SCENE ONE: JACK AND JENNIFER HAVE TAKEN SHELTER IN A CAVE. THEY ARE WRAPPED TOGETHER IN THE ONE BLANKET TO KEEP IT WARM. JENNIFER HAS JUST MOVED SO CLOSE TO JACK THEY ARE ALMOST KISSING AND HE IS UNCOMFORTABLE.

JACK: Ah, you're stealing all my air here? What's the matter, are you not warm enough?

JENNIFER: No, no I'm getting there. What about you?

JACK: Ah.... I'd say my temperature is definitely.... on the rise.

JENNIFER: But are you comfortable?

JACK: Ooooh, comfortable.... ah managing.

JENNIFER: Yeah, me too.

JACK: Really?

JENNIFER: Yeah, more or less.

 

SHE RUNS HER HAND UP HIS NECK AND TOUCHES HIS CHIN.

 

JACK: Jack?

 

JACK IMMEDIATELY GOES INTO DEFENSE MODE AND STARTS SHAKING HIS LEG.

 

JACK: Ooooh, aaaah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh....

JENNIFER: What's the matter Jack?

 

HE STARTS TO HIT HIS LEG.

 

JACK: Oooh it's cramping up. Falling asleep on me. Oh, oh, oh, ouch.

JENNIFER: Jack your leg is not falling asleep. Your leg is not falling asleep. You're just afraid of what was about to happen.

JACK: You're damn right I was afraid of what was about to happen. The other one's going too. Oh, oh, oh, pins and needles, I hate it when that happens.

JENNIFER: Jack would you just stop? You don't have to make excuses Jack.

JACK: Oh, oh, that's not an excuse. It's just, you know me, I hate physical pain more than anything.

JENNIFER: I know what you're talking about alright. Look I know how you feel. (Beat) Alright. You're confused about us and you're scared. Okay, I'm scared too.

JACK: Well I guess neither of us is quite ready for this much togetherness, huh.

JENNIFER: Ah.... yeah I guess not.... not yet.

JACK: You what, that claustrophobia, pesky little thing that it is, it's starting to kick up. I need my space.... excuse me.

 

HE GETS UP AND MOVES AWAY. HE LOOKS OUTSIDE FOR A MOMENT AND IT HAS STOPPED SNOWING.

 

JACK: Ah.... I'll tell you what, it's letting up out there. I'm going to go outside and see if I can find out where the hell we are.

JENNIFER: Jack, wait a minute, don't.... Jack....

 

HE PICKS UP HER BLANKET.

 

JACK: Oh this is all wet.... um....

JENNIFER: Here, here, if you're going to go outside, take this.

 

SHE HANDS HIM THE DRY BLANKET THAT SHE HAD AROUND HER.

 

JACK: Ah, thank you.

 

HE LEAVES THE CAVE AND WALKS AROUND OUTSIDE FOR A FEW MINUTES.

SCENE TWO: WHEN HE COMES BACK IN, HE IS SHIVERING.

 

JENNIFER: Jack.

JACK: I'm so cold it's more like Nuke of the North at the moment.

JENNIFER: How is it out there? Has it started snowing again, has it?

JACK: No, no, it's stopped snowing but it snowed a lot before and it seems to have covered up all of our tracks leading back to the train.

JENNIFER: What, Jack this is hopeless. We're never going to find our way back to the car if the snow covered the tracks.

JACK: No, no, no. Let's remember that we have been through similar situations before and we've had a pretty good track record, I mean no pun intended.

JENNIFER: Yeah I guess we do.

JACK: Yeah and I tell you something, I really think that we stand a very good chance of getting home to hearth and home.

JENNIFER: Jack it doesn't always work that way. They don't always work out the way they did....

JACK: Wait a minute, you're starting to sound like me. This is really bad. I gotta go.... I gotta go.

JENNIFER: Jack wait a minute, wait a minute.

JACK: It's the call of the wild. It's cold and everything. I've got to go see a man about a horse.

JENNIFER: Jack where are you going?

JACK: Just a sec.... I'll be back in two shakes or.... yeah, something like that.

 

HE SMILES AND LEAVES HER ALONE IN THE CAVE.

SCENE THREE: A WHILE LATER HE GOES BACK TO CAVE AND TAKES HER OUTSIDE WITH HIS HAND OVER HER EYES SO THAT SHE CANNOT SEE WHERE SHE IS GOING.

 

JENNIFER: Jack this is crazy. I can't see anything.

JACK: That's the point in having your eyes covered.

JENNIFER: Whoa!

