TEDDY BEAR (16 page drama short) Written by Anthony Cawood

An elderly immigrant moves to a new home on a quiet, suburban street. Will it be different this time or will he suffer the small minded bigotry that has dogged his entire life?

We teach our children all kinds of important lessons when they’re young. You know the basics; look both ways before crossing the street, do unto others others as you expect they should do unto you, always wash your hands before you eat, etc, etc.

As obvious as these nuggets of wisdom are, they are important lessons to teach the people of tomorrow, as many of these lessons carry over into adulthood. But there are some lessons that seem to strictly apply to children due to their innocence, naivety and vulnerability. The most common being, “don’t talk to strangers”. I’m a firm believer that most people are good-natured at heart and wish no harm on others, especially children. But, unfortunately, there are some sick individuals out there who DO wish harm and DO have ill intentions towards our kids. And it’s very important that, as parents, we monitor them and protect them from the evils of the world.

But, as parents, sometimes we can be a little OVER protective. And we tend to forget some of those basic lessons that we once learned when we were kids, ourselves. One of those being, “don’t judge a book by its cover”. And that seems to be the lesson Anthony Cawood is trying to teach us in his grim morality tale, “Teddy Bear”.

The story opens as a milk man (I’m old enough to remember when they used to be a thing) makes his rounds through a suburban neighborhood when something catches his eye at bungalow #7 – an old, crusty, stuffed teddy bear hanging from the porch.

Cut to a neighborhood meeting of sorts where local residents, Janet, Devon, Holly and Pat, discuss their concerns over their new neighbor at bungalow #7. A few of them have children of their own and are very, very suspicious of their new neighbor – particularly due to that teddy bear he has hanging on his porch, which just screams “pedophile”. But then they raise other, more immature, concerns – some of them put off by the fact that their new neighbor may also be a foreigner.

Pat decides to put all this prejudice to rest and introduces herself to the new, elderly resident. As she’s gone, the others are already worried that something happened to her. But, of course, Pat returns unharmed to report that their new neighbor, Alfred, isn’t anything like they think he is.

            PAT
He’s a lovely old man, polite, well
mannered, speaks better English
than John and moved here for peace
and quiet.

The others still seem a bit skeptical despite Pat’s glowing report. So much so that they warn their children never to go near bungalow #7.

Despite the warning, Janet’s seven-year-old son, Benjamin, retrieves a ball that he lost while playing with Devon’s six-year-old daughter, Ebony. The ball, of course, ending up in Alfred’s yard. And that’s when little Benjamin meets Alfred face to face.

            ALFRED
Oh, hello there and who might you
be?

Alfred tries again, enunciating.

            ALFRED
Who, are, you?

Intimidated at first, Ben seems to warm up to the kind old man. Well, at least he believes he’s kind. And when Alfred offers him a snack, Ben accepts – which seems to go against another lesson we were taught as children – “Don’t take candy from strangers”.

But when Ebony alert’s Janet of her son’s whereabouts, she springs to action and hurries to her son’s rescue. And what happens next is an unfortunate series of misunderstandings that build towards a very grim conclusion.

BUDGET: Shoestring. Pretty much one or two locations and some actors. Oh, and a teddy bear.

ABOUT THE WRITER: Anthony Cawood is an award-winning screenwriter with one feature produced and a further four features optioned or in pre-production. In addition to features, he has over forty short scripts produced/sold/optioned – including ten filmed. Also occasionally pens screenwriting articles, interviews with writers and filmmakers, and even a short story or two. He can be reached on his website AnthonyCawood.co.uk.

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*This screenplay may not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.

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About the Reviewer: Michael J. Kospiah is the award-winning screenwriter of critically acclaimed indie-thriller, The Suicide Theory (79% Rotten Tomatoes – available on Amazon Prime, Itunes, Google Play, etc) and 2020’s upcoming Aussie thriller, Rage. His horror feature, They Never Left is currently in development.