Season 2/Episode 8: The Lens

by Bilal Dardai

An accident
An experiment
We all have stories like this.

----

Content Advisories for this episode can be found below.

Support Unwell and HartLife NFP on Patreon at www.patreon.com/hartlifenfp

This episode features: Anuja Vaidya as Norah, Joshua K. Harris as Rudy, Pat King as Chester, Krista D'Agostino as Hazel.

Written by Bilal Dardai, sound design by Ryan Schile, directed by Jeffrey Nils Gardner, music composed by Stephen Poon, recording engineer Mel Ruder, Theme performed by Stephen Poon, Lauren Kelly, Gunnar Jebsen, Travis Elfers, Mel Ruder, and Betsey Palmer, Unwell lead sound designer Ryan Schile, Executives Producers Eleanor Hyde and Jeffrey Gardner, by HartLife NFP.

This episode contains:

Explosions
Concussions
Mortal danger
Discussion of sexual harassment

INTERIOR OF THE OBSERVATORY. RUDY
AND NORAH’S VOICES IN THE
DISTANCE. A LOW, CRACKLING HUM IN
THE ROOM. IT BEGINS TO INCREASE IN
VOLUME AND SEEMS TO BE GETTING
CLOSER TO RUDY AND NORAH’S VOICES,
WHO CAN JUST BE HEARD UNDERNEATH
IT.

RUDY: What’s that sound?
NORAH: Rudy.
RUDY: You hear that, right?
NORAH: Rudy step away from--
RUDY: --are you doing that?--
NORAH: (SHOUTING) --RUDY STEP AWAY!

THE HUM RISES INTO A LOUD, SUDDEN
SNAP. RUDY YELLS IN SURPRISE.
NEARLY ALL SOUND VANISHES, AS IF
THE WORLD’S BEEN HIT WITH A STUN
GRENADE. THE SOUND OF RUDY
STAGGERING BACKWARDS, MISSING A
STEP ON THE STAIRCASE LEADING UP
TO THE METAL PLATFORM, TUMBLING
DOWN THE STAIRS AND STRIKING HIS
HEAD ON THE CONCRETE FLOOR. A LONG
SILENCE. A HANDFUL OF ECHOES OF
NORAH SAYING RUDY’S NAME WITH
DIFFERENT INTONATIONS, AS IF
SPLICED TOGETHER FROM DIFFERENT
CONVERSATIONS, THAT BECOMES NORAH
SAYING HIS NAME AS IF KNEELING
NEXT TO HIM.


NORAH: Rudy. Rudy. Rudy, listen to me, it’s Norah.

Rudy, wake up.

RUDY: (HAZY AND DISORIENTED) Hm? What? I’m up I’m
up I’m up. Owwww.

NORAH: Rudy, can you see me? It’s Norah. Open your
eyes. Tell me if you can see me.

RUDY: I think so?
NORAH: How many fingers am I holding up?
RUDY: Haaa. Trick question. You don’t have
fingers, you have the... spectral...
representation... of fingers.

NORAH: Rudy.
RUDY: Three. I see three, no. Four. Definitely
four.
NORAH: It’s three.
RUDY: Oops.
NORAH: Sing something for me.
RUDY: Huh?
NORAH: Anything.
RUDY: “You look like a celery soda. Bright and
crispy,” and why are you making me sing
right now?

NORAH: Because you might have a concussion and you
should stay awake until we can figure out
how to help you.

RUDY: A what?
NORAH: A concussion.
RUDY: I have a concussion?
NORAH: Possibly.
RUDY: That’s a stupid thing to have. Why would I
have that?
NORAH: You--
RUDY: --I’ve had a concussion before and it’s
stupid. Never again. (BEAT.) Is it
fractured?
NORAH: I don’t know.
RUDY: Is it bleeding?
NORAH: A little.
RUDY: Might be fractured. Which would be bad. I’m
guessing. Neither you nor I are that kind of
doctor. I fell. Right? Am I remembering that
right? I was on the platform. And then. And
then.

NORAH: What do you remember?
RUDY: We were installing the lens.
NORAH: That was before.
RUDY: It was?

NORAH: We installed the lens yesterday. Do you
remember that?

RUDY: Yes. That sounds familiar. Right after
Chester delivered...
NORAH: That was the day before.
RUDY: I’m very confused. I apologize. I’m not
quite myself right now. I have been told I
might have a concussion.

