Short Stories and Plays

SHORT STORY: CLOUD GIRL. Perfection’s a funny thing. Those beautiful, blue days where the sky looks painted on and it feels like a rainstorm will never strike again are so treacherous in how they lull you into a near-comatose state of blind contentment. She was a perfect sky, resplendent but empty. She came on hot, bombarding my phone with slews of messages. I didn’t go outside, the world was there in my phone. It was strange how she floated into my life but it was so sublime that I didn’t question it. Everything about her was captivating. Each night, we hit endless waves of conversational crescendos. We’d talk till sunrise then toast to the new day. Her gaiety was infectious yet she was dark in her humour, she played off crazy like a quirk, with tales of mania. She loved serial killers, obsessed with Ted Bundy and the accompanying True Crime thrillers. She thought he was gorgeous, always saying it was his physical beauty she adored, not his actions. I don’t believe her, I’m not sure if I did even then, Bundy was never good-looking-even by the wayward standards of the 70s. Whether it’s masochism, the misguided fantasy of forbidden love or downright psychopathy, I’m not sure. Eyes closed, I can see her in sterile courtrooms dressed like Barbie adorned with ‘free Bundy’ banners, fan letters in hand. Maybe she likes the danger, maybe she wants to fix him. The worse the man, the more impressive the feat when a woman supposedly cures them. Amidst all this, she would walk as light as a spring day, almost albino in her bleached hair and pale skin, she seemed like some sort of fairy. She shared her optimism with me, that summer felt like a fever dream. Her mind was intensely creative, a conversation with her was a trip to another dimension, an idealistic world where everything was easy and unrestricted. She’d never worked and she never intended to. For life, she’d have chauffeurs as opposed to a driver's license. I fell for her because she felt otherworldly, unlike any being I’d encountered before. But it was a mirage. The issue with idealists and dreamers is they tend to float from the ground, up to the sky where nobody can reach them. When we’re born, I like to think we’re attached to invisible helium balloons. The older we get, the more the pins and pricks of life pop those balloons and we ourselves get heavier and more trapped by gravity. Be it privilege or madness, some never drain their helium supply and just rise and rise. Perhaps for a moment, I could fly but then my feet came back to the ground. Two weeks after talking every day, she shifted elsewhere; vanished from my life. A ghost. She became a True-Crime mystery herself. Sometimes I wonder what would've happened if I held tighter, kept the balloons safe, long enough to reach heaven and be with her once more.

SHORT STORY: THE DECAY OF DECADENCE. 12:01 AM, 1st of January, 1925 Midnight’s call comes with the collective, metallic clang of clocks across the city, stretching from Staten Island to the Bronx. In every glossy apartment of the American northeast, secret bottles of liquor are cracked open with a smile. No greater cheer erupts than here in the heart of Manhattan, in Times Square. The sky rains glistening, gold confetti. Neon billboards shine. Couples kiss. Parties rage. All the world is merry, except me. Unconvinced by the politician’s promise of eternal opulence and gaiety, a pervasive anxiety has taken residency in my mind. An unvocalized intuitive caution festers within me that all is not as it seems. Should you pry your awe-struck eyes from this capitalist feast, the facade evaporates. Down the shifty backstreets in the depths of destitution, the grotesque truth hangs like a specter determined to haunt. Men with twisted limbs and cracked knees huddle defeated on the concrete. Once athletes, hunters and warriors whose strong, young bodies could topple the tallest redwood trees with a single swing of an axe, now resolved to being besotted by listless fantasies of what life could have been if they never enlisted to fight overseas. Former wartime nurses rouge their faces with blush, reluctant to recall the makeshift hospitals which reddened their cheeks for weeks on end with the blood of dying men. Hiding their weary eyes under tightly-cropped cloche hats, their faces stay porcelain yet their spirit is cracked and distorted, as ugly as a wax doll left too long by the fire. Like skittish crabs fleeing from an uplifted rock to the anonymity of great oceans, the women scuttle away from the bombastic firework displays of the square, through dingy alleyways back to their apartments. Hypnotized by his eternal love affair with cigarettes, a lonely smoker sits on the curb. The morbid reassurance of death comes ever closer with each sweet drag. He’ll never quit, for living forever would be a curse much worse than an early death. Lovers in lockets. Treasured letters on desks. The world is still reeling. Meanwhile, the growth of skyscrapers spreads like a money-hungry disease; we can afford to birth iron mammoths but won’t spare a penny for the disenfranchised. While our soldiers’ tattered uniforms rot away in forbidden closets, their victories are sung in the streets and their losses get shrugged away. To forget, men spend their pensions on cheap distractions and women become flappers trying to dance