| Inflating a Dog Screenplay
Chapter 2: Spring Cleaning (in which Ella makes a mess and Bert squirms) |
by Eric
Kraft
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The screen rights are available.
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EXT. OUTSIDE THE LEROY HOUSE, KITCHEN
DOOR. AFTERNOON. Peter is arriving home from school. He tries
to open the kitchen door. It’s stuck. He pushes against it.
Threads of crystallized sugar crackle when he pushes the door open.
CUT TO:
INT. THE KITCHEN. The kitchen is glazed
with sugar. Webs of crystallized sugar run along the walls, across
the countertops, the stove, the sink, the white metal cabinets.
Ella isn’t aware of Peter. She’s drizzling hot syrup from a can in which she’s punched tiny holes, waving the can over aluminum foil on the floor, making swirls and squiggles. Her swings grow wider and wider. As she swings the can, she begins to swing herself, dancing, swinging and swaying with the can. Peter is smiling. He realizes that his mother is doing something a little mad, but it looks like fun to him. She whirls around, and the can swings in Peter’s direction. She stops swinging the can, and the syrup runs in streams onto the floor. She notices Peter for the first time.Hi, Mom.PETER(a little tentatively) She looks around the room, beaming.Peter! I didn’t even see you. I was all wrapped up in what I was doing.ELLA She swings the can to indicate everything she’s accomplished, and the syrup follows, but when she turns toward Peter again, her smile is gone. She stops and says . . .I’ve been so busy. Making candy. Not ribbon candy . . . that didn’t work. I think you do need machines for that, after all. This is lace candy . . . Ella’s Lacy Licks. See it all?ELLA (C0NT’D.) They exchange panicky looks.Oh. . . . I’ve made a mess.ELLA (C0NT’D.)Dad’ll be home in a couple of hours.PETER(it’s the awful truth) They fall into a frenzy of cleaning. After a while, a glance at the clock: twenty to six.We’ve got to get this cleaned up.PETER (CONT’D.)(conspiratorially)I’ll do it.ELLA(dispirited)We’ll both do it.PETER I’ve got an idea.ELLA(tentatively)Great. We need an idea. What is it?PETER CUT TO:
EXT. THE FRONT OF THE LEROY HOUSE. A MINUTE
LATER. Peter and Ella carry Bert’s favorite chair onto the front
lawn.
They carry the table that stands beside it out there, too. They place the table beside the chair, just right. They carry the TV set out and put it in front of the chair. Peter runs an extension cord through a cellar window. Ella plugs the set into it. CUT TO:
EXT. THE FRONT OF THE LEROY HOUSE. A FEW
MINUTES LATER. Bert pulls into the driveway in a 1955 Studebaker.
(NOTE: Everyone in Babbington drives a Studebaker.)
Bert starts across the lawn toward his chair. Peter comes out the front door with bottles of beer in a bucket full of ice.Spring cleaning?BERT(getting out of the car)Right! But we’re not finished.ELLA Peter hands Bert an opener. Bert sits in the chair and opens a bottle. Ella turns the television on.You don’t mind, do you?ELLA (CONT’D.) She and Peter head inside to finish their work. At the door, Peter steals a look at Bert. MR. MORTON (60s) comes by, walking six tiny dogs on leashes. He stops and regards Bert curiously. Bert squirms, embarrassed to be sitting out there.We won’t be much longer.ELLA (CONT’D.) Mr. Morton looks up at Peter, who shrugs and rotates his forefinger beside his head. Mr. Morton nods and goes on his way.Sitting out on the lawn, Bert?MR. MORTONSpring cleaning.BERT(snapping)Uh-huh.MR. MORTON(skeptical) CUT TO:
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||
 |
 Here
are a couple of swell ideas from Eric Kraft's vivacious publicist, Candi
Lee Manning.
You'll find more swell ideas from Candi Lee here. |
Tip the author. You can toss a little something Kraft's way through the Amazon.com Honor System or PayPal.
Copyright © 2001 by Eric
Kraft
The screenplay for Inflating a Dog is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, dialogues, settings, and businesses portrayed in it are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this teleplay may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. The illustration at the top of the page is an adaptation of an illustration by Stewart Rouse that first appeared on the cover of the August 1931 issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions. The boy at the controls of the aerocycle doesn’t particularly resemble Peter Leroy—except, perhaps, for the smile. |
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