Prunella and the Haunted Locker[]
Introduction[]
(Brain steps in front of a curtain wearing a suit.)
Brain: Hello, everyone. Welcome to your favorite game show: “Face Your Fear!” The curtain opens to reveal Buster, D.W. and Prunella standing at podiums. Let's meet our first contestant.
Buster: My name is Buster Baxter and I'm afraid of... poached eggs.
Audience: Aw.
Brain: Okay, Buster, are you ready to face your fear?!
(Buster nods. A covered plate is lowered from the ceiling in front of him. Buster removes the cover to reveal poached eggs.)
Buster: (screams)
Brain: Ladies and gentlemen, the Fear-O-Meter is at... 7.5! If Buster eats this poached egg, he'll win big! But can he do it?
(Buster starts eating. A screen on his podium shows a 10.)
Audience: (cheer)
Buster: Not bad. Do you have any salt?
Brain: Our next contestant is Dora Wi...
D.W.: Just D.W., please. I'm afraid of "octopussies".
Brain: I think you mean octopuses. Some people also say octopi.
D.W.: No, that's not it. I'm talking about those creatures that are half octopus and half kitten. Ugh!
Brain: There is no such thing.
D.W.: Really? What a relief! I guess Nadine was wrong. I have to think of something else. Go to her.
Prunella: (gasps)
Brain: Okay, Prunella. It's time to face your fear!
(A curtain opens to reveal a school locker.)
Prunella: (screams)
(The Fear-o-Meter explodes. Prunella nearly faints and is led away by Brain.)
D.W.: A locker? What's so scary about that?
Buster: You'll see!
Title Card: Bird's Egg[]
(Prunella comes to her locker and finds that it is missing.)
Prunella: Hey! Where's my...?
(Mr. Haney walks up to her.)
Mr. Haney: Ah, Prunella, there you are. I wanted to catch you before class to tell you that your locker is gone.
Prunella: I noticed.
Mr. Haney: We had to remove it for some repairs, but we put you just around the corner in locker, um... (He checks a note.) Two-thirty-seven. Sorry for inconvenience, but it's only temporary.
(He walks away. Fern stops beside Prunella.)
Fern: Did he say...locker 237?
Prunella: Yeah. Why?
Fern: That locker belonged to Little Jack Murphy.
Prunella: Who?
(A young boy is shown opening a locker.)
Fern (narrator): It was the 1950s, the school had just opened. Little Jack Murphy started his first day at Lakewood by putting his things in his locker. But this was no ordinary locker - it was 237. He noticed strange sounds and even stranger smells! Then bad things starting happening to him.
(Jack rides his bike down a street. A black cat steps in front of him and hisses.)
Jack: Aah!
(He crashes into a bush.)
Fern (narrator): He knew that somehow his misfortune was connected to that locker.
(Jack steps out of the bush and notices he is standing in wet concrete.)
Jack: Ergh! Ugh!
(While he tries to get free, a dog runs off with his schoolbag.)
Fern (narrator): But no one believed him. Then one day, he just disappeared!
(Jack stands in front of his locker and dissolves into thin air.)
(The fantasy ends.)
Prunella: Nice try, Fern. Where'd you learn that one? A Persimmony Glitchet book?
(She walks off.)
Fern: Don't say I didn't warn you!
(Prunella walks around a corner and comes to locker 237 which is standing alone at the end of a side corridor. She opens the door and finds cobwebs.)
Prunella: Little Jack Murphy.
(She shakes her head, hangs up her jacket and closes the door.)
***
(Buster sits on the swings in the school playground and eats a popsicle. Prunella waits.)
Buster: Wait, not finished yet. Almost. There. Why are you collecting these?
(He puts the stick in Prunella’s paper bag.)
Prunella: It's for a model of the Eiffel Tower I'm making for shop class. I need as many sticks as I can get.
Francine: Hey, look this way, Prunella! She takes a photo. I'm doing a story on your haunted locker for The Star.
Buster: You have a haunted locker? What's haunting it? An old scarf? Mittens?
Francine: No. See, there was this kid named Little Jack Murphy and...
Prunella: That's just one of Fern's creepy stories. My locker is not haunted.
Francine: It sounded pretty convincing, but I'm looking into it. Let's get some shots of fear for the front page.
(She takes another photo. Prunella walks off looking annoyed.)
***
(After school Prunella stands in front of locker 237.)
Prunella: (sniffs) Smells a little like...onions. (She takes her things out.)(gasps)
***
(In Prunella’s room Marina works on the Eiffel Tower model while Prunella sits in front of her crystal ball in her fortune teller clothes.)
Marina: I said I would help you finish your project, not do it all myself!
Prunella: I'll be right there! (She waves her hand over the ball.) Today, strange occurrences foretold came true. Tell us, oh crystal ball, will the spirits of locker 237 cause me bad luck? Nothing happens. No answer. Well, that's a relief. (gasps)
(When she stands up, she knocks the ball off the table, it rolls over the floor and crashes into the model.)
Marina: That didn't sound good.
Prunella: What do I do?! My project's due tomorrow!
Marina: Start gluing!
***
(Prunella stands in front of a notice board at school holding the model.)
Prunella: Shop class is cancelled today? Aw! I stayed up till midnight for nothing!
***
(Prunella sets down the model in front of locker 237.)
Prunella: Yesterday it was onions, now it's... (sniffs) ...cabbage?
(She puts her jacket and bag into the locker. Suddenly a voice is heard.)
