VET
(continues)
I just wanted … to see them.
(beat, smile)
You did okay, McDowell.
Jeff shakes his head, obviously eaten up by guilt. He’s sound and whole, but he’s the guy in the chair too, and his face is corroded by self-doubt.
JEFF
You did okay. I wasn’t there—
Unable to face his crippled counterpart, Jeff turns away.
VET
(softly)
I wasn’t there either. Not for Denise. Not for Megan.
The Vet rolls himself over to a dresser, and picks up a framed photograph of Megan, stares at it.
VET
(continues)
If you can hold your little girl in your arms and think for even a second that you did anything wrong, then you’re the dumbest human being ever walked the face of the earth. Believe me, Jeff. You didn’t miss nothing.
ANGLE ON JEFF
As he turns back, reacting to what the Vet has said, to the obvious truth of it. He’s choked up. Denise goes to him, wordlessly. They embrace.
VET
I think … maybe it’s time I went.
Denise turns to him.
DENISE
You don’t have to. I mean, you can stay.
VET
(sadly)
No. I can’t. At least now I’ve got a few things to remember, huh?
Jeff reacts sharply; he’s had a thought.
JEFF
The flashbacks—
(beat)
You and me, we’re the same person. It has to work both ways.
(beat, decisively)
I’ve got memories too. Maybe if we touched, or—
He steps forward, but the Vet rolls backward, away from him.
VET
No! You don’t know what you’re talking about.
JEFF
(softly, with compassion)
I’m talking about the day Denise and I got married. Our honeymoon. The day Megan was born.
VET
(bitterly)
It ain’t one way, Jeff. Think of what you’ll get in return. You’ll remember them dyin’ around you. The hospitals, the years in the chair.
(beat)
You’ll remember standing there while they backed away from you, watching you, all of them watching you. You won’t sleep so good, and sometimes you’ll wake up screaming.
Jeff hesitates, looks to Denise. She nods. He kisses her, steps toward the Vet.
JEFF
I’m not afraid of a few nightmares.
(wry smile)
I can always hide under the blankets, right?
He holds out his hand. The Vet stares up at him, then, very slowly, reaches out and takes Jeff’s hand in both of his. Jeff winces sharply, as if in pain. The Vet closes his eyes. Tears begin to run down his cheek.
CLOSE ON DENISE
as she watches.
ANGLE PAST DENISE ON SCENE
The two Jeff McDowells seem to glow with a strange blue-green light, as ghostly afterimages flicker about each of them. Her Jeff, standing, seems for a moment to be wearing a uniform, and then a long straggly beard. The Vet appears to be dressed in a 60s-style tux, then in civilian clothes; his trouser legs FILL OUT as LEGS shimmer into view, spectral and glowing, but legs nonetheless. He opens his eyes, stares in wonder, then RISES from the chair.
VET
I guess maybe we’re both heroes, huh?
The Vet, now standing, EMBRACES Jeff, the strange light playing all about them. Then the two bodies seem to MELT into each other, to MERGE and become one. The light grows so intense that Denise shies away, covers her eyes.
When the glow fades, the wheelchair and the Vet are gone, and only the original Jeff McDowell remains. Denise runs to him, and they embrace, holding each other very tight and hard. We HOLD the shot as the NARRATOR’S voice comes up.
NARRATOR
We make our choices, and afterwards wonder what that other road was like. Jeff McDowell found out, and paid the toll. A lesson in courage and cartography, from the mapmakers of the Twilight Zone.
THE END
DOORWAYS
FADE IN
EXT.—FREEWAY—NIGHT—AERIAL
Traffic is fast and heavy. Suddenly we hear a CRACK, as loud as a clap of thunder, as sharp as a sonic boom.
SMASH CUT TO
TIGHT ON CAT
A girl stands trapped in the center of the freeway, as speeding traffic surges around her. Call her CAT. She’s twenty. Her figure is lean, boyish, wiry-tough. Her hair is short, raggedly shorn. There is something wild about her, something quick and feral and not-quite-tamed. Her pants are leather, old, cracked, badly worn. She wears a loose black uniform shirt several sizes too big for her, unbuttoned, over a tight silver-gray undershirt. Her feet are bare. She looks lost, confused …
INTERCUT—CAT’S POV
HEADLIGHTS are coming at her from all directions, it seems, cars are missing her by inches.
RESUME CAT
She tries to dart toward the shoulder, misjudges the speed of traffic. A car almost hits her, its horn BLARING. Cat jumps back.
A second car SWERVES to avoid her. Brakes SQUEAL. More HORNS sound. Cat spins, searching for a way out. She takes a step in the other direction, jumps back as two cars SLAM TOGETHER. Metal CRUNCHES with impact. More HORNS. Off in the distance, we HEAR police SIRENS too.
