Brat, p.10
Brat, page 10
INT. PHIL’S CORRIDOR, NIGHT
Robin exits the bathroom. Elizabeth is waiting.
ELIZABETH
We left it paused for you.
ROBIN
Thanks.
ELIZABETH
What do you think of Phil?
ROBIN
Phil seems nice.
ELIZABETH
You know he’s my boyfriend.
ROBIN
I assumed.
ELIZABETH
He’s nice, isn’t he?
ROBIN
Yes, he seems nice.
A pause.
ELIZABETH
You look tired.
ROBIN
I’m really stoned.
They laugh. Elizabeth steps past her, into the bathroom.
INT. PHIL’S LIVING ROOM, NIGHT
Robin enters. Phil starts the tape again. Elizabeth is still in the bathroom. Phil and Robin sit together. Phil passes her the joint. She inhales.
ROBIN
We should wait for Elizabeth.
Nobody says anything.
I stopped reading the script. I stood up and walked around the room for a bit. There were so many notebooks. I flipped through a couple.
They were all prose or scripts. Mainly television shows he wrote for or consulted on. But some for imaginary shows. I looked at them for a moment.
I went to the kitchen to get some wine. But there was none in the fridge. So I took a warm one from the rack. Then I put some of the racked bottles into the fridge.
I took the warm bottle back to the study and spiraled the cap off it. The script was still there. I was worried it would have disappeared. Or changed.
I looked backward at a few pages.
They were the same. I had remembered them all right.
I kept reading.
In the script, the television episode continued. It followed a familiar trajectory: Davey eventually convinced Spike to spend a night in the house with him. Molly quietly and firmly warned them that the stories might, in fact, be true. Davey was headstrong and cocksure in the face of the potential ghosts. People in the room—Alex, Phil, Elizabeth, mainly—kept murmuring “no changes.” Alex took notes.
EXT. HAUNTED HOUSE, SUNSET
FADE IN. Davey and Spike are standing under a lamppost, outside the gates of the haunted Smith house. It is snowing. A tall, dark, KNOCK-OFF CHRISTOPHER LEE character walks up to them.
INT. PHIL’S LIVING ROOM, NIGHT
PHIL
(smiling)
It’s snowing.
MAX
Look at that.
ALEX
There’s no need for snow in this scene. It’s shot on a soundstage.
ROBIN
It’s beautiful.
PHIL
Yeah.
Robin and Phil make eye contact.
EXT. HAUNTED HOUSE, SUNSET
Knock-off Christopher Lee hands the keys to Davey. He unlocks the gate, and he and Spike enter the house to spend the night there.
I kept reading. The episode continued. The group of students watched mostly in silence, smiling, occasionally murmuring that nothing had changed. Davey and Spike attempted to spend the night in the house. Haunted things happened. Paintings eyeballed them around rooms. Doors closed and opened on their own. Things went bump. No changes.
Confused and frightened, Davey and Spike were separated. Spike hid in a wardrobe. Davey rushed into the room and moved the wardrobe in an attempt to barricade the door. Spike fell from the wardrobe draped in a sheet. Davey screamed at Spike, thinking he was a ghost. Spike screamed back at him. They ran out of the house together.
They slept in their car. They were woken up by Knock-off Christopher Lee tapping on the window. They startled, then rolled down the window. Christopher Lee said that because they didn’t spend the night in the house they were not allowed to have it for free. Davey rolled the window up. He harshly admonished Spike for scaring them both from the house, which Davey insisted was not haunted. Spike apologized. Snow was falling in the morning light. There was a thick layer on the car.
EXT. SUBURBIA, NIGHT
Phil is walking Robin home.
ROBIN
Thanks for walking me home.
PHIL
I don’t mind. I like the air.
ROBIN
I hope Elizabeth doesn’t mind.
PHIL
Why would she? She was asleep.
Fewer students are around now. But still some, carrying the same blue and black bags of alcohol, drunker.
PHIL
Those look like snow clouds.
ROBIN
That would be good. If it snowed tonight.
PHIL
I think it will.
ROBIN
If it’s a practical joke, it’s a really good one.
PHIL
What?
ROBIN
The tape. The whole thing. If it’s a joke, it’s a good joke.
PHIL
You think it’s a joke?
ROBIN
What you’ve told me is impossible. It’s insane.
PHIL
(grinning)
Yeah. It does seem insane.
ROBIN
Yeah.
PHIL
But it’s not a joke. It’s real.
ROBIN
Why didn’t we watch it again right away?
PHIL
It doesn’t work. Nothing changes. It stays the same each night.
ROBIN
Can I come back next week?
