The Fugitive Generation (x)

EXT. KENT STATE CAMPUS--DAY

Jim walks onto Kent State campus, towards area near the pagoda and bell. Jim is only one walking around in open field area. Students, looking less like freaks than U. of Michigan students, walk in and out of classroom buildings.

As the sun begins to set, Jim walks towards Kent State student dormitories. He glances at various women students walking around him. Then he walks inside a dormitory.

EXT. KENT STATE CAMPUS--NIGHT

Jim walks away from dormitories, back towards town. BARBARA, 20, and BARRY, 21, walk towards Jim. Barbara, very physically attractive, wears jeans and a winter coat. Barry, bearded and long-haired, wears a black leather jacket. Jim suddenly stops. Barbara vaguely notices Jim, continues walking, then stops suddenly and turns around. Barry keeps walking in the opposite direction.

BARBARA: Jim!

Barbara gives Jim an affectionate kiss and a big, warm hug.

BARBARA (CONT'D): What are you doing here?

JIM: I was hoping to bump into you.

Barry turns around and walks back towards where Barbara and Jim are standing. Barbara points to Barry.

BARBARA: Barry's my fiance. We're getting married this June.

Jim is stunned. Then he laughs.

JIM: Well, I guess that summer seems like many years ago.

BARBARA: It does.

EXT. COUNTRY FIELD--NIGHT

Barbara and Jim are both wearing shorts and sweatshirts as they sit close together, sharing a joint on a grassy field behind camp cabins. Barbara tosses the joint away and begins to exchange passionate kisses with Jim.

EXT. KENT STATE CAMPUS--NIGHT

Barry stands next to Barbara.

JIM: Well, I have to hurry now if I want to make my bus connection to New York. Have a good life, Barbara!

Jim quickly turns away from Barbara and Barry. He walks rapidly across campus, towards Kent's Main Street.

BARRY: Who was that guy?

BARBARA: Oh, just some guy I know from Camp Mountaintop. We were both counselors there two summers ago.

Barbara holds Barry's hand as they continue walking back towards dormitories.

INT. KENT MOTEL LOBBY--NIGHT

KENT MOTEL RECEPTIONIST, 21, male. He hands Jim a key.

INT. KENT MOTEL ROOM--NIGHT

Jim pulls out blank sheet of paper, a pen and a stamped envelope from his army jacket. He then sits by the motel room desk and writes the title "Report from Kent State." While he writes, we hear his voice over.

JIM: (V.O.) "As I walk around the campus of Kent State, I'm surpsied at how spacious it is and how new most of the buildings are. It looks like a larger version of Stonybrook's campus on Long Island. Am I really in Ohio?

"The students at Kent State seem apathetic and politically straight these days. I guess they're afraid of getting shot at again.

"I walk to the spot on the campus from which the Ohio National Guard fired their guns and killed the 4 students. `This is where it happened,' I think. Yet there's still no big monument there to the students who were killed.

"But just as the FBI hasn't been very successful at locating the Weatherpeople, the bullets of the Death Culture haven't been very successful at stopping the growth of the Life Culture in the 1970s. And this April, don't be surprised if the Life Culture once again shuts down Columbia University.

"Yours in love and struggle,

"Jim Greenberg
"Columbia SDS"

Jim folds the paper up, puts it in the envelope and addresses the envelope.

C.U. OF ENVELOPE

"Editor, Columbia Daily Spectator, Student Newspaper, 317 Ferris Booth Hall, Columbia University, NY, NY 10027." The return address is "Kent State University, Kent, Ohio."

EXT. MAIN STREET, KENT, OHIO--DAY

Jim drops envelope in mailbox. He walks to highway entrance, sticks out thumb, and is picked up by two long-haired male students.

EXT. AKRON BUS STATION--DAY

Jim gets out of car, walks inside bus station.