1

V​A​L​L​E​Y MORTIMER’S VALLEY M​O​R​T​I​ME​R

Synopsis
The newly elected President desires nothing more than to make America’s Green Energy
Initiative a reality. But there are things she doesn’t know about the power produced by America,
and it’s connection to the small town of Mortimer, Arizona: a town trapped outside time.

Characters

The Outsiders-

President Dawn Delapore - the newly elected, Green Party candidate, and first president of a
third party to win the presidency, an emboldened, young woman looking for change.

Agent Ridley Hughes - shrouded in shadows, they’ve been here a while, they know the system at
play, they know the cover-ups, they know

Townies - trapped in a loop

The Artist - the one who knows. Restless in their knowledge. Desires originality. (perhaps a less
megalomaniacal Cave Johnson) haunting, crackling energy of a radio - Oppenheimer’s “I am
become death...” If played male Frederick Kass, if female, Felicia Kass.

The Scientist - a silent man, stoic, robotic, a shadow screen in the clock tower?

The Mayor - a loud man, incomparable, with the charisma of a puppy

The Gravedigger - an older man, joking, jesting, a true gravedigger

The Friend - a younger man, hardworking, looking to the future

The Worker - just trying to get home, with. A Christian.

The Vagrant - just trying to get home, without. An other.

Skylar & Sidney- a young couple deeply in love, any pairing, not even necessarily heterosexual
 2

Act I - The World As Is

Act II - The World As Isn’t

Setting

The Outside - a darkened space, maybe liminal, but more likely just a briefing room. The day
after the next inauguration, in the future.

The Town - A town outside of time. The centerpiece: a large clocktower, bent into an arcing
mobius-strip. Various scenes around the town somewhere in Arizona, year 1954. Typically five
minutes before 6:00, August 6th.

The idea of 6:00. A time which happens. Consistently.

At 6:00
The clock bell chimes twice.
A flash of light.
The clock bell chimes twice.
A massive rumbling.
Somehow the clock bell still sounds twice,
as a roar,
and a furious blast of wind,
rock the stage.

-- signifies a pause or a moment of action

This is a work of fiction, probably. While systematic oppression was a part of our timeline,
it doesn’t mean that it ​has​ to be a part of this timeline, cast without concern for “historical
accuracy”

While the Artist gets more bedraggled, there isn’t exactly a signifier beyond the mad glint
in their eyes.

I don’t know where the Scientist goes. But it belongs at 6:00. As a dance of death. Or
something. Mechanical.
 3

ACT I
A woman sits at a table, a bag over her head.
She is the new President of the United States:
Dawn Delapore.
A figure sits across from her: Agent Ridley Hughes.
The room is dark, almost prison-like.
It should evoke chiaroscuro technique.
Clocks, calendars, hourglasses, litter the table.
There is a steady tick of time in this place.

DAWN
You know, I lost count of the ticking but I feel like I’ve been here awhile. -- Hello? Is someone
there? -- Is this a standard hazing ritual? I know the president’s supposed to know some top tier
secrets, but this is...Hollywood-like. Like, wooh, here we are at a secret base. Blindfolded for
three hours. Pretty sure there’s a bag on my head. And now everything’s just ticking. -- It’s not
too late to back out of this, is it?

RIDLEY
God, you ​do​ talk a lot.

DAWN
I’m sorry? If-

RIDLEY
People warned me you talked a lot, but Jesus H. Christ.

DAWN
I’d frankly like to know who I’m addressing before we continue the conversation.

RIDLEY
I’m Agent Hughes. FBI. A division you don’t know about.

DAWN
Nice to hear. I’d love to see.

RIDLEY
In time.
 4

DAWN
Ha ha. -- That was a joke, right? -- Because of the clocks?

RIDLEY
Madame President, it really is great to finally meet you. I’ve been following your campaign
closely. I’m here to give you some exciting news, some terrible news, and eventually a choice.

DAWN
We’re really kicking off with big decisions? Just like that?

RIDLEY
You claimed it was important. You promised change. “Make fossils out of fossil fuels.” It was
catchy. Very motivational.

DAWN
I did. And clearly the people supported me.

RIDLEY
I’m glad.

DAWN
Then I don’t see the problem.

RIDLEY
You’re wrong.

DAWN
What?

RIDLEY
You’re just wrong.

DAWN
About fossil fuels?

RIDLEY
That’s correct.
 5

DAWN
What the hell do you mean I’m wrong? I’ve seen the numbers. We’ve all seen the numbers.
We’re in the shit right now, the world’s changing, the temperature’s rising, the weather’s gone
nutty. And we know who’s to blame.

RIDLEY
You think you know.

DAWN
Please don’t tell me the FBI is run by a bunch of delusional nutjobs who won’t believe the facts
even as we stand in the center of a disaster.

RIDLEY
Now, don’t get me wrong. We are in the center of a disaster.

DAWN
And you know what’s causing it. Just because you don’t believe it doesn’t mean… -- I won’t
continue this conversation in the dark. -- You hear me?

RIDLEY
Taking the bag off your head won’t change much.

DAWN
At least I wouldn’t have a bag over my head.

RIDLEY
Then take it off.

DAWN
Well you should have said… There. Well. Okay. It ​is​ dark in here.

RIDLEY
I don’t need very much light to see by.

DAWN
And, wow, you have a collection.

RIDLEY
I do.
 6

DAWN
They’re...nice. They shine nicely in the dark. --

RIDLEY
So.

DAWN
So.

RIDLEY
Middle of a disaster?

DAWN
I still can’t see you.

RIDLEY
You don’t need to.

DAWN
Well, I did want to; hence the whole bag situation.

RIDLEY
Maybe later.

DAWN
I want to know who I’m talking to.

RIDLEY
I told you. I’m Agent Hughes. Ridley Hughes, if you care so much, ma’am. I’m part of the FBI.
Branch Redacted.

DAWN
Funny. Is that the real name of the branch?

RIDLEY
Might as well be.
 7

DAWN
And do you do what the name implies?

RIDLEY
What do you think the name implies?

DAWN
You cover things up. Make things disappear?

RIDLEY
Yes. Yes we do.

DAWN
The people have a right-

RIDLEY
They ​don’t ​have a right to know. The people ​don’t​ ​need​ to know. And they ​won’t u​ nderstand.

DAWN
Is that the motto?

RIDLEY
No. That'd be: Quod non postulatis, non scio.

DAWN
Do not ask, I do not know?

RIDLEY
Something like that.

DAWN
So what don’t you know?

RIDLEY
Less than I would like.

DAWN
Okay. Stop with the riddles. Ridley, ha! Was that nominative determinism?
 8

RIDLEY
As much as “Dawn,” might be for you. You think it’s why you won?

DAWN
God, I hope not. I have faith in the people of America not to vote for me just because my name
looks nice.

RIDLEY
Dawn Delapore is a convincing name on a ballot. It’s the alliteration.

DAWN
I had policies that people liked. People campaigned for my ideals, not my name.

RIDLEY
Fingers crossed, then?

DAWN
Yeah...right… So? -- What was I wrong about, oh person of shadow?

RIDLEY
I’m sorry to tell you, but what you’ve been campaigning against is wrong.

DAWN
Which part?

RIDLEY
You know which part.

DAWN
You ​claim​ that it’s my “make fossils out of fossil fuels” promise.

RIDLEY
Exactly.

DAWN
Why do you keep insisting that?

RIDLEY
Cause we’ve done a damn good job. But you’re on our side now.
 9

DAWN
I’m on the ​people’s s​ ide.

RIDLEY
We ​are​ the people’s side.

DAWN
Then why are you selling out to these billion dollar industries-?

RIDLEY
They aren’t real. It’s a smoke screen.

DAWN
What the hell are you talking about?

RIDLEY
Listen to me, Madame President. Fossil fuels aren’t used in power generation. We stopped using
them in the sixties.

DAWN
Cut the bullshit, Hughes. I’ve seen the factories. I’ve visited them. Entire towns run on coal, on
oil. It’s their economy!

RIDLEY
Yeah there’s still some left. But it’s done. Sometimes we ship to other nations when we find
some more, but it’s done. Dried up. Most Americans haven’t seen real, honest-to-god coal since
the nineties.

DAWN
Where’s all the pollution from then?

RIDLEY
Cars mostly. Though we’ve been trying to get a turn around there too. Electric’s having a hard
time catching on.

DAWN
But electric waste comes from fossil fuel generators. You’re just ignoring the root of the
problem.
 10

RIDLEY
I’m not. You just don’t know what that root is.

DAWN
Something has to power the country, and I ​know​ it’s fossil fuels.

RIDLEY
You don’t. Quod non postulatis, non scio.

DAWN
Hughes, how the hell are we powering this country, then? Research shows that oil and coal
consumption have been steadily rising to match our growing society.

RIDLEY
That’s the exciting part. That research is fake. Guess who puts it out there?

DAWN
You?

RIDLEY
Well, not me. But my division, yes.

DAWN
But why?

RIDLEY
Well, I suppose that’s why you’re here, isn’t it?

DAWN
I don’t know. I wasn’t given a briefing.

RIDLEY
Well, that’s what ​this​ is.

DAWN
So, can we get to the information part? If fossil fuels have been out, what’re we powering the
country with?
 11

RIDLEY
We’ve been running one hundred percent green in our electricity production since 1967.

DAWN
No way.

