AJ laughed “disbelievingly,” per the stage instructions. “You know there’s no such thing as safe for me. I’m dying, remember?”
“Not here,” said Noah. “Time can’t touch us here. Nothing can.”
“How?” asked AJ.
“Our work, of course. Love, I’ve used our discoveries to tear this place from the very fabric of existence,” said Noah, stepping toward her. “As long as we stay here, you can never die.”
“As long as we stay here,” said AJ.
That’s where the scene ended. They looked at each other, and the sounds of the patio faded.Play until I stop you.As the Black Room enveloped them, Noah crossed in front of AJ.
“Washer’s all fixed,” he said, eyes glinting.
“You sure are handy,” said AJ.
They’d been gifted certain details from the script that had to be incorporated and fleshed out. Their “work” AJ quickly labeled astrophysics, which was how Noah’s character had managed to wrench their house from the space-time continuum. AJ’s character’s illness, Noah declared to be early-stage lymphoma—deadly, but stable thanks to their supernatural living arrangements.
The last detail they hammered out was the nature of their relationship. W had referred to F as “Love,” and the pet name dangled in the air like a loose shingle, waiting for one of them to grab hold and nail it down. Finally, Noah presented AJ with a wrapped box.
“I got you something,” he said. “For our wedding anniversary.”
Carefully, AJ lifted the lid. “A telescope,” she breathed.
“To keep an eye on the outside world,” said Noah.
As darkness set upon Eudora’s roses, F and W took turns spying on the couple next door.
“He’s keeping secrets from her,” said AJ.
“Maybe it’s for her own good,” said Noah.
AJ pulled back from the telescope. “Do you think anyone’s watchingus?”
Noah’s eyes flashed, and now they were an alien couple on a distant world.
These aliens were not so unlike F and W—scientists, who had met and fallen in love while working on the most advanced telescope in the known universe. When she was stricken by a terrible illness, they combed the cosmos with their groundbreaking invention for a cure.
The aliens’ search was endless, their prospects bleak.
“It’s going to be okay,” said AJ when another world proved fruitless.
“You can’t know that,” said Noah. In the starlight, his eyes gleamed like polished onyx.
Just as the aliens hit their lowest point, their lens happened upon F and W’s lab…and a cure.
“See? I told you,” said AJ as Noah administered the medicine.
“You did.”
Now they were F and W, back in their own living room.
The flight path was winding down, they could both feel it. They moved in tandem, putting away the telescope. For a while, neither spoke.
“I have loved every minute of…this day,” said AJ at last.
Noah bowed his head. “So have I.”
The air between them was thick. AJ felt suddenly nervous. “I didn’t get you a gift.”
