(theme music playing)
NARRATOR: Man lives in the sunlit world
of what he believes to be reality.
But... there is,
unseen by most, an underworld.
A place that is just as real
but not as brightly lit.
A dark side.
RADIO ANNOUNCER: Let's go right to our calls,
and, uh, Mary.
Hello, you're on the air with Barry. Talk to me.
MARY (on radio): Hello?
Hi, I really like your show.
Oh, you have a lovely voice.
Oh, thank you.
I-I thought I'd call in. I have this problem...
(turns radio off, knocking at door)
(knocking continues)
Thanks for helping me, Mr. Nordhoff.
Just put it anywhere.
(grunts)
And there's two more,
but they're small.
LINA: Junk.
I'll get Seth to help us. Seth!
Don't bother him now. He's practicing.
(electric guitar playing loudly) Seth!
Seth, can you help me for a minute?
Later!
(continues playing)
I'll get it myself.
Can we, uh, offer you something, Mr. Nordhoff?
Well, a glass of water if it's not too much trouble.
Honey?
(guitar playing continues)
(door opens)
What's in those boxes anyway?
Oh, what do you call it? A computer.
Uh, no. I mean, a... a word processor.
Mr. Hagstrom's nephew made it just before...
Right.
Whole family dies...
No relatives except us, and we're not getting one penny.
Richard's brother was a total layabout.
No insurance at all.
No, we had to borrow money to pay for the funeral.
You know what a triple burial costs these days?
It was a terrible tragedy.
Oh, his brother was a drunk.
Thank God Richard didn't have any more relatives.
Jonathan was a good boy.
I think he was one of the best boys I ever met.
Hmm, a lot of good it did him
when his old man drove his van right off the cliff.
He told me he was fixing up
this word processor for Mr. Hagstrom.
It's funny.
It was...
sort of like he went out of his way to tell me that.
Like he knew something was gonna happen to him.
And he wanted to make sure Mr. Hagstrom got it.
Right.
So...
He's got a word processor now, huh?
(groans)
Oh, wait till you see.
Tomorrow he is going to write a story
that's gonna win the Pulitzer.
(sighs)
I'm the only one's gonna make this family rich,
because I do something constructive with my evenings.
I play Bingo.
And I win.
(guitar playing continues in other room)
I'm very sorry about your brother's family.
They were good neighbors.
My brother was a good neighbor?
Well, your brother's wife and your brother's son.
My wife and I thought the world of them.
Your brother...
I know what my brother was like.
He never did a terrible thing in this life
that he didn't try out on me first.
Of course he never got drunk
and ran me off a cliff.
It's always the wrong people who die, Mr. Hagstrom.
Oh, yeah.
You're an author?
Oh, I had a book published.
That's what I call an author.
People didn't buy it in droves.
It got two reviews, both were bad.
I'm working on another.
Well, good luck with it.
Thank you.
I do articles and things.
Always wanted a word processor.
They're so expensive.
Jonathan put this together, himself, didn't he?
You don't suppose it works, do you?
Well...
Jon was what, 14?
Just turned 15.
I guess he used everything he could
get his hands on.
Told me it cost him a total of $30.
Oh, then it can't possibly work.
I wouldn't bet on that till you try it.
The kid was damn near an electrical genius.
Did you know that?
Well, I knew he was good with gadgets.
He won the state science fair when he was in sixth grade,
and that was against seniors.
There was a kid back in the '50s who made
an atom smasher out of two soup cans
and about five dollars of electrical equipment.
"Atom smasher," is that what they're called?
I guess.
Physics was never my strong point.
And I knew a kid who made a pipe bomb
out of the celluloid he scraped off the backs
of a deck playing cards.
Blew up the neighbor's doghouse.
(laughs)
Ah, kids are funny sometimes...
the super smart ones in particular.
You might be surprised.
Maybe.
Maybe I will be.
He was a fine boy.
You loved him a lot, didn't you?
Mr. Hagstrom...
I loved him a lot.
Wouldn't surprise me if it worked.
It wouldn't surprise me at all.
(loud electric guitar playing)
Seth! Will you turn it down?!
I'm trying to do some work down here.
(loud guitar playing continues)
Seth! Where's your mother?
SETH: B-19. Bingo!
"Bingo."
(flips switch)
"Place diskette in drive."
Diskette.
(clicks, whirs)
"Press EXECUTE."
(computer chiming)
(printer whirring)
(two beeps) My God, it's today.
(sighs): Oh, Johnny.
What did you think you were doing?
JONATHAN: Uncle Richard...
You always said you wanted one.
Well, I do want one.
They say a writer can increase his output
by 50 percent with a word processor.
Well, then, maybe I'll build you one sometime.
Well, you fixed this thing.
Sort of.
That typewriter's got a vibration on it
that would measure on the Richter scale.
It's gonna go for good sometime soon.
I can feel that sort of thing
when I'm working on a machine.
Well, you'd better get going on my word processor.
Yeah.
I don't have much time.
No, Johnny...
