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Johnny Smith has all the time in the world.

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It's not the life he ever imagined for himself but it's a good one. He didn't really live through those six years in a coma. They passed him by in a heartbeat, from one breath to the next.

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Seconds, minutes, days, months, years. Snatched away without his notice and now returned with interest.

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On a stormy summer afternoon, Walt Bannerman presses a sodden rag doll into his hands. Button eyes stare blankly into his.

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Little Aleshia Hendly, woken from her sleep by rain dripping on her face from a stranger in a slicker. Lightning flashes as she's carried out the window her mother left cracked against the August humidity. Johnny can feel the man's hand hard over her mouth, muffling her small cries. She drops her favorite doll in the mud as she's carried to a car left running at the curb.

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Suddenly he's himself again but it's enough -- he saw the color of the car and the first half of the tag number. A quick check of state records and Walt's got an APB out on the car and a team headed for the residence of one Derrick Wayne Barsters, whose career as a child molester is about to end. Johnny doesn't care about the clever way Walt's people talk their way into Barsters' house or how they manage to keep it both legal and quick. All he knows is that when Nikki and Andre Hendly are reunited at the station with their scared but unharmed daughter, he can see the life that almost wasn't. Aleshia's years are spread out before him, from the childhood dreams to the teenaged anxieties to the bright possibilities of her college days. He sees her first love and her first heartbreak, the boy who will become her best friend and then her husband, the children and the grandchildren and all the time that has been restored to her.

Johnny Smith has all the time in the world.

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Waiting for Bruce at the hospital on a crisp October morning, he strikes up a conversation with two men. The TV in the corner is tuned to CNN and the talk drifts to war. The older man, Ralph, says that he was born at the wrong time -- too young for Korea, too old for Vietnam. His son Nick scoffs a bit at the thought of his father at war. Ralph smiles gently but anything he might have said is interrupted by the arrival of his wife, a woman aging with elegance who still moves with grace and speaks with a slightest trace of a Slavic accent. Johnny shakes her hand as they gather themselves to leave.

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In the midst of an undeclared war, two agents meant to be enemies have found themselves caught by softer emotions while playing hide and seek in the dark alleys of Moscow. Risking everything, Yuliya trusts her true identity to the American she was sent to seduce. Going against everything he has been taught, Ralph vows to help her escape. A whirlwind meeting in Prague, another in St. Petersburg, then the die is cast. East Berlin and a tunnel, the danger of dogs and guns and mines soon a memory behind them. As he drops her hand and watches them walk away, Johnny smiles to himself. Nick may never know his parents' past as cold warriors, but Johnny can appreciate the wild and tempestuous truth.

Johnny Smith has all the time in the world.

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In spring, he finds a missing Boy Scout in the Penobscot woods. He averts three major traffic disasters, one involving an entire tractor-trailer filled with herring. Any day that doesn't include rotting fish on the highway has to go into the win column. A day spent rummaging through antique stores and second-hand shops opens up vistas of lives lived before he was born. There're a few harrowing visions, too, but most are in the past and the ones that have yet to occur are re-directed, sometimes with a gentle push, others with more direct and forceful intervention.

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The papers have found new freaks and wonders to obsess over and Johnny's glad of it. All he wants to do is live his own life and help out where he can. He can't help everyone but he's learning to live with that, too. He doesn't hurt all the time anymore and the cane in his hand is sometimes just a snazzy accessory instead of a vital necessity. He's learning to balance his old feelings for Sarah with his new ones for Dana. He's becoming friends with Walt, or whatever you call your relationship with the man who married your fiancée and is raising your son.

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He talks to the ghosts of the past and the shadows of the future. He survives his own trial for witchcraft and saves another man from a murder conviction. He comes to peace with his mother's troubled end and saves a woman from the same fate. He walks in the footsteps of another seer and shares visions across time. He lives another life in the blink of an eye, hears Johnny Bannerman call him "Dad" and feels Sarah kiss him goodnight. He holds a daughter named Miranda in his arms and attends his mother's birthday party. He accepts that his mind can sometimes be his own worst enemy but it's a price he's willing to pay.

Johnny Smith has all the time in the world.

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On a bright summer day, Reverend Purdy introduces him to a local candidate, a man that Purdy believes will help bring about a better world. Johnny hears the sincere words and sees the wide, friendly smile. Johnny stands on stage, a circuit flowing from his hand to Purdy's hand to the hand of Greg Stillson.

Johnny Smith has all the time in the world.

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The trouble is, the world doesn't have that much time left.

tock

the end
28 March 2003

If you're a fan of USA Network's The Dead Zone, may I suggest a visit to their truly wonderful official website? It should serve as a model for other shows out there -- info on cast and characters, plenty of pics, good episode blurbs before showtime and full write-ups after airing, plus they actually post downloadable scripts and, while they won't read scripts sent directly to them, they provide a very good writer's guide and will even direct you to an agent.