PHIL
Yeah. You’re invited.
ROBIN
Thanks.
They walk some more.
PHIL
I don’t know how it works. Or what it means.
ROBIN
Are there any theories?
PHIL
No good ones. Maybe—I don’t know. Relativity. Some kind of link to other universes. Through the tape.
ROBIN
Right.
PHIL
Every choice they made while writing and filming it. That would have made a new parallel universe.
ROBIN
Maybe.
PHIL
The story is always the same. The story hasn’t changed yet. The basic parts. But the things around it change.
ROBIN
The snow was really beautiful.
PHIL
Yeah.
They stop outside of Robin’s house.
ROBIN
This is me.
PHIL
Nice place.
ROBIN
Thanks.
Beat.
ROBIN
Do you believe in them?
PHIL
Ghosts?
ROBIN
Parallel universes.
PHIL
Uh. I think you choose a path between them, maybe.
ROBIN
(stepping closer, slightly)
What do you mean?
PHIL
There’s a universe where I kiss you right now. I could choose to live in that universe.
ROBIN
That’s a universe where Elizabeth is really pissed off. At me.
PHIL
At me, as well.
Phil leans forward and kisses Robin on the forehead. He looks serious, then grins.
PHIL
(gesturing with his chin)
That universe, this universe.
ROBIN
(grinning)
This universe.
INT. ROBIN’S HOME, NIGHT
Robin’s father is asleep in the chair she left him in. She turns off the television and brings him a glass of water. Then she silently goes upstairs to bed.
I flicked through the next pages of the script. I wanted to get to the tape again. I wanted to know why it was changing, like the manuscript in my own house.
All week Robin thought about the tape and Phil. She spent the weekend studying at the public library, then the evenings with her father, cooking his dinner, washing up his plates, watching him fall asleep in front of the television. He didn’t seem like he was very, very sick. Just tired.
Every lecture and every seminar she wanted Phil to be there. But also she desperately did not want him to be there. I could tell that from the script, even though it didn’t say it.
I thought about the tape, too. Maybe it was a practical joke. But all the characters seemed so sincere, so well-rehearsed, so casual. It seemed impossible. But so did the extreme yearning Robin felt for Phil. So maybe it was possible that the tape changed with each viewing. Any of these things could be possible. Robin waited for Friday with her jumper around her knees. I kept reading.
EXT. PHIL’S HOUSE, NIGHT
Robin knocks. Alex answers. The eczema on his face has cleared up.
ALEX
Robin.
ROBIN
I don’t know the password. Your skin looks better.
ALEX
I saw a doctor. There’s no password. We made that up.
ROBIN
You should have a password.
ALEX
Yeah.
INT. PHIL’S LIVING ROOM, NIGHT
Phil and Elizabeth are curled up on one sofa. Max is on the other, in the middle. Robin and Alex sit on either side of him.
MAX
Hey.
ROBIN
Hey.
ELIZABETH
Ready to believe us, Robin?
ROBIN
There could be two tapes. How come you weren’t in our lecture today?
Beat.
PHIL
(looking away)
We thought we’d skip it.
ELIZABETH
I drove us out to the forest. I have a car. It’s really beautiful out there. Romantic.
ROBIN
Romantic.
ALEX
Let’s start the tape. Last week was so good.
Alex gets up, puts the tape in the machine, rewinds it, presses play. Max passes Robin an open bottle of red wine. She takes a long drink from it.
Freeze-frames of the characters laughing appear on the screen. Their credits appear below. John Hutchinson as Davey. Charlotte Brown as Molly. Dominic Falvey as Spike.
ALEX
No changes.
INT. CAFE, DAY
On the television. Molly is wiping down the cafe counter. Spike is leaning against the counter. She is short and buxom, he is tall and thin. Theme music playing, Molly and Spike chatting inaudibly. The theme music ends.
Davey bursts through the door. He is short and stocky, wearing a cheap suit.
INT. PHIL’S LIVING ROOM, NIGHT
MAX
Regular outfit, no coat.
ELIZABETH
No snow this time.
ROBIN
Jesus.
INT. CAFE, DAY
DAVEY
(proudly)
Well, I’m going to buy it.
MOLLY
You what?
DAVEY
The old Smith house. I’m buying it.
SPIKE
But Davey—
MOLLY
You’re buying it? You ain’t got no money.
DAVEY
Yes, I do, but that doesn’t matter.
SPIKE
(scared)
But Davey—it’s haunted. I don’t want to live in a haunted house.
There is canned laughter.
SPIKE
Ghosties.
More laughter.
