SCENE 1 - MORGAN AND EVIE’S APARTMENT (FLASHBACK)

[Flashback music cue.]

ALEX TREBEK: (on TV) This 3-letter word can refer to your slow pace in a race or to your computer’s slow response.

MORGAN: Lag!

EVIE: Lag! Dammit.

JENNIFER: (on TV) What is lag?

EVIE: That’s too easy!

MORGAN: Okay, genius.

ALEX TREBEK: (on TV) At these events, Calvin Coolidge might drop pre-submitted queries to the floor and then say, “No questions today.”

MORGAN: The state of the union.

EVIE: A press conference.

JENNIFER: (on TV) What is a press conference?

EVIE: See! They should put me on Jeopardy.

MORGAN: Maybe they should.

ALEX TREBEK: (on TV) Vinyl record lovers will jump to respond to the name for this device that's spinning the train.

[They speak at the same time.]

MORGAN & EVIE: A turntable.

JENNIFER: (on TV) What is a turntable?

ALEX TREBEK: (on TV) That is correct. And that brings us to our first commercial break. See you after these messages.

MORGAN: Do you want any more chili?

EVIE: Yeah, actually.

[She starts to get up.]

MORGAN: Woah, woah, wait. Let me-

EVIE: The physical therapist says I need to walk a little more each day. Sit down and stop babying me. You may not listen to me, but you have to listen to her.

MORGAN: Fine.

[Footsteps. Evie slowly gets up from the couch and walks into the kitchen to grab more chili. Sounds of her spooning more chili as she talks.]

MORGAN: You could audition for Jeopardy, if you wanted.

EVIE: I’m not that good.

MORGAN: Says who?

EVIE: I don’t know. Maybe. Wouldn’t that be awesome? I’d start telling people I was a genius.

MORGAN: The money’s not bad either.

EVIE: No no, this isn’t your imaginary money to spend.

MORGAN: What are you buying?

EVIE: Dunno. Books. A fancy coffee machine. And concert tickets. Like, at least one concert every month. Oh! And meals at nice restaurants.

[Footsteps. Evie walks back into the living room.]

EVIE: Don’t you think it’s messed up how many delicious restaurants there are in this city that we normal people can’t afford? Tell you what: after my historic run on Jeopardy, I’ll take you out to a nice dinner, anywhere and anything you want. See, I’m a gracious winner too.

MORGAN: Where does rent factor into all of this?

EVIE: Ugh, you’re the worst person for this hypothetical. Stop being practical for five seconds.

MORGAN: I’m just saying that it would be nice to know you had all your rent for the year in savings.

EVIE: When I’m done with PT they have to do something about the stick up your ass. Oh! Unmute it, it's back on.

ALEX TREBEK: (on TV) Knowing smoking is bad for your health but doing it anyway is an example of “cognitive” this, simultaneous incongruent beliefs.

[They speak at the same time.]

MORGAN & EVIE: Dissonance.

JENNIFER: (on TV) What is dissonance?

MORGAN: I don’t think it’s that boring to take care of your needs first.

EVIE: In real life, but in real life I’m not on Jeopardy, and I have no money. So, assume all your needs are met. If you won… I don’t know, $40,000 in a Jeopardy run, what would you buy? No rent, no groceries, none of that.

MORGAN: Um… I’d buy a way nicer computer.

EVIE: There you go. With all those gamer LEDs?

MORGAN: I guess, for the effect, but the hardware is what really costs-

EVIE: Boring! Okay, what else?

MORGAN: Hmm. One of those nice stand mixers with every single attachment, including the ones for making pasta and ice cream. And a vacation to somewhere warm.

EVIE: Where would you go?

MORGAN: Italy. Greece. Mexico City. Maybe Japan.

EVIE: Japan isn’t warm.

MORGAN: I’d go in the summer.

EVIE: Still, it’s not a warm place.

MORGAN: I still want to go! Now who’s spending my imaginary money?

EVIE: Fine. You can go to Japan.

MORGAN: Thank you.

ALEX TREBEK: (on TV) A collaboration of brother composer and sister librettist, this opera version of a brother-and-sister kids’ tale is a yuletide tradition.

MORGAN: I don’t know this one.

EVIE: Neither do I.

[Incorrect answer buzzer.]