NORAH: Maybe...hold on, maybe I can help you. Tell
me if this sounds familiar.

A MINOR WINDSTORM OF ECHOES,
BARELY DISCERNIBLE. SOME VOICES,
SOME SOUNDS: RUDY, ABBIE, DOT,
NORAH, CHESTER, HAZEL; A CLANKING
AND SCRAPING OF LARGE METAL AND
THE TWISTING OF NUTS AND BOLTS.
VOICES IN ECHO.

RUDY: “This would have been a lot easier if you’d
put anything on paper.”

SMALL WINDSTORM. ECHO.

CHESTER: “I have some paperwork I need you to sign.”

SMALL WINDSTORM. ECHO.

RUDY: “Those kids who nail together a couple of
boards and apple crates and stick some
wheels on them.”

RUDY: Wait. That one. That one there. Play back
more of that one.

SMALL WINDSTORM. DIALOGUE STARTS
AS ECHO BUT TRANSITIONS INTO A
FLASHBACK. THE SOUND OF HANDS
SEARCHING THROUGH A METAL TOOLBOX.

RUDY: “I should thank you. Have I thanked you
yet?”

NORAH: “Thanked me for what?”
RUDY: (WORKING ON ASSEMBLING THE TELESCOPE) It’s
been a good long spell since I’ve had the
chance to repair something, you know? To
really get my hands into some machinery?
Those kids who nail together a couple of
boards and apple crates and stick some
wheels on them so they can ride them down a
hill at the park? That was me. I was one of
those kids. For awhile, I thought maybe I’d
get a job in a garage, like that could be a
career for me. But the thing about a garage,
at least, the thing about the garages where
I grew up, the thing about those garages is
that they’re full of the sorts of men you
expect to find in a garage. So the one
summer I’m working there, trying to learn
everything I can, but could I please get
through one stupid oil change without having
to listen to Paul tell me what he’d like to
do to Miss July? That summer...clarified a
lot for me. New school year started and
I said “Mom, Dad? I’m going to college.”

NORAH: That was better for you.
RUDY: Sure. Although that was also, can I please
get through co-writing this paper on the
path of Encke’s Comet without having to
listen to Dr. Audrey tell me what he’d like
to do to the new grad assistant?”

NORAH: Dr. Audrey...sounds familiar.
RUDY: I’m sure he does. There is literally no
field of study you can pursue where men
will not utterly suck. (BEAT) Sometimes, for
example, they will talk for ten minutes
straight without letting a woman in the room
get a word in edgewise. Sorry about that.
You talk for awhile. Tell me something about
yourself.

NORAH: I’m the restless spirit of a woman from
the early 1900s who keeps an extensive
archive of echoes.

RUDY: That I knew. Who were you before that?
NORAH: Will that help you fix my telescope?
RUDY: No--
NORAH: --then I don’t see how it’s relevant.
RUDY: For heaven’s sake. I’ve been working with
you on this for a month and I feel like all
I know about you are surface details and
engineering specs.

NORAH: You’ve over-tightened the screw two inches
to your left.

RUDY: Oh fine, Norah, be that way. You know this
would have been a lot easier if you’d put
anything on paper.

NORAH: I didn’t need to. In my mind I saw
everything about the design perfectly.
RUDY: And the only reason we’re able to put that
design together now is because you were
fortunate enough to return from the dead.

NORAH: I didn’t put anything on paper because it’s
mine. Because the telescope is mine. Because
if any man could build it himself using my
drawings then he would have, and then it
wouldn’t have been mine anymore. Perhaps
that’s not something you can comprehend,
Rudy.

RUDY: ...no, I get that.
NORAH: I’ve waited for nearly four times my natural
life to see this telescope operating again.
I barely recall who I was before. It’s
meaningless to me. Think about how small
small talk might seem to you if you were in
my position.

RUDY: Yeah. Gotcha. Message received. (BEAT)
Secondary mirror’s in place now. We just
need that last lens you had me order.

NORAH: When will that arrive?
RUDY: Tracking says it should have been here
already.

DISTANT SOUND OF THE OBSERVATORY
DOOR OPENING. NORAH DISAPPEARS
WITH A DISTINCTIVE SOUND.

CHESTER: (CHEERFULLY) Knock knock. Excuse me, I’m
looking for the Mt. Absalom Observatory.
RUDY: Mr. Warren! (DESCENDS THE METAL STAIRS FROM
THE PLATFORM) No observatory here yet, I’m
afraid, but we’re, but it’s getting there. A
few more small adjustments and some parts
and this place could be back in business.

