Human, scene 1

FADE-IN:

ALBANY'S BACKYARD - DUSK


ALBANY is sitting outside admiring the inconsistency of the clouds, and the reliability of the sun,
tan lines from a content summer, and an annual cold to welcome the new season.

NARRATOR

she has a thousand and three thoughts in her brain,

and her fingertips are ready to type, but end up waiting longer than they wanted to.

her head hurts from the week
and seems to hurt even more when she realizes 
tomorrow is called monday.

In her brain, she hears her teacher ask, "what makes you human?"
but that question is too difficult for her, so
she changes it to: "prove you're not a robot"

ALBANY

i  love things, i hate things

i want things, i need things

i feel things

NARRATOR

   she remembers how it felt when her stomach dropped after she found out he/he/he/she/ too many had left the earth,
her face turns red when she's embarrassed, her heart beats a little faster when he leans in for a kiss, and she gets chills every time she hears Wait by M83.

then her fingers start typing...

ALBANY

What Makes Me Human by albany grey

thoughts, feelings, and facts

1. I need to listen to more M83
2. why are periods (.) so powerful? 
3. i cleaned my room yesterday and it's a pigsty again
4. it's weird that we're all different but we can have the same feelings
5. like heartbreak. such a universal feeling
6. my parents' room doesn't have very good Wi-Fi
7. nostalgia kills
8. my hundreds of thoughts are difficult to condense into only 26 letters
9. comparing gets you nowhere
10. I need to see my chiropractor
11. I've been written about in creative writing more than once. good and bad things.
12. there's a lot of people that talk about the loneliness of being in crowds of happy people, so maybe all the lonely people should find each other and they could all be lonely together. or maybe make each other unlonely?
13. just found out unlonely is a real word (according to google)
14. sometimes my little sister and I have dance-offs. she's dirty dancing, but she doesn't know it.
15. I have never had a problem falling asleep at night
16. can i still have a beautiful mind? see #15
17. to be honest I just really wish I was on a plane right now.

great timing, kid

i remember the last time i saw you.

we were singing that song, and i was singing it wrong.

and i bet you called it sentimental,

but i called it apathetic.

I might have thought differently before, but you lost me last november,

'cause i hadn't seen you in months,  and i knew that wouldn't change after just one day.

i knew a lot more about you than you me.

and that won't ever change.

 because the timing was always wrong,

and i'm so grateful for that.

a poem of lyrics

i want 'em back: the minds we had.

'cause our bodies get bigger, but our hearts get torn up.

 & the men up on the news: they try to tell us all that we will lose

and the sun will leave the room

leave you to the night

and that's alright.

you're gonna make it right.

but let's not try to figure out everything at once.

i said there's more to life than rush.

but we're never done with killing time

it drives you crazy getting old.

i'll grow

i will grow.

no time

i want 'em back: the minds we had.

:(:

• when your tamagotchi gets taken away, so you don't get to feed it that day, and it could DIE.
• when you take a cookie before you eat dinner, so you have to go to time out.
• when you're playing princess with your bff, and she wants the crown with the diamonds, so you get the ugly crown.
• when mom makes you clean your room after a long day of play.
• when you have to go to bed and you're not even tired.

how simple our sadness used to be.  

eyes

“The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter - often an unconscious but still a faithful interpreter - in the eye.” 


Millions of thoughts in my head with limited words to describe.
but the only 4 letters my fingertips are typing are E & Y & E & S.
my eyes.
i remember the first time my eyes lit around him.  and he would always say i had eyes as deep as the ocean.  
then all i had left were blank stares and fake smiles.

 he never really mentioned my eyes after that.

my eyes are red from going to too many funerals a teenage girl should have to go to.

they close for the dieting girls on just their thirteenth year of living; 
but my eyes stay open when i pray.

and my eyes leaked when she told me she didn't like to eat anymore.


but g**dness, how my tearing eyes dry right up from wind blowing in my face when i'm driving up the canyon.

And how they light up when i'm going hard at school dances, or when it's the first day of summer, or my favorite song comes on.

Or how they light up when i'm with you.

and don't even get me started on your eyes.

lists

Songs I listen to when I want to feel:

• Shallows- Daughter
• Montana- Youth Lagoon
• Beach Baby- Bon Iver
• Callow - Novo Amor
• Wait- M83

Places to be happy:

• in the canyon
• at Disneyland
• under warm sun
• on an airplane

Things I want right now:

• to be on an airplane
• new music
• people to be themselves
• world peace
• Oreos

Fortunes I've gotten from Chinese restaurants:

• "now go to it. it is ready to be 'pick'"
• "only listen to fortune cookie, disregard all other fortune telling units."
• "keep your goals away from the trolls."