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? J
OANIE
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.
He fumbles around, then pops a tape into the player and leaves the door open as he walks back. The quiet intro to Traffic’s “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” begins to play.
JANICE
I know that.
ERIC
Of course you do. This is now officially middle-aged-people’s-music.
He suddenly takes her hand again, then pulls her toward him.
ERIC (cont.)
Remember slow dancing?
JANICE
The only kind you could do. A casualty of the Disco Invasion is what you were. C’mon, Eric, stop.
ERIC
Just a dance. Better than arguing. Come on.
JANICE allows herself to be drawn slowly into a dance.
JANICE
You do know you’re going back to your motel alone, don’t you?
ERIC
All the more reason to be quiet and let me enjoy this…
They circle across the parking lot, under the lights. A foursome walks past them and makes joking comments, but sweetly — it’s a nice moment. We dissolve slowly to:
EXT. — PIERSON HOUSE, 1976 — NIGHT
Another quiet song rises up, supplanting the Traffic — it’s Roxy Music’s “In Every Dream Home A Heartache”. Five people are sitting on the roof of the house. It’s a summer evening, last rays of sunset just vanishing, and the lights of other houses are far on the other side of the orchard.
Five teenagers are sitting along the edge of the roof, passing a joint. YOUNG ERIC and YOUNG JANICE are pressed close. Chunky YOUNG BRENT, wearing cutoffs and deck shoes, is dangling his feet over the edge and taking his turn with the joint. KIMMY, a small girl with glasses, a hooded sweatshirt, and overalls sits a yard or so from him but close to YOUNG JANICE. YOUNG TOPHER sits against the chimney, swigging from a bottle of Bacardi.
YOUNG ERIC
Last night of summer.
YOUNG JANICE
Shut up. You’ll ruin it.
YOUNG BRENT (inhaling deeply)
Nothing could ruin it but running out of dope. I love this song. Manzanera rocks so bad on this solo that it isn’t funny. YOUNG ERIC
The last night of the last summer we’re all in high school together. The night summer vacation dies forever. TOPHER (reaching down to take the joint)
Oh, shit. Poetry alert!
Everbody laughs.
YOUNG ERIC
Okay, I’ll just shut up.
YOUNG JANICE
No, baby, you’re so sweet when you talk. But just be quiet for a little while, okay?
She presses in against his side.
TOPHER passes the joint to KIMMY. After a hit, she starts to cough. JANICE leans over to slap her
