Everything Will Be OK (2006)

[GabrielAlejo2341]

On the way to the bus stop, Bill saw somebody he recognized walking towards him, but he couldn't remember his name.

He began to think of things to say when they'd be close enough to acknowledge each other.

As they drew nearer, their eyes locked, uncertain if the other was gonna stop to talk.

The person greeted Bill as Bill mixed up the phrases "What's up" with "How's it going?"

Confused, the person blurted out "Thanks" before he knew what he was saying.

Words caught in Bill's throat and he replied, "Weh."

They did a sort of awkward half turn, and then continued on now confident that the other was not gonna stop to talk.

They never saw each other again, and a day later had each forgotten the whole thing.

Later that night, Bill sat down and put on a big sweater, but it only made him sleepy.

In the supermarket, Bill was always very careful to select fruit from only the back of the produce piles, as the fruit in the front was at crotch level to the other customers.

An old man who smelled of gasoline held up an onion and said, "Big onion," to no one in particular.

He smiled at Bill and Bill looked at his socks.

At the checkout counter, Bill found himself behind a big guy whose T-shirt read, "Second Place is the First Loser."

The checkout girl said, "How are you doing today?"

Bill said, "Fine, thanks, how are you?"

She didn't answer.

Bill felt used.

As he waited for his next bus, Bill stared at a torn shopping bag that was blowing in the wind on the end of a broken pole and anxiously sucked blood out of a sore in the corner of his mouth.

(men singing opera)

Bill dropped his keys on the counter and stood there staring at them, suddenly thinking about all the times he'd thrown his keys there before and how many days of his life were wasted repeating the same tasks and rituals in his apartment over and over again.

But then he wondered if, realistically, this was his life, and the unusual part was his time spent doing other things.

(scrubbing)

Bill sat down and read a celebrity interview.

Then he watched the ants crawl around in his sink.

(fluttering noise)

That night, Bill dreamt of a monstrous fish head that fed upon his skull.

(eerie exhale)

(low guttural sound)

In the morning, Bill felt really tired even though he'd just been sleeping.

His calendar had a photo of a manatee on it for the month.

It always seemed as though the manatee was staring at him.

Bill sat in the living room with a giant box of crackers.

He thought some food might help him get going, but felt kind of strange eating in front of the television without having it on.

Pretty soon he was watching a boxing match on a Mexican channel.

He'd been watching a lot of boxing lately, but didn't really know why.

In the fourth round, there was an accidental head butt that split open one of the fighter's heads pretty badly.

They showed it over and over again in slow motion.

Before he knew it, Bill had eaten the entire box of crackers.

He felt really lousy and didn't want to get up.

He had a sudden urge to talk to somebody, so Bill phoned his ex-girlfriend and told her about the manatee on his calendar.

"Did you ever see the movie about the giant manatee that attacked a city?" she asked.

"I think you mean giant mantis," said Bill.

"Oh yeah," she said.

"Giant mantis."

(groaning)

The next morning, Bill felt even worse.

Downtown, the hot smell of manure blew past him as he walked.

Bill soon came upon three dead horses in the road, apparently struck down by a large moving vehicle.

"Well," he thought, "That would explain the smell then."

He met his ex-girlfriend during her lunch break and they took a walk to the park.

He noticed that every time he was near her, she sort of moved away with a tight-lipped smile on her face as though everything were okay.

Mostly they talked about death.

They agreed that being buried seemed too claustrophobic, and Bill didn't want to be cremated after he'd read that the intense heat boils fluids in the skull until your head explodes.

He decided that he'd want his body shot off into space in a rocket ship.

He figured it'd be too expensive to launch the weight of his entire body, but maybe just sending his head into space would be good enough, preferably in front of a little window.

His ex-girlfriend said she'd be really creeped out if she knew Bill's severed head was floating around above her in space.

Bill was given a new booklet at the clinic discussing potential memory loss in his treatment.

Inside was a cartoon character saying, "I don't know about you folks, but I could lose my keys eatin' breakfast."

His neighbor, trying to be helpful but failing, cornered Bill in the parking lot to explain how cryogenic scientists could freeze his brain in ice until a point in the future when microscopic robots could repair it.

Bill daydreamed about all the brains in jars he used to see at school, how he used to wonder whether there were still somehow pieces of individuals inside, scattered fragments of partial dreams or lost memories lodged deep within that dead tissue, or whether this entire archive is immediately erased the moment that the body fails.

He began to think of people in a new light, how everyone's just little more than that frightened, fragile brain stem surrounded by meat and physics, too terrified to recognize the sum of their parts, insulated in the shells of their skulls and lower middle class houses, afraid of change, afraid of decisions, afraid of pain, stuck in traffic listening to terrible music.

(cheesy disco music)

His neighbor stared at him and said, "Last night I dreamt all my toes fell off."

