Driving in the car, BILLY turns on the radio and proceeds to push the radio buttons to find a good song. He pushes one button and Led Zeppelin comes on. Quickly he turns another and Journey comes on. “WRRRIPPP” goes the radio as Billy rapidly pushes one button after another, passing through songs by Foreigner, Queen, a slow soul song, a country song and a dippy pop song, all within a matter of a few seconds. Finally he finds something he likes; the jazzy old Duke Ellington number, Alabamy Home. Looking in his rearview mirror to see if there is any traffic around and seeing there is none, Billy starts to swing the car side to side to the beat, during the chorus he tries to sing along, not knowing many of the words. He turns the corner onto a busier street and stopping at a red light, he casually looks over at the car that pulls next to his. Behind the driver’s wheel is a MUSLIM WOMAN wearing a black veil that covers everything except her eyes. She looks over at Billy. The light changes and Billy drives a little further and then turns left into a 7-11 parking lot. As he parks, the radio announcer’s voice comes on.

D.J.
And that was “Alabamy Home” by the
great  Duke Ellington  and his orchestra
recorded live at The Cotton Club in 1938
 featuring  the  vocals  of  Ivie  Anderson.

There is a line of about eight people; mostly high looking young people wearing jeans, t-shirts, or shorts. At the front of the line is a hippy looking DRUNK with disheveled, dirty hair and ripped, tattered jeans. He is drunk and loud and buying a bag of Doritos corn ships and a large bottle of beer.

DRUNK
(to the clerk behind the
Lucite encased counter)
Hey man, c’mon...I gotta party!...Partay!

Billy gets to the end of the line with a one liter bottle of coke and a chocolate candy bar. In front of him people are laughing at the drunk as he stumbles out the door.

CLERK
              (to the next person in line)
I hope that guy isn’t driving.

Two teenage girls get in line after Billy and stare and whisper, thinking he’s cute or something. Two teenage boys stare at him and think he’s gay or something. As Billy moves up in the line he glances down at the rack of tabloid magazines by the counter. One of the tabloids, The Midnight Sleeze has a headline that reads TRANSVESTITES FORCE JACKIE TO FLEE. Another one, The Truth Globe, has a picture of Elizabeth Taylor on it’s cover and a large headline that reads LIZ: “I MARRIED BIGFOOT!”. Billy laughs out loud.

The drunk weaves his way past the parked cars, past one with a bumper sticker that reads “DON’T BE CAUGHT DEAD” and underneath it in smaller letters, “without Jesus”. He fumbles in his pocket until he finds his car keys. As he walks by Billy’s car, he stops and leaning against the back door, he tries to open his bag of Doritos. He drops his keys and bends down to retrieve them setting his open beer on the concrete. He stands back up, again leans against Billy’s window and with his teeth struggles to open the bag. Suddenly, from behind, THE ABERRANT appears through the rolled down window. It rears it’s ugly aqua face, with it’s ever-chomping mouth and glistening black teeth-like membrane. It hesitates momentarily and then with it’s powerful claws it grabs the Drunk’s head, covering his mouth and chin. The startled man does not even get his last sentence out.  

DRUNK
What the fu...

His drunk, muffled cries do not get out as the Aberrant digs it’s claws into the man’s face. Then with great force, it pulls the man backwards through the open window and into the backseat of the car. His kicking legs and torn, filthy shoes are the last to disappear through the window. Some frantic thrashing is heard, then a crunching sound.

A few minutes later, Billy comes out of the store and gets into his car, oblivious to what’s going on in the backseat.

He drives away, running over the discarded bag of Doritos with a crunch and knocking over the beer bottle, it’s contents glug, glug, glugging down the pavement.