The Boy and His Barn
One. (double page)
JUST OUTSIDE A LITTLE TOWN……………………..BEHIND A LONG STONE WALL
Long shot of New England style town (church steeples, town square, with a little farm away on the side: a white clapboard house with a red barn behind it, trees, fields, gravel road, stone walls, stone arch with ivy/vine on it). The trees are three huge maples, three times the size of the house. Meadow? Field?
Two. (double page)
LIVED A BOY IN A QUIET OLD HOUSE
THAT WAS ONCE A FARM, NOT SO LONG AGO (Left side of page)
Closer shot of the white New England, clapboard style house, porch, some trees, with the barn in the background, red, with a little red shed beside it (a baby barn). Clouds? Birds? Yes, a Matisse bird! The boy with the long, curly red hair is seen in the right hand upper window looking out toward the red barn.
THE WALLS WERE OLD AND THE TREES WERE OLD (right side of page)
Three
WHILE BEHIND THE HOUSE WAS A RED BARN, JUST AS OLD AS THE HOUSE,
WITH A NEW LITTLE RED SHED BESIDE IT
Close view of the red barn, and the little red shed beside it. The barn has a shabby, run-down look about it. The little boy in green Oshkosh B’Gosh stands in front, looking up at it. He has flaming red, long curly hair. A pair of doves sit together at a little window high in the gable; the window panes are cracked, some missing; some of the siding is missing too, the red has faded in spots, the roof, sagging in the middle, is grungy looking with moss on it. A grey cat sits nearby, looking along with the boy. A shaggy grey dog is lying down in the middle of the gravel/dirt driveway. There’s a black cat and a white cat as well.
Four.
EVERYBODY LIVED IN THAT OLD BARN:
THERE WERE CATS AND MICE AND SQUIRRELS AND OWLS
Close-ups of the mouse, cat, owl? In following pages? Inside the barn, with sunlight streaming in through the broken roof and the walls with the missing siding. The boy appears in some of these images doing different things: pulling/pushing a Radio Flyer; raking leaves; shoveling snow?; helping his father work on the house. For the boy, the barn is dark and mysterious.
Five.
AND UNDER THE ROOF, WAITING FOR NIGHT, A GROUP OF BATS JUST HANGING DOWN (Flight?)
A night shot of the house and barn with flocks of bats flying in and out of both. The house has light in the windows.
Six.
AND A TIRED OLD CAR AND A PAIR OF DOVES
The lower part of the barn is open and an old wreck of a car, (say a 1929 Chevy), is peeking out from the dark in the basement of the barn, while up high on the ridge the two doves are sitting together. Some of the other creatures appear scattered around. A raccoon family living in the car?
Seven.
ONCE IN A WHILE A MOTHER RACOON WITH ALL HER BABIES
Eight.
AND BARN SWALLOWS THAT NEVER STAY FOR WINTER, BUT ALWAYS COME BACK TO THEIR SAME OLD NESTS
Image of snow-covered barn in winter with some swallows flying around, leaving.
Nine.
THE BOY PLAYED IN THE BARN WITH HIS BROTHER AND SISTER
SOMETIMES AFRAID OF THE DARK CORNER BEHIND THE OLD CARS (TRACTOR?) (omit?)
Barn was also scary…
Image of the whole family needed here. The mom is a raven-haired beauty in office clothes and big glasses going off to work in a cool car. Nico and Rachel play in front of the big barn door. Alec peers into the dark corner behind the car.
Ten.
COME ALONG, MY SON, LET’S GO TO THE BARN TO DO SOME WORK
The father had a carpenter’s tool belt with a hammer and stuff on it, while the boy held a hammer. He is seen nailing pieces of scrap wood together into odd shapes like airplanes and boats, and hammering many nails into blocks of wood.
Eleven.
SOMEDAY WE’LL REBUILD THIS OLD BARN, YOU AND I. THIS PLEASED THE BOY, HE LOVED HIS BARN
Twelve.
