EXT. THE SHARP HOUSE — AFTERNOON
Leo, Rich, and Mr. Kidderman walk out the front door. Mr. Kidderman closes the door before jogging ahead to catch Rich in the driveway. Leo, looking suddenly left out, slouches away and jumps into the back Mr. Kidderman’s van.
MR. KIDDERMAN
(turning seriously toward
Rich after Leo shuts the
van door)
Look here, son, I want to say I won’t report you.
RICH
(trying for laugh)
It’s good to know you’re not a snitch.
Mr. Kidderman glances back at Leo, who is playing with something on the front panel of the car radio.
MR. KIDDERMAN
Not any of you.
RICH
And so…?
MR. KIDDERMAN
So Shelly needs you
more than ever now.
Rich makes an attempt at surprise that morphs into something like braggadocio.
MR. KIDDERMAN
Don’t think I don’t know
that you and her —
RICH
Yep?
MR. KIDDERMAN
(laughing, breaking his
serious barrier)
— favor one another.
Mr. Kidderman slaps Rich on the shoulder, steering him towards the van.
CUT TO:
INT. SHELLY’S ROOM — EVENING
Leo’s computer, supplanted from Dirk’s room, sits haphazardly on Shelly’s desk. Hannah sits in front of the screen, typing away, reading something small that only she can see printed on the quivering electrons. Shelly lounges on her bed. Anxiously, she fiddles with a perfume bottle and puffs a cloud of what you might imagine to be syrupy sweet scents up towards the slow-spinning fan, which tears the haze to shreds.
HANNAH
(absently, without turning
around towards Shelly)
Please stop. You know I hate perfume.
The sound of a car engine suddenly rumbles up the drive. A garage door fumbles open, shaking the house awake, and Shelly jumps up. She hurries out the room and down the stairs. Hannah stops what she is doing. She listens to Shelly thud quickly down each step.
The front door creaks open downstairs, and Hannah flinches. Boots thud on the entryway, and someone below expresses their surprise.
SHELLY
(oversweetly flavoring her
double-minded lie)
Hey there,
I think that Hannah’s staying here for dinner,
if that’s OK. She says that she doesn’t want
to go home yet.
OFFICER SHARP
So Hannah’s here — ?
BETTY
(cutting her husband short)
That’s fine —
Hannah’s always welcome here, you know.
Hannah relaxes. There’s some shuffling in the rooms below, and she goes back to typing when Shelly starts stomping back up the stairs.
CUT TO:
INT. THE SHARP DINING ROOM — EVENING
Shelly, Hannah, Betty, and Officer Sharp are gathered around a dinner table that feels conspicuously empty despite their presence. Officer Sharp sits turned half way from the table so that he can see the TV in the living room, which is tuned to the local news. He picks at his food while he watches a LOCAL REPORTER intently.
LOCAL REPORTER
…and now, we turn again to the news that’s made
so many waves since it broke a month ago.
The other day we aired a hometown story
about a boy named Rich who built a site
to protest all the data abuses that
became apparent after the Hereafter hack.
And now, tonight, we can report that the
investigators tasked with digging up
the culprits of the hack have filed their report,
which speculates that a trojan afterversion
was used in the attack, but names no suspects…
OFFICER SHARP
(performatively to himself)
If I could only get at that computer,
I’d tell the feds exactly where the perp
buys their coffee in the morning.
Officer Sharp turns to Shelly, and then glances at Hannah. Both of them look mortified.
OFFICER SHARP (CONT’D)
I’ll say
one thing: your buddy Rich should watch his back.
Companies like that have got a dozen
different ways to make a mess of a guy
that pokes them with a stick.
Hannah manages half an unsure laugh. Betty, coming to the rescue, grabs a spoon.
BETTY
(to Hannah)
Mashed potatoes?
HANNAH
Yes, please.
Betty shovels a pile of mashed potatoes from a bowl and dumps them on Hannah’s plate.
HANNAH (CONT’D)
Thanks there, Betty.
Hannah takes a bite of the potatoes. Only Shelly seems to notice the slight shake in her fork. As Hannah chews, though, her face softens and her hand settles. She glances first at Shelly, and then at Officer Sharp.
HANNAH (CONT’D)
(choking down the food)
How was the FOP
party thing?
Officer Sharp starts and spins back from the TV.
OFFICER SHARP
What party thing?
SHELLY
(suddenly desperate to
smooth things over)
You know,
the fundraiser ball…?
OFFICER SHARP
That was several months ago.
An awkward silence, only kept at bay by the clinking of Betty’s practiced fork, takes hold. Officer Sharp senses his opportunity to detach and turns back to the TV, and Hannah shoots Shelly a knowing look before eating another mouthful of mashed potatoes.
CUT TO:
Coming Soon
Missed MitcHELL the first time around? Read or reread the first half of the story here:
