A Stark and Wormy Knight
Page 28
ERIC (cont.)
He’s playing with us. Don’t you remember that night, when we were walking on this same road?
JANICE
Stop it. You’re making it worse.
ERIC
Do you remember what I said? He remembers. He’s pulled us back into it — it’s all happening again, but twisted up…
As ERIC speaks, we do a slow DISSOLVE into 1976. The street is still dark, but only because it’s a quiet neighborhood, late at night. There are a few lights in the windows, streetlights, the glow of a television through curtains. YOUNG JANICE and YOUNG TOPHER are walking with YOUNG ERIC, who has stopped in the middle of the street, clearly beginning to feel the acid. JANICE turns and starts back toward him.
YOUNG JANICE
Eric? What you doing?
(quietly, now she’s close)
Would you come on? Topher’s making me nervous.
ERIC lets himself be led. As they catch up to TOPHER, ERIC is clearly disoriented.
YOUNG ERIC
Is it… this year? In all the houses?
YOUNG JANICE
What are you talking about?
YOUNG ERIC
I thought… for a minute I thought… I mean, how do we know it’s still now?
TOPHER
Oh, he’s coming on real good.
YOUNG ERIC
No, really. I mean, we don’t know. Time could have just… stopped. For us, I mean. And like everyone else just went on. So in all those houses, it could be twenty years later, but we’re still stuck in this one night, forever. Like we were ghosts.
YOUNG JANICE
Don’t say things like that. You’re giving me the creeps.
TOPHER is swigging from a beer, even more full of manic energy. He’s carrying the rest of the two six packs in a bag.
TOPHER
Twenty years there ain’t gonna be no town here — ‘cause one of these days I’m gonna burn the fucking place down. Maybe I’ll do it tonight.
(turns to ERIC)
You want another beer? It’ll cut the harsh on that buzz.
YOUNG ERIC
No. I don’t think so. Not now.
YOUNG JANICE
I feel really strange, Eric. I wish you hadn’t said that. I feel… empty.
TOPHER
(oblivious)
I told you we could pimp some brews up at the One Stop, no problem, man. It’s cause we had a chick along, just like I told you. Those older guys, they always want to look cool when there’s a chick around.
YOUNG JANICE
I can see my hand moving — look. It’s all blurry.
TOPHER
You got tracers, baby! It’s coming on!
YOUNG ERIC
(forcing himself back to reality)
How ‘bout you, Topher — you okay, man?
TOPHER
(a flash of suspicion)
Why? You think I’m acting weird? You’re just paranoid — you always get paranoid, Pierson. I’m fucking great. Black Sunshine, bay-bee! I’m so big I’m gonna blow up like a balloon!
YOUNG JANICE
I hope Kimmy’s all right. We should have made her come with us. She’s really nervous about all this…
YOUNG TOPHER
Zenger’s sniffin’ after her. Boy is workin’ hard, workin’ hard.
YOUNG JANICE
(suddenly)
I probably will still be here in twenty years. This fucking dead town.
(she is suddenly very emotional)
You’ll go off to college and you’ll be some famous guy, and I’ll see you on television, and I’ll still be working in that coffee shop, refilling the catchup bottles.
ERIC is lost in thought, silent, plodding along.
YOUNG TOPHER
Yeah, you’ll be sixty years old, wearin’ that fucking little skirt. “Hi, my name is Janice, happy to serve you!”
YOUNG JANICE
Like you’ll be doing anything different, Topher. At least I’ll have a job, which is more than you’ll have when they find out you were ripping off the lab.
TOPHER
Man, I’ll be so far out of here. Once I bag fuckin’ high school, I’m gone, and my dad can fuck himself. I’ll join the fuckin’ Air Force, be a pilot. I’ll be all over the world, checkin’ out the señoritas, all that shit.
TOPHER’s voice is getting strangely loud and off-key. He’s even twitching a bit. ERIC is staring at him.
TOPHER (cont.)
I’ll be so fuckin’ high you won’t even be able to see me. You and Pierson and all the others, you’ll be pretending you’re my friends, but you’ll be on the ground, living in this dick town, on the ground, round and round on the ground…
YOUNG JANICE
(angry)
Shut up, Topher. You aren’t going to do shit. Your old man’s going to throw you out and you’ll wind up hangin around on the benches at Tyner Park like all the other losers…
TOPHER
(suddenly screams)
Fuck you, bitch!
TOPHER is suddenly shaking with rage, eyes rolling. ERIC, startled out of his reverie, takes a step forward.
YOUNG ERIC
Hey, man, cool out…
TOPHER
Keep your woman in line, man! She can’t talk to me like that… !
YOUNG JANICE
You can’t talk to me like that…
TOPHER
(screaming again)
I ain’t stupid! I ain’t fucking stupid! I’ll fucking show you!
TOPHER turns and runs away down the street. ERIC looks at JANICE in worried irritation, as if to say it’s her fault, then starts after him. They have reached the end of the wooded street that leads to the orchard and the Pierson House. TOPHER stops under the last streetlight before the orchard, huddled. ERIC approaches him slowly.
