Tad Williams - A Stark And Wormy Knight

YOUNG 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 senoritas, 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 down 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.

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. JANET 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 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, and we have DISSOLVED 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: ADULT JANICE, same situation. She’s alone, nothing but her and the house.

JANICE

Eric? Where are you?

CUT TO: 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.

TOPHER (imperturbable)

I saw it. I can see your old lady right now. She and Kimmy’re having an argument because she wants to go home and Kimmy doesn’t. Kimmy’s kind of digging the high.

YOUNG ERIC

What are you talking about? You can’t see them from here.

TOPHER

I can see everything, man. I can see my fucking dad watching television in the living room at our house, drinking a fucking beer and squeezing his dick. Everything. I can see the, like, radio waves between the stars — they look like black rainbows. (he stands and lets his head fall back) You don’t know what I can do. I can see the worms in the ground under your feet, these little silver strings crisscrossing… (lets his head loll forward until he’s looking at ERIC; grins)

I can even see inside your head, Pierson. You’ve been thinking all night about some little blonde chick you met at Bader’s party who said she was going to UCLA in the fall — thinking about how she slipped you some tongue when you went out with her to get smokes…