JULIE
and the
ODD DUCK

FADE IN:

EXT. BARANBY STREET — PIMBLETON CREEK — MORNING

A quiet, tree-lined street in a small American town. Autumn. Leaves drift down from old oaks. An old-fashioned neighborhood where kids walk to school and parents holler from porches.

JULIE GAMMON (12) walks the sidewalk. Bright orange hair. Freckles everywhere. Coke-bottle eyeglasses so thick the world bends at the edges. She is tearing strips from a newspaper and tossing them into the air as she walks, watching them flutter like tiny birds.

EXT. BARANBY STREET — TERRENCE'S HOUSE — CONTINUOUS

TERRENCE (12) bursts out of the little gray house down the street. He is tiny, clad in squeaky corduroy pants and a button-down shirt, with glasses every bit as thick as Julie's. He runs to her, breathless.

Julie sighs. She already knows. She watches from behind that same large oak tree every single morning.

EXT. CORNER OF BARANBY AND HIGHTOOTH — MORNING

PAULIE PUGSLEY (13) leans against a fence post. He is the biggest boy in sixth grade. Long gash on his cheek. Green-ish teeth. Clothes always dirty. Behind him: his three cousins — ROCKY, AMOS, and VANESSA. Vanessa is as tall as Paulie and weighs even more.

Paulie brings his fist hard into Terrence's midsection. The smaller boy goes sprawling into the mud. Julie lunges forward but Vanessa grabs her by the hair.

The Pugsleys walk away. Julie helps Terrence up, picks the prickles off his clothes, wipes the blood from his arm with a handkerchief. Behind them, unseen — a pair of dirty blue overalls and a mop of greasy black hair disappears around a corner.

INT. JULIE'S HOUSE — KITCHEN — NIGHT

Julie sits at her father's feet as he thumbs through a magazine in his easy chair. Chocolate milk and warm snickerdoodles on the side table.

INT. PIMBLETON CREEK GRADE SCHOOL — CLASSROOM — DAY

MISS JOHNSON writes on the greenboard. Julie looks up at the clock on the wall. Only this time — she doesn't see a clock. She sees a hole. Dark, with a hint of mist. A bright green path extends into what looks like a wooded area. Nobody else notices.

In the mist: a very large animal. Bright green. Five feet tall. It is a DUCK. And the duck is wearing sunglasses. And it is looking squarely at Julie.

The duck flaps its wings wildly and runs down the path. Julie laughs out loud.

The class erupts in laughter. The apparition vanishes. Julie's face goes red. After school, she sits with her nose in the corner for a full hour.

EXT. TREEPLACE — AFTER SCHOOL

Julie and Terrence sit cross-legged in their secret hideout — TREEPLACE. A shelter built from branches and bushes, hidden in a grove of trees. A small rectangular window. Fruit cocktail pictures cut from magazines pinned to the inside walls.

A noise outside. Twigs snapping. Four sets of eyes appear in the bushes. Treeplace is invaded.

Paulie drags Terrence outside. Vanessa locks his arms in a headlock. Paulie cocks his fist. In that instant — the small window of Treeplace blazes with light. Through it, Julie sees the green mist again, the path, the duck.

Julie bolts. She runs — past Terrence, past the Pugsleys, toward the tree line. She is about to break free when she stops cold.

OLD WEIRD TOM stands in her path. Jet black hair. Bloodshot eyes. Dirty blue overalls. He shuffles toward her. Ten feet. Eight. Six. Four.

Behind her: Paulie's fist descending toward Terrence's face. Ahead: Old Weird Tom's dirty fingers reaching for her. She feels them scrape across her back. She screams and runs toward the only place left — the mist.

Four steps. Five. The mist envelops her. She looks back once — sees Paulie's fist falling, Old Weird Tom watching — and then the world disappears.

EXT. THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE — INSIDE A GIANT TREE

Julie runs up a circular stairway wrapped around a massive tree. Higher and higher. Below her, the stairs are disappearing — dissolving one by one. There is no going back.

At the top: a landing with a long plank extending out over a vast swimming pool far below. The tree begins to shake. Julie runs to the edge of the plank. The tree splinters behind her. She falls.

EXT. THE SWIMMING POOL — CONTINUOUS

Julie plunges into warm, tropical water. She cannot swim. She thrashes for the surface, lungs screaming. Her hand strikes something hard — the shell of a very large, very yellow plastic sea turtle. She climbs aboard.

Thirty yards away, standing by the pool: the green duck. Wearing sunglasses. On a red loveseat nearby, a very short, very fat man in a Hawaiian shirt snores loudly, a burnt cigar poked in his mouth.

The duck turns and runs toward an opening in the hedge. Julie, with no choice, flings herself into the water. She thrashes, sinks, fights her way up. Her glasses fall off. Her hand strikes the pool wall. She pulls herself onto the deck, gasping.

She realizes: her glasses are gone, but she can see perfectly.

The duck runs away again. Julie follows, past the snoring man, through the hedge.

EXT. TWO CASTLE DOORS — DAY

Two paths. Two doors in two ivy-covered castles. One says “Welcome.” The other says “Not So Welcome.”

Julie tries the Welcome door. She yanks the latch. The entire castle disintegrates — WHUMP, KERTHUMP — revealing a deadly ravine of sharp brambles on the other side.

She tries the Not So Welcome door. It opens easily. Inside: a large room with high ceilings, warm lamplight, a single chair facing a podium. Behind the podium: a tall green cornstalk.

The door disappears behind her. She is trapped.

INT. THE CORNSTALK'S ROOM — CONTINUOUS

Julie approaches the stalk. Its silk looks like soft hair. She reaches out to touch it.

Corn pulls out a hefty book marked “Names” and riffles through the pages, raising clouds of dust.

Corn slams the book. A tiny scrap of paper flutters out and lands at Julie's feet. She picks it up. Written on it, simply: “Julie.”

Corn screams at her to leave. Falls silent. The room darkens. Through portals in the wall, a sleeping bag, water, crackers, apples, and a thin book slide across the floor. The book's cover reads: “Book of Instruction.”

Julie opens it. The first page reads: “If you can't read this, clap your hands three times.” All other pages are blank. She can read it. So she doesn't clap. She eats her crackers and settles in for the night.

In darkness, she opens the book again. The page is unreadable. Julie smiles. She cannot read it. She stands up.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

With a grinding roar, the roof snaps open, the walls slide into the ground, the marble floor becomes grass, and the sun blazes overhead. The room has vanished entirely. The book now reads: “Follow the Duck.”

EXT. THE FOREST — DAY

The Odd Duck races through the trees, wings flapping wildly. Julie chases him at full speed, leaping over fallen branches.

He sits on his haunches like he is covering an egg. Julie collapses beside him, breathing hard. She opens the Book of Instruction. The first two pages are blank. The third reads: “Trust to Heal.”

Without warning, the duck bolts. Julie trips over a branch chasing him. The book flies one direction, Julie the other. She retrieves the book, loses the duck, and walks alone through the forest until she hears a strange sound: squawking, popping, sizzling.

EXT. THE BOTTLE MEADOW — DAY

Thousands of soft drink bottles with bright orange corks mill about a meadow in panic. Three large crows dive from the sky, snapping corks from bottles with their beaks. Each uncorked bottle teeters, falls, and spills its liquid with a loud sizzle. Dead. The survivors gently roll the fallen to the edge of a hill and release them.

Julie hides in a bush, watching in horror.

EXT. THE BOTTLE MEADOW — THE NEXT DAY

Morning. Julie finds breakfast — toast, jam, tea — waiting outside a small shelter. The crows attack again. This time, Julie doesn't watch. She runs into the melee.

A crow snatches a cork. The bottle teeters. Julie grabs the cork off the ground and jams it back on. The bottle steadies. Another bottle. Then another. She saves dozens, running through the chaos until the crows fly off.

Near the edge of the meadow, Corn has appeared.

A wind gust blows the Book of Instruction open. “Follow the Duck.” Julie sees the duck racing toward a path. She has a choice: stay and save bottles, or follow. She scoops up the book and runs. One last look: the bottles mill about aimlessly, oblivious.

EXT. THE ISLAND — DAY

A beach. An island thirty yards offshore. The duck stops.

Julie opens the book. Third page: “Seek and Understand.” The duck flies over the lagoon to the island and disappears.

Julie wades in. The water rises above her knees. The ground gives way. She plunges under, then fights to the surface and swims — actually swims — to shore. The Book of Instruction sinks to the bottom. Her shoes are lost. But she is on the island.