loose yesterday’s abuse. A cultural wave of debauchery has flooded our cities as we drown ourselves in the powerful scents of French perfumes, extravagant jewels of Brazil and rich colors of Art Deco architecture. We’re chipping away at our moral pillars with a chisel of excess. Eventually, our clay foundations will collapse. All we ask for is more. No engineering feat is ever enough; we must continuously prove our supremacy over the sky by pitching building after building, to redefine the term ‘high-rise’. Set for construction in a few years, the so-called Chrysler building is said to be so tall, it’ll pierce the Manhattan stratosphere hanging overhead with the audacity to infringe on God’s territory. But then, what relevance do the old deities have today? Every mythological imagining has echoes in the real world which reverberate, multiply and boomerang back to the original orator. Heaven is no longer the aerial home of saints and angels but a penthouse suite accessible by elevator. Hell is not a subterranean inferno where sinners’ spirits go to be incinerated, it’s an impoverished slum at the city limits. As each legend has a more powerful parallel forged from the hands of man, we claim we’ve surpassed our subordinate position to the ancient stories we grew up with. Our age is unlike any other; modernity is our God, capitalism is our religion, and our corporate structures are the churches we worship. Yet unlike other faiths, we do not serve with respect to the laws of morality. Instead, we function under one core principle: progress. Our engineered angel wings carry us closer to the sun to bask in its light and be swallowed by its flames. I recall there’s an old parable about such pursuits but I forget its name amongst the candy allure of jack n cokes, burlesque dancers, and the intoxicating cigarette smoke of sleazy speakeasies. But even amongst the narcotic haze I get lost in, I fear the cruel fact that nature has outlasted every mighty empire throughout history. Are we so arrogant to think we’re any different? Despite what everyone says, I don’t believe we can invent a utopian society free from wars, plagues and depression. The marriage of Mother Nature and Father Time is founded upon a mutual indifference to the survival of man. Such forces are mercurial beasts who gift us peace only to pry it from our fingers. Hence, we’re forced to barter it back in exchange for young lives given in sacrifice. As costly as such a currency is, at least it is more secure than the kind traded for on Wall Street. Having made my way out of Time Square to the edge of the Hudson, I look up at the castle-like city skyline in contemplation. Cascading towers stacked to an urban summit in the silhouette of Saint Mont Michel, Manhattan’s regal charms aren’t lost on me. However, unlike the fortresses of our ancestors’ centuries, we don’t realize how under siege we are. Formless armies of misfortune are lining up at our palace gates and their invisible warships are in our canals readying their torpedoes. Peaceful times fade faster than summers in Central Park. This I know for sure. Our next war will be within as well as external for decadence has signalled the death of intelligent populations since the dawn of time; it is when a society commits suicide. I think of the medieval practice of double feasting where the European aristocracy lined banquet halls with exquisite delicacies, only to discard them and bring out a second collection of dishes in their place. While the elite flaunted the luxury of wastefulness as a status symbol, the peasantry starved outside the palace gates. The ancient Romans had vomitoriums for emptying their stomachs to consume more and Marie Antoinette ate lavish cakes while French commoners fought for scraps. History is simply the circular process of time hiding in the disguise of the past. When we lambast the absurdities of history, we tend to exonerate ourselves of any culpability. We stand indignantly on a retrospective moral high ground, looking down at our ancestors, failing to see the frown of our children’s children condemning us from the future. To study our failures as history is to imply it isn’t happening anymore. We think we’re exempt from the pitfalls of foolishness for we are living in the present. Yet every society ever lived in the present. All the archaic civilisations were once at the forefront of technological advancement. Still, they fell regardless since they were equally susceptible to arrogance, cruelty and corruption. Modernity won’t save us from the human condition. I fear the deafening roar of the twenties is a coded S.O.S siren. Sleeping sickness may be sweeping our streets, but the true soporific is the everyday culture we breathe and the lies we labor under. Head in the clouds, I hadn’t noticed I’d gone off route. I find myself by the railings of Queensboro Bridge, gazing into the Hudson River. Often, my legs lead me here to have a rendezvous with fate, to lean forward over the parapets, and wonder whether a sudden gust of wind will whisk me away. That’s all it takes, an unforeseen change for everything to end. Ritualistically, I wet my hand with saliva and hold it to the sky. Not enough wind, not today. I sigh, electing instead to sit swinging my legs over the side, watching the last strings of fireworks burn amongst the stars. Such pretty, pretty