Season 2/Episode 4: Family Tree

by Jessica Best

Family stories
A morning constitutional
A break in

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Content Advisories for this episode can be found below

Support Unwell and HartLife NFP on Patreon at www.patreon.com/hartlifenfp

This episode features: Clarisa Cherie Rios as Lily, Marsha Harman as Dot, and Pat King as Chester

Written by Jessica Best, sound design by Alexander Danner, directed by Jeffrey Nils Gardner, music composed by Stephen Poon, recording engineer Mel Ruder, Theme performed by Stephen Poon, Lauren Kelly, Gunnar Jebsen, Travis Elfers, Mel Ruder, and Betsey Palmer, Unwell lead sound designer Ryan Schile, Executives Producers Eleanor Hyde and Jeffrey Gardner, by HartLife NFP.

This episode contains:

-A break in
-Discussion of cancer
-Discussion of death
-Uncanny and frightening sound effects and situations

SCENE 1
WE’RE INSIDE THE HOUSE. THE FRONT
DOOR OPENS AND LILY STEPS INSIDE.
DOOR SHUTS.

LILY: Hey mom? Mom, where are you?
DOT: (CALLING DOWN FROM THE TOP OF THE STAIRS) Dusting off the dead relatives!

FOOTSTEPS - LILY CROSSES TOWARDS
THE STAIRCASE

LILY: (MOSTLY TO HERSELF) You could just say, “Cleaning the
picture frames,” but no.
(CALLING UP TO DOT) I got us coffee and scones from Sunrise.
DOT: (CALLING DOWN TO LILY) There’s coffee in the house.
FOOTSTEPS - LILY STARTS CLIMBING
THE STAIRS

LILY: There’s not, actually.
DOT: (SARCASTIC, MOSTLY TO HERSELF) Abbie’ll love that. (TO
LILY) Can you add it to the list?

LILY: I already did. But in the meantime, I thought--it’s a beautiful
morning, the leaves are just starting to turn, and I know fall is your
favorite time of year, why not go for a walk?

DOT: To where?
LILY: Just around.
DOT: I’m onto you. I may be slowly losing my marbles, but I’ve still got
enough of ‘em left to see what you’re doing.

LILY: What’s that?
DOT: All those articles you’ve been leaving around about the mind-body
connection. “Stroll your way to a healthier brain,” “Get that
memory running better--with running,” “The mental benefits of
staying fit for old farts.”
LILY: You made that last one up.
DOT: Lillian.
LILY: Mom. How do you know it wasn’t Rudy or Abbie?
DOT: Because, neither of them are suddenly subscribed to AARP
magazine! For that matter, why are you? You’ve got a couple
good decades left before your brain turns to mush. Anyway, print
is dead.

LILY: ...Wes says the computer screen hurts your eyes.
DOT: Oho, is that a confession?
LILY: Alright, mom, you caught me in my evil scheme to trick you into
staying healthy enough to stick around a little longer.
(HALF-HEARTED) Curses, foiled again.

DOT: (EMOTIONS) Lily, I. (SIGHS) Okay, gimme that coffee.
LILY: Is that a “Yes, let’s go on a lovely Autumn walk”?
DOT: Halloween, Lily.
LILY: What?
DOT : Halloween is why I like fall. I prefer my leaves alive. But I’ll take
that scone.

LILY: Uh-uh, scones are for walkers only.
DOT: You are killin’ me right now.
LILY: (THROUGH A MOUTHFUL OF SCONE) Delicious. So good.


DOT: I don’t like to leave the house alone in the mornings.
LILY: If anyone needs anything, Wes can--
DOT: It’s Monday. It’s fall.
LILY: Right.
DOT: He’s got school. I assume.
LILY: It’s six-forty. Abbie won’t even be speaking for another 50 minutes,
and Rudy’s--wherever Rudy goes.

