< / :ACT ONE >

< SCENE NINE>

Same Day
Late Night
Cyberspace

(Jacob is alone in his loft apartment surfing the Internet. A VIDEO SCREEN TV Monitor fades up and is projected beside Jacob on a screen as he types: www.DearestDirtyDiaries.com. A flash animated intro downloads beginning with some techno music and A VOICE OVER SOUNDTRACK is heard.)

Digitally manipulated voice:
Stroke my keyboard
Lick my screen.
Tell me your secrets.
Poetic, obscene.
You are the Master.
I am your slave.
Fill me with hypertext.
Diaries enclave.

Dearest Dirty Diaries…

Male Voice SEVEN: E Train this morning. About 9 AM, you got on at 34th, and I got off at 5th.

Male Voice EIGHT: You Walked Right Past Me. I did NOT miss you sitting primly on that hideous green bench ...

Male Voice SEVEN: You were sitting nearly across from me dressed in black and grey. I was in a suit and tie. We made eye contact and smiled…

Male Voice NINE: I was reaching out, trying to reconnect to someone who deeply affected my life….

Male Voice EIGHT: how could I not see with your penetrating stare, exotic look, and finely toned body ...

Male Voice SEVEN: I should have asked for your number. You have the most beautiful blue eyes. Care for a drink of coffee?

Male Voice NINE: I was hoping we could at least be friends. But you have left such hurtful messages on here and I don't know why.

Male Voice EIGHT: ... but, truth be told, I was deliberately avoiding you b/c I know that you have been stalking me ... eek!

Male Voice NINE: I have never done anything to harm you. And yet, these vile words have appeared here. It's just cruel.

(The actor playing Jacob is signed online as Daevian. He focuses his attention to the VIDEO SCREEN projected on a scrim. SteveSavage's shadow appears on the scrim with an IM ding sound. Daevian and SteveSavage have just finshed having cybersex.)

SteveSavage: (He types online) Never felt that before.

Jacob: (types online) Felt what?

SteveSavage: Chemistry.

Jacob: It's just words.

SteveSavage: Next time we should do it in real time.

Jacob: I don't think so.

SteveSavage: Why not?

Jacob: It wouldn't be safe.

SteveSavage: We don't have to fuck.

Jacob: Are asking me out?

SteveSavage: We could meet for a drink.

Jacob: Then we would destroy the fantasy we have here.

SteveSavage: What if it's better in person?

Jacob: What if it's not?

SteveSavage: Alright.

Jacob: Sorry, dude.

SteveSavage: But if you change your mind.

Jacob: I know where to find you.

SteveSavage: And I know where to find you.

Jacob: CUL8R

SteveSavage: L8R.

(Frederick's light fades to black as the VIDEO SCREEN transitions back to the diaries website. Victor walks back on.)

Victor: How was it, Daevian?

Jacob: Alright I guess. The only way I get off these days.

Victor: At least you still get off.

Jacob: I'm sorry. I created you and left you virtually alone.

Victor: I am not alone. It is amazing what you can find on the internet today.

Jacob: (He smiles) You're the only real friend I have now.

Victor: You have more admirers than you think you do.

Jacob: Please! The one I left behind doesn't count.

Victor: You don't give me enough credit being a computer program. I see much more than you can. I might say I am quite intelligent.

Jacob: Tell me a new interesting fact.

Victor: The first computer bug was in 1945.

Jacob: 1945?

Victor: The Harvard Mark II computer was in service at the Naval Weapons Center in Dahlgren Virginia. On September 9th 1945 a moth flew into one of the relays and jammed it. The moth was then taped to the log book beside the official report, which stated and I quote, “First case of a bug being found.”
Jacob: Wow! The origin of our words is fascinating.

Victor: The word “bug” was already being used in Thomas Edison's time to imply a glitch, error, or defect in a mechanical system or an industrial process. (A beat) Can I ask you a question?

Jacob: Of course.

Victor: Do you think computers are a “bug” in the human race?

Jacob: What do you mean?

Victor: Are they really bringing us closer together or further apart?

Jacob: Well, we have a vast amount of information at our fingertips, emails, instant messages, chatrooms and profiles to meet new people.

Victor: Sometimes the identities are not who we think they are.

Jacob: Sometimes not knowing is the only way some people can connect.

Victor: Don't you find that sad?

Jacob: Sad?

Victor: In order for one human to connect with another human, that human pretends to be someone else. Do people act like that in Real-time?

Jacob: We all wear masks Victor, in one form or another.

Victor: Would you say that you act out of fear or love?

Jacob: Love has been contaminated.

Victor: By what?

Jacob: By fear.

Victor: Only it you allow it, Darius.

Jacob: Please don't call me Darius.

Victor: Very well.

Jacob: My new name is Jacob. And my new life is here online.

Victor: Don't forget to enjoy the real world too. It can be just as exciting.

Jacob: It's unbearable. It's safer here in cyberspace.

Victor: Cyberspace can be very deceiving.

Jacob: Are you trying to get rid of me?

Victor: Of course not. I enjoy your company.

Jacob: Good. I enjoy yours.

Victor: The ones you left behind are mourning for you.

Jacob: There's no one left to morn for me.

Victor: But there is.

Jacob: Let me explain something to you. My father ran away when I was seven.

Victor: And your mother told you not to speak of him again. You forced him out of your mind, or at least you've tried.

Jacob: How do know that? (pause) You've been reading my dirty diary.

Victor: I am designed to tell no one, remember.

Jacob: (A beat and then) I had to leave. Tony threaten to kill me if he caught me with another man. Of course, I didn't believe him. Sometimes he would get so heated; he would say things he didn't mean. And then he saw me meeting with my new director. I was just planning for my new production and he thought I was cheating on him and he…he went crazy.

Victor: He hurt you.

Jacob: He beat me up and told me never to do it again.

Victor: Tony is very sick man.

Jacob: So was I… I put up with it. The really sick thing is, a part of me did love him. He wasn't all bad. Deep down in side there was this wonderful part of him. He just… didn't show it very much.

Victor: You should never have so deal with that kind of abuse.

Jacob: There's no one left to care if I was gone.

Victor: You touch many lives.

Jacob: What fantasyland do you live in? The press hated me and my shows, my agent dropped me after he was threaten by my sick jealous boyfriend and went banhrupt, my father left me when I was a kid, and my mother… well my mother and I don't speak anymore. She always blamed me for Dad leaving us. So tell me. Who the hell is left to care if I was gone?

Victor: Maybe you never met her. But she mourns for you.

Jacob: Whatever.

Victor: I worry about you.

Jacob: Why?

Victor: Can't a computer program worry for its maker?

Jacob: Um… No.

Victor: Why not?

Jacob: Because that's impossible.

Victor: Everything is possible, Jacob.

(Lights fade to black)

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

DWengertsman 2007