pollution to paint pleasant tonight’s aside. Truly, all the most beautiful things are born to die. How desperately I want it to be over, to not have to carry the weight of a writer’s mind and a razor-sharp foresight. What can I do? Even if I yelled my warning to the world off the bridge side, I’d never be heard. The louder I’d shout, the sooner I’d be transferred to a hospital ward. Hope for a cultural awakening is a pointless pastime. ‘Calm your running mind,’ my ego says. But I can’t for my thoughts race like water down a river. ‘Accept it, this is me,’ I reply. The direction of the evening breeze shifts. I look out southeast to the Brooklyn Bridge, so devoutly American having granted entry to so many ships, bidding them well as they enter the Land of the Free. No other landmark has lied to as many people as the Brooklyn Bridge in all its brilliance. It is the epitome of everything I abhor; decadence, modernity, the falsity of the American Dream. Yet simultaneously, I can’t help but feel a certain reverence for such a grand structure. Perhaps I’m as stupid as the rest of them. I know all that glitter is not gold but its radiance attracts me all the same like a moth to a flame. Instinctively, I reach into my jacket pocket to produce my pen and beloved notepad. In messy cursive, I write: ‘O Sleepless as the river under thee, Vaulting the sea, the prairies’ dreaming sod, Unto us lowliest sometime sweep, descend And of the curveship lend a myth to God.’ -Hart Crane

PLAY: THE LAST NIGHT. SCENE DESCRIPTION: LEVI has prepared his house to host a drinks night with his high school friends before they all leave for university. SCENE 1 LEVI: Ok, beer? Check. Chips and dip? Check. Nostalgic 90’s Alternative playlist? Check. Symmetrically aligned candles? Check. Whew, everything’s set for tonight. (There are three knocks at the door. LEVI presses play on his playlist and ‘Fade Into You’ by Mazzy Star begins playing. Door creaks open as TYLER enters.) TYLER: Whoa, I didn’t realise your front door was a portal to 1993. You got wireless phones yet Levi? LEVI: What? I enjoy a vintage vibe, and I figured it’d set the mood for tonight: mourning. TYLER: Buzzkill much? We’re going to different universities, we’re not dying. Surely you have something a little more contemporary, less emo, Kanye? Kendrick? LEVI: Nah I’m good. TYLER: Fine, (exaggerated sigh) I’ll settle for Drake. LEVI: Ok, let’s just…not. (turns off music) Gotta say I’m kinda surprised you didn’t come in with Sadie. Not saying you guys should be surgically attached at the hip or anything, but normally you are so…. 3 TYLER: Yeah well, we’re not a packaged deal. LEVI: (chuckles) Does she know that? TYLER: Yeah, I mean, we’re separate individuals with our lives and our own things going who just happen to date. LEVI: Yes, happened to date for almost the entirety of high school. I mean you guys are like the dream, the Pinterest board, picture-perfect couple. If anything, it’s borderline obnoxious. I should know, I had to suffer a lot of single valentines with you two. Every February 14th was hellish and you loved playing the devil tormenting me with the old sin of envy. Something’s not adding up. Why are you acting weird? TYLER: I’m not. I'm just saying we’re separate people, we don’t need to do everything together. It’s okay for us to want different things. LEVI: Hmmmmm, you’re even less merry and more cryptic than you usually are. You’re not….not together are you? Like you haven’t broken up, have you? TYLER: No, no way, of course not….but we will tonight. LEVI: Are you kidding? TYLER: No. I wish I was. 4 LEVI: No, you can’t be. You’re like the one couple that makes me believe in love. First my parents, and now you and Sadie, I mean did Cupid catch covid or something? Surely, whatever you’re fighting about, you can get through it, right? TYLER: Levi, chill. It’s not that serious, we’re not fighting. We haven’t in a while actually. It’s just that a year ago, forever wasn’t so long. The future was this vague outline in the mist ahead but now it’s right in front of me and I don’t see her in it. She wants to stay here in the middle of nowhere, and I want to study civil engineering at MIT, so it doesn’t work. LEVI: MIT… you mean the Secret Intelligence Service? You’re gonna be a spy? Wait, I’m being stupid. TYLER: Yes, you are. LEVI: I’m not supposed to ask you that. You can’t reveal your true identity to me otherwise you’d have to kill me. Don’t worry I’ve seen films about your profession, I’ll keep quiet. TYLER: Do I look like James Bond to you? LEVI: Well, not the Daniel Craig version, he’s way too handsome but after a few years of training, some plastic surgery and a good accent class, you could try for Sean Conary. TYLER: No, I couldn’t. But listen it’s MIT, not MI6, it stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It’s in the states. 