 

JENNIFER TRIPS AND JACK HELPS HER BACK UP.

 

JACK: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't look, don't look, don't look, don't look.

JENNIFER: Okay. Your hands are freezing on my face.

JACK: Never mind my hands, I know they're cold.

JENNIFER: They're going to stick to my face.

JACK: I'm sorry about my hands. Just forget about my hands.

JENNIFER: Okay. (Beat) And ready.... look.

 

JENNIFER'S EYES NEARLY POP OUT OF HER HEAD.

 

JENNIFER: Jack!

 

STANDING LOOKING AT THEM ARE TWO SNOW PEOPLE WITH BODIES MADE OF THREE DIFFERENT SIZE BALLS OF SNOW. ONE HAS A STICK BOW TIE AND THE OTHER ONE HAS HAIR MADE OF FIR TREE.

 

JENNIFER: What is it?

JACK: What do you mean what is it? Don't tell me you've been out of civilization so long you don't recognize a work of art when you see it.

JENNIFER: Oh.... art? (Beat) Art!

JACK: It's a.... oh I don't know.... it's a.... it's a Frozen American Gothic. Or I guess it would have been if it had maybe a pitch fork and definitely a pair of gloves would have helped to make it too.

JENNIFER: You know what Jack, these aren't farmers.

JACK: Yes they are.

JENNIFER: No, they're a bride and a groom.

JACK: No.

JENNIFER: Yeah they are. This is the bride and this is the groom.

JACK: No. JENNIFER: The husband and the wife.

JACK: No.

JENNIFER: They are Mr. and Mrs....

JACK: NO.... NO! Now wait a minute. (Beat) Oh it doesn't matter. You call them whatever you want to call them. I guess art is the eye of the beholder.

JENNIFER: Jack I know why you're doing this.

JACK: No.

JENNIFER: Yes, you're giving me something new to hold on to. You're giving me something to hope for because I don't have my little jade plant anymore.

JACK: No, no. It has nothing to do with the jade plant.

JENNIFER: Yes you are.

JACK: This has nothing to do with any little jade plant. It.... it....

JENNIFER: Oh Jack, this is the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me.

JACK: Not to mention the coldest.

JENNIFER: I love these snow people Jack. I really do.

 

SHE TURNS TO FACE HIM.

 

JENNIFER: But not nearly as much as I love you. (Beat) I love you for this Jack and for so many other things.

JACK: Yeah, well.... I'm.... you know.

JENNIFER: Yeah I know. You love me too, don't you? (Beat) I mean I know it's never been easy for you to admit that. And now that you know everything that's happened to me, I know it's made things a lot more complicated.

JACK: Well.... I mean what's a little complication between....

JENNIFER: Friends? Because that's what we are right now. We're just friends right now. But I want it to be more than that and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get there even if it means we have to start all over again.

JACK: All over.

JENNIFER: Yeah, who knows.... maybe one day life can imitate art.

JACK: Well if it's my art, I hope not. (Beat) It's nice to see you calling it art when it suits your purposes though.

JENNIFER: I think it suits your purposes too Jack.

 

SUDDENLY THEY HEAR VOICES CALLING THEM. IT IS FRANKIE AND EVE.

 

FRANKIE: JEN CAN YOU HEAR US? JEN!

JENNIFER: Well it looks like we've been rescued.

JACK: It certainly does. (Beat) FRANCOISE!

FRANKIE: Oh there you are. We've been looking all over for you. We thought we'd never find you.

JACK: Oh thank you so much.

FRANKIE: How are you doing? Are you okay?

JACK: Oh we're fine.

FRANKIE: Oh Jen, it's so good to see you.

 

HE GIVES HER A HUG.

 

JENNIFER: Thank you for coming after us.

FRANKIE: Oh no problem. Are you okay?

 

JENNIFER LOOKS OVER HER SHOULDER AT JACK.

 

JENNIFER: Yeah, yeah. I'm better than okay.

FRANKIE: Oh good, good.

 

FRANKIE AND EVE GUIDE THEM

SCENE FOUR: BACK TO THE TRAIN CAR WHERE MELISSA, BRIAN AND FLUFFY ARE WAITING FOR THEM.

 

JACK: (Shivering) Oh, oh, oh, oh.

MELISSA: Jen are you okay.

JENNIFER: Yeah.

MELISSA: I was so worried about you.

BRIAN: Alright everyone I think we should get down in a circle to keep warm.

JACK: Alright, sounds good to me.

 

JACK SITS DOWN AND WRAPS HIS BLANKET AROUND JENNIFER AS WELL. THEY HUDDLE TOGETHER.

