Unwell Season 3/Episode 12- Return
by Jessica Best
Just calling to let you know I made it home safe
In and through and below and between
Things get more complicated
===
Content Advisories for this episode can be found here.
Support Unwell and HartLife NFP on Patreon at www.patreon.com/hartlifenfp
This episode features: Clarisa Cherie Rios as Lily, Symphony Sanders as Young Lily, Marsha Harman as Dot, Michael Turrentine as Wes, Kathleen Hoil as Abbie, Amelia Bethel as Marisol.
Written by Jessica Best, sound design by Jeffrey Nils Gardner, directed by Jeffrey Nils Gardner, theme music composed by Stephen Poon, recording engineer Mel Ruder, associate producer Ani Enghdahl, Theme performed by Stephen Poon, Lauren Kelly, Gunnar Jebsen, Travis Elfers, Mel Ruder, and Betsey Palmer, Unwell lead sound designer Eli Hamada McIlveen, Executive Producers Eleanor Hyde and Jeffrey Nils Gardner, by HartLife NFP.
PANTRY RUMMAGING SOUNDS--CANS AND BOXES BEING MOVED AROUND.
LILY: Goddamn smoke detector, you could run out of batteries at any point but no, you have to do it at four in the fucking morning.
(CROUCHING DOWN) Let’s see...
RUMMAGING SOUNDS
LILY: What the--
A FISTFUL OF CASETTE TAPES ARE RETRIEVED FROM THE BACK OF THE SHELF.
LILY: (READING) “Lily Harper, Harperpalooza II.” Do I wanna know?
BRIEF HESITATION. A CASETTE IS POPPED INTO THE OLD BOOMBOX, AND REWINDED TO THE START
YOUNG LILY (TAPE): (WHISPERING) Hello, and welcome to this very special late-night edition of the Lily Harper show, starring me, Lily Harper. It’s currently eleven minutes until next year, and I am not supposed to be awake.
Dad said I shouldn’t stay up for New Year’s, because growing kids need sleep, blah blah blah, and anyway it’s not really that much to see. He said so last year, when I wanted to watch the ball drop, and Mom agreed with him. Or you know, she agreed with him then, but now it’s, ‘Stay awake as late as you want, Lilybelle, let’s welcome in that brand spanking new year in style! Hey, do you want some coffee?’
LILY: (SAD REMEMBERING) Mom...
YOUNG LILY (TAPE): (IN QUIET AGONY) I don’t want coffee, I’m eleven.
We had a little bit of a fight about it. She was all, ‘What, do you want me to send you to your room, and make you go to bed?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know, maybe.’ So here I am, audience. Staying up for New Year’s but not staying up for New Year’s.
Resolutions! What do I wanna do differently next year? Try out for the school play, even if it’s a musical. Tell Dad he can stop packing my lunches because that’s so weird to do in middle school, but without making him feel, like, bad about it. Fight less with Mom, even though she is so annoying sometimes. Fight more with Mrs. Schmidt.
LILY: Ugh, Mrs. Schmidt. Someone should’ve fired her.
YOUNG LILY (TAPE): The next time she starts in about how, ‘Oh, the Confederacy had heroes, too’, I’m gonna say something, I don’t care if none of the white kids back me up. Why is this even a problem in Ohio? We were in the Union and everything, it says so in the textbook.
I wanna put in some real work on career skills. I’m gonna be in high school soon and it’ll be time to think about college. I still wanna be a marine biologist, or if that doesn’t work out, an astronaut. And that means passing the presidential fitness test. I am gonna touch my toes if I have to cut ‘em off first.
LILY: You were something else, kid.
YOUNG LILY (TAPE): I can practice the V sit reach at home, I just need a little more discipline. And I need to figure out what’s happening with that freaky door I found in the basement.
LILY: Wait, wait, did you just--
YOUNG LILY (TAPE): Oh, and I wanna learn how to whistle.
PRESS OF A BUTTON. REWIND.
