Leslie Dixon

Oh, so this is love?

Well, love is a gift, a lot of people don't remember that. So, you two better brace yourselves for a whole lotta ugly comin' at you from a neverending parade of stupid.

If we get any more white people in here, this is gonna be a suburb.

Oh, oh, oh... you can't stop today as it comes speeding down the track! Child, yesterday is history, and it's never coming back! 'Cause tomorrow is a brand new day, and it don't know white from black! 'Cause the world keeps spinnin' 'round and 'round, and my heart's keepin' time to the speed of sound... I was lost 'till I heard the drums and I found my way, 'cause you can't stop the beat!

That's the way you do it!

Napaway. For stubborn hair. Every kink, will be gone in a blink.

That you would even think that would only show me how unprepared you are to be on your own. I mean, you do know you're a freak? Your deductive powers are a gift from God or chance or a straight shot of sperm or whatever or whoever wrote your life-script. A gift, not earned. You do not know what I know because you have not earned those powers. You're careless with those powers, you flaunt them, and you throw them around like a brat with his trust-fund. You haven't had to climb up all the greasy little rungs. You haven't been bored blind at the fundraisers. You haven't done the time and that first marriage to the girl with the right father. You think you can leap over all in a single bound. You haven't had to bribe or charm or threat your way to a seat at that table. You don't know how to assess your competition because you haven't competed. Don't make me your competition

Have you been talking to anyone?

I know you're not stupid, Eddie, but don't make the classic smart person's mistake, thinking no one's smarter than you.

You're not one of those kind of guys, are you Eddie? We lose you if there's a screen in the room?

And then we'll say, "Godspeed," and your candle will have shed a brief but lovely light.

You don't get sick. You're playing at this level, you get hit by a fucking car, you don't even die.

For a guy with a four digit IQ, I must have missed something. And I hadn't missed much... I'd come this close to having an impact on the world... And now the only thing I'd have an impact on... was the sidewalk.

No scenario? I see every scenario, I see fifty scenarios. That's what it does, Carl - it puts me fifty moves ahead of you.

What was this drug? I couldn't stay messy on it, I hadn't had a cigarette in six hours, hadn't eaten, so... abstemious and tidy? What was this? A drug for people who wanted to be more anal retentive?

I was blind, but now I see.

You know, you should really be glad about this, 'cause - you know, me working for you? - you'd end up as my bitch.

You see that guy? That was me not so long ago. What kind o' guy without a drug or alcohol problem looks this way? Only a writer.

I wasn't high, I wasn't wired, just clear. I knew what I needed to do, and how to do it.

A tablet a day and I was limitless.

... Well, sure, y-you get a short-term spike, but wouldn't that rapid expansion devalue the stock completely in two years?

Against aggressive overexpansion? There aren't because there are no safeguards in human nature. We're wired to overreach. Look at history, all the countries that have ever ruled the world: Portugal, with this big, massive navy - all they've got now are salt cod and cheap condoms.

And Brits? Now they're just sitting in their dank little island, fussing over their suits. No one's stopping and thinking, 'Hey, we're doing pretty well. We got France, we got Poland, we got a big Swiss bank account... You know what? Let's not invade Russia in the winter. Let's go home, let's pop a beer, and let's live off the interest.'

Okay, so what do we have here? Some unknown, untested, possibly dangerous drug scammed out of some unidentified lab somewhere, given to me by a highly unreliable guy I hadn't seen in years.

Information from the odd museum show, a half-read article, some PBS documentary... it was all bubbling up in my frontal lobes, mixing itself together into a sparkling cocktail of useful information... She didn't have a chance.

I see every everything, Carl. I'm fifty moves ahead of you and everybody else. What makes you think I don't have a guy with a bead on you right now? How do you know you're gonna be alive this time next year?

From now on, I'd happily be his errand boy, wash his windows, scrub his toilet - anything I could do to get my hands on that little clear pill that would bring back... Enhanced Eddie.

You don't like me and I don't blame you. You see a self-defeating, energy-sucking piece of shit who's sponging off your husband. You're wishing I'd blow my brains out, but my existence shouldn't make you this upset. What is it?

The next morning, I sent a little probe down into my brain... No surge of brilliance came up to greet me.

In short, I was back.

My brain was just pouring this stuff out. Everything I had ever read, heard, seen, was now organized and available. Here it is. Here you go.

Only problem... if I wasn't moving forward, I felt like I was going to explode.

I see everything, Carl. I'm 50 moves ahead of you and everybody else. What makes you think I don't have a guy with a bead on you right now? How do you know you're gonna be alive this time next year?

Something's pumping half-a-mass in there. The walls of your heart are dilated. You're aortic valve's steno, so you're gonna need to get that replaced. But you already knew that.

You know, you should really be glad about this, 'cause me working for you? You'd end up as my bitch.

I think some people are too scared, or something. I guess it's hard for people who are so used to things the way they are - even if they're bad - to change. 'Cause they kind of give up. And when they do, everybody kind of loses.

What did you ever do to change the world?

Is the world just shit? I don't care about the grade.I just want to see if the world would really change.

Are you saying you'll flunk us if we don't change the world?

Yeah. You're my teacher. They pay you to.

I know what I'm talking about, Arlene! My father got down on his knees and begged my mother. And my mother,s he always took him back. I never understood it. she'd cover up the bruises and the cuts and she'd take him back. Because he begged and he cried. And now you ask me, you ask me what happened after he came back.

Not for long. By 13 I was gone. i ran away. But I missed her so… I had to go back and see her. So one night I did. Now, ask me what happened. What happened that night you came back, Eugene?

He was there. Drunk. As usual. Only this time I wasn't the same. I was 16 years old and I was no longer afraid of him. And when I looked him in the eyes and told him if he ever touched her again I would kill him, he knew. He knew that he would never exist for me again. And I'm standing in front of the house. I'm yelling, screaming for her to come out. I'm telling her she doesn't have to take it anymore. She really doesn't. She can come with me now. I don't even see it. He hits me in the side of the head with a two-by-four and I'm bleeding from my ear. And then he's dragging me. He's dragging me behind the house into the garage. And then he's gone. A minute… five minutes… I don't know. And then he's back. And he's wetting me down. He's wetting me down and I don't understand. I don't understand why water… should smell so bad. I don't understand. And then I see it. I see… this… this gas can. This red gas can from his truck.

And he looks at me one last time… and he lights a match. And the last thing I remember, I'll never forget it, were his eyes. His eyes because they were filled with this immense… satisfaction.

Arlene, I don't want to be one of those people he's talking about. And I've become one. I don't want to spend another second of wasted air. Please, don't make me stay trapped in here forever.

OK. You know, I'm going to have to consult my spirit guides here, because you tell me that Trevor is withholding from you, but you won't tell me anything specific and you still want me to sit here and divine why.