ALEX TREBEK: (on TV) I’m sorry. The answer was Hansel and Gretel. The brother-sister team there…

[Show fades out as the scene ends.]

[INTRO MUSIC]

SCENE 2 - MARCUS GARVEY BLVD (PRESENT DAY)

[Road noise, footsteps fade in.]

MAYA: The bodega is just down the block.

[Pause.]

MAYA: Will was my first friend in New York. We met outside Wonderland, in Gowanus, back when it was basically still a warehouse. I played a set that night. It was one of my first gigs that wasn't a total DIY show, and I really wanted to tear it up. I thought that could make my name worth something in Brooklyn's dance scene, and… I was cockier back then, so I used magic to beef up the effects at my show.

[We can hear it a bit as she keeps talking, faintly, from a different time.]

MAYA: Crazy light effects, sparkling haze. I could make the sound echo at weird angles off the walls. It gave this awesome, otherworldly effect, like you were wrapped up in the music.

[Club music fades.]

MORGAN: Exactly what you warned Evie not to do.

MAYA: Yeah. I've been at this a long time, and I've made a lot of mistakes. If I tell someone not to do something, it’s because I’ve already seen it fail. Anyway, I thought it was only a matter of time before I played Copenhagen, Prague, Berlin, places that would take me seriously as an artist. It made me stupid. Will was working security that night. After the show, he found me out back, gave me and a cigarette, and told me-

SCENE 3 - IN THE ALLEY BEHIND WONDERLAND (FLASHBACK)

[Flashback sound cue, like a gust of wind rushing past. The wind whips through the alley, making low swirls of sound. Indiscernible crowd noise.]

HIRSCH: Those lighting effects you do, never seen something like that before.

MAYA: Friend of a friend is a lighting tech on Broadway.

HIRSCH: That may be true, but I don’t think that’s it. Another?

MAYA: It’s too cold to keep them lit.

[His voice doubles slightly.]

HIRSCH: What I would give for a cigarette strong enough to withstand any wind, huh? Here, give me your hand.

MAYA: (small laugh) I don’t know you like that.

HIRSCH: I don’t mean it like that. Just put your fingers on the cigarette.

[Static, a sizzle on the air. Hirsch’s voice doubles again, gets a little distorted. Crowd noise fades lower, wind gets louder, unsettling music fades in.]

HIRSCH: Can you picture it? Hear how loud the wind is, feel how it touches your face. Picture a cigarette that could burn and burn, no matter how strong the winds get, no matter how cold the air. See its end glow. See it like you see the stop lights out on 4th Avenue. Bright red and orange against the night. Do you see it, Maya? Do you see how it burns?

MAYA: (almost dreamlike) I do.

[Cigarette lights itself. Maya gives a small gasp. Static stops. Crowd noise comes back.]

MAYA: You too?

HIRSCH: I thought I was the only one. Then- then I saw a few of your sets, saw your magic light up the room. I couldn’t believe it. Ever since I was a kid, I- I could do little tricks with my friends, if I could make them understand what I wanted: make ants march behind me, apples taste sweeter, turn rocks into candy bars, but no one believed me. They always thought it was sleight of hand.

[Pause.]

HIRSCH: Do you know any others?

MAYA: Uh, no. Apparently, just you.

HIRSCH: No, there have to be others. Eight million people in this city. It'd be stranger if there weren't.

MAYA: How do you know my name?

HIRSCH: You’re talented. If I have to work on a Saturday night, I might as well work one of your shows.

[Flashback out cue.]

SCENE 4 - MAYA AND NOEL'S APARTMENT/MARCUS GARVEY BLVD (PRESENT DAY)

NOTE: The following scene is quickly inter cut, as if Maya and Noel are telling the same story at the same time in two different locations. During Maya’s lines, we can hear the road noise as she and Morgan continue to walk down the street.

[Low sound of a kettle boiling water.]

GRACE: You must really hate this Will guy.

NOEL: Why do you say that?

GRACE: I've never seen you this angry. I know we only met this week, but a lot of really intense stuff's happened, and you kept your cool the whole time.

NOEL: I try to.

GRACE: What did he do?

NOEL: (sigh) I wasn't there at the beginning. Will met Maya years before I did.

MAYA: It was his idea. All of this was his idea.

MORGAN: What was?

NOEL: The mutual aid network. Forming a network of magical people in Brooklyn.

