the candidate?!
Alan: We know you don't care about that.
Kate: Damn straight, I don't!
Mike: Kate, that's not...
Kate: Don't you come at me. I'm not in his way. Jacob is.
Alan: What?
Kate: You're fighting Jacob. You still are, you always were. Mimi can't stop you, anymore than she could bully him. But you will leave Jamy out of it!
Mike: Kate, listen! I told you about this for one reason, and it has nothing to do with Alan. It's only...I thought you should know in case...
Alan: In case what?
Mike: In case it's true. (Silence) It would make a difference, wouldn't it? In how you proceed? There are tests you could do.
Kate: Get out.
Mike: Kate, think. Why was he...
Kate: (Furious) So simple, is it. Because you think he’s yours? Not Jamy!
(All three are struck speechless by what Kate’s said; Alan and Mike stare at each other)
Kate: (Choked) Get out!
Alan: (Hand towards Mike) Stay.
Mike: No way do I leave.
Kate: Both of you – go!
Alan: Kate, you said you can't follow what he's thinking.
Kate: I can't follow him – but, when it comes clear... (She breaks, dazed) ...there's snow, blowing, blizzard, shame.
Alan: What's wrong with you? Kate, you're the doctor here!
Kate: (Blinks, calm again) And he's the patient. He expects me to trust him.
Alan: What?
Kate: I asked him.
Alan: That's crazy.
Kate: Last week. And there's no way to be casual or even clinical, the lack of faith in the question "are you on drugs" is so immense. (Beat) You should have seen his eyes – surprise, then pain. And there was no way to unsay it, so I had to hear his answer...so soft. I'm unworthy – not since he first opened his eyes in my arms have I felt so unworthy...as when he said "no."
Alan: Kate. This is feelings, not facts.
Kate: I can't doubt him now! When he can't answer.
Alan: Then you're disqualified. (Beat) Mike should know an addict when he sees one.
Mike: Right.
Kate: (Shocked) You never cared for Jamy.
Alan: Don't you dare! How is it you're so sensitive to Jamy, and so out of touch with... How about tuning in to me, Kate? Jamy's the only living thing you're connected to!
(Stunned silence. Snow is returning to the scrim)
Alan: If you want to continue as physician to this child, then authorize further tests, because I, as his parent, am ordering you. And nobody expects me to be reasonable. Because I'm the grief-stricken parent. You're supposed to be the scientist!
(Through snow drifts, something is moving from a distance)
Kate: Jamy!
Mike: What is that?
Kate: That's it, Jamy – snow! And...
(There are two figures in rags now visible. Only one walks)
Alan: (Stares grief-stricken, murmurs words to caption the picture) If one hungers – so do all.
Kate: (Controlling tears) Yes. Oh god.
Mike: Here's his connection, you think? With the Project?
(The silhouette reappears – of a boy carrying a smaller girl)
Alan: (Motionless) Why have they no home? Has the nation no more land?
Mike: Where is it coming from?
Kate: Dreams call up the entire memory, but he keeps returning to...
(Silhouette fades. All watch, stunned)
Mike: (Soft) Is that all?
Kate: No, look...
(Snow becomes more distinct – blowing, blizzard. Then out of it comes the head of a buffalo)
Mike: My god!
Alan: (Softly, dazed) We're...broken.
(The buffalo drifts close, visible as a break in the blizzard; when it turns, we see the whole body, then it edges away, back into the storm. Scrim fades back to waves. Alan sits, collapsed, head in hand. Jamy's head turns, but he doesn't wake)
Kate: (Leaping to Jamy) Jamy! His head turned. (Checking him) His pulse is dropping. Jamy, speak! We're here, Jamy. (Spins to Alan and Mike) Find Gaia.
Mike: Kate...
Kate: You know it's what he wants from us!
Alan: You're not making sense.
Kate: Look by the water (Imperious) Find her!
(Blackout)
____________________________________
On scrim, images of huge bulldozers, machinery. Then, a raw hole, piles of wreckage. Then dark inside Project, people living in heaps of garbage.
Lights come up dim on Alan, filthy with mud, sprawled asleep in chair by Jamy's bed. Alan jerks awake at a climactic point, and the images disappear – they were Alan's dream. He stumbles, in stupor, to the end of Jamy's bed, and lies on it, asleep, clinging to Jamy's feet.
The images resume, but there's a sudden bright light from doorway, and Alan wakes, images disappear. Kate is entering with sheets of data. She stops, stares at scrim. It is blank, then Jamy's brainwaves fade in.
Alan: Oh. (Looks at Kate, foggy) Morning. I was dreaming.
(Kate moves to Jamy, reaches to touch him – silence. She removes the electronic cap from his head)
(Alan watches brainwaves disappear from the scrim, watches Kate back slowly away from Jamy, then turn to the board controls, and switch them off. The scrim goes dark. Kate looks at Alan)
Kate: They're going to move him as soon as Dr Nicklaus gets here.
Alan: Move him? But I thought...
Kate: He's staying deep. No more images. So they're taking him away.
Alan: Why didn't you...
Kate: Wait? I didn't want someone else to decide when I'd...lose contact.
(She sits looking at Jamy. Silence)
Alan: It means he's worse.
Kate: They're already monitoring him from the coma center.
Alan: (Pause) I'm sorry, Kate.
Kate: Gaia? Any sign?
Alan: I kept going deeper into the Project, questioned anything that moved. No one knows her.
Kate: When Jamy's moved, that's the end of it. They won't let her in. (Pause) Where's Mike?
Alan: I don't know. We separated once we got down there, like he belonged, and I’d slow him down. And Kate, I’m sure now – Jamy is Mike’s child.
(Kate’s gaze moves from Jamy to Alan, blank)
Alan: But nothing on earth can touch my love for him.
