Infinitely Polar Bear Page #5

AMELIA:

Daddy loves swimming.

Maggie doesn’t respond.

INT. WALDEN STREET APARTMENT - KITCHEN/DINING ROOM. DAY

Maggie and the girls have moved in. The apartment is clean

and spare. Marimekko prints cover simple Swedish furniture.

The sunniest corner is full of hanging plants. Maggie has

made it pleasant.

12.

Maggie is in the kitchen cooking dinner.

The girls sit at the dining room table. Amelia is doing her

math homework. Faith wears an all-lavender outfit and she is

carving a flower design into the antique mahogany table with

the pointy handle of a fork.

They pepper Maggie with questions and complaints.

AMELIA:

The roof lights come in our window

at night and it’s too bright. I

can’t sleep. It’s bright as day.

MAGGIE (O.S.)

Maybe I can make a curtain for your

room.

AMELIA:

Mommy, they’re huge security

lights. Like you would see at a

prison.

MAGGIE (O.S.)

Amelia, I also wish we could’ve

stayed out in the country, but

there were no good jobs in Sudbury.

FAITH:

Your job here isn’t good.

MAGGIE (O.S.)

I’m going to find a better one.

AMELIA:

Why can’t Daddy live here with us?

FAITH:

I don’t like visiting him at the

halfway house.

MAGGIE (O.S.)

Your father is still recovering

from his breakdown.

FAITH:

He’s a way better cook than you.

IN THE KITCHEN:

Maggie sighs heavily.

13.

MAGGIE:

Girls, let’s have a little quiet.

A few moments of quiet.

IN THE DINING ROOM

Amelia watches as Faith digs in to the table harder and with

more determination.

AMELIA:

Daddy told me they injected him

with Thorazine at the hospital and

it made him bite the insides of his

cheeks until his mouth was filled

with blood.

Beat.

MAGGIE (O.S.)

It’s still quiet time.

AMELIA:

What’s Thorazine?

Maggie comes out with two bowls of pasta and sees what Faith

has been doing. She drops the bowls down on the table and

grabs Faith by the shoulders.

MAGGIE:

Faith! What are you doing? Why

would you do that? Why would you

do that?

FAITH:

It’s a flower. It’s pretty.

Maggie sinks into a dining room chair, lays her head on the

table and sobs. After a moment, the girls take their pasta

bowls and start eating in silence.

AMELIA:

Now we’re being quiet, Mommy.

FAITH:

Yeah, Mommy, now we’re being quiet.

EXT. STREET. DAY

It is raining. Faith and Amelia, both wearing backpacks,

walk down an urban sidewalk. They are five feet apart, not

speaking. They come to a corner. Amelia goes straight and

Faith goes right.

14.

EXT. ALLEY. DAY

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