CHESTER: That’s precisely what I’m here about, Dr.
Peltham. Rudy, sorry, Rudy. There’s a very
expensive package that arrived for you at
the Mt. Absalom post office? Seems like it’s
marked Very Fragile except in, um, it looks
like it’s Chinese.

RUDY: Cantonese, probably. I had to custom-order
a lens, and I found a manufacturer in Hong
Kong willing to do it quick for the cost.
Thanks for telling me. I suppose I should go
pick that up.

CHESTER: No need, no need, I brought it with me.
RUDY: You did? Huh. I didn’t realize you also
delivered mail around here. Lily told me you
seem to have an absurd number of jobs.

CHESTER: You don’t know the half of it...but in
fact, no, this isn’t one of them. This is
deputy mayor business. I have some paperwork
you need to sign.

RUDY: Oh, sure. Because it’s imported?

CHESTER: No, because it’s for the telescope. As I’m
certain you understand, Mt. Absalom has a
vested interest in the observatory.

RUDY: I know. You told me that when I applied for
the grant.

CHESTER: No, when you applied for the grant that was
about the Historical Society’s interests in
preservation. I’m talking about the town’s
interests in upkeep and use.

RUDY: Ah.
CHESTER: So I just need you to sign a few forms.

A BRIEFCASE BEING OPENED AND
SEVERAL PAPERS BEING PULLED OUT.
THE CLICK OF A PEN.

RUDY: And then I can have my lens?

CHESTER: Absolutely. Let’s start with a fun one.
This states that the town of Mt. Absalom
recognizes you as an authorized individual
in terms of observatory stewardship.
Basically, what you’ve been doing already,
but now it’s official. Sign there.

RUDY SIGNS THE PAPER. CHESTER GOES
TO THE NEXT PAGE.

CHESTER: This says you won’t use the grounds of the
observatory to operate a bar, brewery,
distillery, hydroponic garden, exotic dance
establishment or methamphetamine lab.

RUDY: Fair.

RUDY SIGNS THE PAPER. CHESTER GOES
TO THE NEXT PAGE.

CHESTER: This one says you won’t use the observatory
to provide daycare services.
RUDY: Oh, nooo worries there.

RUDY SIGNS THE PAPER. CHESTER GOES
TO THE NEXT PAGE.

CHESTER: Or doggie daycare.
RUDY: Same.
CHESTER: This is...oh. Right. This one is your
statement confirming you believe the
Earth is a spherical planet and that it
orbits the sun.
RUDY: I really have to--?
CHESTER: --yes, you really have to. Annnd. Finally.
The death ray disclaimer.

RUDY: Excuse me?

CHESTER: Yeah okay so we had a mayor in the 1950s
who for some reason was afraid somebody
might try to turn the telescope into a death
ray and he convinced the town council that
we needed to pass a resolution condemning
any attempt to make the telescope into a
death ray, and part of that resolution is
that anybody who does work in the
observatory has to sign this piece of paper
promising they won’t turn the telescope into
a death ray. So, would you please just...
sign this, and we’ll put it in a folder with
the other ones and never speak of it again.

RUDY SIGNS THE PAPER. CHESTER
TAKES THE STACK AND PLACES IT INTO
THE BRIEFCASE, CLOSING IT.

RUDY: I don’t mean to condescend to your small
town values, Mr. Warren, but you do seem to
have a lot of odd, useless laws on your
books.
CHESTER: I’m aware.

RUDY: I imagine you’ve gotten some grief about
it.

CHESTER: A bit. Abbie Douglas sends me a voicemail
when they find a new one.

RUDY: You know, there’s an easy way to--
CHESTER: --I don’t think you understand how hard it
is to repeal a law, Rudy. Even the ones that
make very little sense at all.

RUDY: Like your brothel law.
CHESTER: Hm. Walked right into that, didn’t I.
RUDY: Suh-mack.
CHESTER: That’s county, not town.
RUDY: Still.
CHESTER: It’s complicated.
RUDY: You’re the mayor’s aide.
CHESTER: Deputy mayor, in fact.
RUDY: Is that right?
CHESTER: I’ve been promoted. As of six days ago.
RUDY: Good for you! Even better, in fact! You have
his ear. Talk to him. Dot doesn’t deserve
this. She’s a backbone of this town, isn’t
she?