DOT: The observatory.
LILY: Makes sense. (A BEAT) We can be gone for an hour.
DOT: Okay, fine. But first, say goodbye to your Great-Uncle Grant.
LILY: (DUTIFULLY) Goodbye,Great-Uncle Grant.
DOT: And your Great-Uncle Tim.
LILY: (CLINGING TO PATIENCE) Goodbye, Great-Uncle Tim.
DOT: And your--who the hell is that?
LILY: Great-Great-Grandpa Augustus Weatherbottom.
DOT: Why can’t I place him? Who was he related to?
LILY: Nobody. You made him up. You liked the picture that came with
the frame so much, you kept it. You used to--

DOT --make up Weatherbottom stories and tell them to visitors.
(SNICKERS, DELIGHTED BY HER OWN JOKE) Classic. Well,
are we going or not?

FOOTSTEPS, THEY START DOWN THE
STAIRS.

LILY: So, as long as we’re walking--


DOT: (NEARLY AUTOMATIC) Right, here we go.
LILY: What do you even think I’m gonna say?
DOT: I don’t know, we had a rhythm going. (PAUSE. THE RHYTHM IS
NOW DEFINITELY OFF) “As long as we’re walking--”

LILY: I was wondering if you could tell me a little more about the town.
DOT: That’s your master plan? I thought we were playing three
dimensional chess over here. You could’ve just asked.
FOOTSTEPS REACH THE FLOOR. LILY
PAUSES, THEN DOT.

LILY: I am asking. That’s what I’m doing. I had a good talk recently, and
I’m trying this new thing where I ask.

DOT: Okay.

FOOTSTEPS RESUME TOWARDS THE
FRONT DOOR.

DOT: So, the town. (HAZEL GIBBONS IMPRESSION) Founded in
17-ninety something by a bunch of racist old-timey settlers with a
stick up their collective racist asses--

LILY: I meant, (DROPS VOICE TO AN ALMOST WHISPER) why it’s so
weird.

DOT: Weird is relative.
LILY: Yeah, but--

FRONT DOOR OPENS. THEY STEP
OUTSIDE. BIRDS ARE SINGING. BUT,
LIKE, CROWS. AUTUMN HAS
OFFICIALLY ARRIVED IN MOUNT
ABSALOM.

DOT: Gah, natural light, get it off. (TO LILY) And name me a small town
that’s not weird. Hell, name me any town that’s not weird.


STEPS DOWN A GRAVEL DRIVEWAY
LINED WITH THE BEGINNINGS OF
FALLEN LEAVES.

LILY Julian.
DOT: You know that cute little French restaurant we used to drive up to
for special occasions?

LILY: (UNSURE WHERE THIS IS GOING BUT IT’S NOT GOOD)
Yeah?

DOT: Some guy went missing, and the cops found his body chopped up
in the freezer. That’s why it’s closed now. (A BEAT) That, and their
crepes were soggy.

LILY: Mom--
DOT: Like, wet.

A CROW CAWS.
DOT: (AS IF TO THE CROW) That’s right, disgusting. (TO LILY)
Y’know, I’d like to think murder’s pretty weird.

THEY’VE REACHED THE ROAD. GRAVEL
FOOTSTEPS REPLACED BY PAVEMENT
ONES. WIND AND OCCASIONAL CROW
CAWS THROUGHOUT.

LILY: Okay, but there’s the normal small-town grimy underbelly stuff,
and then there’s--whatever this place is. 70’s diners that appear
out of nowhere--
DOT: That’s just capitalism.
LILY: That thing with the wolves--
DOT: Nobody was hurt.
LILY: (LILY LOWERS HER VOICE) whatever’s going on with Wes, and
the pipes, and that disappearing door in the basement--


DOT: Oh, the door came back?
LILY: Rudy’s first day here. You’ve seen it before?
DOT: That’s what had you spooked. I thought you found some of
my...personal items.

LILY: Uh. (ISN’T EVEN GONNA TOUCH THAT) Mom, how much do
you know about this door in your own house?
DOT: Well, it’s not always in my house, is it?
LILY: But it’s there sometimes?
DOT: Not for a good long while. Since-- (WELL THIS IS AWKWARD)
you stopped visiting, maybe.
LILY: Do you know what’s behind it?
DOT: No idea. It never seemed to bother Uncle Grant, so I guess I just
always figured we didn’t have any long-lost relatives bricked up in
there.

