Case #8: Video

[19centconstable]

[George is COMPLETELY DRESSED. So dressed. He also looks slightly pink and wrinkly, like he's spent too long in the bathtub.]

I've been in the tub.

[For two days, apparently. And still so unclean. His hair is also not parted and slicked down as usual, and is currently making a sort of wild, fluffy, dark halo around his face. The ends curl a bit. George's hair may eat combs. George is too sulky to do anything about it. This flood has tested even his unwavering positivity.]

I want to apologize for...

...

...everything.

[A curt nod, and the camera is switched off.]

...

[Then switched back on again.]

I would just like to say, also, just so you know, that I am never...unclothed, not even underneath my clothes.

...I'm getting back in the tub.

[The camera is switched off.]

...

[Aaaaaaand switched on again. He's here, he might as well. George clears his throat.]

Who...does...the art?

Comments

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

Well what do you think makes you you. And how do you explain that people's bodies weigh less after they've died?

[thebestnose.livejournal.com]

I've never weighed someone before and after they've died. And...we're made of...

[Sigh.] It doesn't matter. There is nothing in your body that flutters off to some mystical place.

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

Oh, but it does.

[thebestnose.livejournal.com]

How can you go anywhere after you die? You're...dead.

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

Your body has died. But your soul never does.

[thebestnose.livejournal.com]

Well, what does a soul look like, then?

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

Nothing. You can't see them.

[thebestnose.livejournal.com]

Then how do you know they exist? Because the Rulebook says so?

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. I suppose.

[thebestnose.livejournal.com]

That's disappointing.

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

Why?

[thebestnose.livejournal.com]

Because you really are acting like a Yellow now. Believing the Rulebook just because it was given to you.

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

And perhaps I'd like to believe it as well.

[thebestnose.livejournal.com]

There are people who believe that I can't do what I want because I can see Green.

Because the Rulebook says so. And they want to believe that, too.

It doesn't make it any less ridiculous.

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

That's completely different. There's nothing ridiculous about believing one shouldn't murder people or try to run off with a neighbor's wife. Because one shouldn't...those things.

And perhaps I would like to believe that if I'm a good man, I will go to a better place after I've died, because otherwise...well otherwise: what's the point of it all?

[thebestnose.livejournal.com]

What's the point of what?

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

Of anything.

[thebestnose.livejournal.com]

Wait.

You're only living your life so that your soul, which might or might not be some kind of invisible butterfly, will go to Heaven?

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

No. I just feel that there's got to be something more. Hasn't there?

And my soul is not a butterfly. They have bird wings, if anything.

[thebestnose.livejournal.com]

No. Why would there be?

How do you know? You've never seen it.

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

Because...because.

That's how they always are in paintings.

[thebestnose.livejournal.com]

You should live because...there is nothing else. Just...oh.

[Private]

Just the Green Room. And the Mildew.

Private

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

"The Green Room"?

Private

[thebestnose.livejournal.com]

Yes. Where people go when it's their time.

[Pause.]

And you're not supposed to repeat this.

Private

[19centconstable.livejournal.com]

What's there?

And of course.