JIMMY: Well, goodnight I guess.
CINDY: Ya…goodnight.
**The girls open their door and enter, then close it behind them. The room is small and clean, with smooth gray walls and no decorations. A metal framed bunk bed leans against the left wall, and Libby heaves a sigh and casts herself onto it**
LIBBY: Ugh…I’ve never been so tired. I think I’m gonna pass out.
CINDY: (climbing onto the top bunk) I know what you mean. I feel so heavy, like someone put a load of bricks on my back.
LIBBY: (yawning) Uhuh…
**There is a moment of silence, then Cindy speaks absently**
CINDY: Who would have guessed that things would go so wrong? Aurora…me…our lives are so different. So WRONG. Libby? Do you think something bad will happen to me, like it did in this universe?
LIBBY: (no reply)
CINDY: Libby?
**Libby gives a little snore, and Cindy lets out a sigh and leans her back against the wall. She pulls her knees up to her chest and shivers**
CINDY: You’re so lucky Libby. You can go to sleep and forget about it.
**Meanwhile, the boys have entered their room. It’s pretty much the same as the girls’, only the bunk bed is against the right wall**
JIMMY: (yawning) OK, you guys. What do you say we turn in? I’m starting to feel a little sleepy myself. Goddard, sleep mode boy!
**Goddard curls up into a ball in the corner and powers down**
SHEEN: How can you just go to sleep like that? I’m WIRED. Hey! Oh man, you know what I just realized? I get to go to bed without brushing my teeth! Now, when I wake up in the morning they’ll be all covered in that white fuzzy stuff! How awesome is that?
CARL: (giggling) I know that feeling. It’s like wooly slippers on your teeth.
SHEEN: I know, isn’t it cool? As soon as I get out of the house I’m never brushing my teeth again!
JIMMY: But Sheen, if you don’t brush your teeth the plaque will eat away at the tooth enamel and gum tissue and cause cavities and gingivitis!
SHEEN: I know! It’s always been my secret dream to have black teeth pitted with holes. Then I’ll look just like that hillbilly girl who used to date my dad, or the year-old Swiss cheese wedged in back of the toaster! There’ll be so many holes that when I smile the light will shine through just like a beautiful kaleidoscope! Ha ha!
JIMMY: (getting excited) Yeah! If you chiseled holes in the shape of constellations, then you could put a bulb in your mouth and the stars would be projected out of your mouth and onto the wall! Imagine, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia, the Triangulum Draconis, right inside your mouth! You’d be like a portable planetarium and…wait, what am I talking about? Why am I even taking part in this conversation? This is completely off topic.
SHEEN: Don’t ask me. I’m just gonna smile and nod.
JIMMY: (irritated) OK, can we try to focus here guys? Now, why don’t you and Carl take the top bunk and I’ll take the bottom…OK?
CARL: I don’t know, Jimmy. I’m—I’m kind of afraid of the top bunk. What if the ceiling falls on me?
JIMMY: (rolling his eyes) Fine, Carl. You and Sheen can take the bottom bunk and I’ll take the top one.
SHEEN: What? You want Carl and me to share a bunk? No way I’m sleeping next to him! He snores like a freight train and his breath smells like old lady! And what if he starts nibbling on my ear again like the time he did at Ike’s party?
CARL: Gasp! I thought I told you never to speak of that again! Besides, you always start muttering things about girls and it gives me bad dreams! Or you start thinking you’re Ultralord and you make karate moves in your sleep. One time you kicked me right in the…
JIMMY: (breaking in) Ya, ya, so you’re both obnoxious. All the more reason for you to sleep together.
CARL AND SHEEN: But…
JIMMY: I don’t want to hear another word about it! Now go to sleep!
**Sheen salutes Jimmy with a dirty look, and with a great show of pushing and shoving, the two take off their shoes and climb onto their bunk. Jimmy scales the metal ladder and pulls himself onto the top bunk. He fluffs his pillow and rolls his eyes as Sheen and Carl continue their conversation below**
SHEEN: Move over! You’re such a whale! I feel like I’m being crushed!
CARL: Ow! Stop it Sheen! Woohoohooo…your hands are cold! Stop shoving me!
SHEEN: I wouldn’t have to push you if you lost a few pounds. Seriously, lay off the chalupas, dude.
CARL: Don’t mock my family’s portly stature! We’re just big-boned, that’s all!
SHEEN: If those are bones, then when people dig up your skeleton in a hundred years they’re gonna swear they’re looking at a hippo.
CARL: Sheen!
SHEEN: I’m just saying…
**They continue to squabble for a while longer, and then they fall silent. Carl’s snoring reverberates through the room, and Sheen begins to mutter VERY strange things under his breath. Jimmy tosses and turns fitfully, then finally sits up in bed**
JIMMY: Oh, who am I kidding? I can’t sleep.
**He leans his back against the wall and pulls his knees up to his chest, then shivers slightly. A mere room away, Cindy is in the exact same position on her bunk. They sit back to back, separated by only a few inches of paper-thin wall. Their heads are almost touching, though neither one of them knows it. As they sit there, utterly alone despite their closeness, their minds begin to wander**
CINDY: (thinking) I can’t believe it. I just can’t. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.
JIMMY: (thinking) I don’t even know what to think anymore. I never thought I’d become the villain. How could I have gone so wrong?
CINDY: How could such terrible things have happened? I can barely even begin to imagine what my future self has been through. Will I have to suffer as much as she did?
JIMMY: (covering his eyes) Poor Aurora. Poor everyone. What have I done? What have I become?
CINDY: I don’t know what to do. What does Aurora want? Does she want us to…to KILL evil Jimmy? I don’t think I could do it. Could she?
JIMMY: (looking off into space) Aurora…I saw the way she looked at me. I’m not HIM, but she hates me almost as much as if I were. She really hates me, Cindy. Do you hate me too?
CINDY: Oh, Jimmy. I never wanted it to work out this way. Will the fighting ever stop? This whole thing started because of our fighting, both in this universe and in our own. Will the cycle continue to spin out of control?
JIMMY: It’s so strange, Cindy. Even in an entirely different universe, we’re still at war with each other. I don’t believe much in things like fate, but the events seem frighteningly similar. Could it be we’re destined to spend our lives forever hating each other?
CINDY: Neutron, how could I be so stupid? I mean, look at Aurora and Future Jimmy. It seems that we’re fated to forever be enemies. Who was I kidding? We can never be together, neither in our universe nor in any other.
**She pauses**
CINDY: But still…
JIMMY: But still, I can’t help feeling…
CINDY: …Like all this is wrong. Like it wasn’t supposed to happen this way.
JIMMY: …that somehow this was supposed to work out. And I wonder…
CINDY: Is it too late to change?
JIMMY: Is it too late to save them?
CINDY: And Jimmy…
JIMMY: And Cindy…
BOTH: Is it too late for us now?
**Jimmy and Cindy close their eyes and
lean their heads back against the wall. As they drift off to sleep,
their breaths rise and fall in unison. Back to back they dream, and
without knowing it, they are closer then they have ever been before**