5 LEVI: You really wanna move to the land of Walmart, car parks and police brutality? That’s way too far. TYLER: Exactly, it’s too far to do long distance. LEVI: So do your first year here, then transfer. TYLER: And put it off breaking up with Sadie further? No way. Besides, this is a really good opportunity for me. LEVI: But you can’t just spring this on her. Especially not here, it’ll ruin all the fun activities I have planned. TYLER: Levi, even if Sadie and I weren’t breaking up tonight, there’s no way I’m playing scrabble with you after last time when you made up half the words and justified them by citing Urban Dictionary. But look, my relationship is just a band-aid that I have to pull off. I should have told her earlier but I didn't want our relationship to feel like tending to a terminal cancer patient. I didn’t want her to know we were doomed. I wanted to enjoy it and then let it go. LEVI: Ty, I think you’re rushing into this TYLER: No, I’m not. This last year, I’ve been stuck waiting for this green light, like I’m in traffic and my car’s at the front, my indicators on, I’ve shifted into gear, I’m ready. I just need to hit the accelerator. LEVI: Sure, but do you know where you’re going? 6 TYLER: Hey, not everyone’s content to sit at a stop sign for the rest of their lives. I mean, how long have you been in love with Leila? Three years? LEVI: No….twenty-eight months and four days. TYLER: She’s coming tonight, right? (Levi grunts in confirmation) You have to tell her. This is our last night all together, what do you have to lose? LEVI: Dignity. Aloofness. My cool, distant and mysterious exterior. TYLER: Levi, if you had those things you would put yourself out of your misery- LEVI: WHOA, c’mon it's mental health month soon, jeez. TYLER: No, not that. Put yourself out of your misery and ask her out. You like maths so map it on a probability tree: A. She reciprocates and you live happily ever after B. She doesn't and you get closure LEVI: C. I’m brutally rejected and replay it in my head for eternity TYLER: D. Say nothing, wallow in self-pity and insecurity LEVI: I like that one….if it were meant to be, the universe would give me a sign. 7 TYLER: She’s attractive, nice and newly single, that’s three. LEVI: That’s coincidental. I need a clear, tangible sign (Immediately after LEVI finishes speaking, there are three knocks on the door) TYLER: Speak of the devil, I think you’ve summoned her. 8 SCENE 2 (creak of the door opening) SADIE: Hey guys! LEVI: Sadie, you scared us. SADIE: (chuckles) What do you mean? LEVI: Well, for a start it’s 9 pm on a Saturday night and you’re dead sober so you’ll be needing this (sound of canned beer being cracked open) but mainly because I thought you were Leila just then. SADIE: My apologies for breaking tradition. The sixteen-year-old me who vowed never to be sober past 8 PM on a Saturday would be very disappointed in me. I wouldn’t normally go against her like that but cruelly, I was forced to drive myself here because someone refused to pick me up even though we live one street away, had the same destination and are in a relationship together. TYLER: Subtle, Sadie. SADIE: Thank you, I’ve been practising my passive-aggressiveness by listening to my mum complain to my dad for leaving the toilet seat up. Though honestly Levi, you need to chill out about Leila. She’s just a girl, no actually, she’s just a woman. (awkward pause) That sounded weirdly reductive and sexist, what I mean is she’s 18, we all are. We’re…adults. Wow, it isn't any less terrifying spoken aloud. LEVI: Sure we’re adults….in theory, but in practice, hmmm not so much. 9 SADIE: True. Y’know, I always thought I’d turn 18 and magically be mature, that’d I’d move out on the day, rent an apartment in a big city, that I’d welcome change. But growing up doesn’t feel like a butterfly leaving the cocoon, it feels like an eviction notice. And now I’m looking back on all the fun we had, and all the responsibility ahead, I wish we would hit pause. LEVI: I know what you mean. We’ve passed the threshold where getting older is fun. It used to be birthday cakes and presents and now it’s all work, study and crying about how you’ll never be able to afford a house because you’ve taken out enormous student loans for a degree your parents made you do. TYLER: Man, you guys are dramatic. (TYLER scoffs) What you’re feeling is just imposter syndrome. It’s normal, I mean remember the first time you rode your bike without training wheels, it was scary and it sucked and you thought you would never be able to do it but then you did. That’s the cycle of growing up, you fake it till you make it. SADIE: Yeah but riding a bike was delightful, you can’t say the same about a 9 to 5. I don’t think change for the sake of change is good and I’m not sold it gets better than this. Every adult I know is depressed and wishes they were younger. TYLER: Everyone we know is already like that. It’s just a part of the human condition in the 21st century. Who isn’t depressed these days? SADIE: I’m not, (defensively) I like my life. LEVI: Sadie’s right, you get older and you’re no longer ‘full of potential’ or ‘brilliant for your age,’ you’re…. competent at what you do or worse than average. I was a very smart eight-year-old and now I’m a very stupid eighteen-year-old. (cont.) 10 That’s the worst part of growing up I reckon, everyone stops telling white lies to you about how you’re special and all that. Like everyone told me I’d make it big as a musician but my biggest song only got a thousand plays on Spotify. Here I was thinking I was a child prodigy and then bam reality hits and I’m just another nobody. Honestly, I’d rather live in delusion. SADIE: Oh, Levi, you may not have a top 40 hit, but you’re still a great musician in my eyes. You’re a prodigy regardless. And you are smart, you know all the guitar chords. LEVI: Well, only the major ones. But see, this is the kind of well-meaning dishonesty I expect from everyone else in my life. SADIE: No Levi, I mean it. You’re very talented. I’m not lying. LEVI: That’s what a liar would say. SADIE: I’m not ly- LEVI: I know. I’m kidding, I believe you. You’re the most honest person I know. TYLER: HEY! LEVI: Tyler, between all your onion layers of sarcasm and irony, the truth is harder to find than the whereabouts of Wally. TYLER: The kid’s book character? 