(Scooter is sitting in common room, looking a tad anxious; others are off doing something else.)
Scooter: Wow...let's face it, everyone's been having a crazy time of it. Erin's dealing with that paper job, Nora has to deal with salamanders running amuck in the bookshop, Storyteller's got five new paper cuts, Beige is just Beige, and one of our pals has been in a car wreck. But me? Nope, I'm...I'm quite calm. I'm very relaxed...and tranquil...on the outside. But inside...(starts to sing)
(and as Scooter sings, various objects around the suite start to mimic the lyrics of the song)
Just like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel,
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning wheel,
Like a snowball down a mountain or a carnival balloon,
Like a carousel that's turning, running rings around the moon,
Like a clock whose hands are spinning past the minutes on its face,
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space,
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind,
Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own,
Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun is never shown,
Like a door that keeps revolving in a half-forgotten dream,
Or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream...
Beige: (in kitchen) Hey, why are the clocks spinning backwards, and what's with the floating apples?
Nora: (looking into bathroom) And the tub just filled up, and pebbles are dropping into it!
Scooter: Uh...(sings again, faster)
Keys that jangle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head,
Why did summer go so quickly, was it something that I said,
Just like lovers walking along the shore leave their footprints in the sand
Was the sound of distant drumming just the fingers of your hand?
Storyteller: (in hallway) Who tracked sand in here? And Beige, are these your cave maps lying out?
Scooter:
Pictures hanging in a hallway and a fragment of this song,
Half-remembered faces but to whom do they belong,
When you knew that it was over were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair?
(is swamped in a shower of red-gold leaves)
Erin: (outside in courtyard, looking through telescope) Hey, there's something flying around the moon!
Scooter: (very fast now)
Like a circle in a spiral like a wheel within a wheel,
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning wheel,
Like a snowball down a mountain or a carnival balloon,
Like a carousel that's turning running rings around the moon,
(others enter; E. comes inside, carrying telescope)
Like a clock whose hands are spinning past the minutes on its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.
(A set of windmill blades whacks into the wall as Scooter collapses, quivering and out of breath.)
Nora: Wow, I had no idea Michael Legrand and the Bergmans were so literal.
Storyteller: Never mind literal, who's going to clean up this mess?
Beige: Oh, come on...I kinda liked the keys that jangled by themselves.
Erin: (picking Scooter up, setting him on sofa) Breathe, Scooter, breathe.
Scooter: (gasp, wheeze) Next time I'm doing "Sweet Gingerbread Man."
Nora: Watch out for Cookie Monster, then.
(Tune in question is "Windmills of Your Mind," from "The Thomas Crown Affair," as well as the Don Knotts episode of TMS.)