CHESTER: She is. Nobody disagrees with that.

RUDY: Well, as my chiropractor always says, you
gotta take care of your backbone.

CHESTER: I’m in charge of a lot of other, uh, bones,
in this town? I have to think about what’s
best for the whole skeleton.

RUDY: If that’s the case, Dr. Warren, your bedside
manner leaves much to be desired.
CHESTER: ...I’m very confused by this metaphor.
RUDY: Abbie told us about this town’s history with
Fenwood. Four separate attempts to use
eminent domain, and now this thing with the
brothel law?

CHESTER: I don’t write the statutes.
RUDY: You sure seem to enjoy enforcing them.
(BEAT) Let it go, Chester. That’s all I’m
asking you.

CHESTER: (EXASPERATED) You’re welcome to keep asking,
Rudy. I’m well within my rights to keep
ignoring you.
RUDY: “So it goes.”
CHESTER: “I’ll get your lens, Dr. Peltham.”

THE LAST TWO LINES ARE IN ECHO,
TRANSITIONING BACK TO PRESENT.

RUDY: You know? Somehow it’s worse hearing him
played back than it is hearing him live and
in person?

NORAH: He is a petty little man. His echoes remind
me of what papercuts used to feel like.

RUDY: My head hurts.
NORAH: I know. I’m sorry.
RUDY: Don’t be sorry. Not your fault my head
hurts. (BEAT) Maybe I should close my eyes
for a moment.

NORAH: Don’t. Rudy, do not go to...tell me...tell
me what you remember about this evening. You
remember how we installed the lens, correct?

RUDY: Vaguely.
NORAH: It took us some time.
RUDY: Yes. Longer than expected. You had to tell
me how to configure the pieces of the mount
around the lens and that took. Hours? It
felt like hours. And then the rest of today,
that was. More instructions on, on angle,
and orientation of the way you said the lens
had to fit inside the casing. Very
frustrating.

NORAH: If I could have done it myself I would have.
You lack my hands. Both of us lack my hands.

RUDY: How long ago did we finish that?
NORAH: Thirty minutes.
RUDY: I suggested a toast, I think?

ECHOES, TRANSITIONING INTO
FLASHBACK.

RUDY: “Feels like maybe we ought to do something,
doesn’t it?”
NORAH: “Such as?”
RUDY: A speech. A toast. Breaking a bottle of
champagne against it.

NORAH: That would damage the instrument.
RUDY: No, I know that.
NORAH: What a curious suggestion.
RUDY: I’m not being serious. But this feels like a
momentous occasion and it’s bad luck to let
a momentous occasion pass without marking it
in some way.

NORAH: Bad luck? All this time I thought you were a
scientist.
RUDY: I am!
NORAH: Bad luck, you say.
RUDY: I’m allowed to believe in luck.
NORAH: Luck. Fate. Random chance.
RUDY: Also coincidences, superstitions, and
happenstance!

NORAH: You feel these belong in the sphere of
science.

RUDY: I exclude nothing until absolutely required.
And I can’t believe I have to argue about
the possibilities of the unknown and
immeasurable with a ghost.

NORAH: I grew up being taught by my parents about
the concepts of karma, moksha, and saṃsāra
and I still didn’t believe in the idea of
ghosts until I became one.

RUDY: I did believe in ghosts before I met one. I
don’t think it cost me anything and it
turned out I was right.
NORAH: (AFTER A BEAT) A speech.
RUDY: Or a toast. It’s your design. You should
do the honors.

NORAH: I. That is. I don’t have words for this. I
never have the words. Not when I needed
them. I wanted my work to be my words.
(BEAT) But then this would be why my name
slipped into the fog. Because my work would
not speak for me if I could not speak for
myself.

RUDY: Hey. It’s okay. Hold on a moment.

TWO BOTTLES OF CELERY SODA ARE
PROCURED AND OPENED WITH A TWIST.

RUDY: With these bottles of celery soda, I hereby
and proudly announce the resurrection of the
Mt. Absalom Observatory Telescope, a model
first designed by Norah...huh. I still don’t
have your last name.

NORAH: It’s Tendulkar.
RUDY: To the Norah Tendulkar design of the Mt.

Absalom Observatory Telescope.

THE BOTTLES ARE CLINKED TOGETHER.

