Dear Someone Script

DEAR SOMEONE

BY JACQUELINE MCKEON

FADE IN:

EXT. HOUSE – NIGHT

The titles begin over black. Focuses slowly till a natural suburban house is shown. The house is decorated in red and green lights. Thick, fluffy snow is falling, frosting a thick layer on top of the roof and lawn. The windows are covered in a web of frost. A yellow light is beaming through the nightfall. It is coming from the second floor window. We hear the sound of an old typewriter. The bell applauses the writer, announcing the end of a line, and we see our title appear in type font.

DEAR SOMEONE

INT. HENRY’S BEDROOM – NIGHT

It is an orderly, yet decorated little room. A large, black and white poster of Sylvia Plath, sticking her head in an oven, hangings above the bed. HENRY is 17. He is awkward, unique, introverted, and yet likeable. He sits at his desk, chirping away on his typewriter. As fluid as a pianist.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

Dear Someone, I am writing this because I want someone to understand and to listen and not judge me for trying to follow my plan. Please don’t try to figure out why I am the way I am. I don’t want you to do that. I just need to know that people who get me could exist. Like if you met me, you wouldn’t judge me right away. You wouldn’t care that I wear all black and sluff a lot of my classes. You would see me. The real me. Past my uncut hair. Behind my chocolate eyes. And I wouldn’t make you nervous.

INT. HENRY’S HOUSE HALLWAY – NIGHT

Henry delicately walks down the hall of his house. He stops, squinting in the dim light, at his family pictures, covering the wall.

HENRY (V.O.)

For most people killing themselves is fairly difficult. One must build up the will and courage enough to actually do the heinous act, and then they actually have to do it.  

Then there’s always the problem of how to do it. Hanging, jumping, pills, drowning, cutting, and many other numerous methods, most of the ways require quite a bit of explanation. What is to be focused on at the moment however is not those methods, not a what at all, but a who. My name is Henry and I have a condition. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t kill myself. Not for lack of effort mind you, no, I have been very determined to accomplish this goal. However, something always seems to come up and stop me.

INT. HENRYS HOUSE STAIRCASE - NIGHT

Henry descends down the stairs on his tiptoes, springing over the last steep, landing like a cat. He stays low, crouched, listening for any movement in the house. All that breaks the silence is his rapid heartbeat and low breathing.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

I’ve tried many of those methods already.

EXT. BACKYARD TREE – DAY (FLASHBACK)

Henry is standing on a plastic porch chair, rope tied around neck. The rope glides up and is secured to a large tree. He is wearing a suit with a tie. A piece of paper, presumably a letter, sticks out of his front coat pocket.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

I tried hanging, but then the rope snapped.

Henry jumps off the chair. The rope breaks at the knot. Henry falls straight on his back, brows furrowed and lets out an exasperated yell.

                    HENRY

          Uh! Stupid piece of crap!

Henry puts the broken edges of the rope into a complicated knot. Puts noose back around his neck and gets back on the chair. His eyes look forward, determined. His tongue licks his lips. He lets out a long breathe.                    

HENRY (V.O.)

So, I retied the noose, and then the branch of the tree I tied it to broke off, and hit me on the head, knocking me unconscious.

Henry jumps off the chair, falling to the ground. The large branch follows his down, connected to his noose leash. Henrys arms and legs are seen sprawled out, his torso and head stuck under the branch.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

I was quite surprised when I awoke, and was still alive. Unfortunately.

INT. HENRYS HOUSE KITCHEN – NIGHT

Henry is rumbling through a medicine cabinet. Picking out bottles, skimming over the ingredients and putting them back, displeased.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

Then there was the time I tried to jump off that five-story building.