YOUNG LILY (TAPE): --more discipline. And I need to figure out what’s happening with that freaky door I found in the basement. Oh, and I wanna learn how to--
PRESS OF A BUTTON. STOP.
LILY: Oh, you are kidding me. How are you so creepy, me?
FROM UPSTAIRS, THE DOOR OPENS, THE BELL RINGS.
DOT (OFF): Wes?
WES (OFF): Hello, Mrs. Harper. I’m Theodore Wesley. Call me Wes.
FRONT DOOR
DOT: Wes, honey, how the hell have you been? Where the hell have you been? Are you alright? Do you want something to eat? You must be starving, let me make you something!
WES: I don’t...I don’t think I need to eat.
DOT: Oh, I’m sorry, Wes, I didn’t...
WES: I still like to eat. If you want to...
LILY RUNS INTO THE ROOM.
LILY: Wes!
WES: Hey, Lily.
LILY: How did you--can I hug you?
WES: Sure!
LILY: How--how are you?
WES: Good. Better. (A LITTLE WRY) Turns out I’m a ghost.
LILY: I’m so sorry, Wes, we should’ve told you.
WES: You should’ve, yeah. But you didn’t have any way of knowing everything’d shake out the way it did.
LILY: If you think of anything we can do to make it up to you...
WES: I don’t suppose I could get my own room at Fenwood house?
DOT: (DELIGHTED) Your own room--I just need to do a little dusting, pop some sheets in the washer--
WES: Oh, don’t worry about the bed. I don’t think I need to sleep.
SLIGHT AWKWARD PAUSE.
DOT: Right. Of course!
WES: But I think it’d be nice to have a place where I could keep my things. I think it’d be nice to have some things. I might start collecting something. Postcards, or bottlecaps, or stamps from around the world. I, uh, understand you might owe me some backpay?
LILY: Damn right we do. Oh, and when you want it, your banjeaurine is in the living room.
DOT: We kept it just in case.
WES: Thanks!
DOT: Why don’t you go noodle around and I’ll fix you some breakfast.
WES: (LAUGHING) It’s the middle of the night!
DOT: No wrong time for breakfast. How do you feel about a big ol’ four-egg omelette, with a truly disgusting amount of cheese inside?
WES: Sounds perfect.
DOT: Lily, can you come help me crack the eggs?
TWO SETS OF FOOTSTEPS INTO THE KITCHEN. THE CLOCK MEOWS. FROM THE OTHER ROOM, WE HEAR WES PLAYING SOMETHING ENERGETIC ON THE BANJEAURINE.
LILY: It’s so good to hear that sound again.
DOT: (VAGUELY) Yeah.
(GOING FOR CASUAL) So, uh.
FRIDGE OPENS. EGG CARTON SET ON COUNTER.
DOT: You see him too, huh?
LILY: Yeah, Mom, he’s here.
DOT: Good, that’s...good.
A LARGE BOWL IS RETRIEVED FROM A CABINET. AN EGG IS CRACKED.
LILY: Mom?
ANOTHER EGG IS CRACKED.
DOT: Yeah?
LILY: You were joking, right?
A THIRD EGG.
DOT: I said four eggs and I meant four eggs. Hell, five if we’ve got ‘em. The goal is to cook up something that’d make a hen cry.
LILY: No, Mom, c’mon. Asking me if I can see Wes, that’s one of your jokes?
DOT: Why would I joke about that. How is that funny.
LILY: (CAREFULLY) Mom, are you saying there’s maybe a chance that lately you’ve. Seen some things, or heard some things, that might not really be there?
DOT: Have I been hallucinating.
LILY: Yeah.
DOT: It is a symptom, you know. The big A. Hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia.
LILY: Well, do you think you have...?
DOT: How could I possibly know that, Lily? My brain is no longer a good reporter. You might as well ask me, ‘Morning Mom, had any paranoid delusions lately?’
LILY: Well, have you seen anything... I dunno, unusual?
DOT: Other than the return of our missing friend, a dead child from the Eisenhower administration? What does ‘unusual’ even mean? Life’s unusual all the damn time.