I guess you didn't have much time.
(clock ticking)
(sighs)
Okay, let's see what you can do. (beeps)
(sighs)
(typing) My brother
was a worthless drunk.
(continues typing)
...the woman I loved.
(inhales sharply)
My wife's picture
is on the bookcase in my study.
(computer buzzing)
(printer whirring, three beeps) "Done."
My wife's picture
is on the bookcase...
where it was before.
(computer buzzing)
(printer whirring, two beeps)
(sighs)
(typing)
12 Spanish...
...doubloons
in a small sack.
(buzzing)
(printer whirring)
(three beeps)
(grunting)
¶ ¶
64 ounces.
Uh...
not the sports.
Not the obits.
Mini market.
Gold...
in the Zurich market today was $395.
$24,280.
(phone rings)
Uh, Seth, would you get that?
SETH: Later.
24,280. (laughs)
(ringing continues)
Hello.
Mr. Hagstrom.
This is Tom Nordhoff.
I called to find out if the machine worked.
Yes, it works, Mr. Nordhoff.
It works in ways you wouldn't believe.
(laughs)
I might.
Jon was a very bright boy.
But a boy is only a boy,
bright or otherwise,
and love can be misdirected.
Do, do you take my meaning?
Uh, Mr. Nordhoff, could you come over?
Tonight, now?
No, I don't think I want to do that.
I think this
ought to stay between you and Jon.
And for God's sakes,
be careful.
(line disconnects)
(electric guitar playing) (sotto voce): All the things I ever wanted.
Seth!
(flips switch)
(electric guitar playing)
It is a happy birthday, Jonathan.
You bet your sweet life it is.
(bell rings) I'm sorry,
I didn't mean that.
(sighs)
I have ideas...
...for ten...
...best-selling
novels.
What the hell.
Twenty.
(guitar stops playing) SETH: Bingo!
Seth! Damn it,
you blew the fuses again!
Damn it.
(printer whirring)
(sighing): I almost had it.
(grunting in frustration)
(electric guitar resumes playing in other room)
(sighs)
(guitar playing intensifies)
(typing)
My son is Seth Robert Hagstrom.
(mechanical humming)
(printer whirring)
(buzzing)
(printer whirring)
(three beeps)
(guitar stops playing)
(clock ticking)
Seth!
RICHARD: He's gone.
And he's taken all his junk with him.
Vanished.
Deleted.
(car horn honking)
Lina's home.
(car door slamming)
(door hinges creaking)
(crying): You... murderer.
You killed my boy!
No, I didn't.
You never loved him!
You never loved me.
You wanted to marry Belinda,
but Belinda was just so beautiful,
you couldn't, bring yourself to, to propose to her.
So your brother proposed to her instead.
You wimp.
Then Belinda gives birth to Jonathan.
And you loved Jonathan better
than you loved your own son.
No, I loved him because he was a fine, fine boy,
and my son was a creep!
So you murdered him.
I didn't murder him!
I deleted him.
(doorbell chiming)
What are you staring at?
That's the biggest turkey I ever saw.
It was the Thanksgiving Bingo.
We had it this week, instead of next week.
Father Phillips has to go in a hospital,
have his gall bladder out.
And I won the coverall.
Lina,
were you ever sorry we never had any children?
What in the name of God would I do with a rug rat?
Any peanut butter cups left?
I don't know.
Oh, here they are.
Ooh.
You look dazed.
What's wrong?
I don't know.
Uh, I'm gonna go upstairs.
You coming? Uh...
Or are you going back downstairs
to moon over your new toy?
Well, I'll be up in a little while.
Does that gadget work?
No, not really.
But it was nice of Jon to think of me.
Funny it came today--
it's my birthday today.
Well, if you make a wish,
wish for some damn money,
will ya?
(chuckles)
(computer whirs)
I haven't got much time.
(typing)
My wife is Adelina...
...Mabel Warren Hagstrom...."
LINA: Well, if you're gonna make a wish,
wish for some damn money, will ya?
Deleted.
(printer whirring)
I am a man who lives alone...
(flames crackling, printer whirring)
...except for my beloved wife
Belinda...
and my wonderful son Jonathan.
(printer whirring)
Execute,
damn it! Execute!
I am a man who lives alone,
except for my beloved wife Belinda
and my wonderful son Jonathan.
(electrical crackling and popping)
(rapid, sustained beeping)
JONATHAN: Dad.
Jon?
Who else would it be?
You didn't hurt yourself
when that baby went to data heaven, did you?
No.
No, I'm fine.
Great.
I don't know what ever possessed me
to use all these cruddy parts.
Honest to God, I don't.
It's like I had to.
Kids' stuff.
Well, you'll do better next time, maybe.
Mom, said that she had cocoa, if you wanted it.
I do.
I'll cannibalize anything worth cannibalizing
out of all this stuff
and take it to the dump tomorrow.
Delete it from our lives.
NARRATOR: The dark side is always there,
waiting for us to enter,
waiting to enter us.
Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight.