by Tad Williams
ERIC
If you want me to say I’m sorry, Janice, I will. I’m sorry.
(He toys with his food.)
Didn’t you have anyone else to talk to? What about Brent?
JANICE
Oh, sure, Brent. I hardly saw him. He got all weird — started reading like Tibetan Buddhism and stuff.
ERIC
Brent? Reading books?
JANICE
He’s a lot different, Eric. You’d hardly know him. He’s done really well, actually. He lost a lot of weight, married some ex-model, owned his own advertising agency in Los Angeles for a while, then sold out and moved back here…
ERIC
Advertising agency? Oh, shit, he wasn’t the Zenger in Zenger-Kimball, was he? That’s too weird.
JANICE
Like I said, you wouldn’t recognize him…
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. — BRENT’S HOUSE — SAME TIME
The ADULT BRENT ZENGER looks fit and successful — nice haircut, buff body, expensive casual clothes. His wife TRACY and daughter JOANIE look up from the couch where they’re watching television. BRENT heads for the closet to hang up his coat.
BRENT
The man is home.
TRACY
Hi.
JOANIE
Hi, daddy. The class hamster had babies.
BRENT
I’d love to hear about it after I get myself one little, much-deserved drink.
TRACY
You’re home late.
BRENT
Dinner with a client…
He reaches the closet and throws open the door, starts to hang up his coat, then sees there’s a light of some kind at the back of the closet. BRENT is suprised. He pushes through the coathangers and discovers a door on the back of the closet, where clearly none has ever been before. He steps through it and into an EXACT DUPLICATE of the living room he’s just left.
BRENT
What the hell… ?
TRACY
(looking up in alarm)
Who are you? What are you doing in here?
JOANIE
Mommy? Mommy!
BRENT
What are you talking about… ?
TRACY
(pulling JOANIE backward toward the phone)
I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but I’m calling the police. Don’t move!
JOANIE
(crying)
Who is that man, Mommy?
Terrified, stunned, BRENT takes a stumbling step backward and falls into the closet. After a confused moment, he fights his way out of darkness again.
TRACY
Brent? What on earth are you doing? Do you need some help?
JOANIE
Daddy’s tangled up in the coats!
CLOSE UP — BRENT, pale and shaken, as we dissolve to:
EXT. — RESTAURANT PARKING LOT – NIGHT
JANICE and ERIC are walking through the lot. She has her sweater pulled tight around her shoulders.
ERIC
… And she put all my stuff in boxes and put them out on the sidewalk with — you know those label guns? With a label on each one reading “property of shit head”. Which is how I became single again.
(a beat)
Hey, I thought you would have enjoyed hearing about my hopeless love life.
JANICE
Oh, Eric, I never wished you bad luck. Not really.
(a beat)
I’m sorry if… if I wasn’t very good company tonight. I told you this was a poor idea.
ERIC
I said I’m sorry about everything, Janice. I really am, I… I was just scared of the whole thing. You, life, what happened…
They have stopped beside his car.
JANICE
I accept the apology. I did stupid things too. Let’s just say goodnight and maybe we can be friends again. That would be something, wouldn’t it? After all this time?
ERIC
It sure would.
He reaches out and takes her hand, holding it awkwardly for a moment — he’s trying to find a way to pull her closer but she’s quietly resisting. Abruptly he drops her hand and walks to his car.
JANICE
Eric?
ERIC
Hang on a second.
He fumbles around, then pops a tape into the player and leaves the door open as he walks back. The quiet intro to Traffic’s “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” begins to play.
JANICE
I know that.
ERIC
Of course you do. This is now officially middle-aged-people’s-music.
He suddenly takes her hand again, then pulls her toward him.
ERIC (cont.)
Remember slow dancing?
JANICE
The only kind you could do. A casualty of the Disco Invasion is what you were. C’mon, Eric, stop.
ERIC
Just a dance. Better than arguing. Come on.
JANICE allows herself to be drawn slowly into a dance.
JANICE
You do know you’re going back to your motel alone, don’t you?
ERIC
All the more reason to be quiet and let me enjoy this…
They circle across the parking lot, under the lights. A foursome walks past them and makes joking comments, but sweetly — it’s a nice moment. We dissolve slowly to:
EXT. — PIERSON HOUSE, 1976 — NIGHT
Another quiet song rises up, supplanting the Traffic — it’s Roxy Music’s “In Every Dream Home A Heartache”. Five people are sitting on the roof of the house. It’s a summer evening, last rays of sunset just vanishing, and the lights of other houses are far on the other side of the orchard.
Five teenagers are sitting along the edge of the roof, passing a joint. YOUNG ERIC and YOUNG JANICE are pressed close. Chunky YOUNG BRENT, wearing cutoffs and deck shoes, is dangling his feet over the edge and taking his turn with the joint. KIMMY, a small girl with glasses, a hooded sweatshirt, and overalls sits a yard or so from him but close to YOUNG JANICE. YOUNG TOPHER sits against the chimney, swigging from a bottle of Bacardi.
