182. New Soul - Leslie

• FADE IN:


• EXT. SUNSET BLVD SIDEWALK - DAY


• OLD MCHENRY passes, walking three steps forward, three steps back, up and down a single crack in the sidewalk.


• OLD MCHENRY
• Ehhh, one, one, one, ring around, ring around Eve and Adam, mmmm. New soul in the garden.


• The SECURITY GUARD at a nearby bank watches.


• SECURITY GUARD
• Hey McHenry, think you could do that horizontally, mix it up a bit? You're boring me to tears.


• McHenry doesn't blink.


• He stares intently at a TINY palm sapling that has fought it's way up through a crack at the end of the sidewalk.


• Pedestrians cautiously pick their way around him.


• He swings his head towards the oncoming traffic, the finest thread of sanity shining in his pupils.


• The guard walks over wrinkling his nose at McHenry's stink.


• SECURITY GUARD
• What're you looking at Mac?


• He spots the sapling.


• SECURITY GUARD
• Stupid weed.


• He leans down and plucks it out of the ground, casually tossing it onto a small patch of grass.


• McHenry's eyes go wide and he shrieks.


• The guard walks backwards nervously, then shakes his head disgusted.


• SECURITY GUARD
• Demented idiot.


• McHenry wails, rocking back and forth.


• He grabs for the sapling as pedestrians walk into the street to avoid him.


• He pulls the plant to his chest, then attempts to carefully push it back down into the crack.


• When he does not succeed, he pushes harder and harder trying to force it down.


• Finally he stops, the dead plant lying on the hot cement.


• He kneels, huddling over the crack with the sapling lying under his shadow, rocking back and forth.


• OLD MCHENRY
• New soul, new soul, new soul, new soul.


• FADE TO BLACK.