Elizabeth Oyebode
FADE IN:
Boarded-up apartment buildings. An open liquor store. Junkies huddling in an alley. Drug dealers hustling in the shadows.
BLACK GIRL (V.O.) Sometime you can’t see it coming.
On a dimly lit, deserted street, an ear-piercing scream dwarfs the sound of loud gangsta rap. A BLACK WOMAN (20s), who wears only a T-shirt and underwear, sprints out of a three-story apartment complex.
BLACK WOMAN Help! Please! Somebody! Help!
DISSOLVE TO:
The school bell rings. Black and Hispanic children scamper through the main doors with backpacks and descend the stairs.
Two skinny, dark brown legs appear larger than life. To the right, a rope turns, echoing the sound of a howling wind.
BLACK GIRL (V.O.) Sometime you looking on yo’ lef’, and da thing get you on da right.
A second rope turns in the opposite direction, altering the sound to that of a harsh whip.
BLACK GIRL (V.O.) Sometime you looking on yo’ right and da thing get you on da lef’.
The legs jump seamlessly between the ropes. NIDI TOTH, 10, a sixth grader with white beads in her cornrowed hair, owns those skinny legs and jumps double dutch with unrelenting focus. She is the girl whose voice we hear.
NIDI (V.O.) Like Ms. Harper say, you gotta get to da point where you know what coming and don’t even have to look.
MS. HARPER (40s), an excitable woman who responds to her mid-life crisis by wearing a pink tracksuit, yells at a DOUBLE DUTCH TEAM of 15 Black and Hispanic pre-teen girls.
MS. HARPER Ladies, I wanna see da kinda freestyling that woulda made da late, great Don Cornelius wanna bust a move.
Nidi attempts a handstand in the ropes.
MS. HARPER (CONT’D) That’s right, Nidi. Turn it out, birthday girl!
As Nidi smiles, one of her turners, LESLIE, 11, a black diva who acts as if she owns the place, snaps the rope at Nidi’s arm. Nidi loses her balance and falls on her left hand.
NIDI Achhh!
The others stop what they’re doing. Ms. Harper rushes over.
MS. HARPER You all right, girl?
LESLIE She wasn’t paying attention, Ms. Harper. Musta been thinking ‘bout a math problem or something.
Some girls snicker. Ms. Harper eyes Leslie and the other turner SHANEESHA, 11, who feign ignorance.
NIDI My bad, Ms. Harper. But I’m OK.
Nidi hides her face in her chest. The pain in her left wrist is too much to bear, but she doesn’t let on that it hurts. Remnants of other bruises riddle her arms and legs.
Elizabeth Oyebode
Tween the Ropes
Drama, Coming of Age, Dark, Urban
A brainy, young double dutcher contends with the hardships of her life in inner city Baltimore.