Eet Ees... Scienca/Transcript

BEGINNING OF ACT 3

NARRATOR: "My head's in a spin all through Mutou's class. I'm going to have dinner. With Emi. Who wants to be my girlfriend, no less. A date... And then she kissed me. That kiss. I keep going back to it, playing it over in my mind again and again. Everything about that moment felt so right. My mind drifts off, lost in thoughts of Emi."

MUTOU: "Nakai? Hello?"

NARRATOR: "It seems like I've drifted a bit too far."

HISAO: "Huh? What?"

MUTOU: "Egad! You've contracted some kind of amnesia! Someone get the nurse!"

NARRATOR: "The class chuckles at Mutou's antics."

HISAO: "Sorry, sir."

MUTOU: "Hmm, won't happen again and all that, right?"

HISAO: "Exactly."

NARRATOR: "Mutou brightens considerably."

MUTOU: "Well! Lovely to hear! I'd hate to have my star pupil slacking off, after all."

NARRATOR: "I've been doing well, but I hardly qualify as a star pupil, I think. I'm fairly certain that this class is the sort that everyone does well in. It's just memorizing formulas. True to my word, I manage to pay attention for the rest of the class."

MUTOU: "Nakai, may I have a word with you?"

NARRATOR: "I wonder if I'm in trouble for earlier."

HISAO: "Uh, sure. Am I in trouble?"

NARRATOR: "Mutou looks genuinely confused for a moment."

MUTOU: "Beg your pardon?"

NARRATOR: "He tilts his head to one side and thinks for a moment."

MUTOU: "Oh, that! No, no, you're not in any sort of trouble. There's just a question I want to ask you."

HISAO: "What's that?"

MUTOU: "Nothing terrible, I was just wondering what your plans for after graduation are. Are you going to university?"

HISAO: "Yeah, I guess. I can't really see a reason not to go."

MUTOU: "Given any thought to what you'll study?"

HISAO: "Not really, no. I figure I'll come up with something when I get there."

NARRATOR: "Mutou laughs."

MUTOU: "Taking things as they come, eh? I'd argue against it, but that's how I did things when I went to university. Well, not really. I knew I'd go into a science, I just wasn't sure which one. Ended up with physics, but could just as well have gone for astronomy or what have you. Actually I did go for chemistry first, but there were all sorts of things..."

NARRATOR: "Mutou trails off, and frowns slightly. It takes a minute for him to recover his train of thought, and I wait patiently for him to continue."

MUTOU: "So anyway, I did a lot of physics as well, because I had an interest in that, but I wasn't sure if it was for me. So I went back to chemistry, and here we are. Yes?"

NARRATOR: "He smiles at me enthusiastically, as if waiting for me to confirm that yes, here is were we are. Somehow I get the feeling that Mutou had a plan for this conversation, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out."

HISAO: "I'm sorry, I'm not following you."

NARRATOR: "Mutou frowns and rubs his chin a bit, looking perplexed. He then snaps his fingers as if he's remembered what the point of all this was."

MUTOU: "Right! Yes! You!"

HISAO: "Me?"

MUTOU: "Yes! You should look into studying one of the sciences! You're fantastic at it. Unless you'd rather just go into math."

NARRATOR: "Mutou makes a sour face."

MUTOU: "Not a big fan of straight math. I always liked the experiments more than the proofs."

HISAO: "You're saying I should study science at university?"

NARRATOR: "Mutou seems thrown off balance by my question."

MUTOU: "Well, sort of. You could also join the science club! Trouble is, there's not actually a science club. But there could be! You could even be a charter member! A founding father! Of course, you'd need to find other members. Well, only if you wanted to. We could just start it up with the two of us. And um. I could give you things to read, and we could talk about them. Er, and I could help you get ready for university and such as well. Wait!"

NARRATOR: "Mutou rummages around in his briefcase and tosses me a book."

MUTOU: "Read that. If it's interesting, then we can talk about it."

NARRATOR: "“A Brief History of Time?” I don't know if I actually want to read this, but Mutou seems pretty excited about it."

HISAO: "What's it about?"

MUTOU: "Time. Space. Space-time. Black holes and such. And it's not that dense. Just to see if that sort of thing's interesting for you, you understand. Hang around after class, and we can either discuss it, or I can show you how to make explosives in the lab."

NARRATOR: "He waves a hand at my quizzical expression."

MUTOU: "Joking, sorry. Still, I've kept you here long enough for now. Think about science as a career path, Nakai. I think you'd enjoy it."

HISAO: "Uh, okay. I will. Thank you for the book."

NARRATOR: "I leave the classroom and look up at the clock; quite a chunk of time to kill until Emi's out of practice. Guess I'll give this book a look; I should probably shower as well. Showering before a date's only proper, right? I head back to the dorms. I wonder where I'm supposed to meet Emi, anyway. She said “after practice,” but she didn't say where I should find her. I guess I can just swing by the track; that's probably best, anyway. If she needs a shower, I can just wait for her in her room or something. Or in the hallway, I guess; that would be better as well. I take a quick shower, remembering to take my medication once I hop out. Now, for a look at this book."

Next Scene: Definitions