YOUNG ERIC
Last night of summer.
YOUNG JANICE
Shut up. You’ll ruin it.
YOUNG BRENT
(inhaling deeply)
Nothing could ruin it but running out of dope. I love this song. Manzanera rocks so bad on this solo that it isn’t funny.
YOUNG ERIC
The last night of the last summer we’re all in high school together. The night summer vacation dies forever.
TOPHER
(reaching down to take the joint)
Oh, shit. Poetry alert!
Everbody laughs.
YOUNG ERIC
Okay, I’ll just shut up.
YOUNG JANICE
No, baby, you’re so sweet when you talk. But just be quiet for a little while, okay?
She presses in against his side. TOPHER passes the joint to KIMMY. After a hit, she starts to cough. JANICE leans over to slap her back.
YOUNG JANICE (cont.)
Kimmy, just take little hits! You always do that.
KIMMY
(raspy, almost unable to talk)
At least I didn’t throw up. This time.
TOPHER
Erky. Throw me a cigarette, man.
ERIC tosses up his pack. TOPHER takes one and lights it.
KIMMY
How long are your grandparents gone, Eric?
YOUNG ERIC
Weeks. Months. Years.
YOUNG BRENT
(laughing)
Erky is high.
YOUNG JANICE
They missed their plane. They were supposed to be back today.
The Roxy Music song has been playing under all this, and it’s building to a climax now. YOUNG TOPHER stands up and begins playing air-guitar, using the rum bottle as the guitar neck.
YOUNG BRENT
(repeating after song)
“In every dr
eam home a heartache… ”
YOUNG ERIC
Yeah, and if you get too fucked up and put a foot through my grandparent’s roof, it’ll be my fucking heartache, all right. Topher, what are you doing?
YOUNG BRENT
Topher’s higher than Erky.
YOUNG JANICE
Topher, be careful…
The climax of the song comes. TOPHER strides down to the edge of the roof and braces himself, serenading the orchard and surrounding town. He begins to sing, quiet but getting louder, then bellowing the final line:
TOPHER
“Inflatable dolly — dee-luxe and dee-lightful. I blew up your body… but you blew my mind!”
As the guitar solo comes wailing in, TOPHER staggers for a moment on the edge of the roof, air-strumming the bottle. Abruptly, he pitches over the edge and vanishes. After a stunned second:
YOUNG ERIC
Shit!
KIMMY
(almost crying)
Is he hurt? Is he hurt?
YOUNG ERIC
Topher, man? You all right?
YOUNG TOPHER
(weakly; offscreen)
It was all great, except the last little bit. But I think I spilled some of my Bacardi.
YOUNG BRENT
(relieved)
You are such an asshole, man!
YOUNG ERIC
Are you sure you’re okay?
As ERIC begins climbing down from the roof, TOPHER suddenly sits up.
YOUNG TOPHER
Shit!
(fumbles in pockets)
If those fuckers get lost…
(finds what he’s looking for)
Ah. Far out.
YOUNG ERIC
Don’t do shit like that, man.
YOUNG TOPHER
I fucking thought I smashed these or something.
YOUNG ERIC
Smashed what?
YOUNG TOPHER
Let’s go in, man, put on some more tunes — I’ll show you. It’s a surprise…
As Roxy Music plays out, we DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. — ERIC’S MOTEL – NIGHT
Just to establish the transition, we see the outside of a mid-grade side-of-the-road motel. We move in on ERIC’S room.
INT. — ERIC’S MOTEL – NIGHT
ADULT ERIC is sleeping. We move in on his face, lips moving a little, hear his voice in a dreaming whisper:
ERIC
Topher, don’t…
CUT TO: Quick FLASH of TOPHER’s distorted current face coming out of shadow, as though it were in ERIC’s room.
ERIC wakes up, gasping, but there’s nothing in the room but a little light from the streetlights leaking through the curtain. ERIC lets his head fall back, then we hear a faint noise. ERIC sits up: he hears it. It’s someone CRYING.
Looking really disturbed, ERIC glances at the digital clock, which reads 3:17. We hear the crying a little louder — a woman’s voice, a hopeless, quiet weeping. ERIC stands up by the bed, turning his head slowly, locating the source of the sound. It’s more upsetting to him than us, because he RECOGNIZES it.
ERIC moves slowly across the dark room toward the bathroom door, which is closed. He slowly leans his head against the door and we hear the crying louder. He looks terrified. The crying gets louder.
ERIC
K-K-Ki… Kimmy?
The crying continues, a little more frightened and miserable now.
ERIC
Kimmy, is… is that you?
KIMMY
(tiny, whispery voice)
I’m so scared.
ERIC, hands shaking violently, tries the door. It’s locked.