11 LEVI: Yes ok. Some people have a harder time letting go of childhood than others… I wish I had more time, you know, enough to make sure I don’t end up working in an office for eternity, slaving away for decades, only to collapse at the wheel one day while doing my daily commute. SADIE: Agreed. More time, that’s what we need. I feel like we got it right the first time. I know my life isn’t perfect on paper but I love my friends, I love Tyler and I love this town. I don’t care if it’s not ‘the dream’, it’s my dream. I’m just glad we could all make it tonight. I’ve missed you guys. TYLER: It’s been three days since we last hung out. SADIE: Still, can’t I miss you? TYLER: (under his breath) Sure if you wanna remain co-dependent for the rest of our lives. SADIE: Ok, what the hell is wrong with you today? LEVI: And that’s my cue. I’m gonna….see if there’s more alcohol. (footsteps as LEVI leaves the room, then the sound of a door closing) 12 SCENE 3 SADIE: Care to let me in on what’s going on? TYLER: Ah…..well…..it’s just….I’m not staying here. SADIE: Ok, stay the night at mine then. TYLER: No, that’s not what I meant. A while ago, I applied to MIT in America. I didn’t think I’d get in but I did. It’s my dream university. If I want to be the one to build the next Brooklyn Bridge or Burq Khalifa, I have to go there. I would never forgive myself if I stayed. SADIE: But….you’re staying with me, right? TYLER: (prolonged pause, TYLER swallows loudly) No. It wouldn’t work, we’ll be in different worlds, and not just geographically. We'll become new people, we’ll meet new people and those new people will end up replacing us in each other’s lives. SADIE: No, no, this is not happening. Stay another year, and transfer after that. Just don’t leave. TYLER: I need to. I don’t know if I’ll get another opportunity like this. SADIE: How long until…. 13 TYLER: Three days. I’m going over there early to work for a while before the semester starts. SADIE: Wow, (sarcastic laughing) wow. Are we that disposable? Are we that throwaway? I thought we built something to last, not some cheap, plastic BS. We’re a team, we’ve always been a team. Why didn’t you tell me? We could have worked something out. I mean, do you even know me? Do you even love me? TYLER: Don’t say that. Don’t you dare say that. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want it to be over. I didn’t spoil our last moments. SADIE: And yet you are. TYLER: I only put it off because I like you so much. SADIE: You’re such a liar. You didn’t tell me so you wouldn’t have to deal with the emotional fallout, so you could run off to America and leave me crushed under the rubble of our ruined relationship. You know how much I care about you, you know I would give my life up to stay with you. Don’t pretend we can’t make it work, we can but the fact that you didn’t even try, that you didn’t even consider the idea, it makes me realise you don’t think we’re worth saving. TYLER: We shouldn’t need saving, that’s the point. You shouldn’t give up your life for me and I won’t for you. Our paths are different, we have to accept that. SADIE: No, we’re too different. Because I love you much more than you do me, that’s the problem. It always has been. Maybe you didn’t get your dream, but I already had mine. 14 TYLER: Here we go, here’s your high school mentality rearing its ugly head again. Why can’t you understand that the world’s bigger than us? Soon you won’t even remember me, I’ll be a distant childhood memory and it’ll be fine. SADIE: I like things the way they are, sue me. And no, I’m not gonna turn into an amnesiac overnight, I can’t magically choose to forget as you can. This town will be haunted forever if you leave. So don’t, we can keep things exactly how they are. We can stay here, where everything is good and we’ll be happy. TYLER: Keep things the way they are? You mean how the slightest event is a conversational goldmine because we’re so bored of each other and devoid of anything new? How I know exactly what you’re gonna say, how I’ve memorised your cadence and vernacular enough to impersonate you? It’s suffocating. We were good once, but not anymore. I get you wanna be a kid forever, but you can't be and clutching onto me isn’t keeping out adulthood. SADIE: (long pause as the words sink in, the soft sound of Sadie whimpering and crying) I thought it was sweet how well we know each other. But sure, I’m boring and predictable and you’re so ambitious and talented. I’m dead weight. I’m just a nagging bitch holding you back, so go. Leave. I never want to see your face again. TYLER: Fine. (TYLER storms out, door slams aggressively behind him) SADIE: (to herself) I’m such a liar. 15 SCENE 4 SADIE: (Then two knocks are heard at the doorbell) Tyler? I told you I don’t want to see you. (door creaks open, LEILA enters) Leila? LEILA: (LEILA’s elongated ‘hey’ starts off cheery but grows concerned as she sees Sadie’s state) Heyyyyy…..you are in tears. What’s going on? SADIE: Oh….