The Curse of Clyde Langer (TV story): Difference between revisions

The gang arrive at the museum; as they race inside, Clyde gives some change to a homeless girl begging on the street. Making their way to the Native American display, the gang easily find the totem pole: a tall, wooden post carved with creepy-looking faces. Clyde plays the joker and tickles one of the faces, only to get a nasty splinter in his finger; while he tries to remove it, Sarah, Sky and Rani meet Doctor [[Samantha Madigan]] from the anthropology department. She knows of the totem's legendary powers, but doesn't attribute the recent storm to [[Hetocumtek]], the vicious warrior supposedly imprisoned inside the artefact by Native American medicine men. As Sarah conducts a fruitless scan of the totem pole, Clyde removes the splinter.

With no alien threat apparent, the friends leave. Clyde returns home. After dinner with his mum, he goes to his room to work on his comic book. After completing the final panel of ''The Silver Bullet'', Clyde signs his name and goes to bed. He notices his finger is still hurting. As Clyde falls asleep, he fails to see his name mysteriously glow on his pictures and school certificate.

The following morning, Clyde visits Sarah to show her his completed comic book. She is full of praise — until Clyde says his name. Her attitude changes in a second. She is furious at Clyde for his teasing of Luke and promptly throws him out of her house. Astonished, Clyde crosses the road to tell Rani what happened — but then Haresh says Clyde's name. His daughter and he become enraged. Rani spitefully tells Clyde she hates him and Haresh expels the bewildered boy from school.

Upset and confused to hear such venom from people he considers his friends, Clyde quickly walks away. Back at No. 13, Sarah tears up all the pictures drawn by Clyde that she can find. Mr Smith voices his concern at her inexplicable anger. She calms down as Sky enters the attic. With Sky about to attend her first day at school, Sarah decides to return to the museum to write an article on the totem and the fish storm. Sky mentions Clyde — and Sarah's attitude changes once more. She furiously bans her daughter from ever mentioning Clyde again. Sky is unaffected. She and Mr Smith are confused at Sarah's sudden hatred of Clyde. They ask her what he did that has upset her so much, but she will not discuss the subject and orders Mr Smith to alert her if he sets foot on Bannerman Road again.

Meanwhile, in the park, Clyde phones [[Luke Smith|Luke]], only to find his best friend won't talk to him either. Clyde meets his mate Steve, who asks him to join in a game of football; Clyde tactfully refuses — then Steve says his friend's name and he too is overwhelmed with hatred. Clyde realises that people saying his name is what turns them against him. After stomping Clyde's phone into bits, Steve and his mates prepare to do the same to their former friend, but Clyde runs for it instead.

Racing out of the park with an angry mob close behind, Clyde evades his pursuers by hiding behind some bins. Once his ex-mates have run past, he notices his finger is still bleeding and makes the connection to the totem. Returning to the museum to look at the artefact, Clyde bumps into Doctor Madigan. He asks her about Native American curses. Before he can learn anything useful, Sarah turns up and causes a scene. Doctor Madigan tries to calm her, but she says Clyde's name and instantly turns against him. She refuses to give him any information, making Clyde realise that his name affects anyone, not just people he knows. She has him frog-marched out of the exhibition hall by security guards, while Sarah phones the police to make a harassment charge.

Clyde picks himself up from the pavement and sees the homeless girl watching. He returns home, only to discover his mum affected by the curse after reading his name on mail. Accusing Clyde of lying to her, [[Carla Langer|Carla]] demands he leave the house never to return. Clyde tries to reason with her, but when she opens the door to let in the police, he is forced to make a hasty exit out the back door.

On the run, Clyde tries to get some money from a [[cash machine]], only to watch as the screen fills up with his name, over and over again. Night soon falls and a thunderstorm begins. Soaked, with no home, no family and no friends, Clyde tries to find shelter in a doorway. He begins to cry in despair at his situation. All seems lost, but then Clyde finally gets a break. The homeless girl appears before him and offers to help.