RIDLEY
Yep. All renewable.

DAWN
No way! Bullshit! We don’t have the infrastructure! I’ve seen our solar plants. Our wind fields.
They aren’t enough to be powering this country. And I ​know​ we haven’t had those since 1967.

RIDLEY
We’ve had the energy since 1954, actually. Just took a while to wean everyone off of coal.

DAWN
1954? The Atomic Age? Are you trying to tell me we’ve been running on nuclear power for
seventy years?

RIDLEY
Well… yes and no… that’s where it gets tricky. But that was the exciting news. Congratulations,
you fulfilled your promise to the American people!

DAWN
Great! But why’d I have to make that fake promise in the first place? Why aren’t we telling
people?

RIDLEY
Yes, that’s the part, I suppose, where the bad news comes in.

DAWN
What is it?

RIDLEY
We have a system in place for producing power, but the U.S. has grown. We’re reaching our
limit, and soon we’ll be back on fossil fuels if we don’t get the permission to start another
generator up. Especially if we finally get around to making that switch in our cars. A country run
purely on renewable energy. All you gotta do is sign off on it.
 12

DAWN
I’m not signing anything without knowing what the hell I’m signing up for.

RIDLEY
That will make it difficult. But I suppose that is what we’re here for today.

DAWN
Then get to the point.

RIDLEY
Our system is a massive generator in the middle of Arizona.

DAWN
One nuclear generator is powering the country?

RIDLEY
Again, not exactly nuclear.

DAWN
Then what is it?

RIDLEY
All in due time.

DAWN
More cryptic bullshit.

RIDLEY
It’s important.

DAWN
Then can we at least start already?

RIDLEY
Well, have you ever heard of Mortimer’s Valley, Arizona?

DAWN
No, but with my brief understanding of how your branch works, I don’t know how I would have.
 13

RIDLEY
That’s the spirit.

Scene shift.
The Artist is a pinpoint in the dark.

ARTIST
When a painter paints; when a sculptor sculpts; when a writer writes; when an artist of any kind
creates art; it sticks itself firmly into the mind. The creation of something new, something
original, it leaves an imprint. So where is the painting I made yesterday? I remember the canvas.
I painted an elegant landscape on it. The Arizona dirt contrasted with a sky of infinite blue.
Imprinted in my mind, clearly, I see the creation I’ve made in my mind’s eye. But where is the
piece? Where is the labor? Where is the product? Was it a dream? Deja vu? If I paint the same
thing am I still being original?

Shift.
Mortimer’s Valley is lit,
as we escape the confines of the board room.
Scenes occur in their own spaces.
And above all, are ​repeatable.​
It is 5:55pm. August 6th, 1954.

MAYOR
Thank you for that lovely introduction, Sheriff Kane. My fellow citizens! I know it has been a
harsh summer. Record temperatures across the U.S. and the sun beats down hotter still on
Mortimer’s Valley. Seems every year it’s a little bit hotter than the last. But with the new safety
guidelines from Sheriff Kane and the Mortimer Health Clinic, we have managed a record low of
heatstroke here in town. But I digress. We are happy, tonight, to unveil the new project that has
been built outside of town. Some of you have been involved with the construction, and as I recall
we’ve had a few NDAs floating around about discussion of what exactly is being built out there.
Can’t keep our secrets too safe, you know. Never know who might be listening. But with the
whole project firing up tonight for the first time, I am excited to bring us into a new age of
technology and prosperity, starting right here in our own little town of Mortimer, Arizona!

Shift.
5:55

SIDNEY
Come on honey, it’s gonna start!
 14

SKYLAR
I’ve still got time!

SIDNEY
Uh, yeah… five minutes.

SKYLAR
The pizza’s almost ready.

SIDNEY
Uh huh… you know you can just take it out whenever, right?

SKYLAR
It hasn’t been fifteen minutes yet.

SIDNEY
How long do you have left?

SKYLAR
Four minutes.

SIDNEY
Cutting it close?

SKYLAR
There’s plenty of time.

SIDNEY
Well, the world’s not gonna stand around and wait for your pizza, Skylar.

SKYLAR
It won’t have to.

SIDNEY
Oooohh, Skylar doesn’t care about the new ​Lights Out ​program?
 15

SKYLAR
It’s gonna start at six, like it always does. So, the way I see it. Four minutes will make perfect
time.

SIDNEY
Well, I won’t answer any questions about the things you miss!

SKYLAR
Nothing important happens in the first few minutes anyways. It’s just an introduction to the idea.

SIDNEY
The idea is important.

SKYLAR
But the idea is explored the entire time. If I miss the introduction to the idea, it’s only important
if the idea never appears again. And if that’s the case, what’s the point anyways?

Shift.
5:55

THE FRIEND
Awfully late to be digging a grave.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Last bit of sunlight. Cooling air. I’d say it’s a fine time.

THE FRIEND
You’re missing the big speech.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
So are you.

THE FRIEND
I’m not into it.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
What do you mean?
 16

THE FRIEND
Just a bunch of hot air.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Hot, dry, desert air? I thought you’d be used to it by now.

THE FRIEND
From the sun, sure. From that pompous buffoon, though... I’m trying to avoid it.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Well, it’ll affect you all the same.

THE FRIEND
Not for much longer. I’m leaving Mortimer.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
What?

THE FRIEND
Yeah. I’m actually heading out tonight.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
That was fast. Do you need help with your stuff?

THE FRIEND
No. I’m all packed. I didn’t want to cause a stir.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Well, I’m glad you thought you should at least say goodbye.

THE FRIEND
Yeah, I’m sorry I haven’t told you. But I got a job off in Nevada. Las Vegas, if you’d believe it.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
I don’t.

THE FRIEND
Well, bud, don’t know what to tell ya, but you’re wrong.
 17

THE GRAVEDIGGER
You sure you’re not going just to gamble away your dough?

THE FRIEND
I’m sure.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Well, I’ll miss ya. You’ve been a good ear to talk off.

THE FRIEND
I’ll miss you too.

Shift.
5:55

VAGRANT
Spare some change.

WORKER
I only have bus fare.

VAGRANT
Really, anything’ll do.

WORKER
I don’t have anything to give.

VAGRANT
Please. I’m trying to get home too.

WORKER
What home?

VAGRANT
I have a home.

WORKER
Doesn’t look like it.
 18

VAGRANT
I’m saving up money to get back to Nashville. My ma’s waiting for me.

WORKER
She can’t wire you something?

VAGRANT
She’s sick. Real bad. I wanna get home in time to say goodbye.

WORKER
And no one’s able to send you some money?

VAGRANT
I don’t have the money to ask for it.

WORKER
I don’t have the money to help you.

VAGRANT
Please? You gotta have money to make money to get money. I don’t have any money. I need
money.

WORKER
Get outta my face. I only have my bus fare. Nothing more.

Shift
5:56

MAYOR
Some of you may have been trying to sneak out there. I’m looking at our young men and women
heading off to college in a few weeks. The sheriff told me it’s been a right mess trying to keep
y’all out of there. We know y’all wanted to know what was there, but we’ve had to keep it under
wraps. But now, with half of you going off to some of the ​best ​universities in the country, we
want you to be able to brag to your new friends about your hometown, and what it’s doing for
the country. We want you all to be proud that your hometown, which most people of Arizona
couldn’t find on a map if they tried, will be one of the hottest tourist spots in the country when
the word gets out. Mortimer will not only be known, but it will be a household name. And when
you get your degrees in physics and engineering, you know you’ll have a remarkable home to
return to. And a remarkable place to bring your talents to.
 19

Shift
5:56

SIDNEY
Fine, miss the intro. I’ll just be lonely on the sofa.

SKYLAR
No, don’t say that.

SIDNEY
All alone.

SKYLAR
No.

SIDNEY
No one to hug.

SKYLAR
Nooo.

SIDNEY
No one to kiss.

SKYLAR
Nooooo.

SIDNEY
The universe is vast, and I am alone on a sofa hurtling through space.

SKYLAR
No! Soon I will be there! With pizza!

SIDNEY
How will you catch up to my sofa? It’s already so far away in space.

SKYLAR
I’ll fly with the power of pizza.
 20

SIDNEY
But Skylar, what if you can’t find my sofa? What if I drift to far for you to find me? The universe
is large.

SKYLAR
Well, I’ll always be able to find you. Cause you’re mine!

Skylar kisses Sidney.

SIDNEY
Oh no, you abandoned your pizza!

SKYLAR
Well, there was a situation. My damsel in distress.

SIDNEY
You’d sacrifice your pizza for me?

SKYLAR
Everytime.

Shift.
5:56

VAGRANT
Not even a penny?

WORKER
What good is a penny gonna do?

VAGRANT
It’ll add up. A shiny penny’ll get me home.

WORKER
Well if I had a shiny penny, I’d give it to you. But I still don’t have anything.

VAGRANT
Come on, man.
 21

WORKER
Where the hell is that bus?

VAGRANT
It won’t come til you give me some change.

WORKER
Yeah, right. The karmic balance of buses and hobos.

VAGRANT
I have a home.

WORKER
You’re a far way from it.

VAGRANT
Yeah, but you can’t just treat me like I don’t got one. I have a home I’m getting back to.

WORKER
I can see. With all that money you’ve got to get there.

VAGRANT
I oughta smack you for that.

WORKER
Don’t touch me.

