Original subtitles

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man.

It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.

It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and

superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his

knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination.

It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.

In this corner of the universe, a prizefighter named Boley Jackson, 183

pounds and an hour and a half away from a comeback at St. Nick's Arena.

Mr. Boley Jackson, who by the standards of his profession is an aging, over-the

-hill relic of what was, and who now sees a reflection of a man who has left

too many pieces of his youth in too many stadiums for too many years before too

many screaming people.

Mr. Boley Jackson.

who might do well to look for some gentle magic in the hard-surfaced glass

that stares back at him.

Take a tiger tonight, huh, Bully? Yeah, take a tiger. I'm gonna take a tiger.

Henry, I'll give him a left and a right and one to the stomach and then pick him

up by the tail and throw him right up into the ninth row.

You're looking good, Bully.

You're looking sharp.

You gonna watch?

You foolin'. I'd yell so loud you'd hear me all the way to St. Nick's.

You know...

A fighter don't need a scrapbook, Henry.

You want to know what he's done, where he's fought?

You read it in his face.

He's got the whole story cut into his flesh.

St. Louis, 1949.

Guy named Sailor Leavitt.

Real fast boy.

And this, Memorial Stadium.

Syracuse, New York.

Italian boy.

Fought like Henry Armstrong.

All hands and arms.

Just like a windmill all over you.

First time I ever got my nose broke twice in one fight.

And then moved south, Henry.

Miami, Florida.

Boy got me up against the ring post.

He did this with his laces.

I catch a bus.

And the bus is already gone.

Left a couple years ago.

Arms heavy.

Legs like rubber. Short of wind.

One eye almost gone.

There I go.

Running down the street.

trying to catch that bus to glory.

Bully, you are going to catch a tiger tonight.

I'm going to make a wish.

I'm going to make a big, tall wish.

And you ain't going to get hurt none either.

You hear, Bully?

You've been hurt enough already.

And you're my friend, Bully.

You're my good and close friend.

You got quite a boy there, Francis.

You got quite a boy.

Talks like a little old man, you know.

I'm his good and close friend.

That's what he tells me. Real, real intense. I'm his good and close friend.

Well, you're good to him, Bully.

Real good.

Taking him to ball games all the time, taking him for walks.

Take care of yourself, Bully.

Don't get hurt, none.

I'll work hard trying not to.

I'm gonna make a wish, Bully.

I'm gonna make a wish nothing happens to you.

So don't you be afraid, Bully.

Understand? Don't you be afraid.

Oh, God.

Bully, that boy's got you in a shrine.

Scared old man who don't remember nothing except how to bleed?

I don't fit in those shrines, Frances.

But you tell him, Frances, you tell him how much I'm obliged to him for his

wish.

He's all the time wishing.

Why, just the other night he...

I needed $15 for the rent.

Henry said he was going to make the big, tall wish.

That's the biggest wish. The big, tall wish.

He don't waste that on just anything.

That's what he calls the most important kind.

That was last Friday.

And a woman I did some nursing for on the island sent me a check.

A check for $15.

Little boys.

Little boys with their heads full up with dreams.

When do they find out, Francis? When do they suddenly find out that there ain't

any magic?

When does somebody push their face down on the sidewalk and say to them, hey,

little boy, it's concrete.

That's what the world is made out of, concrete.

When do they find out that you can wish your life away?

Good luck tonight, Bully.

Sure, sure, Frances. We'll be waiting for you.

Tell him I'll see him later.

Hey, Bully.

Good luck, baby. You can take it.

Take it from me.

Best of luck, Bully.

We'll be watching.

Try it, Bully.

It's okay.

Feels good, Joe. Thanks.

He's on ready.

Butt it out, will you, Thomas? I want to breathe.

Well, you hired me for the night, Bully baby. It's a package deal. Me and the

cigar. Look, I said butt it out.

Feisty little old man.

The older they get, the louder they talk, and the more they want.

And the less chance they got to get it. How'd they get you tonight?

Oh, I'm a bargain bully.

I'm an expert on has-beens.

I seen your boys.

Catches, aren't they?

Guaranteed two rounds each.

Shovel them in, shovel them out.

Sew them together for the next time.

Well, that's the only way to do it, champ.

A month or so from now, maybe I'll sign you at the back door.

Why not?

You're long gone, Bowley.

You've had it.

Wait till after tonight.

You'll want to get in the stable, too.

All you have to do is guarantee two rounds.

Two, three prelims every month.

Why, you can do that standing on your head.

Can't you?

I thought the smell came with the cigar.

You wear it all over you.

You stink, Thomas.

You tell him, Chan.

You tell him.

Jackson, ten minutes.

He'll be there.

What about tonight?

What do I watch out for? I only seen this boy fight once. That was a couple

of years ago.

I ain't never seen him.

You watched him fight. You seen him fight six, seven times in the past year.

You piece of garbage, you.

You're betting on him, aren't you?

Now, hold it, champ. It ain't enough. He sells flesh by the pound. He comes in

here for a dirty 20 bucks, supposed to help me, and then bets on the other guy.

Well, I may be a bum upstairs in another 10 minutes, but right now I'm going to

fight a beautiful first round. Now, you touch me, Bully, and I'll have you up

for 10 years. I swear to you, Bully, I'll fix your wagon good.

Now, you lay off him, and you're coming breaking.

Let me look at that.

It's there.

Wasn't enough spotting them all those years, Bully.

It wasn't enough, huh? You gotta go in the ring with four busted knuckles.

Okay, Jackson, you're on.

Well?

Well, nothing. Let's do it.

Oh, poor little Henry Dunham.

Two strikes on all this magic.

Two strikes.

Bouge.

Nothing to... Nothing.

