INT. Hoarders house. Kitchen. Dad is sitting at the kitchen table looking upset. He dials his cellphone. It rings. His daughter doesn’t answer. Her voice message plays.
DAD: Maddy it’s Dad. Can you please just call me back? I’m sorry about yesterday … I’m sorry I’m not your Mom. I want to be there for you. I really do … it’s just …
The phone beeps.
INT. Hoarders house. Kitchen. There is a knock on the front door.
DAD: Coming!
Dad opens the door. A woman with a briefcase is standing outside.
DAD: Please come in! (he looks around self-consciously) I’m sorry about the mess … I don’t entertain much.
DOCTOR: Don’t worry. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.
A cockroach skitters by her foot. The doctor gets a fright and tries to play it off while smoothing out her dress. Dad motions for her to sit down at the kitchen table.
DOCTOR: So, you said on the phone you haven’t left the house in?
DAD: (embarrassed) In about ten years.
DOCTOR: When did it start becoming hard to leave?
Dad takes a big breath and then sighs. He looks around at the boxes in the kitchen.
DAD: I guess after my wife passed.
DOCTOR: Is that when the hoarding started?
DAD: I suppose. At first I just couldn’t bring myself to get rid of any of her things. Her clothes. Her books. Then it was smaller things … the tissue she’d thrown out, the newspaper she was reading. It all just got on top of me. Then I couldn’t throw anything out after a while …
The doctor sits quietly, waiting for him to finish.
DAD: You must think I’m a terrible father for letting my daughter grow up like that.
DOCTOR: I think you did the best you could when you were grieving.
DAD: It feels like I’ve never stopped grieving.
A moment of silence follows.
DAD: She’s pregnant. My daughter. She’s pregnant.
DOCTOR: Is that why you called me?
Dad nods and is quiet for a moment.
DAD: I want to be there. She needs me and for once I need to be there for her …
A montage follows of the doctor and dad talking. He slowly starts to throw things away, but he still doesn’t go outside.
Tell us: How would you help Dad to get over his fear to go outside?