VAGRANT
Snooty about taking a bus, and you ain’t got nothing else to give. At least I’m not pretending to
have more than I got.

Shift.
5:56

THE FRIEND
I’ll be honest though. I am going to gamble.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Come on, man.
 22

THE FRIEND
I made a good amount of money off this last bit of work. I’m gonna grow it.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Dangerous game. What if you lose it all?

THE FRIEND
I won’t. I’ve got a good feeling about Vegas. Better than the sickness of the valley.
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Oh, the gloomy spirit of Death, weighing you down. That must be tough.

THE FRIEND
I’m serious, Harold. Things are wrong, that new project-

THE GRAVEDIGGER
This again? You’ve been consumed by that work. The poor, unfortunate Eric Caville can’t make
the government explore the caverns of the valley.

THE FRIEND
I’ll leave you in that grave.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Please! Please! I’ve been digging for so long, I’m just waiting to dig the one I’ll be buried in!

THE FRIEND
Come off it, man. Just cause I’m going away doesn’t mean your life is ending.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Oh, no, you won’t spare an old man his last dying wish?

THE FRIEND
Well, alright. Since you’re begging. Just give me the shovel, and I’ll give you a nice whack on
the back of the head.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Wow… no ceremony about it at all?
 23

THE FRIEND
It’ll be like that last bit of Mice and Men, ya know?

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Haven’t read it.

THE FRIEND
Oh, well. I thought a geezer like you would have by now.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
I’m a busy geezer.

THE FRIEND
Right, right. Well, try not to die too soon. I’d like to see you again.

Shift.
The conference room.

DAWN
Every day?

RIDLEY
Well, twice every day. The loop is 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

DAWN
So it’s time travel?

RIDLEY
Well, no. Not really. It ​is ​a loop.

DAWN
But how does it start over?

RIDLEY
Well, it- Okay, you know VHS tapes?

DAWN
How old do you think I am?
 24

RIDLEY
Okay, well, imagine this generator as a sort of VHS tape then. There isn’t anything that you can
do to change what’s on the tape. All you can do is rewind it. And it plays itself again.

DAWN
But you ​can​ rewrite a VHS tape.

RIDLEY
Well, sure, but this isn’t a VHS tape. That was a metaphor.

DAWN
Fine. But why couldn’t you re-record.

RIDLEY
For one, we wouldn’t want to, it was hard enough to create the moment being repeated. And
based on its power output generation, it would be hard to find a better moment.

DAWN
But you could?

RIDLEY
I don’t know. My gut says yes, of course. But my brain tells me that the odds of it happening are
one in a quintillion.

DAWN
But possible?

RIDLEY
The fact that it exists is an impossibility by itself. Dismantling it ​has​ to be possible at this point.
But again, why would we? It maintains our power.

DAWN
So the power isn’t generated by the time loop, but rather something happening inside the time
loop?

RIDLEY
One and the same really.
 25

DAWN
No. That- sorry that’s pedantic.

RIDLEY
What is it?

DAWN
Well, it might be the generator that produces power, but really the generator is just a space for
the power to be produced by the process. What’s the process?

RIDLEY
Well, that’s the power of the generator I suppose. We created a space in which a huge amount of
power was able to be generated in only twelve hours, and then we set it to loop.

DAWN
But what creates the power, Agent Hughes?

RIDLEY
Nothing that affects us, except for the power it generates.

DAWN
And it just sits in sync?

RIDLEY
Well, the rest of time moves along with it.

DAWN
Affected, and yet not

RIDLEY
Yes. A small contained loop. It is...our own little miracle.

DAWN
But how? What does the rewinding?

RIDLEY
Quod non postulatis, non scio.
 26

DAWN
Don’t pull that. I may not be able to see your face, but I know more than you think.

RIDLEY
Oh?

DAWN
This room gives you away.

RIDLEY
My collection?

DAWN
Yes, pretty easy really. You’re obsessed with time. I assume it’s because of whatever you did or
found out there in the desert to create this loop. That kind of messing with time carries with it
paranoia. Are you afraid of getting stuck in a loop yourself? Or maybe you’re scared to see
yourself? You’re scared of what you’ve become, hence the darkness. What do you look like
that’s made you so afraid?

RIDLEY
I’m not afraid.

DAWN
Then what is it?

RIDLEY
The word I would use is unnerved.

DAWN
Potato pot​a​to. Will you show me?

RIDLEY
No. Not yet.

DAWN
Why not?

RIDLEY
I don’t want to.
 27

DAWN
But-

RIDLEY
No. That’s final. You’ll see me when I want you to see me.

DAWN
So… I got one part right. What about all this then? What are you watching for?

RIDLEY
It’s a hobby. My collection.

DAWN
Pretty strange collection.

RIDLEY
My father was a clockmaker.

DAWN
Uh huh?

RIDLEY
I’m serious. He was.

DAWN
Sure. I don’t think that you’re lying. But I also don’t think it’s why you’ve got dozens of
timepieces littering the table.

RIDLEY
I like to keep track of time.

DAWN
Go on.

RIDLEY
This meeting isn’t about me.
 28

DAWN
Well, you’re asking me to make a “terrible decision”, one that I’d like to understand fully. So,
knowing what you’re struggling with could help me make that decision.

RIDLEY
And I assure you, my predicament has nothing to do with the decision.

DAWN
You’re joking right? Look at the state you’re in!

RIDLEY
That has nothing to do with any of this.

DAWN
You’re a nervous wreck. Hiding in shadows, watching the clocks tick down. You’re not
unnerved. You’re terrified.

RIDLEY
I made a choice, I was punished for it, here I am.

DAWN
Punished?

RIDLEY
Do you know the story about Death and the Farmer?

DAWN
Are you Death, or the farmer?

RIDLEY
In this story, the farmer.

DAWN
I don’t think I’m familiar with it.

RIDLEY
It’s a short story, but the basic idea is that a farmer sees Death approaching him in the
countryside. He runs to his father, hysteric, insisting that he needs to take the truck to the city.
His father gives him the keys, and the farmhand rushes off towards the city. Death knocks on the
 29

father’s door, quite surprised, and asks the father “Excuse me, I think I frightened your son. I
was simply so surprised to see him out here today, as I have a meeting with him in the city this
afternoon.”

DAWN
Your favorite bedtime story?

RIDLEY
A good moral lesson. One I possibly should have heeded.

DAWN
Don’t run from Death?

RIDLEY
Ha. Maybe. -- Don’t act rashly in the short term to escape Fate.

DAWN
So what fate did you escape?

RIDLEY
Later.

DAWN
But what happened?

RIDLEY
Do you listen when I talk?

DAWN
I do.

RIDLEY
And didn’t I say I would show you in time?

DAWN
This is something else. I’m asking what happened to you.

RIDLEY
It’s one and the same.
 30

DAWN
I don’t see why you can’t just tell me.

RIDLEY
Because this is about the generator. Not about me.

DAWN
But what about you?

RIDLEY
I’m not on the table. But if it were me in your shoes, my answer will always be yes. It has to be.

DAWN
Then tell me about yourself. Let me slip into your shoes.

RIDLEY
You wouldn’t want to.

DAWN
Then how can I know that I want to create a new generator?

RIDLEY
Because this is your country. Your people. You have a duty to make them successful.

DAWN
Then tell me more about the generator.

RIDLEY
I take it that’s still a no?

DAWN
I don’t want to do something without a base of knowledge to judge the action from. So, what
haven’t you told me?

RIDLEY
A lot. It’s what I’m good at.

DAWN
Clearly.
 31

RIDLEY
So. The generator-

DAWN
Not the generator. The process. What produces enough electricity to power a country?

RIDLEY
Sit down.

DAWN
Ominous.
RIDLEY
Some have found it shocking before you.

DAWN
I’m a sturdy woman.

RIDLEY
I don’t doubt it. But please, sit. -- We loop a very specific creation of energy. The, um, rewind
simply allows us to recreate that moment.

DAWN
What is it though?

RIDLEY
Sit back down first. And I’ll tell you.

She does.
Shift.
Mortimer’s Valley.
5:57.

ARTIST
Huh... deja vu… and...the taste of… huh, syrup?

5:57
 32

WORKER
Seriously, leave me alone.

VAGRANT
I’m just sayin’ you have a lot of courage being this shitty to me. What do you do anyways? ---
You sell coffee? Sweep floors? Stock shelves?

WORKER
Leave me alone!

VAGRANT
Oh ho. Mr. Bus Rider can’t even spare the time to make some conversation now.

WORKER
I​ am in sales. I make enough money to support myself just fine, but that doesn’t mean that I carry
around pocket change for bums. Now get lost.

VAGRANT
I’m waiting for a bus.

WORKER
You aren’t getting on the bus.

VAGRANT
I am.

WORKER
You’re not!

VAGRANT
Am too!

WORKER
With what money?

VAGRANT
Man, apparently just because​ you​ don’t have change means that​ no one ​has change?
 33

WORKER
You were asking me for money!

VAGRANT
Yeah, cause I don’t got any!

WORKER
Then ​how​ are you going to get on the bus?

Shift.
5:57

THE GRAVEDIGGER
But why are you going? Why now?
THE FRIEND
Things aren’t looking good for me here.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
What do you mean? You had a job over there. The whole secret installation.

THE FRIEND
Job’s done. Work’s gone.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
What? They’re not keeping you on?

THE FRIEND
Nah, I was just construction. Project’s over, they don’t need me anymore.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Strong labor is always gonna be needed.

