Nightmare As A Child
AUTHOR: Lou Lou Bell
EMAIL: TheZoneChick@aol.com
CATEGORY: DM/Angst
RATING: PG
SPOILERS: Absolutely none.
DISCLAIMER: I stole the concept from Twilight Zone eppy 29 same title, I don't own it, or the ER character...Ha ha Try and sue me. :)
AUTHOR'S NOTES: My 3rd installment, tell me how you like them. Please!
SUMMARY: A Twilight Zone Take on Dave Malucci’s Past: Dave meets a very odd little boy who gives him insight to a past that he seems to have forgotten.
Dave Malucci steps out of his apt and sees a little boy sitting on the stairs in the hallway….
Dave: Well, hello there. How are you? You're new here, aren't you? Are you just visiting? Is that it? Just visiting someone in the building? You're a quiet one, aren't you? Not much to say, is that it? I have some experience with kids; I'm a doctor. I also have a kid of my own, a little boy, but I’ve never seen him before, his mom won’t let me.
Little Boy: I know. I know all about you.
Dave: Oh, do you now….
Little Boy: Sport, that’s what everyone calls me….
Dave: Ok, Sport, how about you come inside and have a nice cup of hot chocolate…that is what I do when I get home from work, only it’s usually coffee I’m having, but my son likes hot chocolate.
Sport: I know, but you don’t like marshmallows do you?
Dave: You’re right I don’t
Sport: I don’t either….
Dave: Here we are. Don’t you think we should let your mom or dad know where you are; I don’t want them to be worried
Sport: That won't be necessary.
Dave: Well, I'll just put the milk on.
Sport: I'm in no hurry.
Month of November, hot chocolate, and a small cameo of a child's face, imperfect only in its solemnity. And these are the improbable ingredients to a human emotion, an emotion, say, like fear. But in a moment this man, Dave Malucci, will realize fear. He will understand what are the properties of terror. A little boy will lead him by the hand and walk with him into a nightmare.
Dave: Here you are. Hope it isn't too hot.
Sport: No, it's fine. I'm glad it isn't too hot. I don’t like when things are too hot.
Dave: I don't blame you.
Sport: Of course you don't. You got burnt once, that scar right below your elbow. You remember?
Dave: Of course I remember.
Sport: How did it happen?
Dave: Well, actually I don't remember. A lot of things I don't recall at a certain age. Something happened to me then. I'm not sure exactly what it was. There are some things I'm rather vague about.
Sport: I know that. I know that very well. I know all about you. Don't you remember?
Dave: Yes, I remember that you said that.
Sport: Do people look familiar to you sometimes?
Dave: What do you mean?
Sport: I mean when you see people on the street, sometimes you help them at work, do they look familiar to you?
Dave: Sometimes.
Sport: Today?
Dave: Today?
Sport: Yes, today. Did you tend to someone who looked familiar?
Dave: No!
Sport: Really?
Dave: It's not polite to contradict people. I told you that I didn't. (Dave pauses for a moment in thought)
Sport: Did you remember?
Dave: Yeah, as a matter of fact there was someone….
Sport: There was a man…
Dave: yeah, he came in today with a superficial wound to his hand…
Sport: And you recognized him.
Dave: No, I didn’t recognize him, but he just looked so…
Sport: Familiar to you? He scared you didn’t he? Of course he did.
Dave: What are you talking about?
Sport: I know he looks familiar to you, and he scares me, just as I know he scares you too!
Dave: Who are you? What is your name, and where are you from?
Sport: I live around here, and I have a nickname. People call me Sport. It’s not my real name of course, but it is what people always call me. DID YOU HEAR?
Dave: Of course I heard you, your nickname is Sport. It’s cute. What else do you want me to say?
Sport: Nothing, I just thought…feeling warm?
Dave: Yes, it is a little warm in here, don’t you think?
Sport: No, I think it’s very comfortable {Noise outside} We’re not the only ones on this floor, someone is coming!!
Dave: No, there are 4 other apartments on this floor.
Sport: Yes, but who ever is out there is coming here. I’m going out the back door, I don’t want anyone to see me.
Dave: Kid, there’s nothing to be afraid of
Sport: Yes there is! I’ll see you later.
{Knock at the door}
Dave:Yeah?
Man: Dr.Malucci?
Dave: Yeah, so, what do you want?
Man: It's Anthony Luciano, Mr. Malucci, I don’t know whether or not you remember me, but I knew your mom very well. {Dave opens the door} Do you remember me?
Dave: I treated your hand today in the ER.
