He plucks a few introductory notes on his guitar, and begins to sing.

Nurse:
That’s alright. There’s still one force on this earth more powerful than country music.
Patient, I’d like you to meet Hallie.

Patient:
I got no-one else to share this with
So I hope you don't object
I been dreaming crazy dreams most every night
Now I'm starting to suspect

That maybe dreams are sent
From the other side
Maybe spoons are bent
And ghosts are truly spied
Especially when you keep an open mind

Let's say I dreamt I was a satellite
That I was doomed to be alone
And I was circling eternally above
Sad and restless and unknown

But what if I should stop
Circling through the sky
Change my course, and drop?
What would that imply?
I'm just trying to keep an open mind

Hallie appears onstage. She goes to the window and looks in at the Patient.

Hallie:
There's certain questions
Maybe we should all avoid
So let's kindly change the subject
If you don't mind, Dr. Freud
We could muddle with your id
But let's not and say we did

Let's say you really were a satellite
And late at night I saw you shine
I'd be grateful if you came on down to earth
But if you didn't, I'd be fine

But if you'll spend some time
With me on the ground
I'll admit that I'm
Glad to have you 'round
I'm just sayin' I'll keep an open mind

Patient:
Oh, it's getting easier I find
To always keep an open mind
Goodnight

Hallie disappears.

The Nurse appears on the videophone.

Nurse:
I’m glad you’re feeling better, Patient, but you really shouldn’t be out of bed.
Now hop under the covers and look sharp.
Here on his tour of the colonies,
Just arrived from Mombasa, Bulawayo, and points beyond,
Be on your best behaviour for His Royal Highness,
The Prince of Wales!

An orderly wheels in the Prince of Wales. For some fucking reason, he’s a mannequin.

(Michael sings the Prince’s song.)

Patient:
You've given me a lot of good advice, sir
And duty's nice. But other things are nicer
You would shirk your duties
You would shrug 'em off
You'd shrug 'em off for love
You'd shrug 'em off
You'd shrug 'em off for love

Ooh – you’d throw it all away

He sends the mannequin spinning offstage.

Patient:
The whole world might be resting on your shoulder
But when you find that girl you’ve gotta hold her
Though the world be as fragile as a porcelain doll
You’ll shrug it off for love

The Patient crawls into bed.

Patient:
You’ll shrug it off
You’ll shrug it off for love

She kisses him. They lean back on the bed.

The music builds. The lights fade.

Blackout.

Silence.

Soft music. Dim lights.

The Patient and Hallie are curled up in bed together. He's asleep.

Hallie rises. She kisses him on the forehead and exits.

Ominous music. The Spaceman appears outside the window.

He enters through the window and slowly creeps up on the sleeping Patient.

Just before the Spaceman can touch him, the Patient wakes and sees him.

The Patient starts to flee, but the Spaceman reaches out pleadingly.

Silence.

The Spaceman removes his mask. It's the Singin' Cowboy.

Cowboy:
Yee-haw!

Patient:
You’re the spaceman I’ve been seeing in my dreams!

Cowboy:
 Yessir, I am.

Patient:
Am I dreaming now?

Cowboy:
Buddy, there’s two possible answers to that question, and neither of them makes a nickel of sense.

Patient:
Well, why are you here?

Cowboy:
Let me tell you...

Cowboy:
So I was paddlin' my canoe
Across the lake one starry night
Oh, the autumn moon shone bright
Once, twice, three times I
Heard someone call, I swear!
But there was nobody there

Patient:
Wait, I'm confused...why were you in a canoe? What happened to your spaceship?

Cowboy:
Be quiet. I'm trying to tell you something important here.

Though this valley may be old
Some things are older yet
There are mysteries, buddy
I would just as soon forget

So I paddled through the night
And I reached the camp anon
With the first bleached rays of dawn
I cried, "Where oh where
Is my baby, tell me please!"
As I fell upon my knees

Though this valley may be old
Some things are older still
There are mysteries, buddy
I, for one, have had my fill

Cowboy (cont.):
You still with me, kid?

Patient:
I'm still wondering what's up with the canoe.

Cowboy:
Don't worry about the canoe. Pay attention. This is where it starts to get freaky.

So I bade her mother tell
At what hour my baby died
And the mother thus replied:
"Once, twice, three times she
Called for you then passed on
While the autumn moon still shone"

Though this valley may be old
Some things will never change
When the white men first arrived
They all said it was strange
Names drift out upon the wind
Like spider threads in fall
I was not the first, I'm not
The last to hear that call

Cowboy (cont.)
You get the message?

Patient:
There was a message?

Cowboy:
Lucky for you, it’s a two-parter.

He holds it up. It’s a key.

UNLESS YOU HAVE THE KEY

He wanders through a room full of machinery and arrives at another door. The sign says:

404

We're outside again. It's broad daylight. The Patient is walking across the open prairie.

Off in the distance, there is a television monitor.

The Patient walks closer. On the screen is Hallie's face. Hallie blinks at him innocently.

Suddenly there's an axe in the Patient's hand. He takes a swing and smashes the television.

Fucking loud music. He keeps right on smashing.

After the television is thoroughly smashed, the Patient stops to catch his breath. He glances down at his axe and notices that blood is dripping from the blade.

He looks down at the ground. The television is gone. In its place is the Nurse, lying in a pool of blood.

Alarms are going off.

The Patient is standing in the middle of the stage, confused. The Cowboy is gone.

He rushes to the videophone and tries dialling Hallie’s room.

Patient:
Hallie! Hallie!

Nurse:
I’m a little busy right now. The system just crashed.

Patient:
What’s going on?

Nurse:
Don’t worry. We’ll be resuming normal operations any time now.

Patient:
I’m not worried about the system. Tell me about room 404.

Nurse:
How do you know about room 404?

Patient:
I was there.

Nurse:
That’s impossible. No-one’s been there.

Patient:
I was just there. I looked behind the curtain. It’s all just a show, isn’t it?

Nurse:
That’s not the word I’d use.

Patient:
None of it was ever real.

Nurse:
Every word was real.

Patient:
There is no Hallie, is there?

Nurse:
Oh, you foolish boy...

The Nurse is distracted by someone offscreen.

Nurse:
Who...? Get back in your room...!

The camera falls over. We see bare feet running off down a corridor.

Part of the Nurse's face is visible in closeup at the edge of the frame. She's unconscious on the floor. At the end of the corridor, people are running back and forth.

A man walks down the corridor toward the fallen camera. He's wearing bloodstained pyjamas. He’s dragging an axe. He stops by the Nurse’s head.

The screen goes black.

Patient:
Nurse! Nurse!

The music gets really crazy loud. Everything’s falling apart.

Suddenly it's quiet. Hallie’s face appears on the monitor.

Patient:
Hallie! Where are you?

Patient:
Hallie, something’s happening. We’ve got to get out of here.

Patient:
What’s wrong?

There is an error message on the screen:

ERROR 404
FILE NOT FOUND

Hallie appears onstage. She sings a song:

The songs ends. Hallie’s face freezes on the videophone. The Patient gently touches the cold screen.