GRACE: Did he do it on purpose? To keep tabs on all of you?

MAYA: I've thought a lot about that since he left. No, I really don't think so. I think, at the beginning, he was genuinely searching for a community. We were the first magical person the other had met. I'd already resigned myself to the idea that I was alone, that no one else would really understand the burden of this thing that ruined my life. Then I met Will, and for the first time, I found it in me to hope. Maybe, despite everything, my magic was a gift.

[Flashback sound cue.]

HIRSCH: There were these two guys in the park, no older than twenty, twenty-one, maybe? About an hour ago, I saw them growing wildflowers in the grass. They'd- they’d touch the ground, and tiny white flowers would grow between their fingers.

MAYA: It's the middle of the day. Someone could see them.

HIRSCH: Someone did. They're lucky it was me. We should go and talk to them.

MAYA: No parents around?

HIRSCH: Maybe they're in college, or they live on their own.

MAYA: Or maybe they don't have anywhere else to go.

HIRSCH: Right, but Maya, there's something else. They were doing magic together. They were at it for ages, and neither of them looked tired. Maybe there is something to that! Maybe our magic works better together.

[Flashback out cue.]

GRACE: She'd never done magic with a partner before?

[Footsteps.]

NOEL: How could she have tried, before she met Will? But after they figured that out, the two of them developed a lot of the group magic techniques that we still use. Magic only worked with an audience, a listener, that much we knew, but before, both Will and Maya had to use non-magical people as their listener. At best, ask, or at worst, trick someone into helping them.

[Noel places two mugs on the table and pours two mugs of tea.]

GRACE: Like Maya did with me, with the plants.

NOEL: Yeah, but Will and Maya figured out how to harmonize and amplify their magic as a team.

[Pause.]

NOEL: Maya gives Will too much credit for her accomplishments. Forming a mutual aid network was his idea, fine, I'll give him that, but she did the work.

MAYA: We worked together.

NOEL: I was there. I met Maya and Will back when most of their projects were still ideas. They were mostly housing people in their apartments: others who'd been caught doing magic, kicked out by their colleges or their families. One of them told me that his mom tried to exorcise him. She thought he was possessed.

MAYA: Will was great at finding people who needed help. He'd wander the parks, check near different CUNY campuses, scout in bars and clubs while he was on shift. He made up business cards with a phone number and email on it, so folks could get in touch if their life changed for the worst. We even got a separate phone number just for this. After a year, someone passed me that same business card at a club, after they saw me using magic to tweak my soundboard. They told me-

[Flashback sound cue. Club music, crowd noise.]

PATRON: If you ever run into trouble, if someone sees your magic and makes your life hell, call this number.

[Flashback out cue. Music and crowd noise stop.]

MAYA: It was bent in three places and dirty with dust and ash. It must've passed through a dozen of hands before it found me again. That's when I knew we had something really special here. Something important.

NOEL: We kept expanding: grocery drop-offs, hygiene kits, emergency cash, extra stashes of medication and hormones and first aid supplies. Some of us even rotated doing childcare on our days off, so parents could pick up more shifts.

MAYA: It became a full time job. For a while, for me, it was. Everyone chipped in to make sure I had enough to cover my rent, all so I could keep coordinating our different working groups. I'll never forget that.

MORGAN: What happened?

MAYA: Will's staffing agency, the one who sent him different to security gigs, laid him off.

SCENE 5 - MAYA AND NOEL'S APARTMENT (FLASHBACK)

[Flashback sound cue. Maya flips through papers as she speaks.]

MAYA: James and Nina are going to drive to Costco tomorrow to pick up some bulk dry goods and a few things for the hygiene kits. More toothbrushes, deodorants, and... ugh, what am I forgetting?

HIRSCH: Chapstick. It's getting cold.

MAYA: Right. Sorry, it's late. I should let you get home.

HIRSCH: It's fine.

MAYA: Malcolm and Noel said they could watch Jesse's kid tomorrow, so you're totally free for your gig.

HIRSCH: It doesn't matter.

MAYA: What?

HIRSCH: They told me not to come by, after all. I've been trying to tell you: nobody wants freelance security. I don't come with insurance. I need to find a company that'll hire me.

MAYA: You will, I sure of it. It's only been a few months and, in the meantime, we'll take care of you.

