Book One: Landfall. A Full-Cast Audio Drama
The script of the full-cast audio drama of the first book of Dale Tummins: The Unclaimed. There is no narrator. Scene, sound and music cues are as performed. An original story, free from LineCrush. Not for sale.
Music: un theme.
Scene: un boat bed.
DALE I'm not seasick, Phil. I'm traveling light. You don't show up to a brand new continent with yesterday's breakfast in you.
PHIL That's five times since breakfast, Dale.
DALE It was a big breakfast. Hollis said help yourself.
HOLLIS I said help me unload.
DALE It was windy.
Sound: pencil scratch.
HOLLIS Three hundred and ninety-eight. Three hundred and ninety-nine. Four hundred. Shovels, four hundred.
PHIL Mister Brandt, can I ask why shovels? Everybody on the news says it's a book. You collect the pages.
HOLLIS It's a rush, Phil. In a rush, you sell shovels.
PHIL What are they going to dig for?
HOLLIS Doesn't matter. It's a rush.
DALE Hollis. Before we get there, I'd like to see the place. If I'm going to inherit a world, I want to know which end's the nice end.
DALE I'd settle for a door with my name on it.
HOLLIS Twenty dollars.
Sound: un1 map unfold.
DALE The Official Map of the Unclaimed. Official, Phil.
HOLLIS Only map of it ever printed.
PHIL Satellites can't map it, Dale. It was on every channel.
HOLLIS Satellites didn't draw this one.
PHIL Who did?
HOLLIS I did. Off a photo in the paper. It was blurry, so I filled some things in.
DALE Put it on my account.
Sound: pencil scratch.
HOLLIS Twenty more.
DALE More, Phil. Twenty more. That's how a man talks to a regular.
PHIL How many of those have you sold, Mister Brandt?
HOLLIS Counting his? One.
HOLLIS Listen to me, both of you. Whatever you're doing when your foot touches that sand, that's your class. For good.
PHIL Whatever we're doing?
HOLLIS Day One, people walked in up to their knees. They're Waders. A woman up the beach is a Sunbather. And a man came down the ramp being sick, so his class is Seasick.
DALE Then that one's taken. Good. I'd hate to be second.
HOLLIS So be finished before the ramp goes down.
DALE I'm finished, Hollis. I'm completely... Phil. Bucket.
(A pause.)
HOLLIS I'm stepping off with my clipboard. On purpose.
PHIL I'll have my notebook out. I'm hoping for something in biology. Naturalist. Field something.
HOLLIS Hold it out in front, where it counts.
PHIL Dale, did you hear any of that?
DALE I'm reading the map, Phil. You don't walk onto a property without knowing where the good parts are.
PHIL It's upside down.
DALE It's an island, Phil. It's the same both ways.
Sound: un1 boat landing.
Scene: un strand bed.
A MAN (shouting) Big step! Sword up!
A WOMAN Up, sir! Higher! Not the sandwich! Put down the sandwich!
A MAN Too late. He's a Picnicker.
HOLLIS Ramp's down. Clipboard.
Sound: un atlas arrive.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Hollis Brandt. Class: Quartermaster. Level One. Skill: Appraise.
HOLLIS Good.
PHIL Okay. Notebook. Dale, take your bucket, I need my hands.
DALE Can't, Phil. I'm navigating.
Sound: un1 suitcase tumble.
PHIL (shouting) Dale, the suitcase!
Sound: un atlas arrive.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Phil Brumley. Class: Squire. Level One. One who carries for another. Skill: Carry. See also: Dale Tummins.
(A pause.)
PHIL My notebook's in my pocket.
DALE See also Dale Tummins. The book's sending people to me, Phil. In my line of work, that's a referral.
DALE Out of the way. According to this, the beach is up.
Sound: un atlas arrive.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Dale Tummins. Class: Cartographer. Unique. Level One. A class with no combat skills. Skill: Survey. See also: Map.
(A pause.)
A MAN Cartographer?
A WOMAN Map guy.
AN OLD MAN Unique, though.
A MAN Unique map guy.
DALE Hollis. I'd like to return the map.
HOLLIS No refunds.
DALE I make my own now. And it's hardly used. I only ever read it upside down, so the right way up's brand new.
HOLLIS No refunds.
DALE No combat skills, Phil. That's management. In management, you've got people for the fighting.
PHIL I've got your suitcase, Dale.
DALE See? People.
(A pause.)
DALE Unique. That's me.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Correct.
Scene: un strand bed.
DALE Again. From the top. Slower on the end.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS There are one thousand Wonders in the Unclaimed. Discover them. Conquer them. Complete the Atlas. The first person to finish will inherit the world.
(A pause.)
DALE The world, Phil.
PHIL That's six times, Dale.
DALE I keep waiting for the part where it says except Dale. It hasn't said it once.
PHIL It doesn't say except anybody.
DALE Not on the front. You don't put the fine print on the front.
Sound: un handbell.
THE CRIER Newcomers! You've got the look, friends, you've got the look! Landfall's own Crier, at your service! Newcomer briefing, one dollar, everything you need and nothing you don't!
DALE Phil. Give the man a dollar.
PHIL Here you go.
THE CRIER Thank you, friend! Day Nine! Two hundred thousand souls ashore and more every hour! World Completion, two point one percent!
PHIL What's World Completion?
THE CRIER How much of the book's been found! Plenty left, don't you fret!
THE CRIER Page one! The Sealed City, top of the hill, there she sits! Condition, move in! And nobody can, friend, because the gate wants seven keys in one hand!
DALE Who's got the city now?
THE CRIER Nobody!
DALE Then who do I talk to about it?
THE CRIER Nobody! That's why it's the Unclaimed!
DALE Phil. You know what unclaimed means at the Sudsy Duck. Thirty days in the lost and found, and then it's anybody's. That's how I got this shirt.
PHIL It's not a laundromat, Dale.
DALE Nine days down, Phil. Twenty-one to go.
THE CRIER The Seven Impossible Keys! One's been taken, back on Day Four, and it's been passed hand to hand ever since! You'll know it by the birds!
DALE What birds?
THE CRIER You'll know! And three hundred people have tried to climb that wall, and the wall's still winning! That's your briefing, friends! Welcome to Landfall!
Sound: un handbell.
A WOMAN A dollar. For directions to a hill.
DALE Ma'am?
A WOMAN I've been here since Day Two.
DALE Day Two. Phil, she's practically from here. Ma'am, what did you get?
A WOMAN Swordswoman. Level Twelve.
DALE Cartographer. Unique.
A WOMAN What's that?
DALE It's very rare.
(A pause.)
DALE Atlas. Define cartographer.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Cartographer. Noun. One who makes maps. There is no map of the Unclaimed. See also: Tourist.
A WOMAN (laughing) Tourist.
DALE That's the See also, ma'am. The See also isn't the main part. That's just the book's opinion.
DALE Atlas. Read me the last page.
PHIL You haven't heard the other nine hundred and ninety-nine.
DALE I always read the end first, Phil. If it's a bad ending, I've saved myself a whole book.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Wonder number one thousand. The Last Wonder. Condition: Follow the map.
(A pause.)
DALE Follow the map. Phil. I've got a map.
Sound: un1 map unfold.
THE CRIER (laughing) Friend, every stall on the Strand sells a treasure map! Two dollars, three for five! There's not a real one in the lot!
DALE Mine was twenty.
THE CRIER Then somebody saw you coming!
DALE He did. I was on his boat.
DALE It's going in the book, Phil. Folded up, as a bookmark. That's twenty dollars, I'm not leaving it lying around.
DALE (shouting) Everybody! My name is Dale Tummins, and I'm going to inherit the world!
A MAN Get in line, pal.
AN OLD MAN So's everybody.
Sound: pencil scratch.
WREN Tummins. Is that two m's, sir?
DALE Two m's. Who's asking?
WREN Wren, sir. Vanguard scouts. Commander Stroud sent me down from the Fort to follow you and write down everything you do.
DALE Everything?
WREN She said start with everything, and she'd tell me what to leave out. You came off Brandt's boat reading a map, sir. There's no map of this place, sir. The Commander says that's the whole problem. Four hundred of us up at the Fort, and every one of them walks it blind.
DALE Wren, I've never had a fan with a pencil. Stay close. You'll want this next part.
DALE Phil, get your notebook out. I want a list ready. You don't inherit a whole world and then stand there with your hands in your pockets.
Sound: pencil scratch.
DALE One. A house.
(A pause.)
PHIL A house.
DALE Two. Hollis calls me sir.
DALE Three. The change machine at the Sudsy Duck gives back the quarters. All of them. It's had mine since the fourth grade.
DALE Four. A parking space with my name on it.
PHIL You don't have a car.
DALE You don't get the car first, Phil. Then you've got a car and nowhere to put it.
Sound: pencil scratch.
WREN Parking space. No car.
A WOMAN Good luck, Tourist.
DALE Thank you!
(A pause.)
DALE Phil. I've got a nickname.
Scene: un shop bed.
A MAN It was my grandfather's sword.
HOLLIS Eleven dollars.
A MAN He carried it in a parade.
HOLLIS Ten.
A MAN How is it going down?
HOLLIS You keep telling me about it.
Sound: register.
A WOMAN And one shovel.
HOLLIS Four dollars.
Sound: register.
Sound: un level up.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Level Six.
A WOMAN You get levels for selling shovels?
HOLLIS I get levels for selling. Next.
AN OLD MAN Claw tip. Off a snapjack. What'll you give me for it?
HOLLIS Two dollars.
AN OLD MAN I fought that thing for an hour.
HOLLIS The Exchange gives two fifty. Go to the Exchange. Next.
DALE Next is me, Hollis. I'm here as a professional.
HOLLIS Dale.
DALE Every business needs a consultant. I come in, I look around, and I tell you what you're doing wrong.
HOLLIS What am I doing wrong?
DALE That's the part you pay for.
HOLLIS Declined.
DALE You haven't heard my rate.
HOLLIS Don't need to.
DALE Here. My brochure.
HOLLIS Three cents.
DALE It's printed on both sides.
HOLLIS Three cents.
DALE Then appraise me. Go on. If I'm setting a rate, I want to know what I'm working with.
HOLLIS Minus four thousand and twenty dollars.
DALE That's the debt. What about me?
HOLLIS That's you.
(A pause.)
DALE Four thousand of that's old, Hollis. You shouldn't appraise a man on his past.
HOLLIS It's not past. It's owed. And it stops at five thousand.
DALE Then what?
HOLLIS Five thousand, and I take the suitcase.
(A pause.)
DALE Then I've got nine hundred and eighty dollars of room. Phil, we're rich.
PHIL Mister Brandt, what's a key worth? One of the seven?
HOLLIS One seventh of a city nobody's been inside. Could be empty. Could be everything. So it's priced like everything.
DALE Appraise the city, then. What's it worth?
HOLLIS I'd have to see it. Nobody's seen it.
DALE Then I'll get a key.
HOLLIS Two hundred thousand people. Nine days. One key.
DALE That's a lot of people not trying very hard.
HOLLIS Phil. Set that suitcase down. I'll keep it out back for you. Two dollars a day.
DALE Two dollars a day to hold my own suitcase? Phil holds it for nothing.
PHIL It's no trouble, Mister Brandt. It hasn't weighed anything since the boat.
HOLLIS The crates by the door. How many can you pick up?
PHIL I don't know.
Sound: un1 crate stack.
PHIL Ten, I think. Plus the suitcase.
HOLLIS Can you be here at six tomorrow and open up?
PHIL Six in the morning?
HOLLIS Every morning. I'll pay you a tent.
PHIL We do need a tent.
DALE Hang on. I came in here as a consultant, and you're hiring Phil?
HOLLIS Phil can carry ten crates.
DALE I can tell him which ten.
HOLLIS Declined.
DALE Then I'll wait. Phil, put the suitcase down. I'm going to sit on it till somebody in here needs a consultant.
(A pause.)
HOLLIS You know why I brought him?
PHIL I've wondered.
HOLLIS Free unloading.
PHIL He didn't unload any.
HOLLIS I noticed.
DALE I was saving myself for the land part.
HOLLIS Why'd you come, Phil?
PHIL New species. A whole continent nobody's ever written down. I teach biology, Mister Brandt, and it's summer. I couldn't not come. Why did you?
HOLLIS Four hundred shovels. Seen anything yet?
PHIL A crab under the pier this morning. The size of a dog.
HOLLIS Snapjack. They come up the sand at dusk and take anything shiny. Stay up by the lamps after dark.
PHIL I'll tell Dale.
HOLLIS He's sitting right there.
PHIL I'll tell him again later.
HOLLIS Six o'clock, Phil.
PHIL Six o'clock.
Sound: pencil scratch.
HOLLIS Phil, hired. Dale, not.
(A pause.)
DALE Fine. I'm going out to get some XP. Then we'll see who's hiring who. Phil, catch up.
Sound: shop bell.
Scene: beach night.
Sound: match strike.
A MAN (shouting) Lamps up! Last boat's in! Lamps up all along the Strand!
DALE Not up there, Phil. Down here. Everybody's up by the lamps. You don't find XP where everybody's already standing.
PHIL Mister Brandt said to stay by the lamps after dark.
DALE Hollis sells lamps, Phil.
PHIL He sells everything.
DALE That's my point. And I can't inherit the world at Level One. Nobody hands a world to a Level One. They'd take one look and say, that man just got here.
PHIL You did just get here.
DALE That's why it's so important nobody finds out.
PHIL How does a Cartographer even get XP, Dale? The book said no combat skills.
DALE It said no combat skills. It didn't say no combat. I'll do the combat with my regular skills.
PHIL Which are?
DALE Talking, mostly. And sitting near people who are winning.
PHIL I don't think that's combat.
DALE Ask anybody who's been in a meeting with me.
Sound: un snapjack.
PHIL (whispering) Dale. Stand still.
DALE Why?
PHIL Snapjacks. They walk sideways, so they can't turn fast. If one comes straight at you, step to the side.
DALE So they're shy. You can't rush a shy animal, Phil. You let it come to you, and you offer it something.
DALE Here you go, fella. A quarter. All yours.
Sound: un snapjack.
DALE He took it! Right out of my fingers. Very polite about it.
PHIL They take anything shiny, Dale.
DALE Then he's got taste.
Sound: un snapjack.
DALE Hey. Hey, that's my shoe. Phil, he shook my foot. Where they come from, that's a handshake.
PHIL He took your shoe.
DALE Firm grip, though. You can tell a lot about a crab from his grip.
Sound: un snapjack.
PHIL (shouting) Dale, more of them! Get behind the suitcase!
Sound: un1 suitcase bonk.
Sound: un snapjack snore.
Sound: un1 suitcase bonk.
Sound: un snapjack snore.
(A pause.)
Sound: un level up.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Level Three.
PHIL Level Three. For holding up a suitcase.
DALE My suitcase, Phil. Some of that level's mine.
PHIL Can we go back up now?
DALE Not without my shoe. That's my good shoe. The other one's my other shoe.
Sound: un snapjack.
DALE Now. My friend with the shoe. That's a left shoe, and a left shoe on its own is no good to anybody. So here's what I'm prepared to do.
PHIL Dale, come up into the light.
DALE I'm negotiating, Phil. I give him my right shoe. Then he's got a pair. A crab with a pair of shoes is a happy crab, and a happy crab gives a man his shoes back.
PHIL Don't hold it out to him.
DALE You have to hold it out, Phil. That's how he knows it's an offer.
Sound: un1 claw pinch.
DALE Ow. That's my...
Sound: body thud.
Sound: un fade.
(A pause.)
PHIL Dale?
(A pause.)
PHIL (shouting) Dale!
Sound: un snapjack snore.
Sound: footsteps sand.
A WOMAN Your friend get pinched?
PHIL He was right here. He just went.