LILY: He wasn’t--curious?
DOT: He never needed to get at whatever was back there.
LILY: How would he even know that, if he didn’t know what was inside?
Doorknobs don’t appear and disappear, Mom.

DOT: I’ll grant you, not every town is Mount Absalom. (SIGH) Look, I’ll
tell you what I know.

LILY: Really?
DOT: It’s not much. I’ve been trying to write down what I can remember,
about how things work, but. You know that feeling, when you start
to tell a story and you suddenly realize, you might still be able to
recall the shape of it but you’ve forgotten too many damn nouns to
make any sense?

LILY: Yeah.

DOT: And I can’t tell how much of that is because of my, y’know,
goddamn brain plaque, and how much of it is just--this place.

LILY: This place...?
DOT: Did you ever meet your Great-Uncle Grant?
LILY: (A BIT TAKEN ABACK BY THE NON-SEQUITOR) Once or twice.
We came down here for the Fourth of July when I was in
kindergarten, I think? He was tall--
DOT: He was five-nine. You were tiny.
LILY: He had a really loud laugh.
DOT: Well, you know, he and your Great-Uncle Tim ran Fenwood when
I was a girl. I came here in the summers, too. I think my Mom
figured those small-town values would help tamp down my high
spirits. (LAUGHS) God love her, she tried.

LILY: I remember a little about Grant and Tim. When I came out to you,
you told me they weren’t brothers or anything, that they were
together. I think your exact words were, “Guess it runs in the
family, cheers, Lilly-billy!”
DOT: (REMEMBERING) Right!
LILY: And then you poured me a glass of champagne, which all felt very
grown-up until I actually tasted it.

DOT: It was cooking wine. It’d probably been open for months.
LILY: Ugh.
DOT: Kept you away from drinking for another year or two, didn’t it?
LILY: At what price. (PAUSE) I always wondered, did people know
about Grant and Tim? In town, I mean.

DOT: Maybe a couple of the oldier biddies thought they were just
bachelors, but it wasn’t a secret.


LILY: And everyone was okay with it? Even back in, what, the sixties,
seventies?

DOT: I think some out-of-towners tried to start something, every once in
a while, but you know. Everybody loved Grant and Tim. Tim could
fix anything; he used to repair the neighbors’ stuff in exchange for
home cooking, which, you can imagine how that went over. And
Grant grew up here, the house had been in the family for
generations.
Besides, like he always said, the town looks after its own.

LILY: I don’t think that was true for most people like Grant, back then.
People around here really--?

DOT: Well, I don’t know about people, but. The town--things just sorta
work out here, you know? Like Marisol.

LILY: (DOESN’T REALLY WANNA TALK ABOUT HER LOVE LIFE
WITH HER MOM) What about her?

DOT: Inheriting that record shop, at exactly the right time. (SMILING) Or
you, running into Marisol, at what appears to also be exactly the
right time.

LILY: You think Mount Absalom is lucky?
DOT: Full honesty? I think this place is weird as shit. But not in a bad
way. Not only in a bad way. What other town this size has its own
cafe, pizza place, and award-winning ice cream parlor?
LILY: (MOMENTARILY WAYLAID) It’s won awards?
DOT: (HEDGING) Local awards. (DEEP BREATH) And then there’s
Tim.
(PAUSE)
LILY: Yeah?
DOT: When I was about twenty, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. A
bad case. He smoked like a chimney.

LILY: (WITH A LITTLE EDGE TO IT) Sounds like he should’ve quit.
DOT: You know, when a daughter nags her mother, it upsets the natural
order of things. Topsy-turvy. It’s just not right. I’m down to a pack a
week. That’s not the point.
Tim died maybe a year later, and Grant was heartbroken. He was
gonna sell Fenwood. And then--

LILY: Wait a minute.
DOT: The next time I visited--
LILY: No, wait, stop. I met Tim, that Fourth of July trip. I remember
meeting him, Mom. He had a beard and he made everyone chili
with noodles. I think you’re. (CAREFULLY) Confused.

