"Aunt Susan's Front Yard"
FADE IN:
EXT. AUNT SUSAN'S FRONT YARD - DAY
It's a house in the suburbs, small, and old, and a little run
down. The front yard has BOXES of stuff stacked and strewn
around.
MIKE (late 20s) walks a careful path through the boxes,
making notes on a little NOTEPAD.
STEVE (early 20s) comes out from behind the house, carrying a
heavy box. He stops and sits down.
STEVE
Last one.
Mike makes a checkmark on his notepad.
MIKE
The truck should be here by now.
STEVE
(sharply)
Mike, I called Goodwill. They'll
be here.
Steve sighs; he hadn't meant to be so snippy.
Mike sits down.
Steve checks his watch.
MIKE
When's your flight?
STEVE
Two hours, twenty minutes.
Short pause.
MIKE
Mom's taking you, right?
Steve nods.
MIKE
There wasn't anything else?
STEVE
You said it was just the basement.
MIKE
(nodding)
Aunt Susan left very specific
instructions.
Steve starts poking around in the box he just pushed on
stage.
MIKE
Hey!
STEVE
I want to know what I've been
lugging around.
MIKE
(overlapping)
Well...
STEVE
(overlapping)
Lead or something.
Mike grimaces.
STEVE
(rooting in the box)
The dead lady won't complain.
MIKE
(trying to sound casual)
What is it?
STEVE
(holding one up)
Books.
Mike looks closer.
MIKE
I never knew she liked Shakespeare.
Mike opens another box and peers inside.
Steve keeps looking at books.
STEVE
You'd barely talked to her for ten
years.
MIKE
Neither did you.
STEVE
But you lived --
Steve realizes he's getting agitated, and stops himself.
He looks at the box Mike is looking at.
MIKE
Art supplies.
Steve looks in another.
STEVE
This stuff is *boring.*
MIKE
It's the stuff she wanted to give
away.
STEVE
Didn't she have any pictures? Or
those records we used to listen to?
Or, I dunno, love letters?
MIKE
You want to read Aunt Susan's love
letters?
During the next few lines, Mike does the following:
* Looks suddenly at something across the street.
* Looks back at the house.
* Picks a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolds it.
* Looks at it.
* Looks back at the house.
* Looks across the street again.
STEVE
Just something to show she was
alive all these years. Instead of
rattling around this house, all
alone.
He picks up another book.
STEVE
Accumulating... stuff.
He puts it back, and thinks for a bit.
STEVE
Or maybe she was, and now I'll just
never know.
STEVE shrugs.
STEVE
'cos I never come back here.
(pause)
Just once per wedding. And funeral.
Mike is still looking across the street, now with a slight
grimace.
STEVE
"My name is Mike, and I'm off in my
own little world."
Mike looks back at Steve.
STEVE
What?
MIKE
We're at the wrong house.
A pause. Steve looks at all the stuff on the lawn with sudden
alarm.
STEVE
Crap!
Steve grabs the nearest available box (it's light) and
carries it off behind the house.
Mike finds a box, picks it up with some effort.
STEVE (O. S.)
Crap!
Mike puts down the box, sits down, and thinks.
MIKE
(absently)
It's locked.
Steve, still offscreen, rattles a doorknob.
STEVE (O. S.)
How did you get *in*?
MIKE
They left it unlocked.
Steve reappears.
STEVE
These people just *want* to get
robbed!
Mike gets up and starts walking across the yard.
STEVE
Find a brick!
MIKE
I'm going to the neighbor's house.
STEVE
Then they'll know we broke in!
MIKE
I'm telling them what happened, and
I'm leaving my cell number.
Steve thinks for a moment, nods slightly.
STEVE
Okay. I'll go with you.
MIKE
You don't have to.
STEVE
I really should.
They're both walking across the yard now.
MIKE
Thanks.
STEVE
It'll be a fun story to tell the
rest of the family.
Mike sighs as they walk offscreen.
STEVE (O. S.)
I'll call it: "Worst Executor
Ever."
MIKE (O. S.)
Great.
FADE OUT.