AS TIME WENT BY, THE BOY GREW BIGGER AND STRONGER
Images of seasons passing and the boy and his father changing over time, the father shrinking smaller, the boy growing tall and thin; the hair is now cut short. The boy has his own carpenter’s tool belt. Shot of boy fixing the roof with a hammer.
Thirteen.
WHILE THE BARN GOT OLDER, AND MORE TIRED, TOO, LIKE THE CAR
Racoons still living in the car..
Fourteen.
ONE DAY THE CAR WAS TOWED AWAY
With the barn now looking more decrepit, the old car is towed away, while the father and the boy look on. Racoons run away from the car.
Fifteen.
THE BOY REALIZED THAT HIS FATHER WAS NOT GOING TO SAVE AND REBUILD THE OLD BARN…
THAT WAS WHAT HE WANTED THE MOST
Shot of the barn with the father sitting on the porch of the house while the boy looks longingly at the barn
WE’LL HAVE TO TAKE THE BARN AWAY……………..IT’S TOO RUN-DOWN
Sixteen
A truck with a wrecking crew appears one day with cranes to take the barn away.
THE BOY WATCHED AS THE BARN CAME DOWN PIECE BY PIECE BY PIECE
…THE WRECKING CREW SLOWLY TOOK IT APART
The cat peers out from a lot of barn debris. The raccoon family flees out the back, the doves watch from a high tree branch. Others of the creatures are watching too.
Seventeen.
FIRST THE ROOF, THEN THE FRAME SKELETON…NOT EVEN THE FOUNDATION STONES WERE LEFT
Eighteen.
JUST A HOLE, BIG IN THE GROUND
The little red shed remained, forlorn and alone.
Nineteen.
NOW THE MICE HAD NO PLACE TO LIVE, OR THE CATS
Twenty.
NEITHER DID THE OWL NOR THE GROUP OF BATS
Twenty-one.
BUT THE PAIR OF DOVES STAYED ON, AND WAITED IN THE TREES NEARBY
Twenty-two.
THE BOY, NOW GROWN, WENT AWAY TO SCHOOL…AND THE DOVES GAVE UP AT LAST
Twenty-three.
AND A YEAR PASSED, BUT THE BOY WAS IMPATIENT…
AND DREAMED OFTEN OF HIS BARN
Twenty-four.
AND HE CAME BACK, NOW A NEARLY GROWN MAN
Image of red-headed boy looking at the cleared landscape
Twenty-five.
BUT HE COULD NOT GO AND WORK IN THE BARN: IT WAS LONG GONE
Image similar to the previous one of father and son looking the hole in the ground
Twenty-six.
UNTIL FINALLY ONE DAY, HE ECHOED HIS FATHER’S WORDS:
COME ON, PAPA, LET’S GO OUT AND BUILD A BARN
Images of construction, with the building slowly taking shape, while the mother and father, and the other grown kids, look on, maybe with their own, little kids
Twenty-seven.
AND THEY DID BUILD A BARN, LIKE THE ONE THAT USED TO BE
Image of a new red barn with a black roof, like the one before
Twenty-eight.
A NEW FOUNDATION, A STURDY FRAME AND BRIGHT RED SIDING
Twenty-nine.
AND RIGHT ON TOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOF THEY MADE A GRAND, SHINING CUPOLA
Image of new barn with the cupola, and some creatures starting to take interest in it.
Thirty.
AND BEFORE TOO LONG, THERE WAS A MOUSE AND A CAT
AND AN OWL AND A LOT OF BATS
Thirty-one.
AND ALL THE BARN SWALLOWS IN THEIR NEW LITTLE HOUSE
Thirty-two.
AND WAY UP HIGH IN THE OPEN WINDOW, A PAIR OF DOVES
Close with a long shot image of the house, the barn, and the baby barn.