I don’t think I’m Houdini and I haven’t seen any pink elephants on parade, if that’s what you’re asking.
LILY: Mom, I’m not trying to fight with you. If you’re not sure about what you’re seeing, maybe you need--more support, but it’s not the end of the world. You still have time left to live a little.
DOT: Don’t get me wrong, I want to, but...
LILY: Even if you can’t retain everything anymore, there’s still people around you who want you in their lives. Not to get cheesy, but: we’ll remember. That has to count for something.
DOT: You don’t have to start in on that, Lily. We both know you’ve never needed me a day in your life.
You know, when you were in preschool, I used to send you to your room for misbehaving, and then when the five minutes or whatever was up, I’ll call up the stairs, ‘Hey Lily, your punishment is over! You can come down now!’ And I swear, half the time, I’d hear your little voice call out, ‘In a minute, Mom, I’m playing!’ (LAUGHS)
Have I ever told you that story?
LILY: (YES, DEAR GOD, SO MANY TIMES) I think so.
DOT: (A LITTLE REPROACHFUL, A LITTLE PROUD) You never needed anything from anyone.
LILY: I don’t really know if that’s true.
WES: Why, what do you need?
LILY: Jesus, Wes!
WES: Sorry.
LILY: How long have you been there?
WES: Uh. Maybe a while?
LILY: Mom, why didn’t you say something?
DOT: I wasn’t completely sure if, ugh. You know...
LILY: Mom, I’m telling you, Wes is really here.
DOT: Yeah, but this time, he just--appeared.
WES: Oh! Uh, yeah, I do that, it turns out. I can try to remember to use doors and stuff, if it’s too weird?
DOT: No, that’s okay, kid. Be yourself. We’ll get used to it.
So you really can--? Out of nowhere?
WES: It doesn’t feel exactly like nowhere, but yeah.
LILY: What does it feel like?
WES: A deep breath.
THE KITCHEN DOOR SWINGS. FOOTSTEPS INTO THE ROOM.
LILY: Abbie! Shit, I completely forgot, the third floor smoke detector is still out of batteries.
(PAUSE) And it’s four thirty in the morning, and you don’t speak until--
ABBIE: (GRUFF) Wes?
WES: Hey, Abbie, how’ve you been?
ABBIE: (EMOTIONS) You’re really back?
WES: Back and in the flesh. Or, you know. In the... something.
Abbie, are you crying?
ABBIE: (YEP) I’m fine. I--
We looked for you.
WES: Can I--give you a hug?
ABBIE: That would be good. (PAUSE) You’re back.
WES: I’m back.
DOT: Tell you what, you three go get out of my hair, and I’ll make omelettes for everyone.
LILY: Are you sure, Mom?
DOT: Might as well, while I still remember what an omelette even is. Before you say “omelette” and I hand you a fucking stapler.
See, that time, it was a joke.
TRANSITION. THE BACK PORCH DOOR SHUTS. WIND CHIMES CLINK A LITTLE.
WES: I can’t believe that it’s warm enough to be out here.
LILY: Well, it is March. I saw a robin the other day.
ABBIE: The forecast says it’ll all freeze again tomorrow. Global climate change, you can never tell.
WES: Hopefully he was just passing through.
LILY: Yeah.
ABBIE: Where did you go, Wes? What have you been doing?
WES: A little bit of everything, really. I talked to Joey.
LILY: You did?
ABBIE: You were working together on Spikes’ movie, right? Back in September.
WES: Well, I talked to her again. Or, she talked to me.
LILY: What’d she say?
WES: She can’t protect you, like how I can’t protect Dot.
ABBIE: Protect them from what?
WES: Is life not enough?
ABBIE: Fair point, but she might know something we don’t.
LILY: I’m not sure she’d tell us if she did. She was never the most straightforward person.
WES: I wonder how she died.
ABBIE: According to some light research, it depends.
LILY: On what?
ABBIE PACES AS THEY RECITE.
