INT. BEDROOM – DAY
Matching pairs of twin beds, nightstands, and dressers mirror left and right. A line of duct tape neatly divides the room down the center, right up the back wall, splitting a JONAS BROTHERS POSTER right between Nick’s eyes. EMILY, 7 and sassy, enters the left and notices a shirt edging over her side of the line.
EMILY
Mom! Maddy’s stuff’s on my side again!
Mom’s heard this before and she’s tired of it.
MOM (O.S.)
So move it, Emily.
EMILY
She’s always over the line! It’s not fair.
MOM comes into the room from the right and picks up the shirt. She folds and lays it on the right side bed. She crosses the line and sits next to Emily.
MOM
Em, you know she tries, but she’s not a big girl like you. Try to be understanding?
EMILY
Okay.
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
MADDY, a precocious 4-year old with a mouth as big as her sister’s, enters the empty room from the right. She spies a pink sneaker on her side of the divide.
MADDY
(whiny)
MOM!!! Em’ly’s shoe’s on my side!
MOM (O.S.)
Maddy, what did we say about whining?
MADDY
(whinier)
But, mom!
Mom enters from the left, picks up the sneaker and puts it next to its mate at the foot of Emily’s bed.
MOM
Maddy!
(beat)
Never mind.
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
Emily enters from the left and sees one of Maddy’s dolls on her side of the room.
EMILY
Mom!
VIRGIL, a mid-50s rancher in boots, jeans, and 10-gallon hat, enters from the right with a folding chair, sets it up on the center line, and sets hisself down.
EMILY (CONT’D)
Who’re you?
Virgil tips his hat so-slightly.
VIRGIL
Name’s Virgil. You must be Emily. Your mom’s told me all about you.
EMILY
She has?
VIRGIL
Yep.
EMILY
Why are you here?
VIRGIL
Keepin’ the peace.
Maddy enters from the right and stops dead in her tracks when she sees Virgil.
MADDY
MOM!!!
VIRGIL
Whoa now, little lady. No call for hollerin’. Name’s Virgil.
MADDY
You smell funny.
Virgil plucks a flask from his pocket and takes a sip.
VIRGIL
Wouldn’t know about that. Been minding the border down Mexico way with the Minutemen. Then they finally up and finished that dadburned fence.
Emily slides one of her pink sneakers across the floor to the line. Just as it breaks the plane, Virgil pulls a six-shooter from a hidden shoulder holster and trains it on her head.
VIRGIL (CONT’D)
Might want to rethink that.
Virgil opens his flask again and offers it to Emily and Maddy before taking a swallow.
BLACKOUT: