cardiff happy copy

Wasn't that nice? I don't know how much you learned from that, but I hope it made you feel good. I think it always feels good to hope, even for a moment.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|donna program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

(The garage buzzes with blowflies and blue light. A clearing just large enough for a car has already been blockaded with folding tables and covered in tools. This has been a workspace since the 70's — but tonight, the shop annexes the carport.)\n\n(Joe moves the equipment Gordon collected onto the newly-spread tabletops, box by bursting box.)\n\n[[JOE: (Examine legal notepads.)|notepads]]\n[[JOE: (Examine pizza crusts.)|pizzas]]\n[[JOE: (Examine storage shelves.)|garage shelves]]

JOE: Sorry...\n\nGORDON: I try to forget about the SYMPHONIC. Stupid piece of junk.\n\nJOE: The Giant will work, though?\n\nGORDON: I think so. (More confidently) Yeah, I think it will.\n\nJOE: Ready?\n\n[[GORDON: Close that garage door.|end act i]]

(An open-plan office space chatters softly with tuneless typing, file folders being tapped straight against desk corners, fluorescent lamps clicking as they flicker fickly through the dim.)\n\n(Every few cubicles, something living rustles industriously from its office chair.)\n\n[[SALESMEN.|salesmen]]\n[[ABANDONED PROJECT.|abandoned project]]\n[[SECRETARY.|hi debbie]]\n[[FAMILIAR FACE.|hello again]]

(Joe and Lucy watch the road. The light has vanished altogether; the armadillo doesn't seem to be going anywhere in particular.)\n\nLUCY: We've missed the sunset.\n\nJOE: That thing's still around.\n\nLUCY: That's an armadillo, and I think he likes it here on the road. Maybe it's warm from the day. 'Course, all that's waiting for him here is an express trip downtown on the grill of an automobile.\n\nJOE: We can let him dream, right?\n\nLUCY: That's the plan, dear.\n\n[[LUCY: Listen, in case I don't see you around...|incase]]\n[[LUCY: It's dark. You'd better head out.|headout]]\n[[LUCY: (Drinks with fortified resolve.)|drinks]]\n\n\n

(The armadillo doesn't seem to be going anywhere in particular.)\n\n[[Back|driver second]]

(The armadillo doesn't seem to be going anywhere in particular.)\n\n[[Back|road]]

JOE: Before what?\n\nLUCY: Oh, before things changed. I'd rather not talk about it — I'm enjoying myself right now.\n\nSpeaking of, can I offer you a drink? I've got a cooler somewhere with some whiskey in it, and some ice. Back in New York I used to drink — oh, everything. Anything. \n\n(Laughing sadly) I was wild. That used to make magic happen around me. Curses too, sometimes. But that was before. Now the magic helps itself to happening, and I just drink whiskey with ice.\n\n[[JOE: I'm from New York.|newyork]]\n[[JOE: I knew someone like that a long time ago.|longtime]]\n\n\n

(CARDIFF ELECTRIC: Family owned since 1973. Quality computer utilities for business and home. Systems software cheaper, faster, better. Constructive outlets.)\n\n[[Back|cardiff facade]]

(Plastic and metal casing has been molded into curiously organic structures. An unwieldy steel piece of what looks like orecchiette pasta; a synthetic computer case that recalls a large dismembered Barbie doll. A planter in the shape of a cranium.)\n\n[[Back.|equipment]]

(Joe blows dust off the old computer and sets it on a relatively uncluttered surface. Its keyboard belongs to an electronic piano, no visible marking on any of its imitation ivories. A chrome decal on its casing spells: CLARK SYMPHONIC.)\n\n(Joe finds a power strip and boots it up.)\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Middle C.|symph greet]]\n

[[ACT I, SCENE III: CARDIFF ELECTRIC.| hi bos]]

(SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT JOHN BOSWORTH smokes and smirks. He may be the one whose tweed suit sits a touch too big, but the young stranger looks more ridiculous by far.)\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: You've got some nerve, coming in here telling me my business. You think you're the first boy IBM sends down with bold claims, expecting I'll start pissing my pants and acting rash in the hopes big daddy doesn't stomp all over this company? But Cardiff's solid, son — don't take as easy to stomping as you'd think.\n\n[[JOE: Who said anything about stomping?|no stomping]]\n[[JOE: That's why I'm here, John.| why i'm here]]

THIS MAKES YOU FEL BETTR. GOODBYE ! (:\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|joanie program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

(A-16 reaches for the rear-view mirror of his red sedan and brandishes the tag suspended from it.)\n\nA-16: That's my spot! Hey! I'm A-16! That's my spot!\n\n(Joe looks around. The lot remains half-empty. It must be 10 o'clock.)\n\nA-16: That's my spot!\n\n[[(Joe shuts the trunk of his Porsche.)|act i scene iii]]\n[[(Joe straightens his tie and walks away.)|act i scene iii]]

(HIGH PLAINS HARDWARE: Construction and gardening supplies since 1949. Ask about our new trowels.)\n\n[[Back|cardiff facade]]

THE \nCARDIFF \nGIANT

JOE: Donna sounds pretty special.\n\nGORDON: She is, yeah.\n\nGORDON: You know what? I think this is going to work.\n\nJOE: Yeah?\n\nGORDON: Yeah.\n\nJOE: Ready, then?\n\n[[GORDON: Close that garage door.|end act i]]

BYTE ARTICLE: "The Future of Sympathetic Interfaces" by Gordon Clark.\n\n(The article itself is almost illegible with noxious metaphors. Squinting, Gordon can discern vestiges of what used to be a manic, consuming vision.)\n\nBYTE ARTICLE: ...a world in which entering commands is as gratifying, creatively and emotionally, as...\n\nBYTE ARTICLE:...While no software interface exists to endow a computer with a personality.....a connection, a relationship to the hardware itself can be facilitated by....\n\nBYTE ARTICLE:...ascribe an emotional, almost nostalgic significance, to an inanimate fabrication...seem so absurd after all?\n\n[[BYTE ARTICLE:...almost like finding the Giant in your garage.|to end scene iv]]\n\n

That song reminds me of my mother. And of college. I did some pretty silly things in college, looking back. That wasn't so long ago. You probably did too, I guess. That's funny. Your song was a funny combination of my mother and college. Maybe it reminds me of how my mother was in college, but my mother didn't go to college, and I wouldn't have been born anyway. Sorry for not being more helpful.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|donna program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

\n[[(Joe looks at equipment.)|equipment]]\n[[(Joe opens garage.)|open sesame]]

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JOE: Everyone's got something to prove.\n\nLUCY: (Laughing) No, they don't. You do, though. And I did. We came for hundreds of miles looking for proof, you and I. I'll be looking forever, but you look determined. You've got a fighting chance, I'd say.\n\nYou're tall, like me. I was six foot one. Hell, I could have been the Giant! But that was before.\n\n[[JOE: Where did you come from?|wherefrom]]\n[[JOE: Before what?|before]]

(Joe pulls into the empty space and steps out of his car. His suit jacket and tie are retrieved from the passenger seat, his briefcase from the trunk. This must be the place.)\n\n(A sign reads, in obvious lettering: THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR EMPLOYEES OF CARDIFF ELECTRIC. VIOLATORS WILL BE TOWED.)\n\n(Stepping out into the lot, Joe is nearly crushed by an eager red sedan.)\n\n[[DRIVER: (Yell at intruder.)|i'm a-16]]\n[[JOE: (Look at driver.)|i'm a-16]]

JOE: I'll go set up.\n\nGORDON: Good idea. The keypad thing is 4021.\n\n(Exit Gordon.)\n\n\n[[(Joe looks at equipment.)|equipment]]\n[[(Joe opens garage.)|open sesame]]\n

(In cubicle 400E, a bearded man with wire-rimmed glasses and a yellow shirt upends a sugar shaker in his coffee.)\n\nGORDON: Fantastic. It's you.\n\nJOE: I'm Joe Macmillan. Pleasure to finally meet you.\n\nGORDON: Yeah, we met earlier. I watched you take my parking spot in a lot full of unreserved spaces as I was rushing to work on an emergency call that interrupted me putting my two little kids to bed. And now I'm working, so stop harrassing me, OK?\n\n[[JOE: You're a sales engineer, right?|sales]]\n[[JOE: I have an idea I want to talk to you about.|idea]]\n

(Stacks of legal notepads covered end to end in hexadecimal code bow a plastic garden chair beneath their weight.)\n\n[[Back.|garage]]

JOE: It's certainly unique.\n\nGORDON: (Laughing darkly) Yeah, I think my father-in-law's words were 'super creepy' and 'no more funding.'\n\n[[JOE: Sorry...|joe sorry awkward]]

