God It's Hot
By
Thomas Morgan
And
Terra Morgan
FADE IN:
INT. CAFE NIGHT
Interior is dark as if the power is out. Exterior is seen through glass door and large windows, both covered by blinds that are open to thin slits. Street outside is lighter as if at night with a full moon. Shady silhouette of a woman inside, or just sounds of her movement to indicate that she is there. (?sucking a straw in an empty glass?)

A man ducks into the alcove outside of Cafe door, as seen from inside. Previous motion or sound from inside comes to abrupt stop to indicate that woman is watching. Man looks up the street to his left. Then to his right. He seems hesitant and cautious. Then he glances over his shoulder and looks into the cafe. He cautiously tries the door and it is open. He looks back left and right along the street again, and when all appears safe he quietly backs into the cafe. Still looking out onto the street. After awhile he relaxes and turns to the room.

WOMAN
Boo!
Man jumps, slips, falls.

MAN
Jesus! What are you doing there?

Woman
Me? I'm just sitting here relaxing and
sipping my tea. You're the one sneaking around.

Man
(Gets up and prepares to leave.)
I'm not sneaking, I just thought I should probably get off of the streets. I didn't mean to interrupt anything. I thought the place was empty.


WOMAN
Relax, you're not interrupting anything.
Besides, you've got as much right here as
I do. It's not my place or anything. Fact
is, I just wanted to get off the streets
myself. That and the ice.

MAN
Ice?

WOMAN
(indicating the door to the kitchen)
Yeah, they've got this huge oversized ice
maker back there. It's still got some left
in it.

MAN
Wow. Ice.

WOMAN
Want some? I made some tea.

MAN
Iced tea? Hell yes.
Woman produces a pitcher and pours a glass.
Man sits down, holds up the glass and then slowly sips it as if it were priceless. He sets the glass down, still looking at it.

MAN
God, it's hot.

WOMAN
Yeah.
Both sit quietly awhile.
Outside, on the street, groups of one, two, or three people pass by the window. All seem worried, fearful. Some are crying, some run, some walk, some are carrying things. Never very many, they just trickle by sporadically throughout the entire scene.

MAN
You scared the shit out of me!

WOMAN
(Laughing)
It was pretty funny.

MAN
(laughing a little too)
Yeah, funny like a heart attack.

WOMAN
So what are you doing roaming the streets
anyway? Don't you have somewhere you should
be right now?

MAN
Actually no. No I don't have any place to be.
I live out in the suburbs, but there's no point
in trying to get home. I can be just as alone
anywhere.

WOMAN
Ah,,, Sad life. Lonely man. Same old story.

MAN
You too I assume. Unless you're waiting for
someone.

WOMAN
No. No one. Just little ole me, sitting in
the dark. It's the story of my whole life
summed up in this sad little scene. Sitting
alone and waiting for it all to be over.

MAN
Yeah, I know what you mean. It's not as if
my life was going anywhere anyway. If this
wasn't happening.... I mean, what difference
would it make. I might as well not be living
anyway.

WOMAN
Yeah. ... So where did we go wrong? How come
we don't have a life. How come we aren't like
those frantic people out there, freaking out
and screaming and crying.

MAN
I guess some of us are losing a lot and some
of us never had that much to lose anyway..

WOMAN
Sucks. I say screw them and their happy little
lives. It was never fair anyway.

MAN
They always said life wasn't fair.

WOMAN
Well they were right. God is an asshole.

MAN
I don't know if it's God who is the asshole.
Maybe it was just us. I mean mankind. So
many assholes we couldn't govern ourselves.
We couldn't organize and civilize ourselves.

WOMAN
Isn't that still God's fault? I mean for making
us such idiots.

MAN
I don't know, maybe. I just know that I
wasted my life trying to do a good job.
Trying to be honest and responsible and
trying to be a good worker. While all
around me arrogant douche bags were goofing
off, screwing things up, and making my life
miserable... And, they were getting paid more
than me! Damn I hated that.

WOMAN
Yeah! Me too... My quality assurance guy was
a complete moron. Between him and my VP of
operations we could never get anything
accomplished. Those two held us back and
screwed up our whole operation and they
got paid twice as much as I did. I don't
know why I ever thought it was so important
to keep trying. Why did I spend years and
years trying to hold a business together
that didn't belong to me? Especially when
those who did own the business didn't care
enough to find out what those asses where
doing.