A WOMAN He'll wash up at dawn. They all do.
PHIL Is he hurt?
A WOMAN He'll wake up wet and a day behind. Same as the rest of us.
PHIL Wash up where?
A WOMAN The Wash. Down the beach, below the town. Everybody comes in there in the morning. Get off the sand before the rest of them come up.
Sound: footsteps sand.
(A pause.)
PHIL Okay.
(A pause.)
PHIL I've got your shoe, Dale.
Music: sting transition.
Scene: mz road low tide highway.
Sound: un lamp out.
ADA You've been sitting there all night, dear.
PHIL Since about eight. Is it morning?
ADA Nearly. I always know by the lamps. When I get down to the Wash, it's nearly. I'm Ada. Ada Birch. I do the lamps.
PHIL Phil Brumley. My friend got pinched.
ADA Your first night.
PHIL Our first night.
ADA And you stayed with his things. Most people go up to bed and come down in the morning.
PHIL I didn't know where he'd come in. So I thought I'd better be here for all of it.
ADA Here. Take this one. It's only small. For your friend. They don't like light, dear.
PHIL Thank you. Let me pay you for it.
ADA Oh, no. I've plenty.
PHIL Is that your class? The lamps?
ADA Lamplighter. I came in on Day One, just at dusk, and I'd lit a lantern to see my way down the ramp. So now I'm the one who does them all.
PHIL Is it a good class?
ADA It's a quiet one. I'm Level Twenty-two.
PHIL Twenty-two?
ADA I light a lot of lamps.
Sound: sneeze.
PHIL Sorry. It's the smoke.
ADA Bless you.
(A pause.)
ADA Everybody who comes off those boats wants to own it. Every bit of it. And it was here a long time before any of us.
PHIL It's very beautiful.
ADA It is. Somebody ought to say so more often. Well. Thirty more before the sun's up.
Sound: footsteps sand.
(A pause.)
Sound: un wash up.
A MAN Oh, not again.
Sound: un wash up.
A WOMAN Who's got my boot? Somebody's got my boot.
Sound: un wash up.
AN OLD MAN What day is it?
A MAN Ten.
AN OLD MAN I've missed nine.
Sound: un wash up.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Washed up. Cause: snapjack.
(A pause.)
A MAN Snapjack. Thought so.
A WOMAN Everybody's first one's a snapjack.
DALE I let him win, ma'am. That's called diplomacy. You give the other fella a little something, he goes home feeling big, and later on he owes you.
PHIL That's not how I remember it.
DALE Then you were watching the wrong crab, Phil. Did you bring my shoe?
PHIL One of them. And a lady left you this. For the snapjacks. They don't like light.
DALE One night in, Phil, and the town's leaving me presents. That's how it starts for a public figure.
DALE What did I miss?
PHIL A night.
DALE Did anybody inherit the world?
PHIL No.
DALE Then I'm still in it.
PHIL I'm glad you're back, Dale.
DALE Course you are. Who else would you carry things for?
PHIL And the two that went down woke up around midnight and walked off. They each left a claw tip behind. Castoffs. The Exchange buys them.
DALE So I made money last night. In my sleep.
PHIL You weren't asleep. You were gone.
DALE That's even less work.
PHIL I made some notes while I was waiting. I had a lot of time.
PHIL Rule one. What you do first is what you are.
DALE Unique.
PHIL Rule two. Nothing made to shoot or explode works here. A man up the beach tried a flare on the snapjacks last night. It just clicked.
DALE Good. I never liked loud.
PHIL Rule three. Nobody stays down. You wash up, and your Atlas tells everybody.
DALE It told everybody, Phil. In front of a man in his pajamas.
DALE Put this one down. Rule eight. Crabs aren't friends.
PHIL We're on four.
DALE I'm leaving room for yours.
(A pause.)
DALE I can hear you not writing, Phil.
Scene: un strand bed.
DALE Phil. Put the crates down. This is bigger than crates.
PHIL I'm working, Dale. I opened at six.
DALE Did you know the back of my book draws?
Sound: un quill.
DALE There. It did it again. Every step I take, it draws a little more. I've been carrying a map around since the boat and nobody told me. I thought the back pages were for phone numbers.
PHIL Can I see?
DALE Over my shoulder. Don't breathe on it.
Sound: un quill.
DALE And it's a treasure map, Phil. What's that, right in front of the Exchange? Round. That's an X.
PHIL It's a circle.
DALE It's an X that didn't have time to finish.
(A pause.)
PHIL Dale. It doesn't draw anything we brought.
DALE Then it's a cheap map. Hollis's had all the shops on it.
PHIL So whatever that is, nobody brought it.
DALE Then it's under the boards. Treasure, Phil. Nobody buries treasure on top.
DALE Hollis! I need a crowbar.
HOLLIS Ten dollars.
DALE Put it on my account.
Sound: pencil scratch.
HOLLIS Four thousand and thirty.
(A pause.)
Sound: un plank pry.
A MAN Hey! That's the Strand!
A WOMAN We built that on Day Three!
DALE It's for a good cause, ma'am. Me.
AN OLD MAN My stall's on that board!
DALE Then you'll be first to know what's under it, sir. That's a privilege.
A MAN Somebody get the Crier!
DALE Folks, nothing to see here. Unless I find something. Then you'll see plenty, and you'll all be glad you stayed.
Sound: un plank pry.
DALE Keep going, Phil. I'm going to lie down here on the boards with the map, so I can tell you when you're warm.
PHIL Dale, this is your crowbar.
DALE And I'm lending it to you. That's teamwork.
Sound: digging.
A WOMAN What's he digging for?
A MAN He's got a map.
AN OLD MAN Everybody's got a map. I've got three.
A KID Is it treasure?
DALE Warmer, Phil. Warmer. Hot. That's very hot.
Sound: sneeze.
PHIL Sand fleas. Sorry.
Sound: digging.
PHIL Dale. Something's down here. Stone. Round.
DALE Out of the way, Phil. A man digs up his own treasure.
Sound: digging.
DALE Somebody's put a hole in my treasure.
PHIL Dale. That's a keyhole.
(A pause.)
A KID A keyhole?
A WOMAN Shh.
PHIL Atlas. Page twelve.
DALE Why twelve?
PHIL I went through all seven of the keys last night. I had time.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Wonder number twelve. The Key Underfoot. Condition: Find the key everyone walks over.
Sound: un keyhole.
(A pause.)
Sound: un world riffle.
EVERY ATLAS World event. Wonder number twelve. The Key Underfoot. Claimed by Dale Tummins.
(A pause.)
A WOMAN That was him.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Reward: Sure Footing. You cannot be tripped or knocked off your feet.
Sound: un level up.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Level Two.
DALE Level Two, Phil. That's double.
DALE And nobody can knock me down. Push me.
PHIL I'm not going to push you, Dale.
DALE It's a test, Phil. Push.
(A pause.)
PHIL Huh.
DALE Nothing. Didn't even feel it. Phil, I've got roots.
DALE Where's my twenty dollar bookmark? It's going in page twelve. That's the page I'll want to find in a hurry.
Sound: un handbell.
THE CRIER Map Man found a key! Map Man found a key under the Strand! First key since Day Four, friends, and him in one shoe!
Sound: crowd cheer.
DALE Map Man. Phil, that's a step up from Tourist.
DALE Thank you. Thank you, everybody. I couldn't have done it without the crowbar, so I'd like to thank Hollis Brandt, of Brandt Outfitters. Hollis will be sending a bill.
A MAN He found it lying down.
A WOMAN His friend did all the digging.
DALE And I'd like to thank the lady who says my friend did all the digging. He did. I hired him.
A MAN I walked over that every day.
DALE And you, sir, for walking over it. Every single day. That's commitment.
AN OLD MAN I had my stall on it. A whole week, I stood on that key selling hats.
DALE And the hat man, for keeping it warm.
Sound: digging.
HOLLIS Shovels. Four dollars.
Scene: sea shore.
Sound: ash move water.
A MAN Mister Ashby said fetch the key holder, sirs.
DALE That's me. And this is Hollis Brandt, my appraiser. A man in my position has people.
HOLLIS I'm here for the fee. Phil's minding the shop, and Phil doesn't haggle.
DALE He sent a boat, Hollis. You don't send a boat for a meeting. This is a reception.
A MAN Big wave coming. Hold on to the sides.
Sound: wave crash.
HOLLIS Bow into it. Straight into it, or we go over.
DALE They're sending the sea out to meet us, Hollis. That's a welcome.
Sound: splash big.
(A pause.)
A MAN Through! That's the break, sirs. Flat water from here.
DALE Hollis, do you think they'll have towels at the reception?
Sound: un1 rowboat alongside.
Scene: un yacht bed.
ASHBY Mister Tummins. Augustine Ashby. Welcome aboard the Gallery.
DALE Mister Ashby. You shouldn't have. Hollis, he shouldn't have.
HOLLIS The clock. Forty thousand dollars.
ASHBY Please don't, Mister Brandt.
HOLLIS The rug. Nine thousand.
(A pause.)
HOLLIS Eight thousand six hundred.
DALE I'm only wet on the one side. I'll stand my shoe up by the clock. It'll dry quicker in good company.
Sound: mc place rubber.
HOLLIS Forty thousand dollars and forty cents.
ASHBY I'd rather not know. I've never cared what a thing is worth. I care that it's mine.
DALE What's your class, Mister Ashby?
ASHBY I'm a Curator. I stepped ashore on Day Three with a painting under my arm, in its frame. I wasn't going to leave it on the boat with the crew.
HOLLIS Which painting?
ASHBY Ah. You'd only tell me what it's worth.
ASHBY Every Atlas on the water said your name this morning, Mister Tummins. I heard it over my eggs.
DALE Word travels. That's why the reception.
ASHBY The Key Underfoot. Mister Brandt, I'd like it appraised. As an asset.
HOLLIS To you, it's worth whatever you'll pay.
ASHBY And to Mister Tummins?
DALE It's not for sale.
HOLLIS Then it's the most expensive page in the Unclaimed. A page nobody will sell you always is.
DALE Hollis. That's the nicest thing you've ever said about me.
HOLLIS I said it about the page.
HOLLIS You don't fight, Mister Ashby. What do you want with a key?
ASHBY I buy, Mister Brandt. Page one says move in. A city is only a very large display case. When that gate opens, I mean to move my collection in. All of it.
DALE Bring the clock.
HOLLIS You'd live up there?
ASHBY No. I'd visit. I come ashore by day, and every night I come back out here. I never sleep where I shop.
DALE I sleep wherever I sit down. Phil says it's a gift.
Sound: un1 map unfold.
DALE Hollis. A whole trunk of maps. People have been sending maps to the Map Man. That's fan mail.
ASHBY Ah. Those are mine, I'm afraid. Every treasure map on the Strand. Two dollars each, three for five.
HOLLIS They're all fakes.
ASHBY Almost certainly. But page one thousand says follow the map, Mister Brandt, and I'd hate to own every map but the right one.
HOLLIS Mine's twenty.
ASHBY Then do send me one.
Sound: pencil scratch.
Sound: un1 rowboat alongside.
NELL Permission to come aboard the Gallery? Never mind, I'm aboard. Nell Fairweather. Somebody sent a boat for me, and it was a very nice boat.
ASHBY Miss Fairweather, thank you for coming. I'd like you to look after Mister Tummins this afternoon.
NELL So you're the Map Man. One shoe and everything. I'll look after him beautifully, Mister Ashby.
DALE Staff, Hollis. He's laid on staff. What are you good at, Nell?
NELL I help people want to give things.
DALE That's consulting. Nell, we're in the same line of work.
NELL I had a feeling we might be.
(A pause.)
ASHBY Mister Brandt. What do I owe you for the appraisal?
HOLLIS A ride back to the beach.
Scene: sea shore.
Sound: ash move water.
A MAN Big one behind us! Hold on, sirs!
Sound: wave crash.
Sound: splash big.
(A pause.)
A MAN Mister Brandt?
HOLLIS Here. In the sea.
DALE I never even sat down, Hollis. Not once. I'm a natural.
HOLLIS You can't be knocked over. It's in your book.
DALE That's what a natural is.
Scene: un exchange bed.
Sound: gavel.
A MAN Lot forty. One snapjack claw tip, lightly used, still pinches. Two dollars to the lady with the bandage. Still no key pages on the board, folks.
A WOMAN Map Man! Over here! Ten thousand dollars for the Key Underfoot!
A MAN Twelve thousand and a tent!
AN OLD MAN Fifteen thousand and my boat. It mostly floats.
DALE Folks, one at a time. I've got a pen. I'll sign anything that holds still.
A WOMAN We don't want your name. We want the page.
DALE That's what everybody says now. You'll feel silly when the name's worth something.
AN OLD MAN At least show us the page!
DALE You can see it from there. It's the one with the map sticking out. Hollis's map, twenty dollars. You don't put a twenty dollar bookmark in just any page.
A MAN Twenty thousand!
Sound: crowd murmur.
DALE Sir, I'm going to inherit the world. You don't sell the first piece. When a diner opens, they don't spend the first dollar. They put it in a frame behind the register.
A MAN It's worth twenty thousand dollars.
DALE Then it's going in a very nice frame.
Sound: pub hush.
A WOMAN That's Stroud.
A MAN The Commander. Herself.
WREN Make way, please. Sorry. Make way for Commander Stroud.
STROUD Tummins. Vera Stroud. I command the Vanguard. You've met Wren.
DALE Wren! Still writing?
WREN Every word, sir. You found a key lying down. I put that in.
STROUD You're the only man on this beach who can make a map, Tummins. The Vanguard has a position for you.
WREN Scout, second class.
DALE Why not first class?
WREN The Commander said start you at second, and go up to first if you seemed clever.
STROUD Well, Wren?
WREN Second class, Commander.
DALE Here's my counter. Head of Maps. And a corner tent.
STROUD Tents don't have corners.
DALE That's why they're so hard to get.
Sound: pencil scratch.
WREN Head of Maps. Corner tent. Straight face.
DALE It's a counter, Commander. In my line of work, a counter is how you say yes without looking hungry.
Sound: stomach rumble.
WREN That was his stomach.
STROUD I heard it.
DALE What's the job for, anyway? A man likes to know where he's heading.
STROUD Day Twelve, the tide goes out further than it will all month. For six minutes, there's bare flats between the beach and the Far Rock. I want a map of those flats before then.
DALE And then what?
STROUD Then the Vanguard has a key. Page one says move in. It means take it and hold it. When that gate opens, the Vanguard moves in.
DALE Hold it. Like a door. I've held a door, Commander. For Nana, with the laundry. It's harder than it looks.
STROUD Second class. Day Twelve. Wren.
Sound: footsteps sand.
DALE She'll be back. They always come back to a counter.
(A pause.)
NELL Corn dog?
DALE Is it free?
NELL I said I'd look after you, didn't I? It's on me.
Sound: munch.
DALE You're a fan.
NELL The biggest. I'd have brought two, but then you'd think I wanted something.
DALE I'd have been fine with that.
NELL Can I ask you something professional, Map Man? One consultant to another.
DALE It's the only way anybody asks me anything.
NELL Has your key been registered yet?
DALE Registered.
NELL With the Exchange. Every key page gets registered, or any snapjack could walk off with it. It's a formality. Out it comes, you sign it, they stamp it at the desk, and you get it back with a ribbon.
DALE What color ribbon?
NELL What color would you like?
DALE Blue. I got red in the third grade spelling bee. The word was consultant. I've been one ever since, out of spite.
NELL That's the best reason to be anything. Blue it is. Tear it out, quick, like a bandage.
DALE The page with the bookmark.
NELL Whichever one's the key, Map Man.
DALE That's the one. I marked it so I'd never lose it.
Sound: un2 paper rip.
DALE That came out easy. Thin, too. Like a map.
