAND - EVENING

Laura and Drew enter a darkened old house, carrying luggage.

The place is hideous, with a very heavy 70s influence on the

decorating. Actually, given the thick layer of dust coating

everything, it’s possible no one has touched any of this

since the 70s.

LAURA:

Dad?

There’s no response. Just the muffled sound of a television

somewhere deep in the house.

Laura and Drew continue through the house, passing a wall

lined with framed photographs. The pictures tell the story of

Laura’s childhood.

There she is as a chubby eight-year-old with no front teeth.

There she is-- thinner, older-- destroying the competition at

a track meet. There she is giving a speech as the

valedictorian of her high school class.

There are family portraits, too. Laura looking nervous in

each of them, standing between her mother and father.

Laura’s mother is a heavy-set woman with kind eyes and a head

of thick, brown hair. She looks incredibly warm, especially

in comparison to Laura’s father, WALLACE “WALLY” VINE. Wally

is a military man with a bald head and the same stern

expression in every picture.

The row of pictures ends with the final family portrait. In

it, Laura’s mother is obviously sick but putting on a good

face. She’s smaller, almost thin now and her hair’s been

replaced with a bad wig. Both Laura and her father look

miserable.

And now, finally, as Laura and Drew reach the den, we find

present-day Wally sitting in a recliner and watching TV while

chewing on a big wad of dip. The years have not been kind to

him-- there’s an oxygen tube plugged into his nose and hair

sprouting from his ears.

27.

Wally’s disposition certainly hasn’t brightened, either. He

doesn’t even look away from the television as Laura and Drew

enter.

WALLY:

What are you doing here?

Laura is genuinely disappointed by her father’s reaction.

Drew, however, looks as if this is exactly what he expected.

LAURA:

You forgot we were coming?

WALLY:

I didn’t forget. I just don’t know

what you’re doing.

LAURA:

We’re here to visit you.

WALLY:

Well, I didn’t ask for that.

Wally picks up the remote and turns up the volume on the

television.

LAURA:

Daddy, you can’t just sit here in

the dark.

Laura turns on a lamp.

The dim bulb reveals the walls of Wally’s den are lined with

Naval memorabilia from his war days. It also appears as if

Wally’s been living in this one room-- there are dirty dishes

everywhere and glass bottles filled with a disconcerting

yellow liquid.

Laura immediately goes to work tidying up, grabbing a pile of

dishes.

Drew, looking terrified, takes a seat on the couch beside his

father-in-law’s recliner.

LAURA (CONT’D)

Want a beer, sweetie?

DREW:

Absolutely.

Laura hurries off with the mess, leaving the two men alone

for an awkward moment. After steeling himself, Drew blurts

out:

28.

DREW (CONT’D)

You know, you should be very proud

of your daughter in there, Wally.

You raised quite the girl.

Wally ignores Drew. He grabs a nearby cup and spits a big,

disgusting glob of dark tobacco juice.

INT. LAURA’S CHILDHOOD BEDROOM - NIGHT

With Drew asleep in her old twin bed, Laura pokes around in

her childhood bedroom. It’s mostly untouched since she left--

though, this is more from Wally’s indifference than any sort

of preservation.

Laura pulls a large cardboard box from the closet.

She begins to empty the boxes contents. First, there’s a

large Styrofoam ball painted orange. She puts the ball in her

lap and reaches in for another, smaller ball. This one is

painted to look like Earth.

It’s an old school project, a complete set of Styrofoam

planets-- even Pluto. Laura sits there, the Sun in her lap,

and arranges the solar system on the floor around her.

EXT. BETHESDA MARRIOTT - NIGHT

In the middle of a heated argument, Laura and Drew make their

way through the hotel parking lot.

Laura looks great in a little black dress. Drew’s in a suit,

but he looks more like a guy who grabbed the first thing he

saw at J.C. Penney.

LAURA:

I’m worried about him. I think he

needs to come stay with us.

DREW:

What? No way. Where are we supposed

to put him? I don’t know if you’ve

noticed but there’s hardly enough

room for the five people who

already live in that house. Much

less an eighty-one-year-old man who

has never thrown anything away in

his entire life.

29.

LAURA:

Okay. So we get him an apartment,

then. Nearby. We can hire a nurse.

Someone to help out.

Drew stops, only now realizing how deep he’s in on this one.

DREW:

Wait. You’re serious about this?

You want him closer?

But Laura’s not stopping, she’s already made up her mind.

Drew has to rush to catch back up with her.

LAURA:

Of course I do. He’s sick and

lonely and he needs our help. Why

wouldn’t I want him closer?

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