Cosmic Travelers
NEEDS REVISION! Romil should have some conflict and not just be exposition.
Two brothers, one around eleven and the other around sixteen, are stoking a campfire at the edge of the woods. In the distance, is their village, going to sleep.
??? (LITTLE BROTHER)
Where did they go, Romil? All the stories that people said and the things that people tell me they’ve seen. Why aren’t there any here?
A beat. They both lay back and look at the stars. The campfire recently fed of dried wood provides a relaxing warmth to the pair beside it.
ROMIL
It was before you were born, Fausto. But, you see, many of them left. Someone, long long ago, came down and gave them the chance to go up there.
FAUSTO (LITTLE BROTHER)
Really?!
ROMIL
Yeah. And so now their probably visiting every one of those dots and discovering whole new worlds of things.
FAUSTO
No way.
ROMIL
It’s true. You can ask Mother about it.
FAUSTO
Are they coming back? Why didn’t we go?
ROMIL
Come now, Fausto. Who will watch over our homes? Who will feed the goats? When they return in like 10 years or so, they must have a home to return to, Fausto. That’s a very important job very few people have.
FAUSTO
But Romil, out there, we could do anything! We could name things after us. And– and we can find whole new animals to bring back! Maybe they’ve got animals that don’t need to eat so much.
ROMIL
Everyone has a role in this, Fausto. They have people that trained for their entire lives to go up there, just like how they are teaching us of all these Earthly things. Plus, it’s dangerous out there.
FAUSTO
Does Professor Fujiwara know about them? Maybe she can teach us?
ROMIL
I don’t know–
FAUSTO
Come on Romil, you said it yourself. We got another 10 years before they get back, we can learn anything in that time. I’m sure by that time we would have fixed up all those farming machines, and we wouldn’t even need to be doing any of this. You don’t want to be milking goats your entire life, do you?
ROMIL
Fausto.
FAUSTO
We can become cosmic travelers, Romil! Don’t you want to see what’s out there for yourself? Don’t you want to do something that matters?
ROMIL
What we do matters.
FAUSTO
No, Romil. It won’t. A hundred years from now, no one’s going to remember the farmers who stayed behind. Everything is happening out there without us!
Romil is silent.
ROMIL
And what about Mother?
A beat. Fausto is a bit quieter now.
FAUSTO
What about her?
Silence.