On the way to his front door, Bill's other neighbor said, "Sup," as in "what's up?"

Inside, he noticed a weird wet spot on his mattress that he didn't remember being there before.

Bill watched part of a documentary program about a 5,000-year-old ice man that was found in Italy.

Scientists explored its colon and everything on live television.

Bill wondered if the ice man could have ever imagined this would one day have happened to him.

(projector being turned off)

That night, Bill dreamt he was at the seaside, desperately throwing dead bodies off of a little boat.

(splash)

(seagulls cawing)

Bill took a walk in the park to try and get some fresh air.

He noticed somebody had written "I Love You" in the playground sand, and he thought that was really beautiful.

As he continued on, a sudden dribble of urine shot down his pant leg.

That was unexpected.

Then some little fat kid with a deformed foot tried to sell him a magazine subscription.

Bill looked at the list of magazines for sale and angrily wondered why they didn't offer any Asian porn.

Then he wondered why he wondered that.

On his way to the clinic, he found he had a little trouble understanding people.

(loud discordant sounds)

Even his pamphlet seemed different.

The guy next to him at the bus stop had the head of a cow, but Bill pretended not to notice.

His doctor said he had some discouraging news.

The latest tests ruled out the possibility of further surgeries, and his current treatment didn't seem to be making any progress.

He wanted to start Bill on something new.

He couldn't think of any reason why Bill should be seeing things, though, and asked him a series of questions.

(loud, discordant sounds)

(soft ambient noise)

(distant footsteps)

(birds chirping)

Bill picked up his new medication, went home, and masturbated for seven hours.

He woke up the following morning and thought his room seemed different.

(loud discordant sounds)

His mouth was bleeding.

Four of his teeth had fallen out in the night.

They looked sort of like dog teeth.

Everyone in the supermarket looked like some sort of demon, and they all had gigantic bacteria-ridden crotches buried in all the god damn produce.

(flies buzzing)

It felt like his whole body was sparkling, his shoes felt as though they were filling with blood, and his hands smelled like copper.

(men singing opera)

(zapping)

When he got home, he found a pair of Lion King slippers in his closet, but had no idea whose they were or how they got in there.

(crickets chirping)

(distant horn honking)

The pipe is leaking!

The pipe is leaking!

Bill could read the thoughts of his waitress, who wore too much eye makeup and had no self esteem.

Outside, horribly deformed birds checked their voicemail.

I am made nervous by a clone...

I'm a little princess, I sure am.

(voices layering)

The effects of tranquilizers on ant health at higher altitudes are unpredictable.

Why don't you come over here and sit on my lap?

After lunch, Bill put on the Lion King slippers and flew to the bus stop.

(discordant sounds)

Bill dropped his keys and stood there staring...

suddenly thinking about all the times he'd thrown his keys there before, and how many days of his life were wasted, but then he wondered if, realistically, this was his life...

(narrator's voice layering)

This was his life.

This was his life.

("This was his life" layers)

(audio slows down)

(whispering voice)

(robotic voice)

(maniacal laughter)

(static)

(screaming)

(discordant sounds)

(slowed down audio)

(woman singing opera)

(laser fire sound effect)

The power of Christ compels you!

The power of Christ compels you!

(slowed down roar)

(roaring)

(roaring)

(distant heartbeat)

(persistent high-pitched noise)

(heartbeat speeds up)

(street noise)

His mother came to take care of him all the way from Omaha.

She was a waitress and often smelled of baby powder and cheese.

They spent a lot of time together doing puzzles and watching television.

(jubilant shrieking)

One morning, as Bill was staring at the patterns in the carpet, she noticed a loose thread in his collar.

(hisses)

(clattering)

"How could you think I'd ever want to hurt you?" she said, and crumpled to the floor.

In that moment, Bill thought she looked really old.

Sometimes the fluids in the IV put a funny taste in his mouth.

Bill awoke to beautiful sunlight streaming through his window.

He tried to climb through it but didn't have the strength to stand.

(beeping)

(beeping)

(gentle breeze blowing)

The next morning, Bill actually felt pretty good.

The day after that, he felt even better.

Then he felt a lot worse.

But the following day, Bill felt just fine.

"I'm sorry, I just don't know what to make of it," his doctor said.

"Maybe Bill's body is simply rallying before finally giving up."

His uncle, whom Bill had not even noticed in the room, had taken a lot of time off work to fly in all the way from Tulsa.

He looked vaguely annoyed.

(birds chirping)

After another two days, they concluded Bill was not going to die, so his mother had all the flowers removed from his room.

She also had to have his casket returned at great expense and inconvenience.

(traffic sounds)

Bill had to go back to work the following Tuesday.

It rained for the entire bus ride.

(bus idling)

(bus driving)