*adapting my novel Heart of Clouds – p.72 Chapter is EMOTIONS
HEART OF CLOUDS
by Adrienne Wilson
(for Walter Halsey Davis of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference)
INT. DEVLIN BEDROOM. EARLY MORNING
Devlin awakes from a strange dream about a giant’s hand rearranging his seahut)
DEVLIN
(tosses and turns, sits up bolt awake)
Oh no!
(rushes to dress, checks to see if Teenies notes are in his wizard box, sighs with relief, races down the stairs)
EXT. DRIFTWOOD HUT. BEACH. MORNING
INT. DRIFTWOOD HUT. MORNING
Devlin scans the rafters for a note hoping she left one for him, when a gull lands on the peak of the shelter and screeches at him, cocking its head.
DEVLIN
(glances and sees she put a shell near the feathers he left, frantic to find her note)
Oh no. Maybe I’m too late or maybe she didn’t write anything, or?
(shakes head back and forth, defeated)
GULL
(cocking head and looking him right in the eye, shrieks and flapping its wings)
DEVLIN
Well gull what happened
GULL
(brazenly walks inside hut and riffles through the sand in the abalone shell, and extracts Teenies note)
DEVLIN
Hey wait a minute, that’s mine
Hey come back here
(a giant flock of gulls arrives)
DEVLIN
Hey come back here, you
Give that back
GULL
(cockily teases him by running down the beach carrying note in its beak)
Two red tails arrive and scare the gulls away. Devlin reaches to grab it before the wave washes in
INT. DRIFTWOOD HUT. MORNING. SUNNY.
Devlin carefully unfolds her note and marvels at her handwriting.
DEVLIN
I know her name now. Teenie.
Teenie Alexander. Wow.
(he cannot believe how much attention she put into her note back to him, begins to read in her handwriting)
Dear Devlin,
I think you have a really cool name. I don’t think I’ve met anyone with that name before.
You said I was a sad girl, but I’m not all the time. You know how you said your Mom died? Well that day you saw me crying it was because of my Dad. He’s gone away and I really really miss him. So, I guess like, I can understand a bit about how you feel. Sometimes I just feel really alone since he has been gone and most of the time it is really hard to talk to my Mom.
She is just always watching TV and she always talks about the Wave and the extinctions and about the tuna fish sandwiches she used to eat when she was little and stuff and about how people have ruined the planet and there aren’t going to be any more fish in the sea and stuff like that.
Anyway I just wanted to thank you for that feather and for this beautiful shell because that was a totally bad day for me. Remember that day I saw you running up the beach dunes? I wanted to say Hi but then you were just gone.
Bye,
Teenie Alexander
DEVLIN
Wow, she said she liked my name, and it was a cool name, and she wanted to talk to me too, that day she saw me on the dunes.
Devlin races back home, while a giant flock of gulls watch him.
INT. DEVLINS HOUSE. GOLDEN LIGHT, FIRE CRACKLING
GRANDPA JESS
(sitting with Grandma Jess before a crackling warm fire full of the pine cones they had collected)
You look you are in quite a hurry, son
(Devlin nods, and takes the stairs two at a time, to his room)
INT. DEVLINS ROOM. GOLDEN LIGHT.
*establishing first feelings for a girl
Devlin locks his door, and puts all her notes on the floor before him. He feels like he can say anything to Teenie, and takes pen and paper to compose an answer. He practices signing his name, over and over and over, until he feels it looks perfect.
He begins to write back to Teenie.
Hi Teenie,
I’m really glad you left me this letter because I really wanted to meet you. That day I saw you on the beach you were crying and so I didn’t want to bother you even though you were in my secret driftwood castle. I’ve been really missing my old friends and that’s how come I wanted to be friends with you. I’ve only been here about two months and school is going to start soon. I’m going to be in 8th grade. I was thinking you were my age too, but I wasn’t sure. It looks like you really miss your Dad a lot. Your Mom sounds kind of cool, like she cares about the ocean a lot. It’s my favorite place too. I hope we can meet again sometime. Sometimes it’s really hard to talk to anyone about how I really feel. Do you ever feel like that?
Devlin Underwood
Devlin signs his note with his signature in a fantastic flourish, then carries the note back down to the beach to the driftwood hut.
EXT. BEACH. DRIFTWOOD HUT. SUNNY, GOLDEN LIGHT
Devlin scans the beach, and decides to make a seaweed curtain for the hut, just in case that gull might come back and steal his note to Teenie.
*to page 79 in novel Heart of Clouds
*establishing how two teens can be friends, in letters
*establishing first crush between teens
Adrienne Wilson 