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it could not do. Under certain circumstances it felt that it might have been able to manage some sort of joining in spite of its host's immaturity . . . but Seth himself was still inside, and on the occasions it had really tried, Seth had prevented it. Tak could have challenged the boy and almost certainly prevailed, but it was perhaps wiser not to do so. It had not emerged from its black place under the Nevada dust, after all the millennia of imprisonment, to have sex with a woman who was much younger than Tak itself and much older than its host body.

And what had it come for?

Well . . . to have fun. And . . .

To watch television, a voice far back in its mind whispered. To watch television, to eat SpaghettiOs, and to make. To build.

'You want to try me, Sheriff?' Rory Calhoun asked, and Tak's eyes drifted back to the TV. Some of the others might be moving into the woods. It could have made sure of this one way or another if it had really desired, but it did not. Let them go into the woods if they wanted. They would not like what they found. And where could they go? Back, that was all. Back to the houses. In a very real sense, there was nowhere else. Meantime, it would save its energy. Just relax and watch the movie. Soon enough it would be time to bring on the night.

Why don't we just stand down, think things over?' John Payne asked, and Seth and Tak came together again, as the Westerns — this one in particular — had always brought them together. Tak bent forward, eyes never leaving the screen, and picked up a bowl filled with a congealed mixture of Franco-American spaghetti and hamburger. It began to eat, eyes glued to the TV screen, oblivious of the chunks of meat that tumbled down its naked chest from time to time, coming to rest in its lap. Soon the final shootout would begin yet again — KA-POW and KA-BAM all the way home — and Tak let itself float into the story and the silvery black-and-white images, drinking in the atmosphere of violence, as ripe and electric as an impending thunderstorm. As it watched, entranced, Seth Garin separated himself from Tak and moved away from it with the stealth of Jack creeping past the sleeping giant. He glanced at the TV and wasn't surprised to find that, whatever Tak might believe, he no longer liked The Regulators very much. Then he turned away, found one of the secret passages he had made for himself during Tak's reign, and disappeared quietly into it. Deeper into his own mind he went, the passage taking him ever downward. He walked at first, then began to jog. He didn't understand much more of this world than he did the one outside, but now it was the only world he had.

From The Regulators, screenplay by Craig Goodis and Quentin Woolrich

EXT. MAIN STREET DAY

SHERIFF STREETER watches DEPUTY LAINE yank CANDY to his feet. Behind them, in the adobe which houses Lushan's Chinese Laundry, a number of Chinese workers watch from the doorway, where they are huddled.

CANDY

What're you chinkies lookin' at?!

They don't recoil this time.

CHINESE LAUNDRYMAN

You! Clothes needee washee now, sure, sure!

The other CHINESE laugh. Even STREETER smiles a little. CANDY looks dazed. Can't believe STREETER has beaten him in a fair fight, can't believe these 'Chink-Chink-China Boys' are laughing at him, can't believe any of this is happening.

STREETER

Best get on inside, boys.

The LAUNDRYMEN go back inside, but look out the windows.

STREETER (to LAINE)

Make sure he gets his hat, Josh. Wouldn't want him to have to go to jail without his hat.

Grinning, LAINE picks up CANDY'S pinned-back Johnny Reb cavalry hat, which fell off CANDY'S head when STREETER knocked him over the hitching rail. Now, grinning more broadly than ever, DEPUTY LAINE slams it down on the defeated thug's head. There is a puff of dust.

LAINE

Come on, Cap'n. I done saved you the nicest tent in the bivouac. Wait'11 you see it.

SCENE CONTINUES

He shoves the dazed and defeated CANDY toward the jail. SHERIFF STREETER is watching them go with a grin, and does