LOUIS
(sobbing)
No ... no ... no ... no...
Louis lunges toward his mother's bed, falls against the side of it, wraps his fingers in the bedclothes, and slides to the floor, still sobbing, slipping into unconsciousness. DISSOLVE TO:
6. NIGHT. HOSPITAL ROOM.
Louis awakens in his own room. He looks around, disori-ented. It is still dark, rain still sends streaks down the win-dow and shadows onto the wall, but he is lying in his own bed, his IV attached. He moans and touches his head.
LOUIS
God, did I dream that ... that thing?
Louis suddenly becomes aware of a wet, swallowing, SLURPING sound. This is what awakened him and has been in the background all the while. Now the slurping rises in volume. Louis realizes that it is coming from be-hind the drawn curtain pulled around the bed next to his. The bed that had been empty when the doctor had been there.
LOUIS
(whispering)
Hello?
The SLURPING continues.
LOUIS
(louder)
Hello? Is someone there?
The noise continues, growing even louder. Louis leans out of bed, reaches the end of his IV tether, raises his free hand to the curtain, and flings it back.
LOUIS
Ah.
An old man, JACK WINTERS, looks up from SLURPING whiskey in a glass through a bent hospital straw. A bottle of cheap booze, almost empty, is on his tray table. In the glow of the nightlight and the occasional lightning flashes, the old man is a sight—pale and obviously ravaged by ill-ness, hairless except for the gray stubble on his wrinkled cheeks. He is toothless but grins up at Louis even as he continues slurping.
LOUIS
Jeez ... I'm sorry ... I didn't know anyone else was in here.
JACK
That's all right, young fella. My name's Jack Winters. Been your roommate all along but you slept for three straight days after they brought you in an' I guess I was downstairs for my radiation treatment when you woke up yesterday. Louis collapses back in his pillows, holding his head.
LOUIS
God, I had the worst dream.
Jack gives another toothless grin and pours out more of his whiskey. JACK
That's what Ol' Nurse Haversmith ... she's the night nurse and mean as a junkyard dog ... that's what she said when they brought you back in a couple of hours ago after you'd gone sleepwalkin'. She said you was screaming and carrying on somethin' fierce while you was in your mommy's room. I had me a cousin once who was a sleepwalker ... they useta have to tie him to his bed with a clothesline...
Louis had been on the verge of drifting off again despite the old man's monologue, but suddenly he realizes what is being said and snaps awake, sitting up and leaning over to grasp Jack's arm.
LOUIS
What's that? What did you say about me being in my mother's room?
Jack shields his whiskey bottle as if Louis is trying to steal it. JACK
I just said what Nurse Haversmith said when she an' the others brung you back, Boy. Said you got to your mommy's room and passed out or somethin'...
Louis releases Jack's arm and collapses back into the pil-lows.
LOUIS
(to himself)
It wasn't a dream. I saw it...
Jack resumes slurping up the whiskey, edging to the far side of his own bed to stay away from Louis. The drink re-vives his spirits.
JACK
Hellfire, Boy, consider yourself lucky if you just got a bump on the head that makes you a mite crazy. Most of us on this floor are in for the Big C...
LOUIS
The Big C? You mean cancer?
JACK
Damn right I mean cancer. Look at me, Boy, three months here and they took out 'bout everythin' I had two of ... and some things I only had one of ... cut so many things off me and outta me that there ain't nothin' left to remove that I can get along without. So now they just zap me with ra-diation and fill me up with drugs that make me puke.
(grins toothlessly)
So now I prescribe me my own medicine. My daughter Esther Mae sneaks it in...
(Jack hesitates and then offers Louis the bottle)
Care for a little late night pick-me-up?
LOUIS
(shakes his head and grimaces from the motion)
No ... thanks, Mr. ... uh ... Winters.
JACK
Jack.
LOUIS
Jack. You say this is a cancer ward?
Jack chuckles but the laughter soon turns to thick cough-ing. He sets aside the straw and gulps the last of the whis-key. The coughs subside.
JACK
Ain't supposed to be a cancer ward ... but that's what it amounts to. It upsets the regular patients to bunk with us terminal cases ... that's what Nurse Haversmith calls us when she don't think we're listenin' ... so Doc Hubbard and the other cancer docs just sorta dump us in this ward.
