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…
TOPHER’s laugh is a cackle. ERIC takes a stumbling step backward. TOPHER opens his eyes wider — the pupils are so dilated that there is no iris, only BLACK HOLES in the middle of the white.
TOPHER
Don’t run away, Erky. It’s all starting to happen now — I can feel it. I’m getting so big that I’m not going to need my body soon. I’ll be flying, man, flying…
TOPHER actually begins to FLOAT up from the ground until he is hovering at least a foot in the air, head thrown back, laughing. ERIC turns and runs as we CUT TO:
EXT. — PIERSON HOUSE, 1976 — MINUTES LATER
YOUNG ERIC stands on the front porch, gasping for breath: he’s run all the way. He braces his hands on his knees. David Bowie is still playing inside. YOUNG ERIC (to himself; a terrified mantra)
Too high. Just peaking, that’s all. Cool out, man. Cool out.
Shakily, he stands and opens the door — the music comes rolling out. YOUNG BRENT is crouched beside the stereo system, records all over the floor, feverishly looking for something.
YOUNG ERIC
Where’s Janice?
BRENT shakes his head; he’s too busy.
YOUNG BRENT
Gotta change the music — too many edges. You got some Floyd, don’t you? Reverse the flow, you know what I mean? “Dark Side of the Moon”? No, no, too much electricity. The new one, the new one, the new one. “Wish You Were Here”, yeah, that’d close up the holes. (he looks up at ERIC, eyes wild, face flushed)
Where’s your Floyd, Pierson? You have “Wish You Were Here”, don’t you? Don’t you?
YOUNG ERIC
Take it easy, dude.
YOUNG BRENT
There’s fucking electricity, man! It’s leaking all over the place! I gotta put something on…!
YOUNG ERIC
Uh… I think I’ve got some Crosby, Stills, and Nash…
YOUNG BRENT
Perfect! (he returns to pawing frantically through the records, not really looking at any of them)
Crosby, Nash, Stills, still crazy, Crazy Horse, Young, young gifted and black, Black Mariah, Blackmore, Richie Blackmore, Black Oak, blackout, Black Sabbath… (he pauses for a moment, startled)
No. No! (returns to his pawing and gibberish)
Nash, Stills, steel, steal your face, Steely Dan, Steeleye Span, Stealer’s Wheel, wheels, wild, child, chill, still, Stills, Nash, Crosby, Nash…
ERIC is looking for JANICE. The living room is a mess. So is the kitchen, even worse. Someone has started to make a pot of Spaghetti-Os on the stove, but stopped partway through, leaving tomato sauce splashed on the counter. Someone has finger-painted a crude EYE on the counter with the tomato sauce — the eye with sun’s rays we’ve seen on BRENT’s doorstep — and a few ants are crawling around it.