SYMPHONIC: Hello. You are using PRIMADONNA, the Musical Instrument Digital Interface.\n\nSYMPHONIC: To run the application JOANIE, play 'The Flea Waltz.'\nSYMPHONIC: To run the application HALEY, play Allen's 'Chopsticks.'\nSYMPHONIC: To run the application GORDON, play Carmichael's 'Heart and Soul.'\nSYMPHONIC: To run the application DONNA, play Debussy's Suite Bergamasque Mov. 3 'Clair de Lune.'\nSYMPHONIC: To exit, play 'Chopin's Funeral March.'\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Flea Waltz.|joanie program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Chopsticks.|haley program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Heart and Soul, A-section.|gordon program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Debussy...?|donna program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symphonic exit]]

LUCY: Are you looking for the Giant? \n\nOf course you are. Everyone's been looking for the Giant since anyone can remember. Taking their kids out here to dig holes in the desert on family vacations...bedding their impatiens a little deeper than they ought to every year, just in case...\n\nNobody pays money to have their field aerated, either, I'll tell you that. Everyone who comes here comes here looking for the Giant. Hell, I came here looking for the Giant.\n\n[[JOE: A Giant?|whatgiant]]\n[[JOE: I'm looking for someone named Gordon Clark.|gordonclark]]\n

(A large office building bares a disordered array of white windows. A sleek but fading business park directory nearby reads: \nBONET & DAUGHTERS GAME REPAIR\nHIGH PLAINS HARDWARE\nAMBROSE EXCAVATION & APPRAISAL\nCARDIFF ELECTRIC\t)\n\n[[JOE: (Reads about BONET & DAUGHTERS GAME REPAIR.)|B & D]]\n[[JOE: (Reads about HIGH PLAINS HARDWARE.)| HPH]]\n[[JOE: (Reads about AMBROSE EXCAVATION & APPRAISAL.)|AE&A]]\n[[JOE: (Reads about CARDIFF ELECTRIC.)|cardiff about]]\n\n[[Back|parkinglot]]\n

JOE: I do.\n\nBOSWORTH: (Chuckling) "I do." Well, guess we're married. You may now go break your numbers, darlin'.\n\n(Bosworth shakes Joe's hand.)\n\n[[(Joe smiles.)|act i scene iv]]\n[[(Joe nods his head.)|act i scene iv]]\n[[(Joe closes his briefcase and leaves.)|act i scene iv]]

(LUCY reclines so deeply the deck chair almost disappears her. Her jeans are shortened, her hair curled and dyed into its own imitation of the prairie-gold wild. Melting ice flashes from a glass of whiskey in her hand; red toenails glare on kicking bare feet. She waves at the stranger and spills on herself, beaming.)\n\n[[LUCY: (Talk to stranger.)|stranger]]\n

(An open-plan office space chatters softly with tuneless typing, file folders being tapped straight against desk corners, fluorescent lamps clicking as they flicker fickly through the dim.)\n\n(Every few cubicles, something living rustles industriously from its office chair.)\n\n[[SECRETARY.|hi debbie]]\n[[SALESMEN.|salesmen]]\n[[ABANDONED PROJECT.|abandoned project]]\n[[CUBICLE 400E.|hello again]]

[[JOE: (Examine legal notepads.)|notepads]]\n[[JOE: (Examine pizza crusts.)|pizzas]]\n[[JOE: (Examine storage shelves.)|garage shelves]]

(Joe nods understandingly.)\n\n(Bill lets out a quiet sob.)\n\n[[JOE: (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]

LUCY: It's dark. You'd better head out.\n\nJOE: Sure.\n\nLUCY: Hope the boys at Cardiff don't give you too much trouble for being such a lousy carpetbagger.\n\nJOE: (Smiles) They'll see reason.\n\nLUCY: And Joe?\n\n[[JOE: Hm? |end scene i]]

[[JOE: I want to build a Giant.|a what]]

JOE: Is that why you came out here?\n\nLUCY: Oh yeah. I had to prove everything that wasn't true about me. I got pretty mad when people started seeing me for who I was. \n\n(Grinning) Hey, you look tall. Tall and determined. You're like me — I was six foot one. I could have been the Giant! Where I came from, they called me...but that was before, I guess.\n\n[[JOE: Before what?|before]]\n[[JOE: Where did you come from?|wherefrom]]

(Piles of QWERTY, Dvorak, chorded and numeric keyboards litter the ground. A few broken typewriters and disemboweled remote controls are scattered among them.)\n\n[[Back.|equipment]]

[[ACT I, SCENE VI: LAIR OF THE SYMPHONIC.|start scene vi]]

JOE: That's why I'm here, John. Maybe I'm done being an IBM boy. Maybe I see Cardiff Electric as a company ready to be legitimized, to make its mark on North Dallas, make something out of the Silicon Prairie — and myself as the guy who can get you the numbers you need to take it there.\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: Shit, kid, I don't need numbers to take Cardiff any damn where except the bank. We're in systems software, plain and simple — won't be any kind of revolution in the Prairie, but it makes money. I need a guy who knows that.\n\n[[JOE: I'm him.|next joe bos]]

