A Stark And Wormy Knight (32 page)

ERIC

(trying to cover his shock)

Topher, man. Long time. Long time… I’m sorry I haven’t been to see you in a while. Life, man, it’s just… you know.

A horrible silence. TOPHER peers outward, not even looking at ERIC.

ERIC (
cont
.)

I never… I never stop being sorry, man. It was just so screwed up. You… we never thought…

NURSE

(appearing over his shoulder)

Is everything all right?

ERIC suddenly gets up and lurches toward the door.

CLOSE-UP: TOPHER’S FACE, staring at nothing.

In the doorway, the NURSE nods understandingly.

NURSE

It’s very disturbing if you haven’t seen it before.

ERIC

(still in shock)

It’s been years…

NURSE

It’s come on very badly lately. Nobody knows what it is. It’s flexible at the joints, though, when he moves. When we move him, that is — he doesn’t do anything himself, doesn’t talk… The skin tissue is unusual — hard and brittle, like… what is it insects make? A chrysalis?

(she looks at ERIC)

I’m sorry, am I upsetting you? Is he a relative?

ERIC

(shaking his head)

High school friend…

FADE TO: EXT. — RURAL ROAD — DAY, MINUTES LATER

ERIC is driving, face troubled. He fumbles for a tape and pushes it into the player. Something contemporary begins to fill the car as we CUT TO:

INT. — HOSPITAL — SAME TIME

CLOSE-UP on TOPHER’s strange face. The eyes blink for the first time, slow-motion, as we CUT TO:

INT. — REAL-ESTATE OFFICE — SAME TIME

JANICE, phone against her ear, is looking for something on top of her desk, holding a styrofoam cup of coffee in her hand.

JANICE

… I think they’re looking for something a bit less pricey…

She looks at the coffee, which is suddenly black as ink. There is black on her hand, too, and smeared up her arm. She drops the black liquid to the floor, but her desk is covered in black smears too, and it’s all over her legs and skirt and chair. She screams and leaps up, rubbing frantically at herself as we CUT TO:

TOPHER’S EYES: Another SLOW BLINK

INT. — ERIC’S CAR

The contemporary music abruptly twists sideways into the drum-and-screams intro of the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil”. Eric stares at the tape player, starts to pop the tape, then hears:

YOUNG TOPHER

Hook a right, man — time we got back to your place.

The high-school TOPHER is sitting in the passenger seat, grinning, thumb pointing down a side road. ERIC gasps and hits the brakes. The car fishtails to a stop on the side of the road. ERIC stares. The passenger seat is EMPTY. The music is back to normal.

CUT TO: INT. — REAL ESTATE OFFICE

JANICE is standing up, perfectly clean, her desk clean too, everything fine but for the coffee she spilled on the floor. All her co-workers are STARING at her as we CUT TO:

EXT. — GAS STATION — MINUTES LATER

ERIC has pulled his car into a small service station. The CASHIER, a fifty-something skinny guy with a beard and ponytail wanders out. ERIC gets out and leans against the car, stunned.

CASHIER

It’s self-serve. Hey, you feel all right?

ERIC

Yeah, I guess so.

CASHIER

We got a bathroom if you need to puke or something.

ERIC

No, I… I think I just… had a flashback.

CASHIER

(chortles)

I know about that shit, man. Between acid and that Post Traumatic Stress shit, I’ve had so many of them things I prolly spend more time in the old days than I do in the right-now…

ERIC is looking back over the fields and through the trees as we DISSOLVE TO:

INT. — RESTAURANT – NIGHT

ERIC and JANICE eating dinner in an upscale Mexican restaurant. She has dolled up a bit, but has a sweater over her shoulders as though unwilling to relax too much. Neither is eating very heartily.

ERIC

… Had no idea. Oh my God, he looks like… like…

JANICE

Like a monster. I know.

ERIC

It really got to me. I kind of freaked out on the ride back.

JANICE looks troubled, but also angry.

JANICE

Yeah. Tension and guilt will do that to you.

ERIC

Are you saying I should feel guilty, Janice? I do. Of course I do. But it’s not all my fault.

JANICE

You sure left town like you thought it was.

(
She has been fidgeting with her silverware. She waves a waiter over.)

Could you please give me a clean fork, if it’s not too much to ask? This fork is dirty. It’s disgusting.

The waiter leaves. ERIC looks at her. She stares defiantly back.

JANICE (cont.)

Well, you did, didn’t you?

ERIC

What did you want me to do? I had a scholarship that fall, remember? Did you want me not to go to UCLA?

JANICE

To become a journalist and save the world.

ERIC

To become a journalist, yeah, even if I didn’t know it then. Should I have just stayed?

JANICE

Of course not. Then you would have had to break up with me face to face.

ERIC

C’mon — it was as much your idea as mine, wasn’t it?

JANICE

Maybe. But I didn’t get to leave. I had to go to that high school for two years. How do you think that felt? To have people pointing at me, whispering about me… ?

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.