Mrs. MacGrady: (laughs)
Prunella: (gasps)
(Prunella closes the door and holds it shut.)
***
(Prunella writes in class. When she erases something she wrote, she accidentally pushes a book off her desk.)
Prunella: Oh!
(It falls on the model which she put next to her desk and damages the top of the tower.)
***
(Prunella plays basketball with Francine on the playground. When she throws, the ball bounces off the hoop and hits the model.)
Prunella: Ohh!
***
(Brain and Buster have lunch in the cafeteria. Prunella puts the damaged model on the table.)
Brain: What is that?
Prunella: The Eiffel Tower.
Buster: I helped. See, that's my stick. I'd recognize it anywhere.
Prunella: I've been carrying it around all day and now it's falling apart. Maybe I should just call it the Awful Tower.
Brain: Why not store it in your locker?
Buster: Haven't you heard? Prunella has locker 237 - the haunted locker.
Brain: That's ridiculous!
Prunella: I thought so too, but now I'm not so sure! It makes strange noises and it smells funny.
Brain: What locker doesn't smell funny? Buster's smells like rotting fruit.
Buster: It's one banana. I keep it for emergencies.
Brain: Prunella, whatever is wrong with your locker, there's a logical explanation for it.
Prunella: You're right! I can't let a mindless piece of metal push me around! Some more sticks fall off the tower. (groans)
***
(Prunella carries the model to the locker and puts it inside.)
Prunella: This tower is staying in that locker till shop tomorrow and that's final! Oh, can it!
***
(Prunella sits at her desk when the phone rings.)
Prunella: Hi, Francine, what's up?
Francine: I checked the school records, and there's never been a Jack Murphy at this school.
Prunella: That's great!
Francine: But...
Prunella: Aw...
Francine: ...in 1971, there was a boy named Jay Mayberry. It's the same initials. He might be the kid Fern was talking about.
(She is holding an old class photo with a circle around one boy.)
Prunella: Did he have locker 237?
Francine: I dunno, but get this, he was only at Lakewood for one year and it was the fourth grade! The doorbell rings. Our take-out's here, gotta go!
***
(That night, Prunella lies in her bed.)
(In her dream, Prunella puts the model in locker 237. When she turns around, the locker has grown eyes and teeth and is spitting out pieces of wood.)
Locker: Delicious! I love French food!
Prunella: Hey! Stop eating my Eiffel Tower!
Locker: You want it back? Here!
(He spits sawdust at Prunella.)
Prunella: Aah!
(The locker advances towards her.)
Locker: You look like a tasty little morsel! As tasty as little Jay Mayberry!
Prunella: Nooo!
(The dream ends. Prunella sits up in bed.)
Prunella: (gasps) Phew!
***
(Prunella and Marina walk down a street.)
Marina: Prunella, it was just a dream.
Prunella: I know, but I'm still never going to open that locker again!
Marina: What about your shop project? Don't you have to hand it in today?
Prunella: I'll tell Mr. Bevel I lost it.
Marina: You lost a three-foot model of the Eiffel Tower?! He's not going to buy that! Besides, you worked so hard on it.
Prunella: I can't help it. I'm just too afraid.
(Marina steps on a crack and almost falls. Prunella steadies her.)
Marina: Oh!
Prunella: You okay?
Marina: Fine, it happens.
Prunella: I wish I were brave like you.
Marina: You know what bravery is?
Prunella: Being fearless?
Marina: No, it's being afraid of something but not letting that get in the way. She crosses the street. See you after school. Don't let that locker win!
***
(Prunella stands in a corridor and looks at locker 237. She approaches and sniffs.)
Prunella: (sniffs) Apple pie? Well, I guess that's better than cabbage.
(She hangs up her bag and is about to take her model when she hears a muffled voice.)
Mrs. MacGrady: Needs something!
Prunella: Jack?! I mean, Jay, is that you? What is it that you need?
Mrs. MacGrady: More salt!
Prunella: More salt? Um...Okay. Why would a ghost want more salt? She closes the locker. Hey! The smell's even stronger here! She pulls the locker away from the wall. There is a vent behind it. Ugh! (gasps) It's coming from that vent!
(She goes through a door beside the locker.)
(Prunella walks through a short corridor and ends up in the school kitchen.)
Prunella: You're the ghost?
Mrs. MacGrady: Ghost? I don't think so, honey. She feels her hair. Nope, still here. Wanna try the chicken noodle? It needed a little salt but now I think it's perfect.
Prunella: It was you! That vent must lead to the one behind locker 237. And those were the pies I smelled! They're apple, right?
Mrs. MacGrady: Organic apples. Mmm! And if you wanted a slice, I might just look the other way!
(Prunella sniffs at the pies.)
***
(A photograph shows Prunella standing in front of locker 237 with a piece of pie. Fern reads it while sitting on the swings in the school playground. )
Fern: "Prunella unlocks haunted locker mystery!"
Prunella: So, admit it, you made up that entire story just to scare me!
Fern: No, I didn't, I had no idea where those sounds and smells came from. But... I may have made up a few small details.
Francine: Like little Jack Murphy?
Fern: I liked the name.
(Buster finishes a popsicle.)
Buster: Here you go. All clean.
Prunella: Thanks, but I already handed in my Eiffel Tower. I got a B.
(The kids go back into the school.)
Buster: I kind of wish the locker had been haunted. I like believing in ghosts, so long as they're nice.
Francine: Sorry, Buster, looks like you'll have to stick with aliens.
(Behind them, a swing starts swinging by itself.)
Boy's Voice: (laughs)