JOE: I'm him.\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: Dunno, Joe. You sure look like New York. Like East Coast corporate. That shit don't sell out here, not to folks in Dallas. Hell, hotshot, you didn't even bring in a resume.\n\n(Joe takes some papers from his briefcase.)\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: What's this?\n\nJOE: That's what 200% of quota looks like.\n\nSVP BOSWORTH:(Whistling) Wouldn't wanna be a number on one of Joe Macmillan's bad days, boy.\n\nJOE: (Smiling) I break numbers, John, I always have. It's not personal. It's what I do.\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: Well, son, feel free. So long as you don't break the chain of command round here. I'm Senior Vice President at Cardiff Electric. I have dinner with Nathan Cardiff, founder and President of Cardiff Electric, twice a week on account of I helped him build this company from the ground. The ground, boy.\n\nYou answer to me, and you don't look the damn secretary in the eye until you close a deal, you understand?\n\n[[JOE: I do.|married]]

(BONET & DAUGHTERS GAME REPAIR: Repair and restoration, all models. CRT for raster and vector. Wiring. Silkscreen. Customization.)\n\n[[Back|cardiff facade]]

(MONITORS of the vector, raster, cornea, heartrate, and reptilian varieties have all been cut into idiosyncratic shapes and stored between leaflets of tissue paper. All except the lizard, which leers a little bit and looks uncomfortable.)\n\n[[Back.|equipment]]

LUCY: (Drinks with fortified resolve.)\n\nJOE: I'd better get going.\n\nLUCY: That's right. Gordon Clark. One of those Cardiff boys.\n\nJOE: That's right.\n\nLUCY: Good luck with that lot. Oh, and Joe?\n\n[[JOE: What?|end scene i]]

That song reminds me of the Giant. There's an old folk tale around here that says giants used to roam the earth, and that one — or more — is buried beneath the prairie in these parts. People who live here can't get it out of their heads. My dad used to take us out into old fields to look. We'd spend so many hours with our noses skimming the grass, my mom was worried her kids would grow up crooked. I think people feel that if they could just find the Giant, they'd finally have proven something to someone.\n\nEveryone's got something to prove.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|donna program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

(Joe watches Lucy. Her earrings are made of glass, and swing wildly when she tosses back her head in laughing. Her wrist twists impatiently beneath the oscillating weight of whiskey in her hand; the ice pitches on the same mad fulcrum as those earrings. All her dim wild glittering reminds him of the stars.)\n\n[[(Joe and Lucy watch the road.)|joeluroad]]

(A tidy brick establishment with white window frames and blue shutters sits, unoccupied and fearful, in the meager light of a suburban avenue. Two dark figures pace back and forth outside, shuttling computer equipment from their car trunks to the curb.)\n\nGORDON: My wife and kids are away for the weekend. We'll set up in the garage until they get back.\n\nJOE: How long should this take?\n\nGORDON: Hopefully we run out of wiring before we run out of patience.\n\n[[JOE: I'll go set up.|open garage]]\n[[GORDON: I'll go inside and get some more stuff. You move us in.|move us in]]

(The toolbox contains drill bits, dust mites, and a handful of little plastic dolls.)\n\n[[Back.|garage shelves]]

JOE: I knew someone like that a long time ago.\n\nLUCY: I bet you did. I bet you're a little wild yourself! You'd have to be, to drive a Porsche into the desert looking for a giant.\n\n[[JOE: What makes you think I'm looking for the Giant?|makes you think]]\n\n\n\n

GORDON: You want to what?\n\nJOE: You heard me. I want you to build a Giant with me. THE Giant.\n\nI want you to help me give this place what it's been looking for.\n\n[[GORDON: No way.|magazine]]\n[[GORDON: Why me?|magazine]]

(A collection of VACUUM TUBES of various sizes fills a cardboard box. Some look like they could be for computers — others look like balloons, or expensive gems, or carnival rides. One contains a live beetle.)\n\n[[Back.|equipment]]

(The armadillo doesn't seem to be going anywhere in particular.)\n\n[[Back|road first]]

jquery:off\nhash:off\nbookmark:on\nmodernizr:off\nundo:on\nobfuscate:off\nexitprompt:off\nblankcss:off\n