CLOSE ON CAT
She covers her ears against the noise, draws herself in protectively, closes her eyes amidst the chaos …
Suddenly she is AWASH IN BLINDING LIGHT, and we hear the deep, terrifying sound of a big truck’s AIR HORN. Her eyes snap open.
REVERSE ANGLE
A huge SEMI is bearing down on her.
RESUME CAT
She freezes, like a deer pinned by the truck’s lights. Then the fear is replaced by defiance. From under her shirt, she pulls a WEAPON; sleek and strange, like no gun we have ever seen. Cat swings it up quickly, aims with both hands, and FIRES. The only sound is a soft PHUT of compressed air as the weapon spits out a needle.
ANGLE ON THE SEMI
One moment it is roaring forward at sixty miles an hour, its horn screaming, its headlights blinding. Then it EXPLODES. The cab blows apart, sending chunks of glass and metal flying in all directions. The huge truck careens wildly out of control, veers off to one side, and CRASHES. A second EXPLOSION rocks the truck as its gas tank blows, sending up a towering ball of flame.
CAT
is turning to make a break for the shoulder when a spinning piece of debris from the explosion comes flying at her. She ducks, but not fast enough. She catches a glancing blow on the forehead. The impact sends her sprawling.
PUSH IN TIGHT
Cat lies on the road, unconscious, bleeding from a cut over one eye. The weapon has slipped from her grasp, and the sleeve of her shirt has ridden up to reveal an ornate bracelet clasped around her right forearm. It’s a strange piece, a Gigeresgue tangle of silvery metal inset with three parallel slashes of dark plastic, that coils around her arm like a nest of snakes.
OFF that image, we
FADE OUT
END OF TEASER
ACT I
FADE IN
EXT.—HOSPITAL—NIGHT
SIRENS scream through the night as an ambulance races down the freeway, closely followed by two POLICE CRUISERS with lights flashing.
CUT TO
INT.—EMERGENCY ROOM—NIGHT
An eight-year-old BOY sits on an examination table, surrounded by his MOTHER, a young doctor (TOM), and a heavyset nurse (MADGE).
TOM
Not like that. Look at that mess. No, you have to keep your hand steady. It’s a delicate operation. Mistakes can be fatal. Here, watch.
REVERSE ANGLE
Tom holds up his hand, palm down. He is twenty-seven, dark-haired, rumpled, confident. The nameplate on his greens reads LAKE. He has a quarter between two fingers. He “walks” it across his hand, flips
it up in the air, catches it, opens his hand. He pulls it out from behind the boy’s ear.
TOM
What did I tell you. Magic is easy. Diagnosis is hard.
He grins at the young patient, who LAUGHS with delight. The nurse and the mother smile fondly. In b.g., we HEAR the sound of SIRENS. Tom hears it too.
TOM
(to boy)
And for my next trick, I make you disappear.
(to mother)
He’ll be fine.
INT.—HOSPITAL—NIGHT
Two PARAMEDICS rush a gurney down a corridor to the Emergency Room. A pair of cops (CHAMBERS and SANCHEZ) follow close behind.
TRACKING WITH THE GURNEY
Tom falls in beside the gurney.
TOM
What do we have?
PARAMEDIC
Head injury, facial lacerations, maybe some internal. Her vitals are real strong, but she’s non-responsive.
A gauze bandage covers Cat’s cut; it’s PINK with blood.
SANCHEZ
She was playing tag out on the freeway. Blew the crap out of a semi with some weird gun.
INT.—EMERGENCY ROOM—CONTINUOUS
They push through a set of double doors into the ER.
TOM
We’ll take it from here. Madge, notify X-Ray I’m sending someone up. Tell them I’ll need a full set of cranials.
The nurse scrawls a signature for the paramedics. They EXIT as Tom begins his examination of Cat. He feels gently around her neck, searching for breaks. Lifts the gauze pad to examine her head injury. When he pushes up her sleeve to take her pulse, he reveals her strange bracelet. He touches it.
TIGHT ON CAT
Her eyes snap open and Cat MOVES. She grabs Tom by the crotch and SQUEEZES. Tom GASPS in shock and pain.
RESUME
Cat rolls off as Tom collapses, on her feet with all the speed of her namesake. Chambers jumps her. Cat tries to punch him, but he grabs first one arm, then the other. He holds her by the wrists as she struggles.
CHAMBERS
You’re under arrest, girly. You have the right to remain silent. You have the—
Cat throws herself right up against him, face to face, and BITES him on the nose. Chambers SCREAMS and grabs his face. BLOOD seeps between his fingers. Cat scrambles away.
Sanchez cuts off her exit. Tom is on his knees, unsteady, gasping for breath.
Cat backs off and SPITS a piece of the cop’s nose onto the floor. There’s a smear of blood around her mouth.
She snatches up a metal IV stand and holds it in front of her like a quarterstaff, ready for anyone.
Sanchez draws his gun.
