It was lovely.

From the draft script of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:"
JOEL
You were down by the surf. I could just
make you out in the dark.

Joel looks down to the water. There's Clementine, in her
orange hooded sweatshirt, looking out to sea.

JOEL (CONT'D)
Your back to me. In that orange
sweatshirt I would come to know so well
and even hate eventually. At the time I
thought, how cool, an orange sweatshirt.

VOICE-OVER
I remember being drawn to you even then.
I thought, I love this woman because
she's alone down there looking out at the
black ocean.

JOEL (CONT'D)
But I went back to my food. The next
thing I remember, I felt someone sitting
next to me and I saw the orange sleeve
out of the corner of my eye.

A shot of the orange sleeve. Joel looks up.

CLEMENTINE
Hi there.

JOEL
Hi.

VOICE-OVER
I was so nervous. What were you doing
there, I wondered. Your hair was lime
green. Green revolution.

A shot of her green hair.

JOEL
You said...

CLEMENTINE
I saw you sitting over here. By
yourself. I thought, thank God, someone
normal, who doesn't know how interact at
these things either.

JOEL
Yeah. I don't ever know what to say.

CLEMENTINE
I can't tell you how happy I am to hear
that. I mean, I don't mean I'm happy
you're uncomfortable, but, yknow... I'm
such a loser. Every time I come to a
party I tell myself I'm going to be
different and it's always exactly the
same and then I hate myself after for
being such a clod.

JOEL
Even then I didn't believe you entirely.
I thought how could you be talking to me
if you couldn't talk to people?

VOICE-OVER
But I thought, I don't know, I thought it
was cool that you were sensitive enough
to know what I was feeling and that you
were attracted to it.

CLEMENTINE
But, I don't know, maybe we're the normal
ones, y'know? I mean, what kind of
people do well at this stuff?

VOICE-OVER
And I just liked you so much.

CLEMENTINE (CONT'D)
You did? You liked me?

JOEL
You know what I did.

CLEMENTINE
Yeah, I know. I'm fishing.

JOEL
You said --

She picks a drumstick off of Joel's plate.

CLEMENTINE
I'm Clementine. Can I borrow a piece of
your chicken?

JOEL
And you picked it out of my plate before
I could answer and it felt so intimate
like we were already lovers.

JOEL (CONT'D)
I remember --

VOICE-OVER
The grease on your chin in the bonfire
light.

Shot of a smudge of chicken grease on Clementine's chin.

CLEMENTINE
Oh God, how horrid.

JOEL
I'm Joel.

VOICE-OVER
No, it was lovely.

CLEMENTINE (CONT'D)
Hi, Joel. So no jokes about my name?

JOEL
You mean, like...
(singing)
Oh, my darlin', oh, my darlin', oh, my
darlin', Clementine... ? Huckleberry
Hound? That sort of thing?

CLEMENTINE
Yeah, like that.

JOEL
Nope. No jokes. My favorite thing when
I was a kid was my Huckleberry Hound
doll. I think your name is magic.

She smiles.