The Bus Stop

(A bus stop.  IZZY and LUCY sit together.  They don’t know each other.)

IZZY:  You taking the bus to Philly?

LUCY:  D.C.

IZZY:  You want to be gong to D.C. at a time like this?  The evacuations—

LUCY:  I don’t think the comet cares much about where it lands.  They’re evacuating D..C because of all the important people who live there, not because it’s any more or less dangerous than anywhere else.  Philly could be just as bad.

IZZY:  They said it might land in Bolivia.

LUCY:  I’m sure the Bolivians are thrilled people are actually going to remember something about them.  They’re going to be where the Apocalypse began.

IZZY:  You’re…angry.

LUCY:  We should all be angry.  We’re getting a bad deal.

IZZY:  It’s not a deal.  It’s a piece of space crap that might come crashing into the planet.  And it might not.

LUCY:  If it doesn’t, a lot of people are going to be upset.

IZZY:  How do you figure?

LUCY:  People are selling stuff.  Cashing in.  Acting like this is a done deal.  If it’s not, it’s going to be like one big hang-over for the entire world.

IZZY:  So what’s so nice in D.C.?  I mean, if that’s where you going you probably know it may be the last place you wind up.

LUCY:  I’ve never been there.  I’ve been a lot of places, but never there.  I want to see the Lincoln Memorial.  I want to see the White House.  Plus, nobody’s going to be there because of the evacuations, so…in my mind, I see it as this big, quiet, sort of…ghost town.

IZZY:  Sounds lonely.

LUCY:  Maybe some of us like lonely.

IZZY:  I’ve had enough lonely.  I want to party.

LUCY:  Party?

IZZY:  There’s a big dance party going on in Philly.  The Dance Until the End of the World.  There are supposed to be hundreds of people, maybe thousands.  All dancing.  In the streets.  On rooftops.  Wherever people are, they’re just going to dance.  I saw that on the television, and I thought—Yup.  That’s for me.

LUCY:  You’re just going to dance?

IZZY:  Until I drop.  Can’t think of a better way to go.

LUCY:  That sounds…

IZZY:  Better than a ghost town?

LUCY:  I think the cities are dealing with this the same way the people are.  Some close up, some go out with a bang.

IZZY:  In New York, everybody’s hugging.  They have pictures of it.  People are just stopping in the street and hugging.

LUCY:  They’re rioting in some places.  Looting—

IZZY:  I heard Disney World just opened the gates.  Told everybody to come on in.  The lines are hours long, but nobody cares.

LUCY:  A prime minister in Europe killed himself.

IZZY:  The President put on clown make-up and started juggling on the White House lawn.

LUCY:  Really?

IZZY:  No, I just couldn’t think of anything else.

(She laughs.  LUCY doesn’t.)

You might want to think about the way you decide to deal with this.  Where you want to be, who you want to be—

LUCY: I want to be on my own.  It’s what I know.  It’s what I’m used to.

IZZY:  You’re a little young to be so—like this.

LUCY:  Have a hard time finding words?

IZZY:  I certainly do.

LUCY:  I know the feeling.  Actually, I don’t know the feeling, or what to call the feeling, that’s the problem.

IZZY:  Maybe we’ve all been…anticipating this for awhile.  Sensing it.  That something big was coming.  Maybe it put some of us in a lousy mood.

LUCY:  Maybe some of us have been sensing it our whole lives.

IZZY:  Maybe.  Maybe, maybe, maybe…

LUCY:  Hard to know, you know?  Hard to know why you are the way you are.  So many things seem predetermined by…I don’t know.  The stars?  The fact that we’re only now realizing how much we can’t control?  I don’t know.  I don’t know, I don’t know.

IZZY:  Don’t get on the bus to D.C.

LUCY:  I can’t be around people.  Not right now.  I’m so mad.  I’m so mad and if I look at someone—anyone—I just—It’s like everybody’s looking at me, wanting to ask, ‘What’s wrong with you?  What’s wrong with you?’

(IZZY embraces her.)

IZZY:  Sometimes we try to talk ourselves into being okay when we’re not.  So take a minute.  Don’t talk.  A minute of silence never hurt anybody.

(And there’s a minute of silence.  LUCY composes herself.  Then she breaks the embrace lightly.)

Well?

LUCY:  Well.

(A moment.)

Those New Yorkers might be onto something.

(IZZY smiles.)

IZZY:  They’re invented the Broadway musical.  They’re geniuses.

LUCY:  Maybe I should get on a bus and go there.

IZZY:  Maybe.

LUCY:  But…

IZZY:  But—?

LUCY:  I hear Philly’s nice this time of year.

(IZZY nods.  A bus pulls in.)