Tommy Lee Wallace

Milly: I found out about the boy next door. His name's Eric Gibb. They think he's autistic.

Louis Michaelson: He's got some marbles loose, or what?

Milly: Well, they don't exactly know, but he's never spoken a word in his life and he doesn't like being around people. There's some institute that wants to come and take him away, but Mrs. Sherman says he's better off with his uncle. He's in my class at school. Mrs. Sherman, she used to teach those kinds of kids. She thinks that maybe being around normal people will help him, or something.

Charlene: Where are his parents?

Milly: That's the weird part. When Eric was five years old, his parents went on a trip to Spain or France or someplace like that. The plane crashed and they died.

Charlene: Oh, dear.

Milly: Now, what I heard is that the moment the plane went down, Eric was alone in his room and without anybody even telling him anything, he started to pretend to fly. It's like, somehow, he knew his parents were about to crash. The way he figured he could save them was by being an airplane. He's been one ever since.

[long pause, then Milly starts humming the theme to "The Twilight Zone"]

Milly: What do you know about Eric? Have you ever seen him do anything weird?

Geneva: That;s all I've ever seen him do.

Milly: No, I mean really weird.

Geneva: Dinky Patterson told me something weird about him once.

Milly: Who's Dinky Patterson?

Geneva: Dinky lived here before you; had your room. Anyway, Dinky used to get really annoyed with Eric climbing around outside his window. So, one day, he took his BB gun, stuffed the barrel with wet Kleenex and started shooting at Eric.

Milly: That's real sweet.

Geneva: He said he kept it up for about an hour, but Eric wouldn't budge, so he finally gave up. Here's the weird part: the next day, Dinky's looking around for his BB gun. You know where he said he found it? See that telephone pole? Dinky said it was up there, up on top of that box. That, somehow, Eric put it there. Of course, Dinky was the biggest liar I ever knew. It probably never happened.

Milly: Probably. What happened to Dinky? Why did he move?

Geneva: His dad got some hotshot job in Atlanta. Took the whole family.

[pause]

Geneva: So, where's your dad?

Milly: He died.

Geneva: What of?

Milly: [flatly] Cancer.

Geneva: Everyone in my family dies of cancer. My grandmother had stomach cancer. She lost 300 pounds before she died. Never looked better in her life. What kind did your dad have?

Milly: I don't know.

Geneva: They didn't tell you. They never tell the kids. Did it take a long time?

Milly: Can we drop the subject?