HIRSCH: Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something. One of my old coworkers forwarded me an internal listing. He left Castle a year ago for another security agency, this place called Hansen Securities. They're small, kind of new, but they're hiring. He thinks I'd be perfect. He's willing to refer me.

MAYA: That's great. Why am I sensing a but here?

HIRSCH: Well I'd, uh, have to move upstate.

MAYA: That's hard, and we'd miss you, but if you like the job, you should go for it.

HIRSCH: Uh, well, that's not the biggest thing. They're looking for someone to head up a new division. Someone with experience with magic.

MAYA: What?

HIRSCH: That's why it was internal. You can't exactly post that publicly.

MAYA: Experience how?

HIRSCH: They didn't say explicitly, but they're a private security firm, so I have a few guesses.

MAYA: Are you actually thinking about this?

HIRSCH: Yeah, I am.

MAYA: Seriously?

HIRSCH: I wanted to tell you before I applied. I didn't want to keep this a secret.

MAYA: I don't understand why you're even applying.

HIRSCH: It's a job, I need a job, and it pays well.

MAYA: Yeah, when they recruit you to sell out your friends, they always pay well.

HIRSCH: I didn't say anything about selling out my friends.

MAYA: You didn't have to! A private security team specializing in magical people? When our magic is already illegal? I can make guesses too, Will. I can do that math.

HIRSCH: Magical people commit crimes, too. We are just like everyone else.

MAYA: Yeah, but they don't treat us like everyone else.

HIRSCH: Someone has to answer for those crimes. Better they answer to me, someone just like them, than someone less sympathetic. Better I do this job than a bigot who hates us.

MAYA: (scoff) You're not the first person to try to change a broken system from the inside. You'll either burn out or it'll swallow you up. This never works.

HIRSCH: Jesus, Maya, have a little faith!

MAYA: Please don't do this. If you take this job, one day, you'll have to choose between it or your friends, and then where will you be? I know that getting laid off shook your confidence. I know how scary it is scraping by without a full-time job, but look at what we accomplished here, together. Our work helps magical people ten times more than being a token at some securities firm.

[Pause. The passion in Hirsch’s voice deflates.]

HIRSCH: You're right. It's not worth it. I'm glad I ran it by you.

MAYA: Always. I- I really think this is the right call. Thank you for hearing me out.

HIRSCH: Yeah, sure. Are we all set on scheduling for the week?

MAYA: Yeah, we're done.

[Hirsch stands.]

HIRSCH: Then I'm gonna head home. See you tomorrow.

MAYA: Safe trip back.

[Flashback out cue.]

SCENE 6 - BODEGA/MAYA & NOEL’S APARTMENT (PRESENT DAY)

[Door opens, chime. Maya and Morgan enter the bodega.]

MAYA: Two falafel pitas please, with everything on it.

MORGAN: Chicken cheesesteak, thanks.

BODEGA GUY: Ten minutes.

[Footsteps resume as they walk around the bodega.]

MORGAN: How long did it take him to change his mind?

MAYA: I'm not sure he ever did. A few months later, he was gone. He might've gone home and applied that same night.

MORGAN: What an ass.

[They share a chuckle.]

MORGAN: I'm sorry.

MAYA: Yeah, so am I.

NOEL: He didn't just join Hansen. He built it into what it is today. Every friend of ours that they roughed up, every life they ruined, it's on him.

GRACE: That's awful.

NOEL: I'll never forgive him, most of all for what he did to Maya. He was her first magic partner. They were an incredible team. She's never said, but I think she started developing those charms because of how he left.

GRACE: I don't understand.

NOEL: They amplify your magic without a partner.

SCENE 7 - MAYA AND NOEL'S APARTMENT (FLASHBACK)

[Flashback sound cue. Door closes. Maya drops her bag on the ground.]

MAYA: He's gone.

NOEL: Gone, gone?

MAYA: He broke his lease. The entire apartment is empty. The only reason I could get in was because I still have his spare key.

NOEL: Do you want me to say it, now that we know, for sure, that it's true?

[Pause.]

NOEL: Fucking asshole.

[Footsteps. Maya starts pacing.]

MAYA: We have to warn everyone. He could be spilling his guts right now. I'll call James, and if you tell Pat, he'll probably get in touch with the Crown Heights people faster than we can-

NOEL: Stop. Take a deep breath.