ABBIE: Jo Ann Coxley, 1918, Spanish flu. Mary Jo Hoolihan, 1967, car accident. Josephine Pratt, 1889, tuberculosis. Josie Schneider, 1993, bone cancer. Johanna Mills, 1842, fell off a horse.
LILY: How did you even remember all of--
ABBIE: Mnemonic devices. Every student’s best friend.
LILY: You don’t do anything halfway.
ABBIE: You never know which lead will point to the next step. Which reminds me, Wes, if you see her again, I’ve got a list of questions. Here, I’ll write them out for you.
ABBIE PULLS A SMALL PAD OF PAPER AND A PEN OUT OF THEIR PAJAMA POCKET AND BEGINS TO WRITE.
WES: Of course, Abbie.
LILY: You sleep with paper and a pen?
ABBIE: Pajamas have pockets for a reason, Lily.
WES: They’ve got you there. (PAUSE) Lily, are you okay?
LILY: Sorry, it’s just. A little wild to see you again. You know, we ghost-hunted for you?
WES: You what? Like on TV?
LILY: We bought equipment and everything.
ABBIE: You bought equipment.
LILY: Abbie thought we should try chanting. In Latin.
ABBIE: Momentarily!
WES: (LAUGHING) Aw, that’s kind of sweet.
ABBIE: So, what’s our next step? The goal has been getting Wes back, he’s here, what do we do now?
LILY: I had an idea, maybe. Uh, something weird happened tonight.
ABBIE: In this house? Perish the thought.
LILY: I was listening to an old tape I made, when I was a few years younger than you, Wes. I kinda remember making it? But the tape, it mentions that door in the basement.
ABBIE: Are you sure it’s the same door?
LILY: I think so. She called it “freaky.”
WES: “She”?
LILY: I have no memory of that door before coming here in August. Nothing. It’s not the kind of thing you learn about and then forget.
I think, well. On Halloween, Marisol said Mom’s mixtape was playing the wrong version of a song. The lyrics told us to check the basement for Spikes, when she disappeared. I think the same thing is happening again. Something is using my voice, the way it used the song.
ABBIE: “Something”? Is this a something we trust?
WES: Are you saying we ignore the tape?
ABBIE: No. I’m saying we proceed with caution, maybe. We don’t know if its best interests line up with ours.
Wes.
LILY: Abbie, no offense, can we give him a break tonight from your Theory of Ghosts?
ABBIE: How did you know that’s what I was going to--
WES: It’s okay. I don’t mind.
ABBIE: I’m starting to think ghosts don’t fall under a single species, that there’s a whole taxonomy with different types, like--well, a little like cephalopods, how squids and octopodes are seperate creatures in the same class. There’s you, who can seemingly go anywhere and interact with solid objects. Then there’s Norah, bound to the observatory, and learning to interact with solid objects--
WES: Oh, uh. She left.
ABBIE: She left?
WES: I think it was more a kind of mental block than anything else.
ABBIE: Where is she now?
WES: Seeing the town? Or maybe the world? Is that your list?
ABBIE: Yeah, you can just--hold onto it. (PAUSE) Can you? Hold onto it?
WES: I have hands. And pockets.
ABBIE: But when you appear and disappear, can you take objects with you?
WES: I don’t know.
ABBIE: You must be able to. You can bring your clothes with you, and they’re not a part of you. Are they? It can’t be the outfit you died in or something; your sneakers are too modern.
WES: Here, just let me...
WES DISAPPEARS.
LILY: Did you have to do that?
ABBIE: What?
LILY: What if he doesn’t come--
WES REAPPEARS. A RUSTLE OF PAPER.
WES: Hey. I’ve still got it.
ABBIE: Do we think there’s a maximum, masswise, of what you can carry?
LILY: Abbie, the task at hand?
ABBIE: Right, do we see what’s behind that door?
LILY: I think we do.
ABBIE: Alright, first things first--
DOT: (CALLING) Omelettes are ready!
WES: First things first, we eat some omelettes.
ABBIE: Really?
WES: I missed food.
TRANSITION. THE SCRAPE OF FORK AGAINST PLATE.