NELL They make the good ones thin. Sign here.
Sound: pencil scratch.
DALE I did a little drawing of me next to it. Collectors go crazy for those.
NELL You're a generous man, Map Man. Back in two minutes.
(A pause.)
PHIL Sorry, Dale. Hollis had me sorting the mail, and somebody kept trying to stamp your suitcase.
DALE Phil, you missed my whole afternoon. I turned down twenty thousand dollars, I turned down a Commander, and I registered the key.
PHIL You registered it.
DALE With the Exchange. Nell came by, from the yacht. She brought me a corn dog first, which is how you know she's legitimate. Crooks don't feed you.
PHIL Dale, there's no registering. A page can't be stolen. It can only be given.
DALE Then it's safe. I gave it.
(A pause.)
PHIL I understand.
DALE She's bringing back a ribbon. Blue.
Sound: ui page turn.
(A pause.)
PHIL Dale. Your key's still in here. So where's Hollis's map? It was in page twelve.
DALE Registered.
Scene: un pier bed.
AN OLD MAN The Curator's buying keys now. Any key. He'll pay whatever you ask.
A WOMAN I haven't got a key.
AN OLD MAN Nobody's got a key. That's why he's buying.
A MAN Hey. Hey! The line starts back at the lantern post.
DALE Excuse me. Key holder. Key holder coming through.
A WOMAN It's the Map Man.
A MAN I don't care if he's the Mayor Man. Back of the line.
DALE Folks, you've all been walking over my key for a week. I'm only walking past you once.
Sound: phone ring.
NANA Sudsy Duck, this is Nana.
DALE Nana. It's Dale.
NANA Dale, honey. Hold on, I've got a sock in each hand. Somebody left a whole basket in the lost and found, and not one of them goes with another one.
DALE Nana, I've got news. I'm a Cartographer.
NANA Is that a kind of doctor?
DALE It's like a captain. Everybody else got swords. I'm the only one there is. They don't make two of me.
NANA Well, they never did, honey.
DALE And I found a key. Under a boardwalk. Two hundred thousand people walked over it, and I'm the one who looked down.
NANA That's nice, honey.
DALE I had to pull up a whole row of boards. A man fell through one, but he was fine. He was a Wader. It's what he does.
NANA Did you put the boards back?
DALE Somebody will.
NANA Dale.
DALE I'll mention it to Phil.
NANA How is Phil?
DALE Phil got a job. He opens Hollis's shop at six every morning.
NANA Good for Phil.
DALE Nobody's hired me yet. I'm too unique. They haven't got a box to put me in.
NANA Are you eating?
DALE A lady gave me a corn dog. A fan.
NANA A corn dog's not eating, honey. That's a stick with an idea on it. I'll send you something on that Hollis's boat.
DALE You don't have to, Nana.
NANA I know I don't.
(A pause.)
NANA Number four's thumping again. I put a tennis ball in with the towels, and now it thumps in time. The Tuesday ladies say it's like having a band.
A MAN Wrap it up, Map Man!
DALE She's in the middle of a dryer story, sir. You can't rush a dryer story.
DALE Tell number four I'm doing fine.
NANA I'll tell it. And your room's just how you left it. I haven't touched a thing.
DALE Don't let anybody rent it.
NANA Who'd rent it, honey? It's full of your things.
DALE That's what makes it valuable, Nana. It comes furnished.
(A pause.)
A WOMAN Some of us have families too, you know.
DALE This is my Nana.
A WOMAN Mine's a Nana too.
Scene: un hill bed.
Sound: un ladder clatter.
A MAN (shouting) It's doing it again!
DALE (out of breath) Two hours, Phil. Who puts a city on top of a hill? You'd lose half your tenants on the stairs.
PHIL It's for defense, Dale. You build up high so you can see who's coming.
DALE Everybody's coming. You could see that from the beach. And who's hauling groceries up that?
PHIL I hauled your suitcase up it.
DALE That's different. You're a Squire. Groceries haven't got a class. Put it down, Phil. I need to sit on it.
A WOMAN Wren! It grew again!
WREN How much?
A WOMAN Three rungs since lunch. I was on the top one, and then I wasn't.
WREN Everybody off the ladders. Nobody climbs after dark.
A MAN Who measures a wall in rungs?
WREN The Commander does. She's not going to like three.
Sound: pencil scratch.
WREN Map man, top of the hill, late afternoon. Brumley a step behind him with the suitcase. Map man sits on the suitcase.
DALE The Vanguard's got a crew on the wall, Phil, and a man taking notes on me. A building with a crew on it is a building somebody cares about.
A WOMAN Civilians off the hill by dark!
DALE And they've put a lady out front to greet people. It's a nice neighborhood.
PHIL Dale. The gate.
(A pause.)
DALE Seven keys, one hand.
(A pause.)
DALE Phil. They left me a note.
PHIL It's carved over the gate, Dale. It's been there since the city came up.
DALE Then they've been expecting me. One hand. You do the carrying, and I keep a hand free. They've seen how we work.
DALE Hello, little fella. Remember me? From under the boardwalk?
PHIL Dale, that one's the Day Four key. Yours is the other one that's lit.
DALE I know. I was being polite to the neighbors.
Sound: un far snore.
DALE Atlas. Page one.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Wonder number one. The Sealed City. Condition: Move in. Note: the gate opens for one hand holding seven keys.
DALE Another note. This place really wants me, Phil.
DALE But they've only given me one street. Two hours up a hill, I've got a key in my book, the whole city's right there over the wall, and my picture's got one street in it.
PHIL One street. I wonder why just the one.
DALE It's the model street. They always show you the model first.
PHIL So all Nell got was Hollis's map.
DALE And a very good autograph.
Sound: ui page turn.
DALE And my map's broken. I walked every step of that hill for it, and it just quits at the wall. Like it got scared. I want a refund.
PHIL Let me see.
(A pause.)
PHIL It isn't broken, Dale. It just won't draw the city.
DALE Then it's not on the market yet. They never put a place on the map till it's on the market.
Music: wonder.
(A pause.)
A MAN Every night it does that.
A WOMAN Never gets old.
Sound: un far snore.
(A pause.)
PHIL My students would never believe this. I'm not sure I believe it.
(A pause.)
PHIL Dale?
DALE I'm going to live there, Phil.
PHIL In the city.
DALE I've never lived anywhere that wasn't over a laundromat.
(A pause.)
PHIL I know.
(A pause.)
DALE Put it on the list. A house.
PHIL It's already on there, Dale. It's number one.
DALE Then put it on again.
Sound: pencil scratch.
DALE With a mailbox. Hollis brings the mail. So that's two hours up this hill, every day, for Hollis. Even if it's only a flyer.
Sound: pencil scratch.
PHIL That's not a house, Dale. That's revenge.
DALE It's a house with revenge in it, Phil. Those go for more.
(A pause.)
Sound: un far snore.
DALE Thunder.
PHIL Every forty seconds.
DALE Then we've got about thirty seconds to get down this hill. Grab the suitcase.
Scene: mz road low tide highway.
Sound: footsteps sand.
DALE One street's a cul-de-sac, Phil. Two keys, and it's a through road. A man can't live on a cul-de-sac. Nobody visits.
PHIL The Loud Wood's a key, Dale. That doesn't mean it's ours.
Sound: un wash up.
AN OLD MAN Oof.
Sound: un wash up.
A WOMAN Cold. Why is it always the cold part first?
Sound: un wash up.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Washed up. Cause: hollerbirds.
AN OLD MAN Who hit the bird?
A WOMAN Sergeant hit the first bird.
AN OLD MAN And then?
A WOMAN Then we all hit the birds.
DALE Morning, folks. Dale Tummins, Cartographer. How's the wood?
Sound: un wash up.
A MAN Somebody tell the Commander. Don't hit the birds.
DALE Phil, that's a review. They went all the way in, and they came back with a tip. That's how you know a place is good. Nobody leaves a tip for a bad one.
PHIL They're the Vanguard, Dale. All of them. They lost.
DALE Then we're already ahead. I wasn't going to hit anything. I was going to talk to them.
Scene: un loud wood bed.
Sound: un hollerbird.
PHIL (shouting) Atlas! Page thirty!
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Wonder number thirty. The Key of the Loud Wood. Condition: Make the Loud Wood quiet.
DALE What did it say?
PHIL Make it quiet!
DALE I'm not the one making the noise!
DALE Phil! Free shields! And a helmet! Grab the good ones before the owners come back for them!
PHIL They're the Vanguard's!
DALE They're the ground's now! Finders keepers is older than any Atlas!
PHIL I'm not putting shields in your suitcase!
DALE Fine! Leave them! I came prepared anyway!
Sound: un2 megaphone.
PHIL Where did you get a megaphone?
DALE Hollis! I said put it on my account, and he said four thousand and forty! Right off the top of his head! A man doesn't remember a number like that unless he's impressed!
PHIL That's what you owe him!
DALE It's a number with my name on it, Phil! In business, that's a relationship!
DALE Attention, birds. My name is Dale Tummins. Cartographer. Level Two. The only one in the world.
Sound: un hollerbird.
DALE I'm here today on behalf of quiet. I'm also available for consulting, and I have business cards.
(A pause.)
DALE They're embossed. You run your thumb across them, and you can feel my whole name!
Sound: un hollerbird.
Scene: un loud wood bed.
DALE Louder, Phil! They can't hear me!
Sound: un2 megaphone.
DALE (shouting) Birds! Birds! It's the Map Man!
Sound: un hollerbird.
Sound: un2 suitcase bonk.
PHIL Dale, get down! Under the suitcase!
Sound: un2 suitcase bonk.
DALE Phil? I can't hear myself. I've never missed a word I said before.
PHIL Up you come. I've got you.
DALE Phil, put me down. People will think I'm luggage.
Sound: footsteps jungle.
Sound: un2 suitcase bonk.
Scene: un2 wood edge.
(A pause.)
Sound: sneeze.
PHIL Feathers.
Sound: un level up.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Level Five. New skill: Shield. Anything you carry to protect another is a shield. It will not break.
DALE What did it say?
PHIL I'm Level Five. And the suitcase doesn't have a scratch on it.
DALE You'll have to talk louder. My ears are still in there.
PHIL Then sit. I'm going to read the inside cover while they come back. Nobody ever reads the inside cover.
DALE What?
PHIL Nothing.
(A pause.)
PHIL A page may be torn out only by its holder.
Sound: pencil scratch.
PHIL A page given is a Wonder given. A page burned is a Wonder lost. A lost Wonder cannot be rediscovered.
Sound: pencil scratch.
PHIL A set is held in one hand.
Sound: pencil scratch.
PHIL Part of a set is part of the reward.
(A pause.)
PHIL That's your one street, Dale. You've got one key of the seven, so you get one street of the city. Part of a set.
DALE What?
PHIL One key, one street.
DALE I know! I've been saying that all along!
PHIL A lost page may be filled only by the hand that maps.
(A pause.)
PHIL I don't know what that one means.
DALE Rule nine! Never pay Hollis full price!
PHIL You haven't paid him anything.
DALE And it's working!
(A pause.)
DALE Phil. I left the megaphone in there.
PHIL You dropped it.
DALE I left it with them. They've got a lot to say, and now they've got the equipment.
PHIL Dale. In there. When you got to your business cards, they stopped.
DALE Who stopped?
PHIL The birds. The whole wood. For about a second.
DALE Everybody stops for the business cards, Phil. They're embossed.
Sound: pencil scratch.
DALE Is that my rule? Are you writing down my rule?
PHIL No.
Scene: un tideflats bed.
STROUD Tummins. One day, at a day rate. You walk out in front, and your map tells us where the ground holds.
DALE Commander Stroud, you won't regret it. Phil. Write it down.
Sound: pencil scratch.
PHIL Dale, hired.
DALE (proud) First time anybody's said it in that order.
STROUD Wren. The tide.
WREN Bottom of the tide in one minute. Then six minutes of bare flats, if the tables are right.
STROUD They're right. I checked them twice.
WREN You never check anything twice, Commander.
STROUD I've never had only six minutes before.
STROUD Read him the page, Wren.
WREN Atlas. Page fifty-one.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Wonder number fifty-one. The Key of the Far Rock. Condition: Stand on the Far Rock with dry feet.
DALE Dry feet. Mine haven't been dry since the boat.
STROUD Not yours. Mine.
STROUD Twelve shields, and I walk on nothing else. Lay one in front, lift one behind, pass it up. Tummins finds the ground.
PHIL Stepping stones.
DALE A dozen soldiers behind me, Phil. That's a parade. I've never been the front of a parade.
PHIL Your map only draws a stone's throw round you, Dale. You'll be out there alone.
(A pause.)
WREN Bare flats. Six minutes. Go.
Sound: mud squelch.
Sound: un quill.
DALE Firm. Firm. Soft on the left. Firm. That's a channel. Firm.
Sound: un shield line.
Sound: un mudwallow.
A MAN Commander! A mudwallow's got my boot!
Sound: un mudwallow.
A MAN And the other one!
STROUD Mudwallows keep what they take. Keep laying.
AN OLD MAN Shield, shield, shield. I joined up to fight things.
A WOMAN You're fighting the mud. It's winning.
Sound: un mudwallow.
DALE Phil, one's got my foot. It's pulling.
PHIL Are you going over?
DALE Can't. It's in my book. Nothing knocks me down.
Sound: mud squelch.
DALE There. It's let go. First man it couldn't knock over. That'll stay with it.
WREN Four minutes.
DALE Left, everybody! The map says straight, but left's downhill. You always go downhill. That's where the water goes, and water's never late.
PHIL Dale, the water's what we're keeping off.
STROUD Follow him.
Sound: river wade.
A MAN Channel!
DALE Shields on the channel! That's the shortcut part.
Sound: un shield line.
Sound: river wade.
A WOMAN Another channel!
DALE That's the same shortcut. It goes on a bit.
WREN Two minutes.
Sound: un quill.
DALE Rock! Firm all the way! Shields up here!
WREN One minute.
Sound: un mudwallow.
A MAN (shouting) It took a shield! We're a shield short!
STROUD Brumley. The suitcase.
DALE Commander, that's everything I own!
Sound: mud squelch.
WREN Thirty seconds.
STROUD Stepping up.
Sound: un keyhole.
Sound: un world riffle.
EVERY ATLAS World event. Wonder number fifty-one. The Key of the Far Rock. Claimed by Vera Stroud.
Sound: crowd cheer lc14848.
WREN Nine seconds to spare, Commander.
STROUD That's one key, Wren. There are seven.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Reward: Tide Sense. You always know the tide.
DALE We did it, Phil. My map, my shortcut and my suitcase. She only stood on it.
PHIL It's her page, Dale. I've got your suitcase. Not a scratch.
STROUD It turns in ninety seconds. Everybody off the flats. Walk. Don't run.
(A pause.)
DALE Phil.
PHIL I see it.
DALE I've only ever seen it from underneath. You can have the whole thing at once from out here. Every window. And nobody's ever looked out of one of them.
(A pause.)
PHIL Not yet.
(A pause.)
DALE That's a lot of curtains.
Sound: un2 tide in.
A WOMAN It's at my knees!
Sound: wave crash.
A MAN I'm fine! I'm wet, but I'm fine!
Sound: un mudwallow.
(A pause.)
DALE Phil. It's got my other shoe. The crab got my good shoe, and now that thing's got my other one. I haven't got either kind.
WREN Mister Tummins, if we'd had a map of the flats, we'd have done it in four minutes. We went round two channels we never needed to.
DALE You did have a map, Wren. You had me.
WREN Yes, sir. That's the part I'm putting in the report.
DALE Commander. Without me, you'd still be out there. Forever. So I'm billing you for forever, less six minutes.
STROUD Pay him the day rate, Wren.
WREN Yes, Commander.