(heavy upper-chest breathing)...Levi didn’t tell you? The theme for tonight's uh ‘girl having a mental breakdown’ and I’m….very into the theme. In fact, I’m so into the theme and you know, method acting that Tyler kindly broke up with me to help me get in character. LEILA: Aw, Sades….All I know is that he's gone completely insane. I mean, you’re you. But tell me anyway, how did this happen? SADIE: He’s moving to the states, to some stupid spy school. It's his dream uni apparently even though I’ve never heard of it before but whatever I guess I didn’t really know him. Basically, he said we were dead in the water, that there was no point in trying because we weren’t worth saving. He said…he said he was bored of me. LEILA: That’s bullshit. I know you and I know him and that’s just not true. SADIE: It is true, I’m boring. Look around, Levi’s moving down south, Tyler’s moving to America, and you’re moving to Berlin for your poetry fellowship when you’re 18, how are you even doing that?? I don’t know, well I do know, you’re brilliant and I love you but I just feel that everyone’s doing all this exciting stuff, and I’m stuck here, as this lame girl who peaked in high school. 16 LEILA: Babe, you’re not lame, you’re the opposite of lame, you had it right from the start. You don’t know how many people are jealous of you, not only of your relationship too. You have so much to give, the way you care about people is extraordinary. Being around you is like sitting at a warm fire on a cold winter night. That’s how I know Tyler lied when he said he was bored of you, I’ve seen the way that boy looks at you, he’s utterly in love. He’s just not good at communication, he’s avoidant and he’d rather push you away and act like he doesn’t care than face that he does and have to give up his dream to stay with you. As for me going to Berlin, I’ve never had much of a life here, but you did and still do, and you should cherish that. SADIE: Wow, you’re incredible. Germany doesn’t deserve you. I wish nothing had to change, I wish we would never have to grow up. Oh Leila, why can’t it be forever? (pause as LEILA ponders the question) LEILA: I find with every existential question, nature has an answer. Think of sunsets-they’d have no charm if they lasted forever, they’re fleeting, and that’s what makes them special. You don’t run outside every night to see the stars because they’re permanent but you’d never miss a good sunset because they’re so transient. SADIE: That’s it? It’s perfect and then it’s gone and you never get it back? LEILA: Of course, you never see the same sunset twice but then the next one is beautiful too but in a different way. We’re never gonna be the same age, in the same place with the same people again and that’s ok, if we never changed, we’d never leave the hospital we were born in and what kind of life would that be? SADIE: A boring one. 17 (SADIE and LEILA look deeply into each other eyes and smile, sharing a profound moment of connection) LEILA: Exactly. Change is scary but staying the same is scarier. 18 SCENE 5 (LEVI is outside on the porch amongst the moonlight yelling at Tyler to come back. TYLER jingles his keys on the way to his car. Summertime cicadas are chirping and nighttime frogs are croaking to indicate that the location is outside now) LEVI: TY! TYLER! Dude, get back up here! Come back to the porch, let’s talk about this! TYLER: Shut up Levi, I’m fine. I’m going home. LEVI: Man, your car’s that way. Listen, you’re drunk and heartbroken. That’s a fatal combination. Stop being a baby and get back here. (a grumpy TYLER sighs dramatically, he turns around on the gravel pathway and footsteps show he is walking back to TYLER) TYLER: Ok firstly, I’ve had one drink and secondly, I don’t care. LEVI: Then why did you storm off in the wrong direction? Look, I know I’m no expert at confrontation but I overheard the argument with Sadie and it was not good. TYLER: (sarcastically) Wow, Sherlock Holmes what detective skills you have! LEVI: (LEVI snaps, his tone becoming angry and blunt) Can you cut the condescension for one second? I’m actually trying to help you. (Pause) 19 TYLER: Ok, sorry. LEVI: Listen, you need to apologise to Sadie. She’s a mess in there and it’s your fault. TYLER: What’s the point? We’re never gonna see each other again anyway. LEVI: That’s not an excuse to treat her like trash. Just because something isn’t gonna last forever, doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. Even if the relationship’s dead, it doesn't mean you should vandalise the grave. TYLER: You’re right. LEVI: I know. TYLER: So what do I do? LEVI: Apologise. TYLER: Yeah, but what do I say? LEVI: I’m not writing the script for you. TYLER: Why not? Are you mad at me? 20 LEVI: I don’t know. I mean if I was your best mate, which I am, and I abruptly told you I’m moving to a different hemisphere, how would you feel? I know I played it off as a joke but it is pretty messed up that you didn’t tell anyone your plans before tonight. TYLER: You’re moving south anyway, what does it matter? LEVI: Yeah like 3 hours south, not to Antarctica. I thought we’d still hang out every now and then or at least call in the same time zone. TYLER: Oh, yeah I didn’t really think about that. LEVI: Really? It never crossed your mind. You don’t care at all? TYLER: No, that’s not it. LEVI: Well, what is it ‘cause I thought we were really good friends? TYLER: No, we are. It’s just that…relationships can't go on hiatus, a break is a break-up. You’ve seen Friends, look how it worked out for Ross and Rachel. But mates are different, we’re like Joey and Chandler. With you, no matter how much time passes, the minute I see you again, whether that takes 6 months or five years, I know it’ll just revert back to normal. We’ll load up SuperSmashBros, crack open a bag of Doritos and end up laughing about nothing. I mean, I love you man and I don’t think any time or distance will change that…..