DOT: So, the tape said to look into what’s happening with the door.
LILY: The tape said I wanted to look into what’s happening with the door.
DOT: And we’re doing what the tape says? We’ve been fine leaving the door alone so far.
LILY: Are we fine, now, though? The Delphics are closing in. I think it’s worth trying to figure out what they’re even after.
ABBIE: The real trouble will be finding the doorknob again. I’m thinking we invest in some sort of baby monitoring technology, keep lenses pointed at that area of wall at all times, and from there we can--
WES: (CHEWING) I can do it.
LILY: Wes?
DOT: Chew and swallow.
WES: (SWALLOWING) I can do it.
DOT: You can make the doorknob appear?
WES: Not exactly, but I think I can appear anywhere.
ABBIE: (REALIZING) You can manifest on the other side of the wall--
WES: And open the door from there.
DOT: Is that safe?
WES: What’s the worst that could happen?
LILY: Do you want an honest answer to that question?
Wes, you just got back, should you really be taking that kind of risk--
WES: We don’t even know if it’s a risk, it could be fine.
LILY: That’s what risks are.
ABBIE: Wes is old enough to make his own judgments--
DOT: Wes, you’re sixteen--
WES: I’m actually--a lot older--
ABBIE: I don’t know if we count all those years or not, technically, but Lily, you can’t shelter Wes from his own choices, look what happened the last time we decided we knew best.
LILY: I get that, but this house plays by its own rules, if Wes winds up trapped in some--some pocket dimension--
WES DISAPPEARS.
LILY: Oh shit!
WES REAPPEARS.
WES: I think it’s fine. Weird, but fine.
ABBIE: I’ll get the gear!
LILY: Great, Abbie, you and Wes can go in and I’ll stay back with Mom and a walkie talkie.
ABBIE: No. You go.
LILY: Are you sure?
ABBIE: (TRAUMA RISING UP A LITTLE) I’ve...had a very bad week. A bad, weird week.
LILY: What happened to you?
ABBIE: That’s besides the point. I really don’t want to discuss it.
LILY: Alright, I can go, but Abbie, no offense, but are you really gonna be up for...
ABBIE: What?
DOT: You’ve got me-duty.
ABBIE: Oh. Right.
DOT: Do you seriously wanna tango again?
WES: I could stay.
LILY: It might be better if you come with.
ABBIE: For one thing, you’re the only one of us who can’t die.
DOT: A real ray of fucking sunshine over here.
WES: We could wake up Rudy. He’d be happy to do it.
LILY: Wes, Rudy is... well, long story short, I don’t know if we want Rudy knowing whatever we might end up learning.
ABBIE: Agreed. Let the turncoat sleep.
LILY: I have a thought.
TRANSITION: WE’RE IN THE BASEMENT.
LILY: Are you sure?
MARISOL: Thanks for calling me. My niece disappeared inside that room. You think I don’t wanna get to the bottom of it, too?
LILY: Well, thank you again.
MARISOL: Besides, how could I turn down quality time with Mrs. Harper?
DOT: Oh, you.
ABBIE: Alright, we have our two walkie talkies from before. What we don’t have is a door.
WES: Right. Opening the door. Uh, hang on.
WES DISAPPEARS.
LILY: I still hate that.
A DOOR GROWS OUT OF THE WALL. THE SOUND IS STRANGELY ORGANIC, LIKE IF YOU COULD HEAR STOP MOTION PHOTOGRAPHY OF A FLOWER BLOOMING.
THE DOOR OPENS.
WES: Looks like it worked!
DOT: What’s it like in there.
WES: Old. And green.
ABBIE: Moss? Paint?
WES: It’s hard to explain.
ABBIE: Walkie talkies. One for you, one for us. Battery is finite, so we use them sparingly. Either side calls at the first sign of anything unusual.
LILY: Ugh, I’m getting deja vu.
WES: Are we ready to go, then?
LILY: I think so.
WES: Great, because this door is really heavy.
LILY’S FOOTSTEPS TO THE DOOR. THE DOOR CLOSES. IT MAKES A VERY SOLID, DEFINITIVE SOUND.
