Ava walks earnestly along the sidewalk. In the distance she sees the heavily Gothic influenced Emerald Tower which dwarfs the adjacent Empire State Building. The tower's eerie green light is a strong contrast to the supreme darkness of the night. There's a heavy melancholy atmosphere across New York. It's almost as though she is entering a tangible, film noir city.
She walks past the one jovial person on the streets, a very well dressed man donning a morning suit. He is a comedian street performer. The man paces along the sidewalk with a cheesy grin cemented across his face. No one is paying him any attention.
COMEDIAN
'All these people saying the world could end in just over twenty four hours time, the human race could become extinct they say. Think of that?extinction. It's not something most people would think about every day is it? Well at least those of us who haven't worked in the accounting profession before'.
He laughs at this own joke. People only seem to move faster past him.
COMEDIAN
'You hear this news? Marriage rates are at all time lows; the lowest in the documented history of mankind. Finally some good news! This means the misery index must have finally gone up'.
Mesmerized by the so called comedian Ava almost walks into a couple of teenage girls.
TEENAGE GIRL 1
'I think it's him you know. I think he's in Central Park. The man they say cured Motor Neurone Disease. You know the good looking scientist. He's doing a book signing'.
TEENAGE GIRL 2
'They'll be thousands of people there, we'll be lining up for hours'.
A block from the hotel Ava is unexpectedly forced to give way to an impassioned group of Chinese people who are in the midst of some sort of frenzied festivity associated with the much maligned Year of the Snake. The supposedly ill fated Year of the Snake was denoted by discontent and the sight of the snake symbol was now a universally ominous image. The small but fervent crowd are wielding a stretched, emerald coloured snake float while the remaining participants throw matching coloured firecrackers at the feet of bewildered bystanders.
Ava escapes the madness but her attentions are diverted when she hears a booming megaphone in the distance. Writing it off as another petty protest she carries on her way without so much as a second thought. She really hates this bizarre place. The greatest city in the world-what a joke! Her attempts to avoid the developing spectacle are to be in vain though as only a few blocks from the hotel she walks straight into a row of anxious onlookers waiting in anticipation.
With the sound of music fast approaching it becomes apparent that some sort of impromptu parade is transpiring before her. An army of shamelessly dressed dancers and street performers soon fill the vacant street in no time gallivanting around erotically in choreographed perfection. A sudden booming sound from the sky startles the crowd at first but the surprise turns to amazement as the sight of a magnificent fireworks display being let off far and wide across Manhattan ensures. At the height of all the drama, riding atop a parade float in all his repulsiveness is the man Ava despises more than any other human on earth-Ricardo Stensnan. Dressed in a sharp, dark suit and wearing his trademark, oversized boot camp styled glasses he stands boastfully, accepting the praise of the adoring public who have turned out in mass to see him. His float is decorated with his campaign slogan 'Our next President, Ricardo Stensnan-the spokesman for the little man'.
RICARDO STENSNAN
'Citizens of New York...people of the Empire State...people that make the greatest city in the world so great. I ask you to break free...to release yourself from the shackles that the two parties have held over you with an impenetrable stranglehold! The dictators are running scared; the time to strike the final blow is now. They are frightened of my polling numbers, they are jealous that the mayor of New York City endorses me and they are coming to the realization that you-the people-have seen their true colours. Their iron hold over every realm of political life has long since elapsed and it is time to take this nation back once and for all. They tremble at the sight of me, the man who will bring their established parties to their knees. They kick me out of their fa?ade debates but I stand before you tonight an undefeated man. I have no reason to be deterred for I have my friends behind me. These dictators pretend like I don't exist, they don't acknowledge me as a threat, but don't be fooled; they are in their final days. They will lose. They will lose. They will lose'!
The riled up crowd join in creating a furious chant. Stensnan's performance is like some peculiar hypnotism entrancing every man and woman in attendance. Every man and woman except Ava that is.
AVA
'How did he manage to get one of the busiest streets in Manhattan closed off'?
WOMAN WATCHING PARADE.
'This is Ricardo Stensnan we're talking about. He could close the entire subway system and no one would batter an eyelid; this is his town'.
AVA
'But he's only doing this because they won't let him into the debate'.
LADY WATCHING PARADE
'This sure as hell beats any boring old debate doesn't it'?
The woman's response disturbs Ava. She walks away shaking her head. Only a few blocks from the parade the madness fails to subside. A street performer is playing an organ on the sidewalk of all places. The dark, haunting music augments the already harrowing mood. The organ is soon drowned out by an even more disturbing sound. A gang of teenage cyclists riding motorised bicycles speed past Ava. The ruffians shout obscenities as they pass. A group of paparazzi who are lurching solemnly for something to transpire on an intersection corner take it upon themselves to photograph the boys as they pass. We get a real sense that these are dark and peculiar times.