Sound: un2 tide in.
WREN Commander, the shields.
STROUD Leave them.
Scene: un loud wood bed.
DALE Tummins Consulting. A brochure. Page one. Our hours.
(A pause.)
DALE Monday to Friday, nine to five. Closed for lunch. Lunch is eleven to two.
PHIL (whispering) Keep going. Slowly.
DALE Page two. Who is Dale Tummins?
(A pause.)
DALE Dale Tummins is a visionary!
Sound: un hollerbird.
Scene: un loud wood bed.
PHIL You got excited.
DALE It's the part about me, Phil. That's the exciting part.
PHIL Skip it. Next page.
DALE Page three. Rates.
(A pause.)
DALE Rates are available on request. Nobody has requested them.
PHIL (whispering) Good. Keep going.
DALE Page four. Testimonials. There's only one, and it's from me, and it's a rave!
Sound: un hollerbird.
Scene: un loud wood bed.
PHIL Dale.
DALE I can't help it. It's a beautiful testimonial. I cried a little when I wrote it.
PHIL Give me that. Sit on the suitcase.
DALE What are you going to do?
PHIL Teach.
(A pause.)
PHIL All right, everybody. Settle down. Eyes up here. Today we're going to talk about the nitrogen cycle.
DALE Oh no.
PHIL Nitrogen makes up about seventy-eight percent of the air. But most living things can't use it the way it comes.
Sound: un hollerbird.
PHIL So bacteria in the soil fix it. They turn it into ammonia. Who can tell me what fixing means? Nobody? That's all right. Nobody ever can.
DALE (whispering) Phil, I had this in the tenth grade. It doesn't get a better ending.
PHIL Then other bacteria turn the ammonia into nitrites. And then into nitrates.
Sound: un hollerbird hush.
PHIL (calm) Which the plants take up through their roots.
Scene: un2 wood asleep.
(A pause.)
PHIL (whispering) Every class I've ever taught has slept through that one.
DALE (whispering) I'm not surprised.
(A pause.)
DALE I've never heard anywhere this quiet, Phil. Not even the Duck at four in the morning. The dryers always have something to say.
(A pause.)
Sound: un keyhole.
Sound: un world riffle.
EVERY ATLAS World event. Wonder number thirty. The Key of the Loud Wood. Claimed by Phil Brumley.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Reward: Hush. You can quiet any one animal by talking to it.
Sound: un level up.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Level Seven.
Sound: peacock call.
PHIL Shh. Go back to sleep.
(A pause.)
DALE (whispering) Phil. We did it.
PHIL We?
DALE My idea, start to finish. I brought you here. I did the warm-up. Every good show has an opening act, and the opening act is the one who softens up the room.
PHIL That's not how I remember it.
DALE That's because you were in the middle of it. You can't see a painting from inside the painting.
DALE And the book left me off. Claimed by Phil Brumley. Like you did it by yourself. I'm going to write to somebody.
PHIL Who?
DALE Whoever does the back of the book.
Scene: un dunes bed.
DALE Every Atlas on the beach just said your name, Phil. Two hundred thousand people are asking each other who Phil Brumley is.
PHIL I hope they don't come and ask me.
DALE They'll ask me. I'm your agent.
PHIL They weren't loud for nothing, you know. Loud is how they find each other in there. I don't think anybody had ever bored them before.
DALE Then they owe me. I was boring first.
DALE Two keys between us, Phil. That's two streets. We're practically a neighborhood.
PHIL Mine's my page, Dale.
DALE I know. I'm only saying, if you ever want both streets in one hand, I've got a hand free.
Sound: sneeze.
PHIL Sand fleas.
DALE When I move in, I want the house that looks right down on Hollis's shop. So every time Hollis steps outside, there I am, not paying him.
PHIL That's a long way to look.
DALE I'll get a telescope. What's the procedure, Phil? For moving in somewhere. You've done it.
PHIL Three times.
DALE Atlas. Define move in.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Move in. Verb. To begin to live in a new home. See also: Unpacking.
DALE Unpacking. Good. I'm very good at unpacking.
PHIL Dale, you've never unpacked. You live out of this suitcase. You lived out of a bag at the Duck.
DALE Because I've never had anywhere to put it.
Scene: un pier bed.
DALE (sleepy) Hollis. Any mail for a famous man?
HOLLIS Is there a famous man?
DALE I've been selling my autograph on the Strand since breakfast.
HOLLIS How many?
DALE One. I bought the first one myself, to show people it could be done.
HOLLIS What did you pay?
DALE A dollar. I wanted to start low, so there'd be room to grow.
DALE A lady stopped and asked if I was somebody. I said yes. Then she asked who. That's where it fell apart.
HOLLIS Wait your turn, Dale.
Sound: un2 mail sacks.
HOLLIS Tent nineteen, one parcel, socks. Postage due, three dollars. Exchange night desk, one crate of ledgers. Paid.
A MAN Mister Brandt, this one's heavy.
HOLLIS Lift with your legs.
A MAN It smells like honey.
HOLLIS Then don't eat it.
Sound: un2 mail sacks.
HOLLIS The Sunbather, tent row six. One letter. Postage due, two dollars.
A MAN She's asleep on the beach, Mister Brandt.
HOLLIS Then it's due when she wakes up.
HOLLIS Dale Tummins. Care of Brandt Outfitters. Postage paid, in advance.
A MAN Who pays in advance?
HOLLIS His grandmother. She put in an extra dollar for whoever carries it up the pier.
A MAN That's me.
HOLLIS That's you.
Sound: coin single.
A MAN Huh. Nobody's ever tipped me for a box.
DALE That's my Nana. She tips the bus driver. Every stop.
HOLLIS Last boat. Snapjacks are up in twenty minutes. Get the lanterns lit.
Sound: air horn.
HOLLIS Your box. Postage paid.
DALE She always pays. It skips a generation.
Sound: mz tape rip.
HOLLIS Frame, two dollars.
DALE What about the picture?
HOLLIS I only do the frame.
(A pause.)
HOLLIS Night, Dale.
Sound: phone ring.
NANA Sudsy Duck, this is Nana.
DALE Nana. The box came.
NANA Oh, good. Did the sandwiches squash?
DALE They're flat.
NANA They're supposed to be flat, honey. I pressed them with the iron. Milk bread, honey and a little chamomile. I made a dozen.
DALE Thank you, Nana.
NANA The socks are from the lost and found. Nobody came for them.
DALE None of them match.
NANA They're from home, honey. They don't have to match.
DALE Hollis says the frame's worth two dollars.
NANA Well, the frame's not the good part. That's you and me the day we painted the duck on the window. You got paint on its head and called it a hat.
DALE It was a hat.
NANA I thought you'd want something for your wall.
DALE I haven't got a wall, Nana. We've got a tent. It's got a flap. Phil's job pays for it.
NANA Tell Phil I said thank you.
DALE For what?
NANA He'll know.
(A pause.)
DALE I found a city. Up on the hill. Stone walls, and towers, and nobody living in any of it. The walls get taller when you climb them, so nobody can get in. I'm going to live there.
(A pause.)
DALE Nana, I've never had my own place.
NANA (gentle) You've got your room, honey.
DALE It's your room. You just let me use it.
(A pause.)
NANA That's nice, honey.
(A pause.)
NANA Don't eat the sandwiches all at once.
Sound: un4 wax paper.
DALE Just half. A man in my line of work always keeps half back for...
Sound: munch.
DALE ...for later. Nana, they taste like the Duck on a Sunday, when all the dryers are going, and it's warm, and the windows are all...
Sound: snore.
(A pause.)
NANA Dale?
(A pause.)
NANA Goodnight, honey.
Sound: phone hangup.
(A pause.)
A MAN Is he done?
Scene: un dunes bed.
AN OLD MAN Morning, Stone. Walter Hobb. Day six. Same as yesterday, and the day before that.
AN OLD MAN Atlas. Page sixty. Again.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Wonder number sixty. The Key of Waiting. Condition: Wait for it.
AN OLD MAN Wait for it. Right you are.
DALE Mister Hobb? Dale Tummins, Tummins Consulting. Wren says six days on one stone. In my line of work, that's a man who needs a consultant.
AN OLD MAN Walter. Sit down if you're stopping.
DALE I've put together a package, Walter. Waiting, made easy. First question. What do you do all day?
AN OLD MAN Day one, I counted the dune grass. Day two, I counted the beetles. Day three, I told the Stone my life story. Day four, it didn't tell me its story back, which I respected.
DALE Day four's when I'd have left.
AN OLD MAN Day five, I brought a cushion.
DALE Walter, I'm going to be honest with you, because I'm a consultant. Nothing is happening.
AN OLD MAN That's the job.
DALE Then you're overqualified.
DALE Here's the package. Step one, you get up. Step two, you walk around a bit. Step three, you come back and see if it happened while you were gone. That's how I wait for everything. Toast. Buses.
AN OLD MAN And does it happen?
DALE Not once. But you're never there when it doesn't, so you don't feel bad.
AN OLD MAN There were twelve of us the first morning, son, all in the same hat. Eleven went home by lunch. You don't wait for a thing to happen. You wait so you're there when it does.
(A pause.)
DALE I'd rather be told.
Sound: un2 parasol.
ASHBY Ah. Mister Hobb. Still with us. And Mister Tummins. How unexpected.
AN OLD MAN Still here, Mister Ashby. Pull up some sand.
ASHBY I never sit on sand, Mister Hobb. It follows you home. I see the other gentlemen have gone.
AN OLD MAN First morning. They left their hats.
ASHBY I kept them.
AN OLD MAN Course you did.
AN OLD MAN You've got a yacht, and a parasol, and all the time in the world. Why pay me to wait? Why not sit here yourself?
ASHBY Anyone can find something, Mister Hobb. It takes a collector to own it.
AN OLD MAN That's not much of an answer.
ASHBY It's the only one I have.
DALE Well, I can't sit around all day. Walter, the first consultation's free. Pay me when it happens.
Sound: un2 sand shift.
DALE Walter. The sand's going. Under me.
Sound: un trundle.
AN OLD MAN (scared) Don't move, son.
DALE I'm going up, Walter! I'm going up on something!
ASHBY It's a trundle, Mister Tummins. They travel under the dunes. One very rarely sees them.
DALE I'm not seeing it! I'm standing on it! Walter, it's a mobile home.
Sound: un trundle.
ASHBY I believe it's going to Mister Hobb.
DALE And it's taking me with it!
(A pause.)
AN OLD MAN Is that a key?
Sound: un keyhole.
Sound: un world riffle.
EVERY ATLAS World event. Wonder number sixty. The Key of Waiting. Claimed by Walter Hobb.
(A pause.)
AN OLD MAN Me?
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Reward: Patience. Any wait passes like a minute.
AN OLD MAN Now it tells me.
DALE Walter, it came up under me first.
AN OLD MAN You were leaving.
DALE I was leaving slowly.
ASHBY Mister Hobb. One hundred thousand dollars for the page.
AN OLD MAN A hundred thousand? You've been paying me eight dollars a shift.
ASHBY That was for the waiting. This is for the page.
DALE Walter. As your consultant. Ask for two.
AN OLD MAN Does the patience go with it?
ASHBY Everything goes with it. That's rather the point.
(A pause.)
AN OLD MAN Well. I've had six days of patience already. I expect that's plenty for one man.
Sound: un page tear.
Sound: un page bind.
ASHBY Thank you, Mister Hobb. The money will come ashore from the Gallery this evening.
AN OLD MAN Can I keep the hat?
ASHBY Keep the hat.
AN OLD MAN Do you feel it yet? The patience?
(A pause.)
ASHBY Ah. I find I'm in no hurry at all. Good morning, gentlemen.
Sound: footsteps sand.
(A pause.)
AN OLD MAN Six days. You'd think it'd be more interesting.
DALE A hundred thousand dollars, Walter. For sitting.
AN OLD MAN For waiting.
DALE I'm going to need a cushion.
Sound: un2 trundle snore.
Scene: un strand bed.
Sound: un gull flock.
A MAN Please. My name's Clem, I'm a nice man, and I've got a key to the Sealed City. It's free.
A WOMAN Not with those birds, Clem.
A MAN The birds come with it. Two days. They've had my breakfast, my lunch and the brim of my hat. And everything else they've done, they've done on me.
DALE Clem. Dale Tummins, Cartographer. I hear you've got a page you're trying to move.
A MAN Take it. Please. It's yours.
DALE Easy. Those aren't gulls, Clem. Those are fans. I've wanted fans my whole life, and you've had them two days and you're giving them away.
A MAN They followed me into the outhouse.
DALE That's loyalty, Clem. You can't buy that.
A MAN Then take it!
DALE Clem, this morning I watched a man get a hundred thousand dollars for sitting on a rock. You're giving a key away for nothing. That's bad business. Luckily, you've got a problem, and I'm a solution. In my line of work, that's a consultation, and a consultation has a fee.
A MAN You want me to pay you? To take a key to the city?
DALE The key's free. The birds are a specialty item. Specialty's extra.
A MAN How much?
DALE There's my time, which I've already started using. There's the removal. There's the birds' feelings, because they're used to you.
A MAN How much?
DALE You don't rush a number, Clem. You rush a number, you get a small one.
ASHBY Forgive me. Augustine Ashby. Is that the Key Nobody Wants?
A MAN It is, sir.
ASHBY May I have it?
Sound: un page tear.
Sound: un page bind.
Sound: un gull flock.
A MAN (laughing) They're gone. They're gone! Thank you, sir. Thank you!
Sound: un3 boardwalk steps.
ASHBY Ah. Good afternoon. And to you.
DALE Excuse me! We were in the middle of a negotiation.
ASHBY Were you? I'm so sorry. I thought you were declining.
DALE I was about to name a price. That was my fee, running off down the Strand.
ASHBY Then I've cost you a great deal, Mister Tummins.
DALE Twice in one day. First my trundle, and now my fee.
DALE Why would you even want it? It's called the Key Nobody Wants. Nobody. That's you.
ASHBY A collection is never complete without the things nobody wants, Mister Tummins. Otherwise it's only shopping. Good day.
(A pause.)
DALE Atlas. How much does Clem owe me?
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Not listed.
DALE Then make a note.
Music: sting transition.
Scene: un strand bed.
NELL Map Man. You look like a man who's just been robbed by a gentleman.
DALE Nell. He didn't even haggle. He asked, and Clem just gave it to him. Who does business like that?
NELL Rich people. They just ask nicely. It's very hard to work with. Here. Half a fish pie.
DALE You still owe me a ribbon. Blue. From the registering.
(A pause.)
NELL It's on order.
DALE Ribbons take forever. What did you do before all this, Nell?
NELL Bit of everything. Day One, I shook a man's hand on the beach and took his wallet. Habit. Now I'm a Rogue for life.
DALE Did you give it back?
NELL Before he noticed. He told everybody I was the friendliest woman on the beach.
DALE You are. You're my second friend here. Phil's first, but Phil has to be.
NELL What's in the box?
DALE Nap sandwiches. My Nana sent them. Warm milk bread, honey and chamomile, and she presses them flat with the iron.
NELL Can I try one?
DALE Fair's fair. A whole sandwich for half a pie. You're getting a deal, and I want you to know I know it.
Sound: un4 wax paper.
Sound: munch.
NELL (sleepy) Oh, that's lovely. That's really...
Sound: snore.
(A pause.)
DALE Nell?
Sound: snore.
DALE You're a good listener, Nell. Most people interrupt. So, my five-year plan. Year one, I inherit the world. Year two, I let it settle. I'll finish your pie. You're not using it.
(A pause.)
NELL Wait. How long was I asleep?
DALE About a minute. You missed my five-year plan, and your pie.
NELL It's the middle of the day, Map Man. I slept eleven hours last night. One bite, and I was gone.