EXT. APARTMENT BALCONY – DAY (FLASHBACK)

Henry is standing on the edge of a balcony, facing out to the world. The balcony has potted plants and a wind chime, singing in the wind. His back is marked with sweat.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

I was at my Aunts apartment, watering her succulents while she went on a cruise with her Partner Gail. Gail wants me to call her Aunt Gail, but she always has white, slimy build up around the corners of her mouth. No Aunt of mine should look like that.

Henry shakes his hands, building up courage, then falls.

The balcony is empty.

HENRY (V.O.)

Unfortunately for me, I only took a step instead of a mighty leap, and just ended up on the balcony of a well off OLD WOMAN who lived on the 3rd floor. So understandably I fell two whole stories and lived.

INT. INSIDE OF CAR – DAY (FLASHBACK)

Riding shotgun, Henry is sitting in a smoke filled car. He is scraped up, with a red goose egg on his forehead and holding his bruised arms in his lap.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

I had twisted my ankle, and couldn’t walk the 12 blocks back home, so the old woman took me home in her gold Cadillac. She smoked, breathing out small puffs every few seconds.

Disgusted, chocolate brown eyes, glare at the old woman.

Coughing sounds coming from Henry, over power the old timey tunes of the radio.

                    HENRY

(COUGHING.) Could you please not do that, while I am in here?

          OLD WOMAN

You’re worried about a little lung cancer? Didn’t you just try to jump off my high rise?

          HENRY

If I’m gonna die, I’m going to do it classier then inhaling chemical toxins daily, aging my skin, yellowing my teeth and making my odor pungent to even the most clogged of noses. And I would hardly call your building a high rise.

EXT. SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOOD STREET – DAY (FLASHBACK)

The gold Cadillac comes to an abrupt stop. Henry gets out of the passenger side and the car speeds away.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

          I had to walk the remaining 5 blocks.

INT. HENRYS HOUSE KITCHEN – NIGHT

Henry is holding an empty pill bottle in one hand and in another a fist full of small white pills.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

My MOM took me to the doctor for my twisted ankle, which I used to my advantage to get quite a powerful medicine, which I had other ideas for. Which as you can expect didn’t work the same way I thought it would. All it really ended up doing was make me quite loopy for a period of about half a day.

EXT. PUBLIC PARK – SUNSET (FLASH BACK)

The park is covered in long shadows, cast by various large trees. Henry lies in the falling sun. He is covered in smears of white and red. Birds are pecking at the ground around him. Some are feeding on the breadcrumbs stuck to him.

                    HENRY (V.O)

When I came to, I was lying in the park naked, lathered in ketchup, mayonnaise, and breadcrumbs. I guess I just really wanted to feed the birds. I didn’t take enough pills to end my life.

Henry wakes with a start. Large, petrified, dilated eyes look around in utter confusion.

          HENRY (V.O)

I did however take enough to get a police report written and a fine for exposing myself while intoxicated in a public park. I still don’t know what happened to my clothes. I was wearing my favorite distressed black jeans. I’m pretty pissed that they are gone.

INT. HENRYS HOUSE KITCHEN – NIGHT

The pills are missing out of Henrys hand. The empty bottle is lying abandoned on the linoleum floor. Sitting slumped in a chair, Henry closes his eyes.

HENRY

          (WHISPERED.) Please let this work.

INT. SUN CREST HIGH SCHOOL HALLWAY – DAY (FLASH BACK)

We see it in Henry’s mind, in slow motion. The students are gliding past him or darting out of his way. Some make eye contact, giving menacing stares. Most avoid eye contact and instead whisper secrets into their friends’ ear. Obviously directed toward Henry.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

My most embarrassing attempt happened on the first day of school, this year. As I entered the school for the first time, I visualized what it would be like on the last day of my senior year. Then, I counted and realized that was 1,385 more days. I suddenly couldn’t stand to live even one more.