NORAH: Tendulkar-Peltham. That’s what it should be.
RUDY: I absolutely refuse to accept that honor.
(BEAT) Oh. Now I regret that it’s just
the two of us. We ought to have invited the
Fenwood folks. Dot would have enjoyed this.
Probably Lily. Definitely her girlfriend.
Wes. Wes would be all over this.

NORAH: Which one is Wes?
RUDY: The kid who came over with Dot that one
time?
Come to think of it, he was here the day you
and I met.

NORAH: Yes. The anomaly.
RUDY: Sorry?
NORAH: There’s something not quite right about that
one.

RUDY: He’s a teenager. It’s a transition period;
they’re always a bit off.

NORAH: That’s not what I mean. I’ve met teenagers
before. They sneak into the observatory on
their dates. I mean that your friend. Wes. I
mean that I don’t have any of his echoes.

RUDY: You don’t.
NORAH: His voice couldn’t be archived. I don’t know
why. He speaks and his words evaporate. An
anomaly.

RUDY: This town. (A SLIGHT CHUCKLE AND A JOYFUL
ROAR) THIS. TOWN! I get it now!


NORAH: Get what?
RUDY: Something I overheard the other day at the
house, something I thought sounded like
“Wes’s gravestone” but then Lily says to me
very unconvincingly “uh, no Rudy, I said,
uhhh, west of Gladstone, like Gladstone
Avenue?” And now you tell me this about his
echoes? It’s obvious, isn’t it?

NORAH: What is?

SOUND OF RUDY WRITING ON THE
CHALKBOARD.

RUDY: Wes...is...ALSO...a...GHOST. Aha! Not the
same kind of ghost as you, of course, but
who says there only has to be one kind of
ghost, right? Okay. Back to the telescope.
NORAH: Wait. You’re just...you’re just dropping it?

Just like that?

RUDY ASCENDS THE METAL STAIRCASE
TO THE PLATFORM.

RUDY: Of course I’m not dropping it, that’s why I
wrote it down. But one mystery at a time is
my credo.
NORAH: ...alright.
RUDY: Now! What should we look at first, you
think? Start with something simple? The
moon. Maybe not our moon. I’ve always meant
to take a closer look at the volcanoes on
Io. Or: do we just go nuts and check out the
deep sky first? The Swan Nebula, say, or the
Hercules Cluster.

DIALS AND WHEELS BEING ADJUSTED. A
FEW CALCULATIONS DONE WITH PENCIL
AND PAPER.

NORAH: Perhaps Omega Centauri.
RUDY: Oh, I dig that. Classic. Ptolemy’s cluster.
NORAH: The star on the horse’s back.
RUDY: That’s right. That’s what he called it. And
you probably wouldn’t know about this, it’s
a recent thing, but there’s been...some
debate as to whether or not there’s a black
hole in the center of it. So. What say you
and I try to settle it once and for all, hm?

NORAH: That sounds...enjoyable.
RUDY: Doesn’t it though? Okay. So, I think I
should be able to see it...adjust the focus
a bit.

QUIETLY, AND SLOWLY GROWING
LOUDER, THERE IS A LOW, CRACKLING
HUM IN THE ROOM.

RUDY: This is remarkable, Norah. I’m not sure how
you’re getting this level of clarity and
detail with the size of the aperture. I’ll
be honest with you, I think it would take me
a decade to even come close to achieving
this.

NORAH: Thank you, Rudy.
RUDY: And you did this intuitively! I should have,
everybody should have known your name before
now. I’m going to make certain that gets
corrected. And hey! Lucky you! Most people
who get discovered after they die never get
to find out about it.
NORAH: Rudy, I think you should--
RUDY: --what’s that sound?
NORAH: Rudy.
RUDY: “You hear that, right?”
NORAH: “Rudy step away from--”
RUDY: “--are you doing that?--”
NORAH: “(SHOUTING) --RUDY STEP AWAY!”

THE HUM RISES INTO A LOUD, SUDDEN
SNAP. RUDY YELLS IN SURPRISE.
NEARLY ALL SOUND VANISHES, AS IF
THE WORLD’S BEEN HIT WITH A STUN
GRENADE. THE SOUND OF RUDY
STAGGERING BACKWARDS, MISSING A
STEP ON THE STAIRCASE LEADING UP
TO THE METAL PLATFORM, TUMBLING
DOWN THE STAIRS AND STRIKING HIS
HEAD ON THE CONCRETE FLOOR. A LONG
SILENCE.

