I'll Follow You Down Page #2

---

Oh, Mr. Whyte.

Only two minutes left.

Why even bother?

Sorry, sir.

Well, since you obviously

don't need my instruction,

why don't you tell us the answer?

It... it's unsolvable.

You have one too many variables.

We need to know the

value of Z at least.

Okay.

That's good for today.

Mr. Whyte. Can I have a word?

I'm listening.

I'm sorry.

What was so important this time?

Is this Grandpa Sal

asking, or Professor Sal?

Uh, both.

I was helping Grace.

She has her thesis

defense coming up.

Sometimes I feel like you're

taking advantage of your sweet,

good-natured grandfather.

- Don't give me any special treatment.

- I... I'm not sure how to treat you.

You spend all your time

with your girlfriend.

You never hand in assignments,

half the time you don't even

show up And yet you ace

every one of my exams.

How did you see the problem

on the board so quickly?

- Just did.

- Well, how?

I don't know how.

I can see it like a

colour out of place.

You need to know Z

otherwise it's a dead end.

What about this?

Can you do it?

Yeah. Yeah, I can do this.

I'm going to need a few hours.

Great.

It took me a week.

And I'll bet you come up

with the same answer.

Erol, can I show you something?

It's in the lab.

You need a maid, Grandpa?

Okay.

All right, look, I need you

to listen very carefully

to what I'm going to say.

I...

I need you to be open to

the craziest possibilities.

Things you dreamed of as a child.

There are multiple universes

and we live in one of them,

one track, at one

point in space time.

Now, before your father

left for Princeton...

My father?

Just listen.

Before he left I believe

he found a way to move

back and forth on that track.

What?

He stabilized a

traversable wormhole,

moved the accelerated

end of that wormhole

into the past and

travelled through it.

It's an accelerator.

I found it in one of those

boxes in the storage room

at Princeton.

They were sitting there for

54 years when I found them.

This display had the

last coordinates

where I believe your father

arrived, stored in its memory.

GPS coordinates of exactly where

I found it minus 19,655 days

from when I found it.

I've... I've been trying to

make this work for years

but there were missing

parts and I... I...

- I don't have all your father's notes.

- You're saying that my father...

I'm saying your father

flew to Princeton...

put this together and went back

to the calendar year 1946.

Something must have

happened to him there

otherwise he would have returned

the instant he left and...

and we wouldn't have even

perceived his absence.

What happened to him?

I don't know.

How... how... how could

this be possible?

If I knew that exactly, I'd

have fixed this years ago.

But I'm not a specialist

in quantum mechanics.

I've had to learn about black

holes and cosmic strings

from scratch and I

still can't solve

some of these fundamental problems.

It says he created

negative energy, but I...

I have no idea how.

Why are you telling me this now?

What is this?

You have a gift, Erol.

More so, than your father even.

I didn't want to have

to ever tell you this,

I'd have much preferred

you just live your life.

I can't do this alone.

If you help me I think

we can figure it out.

There is no proof.

There is proof.

These were in one of the boxes.

If you want to test this against your

father's handwriting, be my guest.

This mold, the... the ink...

it's 67 years old.

And I've transcribed all of

your father's research notes.

It's... it's...

it's revolutionary,

never been done before.

And... and look at this!

I think he was planning

to meet with Einstein.

I... I know I'm asking a lot,

but the pay-off, Erol,

everything will be corrected.

- What do you mean "corrected"?

- I mean, we're living in a negative space.

Gabe should be here now.

Your mother, you, me, none of

us should be living this life.

Gabe disappeared in 2000.

Anyone who was affected

by that is living.

An alternate reality.

We fix this, we bring him back.

It'll all return to normal.

The last 12 years of

our lives will go back

to what they were supposed to be.

You really believe this?

Yes.

Grandpa, you know how much mom

struggles forgetting about him.

This is a fantasy.

Have you told any of this to her?

No. I've only told you.

I'm... I'm begging you

to keep it that way.

Erol...

You'll probably never

forgive yourself.

Hi. Sorry, I'm late.

It's okay. I just got here.

You okay?

Yeah. Did you talk to your Prof?

Presenting in two weeks.

Oh well, I'll... I'll help.

No, you've... you've done enough.

Just show up to the presentation.

I need a friendly face there.

Yeah, I'll be there.

We still on for tonight?

Yeah, if you want. You

seem kind of preoccupied.

No. No. I really had my

heart set on seeing...

what was it again?

A one-man show about

the Bhopal disaster.

Yes. Yes. Exactly

what I wanted to see.

Hi.

Hi. So... you want to

tell me what's up?

No. Tell me... tell me

what research you did.

Mostly just the details on the GNHs

of the three countries I'm studying.

Since it's a theoretical

model, the data has...

So what are you working

on now, Professor?

I take an old family photograph

and I paint a picture

of that image.

And then I make digital copies

of it over and over again,

each time removing elements to it.

And then I... I go back

to the original painting

and take the figures out

as if they weren't there

to begin with.

So you're altering your

own memory sources.

Something like that, yeah.

Hi, honey.

Hello.

Do you want to join us?

That's all right.

I got to get somewhere.

Here, let me take these for you.

You still going?

Yeah, in a second.

Thanks, honey.

Excuse me for one minute.

Would you mind if I checked

out your work station?

You don't have to say

anything, just listen.

I've spent years on this.

Everything I've done

is based on evidence

your father left behind.

Let me walk you

through his research.

Who's this?

My husband.

Is he...?

He's dead.

We should get going.

Just think about what

I've been saying, please.

Thank you, Professor.

Good night.

Thank you for coming.

They admire you so much.

I remember when you dreamed

of becoming an artist.

Now you're doing it.

That wasn't my dream, Pops.

You okay?

Yeah. Why?

You seem distant.

Just, you know, been

away these three days.

Marika, you work too hard.

Thanks for dinner.

It was takeout.

Yeah, but it was really

delicious takeout.

Erol, see you in class?

Yeah.

Good night.

Okay, I'll be late.

Do you ever think about your dad?

What?

We never talk about him.

We don't have to talk about him.

Please.

I'd like to.

Did Gramps say something

to you tonight?

About what?

Nothing.

So you've been thinking

about dad a lot.

Yeah.

It all came flooding back...

at the airport.

I remember we played chess.

Went to the movies twice a month.

On... on science nights

he'd teach me the concepts

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes