You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind...
A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.
That's the signpost up ahead.
Your next stop, the twilight zone.
All right, mother, remember, the rule of the house today is the moment this is over, you go back upstairs.
That's fine, chris.
You know I always follow the rules of the house...
Except when I don't agree with them.
Hey, you haven't got your hat on.
Grandma!
My angel!
Mother, you know the doctor told you not to exert yourself.
Oh! I don't exert.
Billy is a feather.
Chris... Chris, get the lights.
Everybody sit down.
All right.
Billy, shut your eyes.
Here, mother.
Don't open them till I tell you to.
Happy birthday, billy.
Open them! Happy birthday!
Happy birthday, billy!
Isn't that beautiful?
No, no, no, no, wait, billy.
Wait, my boy.
First you have to blow out the candles or it's no good.
Now, you take a deep breath, like...
And then blow them out, all of them.
Good, good!
Good boy.
You make a wish?
What was it?
You tell grandma, ja?
Don't you think we could all hear the wish, billy?
No, that's a secret between him and me.
Isn't that so?
Now... Mm!
Oh, mother, why don't you let syl cut the cake, huh?
You think I'm too old to cut a cake, eh?
When I am that old, you get the shovel and dig the hole.
Shovel!
Yes, my angel!
Oh... Oh, billy!
Oh, darling.
Oh, my angel.
I am so happy.
My heart is full, I...
I like to say something.
Could I say something?
Sure.
My little billy...
My wonderful little boy.
He gave me life again.
An old woman good for nothing no more but to complain.
He held out his hands to me and...
Made me alive.
Why are you crying, grandma?
I don't know, my angel.
Maybe because I won't be here with you for very long.
Why?
I will be away.
Where?
Nowhere, billy.
Grandma's gonna be right here next year and the year after that.
No. Don't lie to him.
I will be gone.
It's time for presents.
Come on, billy!
Gram, I wish you...
Is anything wrong?
No, it...
Just a little short of breath.
Bang!
Bang, bang!
How do you like that, huh?
This is the one I want you to open next.
Wait till you see it!
This is the one you asked for, remember?
Billy, don't you want to see what grandma got you?
Oh, boy!
A telephone!
For us, billy... For you and me.
So you can always talk to grandma even when she's not here... anytime.
Can I talk to grandma now?
Good... Go ahead.
Hello.
Hello.
Is there somebody who wants to talk to grandma?
It's me!
Who are you?
It's me, billy!
Oh, billy.
Take me upstairs now, chris.
Don't you wanna play?
I want to, billy.
You just talk on the telephone...
I will hear you.
Don't be sick, grandma.
Don't be sick.
This is me, billy.
Please don't be sick.
As must be obvious, this is a house hovered over by mr. Death, that omnipresent player to the third and final act of every life.
And it's been said, and probably rightfully so, that what follows this life is one of the unfathomable mysteries...
An area of darkness which we the living reserve for the dead.
Or so it is said.
For in a moment, a child will try to cross that bridge which separates light and shadow.
And of course he must take the only known route:
That indistinct highway through the region we call the twilight zone.
I wanna see grandma.
Oh, honey, we can't see her right now because she... She's not feeling very well.
She isn't in any pain.
Can we see her?
I wouldn't advise it, not that it would hurt her, but I... I don't think she'd even recognize you.
Oh, we'd recognize her.
All right, chris.
Honey, you might as well put him to bed.
Yeah.
I wanna see grandma.
Billy, try to understand this.
Your grandmother's sick.
She's very sick.
So why don't you wait till she gets well again.
I wanna see her now.
Come on, honey, don't do that.
Come on now.
Well, all right, billy, just for a minute.
Billy...
If your grandmother acts kind of strange, remember, it's just because of all the medicine.
Here... Blow your nose.
Good boy.
The family would like to see her now.
Grandma!
My angel...
Are you sick, grandma?
Not no more.
Then why don't you get up?
Hello, ma.
Who are you?
I'm your son, chris.
Your son.
No... No.
My son was taken away... From me by a woman.
This is my son now...
Billy, my son.
What's the matter, grandma?
It will be so lonely.
I wish you could go with grandma, billy.
Where?
Away...
Far away, billy.
Together, the two of us.
Just you and me, billy.
No one else.
Just you and... me.
Grandma.
Grandma!
Billy!
Billy?
Billy, didn't you hear me calling you?
No.
You know you're not supposed to play so close to the pond.
What are you doing?
Looking at the fishes.
Well, it's getting cold.
Let's go inside now.
What's that?
Your grandmother's bracelet.
Honey, why don't you go up and play in your room for a while, huh?
Chris...
What's the matter?
Oh, it's... It's billy.
He's been walking around in a trance all day.
Well, he misses her already.
You know how close they were.
Yes, I know.
What is that supposed to mean?
I mean they were too close.
It wasn't right.
You know that.
You heard what she said, she called him her son.
She didn't mean that.
Didn't she?
No!
Sylvia, for heaven's sakes she was full of sedatives and she was dying.
Oh, I'm sorry, chris, it's just...
I guess we're all upset today.
Hey. Why don't you come over and play?
Is it cold there?
I had weenies for lunch.
What did you have?
Maybe they'll fix my tricycle.
Billy.
Who are you talking to?
Grandma.
She's lonesome.
She wanted to know if I can come stay with her.
Can I, mama?
Can 1?
Mrs. Bayles?
Oh, just a minute, shirley.
Feel like being alone?
No, that's the last thing I want.
I'll make us some coffee.
Yes, shirley, what is it?
Mrs. Bayles... mrs. Bayles.
My name is peterson.
I hate to bother you at a time like this.
The girl told me about your mother-in-law's funeral.
What is it?
Well, it's about your boy.
Billy?
He's all right, mrs. Bayles.
I just put him down for his nap, and he's all right.
But I'm not.
I've been sitting here shaking for 20 minutes thinking about what might have happened.
What might have happened, mr. Peterson?
Your son almost got himself k*lled.
Ran right out in front of my car from nowhere.
Lucky thing I'm a cautious driver, mr. Bayles.
Oh, excuse me.
Billy doesn't play in the streets.
I know, Mr. Bayles, that's why I didn't say anything when he went out.
What happened?
Well, he played in the streets today.
He ran right out in front of my car...
Didn't even have time to put the brakes on.
I couldn't have missed him by more than a few inches.
It wasn't my fault, mr. Bayles, honest.
Apparently it wasn't anybody's fault.
Mr. Bayles...
I think you'd better have a talk with your boy.
A talk? What about?
Well... When I saw that he was all right, I asked him why he did a crazy thing like that, running out in the middle of a busy street.
He said somebody told him to.
Somebody told him to?
Who?
He didn't say.
Mr. Bayles, you know I'd never tell billy to do a thing like that.
Who else did he talk to, shirley?
No one, he didn't talk to no one.
He just sat up in his room all day long just talking on that toy telephone.
Honest.
Chris...
I'll be right there.
I'm sorry, mr. Peterson.
Don't be sorry, just be glad the boy's safe.
Listen.
Oh, for heaven's sake.
Hi, pumpkin. We're back.
Billy, what's this business about your running into the street?
You know, you had us worried.
I'm sorry.
Well, why did you do it?
I don't know.
Billy, who were you talking to on the phone just now?
Nobody.
Don't fib to me, who were you talking to?
No one!
You're gonna tell me! You hear, now? I mean it!
Easy.
Hey...
Mom doesn't like me anymore, does she?
Why, sure she does, billy.
She's just upset.
Billy, I'm gonna tell you something.
Now, I want you to try to understand.
You're not gonna see your grandma anymore.
She didn't go away, like we said.
She d*ed, billy. Do you know what that means?
Yes. I know.
Billy, I know you're just pretending to talk to her on that phone.
I know it's just a game you made up.
But, billy, for me, don't do it in front of your mother.
Why?
Well, because she...
Just don't, hmm?
Okay.
Okay.
To me about mommy.
Darling, aren't you coming to bed?
Chris, don't shut me out.
Oh, I'm sorry. I was just...
I know.
Funerals stink.
I wanted to remember her the way she was.
Now I'll always think of her that way.
I know how hard everything's been on you, syl.
Everything you've had to go through.
But mother never meant any harm.
I suppose not.
No, it's true.
She had two children before me.
She lost them both.
She just couldn't let go.
I was all she had.
Except for billy.
But billy was me again.
A chance to go back.
To pretend all those other years never happened.
I know it wasn't right or fair to you, syl, but, believe me, no matter what she did, she did it out of love.
Love for whom?
Oh, syl...
Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I really didn't.
Why, you're trembling.
Let's go to bed.
Hooray for peter pan!
That's a good story, grandma.
That's our secret, isn't it?
Nobody knows but us.
Can I have a chocolate ice cream bar?
My telephone! My telephone!
My telephone! You broke my telephone!
Syl, what is it? What's the matter?
Oh, I heard her.
Who?
She was there. On the phone.
Syl, snap out of it.
She didn't say anything, but I could hear her breathing.
Syl...
Billy...
Billy?
Billy!
Billy?
Billy?
Billy!
Billy? Billy?
Billy!
Billy!!!
Oh, no... No...
No...
No, no, no...
No, no...
She took him...
She took him away.
She took him.
Don't say that.
Yes, she did. She took him.
Oh, syl, syl, don't... Don't say that.
How are his chances?
Well, they're not so good.
If we'd have got him a few minutes earlier...
Well, the doctor will be here in a few minutes.
He'll give your wife something.
Thanks.
Mother...
If you can hear me, listen.
You said you loved billy.
At his birthday, you...
You picked him up and...
And you hugged him.
And you said he gave you life again.
If you really love billy...
Give him back.
He's only five.
He hasn't even started.
He doesn't know anything about going to school...
Or girlfriends...
Or wearing long pants...
Even pitching a baseball.
He's hardly been out of this room...
Out of this house.
There's a whole world he hasn't even touched.
Mother...
You said billy gave you life again.
Now you can give h/m life.
If you really love him, let him live.
Give him back!
Give him back, ma.
Ma?
Yeah...
Yeah, we got him.
Yeah...
Yeah!
Mrs. Bayles?
I don't know how we did it, but he's gonna be all right.
Chris!
Oh, chris!
A toy telephone, an act of faith, a set of improbable circumstances all combine to probe a mystery, to fathom a depth, to send a facet of light into a dark after-reg/on to be believed or disbelieved depending on your frame of reference...
A fact or a fantasy, a substance or a shadow...
But all of it very much a part of the twilight zone.
Rod serling, creator of twilight zone, will tell you about next week's story after this word from our alternate sponsor.
And now, Mr. Serling.
Next week, you'll ride up-front in this wagon on a trek west.
Your itinerary is across the great plains, over the rockies to a point in new mexico.
And you'll ride alongside mr. Cliff robertson in a strange tale of a handful of american pioneers who made a detour in time and found themselves one afternoon on the fringe of the future.
Our story is called a hundred yards over the rim.
And, believe me, it's quite a view.
I hope we'll see you then.