WE OPEN WITH MASON, a low-end hustler, passing through a part of America that America forgot. Mason’s spent some time in the music business as a promoter, run a couple companies, and is always looking for his big shot at wealth and stardom. He’s currently living out of his car, wracked with credit card debt, and behind on child support payments, with paperwork piled in the backseat of his car beside a suitcase.

Mason stops at a diner and orders coffee from a waitress. Some men eating lunch nearby clearly don’t like him being there. Mason leafs through a local newspaper and finds a feature on a local band that’s about to hit it big. Mason scans the article, picking out certain keywords: “sizable crowds”, “edgy sound”, “record deal”, “in talks to turn their story into a TV series”. But Mason is particularly focused on a photo of the group. They say that a picture’s worth a thousand words, but this picture, well, it’s worth ten thousand. There’s something about these seven young men holding unusually shaped guitars, banjos and violins. They have a powerful, defiant and desperate look that resonates.

Mason drives to a local music venue where he’s friendly with the staff and starts asking about the band. No one knows anything—haven’t even heard of them. Mason makes a couple phone calls, which go to voicemail, and then heads to a record store. Again, no one knows anything about the band.

Mason is ready to give up and leave town when he sees a sign for Rusty’s Furniture Store, and he remembers the name Rusty being prominent in the newspaper profile. He pulls into a strip mall and finds Rusty’s closed, probably permanently. However, when he raps on the window, a young man appears. This young man is Sean Ouia. More importantly, Mason recognizes Sean as one of the young men from the newspaper photo.

2. Sean Ouia

Mason introduces himself as an agent and tells Sean that he saw the newspaper profile, and Sean invites him inside. The store is filled with unusually shaped wooden shelves, tables and dressers, along with other wooden objects, including instruments from the newspaper photo. Sean explains that Rusty was a Vietnam veteran turned woodworker who took in runaways, including Sean, his brother, and the rest of the band. Rusty, now dead, was eccentric, but a strong father figure to Sean.

As Sean’s story plays out, we see flashbacks of Sean’s story, while Sean and Mason provide a voiceover.

Sean: He never hit us, and he never touched us. For most kids passing through, that was enough. But he knew how to live, and he’d share if you knew to listen.
Mason: How did he live?
Sean: He always said, “It’s okay to stay up late, and it’s okay to go out drinking. But you gotta put a pot of coffee on in the morning. And if we ever didn’t, there was hell to pay.”
Mason: What does that mean?
Sean: I said he never hit us, but he sure could yell.

Sean explains how kids came and went, but those who stayed went to school, worked in the furniture store, and learned a musical instrument, because Rusty loved music and built instruments by hand.

Mason, enthralled by Sean’s story, asks whether the band has representation. Sean says no. Mason then asks how they landed a record deal, why no one in town has heard of them, and how they got the newspaper story written. Ultimately, Sean admits that the whole story is nonsense. Rusty never existed, and Sean’s name isn’t even Sean—it’s Andrew. The “band” is just a bunch of rich kids who don’t even play music together, and they did the newspaper piece as a prank. Andrew can’t believe Mason fell for it. Rusty’s is just an abandoned store full of junk where they like to hang out.

In a flashback, a young Andrew is in the store with his parents, where “Rusty”, the man from the flashbacks, is the checkout clerk and Andrew’s father says “This store’s full of junk. Let’s go get some Vietnamese food.”

Mason storms out of the store, while Andrew just laughs, shouting, “Fuck you old man!” Mason, furious, suddenly stops in the strip mall parking lot and looks at the newspaper photo he’s still holding. There’s a long enchanted silence and a panoramic shot of Mason in this abandoned suburban strip mall, then a bird chirps, and then…

Mason turns and marches back to Rusty’s, barging through the door.

Andrew: What the fuck, man.
Mason: Do you like tacos?
Andrew: What?
Mason: Come on, I’m buying you lunch.

Cut to Mason and Andrew at a taco stand, eating tacos.

Mason: Listen, you’ve got a story here. A real story. It has holes, but I know how to plug them. We can make this a thing.
Andrew: Are you being fucking serious?
Mason: If you can play music, we can make this work. I’ll get your crowds, your record deal and your TV series.
Andrew: Do I need to sign something?
Mason: You need to sign as Sean Ouia. No more Andrew.

******

Catch the rest of this meta masterpiece in Sheriff Nottingham 14: Twilight Zone, coming out in May!

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