DAVEY
They’re just old stories. And I’m getting an excellent deal.
MOLLY
I’m not so sure they’re just stories. Besides, that place is a wreck. What are you getting it for?
DAVEY
Free.
Molly drops a glass on the floor. It crashes. Spike starts, comically.
MOLLY
(slaps hands on counter)
Free?
Davey walks up to Spike and pats him on the chest.
DAVEY
On the proviso—(beat) that we spend one night there. Alone.
Spike faints comically. Molly rushes over to him and fans his face with a napkin. Davey put his hands on his hips, looks exasperated. Canned laughter and applause. FADE TO BLACK.
INT. PHIL’S LIVING ROOM, NIGHT
Alex stands and pauses the tape.
ALEX
No changes.
ROBIN
What? Of course there were changes.
ELIZABETH
Like what?
ROBIN
It wasn’t snowing.
ALEX
Yeah. But the snow was atypical. The snow was a change. Not snowing is normal. Not snowing is not a change.
ROBIN
All right.
PHIL
Do you believe us now?
ROBIN
You could have switched the tapes.
ELIZABETH
It’s the same tape.
ROBIN
I don’t know that.
PHIL
I guess that’s true.
ROBIN
It does seem more likely. But it’s still impossible.
ALEX
It isn’t possible. That’s why it’s so interesting.
Max leans, puts his arm around Robin, passes her the bottle again. She lets him, takes a long drink from the bottle.
ROBIN
I understand.
In the script, the tape continued. The storyline was the same. No changes. Alex was barely taking notes, just adding strikes into some complex and spiraling grid system that Robin guessed mapped out the episode. I flicked through the pages, looking for the next change.
EXT. HAUNTED HOUSE, SUNSET
FADE IN. Davey and Spike are standing under a lamp post, outside the gates of the haunted house. It is not snowing. Knock-off Christopher Lee walks up to them.
INT. PHIL’S LIVING ROOM, NIGHT
ROBIN
Something looks different.
Max
(punching Robin in the ribs)
Yeah. It’s not snowing.
ROBIN
(laughing)
No. Something else.
PHIL
Robin’s right.
Elizabeth breathes out audibly.
ALEX
No mustache.
MAX
What?
ALEX
Robin’s right: no mustache.
ELIZABETH
Are you sure?
EXT. HAUNTED HOUSE, SUNSET
The camera cuts in to reveal Knock-off Christopher Lee is totally clean shaven. He has a small piece of tissue stuck to his face where he has cut himself shaving.
INT. PHIL’S LIVING ROOM, NIGHT
ALEX
Look, pause it.
Phil jumps up and pauses the tape. The image judders on-screen but is clear.
Alex stands, too. He points out the piece of tissue on Knock-off Christopher Lee’s face.
ROBIN
Wow.
PHIL
He cut himself shaving.
MAX
That’s great.
ELIZABETH
It’s not snow.
PHIL
It’s something.
ALEX
I’m always so frightened. That nothing will change.
ROBIN
It’s not as beautiful as the snow.
PHIL
No, it’s not as beautiful as the snow.
FADE TO BLACK.
INT. ROBIN’S HOME, NIGHT
Robin is alone in her living room. She stands by the telephone for a long time, coils the cord around her finger. Then she dials a number.
ROBIN
Hello.
PHIL
Robin?
ROBIN
Yeah.
PHIL
What’s up?
ROBIN
Nothing. I can’t stop thinking about the tape.
PHIL
Yeah. I can’t ever stop thinking about it.
ROBIN
The tape.
PHIL
Yeah.
ROBIN
I need to see it.
PHIL
Friday.
ROBIN
I need it now.
PHIL
The tape?
ROBIN
That’s what I said.
PHIL
We watch on Fridays. We never don’t watch on Fridays.
ROBIN
It feels like it didn’t happen. Or it happened in another universe. All of it. Us.
PHIL
Us.
ROBIN
Tell me it’s real.
PHIL
The tape?
ROBIN
All of it. Is anyone else there?
PHIL
No. I’m alone.
ROBIN
Let me come over. Please.
EXT. PHIL’S HOUSE, NIGHT
Robin knocks on the door, waits. Phil opens it.
PHIL
Hi.
ROBIN
Hi. Do you have it?
PHIL
The tape?
ROBIN
Yeah.
PHIL
Yeah. It stays here. Do you want to come in?
ROBIN
Yeah.
INT. PHIL’S LIVING ROOM, NIGHT
Phil and Robin are alone. They both have a mug of red wine. The bottle is open. Phil is rolling a joint. He is focused on that, not Robin.
ROBIN
Are you frightened?