MAN
Yeah. Those at the top, the ones who could
really do something about things,,, they
never have any idea what's really going on.
(pauses, then..)
I always thought that I should just quit my
job and go someplace different and apply for
a VP or CEO position that I knew absolutely
nothing about. Just bullshit my way in, you
know? Then see how long I could goof off at
that big desk before anyone did anything
about it.

WOMAN
If it was anything like my business you could
probably pull down 6 figures for several years
before they realized you didn't know anything.
And then they would ask you very politely to
resign and give you a huge severance package.

MAN
Then you could add that job to your resume
and go for an even bigger one.

WOMAN
You're right. You could keep at that for
years,,, for as long as you wanted.

MAN
Nobody ever seems aware of the ubiquitous
incompetence of upper management. I really
should have gotten in on that. I could have
made huge money being one of the idiots
in charge of screwing up a big corporation.

WOMAN
Would it have made any difference though?
I mean now. If you had a less stressful
life and made more money would you be
someplace else, or would you still be here
waiting this out alone?

MAN
Good point. I guess a lot of life is just
luck. I guess maybe it really is God's fault.

WOMAN
I never liked him. God I mean. Always with
the holier than thou rules that were so
obviously bullshit.

MAN
It always seemed to me that when someone
didn't like the idea of God, I mean like
atheists and people like that; that what
they really didn't like was the church.

WOMAN
What's the difference?

MAN
Well, just because the church is a screwed
up mess, does that really mean it's God's
fault? Is he responsible for the church's
dishonesty and corruption?

WOMAN
It's His church isn't it?

MAN
I don't know. I guess so..

They are quiet a moment

MAN
You know, a guy told me yesterday that we
can't possibly know that it will happen
until it happens.

WOMAN
I think we know it's going to happen.

MAN
Yeah. But, he was talking about the
Schrodingers Cat problem. You know, the
cat's in a box, and if the right atom
decays the cat will die, and we can never
really know if the cat is dead or alive
without opening the box and looking. And
in fact, the cat is really neither dead
nor alive until someone looks.

WOMAN
Sounds like metaphysical B.S. to me. The
cat for one, knows if he is alive or not.

MAN
Yeah, you're right. Still, it made me feel
like we are in a big box and we really
don't know what will happen until God
takes the lid off and sees if we have
fried or not.

WOMAN
God again.... If God were as good as they
say, he would have taken us out of this
box a long time ago.

MAN
Look.

Someone appears to be approaching the door

WOMAN
Shhh.
A man with dreads and a large bucket approaches the door. Opens it and steps inside. Our two are silent in the shadows. The man looks out the door and when he is satisfied no one is following he turns and steps into the cafe.

MAN & WOMAN TOGETHER
Boo!

The man startles.

FRANCIS
What the?!
Man and Woman laugh

MAN
(to Woman)
You're right. That is pretty funny.

FRANCIS
Laugh all you want, just tell me there's
some ice left.

WOMAN
Lots actually.
The man, Francis, disappears through the kitchen door.

MAN
You know him?

WOMAN
I think he worked here. Dishwasher or
something. I've seen him around.

MAN
Can't believe there is still ice in
there. The power has been off for days.

WOMAN
Just good insulation I guess.

FRANCIS
(Returns with his bucket filled with ice, lighthearted and laughing)
So what's up with you two? Nothing better
to do on this historic occasion than sit
in the dark and scare people.

MAN
(leaning back and gesturing broadly)
We're holding court. We've put God, in particular
and life in general, on trial and have found
them both guilty.

WOMAN
Yeah, and it's a civil suit and God owes
us some restitution.

MAN
Right! Compensation for lives devoid of
reason or meaning.

WOMAN
A clear case of bad management.

MAN
Yes, bad management is the root of man's
discontent, and in a business it's just
sad, but in a universe it's...( looking
for the right word)

WOMAN
..A crime?

MAN
A crime for sure, but more...
unconscionable... evil.

FRANCIS
Wait,, God is evil because your lives
were crap?

Man and Woman look at each other.

MAN & WOMAN
(together)
Yes!

FRANCIS
(looking sad and at a loss)
Wow, you two really don't have a clue do you?
Oh well, (he turns to leave)

MAN
And I suppose you do?