DOT: See you later!
WES: Darn, we should’ve grabbed a flashlight. Dark in here...
LILY: Flashlight app on my phone, hang on.
WES: Nifty!
THE APP IS SELECTED; FLASHLIGHT ON.
FOOTSTEPS START.
LILY: I can’t believe nobody put it together you were from the fifties.
WES: I guess it’s not anyone’s first thought.
LILY: We really did look all over for you, Wes.
WES: Thanks, but for a while, there wasn’t much of me to find.
LILY: I’m glad you’re here now.
WES: Me, too.
LILY: I’d honestly started to think you weren’t coming back. Even if you did...recover.
WES: Why?
LILY: This terrible thing happened to you here, in Mount Absalom--
WES: Do you mean dying, or finding out I was dead?
LILY: Honestly, either.
WES: Either way, it would’ve happened to me no matter where I went.
LILY: I know that. Of course I know that, I’m just saying, there’s so many other places out there where you could’ve made a fresh start.
WES: (DOUBTFULLY) I guess.
TRANSITION: THEY’RE STILL WALKING. THE GROUND IS SOFTER, AGAIN IN A VERY ORGANIC SENSE.
LILY: Does the ground feel softer to you?
WES: It’s wet.
LILY: How do you know? If this is some ghost powers thing, we need to remember to tell Abbie.
WES: There’s a hole in my shoe.
TRANSITION: STILL WALKING. THE FOOTSTEPS HAVE TAKEN ON A SLIGHTLY MUSICAL QUALITY, LIKE IN WES’S HOUSE.
WES: You know I’m remembering more about my parents?
LILY: That’s... good.
WES: Here and there, little snippets, mostly, or even just an impression, a smell, the sound of my mom's humming as she fried SPAM for breakfast. But I have this memory now, of sitting in the kitchen one night, it only could’ve been a little before I died, and I was asking my dad--I think I had a crush on someone in my class, although now I don’t remember a thing about this person--and so I was asking my dad about love, about how you can possibly know when you’ve met the right one. There’s just so many people out there, you know? (A LITTLE AWE) Over two billion.
LILY: I think it’s somewhere around seven billion, now.
WES: Whoa, really?
LILY: Sorry, you were saying?
WES: He said that part of love was about finding a good match, but a lot of it was about choosing, too.
LILY: You don’t pick who you fall in love with.
WES: No, and I think I might’ve said that too, but he told me you don’t just meet the perfect person and everything clicks. You meet a person you can build something with, and then you choose to build something. He said everybody writes pop songs about the finding but it’s the building that’s more romantic, that really means something, because you have to do it yourself, every step of the way, even when it’s not easy.
LILY: Huh.
TRANSITION
LILY: And you’re saying, you think you can build something in Mount Absalom?
WES: I think so. (PAUSE) Do you?
LILY: What?
FOOTSTEPS STOP.
WES: Why are you still here, Lily? You know, I can’t say I enjoyed wandering around, never knowing where I’d end up next, but that was your life for years. Over a decade. Do you know something I don’t?
LILY: What I learned out there, I don’t need much of here. (A BEAT) “Here” in Mount Absalom, not “here” in... wherever we are.
THEY RESUME WALKING.
WES: What do you mean?
LILY: It’s not that hard to make friends. All you need is a person with an interest in common. You figure out a way to be interested in them, come up with a couple of excuses to hang out, and you’re part of their circle.
WES: What if you can’t find anyone with your interests?
LILY: Then you figure out a way to be interested in what they’re interested in. I learned how to tend bar, knit socks, and herd alpacas because those were the people I met, that was how to trick them into caring about me enough to let me in.
WES: “Trick them into caring”? That sounds...
LILY: A little gross out loud, I’ll admit, but it does work.
WES: I was gonna say lonely.
LILY: It’s a kind of building, right?
WES: But you got good at it because you did it over and over, because you were always prepared to leave every person you met.
LILY: Again, out loud, it doesn’t...sound great, but--
WES: But what?
