1.
The sound of a coach bus on a rural highway.
HAKEEM: We move along the highway
I-81? I am not sure which one ā
How to describe this bus to you
It is dark, a little drafty
Itās 8:37 PM
Weāre upstate, itās mid-winter, somewhere around freezing point outside and weāve been driving through hills though itās a little better now
The bus is ā not full, almost full, thereās at least one passenger in each row and
Iāve been alone in my row
Until about an hour ago
(To new passenger.)
Hello
Would you like the window seat
Are you sure
Youāre welcome
Itās no problem
Yeah you can rest your head on my shoulder
No I promise
(To us.)
Sheās very sweet
Old black lady
We just stopped in ā
(To passenger.)
Where?
(To us.)
Dickson City, wherever that is
The conference was very good, I presented research and You know it goes well when people want to talk to you afterwards. If it goes poorly youāre left alone. It went well.
(To passenger.)
Ithaca
Where Cornell is
I am a professor
Physics
(To us.)
She wants to talk
(To passenger.)
I do think so, yes
Washington Heights. You?
Which part?
Oh Iāve never been there, I will have to go sometime.
2.
JEREMY: Ugh all this shit
Have you ever felt buried ā like ā buried.
Like under like
Something heavy
So much fucking shit to do
Ugh!
I donāt know where to begin itās like Iām staring at all these spreadsheets, fucking Excel spreadsheets
Weāre just really behind and I donāt deal well when I have too much to do at once. I like to be spoon-fed. Work.
Spoon-fed work not like have it poured down my throat like like like with a, what, a beer bong, or a cement mixer
This is what Iām thinking and then
(Phone rings.)
(Picking up.) Yes
What?
When?
3.
HAKEEM: There is something about the feeling of being in motion, of moving ā from one place, say, Point A, to another place, Point B. Of traveling like a line being plotted on a chart ā you know, with the X axis and the Y axis ā I donāt think this is because Iām a physicist ā which I am, yes, thank you, I study theoretical physics, thank you very much, very kind of you ā but I am speaking about a sense of inevitability, and ā maybe I can articulate this better. If a dot moves at a constant rate in a straight line from Point A to Point B ā
Thereās no turning back. Because youāre moving forward. And you canāt change that. You are moving in a certain direction at a certain speed away from a certain destination and towards a certain other destination and
Like being on a roller coaster, you get in the car and the car moves and you canāt get out.
Am I being at all clear? Itās been a long conference and I havenāt slept well.
(To passenger.)
Is my shoulder not too hard?
Good, do you mind if I adjust ā just ā
Thank you
(To us.)
Thereās no stopping it
You see the thing grow closer and you find yourself barreling towards it and the inevitability is
(JEREMY hangs up the phone.)
4.
JEREMY: His bus crashed at 8:41 PM
His sister called me at 9:41 PM exactly an hour later, how is that
Abebi is
I used to be jealous because Hakeem
Hakeem and Abebi were so close
She knew any gossip before I did
They spoke on the phone every day and there were many days especially when he was away abroad on sabbatical not around that she spoke to him and I didnāt, she was ā um ā
We had a will drawn up and she gets everything of his, everything
And like Iāve never been his emergency contact that one I could never heās dead
Heās dead
Heās dead
Heās dead
Heās dead
Heās dead
Heās dead
Heās dead
Heās dead
Heās dead
They found his body so he must be ā
This is what she tells me ā
8:41 PM. I-80, wherever that is.
And I stand here in our apartment which we share together.
Which we found together, mind you, despite his i...