(then, mumbling to himself)
Makes it easier for the damn night critters to find us, too... Jack fumbles behind his pillow and finds another bottle. He busies himself with filling his glass and replacing the straw.
LOUIS
What? What did you say about night critters?
Jack freezes in mid-slurp. He glares suspiciously at Louis.
JACK
I didn't say nothin'.
LOUIS
Yes you did. About night critters.
JACK
Just things I seen while in my DT's, Boy. Nothin' real.
LOUIS
Yes it is. You've seen something ... got a glimpse of something that shouldn't be here. Something that shouldn't exist...
Jack looks as if he is about to speak, to talk about some-thing that he has seen late at night there in the cancer ward, but instead he glares at Louis, makes a motion with his hand as if warding off evil spirits, leans forward, and draws the curtain back between them. The room seems to darken further. From behind the curtain we hear resumed SLURPING.
CUT TO:
7. INTERIOR. DAY. HOSPITAL ROOM.
Sunlight fills the room. Fresh flowers overflow from a vase on a tray table pushed against the wall. Jack Winters is out of the room for one of his tests and his bed is neatly made. Dr. Hubbard sits on a chair by Louis's bed, fiddling with his pipe and listening intently as Louis paces back and forth. Louis has been removed from the IV and is wearing a robe over pajamas rather than his hospital gown, but his head is still bandaged and his eyes look feverish. He gestures as he talks and his voice is rapid, almost manic.
LOUIS
Let's just say that I did see something last night. Is that all right? Can we just suppose ... for ar-gument's sake . .. that I saw something rather than hallucinated that I saw something? Can we just work under that assumption for a moment?
DR. HUBBARD
All right, let's work with that assumption, Louis. What did you see?
Louis stops pacing for a moment and holds his arms as if chilled by the memory of what he saw.
LOUIS
Well, it wasn't human, but...
DR. HUBBARD
Yes, yes, ... you've told me several times what this thing looked like. But what is it? Assuming you saw it, what was it? A ghost?
(he allows himself a single, reassuring smile)
Perhaps it was an extraterrestrial ... an alien M.D. interested in our medical facilities?
Louis pays no attention to the sarcasm. Lost in thought, he walks over to the window and stares out ... seeing noth-ing ... letting the light warm his face. After a moment he speaks.
LOUIS
I'm not sure what it is. Some ... some thing that brings those slugs I told you about. Maybe it's from another dimension or something. Maybe these things are around us all the time ... coex-isting ... but we can't see them... (he touches his bandages ruefully)
...unless we have a certain type of concussion with certain types of pressure on certain parts of the left frontal lobe...
Dr. Hubbard continues smiling but he is sufficiently shaken by the absurdity of Louis's explanation that he tries to inhale smoke from his pipe ... forgetting that it is empty.
DR. HUBBARD
All right, Louis ... assuming this thing you saw was ... was not human. Assuming that only you could see it because of your injury. Was it at-tacking your mother?
LOUIS
Yes ... no ... Look, somehow it was using Mom.
DR. HUBBARD
But you said it was leaving this ... this slug thing. It put something into your mother's body you said. Now why would it...
LOUIS
(interrupting, agitated, pacing again,
voice high and rapid)
Look, I don't know! Maybe it has to do with Mom's cancer. Maybe they lay these slugs in peo-ple and they grow or change inside our bodies. Maybe what we call tumors are really the eggs of these ... these things ... and we're only incuba-tors to them. Or maybe ... maybe they sow those slugs, let them multiply in us ... isn't that what cancer does, Doctor? ... and then these creatures come back and harvest the slugs for food. Like vampires... (Louis stops, struck by a revelation)
My God, that's what they are ... cancer vam-pires!
Dr. Hubbard nods, appearing to listen, anything to calm Louis down. Louis stops suddenly, makes a motion with both hands as if starting a final appeal to a jury.
LOUIS
(excitedly)
Look, Dr. Hubbard, that makes sense! I mean, tell me the name of a famous person who died of can-cer a hundred years ago. Go ahead...
DR. HUBBARD
I don't understand...