The Odd Life of Timothy Green Page #4

What is she doing here?

I don't know.

There are so many girls.

Yeah, okay.

Which means it's possible

to find the right girl.

Use your feet. Your feet.

What your dad wants to say but isn't

is that it would be a mistake

to focus on just one fish

- when there are so many...

- Fish?

JIM:
Keep your eyes on the ball.

Use the inside of your foot. All right?

CINDY:
Jim! Could you...

What your mom is trying to say...

CINDY:
Right.

(EXHALES)

Well...

- Oof!

- Okay.

Come on.

Listen. I know the feeling.

You do?

When I was about your age, I met a girl.

She was an original.

Creative, artsy type.

So... I know the pull.

Jim? Where you going with this?

What happened with the girl?

(INHALES DEEPLY)

I married her. Right.

Not what I had in mind, but...

It's true.

Okay! Keep your eye on the ball,

inside of the foot, stay on your feet! Go!

- Wow!

- Oh! Perfect!

- Perfect, perfect, perfect!

- Look at that!

CINDY:
It's not that

we wanted him to be perfect.

That's what we're looking for!

- We wanted it to be perfect.

- Let's go again.

His childhood.

And just when we started to

get the hang of it at home...

JIM:
Things got

complicated at the factory.

Looking good, Brian.

Boss wants to see you. In his office.

- Now?

- Now.

JIM:
You want to see me?

Sit.

Heard your kid joined the Erasers.

Yes. Yes, he did.

Is he good? Hope he's good.

Well...

That's a confidential list.

First round of layoffs.

Of course, my aunt and my father

might decide that that's not enough.

But these are all good,

hard-working people.

Green, you don't decide who we let go.

You'll just be the one to tell them.

Night, guys.

TIMOTHY:
Oh, why couldn't

the skeleton cross the road?

Why, sweetie?

Because it had no guts.

(LAUGHING)

TIMOTHY:
Ooh! I got another one.

Buddy.

Not tonight.

If you will excuse me.

Dad?

JIM:
That Halloween,

your mom went as a pencil.

- CINDY:
A blue pencil.

- Mmm-hmm.

TIMOTHY:
Hmm.

- It was a good costume.

- It was.

My head was the eraser.

(LAUGHING)

I had seen a lot of pencils,

but I had never seen

one quite like your mom.

Breathtaking.

But I was too scared to even talk to her,

so I wrote her a note.

Yeah.

- What did it say?

- CINDY:
It said...

"It feels to me that with a pencil

"anything is possible."

That is so true.

Hey. Pass me that book. Yeah.

All of these...

All of these notebooks from that day,

I just filled them with ideas

of things that I wanted to make.

Because I thought

to be a part of making something,

that was a great feeling.

God, to think that

we may not be making these anymore.

Why not make a new kind of pencil?

- That's easier said than done.

- Yeah.

Well, you can design it

and you can draw it.

Then you guys can both build it.

I want to write a note to Joni.

Good night.

CINDY:
How do you tell your child

something's not possible?

That it can't be done.

When they believe in you like that.

We didn't want to disappoint him.

No. We got busy.

JIM:
Not that we thought

that we could do it.

CINDY:
At least Timothy

would know that we tried.

JIM:
Yeah. We stayed up

all that first night.

CINDY:
We stayed up

several nights after that.

JIM:
Cindy started making sketches.

CINDY:
Jim started carving.

It turns out we weren't

the only ones making something.

JIM:
Yeah. We both came up

with the idea to use leaves.

CINDY:
Leaves.

See? Nowjust wind it.

The other way. Yeah. You got it.

Just a little more.

JONI:
Yeah, see?

Just put it right through.

- Like this?

- That's good.

CINDY:
So we've got

our leaf slurry pretty much ready.

JIM:
Okay. Right on in.

- Perfect.

- That should do it.

Let's see. Help it... Help it push it down.

Okay.

Oh, yeah!

Okay.

BOTH:
Ta-da!

Oh, my gosh!

This is the pencil. You really did it.

- CINDY:
We did.

- You made it.

So we're to believe

that you made a pencil out of leaves?

- Mmm-hmm.

- Well, it was a prototype.

You do realize if any part of

your story doesn't check out,

we are done here.

And we will be

checking it out. Thoroughly.

- And you should.

- Well, good.

Anyway, that Monday

was take your kid to work day.

He started with me.

It was kind of

a celebratory day at work and...

(CLAPPING)

Timothy wanted to be in on it.

Something's missing.

Oh, nonsense. It's you. So...

Very you.

Gentlemen.

CINDY:
And as soon

as he met my boss,

he didn't know to be intimidated by her,

and the next thing you know...

Little man, what do you think of that?

Not much.

Well, that's honest.

Timothy's very honest, ma'am.

That was done by a renowned artist

at great expense.

I would have done it for free.

Are you suggesting

you could do it better?

I can try.

Well, let's find out.

May I just remind you,

ma'am, as his parent,

that he is only ten years old, and...

Don't you have somewhere to be?

Of course I do, but...

- Shoo.

- Okay.

(SLAMS)

(SIGHS DEEPLY)

(INHALING DEEPLY)

Oh!

Oh, sweetie.

Oh, it's beautiful. It's amazing.

It's amazing.

Oh, no, no, no.

(WHISPERING) Erase that.

Why?

CINDY:
It turns out, Timothy

was Picasso with a pencil.

EVETTE:
So he had

all the qualities you imagined?

JIM:
Oh, yes.

CINDY:
Yeah, well,

including honest to a fault.

(GASPS)

He couldn't help

but draw her exactly as he saw her.

JIM:
Yeah.

It included an unfortunate

thatch of chin hair.

Mmm.

(BELL RINGING)

So, what else aren't you telling me?

(WHISPERING) Tell her.

Hmm?

I'm waiting.

Sometimes you wear

plaids and stripes that clash.

Hmm.

Your one joke that

you always tell, it's not funny.

No one can appreciate the art in here

because everything

that is special and beautiful,

no one can see

because the curtains are so thick

that the light can't get in.

Not to mention, if someone has a child

who just is born or appears,

say congratulations with a smile.

Say something nice.

I wanted to love you,

and I have tried so hard to like you.

But if someone asked me to be

a pallbearer at your funeral,

I would tell them not by

the hair of my chinny-chin-chin.

And furthermore...

- Cindy lost herjob.

- I lost my job.

I didn't regret most of what I said.

But you lost yourjob.

Make sure all the pencils are good.

JIM:
So things were going to get harder.

But at least I still had myjob.

CINDY:
Yes, he did.

They go in this box.

They go on a little pencil vacation.

CINDY:
And what did you say about

having Timothy with you that day?

- JIM:
Oh, right.

- That's a lot of trees.

I couldn't help but feel...

Mind if I have one?

...anything was possible.

MARTY:
You want another one?

You want a yellow one?

We got this... You see, we got a whole...

- Right back.

- Good luck, Dad.

CINDY:
So Jim gave it his best shot.

Sir? How you doing?

- Huh?

- Do you have a minute?

No.

Oh, hell. Why not?

Turns out we may all get the axe.

What?

Then I think we got nothing to lose.

What if we made a new kind of pencil?

(INAUDIBLE)

(WHISTLE BLOWING)

COACH CAL:
Come on, Erasers!

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