The Very Best of Tad Williams (40 page)

ERIC

Hello? Can you help us, please? It’s an emergency.

(no answer; he knocks louder)

You don’t have to open the door, just talk to us.

JANICE

Eric, you’re acting crazy...

ERIC

Am I?

He vaults over the hedge to the next yard and begins pounding on that door, too. No answer.

ERIC

Help! Nuclear war! Invasion of wild pigs! Call the police! Call the National Guard!

He picks up a porch chair, heaves it over his head, then SMASHES it through the picture window.

JANICE

Stop it! Why are you doing this!

ERIC

Because there’s nobody there, Janice! No-fucking-body! Look at the windows—no candles, nothing. People in the real world have batteries, Janice. They have radios and flashlights. They still go out and walk their dogs, even when there’s a blackout.

ERIC reaches for a chunk of the windowsill and pulls it away. It comes off like it’s rotten and CRUMBLES into dust in his hands. He pushes his hand through the wall and another section breaks away and dissolves into powder.

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,

SLOW DISSOLVE:

EXT: STREET – 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 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’re 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...

TOPHER

Zenger’s snifn’ 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.

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 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.

YOUNG 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. JANICE 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 a 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.

DISSOLVE 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:

EXT.—THE DIRT FIELD, NOW—NIGHT ADULT JANICE, SAME SITUATION

She’s alone, nothing but her and the house.

JANICE

Eric? Where are you?

CUT TO:

EXT.—THE DIRT FIELD, NOW—NIGHT 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.