Read Dreamsongs - Volume II for Free Online Page B

carpet is mud, the tracks are
footprints, and Jeff’s sleeve is an army uniform.
     
    EXT. - JUNGLE TRAIL - DAY - JEFF’S POINT OF
VIEW
     
    Jeff looks up from the footprints. It’s a
jungle trail in Vietnam, narrow, overgrown, thick foliage all around. A black
grunt stands a few feet away: a kid, no more than nineteen, his uniform dirty,
a crude bandage wrapped around a head wound and soaked with blood. He’s holding
an M-16.
     
    GRUNT
     
    Hey man, what’s
wrong?
     
    JEFF
     
    As he staggers to his feet. It’s Vietnam,
he’s in cammies, an M-16 slung over his shoulder. He can’t believe any of it.
He gapes - at himself, the trees, the gun, at everything.
     
    GRUNT
     
    (disgusted, scared)
    Don’t freak on me,
Spaceman. I need you, man.
     
    Jeff backs away from him, shaking his head.
     
    JEFF
     
    No. No way. This
can’t be—
     
    He backs hard into a tree, stumbles. He’s
lost. When the grunt approaches, Jeff shrinks away from him.
     
    JEFF
     
    Stay away from me!
     
    GRUNT
     
    (confused)
    What the hell’s
wrong? It’s me, man!
     
    He grabs Jeff by the shoulders, shakes him
as Jeff struggles.
     
    GRUNT
     
    Cut it out, man. It’s
me! Hey, Spaceman, it’s only me.
     
    CLOSE ON JEFF
     
    As the grunt shakes him.
     
    GRUNT (O.S.)
     
    It’s me, man. It’s
me, it’s me, it’s me, it’s me...
     
    Off Jeff’s SCREAM, we
     
    SMASH CUT TO
    INT. - HALLWAY
     
    Where Denise has a hysterical Jeff by the
shoulders, shaking him, shouting at him.
     
    DENISE
     
    . .. it’s me, Jeff.
It’s only me! It’s me !
     
    Jeff suddenly realizes that he’s back,
wrenches free, staggers back away from her, panting.
     
    JEFF
     
    I ... I ... where
... my god, what happened to me?
     
    DENISE
     
    I
heard you yelling. When I came up, you were on the floor. It was like you were
terrified of me.
     
    JEFF
     
    It’s wasn’t you !
    (beat, confused)
    I
mean ... I don’t... Denise, I was ... here, and then suddenly I wasn’t ... I
was in Nam !
    (beat, continues off Denise’s worried look)
    I know. It doesn’t
make sense. None of it makes sense.
     
    DENISE
     
    (timidly)
    Maybe
... I don’t know ... maybe you had some kind of . .. flashback or something?
     
    JEFF
     
    How the hell can
you flash back to a place you’ve never been?
     
    DENISE
     
    Jeff, I’m scared.
     
    Jeff takes her in his arms.
     
    JEFF
     
    You’re not the only
one.
     
    DISSOLVE TO
    INT. - BEDROOM - LATE THAT NIGHT
     
    Dinner’s been reheated and eaten, Megan’s
been put to bed, but Jeff is still shaken. Denise, in pajamas, sits up in bed,
pillows propped up against the headboard bookcase. Jeff, still dressed, stands
by the window, looking out, his back to her.
     
    JEFF
     
    (dully)
    I have to go away.
     
    DENISE
     
    Go away? You’re
talking crazy, Jeff.
     
    JEFF
     
    (turns to face her)
    Crazy?
Tell me what’s crazy! A man in a wheelchair who leaves tracks in my carpet and
vanishes into thin air, that’s crazy. One moment I’m in Megan’s room and the
next I’m in some hut in Nam, that’s crazy. But it’s happening, all of it’s
happening.
    (beat, then earnestly)
    Denise,
don’t you see? It’s happening on account of me. I don’t know what’s going on,
but I’m the cause of it.
     
    DENISE
     
    You haven’t done
anything—
     
    JEFF
     
    (interrupts)
    No?
I can think of something I did. I was drafted, Denise. I chose Canada instead.
And now ...
    (beat, confused)
    ...
now it’s catching up with me, somehow. Maybe Nam was my fate , maybe I
was supposed to die there. Maybe this legless ghost is the guy who went instead
of me, or someone who died because I wasn’t there.
     
    He turns away again, stares back out the
window.
     
    DENISE
     
    That’s
your guilt talking, not you. And for what? You said no to a dirty little
undeclared war. You helped to stop the war, damn it. You know that.
     
    JEFF
     
    All
I know is that I’ve got to leave. If I go, maybe you and Megan will be safe.
     
    Denise gets up from