One Car Town

Script - 2020

We open on a barren scene, grass crippled with age and lack of care, road plumed with dust, the silhouettes of decrepit houses in the near distance and a soft wind, thick with grime, rustling across the wasteland outside the sorry excuse for a town. Looking out upon the desolate landscape, the doll-like Tamsen McBride stands in the center of the road, confused and out of her depth.

Tamsen

Of all the places to break down, it had to be here?

A noise from the bushes, crumpling in on themselves on either side of the road, shakes Tamsen McBride from her disgusted reverie. Upon investigation, she finds the hunched form of a boy, grimy and broken as the rest of their surroundings,peering through the shrubbery.

Tamsen

What in heaven’s name were you doing in the bushes?

I was jus’ playin’ hide ‘n go seek

Tamsen

Hide and go seek?

Yeah, with ol’ man Charlie’s kids but I reckon they done and gave up when they couldn’t find me. Load o quitters they are.

Tamsen

Who’s Old Charlie? And what’s hide and go seek?

Ya mean you ain’t ever played hide ‘n go seek before.

Tamsen shakes her head, curls bouncing in the action

Tamsen

I’m from the next state over.

They don’ play games in the next state over?

Tamsen

We play games...just more dignified ones.

Dignified?

Tamsen

You know, ones that don’t involve hiding out in bushes and getting covered in dirt.

But them’s the best kinda games

Tamsen

I like to play games that are dignified. My name is dignified too, did you know?

Naw i didn’ know i just met ya. What is yer name though?

Tamsen

My name is Tamsen June McBride. I get the June from my mama, the McBride from my papa, and the Tamsen from my grammy.

I’m Ed. I reckon my maw was too poor when she ‘ad me to give me too many fancy names like yers.

Tamsen

I’m not so certain that’s quite how it works.

My name’s jus’ Ed so it must have sum’in to do with it.

Tamsen

Do you not have a father? Or a grandmother?

I don’ even have a mother no more.

Tamsen

Do you live by yourself? That must be dreadful. I could never imagine living anywhere but the estate, certainly not alone

Tamsen’s tone, while casual, carries traces of disgust rather than worry for the boy beside her and she carries on, oblivious, even as Ed cocks his head at the mention of an estate, something clearly foreign to these parts.

naw, not really. I play with Ol’ man Charlie’s kids, swipe food from Pickett’s farm, and just do whatever I wanna do whenever I wanna.

Tamsen

I love my mama, I could never live without her.

What about yer paw and yer grammaw?

Before Tamsen can reply, shouts ring out in the distance; a deep male voice clambers above the shrill cry of a woman, clearly desperate for the attention of her male companion. Tamsen winces almost imperceptibly, clearly recognizing the voices.

Tamsen

That’s probably them, my parents I mean. I bet the police finally showed up.

Police?

Tamsen

See, our car broke down on our trip through the state, I was supposed to run to town to find a constable but you distracted me, I bet my papa ended up getting someone’s attention.

Yall have a real car?

Tamsen

Of course we do. Anybody who’s anybody has a car these days, at least that’s what papa

says...come and see it.

Tamsen begins to lead her new friend down the poorly maintained road, taking extra care to avoid potholes coated with extra grime as to not sully her white shoes. Ed, however, plows right down the road, happy to scrape up his heels, already coated in a thin layer of muck.

So are ya married?

Tamsen startles at the question

Tamsen

Why would you think that?

Well ya got bride in ya name so i figured ya’d be a happy bride.

Tamsen

Not all brides are all that happy you know. My mama doesn’t say anything about it but I don’t think my papa’s all that nice to her sometimes.

Are ya scared ya gonna end up like her?

Tamsen drifts off into thought for a moment before responding.

Tamsen

Not yet I’m not. But mama says that I’m gonna grow up to be the debutante pride of our town back home.

Debutante?

Tamsen

Means i’m gonna marry a proper gentleman.

Well we don’t got no genteel-men in this here town...just dead women in them woods there.

Ed gestures behind him and, after squinting in the direction of a dark clot behind the ramshackle buildings, Tamsen can just make out the lumpy treeline. Upon recognizing the shapes of some twisted and gnarled branches, she swears she feels a soft chill etch its way into the breeze, sending an eerie sensation chasing up the vertebrae of her spine.

Tamsen

Dear heavens, dead?

Fer years and years, recently married brides went out into the woods after their weddin’ an’ never came back.

Tamsen

I bet they were just unhappy with their husbands, like I think my mama is.

Well then ya haven’t heard the woods at night.

Before Tamsen can dwell too much on the ominous energy brought to life by Ed’s remarks on the forest, the shouting in the distance loudens and the pair can make out a tense conversation.

Mr. McBride

I told you to stay in the car

Missus

It was belching smoke something furious and I couldn’t breathe right, dear

It doesn’t look like I very well care does it now?

Missus

But Teddy-

Don’t you call me teddy, you ungrateful-

Tamsen turns back towards the way they came, wincing slightly at the sound of a slap ringing through the air.

Yer parents always like that? They look like angry puppets?

Tamsen

Puppets?

Ya all look like those fancy dolls all the little girls back in town want. All frilled up with ya lacy collars and whatnot.

Tamsen

Thank you?

I ain’t ever seen nothin like yer family ‘round here.

*a shout*

Mr. McBride

Tamsen! Get back here to the car, we’re ready to leave this deadend dump.

Yer leavin’? In yer big ol’ car?

Tamsen nods

With yer ma and pa and yer fancy things?

Tamsen

Yes. This town isn’t for the likes of debutantes daughters and puppet families, as you called us. Sorry but we really must be on our way out of here.

Well..okay then. I hope yall don’ break down again in another “deadend town” like this one.

Although he speaks with no malice in his voice, Tamsen can tell Ed is making a jab at the obvious differences between them. So, without so much of a backward glance at the grimy acquaintance she made, Tamsen bundles her fists in her pale skirt and struts in the direction of her father’s shouts, praying the scene won’t explode into violence the moment she arrives. Only after she reaches the car, finally free of its ominous cloud of smoke and guttural choking noises, does Tamsen take a moment to offer a quiet prayer that her mother never becomes one of the women in the woods and that she never becomes her mother.