MAYA: I don't even know if people's apartments are safe, anymore. He had everyone's current address. He helped some of them move into those apartments, but it's not like everyone can just leave immediately.

NOEL: Maya, breathe.

MAYA: Don't tell me to fucking breathe!

[She stops pacing. Silence. The room feels empty, hollow.]

MAYA: Sorry.

NOEL: Everyone will freak out if you're freaking out. I know you were afraid of Will going to work for Hansen-

MAYA: It's literally the worst case scenario.

NOEL: Right, I know, but people respect you. They take their cues off you. If you react like the world's ending, they will too.

MAYA: So what, I don't get to be pissed that my oldest friend in this whole fucking city sold me out? Sold all of us out, to a bunch of guys too dumb to even be cops?

NOEL: No, you don't. Not like this. Not in front of people who depend on you, and that sucks. So before you fix this awful, unfair mess that he left you, be pissed about it to me.

[A few steps, then Maya collapses into the couch. When she speaks again, her voice is quieter.]

MAYA: He sucks for doing this.

NOEL: Yes.

MAYA: And he's a traitor.

NOEL: Definitely.

MAYA: And I'm such a dumbass for trusting him to turn down that job.

NOEL: Not that.

MAYA: I am.

NOEL: No you're not. If we can't trust what our friends tell us, then we can't trust anything.

MAYA: But he lied to me.

NOEL: That's on him, not you, and if his actions hurt people, that's also on him, not you.

MAYA: That's really easy to say now.

NOEL: He's been your friend for years. You talked nearly every day. Of course you'd trust him.

MAYA: I had my suspicions. I should've done something earlier. I keep thinking, what if he told me about that job because he wanted me to stop him?

NOEL: You told him not to do it, and he did it anyway, and hid that from you. What were you supposed to do? Take away his computer? You're not his mom, and no matter what he wants to say, he had options.

MAYA: I can't stop going over that conversation. What went wrong? What did I miss?

NOEL: Maya, look at me. When James got laid off at the restaurant, we kept him fed so he could pay his bills until he got something new. When Cam needed knee surgery, we all pitched in so he didn't bankrupt himself on the coinsurance. When Jesse lost their sister and had to take their niece in, we all looked after April so Jesse didn't lose their job. We slept over at their place so they could get time and a half taking night shifts. I did that. You did that. We all did that. There are so many people living a better life than they were just a few years ago, and that's because of you, and me, and what we all did to keep each other alive. If Will wanted that, we would've done the same for him. He knew that, and he took the job anyway. There was nothing you could've done to stop him.

[Maya lets out a long, slow exhale.]

MAYA: What a dick.

NOEL: Cheers to that.

SCENE 8 - MAYA AND NOEL'S APARTMENT (PRESENT DAY)

GRACE: And now he's after Evie.

NOEL: Looks like it.

GRACE: What will Hansen do if he finds her?

[Pause.]

NOEL: I genuinely don't know. No one I know has ever done this before.

[Pause.]

GRACE: Noel?

NOEL: Yeah?

[Pause.]

GRACE: I love her. I need someone else to know that.

[Pause.]

NOEL: Thank you.

SCENE 9 - BODEGA

[Maya opens a drink case.]

MORGAN: Do they have any Tamarind sodas?

MAYA: If you help me. Stand in front of me.

[Static, a sizzle on the air. They speak at a low volume. Glass bottles clink in the case.]

MAYA: Morgan, do you think there are any Tamarind ones in the back?

MORGAN: I think there are.

MAYA: Can you see it in your mind?

MORGAN: Like it's already there.

MAYA: Me too.

[Sizzle stops.]

MAYA: Would you look at that? We were right. Here you go.

[She closes the case.]

MORGAN: (teasingly) Isn’t it a bit reckless, using magic for something as small as a drink flavor?

MAYA: Take the soda, Morgan.

SCENE 10 - MAYA’S BEDROOM

[Phone buzzes.]

DARIA: (on the phone) Hello? Maya? You there?

MAYA: Yeah… hi. Daria?

DARIA: How are you?

MAYA: Fine… Why are you calling me?

DARIA: Are you still in New York?

MAYA: Why?

DARIA: I, uh, I was hoping we could grab a coffee or something.

[Pause.]

DARIA: Maya, what happened to Michael wasn’t your fault.