LILY: I don’t know.
WES: Why did you stay? What made you settle here? You don’t feel trapped here, do you?
LILY: I did. I did, for so long.
WES: And now--?
LILY: I don’t know, Wes, I haven’t really had time to think about it.
PAUSE.
LILY: ...how long have we been down here?
WES: ...I don’t know.
WALKIE TALKIE ON.
LILY: Marisol, Abbie, can you hear us?
ABBIE: (THROUGH SPEAKER) We can. Your mom’s a little out of it, though.
LILY: How out of it?
ABBIE: (SPEAKER) What’s the situation over there?
LILY: Very soft ground, very dark. Kind of a warm, chlorophyll-y smell.
MARISOL: (SPEAKER) Like growing things.
WES: Yeah, that’s it.
ABBIE: (SPEAKER) Limited battery, signing off for now.
LILY: Take care of Mom!
MARISOL: (SPEAKER) Of course!
WALKIE TALKIE OFF NOISE. LILY AND WES RESUME WALKING
WES: You haven’t had time to think about why you’re staying? What does that even--
LILY: Huh. There’s a wall.
WES: Well, yeah, it’s a passageway, there’s walls.
LILY: No, I mean, the passage just ends here. See?
LILY KNOCKS ON STONE.
LILY: Wall.
WES: So there is. Is that all there--ow!
LILY: Wes? Wes, are you okay?
WES: I stubbed my toe on something. Can you shine the light this way?
LILY: Wes, can you take a step back?
WES: What? Oh! Wow.
LILY: You’re seeing this, too, right?
WES: It’s a raised hole in the ground.
LILY: I think it’s a well. (HER HEAD IS IN THE WELL. HER VOICE ECHOES A LITTLE.) It looks old, check out those stones.
WES: I’ve never seen moss like that before.
LILY: Yeah.
WES: Looks deep, too. Shine the light in here.
LILY: Something’s glinting way down there, is it water?
WES: Let’s see.
WES PICKS UP A HANDFUL OF SMALL, LOOSE STONES.
WES: Dropping a stone.
THERE IS A VERY LONG PAUSE, THEN EVENTUALLY, A DISTANT “PLINK.”
LILY: Are you sure that’s a good--
THE PASSAGEWAY BEGINS TO SHAKE, A SLIGHT TREMOR AT FIRST, THEN MORE AGGRESS IVELY.
LILY: Okay, this seems--very bad. Let’s go.
TWO SETS OF NEARLY RUNNING FOOTSTEPS, THE SHAKING GRADUALLY RECEDING IN THE BACKGROUND.
LILY: Let’s radio the others.
WALKIE TALKIE SOUND
LILY: Abbie, we--
ABBIE: (SPEAKER) Lily. Thank god. Listen, you need to turn around right now and get Marisol.
LILY: What do you mean?
ABBIE: (SPEAKER) We haven’t been able to get through to you. The situation back here is--strange, okay, it’s strange. She’s headed your way, just get Marisol and come back.
WES: Lily? You okay?
LILY: (DEEP BREATH) Yeah. Let’s go.
ABBIE: (SPEAKER) Okay. Be fast but careful.
WALKIE TALKIE END SOUND.
FAST STEPS ON WET GROUND.
LILY: Shit, shit, shit, why would she do this? Why.
WES: It sounds like maybe she panicked?
LILY: Yeah, but. Now Mom is alone with Abbie, and if she has an episode, who knows what will happen?
WES: Let’s not borrow trouble.
LILY: We never should’ve let Mom be part of this. Sleep is one of the most important things for Alzheimer’s. We should’ve--
WES: Tucked her into bed and told her to be good?
LILY: Yeah, I know, she’d hate that, but what’s the alternative?
WES: I don’t know.
LILY: Yeah.
TRANSITION. THE GROUND IS HARDER HERE.
WES IS HUMMING “HAVE YOU SEEN THE GHOST OF JOHN,” NERVOUSLY.
LILY: Marisol?
Wes, can you please stop that?
WES: Sorry.