ERIC
Kimmy, let me in.
KIMMY
I’m… scared. Eric, where is everyone? What’s happening?
Something THUMPS, as though someone has just climbed into the bathtub. The thumping gets louder — something very strange is happening in the bathroom.
ERIC
Kimmy? Kimmy!
Her weeping has changed to sounds of panicked grunts, like someone fighting for their life or being raped.
KIMMY
Why… why can’t… I… see? You told me… you told me I could see… everything!
On “everything”, the door finally pops open in ERIC’s hand. He throws on the light. The bathroom is EMPTY. He staggers back, looks wildly at the clock. It reads 3:18, as we CUT TO:
INT. — HOSPITAL — NIGHT, SAME TIME
We see TOPHER’s strange head on a pillow, eyes open, staring straight up into the darkness. A light from outside is making tree-branch shadows flail on the walls and across his expressionless face, but he is utterly, utterly still as we CUT TO:
INT. — JANICE’S KITCHEN – NIGHT
ADULT JANICE is in her dressing gown, hugging herself against a chill, stumbling a little as though just awakened. There’s street-light coming through the blinds and a bathroom light in the hall. She takes a glass and fills it from a dispenser bottle of water by the refrigerator, then drinks it as we CUT TO:
CLOSE UP: rim of glass. There’s an ANT there, feelers waving.
JANICE makes an “urp” of shock and jerks the glass away from her mouth, then slams it down in the sink. A moment later she snatches it up again, plunges it under the faucet and washes the ant down the drain. She looks, and there are a few ants on the dispenser bottle as well. A little less surprised now, but just as unhappy, she starts to lift the bottle into the sink, then snatches her hand back. There are more than a couple of ants — at least a dozen are running along the counter and in a line to the refrigerator door. She takes a napkin and flicks them off the handle, then pulls open the refrigerator, spilling out the light.
CUT TO: INTERIOR OF REFRIGERATOR
There are MILLIONS of ants in the refrigerator — a boiling black mass that tumbles out the door and all over the linoleum. JANICE leaps back, shrieking and shrieking and shrieking as we go to BLACK and then, when the screams have faded, DISSOLVE TO:
INT. — MOTEL COFFEE SHOP – MORNING
ADULT JANICE and ADULT ERIC are having coffee. They both look like hell — they clearly haven’t slept.
ERIC
I… I’ve been having bad dreams for a few weeks now. About… that night. That’s one of the reasons I decided to come back. I thought, y’know, seeing the place again…
JANICE
But not me. Just the place.
ERIC
I didn’t think you’d WANT to see me. Stop playing games. You’ve been having them too, haven’t you?
JANICE
Yeah. But it wasn’t bad at first. Just a couple of nightmares, and I used to have those all the time. But… things have started happening. In the daytime.
ERIC
Me too. Bad. Bad stuff.
JANICE
But why? It’s too weird, Eric. It doesn’t make sense. I’m scared I’m going crazy.
ERIC
I don’t think so — not both of us at the same time.
(he stands up)
Well, as long as I’m back in town, I guess it’s time to go see another old friend…
We DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. — BRENT’S HOUSE — HALF AN HOUR LATER
The house is big, nice, with two SUVs in the driveway. ERIC and JANICE are on the front porch.
JANICE
We could have called first…
ERIC
If he’s really Zenger-Kimball, I don’t trust ad guys on the phone.
JANICE
He’s still Brent!
ERIC
Yeah. Whatever that means after twenty-five years.
The door opens. BRENT ZENGER doesn’t look good. In fact, he looks worse than ERIC and JANICE: it’s early in the morning and he has a drink in his hand and a sour, sick expression on his face.
BRENT
Hey, Janice. Pierson. Long time.
ERIC
You don’t seem surprised to see us.
BRENT shrugs and turns, waving for th
em to follow him. He leads them across the entry into the large living room. The television is playing and there’s a Bacardi bottle on top of it, half-full.
BRENT
Drink?
ERIC
A bit early.
BRENT
Tracy and Joanie are out at the park.
(looks at Eric)
My wife and kid. Sit down.
ERIC
Like I said, Brent, you don’t look surprised to see us.
BRENT
Not feeling very surprised today, I guess. Watching Jenny Jones’ll do that to you — kind of burns the surprise glands right out.
ERIC
Me and Janice — we’ve been having some weird dreams. Ring any bells?
BRENT
Yeah, and it’s nice to see you, too, Pierson. It HAS been a long time. I’m doing well, thanks for asking.
JANICE
Neither of us has had much sleep, Brent. Eric doesn’t mean to be rude.
BRENT
That’s pretty good, Pierson. Back after twenty years and already she’s sticking up for you again.
(he looks around)
Do you think there’s too much white in this room? Tracy kind of bugged out on the all-white thing.
ERIC
Have you been to see Topher?
BRENT