EXT. THE ISLAND — CROW CARD GAME — DAY

Deep in the island woods, Julie finds three crows standing around a flat rock, playing poker with corn seeds.

Each crow has five cards. They bet corn seeds, accuse each other of cheating, and occasionally fall on their backs cackling with their legs kicking in the air. One crow cries “Would ya look at that?” While the others look up, he steals corn from their piles. They all cackle wildly.

Shorty and Snorty go into convulsions, spitting as if clearing their beaks.

At the name, Snorty and Shorty go rigid.

The three crows collapse in uproarious laughter, legs kicking in the air. In the distance, the duck streaks up a path. Julie leaves the crows still laughing, swims back across the lagoon, and gives chase.

EXT. WATERFALL — DAY

Julie follows a stream to a small waterfall. CHEEVES sits on a rock in the sun. A massive gorilla, sixty years old, with kind eyes that squint at everything. He walks into branches. Trips over rocks. Nearly falls into the stream.

Julie tells Cheeves about the bottles, the crows, and Mr. Blow. Cheeves tells Julie about Blow's castle at the bottom of the great falls — a scar on the valley, built from stolen clay and rock. Everyone is terrified of him.

The duck appears, thrashing through a low spot in the stream. Julie spots something glinting in the water nearby — her old coke-bottle glasses. A choice: chase the duck, or help Cheeves.

She stops chasing the duck. She reaches into the water and retrieves the glasses.

She places the glasses on Cheeves's nose. A perfect fit.

Cheeves grabs Julie's hand. They dance in the puddles and waterfall, Cheeves carefully avoiding every rock and tree limb for the first time in years. He kneels to examine flowers he hasn't seen clearly in a decade. Julie watches her friend rediscover the world.

EXT. THE OPEN MEADOW — THE TRAIN — DAY

Julie chases the duck across a wide meadow. A railroad track crosses the field. A train approaches, picking up speed, steam whistle blasting. The duck flies through a window and onto the train.

Julie sprints alongside the caboose. She grabs the handrail and leaps aboard.

INT. THE CABOOSE — MOVING

Inside: a desk with a single drawer, a cupboard, and hooks with a bright yellow fireman's suit and a football helmet. A sign on the suit reads: “For Emergency Outside Use Only.”

Julie opens the cupboard. Inside, planted in the floor of the cabinet: Corn.

The train begins careening. Julie is thrown to the floor. She opens the desk drawer — the Book of Instruction tumbles out. She reads: “The suit is the thing.” Second page: “First impressions are wrong.”

The duck flashes past the caboose windows. The train is about to wreck. Julie pulls on the yellow suit, jams on the football helmet, clutches the book. She presses a small button on the sleeve.

WHOOSH. The suit inflates into a giant yellow ball, encasing Julie completely. The ball rolls off the caboose, bounces off the tracks, catches a wind gust, and sails through the air. It bounces down a long green slope, striking trees and rocks, until it comes to rest at the bottom of a hill.

Air hisses out. Julie emerges, dizzy but alive. In nearby brambles, a pair of bright yellow eyes watches her.

EXT. THE MEADOW — NIGHT

Julie sleeps under the deflated yellow coat in the moonlight. The creature creeps closer. Here a step, there a step. It lifts the coat. Julie's eyes blink open. She is face to face with a gorilla.

She screams. Runs. The gorilla chases her through the forest. It crashes into a fallen log. “Owwwww!” Crashes into an overhanging branch. “Owwwww!” Runs headfirst into a tree at a fork in the path and falls unconscious.

Julie stops running. “First impressions are wrong.” The words from the Book spring into her mind. She turns back.

She sits down against the tree and waits.

EXT. THE FOREST — DAWN

Julie wakes to a gentle shake.

It is Cheeves — a different Cheeves. The one who chased her. She sees now: he is not a monster. He is a blind old gorilla who couldn't see her and was frightened himself.

This is the Cheeves from before the glasses, Julie realizes. The timeline has circled. She knows what to do. She retrieves her glasses from the stream and places them on his nose.

EXT. TOP OF THE GREAT WATERFALL — DAY

Julie stands at the top of the falls. Below: a scar on the valley. Mr. Blow's castle — gray, ugly, built from stolen clay and stone. Black smoke billows from the windows. The river, crystal clear at the top, runs sooty black near the castle.

On a balcony at the top of the tower: a large pumpkin-shaped figure, staring at her.