TRANSITION
LILY: We should’ve found her by now, right? How long have we been walking?
WES: I’m not sure that matters, down here.
TRANSITION
LILY: Marisol?
(STARTING TO REALLY LOSE IT) Marisol?
MARISOL: (DISTANTLY) Lily?
LILY: MARISOL!
RUNNING FOOTSTEPS ON SOFT GROUND.
MARISOL: LILY?
RUNNING FOOTSTEPS, FASTER.
MARISOL AND LILY EMBRACE.
MARISOL: Oh thank god, thank god, nothing happened to you?
LILY: What?
MARISOL: You didn’t trip or--have some kind of accident?
WES: Let’s keep walking, Dot’s still out there.
THREE SETS OF BRISK FOOTSTEPS.
LILY: Marisol, what were you thinking? Just because the walkie talkies stop working for a sec, that’s no reason to--
MARISOL: That wasn’t why.
LILY: What?
MARISOL: That’s not why I came in after you. Are you sure you’re alright? Are you positive.
LILY: Yeah, I’m sure. What’s--
WES: Guys, the door.
MARISOL: I was running for at least ten minutes, how are we--doesn’t matter.
LILY: We should go, right?
MARISOL: Lily, before we go out there...
LILY: Yeah?
MARISOL: Uh, brace yourself.
LILY: For what?
MARISOL: I’m sorry, I don’t really have time to explain.
THE DOOR OPENS.
ABBIE: (INFINITELY RELIEVED) You’re back.
LILY: Yeah, we’re--
WALKIE TALKIE HITS THE GROUND.
WES: Lily, your walkie--who’s that?
LILY: What the fuck.
DOT: (VAGUELY) Oh, hello there. Have you met my daughter?
YOUNG LILY: Hi, I’m Lily.
LILY: Mom. Mom, it’s me.
DOT: (WHISPERING) You see her, too?
YOUNG LILY: Oh!
YOUNG LILY VANISHES.
WES: That was...
DOT: She’s gone.
MARISOL: She was you, right, Lily? Dot’s showed me pictures of you as a kid, and the resemblance--
LILY: Yeah, that was me.
ABBIE: But you’re not--
LILY: I’m not dead, no.
WES: You guys, I was there with her the entire time. Nothing happened.
ABBIE: What?
LILY: Mom? Hey mom, do you want to go back to bed?
DOT: She was here, right?
LILY: Yeah, Mom, she was here.
DOT: (WEAKLY) Still got it.
LILY: C’mon, let’s go.
TRANSITION. MARISOL, ABBIE, WES, AND LILY ARE SITTING AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE.
MARISOL: So. A ghost of someone who is definitely alive.
ABBIE: I love the smell of decomposing theories in the morning. Coffee?
LILY: Yeah, thanks.
ABBIE POURS COFFEE.
CELLPHONE RINGING.
MARISOL: That’s me.
WES: Who’s calling you at five in the morning?
MARISOL: ...Eugenia Hewitt. (UTTERLY CONFUSED) Hello?
MARISOL’S FOOTSTEPS TRAIL INTO THE NEXT ROOM.
LILY: Abbie, stop looking at me like that, I’m not dead.
ABBIE: But preteen-you is kind of dead, right? She basically doesn’t exist anymore.
LILY: As much as anyone’s kid-self is dead... Why have we never heard of this before?
ABBIE: What do you mean.
LILY: This town is full of people who have lived here their whole lives. Why has nobody else ran into their kid self? What’s going on?
MARISOL WALKS BACK INTO THE ROOM.
LILY: (REACTING TO THE LOOK ON MARISOL’S FACE) Marisol, what’s wrong?
MARISOL: Eugenia Hewitt was walking her dogs this morning. She said she saw wolves. Twelve wolves.
WES: Why was she walking her dogs in the woods?
MARISOL: No. She was on Main Street.
ABBIE: What?
MARISOL: There’s a pack of twelve wolves in the center of town. Not running. Not hunting.
LILY: What are they doing?
MARISOL: She said--they’re waiting.
END.