I watched some episodes of The Twilight Zone
and wanted to try the Sci-Fi genre using Drake
& Josh themes.
Very loosely based on the season 5 episode:
Number 12 Looks Just Like You.
Submitted for your approval are two versions.
Please read and review and let me know which
one of the two that you like better and if you would like
to see this concept expanded.
Thanx.
Version #1
Number 27 (Looks Just Like You)Josh Nichols always the good student sat his desk typing out his American history report on his
laptop. It was peaceful having the room to himself. His step brother Drake Parker could always be
counted on to blast the stereo or play his electric guitar on "ten". Josh took a drink from his can of
Diet Mocha Cola as he tried to find synonyms for brilliant when describing Winston Churchill's
speeches. He yawned and debated whether or not he should go to the Premiere Galleria and get
himself a berry blend smoothie.
They were his favorite and maybe he could look in the window of Zales and ponder getting his
girlfriend Mindy Crenshaw an engagement ring for Christmas. They didn't even "do it" yet. What
made him think that he and Mindy were going to be "forever"? Was it just because Josh didn't try to
screw the whole female population of California like his brother?
Josh stretched his arms and legs while still sitting in the rolling computer chair. The need for
quenching his smoothie thirst outweighed doing yet another school report for another obligatory "A".
The young teenage boy wanted so much more out of life. Sometimes, he quietly wished that he was
more like Drake. The boy was handsome, he didn't push himself in the school department, he could
sing AND play the guitar, and every girl wanted to throw their p----- at him.
It must have been fun being him.
Audrey Parker-Nichols had the date circled in red on her calendar. The time was almost here. She
made a deal and had to stick with it. The small suitcase was packed and in the hall closet. Walter
had his chance and he blew it with his "I'm calling the police" threats. The plane would disappear
and he'd be swallowed into a vapid hole like all the others.
He must have been really naïve to believe KDJY was sending him to New York for some
meteorological convention. Her herbal tea was cold, it could've been hot, and it could've been a
piece of Styrofoam.
There was absolutely no sensation.
She would stay seated in the kitchen chair until it was time to take meat out of the freezer and
prepare dinner for the one that didn't know his life was going to be changed.
He could be given a chance.
Megan didn't have any comments to say when Josh walked past her. He was leaving the house.
She walked downstairs in slow meaningful strides to join her mother at the kitchen table.
"HSOJ is gone."
Audrey sensed the girl at the table. "Good. We don't have much time. Did you make your
decision?"
It wasn't her question to ask.
"Yes. And yes."
"Did you pack your suitcase?" She wasn't concerned.
It was part of the deal she made.
It had to be asked.
"Yes."
"Do you have your card?"
"Yes." Megan took a small yellow index card out of her skirt pocket.
It had a big number #4 on it.
Number four was popular with all the young ladies these days.
Audrey walked to the phone and dialed only two numbers. "NAGEM is ready." She hung up the
phone and stared blankly through the young girl, "Get your suitcase, please. Your ride will be
arriving shortly."
The last bit of emotion came out of the girl's mouth as she stood up.
"YERDUA, will I ever see you again?"
"That is not up to me. Get your suitcase, please. Your ride will be arriving shortly."
And it wasn't up to her.
FlashbackSome time ago
Before the kids and the concept of "family"
Audrey Janson was struggling in her part-time job as a clerk in Rutherford's Department Store. She
was envious of all the rich girls that would come in and were able to drop over twenty dollars on a
single flirty Chanel lipstick.
While she would have to be content with eating ramen noodles for three damn nights in a row when
the phone didn't ring for her because she was convinced her nose "didn't look right".
Her parents wanted her to go to Maric Community College and "be something". She was eating the
last of her yogurt cup when her co-worker named Sandy came up to her.
"Audrey, everytime I see you, you look so sad."
"Mom and Dad are pressuring me to go to school and BE SOMEBODY."
"It's a drag. Why don't you come with me to a seminar?"
Yes. She could fit in and fit in nicely.
"A feel-good seminar? That is so cliché. No thanks, Sandy. Maybe, I should take a business
course. It'll pay more than being a sales girl."
"I've been watching you for a while and I'm quite nervous. I'd love for somebody to go through the
transformation with me?"
"What transformation? Are you on drugs?"
Sandy laughed, "No, drugs. Honest. All I had for lunch was a cup of Instant Smile. Come with me
to the meeting."
People were being recruited everyday.
"Will there be any cute and particularly rich guys there?"
"A ton! Oh do me a favor—write down a wish. Not a silly wish like a free shopping spree—but a
real deep down, honest to goodness wish."
