Compound W

Pre-dawn freeway heading west. Night sky lightens, turns darker then pink & gold. Sun soon to rise. The children sleep the deep undisturbed sleep of childhood. Soon they will awaken, hungry for food she doesn't have. Barney'd been driving all night. Easier on the children that way. She looks over at him, tense, hunched, one hand clenching the wheel the other obsessively running through his thinning hair. She doesn't want to start in again but has to say something, has to break this silence.

How much further 'till the turnoff?

20 miles ...

( silence )

Don't worry Barn it's going to be all right.

He sighs.

Yeah. Sure. All right ...

New Okies the news calls them. Except these people come from everywhere & they aren't going to California. Two years after the Supreme Court approved of voluntary servitude the bottom falls out of the US economy. Or a rug is pulled. Their little North Carolina town, a furniture business, 50 years the sole employer, suddenly bought by outsiders from Dallas. They switched to e-commerce, put in a computer system that didn't work. You could call up the invoice or the buyer but not both. Hired new shippers who had a 30% return rate. Desks, chests of drawers impaled by a fork lift, sent broken, smashed. No one ever listened. Six months & 150 million dollars later the plant bankrupt, town bust. Here they are. Ready to give themselves up. Turn themselves in.

Compound W reads the sign. Barney turns on the off ramp, slows through a long round curve then at the turn he pulls over, stops the car. Others stream past, gawking.

He looks at Lisa. She doesn't look well. Too thin, her skin pale, dark rings under her eyes, dark hair limp.

There's still time to reconsider.

Her eyes widen, flash angry.

Reconsider what?

well ...

We are broke are we not?

yeah

We are $100,000 in debt is that not so?

guess

We are also unemployable w/two mouths to feed!

seems so

We have a chance, a chance for a future, a future for our children. Think about it Barn? A future for our children! Why - They might even live on Mars!

You don't know that Lisa.

What don't I know? I KNOW! You're the one that doesn't know!

but ... Fred Crane said ...

Fred Crane? That stupid radio trash! Who ... Who

Who was assassinated!

Assassinated my ass! He was shot by an enraged husband!

Lisa I'm smart. Maybe I can write a book.

Write a book? You can't even read!

I can talk. I ...

OK talk ... Talk while we starve! Maybe you can take Fred Crane's place.

Station closed down last week.

A wave of fear crosses her face. Then, from the back seat.

Mommy! Mommy!

Lisa grabs her head like she's trying to prevent it from exploding.

Mommy's here my darlings!

Hauls the children onto her lap. Two-year-old twins. A boy & girl, such beautiful children.

Hungry Mommy!

We'll eat soon ...

Her features harden.

The rich need us Barn. They need us to help to build their future. In exchange for our servitude, our undying devotion, OUR children, yours & mine, will share in that golden future. I'm not passing that up.

For a moment he contemplates his family. He can get out of the car now, walk away. He knows she won't follow. He remembers himself, ten years old, his father left then, never to return. He remembers the hurt still feels it. He made a promise to never never ever do the same to his own. He starts the car, eases into traffic, turns on to the entrance road ...

North ... fifty miles north straight as an arrow. A wide boulevard but only one way. Lisa has put up a blanket in her window to block out the morning sun. Soon this is no longer necessary as the land has risen, the roadway a slot. High embankments on both sides. Giant posters. Posters they've seen for years.

FREEDOM TO SERVE
A CHOICE FOR A BRIGHT TOMORROW
ENTER THE GLORIOUS FUTURE

Finally the roadway starts to rise, rising to meet the landscape. Compound W. A high wall towers before them, runs east & west to a distance. Plastered white, not a feature except a round entrance. Deep, like a tunnel, it curves away into orange light. Suddenly Barney thinks of Dachau. What did it say? On the gate?

Arbeit Macht Frei

Over this entrance, in large gold letters:

RESTORE YOUR DIGNITY

He looks briefly back - faraway mountains ... Lisa smiles at him.

It's a new morning Barn.

He smiles back, grabs her hand & drives deliberately, voluntarily, into servitude ...