Room Page #14

Ma, Jack, Nancy and Leo eat supper, watching TV. Jack is

drawn to look at Leo who does the old thumb trick for him.

64 INT. NANCY AND LEO’S HOUSE - MA’S BEDROOM - MORNING 64

Ma is still asleep. Jack sits on the bed beside her, bored.

He looks towards the half-open door to the landing.

65 INT. NANCY AND LEO’S HOUSE - LANDING - DAY 65

Jack sits on the landing with a favorite toy from the pile in

the sitting room. From where he sits he can see the open door

to his and Ma’s bedroom. It’s dark inside. Eventually, Leo

walks into view with a male DETECTIVE and a female VICTIM

LIASON OFFICER. He shows them to the door.

LEO:

Thank you again.

(CONTINUED)

65 CONTINUED:
65

He lets them out, closes the door behind them, then peeps

through the closed curtains. As he turns away, he spots Jack,

gives him a salute and then busies himself in ways calculated

to raise the interest of a 5-year-old. Tidying up, he picks

up a ball from the floor, spins it on his finger, bounces it.

Wanders off out of view, whistling, muttering about how

particularly bouncy this ball is, etc.

Jack starts down the stairs. He goes down on his backside not

yet confident enough to do it standing.

66 INT. LIVING ROOM/KITCHEN - MORNING 66

Jack wanders cautiously into the brightness of the living

room, finding Leo who smiles at him, then gets back to

whatever he’s pretending to be doing.

Jack is silent.

LEO:

(to himself)

Gee, am I hungry.

He pads into the kitchen.

LEO (CONT’D)

Let’s see what we have here.

Jack follows him in. Leo takes some cereal out of a well

stocked cupboard, he opens the fridge for milk. Jack takes in

all the produce it contains.

67 INT. KITCHEN - A MINUTE LATER 67

Jack and Leo, at opposite ends of the counter, eat cereal.

LEO:

Pretty good, right?

Jack nods.

LEO (CONT’D)

I like this kind, too. Kind of

sweet, but pretty good.

Jack looks at Leo, not answering, but not bolting. He keeps

eating. After a moment.

JACK:

You have a dog?

(CONTINUED)

67 CONTINUED:
67

This is the first time Jack has initiated any conversation

with an adult other than Ma.

(CONTINUED)

67 CONTINUED:
(2) 67

LEO:

I do. Named Seamus. He's very

small. Not very smart. You'll have

to meet him sometime. He'll shake

your hand.

JACK:

I had a dog called Lucky. But he's

not real.

LEO:

Yeah?

JACK:

In Room.

Leo takes this in.

LEO:

You ever play catch, Jack?

68 EXT. BACK YARD - LATER 68

Jack and Leo walk out into the garden. Jack is wearing his

hat and glasses but no sun-cream.

The back yard is a simple rectangle of grass bounded by

barkdust and shrubbery with a few small trees. But to Jack it

is a new cosmos. He wanders tentatively into the open space.

Jack kneels to investigate the dirt and grass. He smells

deeply.

A little later, Leo and Jack throw the ball between them.

Jack’s shoes are irritating him.

JACK:

I hate shoes.

LEO:

I hear what you’re saying, but ...

Leo drops the ball and kicks it to Jack who manages to kick

it back.

LEO (CONT’D)

They’ve got their uses. Am I right?

Jack nods. They play awhile, getting farther apart.

(CONTINUED)

68 CONTINUED:
68

NEIGHBOR BOY:

(OS)

Hey.

Jack and Leo look over. The NEIGHBOR BOY is standing at the

fence.

NEIGHBOR BOY (CONT’D)

I have a ball like that.

LEO:

(wary, but open)

No kidding. It’s a nice ball, isn’t

it?

NEIGHBOR BOY:

I got mine for my birthday.

LEO:

Fantastic. You hear that, Jack? He

got this same ball for his

birthday.

NEIGHBOR BOY:

Why’s he wearing those glasses.

LEO:

He’s got sore eyes.

The boy thinks about this. Decides it’s an acceptable answer.

NEIGHBOR BOY:

(to Jack)

Did you get that ball for your

birthday?

Jack shakes his head

NEIGHBOR BOY (CONT’D)

What did you get for your birthday?

JACK:

I got a truck but it broke and Ma

got me a cake.

NEIGHBOR BOY:

A cake’s not a present.

JACK:

Yes it is.

(CONTINUED)

68 CONTINUED:
(2) 68

NEIGHBOR BOY:

That’s weird. A cake’s just

something to eat. No way is it a

present.

Jack looks at Leo and bursts into tears. He flees. Leo and

the neighbor kid watch him go.

69 INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY - MOMENTS LATER 69

Jack runs through the house...

70 INT. MA’S OLD BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER 70

... and slips into the bedroom where Ma is pacing around on

the house phone. She has a smart-phone in her hand which she

is trying to set up.

JACK:

Ma. Ma.

MA:

(waving Jack off)

I already gave all this information

to the last person.

(covering the mouthpiece)

What, Jack?

JACK:

Is a cake a present?

MA:

What?

She turns away, deep in her own frustration.

MA (CONT’D)

(into phone)

Hold on ... I don't understand the

words you are using, so why do you

keep repeating them?

(pause)

I have done that three times

already.

Jack sits quietly on the bed. Ma looks at him again, notices

that his face is a little red. She covers the phone.

MA (CONT’D)

(to Jack)

Have you been outside?

71 INT. NANCY AND LEO’S HOUSE - LEO’S DEN 71

Ma opens the door of Leo’s den. Jack is beside her, his face

smeared with camomile lotion.

MA:

Leo, please don’t ever take Jack

outside again unless you know what

you’re doing. He can be seriously

hurt by the sun.

LEO:

I’m so sorry. It was overcast.

MA:

He has never had any UV. This is

serious stuff, OK?

72 INT. LIVING ROOM - LATER 72

Jack gazes out the window, not wanting to go outside anymore.

In the background, we can hear Ma noisily preparing something

in the kitchen.

73 INT. MA’S OLD BEDROOM - LATER 73

Ma has boxes spread out all over the room. She is morbidly

engrossed in some old papers and memorabilia.

Jack sits down. She keeps reading, looking.

MA:

Look at this.

She shows him an old photo. Four girls in track uniforms.

MA (CONT’D)

You know who that is?

JACK:

You?

MA:

Me and Stacy Benton and Heather

Noel and Laura Sullivan. That’s how

people did their hair. We were the

relay team. I was the anchor. I was

fast. We did track together.

JACK:

Real track?

(CONTINUED)

73 CONTINUED:
73

MA:

Real track. On a field. We were

fast. Best in the district. You

know what happened to them?

JACK:

No.

MA:

Exactly. Nothing. They just lived

and nothing happened. Look ...

She picks up her old laptop from the floor by the bed. She

has been looking through her friends pages on Facebook. She

clicks on a couple of pages showing the same girls as they

are now, then loses interest, closes the laptop.

JACK:

Show me more when you were young.

MA:

No. I don’t want to see any more. I

don’t want you to look at any more

right now. Let’s just be quiet for

while. Okey dokey?

They sit. She stands and paces the room, gnawing her lips,

wincing, trying and failing to keep her despair out of view.

74 INT. MA’S OLD BEDROOM - NIGHT 74

Jack wakes from a nightmare with a start. No Ma beside him.

He gets out of bed. The only light is coming from the hallway

through a crack in the door.

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