Now Audrey Janson's curiosity was getting the better of her.
"What was your wish, Sandy?"
"Please—call me YDNAS."
"That's Sandy backwards."
"No, it's forwards, Silly. This society calls you Audrey. In our society you are YERDUA."
"A commune?"
"If you'd like to call it that. My time here is almost done. We can be transformed together! Now, I
have to finish my duties. A ride will pick us up after work…"
"What about my car?"
"You won't need it anymore. —and don't forget to write down your WISH."
If one ever wondered how do people become pliable to the point of following demented hippies to
go on a killing spree or other less but still earthly termed brainwashing all one had to do was look at
the case of Audrey Janson. A slacker before the term slacker hit the mainstream. A woman who
wanted instant gratification and who didn't want to work for what her heart desired.
A woman who wanted everything handed to her without so much breaking a sweat.
That's what made Audrey Janson pliable.
YDNAS disappeared in the crowd when they got to an abandoned warehouse.
"You don't believe yet, YERDUA and that's okay. I'm REKRAP."
Said a man her age with dark brown hair and honey colored eyes. He thought this red headed
woman was quite cute. Even though, she was constantly stroking her nose in a bad habit sort of
way.
"NEW RECRUITS! Please hand your WISHES to the RED WOMEN."
The women weren't dressed in red. They were naked and painted red. Audrey was a little taken
aback but handed in her wish.
Note: I'm testing to see if this is a joke or not.
If this is real I want to be a beautiful mom in the suburbs married to upwardly mobile men
who work full-time while I can decide later.
I want to buy expensive purses, tennis bracelets, and all the assorted baubles.
I want to live forever.
This is probably a crock.
Audrey Janson
"You don't think I can make your dreams come true?" burst out a genderless voice from an
intercom to the room of all new recruits.
"YERDUA please step forward." Called The Orb
"This feels like the Wizard of Oz."
"You are greedy. Who are you to demand all these wishes? You seem to think this whole thing is a
joke. I can prove to you in three seconds that it's not. Pick only ONE of your wishes."
She laughed slightly waiting for the punchline or the cops to come in and raid the place, "I Want to
Live Forever."
The room started to spin, but in reality it was only the doings of her own mind.
She couldn't get over the matter.
It wouldn't stop until she felt the crashing thump. It was Wizard of Oz!
Audrey Janson made a deal to live forever and the bonus was the promise of eternal youth!
The men came to her like moths to a porch light (it had to be due to the more beautiful
transformation!) and she wasn't aware of the two prices she had to pay.
Her emotions were torn out of her soul and her family was always going to be a sham.
Not realizing that everyone regardless of wish was immortal. But the cocky teenager wanted instant
gratification and didn't think of entering into this universe with an open mind.
REKRAP's wish was to be married to this beautiful red head and it was granted, the catch being as
soon NAGEM was two years old he was to be reassigned.
And The Orb was giving her a new task.
NAGEM picked #27 out of the computer module herself. There was no worry from the empty-shell
mother about what they'd decide when they became of age.
They could all be mortal in a heartbeat.
If that is what they wanted they do.
It's not like she cared.
She got her wish.
By the time she met Walter Nichols at the party with the bad shrimp EKARD was in his room
playing his guitar like he had always been there
with the knowledge that he knew he was created not by woman and man, but by lab and power.
Everyone had the knowledge in their brains. EKARD was Drake Parker a guy that oozed cuteness,
was musically talented, and who knew YERDUA and NEGAM were mother and sister in name.
She was bringing home a mortal man and his son.
RETLAW and HSOJ SLOHCIN
They were going to appear to be the All-American clean cut family. And that's all it was, a fallacy.
End flashback
When Josh got back to the house he dropped his plastic smoothie cup on the living room floor. He
thought he had to be dreaming. The living room itself was gone.
GONE.
There was a grand indoor swimming pool. His mother was relaxing in the pool chair. A tropical
drink was in her hand for show.
"HOSJ," she called out and with that the pool disappeared. The living room was back to its former
state, "You're home. EKARD is in the kitchen. Write down your wish on this index card."
"What in the fuck?"
"I do love you," Drake said to Josh, "I can decide if I want to be mortal or if I want to stay part of
the secret society."
"What in the HELL is going on Drake?"
"My name is not Drake. It's EKARD REKRAP. Some of us have emotions. Some of us don't.
NEGAM made her choice and is being reassigned and transformed.