FRANCIS
(over his shoulder)
Yes actually, I do. It all makes sense if
you take time to figure it out.

WOMAN
Bullshit.

MAN
Yeah, bullshit. (to WOMAN but loud enough
for FRANCIS to hear) If he understood
anything that we didn't he would explain
it instead of running off.

FRANCIS
(turning back)
Hey, I don't have time to explain the
whole universe to you. My ice is melting.

MAN
See? He doesn't know anything.

FRANCIS
It would take a couple of semesters to
explain what's going on.

WOMAN
You're right. He hasn't got a clue either.

FRANCIS
OK. I'll give you the straight quick facts,
but no questions and no explanations. You
listen, I speak, and then I leave. My
girlfriend's waiting and we are out of
ice and out of time.

Man & Woman look at each other, and then at Francis

MAN
OK, you have the floor. Let the witness speak.

FRANCIS
Ok,,, let's see... I hate explaining stuff
fast. It just sounds wild unless you have
time to show all the details. Anyway,,,
let's see...

First, you're worried about
you're impending death, right? Well, that's
nothing. What you perceive as death is
the point at which your consciousness
is no longer dependent on a three
dimensional frame work. If you had
studied some ontology and cosmology you
would be aware that the universe ALWAYS
conserves complexity. At the big bang you've
only got energy. That cools and you have atoms.
Gravity pulls them together and then you have
chemistry. Eventually you have self replicating
molecules that conserve patterns and pass them
on.

You see,,, each step, each billion years,
and the universe becomes more and more complex.
We crossed a threshold of complexity when man's
neuro system got into the trillions of connections.
At that point something really weird happened.
We became conscious. Our consciousness spawned
even more complexities and patterns because we
began to organize information into codes...
Spoken language first, and then the language
of mathematics and now coded radio signals
and even computer codes. Now the empty air
around us (until very recently) was filled
with invisible coded signals from telephones,
radio and TV transmissions, microwave, radar,,,

Do you see where this is going? The universe
is an engine for conservation of complexity.
Why in the world do you think it would suddenly
stop what it has been doing for a gazillion
years?

Obviously it doesn't. It all goes on and on.
The universe's last great peak of complexity,
your own consciousness, however confused and
disoriented, is still at the forefront. It
goes on too. "To where?" you might ask. Well,
obviously you've wasted your life watching
football when the really exciting stuff was
going on in particle and astrophysics. Have
you even heard of Dark Matter? We know for
a fact that we can only see a small portion
of the existing universe. I'm not talking
about something far away, I'm saying that
there are acres and acres of "something"
right here where we are now, but you can't
see it.

Big mystery right? Not really. It's simple.
You are three dimensional creatures. You move,
you see, you hear, in three dimensions only.
The guys working on "Big Toes", or "Theories
of Everything", known in Einstein's time
as "Unified Field Theories", are finding that
it all works out much better when you
realize that we are in a ten or eleven
dimensional universe.

What's that mean? Follow me with this. Imagine
what it's like to be two dimensional. You
are flat. You move in a universe like a
piece of paper. You move left and right,
but you can't even begin to image up or
down. Your two dimensional eyes just don't
go that way. Your two dimensional brain
has no reason to think that way. Now place
your two dimensional universe on top of a
three dimensional box. Your two dimension
scientists measure the weight of their
universe and find out that its way to much
for the paper world they thought they lived
in. They can't see, or hardly even imagine
that the box is there, but it is. It's right
there next to them. If they could walk to the
edge and bend their eyes into an additional
dimension they would see that it's right there
all the time. Right there next to them. But
their eyes are two dimensional and they
simply can not see the other dimension
that is right next to them.

Now think of yourself as a three dimensional
creature. You can see right and left, and up
and down, but you cannot see around the corner
into the fourth dimension. You can't see the
next dimension that is right there beside you.
We can measure and find out that there is
additional gravity coming from somewhere,
but we cannot see around the corner to where
that gravity is coming from. To where the
rest of the universe is sitting, even though
it's sitting right next to us. But guess what?
When the sun rises tomorrow, your three dimensional
brain, the framework of your consciousness,
will be burned away and you will still be
there. Because you will find, that not being
bound to this three dimensional world, you
will be able to turn and look in a direction
that you never suspected, and will find yourself
in a much, much, larger world than the one you
imagine yourself in today. This death you fear
is a liberation. You can be scared shitless if
you want, but when it's over you will enjoy
the change.

