A couple of years ago I sat alone at my computer working on a story. I was a bit stuck so decided to shut down and watch some TV. But the computer had othe ideas. Over and over I clicked Exit and Save and Shut Down but all that happened was a blank grey screen. Finally that blank grey screen cleared and revealed my story again - and half a dozen lines of conversation had been added! They were my characters, my story, but they were not my words. I've written several stories since without any more spooky experiences. It remains a mystery who helped tell my story...this is just one theory from the twilight zone...
CHAPTER 1
Moonlight creeps uncertainly into a dark back room, its floor strewn with children's toys, an exercise bike, abandoned school bag and trainers, children's drawings and several loose coloured pencils. A thin, intense-looking man in his early thirties sits hunched over a computer. He clasps his hands behind his neck and stretches, squinting at the carriage clock ticking loudly towards midnight on the mantelshelf of the unlit fireplace. He types a couple more lines and stares unhappily at the computer screen.
Unseen by the man, Rod Serling, leaning on the chair, turns to the viewer and speaks:
"The writer's life is a solitary one. Sitting for hours alone, reaching and reaching into the depths of imagination, to something intangible burning deep in the soul. Like Tom Clayton, children's author, burning the midnight oil to feed that hunger to write... but he's about to go into a story stranger than one he could ever have dreamt of ... (music) You're travelling through another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound, but also of the mind. A wondrous land whose boundaries are that of the imagination. A signpost up ahead, your next stop, The Twilight Zone!"
Tom Clayton re-checks the clock and, sighing, decides to stop work. He clicks the compuer into 'shut down' mode and the screen fades to black and a 'safe to shut down' message except for a strange dot of bright light that dances erratically around the screen. Startled, he removes his glasses and rubs his eyes vigorously and when he looks up again the light is gone. Still obviously puzzled, Tom switches off the computer and draws the curtains. As he closes the door to the shadowy room we see someone else sitting in the recently vacated chair. A woman, dressed all grey, her long black hair tied back, sits with her back to us.
*****
We see the woman more clearly. Her face is very pale and her old-fashioned, grey shapeless dress touches the ground. She stands in a barren, fog-shrouded land where a cold wind wails. Her voice carries a haunting echo.
"I am Katherine! I came to tell you outside is beautiful. I've seen children playing. I've seen sunset and moonlight. I've felt a breeze on my face and heard the birdsong and know the scent of flowers. It's so beautiful. Please! Can anyone hear me?"
We can make out misty grey shapes in the distance and know that they are the shapes of men, women and children but that is all we know. Their voices are the sounds of a distant crowd but no words are distinct.
KATHERINE: Can ANYONE hear me?
The grey shapes become totally obscured by the thickening fog and the indistinct sound of the crowd fades to silence. Katherine stands alone.
KATHERINE: Can ANYONE hear me?
*****
THE CLAYTONS BEDROOM. 2.30am
TOM (Half waking from a dream): Can ANYONE hear me? Can ANYONE...
MELANIE (Shaking him): Tom! Wake up! Wake up!
TOM: Omigod...! (His face is wet with tears and he wipes them emotionally) Was I screaming again? Did I wake the kids?
MELANIE: No, no, Sophie and Rowan are fine, there isn't a sound from them. It was the same nightmare, wasn't it?
TOM: They're becoming more and more vivid, Mel. This time she was surrounded by shadows, like dead people, watching. It was so cold on that planet! I could have..."
MEL: Planet?
TOM: What?
MEL: Tom, this Katherine thing is freaking me out. You said you were on a planet...
TOM: I don't know what it was, why she haunts me, what she is...(shaking himself) Babe, are we really having this conversation? For Chrissake, I don't believe in life on other planets! What the hell is happening to me?
MEL (trying to reassure herself as well): Nothing is happening to you, to us. You had a bad dream.
TOM: I KEEP having the same bad dream!
MEL: You're working too hard on your writing, that's all.
TOM: What writing? I can't hack it any more, Mel, I'm cracking up. I can't write, can't even think of any more bedtime stories to tell the kids and, hell, I'm meant to be a children's author. Jesus, why do I keep dreaming of this Katherine? Why is she haunting me? (he gives an ironic, self-mocking but despairing laugh as he lies down again, throwing his head back hard against the pillow) I've totally lost the plot!
*****
On the lonely planet, as thick snowflakes swirl through the howling wind, Katherine walks bewildered through the mist. Now and again she comes to a figure and touches it, calling it by name...
"Edgar...? Annabel...? David...?"
...but each crumbles to dust at her touch.
There is the shape of a mother, frozen in time as she raised her baby high in her arms in play. Katherine gently takes the grey figure of the child and at first there is a baby's vague cry but then the infant too crumbles into nothingness. Katherine's solitary voice echoes:
"Alone...Alone......Alone..."
CHAPTER 1
Moonlight creeps uncertainly into a dark back room, its floor strewn with children's toys, an exercise bike, abandoned school bag and trainers, children's drawings and several loose coloured pencils. A thin, intense-looking man in his early thirties sits hunched over a computer. He clasps his hands behind his neck and stretches, squinting at the carriage clock ticking loudly towards midnight on the mantelshelf of the unlit fireplace. He types a couple more lines and stares unhappily at the computer screen.
Unseen by the man, Rod Serling, leaning on the chair, turns to the viewer and speaks:
"The writer's life is a solitary one. Sitting for hours alone, reaching and reaching into the depths of imagination, to something intangible burning deep in the soul. Like Tom Clayton, children's author, burning the midnight oil to feed that hunger to write... but he's about to go into a story stranger than one he could ever have dreamt of ... (music) You're travelling through another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound, but also of the mind. A wondrous land whose boundaries are that of the imagination. A signpost up ahead, your next stop, The Twilight Zone!"
Tom Clayton re-checks the clock and, sighing, decides to stop work. He clicks the compuer into 'shut down' mode and the screen fades to black and a 'safe to shut down' message except for a strange dot of bright light that dances erratically around the screen. Startled, he removes his glasses and rubs his eyes vigorously and when he looks up again the light is gone. Still obviously puzzled, Tom switches off the computer and draws the curtains. As he closes the door to the shadowy room we see someone else sitting in the recently vacated chair. A woman, dressed all grey, her long black hair tied back, sits with her back to us.
*****
We see the woman more clearly. Her face is very pale and her old-fashioned, grey shapeless dress touches the ground. She stands in a barren, fog-shrouded land where a cold wind wails. Her voice carries a haunting echo.
"I am Katherine! I came to tell you outside is beautiful. I've seen children playing. I've seen sunset and moonlight. I've felt a breeze on my face and heard the birdsong and know the scent of flowers. It's so beautiful. Please! Can anyone hear me?"
We can make out misty grey shapes in the distance and know that they are the shapes of men, women and children but that is all we know. Their voices are the sounds of a distant crowd but no words are distinct.
KATHERINE: Can ANYONE hear me?
The grey shapes become totally obscured by the thickening fog and the indistinct sound of the crowd fades to silence. Katherine stands alone.
KATHERINE: Can ANYONE hear me?
*****
THE CLAYTONS BEDROOM. 2.30am
TOM (Half waking from a dream): Can ANYONE hear me? Can ANYONE...
MELANIE (Shaking him): Tom! Wake up! Wake up!
TOM: Omigod...! (His face is wet with tears and he wipes them emotionally) Was I screaming again? Did I wake the kids?
MELANIE: No, no, Sophie and Rowan are fine, there isn't a sound from them. It was the same nightmare, wasn't it?
TOM: They're becoming more and more vivid, Mel. This time she was surrounded by shadows, like dead people, watching. It was so cold on that planet! I could have..."
MEL: Planet?
TOM: What?
MEL: Tom, this Katherine thing is freaking me out. You said you were on a planet...
TOM: I don't know what it was, why she haunts me, what she is...(shaking himself) Babe, are we really having this conversation? For Chrissake, I don't believe in life on other planets! What the hell is happening to me?
MEL (trying to reassure herself as well): Nothing is happening to you, to us. You had a bad dream.
TOM: I KEEP having the same bad dream!
MEL: You're working too hard on your writing, that's all.
TOM: What writing? I can't hack it any more, Mel, I'm cracking up. I can't write, can't even think of any more bedtime stories to tell the kids and, hell, I'm meant to be a children's author. Jesus, why do I keep dreaming of this Katherine? Why is she haunting me? (he gives an ironic, self-mocking but despairing laugh as he lies down again, throwing his head back hard against the pillow) I've totally lost the plot!
*****
On the lonely planet, as thick snowflakes swirl through the howling wind, Katherine walks bewildered through the mist. Now and again she comes to a figure and touches it, calling it by name...
"Edgar...? Annabel...? David...?"
...but each crumbles to dust at her touch.
There is the shape of a mother, frozen in time as she raised her baby high in her arms in play. Katherine gently takes the grey figure of the child and at first there is a baby's vague cry but then the infant too crumbles into nothingness. Katherine's solitary voice echoes:
"Alone...Alone......Alone..."