Just imagine a "A Christmas Charol" kinda setting: Sommer has ended, the twins are home and Stan and Fords birthday is comming up. And Stan is REALLY looking forward to spend their birthday together after all this years... just for Ford to shoot him down ("I have important work to do, Stanley, I don't have time for this nonsense!") So Ford is visited by 3 Ghosts that day: Past, Present and Future who will show Ford how much he missed Stan and fucked up with Stan. Cue tears and hugs at the end.
Oh my! This is such a treat in my inbox.
Hot dang, I can picture this perfectly. The ghosts would all be variations of Blendin Blandin or something. (“Hey wait, aren’t you just the same ghost just with a different outfit?” “N-n-no, now pay attention!”)
Past: They’d show him how well they got along when they were kids. The time when they first found the boat, them working on it together, etc. Make him feel as much bittersweet nostalgia as is possible. He might show what happened with Stanley and the perpetual motion machine, show him that it really WAS an accident. If he really wanted to drive it in he would show what Stanley went through the first ten years of homelessness, and then maybe some of the time he spent working on the portal. He would definitely show the roughest moments in Stanley’s life.
Present: Focusing on Stanley again! Would probably show how he felt after Ford came back through the portal. Him sitting in bed, unable to sleep, rubbing the cheek where Ford had struck him… Then they’d go on to the things that Ford said to Stanley and how they affected him. Stuff he didn’t think much of when he first said it, but seeing it again and seeing the way Stanley flinches at the words, he starts to feel a bit remorseful. (“Did I really say that?” kind of thing)
Yet to Come: Oh boy, this was always my favorite part of every adaptation and this will be my favorite part too. The Yet to Come ghost takes him through the town, showing him the general depression of the entire community. There’s whispered words about him being missed, a funeral being held, and mentions of the poor brother that was left behind. Of course, Ford thinks he knows what this is all about. So as they get closer and closer to the graveyard, he gets more and more ticked off. (“Don’t play me for a fool, I’ve read the book. I know where this is going.”) The snow crunches under his feet as he walks through the graveyard, phamton floating slowly just behind him. They stop in the middle of a clearing, and the ghost finally points at something. But instead of a gravestone like he’d expected, it’s a figure walking towards them. He watches the bundled person walk closer and closer, and when he’s finally close enough to make out who it was, Ford draws in a gasp. He gapes as he watches himself walk straight between him and the phantom, and kneels down in the snow in front of a tombstone. Ford keeps looking between the Yet to Come ghost and himself, begging for an explanation, even though he already knows what this means. He watches himself wipe snow off the stone, revealing the name of the one person he was wishing it wasn’t. Ford can’t take his eyes away from the name on the stone and his future self begins talking to the stone, as if Stanley himself was there (Something like this video. Warning, it’s super depressing.) He talks about how the kids are dealing, how much he misses him, how he’s sorry for never making up with him. Then he pulls out something from his jacket, and Ford watches as his future self opens a case with two little cupcakes. He lights them, stares at the flame for a while, before finally whispering “Happy birthday, Stanley.” and extinguishing all the light left in the town.
That’s when Ford jerks awake in a cold sweat. The first thing he does is run upstairs to Stanley’s room, finding him there reading a magazine. Stanley raises his brow when Ford slams his door open, and looks like he’s just took a side trip through hell on the way to his room. “What’s up with you?” Stanley asks, setting his magazine down in his lap. Ford pauses, lets his arm drop to his side before rubbing the back of his neck.
“So… about that birthday.”