As for blaming God for all of this... Damn
I haven't got time to explain something
like God... Lets just say that everything
the church has ever told you about God is
naive and just plain wrong. The church is
a creation of men as anyone who looks can
plainly see. How could a supreme being make
such a mess? The church has started wars,
tortured and murdered people and committed
genocide for Christ sake. The church is
focused on the nonsensical concept of sin
when the real problem, the problem that the
real God is concerned with is not sin, but
IGNORANCE. It's just obvious that only
dumbass men could come up with such
nonsense. All that blood-cult stuff and
sacrifices is simply primitive junk, left
over in our subconscious from our cave man
days.

The real God is a force unfolding into a
vastly complex universe, not an old man who
plays soap opera games with the lives of
lesser creatures. God is much, much, more,
in every possible way, than the church
people ever imagined. He is at once the
unfolding consciousness of the universe,
and that part includes your sorry asses,
and at the same time the initiatory force
that set it all in motion. God is too much
for men to think about and any preacher or
politician that tells you he knows what God
wants is a con man and nothing more.
Above all God does make sense. ALWAYS. If you
are hearing something about God that just
doesn't make sense to you, you're listening
to bullshit!
There, is that all?
It will have to be. I'm going, my ice is melting.

Francis goes out the door and it slams shut. Man & Woman sit in silence.

MAN
Uh, wow.

WOMAN
Yeah.

MAN
That wasn't some last minute message from
God was it? I mean, he wasn't like ,Jesus
or an angel or anything was he?

WOMAN
Christ no. I told you, I've seen him.
He's a dish washer.

MAN
Yeah. Of course... I just had a weird
feeling there for a moment.
(He pauses a moment)
Did any of that make sense?

WOMAN
I think it did, sort of. Maybe.

MAN
Yeah, I sort of think it did too. Maybe.
I wish I had time to think about all of
that.

WOMAN
Yeah, Time.
They sit silently as scene fades slowly.

FADE IN:
INTERIOR MOTEL SUITE. NIGHT. No power. Light as if full moon
Woman, her back to us sits in one of two large comfortable chairs looking out of a large window with broad view of the darkened city.
Francis enters with bucket.

LUCY
What took you so long? I was getting worried.

FRANCIS
(Laughing, kisses Lucy and sits in chair.)
Oh, I took a moment to preach science and
gnosticism to some lost soles.

LUCY
Well pour us another drink and get comfortable,
it's almost time.

FRANCIS
(pouring)
Ah, the finest ringside seats in town.

LUCY
Do you really think we will see much?

FRANCIS
You bet. We are sixteen stories up in a
twenty eight story building on the north
side. The big burn will sweep from east
to west. We should be able to see it move
all the way across before it burns through
to us. Should be very cool.

LUCY
Oh it will definitely be cool. How many
people have seen their planet consumed by
their sun?

FRANCIS
It could possibly have happened lots of
times before; but if they were anything
like us humans they were probably cowering
in their basements and didn't get to really
see it happening.

LUCY
I'm glad we decided to get good seats and watch.

FRANCIS
Me too. It just makes sense, after all this
is a big event.

LUCY
The biggest

FRANCIS
(Wipes his brow)
God it's hot

LUCY
Yeah.

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:
CAFE. MAN & WOMAN STILL AT TABLE

MAN
Maybe we did get it all wrong. Maybe we
would be happier if we had spent our lives
studying and understood the universe better.

WOMAN
Now your just trading one set of maybes for
another.

MAN
Maybe

WOMAN
Maybe death really is no big deal. Maybe it
really is just developing, growing up.

MAN
I hope so.

WOMAN
Look, it's happening.

Outside the scene is getting steadily brighter as the light intensifies and comes in through the slits of the blinds.
Now the whole street can be seen and smoke or steam starts to rise from the ground.

Man & Woman stand up and step toward the window.

MAN
Well there's no doubt now.

WOMAN
Nope. God's taking the top off of the box
and he's going to find us dead inside.

MAN
(Smiling)
Whatever dead is.

She smiles back and they hold hands and look outside as the light increases and the scene goes to white.