Open Skies ZERO:
Prelude to a New life
SCENE 1
[Curtain is down, lights are off. Noises of being in an office building (papers, telephones, printers, etc.)]
Woman’s voice: …I think my water just broke…
Woman 2 voice: Someone get this woman to the hospital!
[Curtain rises/opens as office noises fade out. The time is around sunset. Red, a young boy, is wearing a backpack and walking through stone roads of city with Angel, a young blonde girl who is wearing an orange ski suit/gear. She has fused shoulders (she can't freely rotate her arms about the shoulder). She is holding Red’s arm. They are both tired and hungry.]
Angel: Will we ever find rest? I’m so tired, and I haven’t eaten in days…
Red: Shh, don’t worry…. Everything’s gonna be okay. [motions to a spot against the wall] Let’s rest here for a minute.
[couple quiet moments as they rest. Red continues with somewhat scattered thoughts:]
I just don’t know what to do… This place… even worse than the last… To get food we need money, and to get money I need work… but these people… each man for himself, they look right through me… I’m so sorry… I’m doing my best, we will find something.
Angel: I know… I’m just so tired… [resting her head on his shoulder]
[Red pats her compassionately as an old blind man with cane is walking in from right]
Old Man: Hey! Hey! [picking up a little speed toward them. Then he puts out his hand] Could you spare some change or some bread for a poor blind man?
Red: I’m sorry, mister, I wish I had something to give, but I too have nothing… I can’t even feed Angel here, we haven’t eaten in days… But surely if I had a loaf I’d share it with you.
Angel: Look at this sunset Red, it’s so beautiful…
Old man: That was 8 minutes ago…
Red/Angel: What?…. [smirking/laughing]
Old man: Oh… What you’re seeing took eight minutes to get here from the Sun…
Red: I see.. How do you know that?
Old man: How do I know that?! I was an astrophysicist for 43 years, could’ve retired but didn’t want to, loved it maybe a little too much… fell asleep one day with eyes open staring at the Sun……
[Angel and Red look sad]
Burned out my retinas. Spent all my retirement funds at the doc tryin’ to fix the damage, but sight just faded out and now can’t see a thing…
Fascinating thing it is you know.. the Sun… Do you know how it works?
Red/Angel: [looking at each other] Not really…
Old man: Of course you don’t…… [demonstrating with hand motions as well] Well, the sun is basically a big ball of gas, some say it has an iron core, but either way what we see on the outside is mostly hydrogen. The sun’s immense gravity along with its intense heat energizes and compresses this gas in such a way that it squeezes the hydrogen nuclei together, causing them to fuse, forming helium…
Red: Oh, I think I learned a little about that. It’s called fission, right?
Old man: No, it’s fusion. Fission is another type of nuclear reaction where atoms split, but surprisingly enough fusion, which is when atoms combine, is the stronger of the two… So the sun is constantly taking two separate hydrogen nuclei and combining them into one helium nucleus. Each time this happens, an amount of energy is released in an explosion, and our best calculations say this happens literally 3.6 trillion trillion trillion times every second..
Red: Woah….
Old man: This outward force from the explosions balances out with the immense inward pull of gravity. The result? A big beautiful fireball in the sky… And it will keep burning like that for at least several billion more years…
Angel: Amazing…
Old man: I mean there’s a little more to it than that, but that’s the simplest way to put it… [turning to the side] Bah… no one wants to hear an old man ramble on over his work.. …You two don’t have any food or money either, I guess I’ll be on my way and leave you to your peace…
[Old man turns around and hobbles off, grumbling. Red and Angel look surprised at his sudden turn of spirits. Red takes a short breath as if to say something, but old man is already walking off, so he keeps quiet. Red and Angel look slightly amused and laugh a little with each other. Old man lays down on other side of boxes/wall.]
Angel: I’m really tired…
[Angel puts her head on Red’s shoulder and closes her eyes. Red puts his head on hers and closes his eyes. In the distance off to the left you hear an eagle squawk/cry. Red opens his eyes, he looks up and to his right (stage left), his eyes and head follow as if seeing the eagle fall to the ground coming toward him. You hear a thud as the eagle stumbles and rolls in from left from a crash landing. He has an arrow sticking out of his body. At this point Angel has opened her eyes. Red and Angel both run to the eagle.]
Angel: Oh no! What happened? Who did this to you?!
Eagle: [grunts]
Red: Are you going to be okay?
Eagle: [painfully] I’m done for…
Angel: There must be something we can do! HELP! [calling out to anyone]
Eagle: [grabs Angel’s arm to shoosh her from calling for help] [painfully] No… this is out of your control… Please… take this sack, there is some bread in it. I don’t think I’ll be needing it… [hands the sack to Red]
[Eagle dies. Angel is crying and holding eagle. Red is holding Angel. After a moment, Red puts his arm around Angel and walks her back to where they were sitting. He comforts her a moment, then when she seems a little calmer he opens the sack and takes out a loaf of bread. He breaks the bread in half.]
Red: Here. [handing her half the loaf]
[Angel takes the bread and eats it slowly while still teary and sulking. Red looks at his bread, thinking, then he stands up.]
Red: I’ll be right back.. Stay right here.
Angel: Okay.
[Red walks right, looking around, searching for the old man. He sees him sleeping and goes to him, squats down, breaks the bread in half, and lays half of it on the ground beside the old man. Red stands back up and goes to Angel who’s still sulkily eating her bread. They both eat their bread, mourning the eagle.]
