Scene 9: The Sightings
(Trey reading from his journal.)
TREY: I don't care what they thought. They could all go to hell. Brendan was real. I wasn't crazy. And he kept popping up. Which really bugged me. The second day of the blizzard, he showed up in my garage, wanting to know if I had found whitestone yet. He wouldn't shut up about it. The third day, he was up in a tree seeing if he could get a better view. And the fourth day... The fourth day I was walking to the library when:
(Tina-Louise appears with her journal.)
TINA-LOUISE: Hey! Trey! Trey Patterson!
TREY: Are you talking to me?
TINA-LOUISE: Guess what?
TREY: You never talk to me.
TINA-LOUISE: Yeah, don't tell anyone about this. But guess what?
TREY: What?
TINA-LOUISE: I saw Brendan! (Long pause.)
TREY: No you didn't
TINA-LOUISE: I did. I wrote about it in my journal. Listen, "Dear journal, guess who was standing in my driveway?"
(Lights change. We're in TINA-LOUISE'S driveway. she and BRENDAN are here.)
BRENDAN: Hello. I like your coat.
TINA-LOUISE: Thank you, what are you doing in my driveway?
BRENDAN: Just standing. You're very pretty.
TINA-LOUISE: Yes, I've been told that.
BRENDAN: Have you seen a farm, or a little boy named Caleb?
TINA-LOUISE: No.
BRENDAN: I didn't think so. Nobody has.
TINA-LOUISE: Aren't you cold?
BRENDAN: Yes, I've been outside for four days now.
TINA-LOUISE: Are you homeless?
BRENDAN: In a way.
TINA-LOUISE: Well that's no good. Would you like to come inside?
BRENDAN: Your house?
TINA-LOUISE: My parents are still snowed in, in connecticut. or so they say. I think they've abandoned me. Isn't that hysterical?
BRENDAN: Are you trying to be funny?
TINA-LOUISE: I don't know. Am I?
BRENDAN: Do you have hot chocolate?
TINA-LOUISE: I sure do. And I've got an Xbox too. Do you wanna play Xbox?
BRENDAN: I guess.
TINA-LOUISE: Come on.
(Lights out on them and back up on Trey.)
TINA-LOUISE: See, I wrote it all down in my journal, so it must be true.
TREY: Just because you wrote it down, doesn't mean-
TINA-LOUISE: Bye, Trey!
(Tina-Louise exits as Helen enters.)
TREY:(Calls after Tina-Louise;) I think you saw somebody else! A different boy!
HELEN: Hey, guess who I saw, Trey?
TREY: Don't talk to me. My head still hurts from that snowball.
HELEN: Brendan was standing i the middle of my street this morning.
TREY: No, he wasn't. He was with me.
HELEN: say to write down everything we see. So I did. Look at my journal. It says right here. "Brendan, what are you doing in the middle of the street?"
(Suddenly we're in the scene.)
HELEN: Brendan, what are you doing in the middle of the street?
BRENDAN: Just standing here, looking up. How do you know my name?
HELEN: Trey told me all about you.
BRENDAN: Don't you think Trey's sort of freaky?
TREY: He didn't say that!
HELEN: Yes he did. I wrote it down.
TREY: He doesn't even talk like that!
HELEN: Don't interrupt my journal entry.
BRENDAN: Hey, why do you have a glass eye?
HELEN: My brother shot me with a bee-bee gun when I was six.
BRENDAN: Did he get in trouble?
HELEN: Yeah. It was an accident though, so I forgave him. But if we get in a fight, I bring it up again, and it usually shuts him up.
BRENDAN: Do you think it'll ever stop snowing?
HELEN: My father say Sammy Davis Jr. had a glass eye, and he was one of the most talented men in America.
BRENDAN: Do people make fun of it?
HELEN: Sometimes. But if they do, I take my eye out and hold it up and say "I'm looking at you! this is my evil eye! I curse your family and all of its descendants!"
BRENDAN: WOW.
HELEN: And then I op it back in and run away. My father says that's weird and I should stop it, but sometimes I can't help it. Do you wanna see it?
BRENDAN: No thanks. (Beat) My little brother's blind. His name is Caleb.
HELEN: Really?
BRENDAN: Yeah, He was born that way. That's why I was worried when I couldn't find him. I thought he ran out into the blizzard and got lost, but maybe he didn't. I was the one who got lost, and now I can't find my way back to whitestone.
HELEN: Maybe I can help you.
(Brendan disappears. We're back with Trey and Helen.)
TREY: Everyone knows you're a big liar. He would never call me freaky. He could never tell you all that stuff. You never saw Brendan.
HELEN: I did. And so did Doofus. He just told me he was cracking jokes at the 7-11.
TREY: The 7-11?
BRENDAN: Okay, so this guy walks into a bar, right?
DOOFUS:(Laughing hysterically:) Oh please, no more. You're killing me!
BRENDAN: And he orders a drink. He's sitting there and suddenly he hears this whisper "Psst, nice tie."
DOOFUS:(Still laughing:) Nice tie!
BRENDAN: He looks, doesn't see anything. Another minute goes by, he hears another whisper "I like your shoes."
DOOFUS: Shoes! Woo-hoo!
BRENDAN: Then another whisper "That's a snazzy jacket." He finally asks the bartender what's going on.
DOOFUS: What did the bartender say?
BRENDAN: "Didn't you see the sign? the peanuts are complimentary."
(Doofus screams with laughter. Lights out on them and up on Ken reading from his journal.)
