A Stark And Wormy Knight (37 page)

Read A Stark And Wormy Knight Online

Authors: Tad Williams

JANICE

Tomorrow. School starts on Monday.

(she picks up the phone)

Oh, damn, damn, damn, the phone’s out too. I knew I should have gotten a cell phone.

ERIC

Use mine. Shit, dead battery. Okay, we’ll drive into town. Maybe stop somewhere and get some actually hot coffee, hmmm?

JANICE

(a sudden thought)

Eric, how can I let them come back to… to this stuff? To their mother having some kind of breakdown, complete with screaming daytime nightmares?

ERIC

I think the parenting magazines always say, “Tell them the truth.”

(a beat)

But speaking as a journalist, I doubt the writers have ever had this particular problem to deal with.

JANICE

Speaking as non-journalist and parent… thanks a lot.

CUT TO:

INT./EXT. — DRIVING THROUGH TOWN – MORNING

The storm damage is pretty extensive — trees down in the road, some power poles and phone poles tipped over. Many stores have plywood or plastic sheeting in place of windows and people are sweeping up the sidewalks. There’s no power anywhere, including the traffic lights. ERIC stops at an intersection where a COP is directing traffic.

ERIC

Hey, officer, do you know if any of the pay phones are working?

COP

Not right around here. Besides the wind, we must have had a little electrical storm or something — there’s a lot of stuff on the fritz besides just phone lines. Screwing up our radios, too. And some of the power poles actually caught fire.

JANICE and ERIC for the first time look at each other, a dawning idea that something is not completely ordinary here. ERIC pulls out of the line of cars so he can continue talking to the officer.

ERIC

So… so where would the nearest working phones be?

COP

You’d practically have to get to the county line, I think, other side of the hills. PacBell’s got crews out though. They should have the service on in a couple of hours. Power might take a little longer…

CUT TO:

INT./EXT. — DRIVING — MINUTES LATER

There are repair crews out along the road. ERIC and JANICE are behind an ambulance and firetruck, which turn down a side road.

ERIC

(slowing car)

That’s…

JANICE

They’re going to the convalescent hospital. Have to be. It’s the only thing down there.

ERIC pulls the car around and follows the ambulance as we CUT TO:

EXT. — HOSPITAL — MINUTES LATER

The front grounds of Las Lomas Convalescent Hospital are a surreal sight. Many of the windows are broken out, and a tree has crashed down on the front of the building, smashing the roof and damaging one of the walls. Several of the patients are wandering around the grounds, many still in nightgowns. Police and fire people are trying to clear some of them out of the driveway so the firetruck and ambulance can get in.

ERIC and JANICE park the car and walk across the front lawn. Some of the patients are just wandering. Others seem frightened or dreamy, but all turn to STARE fixedly at ERIC and JANICE as they walk past.

The ADMINISTRATOR is standing next to the fallen tree, talking to one of the police officers while the ambulance guys roll a stretcher in through the ruined doors. The ADMINISTRATOR looks up in surprise as ERIC and JANICE approach.

ADMINISTRATOR

Mrs. Moorehead? Did someone… ? I mean, how could anyone have called you when the phones are out… ?

JANICE

Called me? Why would anyone call me?

ADMINISTRATOR

(flustered)

Oh. I just thought… because of your friend, Mr. Holland.

(her look grows sharper)

If no one called you, how did you know?

CUT TO:

INT. — HOSPITAL — MINUTES LATER

ERIC and JANICE are walking fast down the hallway, across leaves and other debris which have blown in through the broken doors and windows. The NURSE is walking with them, talking fast and nervously.

NURSE

He’s the only one… it’s a miracle more didn’t wander away — it was terrible! Some of them were so frightened they hid under the beds and we missed them when we did the count this morning.

JANICE

But you said he couldn’t move — that he couldn’t even get into a wheelchair by himself!

NURSE

It’s so strange — I’ve never heard of anything like it. In a way, it’s a kind of miracle… oh, but I hope he’s all right! Poor Mr. Holland. Poor, poor Mr. Holland…

The OLD WOMAN that ERIC had met previously is standing in the hall, wearing a jacket over her nightgown. As they push through the door of TOPHER’S ROOM she calls after them:

OLD WOMAN

He’s gone home! I heard him when I was sleeping! Tell Mama I’m all right, ‘cause he’s gone home!