NELL Imagine what that would do to somebody who was tired.
DALE He'd be very well rested. That's the whole idea of a nap.
NELL How many have you got?
DALE Eleven. Well. Ten, and the one you bit.
NELL I'll buy them. All of them.
DALE They're not for sale. They're my Nana's. I'm keeping one, a man needs a taste of home, and the rest are a dollar.
NELL A dollar each. Done.
DALE Two.
NELL A dollar, and you write me a receipt.
DALE (proud) A receipt. Nobody's ever asked me for a receipt.
Sound: pencil scratch.
DALE Ten nap sandwiches, one bitten. Ten dollars, paid in full. Tummins Consulting. I'm keeping the carbon.
Sound: mz sale close.
Sound: coins count.
NELL Map Man, you have no idea what you've just sold me.
DALE Sandwiches.
Scene: lk waves rock.
DALE Phil, I want it on the record. This is still a shortcut.
PHIL We've been walking four hours, Dale.
DALE It's a long shortcut. Those are the best kind. You get more shortcut for your money.
PHIL Hollis said to go back the way we came.
DALE And I thanked him, and I got a second opinion.
PHIL From who?
DALE Me.
DALE Hollis has never been out here. Nobody has. I'm the only man in the world with a map.
PHIL A map of where we've been.
DALE Exactly. Every inch of it's true. That's more than Hollis can say for his.
Sound: sneeze.
PHIL Sorry. Feathers. We sold the Vanguard every hollerbird feather at the edge of the wood, and half of them are still up my sleeves.
DALE Six dollars of feathers, Phil. That's a trade. Every great family starts with a trade. Feathers today, claws tomorrow, and in twenty years they put up a statue of me holding a feather.
PHIL Dale, the sun's getting low. We need to be up off the sand before the snapjacks come.
DALE Then walk faster, Phil.
(A pause.)
DALE My feet have stopped. Both of them, at the same time, like they talked about it.
PHIL Get on. Carry ought to work on you too.
DALE I'll allow it.
Sound: un level up.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Level Eight.
DALE Was that me?
PHIL That was me. Squires level by carrying.
DALE Then that's my level, Phil. I'm the one being carried. I'm doing the hard part. I'm the cargo.
Sound: un quill.
PHIL Dale, hold your map out front where I can see it.
DALE You're the horse, Phil. Horses don't read.
PHIL Dale.
(A pause.)
PHIL It's a circle. We've walked in a circle all afternoon.
DALE It's a loop. People pay extra for a loop. Nobody ever has to turn round.
PHIL But nobody's ever walked these coves. Not one of them. Nobody's ever even seen them.
DALE Well, now somebody has. Me. From up here.
Sound: un level up.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Level Three. New skill: Name. Name a nameless place on your map. A name is permanent.
(A pause.)
DALE Level Three, Phil. For taking the shortcut.
PHIL For mapping new ground.
DALE Hollis said it was the wrong way. It was the right way to Level Three. Turn round. No, the other way. I want to see what I'm naming.
DALE Tummins Cove. Too plain. Dale Tummins Cove. Too many Tummins. The Cove of Dale. Sounds like something with teeth lives in it.
PHIL Dale, the light.
DALE Atlas. This cove. Hollis Is Wrong Cove.
Sound: un name.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Name accepted.
PHIL Hollis Is Wrong Cove.
DALE There. Now nobody can ever come here without knowing.
PHIL Knowing what? That we got lost?
DALE That Hollis was wrong.
DALE Stop. Back up, Phil. That rock out in the surf.
PHIL Dale, it's getting dark.
DALE I want that one, Phil. Every wave goes right over it, and it comes up dry. Atlas. What's a dry rock?
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Not listed.
DALE Then it's nobody's. Atlas. That rock is Dale's Dry Seat.
Sound: un name.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Name accepted.
DALE I'm never going to sit on it. It's the principle.
PHIL Let me ask mine. Atlas. The way home.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Landfall. North, past Hollis Is Wrong Cove.
(A pause.)
PHIL Oh no.
Sound: un snapjack.
PHIL Snapjacks. Keep your feet up, Dale.
DALE They can't reach the cargo, Phil. That's the beauty of being cargo.
Sound: un quill.
DALE It still draws in the dark, Phil. Nobody else's book does that.
PHIL North, then.
DALE North. Past my cove. Wake me at the lamps.
Sound: footsteps sand.
Music: sting transition.
Scene: un strand night.
Sound: match strike.
ADA Thirty.
HOLLIS Evening, Miss Birch. Two gallons of lamp oil. Eight dollars.
ADA You walked the whole Strand to sell me eight dollars of oil, Mister Brandt.
HOLLIS You were on the Strand. It was on the way.
ADA Here you are, dear.
Sound: coins count.
Sound: pencil scratch.
HOLLIS Paid.
Sound: un snapjack.
ADA There they are. Right on time.
HOLLIS They don't come past the lamps.
ADA No, dear. That's what I'm for.
Sound: match strike.
ADA Thirty-one.
HOLLIS How many on the Strand?
ADA Two hundred and twelve. More on the pier.
HOLLIS Every night.
ADA And out again every morning.
HOLLIS Four hundred and twenty-four stops a day.
ADA I've never counted it that way, dear.
HOLLIS I count everything.
ADA And what have you counted today, Mister Brandt?
HOLLIS Shovels. I sold the last of four hundred on Tuesday.
ADA What did they all dig?
HOLLIS Holes, mostly.
A MAN Evening, Ada. Evening, Mister Brandt.
ADA Evening, dear. Stay up by the lamps tonight.
HOLLIS Boots. Six dollars. Yours have a hole in the left one.
A MAN Tomorrow.
HOLLIS Everybody says tomorrow.
Sound: match strike.
HOLLIS Who pays you for the lamps?
ADA Nobody, dear.
HOLLIS Then why?
ADA Somebody has to. After the first night, it seemed rude to stop.
Sound: match strike.
ADA Do you like it here, Mister Brandt?
HOLLIS Business is good.
ADA That isn't what I asked, dear.
(A pause.)
HOLLIS The water's warm. I didn't expect that.
ADA And why do you walk the Strand at dusk? You don't light anything.
HOLLIS Habit. I spent a lot of years on a beach at sundown, counting heads in the water.
ADA Did you always get them all?
(A pause.)
HOLLIS Most.
ADA Most is a great many, dear.
(A pause.)
ADA And your Cartographer. Does he know what he's got?
HOLLIS A debt.
ADA (laughing) Oh, Mister Brandt.
HOLLIS He's out there now, lost, taking a shortcut I told him not to take.
ADA Then he'll see something nobody's ever seen.
HOLLIS He'll see it upside down.
(A pause.)
HOLLIS That lantern of yours.
(A pause.)
HOLLIS Priceless.
ADA Then it isn't for sale.
HOLLIS Everything's for sale.
ADA Then you've never been offered enough, Mister Brandt.
Sound: match strike.
ADA Everybody wants to own this place, dear. Nobody wants to look after it.
HOLLIS That's what shops are for.
ADA Is it?
HOLLIS Lamp oil. Rope. Nails. Patches for tents. Anybody who wants to look after anything, sooner or later, they come to me.
ADA And do you ever close?
HOLLIS Phil opens at six. I close when people stop buying.
ADA When's that?
HOLLIS Hasn't happened.
ADA You'd like it, you know. Closing. Sitting on the step with nothing to sell.
HOLLIS I'd appraise the step.
(A pause.)
HOLLIS One more lamp. At the far end, where the boards stop. I'll pay for the oil.
ADA Nobody comes in from that end after dark, dear.
HOLLIS Two will. Late.
ADA Your Cartographer.
HOLLIS My asset.
Sound: un3 boardwalk steps.
(A pause.)
Sound: match strike.
ADA There.
(A pause.)
Sound: footsteps sand.
PHIL Dale. The lamps.
DALE (sleepy) Boards. Real boards. Put me down, Phil. I never thought I'd be glad to see a plank.
ADA There you are, dears. Mind the step.
PHIL Thank you, Ada. We came the long way.
DALE Phil. They left a light on for me. At the far end, where nobody comes in. You don't do that for a tourist.
Scene: un strand bed.
DALE Atlas. The sand under the outhouses. Nobody's named it. Ashby Row.
Sound: un name.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Name accepted.
A MAN Atlas. The way to the Loud Wood.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS The Loud Wood. East, up Phil Is Allergic Alley.
A MAN Up what?
DALE Phil Is Allergic Alley, sir. The strip behind the Exchange. I did it after breakfast. You're welcome.
AN OLD MAN That's not an alley. That's where the Exchange keeps its crates.
DALE Then the crates are on an alley now, sir. They've gone up in the world.
A WOMAN Mine just sent me to the outhouses by way of Ashby Row.
DALE Ashby Row's the sand, ma'am. The outhouses just stand on it. Same as you're standing on Clam Shell Corner.
A WOMAN Who said you could?
DALE Nobody else was using it.
AN OLD MAN I've been sitting on this bench an hour. Did you do this one?
DALE You're sitting on Dale Square, sir. I did it at seven.
AN OLD MAN I'm sitting on what?
DALE The sand under you. You're my first resident.
AN OLD MAN Well, I'm not getting up. I was here first.
DALE That's the spirit. Every square needs somebody who won't move.
Music: sting transition.
Scene: un shop bed.
Sound: shop bell.
DALE Phil! Hollis! Thirty-one places since breakfast.
HOLLIS Wait your turn, Dale.
A WOMAN The man at the Exchange said the Cartographer stepped off his boat reading your map. So I stepped off my boat reading your map.
HOLLIS And?
A WOMAN Tourist. My Atlas said it out loud. In front of a man selling hats.
HOLLIS No refunds.
A WOMAN Your map has the hill in the sea!
HOLLIS It was a blurry photo.
PHIL Mister Brandt, the morning boat's asking for another two hundred maps. It sold out before it landed.
HOLLIS Tell them twenty dollars. And tell them it's a map, not a class.
A WOMAN You. You're him. I'm a Tourist because of you.
DALE You're welcome. It starts like that, ma'am. First they dress like you, then they read like you.
Sound: shop bell.
DALE Phil, that's a movement.
PHIL Dale. Phil Is Allergic Alley?
DALE You're on the map, Phil. Most people wait their whole lives.
PHIL People are angry.
DALE People are always angry at the developer, Phil. Then they move in. Two hundred thousand people standing on this sand for two weeks, and not one of them put a name on it. My map won't draw a tent or a plank. Fine. Then I'll name what's under it. That's how real estate starts. You find the dirt nobody's naming.
DALE Hollis. Appraise me. I've got a skill now. I've got thirty-one properties.
HOLLIS Minus four thousand and forty dollars.
DALE The same?
HOLLIS Sand's free.
DALE Not anymore. It's got names on.
(A pause.)
DALE Phil. The list. It's been a long morning.
Sound: pencil scratch.
DALE When I inherit the world, Ashby has to use Ashby Row. Every time. Even if he's on the boat, he rows in.
Sound: pencil scratch.
DALE Clem pays me my fee. Whatever it was going to be. Plus whatever it would've grown to.
Sound: pencil scratch.
DALE And everybody who's been rude about Dale Square has to come and sit on it and apologize to it.
PHIL That's worse than the last one.
DALE I'm a property owner now, Phil. It changes a man.
Scene: un strand bed.
Sound: un handbell.
THE CRIER Hear the Crier! Five keys gone, friends, and two to go! One nobody can stay up for, and one nobody can work out! Wonder number two! The Key of the Hill! Condition: Give the hill a name!
A MAN (shouting) Big Hill!
A WOMAN (shouting) Mount Landfall!
AN OLD MAN I shouted Mount Landfall on Tuesday. Nothing.
THE CRIER A week of shouting, friends, and that hill hasn't heard a word! Briefings, a dollar!
Sound: un handbell.
DALE Too loud out here for a man to work. Atlas. The sand under this bench. Nobody's named it, and I've been sitting on it since I came out, which makes it mine. I'd like it to be called Clem Owes Me.
Sound: un name.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Name accepted.
DALE Let him sit on that.
Scene: un strand bed.
Sound: un3 bread cut.
DALE Nell. You're selling on Dale Square.
NELL Then sit down, Map Man, you're blocking the customers. Nana's Sleep Squares! A dollar a square! One little square, one little nap, and you're up fresh! I had one myself at noon, wide awake, out for one minute and up like new!
A MAN One minute?
NELL One minute, sir. On the night watch, are you?
A MAN Twelve hours on the dune watch. Give me two.
NELL Two squares for the gentleman with the spear.
A WOMAN Night desk at the Exchange. The night desk never closes. I'll eat it at the desk.
NELL That's the spirit.
AN OLD MAN I'm in the pier line. Will I lose my place?
NELL Sir, I promise you won't move an inch.
A MAN Night cook. The fish cart. Four, for me and the grill boys.
NELL Four for the grill.
Sound: un handbell.
THE CRIER One for the Crier! He'll save it for the midnight briefing!
NELL For the Crier, on the house.
THE CRIER You're a kind woman, Fairweather, but you're wasting your evening if you're thinking what I think you're thinking. The sentries, the night desk, the pier line, the night cooks and the Crier. Somebody's always up. Nobody's ever been the last one awake in Landfall, and nobody ever will be. The Crier's seen to that since Day One.
NELL I'd never dream of it.
(A pause.)
DALE Nell. I've named forty places today. I named a puddle at ten, and by eleven it had dried up, and I don't know where the name went. My mouth's tired. My feet are tired. I'm going to sit right here on my own square and eat this.
Sound: un4 wax paper.
NELL Is that half a sandwich, Map Man?
DALE Since the pier. I've been saving it for a hard day, and this was the hardest day of naming anybody's ever done.
Sound: munch.
DALE Nana's Sleep Squares. That's a nice name. My Nana makes a sandwich that's very...
Sound: snore.
NELL Night, Map Man.
Music: sting transition.
Scene: un strand night.
Sound: un3 snore chorus.
NELL Atlas. Page seventy-seven.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Wonder number seventy-seven. The Key of Small Hours. Condition: Be the last one awake in Landfall.
NELL Still nobody's. Good.
Sound: snore.
NELL It's very simple, Map Man. A rested woman sleeps for a minute. Everybody else on this beach has been up since Day One.
Sound: snore big.
NELL That's the night desk.
(A pause.)
NELL The pier line's down. Every one of them, still in order. I told him he wouldn't move an inch.
NELL And the grill boys. All four in a heap. Somebody's going to wake up with a fish on his face.
Sound: un handbell.
THE CRIER (sleepy) Fairweather? You still up?
NELL Still up, Crier.
THE CRIER So's the Crier. Midnight briefing's coming, and the Crier's saving his square for it.
(A pause.)
NELL Listen to that, Map Man. Fifteen nights, and this town never shut its eyes once. Listen to it now.
Sound: un3 snore chorus.
(A pause.)
DALE (sleepy) Tummins Pond.
NELL That's the sea, Map Man. You can't have the sea. Go back to sleep.
(A pause.)
NELL I've never been the last one anywhere. I'm always the first one gone. In, and out, and off up the beach before anybody checks their pockets. That's the job. You don't stay to see their faces.
(A pause.)
NELL Are you going to be cross with me, Map Man?
Sound: snore.
NELL Don't answer that.
(A pause.)
NELL Hello. One lantern. Out past the point, on the water. Going away from the shore.
(A pause.)
NELL Who goes out on the water at this time of night?
(A pause.)
Sound: un handbell.
THE CRIER Midnight! The Crier's square, and then the briefing!
Sound: munch.
THE CRIER (sleepy) Hear the Crier. Midnight briefing. Nobody's ever... nobody's ever been...
Sound: snore big.
(A pause.)
Sound: un world riffle.
EVERY ATLAS World event. Wonder number seventy-seven. The Key of Small Hours. Claimed by Nell Fairweather.