Kate: (Moved) I know.
Alan: Funny, that was all in my dream, and now I can't tell what really happened. Jamy never...?
Kate: No more, nothing. He's quiet.
Alan: I was walking, stumbling, then...my father. I know it was him because people were nodding, standing up from stoops, saying "G'day Jacob." And I wasn't sliding anymore, it was all sidewalk shops, rundown, still bustling – "G'day Jacob." A woman with Gaia's face but black hair, and a girl my age. And we came to the end. There was a barrier. A huge machine, a giant iron slug lifted high, falling, then - upturning, slabs of cement like ice breaking, exploding up. And I could see, just an instant, my father's face – so joyful, and then he was gone; he leapt into the earth beneath, as if it was water. (He sits staring)
Kate: Are you all right?
Alan: His joy was a slap at everyone whose home he stole.
Kate: Alan.
Alan: He made us all exiles.
Kate: Sit down, Alan.
Alan: He took land. I remember. And it's every exile's madness – to lose your home, your source of life! Like I did by battling him.
Kate: (Realizing) Wakanda.
Alan: (Distracted) What?
Kate: It's land.
Alan: I've got to find a way for the dispossessed to gain control – not to attack, but quietly...invade, penetrate, transform...us into them.
Kate: That's what he wants.
Al
an: Who?
Kate: You were listening to Jamy. (Hands Alan sheets of data) Here.
Alan: (Reading) PCP, cocaine, LSD, heroin? You did the tests.
Kate: All known street formulas. All negative.
Alan: (Drops his head in his hands, choked) You knew he wasn't on drugs.
Kate: Yes, I was sure.
Alan: Then why did you do it?!
Kate: In case he doesn't wake. (Beat) So you'd be sure.
Alan: What's inside Jamy is the Project – people all but naked, quivering, lying in filth. No animal would...could live that way. Kate, I was staggering through piles of bodies, searching for the one my son...my... And Jamy was so sure – pulling me down the stairs – fanatical. Like us, when we fought for something. Oh god, I need to be that sure again.
Jen: (In doorway, with briefcase, clothing bag) He's not connected.
Kate: (Limp, staring at Jamy) No. No more.
Jen: Anybody here slept? (Beat) Dumb question.
Kate: How are you?
Jen: I manage.
Kate: Have you seen Mike?
Jen: No. Look this over, will you Dad? (Hands him a layout)
Kate: Could Mike be still down there looking?
Jen: It's the coverage piece. All I could find was Jamy's last year school shot. The one where he's screwed up his mouth to keep from smiling.
Kate: (Moving to Jamy) I don't want to hear this. (She picks up the stone)
Jen: Mom, it gets done. Who would you like to do it?
Alan: It's a good job. Thank you, Jen.
(Kate, barely able to stand, is checking Jamy)
Jen: Ok, good. Now get down the hall and shower. There's a press conference at ten.
Alan: What.
Jen: A press conference. They want to...
Alan: What the hell... No! (Turns abruptly)
Jen: Listen Dad, you don't have to go anywhere.
Alan: Stop treating me like a child! (To Kate) Jacob was a slum lord! And here I am doing it his way.
Kate: (Fighting sleep) He built a good paper, Alan. He wasn't clear evil.
Alan: I line up the stories, budget the front page, bring it in on time – his way. So when I step out onto the sidewalk it's him filling my shadow.
Jen: Dad.
Alan: And that's what they want from me – all these grasping city fathers think I'm a mouth-piece liberal they can use to flag down voters, that, really, down deep, I'm good old avaricious Jacob.
Jen: They've set up cameras in the lobby.
Alan: Shut up, Jennel! I'll be damned if I'm drifting anywhere you and Michael have in mind.
Jen: (Holds out his clothing) Thank you very much, Jennel.
Alan: What? Thanks for the change, I appreciate it. (Takes clothes bruskly) Just tell them to forget it. There's no candidate here. (Exits)
Jen: (Flops down, angry) They've been camped out all night. He could at least tell them what he has to say. (Pause) Mom?
(Kate, bent over Jamy's chart, doesn't respond)
Jen: Is Jamy...going to die?
Kate: Jen...
Jen: You gotta believe, Mom.
Kate: (Picks up Jamy's stone. Pause) Did you find Wakanda?
Jen: What?
Kate: Wakanda.
Jen: The box. Yes, it was right where she said. (Getting a narrow wooden box out of her bag)
Kate: I know what it is.
Jen: Turquoise inlay on the lid.
Kate: Jen, it's land.
(Jen is stunned, clutches the box to her)
Kate: Jacob had a piece, big, right down to the water. Mimi showed me that box the day I met her. And she's kept it. She wanted an estate there. But Jacob was waiting, he was going to cash it in, as soon as...
(Kate feebly laughs over her grief, fingering the stone. Jen, staring at the box, sets it down carefully, and reaches again into her bag)
Kate: What made him think he could buy the earth? Can you buy the sea?
Jen: Mother.
Kate: Or the sky? Or the wind!
Jen: Mother, I found something...(Getting out a clipping)...on Amay-jabul.
Kate: Please, Jen, I can't think.
Jen: (Laying out clippings) Look here.
Kate: Nothing matters any more.
Jen: Where's Mike?
Kate: (Crumbling into the chair) I don't know. Still out there?
Jen: At the Project? (No response) Look, it’s an amazing story. Amay-jabul was...
Kate: Jennel, your brother's still out there. He hasn't come back!
Jen: Mom...
Kate: (Abruptly) It's an opportunity for you, isn't it.
Jen: For me?
Kate: To play at politics, notoriety. power!
(Jen stares, as though she's been slapped, and scoops up the box, clutching it to her)
Jen: What do you care? You hate this country!
Kate: (Struck