THE FRIEND
That’s a good thought, but change is coming. That whole facility is being run by scientists now.
Maybe not even scientists. Maybe robots.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Come off it.
 34

THE FRIEND
Nah. The basic laborer is going down the drain. Soon we won’t even need people like you. We
just won’t even die in the future. No more graves.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Well, I’ll probably be in the ground by then.

THE FRIEND
Society’s advancing quickly…

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Man, I’m old. I’m lucky to live to see tomorrow.

THE FRIEND
Alright geezer, have fun with your hole.

GRAVEDIGGER
You don’t wanna sit and watch the sunset together one more time?

THE FRIEND
Nah, I don’t wanna explain to the Sheriff why I’m sitting with a half dug grave and some old
man who’s keeled over from exhaustion.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Bah! Hahaha! Have fun in Vegas.

The Friend leaves The Gravedigger to his work.

Shift.
5:57

SKYLAR
I ​will​ go get the pizza out of the oven when the buzzer goes, though.

SIDNEY
No! Traitor! Next thing you’ll tell me is that you’re a Commie.

SKYLAR
Shh, you never know who might be listening! You’ll blow my cover!
 35

SIDNEY
Aha! So it’s true!

SKYLAR
You found me out.

SIDNEY
You never loved me?

SKYLAR
Not at first, but now…

SIDNEY
This whole thing has been a sham to learn our government secrets.

SKYLAR
Yes, I know you know so many.

SIDNEY
So none of this was real?

SKYLAR
No, no, chin up. We’ll always have Arizona.

SIDNEY
Do you mean that?

SKYLAR
Of course. But Mother Russia is waiting. So tell me all you know.

SIDNEY
I love you.

SKYLAR
That’s a good start. What else? What is that strange thing they’re building in the desert.

SIDNEY
 36

You won’t get anything else from me.

SKYLAR
Vell, ve haff vays of making you talk.

Shift.
5:57

MAYOR
So what is it? I feel you’re getting impatient with me. But wait, I’ve got to pad the time too. It
opens at 6:00. Three more minutes. But I’m excited to tell you, this new development will be the
first power plant of its kind! Y’all may have heard about the couple of nuclear power plants the
government’s been doing work with, and you may have heard in the past few weeks how the
Soviets ​stole​ our governmental secrets and built their own power plant. But they built foolishly,
because they didn’t know about this project! This new installation will change how power is
created in the United States. It has taken nuclear power, and brought it into the modern age.
Some historians have already started calling this “The Atomic Age,” and I think they’re right.
The future is bright my fellow citizens, and it will be lit by nuclear power. And that power will
come from the Mortimer Nuclear Power Station!

Shift.
5:58
The Gravedigger digs.
One minute.
Shift.
5:58

MAYOR
But that power is not possible without our work and our own citizen’s strength! Our men have
been hard at work alongside the governmental workforce to help with the construction of this
station. This power comes not just from nuclear power, but from the very soul of our town, the
new frontier of energy begins with us! The powerful men and women, who are able to give their
energy for the betterment of our country, for ourselves, and our future. We have been praised for
our willingness to enter into this Atomic Age, and that praise isn’t wrong. We are pushing
America into a new age; an age of continued superiority, of massive strides of technological and
economic growth, of freedom, power and industry. We, the citizens of Mortimer, have set the
stage for a dazzling new America, powered by our own locally sourced all American power!
Made by America, for America.
 37

Shift.
5:58

SIDNEY
My lips are sealed. I will stay strong!

SKYLAR
Even if I… tickle you?
Skylar does.

SIDNEY
No! No! Stop! No! Aagghhh!

SKYLAR
Tell me all the secrets!

SIDNEY
Never!

SKYLAR
Tell me!

SIDNEY
Agh!
Skylar stops.

SKYLAR
Wow. I love you.

SIDNEY
You should have thought about that before you tickled me. I don’t know if I can say it back.

SKYLAR
Okay wow.

SIDNEY
Yeah. Commie scum.
 38

SKYLAR
Well, I guess I’ll go eat my pizza alone in the kitchen.

SIDNEY
Your pizza isn’t ready yet.

SKYLAR
Then I guess I'll just go stand, alone, in the kitchen.

SIDNEY
No...come back…

SKYLAR
I thought you didn’t love me?

SIDNEY
I changed my mind.

SKYLAR
Oh, again?

SIDNEY
I need my communist lover back. It’s cold in Siberia.

SKYLAR
Well, come here then. I’ll warm you up.

SIDNEY
Mmmm, snuggly.

5:58

VAGRANT
Okay! Fine! I’m not getting on the bus. But you shoulda seen your face when I said I was. You
were all like. Whaaaaat?

WORKER
I hate this.
 39

VAGRANT
Look, man, I’m just looking for a little bit of sympathy. A little bit of pocket change. Then I’ll be
outta your hair.

WORKER
You’ll be outta my hair when the bus comes, and I get on, and you ​can’t.

VAGRANT
I hope that bus never comes then. Really make you stew in this moment. About how you’re not
willing to help your fellow man.

WORKER
That’s not my job.

VAGRANT
Come on. In some places they treat everyone as equal. Everyone working together for the
common good.

WORKER
Oh my god, you’re a communist.

VAGRANT
Man, do I look like a commie?

WORKER
Poor and starving? Begging for handouts? Yeah, I think so.

VAGRANT
I’m not a commie. I’m just looking for a bit of sympathy, a bit of change.

WORKER
Well, you’re getting neither from me.

VAGRANT
Man, are you a Christian?

WORKER
What? Yes.
 40

VAGRANT
I hope you go to hell.

Shift.
5:59
The Gravedigger digs.
One minute.
6:00
The clock bell chimes twice.
Shift.
5:59
Skylar starts to go.

SIDNEY
Wait. Can we stay like this? Just. Stay like this. A moment in time?

SKYLAR
What? Yeah?

SIDNEY
I always worry. I love you so much.

SKYLAR
Well, I’m right here?

SIDNEY
Yeah. You are.

A moment passes. Softly. Nestled. Lovely.

The oven beeps.

SKYLAR
That’s my cue!

SIDNEY
Noo...come back.

Skylar exits.
 41

6:00
The clock bell chimes twice.
A flash of light.
The clock bell chimes twice.
Shift.
5:59

WORKER
That’s a terrible thing to say.

VAGRANT
What would your Christ think, of you not helping the needy?

WORKER
That’s not funny.

VAGRANT
Far as I can tell, you deserve what’s coming to you in the afterlife.

WORKER
You’re horrible. Why won’t you just leave me alone?

VAGRANT
What if I’m your test? What if I’m the test to see if you get into heaven?

WORKER
You’re sick. I don’t have to take this.

VAGRANT
Come on, ​Christian,​ won’t you give a shiny penny to the less fortunate.

WORKER
I’ll give you a good smack in a second.

VAGRANT
Your Jesus bathed the feet of the needy. Why don’t you?

WORKER
 42

Eat shit.

Worker punches the Vagrant hard.

And he falls to the ground clutching the side of his head.

VAGRANT
Gah! Man, what the hell? You hit me! Some fucking Christian!

The Worker kicks the Vagrant hard.

The sound of breath escaping the lungs.
6:00
The clock bell chimes twice.
A flash of light.
The clock bell chimes twice.
A massive rumbling.

WORKER
What the hell is that?

Shift.
5:59

MAYOR
So please! Join me in turning our attention to the east, as we wait for the signal light! If
everything goes correctly, I’ve been told we will see a bright light to signal the opening of our
new power station. Watch for the light which will put Mortimer, Arizona on the map! Ten! Nine!
Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!

6:00
The clock bell chimes twice.
A flash of light.
The clock bell chimes twice.
A massive rumbling.
Somehow the clock bell still sounds twice,
as a roar,
and a furious blast of wind,
rock the stage.
Silence. The void.
 43

ARTIST
At first, I thought I was breaking through. Finally shifting into that place of dreams that every
great artist claims to do. Ones where the world is tangible, where my actions go unnoticed, but
shape the very space of the dream. I- I don’t think that, anymore. The ending always scares me. I
know what being vaporized feels like. And when I wake up, I don’t expect to. I am blasted out of
existence by my dream. Atomically ripped apart. And then my eyes open. And I look up at my
ceiling. And then I get out of bed. But it’s all the same. The same dream. The same day. And I
dread the ending.

Shift. The briefing room.​

DAWN
Souls…

RIDLEY
Well, it’s not exactly-

DAWN
It’s human beings? Human souls? Butchered over and over again-

RIDLEY
Nicely contained. Put through a wringer, and revivified by the natural powers of the Valley.

DAWN
There’s nothing natural about that.

RIDLEY
It’s actually a remarkable force of nature that we captured for-

DAWN
The country has been powered for seventy years by the suffering of its people!

RIDLEY
The sacrifice of a small number.

DAWN
How many people are in that town?

RIDLEY
 44

4232.

DAWN
Four thousand-

RIDLEY
Two hundred and thirty two. Yes.

DAWN
That is not a small number. That’s more people than died in 9/11!

RIDLEY
Yes, and if we had been able to capture that moment too-

DAWN
Capture?

RIDLEY
I told you earlier. This generator works on a principal of capturing specific moments and keeping
them frozen.

DAWN
You’d force people to relive that?

RIDLEY
In better circumstances, yes.

DAWN
You’re a monster.

RIDLEY
I am trying to keep a country powered!

DAWN
It’s murder.

RIDLEY
It’s a vaporization. They don’t even notice.
 45

DAWN
It’s a massacre. .

RIDLEY
Look. It is- It is something we had to do to stay on top. The Russians were seizing power… --
Look, this generator is the miracle of the twentieth century.

DAWN
The only miracle here is that you feel no guilt about this. You want me to sign off on another one
of these monstrosities? To sign off on creating another eternal spring of suffering and sacrifice?
You’re out of your fucking mind.

RIDLEY
President Dawn, I think you’ll find the alternative-
DAWN
The alternative? The alternative is ​green energy​. What I campaigned for! Solar power. Wind
power. Clean energy. Not this tainted, soul infused, muder machine.

RIDLEY
We’ve learned from past mistakes though. We could make it so that only high criminals are put
in the new one.

DAWN
WHAT? They were innocent-? Those are-? / I’m going to be sick.

RIDLEY
Some tests are...too successful.

DAWN
The American people deserve to know what their government has done to ​innocent civilians.​

RIDLEY
The government has done many things-

DAWN
Yes, and a lot of that was released over the years.

RIDLEY
 46

You must understand that this is still a current project though. We can’t tell people about this.
We can’t have people wandering into a pocket of time that doesn’t exist anymore for them.

DAWN
But you seem content to keep killing people in that time.

RIDLEY
This is not the sole secret kept from the people of the United States, President Delapore.

DAWN
Are any of the others nuclear death-traps?

RIDLEY
Well, no-

DAWN
And how many people do those other secrets kill annually?

RIDLEY
Well-

DAWN
You think that you’re keeping people safe? By killing more than four-thousand people every
day?

RIDLEY
Yes! Yes, I do!

DAWN
HOW?!

RIDLEY
Quod non-

DAWN
Don’t fucking say that! Don’t vomit your trite phrase at me!

RIDLEY
 47

President Dawn, you have one predecessor on this issue, and he knew the price of sacrifice all
too well.

DAWN
And you’re saying I don’t? I’ve had my share of sacrifices to get to where I’m sitting right now,
Agent Hughes, so don’t imply that I-

RIDLEY
You don’t know the first thing about sacrifice.

DAWN
And you do? I did everything to get to where I am right now. I took bribes. I blackmailed. I cut
the competition down to shreds to get where I am. My morals might not be perfect, but I can
recognize an ethical scar when I see one. And this one- this one runs deep.

RIDLEY
A sacrifice of principles? That’s all? I am a twisted shell of what I once was to have this
generator running. Don’t you dare compare your “struggles” with my innovation. I powered this
country with my sacrifice.

DAWN
Sacrifice is one thing. A contained Holocaust is- it is something else entirely. I want the
generator shut down. The answer is not just No, it is Hell No, it is “I Will Rip This Aberration
Apart With My Own Bare Hands If I Must” No

RIDLEY
President Dawn, you need to think carefully about this.

DAWN
There is no thinking that needs to happen. I’ve made up my mind.

RIDLEY
This is America’s power supply. Without it- we’re in the dark again.

DAWN
Being in the dark is preferable to this. Besides we have-

RIDLEY
 48

Green energy? Do you know how much power Mortimer’s Valley produces? Do you know how
many ​windmills​ we’d need to even begin to compare the two?

DAWN
We could make do.

RIDLEY
We couldn’t.

DAWN
We could.

RIDLEY
No. President. You don’t understand. EVERYTHING is powered now! You think energy was
necessary in 1954? Look at the state of the world now! Even PEOPLE are plugged into
electricity! Without electricity, New York becomes a starving mausoleum of plague and rats.
New Orleans sinks into the ocean. Chicago freezes. Las Vegas boils in the desert. Cities shut
down, and die - rural communities get shut off and go feral. Electricity is the engine that keeps
the country moving; without it, we die.

DAWN
And what does that electricity cost?

RIDLEY
This is not a question of right and wrong! This isn’t a question of America thriving. It is about
surviving! -- -- I’m sorry. There are things you haven’t considered.

DAWN
And can we honestly live with ourselves knowing what survival is built on?

RIDLEY
We must.

DAWN
We must not!

RIDLEY
You know, I was really hoping that you’d come to the right decision by yourself.
 49

DAWN
What the hell is that supposed to mean?

RIDLEY
Because now I know that you’ll suffer when you make the right choice.

DAWN
There is only one right decision here, and I’ve already made it.

RIDLEY
You’re wrong.

Somewhere, the sound of digging.

An oven beeps.
The sound of breath escaping the lungs.
Blackout.
A pinpoint on the Artist.

ARTIST
Can you hear me? Out there? My name is Frederick Kass. I need help. I’m speaking from
Mortimer Valley Radio station. Please. If you’re out there. Answer me. -- Has anything new
been written? I’ve read every book in town, and I have no way to get anymore. You can’t write a
book in a day. And I never had the words anyways. Is there anyone still out there? Or are we the
only ones left? It’s very hard to be original when everyone else does the same thing every day.
I’m the only one that sees, that notices, that we are trapped in a cycle. It's not enough. -- I’m
going to break the cycle. One of these days. I’m going to break this damned cycle, and then I will
find the people responsible for this madness. DO YOU HEAR ME? I’M GOING TO FIND
YOU! I’M GOING TO ESCAPE!

BLACKOUT
END OF ACT I
 50

ACT II

ARTIST
My name is Frederick Kass. I need help. I’m speaking from Mortimer Valley Radio station. --
I’ve had… urges. There is something about the human need to create. It burns like a fire, aching
to be released. I’ve gotten more bizarre with my art. Tried new things. Some paintings would
make Picasso weep. A shame they’re turned to cinders at the end of the day. I’ve wondered if
carving paintings into my brain would keep them from being incinerated. If you’re listening...I
apologize for what I might do… in advance. I have the urge to create. And maybe the canvas I
need to use is- the human form. What shades of red does blood create? -- If I do something new
everyday, one day I’ll do the right thing. The thing that will set me free.

Several scenes. Overlapping. Interplaying.

THE FRIEND
Awfully late to be digging a grave.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Last bit of sunlight. Cooling air. I’d say it’s a fine time.

MAYOR
Seems every year it’s a little bit hotter than the last.

SIDNEY
How long do you have left?

SKYLAR
Four minutes.

VAGRANT
Really, anything’ll do.

WORKER
I don’t have anything to give.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
What do you mean?
 51

THE FRIEND
Just a bunch of hot air.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Hot, dry, desert air? I thought you’d be used to it by now.

MAYOR
I am excited to bring us into a new age of technology and prosperity, starting right here in our
own little town of Mortimer, Arizona!

SIDNEY
Well, the world’s not gonna stand around and wait for your pizza, George.

SKYLAR
It won’t have to.

MAYOR
We know y’all wanted to know what was there, but we’ve had to keep it under wraps

WORKER
Where the hell is that bus?

SKYLAR
It’s gonna start at six, like it always does. So, the way I see it. Four minutes will make perfect
time.

VAGRANT
It won’t come til you give me some change.

WORKER
Yeah, right. The karmic balance of buses and hobos.

MAYOR
The future is bright, my fellow citizens, and it will be lit by nuclear power.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Well, it’ll affect you all the same.
 52

MAYOR
And that power will come from the Mortimer Nuclear Power Station!

THE FRIEND
Not for much longer. I’m leaving Mortimer.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
What?

VAGRANT
I’m waiting for a bus.

WORKER
You are not getting on the bus.

VAGRANT
I am.

WORKER
You’re not!

VAGRANT
Am too!

SKYLAR
No, don’t say that.

SIDNEY
All alone.

MAYOR
This power comes not just from nuclear power,

SKYLAR
No.

SIDNEY
No one to hug.
 53

MAYOR
But from the very soul of our town,

SKYLAR
Noo.

SIDNEY
No one to kiss.

MAYOR
The new frontier of energy begins with us!

SKYLAR
Nooo.

SIDNEY
The universe is vast, and I am alone on a sofa hurtling through space.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Oh, the gloomy spirit of Death, weighing you down. That must be tough.

MAYOR
The powerful men and women, who are able to give their energy for the betterment of our
country, for ourselves, and our future.

THE FRIEND
I’m serious, Harold. Things are wrong, that new project-

MAYOR
We are pushing America into a new age; an age of continued superiority, of massive strides of
technological and economic growth, of freedom, power and industry.

VAGRANT
Look, man, I’m just looking for a little bit of sympathy. A little bit of pocket change. Then I’ll be
outta your hair.

WORKER
You’ll be outta my hair when the bus comes, and I get on, and you ​can’t.
 54

VAGRANT
I hope that bus never comes then. Really make you stew in this moment. About how you’re not
willing to help your fellow man.

SIDNEY
You’d sacrifice your pizza for me?

SKYLAR
Everytime.

WORKER
That’s not my job.

VAGRANT
Come on. In some places they treat everyone as equal. Everyone working together for the
common good.

SIDNEY
No! Traitor! Next thing you’ll tell me is that you’re a Commie.

SKYLAR
Shh, you never know who might be listening! You’ll blow my cover!

MAYOR
We, the citizens of Mortimer, have set the stage for a dazzling new America, powered by our
own locally sourced all American power!

THE FRIEND
I’ll leave you in that grave.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Please! Please! I’ve been digging for so long, I’m just waiting to dig the one I’ll be buried in!

THE FRIEND
Come off it, man. Just cause I’m going away doesn’t mean your life is ending.

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Oh, no? You won’t spare an old man his last dying wish?
 55

VAGRANT
I hope you go to hell.

MAYOR
Watch for the light which will put Mortimer, Arizona on the map!

WORKER
That’s a terrible thing to say.

MAYOR
TEN

VAGRANT
What would your Christ think, of you not helping the needy?

MAYOR
NINE

WORKER
That’s not funny.

MAYOR
EIGHT

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Come off it.

MAYOR
SEVEN

THE FRIEND
Nah. The basic laborer is going down the drain. Soon we won’t even need people like you. We
just won’t even die in the future. No more graves.

MAYOR
SIX

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Well, I’ll probably be in the ground by then.
 56

MAYOR
FIVE

THE FRIEND
Society’s advancing quickly…

MAYOR
FOUR

SIDNEY
Wait. Can we stay like this? Just. Stay like this. A moment in time?

MAYOR
THREE

VAGRANT
What if I’m your test? What if I’m the test to see if you get into heaven?

MAYOR
TWO

THE GRAVEDIGGER
Man, I’m old. I’m lucky to live to see tomorrow.

MAYOR
ONE

6:00
The sound of digging.
An oven beeps.
The sound of breath escaping the lungs.

ARTIST
My name is Frederick Kass. I need help. I’m speaking from Mortimer Valley Radio station. --
Things only seem to complicate. Or replicate. Like leaves on a tree. The same thing happening
over and over again but with a twist. Yesterday’s twist: I went spelunking. I found… bodies. 29
bodies all fried and ripped apart by something, all just rotting down there. I don’t think that was
ever in the news. 29 people died in a cave, I- I would have seen that. Right? That amount of
death… it’s noticeable, right? Have people noticed our deaths? Or do they not count because
 57

they keep happening? -- Today I’m going to go back to that cave, and create art with the bodies.
I’m thinking...a sculpture. To be unveiled in the town center. Will that break a pattern? A
reverie?

The briefing room.

DAWN
This is ridiculous. I guarantee you will not convince me to change my mind.

RIDLEY
The world is changing.

DAWN
It hasn’t changed that much.

RIDLEY
The world needs stability. A clean source of energy provides-

DAWN
This is not clean! Innocent people get murdered every day! And they’re left suffering, abandoned
by their government.

RIDLEY
Only one.

DAWN
What?

RIDLEY
Only one of them suffers. As far as I can tell.

DAWN
Is one not enough?

RIDLEY
You don’t know them.

DAWN
They’re an American citizen. A human being.
 58

RIDLEY
No. I don’t think he is. I’ve listened to him. Radios pick up his recordings in the desert near
Mortimer. His musings. He’s a psychopath.

DAWN
I wonder why? Oh, maybe it’s the constant dying?

RIDLEY
Maybe. But I only know one other person that has resisted the effects of the generator.

DAWN
I think I might know them too. And if that person doesn’t think they’re a psychopath, they are
frankly, ​mistaken​.

RIDLEY
We are powering a country!

DAWN
And what a country it is! -- Don’t get me wrong. I understand all too well how this country has
built itself up. But to say we haven’t learned from our mistakes… I will not have this country be
powered by the suffering of anyone. Do you understand that?

RIDLEY
Andin turning the power off, you’d make everyone suffer?

DAWN
My solution was clean energy to save the world. My voters understood the need to sacrifice
some comfort for an overall improvement to humanity.

RIDLEY
You’d be sacrificing more than comfort. I think it’s time.

DAWN
For what?

RIDLEY
To explain something further.
 59

DAWN
I think you explained basically everything I needed to hear.

RIDLEY
I told you, in time, I was going to show myself to you.

DAWN
I’m not interested anymore. I want to go.

RIDLEY
Not yet. Not yet.

DAWN
No. I don’t think you understand, Agent Hughes. I’m not listening to you anymore. I’m the
President of the United States. And I have the power to ignore some shadowy... ​Hitler​. You may
think that what you’re doing is right, but I don’t want to listen to someone who is so brutally
wrong, that they’ve built themselves as the hero of this whole thing.

RIDLEY
Please, President Dawn.

DAWN
I’m going.

RIDLEY
Have you ever been caught in a time loop?

DAWN
Good day, Agent Hughes.

RIDLEY
I think- it’s time.

DAWN
For what?

RIDLEY
To explain something further.
 60

DAWN
I think you explained basically everything I needed to hear.

RIDLEY
I’m going to show myself to you.

DAWN
I’m not interested anymore. I want to go.

RIDLEY
Not yet. Not yet.

DAWN
No. I don’t think you understand, Agent Hughes. I’m not listening to you anymore. I’m the
President of the United States. And I have the power to ignore some shadowy... ​Hitler​. You may
think that what you’re doing is right, but I don’t want to listen to someone who is so brutally
wrong, that they’ve built themselves as the hero of this whole thing.

RIDLEY
Please, President Dawn.

DAWN
I’m going.

RIDLEY
Have you ever been caught in a time loop?

DAWN
Good day, Agent Hughes.

RIDLEY
I think- it’s time.

DAWN
For what?

RIDLEY
I’m going to teach you about deja vu.
 61

DAWN
I think you explained basically-- What?

RIDLEY
I’m going to show myself to you.

DAWN
I’m not interested anymore.

RIDLEY
Look at me. Please, President Dawn.

DAWN
I’m going.

RIDLEY
Have you ever been caught in a time loop?

DAWN
Good day, Agent Hughes.

RIDLEY
I think- it’s time.

DAWN
For what?

RIDLEY
I’m going to teach you about deja vu.

DAWN
What?

RIDLEY
I’m going to show myself to you.

DAWN
What is this? I taste syrup.
 62

RIDLEY
Look at me. Please, President Dawn.

DAWN
The clocks. The calendars. What are you?

RIDLEY
Cursed.

DAWN
Let me go.

RIDLEY
Look at me before you make your decision.

DAWN
I’ve made my decision.

RIDLEY
Please. Look at me.

Ridley enters into the light.

We truly see them now.
Their eyes, dark and dripping ink.
Their hair, silvery white.
Their frame, generally young, but malnourished.
They appear as if a skeleton, lurching from their chair.

DAWN
Oh my god...

RIDLEY
Hello, Madame President.

DAWN
What happened to you?

RIDLEY
I’m experienced in the matters of time manipulation, Madame President.
 63

DAWN
You look horrific.

RIDLEY
Thanks. I look this way from protecting your country, President Dawn.

DAWN
What the hell did this to you?

RIDLEY
The thing that’s keeping that generator powered.

DAWN
The generator did that to you? And you support-

RIDLEY
The “generator” is a creature, President Dawn. It would have been a god in earlier times...

DAWN
A god?

RIDLEY
It produces electricity at a ridiculous rate, and it controls time. Yeah. I’d call it a god.

DAWN
And you-?

RIDLEY
Yeah. I fought a god and lived. How about that?

DAWN
Wait? Wait! You did this? You built this generator? You’d be over eighty years old at least. You
can’t be-?

RIDLEY
It’ll be my hundred and third birthday this year. Probably.

DAWN
But you look… young.
 64

RIDLEY
I know. I thought I’d look different by now. Maybe a few wrinkles at least.

DAWN
It did this to you?

RIDLEY
Yes.

DAWN
So we have a god trapped in a time loop?

RIDLEY
A damn useful one too.

DAWN
Killing citizens?

RIDLEY
Ah. Yes. In a way. When the creature feeds, it produces intense amounts of electricity. Which we
luckily found a way to harness and insert straight into the American power grid. And because of
the way the creature feeds, the power is always there.

DAWN
Go on.

RIDLEY
The creature creates a nest, a pocket of time built into flowing time. When it finds a moment of
feeding that it can absolutely gorge itself on...well, it makes sure that it can keep gorging itself
again and again and again.

DAWN
So we’re feeding citizens to a monster?

RIDLEY
The idea of sacrifice is cross cultural for a reason.

DAWN
This is...ridiculous.
 65

RIDLEY
Yes. But it’s the world we live in.

DAWN
And if we free this monster?

RIDLEY
It won’t fix anything. I’m sorry. It controls its own time loop.

DAWN
So we’re stuck?

RIDLEY
Backwards and forwards. These creatures are scary.

DAWN
Creature​s?​ Plural?

RIDLEY
Yes. Ah. We have found another one.

DAWN
I see. -- That’s why you want a new generator?

RIDLEY
Yes.

DAWN
This was never a decision. -- If you were just going to do this all over again, why even bring me
into it? Build your damn generator. Make people suffer. Power the world.

RIDLEY
We are keeping people safe.

DAWN
On the tortured backs of others.
 66

RIDLEY
Maybe. But we need permissions that only you can grant. There may not have been a decision to
make, but there are things that you must ​do​. It is your duty.

DAWN
What duties? What can I do for you that your shadowy cabal can’t just do anyways?

RIDLEY
In times of crisis, the President holds most of the power. Just because the crisis is invisible
doesn’t mean we cut you out of the loop.

DAWN
Loop?

RIDLEY
Sorry. Process.

DAWN
Hmm.

RIDLEY
I feel as though I’ve lost your enthusiasm.

DAWN
I hate this.

RIDLEY
Which part?

DAWN
All of it. -- -- Is this just a trap? Is this one of your cycles?

RIDLEY
I shouldn’t have done that.

DAWN
This is why you have your clocks. To make sure you know when you are?
 67

RIDLEY
You weren’t supposed to recognize what I was doing.

DAWN
Well I did.

RIDLEY
I’m sorry.

DAWN
I never had a choice. Did I? -- How many times have we done this?

RIDLEY
This is the first.

DAWN
Would I be able to tell? If you’re lying, would I know?

RIDLEY
You recognized it once, you could do it again.

DAWN
Words about time are starting to get really annoying.

RIDLEY
Adverbs.

DAWN
Adverbs, sure.

RIDLEY
Will you sign off on the project?

DAWN
And if I don’t.

RIDLEY
Please. You have to.
 68

DAWN
But if I don’t.

RIDLEY
Then we can’t contain the new one. We can’t progress. We doom whatever situation gets eaten
by it.

DAWN
But you ask me to doom sometime else?

RIDLEY
Yes.

DAWN
How did you even begin to do this?

RIDLEY
That is...a long story.

DAWN
I have time. And so do you. Obviously.

RIDLEY
It starts in the desert.

Shift.

ARTIST
My name is Frederick Kass. I need help. I’m speaking from Mortimer Valley Radio station. --
Yesterday, I blew up the bakery. That was my artistic project for the day. Nothing. Nothing.
Today, I’m going to paint the desert bright green. The kind of green you might see from space.
One day someone might fly to the moon, and see it from up there. The great green splotch.
Tomorrow, I’m not sure yet. I always hope that my actions will be noticed. Maybe this time.
Years ago I kept tally. But one day, I realized I’d filled my calendar, and I was still in August.
Same day. Same morning. Same afternoon. Same evening. Same ending. I’m still trying to be
creative. But I’m running out of ideas. Does the world move forward when an artist runs out of
original ideas?
 69

10:32
Once

ARTIST
I need all of your green paint.

SKYLAR
Sorry?

ARTIST
I’m painting the desert green.

SKYLAR
Oh?

ARTIST
Yes, every grain of sand.

SKYLAR
I don’t know if we have enough green paint to do that.

ARTIST
I’ll take the yellow and blue too.

SKYLAR
The desert is huge, this store doesn’t carry enough to paint a desert.

ARTIST
Well, I have to try.

SKYLAR
And you have the money to pay for it?

ARTIST
I’ll put it on credit.

SKYLAR
Hah! Okay? Four thousand two hundred and thirty two dollars.
 70

ARTIST
The population?

SKYLAR
Sorry?

ARTIST
Sorry - you and Sidney are a cute couple.

SKYLAR
How do you know about that?

ARTIST
I’ve seen you two.

SKYLAR
What? When?

ARTIST
Around.

SKYLAR
Have you been spying on us?

ARTIST
Last night. Every night.

SKYLAR
What?

ARTIST
Have a good day. Don’t make a pizza tonight.

SKYLAR
What? Hey, wait!

The ding of an oven

Shift
 71

RIDLEY
The taste of syrup.

DAWN
Syrup?

RIDLEY
You’ve felt it before.

DAWN
When you created your cycle?

RIDLEY
Exactly. When we shift out of the moment that ​has​ to happen, the timeline reacts.

DAWN
With syrup.

RIDLEY
With the ​taste​ of syrup.

DAWN
Right.

RIDLEY
And that’s where I started. We were on the road out of Mortimer, a small cavern system our
destination. A tip from a scared spelunker had told us about it. A strange sleeping behemoth of
plasma and light. We were unpacking the truck when I tasted syrup. I thought nothing of it at
first, but things felt strange, like I had already done them.

DAWN
Deja vu.

RIDLEY
Yes.

DAWN
So what changed for you?
 72

RIDLEY
At first? I don’t know.

DAWN
But clearly you solved your time loop.

RIDLEY
Well, I didn’t realize it was a time loop at first. I think it was the third time that I was fully able
to comprehend what was going on.

DAWN
You said the monster feeds on destruction, and then loops it.

RIDLEY
Glad to hear you’ve been paying attention. Yeah. There were thirty people on the mission. And
that thing ripped us apart every time.

DAWN
But you got out.

RIDLEY
Fortunately. Or not.

DAWN
Or not?

RIDLEY
I didn’t change the event very cleanly. I was left like this. And I left my team behind.

Shift.

ARTIST
My name is Frederick Kass. I need help. I’m speaking from Mortimer Valley Radio station.
Please. - Is it the people? Is there a problem to be solved? I have learned a lot about people here.
Must I mold them like clay into a perfect society? Or can I prove our goodness? Can I provide
charity? Save lives? Bless the poor and save the wicked? I will be the savior of a new world. I
will free these people from their chains. I will be unto Jesus himself and provide salvation
through my martyrdom.
 73

1:19
Once

VAGRANT
Spare some change?

ARTIST
Take it all!

VAGRANT
Whoa whoa whoa! What is this?

ARTIST
Money! Take it! Get out! RUN HOME TO YOUR MOTHER!

VAGRANT
What are you doing?

ARTIST
Your mother must miss you terribly! She might be dead and gone! The whole world might not
exist but for us! But you have to try!

VAGRANT
Woah, man, are you nuts?

ARTIST
You need the money to get home! Here’s the money!

VAGRANT
This has to be like a thousand bucks! Where’d you get all this?

ARTIST
I robbed a bank!

VAGRANT
You what?

ARTIST
Take it and run!
 74

VAGRANT
You’re some kinda psycho! Leave me alone!

ARTIST
Use it to take a bus! An earlier bus! Please!

VAGRANT
Dude you’re scaring me!

ARTIST
PLEASE!

VAGRANT
Leave me alone! I’ll take the money! Sure! Just please leave me alone!

ARTIST
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!

The sound of air escaping the lungs.

Shift.

RIDLEY
I was afraid it would revert. That things wouldn’t line up.

DAWN
What happened?

RIDLEY
We entered the cave, as we had done, and as we likely would have again. I knew what happened
at this point. We came in, one of the scientists pointed the trap we had brought with us, and then
the monster woke up, and eviscerated the whole team. Thirty men sliced apart in an instant,
electricity frying the air. The smell of burning flesh. And then the taste of syrup and the hot
desert air again.

DAWN
And you eventually fixed it?
 75

RIDLEY
I finally broke the loop strongly enough to take the trap for myself. I convinced the whole team
what to do. Slowly building the perfect timeline.

DAWN
And you captured the thing?

RIDLEY
Yes. I found the problem with the equipment. It needed a longer time to build charge. Only a
fraction longer. But enough to watch the whole team get slaughtered.

DAWN
You couldn’t do anything?

RIDLEY
I needed them as sacrifice to give me the time I needed.

DAWN
Sacrifice again.

RIDLEY
Yes. Always. And I walked away alive. Not unscarred. That creature has clearly given me lasting
punishment.

DAWN
And you couldn’t find the time without the destruction?

RIDLEY
It had to be aimed while it charged.

DAWN
And you tried nothing else?

RIDLEY
I spent so long trying to achieve those specific results. I almost let it slip past me, but I did it! I
know I have blood on my hands! But I escaped!

DAWN
Clearly.
 76

RIDLEY
I left behind twenty nine friends with a god in my hands. Don’t patronize me.

DAWN
Is that why you feel the generator is necessary? Because your friends died for it?

RIDLEY
How dare you? I argue it for the good of everyone. I argue so that what happened to me can’t
happen to people randomly. So that people don’t get trapped in some insidious web of
inescapable time.

DAWN
At what cost?

RIDLEY
The benefits grossly outweigh the costs.

DAWN
What was your cost then?

RIDLEY
Three years. My eyes dripping ichor. The government was arranging a new nuclear power plant
in my hometown. And I had something even better than that in my hands.

DAWN
Your hometown?

Shift

ARTIST
My name is Frederick Kass. I need help. I’m speaking from Mortimer Valley Radio station.
Please. - Perhaps. I have tried on the wrong scale. I have tried to correct. To save. Perhaps we are
damned with purpose, and I am the tormentor. Should I bathe the streets in blood? Will that save
me? If I am cleansed through the purging of the wicked, then I shall be cleansed further by
destroying them all. What errors must I correct through violence?

5:54
Once
 77

GRAVEDIGGER
Hey what?

ARTIST
Mr. Hughes, the grave is never filled.

GRAVEDIGGER
Sorry?

ARTIST
Odd job for a retired clockmaker. Digging unfilled graves...

GRAVEDIGGER
Kass, right? You okay son?

ARTIST
Unless it’s the town? The town fills the grave?

GRAVEDIGGER
You been standing in the sun for too long?

ARTIST
Maybe the unfilled grave is the issue? An affront against time?

GRAVEDIGGER
This is for Molly’s husband. Of course it ain’t filled yet.

ARTIST
But no one will ever fill it.

GRAVEDIGGER
Ceremony’s tomorrow. You alright?

ARTIST
If I fill a grave unfilled, will that bury the demons?

GRAVEDIGGER
Are you on something?
 78

ARTIST
I am here to judge the wicked. You’ve meddled with time. It’s meddled with back.

GRAVEDIGGER
Hey now! What’s gotten into ya?

ARTIST grabs the shovel

Slams the Gravdigger into the grave.
FRIEND enters

ARTIST
I am filling the grave! The unfilled grave is the problem!