NORAH: What do you remember?
RUDY: I don’t, exactly...a sort of vibration?
NORAH: Did you see anything?
RUDY: Through the telescope?

NORAH: Or anywhere else.
RUDY: See anything?
NORAH: Light? Or color?
RUDY: The hairs on my arms were all on end.
NORAH: Rudy, this is important. What did you see?
RUDY: ...Norah.
NORAH: Was there a planet you were looking at? A
star? A black hole, like you said?

RUDY: Norah these sound like interview questions.
(BEAT) Like. Like research. (BEAT) Did your
telescope do something to you?

NORAH: Rudy, listen, I don’t--
RUDY: --did your telescope do something to me?
Something that it did to you? (BEAT) How did
you die, Norah Tendulkar?

NORAH: I don’t...I didn’t remember. I was, I looked
through the telescope, at Omega Centauri.
There was a sound, that sound we heard, that
loud snap, like a lightning strike. I
remember my blood rushing around the edges
of my skin like it was looking for places to
hide. Everything went, gold, then blue, then
white, and suddenly I was standing in
another part of the observatory but I could
see my body, my body was still leaning
against the telescope. Oh my god. Oh my god.
RUDY: So Norah. To clarify. For me. Did you just
try to re-create a lab accident?

NORAH: I needed to know.
RUDY: And I was your first chance to try it.
Nobody before me ever helped you get this
far.

NORAH: I stopped you! I warned you! Right before
it, so it didn’t, whatever it was, it didn’t
hit you the same way it hit me.

RUDY: Right. It just knocked me down a metal
staircase and broke my skull against a
concrete floor, and now maybe I’ll die
anyway. Just not as quickly as you.
NORAH: I didn’t know it would do that.

RUDY: No, of course you didn’t. That’s why you ran
the experiment. (SIGHS, CHUCKLES) I’m not
even sure I can stay mad at you about it.
That’s funny, right? I should be furious.
But I can’t help admiring it. Wandering
astronomer killed by mysterious lightning
strike in abandoned observatory, during
science experiment conducted by century-old
ghost. That’s much better than burning to
death in a motor oil fire. Or however it is
auto mechanics die. (BEAT) You promise me
that you will tell whoever finds my body
exactly how I died.

NORAH: Rudy, you’ll be fine. Stay awake. Somebody
will come. Dot. Abbie. Chester. Somebody.
Wes.

RUDY: It’s nearly midnight. I can’t reach my
phone.

NORAH: I can push it to you!

RUDY: Can you open my bag? (BEAT) I can barely
keep my eyes open, Norah. I’m done. (BEAT)
It was nice to meet you. I wish I knew you
better.

A LONG SILENCE.

NORAH: My father was a navigator. He was a
navigator on a cargo ship that would go back
and forth across the Atlantic from Liverpool
to Boston. When I was two, or three, I don’t
remember. He got permission to bring me, my
mother, and my older sister with him on the
NORAH (CONT): voyage. When the ship landed in port, he
resigned his commission and we settled into
a small home in Cambridge. He liked that
there was a Cambridge in America as well as
in England. He said it felt like we had
moved to another side of a coin instead of
another side of an ocean. Are you still with
me, Rudy?

RUDY: (WEAKLY) Cambridge. You were three. Coins,
not oceans.

NORAH: They were always fighting. My mother and
father, always biting at each other, for
what sounded like different things but I
knew. I knew it was the same thing. She
hated him for bringing us. I don’t think she
ever forgave him. But I remember one night.
One night I’d had enough of listening to
them. I crawled out of my window and I
started walking. Rudy, stay awake. I started
walking without any place in mind. The
streets of Boston in the late evening, a
girl of 13, you’re right, Rudy, I should
believe in luck. I walked for hours. East,
towards the harbor. I ended up on the shore
near Fort Independence. Across the harbor I
could see the new lighthouse they’d built on
Deer Island. Saw the beam cutting through
the mist over the water. I looked up, and
there was a space in the clouds. I saw the
stars through the space in the clouds and I
wondered. I wondered if they were
lighthouses as well. I wondered if they were
placed there to guide us into port someday.
I wondered if this, if the planet beneath us
was supposed to be our home or simply
another point on a journey. A girl of 13. A
girl of 13 and her foolish ideas. But they
NORAH (CONT): followed me home that night, Rudy. They made
me ask how to focus light through a lens and
a mirror and how to map the light that we
could see from where we stood on Earth.
Those ideas stayed with me my whole life. I
died and they still stayed with me. (BEAT) I
needed to know. I have always needed to
know. (BEAT) I shouldn’t have needed to know
this much. Rudy? (BEAT) Rudy?