MAYA: I know that. I’ve known that for years. Do you?

DARIA: I do, now. Everything with Michael happened so suddenly, and when you told us how you survived the motorcycle crash, when you showed us, I was still so messed up about the whole thing, and I said some stupid things.

MAYA: You called me a freak.

DARIA: I said some stupid, awful things, and I can't change that, but honestly, I am so sorry. I- I can’t imagine what it was like dealing with Michael’s death alone.

MAYA: Yeah, it sucked.

DARIA: Will you meet me for coffee? Can we try again, please?

[Pause.]

MAYA: Sure, uh, yeah. I'm free Thursday.

DARIA: Me too.

MAYA: Great. I’ll text you a place to meet up, at like, 10?

DARIA: Perfect, see you then. And Maya? It’s- it’s nice to hear your voice again.

MAYA: Yeah, you too.

SCENE 11 - THE CABIN

[Footsteps on old, creaking floorboards as Evie walks from room to room.]

EVIE: What are the odds they leave their most nefarious paperwork on the desk in the office?

[Footsteps stop.]

EVIE: Yeah, unlikely. Okay. No, that would be too easy. Let’s see… Nothing on the desk. A few bookshelves. (sigh) I better get started.

[Evie starts rummaging through the different desk drawers.]

EVIE: Property deed… memo pads… pens… historical designation? Okay, weird. Noting that.

[Rummaging continues.]

EVIE: Who needs this many office supplies?

[Drawers open and close, until she finally the one all the way at the bottom. She tries to open it, but it’s locked.]

EVIE: Gotcha. Locked drawer. Very promising. I knew I'd need my lock picks.

[Evie picks the lock, then successfully opens the drawer.]

EVIE: Nice!

[She opens the drawer. Paper shuffles.]

EVIE: Printer paper… more printer paper… and an ethernet cable? Does this place even have Internet?

[Phone typing sounds.]

EVIE: Okay… no WiFi that I can see, but that doesn’t mean no Internet. Am I missing something?

[Rummaging resumes.]

EVIE: Why keep one drawer locked just to use it for more office supplies? No secret key taped to the bottom. (straining a little) No secret key underneath the desk as well.

[As she starts to crawl back out, she bangs her knee on the opened drawer.]

EVIE: Ow, my knee!

[She goes to close the drawer shut, hard, but it won’t fully close.]

EVIE: Great, now the drawer won't close.

[She pushes a little harder, then stops.]

EVIE: Wait, wait, wait. If I pull it all the way out…

[She does.]

EVIE: Nice! Laptop!

[She pulls the laptop out and then easily closes the drawer the rest of the way. She types on the laptop.]

EVIE: Dead. This takes the same charger as my phone. I think I saw an outlet under the desk.

[She plugs the laptop in.]

EVIE: Now we wait.

SCENE 12 - MORGAN’S APARTMENT

[Typing sounds.]

ALIX: Should be another minute or so, then we can start restoring my backups.

MORGAN: You’re really careful. If I didn’t know better, I’d call you paranoid.

ALIX: But you do know better.

MORGAN: Yeah, now I’m wondering if it’s enough.

[More typing.]

ALIX: Okay. Should take about fifteen minutes to download. You really are a stereotype, huh?

MORGAN: What?

ALIX: The rubber ducks. To help you debug.

MORGAN: (small laugh) Oh, that. Yeah, I’ve had Norbert since freshman year of college. My mom got it for me as a going away present. That’s the prototypical duck, the yellow one. The teal one with the hat was a gift from a friend, the green one with the orange bill was from my manager at my first job. Then, Evie kept buying me more.

ALIX: Do you know why she likes pigeons so much?

MORGAN: She thinks they’re misunderstood. Doves are pigeons, you know, just prettier, so they have a better reputation.

NOEL: (chuckle) She told me that too. They're the descendants of messenger birds, from back before the telegraph was invented.

MORGAN: And now they live off our scraps. Yeah. She wanted to keep one as a kid, but our parents wouldn’t let her.

ALIX: How many ducks are you up to, ten?

MORGAN: Twelve. My favorite is this purple one with the glasses. I only use him to debug the toughest problems. He’s the smartest.

NOEL: Do you think Evie used rubber ducks to test her charms because of you?

MORGAN: I don’t know. Maybe. I guess, in her own way, she was debugging too.

