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CHAPTER 1
the searching
When
Marlon went to Loren's
house, he didn't know she
was on the beach. He
wanted to explain what had
happened after they made
love. However, when he
arrived there, he
discovered the door was
open, and the place
appeared to be empty. He
entered quietly, step by
step, hoping to find out
something about her.
Marlon knew that Loren
didn't like it when people
crossed the frontier of
her intimacy. But he would
do this for himself.
Anyway, his curiosity was
much more substantial than
his indifference. And
after rummaging through
the rooms, Marlon went
into the kitchen, where he
saw something weird: a
woman in an apron in front
of an old-fashioned stove.
She smiled at him.
Marlon's eyes scanned the
kitchen, and the place
seemed to belong to the
past, as if Loren had
redecorated all that in
two days. It's impossible.
Two days ago, he was in
this house, and the
kitchen was the same as it
had been since he had met
her in that pub.
CHAPTER 2
the meeting
That
night, nothing happened;
Marlon and Loren just had
a few drinks and an
invitation to go to her
house. There they went to
talk about movies from the
'70s, like Scorsese,
Coppola, Spielberg, Lumet,
Nichols, Fosse, and George
Lucas. Since then, they
have had a relationship,
first as lovers, and now
as friends.
Marlon looked deeply at
that woman wearing an
apron, and suddenly a
disturbing thought came
into his head. He had
already seen her but could
not remember where. But
when she went to him and
said, "Good
morning," all these
wonders were gone, but new
ones came up.
This woman is Loren's
grandmother, Erica Darbo,
a movie actress who did
some cheap movies in the
'60s. She had
abandoned her career to
take care of her family.
The problem here is that
she looked young but had
already died thirty years
ago. Marlon, completely
unhinged did nothing but
babble, "Who are
you?"
The woman smiled again.
"Erica. Erica Darbo. Nice
to meet you..." In
addition to that, she went
on, "Excuse me, do I know
you?"
"How's it possible? You're
too young. And you're
dead, by the way," Marlon
said, utterly stunned.
At this moment, Marlon
thought that he was in a
bad dream, but looking at
his watch, he remembered
what had taken him to
Loren's house. Then,
he asked, "Where's Loren?"
Erica promptly responded,
"She went to the beach!"
CHAPTER 3
the acting-out
Marlon
stepped out of the kitchen
quickly. When he got to
the living room, another
surprise: the place was
old-fashioned, like the
kitchen. He cried out,
"What the hell is going
on?" Then, he went away
from there.
On the street, it's
the same thing. Everything
seemed to be in the past.
There's no doubt he was
trapped somewhere in the
past. How did this happen?
Nothing made sense.
"What sort of nonsense is this?" Dr. Frame asks.
"I don't know." Marlon
replies to his shrink
while looking at the
Harvard Degree hanging on
the wall. Then Marlon went
on, "My life may not make
sense, but all of
Kerouac's ideas have to."
"Do you like him?" Dr. Frame asks.
Marlon thinks about it and
says, "Yes! Of course... I
know every word that he
wrote. I mean all the
words chosen by him to get
a sentence."
"Is Kerouac enough for you?" Dr. Frame goads.
"I think so..." Marlon replies.
The psychologist thinks
about that. Then Marlon
says, "I want to
understand my fixation on
him."
Dr. Frame says
confidently, "It's normal!
Sometimes, we love to love
famous people." Marlon is
silent for a few minutes.
The doc gets up.
"We're
done!" Marlon keeps
his silence. Then, he
grabs his gun and fires
three shots into the
doctor's chest.
"What are you doing?"
Loren says to Marlon as
he's lying on the kitchen
floor of her house. In his
memory, the blood coming
out from Dr. Frame's chest.
"Why? Why?" Loren continues.
"What?" Marlon replies a little dizzy, without understanding anything.
Loren, full of fury, yells at him. "You killed me on the beach!".
"I didn't. I swear… I just wanted to save your life..." Marlon says.
"You're a liar! You did
all that shit to hurt me,"
Loren shouts. As she
leaves, she says,
"Congratulations, Marlon!"
Marlon starts spitting out
the poison he had taken
minutes earlier, but it's
too late, and everything
goes dark.
On a small radio above the
kitchen cabinet, the
broadcaster's excited
voice says:
"Good morning, everyone!
Welcome back to another sunny day in Los Angeles, California..."
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