SCENE: PIZZA RESTAURANT
Ava dines at an unpleasantly crowded pizza restaurant. She sits at a window seat overlooking the sizable homeless population that linger in the immediate vicinity of the restaurant. Such was the direness of the economy it had now become standard for beggars to want tangible goods instead of money; it would have made a good newspaper satire cartoon if it was not such a serious issue. Wishing to avoid eye contact with the street people, Ava gazes out across the street where an oversized advertising billboard displays an impeccably flawless woman wearing only her underwear modelling surgical masks of all things.
The manager serves her pizza slices and soda.
AVA
'Thank you'.
MANAGER
'You don't look like you're from around here'?
AVA (lying)
'I'm from the Mid West'.
The manager nods lazily.
MANAGER
'What brings you to the Big Apple'?
AVA
'I'm catching a flight to Europe on Saturday morning'.
MANAGER
'Europe? You're in for a treat. The great Trojan horse they say; mosques on every street corner now. Then you've got a Red Bear well versed on Sun Tzu's quote, ''In the midst of chaos there is opportunity''. The tectonic plates of the world are certainly shifting right before our eyes'.
Ava nods and kills the conversation.
AVA
'I've met the bogeyman. He isn't as scary as he is na?ve'.
Ava takes a drink from her soda can and in the process sees that the image of the conceited Duncan Strepfield is staring back from the can with his seemingly perpetual dead eyed, judging countenance. Not far from her table are two highly dislikeable young women wearing bright clothes that clearly don't match and parading bird's nest style haircuts. They are having a loud conversation in the background about the amount of men they were to sleep with before the world comes to the end. Unable to take it anymore Ava crushes her can and walks off without finishing her meal.
SCENE: STREETS OF MANHATTEN
('Midnight' by Coldplay plays.)
Ava sits chewing gum in the back seat of a taxi with her head pressed against the window. She looks indifferent to the world aro
und her. Everywhere she looks she see people moving purposely along the sidewalks; no one has a moment to spare it seems. The Apple Tree Towers come into view. Every window of the seven interconnected sky scrapers is lit up by LED displays. The LED display showcases colourful and moving imagery; it is like some great epileptic inducing light show.
The taxi drops her off in a late night shopping district. Looking out of touch with everybody else around her Ava slowly makes her way through the crowds. Her black cashmere coat contrasts against the fashion of the bizarrely dressed bellwethers that surround her. Store after store in the district is capitalizing off the hyped up end of the world prediction by having doomsday sales. An advertising balloon suddenly flies overhead.
ANNOUNCER FROM BALLOON
'Jackpot has tripled. Buy your winning ticket now and you could soon be starting your new, better life of luxury out west'.
Ava enters a twenty-four-seven bookstore. In the store window the shop is promoting a controversial book entitled 'The Church or the State. Who do you believe'? Inside the store, Ava pulls off a couple of new release screenbooks from the fiction section. Screenbooks are hybrids between movie screenplays and novels and have become the status quo format for fiction literature in recent times. She places the books back and picks up a copy of 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Flicking through the book she sees that the great American novel has been rewritten as a screen book for the contemporised audiences. She shakes her head and departs the store.
Another advertising balloon floats above the market place showcasing live coverage of Duncan Strepfield from the Madison Square Garden. The narcissist is performing yet another of his shameless publicity stunts. This time he is fighting men who have volunteered to face him in a real life professional wrestling match. We watch him throw a contender out of the ring before performing his trademark trucker pull horn celebration.
OVER EXCITED COMMENTATOR
'Ohhh ohhh ohhh Duncan Strepfield is a genius. Look at the strength, look at the dedication to his art, look at the adoration from his supporters who cling to him with every remaining hope they can conjure up'.
The next contender in the stretched line of hopefuls enters the ring. Duncan trash talks the man with an array of insults much to the joy of the capacity crowd.
Continuing on her way through the crowds we see that Ava looks alienated and out of sync with the world around her. She is clearly apprehensive about her safety despite the vast crowds that surround her. Further along the shopping district she sees the strangest sight of them all. An ordinary grocery store has been converted into a rave club for the evening shoppers. A young couple dressed for clubbing exit the store carrying plastic bags of junk food. A supermarket nightclub hybrid; this is the final straw for Ava. There is only so much she can take in.
AVA (screaming)
'Taxi'!
('Midnight' by Coldplay ends.)
SCENE: HOTEL ROOM
Back in her hotel room Ava triple checks that her door is locked before turning off the light and climbing into bed. Her television is on in the background. We feel her isolation and loneliness in this strange place thousands of miles removed from everything she has ever known. From her bedside window, the comet, Hale Bopp's Friend, is barely visible behind sheets of ghostly fog. From her bedside can also make out the outline of the mysterious hot air balloon she had seen earlier that day.