There ain't no such... There ain't no such thing as magic.

on the rope. There's another left, another right.

That was a hard one. Jackson's knees are wobbly. He's hurt. Bully Jackson is

definitely hurt.

Transiglio moves it on.

You done dandy, Bully.

Hey, Joe.

You were wrong.

Just bruised, I guess, huh?

Jeez, it hurt like anything, but somebody said I got him with it.

Could have been broken after all.

Who said it was?

You said.

Jeez, it felt like it, too.

I could feel the knuckles coming right up through the bandages.

Could have sworn it was broke.

And then when he knocked me down, I... When he what?

When he knocked me down, Joe.

When he knocked me down.

I don't even remember getting up.

The next thing I knew, there he was at my feet.

We must have been in different arenas together.

You didn't get knocked down, Bully.

You was never off your feet.

I wasn't.

No, you carry this one all the way, baby.

Joe, I wasn't off my feet.

I didn't go down.

Read about it in the papers.

Good night, old-timer.

I'm proud of you.

You were just great, man. Just wonderful. You were great, Pauly. We

seen you on television.

You were real great. You clobbered him, baby. You clobbered him. That was a

right. That was a real right.

Hey.

What do you say, Henry Thompson?

You are a tiger, Pauly. You are a real tiger. Did it look okay?

Just like a champ. Hey.

You know something?

That boy must have hit me so hard it knocked all the hurt right out of me.

I don't remember a doggone thing, Henry.

You know, I must have really been punchy there for a second because I thought he

had me on my back.

And there I was, lying there looking up at the ref waving his arm down on me and

staring at the light blink in my eyes.

But that must have been some kind of a dream or something because...

Henry. Henry, I never went down.

I was never off my feet.

Henry, I never went down.

Henry, was I?

Was I on my back and on my way out?

Nobody remembers it.

Nobody at all, except me.

I thought it happened, but it didn't.

I thought I was lying there on my back being counted out, and everybody tells

me that... Oli, I made the big wish then.

I wish it was never knocked down. I just shut my eyes and I...

I wish real hard.

It was magic, Bully. We had to have magic then.

Had to, Bully.

Nothing left for us then.

Had to make a wish. There ain't no magic or wishing or nothing like that.

You're too big to have nutsy thoughts like that. You're too big to believe in

fairy tales.

If you wish hard enough, Bully, it'll come true.

If you wish hard enough and then believe, it'll stay that way. Somebody

got to knock it out of you, Dante. Somebody got to take you by the hair and

rub your face into the world till you get the taste and feel of the way things

are, Dante.

Listen, kid, I've been wishing all my life.

You understand, Henry, I got a gut ache from wishing, and all I got to show for

it is a face full of scars and a head full of memories of all the hurt.

and misery I've had to live with and sleep with all my miserable life.

Crazy kid, you trying to tell me you wished me into a knockout? You trying to

tell me it was magic that made me get up off my back?

You're a little kook, Henry.

That's what you are.

How'd I ever get mixed up with you anyway? I ain't got enough trouble. I

gotta get mixed up with some dopey kid who thinks... If you don't believe,

Paulie, it won't be true.

That's the way magic works.

Listen. Listen, boy. There ain't no magic. No magic, Henry.

I had that fight coming and going. I had it in my pocket. I was the number one

out there, and it was me who done it. Me, Boley Jackson.

Hitting and slugging and winning.

Winning.

Henry.

I can't believe I'm too old.

And I'm too hurt to believe.

I can't, boy. Just can't. Now, Henry, there ain't no such thing as magic.

God help us both. I wish there were.

Bully, you've got to believe.

I can't. You've got to believe. I can't, boy. You've got to believe. I can't.

Please. I can't. Please believe.

I can't. You've got to believe, Bully. I can't.

You should have stood in bed.

How come you didn't use your right?

He's in bed, Bully.

Can I see him?

Sure.

I expect he's waiting for you.

Bully?

I'm real sorry.

I pulled a rock, Henry.

I threw a punch before I should have.

Hit a wall.

Busted my knuckles.

I went in with half my artillery gone.

You look like a tiger, even so.

You look like a real tiger.

I was proud of e-balling. I was real proud.

I didn't go to sleep.

Tomorrow we'll go to a hockey game.

And we'll get some hot dogs in the park, me and you.

Sure thing, Bowling.

That'd be nice.

Bowling?

I ain't gonna make no more wishes, Bowling.

I'm too old for wishes.

And there ain't no such thing as magic.

Is there?

I guess not, Henry.

Or maybe...

Maybe there is magic, and maybe there's wishes, too.

I guess the trouble is... I guess the trouble is there's not enough people

around to believe.

Good night, boy.

Good night, Bowley.

Mr. Bowley Jackson, 183 pounds, who left a second chance lying in a

heap. on a rosin-spattered canvas at St. Nick's Arena.

Mr. Bully Jackson, who shares the most common ailment of all men, the strange

and perverse disinclination to believe in a miracle, the kind of miracle to

come from the mind of a little boy, perhaps only to be found in the Twilight

Zone.

Rod Serling, the creator of Twilight Zone, will tell you about next week's

story after this word from our alternate sponsor.

And now, Mr. Serling.

Greetings from the low-rent district.

Next week, we follow the fortunes and misfortunes of Mr. Larry Blyton, who

plays the role of one Rocky Valentine, an itinerant second-story man who shot

dead in an alley one night, then goes to his just rewards.

This little item here being one of them.

This one you can watch with a tongue in your cheek.

It's called A Nice Place to Visit.

Next week on The Twilight Zone.

Kimberly Clark invites you to watch Steve McQueen in Wanted, Dead or Alive,

Saturday nights over most of these same stations.