Джером Биксби: The Man From Earth

Aging… The biggest mystery of all.

WILL: You realized you were different.

JOHN: Uh, longer to realize how I was different, to find a way to synthesize my experience into a view of myself. At first, I thought everybody had something wrong with them. They got old and they died, animals, too… but not me.

WILL: You live simply.

JOHN: I’ve owned castles, but why leave a lot if you’re always leaving? I have money.

WILL: As one grows older, the days, weeks, months go by more quickly. What does a day or a year or a century mean to you? The birth-death cycle?

JOHN: Turbulence. I meet someone, learn their name, say a word, they’re gone. Others come like waves. Rise, fall. Ripples in a wheat field, blown by the wind.

WILL: Do you ever get tired of it all?

JOHN: I get bored now and then. They keep making the same stupid mistakes over and over.

WILL: Hey! Then you see yourself as separate from the rest of humanity.

JOHN: I didn’t mean it that way. But of course… I am.

WILL: (Chuckling darkly) Are you comfortable knowing that you have lived while everyone you knew— Everyone you knew, John! — Has died?

JOHN: I’ve regretted losing people…often.

WILL: Have you ever felt guilt about that— Something akin to survivor’s guilt?

JOHN: In the strict psychological sense? I suppose I have. Yeah…But what can I do about it?

WILL: Indeed.

CHARITYNOW GUY #2: (To Edith on the couch) I’m sorry, ma’am.

EdithrDan and Sandy rise off the couch.

JOHN: Gentlemen, I’m— I’m gonna keep the couch. Thanks. Ladies? Will?

WILL: Oh, no…

JOHN: You’ve got a heart condition. Don’t grump about it.

WILL: (scoffs, defeatedly)

HARRY: Hey, how about changing the subject, Will? Enough with the, uh— With the dying.

WILL: But this is the flip side of this coin, Harry. I’m very curious to know his feelings. Would you prefer I asked him about his father?

JOHN: I thought you always started with "tell me about your mother."

WILL: Yes, but prehistory was strongly patriarchal. Surely you remember your father?

JOHN: I seem to remember a figure, perhaps an older brother, a social father, maybe.

WILL: Well, no matter. I can scarcely remember mine. Do you feel a vacancy in your life about that, John, something you wish could be filled by a face, a voice, an image?

JOHN: Not at this late date.

WILL: There must be someone— Probably many— That you valued intensely? (wearily) Loved. You saw them age and die— A friend, a colleague, a— (hesitates, lump in throat)…wife. Certainly you’ve had wives and children?

JOHN: I’d move on. I had to move on.

HARRY: Making him history’s biggest bigamist. (Chuckles softly)

WILL: Have you ever in your life thought, "It should have been me"?

JOHN: Maybe.

WILL: Yeah, Art has told me that some of your early fellows feared you were stealing their lives? Have you thought that perhaps you were? Perhaps you are! There have always been legends of such a thing, a creature, not quite human taking not the blood, but the life force itself?

DAN: My god, Will.

WILL: (continuing)

…Unconsciously, perhaps, by some biological or psychic mechanism that we can only guess at? I’m not saying you would do such a thing deliberately. I’m not saying that you would even know how to…..Would you?

…But would such a thing be fair?

JOHN: So you believe me now?

WILL: I’m only exploring what you have said. Whether I believe it or not is of no importance. We will die… You will live. Will you come to my funeral, John?

DAN: Hey, Will…

SANDY: You’ve gone too far. John didn’t ask to be what he is.

WILL: And we did not ask to hear about it. But if it were true, is there one among us who would not feel envy, even perhaps a touch of hatred? You told us of yourself, John. Can you imagine how we feel?

JOHN: I never thought of that.

WILL: Since you may not die, while we most assuredly will… there must be a reason for that, no? Perhaps you are an expert.

CHARITYNOW GUY #1L Uh, that’s it, Mr. Oldman. Have a good one.

JOHN: Thank you. You too.

Music gets dark

WILL: Or are you a vampire, John? Even an unknowing one? Do you stand alive and tall in a graveyard that you helped to fill?

DAN: That’s going too far.

WILL: (dismissing Dan and continuing with gusto) Bored, perhaps lonely, because your heart cannot keep its treasures. Is that what you’re doing? Have you led a wrongful life? Well, then, perhaps… (reaching into coat pocket)…it is time to die.

(pulls out a gun)

DAN: Wait a minute, now. Look, I don’t know what John is doing, but I sure as hell don’t like what you’re doing.

Now you give me that gun or I’m gonna break your goddamn arm.

(John reaches out an arm holding Dan back)

WILL: (scornfully) You sound like our football coach, Dan. What do you think, John? A shot to the arm? Perhaps we could watch it heal.

A bullet in the head— What exactly will happen?

Dramatic pause…

WILL: (putting down the gun with a sigh) I have papers to correct. As much as I dislike that job, it’ll be preferable to this. I leave you with it.

(storms off)

DAN: Jesus Christ. What the hell was that all about?

EDITH: Where’d he get a gun?

ART: He had you on the ropes, John. Are you really so damn smart?

EDITH: It’s not like Will.

HARRY: (quietly) Mary passed away yesterday.

John glances up and dashes out of the door after Will.

LINDA: Who?

HARRY: His wife. She had, uh, pancreatic cancer.

JOHN: Will! I didn’t know about Mary. I’m sorry. I can see how this might have hit you.

WILL: Please, permit me to be infantile by myself.

JOHN: (holding out his hand, with the other hand on Will’s arm) Will, please.

WILL: (hands him the gun, turns around and walks away)

JOHN: (checks gun to find it unloaded)

Meanwhilerinside.

HARRY: What the hell were you thinking, Art?

ART: Oh, come on. Something had to be done.

EDITH: I have to say I agree.

DAN: And he’s our friend. Whatever else on earth is going on, he’s our friend!

EDITH: You sure about that?

HARRY: Why the hell are you being so hard on him, Edith?

EDITH: One of my favorite people has disappeared. Can you get Alzheimer’s at 35? Maybe I’m trying to wake him up. Maybe I’m too sad to cry.

JOHN: (entering) What I said about myself hurt him. He struck back.

DAN: Expertly— That stuff about stealing life forces?

JOHN: I’ve always wondered about the reasons.

HARRY: Well, we still have an afternoon to kill, right? Charades? (chuckling) No. John? I have a charade, and it is just for you. A’right? Sandy, come here. Come on, come on, come on. Okay, this one’s for you. A’right. Ready? (grunts like ape) (notices Sandy and wolf whistles) (more grunting, play-acts whacking Sandy on head with club) Ooh!…Unh. (puts arm around Sandy)

JOHN: My first wedding?

HARRY: There you go. There you go! Very good, and I bet at least one of us… (points around the room)…is your direct descendent.

DAN: And I didn’t even send a Christmas card.

HARRY: Christmas card? What about a birthday card? And don’t even get me started on the candles… with the blowing and the… (huffs)…and all the candles! Yeah, all right. I tried.

DAN: Well, uh, call me underdeveloped, but I’d like to hear more.

HARRY: Me too.

LINDA: More.

HARRY: You double-damn swear this isn’t some cockamamie science fiction story you’re pulling on us?