A Mystery Package," where the writers sat down with each participant and had him or her draw blindly. Every time the writers came to a black mark they told the player to take a note about their blind guess. As the drawings continued, the mystery was solved when another person drew that black mark. The black mark was there for a reason. It was in every episode of _The X-Files_ except the first few that featured a time travel episode called "Tempus Fugit." The scene that explains the reason behind the black mark is also included in this book, in Chapter 19. ## The Serendipity of the Writing Process I came in to _The X-Files_ at the tail end of a highly publicized bidding war between studios and the best offer being Fox at $12,500,000 for a two-picture deal. We had an existing property and a lot of great scripts in hand, so it seemed like a great opportunity to get into the business and take advantage of the new cable channel that was soon to be launched. We signed the deal and went into business. In the first few weeks we wrote a couple of scripts that didn't work well. Then we wrote one called "X-Cops." I felt good about the script because I had a background in television, and this was a genre that had always appealed to me. I thought it had a lot of potential. In my new room with Chris and Bryan Fuller, I put the pages in a computer screen, and the thing just started to play back on the screen. I stared at the screen for a while, trying to absorb the information, and then I saw one of the pictures was of a monkey. The monkey seemed to be grinning, but I thought he was frowning because he looked sort of constipated or something. But there was something there in the way the face was drawn that made me feel like the image was of a human, even though I couldn't see the mouth or the eyes, or the ears. The mouth was open, but it didn't look real, somehow. I told my colleagues in the room: "It looks like a dead monkey." They didn't react much to it. The picture was not really scary at that point. We had an hour before the next meeting of the day, so I told them I was going to step out for a while to get some coffee and I would be back in a little while. As I went out into the hallway, I saw a picture of a bunch of men in suits, and the suits were all very dark. So I wondered why the suits were so dark. When I came back into the room, I told them I saw a dark, dark room and the men in the dark suits who reminded me of the image of the monkey face. The story of the second picture, "Chinga," was written right after "Cops" was finished. The original thought was to make a good story. I did not realize until the movie was in preproduction that it was just a way to show our appreciation for having done the movie, and to show our appreciation of our characters. I was so pleased with the way we were doing the show that this was a nice, sweet thing to do. When people saw it in the theater they started to say, "You guys are really killing me," but then we just kept doing it. And even when they did it to us again, they still got something from it. I felt like a guy who is finally in love and he's going to spend his whole life with the person he's in love with. And he is going to say and do all kinds of things that are probably really insane to other people. So even though in the beginning I was only doing it for "a while," I was enjoying doing it and felt great and was getting a big kick out of it. It was certainly a "tribute to the film industry" in a much larger sense than any mere marketing effort to make something look good or bad. So this happened to me one night at home with my dog. Now, you know, animals just know and are so much more receptive than people. The image of that monkey face in my original dream started me off on the writing of "Chinga," and so I never really had to do that much work. The thing happened to me like this. Someone asks me if it was my dog. I say, "Oh no, it was my girlfriend's cat." I see. You see, dogs and cats are like humans, people. They do things sometimes that are just weird. I thought the image of the dead monkey was really weird. I still think that is the one that makes me laugh the most. That dead monkey face is something that is so funny to me. It is also one of the best images that I have ever written. It is funny, but it makes me cry a little bit, too. In my experience, when you are doing something you shouldn't be doing—I don't think it matters what you are doing—it tends to come out funny more often than not. When I see these things in my head it tends to come out the same way. So I guess I am not as good as Spielberg or Lucas or that crowd of people who make movies because it is all very much thought out. I am not in any way saying it is better or worse, but I don't work in a traditional way. I think I make myself laugh or cry about things that happen to me in my everyday life, so when I start writing, that is what happens, and it comes out very weird. And it is strange, but at the same time, I think it is fun to see. It's not like I am going to write this really funny story about how I lost my cat and my car keys and all this other stuff and got in an accident and walked out of the hospital without my trousers on and all that kind of stuff. I am not that kind of person. When you look at my list of credits it's nothing like that. I just think it is something that comes from the day I live in. It is where I work and what I have to do to make a living. Even though I was writing a piece for a film, I am not a writer who sits at a desk and writes down his thoughts. I do the things I need to do to make a living. Then when the time comes for me to go to work, I go to work. If there is anything else you see in the show that you don't like, don't tell me. Because I know what is going on in there, and the characters know what is going on in there. They will never know about the stuff you are talking about. But you could tell me things that I do that you don't like, and I can try to do better things, but you don't need to know that. If people find me stupid, don't tell me. Just stay away from me! I don't believe in God. I know He exists, and that is about it. But what I know of God is that the thing I believe in is in there, in the natural part of life. Like the things that happen in "X-Files" are not so weird, or when a bird flies across your head and you think, "Oh my God!" I know that doesn't happen to everyone, but it does happen to a lot of people. I was at a soccer match, and at halftime the announcer said he was going to show us "a special show." I thought he was going to show us football tricks and something that would really freak me out. All he showed us was one of those videos that all newscasters show on the big screen. And then the camera showed this flying bird, about as big as a baby bird, but flying right through a window. It made me jump for about a second, and I watched it go through the window and land outside of the arena in the parking lot. And there were three girls who were with us sitting right next to the window. I knew they could see the bird too. I could tell. They must have seen it in the corner of their eye as it came flying past. That is what I mean about seeing that something might be in there. For instance, when I look at a big animal that looks a little weird, like a zebra, a deer with antlers, or a shark with claws, I wonder why God would put that in nature. I don't know if it is really happening there, but it is a big thing. What does it mean? Why is it there? The thing I know most is that God is always there. I really don't care about any of the other crazy stuff. Aside from all of that, I don't think you can really get mad at God. I don't care how bad you think you have it, or what kind of problems you have. He might not like it, but when the time comes and you are supposed to do something, what could be more important than that? That is really what makes you think, "God! He's there!" I believe that. How would you know what people are thinking? If they're standing in the corner of a room and you are in the other room, it doesn't mean that you know what they are doing. What I mean is that when you are there talking and all of a sudden they burst into a room screaming, "Hey! Hey!