Henry stops in the middle of the hallway. Students bump into him. Henry stays solid and unmovable. His blank stare shots straight forward. Reality sets in as the bell rings, and a chaotic maze of students file into classrooms. Henry is left alone, staring. Stone like.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

Hey Somebody… have you seen that Harry Potter movie when the students get hit with the ‘Petrificus Totalus’ spell. That’s what I felt like. Petrified. Unable to move. Frozen. So that’s when I came up with the most idiotic cause of death.

Hands clench into fists, Henrys chest rises as he takes a deep breath in. Cheeks are filled with air. Beat. His face grows redder and redder, till his eyes roll backwards and he collapses onto the tiled floor.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

Susan Macintyre found me. I had peed my pants and passed out. She told the whole school what had happened, by taking a picture and posting it to Facebook before trying to get me help. If I hadn’t felt like killing myself before hand, I would have definitely wanted to after that.

INT. HENRYS KITCHEN - NIGHT

Henry is passed out cold, lying on the cold mint speckled linoleum.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

There were several more ideas I tried out, but they were pretty awful in general. So yeah, take, as you will. Which brings us to when I was lying on the floor, in the middle of the night. Not just any night. THE NIGHT. The night I knows I will die on, not because of the date of this night, which is the 10^th of September, which is a rather nice number to die on, but just because I wanted to die there. So I decided I would.

Henry suddenly wakes from his induced slumber and starts violently throwing up onto the floor. He stands up disoriented and runs to the garbage can and continues vomiting. Beat. He slides down the wall till he is sitting disgruntled, legs up to his chest, arms wrap tight around his legs, head down.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

You would think taking 37 extra strength Tylenols would kill you. But, of course for me it caused me to have a really great 30 minute nap, followed by a Bellagio fountain of puke, coming out of me.

Henrys head comes up. His eyes are focus. Determined. He wipes his chin on his shoulder and stands up.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

I was going to die that night, if it was the last thing I did!

EXT. STREET OUTSIDE OF HENRYS HOUSE – NIGHT (FLASHBACK)

Henry walks down the road under a streetlight. Silhouette of blackness. The road is icy. Henry lies down and starts moving his arms in the snow. Henry is lying in the street, waiting for some car to finally drive over him. It has begun to snow, fuzzy flakes sprinkle over Henry. His breath is seen, moving through the air like a smoke breathing monster.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

I know that everyone will see me and swerve around. I stand out in my black clothes against the pure snow but what I was hoping for is some teenager texting, or some lady doing her make up, or some business man working on his laptop, or some other obscure situation that would enable someone not to pay attention just so they would please roll over me.

Henry lies on the snow, shivering, as the image goes high above to reveal he's made a snow angel.

                    HENRY (V.O.)

But, it was 4 O’clock in the morning. No one was out, driving around in the snow. Normal people were tucked in bed, visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads. Or, more likely, making mental lists of what tasks they had to do the next day, nightmares of getting a tooth knocked out or ignoring the crying newborn in the next room.

He’s not having any success, he just continues to lie there, and as he is laying there the dark, dirty pebbles from the street are getting mixed in with his hair. The ridges of the uneven asphalt stabbing softly into his back and legs, not enough to be extremely painful, but enough to be a minor irritant in the moment.

A YOUNG LADY in all white appears next to Henry. She is looking down on him. His eyes are closed, lashes white with frost. The young lady has her hands on her hips and a sour look on her face.

She revs up and kicks him hard in his side.

HENRY

What the hell?

Henry sits up straight. The young lady is gone. Henry is alone on the street. The streetlights cast a yellow glow onto the snow. Henry stands up and starts pacing back and forth leaving a mess of footprints, marked in the slushy road.

HENRY (V.O.)

I don’t know if it was the phantom kick that got me going but I began for the first time to question my plan and myself. What was I doing? Why did I even want to die? 

Was there any reason to it? These ideas running through my head. My existential crisis reeking havoc on my mental frame, as they usually do.

Henry stops walking. Looks at his footstep in the snow. He has been walking in a circle. Round and round.

HENRY

What am I even doing?