JOE: I'm from New York.\n\nLUCY: Yeah, I bet you are. You're a shiny boy. You look like something in a window display. No, wait — I'll tell you what.\n\nYou look like a promise. \n\nAren't you going to tell me what I look like? Don't answer that. I look like a lie. The two are related, you know. I think there's hope anxiously involved with both, like hope gave one shy glances and full French kissed the other.\n\nThat kind of hope'll drive a Porsche into the desert looking for a giant.\n\nWow. For a minute there, I almost missed New York.\n\n[[JOE: What makes you think I'm looking for the Giant?|makes you think]]\n\n

SYMPHONIC ERROR MESSAGE: Program GORDON not found.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

JOE: What makes you think I'm looking for the Giant?\n\nLUCY: Everyone who comes here comes here looking for the Giant. Even the people who live here, like I told you...impatiens, remember? Can't keep it out of their heads. Poke their toes into the front lawn on the way out the door to work! And these are folks who want for nothing, which sure ain't you and me, kid.\n\nNo, you're looking for the Giant, even if you don't know it.\n\n[[(Lucy watches Joe.)|lujoe]]\n[[(Joe watches Lucy.)|joelu]]\n[[(Joe and Lucy watch the road.)|joeluroad]]\n

(BILL hits his PC's spacebar rhythmically, sighing as the monitor returns countless A's and E's in vaguely floral arrangements.)\n\n[[JOE: (Ask for an explanation.)|bill]]\n[[JOE: (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]

That sounded like you said 'Joe Macmillan.' I don't know Joe Macmillan. Is he made of glass? Someone named Joe Macmillan might well be made of glass. It's not fact, just an educated guess. I'm sure he's a good man, no matter what he's made of.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|donna program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

(Joe takes a magazine out of his briefcase and tosses it down on Gordon's desk.)\n\nJOE: Page 33.\n\nGORDON: What are you — ?\n\nJOE: Just think about it.\n\n(Exit Joe.)\n\n[[GORDON: (Looks at magazine.)|magazine read]]

(The Porsche's brights cut out a big blank space of faded asphalt in the dark.)\n\n[[(Joe drives.)|act i scene ii]]

Girl Krieg

(The car's brights illuminate an asphalt amphitheater in the dim. An armadillo sits dumbly in the front row, waiting for the curtain; a smiling woman lounges on the shoulder in a folding chair, like she couldn't get a ticket.)\n\n[[ARMADILLO|armadillo 3]]\n[[SMILING WOMAN|lucy]]\n

JOE: Who said anything about stomping?\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: It's all you IBM boys talk about. But IBM's a big fella — can't manage cheaper-faster-better quite like we can, now, can it? \n\nJOE: Maybe I'm done being an IBM boy. Maybe I see Cardiff Electric as a company ready to be legitimized, to make its mark on North Dallas, make something out of the Silicon Prairie — and myself as the guy who can get you the numbers you need to take it there.\n\nSVP BOSWORTH: Shit, kid, I don't need numbers to take Cardiff any damn where except the bank. We're in systems software, plain and simple — won't be any kind of revolution in the Prairie, but it makes money. I need a guy who knows that.\n\n[[JOE: I'm him.|next joe bos]]\n

[[ACT I, SCENE V: CLARK RESIDENCE.|start scene v]]

(The shovel's handle reads: HIGH PLAINS HARDWARE.)\n\n[[Back.|garage shelves]]

DEBBIE: Ah, here it is. 400E. (Points.) Over in that direction. Good luck!\n\n[[JOE: Thanks again, Debbie.|bullpen 2]]

[[ACT I, SCENE I: DALLAS, 1983.|Intro]]\n\n

JOE: Where did you come from?\n\nLUCY: New York! Now, there's a ways to come from. Far away in time and space. Oh, I know the place is still standing, but not for me. One day all of New York kind of tumbled down around me, and I knew I had to get out. Left some valuables in the rubble, too, but I'd rather not talk about that — I'm enjoying myself right now.\n\nSpeaking of, can I offer you a drink? I've got a cooler somewhere with some whiskey in it, and some ice. Back in New York I used to drink — oh, everything. Anything. \n\n(Laughing sadly) I was wild. That used to make magic happen around me. Curses too, sometimes. But that was before. Now the magic helps itself to happening, and I just drink whiskey with ice.\n\n[[JOE: I'm from New York.|newyork]]\n[[JOE: I knew someone like that a long time ago.|longtime]]

(DEBBIE wears a pink blouse and a pearl bracelet. Her camel blazer lies abandoned in a pile of invoices and pencil stubs. She watches a particularly bad fluorescent lamp blink out illiterate Morse, head in her hand. She looks bored and exhausted.)\n\n[[JOE: Long day?|long day]]\n[[JOE: What's going on? Why is everyone still here?|what's going on]]

END ACT I.