(A pause.)
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Reward: Night Eyes. You can see in the dark.
NELL (laughing) Thank you, Nana.
Scene: un strand night.
Sound: un3 snore chorus.
NELL (laughing) Map Man. I can see in the dark. I can see you drooling on Dale Square. I can see every crab hole on the beach, and every star, and the Crier's got his bell in his mouth.
Sound: snore.
NELL You'd love this. You'd want to name all of it.
(A pause.)
Sound: un world riffle.
EVERY ATLAS (whispering) World event. Wonder number two hundred and one. The City Beneath the Sea. Lost. A lost Wonder cannot be rediscovered. World Completion: three point six percent.
(A pause.)
NELL Map Man.
(A pause.)
NELL Wake up.
Sound: snore.
NELL No. Don't.
(A pause.)
NELL The whole page has gone black.
(A pause.)
NELL (whispering) There's that lantern again. Coming back in, across the water.
(A pause.)
NELL (whispering) Out.
Music: sting transition dark.
Scene: tt amb moon shore.
Sound: snore.
PHIL Dale. Dale, it's morning.
DALE (sleepy) It's not morning yet, Nana. I can't smell the cinnamon toast.
PHIL It's Phil. You didn't come back to the tent last night. I've got to open the shop in ten minutes.
DALE I slept on Dale Square, Phil. A man should sleep on his own property. I dreamt I named the sea. Tummins Pond. It went through.
PHIL The snapjacks come right up this far, Dale.
DALE Not onto private property. They respect a line. What's everybody doing on the ground?
A MAN I was on watch the whole night! The Commander's going to have my helmet.
A WOMAN Sun's up, and every lamp on the Strand's still burning.
AN OLD MAN Everybody slept.
Sound: un handbell.
THE CRIER Hear the Crier. The Crier slept, friends. First time since Day One, and he's not proud of it.
THE CRIER Two world events in the night, friends, and only Nell Fairweather heard them. She wrote them down for the Crier. First. The Key of Small Hours. Claimed by Nell Fairweather.
Sound: crowd murmur.
A WOMAN She outlasted the night desk?
DALE Nell got a key, Phil. Good for Nell. When your friends do well, it reflects on you.
THE CRIER And second.
(A pause.)
THE CRIER The City Beneath the Sea. Lost.
Sound: pub hush.
(A pause.)
THE CRIER A lost Wonder cannot be rediscovered.
(A pause.)
DALE Lost where, Phil? Somebody can go and find it.
PHIL No. Lost means gone, Dale. Nobody can ever find it now, or claim it. Not ever.
DALE Lost means somebody lost it. Who lost it?
PHIL Nobody knows, Dale.
DALE It's still in the book, though. It's still a page.
PHIL The page is still there. It just says lost. It can't ever count toward World Completion. So World Completion can never get to a hundred now. Not ever.
(A pause.)
DALE Was it nice? The city under the sea?
PHIL Nobody saw it.
(A pause.)
Sound: footsteps sand.
NELL Can I sit with you, Map Man? I've been up all night, and I can't keep it in.
NELL Last night there was a lantern out past the point, on the water. Hours later it came back, and went out. Nobody goes out there after dark.
(A pause.)
NELL I nearly sold that to the Vanguard for a dollar. Then I just told them. It isn't the sort of thing you sell.
DALE Out on the water? That's Tummins Pond, Nell. Somebody's been on my pond without asking.
NELL (gentle) Oh, Map Man. You and your pond.
NELL I asked my book the time all night. A thousand pages, Map Man, and not one clock.
DALE You should've asked me. I'd have told you it was late.
NELL And I've still got your map. It's folded in my book, at page one thousand. That page says follow the map. I'd hate to be the one who gave it away.
DALE Keep it there till the ribbon comes, Nell. I can't think of a safer book.
(A pause.)
PHIL Dale. I've got to open the shop.
DALE Go on, Phil. I'm staying here with my second friend. She's had a hard night, and she's got my map.
Scene: sea shore.
Sound: wave crash.
DALE Atlas. That. All of it, out to where the sky starts. I'd like it to be called Tummins Pond.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Name refused. The sea is already named.
DALE By who? I've been here a week, and nobody's said its name once.
PHIL Everybody calls it the sea, Dale.
DALE That's not a name, Phil. That's a description. You don't call Nana the old lady.
HOLLIS Last boat's in. Mail's sorted. Snapjacks in twenty minutes. Phil, the lanterns.
PHIL Got them, Mister Brandt.
Sound: un6 first flame.
Sound: crowd gasp.
A WOMAN The Curator's boat!
A MAN It's going up! The whole boat's going up!
HOLLIS No, it isn't. A fire that size, the sails would be gone by now. They're not even smoking.
Music: wonder.
(A pause.)
PHIL Dale. I can feel it on my face. From all the way out here.
DALE Me too.
(A pause.)
PHIL That's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
(A pause.)
DALE Somebody should put a bench here.
Sound: un world riffle.
EVERY ATLAS World event. Wonder number forty-seven. The First Flame. Claimed by Augustine Ashby.
AN OLD MAN Ashby? Ashby doesn't do anything. He buys things.
Sound: un handbell.
THE CRIER Hear the Crier! Straight from the Curator's own boatman, rowed in so fast he's still dripping! The First Flame! Condition: light the First Flame with something you can't replace!
A WOMAN With what?
THE CRIER A painting, friends! An old one, off his own wall! Eleven million dollars, and up it went!
Sound: crowd murmur.
HOLLIS Eleven million dollars for a match. He overpaid.
PHIL Something you can't replace. He did exactly what it said.
DALE I'd have used my map.
PHIL Hollis's map?
DALE If I still had it. Nell's minding it for me till the ribbon comes. You can't replace that, Phil. It's got my autograph on.
HOLLIS I've got forty more in the back.
DALE Not registered.
Sound: fire whoosh.
A MAN Now it's up the mast!
A WOMAN It's lit every lamp on the boat. All at once.
Sound: fire whoosh.
A MAN And now it's a candle. One little candle, on a boat that size.
THE CRIER And here's the joke of it, friends! His new fire only does what he tells it on land he owns, and the Curator doesn't own a yard of ground!
DALE A fire that won't do what it's told. In my line of work, Phil, that's called staff.
AN OLD MAN Eleven million for one page. Fairweather got hers with sandwiches.
A WOMAN Nana's Sleep Squares. I had one. I woke up on the night desk with the stamp on my face.
(A pause.)
DALE Nana's.
Sound: un4 wax paper.
DALE Phil. There's one. There were twelve. Phil, I've been robbed. Nell tricked me out of my Nana's sandwiches.
PHIL You sold them to her.
DALE Sold.
PHIL A dollar each. You wrote her a receipt. You made me listen to the carbon at dinner. Twice.
DALE I gave them to her, Phil. Out of the goodness of my heart. The ten dollars was her idea.
PHIL That's not how I remember it.
Sound: un snapjack.
HOLLIS Snapjacks. Up off the sand, both of you.
Sound: footsteps sand.
PHIL Dale. Last night the City Beneath the Sea went out for good. If finishing means every page in one Atlas, nobody can ever hold a page that's lost. Then nobody finishes. Ever.
DALE Then who gets it? I told Nana I was inheriting the world. I told the pier line. It can't just sit there. Somebody's got to cut the grass.
PHIL Nobody knows, Dale.
DALE Because if it gets split up, I want the part with the pier. That's where the phone is. And not the part next to Ashby.
DALE Hollis. What's my inheritance worth now?
HOLLIS Same as yesterday.
DALE It didn't drop?
HOLLIS Nothing doesn't drop.
DALE Phil. I'm the only man on this beach who didn't lose a thing today.
Scene: un5 point bed.
Sound: lib surface.
A MAN (out of breath) Rope! Somebody throw me the rope!
PHIL Here! Mister Brandt sent sixty feet. Grab on.
Sound: rope creak.
DALE Welcome back up, sir. Dale Tummins, Cartographer. How's the bottom?
A MAN Cold. Dark. There's fish down there the size of a door, and they light up when you swim past.
DALE Then you'll want a map. A map of the seabed, ten dollars. It's the only one there is.
A MAN You've been down there?
DALE Every rock on this point's in my book. Underneath is the same, only wetter.
Sound: wave crash.
PHIL (shouting) Dale! Back from the edge!
DALE I've got Sure Footing, Phil. Nothing knocks me over.
PHIL It doesn't make you float.
Sound: lib surface.
A WOMAN (out of breath) Wren. Wren, come here. Quietly.
(A pause.)
WREN Cracked? Right across the top of the dome? And it didn't come from underneath, and it didn't come from the sea, it came from above? Somebody broke it on purpose?
A WOMAN Quietly, Wren.
WREN Sorry. I say it as I write it.
DALE Somebody broke in? Then it's a fixer-upper.
PHIL It's gone, Dale. All of it.
(A pause.)
DALE Commander! Did you get my bill?
STROUD I got it. Wren.
WREN It's cracked, Commander. From above, on purpose. I've already told everybody.
STROUD I heard you from the path.
WREN Who'd do that?
STROUD Somebody who doesn't want anybody to finish.
WREN On the Strand they're already calling whoever it is the Burner.
STROUD Nothing was burned.
WREN People just like a name for things.
DALE Names are my department. I'd have gone with something catchier.
STROUD Tummins. You told the whole Strand you'd inherit the world, and here you are the morning after, selling maps of the seabed. Where were you last night?
DALE (proud) Asleep on Dale Square, Commander. On my own, all night, with the Key Underfoot in my book, under my head.
STROUD Alone.
DALE I'm a very private sleeper.
PHIL Dale. She's asking if it was you.
DALE Me? I'd never break a city, Commander. I'd rent it out.
(A pause.)
DALE And I wasn't alone. Ask Nell. She was up all night. She saw a lantern go out on the water and come back, and I was on Dale Square the whole time.
WREN She told me the same this morning, Commander, for nothing. And she said she watched the map man drool all night.
STROUD Lanterns are everywhere, Wren.
WREN Not out over the water. Not past the point. Not where the divers were.
(A pause.)
STROUD Find the lantern.
DALE That's an alibi, Phil. My first one. I set it up myself. I went to sleep where a witness could see me.
STROUD Whoever this is, they won't stop at one. If I wanted to make sure nobody ever finished, I wouldn't waste myself on a city nobody had found. I'd go for the one everybody can see.
DALE My city? Then somebody ought to be living in it, Commander. Nobody breaks into a house with a man asleep in it.
STROUD Nobody's sleeping in it, Tummins. It's a fortress, and somebody has to hold it.
WREN Atlas. The quickest way back to the Fort.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS The Fort. North, past Dale Square.
STROUD Past what?
WREN Dale Square. He names the sand, and every Atlas on the beach uses his names.
(A pause.)
STROUD Tummins. Tomorrow at noon, the Vanguard will escort you up the hill.
DALE What for?
STROUD The view. Wren, arrange it.
Sound: wave crash.
WREN Noon at the bottom of the path, sir. With the Commander's compliments.
PHIL After my shift. I open at six.
WREN The Commander said one of you would say that.
DALE I didn't say anything. Phil said it.
WREN She said you'd say that too. And bring the book. She says you'll forget the book.
DALE I never forget the book. It's attached to me.
(A pause.)
DALE An escort, Phil. That's how they do it for ambassadors. A suspect and an ambassador before lunch. That's a career.
Scene: un shop bed.
HOLLIS Thirty-eight lanterns. Thirty-nine.
PHIL Hollis, one minute. You too, Dale. Put the hat back. The Key Underfoot. Find the key everyone walks over. Where was it?
DALE Under a plank I had to rent a crowbar for. Don't make it sound easy, Phil. There was digging.
PHIL Under the Strand. Two hundred thousand people walked over it. It was a key, and it was underfoot.
HOLLIS Forty.
PHIL The Loud Wood. Make the Loud Wood quiet. So the wood went quiet. Stroud. Stand on the Far Rock with dry feet.
HOLLIS Twelve shields so she didn't get her socks wet. Nine dollars a shield. She left them for the tide.
DALE I was out there, Phil. I'd have just said her feet were dry. Who's checking?
PHIL The rock was checking. Walter Hobb. Wait for it. He sat on a stone for six days and waited.
DALE I sat in the Sudsy Duck for a whole spin cycle once, Phil. Forty minutes. Nobody gave me a key.
PHIL Nell. Be the last one awake in Landfall. She stayed up. That's all she did.
HOLLIS Forty-one.
PHIL Everybody on this beach is looking for the trick. A riddle, a code, a secret door. Ashby hired a man to read the conditions backwards. There's no trick.
Sound: pencil scratch.
PHIL Rule Seven. They mean what they say.
DALE You're catching up, Phil. I'm already on ten. Rule ten. Whoever finds the first key gets the rest at a discount.
(A pause.)
DALE You're not writing.
PHIL No.
DALE Write it small. It's a small rule.
PHIL And the one nobody can work out. The Key of the Hill. Give the hill a name.
HOLLIS Everybody with a voice has been up that path this week. I sold them the water.
PHIL Green Hill. Glory Hill. One man named it after his wife, and she made him go back up and take it off.
HOLLIS It's still the hill.
PHIL Because shouting a name isn't giving one. You can yell at a hill all day. A name sticks when somebody puts it on a map.
HOLLIS Nobody has a map. Mine don't count. I drew mine off a photograph.
(A pause.)
DALE I've got a map.
PHIL You've got a map.
DALE Phil. That hill's in the back of my book. I walked up it. I drew it with my own feet, in my own Atlas, and I didn't even ask anybody. That's my hill. It's been waiting for me all week, and I've been down here naming a bench.
HOLLIS Forty-two. Phil, that conversation's worth about a hundred thousand dollars. It's the first time Dale's been in a room with more than he's worth.
DALE Everything's worth more than me, Hollis. A spoon is. I've stopped taking it personally.
(A pause.)
PHIL That's why the Commander's sending an escort, Dale. She worked it out on the point.
DALE She's sending an escort because I'm an ambassador, Phil. She said so. More or less. She said the view.
(A pause.)
DALE Tummins Heights. No. Dale's Rise. The Uplands of Dale Tummins, Consultant.
PHIL Dale. Not to the Atlas. Not till we're up there.
DALE I'm warming up, Phil. You don't name a hill cold. You'd pull something. The Hill of Dale. The Dale. Just The Dale. Hollis, how do you say Tummins in Latin?
HOLLIS Forty-three.
Scene: un hill bed.
DALE Mount Tummins the Magnificent.
WREN Should I write that one down too, sir?
DALE Write them all down, Wren. A man only names a hill once. Phil, keep up.
PHIL I'm carrying the suitcase, Dale.
DALE And you're very good at it. Dale's Peak. Short. Punchy. Wren, is that a place people would want to live?
WREN It sounds like a place people would want to climb once, sir.
DALE That's the Vanguard in you. You'll grow out of it. Big Dale.
WREN Big Dale's very easy to say, sir.
DALE That's what worries me. People would start saying it about me, and then I'd have to be big.
WREN The Commander says the name doesn't matter, sir. She says it's what happens after.
DALE After's my favorite part. That's when they bring the food. Is this the top? Phil, tell me this is the top.
STROUD Tummins.
DALE Commander. Thank you for the escort. I've been escorted plenty of places, but never anywhere I wanted to go.
NELL Afternoon, Map Man.
DALE Nell. You came all the way up to watch me.
NELL I'd never miss you.
STROUD Fairweather. Nobody invited you.
NELL Nobody ever invites me. Good luck buying his page, Commander. I got something out of his book once for a corn dog, and it wasn't even the thing I wanted.
DALE It was a very good corn dog, Commander. She's right to bring it up.
STROUD You've got the book. The hill's on your map. Name it.
DALE Give me a second. I want to get the feel of it.