DOT: That’s what I’m trying to say! The next time I visited, Tim was fine.
LILY: (SKEPTICAL) Fine.
DOT: I don’t know what to tell you, Lily. You met him.
LILY: But you just said he died.
DOT: It was in the paper. The library archives has a copy of his obituary.
LILY: You looked?
DOT: Of course I looked! I was at his funeral, and the next time I saw
him, he was halfway through re-shingling the roof.
LILY: You’re saying he--came back to life? Rose from the dead?
DOT: He wasn’t eating brains or sucking blood. He was exactly the
same as he had been--when he was healthy.

LILY: But he was...a ghost?
DOT: He was solid enough to unclog the toilets.
LILY: Did you say anything?

DOT: What was I supposed to say? It felt pretty rude to ask someone,
‘Hey, shouldn’t you be dead?’
LILY: Did--anyone say anything?
DOT: Why look a gifthorse in the mouth? Everybody loved Tim.
LILY: And the two of them just--kept running the boarding house?
DOT: Of course. That’s probably part of why the finances used to be a
little smoother, Uncle Tim handled all the upkeep on this place.
There was some talk that he didn’t seem to get any older, but I
don’t know, he might’ve just had good skin.
LILY: And the best way to stay young is to stay active.
DOT: I’m cancelling your AARP subscription, Lily. It’s not natural.
And then, well. When you were ten, Uncle Grant had his second
stroke. The one that killed him.

LILY: And Uncle Tim?
DOT: Never seen again.
LILY: He vanished.
DOT: Apparently. And that time it stuck.
LILY: Why wasn’t the funeral for Grant and Tim?
DOT: Tim’d already had a funeral, back in 1978. Why give someone two
funerals? It’s a little much.

LILY: I guess. (A BEAT) Are you sure it was Tim?
DOT: What do you mean?
LILY: Whoever it was, whatever it was that showed up after he died.
DOT: He talked like Tim, he acted like Tim, he knew all the things Tim
knew. (MORE TO HERSELF) I wish somebody had asked him for
a diagram of all the circuitry. That house is wired so funky. Every
time we have to mess with the breaker, I feel like I’m guessing.
(TO LILY) Look, what would it have helped, to really scrutinize
things? If he wasn’t Tim, he was damn close enough. Uncle Grant
was happy, the town was happy, and the house kept running.

LILY: But you tracked down the obituary.
DOT: I did. And then I moved on, because dead or alive, he made the
best two-way Cincinnati chili you ever tasted, and I probably
wouldn’t have enjoyed it so much thinking it was cooked by a
corpse.
Shit, I really hope that wasn’t the last time anybody re-did the
roof. No doubt we’re due for another, that won’t be cheap.
LILY: On top of what we already owe, thanks to Chester.
DOT: That fucknut. You really couldn’t have given him a little shove into
the fire?

LILY: (AMUSED DESPITE HERSELF) Mom.
DOT: Just a nudge! A friendship tap.
LILY: I told you. It was all burned out.
DOT: Or else you would’ve? Lily, you scoundrel.
LILY: Mom.
DOT: You son-of-a-gun.
LILY: What about Wes?
DOT: What about him?
LILY: As long as we’re talking about weird things around here, did you
know he has the exact same name as a local guy who died in like
1957?

DOT: (SHE DID NOT.) Really?
LILY: It’s on a gravestone in the cemetary.
DOT: (WORRIED) I didn’t know that!
LILY: I mean, I guess it wouldn’t be on his resume.
DOT: I...
LILY: What?
DOT: I don’t remember hiring him. That’s not a good sign.
LILY: Do you mean--your memory, or--?
DOT: (FRUSTRATED) I’m...not sure. Shit.
LILY: He’s not trying to cheat you out of money, or anything.
(THOUGHTFUL) He actually hasn’t been cashing his checks at
all.

DOT’S FOOTSTEPS SLOW. LILY’S
FOLLOW.

DOT: That’s not a good sign, either.

LILY’S FOOTSTEPS SUDDENLY
SPEED UP.

DOT: Lily? Where are you going?