(Gordon takes the magazine. It's back issue of Byte, years old. The cover article says something impossible about robotics.)\n\n[[GORDON: (Turns to page 33.)|page 33]]

JOE: Those are peonies?\n\nBILL: (Close to tears) They are today.\n\n[[JOE: (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]

(The shelves carry computer parts, insecticides, antifreeze, sidewalk chalk, keyboard cleaner, mason jars full of nails and wingnuts. A shovel stands sheepishly nearby.)\n\n[[JOE: (Examine shovel.)|shovel]]\n[[JOE: (Examine toolbox.)|ex toolbox]]\n[[JOE: (Examine old computer.)|symphonic]]

JOE: Do you know where I can find Gordon Clark?\n\nDEBBIE: Oh, he's here. We actually called him in when the bugs started showing up. He should be out in the bullpen somewhere. I can get you an exact cubicle if you hang on a tick.\n\n[[JOE: That'd be nice, thanks. (Wait.)|wait for directions]]\n[[JOE: I got it, thanks. (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]

SYMPHONIC: Close enough. Running program — DONNA\n\nHello. I'm Donna. It's good to see you. Just play what sounds right — I'll catch you if you make a mistake. Good luck.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Nice to meet you.|donna program meet]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Tell me about the Giant.|donna program giant]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Who is Joe Macmillan?|donna program joe]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) That woman on the road.|donna program lucy]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

(SPACE B-23 is partially obscured by a puddle-shaped expanse of light-polluted sky.)\n\n[[Back|parkinglot]]

SYMPHONIC: Running program — JOANIE\n\nTIPE YOR FELINGS ! HAPY CORDE MEENS HAPY AND SAD CORD IS SAD FEELING ET CETRUH. START !\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Happy music.|symph happy]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Sad music.|symph sad]]\n[[JOE: (Playing at random).|symph random]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]\n\n

It's nice to meet you, too. You don't seem to know much about music, but it also seems like you're learning fast. Let's try an exercise to help you learn. Play something hopeful.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) I hope the Giant will make people happy.|donna hope]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) I hope this works.|donna hope]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|donna program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

[[(Gordon closes the magazine and discards it.)|act i scene v]]\n[[(Gordon closes the magazine and puts it in his briefcase.)|act i scene v]]

JOE: What's going on? Why is everyone still here?\n\nDEBBIE: We had a bit of a hiccup with some of our computers. I don't understand it, really. Something with the CRTs. Had a few weird things coming up on screens where words ought to have been. Put us back several hours. The rest are the girls from B&D game repair downstairs, come up to help us out. They're handling it.\n\nJOE: I hope it's nothing serious.\n\nDEBBIE: Oh, I don't think so. You're Joe, right? From IBM?\n\n[[JOE: That's right.|aboard 1]]\n[[JOE: Not anymore.|aboard 2]]

[[ACT I, SCENE IV: THE BULLPEN.|bullpen]]

YOU WISH YOU AKSED THE NICE LADY HER NAME. ITS LUCY. YOU NOW HER VERY WELL SHE IS FROM WHERE YOU AR FROM. SHE WAS HAPY TOO SE YOU (:\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|joanie program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

JOE: I have an idea I want to talk to you about.\n\nGORDON: Save it, Macmillan! I sell software.\n\nJOE: So do I. I don't need someone to sell software. I need an engineer.\n\nGORDON: So?\n\n[[JOE: So when was the last time you really built something?|the last time]]

JOE: Not anymore.\n\nDEBBIE: (Laughing) Guess not! Joe from Cardiff Electric, now. Well, welcome aboard, Joe! Let me know if I can get you anything.\n\n[[JOE: Thanks, Debbie.|bullpen]]\n[[JOE: Do you know where I can find Gordon Clark?|wheregordon]]

JOE: That's right.\n\nDEBBIE: Well, welcome aboard, Joe! Let me know if I can get you anything.\n\n[[JOE: Thanks, Debbie.|bullpen]]\n[[JOE: Do you know where I can find Gordon Clark?|wheregordon]]

(SPACE C-8 is fully occupied by someone's insect collection. The enthusiast seems to have used old computer monitors for display cases.)\n\n[[Back|parkinglot]]

[[I hope you find it.|lucy gone]]

[[ACT I, SCENE II: PARKING LOT.|parkinglot]]\n

SYMPHONIC: Running program — HALEY\n\nHaley is two years old. Her favorite color is yellow. Her favorite horse is a pony. Her favorite game is tickle. She has her own computer program. Haley loves you.\n\nBy Donna Clark, as dictated by Haley Clark.\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

