Moment 17

Question 1

Slight pause.

Presley: I wanted to be an astronaut.

Answer 1

Cosmo: Jesus!

Question 2

Presley: When I was a kid! I had third book of photographs of the moon no stars. But what I liked best were the astronauts-

Answer 2

Cosmo: (overlapping) What have I fucking started? I don’t care about your fucking childhood.

Question 3

Presley: (overlapping) I liked their spacesuits. All silver and sparkling. And the way they walked on the moon. Nothing to hold them down.

Answer 3

Cosmo: (overlapping) … I’m not interested … I’m not concerned … You know what your life is to me. One big yawn.

Question 4

Presley: (overlapping) And I like the names they have things: Saturn Five, Lunar Module, Apollo Thirteen. Apollo Thirteen was the unlucky one. The astronauts were trapped inside a capsule. Floating in orbit.

Answer 4

Cosmo: (overlapping) I wish you were floating in a fucking orbit.

Question 5

Presley: (overlapping) They didn’t know if they’d ever back to Earth. The whole world bit its nails and prayed. Everyone said how brave the astronauts were. But it didn’t seem brave to me. Just floating off in that silver spaceship.

Answer 5

Cosmo: (overlapping) What a waste of oxygen you are. You’re sick. Know that?

Question 6

Presley: (overlapping) Into dark silence. Where no one could bother you. No, it’s not so bad. I’d rather do that than risk re-entry.

Answer 6

Cosmo: How can someone like you have such a sister?

Question 7

Presley: It was at that time I discovered the most beautiful word in the language. It was in one of the newspapers. The article said it was what the astronauts might end up in. The word is so wonderful. Even the way it feels in the mouth is special. Can you guess what it is?

Slight pause.

Well?

Answer 7

Cosmo: ‘Well’ what?

Question 8

Presley: What is it? The most beautiful word.

Answer 8

Cosmo: No idea.

Question 9

Presley: Guess.

Answer 9

Cosmo: You and your fucking games. Just tell me.

Question 10

Presley: No. Guess. It’s what the astronauts could have ended up in.

Answer 10

Cosmo: … Space?

Question 11

Presley: No.

Answer 11

Cosmo: Sea?

Question 12

Presley: No.

Answer 12

Cosmo: Trouble?

Question 13

Presley: No.

Answer 13

Cosmo: …Stratosphere?

Question 14

Presley: Good try… but no.

Answer 14

Cosmo: Well, what then?

Question 15

Presley: Oblivion.

Haley: No!

Answer 15

Cosmo: Jesus! She’s off again.

Question 16

Haley: Find them! Keep looking! Find them!

Answer 16

Cosmo: What’s she keep prattling on about?

Question 17

Presley: I think it’s.. it’s the day when … Yes! The day I told you about. When she got lost in the zoo.

Haley: Mum! Dad!

Answer 17

Cosmo: Have you noticed how gorgeous people look when they’re terrified!

Question 18

Haley: Hold my hand!

Answer 18

Cosmo goes to hold her hand.

Question 19

Presley: She’s not talking to you.

Answer 19

Cosmo: You sure?

Question 20

Presley: Yes

Answer 20

Cosmo: Pity - The dummy’s come out of her mouth.

Question 21

Haley: They’ve got to be somewhere! Find them! Find them!

Presley: I’ll give her some more medicine.

Answer 21

Cosmo: She’s getting frantic.

Question 22

Presley: Suck!

Answer 22

Cosmo: Oh, yeah. Suck.