Garrison Keillor: Once there was a boy who was pretty much like every other boy nowadays -- his parents showered him with gifts on a daily basis --
Sue Scott & Tim Russell: Our son...our beloved adorable son...we kneel at thy feet...we bring thee gifts, offerings of our love...
(COMPUTER SFX)
GK: He had two computers, he had video games (VIDEO GAME WAR), he had remote controls to raise and lower his bed (MOTOR) and to activate a dispenser that blew jellybeans across the room and into his mouth (SFX), he had a virtual dog (SFX) and a virtual cat (SFX), he had a wand that he used to clean himself using radio waves (SFX), and he had a fabulous website where you could download his music (HIP HOP) and you could download video of him saying things (
FN: Hi, I'm Sean, and this is a video of me talking, and I am taking this video of myself in a mirror in my bathroom) and a live webcam of him sleeping (SNORING) and waking up (YAWNING) and eating his bran flakes (CRUNCHING).
GK: His parents, of course, had no idea of any of this -- they were busy (PHONES) just dealing with things and going places (TR &
SS: Bye! CAR PULL AWAY) and one day a storm hit. (RUMBLE OF THUNDER) The sky turned black and then a bolt of lightning hit. At 7:48. That's when the clocks stopped. (LIGHTNING) And great balls of fire flew into the air (SFX) and then it was quiet. And wisps of smoke came up from the computers.
Fred Newman: Oh my gosh...
GK: And the computers were burnt to the core. It was all gone. His world. (QUIET SOBBING) The webcam was toast, and the video games, and the jellybean catapult wouldn't work. There was nothing. The phone was dead (CLICKING)...everything was burnt except his dad's antique transistor radio. (OLD JAZZ GUITAR) An old battery-powered thing from the early Eighties. He turned the dial (TUNING) and there was a man talking...(TUNING ENDS)
TR (DEEP, HIP DJ): Hey it's cool. So -- we had a storm. So what? You're okay. Lost some stuff but it's just stuff. That's not what matters -- stuff. What matters is -- life. What you do. Where you go. Forget your stuff. Be free. Come with me.
FN: You talking to me?
TR (DJ): Of course I'm talking to you.
FN: Where we going?
TR (DJ): This way. (BRIDGE)
GK: So the boy got on his bike (BICYCLE) with the transistor radio and...
TR (DJ): Take a left up here and (TRAFFIC) go over the bridge and look for the sign that says Toodle-Oo.
FN: Across the river??? (BICYCLING)
GK: He'd never been across the river. (BOAT HORN) A towboat came by under the bridge and a steamboat (STEAM WHISTLE, CHUGGING) and then he came to a railroad crossing (DINGING) and a fast freight came by (TRAIN PASSING, FAST) and he waited for it to pass and when it finally did he biked across and now --
FN: The wrong side of the tracks!
GK: That's where he was. He was in a part of town he'd been warned against. Where the wrong sort of people lived.
SS: (SIREN, SINGING)
GK: He walked into a little club with neon beer signs and people sitting at tables.
TR (DEEP, HIP): Hey kid. You ever play the saxophone?
FN: Gosh. What is this?
GK: The saxophone wasn't easy to get the hang of it (BAD SAX NOTES) ...but it was exciting.
TR (DEEP, HIP): We need a sax player in twenty-five minutes.
FN: I'll go work on it.
GK: The club was filling up with men in glittery shirts and shiny hair slicked back and mamas in tight jeans and white nylon jackets, eating burgers and fries, and the band came in and there was a chair for him, and it was dark in there and smoky, and it was nothing you'd ever find on your computer, there was a mood of happiness in the air, and when the piano player looked around and counted off, the kid was all ready to go...w