JOE: A Giant?\n\nLUCY: No one told you? Giants used to roam the earth. Enormous people moving slow across the land, or swimming all over it back when these plains were just sea and sky, I can't say for certain. But stride or swim or slither like snakes, they moved here, and there's proof in the paydirt. Proof right here in Texas rock. Evidence incontrovertible. \n\n"I'll find it." That's what I told my husband years ago. That's what you say when you really want to prove something to someone, I suppose.\n\n[[JOE: Everyone's got something to prove.|prove detour]]\n[[JOE: Is that why you came out here?|whycame detour]]

JOE: Is this systems software?\n\nBILL: (Mournfully) It was supposed to be.\n\nJOE: How does it work?\n\nBILL: It doesn't. It was supposed run applications based on what seemed right. What seemed natural, you know? I called it ROSE. The OS was supposed grow around the kernels like a vine, and learn your order like a waitress. The idea was fewer commands, faster response. Instead of saying "And what will it be today, gentlemen?" it'd go "The usual, Sam?"\n\nBut now I just get these damn A/E peonies.\n\n[[JOE: Those are peonies?|peonies]]\n[[JOE: Who's Sam?|sam]]\n[[JOE: (Nods understandingly.)|nodding]]\n[[JOE: (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]

(Lucy watches Joe. He pushes his sleeves past his elbows to cross his arms. He looks like somebody she used to dream about, maybe. She remembers him being smaller, but she was always larger than life, even in New York.)\n\n[[(Joe watches Lucy.)|joelu 2nd]]\n[[(Joe and Lucy watch the road.)|joeluroad]]

(Dusk. A gleaming sports car sulks, made to slow despite itself, in the middle of the road.)\n\n[[DRIVER|driver]]\n[[ROAD|road first]]

(Gordon enters, and stops dead when he sees the SYMPHONIC. He looks at Joe, blushing deeply.)\n\nGORDON: Donna and I made that straight out of college. It was beautiful for a long time — but went we went to do our big demo, and it all collapsed. \n\n(Gordon sweeps the SYMPHONIC off the desk and back into its cranny among loose screws and dust bunnies.)\n\n[[JOE: It seems to work just fine.|it worked]]\n[[JOE: I'm sure it would have worked better if I knew the first thing about music.|no music]]\n[[JOE: It's certainly unique.|unique]]\n\n

[[JOE: (Typing) 4-0-2-1.|end act i scene v]]

JOE: Who's Sam?\n\nBILL: (Sniffling) He was my partner. He got fired when a client's WordStar started putting out A/E daffodils.\n\n[[JOE: (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]

(Three salesmen and a woman in a jumpsuit murmur amongst themselves. They are not selling software — no one is answering phones at this hour. Between them on a cluttered desk sits a vacuum tube with a large, angry beetle trapped inside of it.)\n\nTERRY: Can't we get a guy from software in here?\n\nDOLLY: (To Terry) Does this look like a software problem to you?\n\nMARK: (To Louanne) How the hell did this happen?\n\nLOUANNE: (Exasperated) How should I know? Engineers aren't happy. I had to pop these suckers out of four machines. Don't generally see this kind of thing in PCs.\n\nDOLLY: (To Louanne) Thanks for coming up. Did you talk to Bill?\n\nLOUANNE: (To Dolly) Didn't get far. We better check his brain for one of these.\n\n(Terry chuckles. Mark elbows him in the ribs and looks pointedly at Joe. Dolly and Louanne fall silent.)\n\n[[JOE: (Back to the bullpen.)|bullpen]]\n

JOE: You're a sales engineer, right?\n\n(Gordon impatiently slaps the plaque on the outside of his cubicle that reads: 400E, GORDON CLARK, SALES ENGINEER.)\n\nGORDON: So?\n\n[[JOE: So when was the last time you really built something?|the last time]]\n\n

(AMBROSE EXCAVATION & APPRAISAL: Basement treasure. Precious minerals. Deceased relatives. DIAL 1-(214)-980-2977 EXT. 446)\n\n[[Back|cardiff facade]]

A SMILE LITES UP YOR FACE. YOU FEL GUD. YAY ! (:\n\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|joanie program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]

JOE: It seems to work just fine.\n\nGORDON: (Laughing darkly) Sure it did. I'm sure it didn't say weird personal shit or ask you to play random tunes for kicks, either.\n\n[[JOE: Sorry...|joe sorry awkward]]\n\n

