V A P O R W A V E L I T

[johnpintowrites]

My script for an upcoming scene from season 8 of the smash-hit comedy Young Sheldon!

[johnpintowrites]

Matty and Henry

“Look up, Henry. See how the tops of the trees all come together?”

“Sure do, Matty.”

“Well, Mrs. Windsom says that that’s called ‘the canopy.’ She says that because the soil gives nutrients out to all the trees equally, they grow to the same height.”

“Mrs. Windsom, that fossil. You know she was old when I had her, too?” Henry looked up at the treetops again, which swayed in the sharp November breeze. To the West, the stick figure outline of a plane moaned as it crawled across the low, gray sky. The boys kept walking.

“And she says that some animals can only live in the canopy,” Matty said, “like toucans and jaguars and squirrel monkeys—”

“In Indiana?” Henry turned back to his little brother with a chuckle. “Squirrels, maybe, but I haven’t seen any monkeys recentl—”

“—tree frogs and spiders with webs so big, they catch birds in them.”

“Matty, how do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Talk out of every corner of your mouth at the same time, you dingus.” Henry ruffled the smaller boy’s hair as he spoke. Laughing, Matty tried to duck out from under his brother’s hand.

“You’re silly, Henry! I don’t even know what you’re talking abou—”

The road cut clean through the center of the forest, an old two-lane paved long before the highway was even a sketch on a map. It sat above the forest floor on a little hill, and poking out from the side of the slope was a concrete drainage pipe, just big enough to crawl into, that ran under the road and off to reservoirs and aquifers unknown. They had arrived.

“Is this where we’re going today, Henry?”

“Yeah, I figured that with such little rain these past few weeks, this old pipe’s probably dry as a bone.” Henry turned to his brother with a raised eyebrow. He had made sure Matty wore old clothes on today’s adventure, the kind Mom would not mind getting torn or stained. “Think you’re up for some spelunking? Maybe checking this pipe out?”

Matty instantly became very interested with mangling a leave he had picked up off the ground, methodically separating the stringy veins from the brown, papery blade. After a moment, he said,

“Reed Nelder, he said his older brother went playing in a pipe like this when he was a kid, and when he got far in enough that it was dark at both ends, he heard this noise—”

“Matty—”

“—girl with falling-off skin and torn-up black hair, a banshee, crying and reaching up at him—” Henry took his brother by the shoulders and looked him in the eye as best he could, while Matty stole worried glances at the pipe’s opening. Though they could not see where the pipe resurfaced, the brothers could both hear a faint wind whistling from the entrance. Henry was quiet for a moment, and then, eyes still on Matty, he reached into his backpack. After a few seconds of rummaging around, he found what he was looking for, and handed it to Matty.

“Well,” Henry said, “I bet Reed Nelder’s big brother never had this.” The BB gun was small, more of a pistol, the requisite orange tip alleviating any concerns over the weapon’s lethal capabilities. Matty took it in his hand as Henry continued, “I figure, you see some ghost girl or whatever—”

“A banshee, Henry.”

“Yeah, right, a banshee. If you see one, just put a few shots right between the eyes.” The wind blowing through the pipe seemed to get a little louder. Matty turned the gun over in his hand, then looked up at his brother, face set in determination.

“Okay.”

With a nod and a smile, Henry hoisted his brother up. Matty tossed the BB gun in ahead of him, then pulled himself up and into the opening. Even when standing at full height, he fit comfortably in the pipe.

“Now I want you to keep me updated as you head farther in,” Henry said, “and be able to see where you came in the whole time, okay? If you get stuck, I’m not sure I’ll be able to get in there and help. Too many of Mom’s dinners, you know?” Henry patted his stomach as Matty laughed.

“Don’t worry Henry, I’ll be careful.” Matty turned and began exploring. Henry watched him go, slipping into the dark of the pipe until he could no longer be seen. The treetops swayed in the wind. The canopy, Henry thought to himself, looking up. Another plane was in the sky, this one smaller, a little buzzing Cessna, probably coming in to land at the county airfield. Behind the solid sheet of clouds and out of sight, the Sun sank beneath the horizon. The wind coming from the pipe had stopped blowing, Henry realized. It was completely silent.

And then from deep within, there was the sound of scuffling, a few echoing pops, and after a moment, wailing.

[reparrishcomics]