Neil and Eady are sitting at the same table in a café. They don’t know each other, but the girl is a shop assistant in the book store which Neil has visited some times, so she recognizes him

 

NEIL

Will you pass the cream?

 

EADY

What’d you get?

 

NEIL

What?

 

EADY

What are you reading?

 

NEIL

Book about metals.

 

EADY

Stress Fractures in Titanium.

What kind of work do you do?

 

NEIL

Lady, why are you so interested

in what I read or what I do?

 

EADY

I’ve seen you in the store from time to time.

 

NEIL

What store?

 

EADY

Hennessey and Ingalls. I work there.

If you don’t want to talk to me, it’s okay.

I’m sorry I bothered you.

 

NEIL

I didn’t mean to be rude.

I didn’t recognize you.

I work in metals. I’m a salesman.

My name’s Neil.

 

EADY

I’m Eady.

 

NEIL

You like working there?

 

EADY

Sure.

I get a discount and there’s

a whole section of books in my area.

 

NEIL

What area is that?

 

EADY

Graphic design.

I do letterheads and logotypes

at night and…

…the store’s a day job

until I get enough going.

 

NEIL

Who you do that for?

 

EADY

A restaurant.

I did their menus, and…

…a small record label. CDs.

I’ve done two so far.

 

NEIL

You go to school for that?

 

EADY

Yeah.

I went to Parsons.

 

NEIL

Where’s that?

 

EADY

New York City.

 

NEIL

How long you been here?

 

EADY

About a year.

 

NEIL

Like it?

 

EADY

Not really. I’m mostly here for the work.

 

NEIL

Live in this neighborhood?

 

EADY

No, I live kind of above Sunset Plaza.

It’s actually a kind of a… It’s a little house I rent.

And it’s kind of rundown,

but a beautiful, beautiful view.

What about you?

 

NEIL

I live up here.

 

(The dialogue continues in Neil’s room)

 

EADY

That’s very funny.

 

NEIL

Where’s your family from originally?

 

EADY

They’re Scots-Irish.

They emigrated to Appalachia…

…in the late 1700s.

Where are you from?

 

NEIL

The Bay area.

EADY

Your folks there?

 

NEIL

My mother died a long time ago,

and my father…

…I don’t know where he is.

Got a brother somewhere.

You have a tight family. I can tell.

EADY

Yeah.

NEIL

Right?

EADY

You’re right.

NEIL

City of lights….

In Fiji, they have these…

…iridescent algae that come out

once a year in the water.

That’s what it looks like out there.

 

EADY

You been there?

 

NEIL

No, I’m going there some day.

 

EADY

Oh, yeah… You travel a lot?

 

NEIL

Yeah.

 

EADY

Travelling makes you lonely?

 

NEIL

I’m alone. I am not…

…lonely. You?

 

EADY

Real lonely.

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