EXT.ANYWHERE AS LONG AS THERE'S A BENCH.LATE AFTERNOON It is raining. ALEC sits on a bench somewhere, staring at the ground, his legs bouncing up and down. MICHEL pulls up in his vehicle and exits umbrella first. He approaches the bench, but doesn't sit. MICHEL Why did you ask me to meet you here? ALEC Sit, sit. MICHEL No. ALEC Sit, sit. MICHEL It's wet. There's a puddle where you want me to put my ass. Come sit in the car. CUT TO: INT.MICHEL'S CAR.MOMENTS LATER The rain has stopped. We see that he is wearing only a pair of shorts and sneakers. His hair is damp. He looks like he just got out of the shower. He gets into the passenger seat and turns on the radio. MICHEL (V.O.) I was driving around looking for something... something good. And then it hit me: maybe there's more than one way to be happy. Maybe we can all find happiness together. So I decided to try this new thing called music. Music made me feel better, so I started listening to it. Then I found some songs by people who were doing things they loved. They had their own stories and lives and hopes and dreams. I thought that if I could do that, maybe I could make myself happy too. But when I listened to those songs, I realized that what I really needed was someone to listen to them with me. Someone who would understand. Someone who would share my feelings. That's how I met Lisa. She wasn't exactly what I expected her to be. Not quite as beautiful as she seemed. Not quite as smart as she was. But somehow she fit right in. MICHEL snaps out of his hippie drug music phase and comes to the horrifying realization that he's been following Phish around for three years. The band plays "Bouncing Around the Room" over and over again. As soon as it starts, he knows that he must leave immediately. He jumps in his car and drives off. CUT TO: INT. MICHEL'S CAR - DUSK The sun is setting. MICHEL climbs out of the car and walks toward the street. He stops, takes off his sunglasses and stares at the sky. Finally he realizes that he has no idea how long he's been walking. Suddenly he sees something moving across the road. It's an old man. MICHEL runs towards him. THE MAN What are you doing here? MICHEL My name's Michel. How'd you get here? THE MAN You're not from around here. Where did you come from? MICHEL From New York. I'm trying to figure out why I've ended up here. THE MAN Well, don't worry about it. Just stay out of trouble. Don't go near any buildings or anything. If you need help, call the police. MICHEL Thanks. Do you know where I can find a place to sleep tonight? THE MAN Sure. Here. Take these shoes. Go home and change your clothes. When you get back, tell me what happened. Tell me everything. MICHEL Okay. Thank you. The Man hands MICHEL his shoes and disappears. MICHEL drops the clearly unstable man's shoes and walks across the street to a convenience store. Inside he finds a bottle of water, a sandwich and a pack of cigarettes. He buys them and goes inside. CUT TO: MICHEL sitting on a couch watching TV. He puts the cigarette pack away and picks up the newspaper. In the paper, he reads about another strange incident involving two young women who went missing after leaving a party. After reading about the girls, he notices a picture of himself and Lisa. He smiles and thinks of her, thinking of her smile. He closes his eyes and remembers. Suddenly he hears footsteps behind him. He opens his eyes and sees PHISH standing there. PHISH Hey! Nice shirt. Did you bring your jacket? MICHEL Yeah, thanks. Can I have a smoke? PHISH Oh yeah, sure. Let's go. They start walking down the street. CUT TO: EXT. WEST SIDE OF NEW YORK CITY. DAY. ALEC stands outside the apartment building. ALEC Hi. Hi. Hello. I'll take care of the rest. You should probably wait until tomorrow. ALEC All right. All right. ALEC sees MICHEL coming out of the apartment building and accosts him. ALEC What are you doing, weirdo? Hanging out with Phish? That's going to make us both look bad. Stop it. (to Phish) Get out of here. PHISH leaves with their tails between their legs. ALEC turns his attention back on MICHEL. MICHEL Uh, I didn't mean- ALEC Shut up and take your lumps. A bus pulls up next to them. ALEC (CONT'D) Come on. We gotta go. CUT TO: INT. BUS - NIGHT ALEC sits on the floor, looking through his wallet. His phone rings. He answers it. ROBERT ROSEBERRY Is this Robert Roseberry? Yes. No. Are you still working at NBC? Yes. No. Why? Because they fired me. I just got laid off. So now I'm unemployed. And then they said I couldn't work at ABC anymore because they wanted more diversity. But it doesn't matter. I'm gonna live life like I want. Like I always have. You think so? Good. Then let's go. ROBERT ROSEBERRY looks into the camera and says goodbye. Permalink