EILEEN'S DIARY – PART ONE
OPENING: Lenni is sorting boxes with Sally at the youth center.
SALLY: Thank you so much for helping Lenni. It's high time these donated books finally get put into the new library room.
LENNI: How long have they been sitting here?
SALLY: Well that all depends on who donated them and when. I've been collecting books for a couple of years now.
LENNI: Wow. No wonder you have so many.
SALLY: There are quite a lot. Now the librarian will be here tomorrow to help categorize them, so what we need to do is just sort through what we have and take out anything damaged or marked up.
LENNI: Okay. Well I guess this box is from Casey. She was going to donate some of her joke books before going back to Detroit.
Lenni sits down with a box and starts going through books. She then picks up another box and Ghostwriter appears. He highlights one of the books in it, which Lenni pulls out. It's a hardcover notebook with a striped cover, but no title.
LENNI: What's this? opens notebook and reads first page Eileen Richards October 1967 – June 1968.
Lenni raises her eyebrows and turns the page.
LENNI: reading October 3rd, 1967 - My class was all in an uproar today. So many of my classmates are joining the campus protest march. There's been more and more pressure for me to join them. But I just can't do it. Not with James fighting in the very war they're complaining about.
Lenni raises her eyebrows and looks over to Sally.
LENNI: Hey Sally. Look at this. I think I found someone's diary.
Sally comes over and looks at the notebook.
SALLY: My goodness, Lenni, you have! This must have gotten mixed in with books being donated by accident. Was it in this box?
LENNI: Yeah. Does it say who it's from?
Sally looks at the box but shakes her head.
SALLY: Nothing written on it.
LENNI: Well…could we find this Eileen Richards?
SALLY: Well we could try. But this looks like a very old diary. Eileen is likely married by now and has a different name.
LENNI: Oh yeah. Well…is there a record of who donated books?
SALLY: I'm afraid not. Most of these books were simply dropped off.
LENNI: Well…maybe we can find clues in the other books…or the diary.
SALLY: Well aren't you the detective? How about you set these aside while we go through the other ones.
LENNI: All right.
Sally goes back to work as Lenni looks at the diary.
LENNI: Looks like it's time for a rally.
CUT TO: Lenni's loft. Lenni is looking at the diary while the rest of the team is going through the books in the box.
ALEX: So what exactly are we doing?
LENNI: We need clues as to who Eileen Richards is. Her diary was in this box and it was probably an accident. Who would give a diary away?
GABY: I'm with you there. I would have a panic attack if I knew my diary was missing. Anybody would be able to read it.
Gaby looks at Jamal, who is looking through the other books that were in the box with Tina and Alex.
JAMAL: Well…whoever these people were…they didn't put their names in their books.
TINA: But Eileen must like poetry. I've counted seven poetry books so far.
ALEX: Yeah. There's a quite a few novels in here too. And they're pretty well worn…like they've been read a lot.
HECTOR: I think we might have better luck reading the diary for clues.
TINA: Should we read it though? I mean…it is a diary.
JAMAL: Yeah, but we may never find out who she is if we don't read it. It's like when we found Double-T's poems. They were private, but we never would have found him if we didn't read them first.
HECTOR: Double-T?
LENNI: Rob's homeless friend who went missing once. We had to use his poems to find him…and then he had to help us find Rob.
HECTOR: Where was he?
GABY: The big dummy was trying to look for Double-T on his own…and got trapped in a subway tunnel.
HECTOR: Oh yeah. He did write to me about that. Told me never ever turn away help from the team. It may just save your life.
TINA: And it did save his life. He would have starved to death if we hadn't found him.
LENNI: Exactly. And Eileen Richards…may never get her diary back if we don't read it and find her.
JAMAL: Okay. So what does it say?
LENNI: Well…it seems she was going to college during the Vietnam War. She writes a lot about protests going on.
ALEX: Oh yeah. I did a paper on that. A lot of people, especially college kids, were against the Vietnam War. In fact, I interviewed Double-T for that.
HECTOR: Cool. What did he say?
ALEX: He said it caused a lot of trouble for guys like him coming back from the war. People called him all sorts of names…like baby killer. It's one reason he wound up homeless.
TINA: You interviewed my parents too. And they supported the war. They didn't want North Vietnam to take over…and had to come to America when they did. And they could not understand why so many people here were against it.
ALEX: Yeah. I really wanted to interview Rob's dad too…but couldn't afford to call Australia. And doing it by mail would have taken too long.
LENNI: But…hey. You didn't interview anyone named James, did you?
ALEX: No. Why?
LENNI: Oh. It's just that…Eileen keeps talking about someone named James…who's a soldier in Vietnam. She worries about him…and he's the reason she doesn't like all the protests going on.
GABY: Well…what if he's her boyfriend…and she later marries him?
JAMAL: Hey yeah. And if she does, that means she has his name now…and we just need to find out what it is.
HECTOR: Isn't his name James?
TINA: His first name is. But we need his last name. Eileen would have changed her last name to his.
LENNI: And that's only if he really is a boyfriend that she married. It's possible that they were just good friends.
JAMAL: Well what does the diary say about him?
Lenni flips through the diary and nods.
LENNI: Well here's something. She writes about how she first met him. reading I will never forget the day I met James. It was August and the Berkley twins were chasing me again.
CUT TO: A small town in the Midwest. A teenage girl with long brown hair and glasses is running down the street, two larger boys running after her and throwing rocks. The girl spots a moving truck and hides behind it. She pants and then turns around and jumps.
GIRL: Oh!
A tall boy with a baseball bat is standing there looking at the girl. He has reddish brown hair and wears a baseball shirt, jeans, and sneakers. The twins come around the moving truck and throw a rock, but the tall boy steps up and swings at it with the bat. The girl gasps as the rock flies back at the twins, one of them dropping to the ground. The other twin throws a rock but the tall boy hits that one too, making both of them run. The girl pants and looks at the tall boy, who puts the bat over his shoulder and turns to her.
TALL BOY: You okay?
The girl nods as the boy gives a kind smile and holds out his hand. She looks nervously at the bat but he shakes his head.
TALL BOY: I don't hit girls, you know.
The girl nods and lets him pull her up.
TALL BOY: I'm James.
GIRL: I'm…Eileen.
JAMES: You new here too?
Eileen shakes her head and James shrugs.
JAMES: Why those goons picking on you then? They're supposed to be going after me.
EILEEN: You carry a bat.
JAMES: But I'm also the new kid. What are they going after you for?
EILEEN: Because they think they can get away with it.
JAMES: Why?
EILEEN: Because…I can't hear them.
James raises his eyebrows as Eileen blushes.