RUDY: That sounded...like an apology to me. I
accept it. (BEAT) You shouldn’t wait to tell
stories like that, Norah. It’s lovely, and
it’s familiar. Not mine, exactly, but close
enough. I think most astronomers have
something like it.

NORAH: Tell me yours.
RUDY: Some other time. (BEAT) Huh.
NORAH: What is it?
RUDY: Lightning strike. You called it, like a
lightning strike, didn’t you? You aimed the
telescope at Omega Centauri and something
like a lightning strike killed you.

NORAH: Yes.
RUDY: Norah--

THE SOUND OF THE OBSERVATORY DOOR
OPENING. NORAH DISAPPEARS.

HAZEL: Dr. Peltham! It’s Hazel. From the library? I
overheard on the radio that there was some
odd seismic activity in this area and
thought I should check on--oh my goodness.
Dr. Peltham!
RUDY: Rudy. Please.
HAZEL: What happened? You’re bleeding buckets from
your head. Lie still. I think you might
have--

RUDY/HAZEL: --a concussion--
RUDY: --yes, I figured that one out.
HAZEL: Did you fall down the stairs?
RUDY: Something like that.
HAZEL: It’s okay. You’re okay. This looks bad, but
we can get you help. Wait here.

RUDY: Sure thing.
HAZEL: (CALLING OUTSIDE FROM THE DOORWAY) Chester!
Alden! Get in here! Dr. Peltham’s been
injured!

RUDY: (WHISPERING) Norah, listen to me. Lightning
strikes.

CHESTER: (RUNNING IN) What happened?
HAZEL: Fell down the stairs, looks like. Dr.
Peltham, you know Chester, and this is
Alden, he’s another member of the Delphic
Order. They’re going to take you to the
Hospital. (TO CHESTER) Take him to the one
in Julian.

RUDY: I don’t know if that’s in my network.
HAZEL: Don’t you worry about it. You’re working for
us, Dr. Peltham, and we look after our own.

CHESTER: Alden, you get the other--and lift.
RUDY: (BEING PICKED UP) Lightning strikes
sometimes occur from the ground up.

HAZEL: What was that?
RUDY: Norah.
HAZEL: Hazel. It’s Hazel.
RUDY: Norah, listen to me, lightning strikes can
occur from the ground up. Do you understand
me, Norah?

HAZEL: He’s in bad shape.
RUDY: Tell them they need to look. Look
underneath.

HAZEL: Sh. Sh, Dr. Peltham. Alden, you speed if you
have to. If the police try to pull you over
tell them you’re on Delphic business. (TO
RUDY) You’re going to be right as rain. I’m
sure you want to finish up your work here as
soon as possible, but the observatory’s just
a building. It’ll still be here. You give
that noggin of yours all the time it needs
to recover, all right? All right.

CHESTER: How are you going to--?
HAZEL: I’ll have Joanne come get me. Get going.
RUDY: Don’t look through--
HAZEL: --yes, yes. We all heard you.

RUDY IS CARRIED AWAY. THE DOOR TO
THE OBSERVATORY OPENS AND CLOSES.
HAZEL’S FOOTSTEPS WALK AROUND THE
ROOM, BRIEFLY.

HAZEL: Norah. That’s what he called you, isn’t it.
My name is Hazel. I’m from the Delphic
Order. We manage this observatory. (BEAT) I
don’t know what you are, exactly. I’m sure I
could use a word for it but I don’t know if
that word would be accurate. I also don’t
know what you’ve been saying to Dr. Peltham.
The device we left here doesn’t seem to pick
you up, and I don’t have a single clue as to
why. (BEAT) Whatever you are, Norah. Don’t
get in our way.

AFTER A BRIEF MOMENT, AN ECHO.

HAZEL: “Don’t get in our way.”
HAZEL: Hm. Very well, then.

CREDITS

Seventeen-year-old, part-time janitor of the new observatory Ezra Cartwright was the
first person to discover Norah Tendulkar’s body. Later, as mayor, Ezra would push through a
number of “death ray ordinances” to protect the people of Mount Absalom from any such
occurrences.