There are many futures.
No past, no future.
ARDIS EXTINCTION BY LINDSAY SMITH 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 118 UPDATED
INT. LOUVRE
Spence leans in, breathes on the glass case of the Egyptian king.
SPENCE
He looks happy.
A tour group of Chinese shuffle past. One of them stops, jostles Spence aside, and takes a shot of the happy king.
SPENCE
So many culture lovers.
ARDIS
Did we see the Mona Lisa?
(she pushes through the crowd)
There’s no happiness, right? You have to put on a happy face.
SPENCE
You’ll end up in a glass case too.
EXT. CANAL
Spence and Ardis watch a tourist boat glide by on the canal, rows of empty seats and a woman standing at the front singing a sorrowful love song in French.
SPENCE
How long is it now?
ARDIS
What are you talking about?
SPENCE
Your research.
ARDIS
Oh.
SPENCE
Four years?
ARDIS
Three.
They start walking along the canal.
ARDIS
Well this is the fourth year. So what are you getting at?
SPENCE
You haven’t published anything.
ARDIS
I haven’t written anything.
SPENCE
Ardis, there’s nothing new.
She takes a few steps. Turns back to him.
ARDIS
That’s just it. There is.
EXT. CAFE TERRACE
Ardis and Spence are sitting at a tiny table on a cafe terrace.
SPENCE
You like the coffee?
ARDIS
Nice.
SPENCE
It’s the best. Peru.
He studies the crowd of tourists shuffling past, a leg shaking impatiently.
ARDIS
Nice village too.
She pushes away her coffee cup.
ARDIS
Except it is fake.
SPENCE
What do you mean fake?
ARDIS
Done up for the tourists.
Spence stands up from the table.
SPENCE
There’s something I want you to see.
They push through the tourists to the outskirts of the village.
Spence leads Ardis onto a dirt path that crosses a field of purple flowers glowing in the sun.
Ardis looks back at the village.
ARDIS
Jimmy, it’s pretty.
They come to an old stone wall. Spence pushes open a weathered wooden door.
SPENCE
The village graveyard.
Spence takes Ardis’s arm.
SPENCE
This is authentic, no tourists.
Old cypresses soak up the sun and in the shadows wild grass lies shrivelled.
ARDIS
What is it? What do you want me to see?
Spence stops at a grave overgrown by an old olive tree.
ARDIS
(looking around)
Where’s the village from here?
Spence shifts his feet, the gravel crackles.
SPENCE
Just look.
Ardis looks at the grave of Harrison Wells.
SPENCE
You see darling? This is where he is.
He takes a few steps back the way they had come.
SPENCE
That’s all.
Another grave lies next to it, like a twin. Edith Wells.
ARDIS
Edith Wells? How can that be?