KEN: I saw him too. He wasn't all like the others described him. He broke into my house and stole a carton of smokes from under my old man's bed. I caught him rummaging through my cupboard for food.
(Brendan is suddenly rummaging through his cupboard.)
KEN: Can I help you?
BRENDAN: Yeah. Scrounge me up some peanut butte. I'm starving.
KEN: We don't have any peanut butter.
BRENDAN: That's alright. These crackers should hold me over for a while. (Eats crackers ravenously.)
KEN: A little hungry?
BRENDAN: I've been livin' on twigs and berries for four freakin' days. 'Course I'm hungry. (Eats some more.) Ken, right? Your name's Ken?
KEN: Yeah.
BRENDAN: I saw you steal that twenty bucks.
KEN: What?
BRENDAN: From Vincent at the pretzel knot. He got up to get a napkin and you swiped his dough.
KEN: No I didn't.
BRENDAN: You're going to hell.
KEN: Who are you?
BRENDAN: I'm Brendan. I live in the woods in a hallowed out tree and I can see into the future.
KEN: Oh yeah?
BRENDAN: Yeah. And you're going to hell, Ken.
KEN: No I'm not.
BRENDAN: The money you stole. The CDs from the Wal-Mart. Your Dad's bomber jacket. That's no good(He shoves him.)
KEN: Hey, don't push me.
BRENDAN: I'll push you if I want to.(He pushes him again.)
KEN: Ow.
BRENDAN: And what about that birdhouse you set on fire? And 's mail box? You're bit of a pyro, Ken.(Shoves him agian.) You better stop being bad, or I'm gonna tell everyone.
KEN: No one will believe you.
BRENDAN: I'll make sure you never set anything on fire again, Ken, or steal.
KEN: How?
BRENDAN: I'll haunt you in your dreams.
KEN: What?
BRENDAN: Every night I'll send awful, horrifying images to you in yout dreams until you finally confss to what you did.
KEN: Mom!
BRENDAN: You better be good, Ken. Cause I'm watching.
(He disappears. Light suddenly shift to the pretzel knot. Trey and Jenna are behind the , Bucky and Franky are with Ken, who's just told his story.)
TREY: He didn't say that!
KEN: Yes he did.
VINCENT: You're the one who set 's mail box on fire?
KEN: No. Brendan just said I did. I think he did it himself.
TREY: Brendan didn't set anything on fire!
BUCKY: Brendan said I have cool hair.
TREY: No he didn't.
FRANKY: We played Pokemon go together.
JENNA: He said I have beautiful eyes. We have a date on thursday.
VINCENT: He told me, he's just like Jorge. A chameleon. Many things to many people.
TREY: He's not a chameleon! He's one way! He's my way! You're all liars. I'm the only one who's seen him.
BUCKY: How do you know, Trey?
TREY: He would never threaten Ken like that.
KEN: Well, he did. What do you know about him anyway? He's a stranger. He's capable of anything.
VINCENT: You think He's dangerous?
KEN: I just know, I'm not going near him again.
TREY: Good. Stay away from him. All of you.
(Lights cross-fade to the shed. Brendan's with Benny.)
BRENDAN: You like her, Benny?
BENNY: Who?
BRENDAN: Julia. The girl who smells like cupcakes.
BENNY: I guess so.
BRENDAN: Why don't you tell her then?
BENNY: 'Cause I don't want to.
BRENDAN: Why don't you ask her to go ice skating?
BENNY: My skates are busted.
BRENDAN: Why are you so shy?
BENNY: I don't know.
BRENDAN: If you help me find my way home, I'll put in a good word for you.
BENNY: You will?
BRENDAN: Sure.
(The shed door flies open and somehow Brendan disappears, maybe behind the door, Just as Trey enters.)
TREY: Who are you talking to in here?
BENNY: Brendan. He was just in here.
TREY: Where? I don't see him.
BENNY: He must've slipped outside.
TREY: Liars! you're all liars!
(Lights cross-fade to Arno, Vincent, and Edythe.)
VINCENT: I bet we'd get an award.
EDYTHE: For-what?
VINCENT: If we found him and brought him in.
ARNO: To who?
VINCENT: The authorities. I bet he's a runaway.
EDYTH: I-think-he's- an -ever- elusive-leprechaun.
VINCENT: If we started an all-out search, sread the word, and saved this guy, we'd be heroes.
ARNO: But maybe he doesn't want to be saved.
VINCENT: Arno, start you computer. I'll call the radio station. Edythe, thake your hyperactivity pill.
EDYTHE: Oh-my-gosh-i-almost-forgot-to-take-my-pill. My-mother-would-be-so-mad-and-I'd-be-acting-totally-crazy-all-the-time. Thanks-Vincent!
(Lights out on them and up on the shed. Brendan's here with Julia.)
BRENDAN: And Benny helped me look up in the hills, and we found a hammer, which looks just like my Dad's old hammer, so I think I must be getting close.
JULIA: Did you try city hall? I bet we can find some info at city hall.
BRENDAN: I think Benny likes you.
JULIA: What?
BRENDAN: I'm pretty sure he does.
JULIA: Why, what'd he say?
BRENDAN: Just some stuff.
JULIA: What stuff? Really? He said something? When? He's sweet.
BRENDAN: That's what he said about you.
JULIA: Why's he always sniffing me?
BRENDAN: He likes you. You should ask him to ice skate.
JULIA: He should ask me.
BRENDAN: He's too shy.
JULIA: I'll think about it. That's all.
(The shed door flies open and Trey leaps in, but Brendan's already disappeared. Julia looks around suspiciously)
TREY: Liars! All liars!