She's Gone

107 2 0
                                    

[Mom and Dad walk in.]

Mrs. Andersen: We're home! Riley? Riley!

(They check in Riley's room, but she's not here.]

Mrs. Andersen: I'll call her cell.

[Riley walks through a sketchy part of the city.]

Fear: This is terrible. Wait. Is that someone walking towards us? Let's cross the street.

[Riley's cell phone rings. MOM is calling.]

Fear: It's Mom! She's on to us! Where's my bag?

[Fear finds a paper bag and breathes into it to calm himself.]

Disgust: What do we do?

Anger: Riley needs to get core memories. We keep going.

[Riley ignores the call and walks on.]

Joy runs through the Long-Term Memory stacks.

Joy: Sadness!

[She sees Family Island rumble, pieces beginning to break off. She frantically continues on. Joy runs through a long corridor.]

Joy: Sadness? Sadness? (no answer; desperate) C'mon Sadness, where are you? Okay. If I were Sadness, where would I be?

[Joy slumps to the ground. She kicks a leg up in the air.]

Joy: (Sadness voice) Ohhh... everything is awful and my legs don't work and you have to drag me around while I touch all the--

[Joy stops. Something has caught her eye. REVEAL: a path of blue memories on the bottom shelves. Joy follows the path. Riley walks out of the bus depot and into the advancing line. Her cell phone rings again.]

Disgust: Oh no. It's Mom again. What do we do?!

Anger: Uh... Uh...

[Boom! Family Island rumbles behind them. Riley ignores the call once more, causing the island to break into pieces once more,]

Anger: This is madness! She shouldn't run away!

Disgust: Let's get this idea out of her head.

They rush to unplug the idea.

Joy runs, following the path of blue memories.

Joy: Sadness!

[Joy rounds a corner and spots Sadness far down the next row.]

Joy: Sadness!

[Sadness turns around.]

Sadness: Joy?

[Inexplicably, Sadness turns and runs away.]

Joy Wait, Sadness! [chases after her.]

Sadness: Just let me go! Riley's better off without me!

[Joy follows Sadness straight into Imagination land. Sadness topples giant french fries in Joy's path.]

Joy: Come back!

[Joy uses a super-long fry to vault over the mound of fries. In Cloud Town, two MIND WORKER COPS are questioning a CLOUD WITNESS.]

Cop #1 So you're saying your husband was blown away by an elephant.

[The Cloud Witness nods. Sadness runs past the crime scene. They don't notice.]

Cop #1 (CONT'D) Was he with anyone?

Cloud Witness: Yes! And there she is!

[Joy runs right through the Cloud Witness, dissipating her.]

Cop #1 (runs after Joy) Hey! Come back here!

Cop #2: Forget it, Jake. It's Cloud Town.

Inside Out x male readerWhere stories live. Discover now