DOT’S FOOTSTEPS SPEED UP, TOO

LILY: 1974 East Oak Street.
DOT: (A LITTLE OUT OF BREATH) What’s at--
LILY: Mom, maybe you should head back home.
DOT: Bullshit, I’m coming with you. I’m the one who knows this town.
What is--East Oak Street, isn’t that where you and your friend
Jo-Jo used to play in that overgrown lot?

LILY: Joey. Yeah. Wes said he lives there, in a two-story house.
DOT: Nobody lives on East Oak Street, it’s four abandoned lots and a
field.
LILY: I know.
DOT: It’s been abandoned for years. There’s trees growing out of some
of those foundations. Not weeds. Trees.

LILY: Yeah, but if people in this town can’t seem to stay dead, then
maybe houses can’t stay--

LILY’S FOOTSTEPS SPEED UP.

SCENE TWO
LILY’S FOOTSTEPS COME SCRAPING
TO A HALT. SHE IS BREATHING HARD. A
CROW CAWS.
LILY: (STARING UP AT A HOUSE) Well. Shit.

DOT COMES RUNNING UP,
CONSIDERABLY MORE OUT OF
BREATH.

DOT: Shit. Are we sure it’s--nineteen seventy whatever--
LILY: The number’s on the house. 1974. I’d say it’s just new
construction, but...
DOT: Yeah. It doesn’t look new.
LILY: Like the diner...
DOT: (SHARPLY) A lot like the diner?
LILY: I don’t know, I just mean, where did it come from?
Mom?
You wanna tell me a nice, comforting story about how this doesn’t
mean anything and we should just mind our business and walk
away--

DOT: (OVERLAPPING) Let’s go inside.
LILY: See, that’s--there’s bad decisions, and then there’s the bad
decisions people only ever make in crappy movies, the kind that
make you want to throw popcorn at the screen--

FOOTSTEPS ACROSS THE LAWN,
LEAVES CRUNCHING. DOT IS ALREADY
APPROACHING THE HOUSE.

DOT: I can’t help it, the house is pulling me in!
LILY: (PANIC) Shit, mom! Try to--

MORE CRUNCHING FOOTSTEPS: LILY
RUNS AFTER.

DOT: (GENTLY) I’m kidding, Lilybelle. I’m just curious.
LILY: I’m not curious to wait around here until the police find us
trespassing--
DOT: Relax, it’s fine.
LILY: It’s fine for you, mom. But things happen to people who look like
me, when the local white folks decide we look out of place. People
have gotten shot for a hell of a lot less.
DOT: Here, I’ll shield you from any stray bullets.
LILY: Mom, I’m not joking.
DOT: Neither am I. And that’s why it’s a hell of a good thing Sheriff
Joshi’s on vacation. Nobody else has guns but the rifle club, and
even if one of them happened to come down here, they can’t
shoot worth a damn. All we have to worry about is neighborhood
watch, and I don’t see them caring too much about a mostly
deserted street.

LILY: Who’s neighborhood--
DOT: (WRY) Guess.
LILY: Not Chester.

FOOSTEPS CEASE.

DOT: Got it in one. He’s got his fingers in every pie in Mount Absalom,
seems like.

LILY: Not sure if neighborhood watch really counts as a pie, in the sense
of--Mom, what are you doing?

DOT: Just taking a little peek. Lights are off, I don’t think anyone’s home.
(PAUSE) Lily, ring the doorbell.

LILY: Do we really think--ghost kid, ghost house, probably lives here
with two ghost parents and a ghost dog?

DOT: We can’t risk it.
LILY: (SIGHS)

DOORBELL IS RUNG. IT IS A WEIRDLY
OLD-TIMEY DOORBELL, LIKE 1940’S.

DOT: Hmm. I don’t hear footsteps.
LILY: Do ghosts have footsteps--
DOT: Wes does.
LILY: I think...Wes has footsteps sometimes.

DOORBELL RUNG SEVERAL MORE
TIMES IN QUICK SUCCESSION.
DOT: Nobody’s coming. Lily, do you have a bobby pin?
LILY: Do you know how to pick a lock?

DOT: Do you? C’mon, you’ve had every job under the sun. Weren’t you
ever a cat burglar?

LILY: No. (HESITANT PAUSE) I was a locksmith.
DOT: Then let’s get this show on the road! I’ll keep watch.
QUIET CLICKS AS LILY PICKS THE
LOCK.

DOT: See now, you were right. This is nice. A little mother-daughter
bonding...

LILY: You know, if he’s not a ghost, this is a crime.
DOT: If he is a ghost, it’s probably still a crime. I don’t think the lawbooks
have exceptions on this kinda thing. Can you go a little faster?
There’s, uh, maybe a Chester-shaped figure coming around the
bend.

LILY: It’s an easy lock, I’m just a little out of practice.

CLICKS CEASE. THE LOCK MECHANISM
IS RELEASED.

DOT: (WHISPER) Go, go, go!

DOOR OPENS, THEY SLIP THROUGH,
DOOR SHUTS.
DOT: Whoo, adrenaline! Better than coffee!
LILY: Shhh! (STEADYING BREATH, DAWNING HORROR) I can’t

believe we just did that.

DOT: Didn’t know you had it in you, kid. C’mon, too late for regrets! If
anybody finds us, we’ll just say I got confused and wandered off,
and you came in after me. Let’s look around. (PAUSE)

STEPS ON A HARDWOOD FLOOR.
THERE IS THE SLIGHTEST MUSICAL
ASPECT TO THE SOUND, LIKE WALKING
ON A GIANT GUITAR. DOT PICKS UP AN
OLD, HEAVY ASH TRAY.

Wow, this is a blast from the past. When’s the last time you saw
an ash tray like this?

LILY: Never? (LOOKING AROUND) What’s so weird about this living
room? Other than all the antiques, I mean, there’s something off.

DOT: Hmm...
LILY: I think it’s the layout? Like how the room is--
DOT: No TV.
LILY: Yeah! For a young person, I get it, you just use the internet, but in
a family home--

DOT: Just a--how old do you think this record player is?
LILY: Mom, what are you--
DOT: This is important recon. You can tell a lot about a person by their
record collection, Lily. Huh, nothing in the player. No records at all,
as far as I can tell.

LILY: Maybe the record player’s a display piece?
(A FEW MORE STEPS AS DOT PEERS
AROUND THE RADIO)

DOT: It’s old, but it’s not that ol-- (PAUSE, THEN, WORRIED) ...there’s
something wrong with the photos.

LILY: Yeah, they’re all black and white. That is--commitment to a look.
DOT: No, Lily, look at any of them. Really look.
LILY: (PAUSE) ...nobody’s facing the camera, that’s weird. It’s a group
shot, there’s gotta be thirteen people here, and they’re all facing
the other way.
Nobody’s facing the camera in any of these.

DOT: There’s a close-up--it’d be a graduation photo, right?
LILY: ...and it’s just the back of his head. (PAUSE, LOOKING AROUND,
GETTING MORE FREAKED OUT) In every single photo, it’s just
the back of people’s heads.

DOT: Do you kinda get the sense...they’re all about to turn around?
LILY: (STARTING TO PANIC) Wow, Mom, thanks!
DOT: Let’s go check out a different room. I’m not a fan of this one.
DOT FOOTSTEPS.

LILY: Why, do we think the rest will be less creepy?
DOT: Lily, c’mere, there’s a library!

LILY FOOTSTEPS.
LILY: (SINGING QUIETLY TO HERSELF) This is such a bad idea, this
is SUCH a bad idea, shit, shit SHIT--

DOT: The Hardy Boys! The House on the Cliff. I haven’t read these in
forever! Gulliver’s Travels, Treasure Island, Sherlock Holmes--aw,
Alice in Wonderland! I always loved Alice.

LILY: Of course you did.
DOT: Everyone loves Alice.

DOT SLIDES A HARDCOVER BOOK OFF
THE SHELF.

LILY: Okay, Mom, we came, we saw, we saw that it was super weird,
what more are we hoping to get out of this? Don’t you think it’s
time to slip out before Chester peeks in, or--

DOT: ...huh.