 

BRIAN: This is good for body heat. Now while we're keeping warm I think it's a good time for us to figure out why we want to get out of here.

JACK: Oh I think we all know why. We all have this wild and crazy urge to live.

BRIAN: Okay that's good. Survival instinct is a good thing but what I'm talking about is something that is a little bit more personal. Now if we can just channel our energy, you know, maybe we can get things going and figure out why we want to get home, alright. So I have an idea, why don't we do this? Why don't we do something like a talk show thing to get us going?

EVE: What?

BRIAN: Do you want to do that?

 

EVERYBODY MOANS AT THE IDEA.

 

BRIAN: You want to do something like a talk show?

 

BRIAN PUTS ON A TALK SHOW HOST VOICE AND HOLDS UP A PRETEND MICROPHONE.

 

BRIAN: Hello everybody, welcome.

JACK: Oooooh.

BRIAN: (Imitating a Long Island accent) Here we are okay, here we are with train wreck survivors. That's right and here is their story and oh what a story it is. Okay, we have a caller on the line, do we? Okay, it's Deloros calling from the island. (Beat) Ah I'm calling just to ask a few questions about the train wreck survivors, alright. I want to ask them what do they do to keep up their morale on the train. (Beat) That's a good question, we're going to get right to it.

 

HE HOLDS THE PRETEND MICROPHONE UP TO MELISSA WHO SAYS THAT SHE THINKS ABOUT HER LITTLE SISTER SARAH. THEN HE ASKS FRANKIE.

 

FRANKIE: I've been thinking of taking my hands and putting them around a certain talk show host's neck and strangling him to death.

 

JACK APPLAUDS.

 

JACK: Good, good answer.

 

FRANKIE THEN SAYS HE WORRIES ABOUT WHAT THE PEOPLE AT HOME MUST BE THINKING. EVE IS THINKING OF HER FATHER. THEN IT'S JENNIFER'S TURN.

 

JENNIFER: Well I think we all have a lot of things that we want to resolve.

JACK: Like the linoleum on the kitchen floor. Before I left I didn't decide between the polka dots and the stripes with.... with.... with.... alright suffice to say I'm a businessman and I have a lot of unfinished business at home and I can't wait to get back to it.

BRIAN: And there you have it. Five different stories and five different reasons for wanting to survive. Ah what's that? (Beat) We'll be right back, we're taking a commercial. Goodbye.

MELISSA: Thanks Brian that was good.

BRIAN: Yeah, was it good for you.

FRANKIE: Yeah.

JACK: It was good for me. Was it good for you Miss Horton?

 

JENNIFER FLASHES HIM A LOOK.

 

BRIAN: Ssshhhh.... listen.

 

THEY ALL STOP TALKING AND GRADUALLY A HELICOPTER CAN BE HEARD GETTING CLOSER AND CLOSER.

 

JACK: Hey, do you hear what I hear?

BRIAN: IT'S A HELICOPTER!

 

THEY ALL START TO RUN OUTSIDE.

 

JACK: A helicopter! Wait for me, wait a minute.

SCENE FIVE: THEY ALL RUN OUT TO A SMALL CLEARING AND YELL AT THE HELICOPTER BUT IT FLIES ON PAST. THEY ALL GET VERY DEPRESSED.

 

JACK: Oh no.

 

A SONG BEGINS TO PLAY AS THEY PAIR OFF AND THINK OF WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.

We, we must go now
Wherever people go, they go on together.
Come on
Try to hold now
Too many of us have run, run out in circles.

Can you hear me?
Are you breathing?
I need you near me
No I'm not leaving
I'm in no hurry to do this alone

JACK AND JENNIFER LOOK IN EACH OTHER'S EYES.

Can we go on now
What we have done now
We must go on Our questions unanswered.
I know what we're after is right here in my arms.

THEY WANDER BACK TO THE SNOW PEOPLE AND THAT MAKES JENNIFER SMILE.

I am standing here, my arms open wide
I keep waiting here, heart in my hand on the border

JACK BECKONS HER BACK TO A LOG WHERE THEY SIT TOGETHER AND JENNIFER DAYDREAMS AS SHE LOOKS AT THE SNOW PEOPLE. THEN THEY REST THEIR HEADS TOGETHER AND JUST DREAM.

And every step we take is strength to go on.
And all the love we make is just closer to home.
I can see it all so clearly now I can hear your voice in a song
And it breaks down inside my soul
Takes me down this winding road
We can find our way back home.