YOUNG ERIC
Topher? Topher, man, just take it easy…
As ERIC is reaching to put a hand on his shoulder, TOPHER looks up, grimacing in MISERY. His features appear for a moment to RIPPLE, like something powerful is shifting below the skin. As he shrieks at ERIC, the streetlight above them EXPLODES in a shower of glass.
TOPHER
Leave me alone!
ERIC reels back, shielding himself from falling glass, as TOPHER flees into the orchard and we CUT TO:
EXT. — STREET — SAME TIME, BUT THE PRESENT
ADULT ERIC is clutching the same streetlight, unbroken now but also unlit. ADULT JANICE is beside him, crying, staring out across the empty lot where the orchard was, while ADULT BRENT simply stares.
JANICE
I don’t want to go there. I don’t care if this is all real or not. I don’t want to go there.
LONG SHOT: PIERSON HOUSE, NOW
Over her shoulder, we see the dark house in the empty field.
BRENT
(almost like talking in his sleep)
He wants it back. He wants it back…
ERIC
I don’t think we can run away from this, Jan-Jan.
JANICE
My kids. I’ll never get back to them — never see my kids again. Callie… Jack…
ERIC
I don’t want to go either. But I think the only way out is… there.
He takes an awkward step down toward the field. He reaches back for JANICE’s hand. She looks at him, miserable but sobered. She reaches out as if to touch his hand, but lets her hand drop again as we DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. — ORCHARD – 1974
YOUNG ERIC and YOUNG JANICE are holding hands, deep in the trees of the orchard. The branches are so close that they block everything except thin moonlight.
YOUNG JANICE
He… he was acting like he was crazy. Really crazy. I’m scared and I want to go home, Eric. Can you just take me home? I want this all to stop.
YOUNG ERIC
We can’t leave Topher like that. We have to find him — he’s freaking.
JANICE
What about me, Eric?
ERIC shakes his head — a choice he does not want to be forced to make. Suddenly, something RATTLES the trees nearby. ERIC and JANICE freeze, startled. Whatever it is, it’s making a strange MOANING sound and it’s coming closer. JANET presses into ERIC as they wait, helplessly. The sound gets louder, then an instant later YOUNG BRENT blunders through the trees and almost runs into them.
YOUNG ERIC
Brent! Damn, man, you scared me to death. Have you seen… ?
He suddenly realizes BRENT has tears on his cheeks.
YOUNG ERIC (cont.)
Oh, shit, what’s up? Are you all right… ?
BRENT pushes him aside.
YOUNG BRENT
Fuck off, Pierson. Leave me alone.
YOUNG JANICE
Where’s Kimmy? Brent, where’s Kimmy?
YOUNG BRENT
(stopping for a moment)
Your friend is bitch, Janice. A total bitch.
His face screws up with anger and hurt and he blunders away.
YOUNG ERIC
Jesus, what’s going on around here… ?
He stops as JANICE pulls away from him and heads toward the house.
YOUNG ERIC (cont.)
Janice! Where are you going… ?
YOUNG JANICE
I have to find Kimmy!
He tries to follow her, but stumbles on something and falls. He gets up, calling JANICE’s name, and we have DISSOLVED TO:
EXT. — THE DIRT FIELD, NOW – NIGHT
ADULT ERIC is in the middle of the empty field. There is nothing in front of him but the dark, empty house several hundred yards away. He is ALONE.
ERIC
Janice? Brent?
CUT TO: ADULT JANICE, same situation. She’s alone, nothing but her and the house.
JANICE
Eric? Where are you?
CUT TO: ADULT BRENT, same situation. BRENT is standing in the same field, also alone. As he stares at the house, light begins to GLOW in the windows — not sudden, like a light switch, but like something smoldering into life. The first spooky piano notes of David Bowie’s “Time” begin to waft across the field of dirt. BRENT slumps to his knees facing the house like a man awaiting execution as we SLOW DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. — ORCHARD, THEN – NIGHT
The David Bowie song is playing, but a little more muffled, as YOUNG ERIC makes his way through the trees, which seem very tangled and dense. He stumbles into an open clearing and sees TOPHER sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, at the base of a tree.
YOUNG ERIC
Topher! Man, you okay?
TOPHER’s eyes open very slowly. He looks at ERIC with an expression almost of amusement.
TOPHER
Erky. Give me a smoke, man.
ERIC fumbles out a cigarette and hands it to him.
YOUNG ERIC
This is all crazy, man. I think I’m starting to peak…
As he’s talking, TOPHER lights it simply by touching the tip of his finger to the end of the cigarette. ERIC stares, open-mouthed.
TOPHER
Zenger tried to get himself some. He touched little Kimmy’s tit and she smacked him.
YOUNG ERIC
Did he tell you that?
TOPHER
I saw it.
YOUNG ERIC
You were with us.
TOPHER
(imperturbable)
I saw it. I can see your old lady right now. She and Kimmy’re having an argument because she wants to go home and Kimmy doesn’t. Kimmy’s kind of digging the high.
YOUNG ERIC
What are you talking about? You can’t see them from here.
