34. Come Wander with Me

The " Rock-A-Billy Kid", Floyd Burney, arrives at a small town in search of a new song. He is directed to a dilapidated shop in the woods run by a reclusive old man. After his offer of money in exchange for an original song is rebuffed, Floyd hears a voice singing and wanders off through the woods to find the singer, not seeing a nearby tombstone inscribed with his name "Floyd Burney, the Wandering Man."

In the foggy woods, Floyd twice passes a woman in a black shawl, whom he fails to see. Next to a lake, he encounters the singer, Mary Rachel, who reluctantly plays a song for him about two lovers who meet in the woods. Floyd offers to buy the song rights, but she claims it isn't for sale. By seducing her, he convinces her to sing part of the song into his tape recorder. As Mary Rachel sings, the mysterious woman in black is watching. This woman appears to be a mourning Mary Rachel.

Sometime later, a young man named Billy Rayford shows up with a rifle. "The Rayford brothers" have been mentioned in the song and Mary Rachel has said that she is " bespoke " unto Billy Rayford. Billy accuses Floyd of seducing his intended bride and tries to take Floyd back to his brothers, but Floyd resists. He accidentally kills Rayford and starts the tape recorder playing. The recording has a new verse that Mary Rachel hadn't previously sung. The new verse reflects the event that just happened ("You killed Billy Rayford/ 'neath an old willow tree..."), and foreshadows a future attack. Floyd runs off, dragging Mary Rachel with him while she tries to convince him to stay.

Mary Rachel sings a new verse of the song where Billy Rayford's three brothers find Billy's body, mourn his death near the lake, and vow to avenge Billy. As Floyd prepares to flee, Mary Rachel begs him to stay, hoping things will be different "this time". She implies that these same events have occurred many times before, but when he suggests that she has been with different men, she says it is always Floyd. As Floyd runs away, he looks back and sees that Mary Rachel is now dressed in black, with a black shawl, mourning, and professing her love for Floyd.

Floyd makes it back to the shop in the woods where the old man declines to help him hide. Floyd clubs the old man over the head, then hides among the musical instruments. When he bumps a music box, it starts playing, and soon all the instruments in the shop are chiming, ringing, or clanging. The three Rayford brothers arrive, see the old man's body, and close in on Floyd. As Floyd is shot, the camera returns to the tombstone in the first scene, thus fulfilling the prophecy within the song that Floyd would die.