TOM
NO!
(panting a little)
Put that … put that away. This is … a hospital.
SANCHEZ
She’s psycho.
Tom pulls himself unsteadily to his feet.
TOM
She’s scared. Look at her.
CHAMBERS
My nose …
TOM
It’s around here somewhere. We can fix it. Madge, find the officer’s nose.
(to Cat)
Don’t be afraid. No one will hurt you. Promise.
She’s watching him now, warily. She says nothing. Tom edges closer. Cat gives a short, threatening swing of the pole.
SANCHEZ
I wouldn’t go any closer if I was you, Doc.
MADGE
Tom, be careful. I don’t think she understands English.
Tom keeps all his attention on Cat.
TOM
That’s a nasty cut there.
Cat touches her face. Her fingers come away wet with blood.
TOM
Can I take a look at it? Put that down, why don’t you? I won’t hurt you.
TIGHT ON TOM AND CAT
A tense moment. He is right beside her now. He lifts a hand to her face. No sudden movements. Cat is taut, poised. Tom turns her face to one side to examine the gash.
TOM
Not as bad as it looks. Still, we better get an X-ray. Will you come with me?
Tom offers her his hand. Cat hesitates a long moment. Then she FLINGS AWAY the pole. It falls with a clatter.
SANCHEZ
Real good. We’ll take her now, Doc.
Tom faces him down. The nurse is visible in E.G., on her hands and knees, searching for the missing bit of nose.
TOM
I’m admitting this patient overnight for observation.
SANCHEZ
She’s under arrest. We’ll observe her down in lockup.
TOM
You want the responsibility of removing her against medical advice?
(off his hesitation)
I didn’t think so.
Madge triumphantly holds up something we cannot see.
MADGE
I found it!
DISSOLVE TO
INT.—HOSPITAL ROOM—LATER THAT NIGHT A semi-private room with two beds.
CLOSE ON CAT
She stands by the window, dressed in a hospital gown now, looking out over the city lights like one entranced. The gash over her eye has been stitched and bandaged.
Cat pushes back her sleeve to expose the bracelet clasped around her forearm. She raises her arm, palm down, points it toward the window and the city beyond.
TIGHT ON CAT’S ARM
as she makes a fist. Inset deeply into the coiling metal are three matte black SLASHES, roughly parallel, sinuous, suggestive.
Now those slashes begin to GLOW: very faint at first, a dim BLUE. Slowly, deliberately, Cat moves her arm from right to left and back again. The blue glow BRIGHTENS when she swings toward the east, DIMS when her fist points west again.
CLOSE ON CAT
Her face solemn, her concentration fierce. She sweeps her arm back and forth again; the glow BRIGHTENS and FADES.
She turns her arm over, opening her fingers.
TIGHT ON CAT’S HAND
As a HOLOGRAM springs to vivid life in her palm: a small, three-dimensional EARTH, turning slowly. She holds a miniature world in her hand. Strange swirling SYMBOLS run across its face, like stock quotations on an electronic ticker.
Behind her, we HEAR the sound of a door OPENING.
RESUME CAT
She WHIRLS. The globe WINKS OUT at once.
REVERSE ANGLE—ON TOM
A uniformed POLICEMAN opens the door for him. Tom is carrying her clothing, neatly folded. He can see how jumpy she is.
TOM
Did I startle you? I’m sorry. I just wanted to see how you were doing.
He closes the door behind him. Cat seems to relax.
TOM
I brought your clothes. We washed them for you.
Tom places the pile of clothing on the bed.
TOM
There’s a new pair of jeans in there. Your pants were, ah, beyond salvage.
ANGLE ON CAT
Cat crosses the room and snatches up the clothing. She clutches it tight against her chest.
ANGLE PAST CAT ON TOM
A little taken aback by the fierce possessiveness.
TOM
I know how you feel. My girlfriend is always throwing out my favorite shirts.
Cat slips out of the hospital gown, letting it puddle on the floor at her legs. She is naked underneath. We see her bare back as Cat starts to dress.
She does it without a trace of self-consciousness or shame. Tom turns his back, more embarrassed than she is.
She pulls on the silvery undershirt, SNIFFS at the jeans, steps into them. Tom keeps up a stream of talk.
TOM
I didn’t catch your name. I’m Dr. Lake. Thomas.
(nothing)
We’ve got you down as a Jane Doe. For the paperwork. The office wants to know if you have any medical insurance, Jane.
CAT
is dressed now. She crosses the room to the door, tries to open it. It’s locked.
TOM
It’s locked. I d
on’t think the cops want you going anywhere right now.
Cat SLAMS a fist against the door.
TOM
Look, I know the food’s not great, but there are worse places to spend the night.
Cat moves to the window. She looks down. She starts to push at the glass, looking for a way to open it.
Dreamsongs 2-Book Bundle Page 89