TOPHER’s empty “shell” is still lying on the bed. JANICE muffles a noise of fear and disgust behind her hand. After a moment, ERIC steps forward and hesitantly touches it. He lifts the masklike skin of the face, staring at the hollow eyeholes. It breaks apart in his hand as we DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. — BRENT’S HOUSE — LATER IN THE MORNING

ERIC and JANICE are walking up BRENT’S walkway. There’s only one SUV in the driveway now.

JANICE

He can’t be more than a few hundred yards from there, Eric. He’s crippled! He’s been mostly bedridden for years!

ERIC

A chrysalis — that’s what the nurse said the first time I saw him. Like a cocoon. And now he’s hatched.

ERIC knocks at BRENT’s door.

ERIC
(Cont.)

You don’t think all that’s a coincidence, do you? The power failures, all that shit, and Topher just sheds his skin and walks away? After all these years?

JANICE

What are you saying? That he did it, somehow? I thought you were supposed to be the rationalist.

ERIC

When the facts themselves are irrational, you still have to work with them. Just think about it for a second. Think! What night is it tonight?

JANICE stares at him in incomprehension as the door opens. BRENT is standing there clutching his hand, with blood on his arms and shirt. He looks numb and half-dead. JANICE and ERIC gasp.

BRENT

I was wondering when you’d show up.

(Their expression finally penetrates; he looks down at the blood)

Oh. I broke a glass. Guess you might as well come in.

He turns as if he couldn’t care less and walks inside. After a moment, ERIC and JANICE follow him.

INT. — BRENT’S HOUSE — HALF AN HOUR LATER

BRENT is pretty drunk. He’s sitting on the couch with his head in his hands while ERIC and JANICE make coffee on a camping stove they’ve set up on the counter.

BRENT

I sent Tracy and Joanie away. Tracy didn’t want to go, but I think she thought I was going to get violent or something… Joanie wanted to take all her dolls.

(fighting tears)

Oh, God, I sent them away… !

ERIC pours a cup of coffee for himself, sips it and burns his tongue. He blows and sips it again gratefully while JANICE takes a cup to BRENT.

BRENT (
cont
.)

I should have gone with them. I don’t want to be here. It’s all going to hell.

ERIC

Shut up and get some coffee into you. Jesus, Brent, do you always drink like this?

BRENT

(indignantly)

What? Are you going to tell me everything’s normal? That it’s fucking inappropriate to be drinking in the morning? You think I should just sit here sober waiting for that… thing to come kill me?

JANICE

(sharply)

You knew he got out of the hospital?

BRENT looks up with such SHOCK in his eyes that he clearly did not. His hands begin trembling so badly that coffee spatters the rug.

BRENT

(looking down at the mess)

Jesus. Jesus, look at that.

ERIC

Give it to me.

He sets it on the table in front of BRENT. As he stares at haggard, shivering BRENT, his face softens.

ERIC
(cont.)

You didn’t know he’d gotten out of the hospital?

BRENT

Christ, no. But I had dreams…

JANICE

We all had dreams. But he’s a sick man, catatonic — a cripple!

BRENT

He’s coming for us. He wants… he’s angry. Because of… of what we did.

JANICE

But that doesn’t make any sense! We were his friends! And why now, after all these years?

ERIC

Maybe because he had to get ready. Like a caterpillar who had to wait until he could become a butterfly. He was just waiting all that time, changing inside, growing into… something else.

(turns to JANICE)

You know what tonight is, don’t you? Don’t you? Why are your kids coming back tomorrow?

JANICE

Oh, shit, I never called them. What do you mean, why are they coming back? Because they have to be back for school…

(it finally hits her)

Oh. Oh, God, tonight is…

ERIC

Yeah. The last Saturday night of the summer.

They look at each other across the sunlit living room of a nice, ordinary house as we DISSOLVE TO:

INT. — BRENT’S HOUSE — HOURS LATER

The living room is beginning to look a bit like a cage. A house of cards has fallen over on the coffee table. BRENT and ERIC are smoking. BRENT has sobered a bit — he just looks hellishly depressed. JANICE is clearing up in a sort of obsessive way, straightening things on shelves, etc.