DOT QUICKLY FLIPS THROUGH THE
PAGES.

DOT: It’s blank.
LILY: Maybe we shouldn’t go through their stuff--what do you mean,
blank?

DOT QUICKLY SLIDES ANOTHER BOOK
OFF THE SHELF AND FLIPS THROUGH
IT.

DOT: I mean, there’s nothing in it. This one, too.
LILY: Um...

DOT IS FRANTICALLY GRABBING
BOOKS AND FLIPPING THROUGH THEM.

DOT: None of these books have anything written in them.
LILY: What do you think it means?
DOT: I don’t know; Uncle Grant never covered this.

FROM THE NEXT ROOM, THE RECORD
PLAYER SWITCHES ON BY ITSELF.
VERY OLD, CHEERFUL JAZZ: “BUGLE
CALL BLUES” BY THE FRIAR’S SOCIETY
ORCHESTRA (1922).

DOT: Do you hear that?
LILY: The record player?
DOT: Lily, I’m telling you, there was nothing in there.

FROM UPSTAIRS, LOUD THUMPING
FOOTSTEPS.
LILY: Quick, put the books back!

BOOKS FRANTICALLY WEDGED BACK
ONTO THE SHELF.

MORE FOOTSTEPS FROM UPSTAIRS.
LOUDER.
THE JAZZ IS WARPING INTO SORT OF A
DULL WHINE.
A BOOK HITS THE GROUND.

DOT: Shit!
LILY: Leave it!

LILY AND DOT’S BRISK FOOTSTEPS,
JAZZ/WHINE GROWING LOUDER AS
THEY NEAR THE LIVING ROOM.
FOOTSTEPS ARE BOUNDING DOWN
THE STAIRS. LILY AND DOT START
RUNNING.
THE DOOR IS WHISKED OPEN AND
THEY RUN THE HELL OUT, SLAM IT
SHUT BEHIND THEM, AND KEEP
RUNNING. THEY RUN ACROSS THE
LAWN AND DOWN THE STREET.

LILY: (PANTING) What the hell--?
DOT: (PANTING, UNDER HER BREATH) No, dear, that was firmly a

“what the fuck”.
LILY: (LOUD) What the f--
DOT: (CALLING) Hey, Eugenia! Just out for a morning jog! Lovely day,

right? Gotta love those--fall colors--

A CROW CAWS.
TRANSITION

SCENE THREE


LILY AND DOT ARE WALKING HOME.
LEAVES CRUNCH.

DOT: So.
LILY: Yeah.
DOT: That was.
LILY: (RALLYING) You did say Mount Absalom was weird as shit.
DOT: On the bright side, all that cardio is apparently a real boon for the
brain. Really goddamn treating myself, today.

LILY: (A LITTLE TOO EARNEST) Are you okay, Mom? Do you want to
take a rest?

DOT: I’m fine, I’m fine. My leg’s weak from the cast, is all. Don’t worry, I
don’t plan on going anywhere if I can help it. Me, I intend to linger
as long as I can.
LILY: (HEARTENED) Yeah?
DOT: However long that is.

[CREDITS]

CHESTER: Hazel, it’s Chester. Listen, sorry to call so early, but I just got off
the phone with Eugenia, and she said she saw something weird.
(PAUSE) Eugenia Hewitt? I know, I know, but I think we should
listen for the time being. She went out bird-watching this morning,
and she said Dot and Lily Harper were poking around Oak, acting
suspicious, so she took a couple pictures of the area, to compare
them with some older photos, and--
Listen, are you in the library? Anywhere near your little model
town? (PAUSE) I wasn’t trying to sound dismissive, Hazel, it’s
physically small.
Do you see a house at 1974 East Oak Street?

No? Are you sure? (TENSE) Well, shoot. Shoot. This and that
awful diner, that’s two major neighborhood anomalies in under six
months. (PAUSE) Yeah, I know. Drastic action is needed, for sure.
I’ll meet you tonight, the usual spot. (PAUSE) No, I agree. The
time for subtlety is over. Talk to you soon.
...shoot.