Statement of Martin Blackwood and the Archivist, describing their happy ending. Statement begins:
ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT):
Thank you all for sticking around. Thank you for letting me tell you a story, even if it wasn’t a very nice one. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if the story ends happily or not. It just matters that someone was listening.MARTIN:
That’s it, then? No more waiting? No more questions? No more…ARCHIVIST:
You don’t have to finish that sentence.MARTIN:
But…ARCHIVIST:
Would you like to know what will happen next?MARTIN:
I thought - Ok. Yes.ARCHIVIST:
You will see the sun rise… right over there, Martin.Look at me.
You will drink hot tea with fresh milk. You will take a walk through the city, and notice things you have never seen before. You will pick up the phone and call your friends and you will tell them you love them. The world will turn and you will go on living. You will listen to records and eat delicious things and look at the stars and you will read books and fall asleep in the middle of the afternoon. You will fall in love and you will make mistakes and you will learn. You will find a reason to go on, even when you are tired. The world won’t end, and so you will get a dog. So you will sit on the sofa and you will pet its fur. You will, on occasion, be lonely. But it will be different than it was before.
MARTIN:
That sounds nice.ARCHIVIST:
It will be.MARTIN:
…But what about you?
ARCHIVIST:
You’ll remember me.MARTIN:
But I don’t want to just remember.ARCHIVIST:
Then don’t.MARTIN:
Jon?ARCHIVIST:
Yes.MARTIN:
What’s the dog’s name?[FOR A MOMENT, WE HEAR NOTHING BUT THEIR BREATHING.]
ARCHIVIST:
I love you.MARTIN:
I love you, too.[THEY LAUGH. THEY LOVE EACH OTHER, AND THEY HAVE ALWAYS. THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO SAY.]