FRIEND
What the fuck are you doing! Harold! Are you okay?

ARTIST
I’m saving the town! Haven’t you seen?

ARTIST
Burying the past! Burying the present!

FRIEND
You’re off your fucking rocker!

ARTIST
Help me bury him! There’s not much time!

FRIEND
No way man! No way! Police! HELP! POLICE!!

FRIEND exits​.
The sound of digging.

RIDLEY
Yes.

DAWN
You know the people trapped there?
 79

RIDLEY
Not all of them.

DAWN
But enough?

RIDLEY
Sure.

DAWN
And you doomed them? After being trapped by this monster you put your whole town into the
same situation?

RIDLEY
I didn’t know what they were planning to do with it!

DAWN
What do you think a secret mission going after a creature like that ​would ​want with it?

RIDLEY
I left my home in the clutches of a monster. Yes. But I couldn’t imagine what they’d do with that
thing.

DAWN
If you knew… would you have done it?

RIDLEY
I don’t know.

DAWN
What about the sacrifice of powering the country?

RIDLEY
That was a different time.

DAWN
Morality has changed so much in seventy years?
 80

RIDLEY
No. But energy consumption has. I severed my emotional connection to that town a long time
ago.

DAWN
It doesn’t hurt?

RIDLEY
Of course it does. But not why you think.

DAWN
Oh?

RIDLEY
I watched my friends die over and over again. Knowing it was coming. And I survived. But all
they have to do is die.

DAWN
They’re consumed!

RIDLEY
But in a way they are immortal! And innocent of it. They don’t know the weight of the world
passing on. They get to live forever but not grow cold to it.

DAWN
But one person knows?

RIDLEY
A madman.

DAWN
Is he?

RIDLEY
Would you like to hear his musings? His ravings?

DAWN
Should I?
 81

RIDLEY
I have fragments.

DAWN
Anyone might sound like a madman when all you have are fragments.

RIDLEY
President Dawn, he is a monster. A sycophant. A zealot.

DAWN
Play the recording then. Let me judge him myself

The ARTIST in a fifties radio

Broken by static,
and time,
more than 55,000 messages
played at the same time.
Moments of clarity;
like a numbers station of the Cold War.
THE ARTIST’S RECORDING
Hello. Hello. Hello. My name is Frederick Kass. I need ~~~~ I am speaking from the Mortimer
Valley Radio Station. Please ~~~~~ 14 17 20 ~~~~~ Is anyone still out there? ~~~~ There are
4232 people here. ~~~~ Please ~~~~ My name ~~~~ I’m smeared with blood today. It isn’t
mine. ~~~~~ Those fires are bright. ~~~~~ 1992 1998 2020 ~~~~~~ Hello? ~~~~~ Is anything
actually getting through? Or am I alone? ~~~~~~ Am I in Hell? Am I ~~~~ Frederick Kass
~~~~~ Echoes. Echoes. Echoes. ~~~~ I’ve lost it. ~~~~~ If the sun rises again tomorrow ~~~~
I’ve lost it. ~~~~ I’m going to kill them all ~~~~ 56 73 432 ~~~~ I’ve been put in jail. ~~~~
There’s blood in the sand. ~~~ Who are these people? ~~~~ Can you hear me? ~~~~ If I am still
a puppet of flesh and time? ~~~ But now I’m free again. ~~~~ Eternal freedom ~~~ Violence
~~~ The same thing over and over and over and over. ~~~~ If I just reach the tower. If I just
~~~~ Nothing tangible. Nothing real. ~~~~ Flesh covering circuits. ~~~~ An empty lab ~~~~
Has America forsaken us? ~~~~~ 29 29 29 29 ~~~~

DAWN
You don’t think he’s like you? In some way?

Shift. The Artist.

 82

ARTIST
My name is Frederick Kass. I need help. I’m speaking from Mortimer Valley Radio station.
Please. -- I have lived too many times now. Twelve hours seems like a lot when you have
nothing to do. And I certainly have had nothing to do, so I’ve done everything. I’ve learned the
history of everyone in this town. Made love to many in boredom. Killed many of them too.
Myself too, too many times to count. Commiting suicide is only hard the first time. It’s
downright miserable every other. I’ve done horrible things. If I am not in Hell now, I am going.
But I’m pretty sure I’m already there. Truly, Hell is simply waiting, and growing restless. You
try an awful lot when you’re restless. It’s hard to be original and moral. It’s hard to exist and be
moral. Harder still to continue existing afterward. I don’t paint anymore. The things I paint are
too terrible to behold. Instead my pieces are my actions. And all of it is vile.

Shift.

RIDLEY
He and I are not alike.

DAWN
Why?

RIDLEY
Because he is trying to escape his Hell.

DAWN
As you did?

RIDLEY
I am trying to return.

DAWN
What?

RIDLEY
There’s no way in or out of that bubble of time.

DAWN
So?
 83

RIDLEY
So I will enter the new one.

DAWN
But you said that you suffered for three years-

RIDLEY
I did. And then I destroyed my home-

DAWN
Made peace my ass...

RIDLEY
And I need to make that right.

DAWN
I don’t understand.

RIDLEY
You need to make the new generator. Let me be a sacrifice.

DAWN
We would need another tragedy. I won’t sign off on that.

RIDLEY
I think I would be a delicious meal for any god. A god-slayer, to be consumed by another god. A
fitting end.

DAWN
You think you’d be enough to power a generator?

RIDLEY
Maybe, maybe not. But I’d be enough to keep one of these things content.

DAWN
What is this?

RIDLEY
This is my last gambit, as it were.
 84

DAWN
This is a trick.

RIDLEY
It’s not. I’m trying to die.

DAWN
I don’t want to kill you

RIDLEY
You wouldn’t be killing me.

DAWN
Then what are you trying to pull?

RIDLEY
I CAN’T DIE! Don’t you understand that? -- I’ve tried. But I just reset. And I just try again. My
curse.

DAWN
So you think your sacrifice-

RIDLEY
I’m hoping for a release from this. Look at me! Please. Look at me.

DAWN
What?

RIDLEY
I want to escape from one infinity to another.

DAWN
You think it will help?

RIDLEY
I don’t know.

DAWN
And if it doesn’t?
 85

RIDLEY
At least I’ll pay for my mistakes.

DAWN
You’re that desperate?

RIDLEY
Why won’t you just sign this? Are you that stubborn in your convictions?

DAWN
I will not stoop-

RIDLEY
I am not asking you to stoop! I am asking you to rise to meet me! Conquer me!

DAWN
You’re pitiful.

RIDLEY
You won’t do it.

DAWN
To save a madman from his own torment?

RIDLEY
Please?

DAWN
No others? Just you?

RIDLEY
You have my promise. But you’ll have to watch my colleagues.

DAWN
Are they as miserable to deal with as you?

RIDLEY
No. I’m the worst.
 86

DAWN
Then I’ll sign it.

RIDLEY
Thank you. Just put me in a nice spot to live out my final day.

Shift.
5:59
Perhaps a few times

ARTIST
Hello

SCIENTIST

ARTIST
You’re not alive are you?

SCIENTIST

ARTIST
Okay.

SCIENTIST

ARTIST
I’ve watched you dance so many times.

SCIENTIST

ARTIST
But I’ve never really paid attention.

SCIENTIST

ARTIST
It’s okay. You don’t have to answer. Nobody really answers me anymore. Not really.

SCIENTIST
 87

ARTIST
Is your job exciting?

SCIENTIST

ARTIST
Or do you feel like you’re doing the same thing everyday, too?

SCIENTIST

ARTIST
I’m the only one who does anything different in this town.

SCIENTIST

ARTIST
And I still feel like I’m doing the same thing everyday

SCIENTIST

ARTIST
How unoriginal.
6:00
The clock bell chimes twice.
A flash of light.
The clock bell chimes twice.
A massive rumbling.
Somehow the clock bell still sounds twice,
as a roar,
and a furious blast of wind,
rock the stage.
The scene resets and begins to repeat.
A spotlight on DAWN and RIDLEY
A piece of paper on the table.
DAWN holds a pen.
RIDLEY a clock.

ARTIST
Hello
 88

RIDLEY
It was great to meet you Madame President.

ARTIST
You’re not alive are you?

RIDLEY
I’m sure you’ll guide this country’s future well.

ARTIST
Okay.

RIDLEY
Right

ARTIST
I’ve watched you dance so many times..

RIDLEY
I’ve seen a lot in my life.

ARTIST
But I’ve never really paid attention.

RIDLEY
I can’t stand how time just continues to pass by.

ARTIST
It’s okay. You don’t have to answer. Nobody really answers me anymore. Not really.

RIDLEY
Be careful of that.

ARTIST
Is your job exciting?

RIDLEY
I can’t assure you that things won’t get messy. Extra electricity is hard to say no to.
 89

ARTIST
Or do you feel like you’re doing the same thing everyday, too?

RIDLEY
But you must hold strong to your convictions. Or they will trample you.

ARTIST
I’m the only one who does anything different in this town.

RIDLEY
Just sign this, and we’ll be free to go.

ARTIST
And I still feel like I’m doing the same thing everyday.

DAWN
I don’t know if I can.

ARTIST
How unoriginal.

6:00
The clock bell chimes twice.
A flash of light.
The clock bell chimes twice.
A massive rumbling.
Somehow the clock bell still sounds twice,
as a roar,
and a furious blast of wind,
rock the stage.