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INT. SHELLY’S ROOM — THE WITCHING HOUR, SEPT 29

Shelly has stayed up all this time to help Dirk if he needs it. She sits at her computer, looking at a website offering…

This spring sings with expert joy.
The trash-stenched trees that line the street,
Bradford Pears, bloom so white
that I don’t even want to care.

I saw a doe asleep with her
speckled prize beneath the awning
stretched across someone’s winter-
worn deck, just like the robins’ eggs
in the nest they balanced daringly
perfectly on our front porch lamppost.

And all the rainbowed buds exploding
in everybody’s weedswept garden —
their vibrantly splotched leather
tongues salivate: “Why do you care?”

I admit: I’m jealous of this spring.
I’m scared of my own mediocrity.

I wish I didn’t care. Our…

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INT. DIRK’S ROOM — NIGHT

Dirk tosses the letter on his bed and pulls out his phone.

DIRK

Flori…?

Obviously oblivious, Flori doesn’t answer. The phone’s screen stares darkly at Dirk, reflecting his contorted face…

Make no mistake about it: the student loan industry is a predatory market that leverages government power to create profitable financial packages with no risk. That is not how a free market operates.

If you’re like me, you’re one of many Americans who hoped, even against hope, that President Biden would take executive action to relieve student loan borrowers of their debts. In recent days, calls by Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Chuck Schumer, Representative Ayanna Pressley, and Representative Ilhan Omar, along with others, gave that dream a breath of fresh air. …

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INT. THE FOYER AT THE SHARP HOUSE — NIGHT

Dirk and Shelly pause in the foyer. Officer Sharp, who is sitting in the living room, pins them to the wall with his gaze.

Shelly’s eyes widen, perhaps…

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INT. DIRK’S CAR —NIGHT

Dirk spins the wheel sharply to the right, turning his car off Main Street and onto South 8th. The festival, now silent, lumbering in the cloud-covered dark like a petrified jungle, and harboring several drunk…

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INT. THE TREEHOUSE — LATE EVENING

Dirk, Shelly, Leo, and Rich stand around Hannah, who sits in front of the computers. The monitors flash through boot-up protocols before settling on the home screen. Hannah turns around to everyone.

HANNAH
(unassuredly)

Whelp…here…