[Alix and Morgan’s conversation fades out as we switch perspectives to Grace and Maya, in the back of the room.]

MAYA: (under her breath) Grace, can I talk to you about something?

GRACE: (a little too loudly) Yeah-

[Maya quietly clears her throat.]

GRACE: (quieter) Let’s go to the living room.

[Footsteps. Despite being in the next room, they still speak quietly.]

GRACE: What’s up?

MAYA: Do you work tomorrow?

GRACE: Uh… yeah. Yeah, I work every Thursday.

MAYA: Can I ask you a favor?

GRACE: Sure.

MAYA: Last night a friend called me and asked to meet for coffee.

GRACE: And you want me to…

MAYA: Hold on. Um, not just any friend. My friend Daria, from home.

GRACE: The cook?

MAYA: Yeah, the cook.

[Pause.]

GRACE: Well that’s good, isn’t it? It sounded like you haven't seen her in a while.

MAYA: It should be, but I don’t trust it.

GRACE: Why?

MAYA: People don’t just call you up after twelve years of silence and invite you to coffee.

GRACE: Why not? There are a ton of reasons why someone would reach back out to an old friend.

MAYA: Not with how much she hates me. She thinks I'm the reason Michael died. Nobody who hate me like that would do this.

GRACE: Maybe, but before she hated you, she cared about you. You guys were good friends. Maybe that won out. My point is, this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It could be, but it doesn’t have to be.

MAYA: It’d be easier if it was.

GRACE: I don’t think that’s true. And, at the risk of overstepping, I don’t think you think that’s true either. I don’t see how you could believe that and then stay up half the night coordinating food rescues.

[Pause.]

GRACE: What was that favor you wanted?

MAYA: Oh, um. I just wanted you to be there and keep an eye out for me. In case you see Hirsch or in case- in case it doesn’t go well.

GRACE: Yeah, absolutely. I'm working eight to four.

MAYA: Thank you, Grace.

ALIX: (from the other room) Fuck yes!

MAYA: I like the way that sounds.

[Footsteps. They walk back into the other room.]

MAYA: Any luck?

ALIX: Hell yeah. Backups restored, maps back in working order. Here, check this one out.

[Occasional typing and clicking as Alix talks.]

ALIX: Here’s the big base I was telling you about, in Rochester. We have a crude map of that campus from the fitness data. I set up a few automatic sentries to sniff around for other related data, but with no computer, they’ve been offline. These are the safe houses that Evie and I found. The grey pins are ones over six months old, or ones that are totally offline. We think they’re abandoned. Hansen moves around a lot. The yellow pins are potential safe houses. See this green pin over here, near the Finger Lakes? That’s the cabin Evie and I found, the newest one.

MORGAN: So that’s where she went.

ALIX: Probably. I’d check there first.

GRACE: Can you zoom out a little bit? I want to see all the pins at once.

[Alix does so.]

GRACE: Something about this map looks so familiar to me. I can’t put my finger on it. Do you have any photos of the safe houses? CCTV cameras, newspaper clippings, anything?

ALIX: Most of them are pretty rural. Let me see…

[Typing, clicking.]

ALIX: That’s weird. There are a lot of photos.

GRACE: Pull them up side by side. Please.

[Alix does so.]

GRACE: I know these photographs… These are registered historical sites. They’re archived in the New York Public Library.

MAYA: Why would Hansen use such public sites? They don't want people to know they exist.

NOEL: They do work a lot of government contracts, though.

GRACE: Just because something's a historical site doesn't mean it's a tourist destination. A lot of them are really boring to anyone but a few experts. There might be occasional inspections, and Hansen couldn't change the existing architecture, but that's kind of it. If the state government repossessed old cabins and designated them historical sites, they could control the inspection timeline. Same with any public facing documents. The only real record would be the Park Department database and the photo archives.

ALIX: So there may be more.

GRACE: Not only that. This means, with just the library archives, we could make a list of potential sites.

MAYA: We could know where they are all over New York.

ALIX: We can finally be proactive. Just like Evie wanted.

NOEL: Being proactive is what put Evie in danger!

ALIX: Being proactive alone is what put Evie in danger. With a full map like this, we could strategize a realistic attack, we could connect with other networks in Philly and Boston. We could stop living in fear.