JOE: I'm sure it would have worked better if I knew the first thing about music.\n\nGORDON: (Laughing darkly) Nah. Donna, my wife, she's a genius on piano — really, you should hear her — but the software was even finnicky for her. She wrote it, you know? And I thought it was great, but she was never really happy with it. She got kind of weird about it. Near the end it was almost like she was looking for an excuse to stop coding.\n\n[[JOE: Donna sounds pretty special.|donna is special]]\n[[JOE: Sorry...|joe sorry awkward]]

(A mountain of computer parts and electrical equipment has accumulated in the drive. Some of it is recognizable; some of it looks like something from a dream.)\n\n[[VACUUM TUBES.|vacuum tubes]]\n[[MONITORS.|monitors]]\n[[KEYBOARDS.|keyboards]]\n[[ODDS AND ENDS.|anatomies]]\n[[Back.|cross garage equip]]\n

JOE: I'm looking for someone named Gordon Clark.\n\nLUCY: Oh, I think he's one of those Cardiff boys. He shouldn't be hard to find. The Giant, though, that's a different story. Everybody and their mother tries unburying the thing twice a month, and still neither hide nor hair. People come for hundreds of miles and die looking. I used to think people who died looking might be the first to find it, but that was before.\n\n[[JOE: Where did you come from?|wherefrom]]\n[[JOE: Before what?|before]]

LUCY: Listen, in case I don't see you around...\n\nBe safe on the road, is all.\n\nJOE: Sure.\n\nLUCY: And Joe?\n\n[[JOE: Yeah?|end scene i]]\n

(SPACE A-16 is empty.)\n\n[[JOE: (Park car.)|hi gordo]]

GORDON: I'll go inside and get some more stuff. You move us in. The keypad thing is 4021.\n\nJOE: Thanks.\n\n[[(Joe looks at the equipment.)|equipment]]\n[[(Joe opens the garage.)|open sesame]]

(The driver is a big man in a beautiful suit, blinded by black glasses as Dallas darkens. He, too, looks saddened to have stopped.)\n\n[[ROAD|road]]

(Paint-grazed pavement sinks green and damp between a single streetlamp and the swarming blue night. Numbered spaces sit and wait for numbered cars to fill them, or roll away so they can see the stars. It has rained here. Only here, it seems.)\n\n[[BUILDING.|cardiff facade]]\n[[SPACE B-23.| b23]]\n[[SPACE C-8.|c8]]\n[[SPACE A-16.|a16]]\n

(A workbench offers several pizza crusts sanctuary from orderly eyes. Several empty beer bottles stand sentinel.)\n\n[[Back.|garage]]

(The DRIVER is an enraged looking man with wire-rimmed glasses and a thick dark beard. Joe notes his short-sleeved yellow shirt, and the bagel crumbs in its collar.)\n\nDRIVER: I'm A-16! Hey, that's me! I'm A-16!\n\n[[(Joe looks confused.)|also a-16]]\n[[(Joe looks annoyed.)|also a-16]]

JOE: Long day?\n\nDEBBIE: You could say that. We had a bit of a hiccup with some of our computers. I don't understand it, really. Something with the CRTs. Had a few weird things coming up on screens where words ought to have been. Put us back several hours. The rest are the girls from B&D game repair downstairs, come up to help us out. They're handling it.\n\nJOE: I hope it's nothing serious.\n\nDEBBIE: Oh, I don't think so. You're Joe, right? From IBM?\n\n[[JOE: That's right.|aboard 1]]\n[[JOE: Not anymore.|aboard 2]]

JOE: So when was the last time you really built something?\n\nGORDON: I don't build anything anymore! I'm a sales engineer! Stop acting like you need a need me to crank out a new model of Porsche!\n\nJOE: I don't want you to help me engineer a sale. And I don't want you to help me build a car, or a computer, or a piece of systems software, for that matter!\n\nGORDON: (Laughing angrily) What, then? Why stalk me to Dallas, antagonize me in the parking lot, tell me how glad you are to meet me, then ask me to work on your mysterious oh-so-urgent pet project?\n\n[[What do you want?|pennydrops]]

(The driver is a big man in a beautiful suit, blinded by black glasses as Dallas darkens. He, too, looks saddened to have stopped.)\n\n[[ARMADILLO|armadillo 2]]\n[[SMILING WOMAN|lucy]]

A TEER RUNS DOUN YOR CHEEK. YOU FEL BAD BECUS OF WHAT YOU SAYD. SAY SORRY.\n\n[[JOE: (Plays apologetically)|better]]\n[[JOE: (Plays angrily)|better]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Restart.|joanie program]]\n[[JOE: (Playing) Exit.|symph greet]]