Corn stands behind her, planted at the edge of the clearing.

Julie looks and sees the mist again — the mist from school, from Treeplace. Through it: Paulie's fist, still frozen inches from Terrence's face. She could step through. She could go home.

The mist lifts. The chance to go home is gone. Corn disappears. Julie turns toward the falls and begins to descend.

EXT. MR. BLOW'S CASTLE — THE MUCK — DAY

The path becomes sticky black muck. Julie's shoes fill with sludge. The stench of smoke makes her cough and hack. She trudges on. The castle gates creak open.

With a roar like a racecar and a bright explosion of fire, a massive orange pumpkin-like object comes screaming from behind the walls toward Julie. Its skin is continuously boiling bubbles. Triangle eyes like a carved pumpkin. A long witch-nose. Flames rise from its head. The stench is rancid.

The old Julie would have run. This Julie folds her arms and stands still.

Above, the three crows circle, cackling: “Now you're gonna get it, girlie!”

Mr. Blow spits on Julie. The liquid is cool, not hot. Julie does not flinch. She stares into his eyes. She takes a step closer.

Behind her — a rumble. She turns. A long row of bottles, orange corks gleaming, flanking Cheeves. Hundreds and hundreds of them, arranged like soldiers. Ready for battle.

The three crows fly away.

On impulse, Julie sticks her finger into Blow's skin. It pops like a bicycle tire. Air rushes out. The pumpkin deflates in thirty seconds, collapsing at Julie's feet. Where the terrifying creature stood: a small raccoon.

Julie looks at the raccoon. Feels a pang of empathy. The biggest bully in the valley was the smallest creature inside.

The duck appears, flapping his wings, running toward the waterfall. Julie hugs Cheeves and whispers: “I think you just found a new friend.” Cheeves nods. On his shoulder, the raccoon sits quietly.

The bottles part down the middle. As Julie runs through, they hoot their appreciation. She follows the duck up the path, to the top of the falls.

EXT. TOP OF THE WATERFALL — DAY

Corn stands at the edge of the clearing.

The mist appears. Through it: Treeplace. Paulie's fist. Terrence's terrified face. Old Weird Tom emerging from the shadows.

Julie steps into the mist. She looks back — Cheeves has a small raccoon on his shoulder. She waves goodbye and follows the duck through.

EXT. TREEPLACE — THE GROVE — CONTINUOUS

Time resumes. Paulie's fist descends. Julie bursts from the mist at a dead run and slams into Paulie, knocking him to the ground. Terrence tumbles aside. Julie rolls to her feet and stands facing Paulie, her back to Old Weird Tom.

She looks Paulie between the eyes with no hint of fear. He halts.

The cousins start forward — and stop. Old Weird Tom stands directly behind Julie, shaking his finger side to side. No. No. That isn't such a good idea.

Julie feels Terrence's quivering hand take hers. Then, on her other side: the huge, warm hand of Old Weird Tom. The three of them stand together.

Paulie stares. Drops his fists. Looks at his cousins. They shrug.

Paulie walks past Julie. She catches an embarrassed smile as he passes. Tom heads up the path. Paulie follows.

Julie and Terrence collapse in each other's arms, jumping for joy.

INT. JULIE'S BEDROOM — NIGHT

Julie is in bed. Her father stands in the doorway, carrying a paper bag.

He sets the bag on the floor.

A beat.

Julie's eyes fly open. Before she can say anything, her father closes the door.

Julie reaches for the paper bag. Her heart thumping, she pulls out the object and sets it on the bed in front of her.

Her fingers trace the lettering on the cover. B-O-O-K O-F I-N-S-T-R-U-C-T-I-O-N.

She opens it. The words leap off the page.

Tears pour down Julie's face. She turns the second page.

Julie closes her eyes and smiles. “That one is so very much easier,” she whispers.

She snuggles under her covers, turning from page to page even though she memorized the words at first glance. She knows that when morning comes, the book will be gone.

But she also knows — her entire world has changed. So many fears overcome. So many lessons learned. And tomorrow will be another day. She sets the Book of Instruction back in the bag, lays back on her pillow, and smiles.

Julie's eyes close. Moonlight fills the bedroom. And somewhere, far away, a ridiculous bright green duck wearing sunglasses sits on his haunches, watching.

FADE TO BLACK.