MAYA: Or we could paint a giant target on our backs.

SCENE 13 - MORGAN & EVIE’S APARTMENT (FLASHBACK)

[Flashback music cue. Front door opens and closes. Footsteps.]

EVIE: Ugh, if I spend one more minute in wet socks-

[Evie tries to take her socks off, but trips and falls.]

EVIE: Aaah!!

[Door opens, footsteps. Morgan comes into the living room.]

MORGAN: Are you okay?

EVIE: I’m fine.

MORGAN: You’re soaking wet.

EVIE: No, I was soaking wet an hour ago.

MORGAN: Do you know what time it is?

EVIE: Yes.

MORGAN: It’s three in the morning. Don’t you have class tomorrow?

EVIE: Yes, I’ll be fine. It’s the writing requirement I should've taken freshman year. Super basic, like, “how do you structure an essay?” I think I got this.

MORGAN: It can't be that easy.

EVIE: Are you in class with me? How would you know?

MORGAN: Are you drunk?

EVIE: Seriously? I’ve been home for five minutes.

MORGAN: You fell down in the entryway, and you’re talking like your tongue doesn’t work.

EVIE: You’re so dramatic. I tripped, because you never put your sneakers back on the shoe rack.

MORGAN: I’m just asking.

EVIE: No, I’m not drunk! I’m tired! Don't you know, it's three in the morning? For real, Morgan, do you get off on interrogating me or something?

MORGAN: That’s not fair.

EVIE: No, you’re not being fair. In case you forgot, I'm an adult and if I want to be out late, I can be. If I want to drink, which again, I’m old enough to do, then I get to. If I want to stay over at my friend's place for three days, I can do that, and I don't even have to tell you where they live.

MORGAN: I suppose you can rack up fines too.

EVIE: Not this again. They were bullshit crimes anyway. We both know it. Why do you care so much?

MORGAN: Because I’m paying them! $250 for indecent exposure, another $100 for trespassing after that that ridiculous party you threw-

EVIE: You always do this! You always change the past to make me look worse. Indecent exposure, I was swimming at night in the river. No one could see me! It should be legal for me to be topless in public anyway. And the party wasn’t my party! It was my friend's. I was just helping set up.

MORGAN: You hopped a fence, started a trash can fire, and made so much noise that the neighbors called the cops on you.

EVIE: Whoever owns that lot wasn’t using it. I don’t see why we couldn't borrow it for one night. We throw these parties all the time. We always clean up after ourselves. The cops just want to meet their quotas, and some nights that's my problem. That's it.

MORGAN: That’s easy for you to say when you don't deal with any of the consequences.

EVIE: You told me it was okay! You told me you had the money, and I didn’t, and you didn’t want me to go to jail. You’re one to talk with all the Matrix bullshit you were doing in college. Taking down websites is also illegal, Morgan, unless you're allowed to do crime and I'm not.

MORGAN: I only did that to really awful people. Nazis, bigots, people who abused kids-

EVIE: So I was right. You don’t care that it's illegal, you just care that I’m doing it. Honestly, it's really sick of you to use Mom and Dad's deaths to control my life like this.

[There is a long beat of uncomfortable silence. Morgan breaks first.]

MORGAN: I’m going to bed.

EVIE: Of course you are. Go back to your room. Forget about me! One day you're going to open my door and I'll be gone, and it'll be your fault.

MORGAN: Don’t pretend you want to talk. You just want to insult me.

EVIE: Is that really the only thing you heard?

MORGAN: It’s late. I’m not going to do this now. Go to bed, or don’t. You’re the adult.

[Morgans walks back into his bedroom and closes the door.]

EVIE: (shouting to him) Yeah! Don’t forget it!

[Evie gives an exasperated noise.]

[Outro music.]

REMY: The Artisan Who Made Me is written and produced by Remy Davison and directed by Sydney Roslin. This episode featured Yaya Koas as Morgan, Chaia Alyss as Evie, Bryce Payne as Maya, Nick Jordan as Hirsch, Ria Meer as Grace, Alexander Michael Reeves as Noel, Arielle Gonzalez as Daria, and Alyssa Cassesse as Alix. Music by Jordan Speranzo, and audio production by Raphael Davison. For more information, transcripts, and to support our show, visit bottledstarproductions.com. “The Artisan Who Made Me” is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council.