TOPHER
I can see everything, man. I can see my fucking dad watching television in the living room at our house, drinking a fucking beer and squeezing his dick. Everything. I can see the, like, radio waves between the stars — they look like black rainbows.
(he stands and lets his head fall back)
You don’t know what I can do. I can see the worms in the ground under your feet, these little silver strings crisscrossing…
(lets his head loll forward until he’s looking at ERIC; grins)
I can even see inside your head, Pierson. You’ve been thinking all night about some little blonde chick you met at Bader’s party who said she was going to UCLA in the fall — thinking about how she slipped you some tongue when you went out with her to get smokes…
TOPHER’s laugh is a cackle. ERIC takes a stumbling step backward. TOPHER opens his eyes wider — the pupils are so dilated that there is no iris, only BLACK HOLES in the middle of the white.
TOPHER
Don’t run away, Erky. It’s all starting to happen now — I can feel it. I’m getting so big that I’m not going to need my body soon. I’ll be flying, man, flying…
TOPHER actually begins to FLOAT up from the ground until he is hovering at least a foot in the air, head thrown back, laughing. ERIC turns and runs as we CUT TO:
EXT. — PIERSON HOUSE, 1976 — MINUTES LATER
YOUNG ERIC stands on the front porch, gasping for breath: he’s run all the way. He braces his hands on his knees. David Bowie is still playing inside.
YOUNG ERIC
(to himself; a terrified mantra)
Too high. Just peaking, that’s all. Cool out, man. Cool out.
Shakily, he stands and opens the door — the music comes rolling out. YOUNG BRENT is crouched beside the stereo system, records all over the floor, feverishly looking for something.
YOUNG ERIC
Where’s Janice?
BRENT shakes his head; he’s too busy.
YOUNG BRENT
Gotta change the music — too many edges. You got some Floyd, don’t you? Reverse the flow, you know what I mean? “Dark Side of the Moon”? No, no, too much electricity. The new one, the new one, the new one. “Wish You Were Here”, yeah, that’d close up the holes.
(he looks up at ERIC, eyes wild, face flushed)
Where’s your Floyd, Pierson? You have “Wish You Were Here”, don’t you? Don’t you?
YOUNG ERIC
Take it easy, dude.
YOUNG BRENT
There’s fucking electricity, man! It’s leaking all over the place! I gotta put something on… !
YOUNG ERIC
Uh… I think I’ve got some Crosby, Stills, and Nash…
YOUNG BRENT
Perfect!
(he returns to pawing frantically through the records, not really looking at any of them)
Crosby, Nash, Stills, still crazy, Crazy Horse, Young, young gifted and black, Black Mariah, Blackmore, Richie Blackmore, Black Oak, blackout, Black Sabbath…
(he pauses for a moment, startled)
No. No!
(returns to his pawing and gibberish)
Nash, Stills, steel, steal your face, Steely Dan, Steeleye Span, Stealer’s Wheel, wheels, wild, child, chill, still, Stills, Nash, Crosby, Nash…
ERIC is looking for JANICE. The living room is a mess. So is the kitchen, even worse. Someone has started to make a pot of Spaghetti-Os on the stove, but stopped partway through, leaving tomato sauce splashed on the counter. Someone has finger-painted a crude EYE on the counter with the tomato sauce — the eye with sun’s rays we’ve seen on BRENT’s doorstep — and a few ants are crawling around it.
As ERIC reaches the stairs leading upstairs, BRENT has put on a “mellower” record — King Crimson’s “Court of the Crimson King”. ERIC hesitates, then moves up into the shadowed staircase. As he reaches the landing, he pauses.
YOUNG ERIC
Janice?
He looks up and down the hall, then moves toward the only closed door — for a moment the hallway STRETCHES, so that it seems a VERY LONG WAY. He takes another step and his hand closes on the doorknob and the door swings open.
It’s his grandparent’s BEDROOM — fussy, tidy. The only light is from a small bedside lamp with a heavy shade, so the room is shadowy. A FIGURE is seated on the bed, back to him, very still
. ERIC, clearly nervous, begins to walk around. It’s KIMMY, head down as though she’s asleep sitting up, her hair covering her face. As ERIC nervously reaches his hand toward her, she lifts her face, eyes wide.
KIMMY
Eric! I thought you were Janice.
(she smiles)
Not Janice-Janice, of course, but this Janice.
YOUNG ERIC
Where is she?
KIMMY
I don’t know. She’s mad at me because I want to stay. Maybe she went home. If she has a home here, I mean — do you think everyone has one here, just like in real life?
ERIC shakes his head in confusion and sits beside her.
YOUNG ERIC
This is such a weird night…
KIMMY
I think it’s nice you’re in my dream.
YOUNG ERIC
Huh?
KIMMY
Because I thought about it happening like this, and then it happened, so that’s how I know I’m dreaming.
YOUNG ERIC
You’re not dreaming, Kimmy. You’re just tripping.
KIMMY
Maybe you dreamed it, too. Maybe you just went to sleep, and now you’re dreaming the same dream as me. That’s okay. It means no one can get in except us.
YOUNG ERIC
Like ghosts…