Anthony: That’s right, but I thought you looked at me a little oddly…Mind if I come in for a minute?
Dave: No, come right in.
Anthony: Been quite a number of years, 18 or 19 to be exact Dave.
Dave: Hey, take a seat.
Anthony: Thanks. You’re stumped, aren’t you, well I don’t blame you, I mean you were just a kid at the time. Probably not more than 10 or 11 yearsold. I used to know your mom pretty well
Dave. Anthony Luciano? Ring any bells yet Dave?
Dave: Not that I seem to recall.
Anthony: I'd heard that you...well, after the tragic thing happened, you were ill for a long time. Were you ever able to recall exactly what it was that...well, what I mean is, Mr.Malucci, you drew a blank after that evening, I was wondering if it ever came back to you?
Dave: Not really, only vague disjointed things.
Anthony: You were in the room when it happened.
Dave: When what happened? I suffered a kind of a shock, a trauma the doctors called it. And after I recuperated I moved to Chicago and I lived with an aunt. Lived here ever since,I’m a Doctor now, but then you knew that from this morning.
Anthony: Yes, well I heard that, I was actually just passing through on business, and was actually looking for you, what a coincidence that I happened to cut my hand this morning, and was brought to the exact hospital that you work in.
Dave: You say you worked for my mom?
Anthony: Yes for almost a year, handled most of her investments.
Dave: I don’t seem to recall. Luciano did you say?
Anthony: That's right, Luciano. It’s great to see that you’ve grown up the way you have, just as handsome as when you were a little boy. I lived in the same apartment building. I heard you screaming that night. I was the first one to find her. Tragic terrible thing, your mother being killed like that, and they never found the man who did it, did they?
Dave: No, I don't think they did. There are so many things I don't remember that happened at that time. All I remember is kind of vague, nightmarish things. Waking up in my bed, hearing my mother screaming, then, then seeing this person...
Anthony: Did you happen to see this man’s face?
Dave: I don’t seem to remember, that’s one of the things I have pushed out of my mind. Are you here for a while Mr. Luciano?
Anthony: No, just passing through.
Dave: Oh yeah you mentioned that. Would you like some coffee or a beer or something?
Anthony: No thanks. What’s the matter Dave?
Dave: That’s odd, he finished his cocoa, and here it is still untouched, but then he was an odd little thing himself.
Anthony: Who was?
Dave: The little kid who was here. So solemn and wise, that’s the only way I can think to describe him.
Anthony: Well, I guess I’d better get going
Dave: I’ll have to ask him how he does that trick, sit there drinking cocoa, and leave a full cup. Little Sport.
Anthony: Sport?
Dave: Yes, that’s his nickname, he wouldn’t tell me his real name. Little Sport, that’s what he calls himself.
Anthony: That was your nickname Dave, when you were a kid, we called you Sport. Something wrong?
Dave: No, nothing’s wrong, except that it’s quite coincidental, that little thing camping on my doorstep, and then having the same name as me. That’s odd also, things are coming back to me. I was called Sport, I haven’t thought of that in years, but that’s what people called me, wasn’t it?
Anthony: I’m sure in due time, you’ll remember a lot of things. Didn’t the doctors tell you that things would come back?
Dave: They didn’t know. Full of talents, our little Sport.
Anthony: What do you mean?
Dave: I mean him playing ball, quite an arm on that kid.
Anthony: I don’t hear anything. Did he stop?
Dave: I mean that!
Anthony: What?
Dave: Him playingball? Can’t you hear the ball against the wall?
Anthony: No, I guess your ears are better than mine.
Dave: He stopped now.
Anthony: There’s something I want to show you.
Dave: Can’t understand you not hearing him. It was so plain.
Anthony: It’s a snapshot your mom gave me of you when you were a little boy. See, you were an exceptionally handsome kid, and you looked so much like your mom, especially now. So much like your mother.
Dave: I don’t understand.
Anthony: What Dave? What don’t you understand?
Sport: Has that man left?
Dave: He left some time ago Sport. Don’t you think you oughta be getting home now, it’s way past your bedtime, and your mom will be worried, won’t she?
Sport: No, she won't be worried. I don't have a mother, not any more. Do you remember now about Sport? Do you, Dave?
Dave: Yes, I remember.
Sport: And the time you burnt your arm? Do you? You got a nasty burn, right below the elbow.
Dave: Who are you! What's your name! You listen to me kid, I want you to tell me who you are. I want you to tell me who you are and where you're from and what your name is, and I want you to tell me now! Do you understand? I want you to tell me who you are right now!