She had heard all about the mystique that surrounded the hot air balloon and how its genesis was still ambiguous to New Yorkers. Not a soul, it seemed, knew quite how the balloon had come about in the first place or how it still remained a permanent fitting of the Mid Town skyline all these years later. Many theories-which varied in degrees of ridiculousness-had been floated in attempts to answer the question but even now-all these years later-the jury was still out. The more common theories were that it was an advertising stunt gone horribly wrong or that perhaps it was an asylum for a wanted fugitive. Some had even gone so far to suggest that it was an eye in the sky of sorts.
A band is performing live on the television at a late night show. They are 'The Secret of Youth'. They have been taking the world by storm in recent months. Their unique sound contrasts with the majority of other musicians of the time who were flirting with fascism with their music. The members of the band are a bizarre mixture of individuals. The guitarist is an African American with a sculptured afro. The lead singer is a woman of such beauty that one is given the impression that if this singing gig didn't work out that a career as a super model was waiting in the wings. The drummer looks like a heavy metal rocker and the keyboard player has openly admitted to having aspersers. To top it all off the bassist and supporting singer is a seventy eight year old man.
MUSIC
'We were meant to go dancing in the park.
Making love in the dark.
We're dancing, we're dancing,
we're dancing, oh baby, baby please?
Why won't you let our fates collide
Why won't you let our fates collide
Why won't you let our fates collide
Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby, baby, baby please!
It was meant to be!
It was meant to be!
It was meant to be!
It was meant to be!
Oh baby maybe it wasn't meant to be'.
Chapter 4
SCENE: MIDTOWN MANHATTEN SKYLINE
We are looking at the Midtown Manhattan skyline at dawn. The Luftballoon Zeppelin is moored to the spire of the Empire State Building. The sky is overcast and miserable looking. A plane flies across the sky attempting to type out a coloured advertisement for a beer brand against the grim skies. Sky typing has become the final frontier for America's marketing companies in their pursuits to steal the attention of the masses. Below the skywriter another plane flies with a banner attached to its rear. The plane is working for a polling organisation and is showing off its most recent general election poll for New York State:
McCarthy Polls: New York State-General Election
Stensnan (I): 34%
Savage (D): 31%
Ryan: (R) 29%
SCENE: UNDERGROUND SUBWAY
Luke is seated on a subway train reading a magazine. Gracing the cover of the magazine is a scientist with a voluminous, pompadour hairstyle posing with a real life dodo bird. The train pulls into a Manhattan station and Luke disembarks carrying only his backpack. He passes crowds of people as he leaves the platform. We see that he is the only person not wearing a surgical mask. Lining the underground walls are advertisements for an over commercialized movie, 'The Itenkey Incident'. The marketing gurus seem to be making a big deal out the fact that the film is neither a reboot nor a remake. Luke walks past the seemingly endless movie plug as an announcement is played from speakers.
MONOTONE ANNOUNCER
'Hourly reminder that this is a safe space. No provocative comments are allowed. Please be conscious of other races, genders, ethnicities and sexual preferences at all times. You have the right not to be offended in any way. All breaches will be met with fines'.
Luke shakes his head. Political correctness has gone mad! In the concourse of the station an excited crowd circle an elevated stage. Standing on top of the stage in all his glory is none other than the Olympic champion and fastest man in the world, Ngola Douglas, draped out in full New York Yankees attire for a photo shoot. Ngola had been one of the few highlights of the ill fated New York Olympics which had seen the United States embarrassingly finish in fifth place on the overall medal count. For a few months prior to Mateus McClure's widely anticipated departure from Earth to Mars, Ngola had been face up on the roller deck of media created heroes. It's clear from today that Ngola is back vying for his top spot.
NGOLA
'I dare any second basement in the world to tag me out. I dare them. I'm too fast, I'm too quick. I will break the record for the most stolen bases in a season. I am the fastest man in the world and I will be the greatest pinch
/> runner of them all next season'!
REPORTER 1
'Ngola...who are you voting for in the election'?
REPORTER 2
'Who is the Olympic champion voting for? The people want to know'.
Luke walks away from the scene ashamed of the media's politicizing. As he heads for the exit we notice a teenager drinking soda from a branded drinking fountain.
SCENE: MIDTOWN MANHATTEN
Luke exits the subway via an escalator. An advertising balloon flies in the middle of the street depicting a celebrity with hair Medusa would be proud of spewing babble into the monitor.
CELEBRITY
'I tell all the woman that I meet that if he's not rich, tall, good looking, funny and doesn't have all crap together then he needs to get to the back of queue honey'.
Just outside the subway entrance, two eccentric looking men are playing through a mini golf course that has been created by a street artist using only everyday props found along the sidewalks of New York. One of the golfers, a man with dyed maroon hair, suspenders and uncanny snow white teeth leans on his golf club like a walking stick while his friend, who is dressed like an equestrian rider lines up his shot.