Tad Williams - A Stark And Wormy Knight

JANICE

But you know what the worst thing was? Do you remember that stupid song about the telephone? It was playing every time I turned the radio on that fall. (She sings, a little hoarse)

“Okay, so no one’s answering… so I’ll just wait a little longer, longer… ” I couldn’t get away from that fucking song.

JANICE blinks angrily, fighting tears.

ERIC

I never liked Electric Light Orchestra, anyway. Brent really hated ‘em. Said they’d gone downhill after Roy Wood left the group.

JANICE

Boys. You can talk about guitar solos, but anything else just paralyzes you, doesn’t it?

ERIC

Look, for years there wasn’t a fucking day that went by when I didn’t think about how things went so wrong — with you and me, that night… everything. Over and over. Thinking about how if I’d only done this thing different or that thing different…

JANICE (after a pause)

What are we going to do, Eric? I’m frightened.

ERIC shakes his head, then moves closer to her and puts his arm around her. She relaxes into his chest.

ERIC

I have no idea at all. I’m scared shitless myself. But this feels good. It’s the first thing that’s felt that way for a while. (a beat)

I haven’t really been able to make it work with anyone. Scared I never will. Sometimes it feels like I’m getting paid back for being a shit to you, back then.

JANICE lifts her face to look at him. She has a tear on her cheek. ERIC gently wipes it away with his finger. After a moment, he touches her cheek again, letting his hand stay. She leans forward and they kiss. What starts out careful and tenative begins to turn passionate — JANICE is crying as they kiss, almost climbing onto his lap. Then she pulls away.

JANICE

No. No, it’s not right.

ERIC

If you want…

JANICE

After all these years, I don’t know what I want. But you don’t know me any more, Eric. I’m not the same person, and neither are you. We can’t just fall into bed. We’d be… I don’t know, fucking our past, not each other.

ERIC

Seems like its our past that’s fucking us. In more ways than one.

JANICE slowly moves back against his chest.

JANICE

You’re still pretty funny, you know? Too bad it’s true. (after a moment)

I was so scared.

ERIC

It’s been a weird day all around.

JANICE

No! Back then. That night. I was acting cool because I hated you guys treating me like a wimpy girl, but I didn’t really want to take that stuff…

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. — PIERSON HOUSE, 1976 — NIGHT

CLOSE ON: BRENT’S PALM

YOUNG BRENT is shaking a little bit of something out of a pill bottle onto the cotton wadding in his hand. As we pull back, we see that everyone is sitting in a circle on the living room floor, except TOPHER who is lying on the couch with his feet up.

YOUNG BRENT

Four-way windowpane. Decks are cleared. Ready to beam up, Mr. Spock.

KIMMY (nervously)

I thought acid came in, like, a sugar cube.

YOUNG BRENT

That was in the old days. This is the latest and greatest. Come on, you don’t know who your friends really are until you trip with them — right, Erky?

YOUNG ERIC (singing)

“Oh I wish I was an Oscar Mayer Wiener, that is what I’d truly like to be-ee-ee, ‘cause if I was an Oscar Mayer Wiener… ”

YOUNG BRENT

Five hits. Kimmy, put a record on so we don’t have to listen to fucking Pierson.

YOUNG ERIC (finishing)

“Everyone would be in love with me!”

YOUNG JANICE

You wish. KIMMY

What should I put on? YOUNG BRENT

I don’t know. You got anything decent, Pierson? You got Yes? “Fragile” would be pretty bitchin’.

KIMMY

Here’s a Yes album, I think. It’s hard to read the writing.

As she’s putting it on, YOUNG TOPHER swings his legs down from the couch back and sits looking over the others as the acoustic intro of “And You And I” begins.

JANICE and KIMMY are both clearly nervous.

YOUNG JANICE

They’re so tiny! How long is this going to last?

YOUNG BRENT

A while. I wish I could have got Stringer to get me this stuff earlier — it’s amazing to go, like, to the park. The grass looks alive. YOUNG ERIC

The grass is alive.

YOUNG BRENT

You know what I mean. (to Kimmy)

But wait ‘til you see the stars. They look just… far out.

YOUNG ERIC

They are far out.

Everyone laughs, even BRENT.

YOUNG BRENT (in a bad Brooklyn accent)

Quit bustin’ my balls, Pierson. (holds out the acid; normal voice:)

Okay, boys and girls. Come and get it!

YOUNG TOPHER

Slow down, Zenger. I wanna show you guys something.

YOUNG BRENT

Fuck, Holland, this shit doesn’t even come on for an hour. Let’s just take it and then you can show us.

YOUNG TOPHER (enjoying his mystery)

No, you’re definitely gonna wanta see this first.

There’s a pause: TOPHER’s clearly waiting to be asked.

YOUNG ERIC

Okay, what is it?

TOPHER extends his hand, in a fist, palmside down, then turns it over and uncurls his fingers to reveal five shiny BLACK PILLS.

YOUNG BRENT

What the fuck are those?

YOUNG TOPHER

The. Fucking. Best. High. Ever.

YOUNG BRENT

Looks like speed, man. Black beauties.

YOUNG TOPHER

Oh, no, my little Bent Zengerdenger. This is shit you’ve never seen. Ain’t nobody ever seen this. This… is Black Sunshine.

YOUNG ERIC

Topher, what exactly the hell are you talking about?

TOPHER slides from the couch onto the floor, takes a theatrical swig from the rum bottle, enjoying everyone’s attention. Just to piss them off, he takes an

elaborate time lighting a cigarette, too.

YOUNG BRENT

Come on. Jesus!

YOUNG JANICE

Ooh, the mystery man.

YOUNG TOPHER

Okay, you know the lab? The place my old man works?

YOUNG BRENT

Where you have a job pushing a broom on Saturday mornings?

YOUNG TOPHER (unfazed)

Yeah. That lab. Well, Castillo the fuckin’ head janitor had to go home because he got sick — he was, like, green — and he left me the keys to lock up. Man, normally he’d rather leave me alone with his fuckin’ daughter than even let me touch ‘em, but he was in bad shape, pukin’ his lungs out all over the restroom…

YOUNG ERIC

You have a gift for storytelling, amigo.

YOUNG TOPHER

I do, don’t I? So anyway, I thought it might be a good time to check out the drug refrigerator, the one that’s always locked with this big old fuckin’ lock? Just in case they had some like pharmaceutical quality coke lying around, or some shit like that.

KIMMY

Topher! You could go to jail.

YOUNG TOPHER

Not unless I was stupid enough to get caught. So I’m checking it out, and they’ve got a little glass jar of these babies in the back, in some kind of a plastic envelope, with all these yellow warning stickers. The name was fucked up — Dee-oh-noxy-somefucking or other — but right there on the label it says, “hallucinogen”. You know what that means, right, Pierson? ‘Cause you’re so smart and shit in English?

YOUNG ERIC

You stole some drugs you don’t know anything about, except they said “hallucinogen”? You’re crazy, Topher.

YOUNG TOPHER (suddenly angry)

Don’t fucking talk to me like you’re my dad or something, Pierson. I’m not stupid. I had the keys, remember, like to the files and stuff? I went and looked in the folders, checked it out. It’s an experimental drug they’re working on for some government project, and it’s basically just like acid, except cleaner, ‘cause there’s a couple of different electrons or some chemistry shit like that.