Sport: You don't know? You don't have any idea? And you were doing so well, Dave. You were starting to remember things.
Dave: Remember what things?
Sport: Look familiar?
Dave: That’s supposed tome a picture of me when I was a kid, but it’s just a picture of you!
Sport: You still don’t understand do you?
Dave: Understand what?!
Sport: That I'm you, Dave! Understand now? I'm you! I am you. I'm you when you were ten years old, when you were called Sport. I'm you, Dave. I'm you when you lived with your mother in the apartment house. I'm you when you were asleep in your bed that night and the man came into the house, and he was arguing with mother downstairs, and she tried to get away and she ran into your room, and the man caught her and he choked her. Dave, remember? He choked her, then he picked up something heavy and he hit her on the head. Then she fell, and then you screamed. The man looked at you. The man looked at you! Then you screamed so loud, Dave you screamed so loud...
Anthony: I want to bring you up to date Dr. Malucci. You have been living in ignorance for so long.
Dave: Oh please.
Anthony: I want to impart some information because it's obviously coming back to you anyway and I want to be the first, I want to be the very first. I am your father. And obviously my name would then not be Anthony Luciano, but Anthony Malucci, that night it was me in your bedroom. I killed your mother. There was some trouble with these men that I knew, with some debts I owed to them. I begged your mom to give me the money, but your mother, rest her soul, was a particularly rigid, straight-laced woman who was going to inform on me. When she ran into your bedroom I had to follow her. Hardly enough, Dave, I'd have had to come after you next. But your screams brought people there and I had to get out in a hurry. It wasn't until later that I learned that you had no recollection of who was in the bedroom. You blacked out the whole incident. But you haven't been neglected, Dave. I've been keeping tabs on you. Chicago, college, Cook County, here. I've been keeping tabs on you because I knew that one day the pieces would start to fit together, that you'd start to remember things. That's why I came back. I had to come back, Dave, to take care of the unfinished business {Anthony pulls out a gun and points it at Dave}. You're the only person who knows how your mother died.
{Dave rushes Anthony, and tries to get the gun out of his hand, it goes of twice, Dave falls backward, Anthony stumbles, shot in the chest, Dave grabs his arm, blood coursing throughhis fingers, and watches his father, sink to his knees, and finally to the floor dead.}
An ambulance is called, and EMTs and Police and Carter arrive in the apartment. An EMT is checking Dave’s wound, some police are surveying the body.
Carter: {Looks uneasily at Dave} You gonna be alright Dave?
Dave: Yeah thanks Carter. {Dave follows one of the paramedics to the kitchen to get cleaned up}
Police Lieutenant: He’s gonna be alright Doc?
Carter: Yeah, he should be fine. You guys got what you need?
Lieutenant: Yeah, I think so, it seems to all fit together. He’s a fortunate guy, your friend is, any less fortunate, and he’d be a murder victim. But what about this kid he is talking about?
Carter: The kid is him, at least he conjured up the kid, there’s a part of him, deep inside a memory, a memory that finally had to come out, and when it did, it took the form of himself as a kid.
Lieutenant: That’s really weird.
Carter: The human imagination is often weird, sometimes it means salvation. Hey, maybe I should apply for the psychologist’s position.
Lieutenant: Uh, yeah, well anyway Dr. I think we’re finished here, have a nice evening. Watch your friend closely for the next couple days.
Carter: Ok.
{Later on after everyone has left, Dave steps out into the hall of his apartment building, and sees a little boy throwing a ball against the wall}
Kid: Hello
Dave: Hey there, you think you can throw your ball to me, from the end of that hallway?
Kid: Sure I can, mister.
{Kid runs to the end of the hall, and hurls the ball at Dave, who catches it. He comes running back up to Dave, who hands the ball back to him)
Dave: You got a great arm on you kid.
Kid: Thank, mister.
Dave: You new in this building?
Kid: No, my mommy just brought me up to see my daddy.
Dave: What’s you name little boy?
Woman: David Anthony Malucci Jr. Hi Dave, it’s been a long time.
Dave: It sure has Sheila, please come inside.
Sheila: Ok, let’s go Davey.
Davey: Ok, mom. Is this my daddy?
Dave: Yes I am, and now that I have you, I’m never going to let you go.
{They walk inside, and the apartment door closes}
Dr. Dave Malucci, who has lived in night and who will wake up to morning. Dr. Dave Malucci, who took a dark spot from the tapestry of his life and rubbed it clean, then stepped back a few paces and got a good look at the Twilight Zone.
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