(teasing) are you blushing? LEVI: No, no. I’m not, I’m…sunburnt because I went swimming…in the ocean. 21 TYLER: Sunburnt? You hate the beach. LEVI: Ok yeah, I do. It’s sandy and salty and the water always gets in my eyes. I can’t stand the beach and only a best mate would know that. I love you too man. Now go back in there, and get your girl back. TYLER: (chuckles) Ok. Wait out here. (footsteps and door opening and closing) LEILA: (Silence, quiet breathing and footsteps) Boo! LEVI: Leila! Hey, wha-what are you doing here? LEILA: What do you mean? You invited me. LEVI: Yea, no, I know. I just mean like out here on the porch. LEILA: Oh, just giving the feuding couple some space to make up. Kudos for talking some sense into Tyler by the way. LEVI: How did you-? LEILA: Tyler’s way too prideful to say sorry instantly like that. I could see your influence written all over his face. You and your peacemaking. LEVI: That’s uh what friends are for. Do you think they have a shot? 22 LEILA: Not at all. America’s a long way from here. But still, there’s a way to go about things, and fighting and crying on your last night together is not it. LEVI: Yeah, Tyler’s an idiot for leaving it till tonight. He’s so secretive like that. LEILA: I hate secrets. Time’s too elusive to not speak your mind, wait too long and life slips through your fingers like loose sand. LEVI: You-you think so? LEILA: I do. (Pause) LEVI: Starry night, this one. LEILA: Yes, it’s very Van Gough, all we need now is psychosis and a severed ear. LEVI: (LEVI laughs nervously, a little too much) I guess so. The Big Dipper’s sure shining bright tonight. Isn’t it beautiful? LEILA: It is….except that’s not the Big Dipper, that’s Orion’s belt, it’s flipped in our hemisphere but still, if you turn your head, you can make out what the ancient Greeks interpreted as the sword and shield of a mythical huntsman. LEVI: It’s annoying how smart you are sometimes. 23 LEILA: That so? LEVI: (sarcastically) Yes, it’s very know-it-all, very showy and you know 'leviOsa, not levioSA’ for you. LEILA: (sound of LEILA playfully hits his arm) Cheap shot, comparing me to a beloved feminist icon, I’m wounded, how ever will my ego recover? Levi…what do you really think of me? LEVI: (shrugs) I think….you’re nice. LEILA: Nice? Levi, a homemade wicker basket is nice. Nice is how you describe cute, insignificant things, not people. Tell me honestly. LEVI: Honestly? You want honesty? LEILA: Exclusively, I wouldn’t want it any other way. LEVI: I think you’re cool…I think you’re very cool, I think you’re the coolest person I’ve ever met. To tell the truth, ever since that 60s party, I’ve been completely and utterly enamoured by you. You’re smart, you’re self-assured, you have this, this one-of-a-kind magnetism and I’m pretty sure you’re gonna run the world one day. Every second with you, there are a million thoughts swirling around in my head, but I guess what it comes down to is that I love you…..I can’t believe I just said that. I shouldn’t have said that, I apologise, I- LEILA: Shhh, shut up. 24 (Sound of a brief but passionate kiss between LEVI and LEILA, then the sound of bodies pulling away) LEVI: I really do you know, love you, I mean. LEILA: I know. I’ve always known. LEVI: You do? Did Sadie-? LEILA: No, she didn’t need to. LEVI: So where does this leave us? Should I be booking a holiday to the land of beer and breadsticks? I’ve heard Berlin is lovely in the fall, so maybe I should come for the Oktoberfest. (LEVI’s speech becomes manic, fast and over-excited) I always wanted to go and now I have an excuse. We could go to Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall memorial and ooh, there’s this new museum about German poets I’m sure you’d like. It’ll be expensive of course and I’m not sure where I’ll get the money yet but I can make it happen. I can do overtime, I can pick up another job and if I book the flight now, it’ll be cheaper. It would be right before my university exams but what do they matter? I could reschedule. Man, I’m so excited. Well, what do you think? LEILA: You’re sweet, that’s what I like about you but no. LEVI: No? LEILA: No. 25 LEVI: I’ve said too much, haven’t I? LEILA: Still no, it’s just right person, wrong time. LEVI: But if it is the right person, it’s always the right time, right? LEILA: You’re not listening, we could have worked in an alternative reality, but not in this one. LEVI: Ok, this is worse than if you just rejected me, this is like knowing you had the right lottery numbers, and losing the ticket. Why would you do this? Is it like an ego thing? I was perfectly happy never telling you and getting on with my life, but now how can I? We’re