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CEDRIC is in a dark basement. In his hand, he has a child’s book about space and planets. He is pouring over it intensely with the little light in the room; from a desk lamp.

The stairs creak and CEDRIC looks around anxiously, afraid of the entrance. He quickly hides the book underneath a carpet square before the newcomer can see it.

LARRY P

SVETLANA, O SVETLANA, WHERE ARE YOU?

CEDRIC seems to wince.

Larry looks about the basement, but it is totally dark and he cannot see where the subject sits.

LARRY P

NO MATTER; I AM SURE SOMEONE ELSE --

CEDRIC seems to snap at these words and appears, as if from a shadow, in front of Larry.

CEDRIC

YES? ... MY ... master?

LARRY P

AH, IT'S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU, SVETLANA. YOU ARE LOOKING WELL TODAY.

CEDRIC seems bashful.

LARRY P

AS I WAS SAYING, THERE IS WORK UPSTAIRS FOR YOU TO DO.

CEDRIC

(reticent) MASTER, I THOUGHT WE HAD AGREED THAT I WAS TO DO NO MORE OF ... 

LARRY P

WE? OH NO NO NO, MY DEAR SVETLANA. WE DECIDED NOTHING. IT WAS YOU WHO WANTED TO, DARE I SAY, CHICKEN OUT, OF THE WHOLE ARRANGEMENT. YOU REALIZE THAT YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN SOLVE THIS PROBLEM.

CEDRIC opens his mouth as if to speak, and then quickly shuts it again, as if any word against would prove useless. The pair pause, but especially Larry, while CEDRIC perks his head up, as if sniffing a flower’s flow on the wind.

LARRY snaps HIS FINGERS.

LARRY

WAKE UP BOY! ARE YOU GOING TO HELP ME, OR NOT?

The scene cuts back to where we were in the beginning, CEDRIC in the basement. But the desk lamp is no where to be found; the boy sits alone in the darkness.

CEDRIC begins to weep.

The scene cuts to LARRY, who is upstairs. He is in a dark, dingy kitchen. He is manipulating cuts of meat that look indiscriminate at first. The camera pans over to the trashcan, where a human foot with red, painted toenails is sticking out of the garbage can.

LARRY is eerily focused on the task of cutting the meat. It looks like he’s preparing the cuts for storage in the freezer. CEDRIC’s wailing can be heard dimly.

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