Discover a Place That Will Never Leave You
And a Friendship That Will Change You Forever
Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
by Leslie Burke
I'm moving gently forward over the wild and beautiful,
unexplored world below me.
I'm floating in silence,
and breaking it up with the sound of my breath.
Above me, there's nothing but shimmery light,
the place where I've come from,
and will go back to when I am done here.
I'm diving.
I'm a scuba diver.
I'm going deeper past the wrinkled rocks and dark seaweed
toward a deep blueness where a school of silver fish wait.
As I swim through the water, bubbles burst from me,
wobbling like little jellyfish as they rise.
I check my air.
I don't have as much time as I need to see everything,
but that is what makes it so special.
Mrs. Myers: Now tonight at 7:00 on channel 4
there is special about an undersea explorer, Dr. Bob Ballard.
I want everyone to watch and write one page about what you've learned.
Leslie: What if you can't watch this program?
Mrs. Myers: If you inform your parents it's an assignment, I'm sure they won't object.
Leslie: But, what if you don't have a TV?
[everybody in class laughed]
My Dad says the TV kills your brain cells.
Scott: Your dad doesn't know anything.
We watch TV, like, every day.
Leslie: I rest my case.
Jess: What about sharks?
You ever see any sharks while you're scuba-ing or whatever?
Leslie: I've never gone scuba diving in my whole life.
Jess: You lied in your essay?
Leslie: No, I made it up.
It's different from lying.
Those drawings you make, have you ever seen those things yourself?
Leslie: We need a place, just for us.
Where there's no Janice Averys or Scott Hoagers.
Jess: Yeah, but when we go back to school, there they are waiting.
Leslie: Yeah, but, someplace better than just not being at school.
What if there was a magical kingdom only we knew about?
Jess: I don't know. What if?
Leslie: Well, what if the only way we could enter it,
is by swinging on this enchanted rope?
Jess: Where's your dad work?
Leslie: At home. Same as my mom.
They're writers.
Jess: Writers?
What do they write about?
Leslie: Fiction.
Jess: That explains you.
Leslie: What do you mean?
Jess: You like to make things up.
And that's what your parents do for a living.
Leslie: You know a lot about hardware?
Jess: No, why?
Leslie: Well, your dad works at a hardware store.
All I'm saying is that you are who you are, not your parents.
We rule Terabithia and nothing crushes us!
~Leslie Burke
This is not one of your cartoons.
This is just a pest that eats up our food, money we earn and time we don't have.
Get your head out of the clouds and do as I say.
~Jack Aarons
Leslie: Are we slaying the giant troll after school today?
Jess: You've got your head in the clouds, Leslie.
There is no giant troll, all right?
Leslie: You better not let the Terabithians hear you.
They thought you were their king.
May Belle: You're supposed to beat her up.
You're my brother!
Jess: Do you know what would happen if I were to pick a fight with her?
May Belle: You'll get your butt kicked.
Jess: No, I'd get kicked out of school for fighting a girl.
What's that gonna prove?
The best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Teddy Roosevelt said that, not me.
~Bill Burke
Leslie: She asked me for advice.
Jess: Janice Avery asked you for advice?
Leslie: Yeah.
Jess: And?
Leslie: I told her just to pretend that she had no idea what anyone was talking about.
and in a few weeks' time, everybody would just forget about it.
Leslie: I'm really glad I came.
That whole Jesus thing, it's really interesting, isn't it?
May Belle: It's not interesting, it's scary!
It's nailing holes through your hands.
It's cause we're all vile sinners.
God made Jesus die.
Leslie: You really think that's true?
Jess: It's in the Bible, Leslie.
Leslie: You have to believe it, and you hate it.
I don't have to believe it, and I think it's beautiful.
May Belle: You gotta believe the Bible, Leslie.
Leslie: Why?
May Belle: Cause if you don't believe in the Bible, God will damn you to hell when you die.
Leslie: May Belle, where'd you hear that?
May Belle: That's right, huh, Jess?
God damns you to hell if you don't believe in the Bible.
Jess: I think so.
Leslie: Well, I don't think so.
I seriously do not think God goes around damning people to hell.
He's too busy running all this.
Ms. Edmunds: It's a nice day out.
It's been raining so much, I began to think it was like that Japanese myth
where the sun goes into the cave and vows never to come out.
Jess: You know about everything.
Ms. Edmunds: Not by a long a lot.
But I do try to keep an open mind, and you'd be surprised what finds its way in there.
Jess: That's what Leslie Burke says.
She told me to keep my mind wide open.
Ms. Edmund: Leslie Burke is right.
Mind like yours wide open, you could create a whole new world.
She loved you, you know.
You know, Leslie, she never had much luck making friends at her old school.
We were hoping that when we moved out here she would...
She said if it wasn't for you...
You're the best friend she's ever had.
I wanna thank you for that.
~Bill Burke
Next time, we should invite Leslie to go.
She'd like that.
~Jess, to Ms. Edmunds
The things that girl came up with, I don't get students like her too often.
So I realize, that if it's hard for me, how much harder it must be for you.
~Mrs. Myers
Jess: It's all gone.
Is it like the Bible says? Is she going to hell?
Jack: I don't know everything about God,
but I do know He's not gonna send that little girl to hell.
Jess: Then I'm going to hell because it's all my fault.
Jack: Don't you think that even for a minute.
Jess: But it is.
I didn't invite her to go to the museum with me.
I didn't wanna invite her.
I wasn't there to go with her.
It's my fault.
Jack: No, no, no, it's not your fault.
None of that makes it so.
It's a terrible thing, it doesn't make any sense, but it's not your fault, Jess.
She brought you something special when she came here, didn't she?
That's what you hold on to.
That's how you keep her alive.
Jess: Look, they must've heard the rumor,
that the beautiful girl arriving today is the new future ruler of Terabithia.
May Belle: Who heard?
Jess: The Terabithians.
They've been waiting.
May Belle: Where? I don't see them.
Jess: It's an ancient forest, May Belle, full of magical creatures and friendly giants,
anything you can imagine.
But you gotta look really hard and keep your mind wide open.
*****
