Henry And Darlene - A Screenplay

Henry and Darlene

Setting:

Darlene is married to the little paper puppet, Henry.  He has shrunk and turned into paper.  She sees him at bottom of stairs trying to jump and crawl up the stairs.

(Use a thread through puppets head and a lever made by running thread up and around a horizontal pole between those two boards.

Darlene sees puppet.  We zoom in on her.  She looks tired but then opens eyes wide in surprise.  Then looks quizzical. And she moves her mouth as if saying "What the F***."   We zoom in on puppet and it is jumping up and down, falling down because it has the popsicle stick stuck out of it.

Scene One:

Darlene:

 "Henry?  Is that You?"

Henry jumps up and down.

Darlene:

"What happ....."   Peers at Henry.  "OK.  This isn't happening.  I'm going back to bed."

Darlene turns and leaves.

Puppet jumps up and down.

Next we see puppet struggling up a few steps.

Scene Two:

We cut to the couch.  Puppet now has two small sticks like crutches so it can stand and is standing a ways from the couch.

Darlene is laying sideways with eyes shut.

Puppet throws something at her.  Lands on her face.  We only see stuff landing on her face.

Darlene wakes up.  We close in on her face.  At first just tired.  Then startled as she sees Henry.

Darlene:

"What? You're real? What the hell happened to you?"

Puppet moves toward her. We can't see hand on popsicle stick moving puppet.

Darlene:

"And what's that thing sticking out your butt.""

Darlene:

"OK. Your spinal cord!."

Cut to puppet moving toward couch.

Darlene:

"OK. just lay down  I'm calling the doctor."

Darlene gets on phone to doctor.

Darlene:

"Hello. My husband is a patient of Dr. Woodrow. And he's having a serious problem.   What? OH. I'm his wife, Darlene. No. He can talk. But he just sounds really whiny and faint."

Scene Three:

We cut to the cat laying next to puppet.

Cat voiceover:

"You know.  I don't think you're going to be able to open my can of fish food anymore. Hmm. She's not going to shrink too, is she? Cause if she does, I'm splitting. I'm out of here."

Scene Four:

Cut back to Darlene:

Darlene:

 ....And he's also kind of smaller than he used to be. How much weight has he lost? Can I just bring him in? OK. 3 on Monday? No thats too late. He could die or becrushedby then. What? No. Thrush. I think he has thrush. the ER? OK."

Cut to puppet.

Cut to Darlene:

Darlene

"OK. We're going to the ER. Can you walk? Nevermind."

Darlene picks up puppet and puts him in her pocket.

Scene Five:

Sitting in car at ER.  Puppet is laying down on dashboard. We cut to puppet and back to Darlene.

Darlene:

Look. They are not going to believe this. Why don't I just put you in my pocket, bring you in and then set you on the counter near the receptionist?  I'm sure if you jump up and down like you were doing before, somebody will notice.  OK?  OK?

Cutto puppet as he falls down on to car floor.

Darlene:

 Come on. Stand up. Um, Henry? How much do we have in life insurance?"

Cut to puppet.

End