Jeremy
Who is this Leah person anyway?
Jeremy
And who gave you permission to have a life that didn’t include me?
Alex
She lives next door at my apartment complex. Just moved in.
Jeremy
And let me guess, she’s pretty?
Alex
I guess some guys might think so.
Jeremy
She BETTER be. I’ll be so much madder at you if you did this for a non-pretty girl.
Alex
Well, you can judge for yourself.
Jeremy
No, dude, she’s all yours.
Alex
I MEANT that you’re going to have to be the one to erase her memory since I’m trapped in here.
Jeremy
Woah, woah, woah! I never agreed to that.
Alex
What other choice is there?
Jeremy
Uh, time travel. Tell you not to make such a stupid decision in the first place.
Alex
Come on, I’ll owe you one.
Jeremy
You’ll owe me one with six zeroes after it.
Alex
We’ll negotiate later. Take a seat at the counter. I’ll text you when I see her.
Jeremy grabs a menu from next to the napkins and pretends to rifle through it. Suddenly, his phone buzzes.
Alex
It’s her, it’s her! Two seats down from you.
Jeremy turns around and instantly sees who Alex means.
Jeremy
Good for you, man.
Alex
Ask her to pass the salt.
Alex
No, you don’t have any food. Ask her if you’ve seen her somewhere before.
Jeremy
Stop backseat driving. I’ve got this.
Jeremy pockets his phone but not before taking a quick look at his reflection in the darkened screen.
He turns to the girl next to him.
Leah glances sideways, surprised.
Jeremy
Know anything that’s good here?
Leah
The ketchup-flavored ice cream is pretty awesome.
Leah
Of course I am. Glad you caught that.
Leah smiles at her while accepting a cup of coffee.
Jeremy rubs the palms of his hands against his jeans, nervous in spite of himself.
He waits for Leah to look away and then—
Leah
What did you just do?
Jeremy
I…What do you mean?
Leah
Don’t deny it! You put something in my drink! What the hell are you up to?!
She pushes her barstool back as she stands, clearly about to call for someone.
Jeremy
Wait…wait…I can explain.
Jeremy
Oh, um, can we talk someplace private?
Leah
No! Your options are here or in jail, talking from the other side of a Plexiglas window.
Jeremy
I’m a friend of Alex’s.
Leah’s eyes show a flash of recognition, but she hides it quickly.
Jeremy leans in and whispers.
Jeremy
The abracadabra kind of friend.
Jeremy
Now can we go somewhere quieter?
Leah thinks about it while biting her lip.
Leah
I’m getting a to-go cup for this coffee. You can wait.
Alex
Jeremy! What are you telling her?
Alex
Where are you guys going?
Alex
Jeremy, what’s going on?!!!
Jeremy holds the door open for Leah and then follows quickly behind her as she heads in the direction of a nearby park.
Jeremy
Maybe we should start over. My name is—
He is cut off as his face is suddenly splashed with coffee. Jeremy urgently tries to spit it out on the grass and to wipe it off his face and clothes.
Leah
Feel like telling me what was in there now?
Jeremy
You’re lucky that I still remember.
Jeremy
That coffee’s still pretty hot, you know!
Leah
Stop complaining and start explaining. Now.
Jeremy
Alex, heads up. Your “friend who just so happens to be a girl” is heading to the alley to talk to you.
Alex
Oddly enough, that doesn’t sound like “The mission was a complete success. Stop worrying, man.”
Jeremy
Good. It was meant to sound as much like the opposite of that as possible.
Leah glances over her shoulder at Jeremy, then back at the apparently normal alley.
Leah
Are you sure you’re not just messing with me by having me talk to a brick wall?
Leah extends her arms out, feeling the ‘empty’ air in front of her, but winds up accidentally poking Alex.
Leah
Oops, sorry. Didn’t mean to touch that.
Leah
I don’t understand. If magic got Alex into this mess, why don’t you just use magic to get him out?
Jeremy
There’s a Power Outage.
Alex
You know how a bad storm can sometimes cause your lights to go out?
Alex
Well, our powers can be affected by the weather, too.
Alex
Lots of things like the position of the stars or the Earth’s magnetic field can change our ability to do magic.
Alex
Right now, there’s a lot of interference in the air—so Jeremy could TRY a spell to get me out of here.
Alex
But chances are if anything happened at all, it would NOT be what we wanted to happen.
Jeremy
You might try to make something float and end up causing it to multiply.
Jeremy
Or to make all your laundry fold itself and then have it attack you.
Jeremy
Or try to magically conjure another roll of toilet paper and wind up with a cactus.
Leah gives him a weird look.
Jeremy
All based on true stories, by the way.
Leah
Well, I need to talk to you, Alex…And I can’t talk to you like this.
Leah
What if we tied ropes to your legs and used my car to pull you out? Would that work?
Jeremy
Might be worth a shot.
Alex
I’ll try anything at this point.
Alex
Who knows? Maybe it will make me taller.
Leah looks through her truck’s back window, at the cables tied to a point in mid-air, then takes a deep breath to steady herself.
Leah
Okay, Alex, I’m moving NOW!
At first Leah is careful to not step on the gas too hard in case Alex comes whipping out of the wall.
But the truck continues to spin its wheels in the same spot…
The car strains against her, then suddenly there’s a “pop” like the sound of a toilet plunger breaking suction with the bowl.
Leah puts the car in park and jumps out.
Leah
Alex, are you okay? Right, you’re still invisible. If you bleed, is your blood invisible?
Alex
I think I’m fine. All my invisible blood still seems to be in my invisible veins.
Leah
In that case, HOW COULD YOU PULL SOMETHING LIKE THIS?!