YREDUA's wish was to be eternal and she is. She has to be reassigned too since RETLAW
couldn't open up his mind. I could write on this paper that I want to be mortal, HSOJ. And it will be
granted."
The sweat was dripping down Josh's cheeks.
He had to be simply dreaming.
"If you want to reach for a knife, don't bother." There was a paring knife on the table and Drake cut
his pinky to indicate that he was human and really did bleed.
"I—don't understand…. I could run away."
"No, you couldn't. We're all around. Pick up the phone and call YDNIM. Family is gone. House is
gone. They have all been reassigned. You are making the same mistakes as RETLAW. Do you
really want to be lost in a hole forever? When you can be eternal?"
"I thought you wanted to be mortal?"
"I said I could be. I didn't write down my wish."
"What about the swimming pool?"
"That's what you wanted to see. So, that's what you saw. Go in the living room now. YERDUA is
gone."
"Where?"
Josh didn't have to peek
"I don't know. I do know that The Orb does not like to be kept waiting." Josh watched the paring
knife turn into a pencil so Drake could write on his index card.
"When you are done may I borrow your pencil?"
"Of course."
When Josh looked up from his card Drake was already gone.
"I love you all." Josh said to the empty room.
Did Drake choose to give up eternity for him?
Josh figured this had to be a dream. He went into the living room and nothing was happening. Then
the door swung open and a young blonde real estate agent in a blue and gold ensemble was showing
the house to a newlywed couple.
"Am I dead? That's NOT what I wished for." He called out when the humans were able to walk
through his body.
The Orb was laughing from above. Josh Nichols probably thought he was the only mortal man to
have thought of this.
Well he was going to be proven very wrong.
It was a beautiful day for a barbeque in Memphis, Tennessee. Mom was making lemonade. The
previous mother died in an auto accident and the husband a wealthy businessman found Heaven on
Earth two years later when she walked into his life. The young daughter dressed in a green and white
cheerleading uniform took the potato salad out of the refrigerator.
"Mom, I can't get in the bathroom! They BOTH are hogging the mirror again."
"I'll take care of it. You stir the lemonade, Sweetie pie."
Accents perfect.
When Daddy would die in a train wreck two years from now. The Orb would be very pleased with
the money this woman knew how to make.
"Boys," Mom knocked on the door, "It's time for pictures."
They both liked their hair to be just perfect. So they could flirt with the older cheerleaders.
"Did you steal my after shave?"
"Did not."
Father was putting the steaks on the grill for his unbeknownst to him eternal family.
HSOJ wanted them to be together forever and The Orb granted that wish. NAGEM's new
assignment was short-lived and altered to fit this plan. She drowned in a lake.
The Orb granted everyone's wishes.
Numbers 38, 4, and two twin 27's sat on the sky blue sofa. Their eyes were looking through the
moment rather than being a part of it. The quest for the fine things and eternal life sealed the fate for
the Parker-Nichols family.
They'd always together, but forever apart. The food sucked out of their bodies at night when each
of them went in the cleansing chamber.
Memories erased from one assignment to the next.
YDNIM was forgotten as HSOJ was casually playing the field with his new found poster boy looks
and ability to play rock and roll.
"I can't get over it," NAGEM said to no one in particular, "Number 27 looks just like you."
YERDUA had more love in her eyes for her Louis Vouitton bag that was on the side table then she
did for the kids.
"Enough," Audrey politely said as she stood up, "If EKARD and HSOJ are going to recruit the girls
from myspace they better get a move on. And NAGEM don't you have studying to do?"
A trip to Graceland, indeed.
"Yes, Mom." She walked upstairs to her room where she would sit at her computer desk for two
hours until called downstairs by her father.
It was time to start the chain of events that would lead to New Daddy's train accident two years
from now.
"Bye Mom." Each kissed a cheek.
The Orb deleting the emotions that they had felt for one another.
Gone were the memories of not needing the dress, a poolful of chocolate milk, opening up the other
house as a bed and breakfast, getting driver's licenses, getting a brother out of remedial English, and
sticking up for a brother who was getting bothered by the jocks from a rival schools football team.
Megan got her wish to be two years younger than her brothers, Drake wanted like his mother to live
forever and had no intention of ever becoming mortal.
Josh's decision sealed his fate.
He wanted to be just like Drake.
And now he was.
They were eternally vapid.
Like #38 they made a deal and they had to stick with it.
"Bye, Boys," Audrey put her head on the door frame looking up at the sky and not at the young
men, "Don't forget to be home before dark."
The sun seemed to wink back at the woman who made the deal.
The Orb was pleased.