YOUNG LADY

I was going to ask the same thing Henry, but you looked like you knew what you were doing, so I just thought not to.

A lilting, high pitched voice. She had been standing on the sidewalk watching Henry for quite some time actually. Not in a creepy way, but more like, well, as you would look at someone who is just lying in the middle of the roadway.

YOUNG LADY (CONT’D)

(Yelling) Stop trying to kill yourself. It’s not your time! I’m sick and tired of constantly watching over you!

EXT. TREE IN HENRYS BACKYARD – DAY (FLASHBACK)

Henry is standing on the plastic chair. Noose around neck. As he jumps of the chair the young lady appears with large golden garden shears and cuts the robe in half.

Henry has retired the noose and jumps of chair again as the young lady takes a heavy golden axe to the supporting branch.

YOUNG LADY (V.O.) (CONT’D)

I was assigned to you as a guardian angel but I feel like I’m more of a bodyguard. This is not what I signed up for!

EXT. APARTMENT BALCONY – DAY (FLASHBACK)

Henry falls from the balcony; two stories and Henry end up on top of the young lady. Breaking his fall.

YOUNG LADY (V.O.) (CONT’D)

I wanted to be assigned to a cute little girl, who I could guide and love, but no! I got stuck with a bratty teenage, always pushing his luck!

EXT. PUBLIC PARK – SUNSET (FLASH BACK)

Henry lays passed out, naked in the park grass. The young lady appears with a jar or mayonnaise, a bottle of ketchup and a loaf of bread. She starts dripping the condiments on him, and chucking torn up pieces of bread on him. Clearly annoyed.

YOUNG LADY (V.O.) (CONT’D)

I have saved you SO many times, hoping each time it would be the last. That you would have learned your lesson.

INT. SUN CREST HIGH SCHOOL HALLWAY – DAY (FLASH BACK)

Henry lay petrified and knocked out on the school floor. The young lady stands over him. Kicking at his legs, trying to wake him up. She goes to the drinking fountain and cups water into her hand. Walks back to Henry and lets it slip onto his pants. Smiling she disappears as Susan Macintyre finds him.

INT. HENRYS KITCHEN - NIGHT

Henry is lying on the floor of his kitchen. The young lady kneels beside him, a disgusted look on her face. She slides two fingers into Henrys mouth. She starts gagging just as Henry does.

EXT. STREET OUTSIDE OF HENRYS HOUSE – NIGHT (FLASHBACK)

The young lady is now standing next to Henry. Henry is frozen in fear.

YOUNG LADY (CONT’D)

Well, I am done Henry. You are killing me! I’m not going to save you anymore. Next time you try to die, I’m just going to let you!

HENRY (V.O.)

It’s at this point in the story you’d probably imagine that this strange new young lady character end up becoming the

HENRY (V.O.)(CONT’D)

best of friends, and go on existential adventures about the meaning of life, or something like that. But your imaginings would be wrong. She ends up walking away after bidding farewell, leaving me still standing on the icy streets. Confused as ever. Which, to be honest, suits me well.

INT. HENRY’S BEDROOM – NIGHT

Henry is clicking away at his typewriter. The snow falling is visible out of his window. His takes a long drink out of a coffee mug, stands up and walks to the window, looking out onto the street below. Through the window the street is covered in fresh snow.

                  HENRY (V.O.) (CONT’D)

So Somebody, like us all, I am is still in the middle of my journey. Neither here nor there. Neither starting, nor stopping. All I am sure of is that someone is not allowing me to die, and though that may be incredibly frustrating for me, there is a deep dark recess in me that feels something towards this impossible situation. The mere fact that someone is stopping me so persistently from dying, well, it makes me feel something. Something that I am unsure of even exists still inside me. That something, that something that you feel when there is someone or something that believes in you more than you do. I am not sure exactly what to call that something, but it sounds an awful lot like hope.

         And that is something.

THE END