(A pause.)
PHIL Dale?
DALE Nana would like it up here.
PHIL She would.
DALE She'd bring a folding chair, and she'd sit right there with her back to the city, and watch the boats come in. She likes watching people get where they're going. She does it at the bus stop.
(A pause.)
DALE Nana's Hill.
Sound: un name.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Name accepted.
Sound: un keyhole.
Sound: un world riffle.
EVERY ATLAS World event. Wonder number two. The Key of the Hill. Claimed by Dale Tummins.
(A pause.)
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Reward: Lookout. From any high place you can see clear to the horizon.
Sound: un level up.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Level Four.
(A pause.)
DALE Phil, that came out before I got to me. Can I add and Dale on the end? Nana's Hill and Dale. It's got a ring to it.
PHIL Hill and dale is already a thing, Dale. It means hills and valleys.
DALE Then it's catchy. Atlas, define permanent.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Permanent. Adjective. Lasting forever. See also: Names.
DALE It's not even sorry. That's fine. Nana always lets me use her things.
Sound: un far snore.
WREN There's that thunder again, Commander.
STROUD Ignore it. Tummins. Two hundred thousand dollars for the page. Tonight, at the Fort.
DALE Commander, I'd love to. In my line of work, two hundred thousand is a whole career. But it's got her name on it now.
STROUD It's a page.
DALE It's Nana's. You don't sell a thing with your Nana's name on it. She'd find out. She always finds out. She found out about the change machine, and I was in a different town.
STROUD Three hundred.
DALE It's not for sale, Commander. It's Nana's.
(A pause.)
NELL Good luck, Commander.
STROUD You said that.
NELL I mean it more now.
Scene: un exchange bed.
Sound: un gull flock.
DALE Hollis. When they come in, do I stand up? Phil says always stand at an interview.
HOLLIS It isn't an interview. Sit. Don't sell anything.
ASHBY Forgive them. They wait outside every door I go through now. It's like having a very loud household.
HOLLIS Sit down, Mister Ashby. You're shedding feathers on my ledger.
ASHBY Am I? They do get into the lapels.
HOLLIS That suit was nine hundred dollars this morning. Six hundred now.
ASHBY They're very devoted.
HOLLIS They're very regular.
Sound: un3 gull splat.
HOLLIS Five hundred.
HOLLIS Three of you, and Dale, one table. Nobody leaves till it's done. I've got a man on the flap. Here's the count. Tummins, two. Brumley, one. Mister Ashby, two. The Commander, one. Fairweather, one.
DALE Two each, Mister Ashby. You and me, at the top.
NELL Seven keys.
HOLLIS And one hand. It's carved over the gate.
DALE They left me a note about that.
STROUD Then it's my hand. The Vanguard is four hundred hands.
ASHBY Four hundred, Commander, and the stone asks for one. I'd be glad to hold them. I hold things beautifully. It's the only thing I do.
NELL You'd hold them on a boat, and we'd never see them again.
ASHBY You'd see them. From the beach.
STROUD Nobody at this table hands a key to anybody else at this table. And somebody out there cracks Wonders like eggs. That gate opens this week, or never.
DALE Then you want somebody who can start right away. I'm free tomorrow. I'm free most days.
(A pause.)
HOLLIS Page one says move in. Before anybody moves anywhere, tell me what you think that means. Commander.
STROUD Take it and hold it. The Vanguard moves in, and nobody moves us out.
Sound: pencil scratch.
HOLLIS Mister Ashby.
ASHBY My collection moves in. A city is only a display case with streets, Mister Brandt. The treasury, I think. It's the right size, and it locks.
Sound: pencil scratch.
HOLLIS Fairweather.
NELL Move in on it. The way you move in on anything. Whatever's in that vault, I want to be the first one standing next to it.
Sound: pencil scratch.
DALE Move in. I know this one. It means...
HOLLIS Nobody asked you, Dale.
DALE Fair. You save your strong answers for the second interview.
HOLLIS Then here's my proposal. You lend all seven to Dale Tummins, and he opens it.
(A pause.)
STROUD Tummins.
DALE I accept. And Phil will lend me his. Phil lends me everything.
STROUD Brandt. Why him?
HOLLIS He doesn't know what a key is worth, so nobody can buy him. And he won't sell any of you out, because he can't count that high.
DALE I can count to a dollar. Ask Nell.
NELL He can. I've got the receipt.
ASHBY A man who can't be bought. I've heard of them. I've never owned one.
DALE I'm available to rent.
STROUD He'll make a speech.
DALE I've already started it.
NELL He'll make a long speech. He'll thank people who aren't there.
HOLLIS He'll make it to the gate. That's all I need from him. I brought him here to carry crates, and he never made it to the crates.
DALE I was on my way to the crates, Hollis. Things kept coming up. Keys, mostly.
STROUD My condition. Only the key holders go in, with their own people, and nobody else. Once they're through, the Vanguard shuts that gate behind them and holds it till morning. Nobody gets trampled, and nobody walks in on our backs.
HOLLIS Mister Ashby?
ASHBY Agreed.
NELL Agreed.
HOLLIS And every page goes straight back to its holder the moment that gate opens. There'll be collateral to make sure of it.
ASHBY Collateral. Forgive me. What does Mister Tummins own?
STROUD A bucket. Wren reported it.
ASHBY (laughing) A bucket. Ah, dear.
(A pause.)
NELL (gentle) He's nice to me.
(A pause.)
DALE And a suitcase. Everything I own's in it.
(A pause.)
HOLLIS Thank you, Dale.
Sound: pencil scratch.
Scene: un shop bed.
DALE Phil. Sit down. You want to be sitting for this. I got picked.
PHIL Picked. By who?
DALE All of them, Phil. The Commander, Nell, Mister Ashby and Hollis. First pick. I've never been first pick for anything. In the fourth grade I went after a goldfish.
PHIL They picked you?
HOLLIS Four people who don't trust each other picked the one man they don't have to.
DALE That's first pick, Phil. Nobody even had to argue.
PHIL Picked for what?
DALE That's the one thing they didn't say. Captain, I think. King of the hill.
HOLLIS Doorman.
(A pause.)
DALE Doorman of a city, Hollis. That's the top doorman there is. Every other doorman reports to me.
HOLLIS You walk up the hill with seven keys. You put your hand on the gate. Everybody goes in. Then you hand the keys back.
DALE Back. Hollis, that's not how keys work. When somebody gives you a key, it's an invitation. You don't hand it back. You come over.
HOLLIS You hand it back, or I keep your collateral.
DALE Do I get a hat?
HOLLIS No.
DALE A doorman without a hat is just a man standing near a door, Hollis. People will walk right past me.
Sound: door knock.
WREN Commander Stroud, sir.
STROUD Tummins. Stand still. You're borrowing it.
Sound: un page tear.
Sound: un page bind.
DALE Commander, I'll keep it near the front. Where people can see it.
STROUD Keep it shut. Wren.
WREN Coming, Commander. Good night, Mister Tummins. Good luck with the door.
NELL Map Man. Hold out the book, and don't put this one in the wrong place.
Sound: un page tear.
Sound: un page bind.
DALE You trust me, Nell.
NELL No. But I like you. It's a different department.
(A pause.)
Sound: un page tear.
Sound: un page bind.
DALE That's the trouble with you, Phil. No sense of occasion. You hand a man a key, you say something. Here's to the city. Go get them. Anything.
(A pause.)
ASHBY Ah, Mister Tummins. I won't sit. My launch is waiting, and the light's going.
DALE Mister Ashby. You're a busy man. Two keys. Take your time.
ASHBY This one first, I think. Gladly.
Sound: un page tear.
Sound: un page bind.
ASHBY And the birds.
Sound: un gull flock.
DALE Fans.
Sound: sneeze.
ASHBY And this one I shall want back. It cost a man six days of sitting still.
Sound: un page tear.
Sound: un page bind.
Sound: un world riffle.
EVERY ATLAS World event. Set complete. The Seven Impossible Keys. Held by Dale Tummins.
(A pause.)
DALE Atlas, page one.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Wonder number one. The Sealed City. Condition: Move in. Note: the gate opens for one hand holding seven keys.
PHIL (whispering) Dale. The whole city.
DALE I'm having the little one by the wall. With the box on the window. Phil, put my name on it.
PHIL It's a picture, Dale.
DALE It's a brochure.
ASHBY Good night, Mister Tummins. Do keep the birds fed. They like to be thanked.
HOLLIS Phil. The suitcase.
DALE No. Hollis, no. Everything I own is in there.
HOLLIS That's why. You offered.
DALE I was being polite, Hollis. You don't take a man up on polite.
PHIL Dale. Let go of the handle.
DALE What if I need my slippers in the night?
HOLLIS You'll have a city. There's a ten dollar collateral handling fee.
DALE Put it on my account.
Sound: pencil scratch.
HOLLIS Four thousand and fifty.
Music: sting transition.
Scene: un pier bed.
Sound: un gull flock.
A WOMAN Why are there so many birds?
A MAN Those are his birds. He came with them.
Sound: phone ring.
NANA Sudsy Duck, this is Nana.
DALE Nana, it's Dale. I can't stay long. I'm opening a city tomorrow.
NANA That's nice, honey. Wear a jacket. It's always windy anywhere they put a city.
DALE They picked me, Nana. Out of everybody. Four people who can't stand each other, and every one of them picked me.
NANA Well, of course they did.
DALE And I might live there. There's a little house by the wall.
NANA Well, honey, it's not your place till you've slept in it.
DALE It's got a window box.
NANA Then you'll want something in it. Geraniums are hard to hurt. Is Phil going to live there too?
DALE Phil's got a tent, Nana. He loves that tent.
NANA Hold on, honey. I've got the iron on.
(A pause.)
NANA There. Go on.
DALE I'm the doorman, Nana. Nobody gets in that city unless I open the door.
NANA Then hold it for people, honey.
(A pause.)
DALE I'll think about it.
Scene: un hill bed.
WREN Mister Tummins. It's Wren, sir. The Commander sent me to walk you through the order of the day.
DALE Go ahead, Wren. You do yours, I'll do mine. Friends. Neighbors. People of Landfall.
WREN The ropes go up at first light. Our people hold the crowd behind them.
DALE When I first set foot on this beach, I was holding a map. Upside down. And some people said, Dale, that map's upside down.
WREN The four parties stand at the chalk. You, the Vanguard, Mister Ashby and Fairweather.
DALE And I said, it's an island. It's the same both ways. Is that a good part, Wren? Be honest.
WREN The whole row heard it last night, sir. Somebody threw a boot at your tent around three.
DALE And I thanked them for it. That's in part two.
WREN Brandt blows the whistle. The parties go through. Then we swing the gate shut behind them, at once, and hold it till morning. Nobody else gets in. Not one tourist with a sword.
DALE Then I'll stand right here, by the hinge, where they can all see me. Wren. What's this little one for? Down by my knee.
WREN A door, sir. We've never got it open.
Sound: door knock.
DALE Nobody home. And no handle. A door with no handle, Wren. That's a door for leaving. Every good building's got one.
WREN How do you know?
DALE The Sudsy Duck's got one out the back. You can go out, but you can't come in. That's how Nana gets rid of people at closing.
WREN So it opens from inside. People can go out, and nobody comes in.
DALE Write that down. That's a consultation.
Sound: pencil scratch.
WREN I'll tell the Commander you found it, sir. And that you didn't charge.
DALE I didn't charge yet.
Music: sting transition.
Scene: gf tournament crowd.
HOLLIS Programs. Souvenir programs, ten dollars. Every party, every key, and the order of the day.
A KID Mum, can we get one?
A WOMAN Ten dollars for a piece of paper?
HOLLIS A piece of paper on the day the city opened. In a week it's twenty.
DALE Am I in it?
HOLLIS Page two. Doorman.
DALE Page two. That's practically the cover. Put it on my account.
Sound: pencil scratch.
HOLLIS Four thousand and sixty.
ASHBY Good morning, Mister Tummins. I've brought one or two small things. Forty carts.
DALE Furniture. Mister Ashby, that's exactly what I'd bring.
STROUD Tummins. Hand on the stone. The keys turn. Whistle. Then you stand aside.
DALE Aside, Commander? I'm the doorman.
STROUD Then stand aside like one.
PHIL Dale. You didn't sleep.
DALE A man doesn't sleep the night before the biggest speech of his life, Phil. I'll sleep tomorrow. I'll sleep for a week. Folks. Folks, can I have your attention?
Sound: crowd murmur.
AN OLD MAN Who's that?
A WOMAN The doorman.
DALE Thank you. I won't take long. I'd like to thank Nana, who couldn't be here, because somebody has to watch the dryers. I'd like to thank the snapjack that took my shoe, wherever it is now. I've forgiven it. It hasn't written.
A MAN Open the gate!
DALE I'd like to thank Hollis, for the crowbar. I'd like to thank the Commander, for the escort, and Mister Ashby, for his patience, which I now hold. And I'd like to thank myself, which I know is unusual, but if I don't, who will? Part two.
PHIL Dale. The gate.
DALE I was getting to the gate. The gate's in part four.
PHIL Dale.
DALE Fine. But I'm putting the rest in the program. Hand on the stone.
(A pause.)
Sound: un keyhole.
THE CROWD One!
Sound: un keyhole.
THE CROWD Two!
Sound: un keyhole.
THE CROWD Three!
Sound: un keyhole.
Sound: un keyhole.
Sound: un keyhole.
A KID Six!
Sound: un keyhole.
THE CROWD Seven!
Sound: un gate open.
(A pause.)
Sound: coach whistle.
STROUD (shouting) Vanguard! Through!
Sound: un crowd surge.
ASHBY Carters, mind the frames, please. Round the gentleman.
DALE Excuse me. Doorman. I'm the doorman. You go through the doorman. You don't go round him like he's a pole.
A MAN (shouting) Go round him!
A WOMAN He won't fall over! I hit him with a cart!
NELL Morning, Map Man!
HOLLIS Broker. Coming through. Mind the suitcase.
DALE Hollis! That's everything I own, in a crowd! Hold it up high, where they can't get at it!
HOLLIS It's collateral, Dale. Nobody wants it.
DALE Phil, they can't knock me down. A hundred of them have tried, and I'm still up. That's a doorman.
PHIL That's Sure Footing, Dale. Grab my arm. I've got you.
STROUD (shouting) Last party's through! Shut it!
Sound: gate closing.
Scene: un city bed.
(A pause.)
DALE Phil. Did you hear how quiet that got?
PHIL I heard.
DALE That's respect. You know why they picked me, Phil? Natural leadership. Four people looked around a room, and they saw a leader.
PHIL That's not how I remember it.
DALE You weren't even in the room.
PHIL Nell was. She did your voice.
Scene: un city bed.
Sound: un quill.
DALE Phil. It's drawing. It's on the map now, Phil.
PHIL Hold the book still.
Sound: un quill.
DALE Every corner I turn, there's more of it. Eight days I've had a hole in my book, right in the middle, like somebody cut out a coupon. Now it's streets.
Sound: mc fountain loop.
PHIL Nobody's seen these streets since whoever built them. And that fountain never stopped. I'd give a lot to know where it's coming from.
DALE Somebody's paying that water bill, Phil, and it isn't going to be me.
Sound: un quill.
DALE You can tell nobody's lived here for a while. There's not one sock on a line. A whole city, Phil, and nobody's done a wash.
PHIL But somebody sweeps. Not a leaf on these steps, Dale. Not a speck. All week on that beach, and I've never seen anything this clean.
Sound: un6 whisk snore.
DALE Phil. The wall's snoring.
Sound: pencil scratch.
PHIL (whispering) Don't touch it. Specimen one. Stone feet. A back like a scrubbing brush. Asleep by the door.
DALE It's a boot brush with legs. Every good house has one by the door. You wipe your feet on it.
PHIL Don't wipe your feet on it. Atlas. What are these?
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Not listed.
PHIL Then nobody's ever named them. Whisks. I'm calling them whisks.
(A pause.)
PHIL That's the first species I've ever named, Dale. I came all this way for one, and there's one asleep by every door.
DALE Congratulations, Phil. Put it on the list. Under mine.
Sound: un6 whisk snore.
PHIL Asleep in the day. I wonder what they do at night.
DALE Same as Nana at closing, Phil. Clean up after the guests.
Sound: un quill.
STROUD Tummins.
DALE Commander. You found me. I'm just mapping.
STROUD The pages.
DALE Now, Commander. I want to say something about that. In my line of work, possession is nine tenths.
STROUD Nine tenths of what?
DALE Of the law. I don't know what the other tenth is. Probably paperwork. And the pages are used to me now. They've settled in. You can't move a page the minute it's settled. It's like moving a cat.
NELL Map Man. I gave you mine last night with a smile on my face.
ASHBY The gate opened, Mister Tummins. I was there. I was nearly run over by my own carters.
DALE Phil, back me up.
PHIL Dale.
(A pause.)
DALE Fine. But I'm doing it slowly. Commander.
Sound: un page tear.
Sound: un page bind.
STROUD You held seven keys all night, Tummins, and you didn't sell one. Brandt was right about you.
DALE Thank you, Commander.
STROUD It wasn't a compliment.
DALE Nell.
Sound: un page tear.
Sound: un page bind.
NELL Thanks, Map Man. I knew you would. Phil only had to say your name once. I'm off to the vault. If anybody wants me, don't.
DALE Phil. Here. You'll only lose it.
Sound: un page tear.
Sound: un page bind.
PHIL Thank you.
DALE Mister Ashby. The waiting one.
Sound: un page tear.
Sound: un page bind.
ASHBY Thank you. Six days of a man's patience, back where it belongs.
DALE And the bird one. I don't want to keep anything that isn't mine. That's how people talk.
ASHBY Keep the birds.
Sound: un gull flock.
DALE Mister Ashby, a deal's a deal.
ASHBY Then let's call it a gift. I collect everything, Mister Tummins, except noise. Good day. My carters are waiting, and the treasury is enormous.
HOLLIS Dale. Your suitcase. Pages are back, so the collateral's released.
DALE Did anybody open it?
HOLLIS I appraised it. Six dollars, with the socks.
DALE Six dollars. Phil, that's everything I own, and it's worth less than a shield.
PHIL I've got it, Dale.
HOLLIS Then that's me. I've got a shop on the Strand, and it's not selling anything while I'm up here.
DALE Hollis, it's a whole city. Stay. Have a look round. Pick a house.
HOLLIS I sleep over my stock, Dale. Phil. Six o'clock.
PHIL Six o'clock.
Sound: un4 little door.
Music: sting transition.
Scene: herod palace.
STROUD Nobody sleeps tonight. We hold it till morning.
THE CROWD Yes, Commander!
STROUD Two on every door. Lamps on every landing. Anybody yawns, the one next to them reports it.
DALE Evening, Commander. Don't mind us. Phil and I are taking a shortcut to the houses.
STROUD Wren. Positions.
WREN Mister Ashby's carts are still coming up the main street, Commander. Fairweather went down the vault stairs and hasn't come up. Brandt went out the little door this morning. And the map man's said this one's got a view about forty times since lunch.
DALE They've all got a view, Wren. That's the trouble with a hill. You have to pick.
WREN Commander. What if move in means something else?
STROUD Such as.
WREN Atlas. Define move in.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Move in. Verb. To begin to live in a new home. See also: Unpacking.
(A pause.)
STROUD Nobody's unpacking, Wren. We're soldiers. It means take it and hold it. We've taken it. Now we hold it.
WREN Yes, Commander. And the little brushes, Commander? There's one asleep by every door in the palace.
STROUD Then let them sleep. Somebody in this city should.
DALE Unpacking. Phil. When you unpack, where do the socks go? Do they get a drawer, or do they stay in the suitcase, like at the Duck?
PHIL They get a drawer, Dale.
DALE Nana's socks don't match. That's a lot of drawers.
(A pause.)
A MAN Commander, can we sit down?
STROUD Sitting is how sleeping starts. Stand.
Scene: un city bed.
Sound: un4 handcarts.
ASHBY The landscapes along the north wall, please. The little sea paintings by the window. Gently. They've never seen a window.
A MAN That's the last cart, Mister Ashby. Where do you want us tonight? Plenty of empty beds up here, sir. A hundred in this street alone.
ASHBY Nowhere here, I'm afraid. I never sleep where I shop, and neither does anyone I pay. Everyone out by the little door, please. The launch is at the pier, and the light is going.
DALE You're leaving, Mister Ashby? You just moved your whole collection in.
ASHBY Ah. Every evening, Mister Tummins. Listen to it, though. A whole city with nobody in it. It's the quietest room I've ever owned a corner of. Good evening.
A MAN Right you are, sir. Carters! Out!
A WOMAN Out only, sir. Nobody back in till morning. Commander's orders.
Sound: un4 little door.
(A pause.)
DALE Phil. All those empty beds, and everybody's going home to sleep somewhere else.
PHIL Hollis went this morning. Now the carters.
DALE Vacancies, Phil. In my line of work, you snap those up before somebody notices.
(A pause.)
DALE This one.
PHIL Dale, there are a hundred houses on this street.
DALE This one's got the box on the window. It's the one from my brochure. And you can see the sea from the step. I've never had a step you could see anything from but the bins.
PHIL You'll want something in that box.
DALE Geraniums. Nana says they're hard to hurt.
PHIL Then geraniums.
Sound: door creak.
Scene: un house night.
DALE Two rooms, Phil. A room for sleeping and a room for not sleeping. I've always had to do both in one.
PHIL Here.
Sound: un4 suitcase down.
Sound: un level up.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Level Nine.
DALE You got a level for putting my suitcase down.
PHIL I've been carrying it a long way.
DALE Nana says it's not your place till you've slept in it. So tonight it's still just a house.
(A pause.)
PHIL I've got the shop at six. The Vanguard will let me out the little door.
DALE There's two rooms, Phil.
PHIL It's your place, Dale. Sleep in it.
(A pause.)
DALE Goodnight, Phil.
PHIL Goodnight, Dale.
Sound: jn door into night.
(A pause.)
DALE Atlas. It's just you and me.
Sound: zipper.
DALE Slippers. By the bed, where you can find them in the dark. That's where Nana keeps hers. Toothbrush. Nana's socks. She sent a whole bag of strangers, Atlas. Not one of them matches. I'll find them each a drawer.
DALE The suitcase goes under the bed. Empty. I've never had it empty, Atlas. I didn't know it had a bottom.
DALE And Nana's picture goes on the windowsill. Facing in. So she can see the place.
(A pause.)
DALE Atlas. Is this how you do it?
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Not listed.
(A pause.)
DALE (gentle) I've never had my own place. Forty-some years. I've had a room over a laundromat, and a tent Phil paid for, and the back of a boat. This is the first door that's mine.
(A pause.)
DALE Tell Phil in the morning. Last thing for the list. When I inherit the world, I want a doormat that says Dale. Just Dale. So people know whose step it is before they knock.
Sound: bed creak.
Sound: un4 wax paper.
DALE (sleepy) Nana said don't eat them all at once. This is the last one. That's not all at once.
Sound: un far snore.
(A pause.)
DALE (sleepy) Night, thunder.
(A pause.)
Sound: snore.
(A pause.)
Sound: un6 whisks wake.
Music: sting transition dark.
Scene: un house night.
Sound: snore.
Sound: un6 whisk sweep.
(A pause.)
Sound: door creak.
PHIL (whispering) Dale. Dale, wake up. Something's sweeping the street.
Sound: snore.
PHIL I got as far as the little door, Dale. The whisks are awake. All of them. They were sweeping two of the Commander's sentries out of it like crumbs.
DALE (sleepy) Tell them we gave at the office.
PHIL Dale!
Sound: snore.
PHIL He ate the last sandwich. He won't wake up till morning.
Sound: door bang.
NELL (out of breath) Phil! Shut it! Shut the door!
Sound: door slam.
PHIL Nell?
NELL They came down the vault stairs. Fifty of them, brushing. They brushed me up four flights like I was dust. I've been running round this city in the dark for an hour. I can see in the dark, Phil, and tonight I didn't want to.
Sound: un6 whisk bump.
NELL They're at the door.
PHIL They're putting everybody out. Everybody who doesn't live here goes out the little door. It's closing time.
NELL Then let them have me. I don't live here.
PHIL Neither does Dale.
NELL He's asleep in his own bed.
PHIL It isn't his bed till morning. His Nana told him. It's not your place till you've slept in it.
(A pause.)
NELL And if they sweep him out before morning?
PHIL Then he never slept in it. Then it's never his.
Sound: un6 whisk bump.
DALE (sleepy) Nobody's home.
NELL Don't say that, Map Man!
PHIL The suitcase, Nell. Under the bed.
NELL It's empty, Phil.
PHIL It doesn't have to be full. It has to be carried. Anything I carry to protect him is a shield, and it won't break.
Sound: door bang.
Sound: un6 whisk sweep.
PHIL (shouting) I can't see a thing! Nell, call them!
Sound: un6 whisk bump.
NELL Two on the left! Going for the bed!
PHIL Got them!
Sound: un6 whisk bump.
NELL More at the window! They're pushing it up!
Sound: window thrown up.
NELL Shoo! Go on! I've been chased by better brushes than you!
Sound: bed creak.
DALE (sleepy) Nana. The bus is moving.
NELL Phil, they've got the bed! They're pushing the whole bed, with him in it!
PHIL Sit on it!
NELL I'm sitting! They're still pushing!
PHIL Then hold on to him. I'll hold the bed.
Sound: un6 whisk bump.
NELL Phil. In the doorway. There's a big one. Old. Bald on top. All the little ones have stopped. They're waiting on it.
PHIL Has it got ears?
NELL I don't think it's got anything. It's mostly broom.
PHIL It's an animal. Hush works on one animal, if I talk to it.
NELL What are you going to say to it?
(A pause.)
PHIL (calm) Nitrogen makes up about seventy-eight percent of the air.
NELL Oh, Phil.
PHIL But most living things can't use it the way it comes. So bacteria in the soil fix it. They turn it into ammonia.
Sound: un6 whisk snore.
NELL (whispering) It's swaying.
PHIL Then other bacteria turn the ammonia into nitrites. And then into nitrates. Which the plants take up through their roots.
Sound: un6 whisk snore.
NELL (whispering) It's sat down. Every one in here's sat down round it, Phil. Quiet as a classroom.
PHIL (whispering) Every class I've ever taught.
(A pause.)
Sound: un4 little door.
NELL (whispering) Out the window. The ones in the street are still going. They open the little door and brush them through. That's the Vanguard. Nine. Ten. That's the Commander, still holding her sword.
STROUD (shouting) Hold the line!
Sound: un4 little door.
NELL Not anymore.
PHIL Keep your voice down. If the big one wakes up, I've got photosynthesis, and then I've got nothing.
(A pause.)
NELL Why did you come back, Phil? You were at the door. You had a tent, and the shop at six.
PHIL He's never had a place. Forty-some years, and never a door that was his.
NELL He'll never know you did this.
PHIL That's all right. He'll say he did it anyway.
DALE (sleepy) I did it.
(A pause.)
NELL (laughing) Go back to sleep, Map Man.
Music: sw night fall.
(A pause.)
NELL Phil. It's getting light. They're going. Back to the doors, every one of them, and the big one last.
PHIL Is he still here?
NELL Still here. Still drooling.
PHIL Then he slept in it.
Sound: snore.
Music: sting transition.
Scene: un4 house dawn.
Sound: snore.
(A pause.)
Sound: un world riffle.
EVERY ATLAS World event. Wonder number one. The Sealed City. Claimed by Dale Tummins. World Completion: four point one percent.
(A pause.)
DALE (sleepy) Somebody said my name.
Scene: mz road low tide highway.
A WOMAN Morning, Ada. The Map Man. The Map Man's got the city.
Sound: un lamp out.
ADA Well.
Scene: un4 house dawn.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Reward: authority. The Sealed City. Its holder decides who may live in it.
Sound: un level up.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Level Five.
(A pause.)
DALE (sleepy) Morning, Nana. I slept right through. It's a good bed. Somebody left it here for me.
DALE Phil? What are you doing on the floor? There's two rooms.
PHIL (sleepy) Morning, Dale.
DALE Nell? Why's Nell on my floor with my suitcase? Phil, did I have a party?
NELL (sleepy) You had a party, Map Man.
DALE Best night's sleep of my life. Not a peep. Not one. Atlas. This street is Quiet Street.
Sound: un name.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Name accepted.
NELL (laughing) Quiet Street.
DALE Atlas. Say the first part again. Slowly. I want to hear it with my eyes open.
Sound: un atlas.
THE ATLAS Entry. Reward: authority. The Sealed City. Its holder decides who may live in it.
DALE Decides who may live in it. That's Nana at closing time. She decides who stays for the last load.
(A pause.)
DALE Then Phil lives here. In the room for not sleeping. You've had enough of that tent.
(A pause.)
PHIL Thank you, Dale.
DALE And Nell. You can have the vault. It's tidy.
NELL (gentle) Nobody's ever asked me to stay anywhere, Map Man. Mostly they check their pockets and ask me to leave.
DALE I'll check my pockets. You stay.
(A pause.)
DALE And nobody else. Unless they bring sandwiches.
NELL Here. Blue. I said it was on order.
DALE The ribbon. Phil, it came. I told you she was legitimate.
NELL And I know who tidied the vault now, Map Man. Not a coin down there. Not even dust. Somebody packed up and left a long time ago, and those little brushes have been dusting the empty shelves ever since.
DALE Good. I'd hate a vault with somebody else's things in it.
Sound: pencil scratch.
PHIL Rule Seven. They mean what they say.
DALE Put mine under it. Rule eleven. Always get a good night's sleep.
Sound: un gull flock.
DALE And somebody's on my roof. A lot of somebodies. They followed me home. You can't buy that kind of loyalty. Mister Ashby tried, and they left him.
(A pause.)
DALE Phil. Come to the window. I got Lookout on Nana's Hill, and I've never once looked out. From any high place, you see clear to the horizon.
(A pause.)
Music: wonder.
DALE Phil. It goes on forever.
PHIL What can you see?
DALE A forest gone all orange, like it's the end of October and it's staying that way. A storm sitting out on the sea all by itself, like it's waiting for a bus. Mountains with snow on. And the far hills, where the thunder lives.
Sound: un far snore.
NELL How much of it's on your map?
DALE The beach. A wood. Some flats. This street.
PHIL Nine hundred and something Wonders out there.
DALE And not one of them with a name.
(A pause.)
DALE Phil. Pack the suitcase.
PHIL You only just unpacked it.
DALE I know. I've done it once now. I'm an expert.
Sound: door knock.
(A pause.)
DALE That's the little door. It only opens from inside. That's me.
Scene: un city bed.
Sound: un4 little door.
WREN Morning, Mister Tummins. We knocked on the little door. You put us out of it last night, so it seemed polite.
DALE I was asleep, Wren.
WREN Yes, sir. The Commander said you'd say that.
WREN It's claimed, Commander. Whoever cracked that dome can't touch this one now.
STROUD Nobody can touch it now but him.
ASHBY Ah. Someone has stacked my entire collection outside the wall. By size.
HOLLIS Geraniums. Six pots. They came in with the shovels by mistake. And I appraised you on the way up. One city. Less four thousand and sixty dollars.
Sound: un6 whisk snore.
STROUD Tummins.
DALE Wipe your feet.
Music: un end credits.