1.
FADE IN:
EXT. MAPLE STREET — LATE DAY
Sprinklers tick over trimmed lawns. A quiet grid of a neighborhood, gold at the edges.
DANNY, 12, pedals a BMX down the center line, one glove on the bars. MAX, a scruffy terrier, trots ahead with a tennis ball in his mouth.
The street hums. Somewhere far off, a FREIGHT HORN.
Max stops. Ears up. The ball drops and rolls.
DANNY
Max. Don't.
2.
Max bolts — through the hedge line, toward the sound.
EXT. RAIL CROSSING — CONTINUOUS
A crossbuck leans over the gravel grade. No gates. Long sightlines down the rails.
Max stands between the rails, barking at the horizon.
The train swings into view — sun-flared, horn tearing the air.
EXT. HILL ABOVE THE CROSSING — CONTINUOUS
Danny crests the rise and reads all of it at once: the dog, the train, the distance.
3.
He stands on the pedals and sprints downhill, chain screaming.
At the ditch he throws the bike to the weeds and launches —
— grabs Max off the rails and rolls —
The WALL OF STEEL slams past. Car after car. Dust and pressure and noise.
Then: quiet. The last car clears.
In the settling dust — Danny on his back in the gravel, Max on his chest. Danny laughs. Max barks, licks his face.
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