a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and you’re just throwing it away. LEILA: (sighs as if explaining a simple concept for the millionth time to a child) Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities are a scam. They only exist in the tiny minds of people scared of missing out. Cupid’s more generous than that. I’ll admit I misread how you’d react but I wanted you to say it out loud because I wanted to show you we could have been something if you had believed that we could and stopped doubting yourself all the time. LEVI: What kind of cruel lesson is that? LEILA: A tough one but one that’ll come in handy in future. The things you said about me, the things you‘ve done for me, I mean the mix tapes, the flowers, the chocolates, you’ll end up with someone good for sure. 26 LEVI: Huh, so you knew that was me every Valentine’s. LEILA: (laughs) yeah, nobody else would do all that, not unless they thought they were entitled to something. But you don’t, you’re a nice guy, and you don’t have to say you’re a nice guy, and that’s how you know you actually are one. It’s the whole Shakespeare thing, ‘the woman doth protest too much.’ LEVI: Man, I’m going to miss your literary references, I’ve been learning so much. It’s like getting an English degree course for free. LEILA: And I’ll miss you, but they’ll be other girls. Girls who like the stuff you do and girls who appreciate you. Who knows, there might even be other girls for me too. LEVI: Oh…something new to try in Berlin? LEILA: Something to revisit actually. LEVI: You don’t say, I could really see like you with some Marxist, vegan chick who has a million piercings and works part-time as a tattoo artist. LEILA: Oddly specific, but finger-crossed. (after crossing her fingers, she uncrosses them to ruffle Levi’s hair) We should probably go back in now. LEVI: Hmmm, give it ten more minutes? LEILA: Yeah, ten more minutes, just to be sure. 27 SCENE 5 TYLER: I’ve been acting stupid, like really stupid. SADIE: You could say that. TYLER: And I know you’re mad at me but I need you to trust me when I tell you I didn’t mean any of what I said. I just got caught up. I hit the accelerator on my dreams so fast that I didn’t check my mirrors. I didn’t want to think about how my past would follow my future and all I could see was my destination, I didn’t care how I’d get there. I thought the easiest way to go forward was to disregard what I was leaving behind. I dreaded leaving you so I pushed you away and pretended I didn’t care about you. But I do care and I’m sorry…..I don’t even know anymore. Maybe accepting MIT was a mistake. I’ve caused so much harm, maybe I should just stay here and reject the offer. SADIE: No. I decided…I want you to go, and not because I don’t love you, but because I do. I won’t be someone who stops you from doing what you wanna do. TYLER: No, but I want to stay for you because I love you. You wouldn’t be in the way of my future, you are the way. SADIE: But I’m not the only way. People always talk about life decisions as crossroads, but I think there’s always a third route to take; an overpass above it all. If road A continues straight whereas road B turns left, the overpass is a diagonal line between them. We can be together while you move forward, the fate of our relationship doesn’t have to be an ultimatum. The path to go down the right direction may not be on the map, but it exists if you take the time to find it. TYLER: (chuckles) You’ve been talking with Leila about this, haven’t you? 28 SADIE: I figure we’ll need someone to play the resident poet and sage around here after she leaves. So what do you think? Can we find the overpass? (pause) TYLER: Yes, yes we can. I’ll defer my university offer till next year, I’ll work as much as I can in the next 12 months till I’ve saved up enough to take you with me to Massachutes. I know I’d be asking you to sacrifice living in the hometown you love but- SADIE: Yes. I’ll do it. TYLER: You will? SADIE: Of course. You’ve made a sacrifice for me, let me repay the favour. The roads we might have travelled wouldn’t have been the same without each other, regardless of where’d we end up. So let's do it Tyler, let’s move to America. TYLER: You really do have a heart of gold, don’t you? How can you forgive me so quickly after everything I’ve said tonight? How can you sacrifice your life for me just like that? SADIE: I know you, for a second there, you tried to make me think I didn’t but I do. You’re worth forgiving and sometimes sacrifices have to be made. I just need time to let the past go; get closure for the death of a happy childhood. It’s hard but it’s natural. Leila once told me, ‘high school’s like a tight-knit dinner at a 1-star restaurant: the setting’s a mess, those in charge don’t know what they’re doing, at times you feel a little sick, and you never get quite what you ordered, but that all fades from memory. When you think back on that dinner, years later, all you remember is the company, and all the good times you had with them.’ (cont.) 29 I always thought that analogy was a little contrived but I think I get what she means now. With time, I can handle change. I’m not gonna deny it, I’m not gonna fear it, I’m not gonna rush it, I’m gonna accept it. Wherever life takes me, I’ll welcome it. But I’ll always be glad….glad I got to spend it with you. THE END